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Until
they reached another system, and found another of those terrible
ships.

In a
series of incredible events, she watched the ship that had attacked
her materialise and go after an experimental vessel she quickly
realised belonged to the Galactic Coalition Academy.

The
United Galactic Coalition ship had no chance, and after a dizzying
attack from the two enemy ships, its gun turrets failed.

She
watched, unable to do anything, as the two enemy ships squeezed in
on the United Galactic Coalition vessel.

Though
she was quite new to space travel, even Nida could recognise the
ships were preparing to board.

Just
before she could scream in terror, something happened to her own
ship.

With a
commanding beep, the computer told her the cockpit was about to
lose integrity.

Time
seemed to slow down, and she had a few precious seconds to realise
what would happen.

Then
it happened.

The
side of the ship just blew open, and everything inside was pulled
into space, including her.

At
first, she tried to fight it.

Then
she couldn’t.

. . . .

She
waited for the vacuum of space to pull her inside out, but it
didn’t.

She
was alive.

Dear
god, somehow she was alive.

With a
glance down at her body, she now realised it was pulsing with the
blue glow of the entity.

She
shifted her arms around, she stared at her fingers, then she looked
out at space.

She
was in space.

She
was not wearing a spacesuit, she was encased in nothing but that
light. Yet somehow, it kept her safe from the vacuum and
cold.

But
she could not stay here forever; she instinctively knew
that.

She
did not know what she could do though.

Her
hands, however, appeared to have information she didn’t, and she
soon found herself turning, angling her body until she clasped hold
of the side of her broken ship. She pulled herself into it,
grabbing onto the seat and muscling her body down until she sat.
Then she grabbed the harness from the side and locked herself in
position.

The
blue light pulsed from her, absolutely surging as it shot down from
her hands and into every single centimetre of the ship.

She
had no idea what it was doing, but within seconds what remained of
the engines began to pulse, and the broken panel before her blinked
back into life.

The
ship began to move. Slowly, but it still moved. Towards the
embattled Coalition cruiser.

Within
minutes she reached it, and as she approached, her body shuddered
as blue light shot from her and out into space, coalescing against
the side of the United Galactic Coalition cruiser.

She
felt cold. Dreadfully, awfully cold. It felt as though her blood
had been replaced by liquid nitrogen.

Whimpering as she closed her arms around herself, drawing her
body in as far as it would go, she waited.

The
completely broken cruiser she was in inched closer and closer to
the embattled Coalition ship, and then, just before it arrived,
something incredible happened.

The
hangar bay doors at the back of the vessel opened.

Then
the blue light returned to her, snapping back into her body and
bringing with it that comforting presence and reassuring
heat.

Nida
was thrown back against her chair by the power of it, and when she
forced her eyes open, she realised her broken ship was angling
towards the open hangar bay doors. Within 40 seconds, it was
inside. Then, briefly, a surge of blue energy left her, and seconds
later, the hangar bay doors closed.

Then
Nida slumped. Her body fell limp against the harness holding her,
and it took an enormous amount of energy to draw up her hand and
unclasp the harness.

She
fell forward, slamming against the console, falling off it, and
thumping onto the ground.

Just
as she tried to get her breath back, she turned to see
something.

Something truly terrible.

Barbarians.

Xerks
and Mascars. They streamed in from the door on the opposite side of
the room. Their faces drew slack and they hesitated for a
moment.

She
understood why they paused.

She
had just boarded this vessel in a half broken ship.

Oh,
and she was glowing blue.

Their
moment of hesitation ended, and they drew their weapons and
fired.

Once
again, the bullets never reached her. They slowed down as they
neared, and the closer they got, the more they bent, until they
were pulled into a twisting vortex around her body.

She
heard screams and surprised shouts, but they didn’t
last.

Nida
stood.

Then
she walked forward. She pointed a hand to the roof.

She
didn’t know what she was doing, but the entity within her
did.

Every
Barbarian in the room lifted off the floor, their bodies floating
no matter how heavy they were or how much armour they
wore.

She
had a moment to register some of their expressions, then their
bodies shot towards the ceiling of the hangar bay. She heard
several resounding, bone-crunching thumps, and she walked
on.

She
tried to scream, but she couldn't control her throat.

She
reached the door that led to the rest of the ship, and it opened
before her.

Though
her movements were more coordinated this time, every step was still
heavy and unsure, as if somebody had attached ropes to her limbs
and tugged her forward without reprieve.

When
she reached the corridor, she saw more Barbarians.

They
fired at her, one even released a grenade, but it didn’t matter;
the bullets simply swirled around her, and the grenade warped,
crumpling in on itself

Then
she did it again. She took a single step forward, raised a pointed
finger at the ceiling, and watched in silent horror as every single
Barbarian in the corridor floated slowly off the ground then sped
up and slammed against the ceiling.

She
walked underneath them, aware that several spatters of blood rained
down on her shoulders and hair.

As she
took another step, she turned to her side and saw that the airlock
several meters away was open, leading onto another ship.

