The Crucible: Leap of Faith by Odette C. Bell Page A

fingers.
    I made it to my bed and sat
down.
    Max was dead, and there wasn’t a
damn person I could tell about it. By the sounds of Hargrove’s
transmission, even Weatherby’s parents wouldn’t be finding out any
time soon.
    A sense of loss swelled through my
stomach, feeling as if it would make the rest of me shrivel and
disappear.
    Then, at the edge of my grief, the
questions started to build.
    What the hell had killed Max? And
why was Central Command getting involved? It had to be something
big – something massive to draw their attention.
    They were sending
the Armadale too….
She was the kind of ship you sent in to make sorties behind enemy
lines.
    I locked a hand on my jaw and
drove my fingers so hard into the skin it was a surprise I didn’t
pluck it off.
    Angling my head
towards the window, I realized the Ra’xon had already left the station
far behind. In fact, somewhere during my conversation with
Hargrove, we’d jumped to beyond-light-speed. Slices of white light
spun past the window, turning to every color of the spectrum as
they disappeared.
    … I couldn’t stare at the view
forever.
    Instead I closed my
eyes.
    I’d lost my best friend and my
ship in 24 hours. What would I lose tomorrow?
     

Chapter 6
    Research Dig, Mari
Sector
    Research Manager Amy Lee had no
idea what was going on. Ever since they’d found the shredded
remains of Ensign Weatherby’s body, all hell had broken
lose.
    Not only was the camp afraid, but
Central Command were swooping down on them.
    Amy didn’t know a great deal about
the internal structure of the Star Forces – it was a topic she’d
always chosen to stay away from – but this didn’t seem right.
Didn’t the Central Command deal with threats to the whole Milky
Way?
    According to Hargrove, Central
Command were even sending another ship to ‘help,’ as he’d put
it.
    She didn’t understand. Though
Weatherby’s death had been unfortunate and regrettable, why would
they need another detachment of the Star Forces? Surely one ship
was enough. She’d only asked for military assistance in the first
place because they had better matter scanners than she could
source, and it would be easier to monitor the dig site from their
scout ship.
    She was currently standing on one
of the hover lifts as it descended into the cavern.
    The dig had halted.
    News Central
Command were sending the Armadale had now spread. She had no idea what kind of ship
that was, but some of her research staff seemed to think it was a
big deal.
    Amy hadn’t always had the best
interpersonal skills – they got in the way of research. She could
still pick up on emotion though, and she understood her staff were
scared stiff.
    She let her gaze flick towards the
solid metal wall at the opposite side of the cavern. Her hover lift
was agonizingly slow. She’d had to buy it with her meagre grant
money. It was the same with the scaffolding that was now
crisscrossed against the great wall.
    It was all cheap and nasty, and
her engineer had to keep repairing it – much to his
irritation.
    So her trip down to the bottom of
the cavern was agonizingly slow. She let her gaze scan her once
buzzing dig. Now all her staff were huddled in the main camp. Her
ocular implants were acting up, but even from here she could see
that their shoulders were all hunched in.
    With a terse exclamation, she
pushed her glove over her helmet. She was still in a suit. In fact,
she’d taken the opportunity to change into her mech suit. With a
hardened exterior built for extreme pressures, it acted more like
armor. It was bloody uncomfortable and stifling, though; it felt
like you were walking around in a metal coffin. But it was solid
and safe.
    And she wanted to feel safe right
now.
    Though she kept telling her staff
that everything was fine and that what had happened to Weatherby
was just an isolated incident… she couldn’t push away her own fear.
Not entirely. It clung to her like a fine mist on an autumn
morning.
    Every