I picked up the green packet and sipped some of the hot coffee from it as I thought, "I guess my message will have to be verified by word of mouth since there's no recording that anyone can understand, but that's even better. This way the Galactic Republic of Calorn looks a little more authentic," I got up from the glass table and left the library, "I believe I'll go over to the Vulture and see for myself what the inside of it looks like."

"Micro, can the Eagle land inside of the Vulture?" I asked as I left the apartment and stepped into the green column and out onto the control deck above.

"Yes," Micro answered.

I sat down in the control seat and, after I placed my Pass on the console, drove the Eagle over to the giant black Vulture that hung in space above the blue, white, and brown sphere of the Earth below. As the Eagle came closer to the Vulture, I saw a large white oval on the Vulture's side that was not there before.

"What is that, Micro?" I asked, "I didn't see it till just now."

"The white oval is the entrance into the vessel," Micro said, "You will only see the oval when one of the vessels, which are formed of us, approaches to enter the side of another vessel formed of us."

The bottom of the white oval was even with the flat bottom of the domed Vulture. Which would mean that if the vessel was setting on the ground, even a scooter would be able to drive into the vessel.

I drove the Eagle through the side of the Vulture and entered the biggest enclosed area I had ever seen. The blue hangar deck stretched out away from me for four miles, and three miles to my right and left. The white ceiling was one mile above the glowing blue deck that was empty of any other vessels for as far as I could see.

Placing my hand on the white sphere, I drove the Eagle forward toward the center of the hangar deck and found what I knew would be there. A shimmering green column that went from the blue deck to the white ceiling, and around the column set sixteen black spacecraft the same size and shape as the Dove.

"Are there more of these black Doves aboard the Vulture?" I asked Micro.

"Yes," Micro said, "There are one thousand and sixteen Dove mobiles in each of the vessels you named Vulture."

"And how many are there in each of the Condors and Hawks?"

"There are 516 mobiles in each Condor vessel, and there are 66 of them in each Hawk vessel," Micro said.

I was shocked at how many people it would take to man all of these vessels.

"If there were four people to each black Dove, that would be 4,064," I thought, "And if there were a backup crew for each of them, that's over 8,000 people to each of the Vultures. Let's see... yes, that will be 800,000 people to man the 100 Vultures, and half of that more to man the Condors. Now that's over one million people, and that's not including the Hawks. It'll be a long long time before I can get that many people to join me."

I turned my thoughts back to landing the Eagle on the deck below, "How do I see what's below me when I land? There's probably a dent that will let me see the deck and how far I am away from it. The only time I landed the Eagle was on the moon, and I didn't worry about it then. However, Micro was in control of my thoughts that time."

I studied the dent panel, but there was no dent that indicated it was for landing. So I backed the Eagle away from the black Doves that set around the green column, and I touched the down dent. The viewer came alive with four scenes of the Eagle hanging above the hangar deck, and each scene was from a different direction. I watched intently as the Eagle came closer to the deck. When it touched the deck, I raised my finger from the down dent.

"Now I know how to land these vessels," I said, proudly, "and I didn't have to ask Micro."

I picked up my oval Pass, stood up, and walked over to the green circle in the center of the control deck. When I stepped on the circle, I was thinking about the black Doves, and I stepped out of the green column onto the hangar deck of the Vulture. In front of me set two of the black Doves and behind them, rising high above the deck, was the blue Eagle.

"How... how did that happen?" I said, startled, "Did you do that, Micro?"

"The green transport columns in each vessel work as one when the vessels are touching one another." Micro said.

"That's great!" I said, "It'll sure make it easier for me to go from one vessel to other while the Eagle is aboard the Vulture. Micro, give me a layout of the inside of the Vulture."

In a flash, I knew the inside of the Vulture like the back of my hand.

The upper part of the Vulture was almost the same as the Eagle except that there was a half mile between the control deck and the outer skin. The same was for the thickness of the hull on the sides of the vessel between the hangar deck area and the outside. The apartments were below the control deck, and there were sixteen of them, but each apartment had two two-bed bedrooms. Below the apartment deck was like a large city: There were many living quarters, recreation areas, and other large rooms like theaters. At the ends of the six mile long hangar deck set the one thousand black Doves, five hundred at each end.

