Chapter 3
That evening as Peter and Octavia were hunting for supper and the other Skaikru were setting up for cooking whatever was brought back, a grunt was heard from the tent they had put D'bor in.
"He's awake!" said Cralleth, trying to poke his head through flaps that were too small.
Adara rushed over to Cralleth.
"Move, aside, please, Cralleth. I need to get inside." Cralleth moved enough to let her in but moved back immediately. Adara tied the flaps back so the rider and dragon could see each other.
"Cralleth?" called D'bor.
"He's okay, D'bor. He's uninjured." D'bor looked at the stranger.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Adara."
"How did you know my name?"
"Cralleth told me."
"Cralleth told you?" D'bor said incredulously.
"Yes. He needed to tell me that you were injured and to help you. I've been talking to him about what I was doing so he wouldn't think I was trying to hurt you."
"You can talk to dragons?"
"Well, I can talk to Cralleth. It may be that I can only hear him because he needed me to." D'bor was thinking about who else could hear when the dragons wanted them to, but were not dragonriders. He realised that healers also had that ability so they could help dragons whose riders were unconscious. D'bor nodded and then winced.
"Ohh! That hurt."
"What? Does your head hurt?" asked Adara, going to him and kneeling down.
"Yes. I've got a massive headache."
"Let me see, D'bor," said Adara. "I can see what's going on inside you. Let me place my hands on your head and see if there is any damage or if it's just a headache." D'bor nodded once and winced again.
Adara placed her hands on his head and closed her eyes. She could see no damage but she saw a small inflammation on one portion of the outside of his brain. She thought about how to heal it to reduce it back to normal and as she was doing that, the inflammation began to shrink. A few seconds later and it was back to normal. She took her hands away.
"How do you feel now?"
"The headache's gone!"
"Yeah, I took it away for you."
"You can do that? You're a healer?" he asked in amazement.
"Yes, I can do that and no, I'm not really a healer. I can do simple things like mending cracked ribs like you had and to reduce inflamations like the one in your head, but I'm not able to do more complex things like a broken leg or a ruptured spleen."
"I had cracked ribs? And you healed them?" he asked.
"Yes. Do you know how you were injured? Cralleth didn't know." D'bor looked at Cralleth.
"It's okay, Cralleth. I'm going to be okay," D'bor said gently and lovingly to his dragon. D'bor turned back to Adara. "I injured my ribs when I was unexpectedly flung forward as we jumped between. I caught my ribs on one of Cralleth's neck ridges." He looked upset. "Guess I didn't fasten them tight enough."
"Why? You are usually thorough about that," asked Cralleth.
"I think I was too hasty and excited to come to Southern Weyr," admitted D'bor.
"Yeah, about that. Sorry, D'bor, but you're not in Southern Weyr."
"We're not? Then where are we?"
"You have apparently come to an alternative Earth."
"EARTH!" D'bor bellowed and immediately winced in pain.
"Easy, brown rider." she said, helping him to lay back down. "It's not the Earth your ancestors came from, D'bor, but another Earth that had a very different history."
,"But… but I'm on… I'm on Earth?"
"Yes, D'bor, somehow you've come to Earth. Do you know how long you were 'between' for?"
"No, I blacked out when I hit my ribs," he said, looking bewildered.
"Well, when you're able to, we can try to find a way to get you back home to Pern. From there, you should be able to find help to get you back to Benden Weyr," said Adara, soothingly. "Don't worry, D'bor. We'll help you."
"Thank you," he said. Adara smiled at him.
"Now, it's almost time for the evening meal. Do you want to join us outside for a little bit?"
"Yes, please," he said, politely.
"Good, you can sit against your dragon so you won't have to keep yourself upright too much. Those ribs will still be sore for a few days," Adara admonished. D'bor nodded his head and smiled when it didn't hurt.
With Adara's help, D'bor left the tent and was led over towards the fire pit the others had made. Cralleth came over and laid down near to it for warmth. D'bor was then told to sit in front of Cralleth, leaning back against his leg.
