GABRIEL (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 4) (44 page)

Gabriel grinned. "After what we've been through in the past few weeks, explanations to your parents should be a breeze."

"Hah!" Shara said with a laugh. "You don't know my father."

"Under the circumstances then, I suggest we both dress more appropriately for my introduction."

As they donned jumpers, Gabriel insisted he could postpone medical treatment until after they reported in with her parents.

* * *

A raft appearing in the middle of their living area was the last thing Romulus and Aster expected that evening, but definitely the most welcome sight they'd had in a long time.

"Shara!" Aster cried, and rushed over to her. "We've been worried sick about you!"

"You must be the historian," Romulus stated to Gabriel in a flat, humorless tone.

Gabriel extricated himself from Shara and their baggage then rose and held out a bandaged hand. "Gabriel Drumayne, Professor of History and Chief Procurer of Antiquities for Norona."

Romulus extended his hand but the shake was anything but friendly.

Shara quickly stood up and gave each parent a hug. "We'll explain everything but first, what's the date?" Her mother told her and she smiled at Gabriel. "You see? I told you I could hit it right on the nose if lightning didn't interfere."

"Did I hear that right?" Cattar exclaimed as she hustled into the living room. "You figured out how to pinpoint the destination date?" At Shara's bewildered nod, Cattar said, "Quickly, give me the belt and show me what you've done. We don't have a moment to spare."

Shara handed the strange woman the tempometer, but looked to her father for an explanation.

Without giving every detail, Rom and Aster filled her in on the catastrophic situation cause by using the tempometer. With each word, Shara's knees grew weaker until she gave in to the need to sit down. Nothing, not even the news that a portion of Innerworld's people had already been evacuated, was as devastating as learning that her selfish actions had eradicated Roman's existence.
How could she ever live with that knowledge?

Gabriel sat down and put his arm around her. "We'll fix it. There has to be a way."

"That's right," added Cattar. "And your returning with the tempometer was the first step. If you truly figured out how to arrive at a specific time, that's the second. Now tell me everything you've done with the device since you left, while we head for the science laboratory. Governor, please notify the research team to meet us there immediately!"

Shara clung to Cattar's optimism. On the way to the lab, she forced all thoughts of Roman's disappearance to the back of her mind but it took all her strength not to break down. Gabriel gave the others an overview of where they'd been, but the excitement of their adventures was quashed by the problems they'd caused. Under the circumstances, Shara decided to withhold the fact that she and Gabriel had been stricken by the mating fever and joined. It was hardly a time for celebration.

When Shara revealed that she had not only found Khameira's ancestor but her own as well, and how she had been unable to go through with her original plans, Cattar rolled her eyes skyward and said, "Thank you, Supreme Being!"

Looking back at Shara and her parents, Cattar prepared to give them the one explanation she had been keeping to herself. "Forgive me for not speaking all of the truth before but I didn't see the need to add to your heartache. I told you that Lantana's mind was fogged. Unfortunately, it was more than senility. He was fanatical enough to use his dying hour to feed you all very convincing lies that would ultimately destroy you and your contributions.

"Khameira Chang Sung exists on Outerworld in my time, but he is merely a religious zealot with a few psychic abilities and a claim to Noronian ancestry. Most of his original followers lost interest in his magic tricks within a few years. And there was never a third world war whatsoever. All but a few small countries live in peace and conduct business with Norona. Or rather, they did before the time disruption began."

"I don't understand," Shara said with a frown. "Why would Lantana go to so much trouble to convince me to go back and eliminate the ancestor of someone whose importance is negligible?"

"Aah, but it wasn't Khameira he wanted to eliminate," Cattar said. "It was your mother he was after."

Now it was Aster's turn to claim confusion.

"You see," Cattar said, "Lantana was a member of a small group of Noronians who never approved of open communication or fraternizing with the Terrans. The older he got, the more rigid he became in his beliefs. In his twisted mind, he blamed Aster Mackenzie for everything that he believed was wrong with our society. She was the first Terran woman to join with a Noronian man and bear children, thus permanently ending the purity of the race. She was the one who encouraged the first trade agreements.

"He was convinced that if he could eliminate Aster Mackenzie, the Cooperative Age never would have come about. Because of Shara's work in genetics, he was able to learn that both Aster and Khameira shared an ancestor from some early time, but he didn't know exactly when or who it was.

"Fortunately, you didn't act on your discovery. The strange part is that in Lantana's early research on time travel he theorized that events in time cannot truly be altered. If one person is eliminated, the contributions he or she would have made to history would simply be made by another. If a particular tyrant was prevented from overpowering a culture, another tyrant would do it instead. Apparently he forgot his own theories in his quest to return to a time already past."

Shara shook her head in dismay. "It was all a giant hoax? I can hardly believe what we went through because of that man. When I think of all the risks we took, how many times we came close to death, how—"

She cut herself off when she saw the horrified expressions on her parents' faces. "I'm exaggerating," she assured them. "Hardly anything happened to be concerned about. But from what you've related, this planet is deteriorating and my brother's life was erased, all because of one man's prejudice!" She felt Gabriel giving her a mental hug and calmed down. With him by her side and the confirmation of her Noronian ancestry, she would never again allow another's bigotry to eat away at her.

Eight hours later, Cattar and the research team were absolutely certain the tempometer's flaws were corrected and that she could make a successful time-hop to a precise day in the future. They worked out the most probable way to restore everything to the way it was before Lantana had appeared in the Locke family's living room.

