Ouroboros 1: Start Page 21

  With that horrifying fact dawning on him like the coldest of winter days, he shuddered.

  They would find a way to kill him, and if they were feeling particularly generous, they would simply take him into captivity and sell him as a slave to the Kore Empire.

  It would be a sorry way for the leader of the Force to go.

  As all of these thoughts flashed through his mind, another followed them.

  He would never find out what had happened to Nida.

  Not only had her ship been destroyed, and her body likely obliterated by the explosion, he was about to join her.

  Ducking and weaving and shooting, he managed to dispatch those two mercenaries, but again he heard more powering down the corridor.

  He backed off towards his room, ready for his final stand.

  It wouldn’t come.

  At least not today.

  Chapter 27

  Cadet Nida Harper

  They had attacked her ship.

  Out of nowhere, a vessel had materialised. by the side of her cruiser, and had started firing.

  The presence in her mind had taken sudden and immediate control of her body, sending pulses of blue light into the panel of the cruiser, but it had been too late.

  The enemy ship had already disabled every system and had overloaded the engines. There was a gaping hole in the side of the ship, which Nida was only protected from by the enclosed and sealed cockpit.

  Without the time to question or worry, the entity controlling her had screamed.

  An incredible, unbelievably powerful, sorrow-filled scream that had vibrated through every single centimetre of Nida, filling her with the most agonising panic she would ever experience.

  Then, just before the enemy ship had finished them off, it dematerialised.

  Nida blinked in surprise as the image of it simply disappeared on her crackling, badly fractured view screen.

  Then more blue light had escaped her palms, travelling deep into the arcing console before her. Without a command, or at least a verbal one from her, the ship turned and continued along its original heading.

  Even though the engines were badly damaged, the blue light pouring from her hand seemed to sustain them, and they travelled on.

  Until they reached another system, and found another of those terrible ships.

  In a series of incredible events, she watched the ship that had attacked her materialise and go after an experimental vessel she quickly realised belonged to the Galactic Coalition Academy.

  The United Galactic Coalition ship had no chance, and after a dizzying attack from the two enemy ships, its gun turrets failed.

  She watched, unable to do anything, as the two enemy ships squeezed in on the United Galactic Coalition vessel.

  Though she was quite new to space travel, even Nida could recognise the ships were preparing to board.

  Just before she could scream in terror, something happened to her own ship.

  With a commanding beep, the computer told her the cockpit was about to lose integrity.

  Time seemed to slow down, and she had a few precious seconds to realise what would happen.

  Then it happened.

  The side of the ship just blew open, and everything inside was pulled into space, including her.

  At first, she tried to fight it.

  Then she couldn’t.

  . . . .

  She waited for the vacuum of space to pull her inside out, but it didn’t.

  She was alive.

  Dear god, somehow she was alive.

  With a glance down at her body, she now realised it was pulsing with the blue glow of the entity.

  She shifted her arms around, she stared at her fingers, then she looked out at space.

  She was in space.

  She was not wearing a spacesuit, she was encased in nothing but that light. Yet somehow, it kept her safe from the vacuum and cold.

  But she could not stay here forever; she instinctively knew that.

  She did not know what she could do though.

  Her hands, however, appeared to have information she didn’t, and she soon found herself turning, angling her body until she clasped hold of the side of her broken ship. She pulled herself into it, grabbing onto the seat and muscling her body down until she sat. Then she grabbed the harness from the side and locked herself in position.

  The blue light pulsed from her, absolutely surging as it shot down from her hands and into every single centimetre of the ship.

  She had no idea what it was doing, but within seconds what remained of the engines began to pulse, and the broken panel before her blinked back into life.

  The ship began to move. Slowly, but it still moved. Towards the embattled Coalition cruiser.

  Within minutes she reached it, and as she approached, her body shuddered as blue light shot from her and out into space, coalescing against the side of the United Galactic Coalition cruiser.

  She felt cold. Dreadfully, awfully cold. It felt as though her blood had been replaced by liquid nitrogen.

  Whimpering as she closed her arms around herself, drawing her body in as far as it would go, she waited.

  The completely broken cruiser she was in inched closer and closer to the embattled Coalition ship, and then, just before it arrived, something incredible happened.

  The hangar bay doors at the back of the vessel opened.

  Then the blue light returned to her, snapping back into her body and bringing with it that comforting presence and reassuring heat.

  Nida was thrown back against her chair by the power of it, and when she forced her eyes open, she realised her broken ship was angling towards the open hangar bay doors. Within 40 seconds, it was inside. Then, briefly, a surge of blue energy left her, and seconds later, the hangar bay doors closed.

  Then Nida slumped. Her body fell limp against the harness holding her, and it took an enormous amount of energy to draw up her hand and unclasp the harness.

  She fell forward, slamming against the console, falling off it, and thumping onto the ground.

  Just as she tried to get her breath back, she turned to see something.

  Something truly terrible.

  Barbarians.

  Xerks and Mascars. They streamed in from the door on the opposite side of the room. Their faces drew slack and they hesitated for a moment.

