Adventures in Reading

(In this challenge we were supposed to write about lovers reunited during a terrible storm. Anyone surprised I picked a meteor shower?)

Taz’s team was small but focused.

They fought the elements.

The elements fought back as the planet’s orbit turned them inexorably into the heart of the meteor storm.

The Intergalactic Authority had said the planet’s shields would hold.

They were half right.

Before communication went down, they’d received word help was on the way. The ship arrived, but they’d had to drop shields to let the small ship through. That was fun.

A pity the ship dropped off tracking not long after. If that was help, then they were toast. Literally.

The bunker was supposed to be safe. If the IA was as right about that, as they were about the shields, then they’d either suffocate or burn to death. If the bunker didn’t just collapse in on top of them.

Taz was hoping for option three. It was quicker.

The bunker shuddered as multiple strikes hit right above them. The lights flickered several times.

A stir and a shout yanked her attention from her console and the screens she monitored.

“He made it.” The words rippled through the room, but her team was too whacked to be excited.

If it worked, then they’d celebrate. After they got some sleep.

Taz didn’t even look at the man, all her attention focused on the crystal he held out with bloody hands. She was aware he collapsed against the medic, but she didn’t have time to worry about him. They’d all be dead if she couldn’t get the shields back to full strength.

Taz rubbed the blood off with her shirt, then shoved it in the console.

“We’ve got incoming, doc,” Vedi said. The tech’s voice was admirably monotone.

“It’s big.” Tynan was just boy, but great with tracking. He hadn’t mastered monotone yet.

Taz’s hands flew over the controls. “How close?”

“Too close.”

He rattled off some figures that Taz processed as she worked to get the shield fix integrated with their system. It was going to be close. Too close.

Her system moved in slow motion, while the meteor was set to fast forward.

Her world narrowed to two screens.

One processing the update.

The other tracking the incoming.

“Shield penetration in five…four…three…two…one…”

Taz braced . Like that would help if they took the direct hit.

“Hot damn, it held.” Tynan’s voice trembled slightly.

Taz looked at the blood smeared across her console. She should probably check on the injured man. He’d risked his life for them—

Niall?

Her world slowed again. So did her breathing, her heart, her ability to move.

It seemed fate had one more curve ball to throw at her.

A medic worked on him. He sat, eyes closed, seemingly indifferent to the ordered chaos around him, leaving her free to study the changes the years had wrought.

Time had hardened the body of the boy she’d known, honing him into a powerful, determined man. His face had lost its sweetness, its youthful hope. He’d suffered.

They both had. Would he even recognize her? Did anything remain of the girl she’d been? She touched her face, feeling exhaustion dragging at her.

He’d never been hers. They’d known it even as they clung to each other that last night, making wild promises in between desperate kisses.

He’d left the next day.

She didn’t blame him. They’d been too young to fight the combined power of their families. She’d never tried to find out if he married the woman chosen by his father. Couldn’t bear to learn if she’d given him children. The most she’d been able to do was hope he was happy.

Fate was a bitch to bring them together now. She’d done her grieving, made her peace, found a sense of purpose to fill the gaping void of lost love.

As if he suddenly felt her gaze, her presence, his lids lifted.  His gaze grabbed hers and held it. That had changed. He hid his feelings better now. He shrugged off the medic and started toward her.

Taz wasn’t aware of circling the console, but suddenly she was on the other side.

He didn’t stop until she had to look up at him.

Time fell away, peeling back all her layers, bringing her full circle to the girl she’d been. Her heart throbbed to painful life once more.

He reached out, almost as if he weren’t sure she were real, and trailed one finger down the side of her face. A glow lit deep in his dark eyes. He studied her, unhurriedly but thoroughly, his gaze finally settling on her mouth.

Her throat dried. She licked her lips and a flame flickered in his eyes.

That hadn’t changed.

Her world narrowed to two, the storm outside, the people around them faded away.

He pulled her close. Her body remembered and slid into him. His head bent. She angled hers to meet his descending mouth.

Warmth surged and spread, closing the gap the years had made as if it never happened. He belonged to her. She could feel and taste it. Something deep inside her…relaxed. She’d come home. Dear, wonderful, kind fate to bring him back to her…

The ground shook, almost throwing them to the ground. He held on, helping her ride the shocks.

“Shields are failing.” Vedi’s voice was still clam. “Shields are down.”

It seemed fate didn’t like being called dear or kind.

Taz went over the top of her console, was already working the problem before her feet hit the ground. Niall was right behind her.

“Incoming! Multiple incoming!” Panic threaded through Tynan’s voice.

“I’ve got it.” She glanced at the screen. But not in time. Too many meteors were on the other side of the shield, heading directly for their bunker.

Niall took her down, cushioning her from impact with the floor by rolling, then curled over her as the earth heaved in protest….

© 2008 Pauline Baird Jones. All rights reserved.