The Lost Star Episode Two

By Odette C. Bell

Ava is close to death.
She lies unconscious in the med bay while McClane fights for her life. The resistance will do anything to kill her. With spies in the Coalition, Captain McClane must make a drastic decision to save her life. Because if she dies, the Coalition will die with her.
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The Lost Star follows a shackled superweapon and a judgmental lieutenant thrown deep into an enemy empire. If you crave space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab The Lost Star Episode Two today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.
The Lost Star is the 4th Galactic Coalition Academy series. A sprawling, epic, and exciting sci-fi world where cadets become heroes and hearts are always won, each series can be read separately, so plunge in today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Feb 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311837585

Book preview

Chapter 1

Lieutenant Hunter McClane

Hunter pressed a hand against his forehead, forced his eyes closed, and sucked a breath deep down into his lungs.

Eventually, he dropped the hand and stared around him once more.

The Mandalay was a mess. The Avixans had virtually torn the innards of the ship apart, all in their desperate attempt to claim it for their war.

The Mandalay wasn’t the only thing that was a mess. Harvey was out of his depth.

Maybe the rest of the crew couldn’t see that. To them, their captain was still the brave, determined, capable man who saved their lives.

Hunter could see it. He could see it in every new crease marking his brother’s brow. In every shallow breath, in every winced movement.

Harvey blamed himself for this. And in part, he was responsible.

But beyond Harvey’s blind loyalty towards Shera, he couldn’t have stopped this.

This was bigger than them all.

Hunter stood next to her bed. He shouldn’t be here. Chen had already told him there was no point.

There was so much to do to get the Mandalay back on its feet. Hunter should be out supervising teams or investigating just what the hell Shera did.

He stood by Ava’s bed.

If the Mandalay was a mess, she was worse.

She was in tatters.

She was currently in a stasis chamber, as every free doctor rushed to understand just what was happening with her.

Hunter, for the love of god, there’s nothing you can do here. This wasn’t your fault, Chen said from behind, his voice ringing with frustration and yet compassion. This isn’t your fault, he added.

Hunter sighed, then turned. He knew he couldn’t control his expression. He knew true sadness mixed with days of fatigue washed down his face, marking every feature with premature wrinkles and grooves.

You look like hell, Chen said with a soft laugh. Go get some rest. Even as he spoke, it was easy to pick up the fatigue in the guy’s voice.

Everyone on the Mandalay looked like hell.

It wasn’t every day a top-of-the-line ship like this was almost taken.

Almost.

If Ava hadn’t… if Ava hadn’t… done whatever she’d done, the Mandalay would have been hijacked.

… Whatever she’d done.

He still couldn’t wrap his head around it. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her producing that purple sword right out of her hand.

Though the Mandalay’s internal sensors had been extremely limited at the time, they’d still picked up enough to reveal just how powerful that burst of light had been.

It could cut through almost every known substance.

… Every known substance.

He brought a hand up and locked it on his suddenly sweaty top lip. Drawing it down the skin and closing his eyes for a brief moment, he sucked in a breath.

Hunter, please. I will tell you if she wakes up.

If. Not when. If.

There was precious little the doctors of the Mandalay could do for Ava. They weren’t experts on Avixan biology. Worse, they had no idea just what had happened with her locks.

He understood what those gold carved armlets were now.

They kept her powers in.

Ava was one of the priestesses she’d told him about in the tunnels. The group tasked with watching the other Avixan devils, as she’d called them.

Hunter, go now. Don’t make me order you. You need some rest. We need you fighting fit in case… Chen dropped off, clearly incapable of finishing his sentence.

Hunter didn’t need him to.

There were a lot of things that could still go wrong.

They had no idea where Shera had escaped to. She’d taken the other three Avixans on board, including Phar, and they’d escaped in the diplomatic Avixan transport.

But he’d seen the way Shera had looked at Ava – she wanted her dead. Shera would do anything, move any mountain, destroy any world, just for the pleasure of killing Ava.

He shivered at that thought. It was a strong, violent move that sent such a wave of nervous fright sinking hard into his gut, he thought he’d fall over.

That’s it, go, Chen snapped. You need your rest. This is now an order.

With a wince that scrunched his brow and sent a tingling pain pushing deep down into his neck, Hunter finally pulled himself away.

It was pure torture. By the time he reached the doors at the back of the room, he’d already twisted several times to check on her.

He needed her to wake up and tell him exactly what had happened. They all did. They were flying in the dark here, waiting for an enemy to return – one they barely knew anything about.

More than that, he just wanted her to wake up so he could see she was fine.

With one more deep breath, he turned away.

Though he vaguely intended to follow Chen’s order to get some rest, Hunter didn’t get that opportunity. As soon as his scuffed boots hit the floor outside the med bay, his WD beeped.

It was shrill, the sudden noise echoing inside his tired mind. He pressed a firm finger up to his brow to chase away the headache building there as he croaked out a, Yeah?

This ship may be going to hell, Lieutenant, but that is not the correct way to answer a communication.

Harvey, Hunter managed as he ground his fingers harder into his brow, his headache proving impossible to massage away, what is it?

Come meet me in my office. There’s something I need to discuss.

On my way, Hunter managed reluctantly.

