Shattered Destiny Episode One

By Odette C. Bell

She’s a loner. Always has been. She’s fought to survive, tooth and nail.
He’s a prince of the Arterian Royal Family – the greatest power in the galaxy.
They shouldn’t meet. Their paths should never intersect. But they do.
Because the Milky Way is on the verge of total war once more. Together, they can save everyone. If they are torn apart, all will fall.
....
A light-romance sci-fi, Shattered Destiny follows a gritty warrior and a cold prince fighting destiny to find each other one more time. If you love your space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Shattered Destiny Episode One today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Mar 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310797378

Book preview

Chapter 1

Shar

Dawn split over the horizon like a sword of light renting the dark.

I pressed a hand over my sweaty brow as I watched it.

My face was covered in grit, a few smears of rust-colored mud tracking down my brow and along my neck.

Flicking my hand down my collar to dislodge the muck that had collected there, I tore my gaze off the horizon and pushed down to one knee.

I grabbed at the magnetic tool holster slung over my back, groping hands finally latching on the rotator lock.

You there yet? the foreman barked over my communicator.

I clenched my jaw muscles together to activate the communication implant lodged at the top left intersection of my jawbones.

There was an audible click that ran through my inner ear. I’m here.

Reset the pressure valves now. We can’t afford to lose another pipe.

Aye, sir.

Oh, and the weather network is detecting a sandstorm headed your way, the foreman added as an afterthought. Hurry. With that terse statement, he terminated the communication.

I clicked my jaw to power down the comm link then pushed forward through the dust. I swiped at it with my bare, calloused hands. My violent moves sent clouds of grit billowing around my face. I ticked my head to the side, held my breath, and waited until the marching wind snatched the sand away.

As I pushed my hands further into the sandbank before me, my rough fingernails finally snagged against something metal.

I bent forward, my sand scarf bunching around my neck as I redoubled my efforts to push back the sand.

Finally I uncovered the pressure sensor. It was encased in a protective metal barrier made of inch-thick duverium, a compound substance so hard you could fire it into the center of a sun, and it would take a full year to melt.

Drawing a lock pen from my back holster, I engaged the tip and drew it across the metal case.

Inside, several locks unclicked, and the metal case opened.

Within it was a pressure sensor, a simple screen surrounded by a semi-circle of manual input controls.

I hunched over the controls, using the bulk of my back to ensure the wind didn’t scatter sand over them.

I worked methodically, checking the pressure sensors, one after another, trying to figure out where the problem was.

The wind began to roar through the valley around me. I glanced up to see it slice off the top of a dune to my left and send a billowing cloud of sand right at me.

I tugged up my sand scarf and covered my mouth, drawing a pair of goggles into place over my eyes. They sealed against my skin with a wet squelch.

You found the problem yet? the foreman barked in my ear.

… I think there’s a problem with one of the secondary sensor arrays.

Goddammit, the foreman spat, adding a few more colorful insults from his own native tongue. Which array? Where is it?

I crammed my fingers against the input controls. Now it was my turn to swear. In the 12th district.

The foreman sucked in a rattling breath. "Shit, that’s in breaker territory. Goddamn. Goddamn."

I pushed back, hitting the close button and watching as the sensor pad disappeared back under the inch-thick sheet of metal.

I stood up, turning my back to the growing sandstorm. Securing a hand over my scarf and ensuring it protected my mouth, I cleared my throat. What do you want me to do?

Get your ass on your slider and head out to the breaker district. Get that sensor array back online before the breakers find you. The foreman cut the call off without so much as a goodbye or a good luck.

I snarled, ticked my head to the side, and forced a ragged breath through my bared teeth.

The wind began to roar behind me, sounding like a starving pack of wolves chasing across the sky.

I flicked my gaze up to the once blue sky just in time to see it completely covered by the rusted-brown cloud.

I wasted no more time and trudged towards my slider. It was parked down a rise, and the sand scattered over my thick, well-worn boots as I descended towards it.

The slider was already covered in a mound of sand, and I had to kick it free as I mounted the bike.

Minimal shielding flicked into place around the front of the hover bike. It would take away the brunt of the sand, but it wasn’t nearly sophisticated enough to eliminate it completely.

I secured my scarf higher over my mouth, ensured my goggles protected my eyes completely, and gunned the engine.

My bike shot out across the dunes, cutting a deep path through the sand as the downward directional thruster drives sent out waves of churning air.

Sand blasted against the blue shields at the front of the bike, sending arcs of electricity discharging into the air.

It wouldn’t take long to reach the breaker district. It might take longer, however, to get out of it.

As I kept one hand locked on the bike controls, I twisted around in my seat and clutched at the magnetic holster unit slung over my back. Though I often fumbled to secure the correct tool, this time I had no trouble grabbing what I needed.

A level III blaster. Worn, old, and with a hairline fissure running from the muzzle all the way down the barrel. It still worked, though, and that’s all I needed.

A gust of particularly ferocious wind managed to slip past the shield, and it buffeted my scarf from around my face. The fabric half unwound, and flicked out behind me, slamming about in the wind like a wet sheet being punched by an angry mob.

I didn’t bother to grab it and secure it back around my face – it was more important to keep one hand on the bike’s controls and the other on the blaster.

