The Lost Star Episode One (29 page)

At that
completely stupid thought, she let out a little pitiful laugh.

Then she
realized how damn dark it was down here, and a new flurry of fear
escaped over her back, chilling the skin as it went.

Crawling
faster, she finally reached the top of the stairs.

But she didn't
reach the world outside.

The beautiful
starscape didn’t sparkle down to greet her.

Instead the
looming shape of a room did.

One that was
lit softly by a faint, blue glow.

Oh dear.

The fall had
disoriented her, and somehow she’d climbed up the wrong set of
stairs.

Clearly, the
tunnel she’d tumbled into had more than one set of steps leading
up.

Great. Now she
had to climb down again and head up the other set of stairs, still
in the dark, and still on her hands and knees.

Before she
turned and headed back down, she slowly surveyed the room.

There weren't
meant to be any energy sources on this planet, she remembered, but
whatever was making that blue glow clearly wasn't natural.

She narrowed
her eyes and tried to figure out what it was.

Some kind of
statue.

She could make
out the shape of a body, carved out of stone, on the far wall.

The room was
completely empty apart from that statue and several dark, shadowy
recesses that suggested other stairwells leading down into more
dark and treacherous tunnels.

She
gulped.

“Turn around,
head down the stairs, and get back to the group,” she said aloud,
flinching as the sound of her voice reverberated around the empty
room.

The
architecture down here was completely different to the compound
above ground, quite possibly because this room was not ruined.

And now that
she could see the smooth walls and the delicate lines of the
statue, she appreciated what this planet must have once looked
like.

It was a
beautiful sight, mesmerizing even.

Yes, that's
the right word, mesmerizing.

Before she
could stop herself, she took several steps forward, and then
another, and then another. She ignored the pain stabbing through
her ribcage, and strode confidently towards that statue.

It was as if
the thing was reeling her in.

The closer she
got, the more astounded she was by its beauty.

It was the
shape of some alien woman, dressed in a flowing gown, with
beautiful lines of hair tapering across her face and shoulders.

She had the
kindest of smiles, and her hands were held out in front of her,
clasped around some kind of blue orb.

The orb was
glowing – the sole light source illuminating the room – and the
nearer she got to it, the more the glow caught her attention.

Something
appeared trapped in the orb, something that danced and writhed like
bodies through smoke.

She reached
the statue.

She stared up
at it, her mouth agape.

In an instant,
she forgot all of her pain and agony.

She stretched
a hand towards the orb.

On the very
first day at Galactic Coalition Academy, they told new recruits two
things. Never leave your team behind, and never do anything
stupid.

Space is,
quite frankly, not a safe place.

Given the
chance, it would throw everything from spatial anomalies, to
menacing aliens, to booby-trapped planets your way. So if you
wanted to survive, you had to live by the rules – stay with your
team, and most of all, be smart.

Now, she knew
it wasn't smart to reach her hand out to touch the orb.

It was glowing
with such a peculiar energy that even a newborn baby would realize
it wasn't something you should touch.

Yet she
couldn't stop herself.

Her fingers
were drawn towards it.

Then, as she
turned her face up to look at that beautiful smiling statue, she
touched it.

She stood
there for a second before anything happened.

Her fingers
registered no heat. In fact, her fingers registered nothing at all.
It was as if she wasn't touching anything. As if the blue orb was
nothing but a hologram.

Then something
happened.

She heard a
crack, almost like a rip in space.

Then something
slammed into her chest and forced her backwards.

It had more
force than anything she’d ever felt.

As soon as her
head struck the floor, she lost consciousness.

But just
before she did, she thought she saw a blue light bursting out of
that globe and rushing down towards her.

It sunk into
her chest as her mind turned black.

The end of Start,
Chapter One. If you liked this excerpt, the rest of this book is
available
here
.