Terran, Aster and Romulus's souls were crying out to each other. The only cure was joining, which eternally bonded two people mentally and spiritually, and a joining between their races was forbidden by law.
After risking their lives to prevent Terra being hit by an asteroid, Romulus and Aster petitioned the Ruling Tribunal of Norona for special permission to join. Aster's bravery and loyalty during the crisis carried considerable weight but it was the proclamation by the Tribunal that Aster was distantly related to a Noronian that tipped the scales.
Aster became Romulus's mate through the sacred joining ceremony and they were appointed Co-Governors of Innerworld—a post they had held ever since.
The Tribunal's proclamation satisfied most of the people, but there were die-hard bigots who refused to accept it as truth. There were others who accepted it but assumed the drop of Noronian blood Aster inherited had to have been from an inferior Noronian to begin with. In their minds, a Terran could never be their equal and they passed that prejudice down to their children.
As the first child born from a mixed joining, Shara was considered a precious symbol of the future by some and an unholy freak by others. Her parents' joining had been expected to mark a change in the way Noronian Innerworlders viewed Terran Innerworlders, but prejudice occasionally still bubbled beneath a façade of civility. Only a handful of other mixed joinings had been publicly recorded since and just two of those had borne children. Because of their parentage, Shara and Roman's status as "mixed-breeds" was common knowledge throughout the colony.
That fateful day, over twenty years ago, Shara had determined to find a way to prove Aster's Noronian ancestry and thereby remove the clouds surrounding her own heritage. Her choice of a career in genetics had been based on the desire for that proof, her excessive ambition driven by that goal. Now, unexpectedly, the means had been handed to her, and nothing was going to stop her from taking advantage of the opportunity.
With part of her mind listening to her family and part still wandering in the past, she almost overlooked the last few pages in her hand. The word tempometer caught her eye and she took a second look. The final pages detailed Lantana's research rather than her own. He had included his experimental findings, schematics for the device, a set of operating instructions, and a final, handwritten note which read:
My life is ending. There is no more time to perfect my tempometer. I must try it as is and hope that I come close to the time period I seek. Although I believe I have figured out how to make a time-hop from one century to another, I have not uncovered the secret of making a time-hop shorter than a hundred years.
Shara was about to show everyone the pages but something held her back. It occurred to her that her father was only going through the motions of requesting permission to time travel because he didn't really believe she could figure out how to use the device. For a while, she decided, she would keep this information to herself.
* * *
A month later there was still no word from the Tribunal but Shara had made considerable progress on her projects. Her genetic tracking program was nearing completion. After secretly borrowing the tempometer for analysis, she began studying Lantana's notes and gained a fair knowledge of how to operate the device.
With much less enthusiasm, she had done some research into the time period she was intending to go back to. She had always excelled at science and math. History, on the other hand, was a subject that left her in the dust. But she realized the necessity of understanding the era in order to return to it even for a short time.
She knew the basics as well as any other Innerworlder. A little over twelve thousand years ago, a fuel shortage threatened to cripple the entire planet of Norona. Expeditions were sent throughout the universe in search of
After risking their lives to prevent Terra being hit by an asteroid, Romulus and Aster petitioned the Ruling Tribunal of Norona for special permission to join. Aster's bravery and loyalty during the crisis carried considerable weight but it was the proclamation by the Tribunal that Aster was distantly related to a Noronian that tipped the scales.
Aster became Romulus's mate through the sacred joining ceremony and they were appointed Co-Governors of Innerworld—a post they had held ever since.
The Tribunal's proclamation satisfied most of the people, but there were die-hard bigots who refused to accept it as truth. There were others who accepted it but assumed the drop of Noronian blood Aster inherited had to have been from an inferior Noronian to begin with. In their minds, a Terran could never be their equal and they passed that prejudice down to their children.
As the first child born from a mixed joining, Shara was considered a precious symbol of the future by some and an unholy freak by others. Her parents' joining had been expected to mark a change in the way Noronian Innerworlders viewed Terran Innerworlders, but prejudice occasionally still bubbled beneath a façade of civility. Only a handful of other mixed joinings had been publicly recorded since and just two of those had borne children. Because of their parentage, Shara and Roman's status as "mixed-breeds" was common knowledge throughout the colony.
That fateful day, over twenty years ago, Shara had determined to find a way to prove Aster's Noronian ancestry and thereby remove the clouds surrounding her own heritage. Her choice of a career in genetics had been based on the desire for that proof, her excessive ambition driven by that goal. Now, unexpectedly, the means had been handed to her, and nothing was going to stop her from taking advantage of the opportunity.
With part of her mind listening to her family and part still wandering in the past, she almost overlooked the last few pages in her hand. The word tempometer caught her eye and she took a second look. The final pages detailed Lantana's research rather than her own. He had included his experimental findings, schematics for the device, a set of operating instructions, and a final, handwritten note which read:
My life is ending. There is no more time to perfect my tempometer. I must try it as is and hope that I come close to the time period I seek. Although I believe I have figured out how to make a time-hop from one century to another, I have not uncovered the secret of making a time-hop shorter than a hundred years.
Shara was about to show everyone the pages but something held her back. It occurred to her that her father was only going through the motions of requesting permission to time travel because he didn't really believe she could figure out how to use the device. For a while, she decided, she would keep this information to herself.
* * *
A month later there was still no word from the Tribunal but Shara had made considerable progress on her projects. Her genetic tracking program was nearing completion. After secretly borrowing the tempometer for analysis, she began studying Lantana's notes and gained a fair knowledge of how to operate the device.
With much less enthusiasm, she had done some research into the time period she was intending to go back to. She had always excelled at science and math. History, on the other hand, was a subject that left her in the dust. But she realized the necessity of understanding the era in order to return to it even for a short time.
She knew the basics as well as any other Innerworlder. A little over twelve thousand years ago, a fuel shortage threatened to cripple the entire planet of Norona. Expeditions were sent throughout the universe in search of
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