"Ahh, that's better," said D'bor, easing back to support himself against his dragon.
Roma handed him a wooden plate with some deer meat and a few greens they had found.
"Thank you," D'bor said.
"You're welcome. I'm Roma," she said.
"Thanks, Roma, I'm D'bor," he said with a grin.
Cralleth bent his head down to sniff her.
"She would make a good rider," he said. D'bor was startled at that comment - as was Adara who nearly dropped the plate she was carrying.
"I can still hear him," she said to D'bor.
"Maybe you can talk to dragons," he said reverently. Adara shrugged.
"I wouldn't know, You're the only dragonrider I've met."
"If we can find our way home, maybe you can come for a visit?" he said.
"And how do I do that without a dragon?" she asked.
"Oh, I guess you'd need dragons to come here to carry you back," he said, crestfallen.
"We'll worry about that later, right now, let's eat!" she said to everyone. They all dug into their meal before bedding down for the night. Peter had elected to sleep outside as D'bor was using his tent.
"Actually, it's common for riders to sleep next to their dragons if they have to sleep outside. I don't mind. As long as the fire is kept going to keep Cralleth warm, he'll be better than a blanket on a cold night."
"Are you sure?" asked Adara.
"Yep, I'm sure," assured D'bor.
"Okay, but you need to lie flat, D'bor. It'll do you no good if you sleep upright. Those ribs still need time to heal fully."
"Okay." Peter went to his tent and brought back two blankets.
"Here, lay on one and cover yourself with the other. I'll have my sleeping bag, so I'll be okay," said Peter, handing D'bor his blankets.
"Thank you," said D'bor.
"Hey, Peter, got room for me?" asked Drew. "I've got my sleeping bag too, but I forgot to bring my tent."
"Yeah, no problem," replied Peter. Drew nodded and headed for the tent.
Indra and her people were debating who to put on watch when Harper spoke.
"Mac, Josh, Angela and Kathy, you've got first watch. Check with Indra about who to wake for the next shift." All four nodded and went to the edges of the trees to stand their watch.
Indra looked at them and turned to Octavia.
"Are they always this organised?"
"Yes and no. Yes, Adara made sure that we all stood night watches and no, not everybody organised their teams so well. Harper and Roma were trained by Atom who learned from Adara to think about what was needed. To learn to anticipate probable and possible outcomes. He has taken that lesson to heart and now makes sure that his team members know everything about their jobs and to think things through. When Harper and Roma became leaders of their own team, they passed that same knowledge on to their team members."
"All because Adara does?"
"Yes. We all owe her our lives. Remember, when we came down, it was with the knowledge that Jaha had sold us out to the Mountain men. We knew that if they got hold of us, we would all die. She taught us to respect each other and to make sure that we were never caught. Anything learned was shared among the rest so that everyone had a better chance of surviving." Indra thought about all that Adara had done for her people. She was a remarkable young woman - not that Indra would ever tell her that, nor the fact that she admired Adara. There were some things that needed to be said, and some things that didn't. This was one that didn't. Adara didn't need praise to do the right thing. She just did it and got on with it.
That night, everyone got a good night's sleep. The wildlife decided to leave the huge dark creature in the clearing alone. The sentries reported that they didn't hear anything except the movement of animals moving away from the area.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
The next morning, Adara woke and got up, she went over to D'bor and woke him with a gentle shake to his shoulder.
"Hey, D'bor, time to wake up." D'bor yawned and stretched, but quickly brought his arms back down close to his body and curled up on himself. "Yeah, I was like that when I had cracked ribs, last year."
"How long until it heals?"
"Let me have a look and I'll see if I can help you," she asked. D'bor nodded.
Adara placed her hands on his ribs and 'looked' at them. She looked more closely at the rib that had more cracks in it and noticed one she had missed the night before. Cursing at herself, she healed that crack and made sure that there weren't any more. She then palpated the area to check on how much pain he was in. She was glad to see that he hardly winced in the other areas. She removed her hands and lowered his tunic.
