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If she
had been her usual self, she would have pushed him away and pointed
out she was perfectly capable of standing and walking on her
own.

She
wasn't though, and she enjoyed his presence far more than she was
willing to admit.

Together they walked from the bridge, through the halls of the
ship, and towards the hangar bay.

Once
they were in the hangar bay, Carson took a moment to shake his head
at the completely broken Coalition cruiser she had flown into the
Farsight.

It was
still sitting there in the centre of the hangar bay, leaning on one
side, an enormous gaping hole in the cockpit.

He
appeared ready to say something, but he quickly pressed his lips
shut, and concentrated on opening the hangar bay doors
instead.

As the
doors opened, Nida could not help herself any more.

She
ran forward, straight at the barren wasteland of Remus
12.

The
dust and rubble were like open arms, waiting to embrace
her.

“Nida,
wait up,” Carson commanded from behind.

She
heard him jog down the ramp; his heavy, armoured boots making the
whole thing shake and reverberate.

Soon
he was by her side, but he didn’t pull her back; he simply matched
her pace.

“Where
are we going?” he asked eventually.

She
couldn’t answer.

All
she could do was search for it.

Home.

That
one word was all she could think of. Home.

Home.

She
stumbled forward, searching.

It was
dusk on Remus 12, and slowly the day gave way to night. Above her
that beautiful, almost luminescent stars cape glittered.

She
stared at it as she ran forward, and as she did, she felt
something.

She
understood something.

Something terrible.

The
stars were not right.

They
were different.

She
stumbled to her knees.

Instantly Carson leaned down, trying to help her up. “Nida?”
His eyes flickered with concern. True, genuine concern. “Are you
okay?”

She
couldn’t answer.

Instead, she began to shake again.

“Nida?” He drew his arm around her shoulders once
more.

The
move appeared to be easier for him now. She could still remember
when he had been hesitant to touch her—now he did it with
ease.

“Something isn’t right,” she finally managed to move her lips
and make her voice rattle from her parched and constricted
throat.

“What
are you talking about? Is there a problem with the entity?” He
shuddered, but still held an arm around her shoulders.

“This
planet . . . . Something isn’t right,” she
managed again.

Carson
pulled away from her, typing something on his wristwatch. Then he
turned a full circle, surveying the dust and rubble around them.
When he faced her, he simply pressed his lips together and
shrugged. “I’m not detecting any enemies. It’s just you and me. No
other life forms, no buildings, no other ships, no other power
sources. We are alone.”

She
wanted to be reassured by his words, but she couldn’t. Because he
didn’t understand.

“They
aren’t right,” she pointed up to the sky.

He
followed her move, then narrowed his gaze. “The stars?”

“They
don’t match the ones I saw in my dreams. There is something wrong,”
she flattened her sweaty palm over her implant
protectively.

He
placed a hand carefully on her shoulder, looking into her eyes as
she finally raised her head. “We’ll find that statue. We'll return
the entity. Come on.”

She
let him pull her forward.

They
walked and walked, looking for those stairs that led down, but they
could not find them.

As
dusk settled into night, desperation kicked in. Nida stumbled
forward, pushed on by the frantic fear of the entity.

Though
Carson was by her side, and picked her up every time she fell over,
there was nothing he could do.

Just
as it appeared she would never find the stairs, she found
them.

She
did so by tripping over a stone, landing on her knees, and
rolling.

“Nida,” Carson called from behind, lurching forward and
grabbing her arm before she could roll face first down the
stairwell.

He
tried to help her to her feet, but as soon as her eyes locked on
the dark, descending shadows of the stairs, she lurched
forward.

“Be
careful,” he begged.

She
didn't listen.

She
ran down.

It
didn't matter that it was dark down here; she was glowing, after
all.

She
saw the other set of stairs.

She
ran up them as fast as she could.

She
made it to the room.

It was
dark in here now. It wasn't how she remembered. It was different
because the blue glow that had encased it now encased
her.

Carson
called her name again, then finally ascended the stairs to stand
next to her.

For
several seconds he was silent.

Then
she began to walk forward, and he immediately reached out to grab
her shoulder. “We need to be careful,” he hissed.

She
simply shrugged out of his grip.

Then,
once again, she was drawn towards the statue. It was as if
invisible tethers were pulling her closer.

She
reached it.

The
glow from her body was now as vibrant as it could be, and it threw
out so much light it lit up the room completely.

The
statue stood before her, but in a moment of powerful confusion and
fear, she realised it was different.

It was
falling apart.

Whereas once it had been beautifully carved, depicting a woman
in vibrant health, her hair and dress flowing in an invisible wind,
now she could barely recognise the form of a head, torso, and
several crumbling hands.

“What
is this?” Nida gasped.

“How
do you return the entity?’ Carson asked quickly from her
side.

She
couldn't.

She
simply couldn't, because something was terribly wrong.

“Nida?” This time Carson seemed hesitant to place a hand on
her shoulder, and he ducked to the side, bringing his head down
until he stared into her eyes. “What's going on?”

