Ouroboros 2: Before

by Odette C. Bell

  ‘No, I’m dressed as a simple farmer boy, merchant, or man of the lower socio-economic class.’ Carson shrugged his shoulders.

  She still had her arms crossed defensively in front of her chest, and suddenly felt like it would take a crowbar and a team of muscle bound aliens to pry them free. ‘You better not be making this up,’ she warned.

  ‘I’m not,’ he said in a serious tone. ‘Because I wouldn’t,’ he added.

  He was no longer laughing, he wasn’t even smiling cheekily, so Nida gave up and sighed. ‘I guess I am the worst recruit in 1000 years. I thought I’d done a good job with these disguises,’ she sighed again.

  ‘Don’t beat yourself up,’ he said smoothly. ‘We all make mistakes.’

  She spluttered through a laugh. ‘I’m sure we do, Carson Blake, but I really doubt you have ever gone to an alien planet and dressed up as a prostitute.’

  He conceded her point with a shrug. ‘My point is, this is a complex situation, and we’re just getting used to it.’

  She let his words mollify her, then she finally uncrossed her arms and let them rest next to her as she played with her hands.

  ‘Now we have a better idea of their culture, and we can miraculously speak their language, it’s time we head to town,’ he managed, breathing heavily through his words as if he were trying to garner up the courage to say them.

  She looked at him sharply. Though she had been the one to convince him they had to interact with the people of this planet to complete their mission, now she wasn’t so sure.

  Last night had left her unsettled.

  Maybe Carson could register her hesitation, because he scrambled to his feet and walked over to her. Without a word he held out his hand.

  She looked up at it silently.

  ‘I’m not going to bite you,’ he said. Then he paused, looking momentarily cheeky as if he were about to make a joke, but he swallowed it.

  No doubt it had been ridiculously inappropriate, and though Carson Blake was many things, she was starting to learn he was decent.

  So she took the hand and let him pull her to her feet.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked quickly as he took a step back and appeared to assess her.

  ‘Like I really want to get this mission done, head back to the Academy, and eat pasta,’ she moped.

  He offered her a kinked, half grin. ‘Well then, we better get back to saving the universe.’

  Despite herself, she returned his smile.

  Then they both slowly headed out of the small section of forest they’d been resting in.

  Or at least she had been resting in. Carson had probably stayed up the whole night. Which wasn’t a good thing. While she did need her rest, so did he. He was the only thing she had to rely on in this time, and she couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to him. And hey, maybe even if she didn’t have to rely on him, she wouldn’t be able to bear the thought of any harm coming to Carson Blake. Which was a very strange notion to consider when she paused to remember that several weeks ago she had concluded that he was nothing but an annoyance.

  ‘While we’re walking, I’ll try to fill you in on what I have gleaned of the Vex,’ he said as he waved her on.

  ‘Hold on, I want to find some proper, appropriate clothes before we head to town,’ she announced in a high-pitched voice.

  ‘Appropriate?’ he questioned, almost wheezing as he did.

  ‘Yes, appropriate. I don’t want to look like a prostitute,’ she shook a finger at him.

  ‘Well, you know how I said there are some striking cultural differences between the Vex and what we’re used to?’ he began hesitantly.

  She stopped. ‘Carson, what are you trying to say?’

  ‘That here prostitutes wear all the clothes, leaving not that much for everybody else,’ he quipped dryly.

  ‘What exactly is that supposed to mean?’ She hooked her hands onto her hips.

  ‘Okay, fine,’ he brought up the scanner, typed something into it, and seconds later a small hologram appeared over its surface. It showed what appeared to be a Vex woman wearing . . . well, not much at all. Some scraps of fabric and some straps, and a couple of adornments here and there.

  ‘You better be joking,’ she stared at it.

  He shook his head, and though it appeared as though he was trying to look serious, he couldn’t stifle a chuckle.

  ‘That isn’t clothing; it’s a handkerchief tied together with string.’

