Ouroboros Episode One

  Chapter 22

  Carson Blake

  When he received a call from Admiral Forest early in the morning, he answered immediately. He had barely slept the night before, and the little fitful slumber he'd managed to take only served to make him all the more tired. Nonetheless, he managed to answer with a curt "hello."

  Admiral Forest didn't bother with pleasantries; she told him immediately that his ship had been cleared, and that a priority-one transport lane had been opened up for him. True to her promise last night, she was going to send him to Remus 12.

  Then Forest cleared her throat, and an unusual, hesitant silence descended over the line.

  Carson stood there, ramrod straight, his hands clasped behind his back, staring at the computer panel in his lounge room.

  "We are moving her to the Jupiter Substation," Forest suddenly announced.

  Carson lost all of his hard-won composure, and his hands fell hard at his sides as surprise slackened his features. "What?" he stuttered, all control lost from his voice too.

  "We need to isolate her. We also need to study her properly, and the only way to do that is by taking her to the Jupiter Substation. We simply cannot run the risk that??she has been infected by something that can be transmitted to other telekinetic implants. It's the safest thing to do," Forest added in a firm voice that told him she would not compromise on her decision.

  Slowly he clamped his teeth together, concentrating on the sensation of compression and tension rather than what Forest had just said.

  "We must isolate this," Forest repeated, but it was unclear what this referred to. Was it the situation as a whole??or was it just Nida?

  They were treating her as if she was diseased, like the strange effects ailing her implant could be picked up by somebody else.

  He wanted to tell Forest that was cold, almost inhuman, but he didn't. Because deep down under his swirling and turbid emotions, he could understand her point.

  The Academy couldn't run the risk of this spreading, so right now they were treating it like an infection. And the first thing you did with an infection was you isolated the patient. Hence the Jupiter Substation.

  Still, the thought that Nida would be transported there made him cold with worry. The Substation was where the Academy took all of its most dangerous subjects. From unknown alien life forms, to confiscated technology, the Substation was built to withstand danger.

  This was yet another signal that what was happening here was now deadly serious.

  And yet, all Carson could think of was how downright innocent, if awkward, Nida seemed. She didn't deserve to be at the center of this. In fact, it just seemed plain odd that she was. Odd, and unlucky.

  "Carson," the Admiral abruptly used his first name, "are you paying attention?"

  With a quick blink, he realized he'd zoned out, and he cleared his throat and nodded his head. "When do I leave?" he asked, deciding to concentrate on the one thing he could achieve. He had absolutely no chance of stopping Nida from being transported to the Jupiter Substation, but he could return to Remus 12. He could look for that scanner, and he could bring it back and find out what secrets it held.

  That thought alone strengthened his resolve more than all of the weapons in the United Galactic Coalition could.

  "Whenever you're ready," Forest announced.

  Carson nodded, then realized he ought to offer a salute, and snapped his stiff hand to his brow. "Thank you, Admiral. I will be in touch."

  "As will I. This is?" she trailed off, and briefly, she stepped away from the viewscreen, as if she no longer wished to be seen. Then, with a resounding sigh, she came back into view. Her eyes were hooded in shadow, and it was clear she hadn't slept a wink last night. "Lieutenant??Carson," she used his first name, "good luck. God knows we need some good luck right now."

  The Admiral looked as if she wanted to end the call, but Carson stepped forward. "What else have they found out? Have they been able to remove the implant?" His questions were probably stupid considering the Admiral had already told him Nida was being transferred to Jupiter Substation. And the Academy would hardly bother transferring her unless there was still a damn good reason to do so.

  The Admiral shook her head, and it was a bitter move. "We have been unable to remove the implant. Whatever is??attacking it, will not let us. The Cadet is currently inside a stasis field, and as soon as we stabilize it, she will be transported. And, before you ask, no, we do not know anything more. We have no idea what that energy is, we have no idea where she picked it up from, and we have no idea what it will do to her or the implant."

  Carson didn't know how to reply, and even if he'd thought of the best and sagest wisdom to impart at that moment, he wouldn't have been able to force himself to speak. He was rendered to the spot with surprise and deep, deep, bone-shaking shock.

  With a brief goodbye, Admiral Lara Forest ended the call, leaving Carson alone in his apartment, staring at nothing but an empty computer panel.

  His gaze fixed on the spot where the Admiral's face had once been, and he slowly blinked, squeezing his eyes as tightly closed as he could.

  "This doesn't make sense," he told his empty apartment in a hesitant, wavering voice.

  "Energy? A blue light attacking her implant?" he said aloud again. "Someone must have some idea what's going on."

  For a brief, paranoid moment, he wondered if they really did. If Forest and the other heads of the Academy knew exactly what had happened to Nida, but for now, they were keeping that information to themselves.

  As Carson pondered that fact, he quickly realized it couldn't be true. Forest was stalwart and hardy, even under immense stress, yet right now, she was visibly cracking. No, she didn't know what was happening any more than he did.

  In fact, none of them would find out until and unless he returned to Remus 12 and found his scanner.

  It held the key.

  He knew it did.

  Clutching his once loose and sticky palms into tight fists, he rammed them against his legs and blinked. Then he whirled on his foot and headed for the door. He didn't even bother collecting any personal items; he simply strode through the halls of his apartment block until he reached the nearest lift. Then he rode it down to the ground floor and made his way across the Academy to the main ship dock. There he found the small cruiser the Admiral had set aside for him.

