Space Ends Book Four

By Odette C. Bell

Ruben and Kilroy have the galaxy exactly where they need it – on the edge of destruction.
Even if everyone works together, they may be unable to stop them. For behind them stands the greatest enemy the Milky Way has ever seen. As the Force manipulates everyone and everything to gain a new foothold in the Coalition, Naomi and Jerr’n must strive in a way they’ve never striven before. They’ll have to go deep into the phase realm and deeper to find the only thing that can save the Coalition in its darkest hour – the links that keep people together, not apart.
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Space Ends follows a hidden superweapon and a charming pirate fighting a rogue scientist before he condemns the Coalition. If you love your space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Space Ends Book Four today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.
Space Ends is the 23rd 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: Sep 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215013236

Book preview

Chapter 1

Jerr’n

The cage wrapped around us, and I knew there was no way to escape. I wasn’t a phase soldier, but that was irrelevant. It was the scrunch I felt as it closed off around my shoulders and shoved my hands harder against Naomi.

You can get an instinctive feel for prisons when you’ve been trapped as much as I had.

I’d never felt something quite like this.

As the cage closed around us, light did, too. It soon became an echo chamber, and the only thing I could hear was Naomi’s soft sobs. She’s back….

Yeah. Her mother was back. And her mother had trapped her in this cage. I didn’t know if Naomi’s mom could take Ruben on, but even if she could, would she come back for us?

What kind of mother would trap their only kid in a prison like this?

I was looking right at Naomi. Sure, there was no light; maybe she could figure out what I was thinking anyway. She’s not a monster, she said softly, choking over her words. They could barely roll from her lips. They got stuck there. She had to force them out with another long, echoing gasp. She’s not a monster, she repeated. There was no force in her tone.

There was, however, a deep, fragile question.

I knew what it was to grow up with questionable parents. But my father hadn’t technically been bad. Yeah, on the surface, he’d been a smuggler. On the surface, he’d taken the trust the Coalition had given him, wrapped it up, sold it, and made the most profit he could from it.

Deep down, though, my dad had always done what was good. He’d just had a checkered life. Naomi’s mom?

She— I began.

She’s not a monster. She will… she tried. But if she was about to say that her mom would come back for her, she couldn’t spit the words out.

Naomi’s eyes likely focused somewhere on the middle distance, not of course that there was such a thing in a prison like this.

We’ve got to figure out a way to get out of here, I said halfheartedly.

My gaze darted around, and what remained of my scanners did, too. And what did they tell me?

This wasn’t so much a cage as a new world for us. And as a new world, it came with new rules. The rules were this. We could never touch the walls, let alone escape from them. We would never find out the physical attributes that held them in place. We would never, ever escape.

We’d been trapped in place by someone who understood the phase realm better than anyone else.

Naomi opened her mouth. I could hear her lips slowly parting from her teeth and her jaw sliding down. But whatever she wanted to say, she couldn’t spit it out.

So the silence flooded in. Thick and fast, hard and echoing.

You might not think silence echoes. It’s against the definition, right? Wrong. This silence had this grand, almost clanging quality like someone playing a cymbal right by my face.

It was the kind of silence that told you to pay attention. Because this was your last chance.

God knows what was happening to the rest of the station. God knows what Naomi’s mom could do. But God knows it would soon be over. It would likely trap us here for the rest of our days.

A tiny part of me rose to tell me it could be worse. Sure. I could already be dead. Or I could be alone.

My fingers groped down until they found Naomi’s and fixed around them.

It took a while for me to hear her moving.

Maybe this jail did something to sound. Likely the walls weren’t real walls, so there was nothing for sound to bounce across.

I still picked it up, picked up the scrunch of her burnt hair sliding over her neck.

I could hear the grating way her body moved. I didn’t want to know exactly how injured she was, but if I were in her skin right now, I’d be screaming. All she did was take a soft gasp. It’s… she muttered.

Not over, I supplied. It was automatic. I felt more like a computer responding to an input than a human actually deciding what our chances were. Because if any reason were applied to this situation, it would immediately conclude one result.

There was no way out. It was over.

I tried to get a sense of what was happening outside our cell. I couldn’t. The whole station could explode, and I wouldn’t know. No. If the station exploded, we’d explode too… right?

Except that’s not what Naomi’s mom had said.

