The Crucible- The Complete Series

by Odette C. Bell

  I was going back.

  That thought, it was all I could think of, the only thing that could echo through my crushed and empty mind.

  There was nothing I could do.

  Worse, there had never been anything I could do. According to F’val, Professor Axis had always known where I was.

  He’d been playing with me.

  All this time.

  Just another twist in his game. Another attempt to crush me psychologically.

  I couldn’t move my body. Whatever F’val had given me, it had virtually incapacitated me. I could move my eyes, but that was it, and even that was painful as hell.

  I certainly couldn’t connect to my implants. I had no hope of using my abilities.

  I imagined F’val would leave me like this until we reached Professor Axis. And considering the way he’d treated me so far, I doubted I would get any food or water.

  F’val seemed to hate me. Truly hate me. I’d never really met the man, but somehow, somewhere along the line I’d earned his disgust.

  I didn’t care.

  Didn’t care about anything at all.

  Because there was no longer any point.

  Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd had once asked me where my hope was.

  It had been disintegrated and blown away on the wind.

  I closed my eyes.

  There were no more tears to cry.

  …

  Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd

  This was it. The Chief was ready. Williams was by my side.

  The Chief had pulled F’val into a distraction on the other side of the base.

  All we had to do was to get into F’val’s ship and get Alyssa off.

  There was no point in subterfuge at this juncture.

  Both Williams and I walked directly up to F’val’s ship.

  There were a few technicians around it, and they shot us inquisitive looks.

  “We’re just running some tests; it’s been cleared with the Chief,” I told the most inquisitive technician, “she pulls anyone she can into engineering duties these days,” I quipped.

  The technician gave a knowing laugh. “Tell us if you need any help.”

  “Will do,” I said with a friendly smile.

  As soon as we approached the ship, the small docking bay door slid open to meet us.

  “You’re a miracle worker,” I mumbled under my breath, sending a quick prayer of thanks to the Chief wherever she was.

  Williams was holding it together next to me, her expression steady.

  We both looked like we simply had a job to do.

  And we did.

  We walked onto the small light cruiser.

  As soon as I was inside, I saw how sophisticated it was.

  This wasn’t an ordinary light cruiser. This wasn’t the kind of ship a simple commander in the Star Forces could obtain.

  It was too well-equipped.

  Williams shot me a knowing look.

  I nodded.

  We made it through the ship.

  There were only four rooms.

  One of them was separated by a massive thick door.

  Just as I wondered how the hell we would get through it, a section of code suddenly blinked across the access panel. Right at the end was a small picture of the Chief with her thumbs up.

  I chuckled.

  Then the door swung open, and the laughter died in my throat.

  The brig was unlike anything I’d ever seen. So reinforced it was as if F’val was planning to trap the sun.

  There were shields a meter and a half thick that separated the brig in half.

  On the other side of the shield lay Alyssa.

  She looked as if she’d just been dumped there. One arm was at an awkward angle, and her hair was a clump across her face, hiding everything apart from one wide open eye.

  She locked it on me as I entered.

  My heart stopped. I stopped.

  I heard Williams hiss. “Are we sure about this?” she questioned.

  “Yes.” Without being fully aware of what I was doing, I walked right up to the shield and then leaned down on my haunches, one hand locking onto the floor as the other sat across my knee. I stared at Alyssa.

  She stared back.

  Tears filled her eyes, and from the look of her blotchy cheeks, they hadn’t been the first she’d cried.

  “Work on getting this shield down,” I said to Williams. “Use your powers if you have to.”

  “Yes, sir.” She did nothing but stand there and stare at Alyssa. At first I wondered if it was anger playing over Williams’ features, then realized what it was. Compassion. The kind of compassion I couldn’t generate, as I had no real idea what Alyssa had gone through.

  Williams did. To Williams, Alyssa was a door back into that hell.

  “Get to work,” I encouraged.

  She nodded.

  I knelt there and took a breath. I let it fill my lungs. “Alyssa, we’re going to get you out of here.”

  That one eye widened more and more until I thought it would take up her whole face.

  “Can you speak?” I asked.

  She didn’t say a word.

  “Nate, it’s going to take some time to get this shield down. The Chief has given me some help, but…” she trailed off.

  “Just do what you can.”

  That sense of urgency doubled in my chest until it felt like it was going to tear my sternum in two.

  But I couldn’t take my gaze off Alyssa.

  I’d never seen someone look more pleading.

  I’d never seen someone more vulnerable.

  “We’ll get you out of here,” I said through a swallow.

  If only she could talk….

  I frowned. “Alyssa, blink if you can understand me.”

  She blinked.

  I smiled.

  “F’val works for the Star Forces, doesn’t he? He’s a spy, isn’t he?”

  She blinked.

  “Nate, she’s not going to be able to tell you much by just blinking,” Williams cautioned.

  I knew that. But there was another reason I was making unwavering eye contact with Alyssa – to let her know we were here. That help was at hand.

  “How long is it going to take to get those shields down?”

