Against Time

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  He was amazingly good-looking and clearly in shape. He had told her he used the gym on his ship all the time, and she could tell that he did just from how he moved with the grace of someone in shape and control of his body.

  And he was also clearly a very considerate and sweet man. That had been obvious from the first moment she had met him. Raina was right, he was a catch.

  “Not the outdoors type?” she asked, not moving from her position on her side on the couch.

  He glanced back. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to wake you. Just wanted to get a fire started and let you sleep. After everything today, you need it.”

  She sat up and stretched, realizing as she pushed the blanket back just how chilly the lodge had become. No wonder he was working on the fire for her.

  “I did need that,” she said, stretching and yawning again. “But you promised me dinner, remember?”

  He laughed. “I did. It’s downstairs.”

  “If I get the fire started, can we eat it up here?”

  “Easily,” he said.

  “Light switch near the staircase for the overhead lights,” she said as she stood. “I’m going to splash some water on my face and then I’ll get the fire going.”

  “I’ll be back up in ten minutes with dinner,” he said, smiling at her in the light of his flashlight.

  On the way down he flipped on the overhead lights.

  “Power’s still on?” she asked as she headed for the hallway.

  “Nope,” he said as he vanished down the stairs.

  She just shook her head. The entire lodge was being powered by a cube the size of a saltshaker that he had invented on another planet. How was this perfect man even real?

  She had the fire going strong and lights around the lodge turned on when Fisher brought the dinner up the stairs on two plates balanced on a large tray with two glasses of some juice and a bottle of water.

  It smelled heavenly, like a wonderful pot roast that had simmered all day in the oven.

  She went over and sat down in one of the big overstuffed chairs, pulling it closer to the big wooden coffee table where he set dinner.

  He sat in another chair facing her and said, “Hope you like a very tender steak.”

  She could tell the steak had been sliced thin with a sampling of white sauce along one edge. Fresh asparagus spears were coated in a light cheese sauce and some tiny red potatoes coated in butter filled the rest of the plate.

  “Oh, my, this is wonderful,” she said. “And it smells heavenly.”

  “Dig in,” he said, grabbing his fork and knife and easily cutting the steak on his plate.

  While they ate, they talked about her past and his past, both mentioning their parents. She learned how long he and Doc had been friends and how they had been laughed at for their projects.

  She understood that feeling and had seen it a number of times where she taught. Professors could sometimes be so petty that it had stunned her.

  She liked the fact that he was willing to tell her about his home and his money and how he and Doc had built The Lady.

  “What did you expect to find when you left?” she asked.

  “Honestly, not much,” he said, finishing up the last bite of potato on his plate. “We hoped to find some alien life, maybe plants, on different planets, that sort of thing. We were just out exploring with every intention of going home when we got bored.”

  “That didn’t happen,” she said, laughing.

  “Actually, it almost did,” Fisher said, sitting back in the big chair. “After a couple hundred Earth-like planets with all human civilizations about the same level, it was getting boring.”

  Now that surprised her. And the idea that all those planets were at the same level bothered her more than she wanted to admit.

  “I’m still not seeing how that is possible,” she said, shaking her head as she finished the last bit of her steak and pushed the plate away. “And that was a wonderful dinner. Thank you.”

  He smiled. “You are more than welcome. Not often I get a chance to really cook for someone besides Doc, who tends to eat everything.”

  “And he stays that skinny?” Callie asked, again feeling stunned.

  “Drives me crazy because he doesn’t exercise,” Fisher said, shaking his head. “I’m in the gym three hours a day on most days because I love it and I like to eat like this. Doc never exercises and yet eats all of my cooking and doesn’t gain a pound.”

  Callie laughed. She was falling for this man even more with every passing minute.

  Fisher stood and started gathering up the dishes. “Let me take care of these dishes, get them washing, and we can talk if you like, or call it a night. Up to you.”

  She didn’t want him to leave yet, since her brain seemed to be slowly returning. “Let’s talk for a time.”

  “Would you like some tea or wine?”

  “You have wine?” she asked, surprised.

  “Red or white, some great choices from about twenty different planets,” he said, his smile filling his face.

  “A glass of red would be wonderful,” she said. “Not too heavy.”

  “Got a perfect one,” he said.

  He put her dishes on the tray, leaving behind her half-finished tea and the bottle of water. “Be right back.”

  Balancing the tray with one arm, he pinched his arm and vanished.

  She just sat there staring at the space where he had been standing a moment before. “Callie, what have you gotten yourself into?”

  Only the crackling of the fire answered her back.

  She stood and headed for her suite to change into a pair of slippers, turning on the music to a low level to cut the silence.

  She sort of had a date for a drink with a man from space.

  And she was looking forward to it.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  FISHER FOUND DOC and Kalinda sitting in the kitchen of The Lady when he jumped back to get the wine. They were both eating sandwiches and had data pads on the table between them. Clearly it was a working dinner for them, which didn’t surprise Fisher at all. Doc seldom didn’t work.

