Key Out of Time · Chapter 3 (2/2)

Those pylons, were they the key to the change which had come upon this world? What were they? Who had set them there? For the last Ross thought he had an answer. They were certainly the product of the galactic empire. And the castle⁠ ⁠… the ships⁠ ⁠… natives⁠ ⁠… settlers? Two widely different eras, and the mystery still, lay between them. Would they ever be able to bring the key to it out of time?

They swam for the shore where Ui had a fire blazing and their supper prepared.

“How many years lying between those probes?” Ross pulled broiled fish apart with his fingers.

“That first was ten thousand years ago, the second,” Ashe paused, “only two hundred years later.”

“But”⁠—Ross stared at his superior⁠—“that means⁠—”

“That there was a war or some drastic form of invasion, yes.”

“You mean that the star people arrived and just took over this whole planet?” Karara asked. “But why? And those pylons, what were they for? How much later was that last picture?”

“Five hundred years.”

“The pylons were gone, too, then,” Ross commented. “But why⁠—?” he echoed Karara’s question.

Ashe had taken up his notebook, but he did not open it. “I think”⁠—there was a sharp, grim note in his voice⁠—“we had better find out.”

“Put up a gate?”

Ashe broke all the previous rules of their service with his answer:

“Yes, a gate.”