Read Ouroboros 3: Repeat for Free Online

more his doubts just washed away with the pressure building within.
    ‘There is no time to discuss this. We need you in the operation centre now. We have to organise a counter-attack. Now, ’ the Admiral snapped sternly as Carson rocked back on his feet.
    ‘ We need you,’ Travis said again, his voice dipping low with emotion.
    Despite the situation, Carson still shook his head.
    Despite the fact the Admiral and his best friend had just told him something terrible was happening to his beloved United Galactic Coalition, he somehow held onto her name.
    To Nida.
    To his determination to find her.
    To his need to find out what was going on.
    And just in that moment, as he remembered her name, something strange happened.
    He could swear he heard her calling out to him.
    A whispered, croaked ‘Carson’ vibrating through the air around him.
    His eyes shot wide open as he suddenly turned around the room.
    ‘Carson,’ Travis snapped, ‘what is it?’
    With a beating heart and panting breath, Carson shifted his head from side to side, as if he thought she would miraculously materialise right out of the air.
    But she didn’t.
    And he didn’t hear it again.
    ‘Carson Blake, this is serious. We need to know that we can rely on you. Can we rely on you? Can the Galactic Coalition Academy rely on you?’ Admiral Forest barked, her voice dipping low with authority.
    It got his attention, because it was designed to get his attention.
    He turned back to her, clapping a hand on his mouth as he tried to push back his confusion, as he tried to make sense of his experiences.
    But no matter how hard he tried, no sense was forthcoming. Instead the Admiral snapped her request again, and Carson found himself nodding. Because he had to. That was his job, right? Despite how strange the situation was, he couldn’t forget his job, right? Even if he had somehow changed the timeline, he couldn’t forget the Galactic Coalition Academy.
    Could he?
    Before Carson could question anything, before he could think, before he could investigate that whispered name, he found the Admiral and Travis leading him forward, out of his apartment, and down towards the Academy grounds.
    What happened next happened quickly. They took him into the operation centre, and set him to work. There was no time for distraction, there was no time to stand there and think.
    Just action.
    And the fog, all encompassing and all pervading. It owned him completely. It seeped into every last corner of his mind, cancelling out his questions and whispering in his ear that she was dead.
    Gone.
    If she was gone, he had to hold onto what he had left. The United Galactic Coalition. He had to protect it.
    Because that was all that mattered now.

Chapter 7
    Cadet Nida Harper
    Though she had managed to whisper his name, the second she had, a robotic arm had injected something into her neck. It had caused her eyes to roll back into her head, and she had laid there, slumped, incapable of moving save for her ragged breath.
    Though several more visions tried to assault her, she would not succumb to them.
    So she just lay there, listening to Carson’s breath, and trying to figure out what in hell was going on.
    For this was hell.
    Or perhaps it was the future?
    Yes, the future.
    She forced her eyes open.
    In order to do so, she had to draw on the same strength she had used to force the entity to open the time gate.
    She just bore into her centre of power, and tapped every last reserve she could.
    What if this was the future of Remus 12? What if the scientists around her were the Vex?
    She knew they had to be technologically sophisticated; the fact they could induce visions that seemed so real they were indistinguishable from actual reality, was testament to that fact.
    But why were they doing it?
    What was the point to all this?
    She wanted to ask, but of course she couldn’t use her throat—she could barely move, let alone speak. So instead she lay there and she tried to use her mind instead.