Ouroboros 3: Repeat (21 page)

Carson turned his head to the side and closed his eyes.

Nida whimpered.

Their ship was still on the floor of the hangar bay—they would only rise up into the air once the main doors opened to space.

So they could see the Barbarian clearly as he walked up to their ship. The creature was massive, and craned its neck as it tried to stare into the vessel.

It couldn’t see in—the view screen was only one-way—but that didn’t dampen how spine-tingling it was to watch him try to peer in.

Nida whimpered again.

Then she straightened.

Behind the Barbarian, another lanced out with an electro blade and practically cut a man in half.

She gasped. Then her fists curled.

He swore he could see the blue crackling over them.

And if, in that moment, he’d been able to see her eyes, maybe he would have seen blue fire jumping within too.

‘Nida,’ he said, his voice shaking, ‘we have to get out of here. We can stop this from ever happening,’ he promised her.

She just stood there with her hands curled into the tightest of fists.

She did not say anything, and she didn’t turn from the view.

Not until he walked right up to her and placed a hand on her left wrist.

Slowly she looked up. Where he’d expected to see blue fire dancing in her gaze, he saw tears.

‘
We can . . . ,’ he began, ‘do this,’ he closed his eyes.

She closed hers.

She shifted forward and tucked her head against his chest.

He didn’t move back.

Neither did he pull his arms up and wrap them around her. Instead, he tucked his own head down until his cheek rested against the back of her bunched hair.

Seconds passed, then it finally happened.

He felt the ship rise up into the air.

‘
Hangar doors are opening. Ignition sequence initiated,’ his computer told him.

He didn’t turn around.

Though he hated the Barbarians, he didn’t want to see them sucked out into space.

In fact, he didn’t pull back from Nida until the computer warned them they were out of the ship.

Though Travis had told him he’d keep the door open—meaning he’d force the Barbarians back and give Carson a chance—Carson knew that door wouldn’t be open forever.

Pulling away from Nida and throwing himself at the nearest console, he waited.

His cruiser was still hooked up to the Orion, so he didn’t have to worry about the heavy cruiser accidentally shooting it out of the sky. Every movement the Orion made, and everything it shot, would be relayed to his ship in real-time, allowing it to chart a safe path out of there.

Still, it was a fraught experience to sit there in that chair and watch the ship manoeuvre itself out of trouble.

At one point, a small, agile, but well-armed Barbarian cruiser bore down on his ship, but before it could fire, the Orion obliterated it.

‘
20 seconds until we reach orbit,’ the computer warned them.

There was already a mess of ships in space around Remus 12. The husks of the United Galactic Coalition cruisers that had fought and lost against the Vex.

Well now another great battle was waged between them, the Barbarians using whatever they could as cover.

But where those hulls offered the Barbarians reprieve, they did the same for his ship.

Their vessel darted in and out of those ghost ships. At one point, they even travelled right through the middle of an enormous heavy cruiser that had a gap the size of house right in the middle.

It was
 . . . an experience he wanted to wipe from his memory.

The flashes of shots, the sights of dead ships haunted by floating bodies, preserved in every detail by the cold of space
 . . . .

However frightful it was, it couldn’t last. All too soon, they made it into orbit, then they punched down to the surface of the planet below.

The sun was rising on Remus 12.

It was beautiful. An array of brilliant purples and oranges lit the sky like coloured fire. The clouds were pushed back to the edges of the horizon, as if in awe of that brilliant dawn.

And yet, set against it were the broken ships of the United Galactic Coalition.

It set his jaw hard.

‘Landing on the planet in 30 seconds,’ the computer informed him.

‘
Come on,’ he hissed under his breath. ‘Come on.’

Nida didn’t say a word.

‘Detecting Barbarian vessels entering orbit on an intercept heading,’ the computer acknowledged.

‘
No,’ he hissed, ‘come on. Just land.
Land
.’

Again Nida didn’t speak.

She just stood there, nursing her left hand, staring down at the bangle that encased her wrist. Or the device, rather.

Watching her stare so quietly at it was the only thing that could shift his attention.