  She understood why they paused.

  She had just boarded this vessel in a half broken ship.

  Oh, and she was glowing blue.

  Their moment of hesitation ended, and they drew their weapons and fired.

  Once again, the bullets never reached her. They slowed down as they neared, and the closer they got, the more they bent, until they were pulled into a twisting vortex around her body.

  She heard screams and surprised shouts, but they didn’t last.

  Nida stood.

  Then she walked forward. She pointed a hand to the roof.

  She didn’t know what she was doing, but the entity within her did.

  Every Barbarian in the room lifted off the floor, their bodies floating no matter how heavy they were or how much armour they wore.

  She had a moment to register some of their expressions, then their bodies shot towards the ceiling of the hangar bay. She heard several resounding, bone-crunching thumps, and she walked on.

  She tried to scream, but she couldn't control her throat.

  She reached the door that led to the rest of the ship, and it opened before her.

  Though her movements were more coordinated this time, every step was still heavy and unsure, as if somebody had attached ropes to her limbs and tugged her forward without reprieve.

  When she reached the corridor, she saw more Barbarians.

  They fired at her, one even released a grenade, but it didn’t matter; the bullets simply swirled around her, and the grenade warped, crumpling in on itself

  Then she did it again. She took a single step forward, raised a pointed finger at the ceiling, and watched in silent
horror as every single Barbarian in the corridor floated slowly off the ground then sped up and slammed against the ceiling.

  She walked underneath them, aware that several spatters of blood rained down on her shoulders and hair.

  As she took another step, she turned to her side and saw that the airlock several meters away was open, leading onto another ship.

  Through it, a group of Barbarians ran, but they did not get very far. With a click of her fingers they were slammed against the wall, pinned thereby an invisible force that squeezed them closer and closer to the metal until they started to scream.

  She walked towards the open airlock, every footstep heavy. She reached it. She took a step into the other ship. She dealt with any Barbarians that came streaming towards her, then she slowly knelt down, planting both palms onto the floor. A shot of blue energy released from her hands, snaking across the metal, up the walls, and into the ceiling. She waited there several seconds, suddenly seeing flashes of the rest of the Barbarian ship. The engine room, the galley, the quarters, the prison, everything. Then the entity appeared to find its mark, and plunged deep into the engine core. Seconds later a red alert klaxon blurred, and a computer voice warned that the ship was undergoing a catastrophic systems failure.

  Nida rose to her feet and walked backwards out of the airlock. Then she closed it. She turned, and she continued walking through the corridors. Soon enough she found yet another open airlock on the opposite side of the ship, and she repeated the same procedure. She dealt with Barbarians, then dealt with their ship, finally closing the airlock after herself.

  While her body kept moving forward and the power kept surging through it, Nida herself was beyond terrified.

  She wanted to close her eyes to block out the gruesome sights, and shut off her ears to the horrifying screams, but she couldn’t.

  Instead, she was forced to watch and listen as the entity dealt with every Barbarian it could find.

  Finally, she pushed further into the United Galactic Coalition cruiser.

  She came across one last group of mercenaries.

  She rounded the corner that appeared to lead to crew quarters, and she saw them clustering forwards towards a black shape.

  It took her barely a second to recognise the distinctive colouring and style of Coalition armour.

  Then she did it, one last time. She simply pointed to the ceiling, and every single mercenary lifted into the air.

  But it wasn’t just the mercenaries—the man in the black armour did as well.

  Though Nida had resigned herself to her total lack of power in this situation, suddenly she screamed; suddenly she fought as hard as she could against the entity.

  “No,” she commanded, “no, he's from the Academy, just like me. No.”

  The mercenaries and the United Galactic Coalition soldier were still suspended in the air, floating there as if gravity had lost all hold of them.

  Then there was a snap.

  They slammed upwards against the ceiling and again she heard the crunch of bone.

  But the man in the black armour did not.

  He simply floated there until slowly his body returned to the ground.

  She stared down at him, and though she could not see his face, she knew he stared up at her.

  Then she walked backwards, the entity turned her body, and she strode along another corridor until she reached the door that led to the bridge. She forced her hand out and against the locked door, and in several seconds, it unlocked and opened.

  With one brief look around, she confirmed it was the one room in all of the ship that still lay untouched.

  She took several heavy steps in, then she heard it.

  Somebody calling her name.

  Her real name.

  “Nida, Nida,” the man screamed.

  Despite the entity’s control of her, she turned, and as she did, the United Galactic Coalition soldier sprinted into the room. Then he stopped, several meters from her, and rocked back on his feet as if he didn’t dare get any closer.

  “Nida?” he asked in a shaking voice.

  She could not recognise it, because it bore the same distinctive electronic monotone of anybody who spoke through armour.

  “It’s me,” the man said.

  Before he could say his name, she knew who it was.

  Carson Blake.

  Sure enough, he reached a hand up, touched something on his wrist, and his helmet opened revealing his face.

  And his shock.

