One of the Barbarians lurched forward with an electric dagger, and threw it with perfect aim right at Carson’s chest.
Carson's hand lurched up, and with a blast from his device, he slammed the knife back, and it shattered against the opposite wall.
He heard the Barbarians scream and shout amongst themselves, but he didn’t waste the surprise he'd just given them. Instead, he grabbed another gun from his holster and blasted their way.
Though they threw several more grenades in his direction, every time one rolled towards him, he simply flung his right hand out and the device sent a powerful and invisible wave crashing into them, either obliterating the grenades on the spot, or hurling them against the far wall.
“Almost there,” he heard Nida say from behind him. And it was Nida; it wasn’t the entity. Her voice shook, and he wanted, more than anything, to collapse to his knees and throw his arms around her shoulders. But he couldn’t. Instead, he stood there and defended her against the relentless attack of the Barbarians.
If there was one good thing that could be said about them, they were dauntless. They did not give up, no matter what the odds. And that’s what made them such a fearsome enemy of the United Galactic Coalition.
Even though the Barbarians would have figured out by now that Carson was too powerful to be defeated by a head-on attack, they didn’t stop.
And they wouldn’t stop.
They would continue to throw warriors against him until he made a mistake. Because all he had to do was make one single mistake.
“Come on, come on,” he begged her.
He wanted to turn—he wanted to find out how close she was to opening the gate—but instead he simply brought up his right hand and blasted out another wave of power.
He was starting to realise he was getting weaker though.
Either the device was running out of juice, or it was tiring him out in a way he had never felt before.
But he didn’t give up. He just brought up his plasma handgun and used that instead. He fired round after round, trying to protect her whilst he waited . . . and waited . . . and waited.
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 kink
ed 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
BEFORE BOOK TWO OF OUROBOROS
Chapter 1
Carson Blake
Had he just . . . travelled through time?
He didn’t want to believe it; he couldn’t believe it.
. . . .
Yet he couldn't deny that wherever or whenever he was, he was far, far away from United Galactic Coalition help.
In fact, he was virtually on his own. All he had was Nida.
They had only left the house together briefly, to check the area immediately surrounding it. Thankfully, it appeared to be situated far up a lonely hill, with nothing but rolling pastures and dense forests as company.
It was a rare piece of luck, considering what had been happening to Carson recently.
Once they had ascertained they were alone, they had both gone back inside to thoroughly investigate the house they had appeared in.
Though Carson was trying to make a good show of it, he couldn't hide how tired he was.
The fight with the Barbarians had taken it out of him, but more than that, the use of this strange glowing red device had powered through his energy reserves like a 50 kilometer sprint through sand.
He was beyond dog-tired; every single one of his muscles was filled with a heavy, distracting tingle, and he found himself huffing and puffing after less than a few steps.
Eventually Nida rounded on him and crossed her arms. ‘For god's sake, just sit down and have a rest. I've found what I think is a bed upstairs, and you can have a nap,’ she pointed out.
He chuckled. It was a particularly hoarse and croaky move, but he hoped it relayed his point. He was not about to go and have a lie down. They had quite possibly just been transported through time to an unknown point in Remus 12's history. He wasn't going to indulge in a little sleep. He was going to find out where they were, what was going on at this point in history, and how in the hell they were going to get back to their own time. Oh yeah, he also had that niggling little problem of finding a dimensional bridge before the entity possessing Nida killed her and everything in reality.
So napping was completely out of the question.
Nida did not uncross her arms from in front of her chest though. She simply shook her head, doing an okay impression of a disappointed admiral. For just a second it seemed she had channeled the terse severity of Admiral Lara Forest, but it didn't last. It couldn't with Nida. She had a round and cheerful face, even when she was trying to guilt you.
‘I am not going to have a sleep,’ Carson finally pointed out through bared teeth. ‘Now follow your orders, Cadet, and continue to assess this property.’
She did not snap him a salute. Instead, she just stood there, tapping her foot on the ground. ‘You look like you are about to fall down, Carson.’
Though it took a great deal of energy, he clamped his hands on his hips and regarded her with the authority of a lieutenant about to tell off a wayward recruit. He even cleared his throat menacingly. ‘Cadet Harper,’ he began.
‘Don't give me that,’ she snapped. ‘Just sit down,’ she pleaded.
