The Children of Time (The Children of Time Trilogy Book 1) by Chaiene Santos Page A

beautiful
Lorena, who briefly was the best thing that happened in his whole life.
    While he reflected on the mission, though about how Silion was
always ready to protect him and willing to go anywhere with his friend. Several
times he had saved his life and he wasn’t able to repay. His eyes watered with
sadness.
    He also couldn’t stop thinking about the beautiful Lorena. He didn’t
understand how he been able to feel attraction for a woman from the past.
However, she was so lovely and beautiful that he couldn’t stop thinking about
her. If he could go back in time, maybe he wouldn’t have gone away and would
take the major’s place. On his planet he could never be happy with anyone and,
deep in his heart, he felt that he could be happy with Lorena. Living as an
impostor, however, wasn’t a pleasant idea to him, even though that woman was capable
of messing with his heart, hardened by failed relationships.
    The commander has programmed his ship to enter the space-time bridge
with warp speed and ordered to Z8, the central computer of the ship:
    “Z8, take the ship home safely. I want to rest a bit. Just call me
in case of an emergency.”
    “Yes, commander.” Z8 replied.
     
    ***
     
    While the Challenge I was heading for the planet Vida, under the
command of Z8, Merko could rest.
    But his mind couldn’t relax, and he was plagued by several memories
of moments spent beside Silion.
    One adventure that went back and forth had happened five years ago.
A giant meteor was on a collision course with the planet Vida. All the
alternatives to intercept and destroy it had been discarded by the Royal
Council. There was only one chance to deflect the asteroid: Using a powerful
laser beam that could bombard and destroy it from the planet Vida while it was
still thousands of miles away from the fatal encounter.
    The Challenge II ship, which was coupled to a laser gun, however,
was defective, and engineers worked tirelessly to fix it.
    There was no time to solve the problem of repairing the ship, and
the gun couldn’t be removed or transported to another vehicle in a time. As they
were all condemned to death with the imminent destruction of the planet, Merko fierce
entered his ship Challenge I and decided to leave in order to project himself
against the meteor.
    He would try to use the own Challenge I, heading toward the
celestial body, being tangential to one of its ends in order to get it out of his
route. His computer, Z8, had calculated the exact time and point of impact in
which they would get the highest percentage of success in the mission of saving
the planet Vida. The commander didn’t say goodbye to anyone, knowing that many
would try to stop him from continuing with his suicide mission.
    He entered his ship and departed at an extraordinary speed toward
the asteroid, which was still at a safe distance to change its course.
    Silion watched his friend in his last moments. He knew Merko very well
and knew that something strange was about to happen. Before he left, they
talked:
    “Merko, why haven’t you talked to anyone lately? What’s on your
mind, my friend?”
    “I’m worried about the arrival of Meteor X26. I believe it will be
impossible to stop it and we’ll all die. I must think of a way out.”
    “Our engineers will be able to recover the Challenge II on time. The
weapons are ready and only the reactor still needs to be repaired.”
    “Dear Silion, when they repair the ship it will be too late. There’s
no time left, X26 is close to a point where we won’t be able to stop it. We
both know that very well! We don’t need to fool ourselves with false hopes. There’s
no time to wait for the Challenge II to be repaired.”
    Silion lowered his head, feeling sad, and let Merko alone. He knew
that in difficult situations, the commander used to make wise decisions and
that he would find a way out. A few hours later, he looked for him again and
found out that his ship was gone. Silion had a bad feeling and