OUT NOW!
It was between life in prison and joining an insane treasure hunt across the multiverse. Will still wasn’t sure he made the right choice.
Will wasn’t exactly leading his best life before the Game Master came along and invited him to play Which Where. The eccentric god-being is after the Relic, and he's assembled a team of mortals to find it for him. Now all Will and Captain Billyn Stryke of the Oddstar need to do is travel between alternate realities and pick them up.
ODDSTAR is the first novel in the Which Where series, following the crew across multiple strange universes as they recruit Maxine the space trooper, Bawn the arena champ, and Shelly the empath--as well as a few unexpected hitchhikers.
Buckle up and power on the alternate reality drive because it’s gonna be a wild ride!
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Chapter 1
“Is the ARD ready yet?” Captain Billyn Stryke asked.
“Eighty-four percent charged,” the ship’s computer responded in a nonchalant tone.
The Oddstar broke free of Amfibion IV’s gravity and left the homeworld of the Holy Rept-Fibion Empire behind. The orange-and-silver spaceship picked up velocity as gravity’s pull weakened its grasp on it.
Stryke stared down at his controls with wide, bloodshot eyes.
“Come on, come on!”
The ship rocked with a sudden blast on the starboard side. Inertial dampeners kicked on to soften the blow, but the force of the concussion was still powerful enough to toss the captain against the arm of his seat.
Stryke brought the feed from the ship’s rear up on the main viewscreen with a wordless command.
Half a dozen yellow Inquisitor fighters pursued the Oddstar into outer space. The small vessels resembled horseshoe crabs, sporting wide, half-disc bodies followed by long, fiery trails of thruster exhaust.
“Man, they are pissed off!” Stryke said to himself.
Stryke was grateful that he was alone aboard the bridge. He was the only potential casualty.
Another explosion hit the ship.
“Perhaps you should have accepted the Pope’s offering,” the ship’s computer criticized.
“It was a misunderstanding! Everyone else was eating the little crabs!”
“Of course. I just wanted to remind you that this is all your fault, that’s all.”
“Thanks.”
A few bolts of deadly energy narrowly missed their mark and zipped off into the void. One struck the rear of the ship.
“I’m not sure how many more hits like that we can take before we’re blown apart,” Stryke said. “We need to get out of this universe now!”
“Ninety percent,” the computer announced.
“The next reality—that’s our first pick-up, right?”
“Correct.”
Captain Stryke sighed. A wave of relief washed over him and blocked out the furious fighters trying to shoot him down for a moment.
“About time,” he said. He looked at the rear-view feed and added, “Hopefully we can make it there in one piece.”
“Ninety-six percent.”
“I want the ARD fired up the instant it’s ready, got that?”
“Indeed.”
“Good. What’s this place called, anyway—our next stop, I mean?”
“Reality A3-609.”
“Not the catchiest name.”
“That is its official designation.”
“What do the locals call it?”
“Earth.”
“Ah, right! I remember now.”
“Alternate Reality Drive charged,” said the computer.
“Then get us the hell outta here!” Stryke demanded.
The Oddstar hung in place as if time froze. It shrunk in on itself before the Inquisitors closed in on the ship, then vanished.
Bewildered, the Rept-Fibion security forces stopped firing and swarmed the spot. They flew in disorganized circles, scanning for the orange-and-silver spaceship. It was futile—the Oddstar left no trace behind, as if it had never existed in the first place.