Ouroboros 3: Repeat (17 page)

It now raged at her; it tore at her mind as if it were trying to destroy it, trying to control what was left of her body and soul.

She didn’t let it. She drew on every lesson she had learnt to date. And she concentrated on her implant, and that feeling of being able to move TI objects.

She also concentrated on Carson Blake. For if she could do this, she could save him and everybody else.

And maybe she could save the Vex too.

But first she would have to overcome the entity.

As she fought it, a plan formed in her mind.

Though it was dangerous, she was going to go back to Vex. Once there, she would use the entity to open a time gate, depositing her and Carson at the exact point after which they had first left into Vex’s history. The point at which the Barbarians had attacked them.

Then Nida would go back to the United Galactic Coalition with Carson, and she would warn them. She would tell them not to send the fleet to Vex.

To ignore whatever weapons they sent forth. To ride it out.

If the Coalition acted quickly enough, they could evacuate all nearby systems.

They could drastically reduce damage and casualties.

Though she knew she could not stop the event from happening, she could stop the Coalition from losing as many forces.

And then, once the date of the event was over, she would
 . . . never go back to Vex. She would keep the entity with her, away from that planet. And she would break the cycle. It would not fix the Vex timeline, but it would ensure that the entity stopped interfering in it, that it could not warn the Vex of their fate and fire them up until they attacked everyone and everything on the day of the event.

Yes.

That was what she would do.

As that plan solidified, so did her strength.

She may not have ever been a master of the telekinetic implant, but the few lessons she had learnt kept her going, kept her fighting, until finally she won.

The wheat slipped away, so did the stars, and so did the entity.

It sunk back into her just as she rose into consciousness.

Carson Blake

A lot went through his mind as he waited by her bedside. Thought after thought assailed him, like bullet after bullet on the battlefield.

Yet through it all, he did not leave, until finally she roused.

He expected her to be sleepy, drowsy; he expected her to come around slowly and only under the firm encouragement of stimulants.

She didn’t. She simply rose up, coming to a graceful seated position as her eyes opened wide and fixed right on him.

She had the strangest expression slackening her features. It wasn’t shock or grief, though both were present under the surface. It was
 . . . strength. She had come to some kind of realisation, or she had finally achieved something. But what, he could not tell.

He could ask though.

‘Nida,’ his voice was a choked mess, ‘Nida,’ he repeated her name as if the mere mention of it gave him strength. ‘What happened?’

‘
The entity,’ she began, suddenly closing her eyes as if to block out distractions as she took a breath and continued, ‘it showed me things. It told me things,’ she added in a hoarse whisper.

There were several medical personnel in the room, and Travis was leaning against the opposite wall, his arms furled around his middle in a familiar move, but his expression at odds with his usual confidence.

Which made perfect sense; Travis wasn’t normal any more. Over the past three days, he had lost nearly everything that mattered to him.

Yet even now he straightened and looked over with interest. And hope. Carson could see it kindle in his friend’s eyes, and as it did, it bloomed in Carson’s heart too.

‘Carson . . . I don’t know where to begin,’ she acknowledged as she blinked her eyes closed and rubbed her hands over them as though she were trying to clear her vision.

Though he wanted to tell her to ignore anything the entity had shared with her, he couldn’t. He could see her expression, and it was full of
 . . . certainty. Assuredness.

She very much looked as if she now had the answers she had sought so desperately. So he stood up and paid attention. In fact, he riveted his gaze on her and did not blink once.

‘I spoke to it,’ she repeated, ‘and it told me everything.’

‘
Nida,’ he cautioned in a quiet tone, ‘it has manipulated us before. It has told us lies to ensure we do what it wants.’

She shook her head fervently, making her loose hair scatter across her cheeks and forehead. He got the immediate urge to push forward and brush those errant strands from her face. He restrained himself, just.

‘This was different, Carson,’ she assured him in a small but firm voice, ‘it wasn’t lying to me. It wasn’t like any of the other times; I was connected to it. I know it was telling the truth. Because what it told me . . . ,’ she trailed off and shuddered.

Carson glanced over at Travis, and they shared a tense look.

‘What did it tell you?’ Travis now tried.

