Ouroboros 2: Before (10 page)

His mad run through the forest with Nida in his arms had taken him further behind the city. Now it would take a good eight kilometer walk through scrub to reach a meadowland, and then, beyond that the outskirts of the town. The city itself was surrounded by an enormous 10 meter wall. Reinforced, of course, and guarded 24 . . . nope,
28
hours a day.

They had to get there before nightfall. They couldn’t afford to waste another day.

‘
Do you know if we need ID yet?’ she asked as she walked beside him.

‘
Yes we do,’ he answered plainly. ‘I’ve kept the scanner on, and it has been assessing all radio and television traffic. It has picked up on several mentions of an identification system.’

She suddenly stopped. ‘Well, how are we going to get through?’

‘
Through the front gates,’ he said simply. ‘You know how I said this era in history has strange technological progression? That the constant warring between the three provinces has caused them to focus on technologies like communication and weapons above comfort and medicine?’

She just looked at him silently. Then she shrugged her shoulders. ‘And?’

‘
Well, it seems one of the areas to have benefited from their ad hoc technological progression is their identification system. It works on radio tags. Unique radio tags that each citizen of this province is given at birth. And unluckily for the fascist government running this place, we are going to be able to hack that identification system without breaking a sweat,’ he gestured to the scanner still locked in a magnetic holster on his hip.

She pressed her lips together and smiled. And it was good to see her smiling.

‘
Do you have any other good news for me? Like, oh, I don’t know, you’ve found something other than leather straps for me to wear?’

Despite his best efforts, he knew his cheeks reddened. He’d completely forgotten about that. ‘I . . . will have a look now.’

She shook her head. ‘Give me the scanner. I’ll look.’

‘
What, don’t you trust me?’ he asked playfully.

He stopped abruptly.

Because, seriously, he was talking to a cadet.

She didn’t suddenly scream at him that he was being inappropriate. Instead, she rolled her eyes, ducked in, and took the scanner from his holster. She inexpertly started manipulating the controls, her tongue held between her lips as she did.

. . . .

She really was the worst recruit in 1000 years, wasn’t she? Mastering scanners was one of the first lessons at the Academy. Just what exactly had she been doing for all these years?

She caught him looking at her, and turned away haughtily.

‘
Watch where you’re going,’ he warned, just as she tripped over a branch and almost fell to her knees.

‘
I’m fine,’ she shot back.

‘
Of course you are,’ he said under his breath.

Then he smiled.

And he didn’t know why.

Which was extremely frustrating.

He kept on doing things for no reason, feeling things he didn’t understand. And, frankly, now wasn’t the time for any of that. Now was the time for concentration, action, and diligence. He had just entered into the most dangerous mission of his career, and he had to be at his absolute best. He couldn’t afford to be a fitful, emotional little boy.

Sighing, he walked forward, one step after the other, marshalling his control as he did.

He would get through this, he told himself firmly.

Because he would have too.

Cadet Nida Harper

At least now they had a plan, even if that plan had cost them.

Cost her.

. . . .

She brought a hand up and placed it over her implant. There was a cold, strange kind of energy building there that did not for a second feel natural. It was almost like a void. She had not and would not breathe a word of this to Carson. He was already stressed enough as it was without her adding to his problems. Plus, what was there to say? That, in all likelihood, the entity was corrupting?

They already knew that the longer the entity stayed in this dimension the more it would break, until it broke reality with it.

Well now she tried to rub warmth back into the flesh surrounding her implant, she realized she was likely feeling the first stages.

As she walked, she was more careful to watch where she was going. Though she had always been a clumsy child and an even more uncoordinated adult, with the corruption of the entity, she was having trouble staying on her feet.

Carson was several steps ahead of her, but about once every minute, he would turn around to check on her.

She was starting to realize he was a lot of things, but he was certainly diligent. In fact, if you had to pick one word to describe the legendary Lieutenant Carson Blake, she would now choose dedicated.

Once he picked a cause, he would lock his jaw in place, narrow his gaze, focus his attention, and plough down on it like an unstoppable force.

In other words, he was just the kind of person she needed with her right now. Yet, if that was the case, why were things so . . . awkward between them?

Because they were awkward. She wasn’t so vague as to have not noticed that. Every conversation they had either ended with nervous silence, a tense moment, or awkward smiles.

‘
We are going to enter the precinct of the city soon. There’s only about 300 meters left of the forest, then we will quickly come across several roads, and then I guess what you could call a major thoroughfare leading right up to the main gates. We need to be careful,’ he began, his expression becoming gravely serious.

