Ouroboros Episode One

  Chapter 3

  Cadet Nida Harper

  "Holy crap, I am late again," she realized as she sat up straight in her bed, her pillow bouncing out from underneath her and slamming onto the soft carpet below.

  She glanced over at the holographic clock in the corner and swore.

  Jesus Christ, she'd slept in for an hour. A whole fricking hour.

  Her alarm was blaring, and somehow she'd managed to snooze through it, even though it sounded like a red alert klaxon in her ear.

  She raced over to the alarm, waved her hand above it, and instantly it cut out.

  Then she swore even more as she threw off her clothes, grabbed her uniform from a pile on the ground, and clambered into it.

  God, she'd already missed half of her morning's lecture. And unfortunately for her, the lecture was being run by none other than Commander Sharpe.

  Her nemesis. A man who hated her and wanted nothing more than to kick her out of the Academy.

  Great.

  Now he would have yet another reason to reprimand her.

  Once she was done dressing, she ran her fingers through her matted, black, compact curls, and grabbed a simple clip off her bedside table. She wrestled her hair into some kind of bun, clasped it, and ran out of her bedroom door.

  She reached the kitchen, chugged down a glass of water, patted her lips, and headed for the door.

  The room was a mess.

  It was always a mess.

  Though she did genuinely try to keep it clean, her flatmate - Cadet Alicia Arquette - only ever bothered to help when they had guests coming around.

  Beyond the immediate mess, though, it was a lovely apartment. And it had the best view. It was halfway up one of the numerous high-rise blocks that were scattered around the Academy's main grounds, and if you stood at the plate glass windows that occupied one wall, you could see all the way over the city to the ocean far beyond. It glittered there, a sliver of tantalizing blue.

  Blue.

  For some reason, the mere thought of that color jogged something in her memory, but she couldn't recall exactly what.

  She found herself pausing, though, just before she anchored her palm onto the panel on the wall by the door.

  Shaking her head, she finally pushed through her reverie, then ran out into the corridor.

  She made double time, heading down to the Academy grounds and her lecture hall as fast as her feet could carry her.

  Then she snuck in the back way, sitting down in one of the chairs in the last row as quietly as she could.

  Though she hoped no one had seen her, she saw Sharpe look up from the lectern far below and narrow his gaze her way.

  Oh boy.

  No doubt, he was pausing to take a mental note to make her life hell after the lecture.

  She locked her teeth, closed her eyes, tipped her head back, and wondered if now was just a good time to quit and cut her losses.

  "As I am sure you are all aware, it takes years of rigorous practice to make full use of your telekinetic implants," Sharpe continued with the lecture.

  Every member of the Galactic Coalition Academy had a telekinetic implant. Even she did. In fact, she took several seconds to bring her hand up and tap the small, hard device lodged just a few centimeters below the base of her throat.

  She'd remembered being so excited when she'd received it.

  In her mind, she'd hoped it would let her make objects fly across the room, catch cruisers as they fell from the sky, and generally wield the power of a modern god.

  Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple.

  Not only were the implants hard to use, some people simply never got the knack of them.

  And she was one of the unlucky few who had zero talent. Totally zip. Nothing.

  She could do precious little with the implant. She'd been able to pick up a cup with her mind once, but that was it. She hadn't succeeded in using any of the specialized telekinetic weapons, and she'd certainly never caught a cruiser as it fell from the sky.

  She was, in other words, truly useless.

  "It is rare to find a true master of these implants. Not only does it require years of work, but a natural talent and understanding of the underlying dynamics involved," Sharpe said. "So we are very lucky to have a true master at the Academy."

  Nida sighed as she continued to tap her implant.

  J'Etem was a marvel when it came to the use of telekinetic power. In fact, nearly every other member of Nida's class had real talent for it.

  Nida, on the other hand, had come to the realization she would never be able to use her implant properly.

  No matter how many hours of practice she put in, she never improved. Lifting a cup was sure to be the height of her less-than heady success.

  Staring at her hands glumly as she allowed them to rest back on the table, she wondered whether she could just sneak out of the lecture. She was already in trouble, so it would hardly matter if she added a fresh, new mistake to her enormous list of misdemeanors.

  Pressing her lips together, she deliberately tuned out as Sharpe continued lecturing the class on the correct and effective use of their implants.

  She already knew the material anyway. Heck, every recruit did; the rest of her class was simply being politely attentive as Sharpe reminded them yet again how powerful yet dangerous telekinetic implants were.

