The Balance of Time

Table of Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 Chapter 63 Chapter 64 Chapter 65 Chapter 66 Chapter 67 Epilogue Acknowledgments About the Author Copyright © 2023 by Steven Decker All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, visit www.stevendecker.com. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred. Quotes of scripture are from the World English Bible. ISBN 979-8-9873940-2-1 (print) ISBN 979-8-9873940-3-8 (eBook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2023901787 Book Cover by Sabrina Milazzo Interior design and formatting by Sabrina Milazzo First edition 2023 Visit the author’s website at www.stevendecker.com Published by TIER Books LLC Novels by Steven Decker Distant Finish The Time Chain Series: Time Chain The Balance of Time Addicted to Time Child of Another Kind Walking Into Dreams Chapter 1 1801 Dani and Aideen popped into existence just outside the town of Claddaghduff, hoping their arrival from 2022 attracted no attention from random bystanders. It was around two in the afternoon, cloudy, but not raining. Dani could see Omey Island across the bloated causeway, full of water and impassable on foot until the tide emptied it. She scanned the area to see if anyone had noticed them, knowing the microsecond time stop that accompanied any time jump—whether from the old Time Chain method used by Charles or the new, state-of-the-art technology utilized by Sadiki—would cover their entrance. People always got a little foggy about their surroundings when travelers jumped in nearby, so the risk of being discovered was minimal. Dani saw little to be concerned about. A farmer on a cart being pulled by an old horse was heading out of town on the muddy lane and was already well past them. A few people working in the fields across the road didn’t even look up. A smooth arrival, so far. Dani and Aideen were dressed in clothing that was normal for that era and locality—a thick, ankle-length skirt, a linen undergarment, a heavy blouse, a shawl made of wool, a linen headscarf, and heavy leather shoes. Since they hadn’t taken the pill that would make them look thirty years old yet (they were saving that until they retrieved Orla from 1801) Aideen still looked to be a woman of middle-age, in good shape, with only a hint of gray in her fiery red hair, while Dani was a woman in her mid-twenties, tall and fit, with the broad shoulders of a swimmer, and dark hair that just touched her back. Based on their age difference, they could be mother and daughter, but that’s not what they were; they were best friends and lovers, and always would be. They left the field where they’d appeared and walked along the road toward town, trying to avoid the mud and puddles as much as possible. Dani realized Orla wouldn’t mind if they tracked mud into her home because once she saw them, she’d understand they’d arrived to fulfill their promise to her—to whisk her away from 1801, forever, bring her to 2022, and make her young again. They’d all take the pill to make them look and feel like a thirty-year-old and Orla would no longer be sixty-two, Aideen would no longer be sixty-eight, and each of them would look nearly as young as twenty-four-year-old Dani, who, upon reaching the age of thirty, would remain so for around ninety years, according to Annette. They took their time, on the lookout for the travelers Sadiki had warned them about. Annette Li, the Minister of Time Management in 2253, had told them before they left that era that a team would be dispatched to 1801 to look for Charles, and Sadiki had confirmed that the team he was assigned to in 2022 had jumped from the Giza station a few days before Dani and Aideen had arrived there. Their mission was to apprehend Charles and bring him to 2253 to stand trial for murder and a number of other crimes, business that Dani and Aideen hoped to avoid. They just wanted Orla, and then to be free of all the chaos time travel had wrought, living the simple life on a nearly deserted Omey Island in the year 2022. The two women made it into town and Dani eventually led them to Orla’s house, all based on her memories from the trip she’d made here with Charles a few months ago. Dani was surprised when young Ciara answered the door. Ciara was Orla’s granddaughter and resembled the younger Orla. She was short, with dark hair and a pretty face. Ciara had been part of Charles’s Time Chain until his time station was decommissioned by the department of Time Management. She used to live in a house nearby, with her mother and father, but both of them were dead now, a terrible tragedy that Dani remembered well. Dani and Charles had arrived in 1801 during the rape of sixteen-year-old Ciara by her drunken father, who had killed Ciara’s mother when she’d