Temporal Shift (Entangled Select Otherworld) Read Online Free PDF Page A

at Thorne. “Looks like you’re the same as those things that attacked us, so why step in and save us ‘abominations?’ And just for the record, why are we abominations?”
    “The fifty-eighth protocol—”
    “Don’t give me any protocol shit,” she snapped. “Just give me the reasons.”
    Thorne nodded but shifted in his chair. Saffira was guessing he wasn’t comfortable around such straight talk. When you lived forever, or at least had the potential to, why do anything fast? He was used to talking his way around everything and taking his time about it—it drove her crazy.
    “You’re female,” he said. “It’s forbidden.”
    “Why?”
    Thorne settled himself into his seat and she groaned. “A long time ago—”
    “Maybe I’d better take this one,” she interrupted. “Or we might be here all day. We don’t know it all—just what Thorne’s been able to glean from the Old Ones’ minds. But one part of it is they’re immortal or just about. At first they bred like people, you know, sex…” She cast a sideways glance at Devlin, but he was staring fixedly ahead. “And they multiplied and the numbers grew. There was a lot of stress and a big war and they nearly wiped themselves out. So they decided—no more sex.”
    “Not ever?” Rico sounded totally shocked at the idea.
    “Not ever. And to make that happen—no females were ever changed.”
    “So they don’t reproduce?”
    “The ‘Change’ is a secondary form of reproduction, but they only use it to maintain numbers. The Others don’t die as such, but they can choose to…leave. When that happens, one is selected from our population and changed.”
    “But always a man? Fucking sexist pigs,” Tannis muttered.
    “Yes, always a man.”
    “Why didn’t they just spread out?” Callum asked. “Colonize new planets?”
    “Because they don’t like change. In fact they hate change.”
    “No sex and no change,” Rico said. “I think I’d rather be dead.”
    “Some of the Others feel that way. Thorne is one of them. That’s why he joined us.”
    “And who exactly is ‘us’?” Tannis asked.
    “We’re the Rebel Alliance for the Liberation of Espera.”
    “Espera being that shithole of a planet I presume? And what do you want to be liberated from?”
    “The Others, of course.”
    “And afterward? What happens once you’re liberated?”
    This part she knew well. “There has been a prophecy for ten thousand years that one will come who will save the people and return them to the Promised Land.”
    Devlin turned his head to look at her. “And that would be you?”
    She nodded. “My people knew the time was approaching when the spaceship appeared in the sky five hundred years ago.”
    “Spaceship?”
    “I’m guessing she means the Trakis One ,” Callum said. He was studying Thorne, his brows drawn together in a small frown.
    Tannis jumped to her feet and paced the room. “I’m not getting something. I mean, we’re in this alternate universe, right? What are the chances that we find humans”—she waved a hand at Saffira—“ here? Why aren’t you little green men with tentacles or something? It just seems like a pretty huge coincidence to me. And you speak English.” She eyed them suspiciously.
    Rico shrugged. “If we came through the black hole, why couldn’t someone else?”
    “Yeah, good point, but there’s something wrong with that argument. You heard her—they’ve been here for over ten thousand years. The Trakis system was only populated five hundred years ago.”
    Saffira’s mind had been racing since she’d heard Callum Meridian’s name. The facts were settling into patterns. Patterns that seemed inconceivable. But at the same time, so obvious. Why had it never occurred to her before? She’d heard the stories of the spaceship appearing, and she knew the history of her people.
    Tannis halted in front of her and stood with her hands on her hips. She was dressed in tight black pants, boots, and a scarlet