  His intense, horrible shock.

  She knew what it was directed at.

  Her.

  What she had done to the Barbarians.

  Suddenly control returned to her body, and she clamped a hand on her mouth. She lost all balance, crumpling to her knees, and she wheezed in a breath as tears soaked her cheeks faster than they had ever come in her entire life.

  “Nida?” he asked one last time as he finally took a step closer to her.

  She shook her head.

  He slowly brought a hand up. “It's okay,” he said in a falsely calm tone. But the calm did not extend to his expression; his eyes were wide, his mouth pulled tight over his teeth, his cheeks slack and pale, sickly white.

  She shook her head again, over and over, not caring that she strained her neck muscles.

  What had she just done?

  Those Barbarians . . . . She'd clicked her fingers or pointed at the ceiling and then . . . .

  She pushed her fingers even harder into her teeth, choking around them.

  “You're alive,” he pointed out disbelievingly. “You're alive,” slowly the palpable shock lifted from his face and thankful surprise replaced it. “How the hell did you survive?”

  She didn't answer. She couldn't.

  Instead, she turned, stumbled over to the wall, rested her back against it, and fell down to her knees. Then she crumpled her arms forward, tucking her head down.

  Silently she rocked back and forth.

  “Nida,” he spoke her name so softly it seemed he'd forgotten the terrible things she'd just done. “It's okay,” he took several steps towards her.

  She shook her head yet again. “What did I do?”

  “You saved this ship,” he said in a firmer tone. “Now just wait there,” she heard him turn and dart over to one of the consoles. “We need to get the hell out of here.”

  “Remus 12,” she found herself saying, the entity taking control of her mouth as she did.

  “Sorry?” Carson questioned.

  “Remus 12,” she said in a far more forceful tone, “we need to go back. We need to go home. Remus 12.”

  An almost electric silence spread between them, then she heard Carson type something on a panel. “Okay,” he said simply.

  That single little word sent incredible relief rushing through her, and she let out a whimper.

  “Nida, it's going to be okay,” Carson tried again. “What's happening to you . . . ? We will figure it out.”

  She finally tipped her head back, looking at him. “I know what's happening. We have to return home. Remus 12.”

  He regarded her with pale cheeks and a drawn, tired look to his gaze. Then he nodded. “We are going there now. You disabled . . . I mean the entity disabled those Barbarian vessels. It looks like they will not be able to follow. It even took out their communication relays, so they won't be able to get off a message to any of their friends. I would send a communication back to the Academy letting them know that the Barbarians have violated our territory again, but there's something wrong with our communication relay too.”

  “It has been disabled,” Nida pointed out plainly, her voice calm and even.

  Carson turned back to her, a very careful look on his face as his gaze darted all over her. “What?”

  “You must not contact anyone. No more interruptions. Remus 12.”

  He took a long moment to consider her, swallowed hard, then nodded. “Don't you worry; we will get there. But . . . just leave her alone,” he managed.
>
  Nida knew whom he was talking to. The entity.

  “We can get you back there. I'll give you my word, but leave her alone,” he said, now speaking through gritted teeth.

  “We do no harm. Remus 12,” Nida said again, the entity speaking through her.

  “Yes,” was all Carson could manage. Though he turned back to the computer panel before him to type other things into it, eventually he turned and he faced her once more.

  His eyes were wide, and he appeared to be trying to take in every single centimetre of her. “Are you still in there?” he asked softly.

  Though the entity had intermittent control of her, she managed to nod. “I'm fine,” she said in a tight whisper. “We just have to get,” she began.

  “To Remus 12. We are on it. It'll be a couple of hours. Then we will be there. Now I just have to . . . ,” he took some time to turn around and survey the bridge, “find some way of fixing the rest of the ship.”

  “This ship will make the distance,” Nida pointed out in a cold and efficient tone, “we will keep it running. You must do nothing but wait with us.”

  Carson opened his mouth, appearing ready to say something, but whatever it was, it died on his lips.

  Then silence came.

  Sick, cloying silence that stretched between them and stifled the scene like choking smoke from above.

  Nida was the one that broke it. She couldn't take it any more. The stress, the horror. She tried to get up, but she couldn't. So instead, she turned her sorrowful gaze on him. “I'm sorry,” she croaked. “I didn't mean to. I couldn't control myself.”

  He looked up at her sharply, and somehow, despite what she'd done, there was no blame in his eyes. Just concern. Incredible, powerful concern. “Nobody will blame you,” he said slowly.

  “It just needs to return home,” Nida said as she finally unhooked her arms from around her knees and stared at her hands. They were still bright blue, and if she concentrated, she could see those flashes of energy pull up from her skin only to sink further down into her palm and fingers like worms rising up from the earth only to wriggle back down again.

  “Why?” Carson asked. “Why do you need to return home?”

  “Because if we do not, we will become corrupted,” Nida answered. Her voice was half her own and half the entity's. Half completely shocked and half completely sure of itself. Suffice to say, her tone shook up and down and her voice rattled in her chest.