Through it, a group of Barbarians ran, but they did not get
very far. With a click of her fingers they were slammed against the
wall, pinned thereby an invisible force that squeezed them closer
and closer to the metal until they started to scream.

She
walked towards the open airlock, every footstep heavy. She reached
it. She took a step into the other ship. She dealt with any
Barbarians that came streaming towards her, then she slowly knelt
down, planting both palms onto the floor. A shot of blue energy
released from her hands, snaking across the metal, up the walls,
and into the ceiling. She waited there several seconds, suddenly
seeing flashes of the rest of the Barbarian ship. The engine room,
the galley, the quarters, the prison, everything. Then the entity
appeared to find its mark, and plunged deep into the engine core.
Seconds later a red alert klaxon blurred, and a computer voice
warned that the ship was undergoing a catastrophic systems
failure.

Nida
rose to her feet and walked backwards out of the airlock. Then she
closed it. She turned, and she continued walking through the
corridors. Soon enough she found yet another open airlock on the
opposite side of the ship, and she repeated the same procedure. She
dealt with Barbarians, then dealt with their ship, finally closing
the airlock after herself.

While
her body kept moving forward and the power kept surging through it,
Nida herself was beyond terrified.

She
wanted to close her eyes to block out the gruesome sights, and shut
off her ears to the horrifying screams, but she
couldn’t.

Instead, she was forced to watch and listen as the entity
dealt with every Barbarian it could find.

Finally, she pushed further into the United Galactic Coalition
cruiser.

She
came across one last group of mercenaries.

She
rounded the corner that appeared to lead to crew quarters, and she
saw them clustering forwards towards a black shape.

It
took her barely a second to recognise the distinctive colouring and
style of Coalition armour.

Then
she did it, one last time. She simply pointed to the ceiling, and
every single mercenary lifted into the air.

But it
wasn’t just the mercenaries—the man in the black armour did as
well.

Though
Nida had resigned herself to her total lack of power in this
situation, suddenly she screamed; suddenly she fought as hard as
she could against the entity.

“No,”
she commanded, “no, he's from the Academy, just like me.
No.”

The
mercenaries and the United Galactic Coalition soldier were still
suspended in the air, floating there as if gravity had lost all
hold of them.

Then
there was a snap.

They
slammed upwards against the ceiling and again she heard the crunch
of bone.

But
the man in the black armour did not.

He
simply floated there until slowly his body returned to the
ground.

She
stared down at him, and though she could not see his face, she knew
he stared up at her.

Then
she walked backwards, the entity turned her body, and she strode
along another corridor until she reached the door that led to the
bridge. She forced her hand out and against the locked door, and in
several seconds, it unlocked and opened.

With
one brief look around, she confirmed it was the one room in all of
the ship that still lay untouched.

She
took several heavy steps in, then she heard it.

Somebody calling her name.

Her
real name.

“Nida,
Nida,” the man screamed.

Despite the entity’s control of her, she turned, and as she
did, the United Galactic Coalition soldier sprinted into the room.
Then he stopped, several meters from her, and rocked back on his
feet as if he didn’t dare get any closer.

“Nida?” he asked in a shaking voice.

She
could not recognise it, because it bore the same distinctive
electronic monotone of anybody who spoke through armour.

“It’s
me,” the man said.

Before
he could say his name, she knew who it was.

Carson
Blake.

Sure
enough, he reached a hand up, touched something on his wrist, and
his helmet opened revealing his face.

And
his shock.

His
intense, horrible shock.

She
knew what it was directed at.

Her.

What
she had done to the Barbarians.

Suddenly control returned to her body, and she clamped a hand
on her mouth. She lost all balance, crumpling to her knees, and she
wheezed in a breath as tears soaked her cheeks faster than they had
ever come in her entire life.

“Nida?” he asked one last time as he finally took a step
closer to her.

She
shook her head.

He
slowly brought a hand up. “It's okay,” he said in a falsely calm
tone. But the calm did not extend to his expression; his eyes were
wide, his mouth pulled tight over his teeth, his cheeks slack and
pale, sickly white.

She
shook her head again, over and over, not caring that she strained
her neck muscles.

What
had she just done?

Those
Barbarians . . . . She'd clicked her fingers or
pointed at the ceiling and
then . . . .

She
pushed her fingers even harder into her teeth, choking around
them.

“You're alive,” he pointed out disbelievingly. “You're alive,”
slowly the palpable shock lifted from his face and thankful
surprise replaced it. “How the hell did you survive?”

She
didn't answer. She couldn't.

Instead, she turned, stumbled over to the wall, rested her
back against it, and fell down to her knees. Then she crumpled her
arms forward, tucking her head down.

Silently she rocked back and forth.

“Nida,” he spoke her name so softly it seemed he'd forgotten
the terrible things she'd just done. “It's okay,” he took several
steps towards her.

She
shook her head yet again. “What did I do?”

“You
saved this ship,” he said in a firmer tone. “Now just wait there,”
she heard him turn and dart over to one of the consoles. “We need
to get the hell out of here.”

“Remus
12,” she found herself saying, the entity taking control of her
mouth as she did.