The Third Degree

By Benjamin Weilert

After defeating Testament, Isaac returned to New Town to recount his journey. But fate, as it seems, had different plans for him. In a sudden twist, two individuals appear from the distant past: Benjamin and Albert. These two people who came from before the Millennial Erasure join up with Isaac to finish what he had started. Even though Testament was no longer around, the powers known as fluxions still exist and still hold the potential to thrust the world into chaos and darkness. Gathering his team of warriors, Isaac sets out to destroy the 12 Caidoz statues in this timeframe while Albert and Benjamin travel through space and time to accomplish the same task. With the only clues to the location of the statues being an ancient lyric, once the statues are found, they must be destroyed. Unfortunately, these are no ordinary statues. Created aeons ago out of a material known as fluxionite, these statues are what give fluxions their power. And yet, the creator of these statues still lives and is ready to kill anyone who would take away his power. "The Third Degree" is a story of family, legacy, and sacrifice. You've never seen science quite like this.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Benjamin Weilert
• Release date: Jun 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301512454

Benjamin Weilert

Benjamin M. Weilert . . . What does the 'M' stand for?Mountain Climber, Movie Connoisseur, Master of Science, and (of course) Multi-novel WriterBenjamin M. Weilert was born in Colorado in 1985.While he went to school for Mechanical Engineering (eventually earning a Master’s Degree), he has found science to be interesting enough to write fiction about it. He likes to classify his novels as “science fantasy,” wherein the science is real and (semi) accurate, but portrayed in a fantasy setting to make it accessible to non-scientific readers. If you want stories that are surreptitiously educational, he’s your man.

Book preview

THE THIRD DEGREE

THE THIRD DEGREE

A story about family, legacy, sacrifice, and most of all: science

BENJAMIN M. WEILERT

Fiction by Benjamin M. Weilert:

Buried Colony

The Ascent of the Writer

The Fluxion Trilogy

First Name Basis

Second to None

The Third Degree

also available . . .

The Fluxion Trilogy Omnibus (with Appendix)

Non-Fiction by Benjamin M. Weilert:

Stop Screaming! A Beginner’s Guide to Homemade Ice Cream

This is Not a Drill

Cinema Connections: a never-ending 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Fourteener Father: a memoir of life above 14,000 ft.

Connect with the author online!

www.benjamin-m-weilert.com

2nd Edition

Copyright © 2013, 2017 Benjamin M. Weilert

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-1489506887

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com (links located above) and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

PRAISE FOR THE THIRD DEGREE

The third in the series, what can I say? It was so bittersweet. You realize why certain things have happened. You realize so many things and yet you still yell at the book. I do believe that this one is my favorite of the trilogy.

Cindy H.

Characters from First Name Basis and Second to None come together for a large undertaking. There are a lot of characters to keep track of so make sure you get the trilogy with the appendix or you’re not gonna have any idea what’s happening or why. It’s like a historical figure scavenger hunt.

Lena J.

Each book has a lot of character development and shifts through locations in an interesting way with a lot of informative and fun dialogue throughout. As the characters embark on their journey, they are learning about themselves and those around them. The story is based upon science fiction, but there are also practical and real-world consequences to what happens, such as political ramifications and changes to nature. These portions of the story keep it more grounded and adds a nice bit of detail that is not always seen in other stories with an adventurous theme.

The ending of the story is satisfactory and wraps up what was explained in the first two books. There is some potential at the end of the third book for it to be expanded upon, perhaps in a follow-up or an additional series.

Kristine P.

DEDICATION

To those who finish what they have started

CONTENTS

Chapter 1: The Missing Key

Chapter 2: Collecting the Players

Chapter 3: The Fixed Oasis

Chapter 4: Fight the Fire

Chapter 5: The Son’s Birth

Chapter 6: Destroying the Statues

Chapter 7: The Third Degree

Epilogue: Ending the Story

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Chapter 1: The Missing Key

The room was silent long past the point of being awkward. Irene and her father, Pierre, sat on the living room couch waiting for Isaac to continue. Irene was an ordinary girl with ordinary features and an ordinary life. She obviously inherited her straight red hair from her father, who still had some elements of color clinging to his scraggly beard. Of course, there was no remnant of this red hair on his head, as he was now completely bald.

