When I got back to the large room that held the two domed craft, I drove the scooter up the ramp into the craft, which I had driven before, and took the oval key over and placed it in the brown depression on the console, which closed the ramp.

I could see that the sun had not gone down yet, so I decided that I didn't want to wait until the next morning. I wanted to get out of that place as soon as I could and tell my Government authorities about what I had found.

I drove the craft out of the large room and went out to close the opening into it. Then I drove the craft along the wall to the other depression, and I turned off the lights in the floor, ceiling, and the highway. I then drove the oval craft toward the arched opening in the high black wall, and the, now, non-glowing highway that led to the sea

By the time I reached the beach, on the cove below the round black building, I had changed my mind about leaving the island. I didn't know how much fuel this craft carried, or what type of fuel it took to keep it running. I sure didn't want to get stuck out in the middle of the ocean, so I stopped the craft at the edge of the beach.

I sat there and watched the sun as it began to set, and I thought, "I guess I had better get back to the highway before it gets dark. Maybe I'll try leaving in the morning when it's daylight. That is, I'll try if I can figure out how long the fuel in this craft will last." I turned the oval craft around and drove it back up the grass covered slope to the black tower, and down to the highway.

As the night crept across the island, I rolled the white sphere forward, and the oval craft sped along the dark highway toward the huge black structure.

When I got back to the giant structure, I didn't turn on the light that glowed in the ceiling, highway, and the floor of the plain because I didn't want any aircraft that might fly over the island that night to see it. However, when I opened the room that held the other domed craft and turned on the light, I could find no way to close the wall from the inside, so that light could be seen by any aircraft that approached the island from the west.

I then drove the oval craft out to the west wall of the enclosed plain, and found that the light from the room would be hard to see unless someone was looking for it.

So, I lay back in the seat and looked up into the sky, through the invisible dome, and watched the sky turn blacker and a few of the brighter stars begin to twinkle in the east. In a few more minutes, the sky was full of twinkling stars, but not as many as I thought there would be. Of course, I could see only a part of the sky from where I was.

"It's strange that I should feel so content. Here I am in a strange place, not knowing how I got here, and I'm not even the least bit worried about it. I may still be in a state of shock, but I doubt it."

As I sat up to drive back to the oval craft's garage, which was the large room where the other domed craft set and where this craft came from, I saw three small brown dents on top of the flat console, between the oval key and the white steering sphere, that I didn't believe were there before.

Reaching over with my right hand, I touched the left dent with my finger and an oval panel, which was as clear as glass, appeared in front of me. The panel was about two feet long, and, after a closer look, I saw that it was covered with small brown spots. Each spot was about an inch apart from the others, and each spot had a wavy mark beside it.

When I placed my hands on the flat panel, which was setting in the air above my knees, I felt the brown spots as dents in the surface of the, otherwise, smooth panel of glass or plastic, and the panel was as solid as if it was attached to the floor of the craft, but I couldn't see anything that held it in place.

With my left hand still resting on the panel, I reached over and touched the brown dent on the console, which had made this panel appear, and the panel vanished letting my left hand fall to my knee.

"Damn, that's almost like magic! In fact, everything I've seen here in this place works as if by magic," I touched the dent again with my finger, and I saw the panel appear above my knees as if it had been there all the time, but not visible to me. I made it vanish again and placed my left hand where the panel should be, but wasn't. When I touched the dent again, the panel appeared in the air farther away from me this time; a few inches from my hand. As I pulled my hand back, the panel moved toward me and stopped above my knees. I pushed against the panel, and it moved away from me with ease but moved back to above my knees as soon as I took my hand away from it.

"Well now let's see what happens if I stand up?" I pushed the panel away from me and stood up, then I stepped away from the seat. This time, the flat oval panel didn't move from where I had pushed it, "It must know when someone is sitting in the seat."

Looking around me, I thought, "Wait a minute now! There's something wrong here! It's dark outside and, except for a few stars, there is no light, but I can see everything on this oval platform as if it was still daylight. There must be a light coming from the invisible dome, which I can't see. That is, I can't see the dome or the source of the light that must be there." Stepping back over between the oval panel and the seat, I sat down, and the panel moved toward me and stopped above my knees.

I reached over between the blue oval key and the white steering sphere and touched the left one of the three small brown dents on the console, and the oval panel vanished. I then touched the middle dent, but nothing happened as far as I could tell. Therefore, I touched the dent on the right, and another oval panel appeared in front of the seat beside me.

As I was looking at that panel, I saw something behind me out of the corner of my eye, and I turned to see another shimmering blue column, like the one in the apartment, standing between the other two seats. The blue column started from the black deck and went up to where the dome of this craft should be.

