Choice of the Gallant - Paradox Equation I by Sharon L Reddy

  ****

  "DAD! Lane's having a nightmare and it's bad! Real bad."

  "Where, Clete? I don't even know which room he chose."

  "Come on. Hurry. That one."

  He pulled him out of sleep and into his arms. It was the first time he'd truly held one of his children. The rightness of it washed over him.

  "Easy, Lane, easy. Tell me."

  "I can't. It'll come and it'll pass, but I can't talk about it now."

  "Not a nightmare, a future event."

  "That's what all my nightmares are."

  "Do you have them often?"

  "Too often. The closer the event, the worse they get. I know one day they'll stop. Well, they won't happen very often. Sorry, Clete, bad enough I have them. You waking up in a cold sweat and terror that isn't even your own isn't fair. But I can't do anything about it."

  "Yes you can. Break the cycle. Do something to change it."

  "Dad, I can't."

  "You can and someday you will."

  "If he doesn't, I will."

  "Hello, Dutch. Woke you too."

  "Something did. Something like cold breath on the back of my neck."

  "WHEN?!"

  "Just now. Dad, what is it?"

  "We're leaving. This minute. TELAS! Clete, find him and see where he wants to go. We're out of here. NOW!"

  He knew what the cold breath meant. Something about his sons was enough force for change the powers were involved. He fought the Dark One as the personification of anti-life in his own universe, but he was not the power of the destructive force.

  Like a ship cutting through water, his sons were increasing the possibilities for life to exist in some way and the bow wave of circumstance was exerting more pressure. There was no Dark One in Dutch's universe. The cold breath said, "Chance is aligning against you. The 'dark power' has taken a hand."