"A female!" I said, startled, "Why would the Fathers want the Pass to choose a woman to help me battle the evil beings?"

"The creators wanted the minds of both sexes to work as a team," Micro said, "The female will be your mate."

"Well, I could use some help," I agreed, "but I don't believe I need a mate," then I thought, "If this woman was brought to the planet the same way that I was, she is probably in a state of shock and as bewildered as I was. I had better go to the planet and help her find a uniform."

"Micro, can you relay the call from Robin and Bob to the planet Sustenance?" I asked, "If they do call, that is?"

"Yes," Micro answered.

"Good," I said.

I stood up, walked across the Vulture's control deck, and thought of the Eagle's control deck as I stepped on the green circle. The stars above me vanished and were replaced with the white ceiling of the Vulture's hangar deck.

When I sat down in the Eagle's control seat, I placed a finger on the GOTO dent on the control panel and thought of the complex on Sustenance as I had seen it from above. The hangar deck vanished. I was now Looking down through the dome at the glowing blue rectangle of the plain that was surrounded on three sides by the thick black walls of the complex, and on the fourth side was the glowing blue curtain entrance into the giant black structure on the planet Sustenance. The blue highway stretched out to a point and was lost in the darkness of the island, and a little ways beyond that was one of the blue domed buildings. The time was about three hours after sunset.

"What are those blue domed buildings used for, Micro?"

"They are the three weapons which the Creators placed here to protect this island, but they were never used," Micro said.

Touching the dent panel, I lowered the Eagle to the smooth blue surface of the plain. Picked up my oval Pass, pushed the dent panel forward, and rose from the seat.

"How long has this woman been here, Micro?" I asked, as I crossed the deck to the green transport circle.

"The female has been on this planet for one hour and fifteen minutes," Micro thought-voiced.

I stepped on the green circle and stepped out of the green column onto the Eagle's hangar deck, "It's a good thing I left the lights on and the Dove's garage open in the complex," I thought, "At least she had some light to look for help, which is better then I had, even though she'll not find any."

"Where is the woman at now, Micro?" I asked.

"The female is driving a scooter toward the east in the north-west apartment corridor at this time," Micro said.

I went into a Dove, sat down in a scooter, and drove the scooter down the ramp. As I approached the side of the hangar deck, I raised the scooter into the air and flew it through the side of the Eagle. I flew the scooter across the blue plain and landed it on the smooth surface beside the glowing blue entrance, and, without stopping, drove through the curtain entrance into the hangar part of the complex and across its blue floor, and the red dust, to the Dove's garage.

The other blue Dove still set where I had last seen it, but the scooter was gone from the room that was between the garage and the wide hallway. I drove through the room and turned to my left as I entered the hallway. The apartment hallway was just a few hundred yards north of the other garage which held the other four Doves. As I turned right into the hallway, I saw the blue scooter setting beside a doorway leading into one of the apartments. I stopped my scooter behind the other and got off to look into the apartment.

As I stepped around the other scooter, I saw a flash of reddish-white skin as the woman ducked behind the doorway that led into the bedroom across the living room from me. I walked across the room and into the short hallway. She was not there. But when I walked into the bedroom, I saw her drop down behind the bed on the right side of the room. I walked over to the bed on the left side of the room and touched the dent in the white panel to bring forth the shimmering blue cleaning-toilet and a suit of clothes, which I had had Micro to hang on the wall beside the clear topped desk because I didn't know how I would ever get her to touch the dent.

"You can put on this uniform, and I'll be waiting out in the living room for you," I said, as cheerfully as I could. Then I turned and left the room. I knew she couldn't understand my words, but maybe she could feel the friendliness in my voice.

"Micro, has she got her Pass with her?" I asked, as I sat down on one of the couches across the living room from the bedroom doorway.

"Yes," Micro said, "but we will not speak with the female as yet," and knowing my next thought, Micro continued, "You should use the oval thought communicator until we have taught her the creators language."

Reaching into one of the pouches at my waist I took out the small black oval necklace and placed it around my neck.

"How do I get it to work?"

"When you wish the oval to function, it will," Micro said.

