Forgotten Stars Book Four

By Odette C. Bell

The fight for everything moves to the Divide. Far beyond the Coalition’s reach, Amber and Kim must save everyone or fail and let all die.
But winning won’t be easy. Amber is about to learn the truth about her people – and it’ll rock her to the core. But you can’t fight if you don’t know what you stand upon, and Kim can’t save her if he doesn’t know his own crooked destiny.
Before this journey is done, both will learn ultimately, words mean nothing. Neither does your past. For when you join the Coalition, the path you take now is all that counts.
Can Kim and Amber find the one way forward, or will the Milky Way finally fall?
....
Forgotten Stars follows a bumbling cadet and a top soldier as they’re plunged into another dimension. If you love your space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Forgotten Stars Book Four today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.
Forgotten Stars is the 14th 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: Jun 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005284596

Book preview

Chapter 1

Ensign Amber Hart

She woke, though technically, she’d never fallen asleep. Jason wouldn’t let her.

When Amber had thought everything would go wrong, just when she’d assumed Kim would take off his armor, he hadn’t. And everything had changed.

But she could not claim that it had changed for the better.

Jason had flown into a rage and called on phase energy. Then he’d taken her over to the Divide.

It was the second time she’d pushed through that great, chaotic expanse, and it had been worse than the first. Because this time, she had known she would never come back. Alive, at least. The Coalition might still claim victory. The Divide might still be pushed back. But Amber would never live to tell the tale.

Now she was being transported down some long corridor in a strange modular ship. She could hear the repetitive thunk of ships docking with it from outside. Some strange device on the lieutenant’s wrist would beep every single time a new ship arrived.

He would always give the same smug response. Not enough yet. Not enough yet to wipe away the dregs.

She did not need to rouse sufficiently to ask him who the dregs were.

All of those in the Milky Way who deserved to die, ha? Everyone who didn’t quite see reality in the same way he did.

She understood that all of this came from a place of trauma. But none of this was necessary. It wouldn’t bring his brother back. While it technically might stop other people’s loved ones from going over to the Scarax Galaxy to die, they’d simply die a lot closer to home.

She longed to tell him he was a madman once more, but it would do nothing. It wouldn’t even alleviate the pain that had settled upon her ever since she had traveled across to the Divide.

It was a strange agony. One she’d never felt before. It was almost existential. Perhaps it was her mind telling her this was it. Enjoy reality as she knew it. Because, win or lose, soon her blood would be drained for the good of all.

They finally reached a room.

She heard the sound of Jason clapping his hands together. There’ll be no more resistance after this, Amber. Let the hive mind in, he said as he closed his eyes and tipped his head back almost as if he was having an ecclesiastical experience.

And if I don’t? she growled, knowing full well that he thought she was half unconscious.

He whirled around, but rather than do anything to her, he simply chuckled. I shouldn’t have underestimated your skills as a Valkyrie. It’s not as if you can do anything about this, though, can you? You’ve finally started to internalize the horror of what you are, haven’t you? Don’t worry. If you still have doubts, that horror is about to be made a hell of a lot more explicit. You can internalize it and take it all the way in, he said as he thrust his arms out wide and breathed in deeply as if he was sucking this into his soul. Let it break the last of your will, Amber. Because trust me, it’s gonna be a heck of a lot better if you go in there without a functioning mind.

This is your last chance, Jason, she said quietly.

My last chance for what?

To stop and save the people you’re about to kill. To stop and realize that this is not what you do when you’re grieving.

He’d told her previously that he was over his brother’s death. Or rather, he would not let Amber use it against him. What a lie that had been.

He jerked toward her.

The look in his eyes… it was a man lost. A man who had been crushed by his feelings. A man who’d never received the help he needed, or perhaps a man who was far, far beyond the assistance of ordinary people.

All he wanted to do was take up his anger, crush it up, and thrust it down people’s throats. He wanted them to choke on the same feelings that assailed him, day in, day out.

