Web of Truth (Cadicle #4): An Epic Space Opera Series Read online

  WEB OF TRUTH

  by

  Amy DuBoff

  WEB OF TRUTH

  Copyright © 2016 by Amy DuBoff

  All rights reserved. This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this eBook may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles, reviews or promotions.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  www.amyduboff.com

  Newsletter signup: http://eepurl.com/bg0_Qf

  Editor: Nicholas Bubb

  Cover Illustration: Copyright © 2016 Tom Edwards (www.TomEdwardsDesign.com)

  Publisher: BDL Press

  ASIN: B01A06VC6E

  First eBook Edition: 19th February 2016

  Kindle Edition

  To Annie, for her encouragement and guidance

  Table of Contents

  Part 1: Discovery

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  Part 2: Partnership

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  Part 3: Revelations

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  Next in the Cadicle series

  Acknowledgements

  Glossary

  About the Author

  Part 1: Discovery

  CHAPTER 1

  Wil put the prototype IT-1 jet through its paces—each movement a natural extension of himself. The neural interface bonding him telepathically to the ship made each command effortless and instantaneous as he navigated the ship through the obstacle course in open space. But, combat maneuvers were only the beginning. The interface with the new independent rift drive was the real test.

  “Everything checks out. I’m going to jump,” Wil informed the observers over the comm embedded in his flight suit.

  “Nothing too fancy,” cautioned Deena Laecy, the Chief Engineer on the project.

  Wil grinned. “You know I have to do everything with style.”

  He swung the jet around to face the obstacle course he had just traversed. It was the primary training ground for new recruits to the Jotun division of the TSS inside the rift, simulating battle conditions with the Bakzen. Set against an eerie backdrop of the echoed starscape in the rift, the obstacle course was the only solid form from Wil’s current vantage. Remote controlled decoy jets stood in for enemy crafts, and electronic mines could mimic the effects of an assault without causing permanent damage. If the new independent rift drive functioned as planned, Wil would be able to bypass all of the obstacles and hit his mark.

  With one last check of the system readings on the heads up display, Wil cleared his mind in preparation for the jump. He eyed his destination at the center of the course and pictured approaching it from the right, just within his cone of fire before darting out of range.

  As the action solidified in his consciousness, a subtle vibration spread throughout the jet. Space distorted as an iridescent subspace bubble formed around the craft.

  A pulse of blue light flashed across Wil’s vision, an indication through the neural link in his nav console that a jump point was locked in. With a low rumble, the jet initiated the jump.

  The blue-green hue consumed the ship in one gulping wave. Time seemed to stand still as the jet slipped between subspace and reality.

  The jet emerged from subspace with fluid forward momentum, taking Wil directly toward his target. He quickly reoriented and fired at the sensor. It lit up red; a clean hit.

  And now for the second part of the test. Wil envisioned the point of his departure jump. Except, rather than a simple forward trajectory from his current location, he pictured an exact return to the original jump point—a one-hundred-eighty degree reorientation from his present position.

  The blue indicator light pulsed in his vision to confirm, then the jet initiated the return jump.

  A blue-green subspace cloud consumed the jet again. Wil barely had time to blink before the surreal view of echoed stars once again filled the windows. He looked ahead at the obstacle course. He was right where he started.

  Cheers erupted in Wil’s ear as the crew observing the test flight celebrated back at the nearby TSS Headquarters—H2—within the dimensional rift. Wil had visited with them on several occasions since he’d graduated to Agent three years prior, but this was by far the most exciting trip. All of their work on applying his model for the independent jump drive was finally paying off.

  He grinned. “All right! Now we’re in business.”

  “Do you want to try a dimensional jump?” Laecy asked.

  “That’s the next step.” Wil scanned over the system status readouts. Everything was within optimal performance ranges. “I’ll try it.”

  Wil once again cleared his mind to picture his destination point, but this time he felt his way through the dimensional fabric, reading the energy signatures for normal space outside of the rift. Years of practice had attuned his senses to differentiate between the planes. Extending himself to read the electromagnetic composition of the surrounding space was second nature.

  With a calming breath, he identified a fixed point in normal space corresponding to the middle of the obstacle course within the center of the rift. If the jump drive worked properly, he would be able to instantaneously pass through subspace and arrive in normal space in a different relative physical location than where he started.

  A blue light flashed in Wil’s vision and the jet rumbled as it initiated the jump. For an instant, the view changed to the ethereal shifting blue-green of subspace, and then solid stars came into focus in the distance. He had made it to normal space.

  Wil smiled. “Everything looks good,” he said over the comm. “I’m coming back.”

  “See you soon,” Laecy acknowledged.

