Heaven's Gate (38 page)

Now though the old station was humming with new life, there was no way to tell if it was the rescue party that he had given up dreaming about, reactivating the systems or if someone down on the planet had reactivated the Gate. Briefly memories of his brother flash in his mind but realizes that he would have to be long gone. Zak has no real awareness of time left but he comes unstuck from the deck, just about the same time a white haired man in a long torn coat and a cowboy hat strides into the bubble and looks out at the interminable star field with a mixture of awe and wonder on his face.

Its not heaven
! Julia’s voice insists inside his mind and Blake knows it to be true but at the same time all the souls, trapped in his single body, thrill to see the wide expanse of stars glittering beyond the glass.

“I am closer to the stars.” Blake argues.

And we have no idea of how to go any further!
 
Julia laughs at him.

“How were you planning to use this place then?”

Fool! I would have had forever to study with the Gate still open.

“Then we all die here,” Blake answers stubbornly, “who knows we may reach Heaven yet.”

 
At that moment two hands, impossibly thin, impossibly strong, grasp his ankle and with the strength born of eons of need, drag him down to the cool metal floor.