  He quickly scouted out the engineer refueling and restocking his ship, and once Carson confirmed his vessel would be ready within five minutes, he finally started to relax.

  But only just.

  He couldn't deny this incredible sense of impending doom that was descending on him from above like the thickest, blackest, and most stifling of clouds.

  He was running out of time. Which was a terrifying concept considering he didn't even know how much time he had left, let alone how quickly he was running out of it. Yet he couldn't deny that with every second he stood there and waited for his ship to be ready, it felt as if he were throwing away the most precious resource he had left.

  He tried to distract himself with watching the ship dock around him. Usually, it was a startling sight. An enormous ring-shaped building with an open roof that led straight up to an unrivaled view of the picturesque blue sky above.

  Within the building itself were multiple levels, all made of enormous, reinforced metal floors that could slide back into the sides of the building to allow ships docked on the lower levels to leave.

  It was a testament to technology, and it showed just how powerful the Galactic Coalition Academy was. There was no other ship-docking complex like this on Earth, and the majority of Academy traffic came through here.

  Well, at least the majority of the spaceship traffic that actually landed on Earth. The larger vessels, from the enormous Coalition cruisers to the gigantic survey ships and resource transports, never landed on the planet. They always remained in space, only ever taking up orbit around the world, but never descending to the surface.

  Still, the smal
l cruisers and reconnaissance vessels that were currently housed in this building were impressive enough.

  In fact, one of them in particular caught his eye as he stared across the expansive, glistening, white metal floor in front of him.

  There was a sleek-looking, blue and black cruiser about the size of a house, but narrower and with a long, almost elegant, pointed nose.

  It took him a moment to recognize the design, and he quickly realized it was one of the Academy's newest and most experimental of ships. It was fast, it was powerful, and as an engineer gestured toward it, Carson realized it was his.

  He swallowed his shock as the engineer marched up and told him he could now take off.

  When Admiral Forest had given Carson the go-ahead to return to Remus 12, he'd assumed she'd done so only out of loyalty, not because she genuinely thought it was a good idea. Yet as he stared at the experimental vessel she'd chosen for him, he had to reassess his assumption.

  "She is called the Farsight," the engineer said as he scratched grease-covered fingers over his stubble-rayed chin.

  "Damn," Carson couldn't keep the surprise from his tone.

  "Yeah, I know, right? Beautiful, but that being said, don't scratch it," the engineer grumbled. "The controls are easy enough; the same as all Academy light cruisers. This one is armed to the teeth, though. So if you get in a fight, remember that. It's a pretty big vessel for one person, but the Admiral told me you're going on your own, so be sure to set the computer to automate all engine and systems maintenance," the guy continued.

  Carson nodded his head, but he couldn't take his eyes off the vessel. It wasn't just that it was an objectively incredible sight, and clearly the pinnacle of current Coalition technology. Oh no, what commanded his attention was what it meant.

  ?.

  Why the hell was Forest giving him this ship? Especially when she thought he was going on a useless mission.

  Something wasn't right here, but he didn't have the luxury of time to try to find out what it was. Instead, he snapped a salute at the engineer, then walked across the cavernous, echoing room toward his vessel.

  The closer he got, the tighter a knot formed in his stomach, until he finally reached the vessel, and it felt as though he would double over from the nerves welling within him.

  He kept walking, though, and finally reached the open hangar door at the back of the ship. Walking up the reverberating ramp, he was struck by how sleek everything was inside. It was composed of smooth, elegant lines and forms, and everything was colored in shades of clean white, shiny silver, and matte black.

  Once he made it into the belly of the vessel, he walked over to the nearest lit up panel, and he pressed several buttons in sequence, causing the hangar door to close. It didn't creak and nor did the ship shudder; everything moved smoothly and with perfect precision.

  Realizing he could hardly stand there and stare boggled eyed at this marvelous technology, he quickly whirled on his foot, headed out of the hangar bay, and into the rest of the ship.

  He briefly toured the major rooms: the compact engineering bay, the small but well-serviced galley, the main quarters, and the bridge. Feeling satisfied that everything was in order, he finally sat down in the captain's seat. Then, with several brief commands to the computer, the ship hummed into life. It didn't roar or rumble like a Coalition heavy cruiser; the sound of the engines as they pulsed into life barely registered.

  Offering a brief smile at how incredible this ship was, he settled into the back of his seat and watched the viewscreen as the cruiser took off.

  It was so automated that he didn't have to offer the computer another single command; the ship simply followed a set exit protocol and flew itself out of the narrow aperture of the Academy main dock. It shot into the air, and as it burst free from the open-ceiling, swathes of blue sky and white cloud surrounded it. With a single blink, the view of the city transformed from an enormous, sprawling, well-lit metropolis, to nothing but a dot on the edge of a continent. The ship moved that fast.

  Carson chuckled to himself, then with a swallow, he realized how serious the situation was, and he stiffened his smile into a frown. "Come on," he said under his breath, begging the universe for some much-needed luck, "come on," he repeated one last time.

  Then he settled back, and he waited. He did what he could, running through the ship's diagnostics to confirm that everything was working. Then he double-checked the navigation coordinates, to ensure he was on track for Remus 12.

  Then??well, he kicked his shoes off, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

  There was nothing more to be done.

  Soon he would reach his destination, and he knew he should take the opportunity to rest now.

  But rest he would not, for though Carson didn't appreciate it, at that moment, a surprise was headed his way.

  Cadet Nida Harper, to be specific.