It
took all of her effort to draw her gaze off the statue and onto
his. “Something happened to the statue.
It's . . . broken.”

His
expression crumpled. It was clear he didn't understand. Quite
possibly because she had no idea what she was talking about
herself.

But
she understood one fact as clear as day. Something was terribly,
terribly wrong.

“What
do I do?” she whispered—not for Carson's benefit, but for the
entity's.

She
tried to reach out to it; she tried to conjure up its
presence.

But
all she felt was its shaking, palpable, terrible fear.

“What
is it? What's wrong?” she asked the entity out loud.

Then
she started to twitch again, but this time pain shot through her
body as she did. With a terrified gasp, her knees gave way from
underneath her, and she fell down.

She
did not strike the cold, carved, stone floor; Carson caught
her.

This
time he wrapped both arms around her, and stared directly into her
gaze. “Nida, what's going on?”

She
tried to answer. Tried to cobble together an explanation that would
make sense.

But
she didn't get the time.

For,
at that exact moment, something rumbled on the surface of the
planet high above.

Carson
Blake

He had
her in his arms, and he could feel how violently she was
shaking.

It was
agonising to watch; he just couldn't do anything to help
her.

She
kept repeating that something was wrong, but he had no idea what it
was.

Then
he heard it.

The
rumble.

For a
split second, he wondered whether it was an earthquake. Then he
understood what it was.

And he
froze.

A
ship.

A
large ship was landing on the surface of the planet above. And, if
he was any judge, it was close, damn close, quite possibly exactly
above this hollowed out, cavernous room.

He
stiffened.

Could
it be the United Galactic Coalition? Had Admiral Forest already
sent reinforcements?

There
was one way to find out.

His
scanner.

He'd
picked it up several minutes ago when he had found it at the bottom
of that mysterious stairwell.

True
to its design, it was still working. Okay, so it had several
scratches and a big dent in its side, but it could function. And
right now, he brought it out of the magnetic holster on his hip and
stared at it.

If the
ship above were Coalition, they would be sending out a standard
Coalition greeting on all frequencies.

He
would also be able to pick up a specific energy signature that all
Coalition vessels had.

. . . .

The
ship above was not Coalition.

His
heart sank, faster than a bullet shot from a gun.

He
jerked his head up. “We need to leave,” he snapped.

She
stared at him, her mouth open, but no words coming out.

“Nida,” he hissed again, “it's the Barbarians,” he said the
word, but his voice shook like a child's as he did.

Though
his scanner was small, and could not penetrate too far above to the
planet's surface, the readings it managed to relay confirmed one
terrible fact.

There
was a Barbarian ship parked right above them.

“We
have to do this now,” he whispered again, his voice barely
registering above a tight breath, “release the entity. We have to
leave.”

Nida
didn't appear capable of understanding him. She simply stood there,
staring past his right shoulder and up at the crumbling
statue.

He
shifted his hands around until they were placed heavily on her
shoulders. “Nida,” he gave her a little shake. “Please.”

That
word seemed to wake her, and she finally looked at him. “This is
the wrong time,” she said simply.

It was
such a strange statement considering the circumstances, and he gave
a bitter, harsh laugh. “Yes it is, but we can't exactly go up there
and tell the Barbarians to wait.”

She
shook her head, staring at him with a dull gaze that told him the
entity was half in control. “This is the wrong time,” she spoke
each word slowly as if every syllable had the import of a magic
spell or incantation.

He
went to say that he understood, but he stopped.

Because maybe he didn't.

There
was something about the quality of her gaze and that terrible
certainty shaking through her words.

“Nida?” he whispered.

“We
have arrived at the wrong time,” the entity said.

“What
do you mean the wrong time?” he asked breathily. Though he was
hardly running around engaging in combat, he felt winded. He stood
there, panting, still holding her shoulders, trying to understand
what was happening here.

“Space
time has distorted. We are trapped,” the entity said.

His
hands fell away from her shoulders. “What do you mean?”

The
entity stepped forward. Or rather, it forced Nida’s body to step
forward. As he was standing right there in front of her, she simply
pressed into him. Then she brought a hand up, and placed it flat on
his chest.

Before
he could shift back, he felt something.

And
then he saw it.

Flashes of a vision.

The
planet around them, the statue, and a strange, impossible sight of
stars compressing down into a single point.

So
much information was relayed to him in that moment that he simply
could not comprehend it.

Then
she shifted back.

She
took her palm from his chest and let her arm drop to her
side.

“What
was that?” He clutched at his armour, dragging his fingers across
the strong, cold plating. “What was that?”

“We
are running out of time,” the entity said.

At
that admission, Carson glanced up.

The
ceiling of the room was shaking, and fine particles of dust were
drifting down. They covered his boots, alighted on his shoulders,
and several landed on his upturned cheeks and lips. He brushed them
off. Then he snapped his gaze back to her. “Tell me how to free
you,” he spoke only to the entity now. “Tell me where you have to
go. I will take you there.”