The Prophet Factory

The story is set in the future on New Eden, where government is a shared alliance between the Federation (political) and the Corporations (commercial). The latest planet in the Federation, the first settlers arrived about 20 years ago, mostly Corporation miners and farmers who were members of the New Brethren religious sect. A group of seventy-two New Brethren men, women and children voluntarily go to their deaths by locking themselves in their meeting-house and setting fire to it. The local Police investigate but with such a large number of deaths the Federation are also obliged to send in an investigation team to perform procedural checks and gather statistical information.The team they send in is comprised of three men who are either inexperienced or indifferent to the task. Mel Hann, a ships administration officer, intelligent but his career has never taken off, this is his last chance to prove himself. Able Carter, the young and inexperienced Federation officer whose parents were once members of the New Brethren but who now mistrusts and dislikes them and Stena Morgan the Colonial Trooper who thought he was just there to set up a Command Post. Spurred on by Carter, who appears to be on a New Brethren witch hunt, the team begin the painstaking task of going through all the records. Carter unearths an anomaly which appears to suggest more than seventy two bodies were recovered from the burnt out meeting-house. Why the cover up? What was so special about four of the victims that they needed to be deleted from the list of victims and why, in a world where everybody is bio-chipped from birth, is there no record of any of these extra victims?Although they have many theories on what caused the suicides without proof the team can only confirm the local police version of events and close the investigation. The truth remains elusive so they wind up the investigation. A chance remark over a job offer triggers one of the group to privately pursue the investigation. This leads to tragedy and the web of lies and deceit start to unravel to uncover the secret that lies hidden among the ashes...