GABRIEL (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 4)

by Marilyn Campbell

  Of course, there actually was a chance that Shara would pop back in at any time. But Roman was a different story. All evidence that he had ever existed had vanished. Only human memories remained and Aster and Romulus had no idea when that would start to fade as well.

  Rom had helped Aster redecorate Roman's room exactly the way it had been before. They had an artist draw a rendering of their son with the words ROMAN LOCKE EXISTED under it and hung it on his bedroom door. Together they had written out a lengthy explanation and biography that they read and reread to hold on to their memories as long as possible.

  He was too distraught himself to come up with any other ideas of how to help Aster deal with the double loss. Neither said it aloud but guilt was playing a major part in their distress. They had waited ten years before having a second child and it had been a difficult decision.

  In the past two days, a long list of changes had been reported in Innerworld and Outerworld news was filled with similar stories. In most cases, it was confirmed that a choice had once been made that had now been reversed.

  The fact that people's memories were starting to alter to fit the changes was not the only complication added to the original problem. The changes themselves were increasing in severity. Not only had a number of people vanished in both Inner and Outerworld, an entire building under construction in the southwestern United States disappeared in the blink of an eye. Two workers who had been on scaffolds fell to their deaths and a dozen others were injured when the floors they were standing on were no longer there.

  A scientific research team agreed on the theory that certain moments in history had somehow been altered, and since it began after Shara disappeared, there was probably a connection. But so far no one had a viable theory as to how to deal with the situation.

  By the time Rom reached his residence, Aster had pulled herself together enough to greet him with a halfhearted kiss. They held each other for a long time before she spoke.

  "For a moment this morning I had forgotten," she murmured in a shaky vice. "I saw the picture of Roman and his name on the bedroom door and for just a second I didn't know who it was."

  "Did you reread the bio?"

  She nodded. "But I'm not sure if it brought the memory back or created a new one. I found myself questioning some of the things we'd written."

  Rom guided her over to the sofa to sit. "The research team is fairly sure that as soon as Shara returns, they'll be able to find out what she's done and go back and correct it."

  "And everything would return to normal?" Aster asked in a flat tone.

  "That's the theory. Without the ability to re-create the tempometer to go looking for her, we have no choice but to wait for her to come back to this time."

  Suddenly the sound of tinkling wind chimes filled the room. They both bolted up from the sofa and stared expectantly at the glittering lights transforming into a body.

  "Shara?" Aster cried hopefully, remembering that this was how Lantana first appeared before them.

  It was a female... but not Shara. A heavyset woman of middle years with dark magenta hair smoothed the gathers in her brightly colored caftan. She was wearing a crystal belt exactly like the one Lantana had worn. "My, my. That was certainly interesting," she declared to herself then smiled at Rom and Aster. "Hello. I hope this is the home of Romulus Locke and Aster Mackenzie."

  "Yes, it is," Rom assured her and introduced himself and Aster.

  "Thank the stars! My name is Cattar. I have come from two hundred fifty years in the future in search of an elderly man."

  "Lantana?" Rom ventured.

  Cattar frowned. "Don't tell me he's already been here!"

  "Here and gone over a month ago. He passed on almost immediately after he arrived but he managed to leave a catastrophe behind. I sincerely hope you're here to straighten it out."

  "Actually, I was hoping to be here before him or at least at the same time so that I could force him to fix the mess he caused. Without his knowledge, I'm not sure how much help I'm going to be."

  Aster's flash of hope died and she leaned into Rom for support.

  Cattar reached out and touched her hand. "I don't mean I'm completely useless, mind you. I am a scientific engineer and I believe I have a grasp of the situation. Perhaps if we all sat down and shared information, we could succeed without the old fanatic's help."

  "Fanatic?" Rom repeated as he and Aster sat back down on the sofa and Cattar squeezed her bulky form into the striped chair.

  Waving a hand, she said, "He was a very old man whose mind had fogged. But his reasons for doing what he did are not important right now. We must focus all our concentration on what is happening to our world, both in your time and mine. I will need the tempometer he used to come here and any data he brought with him."

  Rom and Aster glanced at each other nervously. "We don't have it," Rom said, then told Cattar everything that had happened since Lantana's fateful arrival.

  Cattar rubbed at the worry lines across her forehead. "This is much worse than I thought. And yet it provides one of the pieces I was missing for this puzzle. Let's see if I can explain. Lantana had worked on his device in secret, so when he first disappeared, no one suspected he had gone to another time period. All of a sudden, small changes occurred, just as you described happening here. As the type of alterations became more drastic, we suspected time was being tampered with.

  "Someone recalled Lantana's preoccupation with time travel, added his fanatical views on certain subjects and his disappearance shortly before the changes began and came up with a shocking possibility. Upon searching his residence and extracting all the data in his computer, the design for his tempometer was discovered, along with personal journal entries outlining his plans to use it and why.

