EchoInTime Read online

  * * * *

  Brodin and Mix stepped aside and watched the cousins chatter. Mix asked. "Do you want me to tell Tosha about the planetary lockdown?"

  "Alara will tell her. She was the one to deliver the initial announcement. She did an incredible job. How are you feeling? Alara said you had been slashed up."

  "I was. Thank you for having Reset back on base when we got here."

  "Don't thank me. Echo in Time developed a real-time vision. She told Reset and she got her ass back here in no time."

  Mix looked over at the woman doing a peculiar hugging dance with his mate and shook his head. Tosha felt that Alara needed defending, but Mix was beginning to believe that that might not be the case.

  Echo in Time was an appropriate name and her grasp of the future might save more lives than just his own.

  He looked forward to watching her in action, but first, it was time for breakfast.

  He cleared his throat and the ladies turned to him with identical impatient looks. "We can continue this in the commissary. There are a lot of Guardsmen and you will need a data pad to work out their placement in the wedding ceremony."

  Tosha grinned and snaked under his arm. "Don't worry, Mix. I will always give you my full attention."

  "As I have noted, you seem to see to the heart of things, but I am still in the mood for food, so shall we?"

  Brodin was carefully gathering his partner at his side with one arm around her waist. "A meal will be a good break. The chef's don't make Dalphaic food, but the Dheman equivalents are fairly tasty. I look forward to introducing you to them."

  They resumed their progress through the halls and several support staff smiled and waved at Brodin and Mix.

  * * * *

  Alara smiled at the friendly atmosphere provided by the non-talented support staff. Here, she would be able to open her mind to all temporal possibilities and see if it could be used to save lives.

  As she sipped at her third cup of Dheman tea, she couldn't keep the happy grin from her lips. Isaro had wandered in with the fabled General Alomar. His feline traits hadn't been exaggerated and his good humour was evident in his patient treatment of his mate.

  When the Selna flicked into the medical tech who had treated her gently, Alara laughed. "I knew it!"

  "I had to get all of those nodes off you somehow. I am just glad I was able to remove enough that they couldn't kill you outright."

  "Thank you. It wasn't pleasant, but I survived it, thanks to Fixer."

  "Pinky is good for that kind of thing." Isaro laughed and Alomar elbowed her in the ribs.

  "Pinky?"

  "My sister-in-law. My brother is Shade. It seems to be a family enterprise." Isaro sipped at her tea.

  "You call her Pinky?"

  "Not when she can hear me. She is surprisingly spry for someone so nerdy."

  The table laughed together and warmth blossomed inside Alara. This was a new family for her, with all of its quirks and weirdness and she was settling in at an alarming rate.

  As she focussed, her future stretched before her in a straight column and all of these faces as well as many others in Guardsman uniforms came and went in her life. There were deaths, births, battles and conflicts, but most of all, there was family.

  It was a future she was going to run to with open arms.

  Author's Note

  Book 20 is upon us and only five more books loom ahead in the Sector Guard series. For those who are freaking out, that means that after that point, the Tales of the Citadel will begin wherein the Citadel Morganti will start training new psychics and sending them on assignment with the Sector Guard as necessary.

  I hope that you enjoyed Alara's tale. She has the one personality trait that I value above all others. She asks for help. In a land of public opinion manipulated by media, she asked for help until she found the right person at the right time. It is an admirable trait and I wish I had it when I needed it.

  Brodin is back after his first appearance in Deal with a Dheman as Kassil's flirtatious cousin. He made his mark and I knew that I had to bring him back eventually…that time has come.

  Thank you for joining me in the Sector Guard,

  Viola Grace

  [email protected]

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  About the Author

  Viola Grace was born in Manitoba, Canada where she still resides today. She really likes it there. She has no pets and can barely keep sea monkeys alive for a reasonable amount of time. Her line of day job tends to be analytical which leaves her mind hopping to weave stories. No co-worker is safe from her character analysis. In keeping with busy hands are happy hands, her hobbies have included cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, costuming, cake decorating, baking, cooking, metal work, beading, sculpting, painting, doll making, henna tattoos, chain mail, and a few others that have been forgotten. It is quite often that these hobbies make their way into her tales.

  Viola's fetishes include boots and corsetry, and her greatest weakness is her uncontrollable blush. Her writing actively pursues the Happily Ever After that so rarely occurs in nature. It is an admirable thing and something that we should all strive for. To find one that we truly like, as well as love.