‘
I know what happened to Vex. I know what the event is. I know why they attacked the United Galactic Coalition, and I know how to stop them.’

On that promise, Carson couldn’t keep his emotion in any more; he clutched a hand to his mouth, breathing hard through the small gaps between his sweaty fingers.

‘How?’ He croaked in a hoarse whisper. But just as soon as the question was out, he shook his head and took a sudden step forward. ‘Hold on, can you control it? Will it attack you again?’

Despite how much he wanted to know why the Coalition was attacked and what the entity really wanted, he had to prioritise her safety.

She looked up at him and nodded once. It was a determined and strong move. Though he had been worried before he’d seen it, now he forced himself to take a step back and breathe.

‘
I can control it. I’m learning how to more and more. The way it operates, its energy—it is quite close to the TI implant. That’s why it kept affecting my TI implant. But it’s also why I’ve grown to control it.’ Though she had already explained that before, she did it again in a patient, slow tone, finishing off with a small, reassuring smile. ‘I can do this. But I think I know of a way you can help me,’ she suddenly added.

He took another snapped step forward.
‘How?’ He asked without hesitation.

‘
Find me another TI implant. A bigger one, a better one. I’m pretty sure we can use that technology to help suppress it. Especially now I know what I’m doing,’ she promised.

Travis put a hand up, walked over to one of the doctors, snapped at her to do whatever she could, made a quick call to the engineering bay, asked them to look into it too, then finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Travis knew when to act quickly, and Carson reminded himself to buy the guy a beer whenever he had the chance.

‘
We will get you that implant,’ Travis promised as he returned to the conversation.

She nodded, blinked her eyes closed for a bare moment, then opened them one by one.

She looked . . . serene. No, that wasn’t quite the right word. He could still see that she was fragile—her eyes were hooded with shadow, every now and then the pupils glistening with tears, and her voice was still small. Yet at the same time there was such a gentle strength behind her words.

Yes, that was it, a gentle strength.

He was suddenly reminded of something he had once seen from old Earth’s history. A card from something called a tarot pack. The card in question was called Strength, and it depicted a woman seated down next to a lion, opening its mouth, and all the while her expression was nothing more than calm, almost loving resolve.

And he felt that exact same mix of emotion now.

‘What happened?’ Travis prompted again as she withdrew into silence.

Then she told them. All about her visions, all about witnessing the event over and over again, about seeing various alien ships and bodies drawn down onto Vex, only to be obliterated into dust.

It was . . . impossible to believe at first. Then gradually it started to make a sick kind of sentence.

It explained why the entity had always been so desperate, why it had killed those Barbarians in cold blood and why it had threatened to kill him. It was prepared to do whatever it would take to save Vex—to fix its mistakes, as Nida had put it.

‘This is . . . this is . . . ,’ Travis tried, but with a sigh, he gave up. Clearly there was no easy way to describe what was happening.

He wanted it to be impossible. Just as he wanted everything to miraculously go back to normal. He wanted to wipe away the past few weeks of his life. No
 . . . not everything, just the danger, just the doubt. He would keep Nida in a heartbeat.

But the point was, just wishing for things to be different and wishing for them to make a neat, logical, scientific kind of sense wouldn’t cut it.

Despite her continuing gentle strength, Nida’s voice began to waver. And she kept on shaking her head. ‘Carson, it’s . . . it is horrible,’ she choked through her words. ‘They have one day to save themselves.’ She repeated again, stuck on that one fact. ‘One day where Vex aligns to this universe, to our timeline. That’s why they lured most of the Coalition fleet back to Vex, killed the crews, and took the ships down to their planet. They were looking for technology, for anything that could save them. But we didn’t have it . . . so at the end of the day, they just . . . they died. The timeline repeated.’

‘
I saw those ships,’ Travis pointed out in a shaking voice that could barely carry, ‘they were fast, they was huge, they were so strong. Why didn’t the Vex just load their civilisation onto those ships and fly away from the planet whilst they had the chance?’

She shook her head passionately, several tears streaking down her face as she did.
‘They can’t survive in this timeline. They only exist here as long as the event aligns them with us. Once the event is over, and Vex is destroyed, it all begins again. Every Vex is killed, every building is razed to the ground. They will only be able to exist in our timeline once or if their own history is fixed.’