This was all down to her now.

He could fight by her side, he could take control of the ship and dodge incoming attacks, but the next bit was her.

She alone could open the time gate.

‘
Barbarian vessels nearing,’ the computer warned as it started to beep.

‘
Fuck, come on,
land,
’ he swore.

He could see the surface of the planet coming up fast below.

That dust and rubble lighting up under the warm kiss of dawn.

It could have been starkly beautiful, but all his mind could focus on was pushing forward.

He had to do this.

Had to do this
 . . . .

‘
Landing in five, four, three—’ the computer began.

Then their ship rocked to the side as something slammed into it.

‘Detecting damage to the port side. Projectile impacted,’ the computer beeped.

‘
Projectile?
What
?’ he spat.

Then he heard it, and he saw it. The view screen switched from showing the approaching ground to revealing an enormous crackling hook lodged into the side of their hull.

The ship lurched as it was pulled backwards.

‘
The Barbarians have hooked into the hull and are pulling this ship backwards,’ the computer informed him needlessly.

‘
No,’ he called. ‘Not now. Not now.’

They were so close.

The ground was just below them.

Travis had sacrificed himself and his crew for this.

 . . . They couldn’t fail now.

Not when they were so close.

Yet their ship kept travelling backwards as the Barbarians literally reeled them in.

It was
 . . . over.

No. He would fight.

As he looked up to tell Nida that, to promise he would give her the opportunity to finish this, no matter what it took, he saw her.

She reached forward, the move slow and tentative, her fingers spreading with shaking uncertainty.

It stilled his breath to watch.

Then he saw it.

The energy.

The entity.

That distinct blue light.

It erupted up over the implant on her wrist, encasing her arm and bursting into her outstretched fingers.

The view on the screen switched from the hook in the side of their vessel and back to the ground below.

Suddenly they stopped moving backwards.

In fact, they stopped altogether.

He heard a groaning sound filtering through the ship, and instinctively knew it was the hook in the hull.

 . . . She was resisting it.

Somehow Nida was using the entity to stop the Barbarians from reeling them in.

Just as that thought arose, he tried to dismiss it as impossible.

He couldn’t.

As more energy burst up over her skin, something incredible started to happen—they got closer to the ground.

They were probably a good 20 metres from it now.

And centimetre by centimetre, second by second, they got closer.

So much energy danced over her skin that the entire bridge was aglow with it.

Looking down at his own hands, he could see that reflected glow dancing across them.

He didn’t say a word. He couldn’t ruin her concentration. So he just waited, wishing, willing, praying she could do it.

Metre by metre they neared, until finally there was an almighty groan from the side of the ship, and the computer acknowledged they’d broken free of the hook.

They shot forward, and Nida pulled her hand back just at the right time.

The ship’s own thrusters and gravity took control, and it landed.

It
landed.

They’d made it.

Carson could have waited. He could have stood there in open-mouthed wonder at what she’d just done, but he didn’t.

He snapped forward, grabbed hold of her crackling arm without any fear for his own, and pulled her towards the doors.

He didn’t have to say ‘come on.’

She soon ran by his side.

They made it to the airlock.

He paused.

She leaned past him and entered the code that would open it.

For a moment their faces were close.

She stared at him, and he couldn’t have looked away. ‘Ready?’ she whispered.

He nodded.

They ran outside.

Cadet Nida Harper

They’d made it onto the planet.

She had . . . she had used the entity. She’d tapped into its energy.

Carson had been right; she’d used it like her TI implant, but on objects other than specialised cubes and poles.

On the ground and a space cruiser, to be exact.

But Carson had been wrong about one thing—she hadn’t used the entity.

In that moment, it had wanted to save her just as much as she’d wanted to save herself.

It needed her alive, after all.

The battle of wills would begin soon though.

Now she was on the soil of Remus 12, it was time to open the time gate.

She could see the agile Barbarian ships darting down towards them.

They were not firing; clearly they had realised Nida and Carson were important somehow. Travis had given up his ship to get them this far.

More than that, presumably the Barbarians wanted to know how in the hell their hook had failed.