  "We were able to construct the device from his notes." She pointed to her belt. "Unfortunately, it had one flaw that he knew of and one that he didn't. His notes indicated that he hadn't perfected the destination time mechanism. You see, he couldn't figure out how to hit a precise date, only the right century. I thought I had fixed it. I was trying to get here just before he arrived but the fact that I'm over a month late shows I still didn't perfect the mechanism."

  Aster was stunned. "Are you saying that Shara may have landed in a time a hundred years off from where she thought she was going?"

  Cattar shrugged. "Up to a hundred years. She could also have missed it by a decade or hit it directly. His theory was that eddies and flows in time had the power to pull a traveler into certain historically important periods. At any rate, that was the flaw he was aware of and that I obviously have yet to correct. The other flaw is the one causing all the havoc, however, and that one will be impossible to fix until your daughter returns with the original device.

  Rom and Aster both leaned forward anxiously as Cattar shifted her big body in the chair to find a more comfortable position. Rom prodded her along. "We've made the assumption that Shara has done something in the past that has caused the changes."

  "Not necessarily," Cattar replied. "If that was the case, no one would have a memory of anything being changed. The previous event or situation would never have been at all, because history would have actually followed another pattern. No, this is entirely different. It took us a while but eventually we figured it out.

  "When Lantana first used his tempometer, the flaw caused a small disruption, or tear, in the time-space continuum. Each time the device is activated, it increases the size of the tear. Thus, history is being distorted rather than totally changed. We decided to take the risk of my using the second device in hopes that this trip could ultimately solve the problem, even if it caused a further disruption in the meantime."

  Aster massaged her temples as she worked to understand what Cattar was relating. "So every time Shara uses the tempometer, she's causing the situation to worsen. Do you think that suggests that she has used it more than once?"

  "Considering the first flaw, she might have had to use it several times to get to wher
e she wanted to go. Then, of course, she'd have the same problem getting back here."

  "Is there any way you could figure out where—or rather when—she is and go after her?" Aster asked hopefully.

  Cattar shook her head. "I'm sorry. If there's a way to track the movements of a time traveler, we didn't figure it out. Besides, due to the risk of using the device at all, I'm under orders not to activate it again unless I can come up with a solution."

  Rom raked his fingers through his hair. "What are we to do then?"

  Cattar's expression revealed her empathy for what they were going through. "We pray your daughter returns soon, and while we're waiting for her, I'll continue to work on correcting the flaws."

  Rom couldn't see any other alternatives. "Needless to say, our scientists and facilities are at your disposal."

  Cattar thanked him and decided the handsome couple were already suffering too much to hear the rest. Anyway, there was really nothing to be gained by telling them about Lantana's twisted motives. Nor was there any sense in letting them know that there was a strong possibility that, rather than simply changing, their world would soon begin to deteriorate, as it already was in her time.

  Chapter 16

  "Joined? That's impossible!" Shara exclaimed.

  "We didn't perform the sacred joining ceremony. We didn't say the words, or consume the special food or drink. Neither of our parents were present, and most important, neither of us was willing!"

  Gabriel's hands pressed to his ears and his eyes squinted shut. Please don't talk so loud. It's like being in an echo chamber. He felt her tense agreement then dared her to come up with a better explanation than he had. What else could it be? Consider the evidence. The mating fever. The decreasing relief periods between peaks. The surge of power, the glow, the ground tremors and now we're effortlessly in each other's minds in spite of my jammer. What else could that add up to? He read her defensive response and lashed back. Don't you dare blame me for this! I removed the jammer and brought your fingers to my temple because I wanted to give you something special.

  Oh, it was special, all right!

  I didn't hear you objecting at the time! How many times have I suggested we go back and get treated before it was too late? But no, you talked me out of it every single time.

  How was I to know that the fever could reach its natural conclusion without our willing participation? I thought we were coupling to keep the fever from killing us. Instead, we've ended up in a fate worse than death!

  They sat there fuming, each one's anger and frustration fueling the other's, placing blame yet knowing that neither had intentionally caused the strange phenomenon. Whatever quirk of fate and time had triggered their mating fevers had also orchestrated its climactic ending without any of the normal requirements being in place.

  They were joined, physically, emotionally and mentally. Based on the evidence Gabriel had listed, it could be assumed that the joining was spiritual as well, which meant it was irreversible throughout eternity.

  They had been cheated, their freedom of choice stolen, their futures altered in a way neither could imagine adjusting to.

  Gabriel's rage was so painful, Shara threw up a protective mental wall between them. Surprisingly, it worked. After the first few seconds, she was able to keep their minds separated with minimal concentration.

  "You're gone," Gabriel noted warily.

  "Not really." She slowly lowered the partition and raised it again. "I have no idea how well I can hold it but I'll do my best." Though she could no longer hear his thoughts, his taut expression told her enough. "I know I haven't always been honest with you and you have good reason not to trust me. But I swear I did nothing to cause this."

  He knew that but it didn't eliminate his urge to blame someone. He massaged the back of his neck and forced himself to calm down. "It's rather ironic, isn't it?"

  "What?" Shara asked, wondering how he could comment on irony in such a seemingly hopeless situation.

