Ouroboros 4: End

by Odette C. Bell

  The Admiral wasn’t making any sense. The more she spoke, the more his back itched with the need to know whatever she did. ‘Admiral, what about Remus 12? What legend are you talking about?’

  She pulled the hand from her face, lifted her gaze, and stared at him. ‘Every five thousand years something comes out of that planet and destroys the most developed race within its reach,’ she said blankly.

  Carson’s stomach twisted into a knot so tight it would take a saw to cut it loose.

  ‘We would have dismissed it as nothing but a story, if the same damn story wasn’t repeated so often. At least ten distinct alien races have a reference to Remus 12,

  All repeating the same tale: some technologically advanced race appearing for a single day, only to wipe out and pillage whatever it can, before disappearing completely. We analyzed those legends from across various races, and calculated that another five-thousand-year cycle was imminent.’

  ‘You knew about this?’ he spoke through a mouth so dry it reminded him of the dusty wasteland of Remus 12.

  ‘No, we didn’t know anything. All we had was a galactic legend. That’s why we sent the Force to investigate. Need I remind you, Carson, you found nothing on the planet. Nothing.’

  ‘Except for the entity.’

  The Admiral withdrew into silence.

  ‘If you suspected something was wrong with Remus 12, you should have told me. You should have prepared me. You should have sent more ships to investigate. And why leave it until now? It sounds like you’ve known about these legends for years, if not decades. Why wait until now?’

  The Admiral raised an eyebrow at his tone, but didn’t reprimand him. Instead she closed her eyes for a brief moment before continuing, ‘the answer to all your questions is that none of it made sense. A race that appears for one day every five-thousand years to wipe out any one it can get its hands on? Every scan we’ve ever done of Remus 12 proved it was nothing more than a barren wasteland. We only sent you down there to double check.’

  Carson crossed his arms. He didn’t know what to say. All he knew was how angry he felt.

  The Coalition had known something was wrong with Remus 12 all this time. Yes, he appreciated Forest’s point: the legends sounded impossible, and all evidence pointed to Remus 12 as being dead.

  That wasn’t the point. The point was, this could have been prevented.

  Someone like Cadet Nida Harper should never have been jeopardized. She hadn’t signed up for this. If he’d known the real reason behind the Force’s mission to Remus 12, he would have ensured all non-essential personnel were left behind.

  Guilt assailed him. Guilt and anger.

  They were almost enough to prevent him from realizing one very important point: Admiral Forest believed him.

  He didn’t have to fight to force the Coalition to see the truth of this story; the Admiral already saw it.

  Still, he was angry. Angry at the Admiral, angry at the Coalition, and more than anything, angry at himself.

  The Admiral could see it, and she crossed her arms before her, watching him quietly for a few moments. ‘No one saw this coming,’ she said simply.

  He had to stop himself from snorting. Ten legacies of over ten alien cultures obliterated by the Vex had left warnings. Warnings the Coalition had seen but ignored.

  Admiral Forest couldn’t pretend no one had seen this coming; no one had believed it, and that was entirely different.

  ‘Blake, pull yourself in,’ Singh suddenly snapped. She used her characteristic no-nonsense tone, and it immediately got his attention.

  ‘What?’ he asked.

  ‘You’ve been busting a gut to try to make anyone and everyone believe your story. The Admiral believes it. Now swallow your anger, and tell us how to fight the Vex.’

  It was such a rapid change of attitude for Singh. Or maybe it wasn’t—her attitude was still the same, her beliefs had just changed.

  She was still as forthright and pragmatic as usual, she’d simply changed the focus of her attention.

  She also had a point.

  ‘Admiral, are we sure about the evidence,’ Singh nodded towards the containment boxes on the table.

  Forest nodded somberly. ‘Yes. I can also confirm Carson knew nothing of the real reason we sent his team to Remus 12. His story corroborates what the legends say. So

  It seems . . . .’

  ‘We’re about to face the fight of our lives,’ Singh summed up succinctly.

