Returning from the past, Nida and Carson find themselves in a future where their worlds have been destroyed thanks to the lies of the entity.

The revelation of the entity’s true motives was the brightest spot in this story, probably in the three parts that make up this story so far, but it’s not enough to overcome the sloppy writing and dialog that accompanies it and overwhelms everything else.

I was less annoyed by this third part in this story, but whether that’s because I was ready for the annoying writing style or because the characters did less which ensured they had less annoying stuff to do is debatable.

Most of the story takes place as visions Nida and Carson experience at the drugs of the Vex after being captured between the end of Before and the start of this story, after Nida opened the time gate, which dropped both of them unconscious. It obviously wasn’t the time Nida hoped to get to, but it looks like she was betrayed by the entity, though she doesn’t know that at the time.

She lays on the hospital bed, floating in and out of visions where Carson tries to get her to reveal how she accesses the entity’s power. She’s done it before, but I’m not sure she even knows at this point. Yet the Vex continue to pummel her with visions. Through the influence of the entity, I presume, she manages to leave the visions without revealing anything.

Carson, meanwhile, doesn’t get that kind of help. He believes the visions, which transport him away from the alien planet and back to Earth, where he learns that Nida was killed in that time when he actually saved her in her dorm room. I wonder why the Vex were sloppy enough to change the past he knew was real. If they'd just continued from where they returned from the past, and made him think Nida was killed due to the entity, he wouldn't have had any doubts. Carson learns of an attack on Coalition planets, and helps devise a strategy to repel them. In this way, he apparently reveals to the Vex everything they need to know to defeat the Coalition fleet.

It seems that Carson is the only competent leader, even though he’s only a lieutenant. He knows all of the battle plans, and nobody else in the entire fleet has an original idea or defenses unknown to him. He must plan to use everything at his disposal, because there are no secret weapons left when the Vex finally do attack in real life.

When it looks like the Vex are going to kill her and Carson, Nida arouses the entity and uses it to open a time gate, which brings them to the future. I guess the entity wants to see the results of its interference, though that’s not explicitly stated. I was confused by the way she used the entity’s power to shield them from falling rocks as she forced the entity to retreat, but didn’t feel any desire to reread those sections of the book to gain clarity. Suffice it to say that she tames the entity, shielding it from its “corruption” as she does her and Carson from the falling rocks.

And Carson is in awe of her. Due to the fact that he’s been mentally and physically reduced to an idiot over the last two parts, she’s had to do some actual thinking and planning. Left to her own with a blabbering superior who’s now gushing over her, she took control of the situation, and is no longer the worst recruit in 1000 years, which the author fortunately only mentions a half dozen times or so throughout, compared tot he last book. Carson praises her abilities, something he never thought he would do, because he finds out that she can actually do something when people aren’t constantly belittling her and she has to fend for herself.

I think the author forgot that they were in flimsy hospital gowns at this point in the story, because they rise to the surface of the dead planet and walk around, seeing destroyed Coalition spaceships and bodies without regards to what the debris would do to their bare feet (though there is a mention of their feet), or what the harsh conditions would do to their mostly exposed skin. Carson doesn’t mention her body profile in the gown, and neither does she about him.

I’d have expected something because he’s fallen in love with Nida, just as her attitude toward him has changed. The graveyard is less of a crash site, as nothing is burning, so they board a conveniently located ship that wasn’t too damaged, and Carson makes repairs that allow them to take off. They get into orbit where they are horrified to find most of the Coalition fleet, all dead.

The next few days are spent trying to contain the entity as Nida tries to sleep, Carson watching over her, thinking how brave she was, how beautiful and smart, though he reprimands himself because he doesn’t think she can reciprocate. Not because of his age, which I still think must be a decade her senior with his experience leading the Force and knowing so many Coalition defense secrets, but because he doesn't deserve her, or something like that.

When they meet up with Travis (last seen in Start), on one of the few remaining warships, we get a summary of what happened. But it takes forever to get to that point. There’s a trust issue, which could have easily been resolved by bringing Travis onto their ship, and as eager as they are to get the information, they take forever to leave their ship, and then stall until they get to a briefing room.

When Travis finally opens up to them, it seems that the Coalition is inept and stupid without Carson there. Sure, he revealed key tactics, but did they really think it was wise to send their entire fleet to the planet, leaving their worlds undefended? Travis claims that the Coalition is gone, but is that really believable in the single day the Vex were there?

At this stage, the entity rebels, as Nida explains that she will open a time gate to their old present, to warn the Coalition and pre-empt the attack. She struggles with it and overcomes the entity, sapping its energy until it gives up, telling her everything.

Essentially it’s about guilt, as the entity crossed over through the thick dimensional barrier separating the Vex from their own space. The result was disastrous, as the Vex are stuck in a time loop lasting centuries or millennia. The entity guides them and selects a suitable species for them to attack, searching for technology that can end the time loop. Every time their space aligns with galactic space, they are ready and decimate a species before looping back, unsuccessful.

Although guilt is a well-used plot device to do all sorts of evil things, it almost works here, as the entity is willing to destroy dozens of species to overcome it. Unfortunately, it’s all thrown at us in a single infodump which isn’t quite fulfilling.

With Nida explaining the entire plan in detail, it’s certain it can’t be pulled off that way. Travis brings their ship back to the planet, where they find the Scavengers are pillaging the destroyed Coalition fleet. Travis’ ship is damaged and they have trouble leaving, and even when they do, they come under attack by the Scavengers. They make it to the surface and Nida activates the time gate, determined to ensure she and Carson arrive conscious this time.

The story itself, when summarized as above, doesn’t sound bad. It’s a little campy, but I haven’t described much that is in poor judgement and overly coincidental. While the hesitant romance is cringe-worthy, the kiss isn’t.

The biggest problems this story has are that it doesn’t do anything, and the writing is terrible. Even when the characters decide to do something, it takes forever to do it, sometimes because they hesitate, other times because they think how they aren’t worthy to be doing what they are doing. The writing uses overly flowery language and massive superlatives to describe the situation and the character feelings. “There wasn’t one single second”, “the single fact of the matter was” (always followed by something that wasn’t a fact), and single sentence or single word paragraphs that try to emphasize something that would be better left implicit. The writing literally destroys any enjoyment the story could have, little as that might be.

In Start and Before, I complained that the dialog was immature and sounded like giggling preteen girls (no offence to giggling preteen girls), and nothing like what this story was trying to achieve. This book is marginally better, but only because most of the story has no dialog. The visions are mainly internalized, but when there are interactions, they are immature. The ship graveyard is mostly internalized, especially as Nida tries to conquer the entity and Carson struggles with how proud he is of her. We get more when they encounter Travis, and it’s more of the same.

I’m committed now to finishing the story, though I suspect it won’t be soon. I don’t have high expectations, but you never know –the author might pull out something exciting in the conclusion. The love story seems inevitable, unless one of the main characters decides to sacrifice themselves. I expect the secondary characters to return in the end, as they were almost entirely absent here, which was the Nida and Carson show. Racing slowly to the end...