Nida stared up at him and wondered how someone could change so quickly.
‘You are more valuable than any ideology,’ Varo continued, ‘you should not be sacrificed—’ he began.
‘Step away from her,’ someone warned him. And that someone was Carson.
He came marching up, a truly dark look in his eye.
Varo's expression instantly soured.
‘Are you alright?’ Carson nodded at her, his gaze searching hers as he did.
She hooked her hair behind her ears and nodded.
Though briefly she considered shaking her head.
She wanted to believe she was fine, but maybe she wasn't.
Maybe the entity was corrupting, she realized with a shiver.
That could account for her confusion and for the vision.
She shuddered again, suddenly feeling cold right down to her bones.
So cold, in fact, it was as if her body had been replaced by stone.
That image brought up her vision again, and she remembered staring down at her body wrought from rock.
It had been horrifying. She'd been unable to move as the stars had fallen from the sky, as the entity had sunk deep into the earth.
. . . .
‘What did you do to her?’ Carson snapped as he pushed past Varo.
Carson stared at Nida with pale cheeks, his gaze searching as he clearly checked her over for injury.
‘I'm fine,’ she noted quietly.
It was a lie though; she wasn't okay.
She was deeply and thoroughly confused.
She didn't know what Varo wanted, but she couldn't deny how much his behavior had changed around her.
. . . .
The vision.
She bit her lip, her teeth sinking hard into it and sending a sharp ache into her jaw.
She used that pain to anchor her attention.
Varo seemed more than keen to learn of what she'd seen; he'd also suggested that other 'touched' also had visions.
She was suddenly struck by how little she really knew about this situation. From the entity, to the resistance, to the people around her.
‘Just get away from her,’ Carson snapped, taking up guard right in front of Nida.
Though she was thankful for his assistance, she still tried to peer past him.
She made eye contact with Varo. Whilst he shot Carson a deadly glare, whenever he turned that same look on Nida, it softened immeasurably.
‘I don't know who you are or where you've come from, but don't talk to me like that,’ Varo warned Carson. ‘And don't think you can take risks for the rest of us. Just because the Goddess has charged you with protecting this touched, doesn't mean you can put the rest of us at risk.’
‘I'm not going to risk anyone but myself,’ Carson's tone was menacing, each word snapped and cracking like a whip.
‘Then leave Cara here,’ Varo jumped on the opportunity. He also nodded down at Nida. ‘And I trust you are not stupid enough to take her along.’
‘She's coming with me,’ Carson said. As he spoke, he drew himself up to his full height. He still wore his armor, though his helmet wasn't on his head.
He was a very imposing figure, or at least he should have been. Yet Varo did not seem to be put off.
Instead, the man simply shook his head. ‘Don't be an idiot. And don't risk what you don't have to. You're more than welcome to go on this fool mission, but if you take a touched with you, the government will find out. And when the Governor hears there is one in his city . . . he will raze it to the ground to get to her. You get that, right? You get how serious this is?’
No. Carson probably didn't. But he didn't let that stop him. He still stared down at Varo with as much concentrated anger as the lieutenant could muster. ‘She is coming with me,’ he said simply.
Nida very much felt like she no longer had a voice of her own.
She just sat there behind Carson, letting him do all the talking and arguing while she stared on meekly.
She wanted to say something, she wanted to come to her own defense, yet she just couldn't push past the confusion long enough to try.
‘Carson,’ she whispered, realizing she had to tell him what was happening to her.
He didn't hear her.
‘You fool,’ Varo said with sudden and vehement passion. ‘You have a touched. We could learn from her visions. We could help our world. We could steer from the path of danger. And yet you stand there, selfish and unwilling to listen. I don't care if the Goddess has given you her weapons; you clearly don't deserve them.’
‘And what, you do?’ Carson barked. ‘I’ve seen the way you look at the Goddess tear and my armor. And the answer is no. You're never going to get your hands on them. Just as you're never going to get your hands on Nida.’
Varo pressed his lips together. ‘That's a strange name.’
Carson swore, realizing what he'd done as he shook his head bitterly.
‘She is Nida and you are Carson. I've travelled, but I have never come across such names. Where did you say you are from? Oh, that's right, you didn't. You haven't shared a scrap of information. You simply want us to sacrifice our lives and the delicate status quo so you can embark on this foolhardy mission,’ Varo concluded.
Briefly Carson shot Nida a disappointed look, but he snapped his head around to offer Varo a growl as the man finished.
Yep, she'd accidently told Varo Carson's real name, but to be fair, Carson had also slipped up.
She wasn't about to point that out though.
Instead, she had to tell Carson what was going on with her.
. . . .
But no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't concentrate long enough to go through with her intention.
Instead, she simply sat there, shaking her head lightly as a dense fog descended on her.
‘Varo, do not threaten them,’ Cara began.
