All characters in this publication are fictitious, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A Galactic Coalition Academy Series
The Lost Star
Episode One
Copyright © 2016 Odette C Bell
Cover art stock photos licensed from Depositphotos.
www.odettecbell.com
THE LOST STAR
EPISODE ONE
Some are born into responsibility. Some seek it out.
And some turn from it.
Ava is a priestess of Avixa, a powerful being with a powerful destiny to keep her people on the true and righteous path.
Yet it is a destiny she does not want. To flee it, she joins the Coalition Academy. But her past cannot so easily be left behind. When she joins the newest ship in the fleet, a series of unfortunate accidents befall her.
Soon she finds herself thrust into a secret war. One that will span the entire Milky Way. Yet she is not alone. The unpredictable Hunter McClane is by her side. Together they must find out what’s at stake before it’s too late.
….
The Lost Star is a four-part serialization that plunges you into a sprawling sci-fi adventure that charts the galaxy. Ava and Hunter are pitted against a shadowy conspiracy, slave traders, and ultimately a legend that threatens everything and everyone….
Chapter One
Ava stared as the other priestesses came toward her out of the darkened room. Their bare tattooed feet padded over the dark black stone of the temple.
She felt a flutter of fear chase through her heart.
They began chanting. The sonorous hum of their voices filled the high-ceilinged chamber, vibrating through the floor and up into her naked form.
A crackle of energy escaped over her hands, flecks of electric blue lightning that sunk back into her flesh.
Her nerves were getting the better of her for the first time in years.
“Control yourself.” The head priestess appeared out of the shadows, her luminescent purple eyes flashing in the dark.
Ava took a breath and did as she was told, forcing her nerves to settle as a spark of exhilaration took their place.
This was it.
“You have chosen the path of the stars,” the priestesses chanted as one in the old tongue of the Avixan people.
“I have,” Ava responded.
“You wish to leave the clan to continue our work beyond this planet.”
Ava hesitated. The others would believe she was pausing for effect.
She wasn’t.
Ava wasn’t doing this to continue the work of the priestess Clan of Avixa.
She was doing this to get away.
To live the kind of life she’d always wanted. A simple one devoid of responsibility.
Voice a word of that, and the Chief Priestess would lock her away. So she took a breath and nodded, her vibrant red hair slicing over her bare shoulders. “I vow to continue our work amongst the stars.”
“You will watch the Rest?”
“I will watch them.”
“If they do the forbidden—”
“I will stop them.”
“If they turn against the Others—”
“I will stop them.”
“And if you hear the call?”
She paused again. Once more she forced herself to give a nod, her red locks sliding over her shoulders and forming a veil over her face. It blocked her eyes as she squeezed them shut and lied: “I will come.”
“Then you are ready. Your locks have been completed.” The Chief Priestess drew her hands forward, her long fingernails suddenly crackling with energy.
A charge of power exploded over them, wisps of smoke curling around her crooked upturned fingers.
With a deep reverberating breath, the priestess wrought space, and something appeared right in her hands.
Two enormous golden armlets.
Locks.
All priestesses wore locks. It was part of the pact – the sole agreement that had protected her people for thousands of years.
Ava’s current locks were little more than slim golden bracelets around both wrists.
They sapped her energy, kept her powers in check.
She shuddered to think what the enormous armlets in the priestess’ hands would do.
They’d been made specially. Though the Chief Priestess had transported them here with her abilities, she hadn’t crafted them out of thin air. The Clan’s best scientists had been working on them for two years.
Only now they’d perfected them could Ava leave Avixa.
A nervous knot formed in her stomach as she stared at them, the gold glinting under the light of the Chief Priestess’ power.
“These locks will keep you in check—” the Chief Priestess proclaimed.
“As we must all be kept in check,” the other priestesses continued the refrain.
“Even over the great distance that separates you from this, our home world, you will remain connected. If you hear the call—”
“I will respond.”
The call would unlock her armlets. A call that would never come.
For all the pomp and circumstance of the priestess Clan, they were never used.
Their sole purpose was to keep the rest of the Avixa devils under check. Though devils was a pejorative term, at times, it was accurate.
Ava’s people had natural power, far greater than most other races in the Milky Way.
In the past, they used that power to enslave and steal – to rule over other races.
No more.
The priestess Clan consisted of the most powerful in Avixa society. They existed to keep the others in check. And they, in turn, were kept in check by the locks they wore.
“You are ready,” the Chief Priestess proclaimed. It wasn’t a question – it was a statement. “Kneel.”
Ava knelt, soft knees pressing into the cold floor.
“These locks will cost you greatly. You will be weak, all your powers kept in check. But if you hear the call—”
“I will respond,” Ava replied softly.
“You will respond,” they all repeated, their strident voices echoing through the room.
“You will be the first among the priestesses to walk amongst the stars with the Rest and the Others. You will continue our ways.”
The Rest referred to the rest of Avixan society. Those Ava had to watch and keep in check. The Others referred to every other being in the galaxy.
“I will continue your ways.” Ava held her wrists up, her hair fanning in front of her face, a few loose strands straying over her wrists and her upheld forearms.
“You will continue our ways,” the Chief Priestess corrected immediately.
Ava’s stomach kicked as she realized what she’d said. “I will continue our ways.”
“You will watch over the Rest. Be their shepherd.”
“I will watch. I will guide.” Though the words slipped from Ava’s mouth, they meant nothing.
The priestess Clan wasn’t called upon anymore. Tight control was held on Avixan society by the ruling government. Democracy was now doing what the priestess Clan had done for thousands of years – keep its people on a peaceful path.
The priestesses, for all their self-importance, just weren’t important anymore.
That’s why Ava needed to get away so desperately – she knew that out there in space none of this would matter.
She wouldn’t be a sacred Avixan priestess – she’d just be another recruit at the Galactic Coalition Academy.
It would be quiet, it would be simple, and there’d be no more responsibility.
For once, she’d be normal.
So she kept her arms held up.
; The Chief Priestess loomed above her as the others began to chant.
Nerves mixed with excitement and darted hard through her gut and up into her chest making it hard to breathe.
Suddenly the chanting cut out.
In total silence, the Chief Priestess held the open armlets under Ava’s wrists.
The chanting started up again, growing louder and louder until it felt like it would cause the hall to crumble, let alone tear through her bones.
The priestesses hit a certain pitch, and Ava’s existing bands fell off, falling onto the floor with a clang.
For just a second – a split second – Ava felt her natural power.
It poured through her, so much energy she felt as if she could rival a sun.
It didn’t last.
As the priestesses fell into silence, there was a click, and the armlets snapped around Ava’s arms.
At first, she felt nothing.
Then she screamed. She pitched backward, hair fanning over her naked body as she thrashed over the cold black stone.
She felt the armlets lock her in. They slammed around her like the thickest most impenetrable walls.
A part of her screamed as she was shut away from her true power.
But gradually it grew silent.
Then she stilled.
She lay there breathing.
“Stand.” The Chief Priestess beckoned her up with a sweep of her hand.
Ava stumbled to her feet.
Despite the numbing pain, she smiled.
Though it was truly painful to be blocked from her true powers, it was a pain she would gladly endure for the promise of freedom.
She forced herself to take a step forward, then another, until finally she walked out of the temple and out into the light.