  Now he couldn’t help it, and began to laugh. ‘They look quite sturdy. I mean, those straps are relatively thick,’ he tried.

  She walked up to him and hit him on the shoulder.

  He didn’t even bother shifting back. ‘Come on, it won’t be that bad,’ he tried.

  She was still close to him, and she suddenly looked up into his eyes.

  And then he blushed.

  Yes, Carson Blake blushed.

  ‘You’ll be fine,’ he said in a wavering tone.

  ‘I’ll be practically naked,’ she said, gratified that her own tone didn’t waver. ‘And nobody wants to see that.’

  Her comment was open to reply, but no reply was forthcoming. Instead, Carson very quickly turned his attention back to the scanner and the small hologram slowly revolving above it. ‘I’ll try and see if there’s . . . something else. The database isn’t complete yet,’ he managed.

  ‘Good, you do that, because I am not walking around this planet in a loincloth and a handkerchief,’ she said firmly.

  ‘And straps, sturdy leather straps,’ he added.

  ‘Carson,’ she raised her voice.

  ‘Fine, I’m looking into it,’ he promised.

  ‘Wait, hold on, don’t bother. It’s easy. I’ll just dress up like a man,’ she clapped her hands together, surprised she hadn’t thought of it before.

  ‘No you won’t,’ he said firmly.

  ‘Excuse me?’ She locked her hands on her hips again. ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because that particular crime is punishable by death. I’m afraid to say we have found ourselves in an ugly, chauvinistic, male-oriented society. Or at least this particular province is. As far as I can tell, the rest of Vex is a lot more enlightened.’

  ‘Punishable by death?’ she repeated disbelievingly.

  He nodded, and unfortunately he looked completely serious. ‘But like I said, I’ll continue to look for an alternative.’

  ‘This place is ridiculous,’ she suddenly announced. ‘I thought the race that had once lived on Remus 12 was meant to be sophisticated. Technologically advanced or something, wasn’t that what we learnt aboard the Orion?’

  He glanced up from his scanner, twisting his lips together as he did. ‘Do you really not remember the briefing? At all? Commander Sharpe and I went to a great deal of effort to go through all of the known facts about Remus 12.’

  She looked at him tersely. ‘I’m sure I logged it at the time, but considering what happened to me afterwards, I don’t remember it anymore. So just tell me. Wasn’t this race meant to be advanced?’

  He nodded. ‘They are, or they will be,’ he said, finally closing his scanner, ‘but just not yet. We are in the past, and if my estimation is anything to go by, I would say we are approximately 4000 years from our own time.’

  She froze on the spot. ‘4000 years?’ she whispered.

  He nodded carefully. ‘Don’t worry though; we will get back,’ he promised her.

  ‘I just have to dress up in leather straps first,’ she sighed, blowing a breath of air against her fringe. ‘When we do make it back to the Academy, I’m going to leave that out of my briefing. Nobody is ever going to know,’ she warned.

  ‘I won’t tell a soul,’ he nodded demurely.

  ‘Good, otherwise I will spread to your groupies that you snuffle while you sleep.’

  ‘I’m sorry, my groupies? I don’t have groupies,’ he stated flatly.

  ‘You do. Cadet Farley is their leader. They meet in the cafeteria every Tuesday at 6 PM. They
go over your recent mission notes, and sometimes, I’m told, they even re-enact them,’ she said with a completely straight face.

  Carson looked mortified. ‘They do not,’ he tried, ‘please, please tell me they don’t re-enact them.’

  She tried not to giggle, but it was very hard. ‘They do, every Tuesday,’ she repeated.

  He looked at her, then slowly his mortified expression stiffened. ‘You’re joking.’

  She couldn’t hold her flood of laughter in any longer, and let it all out. ‘I am. You should have seen your face. But I’m not entirely joking. You do have groupies, and Cadet Farley is their leader. They just don’t re-enact your mission notes.’

  He didn’t blink as he considered her. Finally he shook his head and muttered something under his breath.