‘Threaten them? Don't you see? He threatens us. Don't be impressed by the fact the Goddess blessed him with her devices; look past that and note how this man behaves. He would take you on a suicide mission, Cara, and he would take the touched with him.’
‘I trust him; the Goddess trusts him,’ Cara bowed her head low.
‘Ha, and how do we know that? He may have stolen these devices,’ Varo concluded.
‘You think I stole these?’ Carson challenged.
‘Prove that you did not,’ Varo growled in reply.
‘Fine,’ Carson spat, and then he did something pretty rash.
He took off his armor.
In the blink of an eye, it receded from his body and back into the two dense bands around his wrists. Then one-by-one he took them off and handed them to Varo.
‘Go ahead,’ Carson challenged. ‘Put them on. Try to make them work, you'll quickly find they can't be used by anyone but me. The Goddess,’ he added, ‘blessed me with them.’
His voice did not waver as he lied, and he looked on at Varo with an unqualified challenging look.
Varo, for his part, stared down at the armor bands with awe.
Then he proceeded to put them on.
There was a strange, curling smile flicking up his lips.
It promptly froze.
Varo tried to flex his hands. When that didn't set the armor shooting up over his skin, he settled for prodding at the bands instead. When that didn't work, he commanded them with his voice.
‘They'll only work for me,’ Carson said. ‘Now give them back,’ he reached out his hand.
Varo hesitated.
Carson brought up the device on his hand and spread his fingers.
Varo stared at the glow picking up along the device, then silently handed back Carson's armor bands.
Without pause, Carson put them on, then, in a split second, they morphed back into full-bodied armor excluding his helmet.
‘Right,’ he said, ‘you still think I stole this armor?’
‘Yes,’ Varo sneered, ‘but I also think I would need more than a single min
ute to figure out how to operate it.’
Carson shook his head. ‘You'd need a few millennia,’ he laughed.
Nida watched and listened, but not once did she actually do anything. She simply sat there, as useless as useless could be.
It was almost as if she couldn't move.
Almost as if she'd turned to stone.
. . . .
Stone.
Again the visions rekindled in her mind.
The fleeting stars, the dust lapping at her feet, and the entity dancing deep, deep down into the core of the planet.
This time her remembered dream came thick and fast, and was so evocative that it seemed she was falling back into it.
‘Carson,’ she managed to whisper.
‘I'm done with you,’ Carson suddenly concluded as he squared off his shoulders and glared at Varo. ‘You're a danger. Not only to Nida, but to your entire team. We don't need your help. We're leaving.’
‘Carson,’ Nida whispered again.
She was falling into the dream.
It was pulling her down.
‘Carson,’ she tried again, but now she wasn't even sure if she was still speaking.
Everything was turning black.
. . . .
Then she saw the stars. Falling from the sky. Descending down into a single point.
They were not in the night sky though—she watched as flashes of them were transposed over the scene around her.
Her vision started to merge with her view of reality. She could see the dust tumble over the rust-covered floor.
She watched the room around her intermingle with the scene of the broken and ruined buildings of the future Remus 12.
And she saw the entity.
Sinking through the floor.
Leaping.
Dancing.
Pushing.
Descending.
Right through the floor.
‘Carson,’ she said one final time. Then she fell forward. Right into his back as he stood there protectively before her.
She was dimly aware that he turned, caught her, and brought his worry-lined face close to hers.
She watched his lips move and form her name. She watched his eyes flash with concern.
Yet soon the image of him simply disappeared.
She wanted to scream.
She couldn't.
She wanted to reach out a hand to catch him, to hold him in place.
She couldn't.
Instead, she found herself back on the Remus 12 of the future. Back in the dust. Back amongst the rubble and destruction.
Except this time, the night sky was filled with more light than before.
Against the backdrop of the falling stars, she saw shapes.
It took her a long time to realize they were ships.
Destroyed ships.
The sky was littered with engine cores and hull plating and door hatches.
There had been a great, great battle.
She stared up at the harrowing sight.
Though her feet were still anchored into the ground, somehow she could see the rubble floating in space as if she were right next to it.
Her vision simply roamed high above as if no longer constrained by her eyes.
She saw gun turrets melted and destroyed. She saw air hatches warped and buckled.
And she saw people.
Humans. Aliens.
People.
Dead.
Bodies floating in space.
Tumbling in the vacuum.
Lifeless but forced along by the same mysterious force that pulled the stars from the sky.
She screamed.
Her voice could not make it out of her throat though—for every part of her had turned to stone.
Then, in a flash, she saw them.
The uniforms.
The insignias on the sides of the hull fragments floating past her disembodied eyes.
The United Galactic Coalition.
. . . .
The ships and bodies belonged to the United Galactic Coalition.
Now she really screamed.
One continuous, everlasting blast of fear ripping through her.
