Ouroboros Episode One

by Odette C. Bell

  Chapter 32

  Carson Blake

  She clearly couldn't move or say a word. Nida just knelt there, her hands flat on the ground as the blue light of the entity poured out of her and onto the floor.

  It had told him that it would take several minutes to open the time gate. The only problem was they didn't have several damn minutes. They didn't even have several damn seconds.

  Because he could hear it.

  The thumping footfall that pounded up through the floor.

  He fought the instinct to duck to the side, to roll, and to take up a position out of the view of the doorway.

  Nida was behind him, and she couldn't move. And if she couldn't move, it meant that he wouldn't move.

  He would protect her.

  With the sound of a cruiser coming into land, an enormous Mascar warrior came plowing around the door.

  Carson had just enough time to shoot at it before it shot at him.

  But that wouldn't work again. Now the rest of the Barbarians would know exactly where he was standing.

  He lay down cover fire, simply blasting round after round at the doorway, hoping that none of the Barbarians would be ballsy enough to jump through anyway.

  He was wrong.

  Two rounded the doorway, and though he managed to blast one in the center of the chest, the other was far agiler, and ducked into an immediate roll, then sprang up and slashed at Carson with an enormous, long, glowing electric blade.

  Carson tried to shoot the alien in the chest, but the creature was too quick and twisted to the side.

  At the beginning of the battle, with nothing more than a silent command, his armor had grown over his head, forming a perfect helmet in less than two seconds flat.

  Well right now, he was more than thankful for it, because as the Barbarian swiped his way with the electric blade, the tip of the weapon sliced past Carson's armored nose, and would have carved off a chunk of his face if it weren't for the ablative plating covering it.

  The Barbarian snarled at him, pouncing forward with the blade.

  Though Carson tried to get off a shot, the creature was too quick and ducked forward, slamming into Carson and knocking him off balance.

  As Carson fell, he revealed Nida behind him.

  Before that, she'd been largely concealed by the bulk of his form. Now she simply knelt there, in the center of the room, with nobody to protect her while at least four more Barbarian warriors rounded the door.

  "No," he screamed as he grappled with the Barbarian that now had him in its grasp.

  He watched, almost in slow motion, as two of the Barbarian warriors reached up to their belts, grabbed concussion grenades, and hurled them with perfect aim at Nida. They fell right into her lap.

  It would take less than two seconds for them to explode, and they would likely take a chunk of Nida's torso with them.

  It was clear the entity couldn't protect her while it was trying to open the time gate.

  It was down to him.

  It was all down to him.

  Carson punched forward with sudden and incredible speed that came on the wings of his pounding desperation.

  As he did, he brought around his right hand. The device strapped onto it surged with power.

  He threw his hand forward, and an invisible wave of energy shot out, blasting the Barbarian off him, and throwing everything else in the room against the far wall.

  Everything save for Nida.

  The entity had somehow locked her on the spot. But the two concussion grenades on her lap were not that lucky, and they slammed against the far wall, shattering under incredible force.

  Even the rubble and dust circling the room cascaded forward, and in a sudden moment, everything cleared, and he could see the room in full.

  Then several more Barbarians rounded the doorway.

  They shot toward him, and he ducked to his knees, rolling as quickly as he could. Then he slammed a hand into the cold floor, pushed up into a flip, and landed right in front of Nida.

  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 toward 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 didn't 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 realize he was getting weaker, though.

  Either the device was running out of juice, or it was tiring him out in a way he'd 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 while 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 realized 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 armor with a Barbarian seated inside.

  The suit was enormous and had such thick armor 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 toward 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. Color. 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 reapp
eared.

  They didn't travel through a tunnel; they didn't 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, realizing 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 traveled through time."

  Yes. They'd traveled 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'd seen what would happen if or when it became corrupted.

  Destruction. Destruction on an incalculable scale.

  Something he couldn't 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 practiced 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 anymore, 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 realized 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.

  Thank you for reading Ouroboros Episode One

  This series is complete, and all four books are currently available in Ouroboros: The Complete Series.

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  Odette C. Bell has written over 60 books from sci-fi adventure to magical realism. Her full catalogue is available here.

  Did you like this book? There's plenty more where that came from.

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  Axira (Miniseries #3 of the Galactic Coalition Academy Series)