She suddenly appreciated that Jason must be a hell of an actor. He’d hidden all of his true feelings from not just Kim, but everybody on the station. He’d bottled them all up inside and used them to poison his mind instead.

Jason soon came to his senses and realized there was no way he could fly into a rage and do anything to Amber now they were across the Divide. He might be a useful asset out in the Milky Way, but here, he was nothing more than a slave. If he couldn’t follow orders and keep Amber safe, he’d be killed.

They walked into a room. It was large, dark, cold, and echoey.

She could hear her breath. She could see it falling back against her face in white sheets.

He clapped his hands together. There was a pillar in the middle of the room. It had a flat face directed toward them. Strange chains looped around it. She did not have to ask to know that she would be strung up there. And then exactly what would the hive mind do? Why hadn’t it taken her directly back to the wall?

No, she knew that answer. It couldn’t. Not yet. It had to break her mind before it tried to overcome her once more.

Jason pointed toward the pillar. I imagine it’s not going to be particularly nice to be strung up there and tortured. But we can’t all pick the victorious side now, can we, Amber?

You’re a madman, Jason, but you know that, don’t you? You’ve finally snapped fully. There is no coming back for you.

Oh, Amber, I’m not the one you should be worried about. There’s no coming back for you. He shoved her in the back.

She’d been floating on some kind of platform. It dutifully rose toward the pillar. The chains snapped down. They wrapped around her chest and arms and flung her back until her back thunked against the metal. Her head clunked with such force, she saw stars. For a moment. Then everything became deadly silent and still. She could still hear Jason at her feet, chuckling darkly, enjoying every single second of this. But her mind began to twist further and further in like a coiling spring.

She thought she heard a chuckle from somewhere. No, was it a scream? Perhaps it was someone begging for help. The sound was just as confusing as the experience as these flashes suddenly blasted across her vision.

First one, then another, then this massive shot of illumination that powered from one side of her vision to the other, making it feel as if she’d be blinded forever.

Then Amber heard and saw someone just like her.

Amber had never met another Valkyrie, but that didn’t matter. Something inside her recognized something inside them.

They fell to their death from some great height into some vast pit. And as they tumbled through it, Amber saw the dividing wall.

The Valkyrie had no chance.

Amber knew this, and the woman appreciated it too.

But rather than die a noble death, she squeezed her eyes closed and shrieked one last time until she fell flat against some rising platform.

Despite the Valkyrie’s strong body, there was nothing she could do against the impact of the fall. She coughed up blood.

Blood that was soon taken by the wall.

Blood that wasn’t taken freely, but blood that still did its purpose.

Amber twitched her head to the side in the real world, her neck straining, but there was no getting away from this.

Another flash. This one was far more horrendous than the last. A Valkyrie, far younger than Amber, who couldn’t have been older than 13, was cut down, all so her blood could fill the wall, all so the Divide could stay separate once more.

Amber’s mind kept reeling through the various Valkyrie deaths of those who had come before her. None of them had chosen this. While some of them had faced a far more noble death than the rest, most of them had simply screamed as their lives had been cut out from underneath them, their blood too.

She thought she heard Jason, but it was hard to split off her mind as it was swallowed under by all of those visions.

Let go, Amber. Give in to the process. Horror can only take away what you think you need. But you don’t need your life anymore. Others need it more.

Chapter 2

Commander Kim Starsmith

He felt the moment the phase energy swallowed him up. While he now knew that he had been to the Divide before, he hadn’t been conscious back then, or perhaps he had been on some level, but not like this. This felt like a fully lucid dream.

He saw every single detail. It was like someone had twisted all of reality back in on itself. For something that had once been so vast, it had been impossible to measure, it was now nothing more than a chamber through which he fell.

It was hard to describe the experience of all of that existence wrapped up around him. But as he fell further through it, it rose to meet him. He saw flashes in his mind, but none of them were of distinct objects. They were these momentary insights. They would not last, but unbeknownst to him, they expanded his mind anyway. They proved just how complex and vast creation was. Just how much it had to be kept safe.

