1 Part 3 – Rural England during the reign of Elizabeth I

Max and Liz got shakily to their feet.

"Max…" Liz wrapped her arms tightly around Max's waist from behind, and stood on tiptoe to peer over his shoulder at the scene before them. Where there had been a paved road, there was now a dirt trail that looked as though it might be used by someone herding sheep. Where there had been a gift shop, there was now and empty field. They turned in a slow half- circle, taking in the view, until they were facing Stonehenge again.

Max was relieved to find that there was something that appeared to not have changed. He unwrapped Liz's arms from his waist and took her hand in his. Wary now of the stones, they practically tiptoed around them until they came to a gap where a stone had fallen and no archway remained.

There was nobody in the circle, and they couldn't see anyone nearby. They wandered the circle aimlessly, half expecting someone to jump out and explain what had happened. Of course no one did, and finally they sat down in the center to try to puzzle out what to do.

Liz lay out on the grass with her head on Max's legs. She stared up at his face. He was thinking so hard she could practically see him doing it. She turned her face to the sky. There were lots of clouds, but there were patches of blue peeking through. Liz stifled a laugh. Even the weather had changed; before they'd experienced whatever it was they'd experienced, it had been threatening to rain. The clouds above them now may have been obscuring the sun, but rain was not imminent.

She began to go over the experience again in her mind. She and Max had been walking through the stones. She'd been idly trailing her fingers over the rocks and had felt writing carved into one of them. She'd stopped then, and stooped down to read the inscription, expecting a modern inscription like so-and-so was here. The writing had been in Antarian letters. They'd asked the employee about the age of the writing…

"Max!" Liz exclaimed as she quickly got to her feet. "The writing on the stone…the person we asked about it didn't know how old it was…"

Max was on his feet and over to the stone faster than Liz could blink.

"Liz…it's gone." Liz hurried to Max's side.

"Are you sure? Are you sure it wasn't one of the other stones?"

"I'm sure, Liz." Liz began to pace agitatedly. She took deep even breaths. She could be calm under pressure in the present…she could be calm under pressure in the past as well. She stopped pacing.

"We have to think. I'd say it's a fair guess we've gone back in time. Judging from our clothes…I'd say…what do you think? Elizabethan?"

Max shrugged.

"Looks about right to me."

Liz nodded.

"Okay, so let's assume then that we are in Elizabethan England. So how did we get here?" She began to calmly pace, simply as if it was conducive to thinking. "We saw the carving, we read it, then we walked through the archway made by the stones." She fell silent. "Were you touching the stone when you walked by?"

Max thought for a moment.

"Nope. So that couldn't be it."

"So why didn't it work when we walked back through?"

Max did not reply, and they both began to pace slow, thoughtful circles inside the stone ring. Max found himself in front of the stone that had been carved. He gazed at it for a few seconds, and an idea began to form in his mind.

"Hey Liz…maybe it has to do with the carving."

Liz came over and stood by his side.

"You think maybe the reason we can't get back through is because the carving isn't there?"

"Yeah."

"You could be right." Liz turned in a slow circle, taking in the virtually empty English countryside. "So now what?"

Max sighed and pulled Liz into his arms.

"I don't know." Liz tucked her head into the curve of his neck and he kissed the top of her head.

Suddenly they heard the sound of hoofbeats. They immediately tensed, poised to flee if they needed to. As they nervously watched, two people on horseback made the top of the hill, cantering along the sheep trail. Max and Liz hurried behind a huge stone as the riders approached the circle.

The riders left their horses outside the circle, dismounting and walking in hand in hand. Max and Liz, from their vantage point, realized one of the riders was a woman and one was a man. Their minds raced as the two riders embraced and began kissing.

"Max," Liz whispered. "Do you think that's them?"

"Maxwell and Elizabeth?" Max whispered back. "Yeah…I do."

"Maybe we should talk to them…you know…see how the heck they know Antarian letters, among other things."

"I see your point…but we can't just pop up from behind the rock!"

"Okay…" Liz glanced out the other side of the circle. "We'll walk in from the other side of the circle. Walking in…they wouldn't be able to hear us approach except by our talking."

"Okay…let's try it."

They crawled out of the circle and beyond it, to the edge of the hill. Then they turned around and began walking back towards the circle. They spoke in normal tones, hoping Maxwell and Elizabeth wouldn't leave when they heard them.

They were relieved to see that they hadn't. Liz decided to break the ice.

"Oh! Good day. We didn't think anyone would be here."

Elizabeth, like Liz, also decided to be the first to speak.

"Many come to the stones. They are a place of great power."

"Great power…" Liz echoed. "Yes, they are that."

"What are your names?" Max asked, valiantly keeping the apprehension out of his voice. Liz heard it anyway and unobtrusively slipped her hand into his.

Elizabeth eyed them cautiously and turned to Maxwell. She put her hand on his shoulder and stood on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. He looked at her sharply, then nodded in response to whatever she had asked.

"Can we trust you?" she asked.

"Of course."

"I thought so. Our names are Maxwell and Elizabeth." Elizabeth took Maxwell's hand, then gestured for Max and Liz to sit on the ground. "Let us sit down. It is a long story."

Max and Liz sat enthralled as Elizabeth told them how she and Maxwell had fallen in love despite the fact that he was of noble birth and betrothed to another and she was a commoner. They had been meeting in secret for months when Elizabeth witnessed the landing of strange craft. The beings on the craft looked human, and when Elizabeth approached them, they did her no harm, only talked to her until she realized that she had to get back to her house. She had felt a strange trust in these people, and had told them her story.