"You should be pain free in about three days, just don't overdo it, D'bor, this is important. You do too much and you'll reinjure them. No flying until they've healed."
"Okay," said D'bor a bit subdued. Cralleth pushed his nose to D'bor's cheek.
"You are better today."
"Yes, I am," he said out loud, for the benefit of the people around him.
Indra came over and informed her that they would be hunting today. Adara nodded. A notion came to her.
"D'bor, when does Cralleth need to eat again?" D'bor looked at Cralleth.
"A couple of days," he said. "Will he be able to hunt around here?"
"He may, but the problem is that we have mutated wild animals roaming around - including a giant pauna."
"What's a pauna?" Adara thought how to explain a creature that had no equivalent and did not exist on Pern. She turned to Cralleth.
"Cralleth, I'm going to show you an image of a pauna. Please pass it onto your rider. Do not be alarmed, we don't think there are many of them, but the one around here is huge." With that, she sent a mental image of the gigantic gorilla Clarke had encountered the last time. Both rider and Dragon reared back.
"That's bigger than a green!" D'bor stated, amazed and a bit scared of the size of the angry creature.
"We have not seen it lately. We have no idea where it is, so don't stray away from us. If we have to, we'll bring a deer or boar for Cralleth to eat."
"We can fly to wherever your hunting grounds end and find food beyond them."
"Thanks, D'bor, but we have no idea what's out here. We are only here to explore the area. We - the Skaikru," Adara said pointing to her people, "live way to the southwest of here. The Trikru live in roughly the same direction but not so far away."
"Are those the regions you live in?" asked D'bor, wondering how things worked on Earth.
"No, those are our clan names. We do tend to stay on our clan lands, though."
"Clan lands? I think I need someone to start from the beginning and explain the terms you already know."
"Well, Clarke would be a good person to teach you all this, unfortunately, she's in Polis, the capital city for all the clans. Monroe could do it, but again, she's in Connor Town."
"No, I'm not," came Monroe's voice. She had come with Atom's team to help with the building. They had come through the sentries and came to a stop at the sight of the dragon. Monroe was looking at the stranger that didn't look like a clansperson from any clan she knew about. He was young, maybe 17 or 18, with very short dark brown hair. He was slim and as tall as Adara who was 5 foot 10 inches tall. He was wearing clothing that seemed like leather, but looked different to anything that was around here.
Adara spun around and looked at her people.
"What are you doing here?"
"We came to help dig out the building. Everything back home is all in hand. Raven and Kane have everything under control. The people are working without complaint and the building and planting are coming along nicely. I wanted to get out and see some of the countryside and Atom was being sent here by Raven to help out. I just came along with them - with Raven's permission, of course." said Monroe.
"Well welcome to White Oak. This is D'bor and his dragon, Cralleth," Adara said, pointing behind her.
"I read a book while we were in the bunker about a world that dragons lived on - Pern."
"Yeah, I read the same one." Adara turned to D'bor. "This is going to sound weird, but your world doesn't exist except in books."
"What do you mean?" asked D'bor, indignantly.
Adara went to her tent and came back with the book.
"Dragonflight - the first chronicles of Pern," said Adara, showing him the book. "It deals with the time before the ninth fall when there was only one golden egg left on Pern. It's about fighting Fax for Ruatha and the other holds he took over. It's about Lessa the drudge - who was secretly the last member of the rightful holders of Ruatha - impressing that golden dragon, Ramoth." D'bor was dumbfounded.
"It's a book?! But… but how did I get here? My world is real!" he said, clearly upset. Cralleth roared, taking exception to the idea that he didn't exist.
"Calm down, both of you, please. There is a theory that for every choice you make, any other choices that could be made, are played out on other alternate worlds. There is a lesser known one that says that for every book, tv show, film or any other entertainment show ever made, it is played out for real in another alternate universe. I think it must be true because you are here," Adara explained.
"And how do we get back home?" he asked, still agitated.