I walked over to one of the black Doves and looked inside, and I saw that there was no difference in it from the blue Dove. There was even a black four seated scooter setting on the rear deck, but it didn't have a white steering sphere. I stepped up the ramp and went over to the control seats. There was no sphere or oval key on the console either.

"Micro," I asked, "where are the steering spheres and oval key for this craft?"

"The two spheres and oval are in a cubicle beside the entrance into one of the living quarters," Micro said.

"Then they must be kept charged like the ones in the complex on Sustenance?" I asked as I turned and left the craft.

"Yes," Micro answered.

"How come there's no chargers in the Eagle then?" I thought, as I approached the green column.

"We who are formed as the Eagle vessel, and the blue Doves, are special. Like your Pass is special. We charge ourselves while in space," Micro explained.

Thinking of the Vulture's control deck, I stepped into the column and was instantly standing under the blackness of space, which was riddled with sharp, many colored, points of light. Lowering my eyes, I saw that this control deck was the same as the Eagle's: A green circle in the center. Four sets of seats on the outer edge, at the four points of a compass, with each set facing outward away from the center of the black oval deck.

I walked forward to the control seats and saw that there was a white steering sphere, and a blue oval key, on the console between the two black seats.

"This vessel is ready to go. All it needs is a crew."

Leaving the control deck, I explored the vast city below the apartment deck. And for the next six hours, I wandered through the vessel from one green column to the next. No one would ever get bored while aboard these vessels because there was something to do there to fit anyone's tastes.

I had just stepped out of a green column and was looking across a large lake of water, which was surrounded by green vegetation, when Micro told me, "You are being summoned by a few people from the planet below, Caleb."

"Is one of them Sergeant Hanly or Lieutenant Scott?" I asked.

"No," Micro said.

"Can you speak to the ones who are calling," I asked, "and tell them that I, Captain Caleb, will only talk to those two people?"

"Yes, we will speak to them, Caleb," Micro answered.

I took a good long look at the beautiful lake then stepped into the green transport column. Thinking of the apartment deck aboard the Eagle, I stepped out of the column onto the deck and entered my apartment. I had taken up residence in the apartment to the right of the large conference room.

The viewer was already above the glass table when I entered the library and it was alive with the forms of many people. I listened for a moment to the garbled sound they made; then, I sat down and told Micro to go ahead and speak with them. The viewer split into six small pictures showing the upper torsos of the people who were trying to contact me and I heard Micro say, by thought-voice:

"Captain Caleb will talk to no one but Sergeant Hanly or Lieutenant Scott!"

Everyone on the viewer stopped talking for a moment. Then in a jumble of words, which I could make out part of, they asked, "Who are these two persons he wants to talk with?"

"The two people are Sergeant Robin Hanly and Lieutenant Robert Scott of the U.S. Air Force," Micro said.

Some of the callers were not from the United States so they were probably a little flustered to be told this. Five of the callers were now holding a telephone hand piece to their ear. The other caller, who was a Major in the U.S. Air Force, had turned his head and said, "Bring in Lieutenant Scott and Sergeant Hanly."

With my mind, I wiped the other scenes from the viewer and made the image of the Major fill the viewer. Then I expanded the scene to include the room around him. There were three other men with the Major and they were wearing civilian clothes. One of the civilian clothed men was seated to the right of the Major and the other two were standing to his left. I shifted the scene to where I was looking at the room from an angle a few feet above, but still in front of, the Major and the other three men. One of the men, on the Major's left, turned and went to the door, opened it and said, "Will you and Sergeant Hanly please step in here."

Lieutenant Scott followed by Sergeant Hanly entered the door and stood stiffly side by side a few feet behind the Major. When the Major turned to face them they raised their hands to their forehead in a salute. The Major did the same and said, "As you were Lieutenant, Sergeant. I guess you were telling the truth, Sergeant Hanly. The Alien will only speak to the two of you."

The Major stood up and stepped away from his seat and said, "Bob, you and the Sergeant go ahead and call this alien. Doctor Grayson will write down what you are to tell the alien."

"Yes, Sir," the Lieutenant said, then he motioned to Sergeant Hanly to take the seat that the Major had just vacated, "Sergeant, you will make the call!" Sergeant Hanly sat down and the Lieutenant sat down in a seat on her left in front of the two civilians, who moved back behind the Major. Doctor Grayson, to her right, gave her a sheet of paper and she looked it over before taking a desk mike in her hand and saying, "This is Sergeant Hanly calling Captain Caleb. Are you there Sir? Over."