  ‘So I wouldn’t tell anybody about . . . the straps,’ she coughed around the words, realizing how terribly embarrassing it would be when she was finally forced to wear one of those silly costumes, ‘or I will tell Farley about the fact you snuffle, and I’m sure they will try to re-enact that,’ she added for effect, ‘loudly and publically.’

  He crossed his arms, still holding the scanner, and shook his head. ‘What you are engaging in here, Cadet, is called trying to manipulate an officer. And I am afraid that I will not be blackmailed,’ he spoke with all the deathly authority of Commander Sharpe.

  It had an immediate effect on her, and she straightened, almost considering snapping a salute.

  ‘Now, we should continue with our mission,’ he said in that same dark tone.

  ‘Fine then,’ she conceded with a sigh, ‘but please, please don’t tell anyone,’ she begged.

  He looked as though he was going to warn her again, but gave up halfway through.

  Then she could see, that under his mask of authority, he was still blushing. But only slightly.

  She decided suddenly that she didn’t want to know why. So she marched past him. ‘Okay, come on, time to save the universe,’ she said flippantly, even though it was definitely not something one could be flippant about.

  For all Nida knew, she would soon lose her life in the most terrible way imaginable. Either the entity would become corrupted, and it would destroy her in the process, or one-day it would leave her, and she feared that in doing so she would become nothing more than an empty husk.

  That thought mollified her. It stamped out the fire of her embarrassment, and practically wiped the strange interaction she had just had with Carson from her mind.

  Instead, she concentrated on what would happen next.

  The city.

  Vatron.

  Chapter 7

  Carson Blake

  ‘Pull it together,’ he said silently under his breath, shaking his head as he did.

  Nida was several steps ahead of him, and he stared at her back and winced as he admonished himself.

  He was nothing more than a bundle of embarrassment and nerves, and it was agonizing.

  He felt like he was a fresh faced recruit again. Which was stupid when he paused to think about it, because when Carson had been an undergraduate at the Academy, he’d been, for want of a better word, a cad. It was only when he’d graduated that he’d gone through a major personality overhaul due to the enormous responsibility that had been thrust upon his shoulders. But before that, he’d been smooth, suave, and, simply put, successful with women.

  But now that part of his history felt like it had never happened.

  He’d had to change his behavior so radically when he’d become a lieutenant, that his old habits weren’t just buried, they were gone completely.

  And while Carson was more than happy of that fact, considering he had grown to loathe how he had once behaved, right now he wanted a little bit of Mister Suave back. Of Mister Charming, of Mister Confident.

  Because the way he was reacting around Nida was, to put it simply, like a schoolboy.

  He wasn’t a goddamn schoolboy; he was freaking Carson Blake, head of the Force.

  Struggling with those thoughts, and getting absolutely nowhere with them, he continued to walk quietly by Nida’s side.

  Though she was horrified by what the women of this time wore, and justifiably so, she had now withdrawn. And he could tell her sudden silence wasn’t just her silently musing about all those straps.

  She was undoubtedly considering the entity and what would happen next.

  He was struck with the sudden urge to tell her everything would be okay, but knew he couldn’t simply keep on repeating that. He had to show it. That would be the only thing that would count.

  Realizing he had promised to fill her in on all the information he had gleaned on Vex culture, he cleared his throat uncomfortably. It took until he said her name for Nida to pay attention to him.

  ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled quickly, ‘I’m a little distracted.’

  ‘That’s okay,’ he cleared his throat, ‘I just thought you might like to know more about the Vex.’

  ‘Of course,’ she added automatically.

  ‘Well, as far as I can tell, they are split up into three provinces, and this province is called Borez. As I said before, it’s chauvinistic, male centric, and alarmingly violet. They have strict and brutal laws. The other two provinces are known as Dorga and Frux.’

  ‘And what are they like?’ she asked, but she still sounded distracted.

  ‘Better than this place,’ he answered simply. ‘I suggest that if we can’t find anything about the dimensional bridge or any time gates here, we should find some way to head over to one of the other provinces.’ As he mentioned that, he realized how wild the suggestion was. Though they now understood more about the culture of the Vex and could at least speak their language, navigating this vast world would be yet another step.