‘
Come on,’ Carson said, shoving her forward as he did.

At first, she didn’t know what he was doing.

Now they were on the surface of the planet, she could open the time gate.

Yet in a breath, she understood.

There was a set of stairs leading down, just a few metres from their side.

He pulled her along, pushing her down when she reached it.

She stumbled, but it didn’t matter; he pulled her up.

She could have pulled herself up. She could have done this on her own.

But she didn’t have to.

He was right there by her side.

It would give her the strength to do what she had to next.

They reached the bottom of the stairwell just as the roof above shook, indicating the Barbarian ships had landed. Dust and stone hailed down upon them as they ran forward in the dark.

Well, not entirely in the dark; her skin still glowed blue.

Carson had full armour on too. Travis had given it to him before he’d left, and it now covered Carson’s whole body, including his head.

As they ran, his armoured hand was locked around hers.

Its grip was strong, and with a command from his armour, could shatter steel into dust.

But her grip was strong too, and with a command to the entity, could pull a ship from the sky.

Maybe they really were suited for each other after all.

Before she could consider that fact, they reached a wide room.

She pulled back.
‘Now,’ she said.

He ran several steps before turning to face her. The glow of her skin played across the smooth lines of his armour.

He didn’t say anything.

‘
Now,’ she said one last time as she closed her eyes and locked her right hand over her left wrist.

She could do this.

God, she could do it.

So she did.

She pushed right in. Right into the corners of her mind, and right down into the unbelievable depth that was the entity.

It felt exactly like jumping into a well, sinking into murky waters, and being dragged to the centre of the Earth itself.

She did not shudder, even though her body wanted to break free.

She just pushed further down.

Then the entity surged up.

She could feel its anger and grief and sorrow. They danced across her skin like flames. Burning her deeper and deeper, yet at the same time chilling her bones.

She had to fight, fight like she never would again.

As she opened herself up and commanded a time gate to form, the entity did the same. Yet while she concentrated on the exact moment she wanted to return to, she could feel it trying to confuse her.

She gripped her hands, and could feel Carson close by. All of a sudden she lurched out and grabbed hold of him.

He didn’t pull away.

She forced her mind back to the fight, back to the entity.

She was vaguely aware dust now swirled around her in a vortex, small stones striking against her cheeks and head.

She ignored them.

She concentrated. With all her might, she tried to open the gate.

 . . . .

It was working.

She could
feel
it. Time opening up all around her like a book.

It gushed into her.

As it did, she fixed her mind on the one point she had to return to.

She had to return to the exact moment her and Carson left. Only then would she be assured of securing a vessel so they could make it back to the United Galactic Coalition and warn them.

Either the Farsight would be still there waiting for them, or they’d have to secure a Barbarian vessel, after they fought their way through the Barbarians, that was.

She had to get there first though.

She was aware she started to lift off the ground, gravity no longer locking her to the dusty floor below.

Carson tightened his grip on her hand, and she did the same until they were both holding on as fast and hard as two people could.

Maybe he whispered to her that she could do it. Maybe he remained completely silent.

It didn’t matter.

He was here.

He was by her side.

She was not alone.

With that fact singing in her soul, she pushed harder into the battle.

As she concentrated on the right time period, the entity tried to pull her back into the past, back into some other point in Vex’s history.

But she couldn’t let it.

With everything she had, she concentrated on her own time. On the point just after they had left through the time gate.

The entity pushed into her.

It tried to force itself into every gap in her mind. It wrapped itself around every thought and belief, trying to steal away her mind as it did.

She wouldn’t let it though; she fought.

Despite how fraught it was, it was a silent battle.

She did not scream nor whimper. She only pushed on.

Until finally, finally she felt it.

Time opened.

It furled before her like curtains parting to an endless view.

She saw flashes of Vex’s history intermingled with her own.

She ignored them.

She knew where she had to be.

And it was time to go home.

With one final surge, she did it.

She overcame the entity.

She opened the right time gate.

Light burst around them, and the world shifted in silence, rewriting itself anew as the clock was wound back.