  Williams didn’t answer right away.

  I twisted hard, snapping my gaze towards her. “How long is it going to take?”

  “I have no idea how to get them down,” she suddenly admitted.

  It felt like I’d been shot right through the sternum. I almost overbalanced. “What do you mean?”

  “There’s so much security in place…” she trailed off.

  “Are we going to get caught?” I asked directly.

  Williams didn’t answer.

  I was suddenly aware of how hard my heart was beating in my chest. Thundering didn’t do it justice – it felt like the wild vibrations of an electron.

  Despite my growing fear, I locked my gaze on Alyssa once more.

  That’s when I realized she was blinking.… There was a pattern to it.

  I shifted as close to the shields as I could.

  She was clearly trying to tell me something.

  It took me awhile to realize she was using an old form of code.

  “Nate,” Williams began.

  I tuned her out as I stared Alyssa’s eyes.

  ….

  “The EV controls,” I suddenly shot to my feet. “Flush out the environmental controls and pump some 78 into the chamber.”

  “What?” Williams jerked her head towards me, a few strands of her usually neat hair flicking across her brow.

  “Just flush out the EV system.”

  “We don’t have any 78 with us.”

  “Alyssa said there’d be some on board. I don’t know what I’m looking for – you do. I’ll head to the bridge and access the environmental system, you find the 78.”

  Williams held my gaze for one frantic second, then turned.

 
; For the briefest moment, I couldn’t follow through with my own plan. I got stuck looking at Alyssa, that straight cut hair of hers half covering one wide open eye. “Don’t worry,” I said quietly, then I turned hard on my heel, and dashed out of the room.

  I threw myself towards the cockpit.

  The Chief had already unlocked the controls. I knew I was running out of time though.

  I could guarantee F’val would figure out what we were doing sooner rather than later.

  Sweat pressed its way down my brow as my forehead grew more and more etched with strained concentration.

  I dashed over to the main bridge controls, letting my fingers fly across various panels until finally I isolated the environmental system.

  With a few short commands, I flushed out the system, careful not to expel the air into the hangar, but into one of the several holding tanks that would be lodged under engineering.

  “Williams, you found the 78 yet?” I twisted my head around.

  “No, Williams has not found the 78,” somebody answered.

  F’val.

  It was over.

  It was over.

  …

  Alyssa Nightingale

  He was here.

  Nathan Shepherd.

  He’d promised he was going to save me.

  Save me….

  As I lay there, incapable of moving but aware of how wildly my heart beat, I held onto that promise. It filled me up, replaced everything F’val had stripped away.

  I wasn’t alone. There was help.

  I waited.

  The door had closed behind Shepherd and Williams as they’d rushed out.

  I waited.

  And I waited.

  Then the door slid open.

  Finally. Finally!

  I saw him.

  F’val.

  He ducked his head around the door, tilted it to the side, made eye contact with me, smiled, turned around, and left.

  In those few small moves, he destroyed whatever hope I’d let grow.

  I’d been a fool to ever let it kindle in my heart.

  F’val was back, and there would be no stopping him.

  Desperation welled within me. It was so dense, so complete, it seemed to have its own gravity well. It sucked away every other thought and feeling until all I was was desperation.

  It was over.

  …

  Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd

  Commander F’val had a gun in his hand. A smile on his face, too.

  The kind of smile I was well-placed to understand. I’d seen it so many times pressing across my father’s face. Cold victory. The feelings of a man who’d conquered all his foes and now had the pleasure of doing whatever he wanted with them.

  I twitched towards him.

  He took a smooth step back, never dropping the gun, never dropping the smile. “Don’t tempt me, Shepherd. You will find the resistance despises traitors.”

  I had to laugh at that. “Yes, F’val, you will find that. Everyone is going to find out what you’ve done.”

  “What I’ve done?” He tilted his head to the side, the move frighteningly animalistic. “All I have done is kept the resistance safe.”

  “You’re a double agent,” I said, voice like the crack of a whip, “you’ve been feeding information to the Star Forces all this time.”

  “My loyalty is unquestionable. Yours, however,” he let his gaze drop to the controls behind me, “has just been tried and tested. You’ve failed, Lieutenant Commander,” his voice bottomed out, and I watched as his grip twitched around his gun.

  I clenched my teeth. And I pushed it back. That flicker of uncertainty. The guilt. Guilt at the possibility he could be right.

  What if I’d made it all up? What if I’d thrown away my life with the resistance for nothing but feeling?

  I watched him smile harder, the move stiff as it crawled up his cheeks and down his neck. You would be forgiven for thinking it was some kind of virus consuming his flesh – it was one of the most wretched things I’d ever watched.

  “So what are you going to do?” I backed off towards the controls, letting a finger stretch towards one.

  “Don’t move,” he hissed. He lifted the gun higher, that look in his eyes only growing more intense. “I will kill you, Lieutenant Commander.”

  I looked into his eyes and knew he was telling the truth.

  Then that option was taken from him.

  I saw somebody shift behind him.