‘Shouldn't you be the one sitting down?’ He questioned her honestly. ‘You look like hell.’ Though he tried to keep the severe, authoritative note to his tone, he couldn't. His voice broke, for more than one reason. It wasn't just the lethargy creeping in and constricting his throat; it was the memory of what they had just been through.
She brought her fingers up and tenderly touched her pale cheeks. Her eyes were hooded with shadow, and her lips were a worrying bluish pink. ‘I'm fine,’ she said after a moment.
‘And the entity?’
Slowly she glanced down at her left hand. She pumped the fingers in and out as she stared at the faint trace of blue playing across her skin. For a moment she looked worried, then she shook her head. ‘It is just resting,’ she managed after a lengthy pause.
‘Precisely, because it has just opened a time gate. Which means you should be resting too,’ he added immediately.
She looked up at him, the move sharp. ‘That is an illogical leap. Just because the entity is tired, doesn't mean that I am too,’ she began.
He let out a harsh, blast of a laugh. It was louder than he had intended it to be, and possibly accentuated how damn drained he felt. But he pushed on, nonetheless. ‘Nida, look at yourself,’ he commanded. ‘Your skin is the color of crushed bone.’
Her eyes blazed as she stared back at him. ‘And what about you, Carson? You don't exactly look like the picture of health. You look as though you’re about to faint. That or die.’
‘Cadet,’ he snapped, intending to threaten her with disciplinary action.
But she cut him short by walking over to him. Without warning, she hooked her arm over his, and then led him towards a chair.
‘What are you doing?’ He asked incredulously, ashamed that his voice wavered slightly. It was either his fatigue or her proximity, and he didn't want to admit to either. So he tried to straighten up, and ended up locking his feet in place, using his armor to stiffen his body and prevent her from moving him even a nano centimeter.
She struggled against his bulk, then finally gave up with a huff. ‘God, you are stubborn,’ she spat. ‘We only have each other to rely on here,’ she added under her breath.
‘You're forgetting something. The chain of command,’ he noted in a dark tone.
She actually doubled back at the exact note of anger in his voice. She even blinked at him in a fearful but still kind of pretty move.
‘Now, I am giving you an order as a lieutenant,’ Carson began. Then something rather terrible happened. A wave of weakness washed over him, and he found himself stumbling backwards.
Immediately she was by his side, hooking an arm around his waist.
She couldn't hold him though. He was larger than her, and right now he was in very sophisticated armor that was a) hard to get a grip on, and b) heavy as hell.
As he stumbled backwards, he knocked her off her feet, and sent her thumping into the cold stone ground.
He swore, trying to pick himself up, but his shoulders and knees and hips were so tired and
weak and wobbly that he could barely move.
‘Carson,’ she asked worriedly as she wriggled out from underneath him. Then she knelt by his side, picked his head up in her hands, and stared down at him.
When he blinked at her, she pressed her lips together and shook her head. ‘Looks like you need a rest,’ she pointed out sarcastically.
‘I'm fine,’ he tried.
She just laughed.
Then she let his head go gently.
She took with her that slight, almost enchanting trace of warmth that seemed to collect over her hands and fingers. Maybe it was the entity, or maybe it was just her.
. . . .
But definitely he shouldn't be thinking about it.
Clearing his throat properly, he finally locked his palms next to him and pushed himself up into a sitting position. It felt like he was dragging a mountain.
The type of armor he wore was ridiculously heavy, and relied on an internal motor and an operating system to assist the wearer with moving it. Each section of armored plating was made out of a special reinforced smart metal, and Carson would have absolutely no way of moving it without the help of the armor’s on-board systems.
So as he sat there, his chest rocking back and forth as he panted, he suddenly wondered whether there was something seriously wrong with the armor itself.
That could account for his weak knees and wobbling hands.
With a labored breath, he reached to his side and pulled out his scanner. He opened it, but as he did so, his entire arm shook as if he were holding onto an enormous boulder and not a tiny, featherweight computer.
‘There must be something wrong with my armor,’ he explained through a raking breath that seemed to drag through his chest as if his lungs had turned into little hands that were being forced to grasp at every last scrap of air they could.
Nida just knelt there by his side watching him. ‘Well?’
It took a long time for Carson's eyes to resolve the image appearing on the scanner. His brain wasn't playing nice, and neither were his fingers as he tried to manipulate the controls. But eventually he got back the readings he wanted to . . . and they confirmed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with his armor. It was operating at 100 percent efficiency. Which meant the problem lay solely with him.
Ouroboros- The Complete Series Page 27