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  The Guardian Of Paradise

  Kai nodded his head. “You are my bride. You were on Earth when we spoke our vows. You were coming here to live.” The lies were growing by the minute. When she regains her memory, there will be hell to pay. He gulped at the thought.

  Her head was nodding as Shana turned away from him. Suddenly, she turned back to him and jumped into his arms, claiming his lips in a passionate kiss.

  What They Are Saying About

  The Guardian Of Paradise

  “Guardian of Paradise is a wild futuristic romance filled with twists at every turn, and a romance to knock anyone's space socks off.”

  --Jenn Nixon, Author

  Play Nice and Live to See Tomorrow

  www.wingsepress.com

  Wings

  The Guardian Of Paradise

  by

  Tamia Dawn Osburn

  A Wings ePress, Inc.

  Futuristic Romance Novel

  Wings ePress, Inc.

  Edited by: Leslie Hodges

  Copy Edited by: Elizabeth Struble

  Senior Editor: Elizabeth Struble

  Managing Editor: Leslie Hodges

  Executive Editor: Lorraine Stephens

  Cover Artist: Richard Stroud

  All rights reserved

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Wings ePress Books

  http://www.wings-press.com

  Copyright © 2004 by Tammy Ainsworth

  ISBN 1-59088-260-1

  Published In the United States Of America

  January 2004

  Wings ePress Inc.

  403 Wallace Court

  Richmond, KY 40475

  Dedication

  To my father, Don Osburn,

  who is a huge fan of Sci-Fi in movies and on TV.

  And to my husband, Andrew.

  One

  Earth 5670

  The lone, red-haired woman stood next to what once had been the Pacific Ocean--but it no longer had any water. Often she had wondered what happened to all of the ocean’s water. Earth no longer had water since the people in the forty-fifth century had used the entire precious commodity. The People of Pacifica now had to simulate water for their use. She sighed as she pushed a lock of her hair away from her face. It was flowing with the soft breeze she felt blowing off what had once been the ocean.

  Shana’s thoughts turned back to what her future held as her green eyes gazed up at the moon that glowed brightly against the dark night sky. Stars were twinkling like diamonds above her.

  She grimaced as she turned when she heard her name being called. Shana was not in the mood to be disturbed after the kind of day that she’d had. The President had reprimanded her again. The incident on Roami Four was not her fault this time. She couldn’t help he’d been suicidal. His mind was already twisted from the illegal drugs he’d been taking for most of his life. That was what had led him to jump off a hundred-story building into the middle of rush-hour traffic that afternoon.

  “How are you on this fine morning?” Shana asked as she approached her friend, whose blue eyes were twinkling and her long blonde hair was twisted in a braid.

  “I could be feeling better.” Mikla sighed as she patted her rounded stomach. “I can’t wait for the little one to be born.” She pressed her hand into her side when the baby kicked her. Mikla grabbed Shana’s hand and pressed it to her stomach where the kicking was happening. Shana looked at Mikla with awe in her eyes. A new life was growing within her friend. In a way, Shana envied her.

  She turned from Mikla as she gazed longingly at the empty space that once had been a free flowing ocean. It was not a part of the desert that was forbidden to them from the government. Certain parts of the desert were too toxic and dangerous for the people to populate. Since no life could survive in the desert area, the government had made it forbidden to the people.

  “It won’t be much longer before the baby is born.” Shana said turning back to Mikla with her arms crossed over her chest. “You know, one would think that since we have simulators that can create everything that we need, it would seem They would be able to create our oceans once more.” Shana waved her arms over the dried sand.

  “True. But we know They will never do such thing. I’ve seen pictures in our Historian of what the oceans once looked like. People actually used to come here just to see the ocean and swim in it. They even used to sail boats in the ocean. It’s sad that we don’t have them anymore,” Mikla said sadly, frowning at what the world used to be, that it was no longer like the old ways, whatever that was. Her favorite past time was to visit the Historian.

  Mikla pressed her hand to her side as the baby within kicked her once more.

  “Is it a boy or a girl?” Shana placed her hand next to Mikla’s so she could feel the baby’s movements once again.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t ask the doctor. I know this is weird, but I want to be surprised.” Mikla grinned. “I can’t wait until the baby is born, neither can Gregor--he is counting down the days until this little one comes.”

  “I don’t think it’s weird.” Shana sighed as she turned to walk back to the housing center a few meters from where they stood. “I think that if I were to have a baby I would want to be surprised also.” Just as they started toward the housing unit, the com-link on Shana’s wrist started beeping.

  “Never a quiet moment,” Mikla said as they stopped, and she pointed to the com-link that had been beeping for the past few seconds.