Travis did not question her again.

Though she still looked strong, it was clear she was exhausted.

Carson wanted to hear absolutely everything she had to say, but he couldn’t keep pushing her. So, reluctantly, he took a step back and offered Travis a very pointed nod. It took Travis a while to make eye contact, and when he did, he just shook his head.

‘I’ve waited too long to figure out what’s going on here,’ Travis began.

That drew a quick, harsh, disbelieving laugh from Carson. And at the same time, Nida gave one too.

Travis had waited too long to find out what was happening? Carson and Nida had been plunged through time with nothing but questions haunting them for the past month.

‘
Come on, we need to let her rest,’ Carson said aloud, realising Travis needed more than a nod to warn him off.

Travis opened his mouth to protest. Carson just raised a hand.
‘That’s an order.’

There was a long drawn out silence, punctuated only when Travis gave a hefty sigh.
‘You’re no longer my superior, Carson. I’m a captain now. I became one when over 80 percent of our friends and colleagues died at the hands of a race we still know next to nothing about.’

Though Travis’ emotion-filled response made the hair on the back of Carson’s neck stand on end, he didn’t give up.
‘She needs to rest,’ he said in a low tone.

Finally Travis agreed with a nod, mumbled something to the doctor, then led Carson from the room with a small wave.

Captain Travis’ shoulders were hunched forward, his eyes hooded from fatigue, and his skin still tinged with yellow. He was not in a good way. Still, he mustered a short laugh nonetheless before adding, ‘who would have thought I’d reach captain before you?’

Carson didn’t say anything. He managed the smallest of smiles as he followed Travis out, yet at the same time twisted his head to glance over at Nida.

She was still seated on her bed, though one of the doctors was trying to convince her to lie back down. She made eye contact with him though.

‘
It’ll be fine,’ he mumbled under his breath.

She smiled.

He walked out.

Though Travis demanded Carson draft up a full report detailing what he’d experienced travelling through time on Vex, eventually Carson finished and was assigned a room.

It was the first time in weeks he’d had the luxury of having a shower. Though the small ship he’d taken from Remus 12 to meet up with the Orion had been equipped with the usual facilities, he’d not had the chance to use them. What with Nida facing a constant battle for control of her body with the entity, there hadn’t been the time to prioritise getting cleaned up.

Now he stood there letting real water wash over his back, shoulders, and face.

Occasionally he closed his eyes then opened them again, as if daring the world around him to change as he did. It would take more than blinking to fix things though.

Not for the first time, and not for the last, Carson sighed deeply. The noise was so strong, it reverberated through his diaphragm and out into his stomach and back.

A lot was happening quickly.

So quickly he couldn’t keep up.

But at least he had answers now. And no matter how incredible they sounded, he knew Nida wasn’t lying to him. She really had conversed with the entity, and what it had told her had made a sick kind of sense.

Something so guilt-stricken really would do whatever it would take to expunge its past.

Sighing again, Carson thought about turning the water off, but quickly decided against it.

He’d earned this respite. He was going to shower for as long as he damn well pleased, then he was going to sit down to a proper meal. After that, he was going to catch some sleep.

Because god knows he needed it.

As the water washed over him, it took a little of the edge off the surprise and grief that had built within him since he’d arrived in this time period.

It couldn’t wash away the guilt though.

When the Vex had forced him through that simulation to steal his secrets, they’d done a thorough job. And every secret they had stolen had been used against the Galactic Coalition.

Had led to ships being lost, people dying, and the almost total defeat of his friends and colleagues.

The water couldn’t wash away what he’d done; the guilt remained no matter how hard he tried to scrub his skin clean.

Though he hadn’t done it knowingly or on purpose, his actions and inability to withstand the Vex simulation had led to lives being lost.

So of course a simple shower wasn’t going to fix that.

There was one thing, however, that could.

He pushed a hand into the frosted tile before him and opened his eyes.

Nida.

She could make it all right again. If she was right, and she could force the entity to take them back to the exact time they’d left Remus 12 when the Barbarians had attacked, then there was a chance to fix this.