Ouroboros Episode One

  Chapter 31

  Cadet Nida Harper

  She had to find the time gate before it was too late. Soon the Barbarians would make it into this tunnel. And though she could fight them, it would come at a terrible cost. The more she used her power, the more the entity would be corrupted.

  She hadn't told Carson that yet; now wasn't the time. Plus, she didn't know how many blows he could receive and still remain standing. It was a miracle that a) he'd dealt proficiently with both the Barbarians and the entity, and b) hadn't left her owing to the fact this entire mission sounded crazy.

  Because she understood that none of this made any sense. Or at least it shouldn't make any sense. But with the entity in her mind, it did. In flashes, she could see the world through its eyes; she could understand everything with its ancient wisdom. There was no time, there was no distinction, just the eternal flow of energy. That was the dimension the entity came from, and it longed to go back there with such sorrowful power Nida wanted to cry.

  To think, that less than a week ago, she'd been terrified by the existence of the blue energy in her dreams, and now she was prepared to do anything to protect the entity.

  So much had changed.

  Yet thankfully, she wasn't alone.

  Again, she turned to see that Carson was still there.

  He now wore the device on his hand, and when he wasn't staring around in thin-lipped worry, he was gazing at the device, his surprise and wonder obvious.

  He would need it. She knew that, because the entity knew that. As time wound on, it would corrupt more and more, and it would lose control of itself. Objects would be pulled toward her, sucked into the vortex of the entity's power.

  But if Carson could master the device, and if he could act quickly enough, he would be able to save them both.

  As they ran through the darkened hallways, finally they found a room.

  Carson slammed to a halt in the doorway and tried to pull her back.

  "What the hell?" he screamed.

  The room was full of floating stones, dust, and the cracked bodies of statues.

  "Is it happening again? Is the entity losing control?" Carson called out to her.

  No.

  It was not losing control.

  Slowly Nida walked forward and into the room.

  The dust and stones in the air lightly struck her body as she pushed through them.

  "Nida? What are you doing?" Carson called to her.

  "This is the time gate," the entity spoke through her.

  He replied with silence, then, seconds later, she saw him moving through the floating rubble up to her side. "What do we do?" he croaked.

  She stared up at the rubble slowly swirling around her.

  It was a miraculous sight.

  "What do we do?" he questioned again, his voice louder. "We need to act now; those Barbarians will make it through soon."

  As if to confirm that fact, there was a sudden resounding boom from the hallway behind them.

  He ducked forward, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her down to the ground.

  He yanked his scanner from his waist holder, stared at it, then returned it wordlessly. "They are here," he whispered into her ear. He still had an arm locked around her middle, pressing her to the floor.

  She started to shake.

  "Open the time gate," he pleaded with her, "open the time gate," he repeated.

  "It will take time," the entity answered through her.

  "How much time?" Carson asked as he reached around to his opposite hip and pulled out a small but powerful plasma handgun.

  "Several minutes," the entity answered as it bent Nida down to kneel in the center of the room. She placed both of her palms on the ground. Then she simply closed her eyes. And she didn't appear capable of opening them, no matter how hard she tried.

  A slathering Barbarian could have been standing right above her, and she wouldn't have had a clue.

  "Nida?" Carson called her name frantically, but when she didn't answer, she heard him stand and walk right in front of her.

  She wanted to shout at him to take up a defensive position, but she couldn't. All she could do was kneel there and feel the power of the entity pour from her hands.

  Again she started to shake, but this time it wasn't just the entity leaving her body; it was the fact of what was about to happen. The room they were in was about to be attacked by Barbarians, and there was nothing she could do to help.

  It would all be down to Carson Blake.