Ouroboros Episode One

  Chapter 18

  Carson Blake

  He stood there, and he tried to understand.

  He couldn't.

  He couldn't understand how this had happened. He couldn't understand how no one had stepped in to stop it. He couldn't understand how no one had figured out what was wrong.

  But more than anything, he couldn't understand why he'd been so slow.

  Something was wrong with Cadet Nida Harper, very wrong.

  As he stood over her, staring down at her comatose body, guilt crawled up his spine, burning up his ego as it went.

  He was meant to be a hero. He was meant to be head of the freaking Force, yet he'd been unable to do anything for her.

  He was a so-called master of the telekinetic implant, yet he'd been unable to stop that pole.

  In fact, the only thing that had stopped its indomitable attack was Nida falling unconscious.

  And unconscious she remained as an entire team of medical personnel fussed around her as she was prepped to be loaded onto a transport.

  Occasionally doctors snapped at him to stand back, but he just snapped he was going to keep standing right here.

  He couldn't shift away. He couldn't move from her side. He just knew if he did, another TI object would come shooting her way, and he had to be here to catch it.

  "Come on, Carson, it's not your fault," Travis said in a tired, gravelly voice.

  Carson didn't turn.

  "She's in good hands now. Come on, they'll figure out what's going on," Travis said, but the note of confusion and uncertainty shifting through his tone was undeniable.

  "Right," Carson managed.

  "They'll have everyone working on it," Travis tried again.

  "Yeah," Carson mumbled.

  "It wasn't your fault," someone else said. It wasn't Travis; it was Alicia.

  Carson finally turned to face her.

  She looked shocked; her eyes were hooded, her gaze glassy as she stared at the medical transport. It was parked off toward the side of the square.

  Carson couldn't say anything; he simply stared at Alicia, and when that became too uncomfortable, he pushed off and started walking around the square.

  TIs don't just malfunction, certainly not twice.

  What was happening to her?

  "They'll be able to remove it, right?" Alicia stepped forward, her gaze pleading.

  "Remove what?" he wasn't following.

  "The implant. They'll be able to get passed that??blue energy and remove it."

  Carson pressed his lips together and shot a look at Travis.

  Alicia had been the only person with Nida when she'd passed out. Alicia claimed to have seen some kind of blue energy building up in Nida's implant. It sounded outlandish and implausible.

  "We'll just let the doctors and technicians figure it out," Travis suggested diplomatically.

  Alicia turned on him sharply. Her usual fiery determination flared in her eyes. "You don't believe me? What, you just think I'm stressed too? I'm telling you what I saw. There was some kind of energy building up in her implant, and it forced me back when I tried to touch it."

  "We know what you said," Travis tried.

  "No, what I saw," Alicia corrected angrily.

  "Look, we're all tired," Travis smiled at her carefully, "and we have no idea what happened. We've just got to wait for the doctors to figure it out."

  Alicia crossed her arms and stared at him stonily. "She was freezing," she pointed out through a stutter.

  "What?" Travis shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

  "Nida. I could barely touch her. It felt like I was shoving my hand into deep space."

  Carson let his arms drop loosely by his sides as a chill escaped over his back. "I felt it too."

  Alicia looked up sharply. Though at first, she had a challenging glint to her gaze, it soon mellowed. "So what the hell does it mean? Humans shouldn't feel that cold."

  "What are you two talking about?" Travis looked between them both, and though it was clear he wanted to keep his objective mindset, the edge of his jaw steadily slackened. Then he swallowed. "Maybe she was just??sick."

  Both Carson and Alicia shook their heads at the same time.

  "No," Carson practically whispered, his voice hoarse and croaky. "No, this was freezing."

  "Come on, man, that's not possible," Travis tried.

  "You mean like it's not possible for a TI to malfunction, let alone twice? And how, in god's name, did it generate enough power to pull that weapon toward it? Nida doesn't have that kind of power, and an implant is only as strong as the wearer is. No, something is happening here," Carson turned his head, watching the medical transport as it finally took off, hovered over the ground for a few seconds, then shot up into the night sky. Its downdraught rustled the two trees of the square, sending a few leaves scattering down. Two of them dashed against Carson's boots.

  "She's been screaming in her sleep," Alicia suddenly said, her voice distant and cold.

  Every hair on Carson's back stood on end. "What?"

  "I just put it down to the stress. She said she's been having nightmares," Alicia stared at her hands as she answered.

  For the usually confident, if sometimes-arrogant woman, she now looked wracked with guilt.

  It was an emotion Carson could identify, as it now crippled him.