It was a long trip to the bridge. Though usually it was a relatively quick affair, it wasn’t today.

The Mandalay was virtually being torn apart and rebuilt by B’cal’s engineering team. He’d requisitioned every crewmember currently not engaged in other duties.

Harvey had ordered the Mandalay to be searched from prow to stern for any more surprises. Shera and her team of Avixans had done so much damage. Harvey couldn’t afford any more booby traps.

As Hunter walked, he ducked his head under an open vent tunnel, a pair of legs hanging out of it as an engineer hurriedly snapped orders to someone further along the vent.

It made him think of her.

All this time, Ava hadn’t breathed a word of who she truly was.

That headache sank deeper and deeper into Hunter’s skull until he finally reached the ladder that would take him to the next deck.

It was a safety measure. No more lifts. At least not until B’cal could overhaul them.

Shera had rewritten nearly all of the safety protocols for the Mandalay’s entire lift system.

It had been just another one of her failed attempts to kill Ava.

The neuro gel leak, even the incident with Ensign Nema in the secondary airlock had been an attempt to get at Ava – albeit a failed one. Even the incident in the bar had been an attempt to find out more about Ava’s locks.

This had all been planned from the beginning.

Shera had had access to Ava’s work schedule and had set traps all along the way.

But she hadn’t accounted for one thing – okay, two things. Ava had kept running into Hunter, and Ava was damn hard to kill.

A small smile curled across his lips, and it sent a flicker of hope kindling in his heart.

Ensign Ava was damn hard to kill, he repeated to himself. So she couldn’t die in the med bay, right? She’d pull through this.

Hunter made it to the end of the ladder, popped his head out onto the next deck, nodded at an engineering detail, and half-jogged down the hall.

Finally, after at least half an hour of climbing and jogging through the ship, he reached the bridge.

Commander Hutchins was on duty in the center of the room, stiff arms wrapped around herself as she gave a lecture to the security chief.

She nodded at him as he walked past. The captain’s waiting for you.

He returned the nod, looking her right in the eyes.

He understood what her pointed gaze meant.

It was a plea. Perhaps Hutchins could also see what was happening with the captain.

He was blaming himself, and it was affecting his command.

Hunter would do what he could to fix it.

But in all honesty, Harvey needed to feel at least a little guilty. He’d let his relationship with Shera blind him.

Hunter made it up to the captain’s door, and it swished open.

He walked in.

Harvey wasn’t at his desk. He was standing with his back to the door, his hands clasped in front of him as he stared at the view.

Hunter caught sight of the side of Harvey’s face as he walked past.

Harvey’s cheeks were white and sallow, his eyes hooded as he locked them on some distant region of space.

Without a word, Hunter sat down.

He waited almost two minutes until Harvey pulled himself away from the view, and presumably his thoughts, and sat down behind his desk.

Hunter locked his gaze on his brother. Snap out of it, Harvey.

Harvey didn’t say a word. He arranged his hands neatly on the desk, then settled his gaze on the computer panel in front of him. I received a message from central command. They’re sending a ship to pick Ensign Ava up.

Hunter bolted forward, muscles like springs. What?

There’s nothing we can do for her, Hunter. She needs proper medical care.

The Coalition isn’t going to be able to do any more for her than we can, Hunter snapped, his words stringing together.

They have access to many more resources—

They’re also directly manipulatable by the Avixan government. It’s not safe to take Ava off this ship.

What are you saying?

You know exactly what I’m saying. We have no idea who else is after Ava. There are too many Avixans left in the Coalition. We can’t entrust Ava to them.

The Coalition knows exactly what happened here. They would not give Ava back to the Avixans.

Hunter roared in frustration, his passion bursting from his throat as he slammed a hand on the edge of Harvey’s desk. All the dark emotions he’d bottled up over the past several days came spilling out as if he were purging some wound. We have no idea what truly happened. We can’t give Ava to someone else. Not until she wakes up.

Harvey suddenly looked down at his hands and drew in a deep breath. He wouldn’t look at Hunter.

So Hunter drew closer, ducking his head down so he could stare up into Harvey’s eyes. You know this is wrong. You want to keep her on this ship too. I can tell. So do what you have to.

It’s not that easy, Hunter. This is a direct order.

Hunter sucked in a hard breath. Harvey, we got into this mess because we didn’t know enough about the Avixans to make an informed decision. We cannot keep making that mistake. We have to wait until she wakes up.

Harvey slowly pulled his gaze off the desk and locked it on Hunter. Hunter, he said in a gentle voice, it’s highly likely she won’t wake up. The damage to the left side of her body is extensive and cannot be healed correctly. We have no idea how her remaining armlet interacts with her biology. But it appears to be preventing us from effectively treating her.

Hunter jerked back as if he’d been struck. But then he pushed forward again, locking a white-knuckled hand on the edge of the desk. I have hope, he said simply.

Harvey didn’t know what to do with that statement, so he settled back and crossed his arms. There’s no way around this. The Coalition intelligence vessel Barkay is coming to pick her up. We will rendezvous in approximately 8 hours.

Hunter shook his head.

It was Harvey’s turn to lock a hand on his desk and lean in. "Hunter, we can’t fight this. We need