She put up a hand. She didn’t need a lecture right now. Of course they needed to be careful. By the sounds of it, this planet was populated by war-loving, chauvinistic brawlers.

Carson would not be so easily put off though. He cleared his throat and once again got the distinct look of an officer about to tell her off.

She’d been reprimanded enough times in her life to recognize the particular glint in his eye.

‘
I know, Carson,’ she began, trying to head him off at the pass, ‘of course I’ll be careful.’

‘
If we are going to be staking out government buildings, we are going to be clear targets for the army and police or whatever law enforcement officials will be in that city. We are going to need to be discrete,’ he continued, completely ignoring her attempts to silence him.

She sighed, heavily. And as she did, she shifted her shoulders back, distractedly rubbing at her implant.

Carson looked as if he was ready to serve her another volley, but then he stopped. With a quick, worried look, he looked from her eyes down to her implant, then back up again. ‘What is it?’

‘
It’s irrelevant,’ she tried.

‘
We can’t keep any information from each other,’ he said blankly.

‘
Does that mean you’re going to tell me why the Force were directed to Remus 12 in the first place?’ The question popped into her head, and she couldn’t help but ask it.

He looked momentarily surprised, then his eyebrows descended low over his flashing gaze. ‘I’m afraid that is top secret,’ he began.

‘
Then I’m afraid you were wrong: clearly we can keep information from each other.’ It was a petulant thing to say, but what with one thing and another, she was in a petulant mood. She knew the importance of the mission, and didn’t need to be reminded of it like she was, well, the worst recruit in 1000 years. That wasn’t the point though; Carson did not have to treat her like a child.

He looked furious, then some of that anger abated as, once again, he caught her rubbing her implant. ‘What is it? Does it hurt? Is the entity trying to communicate anything?’

She sighed, shifting back as she did. ‘It’s nothing, just a slight itch,’ she lied.

He shot her a calculating look that told her he didn’t believe her, but thankfully he didn’t press the issue.

Then, once again, they found themselves in silence. After a pause, they continued on.

It was such a strange experience to be walking through that alien landscape, stranger when you considered it wasn’t all that alien. There were slight, noticeable differences in the foliage and in the general look of the land around her, but that was it. It was still very Earth-like, from the existence of trees and grass, to the clothes they were wearing, to the clouds racing through the sky.

The city wouldn’t be though.

There, no doubt, the true alien characteristics of Remus 12 would come to light.

With a shudder, she wondered whether she would be ready for it. Though she had tried to be diligent at the Academy, she couldn’t deny she wasn’t the best student they had ever had.

And she knew one thing as fact: before missions to alien worlds, especially recently discovered ones, people trained for months and months so they didn’t botch things up. Because, frankly, there was a galaxy full of things you could botch up. Add to that the pressure of the entity’s currently weak state, and the fact it could, at any moment, suddenly start attracting enormously large and dangerous objects right towards her head, and Nida was not in a good way.

She wasn’t about to tell Carson though, so she tried to soldier on.

The only problem was, he wasn’t about to let her.

As she pushed off, heading further down the heavily wooded hill, he marched up beside her. ‘You can’t afford to keep things from me. If there’s a problem with the entity, tell me.’

She tried to ignore him, but he simply pestered her further.

It was when she turned to him, anger compressing her features and making her movements snapped and harsh, that she heard it.

Something rushing fast through the undergrowth.

Carson twisted his head in the direction of the sound.

Just as the words, ‘what the hell?’ crossed his lips, they both heard a scream. It was keening and powerfully loud, and cut through the air.

‘Get down,’ Carson suddenly snapped, pushing into Nida with his rounded shoulder, knocking her to the ground.

She hadn’t even seen anything yet, but with every second that passed, she could feel the ground shake beneath her. ‘What’s happening?’

Just as she asked that, she heard another scream, and then frantic footfall. Someone was headed their way, and their desperate flight brought with it the cracking of twigs and the tumbling of stones as they threw themselves through the undergrowth.

Carson twisted, just as Nida caught a glimpse of someone running towards him.

‘
Help me,’ it was a woman, and as she laid eyes on Carson, she scampered desperately towards him. ‘Help me, there are vargs after me.’ She said that unknown word with such shaking fear that she actually crumpled to her knees.

Before Nida could stand, she heard something else.

A terrible, grating, yowling scream. This one, however, was not desperate. It was ferocious. A truly ugly, terrifying sound that shook through her as if it had hands around her neck and was beating her back and forth.

