A unique discovery.  An accidental encounter.  A reluctant hero.

"The greatest gay-themed time travel love story ever told."

One story told in two volumes.

Cursory Summary:  Stealing Some Time

Technical Sergeant Kallen Deshara is only 20 and already been in three relationships.  None of them have worked out.  Kallen's society shuns his sexual orientation.  And he’s well into his 5-year obligation into the North American Alliance’s Air Defense Force.  The military also shuns a gay orientation.  But Kallen can’t just shut himself off.  It’s just not in him.

When he’s not pursuing love Kallen is working his magic on the photronic networks and equipment he’s good at repairing.  To keep his mind off his relationship failures, Kallen has been prowling around on BaseNet and accidentally discovered some very incriminating data.  Data that could expose a national cover-up that involves not only his base commander, but the President of his country.

Serendipitously, a technology Kallen didn’t know was achievable is presented to him and several others.  An unusual device has opened a portal to the past.  It’s caused some problems, too.  Severe ion storms.  Suddenly Kallen  finds himself a member of a team of experts in their field for a mission to 1820 to ground the storms.  If they don't succeed, their present may cease to exist.

This mutual revelation, their subsequent attraction, and the relationship neither knew would happen, starts a cascade of events that brings them face-to-face with impossible questions and decisions about love, loyalty, allegiance, the quest for power, the nature of reality, and tampering with time itself. 

The terrible decision that Kallen must make, the intensity of the love he feels for Aaric, and more, lead us on a chase across  time. 

Unless Kallen goes back where he belongs, nothing will be the same.  But will he go back?  Can he go back? 

Even if he does, has the future already been altered?

Summary of Volume 1, Part I

It is 2477 CE.  Much of the world has long since become desert due to the unchecked use of fossil fuels in centuries past.  But the world of the 25th century is an advanced one, where technology rules, where ruthless leaders have the upper hand, and where water is the limiting factor for all of civilization.  Eighteen-year old Kallen Deshara is entering his obligatory 5-year stint in the North American Alliance’s Air Defense Force.  While in boot camp, Kallen comes to terms with the fact that he’s gay.  He even finds his first gay relationship with a fellow graduate recruit, but is dumped shortly thereafter.  While nursing his wounds, he finds his second relationship in a fellow student while in the ADF’s Schools Division.  After being dumped again, Kallen is shipped off to his first duty station in the mountains at the edge of North America’s Great Central Desert.  There, Kallen becomes a force to be reckoned with as his natural talent in photronics, the 25th century form of software, comes to the fore.  Another relationship follows.  This time with an officer.  But it falls short again.  When called to Central Security, he’s sure he’s walking into a court-martial due to finally being found out.  Instead, he finds that he’s been called for a secret mission to 1820.  Time travel !  He and his team have been called to rectify a problem caused by the very device that opened the portal to the past.  Not expecting more than to do his duty, Kallen isn’t prepared for what awaits him.

    Excerpt From Part I

    “Sergeant Craistok, we’re concerned with the present, but we’re much more concerned with the past in this particular instance.  You see, in 1820, the area that the portal has opened to was called Kentucky.  More specifically the opening is on a bluff overlooking a tributary to what used to be called the Cumberland River.”  He pointed to the vidscreen at the front of the room.  Dr. Katterjay cycled through some old photos of an un-piped river.  Completely nondescript-looking, the scenes could have been of anywhere in the far distant past for all Kallen knew.

    “A small town called Williamsburg is approximately six kilometers downriver from the opening.  Our data indicate that there are about one hundred people whose lives could be lost if the storms that our ionizing radiation caused, continue unabated.  If something isn’t done and done soon, the devastation to that area will be enormous.     

    “But there’s more.  We have reason to believe, although we can’t prove it directly due to so many lost records from the past, that the first President of the NAA had ancestors from that general area in Kentucky.  If those people lose their lives due to our mistake, he might not ever exist.  By default, we might not exist as a nation.”

    The men looked at each other.

    “I know this sounds incredibly far-fetched.  Yet gentlemen, even if it’s not true that President Nordmark’s ancestors were from Kentucky, we still can’t risk the past being changed by anyone’s death that we may have caused.  We can reverse the effects of the radiation, dissipate the potentially deadly storms, and it will take less than a week.  Once you’re done, you’ll return the same way we got there.  When the processor is powered down hopefully nothing will have changed.”

    Dayler spoke up as he pointed to himself.  “We’re going there?”  He already knew the answer, but had to voice it anyway.