I made an image of my face to appear two feet in front of her and said, using the Father's language and thought-voice, "Yes Robin, I am here, and you don't have to use that mike to talk to me."

The feeling was the same as when I had visited this young woman in her bedroom. I could turn my head and see all of the small radio room on Earth or, with a twist in my mind, the viewer in front of me and the walls of the library aboard the Eagle.

My image must have startled everyone in the room because they all jerked backward. That is, all but Robin who said, "Hello Captain Caleb. I have a message to read to you."

"I'll listen to the message in a moment," I said, "but first I want to say hello to Lieutenant Scott and the other gentlemen who are present. Lieutenant Scott, you're looking fit today. How is this world treating you?"

"I... I... I'm fine, Sir," he stammered.

"That's good," I said, "Will you introduce me to these other gentlemen?"

The Lieutenant stood up and, with his arm and hand, pointed toward the Major and said, "This is Major Frank Keats, Captain Caleb. The two men behind him are Secret Service men, but I don't know their names. The gentleman seated beside the Sergeant is Doctor Malcolm Grayson. Gentlemen, this is Captain Caleb of the spaceship Eagle. Or... Is that correct, Sir?"

"That's close enough, Robert," I said, "Is it all right if I call you Robert, Lieutenant?"

"Yes, Sir. You may call me Bob if you like, Sir," the Lieutenant said, and then sat back down in the seat.

"Fine, Bob," I said, "I am pleased to meet you gentlemen. Now, Robin, I believe you have a message for me."

Doctor Grayson rose from his seat and said, "Excuse me, Captain, but out of all do respect I believe I should deliver this message to you personally since I did write it."

Doctor Grayson was a fairly short man with thin gray hair, bushy gray eyebrows, and a small gray mustache. His eyes were sharp blue and sparkled with intelligence.

"Go right ahead, Doctor," I said. Then I told Micro, by thought, to broadcast this scene and conversation to all the people of Earth by thought-voice.

"Captain Caleb, I represent the United Nations of Earth," the Doctor began, "which now rules the military forces in the defense of this planet. We have agreed to furnish a few of our people to help you, but we want to know how many of your race will be landing on Earth to train these men who will be the crew of your spaceships. Also, after the strange way in which your message to all the people of Earth was delivered, the UNE wants your assurance that this type of communication will not be used again, and that you will communicate only with the United Nations of Earth."

The Doctor paused as if waiting for me to say something, so I said, "I cannot make that assurance, Doctor. Any agreement we make is being heard by the people of Earth in that same manner. We will not tolerate secrecy!" I noticed that Sergeant Hanly was writing down every word I said.

"Then, what assurance can you give us that this is not just a trick to capture some of our people for... for god knows what?" Doctor Grayson said, angrily.

I saw an opportunity to place a vessel on Earth so I took it.

"There will not be anyone from the Galactic Republic of Calorn, but for myself, to ever step a foot on your planet!" I said, "I will land one vessel on your planet at the site that your United Nations will agree upon. The vessel will be open, and with no one aboard, for inspection by your people for as long as you want. There is a green transport column in the center of the vessel, which will take a person to any deck on the vessel that the person is thinking about when he, or she, steps into it. After, or during, your inspection, you must let me start training eight of your people to control the vessel and its weapons. Then each of the eight can train eight more until there are enough people to crew the vessel."

A young man in uniform came in the door and went over to Major Keats and whispered something in the Major's ear. The Major said something to the young man and the young man turned and left the room.

"How many hours will it be before your United Nations of Earth can give me the location of a landing site?" I finished.

"Well, I don't know for sure," Doctor Grayson said, "But it may take a few days."

"I said hours, Doctor, not days!" I said.

"I'll have to get in contact with the UNE, and then there will be many countries who will want to be the host," Doctor Grayson said, "By the way, how big is this... this spaceship?"

I thought for a second about which vessel to give them, then I said, "The Vulture is ten miles long, six miles wide, and three miles high. I will give you six hours to choose a location for the landing site. After which, I will choose a landing site at random."

