Stardust Dreams (43 page)

As soon as Romulus was
able, he made arrangements for Bessima's mind to be fully reprogrammed and her
appearance surgically altered. An adjustment to the retina in one of her eyes
prevented her from ever accidentally creating images, even though she would
have no memory of being an Illusian. She was then shipped off to another planet
to begin a new, productive life.

The day after Shara's
birth, giving Romulus a fabricated excuse, Gallant and Cherry returned to Washington,
D.C. to perform the final act in Bessima's play. Mother Nature, or possibly the
real Supreme Being, decided to help them along. The rain stopped shortly after
sunrise and an incredible double rainbow stretched over the White House for
over an hour. Taking that as a promise of miracles, the largest crowd yet
turned out that morning.

All of the Innerworld
emissaries and trackers had been recalled, so Gallant had no fear of one of
them picking up the energy wave he was about to create. He knew Rom and Aster
would be suspicious after they heard about the incident, but Gallant and

Cherry had agreed that it
was best if their friends not be burdened with the truth.

At eleven o'clock in the
morning, the spectators in front of the White House watched a spot of white
light, similar to a star, separate itself from the sun. The spot moved across the
sky then grew larger and larger until people began to realize it was coming
closer.

Before panic could set in,
a huge ball of sparkling light was hovering directly above them, and a deep
man's voice reverberated clearly over the noise of the crowd.

"Fear not, my
children. I come in peace."

Within seconds, the only
sounds on the street were the clicking and whirring of cameras.

"The images you have
seen regarding the coming of the Supreme Being were false, created by someone
whose only god was power. That person has been dealt with and will not be able
to deceive again.

"I will leave you now
with the same messages you have been told before. Love one another. Treat
others as you wish to be treated yourself. And remember that every day of your
lives is Judgment Day. I am watching."

With that warning, the ball
of light soared back to the sun. Long minutes passed before the people began to
talk and move again.

When they did, Gallant and
Cherry returned to Innerworld.

The following day, Cherry
went back to work in Fantasy World at the Indulgence Center. Not having an
immediate assignment elsewhere, Gallant rationalized that he should remain in
Innerworld until Regent Esquinerra contacted him regarding Cherry's appointment
with Theodophilus. Cherry had invited Mar-Dot to stay in the extra bedroom of
her apartment, but the he-she preferred to reside on the ship. Gallant didn't
need an invitation to share her home while he was there.

Compared to the last month
of practically being glued to one another, their time alone together was
drastically reduced. While she performed, he kept busy doing repairs and making
modifications on his ship. Another chunk of each day was spent fussing over
Shara with Rom and Aster. But during the times they were alone, the passion
that had sparked aboard Gallant's ship flared anew and carried them over until
their next private hours.

Cherry stopped questioning
why she hadn't grown bored with Gallant, and simply enjoyed having him around. What
she
was
questioning was why she wasn't more anxious to hear from the
Regent about Theodophilus. She knew she still wanted the audition; she just
wasn't all that concerned anymore about how long it took to arrange.

A week later, Gallant
caught up with her in between reenactments. He was smiling as he handed her a
piece of paper, but Cherry's personal antennae picked up an underlying tension.

Referring to what she was
sensing rather than the paper, she asked, "What is it?"

"Read it," he
answered with forced enthusiasm.

Cherry skimmed over the
message quickly, then reread it more slowly to be sure she hadn't imagined it. "He's
coming here! Oh, Gallant, do you believe this? Theodophilus is coming back to
Innerworld just to audition me!"

He laughed as she jumped up
into his arms and almost knocked him over. "I don't know why you sound so
shocked. I'm sure he is well aware of what a coup it would be to add you to his
company."

She released her
stranglehold on him and started pacing. "He'll be here the day after
tomorrow. Holy stars! What'll I wear? Which piece should I perform? Should I
invite him to my apartment for dinner or would he think that was too
personal?"

Gallant grabbed her hand as
she passed and brought it to his lips for a kiss. "I'm sure whatever you
had planned to wear and perform the first time around were the right
choices."

"Of course they were. How
silly of me. Listen, I have a reenactment in about five minutes and I still
have to change. Do you want to hang around and we can do something to celebrate
after I'm finished?"

He leaned over and whispered
in her ear. "I'd rather celebrate someplace less public. Just come home
when you're through. I'll be there."

But the celebration didn't
have quite the tone Cherry expected. Gallant set the mood with soft background
music and softer lighting. He touched her throughout their meal as he often
did, but the contact was not the seductive stroking she was accustomed to from
him. Instead, each touch, every look was an affectionate caress that silently
spoke volumes about how he felt about her;

How he
loved
her.

They didn't talk. There
didn't seem to be anything left to say between them. That night, when he took
her into his arms, she denied him nothing. And began saying good-bye the only
way she possibly could.

With her body, her mind,
and her very soul, Cherry Cochran made love to Gallant Voyager.

The morning before
Theodophilus was scheduled to arrive, Mar-Dot joined Gallant and Cherry for
breakfast in her apartment. One glance at Dot's face made Cherry think that
this was more than a simple social call and Gallant's somber mood throughout
the meal confirmed it. When the plates were cleared away and less than a dozen
words had been exchanged during the past hour, she demanded, "All right,
what's going on?"

Gallant cleared his throat,
took a sip of coffee, and coughed lightly.

Cherry smirked at him. "It
can't be
that
bad. Just spit it out."

