GABRIEL (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 4)

by Marilyn Campbell

Remember the vision we shared about the volcano, Gabriel reminded her. We'll make it. Just have faith.

  Shara's efforts to think positively received a tremendous boost as they crossed the second bridge. Salvation, in the form of one enormous elephant, was trudging toward them against the massive flow of refugees.

  "Elo!" Rebekah cried, waving her arm in the air. "Mama! Papa! Here I am."

  Elo trumpeted a warning and fanned his ears and a path was cleared for him. His sheer size and tusks were enough to keep most people away but a few dared to hitch a ride. The elephant knocked them out of the way with his trunk and continued on to his little friend. In a flash, Gabriel handed Rebekah to Jarad, climbing up Elo's side himself and pulled Shara up in front of him.

  "Turn, Elo!" Jarad commanded. "Home. Fast."

  Men and women grasped at the riders' feet and begged to be taken along but Elo moved too quickly for them. In no time he was carrying his passengers through the last gate of the royal city ahead of most of the fleeing population. He never slowed his pace until he reached Jarad and Ester's shelter.

  They dismounted quickly and Jarad gave Elo one last order. "Go to Noe, Elo. He has a mate for you and will take you both to safety." Jarad then turned to Gabriel and Shara and bowed to them. "Thank you for saving Rebekah."

  Shara gave all three of them a hug. "And thank you for everything you did for us."

  The ground rumbled ferociously beneath them, warning that time was up. They wished one another safe journeys then went their separate ways.

  As Gabriel and Shara approached the beach, they were shocked to see huge waves crashing onto the sand only a short distance from where their raft was hidden. They wasted no time getting into position and preparing for the hop forward in time.

  "We are going home this time, aren't we?" Gabriel asked as Shara worked the front crystal of the tempometer belt.

  She tilted her head back, gave him a sweet smile and sent them on their way.

  Chapter 23

  At least the water was calm this time. Calmer than Gabriel. "What was that smile supposed to mean?" he demanded.

  She laughed. "I was only teasing. I swear, the adventure is over. I agree with what you said about the risk of running into ourselves if we tried to backtrack. According to my calculations, we should have arrived here on the same day as it would be if we'd never left. In other words, the same three weeks we've spent hopping have passed in our own time. Based on Lantana's notes, I figured that was the safest way to avoid a paradox of any kind." She opened her bag and pulled out her special ring. "In a few more minutes I'll have us in Innerworld and we'll get your body repaired."

  He put his hand over hers to stop her from programming the ring for transmigration. "Not yet. We have a few things to discuss first."

  She turned to face him. "Oh?"

  "I want to know exactly what you did to help Rebekah escape."

  "Almost nothing," she replied with a shake of her head. "I had every intention of breaking her out of that cell but she got out on her own. Considering the fact that Ester and Jarad were on their way to get her, I think it would be safe to assume she would have been rescued without my assistance. So you can rest easy. I did not alter history."

  "Fine. Then I have something for you." He reached inside the cloth wrapped around his chest and handed her a dark brown hair. "This is from a nobleman named Daniel." Gabriel told her about what happened to him on the slave crew, his rescue by Daniel and their subsequent conversations.

  "It doesn't sound like the Ruling Tribunal caused the destruction of Atlantis after all."

  "Probably not, but I can't prove that they didn't orchestrate it either. Fortunately, Daniel and his group had made arrangements to escape in case the end came without the promised saviors showing up. I hated to disappoint him but I had to tell him the truth about who we really were. I hope he made it."

  Shara looked at the hair in her hand. "What made you get this?"

  He shrugged. "Something about his eyes reminded me of you and I thought maybe it was his ancestor you were looking for. That exile's name was Willem."

  Shara knew that was one of the names left on the list. As she pulled out the microputer, her hands began to tremble. "Whether this is the one or not, I thank you. It means a lot that you would do this for me." She leaned forward and touched her lips to his. Holding her breath, she fed the hair into the microputer and ran the analysis.

  She exhaled when no match with Khameira showed up.

  She pressed the next button and stared at the miniature screen, willing it to come up with a match for herself.

  Gabriel felt her anticipation. Then her dejection. There was no match. "I'm sorry, sweetling. I was hoping that was your answer."

  She sighed. "I guess I wasn't meant to know."

  "Go ahead and test the other one. I'd rather you do it in front of me than behind my back."

  She forced a smile for him. "Can I do yours first?"

  "Mine?"

  "You and Apollo looked an awful lot alike. Aren't you curious?" Although he made a face at her, he pulled out one of his hairs.

  She ran the test, then punched a few more keys. "Well, well. It seems you, Apollo and Artemis do share an ancestor, but it wasn't Zeus or anyone else I've tested. Undoubtedly their mother remained on Norona and mated with another man."