  She appreciated the point, but it was hardly as if she needed to heed the warning; coffee cups aside, Nida was never going to be able to wield a telekinetic weapon, so there was no point in learning the correct way to use them.

  As she tuned out, her mind wandered over what she had to do for the rest of the day, then she mused about whether there'd be any hot dogs left in the cafeteria after the lunch rush.

  Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blue flash. The cadet sitting next to her wore one of the standard-issue Academy watches and had clearly just received a message - hence the sudden pulse of light.

  But even though she saw blue flashes like that every day, this one caught her attention.

  And held it fast.

  A kick of nerves traveled blindingly fast up her back, and she twitched forward as if she'd been struck.

  A memory played at the edge of her mind, toying with her.

  The cadet next to her turned, frowning at her odd behavior. "Are you okay?" he whispered.

  She forced herself to nod, pretending her leg had just cramped. Then she turned around and tried to listen to the lecture.

  She couldn't. That memory kept on beckoning her. And it had something to do with blue light. In fact, now she paused long enough, she realized she'd been fascinated by blue light ever since she'd returned from that rather ill-fated mission to the barren Remus 12.

  It had been several days now, and she'd made a complete recovery. Somehow, some precious how, she'd fallen over in the dark, cracked a rib, sprained an ankle, given herself a severe concussion, and cut her fingers and cheek.

  She still didn't remember how she'd done it, though.

  All she could recall about that day was being sent back to the compound by Sharpe after she'd led Blake to the mysterious stairs. Then she recalled nothing until she remembered waking up onboard the Orion.

  Everyone was sure she'd just fallen over, and to be fair, she was one of them. She knew first-hand how clumsy she could be, and considering she'd already broken a scanner that day on the planet by tripping over a rock, it wasn't so much of a stretch to imagine she'd broken herself by tripping over another rock.

  ?.

  So she tried to ignore the lights. Those flashes of blue.

  It was just her memory playing tricks on her.

  Concluding that, she got back to the important task of ignoring the lecture.

  While the cadet next to her had a rather rapt look of attention on his face, she didn't, and she couldn't muster the energy required to try.

  Sharpe already knew she was a complete disaster when it came to the use of her telekinetic implant.

&
nbsp; While everybody in her class had moved on from coffee cups to actual weapons, she hadn't, and she never would.

  She didn't, apparently, have the concentration and control for it.

  Telekinetic implants worked by allowing you to control certain objects that had been impregnated with a specialized magnetic material. The implant was hooked up to your central nervous system and right into your motor cortex. With just a thought, you could command the implant to put out a field and manipulate any material nearby with that necessary specialized magnetic substance inside.

  It was incredible technology and was one of the reasons the Galactic Coalition Academy had become as powerful as it was.

  It couldn't be used everywhere, though, and it certainly couldn't be used on anything; implants only worked on objects that had the right magnetized material in them.

  Feeling satisfied that she clearly already knew everything she needed to, Nida indulged in closing her eyes and forced a quiet, careful breath.

  Then she waited, listening with only half an ear as the lecture continued. In another hour, it was over.

  She carefully and discreetly made her way out of the back entrance, hoping that Sharpe wouldn't have the time to race around and catch her.

  He didn't, and with a small, satisfied smile, she hurried along the corridor.

  In fact, she ran so fast she rounded the corner before checking to see if anyone was coming from the other direction.

  Someone was, and she bumped straight into him.

  Swearing softly, she jolted back, then looked up to see none other than Carson Blake.

  He blinked at her, muttered sorry, then moved to walk off. Then he stopped. "Hold on, you're Cadet Harper, from the mission to planet Remus 12," his pupils widened with clear interest.

  She winced. "Yes, that would be me. Are you going to get me in trouble for losing your scanner?" she babbled quickly, searching for a reason to explain his sudden interest.

  "My scanner??oh, yeah, we did leave that behind, didn't we?" He looked thoughtful as he muttered a soft "ha."

  She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized he wasn't about to add another complaint against her to Commander Sharpe.

  "How are you?" he asked with genuine interest.

  She blinked back her surprise. Why did he care? She was just a walking accident and the worst recruit in 1000 years, and he was Carson Freaking Blake.

  He smiled at her encouragingly.

  He didn't look like he was acting, and with a quick look around her, she realized there was no one around he could be trying to impress by compassionately asking after her.