  Wil envisioned his destination at the center of the obstacle course inside the rift, next to the central target he struck on the first test run. The jet confirmed the destination with a blue flash and initiated the jump. The blue-green swirling light enveloped the craft.

  As soon as the jet passed fully into subspace, a red warning flashed across Wil’s vision. The nav system was unable to confirm a lock to complete the jump.

  Shite! He tried to reinitiate the command. Another red flash. The jet shuddered as it was pulled helplessly through subspace. There were only moments to act before he’d be swept away.

  Fok, I have to get out of here! Wil felt around himself, extending his consciousness to identify his position within the dimensional planes.

  Normal space was only a vague place barely within his grasp, but the extra energetic charge of the rift called to him. He latched onto it with his consciousness and extended a subspace distortion around his body. He’d be safe in the flight suit, so long as he didn’t exit subspace directly into an obstacle on the
test course. There was no other choice. He began to slip between the planes, but— The jet. He couldn’t leave it in subspace. If the Bakzen found it…

  Wil panicked, his breath ragged and heart racing. He couldn’t give up. Saera was waiting for him back home, the TSS was counting on him, Tararia was counting on him.

  He refocused on generating a spatial distortion around himself, extending it beyond his body to encompass the entire jet. Nerves clouded his mind at first, but his fear soon grew into a sense of control. The jet was enveloped in a soft glow. Keeping the forms in his mind, he pulled himself and the craft toward the rift.

  As he pierced the shroud of subspace, the physical objects within the rift began to take form. Wil quickly scanned for an open area, unsure how long he’d be able to hold the jet in the suspended state. He strained to make the necessary adjustments—avoiding a simulated mine directly in his path. Once clear of the hazard, he brought the jet back fully from subspace into the rift with a shudder.

  The blue-green cloud lifted and all was still.

  “Beautiful!” Laecy exclaimed over the comm.

  Wil took an unsteady breath, his heart pounding in his ears. I did it… He shook his head and swallowed. Anyone else would have been trapped. “I’m coming in.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “We’ll talk inside.” Still shaking, Wil directed the jet toward H2.

  The massive space station was a bright spec in the distance. As he neared, the structure of tapered rings and surrounding space docks took shape. It was no more elaborate than his home Headquarters inside Earth’s moon, but it was impressive to be able to observe such a structure as a whole. However, it was engineered for war, and seeing it was a reminder of why it had been constructed.

  His stomach knotted. They were counting on the IT-1 jets being brought into battle next month. Can they take another setback?

  Wil directed the jet toward the bottom level of H2. It glided through the nearly invisible force field across the entryway to the hangar. With a gentle bump, the craft came to rest on the floor.

  Wil powered down the engine and released the top hatch as half a dozen crew members ran up to secure the jet. He released the helmet on his flight suit, savoring the rush of cool air. His pulse began to normalize.

  “What happened?” Laecy called out as she approached with the other crew members.

  Wil climbed out of the cockpit and made his way down the wing. “The guidance system glitched on the calculation for the return jump.”

  Laecy frowned. “Everything looked fine from our end. The jump was right on target.”

  “That wasn’t the jet.”

  The engineer’s jaw dropped. “You mean, you made the jump?”

  The other crew members stiffened up with surprise and confusion, but remained silent.

  They didn’t know anyone other than the Bakzen could do that. “It was that or get stuck in subspace.” Wil looked over the jet that had almost been a deathtrap. “Admittedly, it was my first time trying it with anything this large. I wasn’t sure I could do it.” And far more dangerous than my previous tests in a spacesuit with an escort ship.

  “Well shite…” Laecy breathed.

  “I don’t want anyone else in one of the IT-1s until we address the guidance system.”

  The engineer scowled. “Taelis isn’t going to be happy.”

  When is he ever? “It’s too dangerous. Losing Agents on a training run is way worse than another production delay.”

  Laecy let out a slow breath. “Well, what do we do about the guidance system?”

  “I think we need to add a secondary processor to reconcile the moving objects around the destination point. The drive can identify the relative jump points across the plains, but I underestimated the demands of navigating through a battle zone.”

  “Two ateron cores in each jet? Are you crazy?”

  Wil looked down. “I don’t see another way to make the system reliable enough.”

  “Well fok! We can barely get enough cores for the test fleet. How are we supposed to double the number?”

  The crew glanced between Wil and Laecy, clearly uncomfortable with the exchange.

  “I don’t know yet, but I’ll figure something out,” Wil told her, keeping his voice low and calm.

  Laecy groaned. “Can we never get a break?”

  “It’s a setback, not a dead end.” Wil gestured Laecy toward the nearest engineering lab room divided from the open hangar area. She followed him away from the other crew members with a huff.

  Once inside the lab, Wil set his helmet on a table. He turned to face Laecy and telekinetically closed all the doors in a single pass.

