Ouroboros 2: Before (25 page)

Cadet Nida Harper

What happened next happened fast.

She made her way to the metal stairway, intending to throw herself down it as quickly as she could.

It was when she reached the first step that she saw a set of black armor powering up it.

At first her heart sung.

Then it sank.

It wasn’t Carson.

Nida doubled back, getting off a shot with her gun.

The plasma blast lanced out, slicing through a section of the stairwell.

She couldn’t get off a direct shot though, and instead ended up doing so much damage to the stairwell that it started to pull away from the wall.

Nida screamed, throwing herself backwards and back onto the safety of the roof.

She made it just as the stairs fell away, crashing into the ground below with a bone-shaking clang.

She crawled to the edge of the roof, staring down, trying to ascertain what had happened to the soldier in the heavy black armor.

Though she searched the hunk of metal that was the stairs, she couldn’t see a black shape indicative of a body.

She brought herself back with a snap, her breath hard in her chest.

‘
God,’ she whispered to herself, realizing how dangerous things now were.

Yes, she might have gotten Carson’s attention, but she might have also thrown everything away at the same time.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Nida slammed the base of her palm against her head.

Right now she needed the entity, she realized.

As horrible as it sounded, she needed it to surge within her. She needed it to protect her, to use its incredible power to get rid of the advancing armies, and to bring Carson back.

The entity did nothing though.

It had become completely silent.

Not a peep. Not even an itch as its energy moved within her left hand. In fact, it was almost as if it had gone completely.

Nida didn’t have time to consider that fact as she felt the building shake a little beneath her.

Her eyes drew wide.

She stumbled forward, realizing that soon enough the soldiers below would find a way onto this rooftop. She may have done a good job of trashing their fire escape, but they were desperate and armed to the teeth.

She stumbled forward, searching this way and that until she finally found a set of stairs leading down to a thick metal door.

She didn’t wait.

Neither did she take the stairs.

Instead, she set her gun to low and shot the stairwell just above the door, only pulling her finger off the trigger once an absolute hail of rubble had completely covered the doorway.

Although that was a start, once again, it wouldn’t keep those soldiers at bay forever.

But she didn’t need forever, she told herself bitterly; she only needed just enough time.

‘
Come on, Carson,’ she begged.

She’d gambled that he’d seen that blast.

So she shot again.

There was nothing to stop her.

The soldiers below already knew she was here.

She shot.

Then she shot again.

And all through it she prayed and begged and hoped and wished.

But in case that didn’t work, she got ready to repel her boarders.

Cadet Nida Harper got ready to fight.

Carson Blake

It was when he’d almost reached the tunnels that he saw it. In fact, it was his armor that alerted him first.

It detected a continuous, sustained blast of plasma.

The people of this time did not have access to such technology.

So yeah, Carson stopped. Turned. And stared.

He saw one blast lance through the sky, coming from a building back behind him.

His heart leapt into his throat.

He didn’t need his armor to tell him what kind of weapon was producing that blast—he’d seen shots like that enough times before.

A small hand-held plasma gun. Just like the one he’d given Nida.

He paused. Right there on the street.

He’d put just enough distance between himself and the soldiers that he had a single moment of silence.

A single moment to decide.

He knew that shot belonged to his gun, but he could not be sure of who was shooting it nor why.

It could be Nida, then again, it could be a distraction, another trap.

He heard soldiers rounding the street behind him.

He felt their footsteps, felt the crunch of tires over the road, heard their guns, heard their screams.

He had to do something.

Had to decide.

He turned.

He looked at the tunnels. Then he walked backwards away from them.

He closed his eyes. He turned.

He ran towards the light.

He would risk it.

Not because his training told him it was the smartest thing to do, but because his heart couldn’t let him ignore it.

So he ran forward as fast as he could, then faster. He pushed his armor to its limits, pushing his body within it even further.

He didn’t heed the warnings the on-board computer gave him, and neither did he pay a scrap of attention to his shaking limbs and sweat-covered brow.

He just ran to her.

If it was Nida—and his instincts screamed at him it was—then she would be running out of time.

Whilst he’d been lucky enough to see that blast, he was sure he wouldn’t have been the only one.

Every soldier in this city would have noticed it too.

And they would all be surging towards that building.

As he powered forward, he saw more flashes, more plasma blasts. Long and continuous, they all came from the same place and lanced innocently into the sky. Either someone was trying to shoot the moon from the heavens, scare the clouds, or they were trying to get somebody’s attention.

His attention.

Nida.

He came around a corner so fast, he didn’t care that there was a truck before him. He launched himself up and over the hood, his heavy boots sinking hard into the metal and denting it with the ease of a finger pushing through softened butter.

He flipped, landed, shrugged off more gunfire, and streamed forward.

If it was Nida, she had somehow gotten free from her captors . . . . Or this was a trap. They might have her up there on that roof, or they might just have his gun.

So the closer Carson got, the more he forced his scanners to lock onto the trace of that plasma weapon.

He also, on the fly, tried to recalibrate his computer to look for human bio signs.

Ordinarily a complex and laborious task—and certainly not one you preformed on the run, literally—right now he threw his mind into the task as he threw his body forward.

There was a dense tingling sensation rushing through every muscle, but Carson ignored it. He ignored the pain too.

He just concentrated on finding out if it was her.

As he neared, he faced heavy resistance.

It seemed that every soldier in the entire city was now concentrating around that building.

Around and in, but at least not on top.

No, there was only one life sign on top.

. . . . 

With a thrill that would stay with him for life, he realized it was human.

