Read Ouroboros 4: End for Free Online Page B

eyebrows. No one told him to stow it though. Instead, Captain Singh rose from her chair, immediately neatening her uniform with one hand as she surveyed Nida with fixed attention.
    It felt like being stared at by the sun. The quality of Singh’s gaze was like a pair of twin lasers boring into Nida. ‘Please, we are here to discuss what exactly you have been doing for the past few weeks since leaving the Academy,’ she said diplomatically.
    Carson levelled his chin and stared at Singh for a few seconds before nodding curtly. ‘Aye.’ He shifted forward, pulled out a chair for Nida, and then sat in one himself.
    She really didn’t want to sit down. Right now, all she felt like doing was running the heck away. Suddenly the prospect of being stuck on Remus 12 wasn’t so appalling. Though that dust-caked planet was barren and devoid of life, at least that meant there was no Sharpe.
    ‘Nida,’ Carson gestured with his head towards her chair.
    Awkwardly, she sat.
    She didn’t dare stare at anyone. Instead she brought up her modified implant and started playing with it.
    Big mistake.
    ‘Don’t touch that. We still don’t know what it does,’ the Chief Medical Officer snapped. He was Irish, and his lilting accent was at odds with the fervor behind his words.
    Nida jumped, startling so badly, it was a surprise her heart didn’t spring right out of her chest and hide in the chair.
    ‘Where did you pick that up?’ the First Officer snapped.
    ‘Where the hell have you two been for the past few weeks? And don’t sprout some baloney about time travel,’ Sharpe snarled.
    The room erupted at once, every one hurling their questions at Nida and Carson like volleys from a cannon.
    She receded in her chair.
    This was worse, way worse than any serving Sharpe had given her in the past.
    ‘Hey,’ Carson snapped, punching to his feet as he slammed his hands on the table. The move was so strong, the wood rattled.
    It got people’s attention.
    Then the shouting began once more.
    ‘What were the Barbarians doing on Remus 12?’
    ‘What’s going on?’
    ‘Do you expect us to believe time travel is possible?’
    Carson tried to raise his voice above the cacophony, but even he was finding it hard to be heard.
    Nida had no chance.
    ‘We travelled back in time. I know it sounds insane, but you’ve got to believe us,’ Carson sounded desperate.
    No one listened.
    The tension in the room kept rising and rising, like smoke from a simmering fire ready to burst into full flame.
    ‘The Vex are coming, we need to prepare.’
    ‘Who the hell are the Vex?’
    ‘None of this makes any sense.’
    'This is insane,' Sharpe said as he rose to his feet. 'This makes no sense.'
    'Sharpe, please,' Carson tried, jumping to his own feet. 'We’re telling the truth.'
    'It's impossible. Do you actually expect us to believe—' Sharpe began as he locked his gaze on Nida.
    She had to do something. Something to prove what they were saying was true. Short of taking him back to Vex and forcing him to endure its timeline, there was only one thing she could think of.
    She lifted her hand, and the conference table lifted with her.
    It was a gentle move, only designed to get their attention.
    And get their attention it did.
    Every person at the table gasped and shifted back in surprise.
    'We're not lying,' she said softly. ‘And you need to listen,’ her voice was quiet, and yet carried. The emotion shaking through it was far subtler than the cacophonous shouts Sharpe and the others had offered.
    She kept the table a few centimeters in the air, and it was easy. She could have sent it slamming into the ceiling with the force of a gunshot, and that would have been easy too.
    That wasn’t the point.
    ‘What the hell are you doing?’ Harrington snapped from behind her.
    She knew his gun was raised and pointed right at her.
    It was a metaphor for this entire situation. Here they all were, standing at the barrel of a gun, just before the Vex would emerge to