  The engineer jumped with surprise as the door closed behind her.

  Wil stared her in the eye. “You can’t talk like that around them.”

  “Oh, they’re used to my outbursts—”

  “Maybe so, but I can’t afford to have them doubt me. This drive was my design, and if it doesn’t work yet, they need to be confident that it still will. Jumping to a ‘we’re doomed’ attitude will only lead to dissent.”

  Laecy squirmed under Wil’s intense gaze. “I hadn’t looked at it that way, sir. It won’t happen again.”

  Wil leaned against the edge of the table. “You know you never have to be formal with me like that. I didn’t mean to lecture.”

  The engineer relaxed, but her scowl remained.

  Wil examined her. “You can’t be the only one to have expressed doubts.”

  “I don’t doubt you,” Laecy insisted.

  “Well, I don’t fault you for it,” Wil said. “I haven’t exactly delivered on everyone’s expectations.” I still hope I can.

  Laecy set her jaw. “We do believe in you.”

  “So morale is completely fine. Really?” Wil asked the engineer.

  She nodded. “Yeah, everything’s—”

  “I don’t buy it,” Wil cut in.

  Laecy looked at the floor then back up at Wil. “Okay, yes. It’s been tough,” she admitted at last.

  Wil ran his hand through his short chestnut hair with his gloved hand. “I wish I could give you all the solutions we need right now. But it’s a process.”

  “I know that.”

  “But what can I do in the meantime? I don’t want them losing faith in me.”

  “They won’t, Wil.” She shook her head. “What we’re feeling now—it’s not doubt in you. It’s just that we’ve been at this for way too long. We’re all tired.”

  Wil nodded. I can’t even imagine what this is like for them. It’s been five years since I learned about the war and I’m already burned out. After a whole career… “Soon. Only a few more years and it’ll be over.”

  “That doesn’t seem possible. The war has become a way of life.”

  “Once you retire, you’ll forget all about it,” Wil said, trying to assure her with a lighthearted smile.

  “On Militia pension? Shite…”

  Wil wasn’t sure if she was joking or not. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll see to it everyone is rewarded for their years of sacrifice.”

  “Oh, it’s not about money, Wil.” Laecy tugged on the end of her braided light brown hair. “This bomaxed war has messed with our heads. When you’ve lived in fear for long enough, I don’t think you ever can feel secure again.”

  I can relate to that. “Well, we’ll deal with that when the time comes.” He looked out the window in the broad, sliding door to the lab. The crew was busy running diagnostics on the jet. “In the meantime, I need to know if morale gets too low.”

  Laecy shrugged. “I don’t have a very broad perspective.”

  “You interact with the crew. That’s way more valuable than whatever filtered answer I’d get from the officers.”

  “You don’t trust Command to be straight with you?”

  Considering the High Commanders communicate directly with the Priesthood, I can’t fully trust either of them—not even Banks. “I always like to have more
than one viewpoint.”

  “Okay,” Laecy acquiesced. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything beyond the usual gripes.”

  “I appreciate it, thank you.”

  “Now, don’t you have a meeting with Taelis?”

  Wil frowned, recalling the appointment. “Yes, and he’s no doubt heard by now that the test flight was cut short and is probably waiting for me to explain.” He took off the gloves to the flight suit and started releasing the other seals.

  “Good luck telling him you want two ateron cores per jet.”

  “Yeah…” Wil shed the flight suit and folded it up on the table. He took a deep breath and turned to Lacey. “We’ll figure it out.”

  She nodded. “Yes we will.”

  Wil said his goodbyes to the crew on his way to the central elevator, hoping to set them at ease. They gave him wary smiles on his way out of the hangar, but he had become used to being regarded with caution long before. It was impossible to have such abilities and not stand out.

  He took a few minutes to gather his thoughts on the ride up to High Commander Taelis’ office. Aside from a general check-in and update on the most recent application of the independent jump drive in the IT-1 jets, there hadn’t been any specific talking points for the discussion. However, the failed test flight would undoubtedly become the main topic.

  Wil arrived at the upper level of H2 after several minutes. He made his way around the curved, windowless hall to the High Commander’s office, inclining his head to the Agents he passed going about their duties. Militia guards stationed outside the door saluted to Wil as he approached, and one of the guards hit a buzzer next to the door. A moment later, the guard opened the door and gestured for Wil to step through.

  Inside, High Commander Taelis was examining a holographic map projected above his desktop. A single window along the back wall looked out over one of the expansive space docks surrounding H2, though it presently berthed only a handful of ships since so much of the fleet was deployed in the combat zones along the outskirts of the rift.

  Taelis looked up from the map as Wil entered. “That was a short flight.”