Against Time Read online

  “I love you,” she said.

  “I love you as well,” he said. “You know that.”

  “You have saved me,” she said, “and given me a new life where I can help millions and millions of people to find a new life as well.”

  He nodded.

  “Of course I want to go with you. But on one condition.”

  “Name it,” he said, looking worried.

  “For as long as we are still in this galaxy, we keep this lodge up and come back here once in a while.”

  He broke into a huge smile.

  Wow, did she love that smile and that man and the brain behind those intense green eyes.

  “I have another idea as well,” he said, smiling at her.

  “I’m listening.”

  “Assuming you don’t get tired of me after a few years of traveling around in space all over this galaxy helping people...”

  “Yeah, that’s going to happen,” she said, laughing.

  “Then maybe, in a couple of years, we can talk with Benson and come back here and have him marry us.”

  Callie just stared at the man of her dreams, her mouth open. She wasn’t really sure she had heard that right.

  “Well?” he asked, smiling.

  “Vardis Fisher, are you asking me to marry you?”

  He smiled. “I am. Too forward? Too soon?”

  She grabbed him around the neck and kissed him as hard as she had ever kissed anyone before.

  Then she leaned back, not letting him go. “How about having Benson marry us before we set off to save the galaxy?”

  His smile now was radiating.

  “I’d like that,” he said.

  She would like that more than she had ever imagined.

  And with that they stood there in the road to the old mountain lodge, kissing, until the chill of the evening air finally drove them inside and to the big featherbed.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, USA Today bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith published far more than a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds of short stories across many genres.

  At the moment he produces novels in four major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the Old West, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, and a superhero series starring Poker Boy.

  His monthly magazine, Smith's Monthly, which consists of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and offers readers more than 70,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month.

  During his career, Dean also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, he wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.

  He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of almost a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.

  Dean also worked as a fiction editor off and on, starting at Pulphouse Publishing, then at VB Tech Journal, then Pocket Books, and now at WMG Publishing, where he and Kristine Kathryn Rusch serve as series editors for the acclaimed Fiction River anthology series.

  For more information about Dean's books and ongoing projects, please visit his website at www.deanwesleysmith.com.

  Look for These Other Titles from Dean Wesley Smith

  Seeders Universe:

  Dust and Kisses

  Against Time

  Sector Justice

  Morning Song

  The High Edge

  Thunder Mountain Series:

  Thunder Mountain

  Monumental Summit

  Avalanche Creek

  The Edwards Mansion

  Lake Roosevelt

  Warm Springs

  Melody Ridge

  Earth Protection League:

  Life of a Dream

  Sign up for the WMG Publishing newsletter to receive updates about new releases, bonus content and more at wmgpublishing.com

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Part One

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Part Two

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Part Three

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  About the Author

  Copyright Information