Ouroboros 4: End

by Odette C. Bell

  Nida could feel it.

  This planet was about to realign.

  They made it back to the rest of the group in short time, and Cadet J’Etem spluttered in surprise as she saw Nida being carried in Carson Blake’s arms.

  ‘Nida? Are you okay? What happened?’ Her friend rushed up to her.

  ‘Everybody into the transport craft, now,’ Carson screamed.

  ‘No,’ Commander Sharpe shot back from behind him as he came to a spluttering stop. ‘I have no idea what you two are doing—’ he began.

  ‘Look,’ Nida pointed towards the horizon.

  Dusk had just fallen, but off on the distance a light started to fall.

  Blue, vivid, and racing towards them.

  It took a few seconds for everybody to see it, but when they did, Sharpe was the first to react, ‘get to the transport, now,’ he screamed.

  They were all seasoned officers and capable cadets, and everyone did as they were told.

  In less than two minutes, everyone was on board.

  In less than a minute, the ship took off.

  A minute after that, Vex realigned.

  She watched it from space, with one hand pressed against the portal, Carson just beside her.

  In stunned silence, they both watched.

  An arc of blue raced across the planet. That once barren dust bowl of a world changed.

  Oceans appeared, green continents dotted amongst them. The brown gave way to life.

  Vivid, colorful, splendid life.

  Vex.

  Everybody else in the transport including Commander Sharpe watched in stunned silence.

  They would never have seen anything like this and nor would they have been prepared for it.

  But Carson and Nida turned to each other, smiles spreading across their lips.

  They’d done it.

  They’d won, and God knows they’d earned it.

  Epilogue

  Carson Blake

  He hadn’t told them everything.

  Though the Academy Board had pressed him for details, Carson Blake had kept his tale short.

  They wouldn’t believe him, anyway.

  Travelling through time, using the power of an interdimensional entity, and finally doing the impossible by realigning an entire planet’s timeline?

  Yeah, he knew enough about the Academy Board to realize that story would get him locked away.

  And he couldn’t afford to be locked away right now.

  He smiled across the table at her. They were sitting in his apartment, and she had her head angled towards the view. ‘Your view is better than mine,’ she said matter-of-factly.

  He laughed softly. ‘It’s practically the same.’

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ she shook her head, her hair shifting across her shoulders. She hooked it behind her ears distractedly, and the move distracted him too.

  Everything about her distracted him.

  Cadet Nida Harper.

  He wasn’t going to do her the injustice of referring to her as the worst recruit in 1000 years. It had always been a lie.

  She was incredible.

  ‘Why are you smiling at me like that?’ She turned back to him, her eyebrows furrowing in the cutest of ways.

  ‘What, I’m not allowed to smile? We’ve been thrust through time on an impossible adventure, and somehow we pulled through. Are you saying I shouldn’t smile at that? Because you’re crazy if you think that.’

  She pressed her lips together and shook her head. ‘Okay, you can smile. But seriously, your view is better than mine. It figures, considering you’re the great Carson Blake.’

  ‘I’m the great Carson Blake,’ he pressed a hand into his chest, shifting around the table until he sat right next to her. ‘I wasn’t the one who managed to fix the Vex’s timeline. I wasn’t the one who managed to get the entity to send us back to the present. I wasn’t the one who ended this,’ he said as he reached up and brushed the last few strands out of her face and behind her ears.

  ‘Nope, you’re the one who has the questionable accolade of currently dating the worst recruit in the entire Academy. Nobody out there knows what we did on Vex, not what we really did. They’re too busy dealing with the fact that an entire planet just popped into existence and how to help its inhabitants. Nope, to everybody out there, I’m still the worst recruit in 1000 years.’ As she concluded that, she brought a hand up and rested her chin on it. ‘But it’s okay. I have practice pushing on no matter the odds.’

  ‘You’re incredible,’ he said seriously, ‘and you were never the worst recruit 1000 years. I’ll admit, you weren’t the best cadet, but you’re the only person who could have saved the Vex, Nida. Don’t put yourself down, you don’t deserve it.’

  She considered him quietly. ‘It’s okay, I’m over it now. It doesn’t matter what everybody else thinks. Sharpe’s advice has finally sunk in,’ she tapped her chest lightly, ‘all that matters is you do what’s right. Bradley and Bridget can think what they want, but in time they’ll learn that lesson too.’

  He replied by kissing her softly on the head.

  He still couldn’t believe how lucky he was.

  People kind of thought he was mad for dating Nida, but soon enough they’d understand.

  Given the chance, she’d show them just what she was capable of.

  ‘Ooh, I have something to show you,’ she suddenly said as she pulled back from him.

  ‘It better be good, because I was kind of enjoying kissing you in the sunshine,’ he said honestly as he nonetheless turned to see what she was doing.

  ‘Just wait here,’ she said as she ran into his room.

  ‘You better not be cleaning up in there,’ he quipped.

  After a few seconds of rummaging around, she dashed out, her bare feet slapping against the smooth floor. She had something behind her back.