  He couldn't meet her eyes as he spoke. "For days, you've been trusting me with your life. Now I have to trust you with my mind. I suppose there's some justice in that but you'll have to excuse me if it takes a while to get used to the idea."

  She bowed her head. She knew he was thinking that this might have been avoided if she hadn't been so stubborn about remaining in the past. But she also knew that he was a man who eventually accepted what couldn't be changed and found a way to work around the problem. Though he wouldn't throw it up to her forever, he would resent her for the rest of his life. And she could never let down the wall without feeling that resentment.

  "There is one positive note," Gabriel said, standing up. "The question of how we were going to cope with the fever during the next leg of this journey has just been answered."

  Shara watched him pull a jumper out of his satchel. "You mean you're still willing to go on with me?" She wasn't sure she felt like continuing herself.

  As he dressed and put Beauty and his paralyzer into his jumper, he said, "Roll up the pouch, will you? Of course we're going on. But don't get the idea you've changed my thinking about Khameira's ancestor. I stand by my opinion that history shouldn't be altered. It's just that while our minds were together, I felt how important it was for you to verify your heritage. We're going to do that before we return."

  He paused and narrowed his eyes at her. "Then again, my jammer no longer keeps you out of my mind, does it? You could probably convince me that I changed my mind on my own."

  Shara couldn't believe he thought so little of her. "I won't take advantage of you, Gabriel. I promise." She could see he wasn't reassured and an idea came to her. "A moment ago you were able to tell immediately that I was dividing our thoughts."

  "Yes?"

  "Once my parents were joined, my father's mental abilities were passed on to her. If we're truly joined, anytime I let the wall down, you'll feel it. You might even acquire some of my skills. If you want them, I mean."

  "I don't really know what I want right now," he said, his voice still tightly controlled. "You'd better get dressed and take out the food you brought from the lodge."

  "I'm not hungry," she replied in a flat voice as she handed him the pouch. At the moment she didn't care if she ever ate again, or got dressed, or anything else.

  "Yes, you are. I felt it. We'll have a quick snack to replace the calories lost then you'll program the tempometer. The sun's up and we promised to be out of here by now."

  Within an hour they had made the time-hop into the future and were standing in the vicinity of where they had been a few days before, but instead of being inside a ship, they were in the busy transportation hangar. Not far from where they'd appeared was a silver ship that resembled a flying pterodactyl. It was an older model than the one on which they had traveled to Norona. A number of people seemed to be waiting for the doors to open, which, luckily, along with the general noise, kept them from noticing Shara and Gabriel's appearance.

  The doors opened and people started descending the ramp to waiting friends and family.

  "Dear heavens!" Shara exclaimed, grabbing Gabriel's arm. "Look who that is!"

  Standing in the doorway were Shara's parents, Romulus and Aster. Before panic set in, though, Shara realized they looked different... younger... several decades younger.

  Aster looked terribly nervous. Romulus said something to her and she gave him a hesitant smile. As they came down the ramp, Romulus waved at someone below. Shara couldn't resist taking a few steps closer as a woman exclaimed "Rom!" and walked into his open arms.

  "You're staring," Gabriel whispered to Shara.

  "But that's my parents and grandparents. Don't worry, they won't recognize me. I wasn't even born yet. Listen."

  Romulus kissed his mother's cheek and hugged his father. The two men looked so much alike, it was uncanny. Rom stepped back and put an arm around Aster's waist in a clearly possessive manner. "Mother, Father, this is Aster Mackenzie. Aster, Yulan and Marcus."

  "They're m
eeting for the first time," Shara explained. "That means it's about forty years ago and tomorrow they'll be presenting their case to the Ruling Tribunal. The next day they'll be granted special permission to join, in spite of the law forbidding a mixed joining. I programmed the tempometer for a later date but I can see how we would get pulled into this time. It was a landmark decision." Noticing the way her parents looked at each other, she couldn't help but add, "It was also very romantic."

  Shara knew her parents loved each other but she'd never given it much thought. Seeing them like this, prepared to defy the most powerful authority in the Confederation to be together, made her own heart swell with emotion. They announced their love with every look, every touch. They were meant to be joined for all time.

  Not like her and Gabriel. She had never heard of an accidental joining, but then she didn't know of anyone ever making a successful time-hop either. As she watched her parents and grandparents walk away, her heart was weighted with despair.

  She would never know the joy of finding her true soulmate as her mother had. There would be no romantic courtship or day-long preparation for the formal joining ceremony. She would never know the beautiful oneness of sharing her life with a man who loved her above all else.

  Gabriel didn't need to be in Shara's head to see what she was feeling. Sadness emanated from every pore in her body. She had told him days ago of her romantic dreams of finding her true soulmate. She had expected it to happen the same way it had for her mother. Instead, she got him.

  Not that he wasn't a good man. He imagined she could have wound up with someone worse than him. It wasn't that she was a poor choice for a mate either. She had many wonderful traits. He just didn't want a mate at all. And she knew it. Her first reaction to finding themselves joined was numb shock. She'd put up the wall before she got over it. His reaction had been more spontaneous. He was furious.