Crash Beam

Dan Kearns is an electronics engineer with everything to prove—and a disaster to explain. When an Earth-Venus freighter crashes during landing, killing two pilots, Dan is blamed for the experimental guide beam he designed. His defense is weakened by a passenger rocket due in minutes, with too little fuel to turn back and no safe alternative landing field.

Before Dan can uncover what went wrong, the control-room operator is found dead inside a locked room, his body twisted by a mysterious convulsion. His final message mentions a “purple light beam,” pointing toward an abandoned line of research and a dangerous connection to Roehm, the rival who controls the established Venus landing system. As magnetic conditions worsen and another ship approaches, Dan must determine whether his technology is defective—or whether someone has discovered a lethal weapon hidden within the spectrum. The investigation plunges him into a tense race against time, sabotage, and forces no ordinary security system can stop.