  Dutifully, he stepped up, placed his hand on his hips, tried to muster a serious look on his face, and raised an eyebrow. ‘Have you just stolen something from a lieutenant’s room, Cadet?’

  She nodded happily.

  ‘Well, what is it?’ He laughed.

  She brought around a TI training cube.

  His eyebrows crumpled. ‘What are you doing with that?’

  She put a hand up. She placed the TI cradle on the table, pulled the cube out, and held it in her palm.

  ‘Ah, Nida?’

  ‘The entity left me a little gift, I think,’ she said in a suddenly thoughtful tone as her eyes drifted down to her left hand briefly. Then, to his complete surprise, she flicked the TI block up, and controlled it completely.

  In the past, he’d seen what she was like with TI objects. Woeful.

  Now, she commanded that cube with a finesse rarely seen. She had complete control of it as she spun it around the room.

  He was actually speechless. Then his memory caught up with him. She’d achieved far more than this. She’d learned to control the entity, for god’s sake, getting it to open time gates and save the Vex.

  TI objects would be nothing to her now.

  He started to laugh. ‘Wow,’ he managed.

  ‘I know, right? I can’t wait to show Sharpe. It’s only taken a couple of years and a crazy adventure through time, but I finally learnt to master a level one training cube,’ she said as she shrugged her shoulders cutely.

  He laughed again. ‘You are doing more than mastering it; you’ve got full control there. I’d wager you’ll jump from the bottom of the class to the top. You’ll probably be the best TI master at the Academy,’ he said truthfully.

  She sunk her teeth into her bottom lip, and flicked her finger to the side, sending the TI object down towards its cradle without even having to look at it.

  She walked up to him, standing right by his side. ‘But you’re the best TI master of the Academy.’

  ‘Not anymore.’

  ‘How about we share.’

  She took a step towards him. Pushing up on her toes.

  They kissed.
<
br />   He put his all into that kiss. All the fear and frustration and anger and hope. Everything the past few months had forced him to endure.

  This made it all worth it.

  She had her hands wrapped around his jaw, and his were pressed into her back and shoulder.

  The sunlight streamed in behind, warming them up.

  It was a perfect day.

  So they kissed again.

  The end of the Ouroboros series.

  This is the first series in the Galactic Coalition Academy Series. More will be published shortly.

  Do you want to read more sci-fi by Odette C. Bell?

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  A Plain Jane

  What if you had lived your whole life thinking you were normal? No, worse than normal – plain? What would happen if one of the most highly-trained and vicious assassins in the galaxy attacked you one warm summer's night? What would happen if you were thrust into an adventure with the galaxy's greatest heroic heart-throb? What would happen if a mysterious and ancient race appeared with one desire – to kill you? What would you do?

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  Lucky Star

  A sci-fi soap opera with a romantic twist, Lucky Star tracks the adventures of Ariel De Winter as she wakes up in the future, 400 years from her own time, to the sight of one incredibly handsome space marine and a massive war that is about the engulf the entire galaxy.

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  Ariel doesn't belong in this time. She belongs in a world of call centres, cats, and lonely nights spent in front of the TV watching dull documentaries.

  Then the world ends. Hundreds of years later, she wakes up to a view of shiny boots, one very handsome man, and a future that doesn't want her. That's fine by Ariel; she doesn't want the future either. But then the future finds a use for her – one that involves far more running, dodging, saving, and hanging out with hot space marines than her old life involved. Oh, and malevolent plots to use her new-found abilities to end a 100-year galactic war.

  Soon it is up to Ariel to save the future she never wanted, and it's up to her hot space marine to show her that the future can't be all that bad, as long as you have someone to spend it with.

  Ghost of Mind

  Would you run? If you were the last of your kind, if you knew getting caught could thrust the universe into war, wouldn't you slip into the shadows and disappear too?

  Hiding is Alice’s only option. It always has been.

  Then he comes along. Commander John Doe, the head of a new mission into one of the most dangerous areas of space. A chance encounter thrusts them together on the barren wasteland of Orion Minor. Then the chase begins.

  Alice cannot allow herself to slip into the hands of the Union, but John Doe will stop at nothing to find out who she is.

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  The Betwixt

  The Betwixt is a sci-fi soap opera with a dash of philosophy. It follows a space diner waitress as she sets out to discover her true origin, an adventure that sees her set against the most legendary of foes, takes her to the edges of the galaxy, and finally into the arms of one very handsome but stern Commander Cole.

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  Mini is a diner waitress in a space bar. She has a flouncy skirt, a holopin, and a pretty little apron. She also, apparently, has a mysterious alien past; a past that comes knocking on her door in the form of a tiny red creature called Od. According to Od, Mini is all that stands between the galaxy and an invasion by terrible, soul-sucking creatures from the in-between dimensions. As Mini's galactic experience to-date revolves around serving drinks and picking up after customers, she finds that very unlikely.

  The only problem is that Od is right. So Mini reaches for the closest thing at hand – which just so happens to be a frying pan – and gives saving the galaxy a go. She isn't alone, however; she's caught the eye of a rather handsome Galactic Military Commander, and he isn't going to take his eyes off her until he knows exactly what's going on.