She thought she'd seen the last of them, but one day a week or so later, one of the beings showed up at one of her and Maxwell's secret meeting places just as they were getting ready to leave. The being had offered them a way to be together, but they would have to leave the Earth with the beings when they left. The being, who said his name was Larek, explained that on a planet which neighbored his, the people were growing restless and needed a king and queen. None on the planet were smart enough or strong enough to rule for very long. In Maxwell and Elizabeth, Larek saw the promise of greatness. He gave them two weeks to consider and told them that if they wanted to come, they were to meet him at Stonehenge at the end of the two weeks.

"So we thought about it," Maxwell put in, "and here we are. We don't know where we are going, except that it is out in space somewhere and that it is called Antar. All we know is that there we can do as we've always wanted and create our own destiny."

Max and Liz were shocked at what they heard. These were Max's ancestors! The very people who had started the royal line of Antar were from Earth, and they were star-crossed lovers named Maxwell and Elizabeth. Liz squeezed Max's hand, a gesture that both offered strength and asked for strength. Max squeezed back.

"That's very romantic," Liz commented. "Max and I…we have had the same sort of problems in being together. But we are now and that's all that matters. I hope you and Maxwell are as lucky as Max and I were."

"We hope so, too," answered Elizabeth. She rose from the ground and pulled Maxwell to his feet. Maxwell strode over to their hobbled horses and drew a hammer and chisel out of a saddlebag.

"We just have one more thing to do before Larek shows up." So saying, Maxwell knelt in front of one of the huge stones and began carving.

"Max!" Liz whispered. "The carving. He's carving now."

"But the carving was in Antarian letters!" Max whispered back.

Liz walked over and knelt beside Maxwell.

"What are you writing?"

"A message. Larek said to carve a message into the rock. He said it would become important later. That it would help others who would come after us discover their true destiny…or at least how to defy the stars as we have done."

Maxwell finished his carving and got up. Liz barely stifled a gasp when she saw that he had carved the words in the Antarian letters. She traced her fingers over them briefly, then got up and turned to Maxwell and Elizabeth, who gazing at the sky expectantly.

"What language is that?"

Elizabeth turned her head to Liz. Maxwell continued to stare at the sky.

"The words are English. It is simply different letters. We made up that code for our letters to each other so that no one could read them."

"Oh," Liz said faintly.

Just then, a great ship appeared suddenly out of the sky and landed in the wheat field near the stones. The door opened and a tall man in a gray-blue jumpsuit strode out. He met Maxwell and Elizabeth halfway between the stones and the ship. Max and Liz stayed glued to the spots they were standing in when the ship landed, Max having come to stand beside Liz with his arm protectively around her.

Larek, Maxwell, and Elizabeth appeared to be conversing for a few moments, then Larek gestured towards the ship then towards the stones. Maxwell nodded, and taking Elizabeth's hand, continued walking on towards the ship. Larek began to walk towards the stones.

He glanced towards Max and Liz as he passed. He knelt by Maxwell's carving, put his hand over it and mumbled a few words. The letters glowed briefly under his hands then returned to normal. Larek walked over to Max and Liz and stared intensely into Max's eyes.

"You can return to your proper time now, Your Highness."

Max's eyes widened. "What…"

"It's all right. This was fated. You had to see where you came from. Who you came from." Larek's gaze shifted to Liz. "Who you're meant to be with."

"I don't understand…" Max began, only to be cut off by Larek.

"You aren't meant to…you only have to know that Antar was saved once by defiance of someone else's idea of destiny. The rest is up to you."

"You aren't the Larek I knew, are you?" Max asked.

"No. But I am his ancestor as surely as Maxwell and Elizabeth are yours. I have seen the future…it can be great if you believe in the power of love over destiny."

With those words, Larek turned and walked back to the ship. The huge door closed behind him, and moments later the ship sped off into the atmosphere in a burst of white light.

"My God…" Liz said softly. Max pulled her into his arms and held her tightly.

"Do you know what this means for us?" he questioned.

"I'm afraid to believe it…I want it so badly."

Max kissed the top of her head tenderly.

"I think we can believe it, baby. I think we can believe it."

Liz leaned into Max's embraced contentedly, then pulled back sharply when she thought of telling Maria all she'd seen and heard.

"Max! We have to get back to our time! God only knows how long we've been gone in out time. And anyway we have to tell the others!"

"You're right," Max said. He looked out over the countryside wistfully. "I almost feel safer here, though. None of my enemies would ever find us here. What?" he asked, when he noticed that Liz was staring incredulously at the wheat field.

"They might be able to find you by looking at that." Max focused his gaze towards where Liz was pointing.

"That's…that's a crop circle!"

"Left by Larek's ship."

"So it is true that some of them are from alien visitations!"

Liz laughed softly at the proud amazement in Max's voice.

"Yes, Max, but I think we should go now. The stones probably work now, I bet that's what Larek did to them."

"I know, Liz. Let's go."

Max and Liz made their way over to the archway. Taking a deep breath, Max pulled Liz close to his side and stepped through the arch. As before, a cold wind and the strange sound of the stone music buffeted them. This time, however, they managed to stay on their feet and come out on the other side still standing.