She hasn’t got a chance against him. He knows her every move. He’s been studying her for so long. She needs me, Naomi tried, but her voice was noncommittal. Her words barely pushed from her lips. They were like meek offerings to a god. You already knew the deity in question didn’t need them. And you knew, upon seeing them, the god would crush them with their greater power and intelligence.

Naomi was back to square one. She was back to that frightened ensign who’d been dragged through the corridors of the Lion Facility in front of me, incapable of changing her fate.

All of me wanted to give up. Most of me already had. But some new part of me kept testing the boundaries anyway.

I shoved a hand out. The wall moved but didn’t move. It touched me but didn’t touch me. When I paid attention to it, I could feel it. When I stopped paying attention to it, it felt miles away. But regardless of whether I touched it or not, I couldn’t really feel it, and God knows I couldn’t actually interact with it.

It was like a barrier for the mind more than anything else. A perfect entrapping concept to prove I could never push past it, regardless of how much energy I spent or time I wasted.

At least I wasted it.

Naomi took a driving sigh that grabbed her chest, pushed it up, then dumped it down. It was like somebody picking up a fragile plant, ready to give it a new home, then changing their mind halfway through and dumping it on the ground.

If that was the last of her hope withering, like hell I’d let it die.

I pushed closer, fixing my fingers around her shoulders. To do that, I let them travel up from her wrists. I did not want to let go of her, not for an instant. As far as I knew, this jail could change. It was a phase cell, right? Maybe the internal dynamics of it were programmed by Naomi’s mom, wherever she was. Maybe, the second I let go of Naomi would be the second we were separated forever.

What was the solution? Don’t let go.

When my fingers finally found her shoulders, I crunched in close. I hated detecting the scent of her singed skin. Worse, I hated smelling her tears. And before you accused me of making that up – because tears didn’t smell like much – I could smell them. I knew they continually trailed down her charred cheeks as they made it to her wobbling chin.

I had no idea what happened when they tumbled off her face and struck the cell beneath our feet.

Some things will always remain mysteries. Some things won’t. If you simply have the power and internal strength to keep pushing against them. There’s got to be a way out of here. Your mom—

She isn’t dead, Naomi said in a vacant tone.

We know that—

I’m trying to tell you it means there’s no way out of this prison. I’m trying to tell you it means that for the past five years, all she’s been doing is working on jails exactly like this. For the past five years, all she’s done is try to figure out a way to stop Ruben. For the past five years, all she’s done is fight. Do you think we have a chance against that? Naomi’s voice was like a drill. You could try to bravely stand in its way. It would tunnel through your chest, reach your back, and keep going. If you wanted to survive, you had to get out of its path.

Well, if you were smart. This situation had already confirmed multiple times I was anything but.

I sighed sharply and cast my gaze to the side again. What was the point of keeping my eyes open? There was no light down here. Every time I stared at the prison walls, it was like I was staring at the edge of the universe. There was simply nothing beyond it.

… I returned to thinking maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing.

Out there, the station could be crumpling. Out there, Ruben could be winning. Out there, the Coalition could be showing its true colors and coming to his aid. Out there, the Risen could have reached us. Anything could’ve happened. In here, we were insulated from it all. Maybe we couldn’t act. But at least we were together.

Jerr’n, I’m sorry you found me. Sorry you clapped eyes on me at the Lion Facility. If you hadn’t, you’d be—

I snorted, interrupting her. Dead. Or close to it.

You don’t know that.

Pretty sure I do. This plot would’ve unraveled without me. I would’ve been swept up in it, just like every other poor Coalition citizen. Except I couldn’t have done anything about it. I would’ve been a pawn in someone else’s game.

I knew she looked at me, could hear her eyelashes fluttering, could practically feel her eyes moving about in her skull as they widened and locked on me.

She didn’t say anything, but the comment was clear. Wasn’t I still a pawn in someone else’s game? It’s just a new player had entered the scene – Naomi’s mom.

Thus far, Naomi had just let me hold her. Now she weakly reached a hand up, grabbed my fingers, and fixed them against her shoulder. I’m so sorry.

I grunted. Don’t be. If the very least you managed to do was change a crooked pirate like me, that’s good, right? It’s one less scumbag for the galaxy to deal with.

You were never a scumbag. You were… a delightful asshole at the most.