A few minutes later, the young woman came out of the doorway wearing the blue, white, and black uniform. She had soft blue eyes, that darted around the room, and a tuft of brown hair stuck out from under the black hood. Her pink lips and rosy cheeks blended well with the cream colored skin of her face, which was smudged with the red dust from the floor of the hangar on the outside of this structure. She was about five feet six or seven inches tall, about four inches shorter than I, and her body had the right curves for her height.

The young woman's lips moved and she uttered a few strange sounds, so I stood up and said, "If you will place the black oval around your neck, we can speak to each other."

While I was saying this, I used sign language as well, to show her where the oval was and how I had placed the oval around my neck. She reached into the pouches at her waist and found the ovals. After looking at each of them, she placed the black oval necklace around her neck.

"Can you understand me now?" I asked.

She made some more strange sounds, but this time I knew in my mind what she said, "Yes, but I don't know why!"

"The oval is a thought communicator," I told her, "and it will only function when you want it to."

"Where is this place and how did I get here? Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Caleb Thorn," I said, "but I can't tell you where this place is, and how you arrived, until Micro has taught you the Father's language. What is your name?"

"Don't you know where this place is?" she said, "Who is this Micro? My name is Caleus Melorn! And you are Caleb Thorn, right?"

The sound of her name was very similar to that of my own.

"Yes," I said, "I know where it is, but to explain it to you would be very hard for me, Caleus. The Micros will tell you who they are after they teach you the Father's language. I don't know how long it will take them, but I was on this planet for two days before they contacted me; however, I had the suit on for only a short time before that. I can tell you this, though, this place is not on the planet where you came from."

"How far away is her planet, Micro?" I thought.

"34,812 light years from this planet's star," Micro's thought-voice said, "and 52,256 light years from your planet's star."

I noticed her oval Pass was clutched in her left hand as Caleus moved to a couch beside the doorway and sat down.

"If I'm not on Jade, then where am I, and why was I brought here?" she said.

"This planet is called Sustenance, and it's a very long ways from your planet, Jade," I said, "The why will be told to you later, but you were brought here by the oval Pass that you hold in your hand."

She looked at the Pass and said, "I was brought here by this black rock? You must be joking? How can a rock do anything?"

"That rock is a very special device, but that's enough questions for now," I said, "I believe that you would like to get rid of the red dust from your body, so if you will go into the bedroom and step into that shimmering blue column, you will be cleansed of it. The blue column is a cleaning-toilet."

She lifted herself from the couch and walked through the doorway into the bedroom, and I sat back down on the couch to wait for her.

When she came out of the doorway, a few minutes later, she was smiling and said, "That is a unique way to get clean, but how does it work? When I entered the shimmering column, I was naked but clean. When I stepped out of it, the suit appeared again to cover my body!" She shook her head as she walked across the room and sat down on the couch a few feet away from me.

"Caleb Thorn," she said, as she turned toward me and folded her left leg up on the couch with her left foot tucked under her right knee, and her left arm on the top of the back of the couch, "what has happened to my body? A few hours ago I had a fat fifty year old body, and now, I am slim with no scars on my belly to show that I have ever had children."

"Well, Caleus," I said, "I was going to let Micro tell you, but I guess I may as well tell you myself. You see, when the oval Pass brought you here, it only brought a few cells from your old body. The cells were then used to build your new body, and your mind was then placed into it. Did you have a very bad headache when you first arrived? I know I did, but I thought at the time that it was caused by a hangover. And you may call me Caleb, Caleus."

She sat there just staring at me, then she said, "I... I did have a throbbing headache. Are you saying that this is not my body, Caleb?"

"It's your body all right, but it's not your old body," I said, "Your old body was left on Jade."

"Then, my old body is dead! Is that what you're saying?" Caleus said, with tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"Yes," I said.

"Why?" she asked, wiping a tear from her cheek, "Why was I brought here? My husband will think I'm dead when he finds my old body laying on the kitchen floor. I... I must get home as soon as possible. Can I go home, Caleb?" she was sobbing now.

"Yes, you can go home, Caleus," I said, with a big lump in my throat, "but it will not make any difference. Your husband will not know you."

