I stared in astonishment as the Death Giver crumpled.
Like the drones, it turned into dust.
A massive cloud of dust that swept down and covered the planet as the ship was disrupted at the quantum level and every constituent molecule pulled apart.
I snapped down and protected Alyssa. Though the dust was thick, the marching winds of the planet scattered it everywhere, ensuring it wasn’t thick enough to bury us.
I brought her up.
She was still.
Her arms were bleeding from injuries to her elbows.
… God, it was over.
“Alyssa. Alyssa, you did it.” My voice croaked from my throat. “It’s over. You did it.”
She didn’t respond.
I held her against me, her head lolled against my shoulder, her hair half covering her face.
I brought up a hand and brushed the strands from her eyes.
Her eyes were open, but that was it. She could not appear to move and she could not speak.
“Alyssa, it’s over.” My voice grew quieter and quieter as my parched and cracked throat struggled for air.
Time slipped by until the remaining Star Forces and pirate vessels started to touch down all around, ready to shepherd what was left of the survivors to safety.
And begin the cleanup.
We rested there and watched.
Slowly I tilted my head up, beyond the destruction, beyond the battle field. Up into the sky.
The sun was still shining.
And as I embraced Alyssa tighter, I knew that’s all that mattered.
…
Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd
It had been three weeks.
Alyssa was only now coming around from her induced coma.
I was right by her bedside in the Ra’xon’s medical bay.
My father and Argoza had been wrong. As I huddled around Alyssa’s medical bed, I watched the Star Forces, pirates, and resistance work together as one. Far from leading to civil war, this hard-won victory had united us in a way none could have predicted.
And perhaps that was the real fault in my father’s character, and Argoza’s too. They had never accepted that the first step to achieving peace is realizing it’s possible.
A lesson I had now learned.
Alyssa started to rouse.
I pushed closer to her bed, pushing a hand out and locking it on her shoulder.
Her bleary eyes blinked at me. It took her a long time to lock her gaze on me.
With my hand pressing gently into her arm, I smiled with all my heart. “It’s over,” I whispered.
“… Over?”
I nodded, never letting that smile shift. “You did it, Alyssa.”
At first I thought she would drift back into unconsciousness, but she rallied and looked right up at me. “We did it.” She corrected. “We all did it.”
Silence filtered through the bustling med bay.
Yes. We had all achieved this.
I took a breath. Large, deep, it dispelled a pressure from far within my chest.
It was over.
At first Alyssa looked happy, ecstatic even, then a cloud pushed over her features, her lips dropping open and her eyes drooping. “How… long do I have left?”
“Alyssa, you did it – it’s over. You defeated the Forgotten. We’re all safe now.”
She still wouldn’t smile. “The 78 dependence is going to kill me,” she noted quietly.
I did not remove my hand from her shoulder. I leaned in until I looked right into her eyes. “You’ve been cured.”
At first it looked as if she hadn’t heard me. No recognition flared in her gaze. Then slowly her lips parted. “That’s impossible,” she croaked.
“The remnants of the Fleet came together. Our best scientists worked on a cure. And they found one.”
“The Fleet?”
“It’s what we’re calling the survivors. We banded together,” I said, pride ringing through my tone, “all of us. Our respective histories are irrelevant. All that matters is we’re willing to build the same future. One for all of us.”
“… Wait, how long have I been out?”
My lips curled into a harder smile. “Three weeks.”
“Three weeks?!” Alarm spiked through her voice and she tried to push up.
“Hey, steady. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything. But all that matters right now, Alyssa Nightingale, is this is over. You won. And we will have a future together.” I reached down and plucked up her hand, not caring I was in full view of other officers.
“Over?” she repeated in a quiet voice.
“Over.” I leaned in and kissed her on the head.
…
Alyssa Nightingale
I sat in the observational room, Nathan at my side.
We shared a serene silence.
One we’d earned.
In my hand I held my implants. Their broken remnants had been removed from my elbows.
Nathan took a large breath, chest punching out and settling low. He turned to me. He didn’t say anything, didn’t have to.
“You probably need to get back to your duties. I imagine coordinating the Fleet is a lot more worthwhile than sitting here and staring at the view with me.” I closed my hand around my implants and turned to him.
He shook his head and smiled. “It’s just as worthwhile as sitting here and enjoying the view with you. We’ve earned this, Alyssa,” his voice dropped low with a somber quality, “we should appreciate every moment of peace.”
I held his gaze as long as I could, then swallowed and dropped it back to my hand. I cautiously opened my fingers, staring at my implants.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said as he leaned past and closed my hand with his own. “You may not have your implants anymore, but that doesn’t matter.”
“I can’t contribute,” I said hoarsely as I stared at the view. “I feel useless.”
