Carl Obermeier, a cadet at the Time Corps Academy, discovers he has been admitted to his second year on Conditional status. This is due to his high “emotional liability.” He is advised to mediate and study the precepts and disciplines of the Corps. But on his first day back, his class is shown an example of Temporal Crime committed by the Time Pirates, enemy of the Ordered Society, and he is smitten by the pirate Armand’s beauty. Troubled, Carl remains true to the Corps when he is kidnapped by the pirates and meets Armand face to face.<br><br>Armand lives a free and easy life with the pirates ... until he sees Carl, and realizes the cadet has fallen for him.<br><br>As the pirates deprogram Carl from the rigid tenets of the Ordered Society, the two men fall in love. But a pirate’s life is never safe, and when Armand fails to return from an Action against the OS Marines, Carl steps up to save him. Unfortunately the men are caught on either side of the Time War. Can they find their way out?

Renegades from the Time War

Hearing this Carl began to sob. The desire for the complete connection, of utter surrender and closeness he used to have with Armand, the man who was right next to him, made his heart ache with the pain of love. He just let the tears flow.


Again hesitantly, Armand rolled onto his side, facing Carl. Then he put his arm around him and hugged him—and then he too began to cry.


“Don’t ever do that again, Carl,” he whispered. “Six days—it felt like an eternity.”


A convoluted tightness began to build in Carl in spite of himself.


“You seemed pretty busy,” he said, his voice strangled, “when I saw you last.”


“Hush!” Armand put a hand over Carl’s mouth, which Carl half-playfully tried to bite. They were silent for perhaps half a minute. “I just spread things around,” Armand said. “It’s the pirate way, you know. No rules.”


“You don’t believe in monogamy,” Carl said quietly, accusingly. He felt Armand’s shrugging response to this, then heard him sigh.


Chapter 30