Minus Book Three

By Odette C. Bell

Sisi and M’cla must race to save the Coalition before it’s too late.
And time is ticking. Axel ramps up his plans to take over the Academy, and soon Earth is plunged into a violent, bloody war with the drones. They’ll need a miracle to survive.
Maybe Sisi has one.
It’s time to find out who she really is and why she has these extraordinary gifts. But every second she wastes not fighting the Underside is one they will use to their advantage.
They have a plan for Earth, a plan for Forest, and a plan for the multiverse. And nothing – not even the Coalition’s bravest cadets – can stop them.
...
Minus follows a cadet and an alien spy battling a god to save the Coalition. If you love your space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Minus Book Three today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.
Minus is the 24th 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 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224204595

Book preview

Chapter 1

Sisi

Sisi punched up. She just didn’t punch up alone.

She encountered that non-space. This time, it didn’t last as long. It felt like it was more encompassing, like it was drawing something out from deep within her. Maybe it was memories of an old life. Maybe it was heights she hadn’t yet reached. Whatever it was, it went past in a flash, and the next thing she knew, she was down on her knees, smoking all over, long wisps of steam-like smoke curling around her face, up the side of her head, and across her chest.

There were twelve other thuds right beside her.

Only one of them was M’cla.

Down on her knees, trembling from head to foot, she twisted. And there before her were the other cadets.

At least she knew where she was; at least she knew what had happened. They had no clue.

Bryce was still on his feet somehow, his sword in his hands.

He took a swipe at nothing.

It was a little too close to Sisi for M’cla’s liking.

M’cla was on his feet in an instant. He twisted.

He yanked the blade right out of Bryce’s hand. Idiot, he snapped.

What the hell is happening? Bryce demanded as the blade was knocked from his hand at random.

He pushed toward the other cadets.

They soon stood back to back, shaking all over.

You brought them here? M’cla demanded of her.

What choice did I have? If they’d remained at the Academy, they would’ve died.

She plucked herself to her feet. When she wasn’t fast enough, M’cla wrapped a hand around her shoulder and yanked her up.

Had she mentioned that he was shaking? Because he was shaking.

Quivering was probably a better verb. It was deep, and it somehow seemed like it might upset the order of his light within. His eyes were glowing a lot more than they should.

This is bad, he hissed. The last time we were here, a Maw attacked us. You haven’t saved the cadets. You’ve simply altered their dire circumstances.

They would have all died at the hands of that drone if I hadn’t done anything. So I did something, she slowed herself down to actually appreciate that. I punched up. It didn’t matter about the veil – I punched right through it.

M’cla finally turned.

He had to rip his eyes off the terrified cadets. They were standing back-to-back, but all of their heads were directed upward at the strange staircases.

Sisi didn’t know the full details of this storeroom, but she could confidently tell you that it could probably change into anything it saw fit at the click of its figural fingers.

There were staircases now.

Maybe if a different kind of god appeared, there would be planets. Or orbs of light or disordered holograms.

This was the most sophisticated place she’d ever set foot in, and that included the cadets, too.

Bryce went to pick up his sword, but M’cla wouldn’t let him. Still staring at Sisi, M’cla whipped his hand over his shoulder, collected the blade, and cracked it in half.

Bryce hissed. He’d clearly picked up a rifle during the fight for the Academy. He yanked it off his back holster, and he fired roughly in M’cla’s direction.

It actually struck M’cla’s shoulder, but the bullet couldn’t do anything. It couldn’t even slow M’cla down. He continued to stare at Sisi, brow compressed, a hard look in his eyes. Have you forgotten about the Maws? They’ll still be here. Mark my words. And Axel will come back at some point. You haven’t saved anyone. But you did punch up.

In a flash, his anger changed. Because maybe in a flash, he realized one important thing. If she could punch up to this storeroom, maybe she could punch up to a different universe? Maybe this was just the equivalent of a stop-off?

Whoever the hell is out there, Bryce said in a challenging tone, you will come out, and you will face us now. We are the Galactic Coalition. We fight for peace.