I couldn’t help it. I spluttered in indignation, but it soon turned to amusement. I guess that’s a good way to describe me. Naomi— My thumb strayed toward her cheek. It reached out and slowly brushed down her charred skin. I’m sorry—

So am I. There’s no way out. The galaxy is about to fall. And I—

You?

I failed before I even really tried.

I pressed my forehead against hers. A tear trailed down my cheek, too. It took a meandering path to my chin. It had to move past every bruise and cut.

As it sat there, trembling against the flesh, it soon fell into oblivion, just like the rest of us would soon.

But if your destiny is to fall, find someone who can lift you right back up before you do.

Chapter 2

Eric Fulbright

I kept swimming in and out of consciousness.

I didn’t know why I was this injured. I just knew I had to pick myself up and help Yvonne. She was doing fine on her own, though. But the security drones were now coming thick and fast, and her three pieces of armor couldn’t hack it.

Yvonne, you’ve got to find—

More armor. I imagine all that has been removed from the station. It sounds like it’s under— she began, about to say it sounded like it was under attack.

She meant that it sounded like somebody had finally brought the fight on board. Previously, they’d been attacking the station from space. Based on where the damage had been and what it had felt like to be close to the hull, I knew that.

Now I knew the fight got closer because the sounds changed, and so did the frequent thrumming vibrations pulsing through the hull.

And speaking of that. I picked one up now. I was still over Naomi’s shoulder. When she spun, my foot brushed up against the bulkhead behind her.

A powerful shake pushed into my foot. Even though my armor protected it with a small shield, I still detected it and knew what it meant.

I used the last of my strength to wrap a hand around Yvonne’s shoulder and yank her to the side.

What are you doing— she began.

What I was doing was saving her. Sure enough, something pushed right through the bulkhead. It wasn’t a phase soldier. It was… a slice of something. Energy of some description, yes, but that was all I could tell. My mind didn’t pick it up long enough and had nothing to compare it to.

Yvonne screamed as it sliced past us, took several security drones with it, traveled through the opposite wall, and kept going.

It was like a saw, and we were simply dry wood.

What the hell was that? Yvonne gasped.

I’ve got no idea. Maybe it’s a guardian angel—

Maybe – no, definitely, she whispered, we’re not that lucky. We aren’t going to find armor or guns. But we’ve got these. She stooped and clutched up half a security drone. It had been sheared in half by that attack. It still smoked, the curling wisps of gray-black wrapping around half of its girth then curling toward Yvonne’s face.

They framed her expression.

She stuck her tongue out. Exactly what did she think she could do?

Wait, I grunted, don’t tell me that after a hard day working for Senator Kilroy, you used to play engineering games, right?

She laughed. Of course not. But you’re a commander. You know how to remove the turrets from this… don’t you?

Maybe. Maybe if I still had my hands, or rather, if I still had the energy to use them. And maybe if we still had the time. This station was breaking apart. I felt another shudder from behind me. There was no time to react, but Yvonne could.

Clutching me harder, her hand sliding over my back and pinning me in place, she lurched to the left. Another slice of pure phase power ripped through the wall, shuddered in front of us for a split second, changed direction, and traveled down the tunnel.

Yvonne didn’t even bother to scream this time. There was no point. She’d seen it before. I still had to stifle my own yelp. It was the sheer power of it and the fact that, had Yvonne been several seconds too late, it would’ve swept us up and sliced us through.

You don’t think that’s Ruben, do you? No, of course it isn’t, she answered her own question. So who the hell is it? That other guy, Jerr’n, he mentioned he was here to save someone. You think it’s them?

I had absolutely no information to answer her question with. I only knew that if we stayed in the same place, we’d be screwed. And if we didn’t get to the experiment platform in time, everyone else would be screwed, too. Don’t think— I began.

Don’t worry. I rarely do.

I snorted lightly. That’s untrue. If Senator Kilroy hadn’t had you, he would never have been able to— I began, about to say that Yvonne was great at organizing things. It came out wrong.

Her shoulders slumped. What? He would never have been able to kill Senator William? He would never have been able to bring the entire galaxy to the brink of war? Yeah, I guess I should be proud. For now, though, you should just work on this. She shoved the half security drone at me.

I couldn’t move my fingers. Couldn’t move them until I had no choice but to try. Still over her