  Shana raised her wrist to her lips and pressed a button to stop the beeping. “Yes,” she answered, speaking into the com-link. She looked over at Mikla with a slight smile. “I have a feeling I know who this is.” She winked at her friend. Shana grimaced as the familiar voice of her superior greeted her in a stern voice.

  “Shana Moon, you are requested to appear before the President of the United World, ASAP. You will be picked up momentarily at the Station.” The link was severed. Shana looked up at her friend and frowned.

  “What does Mr. President want with you?” Mikla asked with a smirk as they started walking once more. She knew too well what President Grogan wanted from her friend.

  Shana’s steps began to grow sluggish--she didn’t want to see President Grogan at the moment, not with the way she’d been feeling lately. She had been thinking that she wanted something more in her life. Like her friend, Mikla.

  “Who knows what it could be this time. Maybe he’s going to give me another reprimand. After all, he already gave me one today for what happened on Roami Four.” Shana sighed as she stepped over a pink flower whose name currently eluded her. She thought that it was pretty. She fought the urge to bend down and pick the tiny bud--it was forbidden to pick any growth that was grown outside the housing unit. The Government wanted to preserve what was left of the planet life, no matter how small.

  “Maybe he wants you to become wife number six.” Mikla teased as she turned, a grin on her face. She burst out with a chuckle at the thought.

  “Then become divorced wife number six? I don’t think so.” Shana shivered at the idea of becoming the thirty-six-year-old’s wife. The idea of his hands pawing her body made her sick to her stomach. “The idea sickens me. How in the hell did the so
n of a bitch become the President, anyway?” Her steps quickened for a moment, then slowed down once more when she realized that Mikla wasn’t keeping up with her pace.

  “I can’t even stand working for him. He is such a bastard it’s a wonder he hasn’t been assassinated yet,” Shana said in a hushed tone.

  “Who knows? This is his third term and he always makes good promises to The People,” Mikla said in a hushed tone. One needed to be afraid of being overheard by the President’s spies that always seemed to be lurking about, listening for some kind of conspiracy against the President.

  “And, as always, he reneges on those promises,” Shana said in a hard, low voice. She turned to glare at Mikla. “It’s a wonder how he keeps getting voted into office. I’m looking forward to the next election and someone else winning.”

  ~ * ~

  Minutes later they arrived at the station. There was a place to wait for arriving transports near the docking area. The small hovercrafts were the standard transportation that flew in the air--land transportation had become a thing in the past when the first hovercraft was discovered in the early thirtieth century. The hovercrafts used a clean fuel that dissipated in the over-polluted air on Earth. Air pollution had become an extreme problem, especially when overpopulation began to take over the outlying farmland.

  Underwater colonies had turned out to be too dangerous for the people on Earth. They had become obsolete and were finally banned when the colonies’ domed living quarters were continually leaking and breaks were happening far too often, causing the domes to collapse and hundreds of thousands of people to drown.

  In the year 3120, the government decided to colonize unpopulated planets in the outer galaxies. The shuttles and ships were sent out in the latter part of that year. Planets were found, and the colonization had begun during that same year.

  Then the following year, in mid 3121, the Great War happened on Earth. One continent fought with another causing a nuclear war. It had been a war to rule the world, only to cause the people of Earth to live in massive devastation. The devastation of the war had been so severe, it wiped out countries as they once were, and all of the communications to the colonies were lost, never be heard from again. Records of the colonies were also deleted and most of Earth’s history destroyed, never to be recovered. The blasts from the nuclear explosions were so severe, Earth was once again put into an ice age for almost a hundred years. That slowly thawed into a new era for the people of Earth.

  Earth’s population slowly grew once more, with set rules, strictly enforced, to repopulate the growth of the planet. A single couple was only allowed to have two children, and they must get a special license from the government before they were allowed to procreate. If they had children without obtaining the special license, the punishment was death. A public execution for the parents and the child.

  In the past hundred years there had only been fifty executions--the death penalty was a very effective deterrent.

  The People, as they called themselves, developed what was now known as A New Nation. The Earth had become one nation instead of how it had been on old Earth, which had consisted of several nations. New laws were made, since records of the old laws were never recovered and the new government had no record of what the old laws were.

  Communications using Earth’s old computer systems were developed by a man named Ersa Galileo. The system was improved and perfected in the year of 3301. It linked all of the communications into one network and became very portable, yet no one was ever able to link back with the colonies. The technology was lost.

  Space travel was redeveloped in the late 4343. Yet no one could ever find the coordinates of the missing colonies. Thus, since they were never found, they were forgotten over the centuries.

  ~ * ~

  “Here is my ride,” Shana said as a sleek black hovercraft appeared at her side. She turned and smiled to her friend and gave Mikla a quick, light hug. “Keep in touch,” Shana whispered in her ear before turning and climbing into the hovercraft that resembled Earth’s earlier car models from the early twenty-first century. Someone had found pictures in the old textbooks that had been discovered by an archaeology class while they were out on a dig in what had once been the Rocky Mountains.

