She hoped she’d at least have the option.

The reality of their situation crashed in on her. They’d entered a rocky opening in the side of a hill in western Massachusetts and ended up on an alien world. Shock and awe and the rush to make sense of what they were experiencing had held deep terror at bay. But now, sitting in a familiar vehicle and looking out at a totally unfamiliar vista that had them imprisoned for who knew how long…terror came knocking. They were the proverbial strangers in a strange land. They didn’t know the rules here.

She turned on the headlights. The beams lit up the semi-trailers arrayed before them. Nothing moved out there. Was this planet inhabited? And if so, by what?

The possibilities only increased her terror.

“How does this happen, Donny? We entered a passage into the side of a cliff on Norum Hill and came out here. That’s not possible. And yet…here we are.”

“It’s not possible by our rules, but maybe those rules have been superseded by others.”

“That’s not an explanation. And why should new rules start to apply?”

“Remember I told you I tapped into the Septimus Foundation’s servers and culled through their emails? They’re obviously expecting something apocalyptic to happen when the frequencies align. They have this mantra they repeat to each other over and over and—”

“It wouldn’t be a mantra unless they kept repeating it.” She waggled a finger at him. “I was raised in a Hindu household. I know these things.”

“Pardon my pleonasm. Their mantra goes something like: It will begin in the heavens and end in the Earth, but before that, the rules will be broken.”

“What’s that—a prophecy? We’re dealing with a prophecy? When did I fall into a Tolkien movie?”

“This is real, Hari. And when you think about it, the rule that says you can’t drive an SUV between planets has been broken.”

“But-but-but…it’s more than a rule. It breaks all the laws of physics…”

“A law is another name for a rule. By the way, it’s getting awfully hot in here.”

Was it? She was too chilled to notice. She turned off the engine.

“You’ve become awfully calm about this.”

He shrugged. “I was anything but calm at first. I’m not prone to panic attacks but I was on the verge of one out there, but you brought me down. Thanks for that.”

“Any time, but…I did?”

“You were taking a rational approach and so I did too: Put the emotions on hold. Plenty of time to panic later. Do some critical thinking first.”

She touched his tablet. “Come up with anything?”

“Maybe.” He turned the screen toward her. “From what I can tell, someone assigned numbers to the signals. The one on Norum Hill is designated two-thirty-seven. I’ve gone back through the lists and it seems that since the frequencies started changing, someone from a place called Williamstown—I assume it’s in the neighborhood—has been reporting any variation in the two-thirty-seven frequency every time the signal occurs, which seems to run every eighteen to nineteen hours.”