Isaac, on the other hand, had shoulder-length white hair which matched his coat and headband draped over a chair in the corner. His features were rugged, worn from hardship. That’s not to say he wasn’t still young, as his actual age was closer to a quarter century than his white hair would have one believe. Currently, he was sitting in an easy chair in Irene and Pierre’s living room, staring at his broadsword, which he had placed on the coffee table.

While somewhat longer than a standard broadsword, this weapon’s unique feature was a triangular diamond core embedded in the blade’s tip, surrounded by a knotted snake in an uroboros configuration. The scabbard for this sword sat in the corner where his accouterments lay, along with a katana held in a beautifully lacquered sheath with the boughs of an apple tree adorning its design. The broadsword had entranced Isaac, causing him to stop the story he was recounting.

Irene and Pierre looked at each other with concerned expressions, then back at Isaac. The sound of thunder could be heard in the distance, motivating Pierre to clear his throat. You were saying, Isaac?

Isaac snapped out of his daze. What’s that?

You said sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, but then you just trailed off.

Ah yes, that’s right. Picking up the cup and saucer he had placed on the coffee table, he lifted the teacup and took a sip, the drink now considerably colder than when he had set it down. The truth of the matter is, Amedeo’s army developed the Fluent which sits within this sword around one thousand years ago. However, nobody has used it until this era, when I found the scroll detailing its powers and put the research into practice. Glancing over to the corner, he continued, In fact, that katana is likely to be one thousand years old as well.

Irene was becoming impatient. That’s great, but it’s not the story I’ve been expecting from you. I want to know about your adventures! Like, where did you find the scroll for the Fluent? I’m sure there’s a great story behind that.

Oh, that’s easy. I found it on the moon.

See? That wasn’t so hard. Suddenly, the realization of what he said came to Irene, and she did a double take. "Wait, did you say the moon?"

Yes.

You’re pulling my chain.

I can assure you I’m not.

Then spill the beans, Isaac! I’m getting restless here. If you don’t let me know about your adventures, you’ve broken our promise.

Pierre looked at Irene. What promise?

As Irene turned to answer her father, a flash of light caused everyone to cover their eyes. At the same time, a cacophonous boom shook the house. Everyone tried to cover their ears, which was hard to do when there was barely enough time to react in order to cover their eyes as well. Pierre was the first to respond. "Sacrebleu! What was that? he yelled, the ringing in his ears causing his boisterous response. Without waiting for an answer, the color dropped out of his face as he started running toward the front door. Not the pier again! I swear, if it gets destroyed one more time, I’m done for!"

Irene stood up and chased after her father. Since her ears were also still ringing, she yelled to Isaac behind her as she grabbed him by the wrist and forced him outside. If this is another one of your adventures, we might have to banish you from New Town altogether!

Once outside, Irene saw her father standing on the end of his pier, confused by the sudden event and the lack of damage to his property. Likewise, other dock owners were now making their way outside to assess the situation. They glanced at each other with quizzical looks as to the source of the unexpected explosion.

Isaac was the first to notice. There! The Square G shrine! With an outstretched arm, he pointed to the top of a seaside cliff. While the tree that comprised the shrine was untouched, another apple tree nearby was now ablaze, burning embers and tiny splinters falling from the sky above it. Wrenching his arm free from Irene’s grip, Isaac started running toward the site.

Not wanting to be left out yet again, Irene ran after him, always a few lengths behind.

When they arrived at the burning tree, the flames continued to crackle away at the aged bark. The tree’s apples had been thrown in every direction, and some were hissing from being instantaneously baked by the lightning strike. A dark gash ran down the trunk of the tree.

Isaac examined the sky, which gave no indication the lightning could have come from its unblemished blue expanse. Looking toward the town, Isaac tried to see if there was some sort of cannon which would have shot the tree, but that still wouldn’t have explained the flash of light.