Finally, he landed on the other side. He clunked down on his knees on a hard floor. To his left was a massive window. He didn’t need to jerk his head around to see it. His armor increased the view by a hundredfold until it felt as if he was standing out there amongst the void. Thousands – no, hundreds of thousands of ships were pulling themselves up out of the starless expanse of space, gathering toward this vessel, all intending to join with it to strengthen it for the first invasion into the Milky Way.

Horror shook him. And it should’ve promptly forced him down to his face, but that massive yellow Ever Night wasn’t about to let go. While Kim had grabbed it around the middle as they traveled through the Divide, now it reared around, snagged him from behind, and tried to smash him down against the floor.

Kim allowed his armor to save him at the last moment. He still had his telekinetic sword, and that faithfully swung around him, pushing him to his feet and giving him the momentum he needed to blast out of the way. Kim was forgetting something else. He also still held that sword he’d claimed from the station. The one that belonged to the Divide. It was… a seriously powerful blade. If he had to judge it on levels, he would label it as a level V weapon.

And while that sounded a little strange, when Kim chanced upon that definition, he knew it was right.

This was a level V weapon, and it was equally as powerful as the weapon that the yellow Ever Night brandished.

The creature screeched. Though should Kim call it a creature? It was from the Divide, as was he. It was simply a fellow alien. One Kim didn’t academically recognize fully at this point in time, but one, if Kim continued to remember things, might arise properly once more.

Now was not the time to think of who Kim had once been. Nor was there time to wonder if he would ever truly get his memories back, considering he’d gone to the Milky Way as a child. Now was the time to fight. Ruthlessly and to the end. Because trust him, the Ever Night had no intention of letting Kim go.

The alien thrust forward. It shrieked. Kim swore it had to grow a larger mouth to do that. And as it bellowed with utter rage, it started to call more aliens to it.

Kim could see them now. As ships pressed up against the window on the side of the vessel, they began to dock. Screams spilled out – other aliens Kim had never seen, too.

They would all join the fight.

The more that came, the more the odds would change away from Kim’s favor.

If he wanted to win, he had to blast through this Ever Night, hide in the ship, and find Amber, wherever she was.

Wherever… she was.

There was no time to think of that particular crippling thought, but it still ran in the background of his mind.

This was an entire dimension. It was just as big as the universe on the other side of the Divide. He had absolutely no idea where Amber had been taken, and while, for convenience sake, it would be awfully nice if she were close, there was no reason to believe she would be.

The Ever Night roared again. It clutched its sword higher, then shoved it into the air. It brought it down. It created this energy cascade that launched itself toward Kim. It spun into his stomach, and though he tried to dodge back, the telekinetic sword under his foot attempting to help him to fly, it wasn’t fast enough.

He was flung into the wall. He crashed into it with such an almighty shake, his shoulders burrowed down several inches.

The Screams started to port into the room. For now, they hung back. There was little point in sacrificing themselves when this Ever Night already had the victory in the bag, ha?

Or perhaps there was another reason.

Perhaps the Screams were far more vicious over in the Milky Way, because they could port away at the last moment before being attacked. But this was their realm. If Kim destroyed them, they would be dead, regardless of whether they managed to open an emanation field at the last moment.

Kim still had his Divide blade.

He flung it around. He went to let it go but suddenly thought that might be a bad idea. This Ever Night was categorically one of the strongest creatures he’d ever fought. What if it could somehow commune with Kim’s Divide blade? What if the alien knew how to wield it better and would be able to snatch it right out of Kim’s hand – or mind?

Kim quickly got his answer. Because even as he thrust the blade up to parry another blow, the worst thing he could imagine happened. Indeed, the Ever Night tried to take over his psychic control of the sword.

Kim was suddenly flung forward. His hands refused to release the hilt, even as the blade started to sing to another man’s tune.

The Ever Night didn’t scream anything. It did bellow, but there were no words there. It clearly couldn’t see the point of talking to Kim. For what was Kim in the end but a vessel to be emptied out and filled with the hive?

But Kim could fill the silence, thank you very much.