M’cla really did snort now. He rolled his eyes and looked at Bryce briefly.

Don’t do that. He’s a flawed character. At least he’s trying to sacrifice himself for his friends when it matters most, though. Sisi stared right at M’cla when she said that.

At first, the meaning was lost on him.

Soon enough, however, he twitched.

He turned, clearly uncomfortable. Then he reached over and grabbed her hand. She let him do it, though she could have yanked her arm back easily.

Punch up. Head to the Seraphix. I’ll give you their location. I can help them. I can at least warn them, he said, voice crumpling like a tissue in your hand.

I’m not going to leave these cadets here. They’ll be mincemeat.

They are already mincemeat. The Coalition is already mincemeat, Sisi. There was never any hope. The Force, M’cla’s voice broke like someone had fractured it against sharp stones, is coming for the Coalition. There’s nothing anyone can do. I was sent in to get the best minds, like Admiral Forest, to save those who might be able to do something for the Seraphix. The rest of you are screwed.

M’cla didn’t look like he was having fun as he said that. In fact, his brow shook like someone had just passed electricity through it.

It took several seconds for Sisi to actually pay attention to what he’d said.

Her back arched. Her blood felt like someone had replaced it with the depths of the coldest kind of space. Space that had never seen any light, that had never seen any movement, that had never seen any life.

Her mouth became dry. And she instinctively shook her head.

M’cla was wrong. And she could prove that.

She whipped her attention around and stared at the cadets, Bryce more than anyone else. Bryce the bully was still doing what he needed to when he had to do it. Because there was something about the Coalition that was different, something about the training that set up their cadets for a life of success, not failure. It didn’t matter how many times they were pushed down. It didn’t matter how many galactic empires rose up to try to kill them. The Coalition always persevered.

Sisi could fight M’cla all she wanted. She knew she’d never win with words.

These past few breakneck hours had taught her a different kind of lesson, anyway. It was one that now pulsed in her body. It settled itself into her tingling feet as she took a step back, turned, and stood in front of Bryce. And when that wasn’t obvious enough, when that didn’t make her intentions sufficiently clear, she opened her arms in a protective way like a bird opening their wings.

M’cla just stared at her.

His lips twitched. Real anger passed through his face.

He went to lurch forward.

He went to grab her. He stopped.

He could probably make her punch up. But something changed in his eyes.

I’m not gonna leave the cadets.

M’cla’s head drooped forward. It looked like he was a cut flower that someone had just brought too close to the exhaust of an engine.

He took one deep breath. Then he looked at her. Fine, he said in a strange voice that was neither fine nor that tense, either. Just help me punch up. Take me to the Seraphix. Then come back. Please, they’re my home. My family. The only thing I’ve freaking got left now.

Sisi twitched.

She could see the need in his eyes, could hear it in his shaking tone.

If she took M’cla to the Seraphix, there was every chance that he would kidnap her again, every chance that he would stop her from leaving.

But right here was an inflection point, a time for one single choice.

She’d been through a lot with M’cla. Could she trust him now when it mattered most?

Her body knew the answer, even if her mind was only just catching up.

She dropped her arms when it became clear that M’cla wasn’t going to do anything to the surprised cadets. She took a step forward. Hesitantly, but keeping her eyes on M’cla the entire time, she lifted her hand toward him.

His expression changed, at once becoming more fragile. And while M’cla had shown a gamut of expressions, fragility had not been one of them.

Now it compressed his brow, yanked on his lips, and finally reached his hand. With a hesitant twitch, it rose, and she clasped his fingers hard.

It was more symbolic than anything else.

While she’d punched up and down 1.5 times now, she didn’t actually know if she could reach the Seraphix, wherever they were. Quite likely the only reason she’d come to 333 was that Axel had left her a pathway here.

Maybe when a god punched up to another universe, they altered the fabric between those two universes, making a kind of path, if you will? Or if not a path, then at least a limited connection that an untrained mind like Sisi could follow.