‘
Help me,’ the woman said, her voice so horse and gravelly it sounded as if she had to rip the very words from her throat.

The woman was a Carson’s feet, and suddenly clutched a hand to his leg. Staring up into his face imploringly, she whispered the words ‘help me’ one last time.

Then finally it was upon them.

Nida didn’t have time to figure out what was attacking. Everything happened so blisteringly fast. Though she’d undergone numerous simulations at the Academy, nothing had prepared her for this.

The frantic pace of a true battle.

She saw a flash of something rushing at them through the bushes. But its speed was such that all she could make out was the glint of white teeth, the flash of white tusks, and the milky depths of a row of white eyes.

But the quickest and perhaps most evocative of her senses held out. Smell. She could smell blood.

She tried to get to her feet, but before she could manage it, something whipped around out of the bushes and slammed into her side, pushing her to her knees and then hard into her face. The air was knocked from her lungs and she gasped in pain and fear.

Before whatever pinned her had a chance to rip her limb from limb, she heard Carson scream and all of a sudden a blast of air shot past her. Though the air moved around her and she could feel its force, it didn’t push her up and neither did it slam her against one of the trees to her left and right.

All it did was smash into the creature that had her, and sent it hurtling backwards several meters.

She heard a clunk, then a whimper.

She pushed herself to her feet, scrabbling backwards. With wide, desperate sweeps of her gaze, she finally saw what was attacking them.

A terrifying, shaggy, black creature that reminded her of a bore crossed with a baboon. It had strong, muscular shoulders, a narrowed waist, and an enormous, tusk-filled face with flashing white eyes.

With another whimper, it got to its feet, then that whimper turned into a vicious growl.

‘Get away from her,’ Carson snapped. Another blast of power shot from his device and crashed into the side of the creature, sending it spinning through the undergrowth. Its back slammed against a tree, and the whole thing shook, several limbs and branches scattering onto the undergrowth. Dust and dirt and leaves and small stones bloomed upwards from the disturbed ground.

She finally made it to her feet, and she staggered backwards, eyes locked unblinkingly on the terrifying creature.

Just when she thought it was down, the thing snapped up onto its clawed appendages, offering a snarl her way.

She staggered back, and promptly fell over a log.

The thing launched itself at her.

It never had a chance to land though.

As it sailed through the air, Carson struck it once more with a blow from the device, and this time the creature went flying.

Literally. It was thrown high above the canopy, and several seconds later, she heard it land untold meters away, the ground giving such a shake that she almost fell to her knees again.

Then silence.

Eerie, almost devastating silence.

Though the surprise of the creature attacking her still throbbed hard in her throat, Nida hadn’t forgotten something important.

With shaking knees and trembling legs, she forced herself to turn.

And she faced the alien woman.

The woman was still on her knees, staring agape at Carson. She had, like all members of her race, ice white hair, blue spots, black eyes, and numerous ridges tapering up her arms and neck and cheeks. Well now her pale lips were pressed as far open as they could be. ‘What . . . 
what is this?
’ She asked in a terribly trembling voice. In fact, her voice shook so badly, Nida could barely understand her.

Carson slowly turned to face the woman, but before he did, he locked Nida in his gaze. Though he didn’t say anything, he managed to convey silently all he needed to.

Out of desperation he had just used the device, and though this period in Remus 12’s history did have a fascination for weapons, it would have absolutely nothing like the device.

Nothing.

As if to confirm that fact, the woman suddenly brought up one trembling hand and pointed to the red device still locked over Carson’s right palm. ‘What is that? What is that? How did you defeat the varg?
How did you do that?
’

Nida watched as if in slow motion as Carson reached around to one of the pockets in his belt. Specifically, the one that held his gun. His intention was clear. He was going to shoot this woman in the hopes that the blast would scrape from her memory the events of the last few moments.

Not knowing why, Nida suddenly rushed up to his side and locked a hand fast over his wrist.

In fact, her strength was such that when he tried to pull back, he couldn’t.

‘Don’t,’ Nida commanded, and in that moment it was clear who was speaking: the entity.

The authority and the sheer anxiousness of the entity made her command along, powerful, drawn out one that would make even a seasoned admiral stand up and pay attention.

Sure enough, Carson stiffened, his eyes growing wide as he looked back at her.

The woman was still gasping and panting, one hand now locked over the base of her throat, another flat over her stomach.

Though her movements were still wild and frantic, she appeared to be calming. With every breath, the greenish tinge to her blue spots disappeared. ‘Who are you people? Who are you?’ the woman asked again.