Nida.

She was there.

Right before him.

Yet all too soon that thrill burnt away.

Another life form joined Nida on the roof.

Carson threw himself forward.

Faster than his armor could take him.

He put in every scrap of energy he had.

More desperate than he’d ever been, he tried to get to her before it was too late.

Cadet Nida Harper

She stood her ground. She even took the opportunity to shoot out the searchlights.

Still, no matter how many pot shots she took from atop this building, she couldn’t keep doing it forever.

She could feel how many forces had been redirected here; every truck that pulled onto the streets below set the concrete below her shuddering. Every scream ripped through the air. Every bullet pierced through her courage.

Yet she held on.

She tried to stare down at the streets, but it was hard and it was very dangerous. She couldn’t afford to push out too far over the wall, lest some soldier below take it as an opportunity to snipe her through the head.

So she sat roughly in the middle of the roof, waiting.

She was emboldened by the fact this building was higher than any of the others around her. It had a great vantage, but it also meant that someone couldn’t climb the office block next door and line up a shot.

As the seconds ticked by, she felt more and more desperate until finally she let out a brief cry of bitter frustration.

This situation was impossible.

This mission was impossible.

Return the entity to its home?

Find a dimensional bridge?

She was alone; she no longer had Carson, and her foolish attempt to garner his attention by shooting the sky would likely come to naught.

She was the worse recruit in 1000 years. This was beyond her, so beyond her.

Yet as that conclusion rang through her, somehow she didn’t fall to her knees. Though she desperately wanted to wrap her arms around her ankles and lock her head against her chest, she didn’t.

Something kept her standing and something kept that gun in her hand. Call it training, call it courage, call it something else. It didn’t matter.

Deep within Nida was the determination and drive she needed not to give up.

But she would need more to face what would come next.

Just as Nida shook at the sound of a blast from downstairs, she heard something to her side.

A scrabbling sound.

She ran forward, expecting to see some sort of grappling hook. She would shoot it off before any lithe soldier had the opportunity to jump onto her roof.

She reached the scrabbling, saw the hook, and shot it clean off the roof.

Then she turned.

As she did, a fist cut through the dark and slammed into her jaw.

Nida stumbled back, dropping the gun as she did.

It skidded over the roof, falling into one of the drains.

She tried to grab for it; she wasn’t quick enough.

Turning slowly, she saw a figure in jet-back, bulky armor.

He loomed over her, one hand curled into a fist.

Nida waited.

She didn’t cry.

She didn’t scream.

She didn’t beg.

She waited for the soldier to kill her.

But the soldier didn’t.

Instead, he took a step back, turned over his shoulder to track the path of the plasma gun, then nodded, no doubt content it was now out of reach.

‘
Don’t move,’ the soldier said simply.

Nida didn’t.

Blood streamed down her nose and over her lips. It was hard to breathe. Each panting inhalation brought with it the tinge of iron.

Silence descended between them. Though no silence could be complete with the cacophony below. The shouts and shots and engines swelling together like the beat of a tribal drum.

The soldier appeared to assess Nida. Though the man wore a helmet, it was directed down at her.

‘
What?’ Nida asked quietly.

The soldier didn’t answer.

He took a step back though, considering her from another angle.

‘
What do you want with me?’ Nida tried to get up.

The soldier shook his head in a quick, almost violent tick.

Nida froze.

Her blood still streamed down her face, completely covering her chest.

‘
Whatever you do to me, know this: I won’t help you,’ Nida said determinedly.

‘
Yes, you will,’ the soldier said simply.

Though the voice was distorted, Nida suddenly recognized it. Now she peered at the armor, she recognized that too. ‘Cara?’ She accused in a shaking voice.

Cara didn’t react immediately, then she slowly removed her helmet, flicking her long white hair out behind her. She looked down at Nida with a terrifying expression. It wasn’t exactly angry. It was still awed, but it had a desperate, cold edge to it as if Cara now looked upon some powerful and forbidden weapon.

Nida shook back at that thought.

She felt cold again.

Stone, stone cold.

Her fingers locked hard around her arms and she drew her torso down, trying to hold in the warmth she could.

The entity . . . was it corrupting?

Was this why she felt so utterly frozen?

Cara watched her with silent interest, but did not say nor do anything.

‘
Why are you just standing there? Do something. Say something,’ Nida screamed.

Cara didn’t react.

‘
You’re waiting for Carson, aren’t you?’ Nida now realized, trembling as she spoke her words.

Cara nodded once.

Nida got to her feet. She didn’t care that Cara took a menacing step her way.

‘
I don’t know who you are,’ Nida said through bared teeth, ‘but whatever you’re planning won’t work. Carson will stop you.’

Cara didn’t react. Not a smile, not a word, nothing.

She just waited.

And Nida was forced to wait with her.

With the building shaking underneath her and the shouts a constant drone from below, she sat there as cold as ice waiting for someone to save her. For, no matter how strong she had pretended to be, apparently she was not strong enough.

She should never have joined the Academy. She should never have gone down to Remus 12.

The entity needed someone else; someone capable and powerful enough to get it home. And the United Galactic Coalition deserved better; someone strong and diligent enough to save it from the future that lay ahead.

The wind began to pick up, roaring over the high roof and sending Nida’s blood-covered hair cutting across her face. It whipped against her cheeks and closed eyes, stinging the flesh.

She could no longer smell the terrible, acrid tang that permeated this city, only the blood clogging her nostrils.

Feeling more alone than she ever would, Nida kept her eyes closed and waited.