A thorough report of the events leading up to the present catastrophe was recorded. Cattar included information that would convince her future self that she had indeed prepared the warning during a trip into the past. She would then time-hop to the week before Lantana launched his plot and make sure the report was hand-delivered to herself and acted upon. Of course she would have to be very careful not to create a paradox by interacting directly with her future self, but she was certain that would not be a problem.

If everything worked the way it should, Cattar would stop Lantana from ever using the tempometer in the first place, which would prevent all the other events that followed from happening. The second Cattar would vanish, because it would never have been necessary for her to time-hop at all. The tear in the time-space continuum would not simply be repaired, it never would have occurred. And since none of the subsequent events ever happened, all traces of them would disintegrate and no one would have any memory of them. The weeks that had gone by since Lantana's time-hop would be replayed the way they should have without his interference.

It all sounded very logical and, if it was successful, the results would be perfect.

For everyone except Shara and Gabriel. Their meeting, the journey through time, his historical recordings and even their joining—all of it would be wiped out the instant the plan was set in motion. They requested a five-minute delay while they left the lab to speak in private.

The moment they were alone, they were in each other's arms.

"I don't want to erase everything that happened between us," Shara said, tears filling her eyes.

"Nor do I, sweetling," Gabriel assured her. "But there seems to be no other way. We have to believe our love for one another is strong enough to overcome anything... even time. Somehow, some way, we'll find each other again."

Shara sniffed and looked up at him. "With you journeying in another galaxy and me working in my lab in Innerworld, it doesn't sound like that's likely to happen. But I know you're right. There is no other way." She wiped her eyes and straightened her shoulders. "We'd better get back and let them do what they must."

"One more minute won't matter," he whispered, then lowered his head to give her a kiss so sweet and tender, she began to cry again. Tipping her chin up, he stared into her eyes. "Remember me, Shara. Look into my eyes and
remember."

* * *

Shara slid her tall frame a little lower in the chair and pretended to concentrate on the food in front of her. This was one time Roman would not get her support. She was going to stay out of this family discussion if it killed her.

"Drek!
But that's unfair."

"Roman Locke!" Aster glared at her son, whose sullen face had taken on a tinge of pink when he realized his slip. "I will not have that language in our home. In fact, I don't care for your attitude at all this evening, young man."

Beneath the table, Shara gently tapped her brother's shin with the toe of her shoe to warn him to give it up. He was spoiling their weekly family dinner... again. She wasn't surprised when he continued his argument.

"Shara has her own residence. All I want—"

"Shara," Romulus interrupted, "is a grown woman with an established career. You aren't even out of school yet."

That was the one argument Roman had no answer to and, though he was clearly unhappy about having his request for more independence denied, he let it drop for the time being.

After dinner, a competitive card game got everyone back into a light mood, but Shara couldn't keep her mind on the game. The oddest feeling had come over her, as if something out of the ordinary was about to happen. But nothing did.

A month later, she was still being bothered by the same feeling and it was beginning to wear on her nerves. Though she had never had premonitions before, the fact that she had other well-developed mental abilities prevented her from completely dismissing the feeling. But nothing of importance had yet occurred.

She was working on a difficult calculation in her lab one day when she heard the door open and close. Someone was speaking but she blocked out the voice and kept her gaze locked on the monitor so as not to lose her train of thought before completing the calculation. The pressure of a strong hand on her shoulder accomplished what the voice had not. The most peculiar tingling sensation danced down her arm to her fingertips.

"Ahem!"

Annoyed at the interruption, Shara slanted a glance at the fingers spread over her shoulder. The closely pared, unpolished nails and the smattering of fine blond hair on the large hand identified her visitor as a man. Her gaze continued up a bare forearm to an aqua jersey loosely covering a pair of muscular shoulders. Intending to deliver a glare that would have most men pleading for forgiveness, she swiveled her chair toward him and raised her eyes.

Her intended glare lost its hostility as she caught sight of his attractive, almost boyish features. His crown of blond curls, sky-blue eyes and long eyelashes would have seemed more fitting on a Terran angel. But the warm body standing much too close to hers was definitely not that of a spirit. A plain gold earcuff on his left lobe was the only adornment that was not given him by nature. He epitomized the type of man she avoided at all costs.

And yet she couldn't pull her eyes away from his. She was certain she had never seen the man before, though he seemed as familiar to her as her own brother. She literally had to restrain herself from moving closer.

"I'm Gabriel Drumayne," he murmured as his gaze moved over her face. He completely forgot his reason for coming into the lab but he was inexplicably pleased that he had. "Have we met before?" he asked, staring into her chocolate-brown eyes with an expression of curious fascination.

"I don't believe so," she replied in a tone that revealed a similar sense of bewilderment.

"Perhaps if we discussed it over lunch, we'd discover why you seem so familiar to me."

Without giving it a second thought, she replied, "I'd like that very much."

He held out his hand to help her rise and the charge that passed between their fingers could only be described as electrical.

Suddenly Shara understood the nervous anticipation she'd been experiencing all month, the instant feeling of recognition, the tingling sensation when he touched her. The look in his eyes told her he was also aware of what it meant.

Her romantic dream of finding the perfect soulmate was coming true... exactly the way her mother had promised it would happen.

The End