  ‘Okay,’ she said simply.

  Again she didn’t sound as if she was paying complete attention to him. In fact, she still stared dead eyed at her left hand.

  Despite the number of light, tender, or downright awkward experiences they’d shared, he couldn’t forget what was happening to her. And it seemed neither could she.

  Feeling humbled by that, he admonished himself for pulling rank on her before. Even if it had mostly been a game.

  ‘Is there anything else I need to know?’ she asked after a long pause.

  ‘Well, the Vex appear to have had an uneven technological progress throughout their history. For a large part, they are quite agrarian, but then my scanner has come across mentions of quite sophisticated technology too. While they have radio communications, relatively undeveloped television, and appear to be looking into utilizing microwave bandwidths, their medicine is second rate, and their architectural construction techniques are woeful. They are still using stone and brick and mortar. They don’t even have proper heating, and still resort to combustion fires for cooking and temperature regulation.’

  ‘What have they been concentrating all of their energies on then?’

  ‘War,’ he said plainly, and with far too detached a tone. Because he wasn’t just learning some set of curious facts here about an ancient alien race. He was, right now, on Vex, and though he had a set of armor from the future, and a strange alien device that acted like his telekinetic implant, but could manipulate all forms of matter and with greater power, he was not invulnerable. And neither was Nida.

  Now the warlike tendencies of the Vex should be one of his top priorities.

  ‘War?’ she questioned, no longer distracted by her hands. She looked at him enquiringly, and he could see a flicker of worry crumpling her brow.

  ‘War,’ he repeated. ‘Hence the fact they have made great leaps and bounds in their communication techniques, but not in medicine or the usual comforts of life.’

  ‘Hold on, if they were so fascinated by war, you would think they would have put at least some research into medicine too,’ she challenged.

  He shook his head. ‘Not when life is cheap. And it appears that life is worryingly cheap to a Vex,’ he noted in a
gravelly tone.

  He didn’t like the look she now shot him. It was vulnerable. He didn’t hate it because he thought she should be stronger; it frustrated him because he couldn’t do anything to assure her that everything would be okay. Because, the more he learned about the Vex, the more he realized how dangerous this impossible mission really was.

  Now, more than ever, he wanted the entity back, which was strange when you considered how much trouble it had caused. But the fact was, it knew more about this situation than anyone or anything else. If only it could tell them exactly where the dimensional bridge had shifted to, Carson and Nida wouldn’t have to go through this rigmarole.

  And even if it couldn’t tell him exactly where the bridge was, at least it could tell them what kind of thing they were to look for. While Carson could fancy that something as enormous and incredible as a bridge between dimensions would have noteworthy effects on the space around it, he wanted to know more. If only he understood those exact spatial distortions, he could set his scanner to search for them. Though it didn’t have the range to penetrate this whole planet, at least he would be able to confirm whether one was nearby.

  . . . .

  He suddenly considered what he had just thought, and shook his head at how damn bizarre it was. Seriously, he was a lieutenant in the Galactic Coalition Academy, and he knew science, or at least he hoped he did, and this wasn’t scientific in the least.

  But he also knew as a lieutenant in the Galactic Coalition Academy he always had to keep an open mind. That was the first rule of interstellar travel. Though there were a great number of similarities across the many races that inhabited the Milky Way, there were still surprises. Sometimes violent, sometimes horrible, sometimes incredible, sometimes wonderful. But always surprises.

  So maybe, if he tried really hard, he could accept the existence of the entity, the bridge between dimensions, and the time gates. But when it came time to writing up his report on this mission, it would be a hell of a tale.

  ‘Is there anything else I need to know?’ Nida suddenly questioned. ‘What should we avoid? I mean, apart from dressing like a prostitute,’ she blinked quickly, ‘if this nation has been at war, won’t they have an active military? Guards or police or something? Won’t they be suspicious if we run into them?’