  What was once a 1966 Mustang lifted from the ground. Shana looked out the window and waved to her friend.

  Mikla stood with her hands pressed to her stomach as she watched Shana disappear into the clouds.

  ~ * ~

  On Zodiaz

  2550 A.C.

  After Colonization

  “Uncle Kai! Uncle Kai!” Several young, blonde haired children came running out of the single story brown house and into a tall man’s arms. The dark-haired man scooped up the three children, ranging between six and one, as they squealed with delight to see their uncle Kai. He turned to look at his sister as she came out of the house. He burst out laughing as the youngest child tugged on his ponytail.

  “I swear Shay. Your kids seem to grow every time I see them.” Kai Morgan told his sister as she stood a foot away from the doorframe to her house. She glared at him teasingly.

  “Then you should come around more often than just your yearly visits.” The blonde haired woman grinned up at her oversized younger brother. Her green eyes stared up at Kai as he reached over and tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear.

  Kai set the children down and watched them run to his ship. He swaggered over to her and gave her big hug and mussed her hair. He laughed heartily and kissed her on the cheek.

  “Kai! Will you ever grow up?” she teased as she ducked under his arms. She stood and watched her children run to his ship and Shay sighed at the darkened sections that showed signs that he had been in a battle.

  “Who was it this time?” She asked as she waved a hand to his damaged ship.

  “The Romaini’s.” He grinned at her and shrugged his shoulders. He looked away from the ship and toward the wooded area that surrounded her house.

  “What did you do this time?” Shay asked as she glanced over at her children who had began to play tag at the starboard side of the ship.

  “What makes you think that I did anything to make them mad?” Kai looked at his sister sheepishly. “I was innocent this time, I swear. She was the one who smuggled aboard my ship. It was too late to turn around and dump her off. So I set her off at the nearest spaceport. I couldn’t help it if it took three days to reach the port. By then the damage was already done to her reputation, and I wasn’t going to make the sacrifice to repair it. I wasn’t even intimate with her.”

  “I know you, Kai.” Shay had given him a hard, stern look that said it all.

  He reached over to her and ran his hand through her hair. “It’s the truth, even if you don’t want to believe that,” Kai said in a tone that showed how hurt he was that his sister didn’t believe him.

  She knew that it wasn’t his fault that he was born with his looks--jet black hair, clear blue eyes and a six-foot-four hard built body. Women across the Androne universe had seemed to chase after him ever since he hit puberty.

  Kai sighed as he called the children away from his ship. They ran up to him and gave him one last hug before they ran inside the house.

  “I need to check in with the commandant,” he told Shay as he started to walk to the ship.

  With a promise to visit with them the next day, Kai hugged his sister one last time before he boarded his ship. He sighed as he sat down in the pilot’s seat. He was tired after the long trip home from having a private meeting with one of his people who was on a secret mission.

  After he ran his hands over the controls of the ship, the linerunner lifted off the ground. Once Kai was high enough in the air, he quickly flew over the mass of land that had been his childhood home. He missed his own home that was nestled in the nearby mountains.

  Paradise was what his ancestors called this place when they discovered this world--long after their home world had cut off communications while they were deep
in space to find a new world.

  The two dozen ships had left Earth more than two thousands years ago. They had set off to find new worlds to colonize after Earth had become overpopulated and the resources on Earth could no longer feed the people. The people of the new government had selected the Guardian of Paradise from the original settlers of the new world.

  Kai’s ancestors were selected to be The Guardian soon after they had arrived on this world. Now it was Kai’s turn to be the Guardian after his father died five years earlier.

  The Guardian is the ruler of Paradise. He sets the laws and makes sure they are enforced. The Guardianship is designated to a specific family, in this case the Morgan family, until the people of Paradise declare them unfit to rule the world. If the ruler dies before an heir is born to take his place, the next of kin becomes the Guardian of Paradise.

  He sighed as he stepped out of his ship onto the landing pad in front of his home. A Bot wheeled up to him in greeting. “Make the necessary repairs,” was all that Kai told the Bot. He turned on his heel and stepped inside his single story home--it was prohibited to build houses that were over a single story on Paradise. His ancestors didn’t want to destroy the beauty of the new world. The law had never been changed over the past two centuries.

  The house seemed too quiet after his visit with his sister and her children. The longing for a family of his own overwhelmed him. It was long past time for him to have a mate of his own.

  The problem was, he had searched this part of the universe for that mate and turned up empty handed.

  I wonder if I’ll end up like great-great-grandpa David? Kai thought about his one ancestor who never had a mate and the Guardianship was then handed down to the oldest nephew.