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“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 centre of the room. She placed both of her palms on
the ground. Then she simply closed her eyes. And she did not 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.

Carson
Blake

She
clearly couldn’t move or say a word. Nida just knelt there, her
hands flat on the ground as the blue light of the entity poured out
of her and onto the floor.

It had
told him that it would take several minutes to open the time gate.
The only problem was they didn’t have several damn minutes. They
didn’t even have several damn seconds.

Because he could hear it.

The
thumping footfall that pounded up through the floor.

He
fought the instinct to duck to the side, to roll, and to take up a
position out of the view of the doorway.

Nida
was behind him, and she couldn’t move. And if she couldn’t move, it
meant that he wouldn’t move.

He
would protect her.

With
the sound of a cruiser coming into land, an enormous Mascar warrior
came ploughing around the door.

Carson
had just enough time to shoot at it before it shot at
him.

But
that wouldn’t work again. Now the rest of the Barbarians would know
exactly where he was standing.

He lay
down cover fire, simply blasting round after round at the doorway,
hoping that none of the Barbarians would be ballsy enough to jump
through anyway.

He was
wrong.

Two
rounded the doorway, and though he managed to blast one in the
centre of the chest, the other was far more agile, and ducked into
an immediate roll, then sprang up and slashed at Carson with an
enormous, long, glowing electric blade.

Carson
tried to shoot the alien in the chest, but the creature was too
quick, and twisted to the side.

At the
beginning of the battle, with nothing more than a silent command,
his armour had grown over his head, forming a perfect helmet in
less than two seconds flat.

Well
right now, he was more than thankful for it, because as the
Barbarian swiped his way with the electric blade, the tip of the
weapon sliced past Carson’s armoured nose, and would have carved
off a chunk of his face if it weren’t for the ablative plating
covering it.

The
Barbarian snarled at him, pouncing forward with the
blade.

Though
Carson tried to get off a shot, the creature was too quick and
ducked forward, slamming into Carson and knocking him off
balance.

As
Carson fell, he revealed Nida behind him.

Before
that, she had been largely concealed by the bulk of his form. Now
she simply knelt there, in the centre of the room, with nobody to
protect her while at least four more Barbarian warriors rounded the
door.

“No,”
he screamed as he grappled with the Barbarian that now had him in
its grasp.

He
watched, almost in slow motion, as two of the Barbarian warriors
reached up to their belts, grabbed concussion grenades, and hurled
them with perfect aim at Nida. They fell right into her
lap.

It
would take less than two seconds for them to explode, and they
would likely take a chunk of Nida’s torso with them.

It was
clear the entity could not protect her whilst it was trying to open
the time gate.

It was
down to him.

It was
all down to him.

Carson
punched forward with sudden and incredible speed that came on the
wings of his pounding desperation.

As he
did, he brought around his right hand. The device strapped onto it
surged with power.

He
threw his hand forward, and an invisible wave of energy shot out,
blasting the Barbarian off him, and throwing everything else in the
room against the far wall.

Everything save for Nida.

The
entity had somehow locked her on the spot. But the two concussion
grenades on her lap were not that lucky, and they slammed against
the far wall, shattering under incredible force.

Even
the rubble and dust circling the room cascaded forward, and in a
sudden moment, everything cleared, and he could see the room in
full.

Then
several more Barbarians rounded the doorway.

They
shot towards him, and he ducked to his knees, rolling as quickly as
he could. Then he slammed a hand into the cold floor, pushed up
into a flip, and landed right in front of Nida.

One of
the Barbarians lurched forward with an electric dagger, and threw
it with perfect aim right at Carson’s chest.

Carson's hand lurched up, and with a blast from his device, he
slammed the knife back, and it shattered against the opposite
wall.

He
heard the Barbarians scream and shout amongst themselves, but he
didn’t waste the surprise he'd just given them. Instead, he grabbed
another gun from his holster and blasted their way.

Though
they threw several more grenades in his direction, every time one
rolled towards him, he simply flung his right hand out and the
device sent a powerful and invisible wave crashing into them,
either obliterating the grenades on the spot, or hurling them
against the far wall.