There was no time to think anything through, anyway.

M’cla closed his eyes. He sighed, then smiled. And that smile… it did things to Sisi. It took her places she wasn’t really willing and ready to go.

That was the kind of smile that the old her, the space bum, wouldn’t have deserved. The kind of smile you give a real hero.

But Sisi wasn’t a real hero. Not yet at least. Because the real fight was yet to begin.

Chapter 2

Axel

He stood in his office, Forest’s comatose form draped over his desk.

Her head was at an uncomfortable angle. For a human. And yes, even though he did not have a similar biological form, he could at least appreciate that one’s neck was never meant to be twisted to the side for that long in that position. He could change it. He could rearrange her until she was more comfortable.

But there was no point in doing that yet.

There was too much to do.

He at least placed her wrist device back on her wrist. He’d removed it from the basement, along with the rudimentary Guardian scanner she’d taken from the phase realm.

Suddenly, he closed his eyes. He lifted a hand, and he pressed his thumb into his brow.

He thought.

In a single moment, he connected to the drones. To every single drone, no matter where it was around the Academy.

For any lesser biological being, this would probably have given them an aneurysm. The concentration involved was intense.

There were so many drones, more than a million. And yet Axel had the brain power to be able to connect to each in turn. He searched for the Seraphix. For the Seraphix had to be out there.

He wouldn’t miss an opportunity like this.

The Seraphix was clearly going after Forest, or perhaps other important minds in the Academy. And this was the perfect way to get to them.

And yet, as Axel attuned to every single drone, the Seraphix was not revealed.

Axel jumped from the drones beneath the Academy command tower to the drones completely swamping the basements. Then he jumped up to the top of the accommodation block, then down beneath the grounds. He did not go there physically, though he could have in split seconds. He went there mentally, fully connecting to every single drone in those areas. But there was nothing and no one.

If the Seraphix had picked up one of Axel’s blades and used it, the Seraphix had cloaking technology that Axel couldn’t see through.

You knew that Axel couldn’t tolerate a thought like that, couldn’t tolerate a fact like that.

He couldn’t tolerate anything that suggested he wasn’t up to this task.

He roared. He pulled his forefinger away from his thumb, and he created a crackle of wildly bright and powerful god energy.

He dearly wanted to throw it through the window, dearly wanted to send it around the Academy until every single tower was dust.

Then he took a breath. He hardened his jaw.

If the Seraphix wasn’t here… what if the Seraphix had gone somewhere else?

The thought snapped into Axel’s head so fast, he should have lost his head. It should have pinged off his shoulders and sailed around the globe several times.

For once the thought had him, it could not let him go.

He stood to attention, body suddenly stiff, eyes even wider.

He gripped the side of his desk, close to Forest’s comatose head.

He looked at her once, then smiled, all teeth. 333. The idiot has gone back to 333. Thinks I won’t be able to get him there, does he? Fine. I will come in person. This will soon be over, he said that menacingly.

He should take the time to wake Forest up. While she was there, asleep on his desk, she wasn’t putting herself into positions where she might call on her universal key.

Axel needed that. The voice needed that. The Underside needed that. But right now, the thing that Axel needed more was to protect the storeroom.

Because that would one day become the cornerstone of his rule. As the only god that could get there, he was the only god who could call on the storeroom’s incredible wealth and technologies. It would help him when he finally ascended to the throne. And he would never give up that opportunity.

He spun on his foot.

He took a rigid step away from the desk. He lifted a hand toward the god tattoo on his chest, then crammed his palm down. He concentrated, but only for a spark of a second. Then he pulled his hand off and spread his fingers wide. He twisted them like he’d just grabbed a clock face.

A gate appeared around him, engulfing his shoulders with a sparkling crackle.

The next thing he knew, he appeared in the god storeroom.

The god storeroom was an entire universe.

It was not a normal universe, however.

Most universes were primarily space with any number of galaxies spread through them like dust on a windscreen.

Not 333. There was no empty space; there was just the storeroom. It spanned