"We don't know - yet. We will have to discuss it and see if we can find out how you came here and what to do about it. That will have to wait until you can move around without pain. It may be that when you injured yourself, the image you had of Southern Weyr left your mind and Cralleth didn't get a good enough picture to go to." D'bor was thoughtful and eventually he nodded.
"We will wait until I'm healed before we try to go home."
"Thank you, dragonrider," Adara said, bowing to him. Cralleth nodded back.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
"Okay," said Adara, turning to the rest of the Skaikru. "We need to find a way to carefully dig out the side of the building. Drew says the soil is loose, so that will be easier to move, but more likely to fall down where we don't want it. Let's get over there and check it out." The others started off, picking up their tools along the way.
"Can we come?" asked D'bor. Adara looked at them.
"You can walk with us. Cralleth, you'll have to fly over the trees and find somewhere to land, just not on top of the mounds you see there," Adara said to them. She pointed in the direction they were going.
"Go on, Cralleth, you can't fit through these trees. I can't fly you yet so just go ahead and I'll meet you there."
"As you wish," said Cralleth, before he launched himself off the ground and flew over the trees.
"Come, D'bor, he's probably there by now." D'bor and Adara walked slowly to the dig site.
When they got there, they saw everyone looking at the soil that had fallen down overnight.
"Well, at least we don't have to dig that part," said Drew, looking upbeat. Adara smiled.
"Now you just have to figure out how to bring the rest down carefully."
"Yeah, there is that," he replied, looking back to the building.
"I can help," Cralleth said. Both Adara and D'bor looked at him.
"How?" asked Adara.
"I can dig," he said, showing his claws. Adara looked at D'bor. Cralleth was, after all, his dragon.
"Can you do it safely, Cralleth?" D'bor asked.
"Show me where to dig and I'll help you." D'bor nodded at Adara.
"Dragons have been known to help dig out the buildings when Landing was found," D'bor said.
"Okay." Adara turned around. "Drew, show Cralleth where to dig. He wants to help."
Drew looked surprised but showed the dragon where he needed to dig and told him about the soil and what they hoped to find.
"Monroe, D'bor wants to know about us and this world. Come here and tell him about it, please." Monroe nodded and trotted over. She sat down beside him and started to talk. She only faltered when she saw Cralleth digging out the building much faster than they could.
Adara walked over to Atom and they stood watching the speed of Cralleth as he dug huge swathes of soil and dirt away from the building.
"At this rate, we'll be searching it by nightfall," said Adara, smiling. Atom smirked at her. "By the way, Where's Bellamy? I thought he was on your team?"
"He is, but he twisted his ankle and Abby wouldn't let him come with us. We'll pick him up again when we go back." Adara nodded.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
That afternoon, Cralleth had dug down enough to find one of the entrances. Unfortunately, it was blocked up with rubble, most likely from when the bombs fell. Murphy, Drew and Atom examined the pile carefully. Murphy looked up and saw a hole where the rubble had probably come from.
"We need to be careful about that hole, Adara," he said, pointing to it.
"I know. Is there a safe way in?" Murphy and Drew searched each side of the rubble, but shook their heads when they couldn't find any holes and the rubble would start to shift when they tried to move some pieces.
"Doesn't look like it," said Drew. Adara stood back and surveyed the wall. The entrance wasn't half way down the wall, but more like a third.
"Check the other side of the wall about the same distance from the end. People usually do things symetrically if they can." Drew nodded and headed off.
"I can just make out the top of the framework for the entrance - exit - or whatever," said Drew. "Cralleth, do you think you can genty remove this soil for us, please."
Cralleth went over and looked at Drew. Drew pointed to the place he wanted cleared. Cralleth dug it out with guidance from Drew until they had uncovered the entire entrance and some soil from either side of it so that it wouldn't fall down and block the doorway.
"This one's clear!" Drew yelled out.
