The red sun was just about to dip below the horizon when one of the workers called out. Laszlow scurried up a small dune of sand to the dig site and peered down to where a dozen workers were busy moving sand with various pieces of loud machinery. In the middle behind hastily built retaining walls was an ornately carved stone floor. The gate. It was exactly where the tablet key said it would be. This was the thirteenth of twenty eight star gates that the ancient Idorians had built. The other fifteen were still lost to history.
Laszlow looked toward the sliver of sun at the horizon. It was time to make a decision. He waved to his partner, Bentley. She looked up and started up the sand dune, clipboard in hand.
“Do we go through tonight?” Laszlow asked, gesturing toward the bottom of the pit.
“Yes,” Bentley answered, without taking her eyes off the pit below. “Better we miss dinner than risk another night out here. We don’t know how much time we have before the Glecks catch up to us.”
“Concur,” Laszlow agreed. “Have the workers prepare. I’m going to open the gate.”
The work lights came on as the final light of the sun faded. Bentley whistled and the workers began running about and packing away the digging equipment. Laszlow marched down to the pit, tablet key in hand.
The lead worker, Bethan, was sucking the last of the sand away from the carved stone floor with the sand vacuum as Laszlow approached. “Are we going through tonight?” she asked.
Laszlow nodded. “Is the gate ready?”
“No more sand,” Bethan said as she pointed at an impression in the stone that was exactly the shape of the tablet key.
As Laszlow bent over with the tablet key, Bethan turned on her signaling strobe to alert the workers. She and the workers began cautiously stepping away from the site. Laszlow placed the tablet into the impression, then stepped back several paces. All was silent for about three long seconds. Then, the ground began to vibrate. Bentley ran down to Laszlow’s side. Everyone braced themselves.
The stone floor slowly rose and sand fell from its sides. It kept rising even after it towered twenty feet above the ground. Laszlow knew it would rise to over forty six feet tall just like the other gates, but the gate seemed bigger than he had imagined. As the gate was roughly the shape of a pyramid, its width also increased to nearly fifty feet wide. Once it reached its full height, the vibrating stopped and the front of the gate silently shimmered as if it were the surface of a silver lake.
A soft white light shone out of the gate, casting a glow on everything around it. Laszlow’s voice wavered slightly when he finally said, “The gate is ready. We’re going through now.”
“Before you go, you should know that the Glecks and their goons are closer than we thought,” Bethan shouted from above. “They’re only a couple miles away. Hurry!”
As the workers assembled with their equipment in tow, Laszlow and Bentley looked at each other, took a deep breath, and walked through the star gate to a new planet.
***
Laszlow and Bentley walked out of the shimmering gate into a forest of purple vegetation. The trees were tall and with purple-hued leaves, but the ground was covered in white snow. Laszlow pulled his white robes closer to his body to keep warm. “Where are we?” he asked Bentley.
Bentley set up a tripod and placed her tracker onto it. “Give me four minutes and we’ll find out.”
As they waited for the tracker to determine their location in the galaxy, the workers began streaming through the gate. Bethan came through the gate looking nervous. “We’d better find a hidden spot away from the gate. Those Glecks are getting awfully close, and I’m not too sure if these are bold enough to come through.”
“Trackon system,” Bentley finally said, peering into her tracker.
“Trackon?” Laszlow shouted, flabbergasted. A look of terror and shock betrayed his emotions. “Do we have enough guns for everyone?”
“We have ten guns,” Bentley replied. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“Trackon doesn’t have intelligent life. The scariest creatures in the galaxy live here!” Laszlow was frantic. “Can we go back through the gate?”
The dire situation began to sink in for Bentley. She thought for a second, then slowly said, “If we go back, the Glecks will kill us all.”
“Well if we stay, the creatures will kill us all!” Laszlow replied.
Bentley looked around and took a deep breath. “I have an idea. Let’s autoroll our equipment so it goes deep into the woods without us. I’ll lead some people back through the gate and make sure the Glecks see us come through the gate. Then we’ll hide behind the gate with our guns. Hopefully the Glecks will come through the gate and think we headed into the forest and follow. Then the creatures will take care of them and we can escape back through the gate.”
Laszlow looked calmer now, but still high strung with fear. “That will work as long we’re not attacked by creatures while we hide.”
“It’s either that, or die,” Bentley observed.
Laszlow sighed, staring off into the ominous purple forest. He looked at Bentley and forced a smile. “Concur,” he said.