  He'd done so many things wrong. And the worst, above all, was not asking her sooner what exactly had happened on Remus 12.

  Because this all went back to Remus 12, didn't it?

  "The doctors have checked her multiple times, though, right?" Travis tried, his usually confident demeanor wavering. In fact, he looked ten years younger, all authority gone as his shoulders crumpled in and he stared at Carson from under a heavy brow.

  "Yeah," Carson forced himself to answer, "but maybe they didn't know what they were looking for. And maybe I should have tried harder to force them to see something was wrong."

  Alicia sighed. It was a tight, clearly aggravated move. "It's not your fault," she snapped. "God, if it's anyone's, it's mine. She's my freaking flatmate, and I should have been keeping an eye on her. Instead, I invited her to this stupid function."

  "Come on, you didn't know something like this would happen," Travis walked up to Alicia and tried to place a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged away.

  "Don't even try to make me feel better. I don't deserve it." Alicia hissed.

  "Look, guys," Travis raised his voice, his exasperation clear, "you both need to stop standing here blaming yourselves. You two clearly have your own theories about what happened, and maybe I need to see more evidence before I can agree with you. But I can tell you one thing: you aren't going to achieve anything by standing here and wallowing. Nida's being taken straight to the Academy hospital. I assume she's going to want someone there when she wakes up. I can stay here and deal with security, again," he added with a sigh, "and you guys can go. Alright?"

  Though Alicia still looked pissed off, she softened at Travis' offer. "Fine," while she kept her arms crossed, she did shoot Travis an appreciative smile.

  "Yeah," Carson added.

  "Alright, go," Travis pointed behind him in the direction of the Academy.

  Carson nodded, then strode off, Alicia at his side.

  They walked in total silence.

  Though he kind of knew Alicia, this was the longest time they'd spent in each other's company, and the silence between them dragged. He couldn't ease it, though - he didn't want to chat about the weather or the next E Club event. He just wanted to find out exactly what was happening to Nida.

  So they simply walked together without sharing a word. When they neared the Academy grounds, however, he got a call.

  Feeling flustered, he answered with a huff. "Who is this?" he snapped, not recognizing the number.

  "Ah, sir," a man squeaked in a clearly worried tone, "Cadet Lai."

  Carson had to search his memory.

  "I found that watch before," Lai suppl
ied helpfully.

  "Yes??why are you calling me?" Carson asked bluntly.

  "There's??something not right with it."

  "What do you mean?" Carson slowed down.

  "Well, it started making weird noises. I thought that maybe there was something wrong with the processor - so I popped it open to have a look. I'm a pretty good technician, sir; I fix wristwatches all the time," he explained.

  "Just tell me what's wrong," Carson demanded.

  "Yeah?" Lai took a heavy breath that rumbled over the communication line, "the insides are??warped."

  "What?"

  "They're warped, sir. I can't explain it. Something really, really weird has happened to it. I mean, I've never seen anything like this, and I must have cracked open over 2000 of these in my time. It's almost like it has got too close to a black hole or something," Lai reasoned, curiosity brimming through his tone.

  Carson felt cold.

  He'd slowed right down, and now he stopped, Alicia pausing right by his side. She looked up into his eyes, tension making her expression appear poised on the edge of panic.

  She'd clearly heard what Lai had said. "He's talking about Nida's watch, right?"

  Carson nodded.

  "I mean, I've never seen a malfunction like this," Lai continued, "whatever happened to this watch appears to have happened over time. Otherwise its internal diagnostics would have picked up on it. As it was, whatever damaged the rest of the watch damaged them too. Slowly. Or at least I think it did; I won't be able to tell until I get it back to the lab."

  "Hold on," Alicia stepped in, raising her voice. "Cadet Lai, is it? I know it's a long shot, but can you tell me whether the watch was taken off, or whether it fell off?"

  "Ah, I don't know," Lai answered after a pause, "but with this much damage, the thing could easily have fallen off. I mean, I know they're designed to stay on, but something has taken this little watch way beyond its operating parameters. Why do you want to know?"

  Alicia looked right up into Carson's eyes. "My friend said she dropped it, and I told her she was lying. In fact, I gave her a pretty hard time about it. But I guess I was wrong."

  Carson knew the message was meant for him.

  "Yeah, I suppose," Lai admitted, "ah, you said this belonged to Nida Harper right?" his voice tightened with interest. "I looked her name up, and isn't she the one who was almost killed-"

  "Alright, I have somewhere to be," Carson cut in immediately, "thanks for your information, Cadet Lai. Take that watch directly to a lab and run as many tests as you can think of. Just do everything. I need you to find out as much as you can."

