Chapter 11
Buck spent most of the next three days helping the villagers in the town doing various errands such as cutting wheat, fishing, or hunting, or working at the local sawmill. Ardala was not allowed to do any labor whatsoever, which suited her just fine. Instead she would walk through town shopping for new clothes and shoes, or simply find somewhere out of the way where she could watch Buck working. On the fourth day they assembled on the outskirts of town before sunrise with the village elders and several warriors to guard the caravan. Buck insisted on riding on horseback instead of riding inside the carriage with Ardala. Once everyone was ready and the wagons were loaded with supplies, the caravan slowly began to move steadily toward the mountains looming in the west.
They traveled for several hours until midday when they stopped for a quick lunch. Afterwards they continued down the seldom-used road west. When it neared dark, they setup a campsite near the road and prepared dinner. After dinner the party sat around the campfire telling stories one by one while Buck and Ardala listened half-heartedly. Eventually one of the elders convinced Buck to tell a story when his turn came around. Buck thought for a long moment before choosing an old Greek myth, changing some of the names around so it sounded like one of his own stories. Even Ardala told a story, albeit one not so very exciting.
Occasionally Buck would look up at the darkened sky expecting to see a bevy of stars, but each time he saw nothing but darkness, he would become disheartened to remember that he wasn't on Earth. As the party started to break up, Buck stood and turned to face east where his assigned tent that he had to share with Ardala was set up. He happened to see a silver glint out of the corner of his eye. He looked up into the sky to see a large cross-shaped outline of silver light just beginning to rise in the eastern sky. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened. He spun Ardala around to look at the outline.
"That is called the 'Gateway to Draconia'," said one of the elders, stepping up beside him.
"The Gateway to Draconia?" Buck asked slowly.
The elder nodded. "That is where we go when we die and the place we strive for while we are alive. It is written when we die and return through the gate, we will populate a new Draconia to rival the one that was destroyed." The old man turned wistfully to look at Ardala. "Draconia was destroyed, wasn't it?"
Sadness crept into the princess's eyes as she frowned. "Yes, the Draconia was destroyed. That's why I need to get back so I can confront my sister who thinks I'm dead now."
He bowed. "We are truly blessed by your presence, Goddess."
She simply smiled politely as the elder moved past her to enter his tent. Ardala turned to see Buck still staring at the cross in the sky. She literally had to nearly drag him into their tent where she took off the jacket Buck had lent her earlier.
"Buck, what's wrong?" she asked as she placed a hand on his chest.
He shook his head, pointed out the test toward the cross in the sky. "Do you know what that looks like?" he asked in a hushed tone.
"What? The Gateway to Draconia?"
He nodded. "It looks like an open stargate!"
She furrowed her brows. "So?"
Buck placed a hand over top Ardala's hand on his chest. "I wish Theo were here! He could answer my question for me. If that is an open stargate… then this planet must be inside the system of stargates!"
"How is that possible?"
Buck sighed and shook his head. "I don't know. I've never heard of anything like this before. I don't even know if it's possible. But…"
She pressed her body closer to his. "But what?"
"Do you know how stargates work?"
Ardala frowned. "I just know that they do work; I never asked why."
Buck nodded. "Well when I was acclimating to the 25th century, I did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions about new technology and stuff. Stargates was one of the things I did a lot of research on; the physics and the mechanics of how and why they worked. Stargates work in tandem. Before you enter one, you have to set course, speed, and trajectory. Depending upon where you want to go, the gate you open then automatically opens another one closest to the coordinates you input into it. The gates open a portal in time and space so we can travel millions of miles or light years in the span of a few seconds."
Ardala's eyes started to glaze over as she let go of Buck and lay down on the cot. Buck grinned at her. "When a stargate opens, it basically freezes time! That's why we can get from Earth to Draconia in only a day or so. In normal space it would take thousands of years. The stargate freezes time so we can travel far distances in no time at all."
"So?"
Buck thought for a moment as he sat down beside Ardala. "If that is really an open stargate… and if we are still inside the stargate… then maybe the time in our universe is still frozen, at least relative to us. Maybe we haven't missed the coronation after all!"
"You mean I can still be empress?"
"YES!" He shrugged. "Well, if my theory is right."
"Then what about my ship and my crew?"
Buck sighed. "The ship is destroyed; we saw that happen clear enough. The crew… either scattered or dead, I would presume. Obviously some of them made it through the stargate here, just like we did."
"Then how do you explain how they beat us here by 450 years?"
Buck sighed again as he removed his boots. "I don't know. Obviously time on this planet keeps passing. When the Draconia blew up, it sent a massive shock wave into the stargate. Maybe it disrupted space-time by freezing it for us since we were the ones who activated the stargate, thus we were closer to the disruption. Everything that went through the gate after us, landed before us. I don't know? As far as I know we were all sent backwards in time… or forwards in time… or we could already be dead and this is Heaven (God, I hope not!)"
Ardala smiled as her hand moved slowly up his chest. "Well, if we are dead, at least you're here with me to make it bearable."
"What I can't figure out though is if all these people came from the Draconia, why haven't we seen any signs of lifepods or wreckage anywhere?"
"You won't," Ardala stated matter of factly.
"Huh?"
"Once lifepods are deployed and they land on a planet or moon or whatever, they are designed to disintegrate within a week."
"Why?"
"A lot of our technology is the same inside the lifepods as inside the superfortress. They are designed to disintegrate so no one can steal our technology."
"Ahh, I see. That's actually… pretty smart."
Gently she pulled his body closer to hers. "Buck, aren't you tired yet?"
He nodded once. "Actually, yeah, I am. I'm not used to riding horseback for that long anymore. You're right; we should probably hit the sack. We still have a long way to go before we get to this Eye of Kane."
Ardala smiled as she pulled him even closer. "Now that's the best thing I've heard you say all day!"