A second later the bike’s rudimentary sensors beeped a hollow warning. It was just audible over the shriek of the wind and the crackle of the shields.

I’d just exited the relatively safe territory of the refinery and entered the breaker district.

Immediately I cast my wary, quick glance over the sand hills and craggy peaks pushing through the dunes.

My heart quickened, and a cloying sweat slicked my brow and traveled deep between my shoulder blades.

I would have to travel a further 10 minutes before I reached the sensor array.

My skin began to prickle as sweat marched down the back of my neck.

I’d always had a sixth sense for danger. It was the only reason I was still alive. Working in the gas refinery plants of the Argoza sector had taught me how to survive.

So with bare white knuckles wrapped around my blaster, I scanned the sand dunes without blinking once.

I managed to reach the sensor array before I heard the first eerie cries split the air. It was loud enough and punchy enough that it ricocheted over the roar of the wind, sounding like a cruiser screeching in to land.

The sensor array was a large metallic tower dug into the sand. It had a ladder that ran up to the top which was approximately 50 meters off the ground. Even under ideal conditions, the ladder was treacherous. The multiple sandstorms that ravaged this planet had worn the grips smooth. It would be all too easy to slip off the rungs with sweaty fingers.

Behind me another grating cry cracked through the air.

I began to throw myself up the ladder as fast as I could, jerky legs missing the rungs a few times but never forcing me to fall off completely.

Though fear threatened to climb my back, I pushed it back as I threw myself up the ladder.

I was holding my blaster in my mouth. The first week I’d arrived at this refinery, I’d modified it, adding a rubber ring to the butt which I could hold comfortably between my teeth. It was much quicker to grab the gun from your mouth than to grope it off the magnetic holster at your back.

The wind roared even louder, and it pounded into my back with all the force of 10 men trying to beat me off the tower. It clutched and groped at my clothes, my scarf whipping around and slamming into my back and smarting the flesh beneath.

10 meters. I could see the access ramp above.

Below me, I felt the ladder shake. It was such a violent move that as it traveled up the metal it threatened to pitch me right off.

I wrapped my stiff white fingers around the rungs so tightly I could have wrenched it off the frame.

I threw myself up the remaining 10 meters. But I could feel it behind me. It was faster. Desperate. I heard its shrieking breath even over the thunderous roar of the wind.

Finally. Finally I reached the ramp. I threw myself onto it, the wind catching my scarf in full and tearing it from around my throat. It blasted off into the sandstorm, never to be seen again.

I didn’t bother to try to clutch at it and instead grabbed the gun from my mouth. Rather than train it on the ladder and wait for the breaker to climb to the top, I skidded around and threw myself towards the control room.

Where there was one breaker, there would be hundreds. My only option was to finish my task, get the hell off this tower, and force my way back into safe territory.

I reached the door into the control room and slammed my hand on the biometric scanner next to it.

There was a dull beep that meant one thing – it was malfunctioning.

Fuck you, I screamed, sucking in a lungful of dust.

I coughed it back as I leaned backward, brought up my blaster, and shot at the lock. A powerful round of energy sank into the metal, blistering what was left of the paint that hadn’t been scratched off by the sand.

I leaned back, brought up my leg, and kicked the lock.

It was a powerful move. Strong. I hadn’t always been strong, but these days I had a reputation amongst the hardened workforce of the refinery. Nobody messed with me. Some of the other guys were big, better trained. None of them ever went as far as me. I couldn’t lose, and to date, I never had.

With one more pitching cry, I kicked the lock.

And it un-clicked.

The heavy-duty metal door swung open.

I rounded my shoulder, thrust it into the door, and threw myself inside. I hit the ground, rolled to my feet, and punched towards the bank of control panels on the opposite side of the room.

Above the control consoles was a massive meter-thick viewing window. Not that there was ever much to view on this planet apart from endlessly encroaching storms. Still, it gave me a great view of the swirling dust and sand beyond. It scattered against the heavy-duty glass.

My hands flew over the primary control panel as I ran the sensors through a diagnostic.

Come on, you bastards, I said through clenched teeth.

I heard something behind me. Most wouldn’t have. Most wouldn’t have been able to discern it above the grating cry of the sand-scattering wind.

I tensed, punching my blaster out behind me and firing at the door before I had even confirmed there was anything there.

My round slammed right into a breaker, sending it pitching back until it fell over the railing outside.

It was then that I saw them marching over the glass.

One, then two, then ten.

They were tall, sinewy creatures with flesh the color of rotting corpses. They had long, distended faces that ended in a pointed snout with two yellow tusks that glistened with perpetually renewed saliva.

They had one movable eyeball that could shift all the way around their head, traveling through their strange, gelatinous, almost water-like skin.

Though I couldn’t hear it now over the wind, I knew the sound well – as they stared at you, their eyes darting around to capture you in full, the movement was always accompanied with a spine-tingling squelch.

The breakers had adhesive paws that could lock onto most substances. They climbed over the window, heading towards the door.

Goddamn you, I spat at them as I hunched over the controls, begging my frenzied fingers to work as quickly as they could.

Finally the computer beeped. There was no critical problem with the array. It just had to be reset.

Before I could scream out in relief, I commanded the computer to go through a