"I want to go home anyway," she said, wiping the tears from her face and eyes "I believe he'll know me, and I can explain to him what has happened to me."

"Okay, Caleus," I said, as I stood up, "I'll take you home, but don't place your hopes too high."

Caleus rose from the couch and followed me out the door into the hallway, "Do you want to drive this scooter back to the room where you found it, or do you want to ride with me?" I asked her.

"I'll drive it back," Caleus said, stepping up on the scooter and sitting down, "How are you going to take me home? Have you got a spaceship of some kind?"

"There is a spaceship on the outside of where the red dust is," I said, as I sat down in my scooter.

Caleus swung the scooter around and headed west toward the north-south hallway, and I did the same with my scooter. When I drove up beside Caleus, she asked me about the difference in the steering spheres on the two scooters. I told her to follow me and I would show her why one was blue and one was white.

At the north-south hallway, I turned right and went north until we came out into the giant room; then I turned right again and drove along the high black wall until we came to the large room where all the scooters set scattered here and there around the floor.

After driving over to the foot high cubicle that went all the way around the room, four feet off the floor, I stopped my scooter and stepped off it. Caleus stopped her scooter behind me and got off also.

"This," I said, pointing to the cubicle, "is where the steering spheres are charged. Hand me the sphere from your scooter and I'll show you what happens when it is placed in the cubicle."

Caleus picked up the blue sphere and it faded slowly to brown. "Oh...," she said, "it changed color!" then she walked over and handed the sphere to me.

I placed the brown sphere into the cubicle and it began to change its color slowly to black. I picked up a black sphere from the cubicle and handed it to Caleus, "Place this one on the scooter," I said, "and it will turn white like the one on my scooter."

She took the black sphere and walked over to the scooter and placed it on the console. The sphere changed to white instantly, and Caleus asked, "Is the sphere the power source for the scooter?"

"I think so," I said, as I went over to my scooter, "but I'm not sure. You see, Caleus, I don't know everything about Micro either. Let's go back this way," I sat down and turned the scooter toward the back of the room, "and I'll show you another way to get back to the apartments," She sat down in her scooter and followed me.

All the way back to the Dove's garage, Caleus asked me many questions about the food-water complex, and the people who should be there, and I told her all that I knew about the place, and about the packets of food and water, but I didn't tell her about the creators. I just told her that Micro will explain about the missing people.

When we arrived at the Dove's garage, I had Caleus park her scooter inside of the Dove that set there because I was going to have Micro place this Dove and the other four, which set in another room to the north of that room, in the Eagle. When Caleus sat down in my scooter beside me, I drove out of the garage and headed toward the shimmering blue curtain at the entrance to the complex. When I drove through the curtain, I made the scooter rise into the air and flew it toward the Eagle.

"It can fly, too?" Caleus said, excitedly, as she looked down at the glowing blue surface below us, and then up at the high black walls, which surrounded the blue plain.

"The scooter can do almost anything that you can think of," I said, "That's the Eagle space vessel up ahead."

"It looks like the dome back there in the complex, but a lot bigger. How long will it take to get us to Jade?"

"We should be there in about ten minutes, I think," I said, as I drove the scooter through the skin of the Eagle, "Unless you want to take a tour of the Eagle."

"No," Caleus said, "I want to get home as soon as possible."

I landed the scooter beside the shimmering green transport column, and then I explained to Caleus how the column worked. We got off the scooter and, with me holding onto her hand, stepped into the column. Instantly, we were standing on the green circle in the center of the Eagle's control deck.

"That was fast!" Caleus said, with a puzzled look on her face.

"Micro told me that there is no time involved when we travel by the transport column, or when the vessel moves from one place to another," I said, as we walked over to the control seats, "Caleus, you may sit down there in the right control seat and watch me as I move the Eagle to your planet."

Caleus sat down in the black chair seat and watched me as I sat down in the left one, "How far away is Jade?" she asked.

"A little over 34,000 light years," I answered, placing my hands on the dent panel, "if we traveled at the speed of light, but we are going to move there instantly."