Irene tapped Isaac on the shoulder to get his attention. Look! Down there! Pointing toward the cliff, Irene ran right up to the edge so she could look over the precipice.

When Isaac joined her, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Surf lazily crashed against the rocky wall as Isaac examined the water for something different. Looking up, he saw Pierre on his pier, pointing out further away from the cliff. For a moment, Isaac saw someone’s head break the surface of the water, at which point he took a step forward and leaped off the cliff and into the sea to rescue the individual.

Dragging the limp body to shore, Isaac met Irene, Pierre, and the rest of the dock owners who were still curious about what had happened. The body was a man in his early thirties, who wore outdated clothing and a pair of rectangular glasses. Isaac placed his ear to the man’s chest and immediately pulled back in surprise. He had almost burned his ear from something incredibly hot in the man’s vest pocket.

Feeling for a pulse, Isaac scanned across the man’s body and saw he was still breathing. Looking up at those gathered around him, Isaac said, He’s breathing, but unconscious. And yet, his pace is a little fast for someone who was unconscious in the sea. Pointing to Pierre, he continued, Let’s get him indoors. Grab his legs!

Once inside Pierre’s dock house, the two men brought the stranger upstairs into the spare bedroom. As they lifted the body onto the bed, Isaac gave a brief chuckle. This gives me a little déjà vu, but only because I was once in his position.

Pierre took off the man’s wet vest and shirt and laid them on the back of a single chair placed in the room’s corner. Pierre left the room and went back downstairs as Irene entered with some towels and a water basin, rolling her eyes and smiling as she wrung out a moist towel and placed it on the man’s forehead.

Isaac still stood there, but the grin of irony had left his face and was now replaced with a scowl of concern.

Pulling the covers of the bed up over the half-naked body, Irene noticed Isaac’s expression and asked, What’s wrong?

Either this is some sick joke, or it’s an incredible coincidence.

What do you mean?

This man looks exactly like the descriptions of Lambda the Just of The Triumvirate, but he died at the conclusion of Amedeo’s War.

What makes you think it’s him?

Well, the glasses are a dead giveaway, but the scar on his right cheek is unmistakably that of Lambda the Just.

That scar looks pretty real; do you think someone would go that far just to look like Lambda?

Something else caught Isaac’s attention. A chain around the man’s neck led to an object behind his back. As Isaac lifted the body, he pulled on the chain to dislodge the item pinned underneath the man.

Irene had her back to Isaac when she heard him fall to the wooden floor. I hope you haven’t fainted again, Isaac. When she turned around, she found him sitting on the floor, his arms propping him up from behind. A shocked expression of disbelief covered his face as he stared at the object now lying on the man’s chest. There, at the end of the chain, was an orb filled with electricity, its power grasping at the glass container holding it in. Irene was still confused. Isaac? What is it?

A barely audible whisper escaped his lips, "It is him."

Huh?

Lambda the Just. He’s lying right in front of me.

How do you know? A moment ago, you weren’t so sure.

Arising from the floor, Isaac pointed to the glass orb on the man’s chest. "That is how I know."

And ‘that’ is?

"That is the Skybolt orb, the source of Lambda’s power. It was supposedly destroyed when he died. There’s no mistaking it now. This is someone who lived over one thousand years ago; the legendary member of The Triumvirate; the man who single-handedly ended Amedeo’s War."

This news excited Irene. Really? Thinking to herself out loud, she mused, "I wonder what stories he could tell."

Outside the limits of New Town, an innocuous grove of aspen was rudely disrupted when the hillside behind the grove sparked with electricity. The energy built, eventually revealing the outline of a door in the rock. At once, a loud boom released the electricity as the door swung open. From the darkness beyond, a man clad head-to-toe in a dark cloak emerged from the door, sparks still leaping from the opening and out onto the now-blackened trees.

In his right gloved hand, the man held a glowing key. The key sizzled in the man’s grip as it lost its latent heat. Blowing over the item to cool it, the mysterious figure eventually put the key back into the recesses of his cloak as he gazed toward the town. Moments later, an electric orb appeared out of nowhere. It grew in size over a lone hill at the edge of the city, opposite from where the man stood.