  Carson blinked.

  He had to. A lot had changed in a short period of time. He’d met with the Admiral barely fifteen minutes ago to beg her to give him and his story a chance. Now she believed him. More than that, now she fixed him with a pleading look as she shook her head gently.

  ‘Singh is right. Swallow your discontent, Lieutenant, though you have every right to be angry. Save it for later. If the Vex really are coming, we need to know what you do. Tell us how to fight them. Tell us their weaknesses.’

  Both Forest and Singh turned to stare at him.

  He usually didn’t baulk under pressure, but he felt his heartbeat double in his chest. It pounded so hard, he swore it vibrated up his neck and into his locked jaw.

  If he’d thought getting the Coalition to believe him would be the hard part, he’d been kidding himself.

  Facing the Vex would be the hardest thing he’d ever do.

  Unless . . . there was some other way?

  ‘We need you to brief us fully. I’ve already called an emergency meeting with Command. It’s on in ten, Carson. I want you there. And I want Nida there too. Got it?’

  The Admiral had called Harper by her first name. It was such a strange detail to note at a time like this, but it stuck in his head.

  The Admiral only called cadets and officers by their first names if they’d made an impression on her. If they’d risen through the ranks to make a difference with the Coalition.

  Nida had done that and more.

  Carson pressed his lips together in a bare smile and nodded. ‘I’ll be there.’

  With that, the Admiral saluted.

  With a stiff hand, he returned the move.

  Then he turned on his foot and left.

  The hardest part of his mission was soon to begin.

  First, however, he wanted to see her.

  Chapter 12

  Cadet Nida Harper

  She was on her own, and it was nice. After they’d arrived on Earth, she’d been moved to the medical bay. In fact, she was in a room she remembered; the same place she’d been taken after the entity had practically killed her outside the E Club.

  It was weird, to say the least.

  Though there was a bank of whirring, humming machinery on one side of the room, there was no great force field holding her in place.

  Maybe the doctors had realized it wouldn’t do anything but leach the Coalition’s power.

  If she wanted to, she could command the entity to rip through any force field, crumple any machine, and rebuff any attack.

  Sure, she’d get tired, but she fancied she had more than enough energy to make it out of here if she needed to.

  Sighing, Nida sat back down on her bed.

  She was trying to think through what she had to do. A good cadet came up with a viable strategy for every conceivable alternative. She should be taking the time now to figure out a plan to force the Coalition to believe her. Or, if that didn’t work, to break out and stop the Vex herself.

  Instead, all she could do was stare at her left hand. The light blue glow around her palm and fingers held her transfixed.

  The entity was still held back by the modified TI, but the shadow of its presence was growing stronger. It wasn’t about to fight her again for control of her body, she was simply becoming steadily more aware of it.

  Especially its desperation.

  It sang through her mind with every passing second, forcing her hands to stiffen as she propped her arms by her sides.

  ‘Stop it,’ she told herself
in a soft tone that couldn’t carry. Not, of course, that there was anyone to hear her.

  The room was empty.

  No one wanted to be around her. They were all terrified of her, with good reason: the entity was capable of terrifying things.

  Feeling glum, she brought her knees up and hugged them to her chest.

  God, she wished Carson were here. He could lift her mood, he could make her believe that somehow she’d get through this.

  Though she wasn’t always lucky, suddenly, she got her wish.

  She looked up to see the doors across the far side of the room swish open.

  Though she had to squint, in a heartbeat she recognized him.

  It was completely uncalled for, but she flung herself off her bed and sprinted for him.

  Then, just before she reached him, she pulled back, realizing how stupid she was being.

  Wincing, she clutched her hands awkwardly before her. ‘Ah, sorry, I . . . ah I’m . . . .’

  Carson slowly smiled. Though his face was hooded with fatigue and stress, as his lips curled up, his mood lightened. For those few seconds, it appeared as if the weight of the galaxy was lifted from his armor-assisted shoulders.

