Stolen Dreams (43 page)

 

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 Lantanas
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 being killed, 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 eliminated, 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. They worked out the most probable way to reverse
everything that had happened, and Romulus and Aster gave their
authorization to implement the plan as soon as possible.

 

A
complete
report of the events leading up to that moment would be planted in the
central communication system. It would contain a trigger for it to be
transmitted to Cattar's residence two hundred fifty years in the
future, prior to when Lantana time-hopped back to meet Aster and Shara.
Cattar included certain information that would convince herself that
she had indeed sent the message during a trip into the past.

 

It
was
concluded that, to prevent a paradox or disruption of any kind, Cattar
had to return to her time as close as possible to when she departed.
Based on the assumption that someone traveling through time actually
exists in a separate dimension, it was uncertain what would happen to
the time-hopping Cattar if the message was planted before she returned
to her own time. Would she simply vanish from present time, or would
there then be two of her? Therefore, it was decided that the message to
her had to be planted at the same moment she completed the
time-hop.

 

If
everything worked the way it should, Cattar would have stopped Lantana
from ever using the tempometer in the first place, which would prevent
all the other events that followed from happening. The tear in the
time-space continuum would not simply be repaired, it never would have
occurred. And since it never happened, no one would have any memory of
it. The weeks that had gone by since Lantana's appearance in the Locke
residence 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 erased the moment 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. Even if we tried to go ahead in time with Cattar, according to
what they're saying, we'd have no memory of each other because we only
came together after the disruption began. 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 Mack would
not get her support. She was going to stay out of this family
discussion if it killed her.

 

"Drek! But that's unfair."

 

"Mackenzie
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 Mack had ho 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 was about to happen.

 

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 switched off her computer in midcalculation. "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.