Ouroboros 1: Start

by Odette C. Bell

  And then he heard it.

  At first elation filled his heart as he thought Nida had finally achieved it, and had opened the time gate. Then he realised he was wrong.

  There was a loud, grumbling, hissing noise issuing from further down the tunnels, and as it grew louder, it shook the walls and floors.

  It would be some kind of Barbarian weapon.

  And knowing the Barbarians, it would be barbarically effective. “Come on,” he now screamed to her, “please,” he added in a final act of desperation.

  He heard something round the doorway.

  Then he saw it.

  A set of heavy mechanical armour with a Barbarian seated inside.

  The suit was enormous and had such thick armour it was clear it had been repurposed from a mining planet. Turrets rested on its shoulders, and the rest of the bulk was dotted with various other high-powered weapons.

  He brought his right hand up, forcing it forward while trying to fling another blast of power towards the mechanical suit before it could fire.

  But the device wouldn’t work. Though Carson could throw a little power, it wasn’t nearly enough.

  He saw the mechanical warrior lift one of its turrets. The thing started to glow red.

  Carson knew what would happen next.

  So he did the only thing he could. He crumpled to his knees, he wrapped his arms around Nida, and he collapsed his body forward, protecting hers.

  Then he waited.

  For death.

  But death did not come.

  Instead, something opened up underneath them.

  Light. Movement. Colour. Form. Charge. Weight. It seemed to take on every single property of matter.

  Indescribable, indefinable.

  And it pulled them through.

  With his arms still collapsed around her shoulders, they were sucked down into the void.

  And then, instantaneously, they reappeared.

  They did not travel through a tunnel; they did not hurtle along some kind of energy pathway. They simply reappeared in a completely different room in a completely different building, and if the entity was to be believed, in a completely different time.

  Carson had no idea how long he knelt there with his arms wrapped around Nida, and it wasn’t until she shuffled back slightly, staring up into his eyes, that he finally let her go.

  Then he collapsed.

  He grabbed his right hand, realising how much it ached. “What did I do to myself?” he groaned.

  “It will take some time to get used to the device,” the entity told him, “and you must be careful to conserve your energy,” it warned.

  He stared at it. “I want to speak to Nida,” he announced.

  “I’m here,” she shifted forward, her expression changing as the entity lost hold. “I’m here,” she reached out a hand to him.

  Without hesitating, he grasped it in his own. Then he just sat there, breathing very heavily and waiting.

  Waiting for some other terrible, frantic event to happen. When it didn’t, he finally took the time to stare around them.

  They were in . . . well, he supposed it was a house of some description. It was simply furnished, and the walls were made of stone, not metal.

  “Where are we?” Nida asked, combing her fingers through her hair.

  “I think you should ask when are we,” he croaked through his words, barely capable of believing them.

  She looked at him sharply, then she closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. “Oh my god, we travelled through time.”

  Yes. They'd travelled through time.

  They both sat there processing that fact, and it wasn’t until Nida finally rose to her feet to investigate the house that Carson mustered up the courage to follow.

  Silently they assessed the building, and then they returned to the same room.

  They stood there, about a meter apart, and assessed each other silently.

  “What now?” she asked in a quiet voice as she rubbed her hands up and down her arms.

  “We find the dimensional bridge,” he managed in an even quieter voice. “Do you know where it is? Do you know how to find it?” He took a step forward and looked into her eyes, trying to see past her to the entity within.

  She stared back at him mutely, and shrugged her shoulders.

  “Ask the entity,” he suggested through clenched teeth.

  She drew silent for several seconds, then shook her head.

  She looked pale.

  And suddenly he understood why.

  The light that usually danced across her skin was slowly withdrawing into her hand.

  “It’s weak,” she announced, “opening the time gate has left it weak. It needs to withdraw. It can’t tax itself or . . . ,” she trailed off.

  He nodded. He understood. If it allowed itself to grow weak, presumably it would corrupt all the quicker.

  So instead, he stood there and took a massive breath.

  “We can . . . do this,” he promised.

  She considered him quietly, then finally nodded. “We don’t have any choice.”

  Her words were soft but bitter, and they made him feel sick.

  But she was right.

  They didn’t have any choice.

  They were both stuck in the past with a critically important mission to complete.

  When Nida had touched his chest and the entity had transferred visions to him, he had seen what would happen if or when it became corrupted.

  Destruction. Destruction on an incalculable scale.

  Something he could not let happen.

  “We will find that gate,” he said in a stronger, authoritative tone.

  She gave a slight smile. It was a small and sad move, but then her lips twitched to the side as if she found something amusing. “Is that an order?”

  “You bet you it is,” he snapped.

  That kinked smile grew. “Well, there’s only one problem: I’m not sure if you are still my superior.”

  He arched an eyebrow at her. It was a practised move. The kind of surly, challenging look he would shoot an insubordinate underling.

  She just smiled cheekily. “Don’t look at me like that; it’s a legitimate question. The Academy has never detailed what happens to the chain of command when you’re taken into the past. I mean, technically, you aren’t a lieutenant any more. and I’m not a cadet, because we don’t exist in this time yet.”

  He now raised both his eyebrows, and he clapped his hands on his hips. “I’m still a lieutenant,” he said pointedly.

  She gave an overly dramatic sigh. “Then I guess that still makes me the worst recruit in 1000 years.”

  He couldn’t help it—he laughed. They had narrowly escaped a Barbarian attack with their lives. They were in the past, and they were shouldering an impossibly difficult mission, and she was worried that she was still the worst recruit in 1000 years?

  It took a while for him to stop chuckling, and he only laughed more at Nida’s challenging look. Then he stopped, and he held his hand out to her. “Come on.”

  She looked at the hand carefully. “Is that an order?”

  He shook his head.

  . . . .

  She took his hand.

  They walked out of the building and into a new time.

  They had a mission, and he would do everything he could to complete it.

  He knew that Nida would do everything she could too. And as he turned his head to consider her, he realised that, as strange as it sounded, he wouldn’t have anybody else by his side. Not Travis, not another member of the Force, not the best recruit in 1000 years.

  He kept that thought to himself though.

  Then they opened the door to a new time and a new place.

  They walked out together.

  The end

  This is the first book of a four part series. The next book is currently available.

  Odette C. Bell is the author of over 40 books in genres ranging from sci fi to adventure. Her catalogue of work
s is available from most ebook retailors.