“Alyssa,” he said, disbelief shaking his tone, “without you, we wouldn’t have a future. You sacrificed more than anyone else. You would be completely justified in sitting back and never working again. The galaxy owes you, not the other way around. Plus, I heard from the Chief you’re turning into a damn fine engineer.”
“Yeah, but I can’t shift walls around with my mind any more…” what started off as a joke petered out.
He closed his hand further around my own. “Alyssa.” He didn’t say anything more than my name. Instead he brought his hand up and rested it against my cheek, thumb brushing down the line of my jaw.
“Nathan?”
“You’ll be fine. You’ll adjust.”
“Promise?”
It took a moment for a smile to flicker in his eyes. “I’d promise you the galaxy.”
“I don’t want the galaxy.” I pressed in close and kissed his throat. “I just want you.”
And peace.
A peace I had helped achieve.
As we pressed together and embraced, my hair slipping over his shoulder as my hand pressed into his back, I realized he was right: I would adjust. I was already adjusting.
I no longer had my implants. Now I had freedom instead.
It would take a while to spread my wings, but I could feel them regrowing. Through every tight embrace, every kiss, every laugh, and every day.
I would regrow.
…
Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd
I knew it wasn’t really over. In many ways it was just beginning.
There was a whole new galaxy before us rising from the ashes as the other fell away. I knew we had to be strong to keep the peace we’d attained.
I would face this challenge.
For my father and Argoza had been wrong. In preparing for war, they had created it. In preparing for peace, we had created ours.
The peace may not last. Nothing ever does. But through every effort I strove to secure it.
I was a new man, Alyssa a new woman. We’d come out of the
crucible reborn.
They say you can’t make gold from lead. They’re right. But you can change a man’s heart and alter the course of history. And those are tasks more worthy.
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Sci-Fi Adventures by Odette C. Bell:
A Plain Jane
Betrothed
The Betwixt
Ghost of Mind
Ouroboros Series (Miniseries #1 of the Galactic Coalition Academy Series)
Broken (Miniseries #2 of the Galactic Coalition Academy Series)
Axira (Miniseries #3 of the Galactic Coalition Academy Series)
Read on for an excerpt from Axira
She is different. Powerful. A solider of centuries.
For 450 years she was enslaved to one of the masters of the Kore sects. She was forced to fight in endless battles. War, destruction, desolation – all wrought by her.
But then she escapes. Seeking revenge on her master, she turns to the only group powerful enough to help her – the Coalition.
She joins the Academy. It should be easy. It isn’t. She rapidly finds out that despite her raw power, she needs more to become an effective recruit.
But now is not the time for failure. There is a spy on Academy grounds – a spy who is tearing the Coalition’s intelligence to shreds. She finds herself drawn into the hunt. A hunt she will not lose. For she is Axira, the most powerful spacer in the Milky Way ….
Axira is a four-episode miniseries. A space opera with plenty of action and adventure, and just a dash of romance, it is the third instalment in the Galactic Coalition Academy series.
I sat on the transport, staring at the wall. My charge was next to me. I paid as little attention to him as I could manage.
I just wanted this mission to be over. But then, as soon as it was, there would be a new one. For the past 450 years of my internment, I had not rested, I had not slept, I had simply done the bidding of my master.
“These fools won't know what hit them,” my charge growled from my side.
I did not reply. Even if I had wanted to, I could not. The two pock-marked bracelets over my wrists would not let me.
They locked me in. Though they were not attached to shackles, they fed straight into my body and mind. They translated the orders of my master straight to my brain. I did as he bid, and only as he bid.
I was a spacer.
One of the strongest. The jewel in my master’s crown. Along with my sisters and brothers we had assured him dominance over his section of space for centuries.
“I cannot wait to see their faces puff up like jelly in the depths of space. We will push them out the airlocks,” my charge continued.
He was a repulsive character. From his figure to his voice, if I could have, I would have recoiled. Instead I sat there, close to his side, eyes staring ahead, hands rested on my thighs.
Soon it would begin. My master had sent me here to ensure my charge’s safety, to ensure his mission ran according to plan.
The plan and the mission were as nasty as my charge. He would take over this transport, kill the crew and passengers, and take their cargo as his own.
Soon it would begin. I felt nothing but disgust. It was strange I could still conjure the emotion; for centuries I had completed missions like this and worse. Yet still there flickered a sense of disgust at the things my hands did without my permission.
One day I would break free, I promised myself. I had been promising this same thing for centuries.
One day I would find the key to break the shackles that kept me aligned to my master.
One day.
...
At approximately 07:34, the attack began. My charge and his mercenaries produced their pulse weapons, and with gleeful expressions, overran the crew.
I sat there.
I stared at the wall.
At one point a member of the crew rushed up to me, mistakenly believing I was immobilized from fear, that I was one of the passengers and worthy of protection.
He placed his hand on my shoulder, his face, plastered with sweat and contorted in terror, coming close to my own. “Get out of here, get to the escape pods. I’ll keep them distracted.”