  "Yeah, okay. I mean, I am meant to do a project for Commander Bayu," Lai began.

  "This is an order. I'll contact Bayu and tell her you're working for me now. I want you to contact me - day or night - as soon as you've got anything. Alright?"

  "Sure. I mean, yes, sir," Lai snapped.

  With a brief goodbye, Carson ended the call.

  Then he made the mistake of glancing Alicia's way.

  "We were wrong," she said in a voice crippled with guilt. "Jesus, her watch really did fall off."

  Carson didn't say anything; instead, he walked as fast as he could toward the Academy complex.

  Alicia hurried to keep up. "What, aren't you going to say anything?"

  "What do you want to hear? That I was wrong about that too? Yeah, well I have made multiple mistakes here, and that's only one. You don't need to rub my nose in it; I'm already doing a perfectly good job of that myself."

  "I'm not trying to blame you," Alicia began.

  "Yeah, you are," he countered quickly.

  "Fine, I am, a little. But that's not the point. Didn't you hear what that guy said? Something warped her wristwatch, causing it to fall off - something we were both so sure couldn't happen."

  "What's your point?"

  "That the same thing probably happened??or is still happening to her implant. It keeps malfunctioning, and maybe the same thing that stuffed up her watch is causing that malfunction."

  Carson stared past Alicia at the city stretching out behind her. It should have been a distracting sight. He could have forced his attention to focus on the smooth, clean lines of the buildings stretching high into the night sky. He could have turned his head up to stare at the sleek, shooting shapes of ships zooming far above.

  But he didn't.

  Instead, he let her words settle in.

  She was right; it did make sense.

  "We can't just stand here on the street while you think about this," Alicia twitched her head in the direction of the Academy.

  "Yeah, I know that," he noted in the most patient voice he could manage, considering the circumstances, "but, not to be rude," he began, about to say something very rude indeed.

  "But what? You want to know why I suddenly care about my flatmate, is that it?"

  Carson nodded. "Yeah. Granted, I don't really know you, but you don't strike me?" he trailed off. There was no polite way to put this.

  Nida was nice. Alicia wasn't. End of story.

  Alicia raised an eyebrow slowly. It was more of a twitch actually. A challenging one. "What?"

  "You appear to come from different ends of the social spectrum," he gave a quiet cough.

  "Yeah, so do you; what the hell is your point? I'll grant you, I don't really have much time for her. And, to be honest, I used to think she was nothing more than a ditz. It was a mild embarrassment to be sharing an apartment with the worst recruit in 1000 years. But hey, she almost died a couple of days ago, and that had the odd effect of forcing me to realize I was being a total bitch. She's quiet, she's understanding, she keeps the apartment clean, she doesn't argue, and she hasn't once stitched me up or ditched me, which can't be said for any of my so-called friends."

  He didn't interrupt Alicia's tirade, and when it was over, he pressed his lips together and shrugged his shoulders.

  "What, that's it? This is the sum total of Carson Blake's emotional depth? I just admit to you I'm feeling guilty about how I've treated my flatmate, and you stand there mutely and shrug your shoulders?"

  Alicia was speaking too fast. Her lips practically jerked around her words in her efforts to cram everything out as quickly as she could. Her cheeks were blotchy too, and she kept on balling her hand into a fist and tapping it against her stomach.

  Which made sense. She'd just seen her flatmate almost die. She'd just helped Nida run from the club, and then Alicia had watched - unable to do anything - as Nida had faded into unconsciousness.

  A tight, cold blast of a shiver shot across his shoulders, forcing him to tuck his arms in and his head down.

  If Alicia was stressed and shocked, he wasn't doing any better.

  All he could do was tap his open palm against his thigh, remembering how tightly he'd held onto that TI pole, but how it hadn't mattered in the end. It had slipped from his grip as if he'd possessed little more strength than a child.

  "We should just drop this and hurry up. Travis is right; she'll want someone there when she wakes up," Alicia started marching forward.

  Carson jogged to catch up.

  Alicia was right, but she was also wrong. As hard as they were both trying, neither of them were really Nida's friends.

  She'd want her family. He didn't, however, have the authority to call them in; that decision would rest with the Academy Board. If there was something radically wrong with her implant, they would want to keep all news of it under wraps for now.

  He could call Cadet J'Etem, though. So he did. Pulling back a little from Alicia, he sent a quick message to the Cadet.

  Then he hurried forward.

  He might not have known Cadet Nida Harper for all that long, but he was determined to find out all he could about what was happening to her.

  Determination, however, would not be enough.