"That's not very much time, but with that size of ship there'll be only a few places where it could land," the Doctor said, "I'll call...."

The Doctor was interrupted by a male voice from an intercom speaker, which said, "Doctor Grayson, please pick up the telephone."

Sergeant Hanly picked up a telephone hand piece and handed it to the Doctor who said, "Yes," into the mouth piece. He listened for a few seconds then glared at me and said, "Yes, I understand," then he handed the phone back to the Sergeant.

"I have been ordered," the Doctor said to me, "not to say anything more to you until you stop broadcasting this conversation to everyone on Earth."

"When I stop thought-voicing to the people of this planet," I said, "there will be no more conversation, Doctor Grayson. The people of this planet need to know what is being done about defending them from the evil Aliens. When the aliens arrive, it will be all of the people who will suffer and not just the military and government personnel."

"However, I believe we have covered all the main points, so I will now terminate this contact. Bob, Robin, I will be listening for a call from you in the next six hours. Good bye gentlemen," I then pulled my image from the room, blanked the viewer, told Micro to stop broadcasting, lay my head back against the seat, closed my eyes, and marked down the time in my mind. The time was 2:15 pm.

"I hope I've convinced the people to put some pressure on their governments to make them merge into one forcible nation that can, with the help of the Father's vessels, defend our world from the evil beings," I thought.

"Micro, when I land one of the Vultures on the planet, I don't want any of the weapons or tools aboard able to be used, and don't let anyone aboard who is carrying a weapon. Also, don't let anyone leave the vessel who has any part of the vessel or its contents unless I say it's all right."

I rose from the library seat and went over to a cubicle, that was beside the doorway leading into the bedroom, and took out a packet of food and water. It had been a quite a few hours since I had eaten anything, so I sat down at a desk beside one of the beds and ate a meal, which tasted like roast beef and gravy and drank what tasted like iced tea, from the packets.

The desk was only a clear shelf that stuck out two feet from the black wall of the bedroom and it was four feet long. I thought: "A desk should have some paper and pencils on it, and maybe a picture or two. I'll have to get some of those things if I ever get a chance."

Drinking the last drop of iced tea from the packet, I laid it on the desk and it sank into the top as did the food packet earlier. I spun the sofa type seat around and stood up. Then I walked across the bedroom and stepped into the recreation room.

I spent 15 minutes running on a tread mill, and I swam in the small pool for 30 minutes, which I did naked. The water was fresh and did not contain chlorine as all the pools I had ever swam in did.

After I put on my uniform, which dried me instantly, I left the apartment and went up to the control deck. The Eagle was still aboard the Vulture, but it was not close enough to the side of the hangar deck as I wanted it because I wanted to see the people who entered the Vulture after I landed it on Earth.

After placing my oval Pass on the console, I placed my hand on the white steering sphere and spun the Eagle around and drove it toward the side of the Vulture. I stopped the Eagle beside the large white oval, which was the entrance through the side of the Vulture's thick hull, and a few feet away from where it touched the blue hangar deck.

"This will be just right. I'll have Micro to only open this side of the vessel. That way, I'll see everyone who will enter the vessel without having to use the viewer to watch the other side."

I picked up my oval Pass and left the seat to go to the control deck of the Vulture. I stepped on the green circle and the view of the hangar deck outside of the Eagle's dome changed to black space and millions of stars, which was the view from the Vultures control deck. I sat down in the control seat and lay back to study the many beautiful stars.

As I sat there I thought, "It will be a while before Robin and Bob will call me, so I think I'll take a nap," I closed my eyes and dropped off to sleep.

I had only been asleep for a half an hour when Micro's thought-voice startled me awake.

"What did you say, Micro?"

"The other one with a Pass has arrived," Micro said, "on the planet Sustenance."

"What other one?" I said, "I thought there was only the one Pass that I have? Where did this other person come from?"

"There are two Passes," Micro said, "The other person came from a planet at the opposite side of this galaxy."

"Is the other one human, like me?"

"Yes," Micro said.

"Did the Fathers begin a race of humans on that planet also?" I asked.

"Yes," Micro said.

"Why didn't you tell me about this before, Micro? What am I supposed to do now, go get this man and help him?"

"We did not tell you because you did not ask. The other human is not a male. This Pass was instructed to choose a female," Micro said.