"Murphy, Atom take three people each and go explore this level only. If you find any blockages, do NOT try to get past them. Just explore what you can see. Murphy, go right, Atom go left. I'll take a team down the middle. Everyone got that?" Everyone nodded. Adara turned to Monroe. "Stay here and keep D'bor company and continue answering his questions." Monroe nodded.
Atom and Murphy, having picked their teams, had entered the building and turned on their hand lights. Adara went over to Harper and Roma.
"I need one of you to stay out here and take charge while we're exploring, the other comes with me." Adara looked at the pair, who were looking at each other, having a silent conversation.
"I'll stay," said Harper. "But I want to be in on some of the exploration at some point."
"Fair enough," said Adara nodding. "Peter, Mac, you're with me." Both young men scrambled to her. Both had gotten their own hand lights and were eager to explore the inside.
Once inside, they all stopped and were looking around in amazement. 'This place is huge!' thought Adara. As far as they could see upwards, there were three floors, but the main corridor went all the way to the top. Cralleth could have fit in here no problem - if the door was big enough. To the left and right were stores with stairs leading up and down at various intervals. Every now and then, there were cross corridors that led who knows where but if they could access the entire bottom floor, they would be exploring that for days before they got to the second and third levels. Adara looked more closely at those levels and noticed that the ground floor stores were bigger than the second floor stores, which were again bigger than the third floor ones. Each tier was smaller than the one below it.
Every hundred feet or so, crosswalks for the levels above could be seen, but the layout of the floors seemed to be a grid system. Adara wondered why the units were on staggered levels because as far as she could see, the second and third floors also ran from end to end. Must have been the architect's idea, she mused.
Murphy and Atom had gone down the first cross corridors they had come to, so Adara led her team down the corridor. They stopped at the first store on the left and looked in. They saw furniture, most of which had been damaged by time. None of the furniture at the front of the store was vacuum-packed. They surmised that anything not packed like that, would most likely be unusable. Mac made his way to the back of the store and pushed through the door there. He saw furniture packed in plastic.
"Here, I've found some plastic wrapped furniture!" he yelled. They rushed over to have a look. Mac had moved back towards a chair. He touched the plastic to see if the chair would crumble or was about to fall apart. It seemed sturdy, He pushed down on the seat of the chair and again, it seemed fine and well cushioned. He turned to the others and slowly sat down on the plastic wrapped chair. It held up and he sank into it.
"Ahh, now THIS is comfy," he said, putting his head back and closing his eyes.
"Alright, Mac, we get it. This chair is yours!" Adara chuckled.
"Yes!" said Mac, getting up.
"Let's move on. We can come back later to sort through whatever is salvageable," Adara said, moving towards the front of the store.
Back in the corridor, Adara tasked Mac and Roma to check the left side of the corridor while Adara and Peter checked the right. She said to only check the front of each store and to note what kinds of items were in each. She took out a small writing pad and a pen she had taken from the bunker when they had moved to Connor Town. Roma did the same and wrote down "Furniture Store" on her pad. After that the two teams moved down the corridor, writing down what each store was and what it contained.
"Hey, Adara, look at this!" Peter exclaimed, from the store ahead of the one Adara was looking at. She turned her head towards him.
"What have you found?"
"A bookstore! Maybe we can get books from here and tell them we found it. That way we can use the books openly instead of lying about where we got them," said Peter. He was unhappy about having to lie to the Arkers, but he understood why. He knew that the Arkers would insist that they live in the bunker and would expect their lives to remain almost the same as on the Ark - something all Skaikru were determined would not happen. The Arkers had to learn how to live ON the ground and not under it. It was the same reason they didn't allow anyone to move into Mount Weather.
"Yes, Peter, we can finally tell the truth about where THESE books come from. I still say that we never tell them about the bunker nor the things that are in there."
"I know, I just don't like lies, Adara. No good can come of lying to people."
"I try not to, but in this case, we need to keep the bunker a secret - even from Kane." Peter nodded. He pulled several books off the shelf and they crumbled to dust.
"Damn! Are there any books we can save?"