  She’d stopped a couple of meters away from him, when she’d realized how dumb it was to fling herself into his arms.

  Well, now he sprinted across that remaining distance, and all but barreled into her, his arms wrapping firmly and quickly around her back.

  He was alone. Harrington and his surly security team hadn’t followed Carson into the room.

  It was just the two of them.

  So she cried.

  It happened all at once.

  The stress of being locked up in this room, of being treated like a dangerous criminal, it all poured out of her.

  If Carson was surprised or disgusted at her pathetic turn, he didn’t show it. He weighed his hand into the back of her head, supporting her as he leaned closer.

  She could smell him, feel him all around her.

  It locked out the cold, clinical room beyond.

  Soon her sobbing puttered to a stop, and she gave the softest of laughs. ‘Sorry,’ she hiccupped.

  ‘It’s okay. It’s all okay—they believe us.’

  She stiffened, every muscle locking into place as surprise blasted through her. ‘What?’

  ‘Nida, they believe us. They know about the Vex. They’re going to prepare. Admiral Forest has organized a briefing. It’s in twenty minutes. I’m here to take you to the briefing too.’

  She pulled back from him, though she didn’t want to. She had to see his expression. Was he lying?

  He stared down at her with a small smile pressing into his teeth.

  She waited for him to laugh, or make any indication he’d been lying. When he didn’t, she actually yelped, pressing her fingers into her lips.

  This drew a full-bellied laugh from Carson.

  ‘They believe us,’ he repeated once more. She could see the relief washing down his face. He looked, quite rightly, as if the weight of the world, or the Coalition, rather, had been taken off his shoulders.

  He stepped in and anchored his hands against her shoulders, staring into her eyes as he did. ‘We’ll tell them what we know, we’ll do what we have to, and then it’ll all be over.’

  He spoke with such certainty, that she was almost carried away by it.

  Almost.

  The entity, held back by the modified TI, became stronger in that moment. So strong, in fact, she swore she could hear it screaming.

  It would lose its chance to fix its mistake. To absolve itself.

  She tried to smile, but the move was so stiff, it was a surprise her lips didn’t crack.

  Carson’s brow twitched with concerned confusion. ‘What is it?’

  She didn’t speak. She simply tried to smile harder.

  This was the right thing to do—stopping the entity from ever manipulating the Vex timeline again, and preventing it from destroying any other races in its desperate attempt to help the Vex.

  . . . .

  It was the right thing to do. No, it was the only thing to do. She had witnessed first-hand what the Vex would do to the Coalition. She knew, with every fiber of her being, she had to prevent that atrocious history from manifesting.

  So why did she feel so . . . guilty? Was it just the entity? Was she picking up on its shame and remorse?

  Or was it more than that?

  Was she scared that maybe there was more she could do to help it? To somehow heal Vex’s timeline? To save the Coalition, without condemning the Vex.

  Maybe Carson knew what she was thinking, because his brow now crumpled completely over his eyes. The smile slipped from his face, to be replaced with a thin-lipped frown. ‘Nida, there’s no other way,’ he spoke softly, his voice mirroring the sweet touch of his fingers pressing into her shoulders.

  Yes, she knew that.

  But it didn’t matter.

  She couldn’t push back the guilt.

  Unable to keep faking her smile, she took a small step backwards, breaking his grip. Staring at the floor by his feet, it took too long to muster the courage to look at him.

  ‘Hey,’ he said quickly, ‘we are doing the right thing. We’ve seen what that monster does in the future. The entity started this. All of this. It infected you, it took us back to Vex, and now it wants to sacrifice everyone we care about, too. We can’t let it. It can’t fix Vex’s timeline—it broke it, and it’s been making everyone else pay since.’

  Carson spoke so quickly, his words streamed out like gunfire.

  Yet, they still glanced off her.

  Even his passion couldn’t touch her heart right now. In fact, she brought up a hand and pressed her fingers hard into her breastbone.