  “Dinner with Callie, huh?” Doc asked.

  Fisher nodded, putting the dishes to one side of the sink.

  “How’s she doing with all this?” Kalinda asked.

  “Actually adjusting pretty well. I haven’t really tried to explain the Seeders to her yet, though. Not sure if I completely understand them myself.”

  “Yeah, good luck with that,” Kalinda said, shaking her head. “I grew up with this knowledge, I can only faintly imagine what it must feel like to just be learning all this.”

  “It’s weird,” Doc said, smiling at Kalinda.

  “Very,” Fisher said. “I’m going to head back down. If you need me, Raina in transportation knows exactly where I am.”

  “Have fun,” Doc said.

  Kalinda just smiled as Fisher turned and headed back into the pantry to get the wine and a couple of glasses. A moment later he was standing back in the big main room of the lodge.

  The fire was going strong, there was faint music in the background, and Callie was seated in one chair facing the fire.

  “Thanks for the great dinner,” she said as he opened the wine and poured it, then took another one of the overstuffed chairs facing the fire and half turned to face her as well.

  “My complete pleasure,” he said.

  They spent the next thirty minutes just talking more about their families and how her parents had been killed in a plane accident. Then she finally turned the big chair to face him more.

  “Okay, you’ve been avoiding telling me about what you want me to help you with. Time to get to that.”

  He nodded and sat his glass of wine down on the coffee table.

  “Now please realize that I’ve only been seeing this for myself for a few years now, and only had a nice person named Jenny on the ship try to explain it to me just yesterday.”

  “So we both have fresh eyes on
this.” Callie said.

  “Exactly,” Fisher said. Then he took a deep breath and started into this explanation that might lose him Callie. But at this point, he had no choice at all.

  He explained how he felt while he and Doc were seeing all the civilizations at the same level. Then he told her Jenny’s explanation of how a race they called “The Seeders” seeded all the human planets in the galaxy and then left.

  “Aren’t there something like one hundred billion stars in this galaxy?” Callie asked, shaking her head.

  “Closer to two hundred billion,” Fisher said. “A large part of those are outside of what our astronomers called ‘the habitable zone’ for human life, meaning they are too close in toward the center of the galaxy. And the vast majority of stars in this galaxy are red dwarfs, not yellow dwarfs as our sun. And a few of the yellow dwarfs Doc and I found didn’t have planets in what our astronomers called ‘The Goldilocks Zone’ meaning inside an area where it wasn’t too hot or too cold for life.”

  Callie just nodded. “That still would leave a lot of stars and human planets.”

  Fisher nodded. “More than I want to think about. Hundreds and hundreds of millions at least.”

  Then he went on to tell her what Jenny had told him about how the Seeders had wiped all older life from the planet with a big asteroid impact, then basically planted all animal and human life over a period of a few thousand years in numbers of visits to each planet.

  Callie just shook her head. “Too much.”

  Fisher just nodded. “Do I understand that feeling. How about tomorrow you and I go talk with Jenny and then I can tell you what is really bothering me.”

  “Besides the fact that this changes every belief I’ve ever had and it is impossible to boot.”

  “Yeah, besides that,” Fisher said, smiling.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CALLIE SAT, sipping the wonderful glass of red wine and letting herself relax. They had changed the conversation away from all the strange stuff and had it back on more normal stuff.

  Fisher had asked her about her two days in the cave and exactly what she had been looking for and then seemed actually interested as she explained. His green eyes kept looking at her.

  She was so attracted to him, it almost felt unnatural. She had never really felt like this for any other person before and she wasn’t sure if it was because of the situation or simply because he seemed to be the perfect person for her.

  After talking about her cave dig, they talked about exercising and he told her about his former weight problem. The fact that he had dropped it all and kept it all off impressed her even more.

  She desperately wanted to ask if he had had girlfriends in the past, but didn’t.

  And he didn’t ask her about any of her short relationships either, which she was thankful for.

  Finally, after almost two hours of talking and after the entire bottle of wine was gone, he said, “I suppose I had better get back and let you get some sleep.”

  “Stay,” she said.

  She was surprised that word had come out of her mouth, and he looked surprised as well.

  “There is a suite across from my suite down the hall here,” she said. “You offered me a suite in your ship, it’s the least I can offer in return.”

  He smiled.

  She went on before he could politely decline. “Besides, to be honest, it would feel good to have someone else in the building.”

  “Now that I understand,” he said, smiling. “I would love to stay. And breakfast on The Lady in the morning?”

  “Wonderful,” she said, feeling excited at the idea that he would be close by.

  She led him down the hall and into the suite across from hers. The bed there was freshly made up, ready for guests that would now never come.

  It had a small sitting room to one side and a large bathroom with tile floors like hers. Plus a huge bed in the bedroom with four wooden posts carved out of pine trees.