My arm moved up. Faster than the crewman would have been capable of seeing.
My hand latched around his throat.
I was still looking at the wall.
I threw him effortlessly against it.
There was a thud and a snap. He lay still.
I stood.
I could not rush to his side to see if I had killed him; the bracelets locked out all control of my body. All I could do was watch the blood slowly trickle down from his nose.
From that point on, I did as my master dictated. Activating a subspace pocket, I pulled out my energy blade. The pocket opened up before me like a black hole. I alone could push my hand inside to retrieve my weapon. The subspace distortions would have ripped apart a human or any other soft-fleshed alien race.
Walking forward, wielding my blade, I helped my charge overcome the transport. Though the crew had fought valiantly up to that point, managing to pin the mercenaries in the engine room, their fight was over as soon as I arrived.
There was nothing they could do. There was nothing I could do either.
I watched as I decimated them.
Then I walked calmly through the destruction to the bridge of the ship.
There I found my charge pawing over a control panel.
I stood by his side, leaning on my weapon, which was as tall as I was with a glaive-like blade at the end. It crackled and charged with energy that rippled down my arm, seeping into my skin with nothing but a tingle.
Below me it singed the hull.
“They’ve put out a distress call,” my charge snapped. He was from a race of boar-like creatures. Two prominent, pointed tusks stuck out from his mouth, always dripping with saliva as his long tongue flicked over them. Compound, yellow eyes blinked out at the world, and a shaggy mass of black, dirt-flecked hair fell from his shoulders.
“Commander,” one of the mercenaries looked up, unmistakable worry creasing his brow, “A ship is responding. It is already in the system. It will be here in minutes. We should accelerate to light speed.”
My charge, the commander of this unit, laughed. Slobber spluttered out of his mouth and landed on the panel he still leant over. “Let them come.” He turned to me, his eyes glinting.
I still stood exactly where I had come to rest moments before. My blade still crackled in my hand. I still stared at the wall.
There I would remain until my master told me otherwise.
“Let them come,” my charge roared louder, his voice shaking through the small bridge room.
His call was picked up by the other mercenaries, and they all smashed their hands down onto the panels and railings before them, stamping their feet, roaring, and preparing for battle.
But the battle would not be theirs, only the victory would be. The fighting would be all mine.
I could not shift my gaze. I could not turn to face the main computer screen. I could not find out what ship was coming to the transport’s aid. I would not know until it arrived. I would not know until I saw their faces. Seconds later, I would claim victory over them.
I had no choice.
As the time to their arrival neared, my charge snapped up from his chair. He had lodged himself in the central command seat, but his bilious form was too large for the arm rests. As he jumped up, he ripped off one of them and it struck my leg, resting against my foot.
I felt it though I could not see it; I could not look down.
They all rushed past me.
“Where are the passengers and the rest of the crew?” My charge roared, licking his tusks as he headed for the air lift that would take him from the bridge to the rest of the ship in seconds.
&
nbsp; “In the hangar bay.”
“Be ready to open it once they arrive.”
With that, they left the room.
They knew better than to turn to me and order me to follow them; I did not work for them.
My master had loaned me to their mission for one reason: to curry their favor. And if their favor was not to be had, I would receive orders to turn on them.
A favor from my master was a dangerous thing.
If their actions did not please him in the future, my sisters and brothers would be sent after these mercenaries. No matter where they escaped to in this galaxy, my sisters and brothers would hunt them down.
I stood there, staring at the same section of wall I could not turn from without a direct order.
As I did, the onboard computer beeped in warning. “Ship approaching, speed one quarter light speed. Estimated arrival 23 seconds. They are establishing communication. Re-routing now.”
I saw the reflected light of the main computer screen change color. No doubt it had just flickered on to show the ship that was soon to come to this transport’s aid.
“This is the Coalition Ship Zeus. We have received your distress call. We have scanned your vessel. We are picking up 8 Barbarian Mercenaries and 1 unknown life form. Please respond.”
No one would respond.
“If you do not respond, we will have to board your vessel.”
I stood there and stared at the wall.
“This is Coalition space. Under the Pax Accords, all transports travelling through this area are—”
I reached out. I brought my blade down into the panel closest to me. It cut through it with ease.
My master did not wish to hear the rest.
Sparks erupted from the panel, flames licking up and tracking over the broken glass and metal.
I turned.
I walked towards the air lift.
I tried to close off my mind. Withdraw. I did not want to witness what I would do next. But I could not close my eyes, and there was nowhere to run to.
I was a prisoner in my own mind.
The ship shook as I exited the air lift.
I knew that the Zeus must have latched onto the transport with its docking clamps.
Soon its security officers and troops would board.
I felt the subtle vibrations in the hull under my feet. They had boarded two floors up.
The Crucible- The Complete Series Page 79