I placed a finger tip in the GOTO dent and thought, "Caleus's planet, Jade,". The high black walls vanished and a planet that looked very much like the white and blue Earth appeared in front of the Eagle, and there were many stars surrounding the planet.

"That," I said, turning to look at Caleus, "is where your home is, Caleus. I'll get a little closer, and then you'll have to show me which of the land masses you lived on, and in what part of it your home was," I touched the GOTO dent again and moved the Eagle to a spot 200 thousand miles above the planet.

"This is on the other side of Jade from where I live," Caleus said, "When I tried to break the oval rock into, it was about six o'clock and I was getting ready to fix dinner, so it's probably dark there now. How can you find my home in the dark?"

"Don't you worry. We'll find your home," I said, getting to my feet, "Let's go to the hangar deck, and we'll fly the Dove down to Jade."

I took her hand in mine as she came around the seat and we walked over and stepped on the green circle. She was very calm, but I could feel a slight trembling pass through her hand as we stepped out of the column onto the hangar deck.

"Micro," I thought, "can you place the Dove above her home after we get in and sit down?"

"Yes," Micro thought-voiced.

I showed Caleus which Dove we were going to use, then I stepped up on the scooter and drove it aboard. When we sat down in the front two seats of the Dove, I told Caleus, "Micro is going to place the Dove above your home, and then we'll take the scooter down and land it in some obscure place."

"All right, Caleb," she said, "Will you come to the house with me? I may need your help too to convince my husband that I'm alive. Oh..., that scared me!"

While Caleus was talking, Micro had placed the Dove a few feet above a sloped roof that I could scarcely discern in the darkness.

"I don't believe I should go with you, Caleus," I said, as I rose from the Dove's control seat, "If he does recognize you, what would he think of you being with me."

We walked back to the scooter and I sat down in the left seat.

"I guess you're right," she agreed, as she sat down beside me in the scooter, "But if he does know me, how will I tell you?"

"Micro will know," I said, as I drove the scooter through the now open ramp and flew it across a circle drive filled with automobiles.

The scooter just barely fit between two rows of hedges where I had set it down on the ground. "I'll wait for you here," I told Caleus, "Good-luck!"

Caleus stepped off the scooter and said, "Thanks, Caleb," then she was gone into the dark shadows that surrounded the scooter.

"Has she learned the Father's language yet?" I thought to Micro.

"No," Micro answered.

"How much longer will it be before she does?"

"15 of your minutes," Micro said.

"Good!" I thought, "Is there a message on her oval Pass like there was on mine?"

"Yes," Micro said, "You and she will have to place the two Passes on one of the low tables, which are inside of the living quarters, to understand the message."

"It will take both Passes to hear her message?" I asked, out loud. I had forgotten where I was.

"Yes," Micro said.

I sat there for a while thinking about what the message could be that it took both Passes to hear and see it. Then, I heard someone stumbling through the hedges toward me.

"It's me, Caleb," Caleus said, "He didn't know me or believe me when I told him that I wasn't dead," she sat down in the seat beside me and hung her head forward on her chest.

I could hear Caleus weeping as I raised the scooter into the air and flew it up to the Dove and landed it inside on the black deck.

I didn't say anything to her until Micro had placed the Dove on the hangar deck of the Eagle beside the green column.

We were both still sitting in the scooter, and I said, "Caleus, I believe you'll feel better if you would go up to one of the apartments and lie down. What do you say to that?"

"I... I'll be all right," Caleus said, wiping the tears from her eyes, "It was just such a shock to see him and... and," she paused and an angry frown twisted her lovely face, "Damn him, he didn't know or want to know who I was!" then, calming herself, she smiled, "I think I would like to lie down, Caleb. Where are the apartments?"

We left the Dove and went up to the apartment deck.

"This is my apartment," I said, as we stood in front of the apartment next to the conference room, "and you may have any of the others, or you can use mine. There are two beds, and with these suits that you never have to take off, you can have all the privacy you want. I won't bother you, I promise!"

"I know you won't, Caleb," she said, glancing around the large oval foyer, "I trust you for some odd reason, so I'll use your apartment," Caleus released my hand and walked into my apartment, crossed the living room, and went through the doorway that led into the bedroom.