"Maybe in the back." They moved towards the back room and opened that door. There were several shelves all filled with plastic wrapped books. They grinned at each other. Peter looked at the titles and chose a cookbook.
"You thinking about becoming a cook, Peter?"
"No, but I'm dating one of the women who is a cook. I thought I'd give her a gift." Peter blushed with his admission. Adara laughed.
"Go get her, tiger!" They both laughed. "Come on, let's see what other delights we can find."
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Murphy and his team had found a kitchen store that sold all kinds of items from measuring spoons to mixers and toasters, pots and pans to timers. The next shop sold beds and bedding, and the third shop sold outdoor clothing and hiking and camping goods.
Atom's team was looking through a pharmacy. They had already gone past a woman's clothing store, a baby store, a hairdressers and a food store. They had found an eclectic mix of stores and wondered why everything was jumbled up. Surely it would have been better to put all the stores that were alike near each other? What if there were only two pharmacies in the building? Then you would have to travel all the way to the other one to get whatever it was you needed. Maybe that was the point, mused Atom. Going past lots of other stores, you may see something you like and go in and buy something. Atom shrugged to himself. Who knew the reason why they did things?
After an hour, all three teams went back outside to discuss what they had found.
"We found an outdoor clothing store which will come in handy for us. There's also things like tents and camping supplies that we can use when we're exploring or outside of Connor Town for any reason." He gave a wry smile. "You know, I still smile when I say the name of our town," he said. There were nods all around as each person remembered their fellow Skaikru. Anyway, we also found a kitchen store and a bedding store. Some of the frames are metal and some wooden. We'll have to go through each before we can use them. We found sheets, blankets, and something called a du-vet cover in there, all wrapped in plastic, plus the du-vets themselves." Adara nodded and turned to Atom.
"It's pronounced do-vay, dumbass, not do-vet. Anyway, we found a pharmacy, but I don't know if any of the medicines there are any good. A woman's clothes store, a baby store and a hairdressers. We can use things from the last three. I know that Rebecca Lee is interested in learning how to cut hair." Again, Adara nodded.
"Well, we found a furniture store and Mac has already claimed one of the plastic wrapped chairs. We found a bookstore, furniture store, children's clothing store, a food store and an accessory store - whatever that is."
"We found a tool store with some bathroom stuff in there too. A household goods store, which seems to be anything to put in a home - well small stuff anyway and a Chiropractor place. Not sure what that is because there was no stuff in there except a few rooms with weird looking tables and some chairs."
"Maybe one of the Arkers knows, maybe Kane or Abby. In the meantime, I want Murphy, Drew and Atom to go back in and check if the stairs are safe to use. Don't go up them, but just check them out. I don't want any accidents to happen. We're miles from any medical help."
The young men chose two others each to help them and went back into the complex. Adara walked over to D'bor and Monroe.
"How are you two doing?" Adara asked, sitting down in front of them.
"You really organised a mass escape from your delusional leader?" D'bor asked, still incredulous about what Monroe had told him.
"Yes, but I don't think of it like that. I just did what I had to do. We had to figure out a way to stop them, but we knew we couldn't while on the Ark. Jaha and his cronies were in a position to float us if they suspected we knew. So we organised and decided to make sure that we were arrested and sent to the ground, that way we could make sure we moved away from the danger of the mountain," Adara said.
"But you organised it all," D'bor said, narrowing his eyes as he looked at her.
"It wasn't just me," Adara demurred. "I had help - in fact I wasn't supposed to be in charge at all. Clarke was supposed to be, but she decided to become the Ambassador to the Clans instead."
"According to Monroe, you were the one to organise everything, get the right people into the - skybox, is that the right term?" When Adara nodded, he continued. "You were the one who led the prisoners on the ground. You were the one who got an agreement with Anya and then the Commander for peace. You were the one to make sure that those monsters in the mountain never got you. You were the one who organised for the mountain's downfall AND you did that without having to kill the innocent civilians!"
