Ouroboros 2: Before (15 page)

Again he turned his back on it.

This time, with his armor set to full, he felt nothing as the axe struck him but glanced off with a clang.

He hadn't wanted to use his armor—he hadn't wanted to reveal its secrets to Cara and Harya—but he no longer had the choice.

With his full armor in place, and despite how frantic the situation was, he noticed one peculiar fact.

Though the armor had initially grown up and covered the device, the device somehow, incredibly had shifted through his gauntlet until it covered his palm from the outside.

He did not indulge in staring at it.

Instead, he slammed out his elbow and struck a stray piece of metal as it darted towards Nida.

She had collapsed by his feet. And in between the clang and clash of metal objects sailing through the air towards her, he could hear her ragged, panting breath.

Though he could not pause, his mind raced.

And one question stole away his attention.

. . . .

Was this it?

Had the entity corrupted entirely?

Was this just the prelude to the stars falling from the sky?

Though Carson didn't have the time to truly comprehend that fact as he thrust forward with the device and obliterated several chunks of wood flying towards him, it still weighed on him.

Yet, somehow, she did not fall.

Nida sat there, one arm hooked around her middle, the other on her knees, her back hunched over.

And she breathed.

And she lived.

The stars, apparently, would not fall from the sky tonight.

In fact, with one last blast from his device, Carson soon realized it was over.

The dust started to settle.

He didn't drop his guard though.

He stood there, eyes pressed open as far as they would go, heart beating as hard as it could.

Nida sat by his side, and soon enough she moved.

Her back was pressed against his legs, and with a soft breath, she turned to look up at him.

He looked down.

They shared a moment.

Long and silent.

But not long enough.

With a bang from outside, he realized Cara and Harya were likely still in the tunnel.

He swore loudly, twisting on his foot.

Though he didn't owe them anything—and already intended to ditch them at the first chance he got—that didn't mean he wanted to see them dead.

And dead they could be.

When he'd grabbed up Nida to take her into the corridor, the roof of the tunnel had been in a bad way.

For all he knew, both of them could now be crushed under a ton of metal and muck.

He swore again just as he rounded the doorway, expecting to see the worst.

He didn't though.

With a quick look up to the ceiling, he noted it still remained in place. Though an enormous section was buckled, it didn't look as if it were ready to fall free and crush anyone anymore.

He sighed.

Then he saw Cara and Harya.

Cara was crumpled over her sister protectively. But now the threat appeared to be over, she sat up straight, and stared immediately over to him.

Carson reached for his gun.

There was no point in dragging this out any further.

Cara and Harya had seen too much.

He would have to shoot them, hope the blast wiped their memories, and try to make it through this tunnel system on his own.

Before he could grab for his gun, however, he looked to the side to see Nida reach up and still his hand in place.

She was standing. Which was a miracle considering what she'd just been through.

She did wobble though. And before she could fall against the jagged, warped mess that was the doorway, he reversed her grip on his arm and held her hand instead.

Her fingers were warm; his armor told him that. But somehow, despite how thick and sophisticated his gauntlet was, for those brief few seconds it felt as if he were touching her hand to hand, skin to skin, and fingers to fingers.

‘
They've seen too much,’ he hissed at her.

She shook her head.

She clearly knew what he was planning to do.

‘
Give them a chance,’ she breathed back.

It was an odd thing to say considering what had just transpired.

Give them a chance?

Cara had been outright aggressive towards them before Nida had caused the sky to fall down, so Carson could bet the alien woman would be nothing but apoplectic now.

He was wrong though.

As Cara and Harya picked themselves up, they didn't stare at Nida with suspicion and surprise.

No.

Something close to awe.

Though Harya looked as though she was in the presence of a goddess, Cara's reaction was more measured. Still, he could see the clear wonder flickering through her gaze.

‘
You've been touched,’ Cara said simply, directing her words at Nida.

Carson stiffened.

This wasn't the reaction he'd been expecting. For a race as technologically limited as the Vex in this period of history, Nida's display should have appeared like dark magic.

‘
Hold on,’ he said in a shaking voice, ‘you've seen this before?’

Cara turned her gaze on him, and for the first time it appeared she didn't want to kill him. Instead, only a bare flicker of suspicion remained. ‘Is this some kind of test? Of course we have not seen a touched before. But we have heard of them. Everyone has. Why didn't you tell us?’ Cara now spat.

Carson looked across at Nida.

She shrugged her shoulders, indicating it was up to him to manage this conversation. He deserved it—he had been pulling rank on her, after all. He was the lieutenant, as he kept on reminding her. So it was up to him to decide what to do now.

He swallowed hard. ‘We didn't know whether we could trust you,’ he began.

Cara wiped a hand down her brow. ‘You should have told me. I would have never attacked had I known.’

‘
You didn't exactly give me much of an opportunity to speak,’ Carson noted through a huff.

Cara raised an eyebrow at this.

She had a regal sense to her. Her tall form and elegant body were perfectly suited to staring down her nose at people.

