Empire Reborn (Taran Empire Saga Book 1): A Cadicle Space Opera A.K. DuBoff (guided reading books TXT) 📖

set of very specific, and I dare say lucky, circumstances. Such rare conditions are in an isolated area. So yes, I would expect the supply to be limited.”

“And the fact that it’s lasted this long—”

“Is, frankly, astonishing.”

It was the absolute worst answer imaginable but also the one that made the most sense. No wonder MPS would be hiring crews to salvage ship wreckage—the old PEMs contained voydite for them to recycle. But there was only so much scrap to be found.

Once the voydite deposit is fully depleted… Wil breathed out between his teeth. “Thank you, Dahl. I appreciate your candor.”

“You, however, are not being as forthright, as usual.”

“I would like to conclude my investigation before I raise unnecessary alarm.”

“Very well. We trust your judgment, Cadicle.”

The title still sounded strange to Wil’s ears, like talking about himself in the third person. “I’ll be in touch when I have anything concrete,” he said. “And please, if you find out more about these beings coming through the Rift, I hope you’ll share.”

“Tarans are not as divided as they once were. If this is what we fear it might be, our continued distance will not benefit anyone.”

That was as close a statement of ‘we have your back’ as Wil was likely to get. “Thank you. We’ll talk soon.”

Dahl bowed his head and ended the comm link.

Wil wilted into his chair. We are so foked if Monsari is running out of voydite.

It might be the single most destructive piece of information in the entire Taran sphere—if it was true. He had to verify the claims.

There was one person on Tararia always at the top of his list for vetting sensitive information. He made the call.

“Hey, Dad,” Wil greeted as soon as his father’s face appeared on the screen. “This is going to seem out of nowhere, but have you heard about MPS having any… issues?”

“Hi to you, too.” Cris smiled and then shook his head. “I can’t say I’ve heard anything about MPS, no.”

Wil frowned. “It was worth a shot. Sorry to bother you.”

“Wait, hold on. You can’t just call me up, drop a question like that, and not explain.”

“It might be nothing.”

“Weren’t we just talking about your hunches?”

Wil cracked a smile. “Fair point. Are you alone?”

“I can be. Hold on.”

Wil waited while his father found a private place to talk. When Cris was secure in a conference room, Wil continued, “We’re still looking into the Andvari. They were working for an MPS subsidiary, doing salvage, and I can’t get a clear answer about what they were looking for. I mean, MPS doesn’t deal with ship salvage.”

“No, they don’t.”

“The evidence seems to be pointing toward MPS ordering the salvage of old cores to get the voydite.”

“That’s, uh… a lot of work.” Cris frowned.

“Yes, that was my thought, too. But there are some rather worrying implications if that type of salvage has become appealing.”

“Quite an understatement.”

Wil nodded. “So, I’m not sure. All I know is something isn’t adding up.”

Cris’ brow furrowed in concentration. “My father talked a little about MPS, before my parents handed me off full-time to the tutors when they realized I couldn’t care less. But I was listening. What was made very clear is that the single most valuable thing MPS has is its process for turning voydite crystals into the nanotube shell structure for PEMs. That and, well, the voydite crystals themselves. Funny how businesses flourish when they have a monopoly on raw materials, hmm?”

“Do you know where they mine the crystals?”

“Haven’t a clue. If everyone knew, it wouldn’t be much of a secret.”

That was sounding an awful lot like what Dahl had said. “So, one location?”

“I don’t know, honestly.”

Wil asked the difficult question. “Do you think it’s possible they might be running out?”

His father laughed once then quickly turned serious. “If they really do only have one mining location…”

“Surely, they’ve developed a lab process for growing more of the crystals, though. They couldn’t have just been working with a single natural supply all of this time. That would be— I can’t imagine how they could have gotten this far if that was the case.”

“Yeah, I…” None of the humor remained in his father’s face. “Wil, if there’s even a hint of truth to this, it is an issue on a scale we’ve never faced. And that’s saying something. I mean, PEMs are critical to almost every aspect of Taran life. Transportation, planetary shields, food production. Yeah, the PEMs don’t fail too often, but if we can’t make new ones, we can’t expand, and we can’t replace them. We’d stall out.”

“With the new colonization efforts that are underway now—”

“We’ve been counting on an unrestricted supply of power cores, able to scale as the Empire grows. MPS has never indicated that would be an issue.”

“They couldn’t. It would be the end of them.”

“Could they really have been faking their ability to deliver?”

“You would know more about that than me.”

His father took an unsteady breath. “I can’t say I’ve been looking for any signs of them failing. I can dig around. See if anything jumps out, knowing what to look for.”

“Obviously, keep it very contained. If this is actually happening, it’ll—”

“Be catastrophic.”

“I was going to say, ‘unleash a foking shitestorm’, but yes.”

“Let’s keep level heads,” Cris said. “It might not be anything remotely so grim.”

“I hope not.”

CHAPTER 12

Wil’s growing pile of concerns had made for a poor night of sleep. Nonetheless, he was forging ahead with his investigation. Wil was midway through a review of MPS’ publicly available annual reports when Michael rushed into his office.

“Something is happening,” Michael announced without preamble.

Wil minimized the work on his desktop and turned his full attention to his friend. Though