With a release many times more powerful than the one the man just came from, the electric orb disappeared in a flash of light, transferring most of its energy to the nearest object: the tallest apple tree sitting atop the coastal hill. Seconds later, the acoustic shockwave of the ruptured electric bubble finally reached the outskirts of town, blowing the mysterious man’s cloak to the side. The only thing out of the ordinary underneath the cloak was a vest covered in hooks holding various keys of differing lengths, the most recent white key still dully glowing next to its brothers. As quickly as the vest was revealed, the cloak fell back in place, smothering the peculiar keys in darkness once again.

Although it was far away, the man saw someone fall from the recent explosion into the sea beyond. Partially obscured by the hood of his cloak, the man’s face revealed a sly grin and nothing else. "Wunderbar. Right on time." Adjusting the large, cylindrical case he had strapped to his back, the man began walking toward New Town with a determined gait.

By the time the man had proceeded well into the city, many of the townsfolk were talking about the loud explosion they had heard earlier that morning, speculating on the cause of such a sudden event. It was approaching noon, so the wares of many of the food stands were becoming increasingly appetizing. Being a coastal town, many of the vendors sold fish. One, in particular, skewered its catches on sharpened sticks, which were then barbecued. The man examined the options: halibut, salmon, trout, pike. While he was feeling a little hungry, he decided to move on toward his primary objective.

Finally arriving at the opposite edge of town, the man focused on the smoldering remains of the apple tree, which once proudly stood at the top of the nearby hill. Many of the townspeople were gathering on the cliff top, trying to figure out what had happened.

Turning his attention to the coastline, he stared out over the water to see if there was any sign of the person who fell in. Observing that none of the townspeople were trying to rescue anybody, the man became concerned that his target may have drowned before anyone had arrived. Turning toward the docks filled with a flurry of business and confusion, he stopped a worker and asked, What happened here? Was anyone hurt?

The impatient worker curtly replied, I don’t know, and I don’t care. I don’t have time to figure it out either.

Before the worker could leave, the mysterious figure reached out and grabbed the man’s shoulder with a thick glove. I need to know if they pulled anyone from the sea.

The thick accent coming from the shadows of the hooded cloak made the worker answer purely on the impulse to escape from the awkward situation. Yeah, they found some guy out in the water and pulled him ashore. He’s at Pierre’s place. With a jab of his thumb, the worker motioned toward the dock house clearly designated by the sign, Pierre’s Pier.

Patting the worker on the shoulder, the man replied, "Wunderbar, dankeschön." Approaching the front door of the house, the cloaked man knocked twice and waited. His stomach growled again, but he ignored it as he pulled back the hood of his cloak to reveal a face that was kind but had obviously been through a lot. The full head of white hair and thick mustache were absolutely uncontrollable, and it appeared as though he didn’t even try anymore. As he heard footsteps inside the house rushing to answer his knock, he smiled in preparation.

Pierre opened the door and was immediately greeted by the mysterious man. He shook Pierre’s hand and made his way inside the house. "Guten tag. I believe you have a friend of mine here. Am I correct?" The man had already started to look through the various first-floor rooms as Pierre hurriedly tried to catch up.

"Excusez-moi, but are you a friend of Isaac’s?" Pierre quickly asked while he tried to stop the intimidating intruder.

"Nein, I do not know who Isaac is. I am looking for the man you recently rescued from the sea." Noticing the staircase, the man deduced that the person he was looking for must be on the second floor. He grabbed the banister and climbed the stairs, two steps at a time.

At the bottom of the stairs, Pierre yelled past the intruder in a concerned voice, Irene! You’re about to have company!

Isaac heard the steps quickly approaching from downstairs, making him realize both of his weapons were on the first floor. Nevertheless, he stepped out of the room and closed the door, putting himself between the unwanted guest and his new discovery.

When the man arrived at the top of the stairs, he looked Isaac over, eventually settling on the dark disk embedded in his forehead surrounded by a tattoo of two snake