  "Very interesting," he said. "Now run the other test."

  She had such a strong feeling that Jupiter and Khameira would match up that she hadn't wanted Gabriel to see the results, but he was right. He'd find out eventually. They may as well have their final argument now as later. She found Jupiter's hair in her pouch and threaded it into the microputer.

  Seconds later, all doubts were removed. Khameira's memory molecule contained matches with Jupiter, his father Saturn and his grandfather Poseidon. If Poseidon had not been exiled to Terra, he would not have mated with the native women and would never have begun the line through which Khameira descended.

  Before Gabriel could begin a lecture on not altering history, she defended her position once more. "You personally experienced the horrors perpetrated by Jupiter, and his father was almost as bad. One day in the future, Khameira will cause the destruction of this planet and who knows what wretched dictators came from the same line in between? How could eliminating such evil be a bad thing?"

  Gabriel took a deep breath. "Before I answer that, press the other button—the one for yourself."

  "It's not—"

  "You're a scientist, Shara. Run the analysis."

  Just to prove it was a waste of time, she pressed the button... and gasped. It had never occurred to her to test herself against Khameira but the ugly truth was staring her in the face. Though she descended through a different line, Poseidon was her ancestor as well.

  Gabriel quickly pointed out the only conclusion possible. "If you stop Poseidon from being exiled to Terra, not only do you prevent Khameira's birth, but your own."

  Shara weighed the alternatives then lifted her chin in a brave manner and said, "Millions of people die because of Poseidon's Terra-born descendants. What is my life worth against all of theirs?"

  Gabriel grasped her shoulders. "What is your life worth?" He was so upset by her words, it took him a moment to form a coherent argument. "Think harder! What about all the other decent people you'd be eliminating? What about your own mother? Are her contributions so worthless that you would erase her life with a wave of your hand?" He felt her horrified reaction to the idea of eliminating her mother.

  "You're confusing me," she said softly.

  "Good! Because I'm so confused right now, I don't know if the rest of what I have to say is going to make any sense, but here it is anyway. If you still believe that you should go back and stop Poseidon from being sent to Terra then you'd better find that ancestor Apollo and I share and prevent her from starting the line I descend from too."

  Shara frowned at him. "I don't understand."

  "If you're not going to be born, I don't want to be eith
er." She gaped at him in such surprise, he released her shoulders and stroked her cheek. "You're my shalla, destined to be my soulmate. I truly believe that now and I've been hoping that one day you would come to believe it also. The last thing I want to hear you say is that your life has no worth, when it means everything to me."

  "I... I'm not sure what to say."

  "Then don't say anything. Just do me one favor. Open your mind. Completely. Let me see what you've been hiding from me."

  She closed her eyes and knew the truth of his declaration. With joy filling her soul, she lowered the last wall between them.

  As her love poured over him and into his mind, he pressed his mouth to hers. I love you, sweetling. There's only one way I ever want to be alone again and that's alone with you.

  His thought sent a trill of pleasure racing through her and she returned his kiss with a loving thought of her own. Our coming together wasn't the way I dreamed it would be but loving you and having that love returned is better than any dream I ever had.

  A strong wave lifted the raft, reminding them that they couldn't afford to get too demonstrative.

  Gabriel held her away from him and looked into her eyes. "Can I assume this means I finally found a way to convince you that the past should not be tampered with?"

  She nodded. "Yes. You were right, and I was wrong. However, I am not convinced that nothing can be done about Khameira. I intend to come up with something better than the Tribunal's solution of leaving warnings for future generations."

  He gave her a hug. "Fine. Just give me a chance to prepare before you set your next plan into action. And speaking of plans, I picked up that ridiculous notion in your head that I would consider journeying without you." He pulled her to him and kissed her with a hunger reminiscent of the fever. "If that's not enough of a reason for traveling together, you've ruined me for journeying alone ever again. Besides the way you fit into my sleeping pouch, I've grown accustomed to having you to talk to, have meals with, work beside. I'd even miss our arguments."

  His compliments made her blush. "We do make a pretty good team."

  "We make a perfect team," he corrected, stroking her cheek. "My work has to be done in the field but it seems to me that you could do your work anywhere, as long as you had your equipment. It would only necessitate a bit of customizing of my ship. I can't promise you'll always have the most luxurious surroundings but I'll do my best to keep you comfortable."

  She gave him a deep kiss equal to the one he had given her. "I can't think of anything more comfortable than sharing a sleeping pouch with you in it." She sat back and wrinkled her brow in thought.

  "There's just one problem. I hope you weren't planning on us embarking on a journey anytime soon."

  "Why not?"

  "There is no way I'm going to be able to tell my parents about everything I've done then take off immediately afterward. I can't begin to imagine their reaction to my being joined with someone they've never even met."

  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.