“Almost there,” he heard Nida say from behind him. And it was
Nida; it wasn’t the entity. Her voice shook, and he wanted, more
than anything, to collapse to his knees and throw his arms around
her shoulders. But he couldn’t. Instead, he stood there and
defended her against the relentless attack of the
Barbarians.

If
there was one good thing that could be said about them, they were
dauntless. They did not give up, no matter what the odds. And
that’s what made them such a fearsome enemy of the United Galactic
Coalition.

Even
though the Barbarians would have figured out by now that Carson was
too powerful to be defeated by a head-on attack, they didn’t
stop.

And
they wouldn’t stop.

They
would continue to throw warriors against him until he made a
mistake. Because all he had to do was make one single
mistake.

“Come
on, come on,” he begged her.

He
wanted to turn—he wanted to find out how close she was to opening
the gate—but instead he simply brought up his right hand and
blasted out another wave of power.

He was
starting to realise he was getting weaker though.

Either
the device was running out of juice, or it was tiring him out in a
way he had never felt before.

But he
didn’t give up. He just brought up his plasma handgun and used that
instead. He fired round after round, trying to protect her whilst
he waited . . . and
waited . . . and waited.

And
then he heard it.

At
first elation filled his heart as he thought Nida had finally
achieved it, and had opened the time gate. Then he realised he was
wrong.

There
was a loud, grumbling, hissing noise issuing from further down the
tunnels, and as it grew louder, it shook the walls and
floors.

It
would be some kind of Barbarian weapon.

And
knowing the Barbarians, it would be barbarically effective. “Come
on,” he now screamed to her, “please,” he added in a final act of
desperation.

He
heard something round the doorway.

Then
he saw it.

A set
of heavy mechanical armour with a Barbarian seated
inside.

The
suit was enormous and had such thick armour it was clear it had
been repurposed from a mining planet. Turrets rested on its
shoulders, and the rest of the bulk was dotted with various other
high-powered weapons.

He
brought his right hand up, forcing it forward while trying to fling
another blast of power towards the mechanical suit before it could
fire.

But
the device wouldn’t work. Though Carson could throw a little power,
it wasn’t nearly enough.

He saw
the mechanical warrior lift one of its turrets. The thing started
to glow red.

Carson
knew what would happen next.

So he
did the only thing he could. He crumpled to his knees, he wrapped
his arms around Nida, and he collapsed his body forward, protecting
hers.

Then
he waited.

For
death.

But
death did not come.

Instead, something opened up underneath them.

Light.
Movement. Colour. Form. Charge. Weight. It seemed to take on every
single property of matter.

Indescribable, indefinable.

And it
pulled them through.

With
his arms still collapsed around her shoulders, they were sucked
down into the void.

And
then, instantaneously, they reappeared.

They
did not travel through a tunnel; they did not hurtle along some
kind of energy pathway. They simply reappeared in a completely
different room in a completely different building, and if the
entity was to be believed, in a completely different
time.

Carson
had no idea how long he knelt there with his arms wrapped around
Nida, and it wasn’t until she shuffled back slightly, staring up
into his eyes, that he finally let her go.

Then
he collapsed.

He
grabbed his right hand, realising how much it ached. “What did I do
to myself?” he groaned.

“It
will take some time to get used to the device,” the entity told
him, “and you must be careful to conserve your energy,” it
warned.

He
stared at it. “I want to speak to Nida,” he announced.

“I’m
here,” she shifted forward, her expression changing as the entity
lost hold. “I’m here,” she reached out a hand to him.

Without hesitating, he grasped it in his own. Then he just sat
there, breathing very heavily and waiting.

Waiting for some other terrible, frantic event to happen. When
it didn’t, he finally took the time to stare around
them.

They
were in . . . well, he supposed it was a house
of some description. It was simply furnished, and the walls were
made of stone, not metal.

“Where
are we?” Nida asked, combing her fingers through her
hair.

“I
think you should ask when are we,” he croaked through his words,
barely capable of believing them.

She
looked at him sharply, then she closed her eyes and took a
steadying breath. “Oh my god, we travelled through
time.”