
Length8h 17m
About this audiobook
For eight years the noise of the factory floor has been white static to Ethan Cross, a wall of clatter and steam his brain filters out without asking. That is why he notices the hum: low, deep, more felt than heard, coming from the east wall, where a rusted door sits in an alcove behind a stack of crates. Ethan has never seen anyone use that door. The door is old. The lock on it is brand new.
He is the mechanic at Meridian Industrial who fixes things himself rather than wait weeks for corporate to approve a replacement. This morning it was a robot arm wrecked by an exhausted operator on a double shift, which he is rewinding by feel with a spool of copper wire. His thanks was a summons to Supervisor Kessler's glass office for punching in at 7:03, on a day the bus broke down under a sky the color of dirty dishwater. Kessler, a small man with a small mustache, has one piece of career advice for him: good workers don't get promoted. They just get more work.
The lock wants a keycard and a biometric scan. Ethan has neither. He has a flathead screwdriver instead, and a lifetime of experience with locks that weren't supposed to open. He pops the casing, crosses two wires and watches the red light turn green. Beyond the door is a bare concrete room ten feet square under a single flickering tube, and the hum is louder than ever. Whatever the company keeps behind a new lock on an old door, it was never meant for a mechanic to find.
Audiobook details
GenreScience Fiction
Length8 hrs 17 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 19, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Dedication
18The Sixth Key
2The Graveyard Shift
19The Seventh Key
3The Man in the Black Coat
20The Rescue
4The Andromeda's Wake
21The Final Countdown
5The Key and the Countdown
22The Supernova
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6The Rust Belt Bazaar
23The Free Stars
7The First Key
24The New Beginning
8The Vorn Shadow
25The Search for Lyra
9The Mining Colony
26The Vorn Civil War
10The Second Key
27The Key's Legacy
11The Rebel's Plea
28The Final Sacrifice
12The Ghost Fleet
29The New Galaxy
13The Third Key
30The Signal
14The Battle of Ice and Fire
31The Journey Continues
15The Shipyard
32About the author
16The Prison Planet
33Series hook
17The Fifth Key