Through The Fold
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- Website: http://www.throughthefold.com/
Description
Through The Fold is is a series of science fiction stories by Paul J. Joseph, who has made them available as free digital audiobooks. Each story is a stand-alone title, but features some of the same characters as in other titles.
Titles
Marker Stone
Through The Fold: Book 1
There's trouble on CMC-6 and it's been brewing for a long time. The golden age of space travel and asteroid mining has ended almost before it began and the bean counters have taken over. Sally Buds' patients are all suffering from low-gravity syndrome because the Canadian Mining Consortium won't spring for gravity generators and the miners won't exercise. On top of this the station might be facing hard times. An expensive mining robot disappeared while surveying a region of space known and KEL-30 or “Kelthy.” The problem was not in replacing the robot, but rather in the fact that the machine reappeared after the replacement had been ordered. How could the station personnel have been so incompetent? But Sally has another question. Where did the probe go when it was out of contact? Where did the strange rock samples come from and why did the images it saw not correspond with known star charts? Her new friend Ian Merryfield, an RAF shuttle pilot, wants to know, too. But the station commander does not. What is in the Kelthy region and why do things disappear there? Is it a hoax intended to scare away claim jumpers or is it the greatest discovery of the twenty-first century? Ian and Sally intend to find out even if it means risking their careers or even their lives. Not knowing would be worse.
Homesick
Through The Fold: Book 2
The mission to New Ontario, is not going as planned. The first landing ends in disaster when the American astronaut, Scott Anderson, goes down alone and dissappears. Captain Sally Buds, Ian Merryfield, Vladamir Coronov must put aside their personal differences and attempt an umarmed rescue unsure of what awaits them below.
On the surface, they find only the remnants of a civilization. Buildings are rotting and the remains of human-like bodies are scattered around what may once have been streets. But the rescue trail leads them to a Nazi-style concentration camp populated with crowds of human cattle living in squalor. The camp has no walls or barbed wire, but no one is trying to escape. In fact, the workers are smiling. There among them is Scott Anderson. To rescue him, they must face an unspeakably cruel regime with no concept of mercy.
But this turns out to be only the beginning. The Masters have discovered vital information about Earth, its technology, and location. Will the same madness that consumed New Ontario ultimately engulf Earth? Sally and Ian must risk their lives to prevent it.
Web of Life
Through The Fold: Book 3
Sally Buds had scarcely arrived on Earth before she is called back into service. She is, of course, Earth's only real expert on the evil Masters on New Ontario, but now there may be trouble coming from this side of the fold! A Japanese ship representing the Asian Economic Alliance is now heading towards the fold and UN Command fears that they may be trying to forge an alliance with the Masters.
This time Sally's crew includes a battalion of soldiers armed with deadly weapons. But, as before, the mission turns out to be different than expected. Trapped and a realm that makes no logical sense and defies physics, Sally's crew encounters an intelligence beyond human reasoning and a beast which stalks them mercilessly seeking revenge for a crime they can't imagine.
Splashdown
Through The Fold: Book 4
Sally's life on Earth becomes boring when she turns to politics, but not for long. As UN space commissioner, Sally finds herself presiding over the aftermath of Earth's first colonial war. Baltan City, Earth's greatest achievement, tries to declare independence, which creates a violent and polarizing conflict. In the midst of this new cold war, an Earth ship from the future is entering the system and appears to be approaching Baltan. Sally and Ian must call a truce with the colonists long enough to investigate. The ill-fated mission launched 20 years after the day Sally Buds sets foot on Baltan involves the testing of an engine capable of creating its own fold. The results were disastrous. The crew of the Alliance ship Ultrablitz is still alive, technically, but they've been in transit for 1300 years in an attempt to stop their own mission. But, on further investigation, it becomes clear that there is yet more at stake and than one ship, and it falls upon Sally to decide the fate of thousands of people across the centuries.
Infinity Machine
Through The Fold: Book 5
Sally's job as UN Space Commissioner gets quite interesting when a ship full of time-displaced people is discovered in the Atlantic. This also enables Sally to lead an all important peace mission to Baltan. The cold war with Baltan is finally showing signs of ending with the return of Mercy Collins, and Sally spends a year on the city trying to forge a new relationship with Earth. But now her associate commissioner arrives with a new problem. New Ontario, a planet Sally has visited before, is suddenly becoming important again. The cruel “masters” who rule the planet have apparently been displaced by a band of rebels with mysterious powers. Growing on the surface of this world is a massive structure that is generating enormous power. Earth wants answers, and Sally is being asked to help. But she won't do it alone. No human is immune to the Masters' influence, but perhaps non-humans would be. Sally accelerates another project she has been quietly overseeing. She contacts Ian, who has been tasked to make first contact with the Szzzyyyxx, a peaceful, if unusual species on the other side of a fold beyond the asteroid belt. Sally must put a strain on this new friendship to ask for help in what could easily deteriorate into a war. Because more is happening on New Ontario than just an insurrection. A band of former slaves now have the aid of a mysterious benefactor who is using them to build a machine that bends time. But who is this benefactor and what does he want? The answer is more terrifying than the question. Now Sally must work to prevent a disaster that could have implications throughout all of human history.
Window in the Sky
Through The Fold: Book 6
With a lasting peace established between Earth and Baltan mediated by the growing alliance with the mysterious Szzzyyyxx, a new chapter in human history begins. But in the midst of this, the Szzzyyyxx Mother requests Sally's help with a mystery. Two Szzzyyyxx vessels have disappeared in the far reaches of their space. Sally and Ian plan a controversial rescue mission with the first of a new line of experimental ships. They arrive in the region to discover a fold that doesn't appear to go anywhere. On closer inspection, however, they find evidence of a black hole and a strange world that defies understanding. Through the use of a machine established in eternity, The Szzzyyyxx have teleported to Earth in the 1960s. There, captured by the KGB, they unwittingly help a rogue agent rise to power and dominate the Earth. But the power he uses to do this opens a door to something far worse. With their own past erased, Sally and her crew must rebuild history and defeat an ancient and universal evil.