    “Correct.”  Dr. Katterjay looked at Dayler’s rank stripes, then his nametag.  “Sergeant Madsen.  You’re going to be taking a short trip to 1820.”  He raised his eyes and surveyed the rest of the men.  “All of you.”

Summary of Volume 1, Part II

Sergeant Technician Kallen Deshara’s mission to 1820 hasn’t prepared him to meet young, handsome Aaric Utzman, whom he literally and figuratively falls head over heels for.  And, while on the mission, one of the scientists who invented the device that opened the time portal, uploads to him the real history of how the world became burning hot.  Kallen couldn’t be any more ill-prepared for that long-suppressed truth.  In addition, before he left, he hacked into his base commander’s personal files.  Once he goes through them it brings him face-to-face with the awful truth about the commander, his country’s President, and a long abided by water treaty.  Everything he thought he knew about the past, his present, and his allegiance is put to the test.  In fact, he’s forced to challenge the limit of his abilities as he tries to absorb the truth of the world and of his heart. 

    Excerpt From Part II

    Aaric picked the remainder of the fleshy chunks from his fish and offered it to him.  After Kallen swallowed the tender flakes he put his hand around the back of Aaric’s neck, drawing him close.

    He knew he should never have met Aaric. 

    But he was about to kiss him. 

    Again.

    A proper kiss this time.

    Aaric felt dizzy.  He was so hard it felt as if all the blood had rushed from his brain.  They slowly pressed their lips together, making sure they connected perfectly, completely.

    It was all so elemental.  The water to their left.  The fire crackling to their right.  The sun beating down on them from the open sky above.  Knees firmly planted on the sand below.  Surrounded by rocks and endless forest. 

    Kallen fell into a whirlpool of emotion.  He felt as if his heart was beating a thousand times a second.  The feelings rushing through his body were unlike anything he had ever experienced before.  And now he knew why he felt such utter calm when he arrived.  He knew why it had enveloped him, had seeped inside, fused with him.  Somehow, it was because of Aaric–even before they had met.  Aaric was the nexus of it all, and Kallen knew it.  This is completely impossible, he thought.

Parts I and II have been published as a single volume.

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Summary of Volume 2

Kallen Deshara now knows his world’s origin, nature, and destiny; and has fallen madly in love with young Aaric Utzman.  He’s grief-stricken at having given up everything he’s ever known: his family, his friends, his country, even the era he’s from to stay with Aaric.  But he’s made his decision.  His colleagues who’ve returned to the 25th century have other plans.  They must bring him back before his presence in the past inexorably alters the timeline.  They intend to return him even if it means having to kill him.  But first they have to find him.  Traveling along the Wilderness Trail with his new companion, Kallen is unaware they’re being stalked.  In the meantime, he realizes what had been missing in his life, deepens his love with Aaric, and sees more free-flowing water than he ever thought possible.  Slowly but surely, he recognizes that he has more to offer than he ever knew.  In fact, he may even be able to shape the future that should have been!  But he learns an even more important lesson.  Kallen discovers that love knows no boundaries—not even of time itself.

    Excerpt from Part III   

    Kallen reached the building, not knowing what to expect.  He pushed open the heavy door and bolted inside.  Kallen didn’t see him and without warning, Dayler shoved him from behind as hard as he could into the open center cell.  Kallen lost his balance as he flew into it.  He managed to stay on his feet, but his knapsack went skidding off to the right.  Dayler slammed the cold iron door, inserted the key, and turning it swiftly.  He pulled the key out as quickly as he could.  His next move was to slam the heavy oak door closed.  He flipped the latch up and it landed heavily.  All was quiet.

    Mortified, Kallen came to the bars and grasped them.

    “Dayler!  What the fuck?  What are you doing?  Let me out of here!”

    “Do you have any idea how long we’ve been looking for you?”

    “We?”

    “Craistok, Biggert, and me.”

    Oh shit, Kallen thought.

    “Do you have any idea how furious the commander is?”

    “The commander?  What commander?”

    “What commander?  Your fucking base commander!  Not to mention Vaulkner!  What the fuck, Kallen!  Why did you do it?  Why?”

    Kallen was totally mystified.  “This is impossible!  You can’t be here.  I saw the portal disappear.  I saw the converter.  It was a slag heap.” Dayler told him what happened after the portal disappeared.  Kallen became more and more horrified as Dayler explained it.

    “The processor was never shut off?”

    “You can thank me for that!”

    Oh my god.  All this time I thought it was de-energized for sure!  Kallen stepped back from the bars.  This isn’t happening!  It isn’t!