  Carson watched in alarmed interest. ‘You can’t feel the entity again, right?’

  She shook her head, swallowing hard. ‘It’s . . .’ she couldn’t speak. She could barely formulate her thoughts, let alone share them.

  ‘Hey,’ he ducked his head down until he was staring directly into her eyes, ‘you don’t need to feel guilty. You’ve done all you can. Nida, none of this is your fault.’

  His words grabbed her and held her to the spot. She felt them like hooks locking into her stomach, chest, and arms. With a trembling top lip, she started to shake her head. ‘I am guilty. I could have done more. I should never have touched that statue . . . . And the entity . . . I . . . .’

  ‘Nida,’ Carson spoke loudly, his voice echoing through her cavernous room. ‘Stop blaming yourself; that’s the entity speaking,’ he said, a serious expression shadowing his face. ‘Don’t give into it,’ he warned once more, picking up her hands and lacing his fingers through them.

  She tried to listen, she honestly tried to be convinced by his words. It was impossible. No matter what he said and no matter how hard she tried to reason through her guilt, it remained.

  The entity would not let her forget. It whispered, hissed, and screamed in her ear. If she did nothing to help the Vex, she condemned them.

  The entity’s guilt would transfer to her.

  Perhaps Carson reasoned he couldn’t get through to her yet, as he sighed deeply, his uniformed chest punching out an inch. ‘Look, I’ll be here,’ he whispered simply.

  She stared at him, lost for words as her thoughts tumbled like an avalanche through her mind.

  ‘But we’ve got to go now,’ he managed as he half turned towards the door, letting a powerful blast of air through his locked teeth as he did.

  Silently, she followed.

  She wanted to reach out to him and tell him she was fine.

  She couldn’t.

  She wasn’t.

  The more this situation continued, the more she questioned.

  Was there something she could do to save the Vex?

  Should she try?

  Chapter 13

  Carson Blake

  He could see the guilt was eating her, and it was killing him. Her usual cheer
ful resilience was gone to be replaced by a heavy, somber silence.

  She still walked with him, though, as he led her up, out of the medical bay and towards the Command building.

  Thank god Harrington wasn’t here to bully and cajole her—Admiral Forest trusted Carson to deliver Nida to the meeting without incident.

  In fact, Carson had been the one to convince the Admiral that Nida was no threat. The modified TI could hold the entity at bay.

  Now he wasn’t so sure. As she walked silently beside him, he occasionally stole a glance at her face and body.

  Her movements were stiff, her hands locked firmly in front of her as she directed her head to the ground.

  Maybe she didn’t want to face any of the gawkers that stared at her as she passed. Maybe she was tired and stressed out.

  Or maybe . . . the entity was back. Perhaps a fraction of its insidious control filtered past the TI, and now poisoned her mind.

  He felt itchy as he walked. Discomfort rose through him steadily, making his limbs heavy and hot.

  Scratching at the skin under his collar, he searched for something to say.

  He wanted to pull her out of her funk, wanted to reassure her it would all be okay in the end.

  She wouldn’t look at him though. In fact, there was such a detached edge to her gaze as she seemingly stared at her feet, he wondered whether she was seeing anything at all. Her mind was clearly miles away. Or light years, perhaps. Her thoughts were no doubt focused on Remus 12 and the woeful destiny of the Vex.

  Carson sighed. It was heavy, it was hard, and it felt like moving a ton of brick as he shoved his chest forward and back.

  It was all he could do right now. Just when he’d thought this situation was becoming controllable, it wriggled out of his grip.

  Nida looked up. ‘You’re tired,’ she said as her eyes slowly focused on him.

  He pressed his lips together, one side kinking up as he shrugged. ‘I thought you were in another world there,’ he remarked. ‘Or on another world,’ he added softly under his breath.

  It took a while for her to respond, and it was clear she had to pull her attention off whatever was bothering her. Giving a sigh of her own, she hooked her loose hair behind her ears. ‘I just . . . .’