"Monroe may have overstated my part," Adara said.
"Not even a little bit," said Monroe, vehemently shaking her head. "If it wasn't for you, we'd all be dead and Jaha would have killed hundreds more of our people before he came down. He would have helped the mountain men kill the Trikru and any other clan they could - all for land that didn't belong to them!"
"Yes, Well," said Adara, embarrassed about it all.
"Well I for one am glad that you did. Can you imagine what would have happened to me and my dragon?" D'bor shuddered. "I'm certainly going to tell my weyrleaders when we get back home." Adara smiled wryly.
"Do you know how you ended up here?" asked Adara. D'bor paused for a few seconds.
"I was unconscious when I hit my ribs on Cralleth's ridges. I remember having the image of Southern Weyr in my mind, but I don't know if Cralleth took it from me."
"I couldn't see it clearly," said Cralleth.
"Do you remember what you were thinking at the time, Cralleth?" Adara asked, as she turned to face him.
"I wanted to get my injured rider to help. I went between just before D'bor hurt himself, then I lost the image. I arrived in a garden? But it was all grey and white. I heard your voice and I followed it."
"How did you hear me? There's no sound 'between'." Adara asked, shocked and puzzled. D'bor was in a similar state.
"I do not know. I heard you talking, and I followed your voice," Cralleth repeated.
"So you could hear while in this garden, but not 'between'. Interesting."
"You were talking about digging the building and showing people what you had done."
"That was just before you arrived." D'bor was thinking about something.
"Cralleth, you said you went to a garden that was grey and white. Do you know where that was?"
"No, I went 'between' and then I was there."
"Can you show me and Adara where you went?" They were silent as they looked at the grey garden. It was more like a very large clearing with grass and around the outside of the clearing were flowers with a few trees beyond them. Other than that, there was nothing. No people, no animals, no insects, nothing.
"I don't recognise it," said Adara.
"Me neither," said D'bor.
"Cralleth, how long were you 'between' before you got to the garden?"
"I breathed twice." D'bor translated for Adara and Monroe.
"About four or five of our breaths."
"And you came directly here when you heard me? No gaps?"
"No. Less than a breath to get to here."
"Is that important?" asked Monroe.
"It could be. I don't know when their ancestors moved there from Earth, but I do know that it was at least a thousand years in our future and it was 2,500 years in their past," Adara said, pointing to D'bor and Cralleth.
"So at least 3,500 years in the future!"
"Yes. Lessa went back 400 turns - years - and she blacked out when she got there because of oxygen deprivation. Coming here over 3000 years, shouldn't happen. D'bor would have died of suffocation and Cralleth would have then suicided."
"Oh," said Monroe, subdued by the news.
"D'bor, any ideas?"
"No. I never heard of anyone going that far back or forward."
"Maybe this garden is a shortcut through time." said Adara. "If so, then you should try to get back there and then go between to Benden. It's the only thing I can think of that would get you back."
"How about a breathing mask?" asked Monroe. One of the stores may be a medical or a swimming store. We're near the ocean and I remember reading about people swimming underwater using a special breathing apparatus called SCUBA. You could wear one of those - if we find one - and you wouldn't be oxygen starved then."
"How long can a dragon hold its breath?" Adara enquired of D'bor.
"About 15 minutes maximum."
"Probably not long enough," said Adara, thinking through the problem.
"No, it wouldn't. I think the only way to get home is to use the garden," admitted D'bor.
"Yes, I think so too." said Adara. "But that's for another day. You've still got some healing to do before you try it."
"I look forward to learning more about your way of life."
"Maybe we should invite Clarke and the Commander here - just to check out the digging and what we've found. No need to tell them about a dragon at this point. Clarke would probably think we're drunk!"
"Good idea. Who do we send?"
"Octavia and Indra? They already know about it."
"I'll ask them. I'll send Atom and Harper, if Indra and Octavia aren't going."
"Great. I think I'll take a little nap until you decide what to do next," said Monroe, yawning. She settled down to get some sleep.