third excursion into Gatespace, and that your family said you were gone two weeks the second trip?” Steven nodded. “If a naturally occurring Gate lasts more than an hour or two, it generally will remain for months or even years.”
Steven breathed a sigh of relief. “Clearly, this isn’t Earth… do you have any idea where we are?”
“A very good question,” Randolph said. “It’s difficult to say, because the constellations we knew on Earth don’t exist here, so clearly we are a great distance from our home world. Whether that means the other side of our galaxy or another galaxy altogether, I do not know.”
Steven shook his head in wonder. “It’s just so hard to imagine. A couple of weeks ago, I was just a struggling writer trying to work on a novel, and then…” He suddenly remembered the Mini-Guardian. “Does the name North Central Positronics mean anything to you? Or Granite City? Northeast Corridor?” He pulled the Guardian’s tag out of his pocket and showed it to Randolph.
Randolph shook his head. “I can’t say that I have ever heard any of those names.”
“I’ve heard of Granite City,” said Steven. “But it’s a city in Illinois; I don’t know what ‘Northeast Corridor’ refers to.”
“Where did this object come from?” said Randolph.
“The day I found the Gate,” Steven explained, “My house was attacked by something… well, it was like a mechanical bird, a robot… do you know what I mean by robot?”
“Yes,” said Randolph. “You might be surprised at the things I have learned during my time in Centra.”
Steven smiled apologetically. “At any rate, it had torn up the landscape for nearly a mile before it found my house, and after I defeated it, I followed that trail to see where it came from, and at the point where it began…”
“There was a Gate?” asked Randolph. Steven simply nodded in reply. “That’s quite unusual,” said Randolph, “but not unheard of. All sorts of things blunder into Gates. It’s entirely possible that it entered a Gate in the Granite City of the distant future.”
“Maybe it’s stumbling into a Gate right now, back on Earth… wherever that is,” said Steven sadly, reminded of the fact that he was technically now over 800 years old. I feel pretty good for my age, he thought to himself.
“That may well be,” said Randolph with a smile. “Now eat your meal, my boy. You must be hungry. And then we shall talk more. ‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘To talk of many things.’”
Steven grinned widely. “‘Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings, and why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings.’ The Walrus and the Carpenter ,” he said. “That’s one of my favorite poems. Lewis Carroll.”
“Quite right,” replied Randolph. “That was published the very year that I entered the Gate — 1872.”
“You were thirty years old?”
“That’s correct. And I have been here in Centra for nearly 40 years. So as near as I am able to calculate, I floated in the Gatespace for over eight centuries before I encountered the Gate that you came through a mere hour ago.”
Chapter 15
Steven walked slowly down the dusty main road of Centra with Randolph by his side. As they walked, the old man pointed out various people that they encountered and explained the details of their particular experiences to him.
“That is Mrs. Coulter, who was hanging laundry on her clothesline one day in 1957 when a spontaneous Gate appeared and she fell in. That lovely family which you see taking an evening stroll are the Robinsons, who arrived here when their motor vehicle went through a Gate as they traveled down the highway on holiday, and the unusual looking gentleman with the golden eyes and deep blue skin is Vraath; he arrived here from a world his people call Vek’rath, which, as near as I can understand it, circles a star in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud. As I said, most of those who choose
Steven breathed a sigh of relief. “Clearly, this isn’t Earth… do you have any idea where we are?”
“A very good question,” Randolph said. “It’s difficult to say, because the constellations we knew on Earth don’t exist here, so clearly we are a great distance from our home world. Whether that means the other side of our galaxy or another galaxy altogether, I do not know.”
Steven shook his head in wonder. “It’s just so hard to imagine. A couple of weeks ago, I was just a struggling writer trying to work on a novel, and then…” He suddenly remembered the Mini-Guardian. “Does the name North Central Positronics mean anything to you? Or Granite City? Northeast Corridor?” He pulled the Guardian’s tag out of his pocket and showed it to Randolph.
Randolph shook his head. “I can’t say that I have ever heard any of those names.”
“I’ve heard of Granite City,” said Steven. “But it’s a city in Illinois; I don’t know what ‘Northeast Corridor’ refers to.”
“Where did this object come from?” said Randolph.
“The day I found the Gate,” Steven explained, “My house was attacked by something… well, it was like a mechanical bird, a robot… do you know what I mean by robot?”
“Yes,” said Randolph. “You might be surprised at the things I have learned during my time in Centra.”
Steven smiled apologetically. “At any rate, it had torn up the landscape for nearly a mile before it found my house, and after I defeated it, I followed that trail to see where it came from, and at the point where it began…”
“There was a Gate?” asked Randolph. Steven simply nodded in reply. “That’s quite unusual,” said Randolph, “but not unheard of. All sorts of things blunder into Gates. It’s entirely possible that it entered a Gate in the Granite City of the distant future.”
“Maybe it’s stumbling into a Gate right now, back on Earth… wherever that is,” said Steven sadly, reminded of the fact that he was technically now over 800 years old. I feel pretty good for my age, he thought to himself.
“That may well be,” said Randolph with a smile. “Now eat your meal, my boy. You must be hungry. And then we shall talk more. ‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘To talk of many things.’”
Steven grinned widely. “‘Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings, and why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings.’ The Walrus and the Carpenter ,” he said. “That’s one of my favorite poems. Lewis Carroll.”
“Quite right,” replied Randolph. “That was published the very year that I entered the Gate — 1872.”
“You were thirty years old?”
“That’s correct. And I have been here in Centra for nearly 40 years. So as near as I am able to calculate, I floated in the Gatespace for over eight centuries before I encountered the Gate that you came through a mere hour ago.”
Chapter 15
Steven walked slowly down the dusty main road of Centra with Randolph by his side. As they walked, the old man pointed out various people that they encountered and explained the details of their particular experiences to him.
“That is Mrs. Coulter, who was hanging laundry on her clothesline one day in 1957 when a spontaneous Gate appeared and she fell in. That lovely family which you see taking an evening stroll are the Robinsons, who arrived here when their motor vehicle went through a Gate as they traveled down the highway on holiday, and the unusual looking gentleman with the golden eyes and deep blue skin is Vraath; he arrived here from a world his people call Vek’rath, which, as near as I can understand it, circles a star in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud. As I said, most of those who choose
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