Now she laughed though. It was bitter and it was short, and when she was done, she stared at Carson again with the same intense gaze.

No one had ever looked at him like that—with so much barely-contained power and force.

It made his stomach kick.

‘
We should get out of here,’ Nida said quietly from his side.

He still held onto her hand, and suddenly realized he really had no reason to, as she appeared stable enough to stand on her own. As if to confirm that, she broke free from his grip and took several steps towards Cara and Harya.

‘
If you help us, we will help you,’ Nida said plainly.

There was an odd quality to her voice, and just for an instant, it appeared the entity would take control.

But then that note of ancient authority disappeared, and Nida shivered.

Cara did not thrust forward and push Nida back.

Instead, she did something entirely odd.

She dropped to one knee.

Right down into the muck.

‘
Of course,’ Cara said simply. ‘You have been touched,’ she said by way of explanation.

Nida clutched a hand to her implant, and breathed heavily before finally nodding and backing off towards the door. ‘We need to leave before anyone comes looking for us,’ she turned her head to the damaged ceiling and gestured to it.

‘
These tunnels are no longer used,’ Cara assured her as she stood, not bothering to wipe the muck from her armor. ‘Though you did make a lot of noise, we should be fine. That being said, we need to act quickly. I'll take you to the resistance.’

. . . .

Really?

Was that all it took to gain Cara's trust?

The prospect that Nida had been touched?

Suddenly Carson wanted to ask the determined alien woman what on earth that word meant. He didn't though. Instead, he decided that at the first chance, he would ask his scanner. Hopefully it would be able to pick up something off the airwaves. And if that didn't work . . . he'd figure something out.

‘
Come,’ Cara commanded as she strode through the door into the corridor.

Harya walked behind her, giving Nida a wide berth but at the same time staring at her with transfixed wonder.

‘
You're touched,’ Harya whispered again.

The way she said it made the hairs on the back of Carson's neck stand on end.

But that was likely nothing to what Nida felt; she was turning pink from all this attention.

Which was nice considering her skin had been bone-white after the entity had corrupted.

Stepping in beside her as they made it into the corridor, he drew his face close to hers and whispered, ‘what do we do?’

Though he was the lieutenant, and he was more than capable of making the decisions, he was starting to realize that unless he asked Nida, the entity might get involved if it didn't like his plans. And he simply could not afford to have it waste any more of its energy.

Nida blinked her eyes closed, and somehow she didn't fall as she strode forward.

‘
I . . . we'll follow them. See where they lead us. Find out about this resistance. And what it means to be touched,’ she added with a croak as she opened her eyes.

He nodded.

Then, despite the situation, his lips kinked into a smile. He didn't think anything was funny; he was merely possessed with the desire to show her some much needed compassion.

With Cara powering along before them, he didn't have the opportunity to pull Nida aside and tell her everything would be okay, so he hoped his expression would convey that instead.

Their group walked in silence. They strode through the tunnels. Everything was dressed in shades of drab brown, slate grey, and off white.

It all looked industrial. There was no color, no life, no verve.

Which was quite appropriate considering where Nida and Carson had found themselves.

This point in Remus 12's history appeared to be a violent one.

But what point in its history they had found themselves in was a pertinent question. Though Carson knew from Academy records that it was likely the inhabitants of this planet had killed themselves in some man-made cataclysm, he would sure like to know exactly when that had been.

He wanted to believe this period in history was too technologically limited to provide the kinds of weapons a race would need to obliterate all life on entire planet, but he couldn't confirm that for sure.

Which meant that at any moment he and Nida could simply cease to exist. Some enormous, powerful weapon could be set off, engulfing the surface of the world and destroying everything in its path.

It was a chilling thought, and it made him appreciate the dull colors of these halls in a different way. It also made him appreciate that this resistance Cara and Harya were leading him to would likely fail. Or, quite possibly, they would succeed and be the ones to set off the weapon that obliterates Remus 12. It didn't matter who did it though—the fact remained that Remus 12 and every one on it had a death sentence hanging over their heads.

Eventually Cara led them down through a winding set of tunnels into a large room.

At first glance it appeared to hold machinery, and Carson could guess it would have once acted as some kind of generator room.

Now everything was either rusted red or glinted a dull grey.

Boxes of junk littered the floor, and pipes and chunks of metal dangled free from the walls.

Though the rest of the tunnels had been barely lit, this room had several tapering lights set into the high ceiling. They gave out enough illumination to lengthen the shadows and accentuate the glint of metal, but that was it.

Still, Carson had enough illumination to note something else: there were people in here.

Staying close to the shadows, as soon as Cara strode into the center of the room and announced her arrival, the other Vexians drew forward.

Carson had to try hard not to reach around and clutch for his gun.

Things were happening too quickly now.

He had to ensure there were no more accidents, no more traps, no more mistakes.

Earlier in the tunnels he'd made the decision to take his armor off, or at least let it draw back into the bracelets on his wrists.

He'd been sure to do so when both Harya and Cara had turned away from him.