Stolen Dreams (34 page)

 

The
migration took about two minutes, but it wasn't nearly as jarring as a
time-hop. They were simply suspended in a black void until they
rematerialized on the Altantic Ocean.

 

A bolt of lightning
streaked
across the gray sky followed closely by a crash of thunder. Blowing
rain pelted their faces as the raft was carried high in the air by a
mighty wave and dropped again with a bone-jarring splash.

 

"Get
us out of here. Now!" Gabriel yelled in Shara's ear.

 

But
just as her fingers moved on the tempometer switch, her bag came loose
and slipped over the edge of the raft. In a panic, she made a dive for
it.

 

 

Security Chief Varius burst
into the Governor's office. "Tunnel number seven just collapsed!"

 

Rom's
stomach clenched violently, but he forced himself to ask, "Casualties?"

 

"None
have been reported so far," the chief replied, making a monumental
effort to control his panic. "Two hours from now it would have been a
different story. A ship was scheduled to depart for Norona using that
lane."

 

Rom rubbed his eyes. He hadn't slept in days. Couldn't.
He mentally contacted Aster before giving Chief Varius his instructions.

 

We
can't put it off any longer. We have to act immediately, Aster thought
to him.

 

In
the past two weeks, the changes had taken another giant, disastrous
turn. Cattar had reluctantly revealed that she had known how much worse
it would get, but had hoped they could have prevented it.

 

This
was
the second tunnel to disintegrate; the first had resulted in the death
of seven hundred Innerworlders. In Outerworld, most of Europe was now a
wasteland because the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 had been
altered.

 

Transmissions from Norona indicated they were also experiencing a series of strange phenomena,
but the changes didn't seem to be heading for deterioration of the
planet.

 

The
only positive note was that Cattar and the Innerworld scientists were
certain they were getting close to a solution to both flaws, but they
still needed the original device in hand to conclude their analysis.

 

Cattar
deduced that Shara had made another time-hop that ripped the tear in
the time-space continuum much wider, but wherever she had traveled to,
it wasn't home. And if she didn't get here soon, there might be no home
for her to arrive in.

 

All things considered, Rom knew what had
to be
done. He met Chief Variuss worried gaze and said, "Notify Emissary R-17
that it's time to make contact with the Secretary General of
Outerworld's United Nations. They have to be told what's going on, even
if there's very little they'll be able to do about it."

 

Varius
nodded and waited for the Governor to issue the order he knew had to be
given.

 

Taking a deep, steadying breath, Rom spoke the dreaded
words. "Commence evacuation procedures."

 

Gabriel
grasped Shara's ankle a second before she disappeared under the water.
But his hand was slick with rain and he felt her slipping away despite
his tremendous effort to pull her back. His other hand was gripping the
edge of the raft. If he let that go to get a better hold on her, they
could both go down. Shara!

 

Help me! She sent him an urgent
image of
what he needed to do to save them. Suddenly the raft shot straight up
in the air and Gabriel thought surely the end had come. Instead of
flipping over, however, the raft hovered there, as if being held up by
a powerful geyser of water. But it was their combined mental power, not
a physical force, keeping them levitated.

 

With the raft fairly
stabilized, he was able to drag Shara back on board. She lay over his
lap, choking and sputtering and drenched from head to toe, but her
fingers remained clenched around the handle of her precious bag.

 

He
wanted to comfort her and scream at her at the same time, but both
would have to wait until they got clear of the storm. "The wind is
blowing us off course. We've got to go." He shifted her back into their
former position, and as a bolt of lightning electrified the air around them, they surged into
the next leg of their journey.

 

At
the end of the time-hop, it was immediately apparent that Gabriel had
been correct about the wind blowing them off course. The late afternoon
sun was shining in a clear blue sky, the sea beneath them was flat as a
sheet of green glass, but land was nowhere in sight.

 

Holding
the
mirrored triangle in front of him and Shara, he instructed Beauty to
give them their present coordinates. It wasn't quite as bad as it
appeared. "Indicate distance and direction to nearest body of land with
dense population of life-forms, evolution level four and above." Their
destination was 2.2 kilometers northwest. "How are you at rowing?" he
asked Shara.

 

She twisted her head back to look at him. "I
thought you said you could make a sail."

 

"A
sail needs wind. We went from one extreme to the other. I have a
personal-sized retropower rocket that I could hook up to the rear of
the raft, but it can only be used once and I'd rather save it for a
real emergency."

 

"Then save it and our strength. Take us in
with your mind. You can do it now."

 

"Not without your help."

 

Shara
shook her head. "All I did a minute ago was give you a push start, then
concentrate on not drowning. You held the raft up by yourself."

 

Gabriel
didn't know what to say. He'd been too terrified to think about who was
doing what. In case it was only a fluke, he focused his mind on
elevating the raft. When it rose off the water, he was so surprised, he
let it drop again. Did I really do that by myself?        
 

 

Resting
her head back against his chest, Shara smiled at the wondrous delight
in his mental voice, but it made her realize that she hadn't
reconstructed the partition. As she raised it, he stopped her.

 

"Please
don't. We can each block our own thoughts now, and I'd rather keep the
channel open between us." He felt her question. "I have a strange
feeling that we may need it. Anyway, it's not as terrible as I
remembered. I don't mind you being in here with me as much as I thought
I would."

 

Shara smiled again, letting him know his concession
was appreciated.

 

He
tightened his arms around her for a moment, then urged her around to
face him. "Now that we've got that out of the way, perhaps you'd like
to tell me what possessed you to attempt suicide back there?"

 

His
abrupt mood change was jarring, but she knew she deserved his anger
this time. "I'm so sorry. I panicked. I saw all my work about to
disappear and I didn't think of the consequences."