  “You’re going to get what’s coming to you,” I suddenly promised F’val in a booming voice, trying to distract him.

  Williams.

  Williams was okay. She was right behind him, a massive gash down one side of her face, blood spilling over her collar. But she was alive, and she was moving.

  She reached a hand towards F’val, eyes wide, jaw clenched.

  I saw that specific yellow light leap up over her hand.

  She didn’t get the chance.

  F’val flicked one finger behind him.

  Williams pitched towards the wall.

  Then I saw it. The same light leapt up over his arms.

  He was a telekinetic warrior.

  He was a telekinetic warrior.

  Williams fell to the floor. She wasn’t down though. She tried to get to her feet.

  With the gun still trained on me, F’val barely looked at her, flicking a hand her way.

  Suddenly her whole body was pressed up against the wall as if she’d been rammed into place by a light cruiser. I could see the force pushing against her legs, spreading them flat, pulling at the delicate skin of her cheeks.

  “You’ll find you won’t like me when you force my hand,” F’val said through a hiss.

  I went to throw myself forward.

  He shot me.

  Right in the arm.

  I span, blood splattering over my neck and cheek. I struck the environmental controls and slid down them.

  I was still alive though.

  There was a chunk missing from my arm, but I was still alive.

  “Now, now, Shepherd, I would rather you didn’t force me to kill you. I imagine your father would like to have a few words with you before you die.”

  “You bastard,” I spat. “Let her go.”

  Williams’ eyes were wide. She was being pressed further and further into the wall, and all F’val was doing was holding a hand out to her.

  “You bastard,” I roared, trying to stand, but failing as my feet slipped through my own blood that had pooled beneath me.

  “Shepherd,” he began.

  Then there was a beep from his command PIP. “Commander F’val, what is happening in there?” the Captain snapped.

  F’val stopped. I watched a calculating expression shift over his features.

  He could take the two of us on easily, but could he take on the entire resistance? And could he afford to? The Ra’xon wasn’t ready to take to orbit yet, but that didn’t mean her guns weren’t working. She could obliterate this ship or tear a chunk right out of the hangar bay wall.

  Here was my chance. “Captain, F’val is a spy, disable this ship. Disable this ship!” I pleaded, words like blood falling from my mouth as my body rang with pain.

  F’val suddenly dropped Williams, shifting his hand towards me.

  I felt pain. Pain exploding through my body.

  Then nothing.

  I lost consciousness.

  …

  Alyssa Nightingale

  I waited for F’val to return.

  He didn’t.

  I was alone. Alone with nothing but my fear.

  I knew how men like F’val operated. He would kill Shepherd without pause, Williams too.

  They had thrown their lives away on the impossible hope of rescuing me.

  I cried. Freely. It was the only way I could express myself. Streams of tears laced my cheeks, wetting my collar, leaving my hair as nothing but damp strands clumped against my face.

  But the tears couldn�
�t do anything. They wouldn’t bring Shepherd and Williams back, and they couldn’t save me.

  That’s when I started to feel it.

  The sensations running through my body.

  Slowly but surely those sensations gave way to movements. Twitches, the slightest contractions of muscle.

  I could move. Barely, but I could move.

  It wasn’t enough to use my implants. Yet.

  Before F’val had come on board, I’d told Shepherd to flush the environmental system. I knew F’val was keeping me incapacitated using a gas being pumped through the air.

  Had Shepherd managed to do it? Flush the gas out?

  I twitched my finger, lifting it a full centimeter before it fell limp.

  If I could have smiled I would have.

  I would’ve shrieked for joy.

  But there was no point in wasting my energy. Instead I concentrated, and I waited.

  Perhaps F’val thought that even without the incapacitating medication doing its job, I would be too weak to fight him.

  Perhaps he was wrong.

  …

  Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd

  I woke on the floor of the hangar bay.

  Consciousness slammed into me like a freight ship.

  My eyes spread wide and a gasp pulled itself from my lips.

  That’s when I saw the security guards standing around me, guns pointed my way.

  I shifted my head, fighting against the pain to stare up at the men and women around me. All their expressions were locked with suspicion and hatred.

  The resistance.

  I saw Commander F’val several meters away talking to the Captain.

  He hadn’t been captured, and by the looks of it, his ship was fine.

  He’d woven another tale and pulled the resistance in once more.

  I tried to speak, but it was murder.

  That’s when I realized I was still bleeding out. The pain in my arm had been replaced by this overpowering numbness.

  I even felt the sticky press of blood underneath my scrabbling fingers.

  “Don’t move,” someone snapped.

  “Captain,” I managed, the word tearing from my throat, “Captain.”

  She moved towards me slowly, head twisting down, expression hardening. “I am not your captain and never have been.”

  “Don’t trust him,” I said in a faltering voice, “he’s a spy.”

  “Everything has been explained,” she said with a curt snapping tone. “Your treachery has been revealed.”

  My world began to spin around me. If I’d let it, it could have taken me back down into sweet unconsciousness.