Lie on the Beam

Frederic Ward, engineer at the Astronautics Authority, wakes to find Venus swathed in fog and the solar system on the brink of war. A Martian destroyer has entered Venusian orbit, its guns trained on a political conclave where Earth's future will be decided. With communication lines severed and chaos spreading through the fog-bound capital, Ward must navigate a labyrinth of interplanetary intrigue, technological sabotage, and his own compromised loyalties. The beam of the title becomes both literal lifeline and moral crucible: a navigational guide, a weapon, and a test of who can be trusted when every alliance is suspect. Peterson writes with the anxious energy of the atomic age, capturing a moment when humanity has spread to the planets but still cannot escape the ancient logic of betrayal. This is space opera with genuine political teeth, a story about how easily civilization tilts toward catastrophe when engineers and diplomats alike are willing to lie on the beam to serve their masters.