There were countless, countless destroyed ships in orbit around this planet.
And though she could not tell how many in total, she knew it was a fair chunk of the whole United Galactic Coalition fleet.
Such devastation.
Such total and complete annihilation.
She shook.
Yet she could not move.
She cried.
Yet her stone eyes could not shed a tear.
She dropped to her knees. Yet she could not really move.
Still, in a moment she saw the entity.
The blue energy.
It was enormous now.
It sank so far into the earth, so close to the core of Remus 12.
It was almost there; it had almost reached its goal.
She watched it.
It moved. It surged.
It sought out its goal.
Chapter 11
Carson Blake
She was in his arms, but he couldn't hold her close enough, and nor could he do anything for her.
She was as stiff as stone, her body painfully cold to touch. If it weren't for his armor, he would have dropped her long ago.
But he held on, and he tried to get through to her.
Her eyes had rolled into the back of her head, and he could see the whites staring back at him.
‘Nida,’ he screamed again. ‘Come on,’ he begged.
He didn't care he'd used her real name.
He didn't care.
God, he'd do anything for her, if only he knew what would help.
‘She is having a vision,’ Varo remarked from his side. Though the man's voice was pressured and did reveal some strain, it was calm compared to Carson's frantic screams.
‘What did you do to her?’ Carson accused him. It was irrational. Carson knew Varo hadn't done anything, but the stress of seeing Nida like this was eating through his self-control.
‘She is experiencing a vision of the touched,’ Varo answered easily.
‘Well how the hell do we wake her up?’
‘We don't. We wait for it to finish. Then we take this gift to learn of our future,’ Varo answered quietly. One glance at his face told Carson the man was awed by Nida.
. . . .
Awed.
Nida looked close to death, and Varo appeared completely fine with that.
‘We have to help her,’ Carson spat.
‘Carson,’ Cara said softly by his side.
It was the first time he'd heard her speak without shouting.
It distracted him. He turned to her, never letting go of Nida, but shifting around until he watched Cara come into view.
She walked up to him, her expression a stilled one. ‘Varo is right. There is nothing we can do. We simply wait.’
Carson wanted to believe her, but that didn't stop him from gripping Nida tighter. He had to be careful not to hold her too tightly, lest his armored grip cut off her circulation.
But he simply could not let her go.
And neither could he stand there and do nothing.
Instead, he commanded the on-board computer of his armor to scan her. Though it picked up significant interference from an unknown source—probably the entity—it eventually confirmed Nida was alright.
Or alive at least.
Her organs weren't failing, and though she felt as if she was colder than deep space, her blood hadn't frozen in her veins.
Just as he raced to figure out what to do, she slackened in his grip.
Her body simply went loose. Whereas once she had felt like reinforced steel, like a statue painted to look exactly like a human, now her head lolled against his chest as her arms became limp against his.
‘Nida,’ he cried, bringing one hand up to push her hair from her face as he stared down at her.
Her white eyes had finally c
losed, and after several pressured moments she let out a moan.
He could have dropped her from the relief that small and reassuring sound sent through him.
‘Nida,’ he kept pushing her hair from her face; it was the only thing he could do as he waited for her to regain her senses.
It was agonizing to watch. He wanted, no needed, to be back at the Academy. With doctors. With modern science and medical technology.
Instead, he was stuck in the past, and while he could scan her with his armor, he could only manufacture rudimentary drugs under its instruction. He couldn't reach down and fix her.
Slowly she came around.
Her skin wasn't just white anymore.
It was completely pale.
But it also glowed, however faintly.
He hated that glow. Once he'd found it intriguing, even beautiful, now it reminded him of the horrible things happening to her, and how agonizingly little he could do to stop them.
‘Carson?’ she eventually asked.
‘Nida,’ he breathed. ‘Oh god. Are you alright?’ He stopped pushing the hair from her face. Instead, his fingers froze just a few centimeters from her cheek.
She looked confused.
Then she choked, her eyes drawing wide and filling with tears. Drawing in a ragged and sudden breath that saw her chest slam into his, she crumpled against his chest, burrowing her face right against his armor.
‘Nida,’ he tried to pull her back, tried to get a look at her to confirm she was still okay.
He couldn't though. She simply locked herself against him, and he didn't need his armor to tell him her cheeks were now slick with tears.
He didn't know what to do.
So he didn't do anything.
He didn't, no, couldn't, push her away.
He stood there, his arms around hers, waiting.
It took a long time, but she finally pushed herself up.
She looked a mess.
. . . .
More than that, she looked shocked.
That was it.
The fear playing through her eyes told him she’d just witnessed a terrifying surprise.
‘What happened?’ he croaked.
She shook her head, clearly incapable of blinking as she stared at him with red-rimmed pupils.
Ouroboros- The Complete Series Page 41