  "Ah," she mumbled, realizing her pause had become uncomfortably long, "fine. I mean, they fixed me up," she added awkwardly.

  "Do you remember what happened?" he now asked, dropping his tone as several cadets walked past them.

  She stopped.

  She was about to say she'd just fallen over, and it was nothing to worry about, but as she opened her mouth, the words wouldn't come out.

  Instead, sudden blue flashes filled her mind, like fireflies dancing frantically at the corners of her vision.

  She shook her head when she realized she couldn't just stand there with her mouth open looking dumbstruck, and offered what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "That kind of stuff always happens to me. I'm really sorry," she added, "about your scanner."

  He laughed. It was an odd move. It was as if he wasn't sure whether he should chuckle at her, but couldn't quite stop himself. "It's okay. It wasn't exactly mine. I had another one built as soon as we got back to the Orion."

  She smiled, sucking at her teeth as she did in what was perhaps the geekiest move she could make.

  She couldn't help herself.

  Because, well, this??was weird. And awkward, really, hideously awkward.

  "Sorry again," she managed, backing off, realizing she had to get away before she tripped over her own legs and crumpled at his feet.

  Then she heard a voice behind her.

  One that rumbled up like a volcano splitting the earth.

  Commander Sharpe.

  She winced again, this time as if she were about to be chopped in half.

  Because likely she would be.

  She turned to see him march up beside her.

  "Late again," he said tersely, "do you deliberately go out of your way to earn reprimands from me?"

  She wanted to ask whether he deliberately went out of his way to torture her, but she held her tongue. "No, sir," she answered, knowing exactly what he wanted to hear. "I just?" she trailed off. She could come up with all sorts of outlandish excuses, like being chased by mercenaries, or waking up on a foreign planet and having to find her way back to class in a jiffy. They were all lies, though. But at least they'd hide the truth, because the truth was truly pathetic.

  She'd overslept.

  "Don't bother," Sharpe sighed heavily, "just report to detention, again," he spoke to her with a long-suffering tone and shot her a look that made it clear he was sick of dealing with her antics.

  She turned around glumly, barely noticing as Blake offered her a friendly, commiserating smile.

  Her heart sunk at how much trouble she was about to get in.

  What was worse, she had a mound of assignments. It had taken her longer than usual to bounce back from her fall on Remus 12. The broken bone had knitted quickly, and the medical team had dealt with the concussion as fast as Coalition doctors could. But it had taken her several days of rest until her mind had come back to her.

  For those several days, a strange fog had descended over her, and the doctors had explained it away by theorizing she was just tired and stressed.

  Now, she was even more tired and even more stressed.

  Walking to her next class, she settled into a melancholic slump.

  The rest of the day passed, thankfully without further incident, and soon enough she found herself back in her quarters.

  She didn't enter her apartment to peace, however, for Alicia was running around frantically.

  As soon as Nida entered, Alicia snapped up, her expression filling with relief. "There you are. I was worried you would never return. Now you can help me clean," she announced at once. "This place is a tip."

  Nida stood there for a moment, raising her eyebrow slightly. She didn't exactly have the gumption to point out to Alicia that there was nothing stopping the woman from cleaning up after herself. Because one look around this room would confirm that every dirty dish, mound of clothes, or pile of datapads on the couch belonged to Alicia. Nida cleaned up after herself, hell, she'd even managed to do it over the past several days while she'd been convalescing.

  "Don't just stand there," Alicia announced, her irritation clear as she whisked a hand toward the couch and pointed at an enormous pile of clothes. "Help me move those into my room."

  Mutely, Nida walked over, grabbed the clothes, and marched them into Alicia's pigsty of a bedroom.

  "Why exactly are we doing this?" Nida asked as she walked back into the main room.

  "Boys," Alicia answered clearly.

  Nida rolled her eyes. Why had she bothered to ask? There was only one thing Alicia cared about, and that was men.

  There was also only one thing she ever bothered cleaning the apartment for. Men, again.

  Usually, Alicia didn't invite any guys back to their apartment because it was such a tip, that and Nida hated walking in from a long hard day at the Academy to find her flatmate rolling around on the couch with her latest catch.

  "Oh, don't look at me like that," Alicia actually stamped her foot. "They are just coming here before we go out. We'll be out of your hair pretty quick." She fobbed a hand Nida's way as she walked over to the enormous pile of dirty dishes in the sink.