Wiping his hands and mouth
on a napkin, he stalled for another few seconds before confessing. "We're
leaving this morning. I told Mar-Dot you probably wouldn't forgive them if they
didn't say good-bye properly."

A chill swept over Cherry
as his words registered. "You're leaving? This morning?"

"We have a new
assignment," he said quietly, not meeting her gaze.

"But can't you leave
tomorrow? Or at least wait until after my audition this evening." Cherry
could hear herself whining, but her disappointment was too great. She had been
mentally preparing herself for them to go their separate ways in a few days,
maybe a week. Not in five minutes, with no warning whatsoever.

"I stayed too long as
it is."

Cherry pouted and crossed
her arms. "I don't understand. In fact, I don't understand anything about
you."

Gallant raised his brow in
disbelief. "Come now. There isn't a person in the galaxy who knows as much
about me as you do… including Mar-Dot."

The he-she rose at the
mention of their name. Dot faced Cherry first. "I believe there are things
the two of you should discuss without company, but not until we get our
farewell hugs." She held her arms Out and Cherry stepped into them with a
sad smile.

"What can I say, Dot? I'm
going to miss you. I'll never forget you."

"And we will never
forget you, Cherry." Dot released her and turned around.

Mar placed his hands on
Cherry's cheeks, tipped her head back and kissed her passionately before she
had a chance to either brace herself or protest. When he ended the kiss, he
said, "I've been wanting to do that since we met, but if I had, you would
never have given the captain a second look, and it was past time for him to
bring someone like you into his life."

Cherry laughed at him, then
smiled at Gallant. "The captain is lucky to have the
both
of
you."

It took several more rounds
of flattery and teasing before Mar-Dot left Gallant and Cherry alone. The
moment they were, Cherry let her frustration rule her tongue. "I can't
believe you didn't tell me you were leaving ahead of time."

"I almost didn't tell
you at all," he murmured.

She was shocked that he
would even consider such a cowardly route. "Why?"

Gallant almost smiled. "I
love you."

She let out an exasperated
breath and paced a few steps before asking, "Then how can you leave like
this? How can you say you love me and not want to stay with me until the last
possible minute?"

Placing his arm around her
shoulders, he led her to a chair and sat her down on his lap. "I promised
to be truthful with you. The truth is, I love you, but every hour we've been
together since we heard from the Regent has been filled with farewells. I'm not
a masochist, Cherry. I can't stick around to watch you go."

She fought down the emotion
that his words caused and asked again, "Then how can you leave at all? If
you really loved me—"

He quieted her with a kiss.
"I once told you that my saying I love you wouldn't mean I wanted to
enslave you. I respect the fact that you need your independence and that
nothing and no one is as important to you as your acting career. But my
understanding that doesn't stop me from caring deeply about you. My mother
always said that true love is demonstrated best by giving the one you love
their freedom. She proved that the day she let me go. I'd like to think I'm as
good a person as she is."

Cherry hugged him close. "My
sweet Gallant. If I was ever going to allow myself to fall in love with any
man, it would be you."

He held her away from him
and shook his head. "You still don't get it, do you? Love isn't something
you give yourself permission to feel. You either love someone, or you don't. And,
unfortunately, you don't."

She was tempted to ask him
to make love to her one more time before he left, but she was no more of a
masochist than he was.

After he was gone, she
ordered herself to concentrate on her upcoming audition. In spite of Gallant's
assurance that Theodophilus would be lucky to have her, and her own
self-confidence in her talent, she knew better than to assume it was in the
bag. No matter what trick she tried to get her mind on track though, it kept
sliding off.

She kept promising herself
that she could think about Gallant and how confused she was later, after the
audition was over, but his words kept bouncing around in her head.

He had told her he loved
her and asked nothing in return. Why? Better question—how? Love was possession,
dominance, captivity. It was
not
the freedom to leave. If he really
loved her, he would have insisted—

She cut off her own thought
by recalling his mother's attitude about love. She'd said it before.

That woman was one smart
lady. Obviously, a hell of a lot smarter than she was.

She had just let the only
man she'd ever loved get away.

Trooper that she was,
Cherry gave a spectacular performance for Theodophilus that evening and managed
to look happily stunned when he offered her a lead position in the Noronian
Performing Company.

The only problem was his
returning to Innerworld for her had cost them valuable time. They were
committed to a six-month tour throughout the Consociation of Planets,
commencing with Norona in two weeks. She could study her roles en route, but it
was absolutely necessary that she be prepared to depart Innerworld in two days.

The time should have sped
by in a frenzy of activity. Anything would have been preferable to wondering if
she had made a terrible mistake about Gallant. Unfortunately for her state of
mind, she had very little that needed attending before she could leave, and she
could only spend so many hours with Aster and a sleeping baby.

It was uncomfortable
knowing that she would miss six whole months of Shara's infancy, but Aster
promised to maintain a detailed visual record of every important moment and repeatedly
assured Cherry that she had to take advantage of this opportunity.

Eventually, the minutes
became hours and the sleepless nights passed one after the other, until it was
time to board Theodophilus's ship. She couldn't stop herself from glancing into
the docking bay where Gallant's ship had been, even though she knew it wouldn't
be there.

He was gone. In another
hour, she would be also. And the odds against her running into him while they
were on tour were at least a zillion to one.

Forget him, Cherry,
she scolded
herself.
There's a whole universe of men out there, just waiting to adore
you!
With that thought in mind, she pasted on a smile and walked on board.