  He went over to the bed and pushed on it, then smiled at her and sat on it. “A real featherbed?”

  “Seems they are in every room in the place,” she said, smiling.

  She really, really wanted to go over and sit on the bed beside him and kiss him, but she didn’t.

  “So you’ll be all right here?” she asked.

  “It’s wonderful,” he said, smiling at her. “Thanks.”

  She then said goodnight and as she started to pull the door closed he said, “It’s all right to leave it open.”

  So she did, going back to her suite.

  She once again got into the sweat pants and sweatshirt she now wore to bed, then crawled in and shut off the light. She could hear him moving around a little, then silence.

  She lay there, staring up into the darkness. Out the window, she could see some stars up through the pine trees. They seemed bright and welcoming now, for some reason.

  What in the world was she doing? The man of her dreams was across the hallway. He had flat told her he was attracted to her. And he was so damned shy and respectful of her feelings, any move for them to be together would be up to her.

  “Callie,” she said softly to the darkness, “this is stupid.”

  She pushed back the heavy quilt and sheet, found her slippers, and headed out into the hallway.

  His door was open but the light was off. The only light was one they had left on in the big room, plus the last light flickering from the fireplace.

  She had only known this man, this alien, for a few days. Yet this felt right.

  That might be the half bottle of wine talking, but she didn’t care.

  She eased open his door and whispered, “Fisher?”

  “Yes,” he said from the bed.

  Before she lost her nerve, she walked to the bed and slid in beside him.

  “Just hold me if you wouldn’t mind.”

  “I will never mind,” he said softly.

  She turned her back to him and he wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled back against him. Except for a pair of underwear, he was naked.

  “This is wonderful,” she said as his strong arms held her. “Thank you.”

  He kissed her softly on the neck. “Thank you. Now rest.”

  She tried.

  She really tried.

  But those firm arms, that fantastic body pressed against her just were impossible to resist.

  Finally, she rolled over and kissed him.

  And he kissed back.

  She got lost in his kiss. Like no other she had ever felt. Gentle, yet insistent.

  She could feel his arousal as he kissed her and she stroked his naked shoulders.

  Under the big quilt and sheet it was getting warm. Too damn warm, actually, to be wearing as many clothes as she was wearing.

  Finally she pulled away from one more fantastic and long kiss, panting.

  Then she pushed the covers back, stood, and turned on the lamp next to the bed. She took off the sweatshirt and sweatpants as Fisher watched, his eyes wide and his smile big.

  “You are fantastically beautiful,” he said, his voice slightly raspy.

  “Get rid of those pants,” she said.

  And he did.

  Then she crawled back in bed with him, kissing him and letting him feel her body against his and guiding his hands to places they needed to go.

  She hadn’t been with very many men before, but it had never, ever come close to how wonderful making love to Fisher was.

  She belonged with him. She knew it and she felt it.

  Almost two hours later they finally dozed off in each other’s arms, only the sheet pulled up over them.

  And even with everything that had happened, she felt safer than she had ever felt in her life.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CALLIE AWOKE as Fisher was working to ease himself away from her. The morning light was just starting to brighten up the trees outside the window and she felt wonderful, better than she could ever remember feeling waking up. She normally wasn’
t a morning person.

  As Fisher moved, she turned and pulled him in close and kissed him, long and hard.

  And he kissed her in return, just as hard and just as passionately.

  The man could kiss. The two of them just fit perfectly together. How was that even possible?

  “Where did you think you were going, mister?” she asked after letting him come up for air from the kiss.

  “Get us some food,” he said, smiling at her.

  “Not yet,” she said, kissing him.

  She could feel his body had the same idea as hers.

  She climbed on top of him and they made love again, quick and intense and even more incredible than the night before.

  Finally, as they both lay there trying to catch their breaths, she raised up on her elbow and looked into his wonderful green eyes. “I hope I wasn’t too forward.”

  He laughed. “One of us needed to be and I was too damn scared to even suggest anything.”

  “And why am I so scary?” she asked, smiling.

  “Because you are the most beautiful woman I have ever met,” he said, looking directly into her eyes with those intense green eyes of his. “And the smartest and bravest.”

  “You know the exact right thing to say to a woman.”

  “Just the truth,” he said. “Just the truth.”

  She kissed him long and hard once again, then rolled out of bed and picked up her sweat pants and sweatshirt, standing there naked in front of him. “I’m going to take a long, hot shower and get dressed. I’ll meet you on The Lady for that promised breakfast?”

  “Perfect,” he said.

  With one last look at the naked man stretched out on the bed staring at her, she turned and headed out the door and across the hallway.

  Thirty minutes later, she pushed her transport button under her skin and appeared in The Lady’s kitchen.

  Fisher was already there dressed in fresh clothes and with wet hair, working on starting to cook something.

  “You are right,” she said. “I don’t think this transport thing will ever get old.”