  "They?" Nida asked as she narrowed her eyes. "You mean, you have more than one date?"

  Alicia harrumphed. "No, I've organized a double date."

  For a moment, Nida stood there, stock still, fear rising through her belly like
a tidal wave.

  Alicia clearly saw Nida's shocked expression, and she tipped her head back and laughed. "Oh my god, not for you, not for you," she emphasized as she chuckled even harder. "For Bridget. Don't be an idiot," Alicia walked past her and clasped a hand on her shoulder, "I would never organize a double date for you."

  Nida didn't know whether to be relieved or insulted, so she decided ignoring Alicia was best, and she picked her way through the open kitchen toward her room.

  The apartment was split into three rooms. The enormous shared living space in the middle that had a lounge, kitchen, and a big table directed at that enormous view through the plate glass windows. On either side of that room were Alicia and Nida's bedrooms. Both bedrooms had their own bathrooms, personal computers, beds, and storage spaces.

  If it weren't for Alicia's mess, this place would be beautiful, but you didn't get to pick your roommates at the Academy.

  "Hey, what are you doing? Come back here and help me clean up this mess," Alicia demanded.

  "Look, I've had a really long day, and I'm still feeling kind of??funny," Nida managed with a swallow.

  "Oh, get over it. I know you fell over and bumped your head," Alicia gave a surprised laugh, clearly amused that someone could do themselves so much damage by tripping up, "but that was several days ago, and the doctors gave you the all clear yesterday. Now you have no excuse, so help me clean up your mess."

  "My mess?" Nida challenged in a rare moment of bravery.

  Alicia opened her mouth to say yes but clearly thought better of it. "Our mess," she tried instead. "Now hurry."

  "Why? When will they get here?" Nida turned to look at the door, ready to see several bright and handsome cadets sweep in to vie for Alicia's attention.

  Alicia was stunning. The kind of stunning that knew it was stunning, and leveraged every favor from that fact.

  "Oh, they're not coming tonight; they're coming tomorrow night. But I have to go out soon, so we need to clean now," Alicia announced.

  Nida closed her eyes for a moment, pursed her lips, and blew a breath of air against her ragged fringe. "I'm tired, and I need a shower. I'll clean up later," she winked one eye open to see Alicia standing there with her hands on her hips.

  "No, we're cleaning now. You can shower later."

  With a fresh new groan at how terrible her life was, Nida didn't complain any further and got to work. While Alicia faffed around, Nida did all the real work, and soon enough the apartment was sparkling.

  "Okay, fantastic," Alicia clapped her hands together. "Everything is ready for tomorrow."

  Nida walked toward her bedroom door but paused before she opened it. She turned around to consider her flatmate. "Why exactly do you care so much? You go out on dates all the time. Why are these guys any different?"

  Alicia's eyes sparkled with a particularly frightening fervor. She took on such a strong and powerful and triumphant stance that it looked as if she were about to preside over the conquering of the galaxy. "They are graduates. Full lieutenants, in fact," she said, that smile of hers reminding Nida of a rabid dog.

  Rolling her eyes, Nida now understood.

  "Oh, whatever," Alicia snapped. "Now go have your shower. And if you can make yourself scarce tomorrow night, it would be greatly appreciated."

  Nida shook her head. "I promise you, I have no intention of coming out of my room tomorrow to interrupt your double date with Bridget and a pair of lieutenants," she noted sharply as she walked through her door and it closed behind her.

  Reaching her bed, she gave her pillow a firm, almost petulant punch. Then she hugged it in both arms, squished her face into it, and groaned. Loudly.

  She was lucky that these rooms were relatively soundproof. Otherwise Alicia would be pounding on the door and screaming at her to shut up.

  After several minutes of punching her pillow and groaning into it, Nida finally grew a backbone, sat up, and told herself it was time to get over it.

  Yes, she was unlucky, yes, she'd gotten in trouble today for sleeping in, but what help would moping about it do?

  The answer was it wouldn't help at all.

  Forcing herself at least to try to do a few of her outstanding assignments, it wasn't long until Nida finally went to bed.

  She slept like a log, as always. But every now and then throughout the night, she would wake, her eyes forcing themselves open as if the lids had been dragged apart by speeding cruisers. And though she couldn't tell it, little flashes of blue light erupted deep within the pupils with the brilliance of supernovas in a starless sky.