 

Crossing
his arms
in front of him, he kept his expression stern and his thoughts closed
to her. "In the future, you will consider the consequences first, then
act. Both our lives could have been lost because you were worried about
losing material possessions!"

 

"I said I'm sorry. What do you
want me to do? Penance?"

 

He
closed his hands over her shoulders. "What I want is a promise that
you'll never, ever do anything so foolhardy again." He pulled her close
and embraced her tightly. "In all my journeys, I have never felt fear
so great."

 

Shara held her response, hoping to hear some word
of love following the scare of losing her, how his life wouldn't be complete without her, but his
analysis was much more clinical.

 

"It
must have been due to our joining. If you feel an extremely strong
emotion, such as fear, I suppose I can't help but feel it also."

 

She
sighed quietly and eased out of his arms. "Yes, I'm sure that's what it
was. We should change clothes before we reach land."

 

Gabriel
thought she looked awfully dejected. Perhaps he'd been too hard on her,
but such an enormous breach of safety required serious handling. He
reached over and brushed her hair off her cheek. "I didn't mean to be
so harsh. I've become so accustomed to your being around, I forget how
limited your journeying experience actually is. You'll get better in
time, I'm sure."

 

Yes, she thought to herself as she dug the
rebel
garb out of her bag. Better at journeying. Better at hiding her
weakness. Better at accepting the fact that she would never have the
loving relationship she had always dreamed of—the kind her mother had
promised she would find someday, just as her parents had.

 

In a
short
time they were once again dressed as Friends, Beauty hung from
Gabriel's neck, and Shara had returned the tempometer belt and special
Innerworld ring to her bag. Under Gabriel's newly acquired power, they
were headed toward land. It had been agreed that if anyone recognized
them from Norona, they would explain that they'd traveled to Terra on
Zeus's ship, which had set down in Athens, but then decided to explore
more of the planet.

 

With Beauty's help, Gabriel guided them to
a
stretch of beach with heavy vegetation a small distance from the royal
city of Atlantis, where they might be able to make camp. As he lowered the raft
onto the sand, he had the feeling they were being watched.

 

Yes,
I feel it, too. When her eyes could see no one about, she used her
mental vision. Not far away, crouched amid a thicket of broad-leaved
bushes, were a man and woman.

 

They appear to be more
frightened than dangerous, Gabriel surmised. You talk to them.

 

"Hello?"
Shara called in a purposely lilting voice. "Please come out. We mean
you no harm."

 

Very
cautiously, the couple stood up, came out of the bushes, then fell to
their knees with their foreheads pressed to the ground. Considerably
shorter and stockier than Gabriel and Shara, they both had brown skin
and straight black hair clipped below the ears. The only covering they
wore was a short piece of rough brown material wrapped around their
hips and knotted at the waist.

 

Gabriel stopped Shara from
telling
them they didn't need to bow. They must have seen us float in on the
raft and think we're gods. Remember, these were a very primitive,
superstitious people. Don't disillusion them just yet. We need
information and they might be more helpful if they're a bit awestruck.

 

Whatever
it takes, right?

 

Within reason. "You may rise and tell us your
names," he said in an imperious tone.

 

They
stood, but kept their heads bowed. "I am Jarad, and this is my spouse,
Ester. You wear the dress of the Friends," the man said, sneaking a
look at the strangers.

 

Shara was instantly relieved to note
that her translator chip was programmed with these people's language,
whatever it was.         
 

 

"Yes," Gabriel replied. "That's right. We're
Friends, and we're looking for the others like us."

 

"They're
all gone," Ester said with a sad shake of her head, then looked to
Gabriel with a hopeful expression. "They promised someone would return
to help us. Are you the ones?"

 

Gabriel quickly improvised. "We
were
told there would be a man and woman at this location who could guide us
and answer our questions. Who made this promise you spoke of, and when?"

 

"The
promise was made by the second visitors," Jarad told him, "and has been
passed on secretly through two generations. We had begun to lose any
hope of salvation, but then Noe started hearing God's voice, and now we
have seen you arrive like birds from the sky, exactly as it was
predicted."

 

Shara thought she knew what Jarad was speaking of,
but she wanted to be sure. "What has God told Noe?"

 

Ester and
Jarad glanced at each other with worry in their eyes.

 

"I will
know if you lie," Shara said, gambling a bit.

 

Jarad
raised his head and met her gaze. "God told Noe that the end was coming
soon, and the land and all the evildoers on it would be swallowed up by
the sea. Noe was ordered to build a huge ark and gather on it a male
and female of each animal and tell other good men to do the same. But
most vessels have been discovered before they were finished and taken
by King Jupiter's soldiers for use in the war against Athens. Noe and
his family stay hidden high on the mountain, so their ark has not yet
been found."

 

Gabriel, something doesn't fit here.

 

He
raised his hand to stop Jarad from saying more.
"We have been traveling a very long time and some information is
unknown to us. It would be helpful if you could relate to us what has
happened here since Poseidon arrived."

 

Ester nervously tugged
on
Jarad's wrapper and he gave her a nod. "We do not mind telling the
story, but we have work to do. If we don't get back with the potion
soon, someone will come looking for us."

 

From the frightened
look on
Ester's face, Shara assumed a terrible punishment would be meted out if
they failed to complete their task in time. "Is there something we can
do to help? Then you could tell us what we wish to know while we all
work."

 

Shara!

 

How bad can it be?

 

"You see,
Ester," Jarad said. "The stories were true. The Friends were good and
kind to the people."

 

Shara
ignored Gabriel's mental groan as they followed Jarad and Ester onto a
narrow overgrown path through the bushes. A few seconds later, the
bushes ended and they were standing at the edge of a large field
completely covered by red, white, purple, and pink flowers. A closer
look revealed that they were poppies, planted in rows with just enough
space for a person to walk between.