"This craft seems to have all the comforts of home. Maybe even food and water if that's what's in those small packets," I got to my feet, "Speaking of food, where are those nuts I put in that seat?"

When I stopped to get the nuts and drink from the stream earlier, I had brought two of the nuts back to the oval craft with me and laid them in the right front seat of the craft, but they were not there now.

"Someone must be on this island besides me. Why don't they make themselves known to me? Instead of stealing my food, they could go get their own from the forest. I just don't understand that at all?"

I stepped over to the shimmering blue column and stuck my head through, and I saw that it was indeed another toilet bathroom just as in the apartment. I pulled my head out of the column, Maybe I should try some of that gray jelly and some of the water in those packets? I'll just take a little of each, and if it makes me sick, I'll know that it's not for me."

Sitting back down in the left front seat, I touched the center brown dent and the right one also. The blue column, and the oval panel in front of the right seat, vanished. I then reached down to the small dent in the side of the seat with my left hand. When I felt the cubicle open, I pulled out a few of the packets.

I inspected the two gray and one green packets closely; Then, with the thought that they had to be some sort of packaged nourishment, I squeezed part of the gray substance from one of them into my mouth. This time the gray substance tasted like pudding. Deliciously good vanilla pudding. I squeezed part of the clear liquid from the green packet into my mouth and it tasted like fresh cool water. I had to hold myself back from drinking all of the liquid in the packet because it tasted so good.

"I'll just have to wait a few hours and see if this stuff makes me sick. In the meantime, I may as well go back to this craft's garage," I put my hand on the white steering sphere and then, "Wait a second now! Maybe I'm better off staying out here? That is, if the light from inside here don't show on the outside of this craft."

Picking up the oval key, I got up and went outside. The craft was dark but for the opening where I could see the scooter setting on the empty deck. There was no light flooding from the opening in the side of the dome. In fact, if the scooter wasn't setting there, I wouldn't have been able to see any light at all.

As I went back into the craft, I thought, "I think I'll be safe out here until morning, and then, if no one shows up, I'll try leaving again. I belive the steering sphere is the source of the power that runs this craft, and I'll just take the other sphere, from that cubicle in the crafts garage, with me."

I sat down in the seat and placed the oval key in the depression on the console. Checking that the ramp had vanished, I lay back in the seat and closed my eyes. It seemed to me that I had been here at this unknown place for more than one day, and I drifted off to sleep.

I awoke with a jerk. I didn't know where I was for an instant, then everything that had happened to me flooded back into my mind. It was still dark, and I was lying on my side, but as I turned over on my back, the seat slowly set me up into a sitting position, and I saw that it was daylight outside.

"I could have swore that it was still dark when I first opened my eyes, but I guess I was mistaken."

I felt well rested, but I was very hungry. The gray substance hadn't made me sick so I picked up the packets from the console, where I had laid them the night before, and placed the small tube of one of them in my mouth. When I squeezed the packet, the gray substance was warm, and it tasted like ham and eggs. I could even smell the aroma of ham and eggs.

"These are some super-duper food packets! Now if the green one tastes like hot coffee, that will be something," I picked up the green packet, but it didn't feel warm. However, when I squeezed some of the liquid into my mouth, it tasted like hot coffee. "I must be still dreaming. How can hot coffee come from the same packet that held cool water last night?"

I checked some more of the packets from the cubicle, and I found that any of them could taste like whatever I was thinking about at the time, "This is incredible. There's no telling what the stuff really tastes like. However, as long as it doesn't make me sick, and it keeps me from going hungry, I'll keep eating and drinking the stuff until I get home."

I laid the three empty packets in the right seat, and I watched in amazement as they slowly sank into the seat. It was as if they were sinking into water. However, when I laid the four packets, which still had some of the stuff in them, on the same seat, they didn't dissolve into the seat as the empty ones had.

"Either I'm going crazy, or everything around me is getting stranger. The longer I stay here, the stranger it gets. I think I'll go get that other steering sphere and try to get home by going east across the ocean."

I put my hand, which was covered in a black glove that I couldn't feel, on the white steering sphere and rolled the sphere forward. The oval craft didn't seem to move, but the outside surface shot past me on both sides. I drove the craft toward the opening in the wall, at the back of the giant structure and stopped it just outside of the room where the other blue dome set on the glowing blue floor.

After I went out of the craft and got the black sphere from the cubicle in the wall, at the back of the large room, I used my oval key to turn off the lights and close the opening before I went back aboard the craft. Except for my foot prints in the red dust, the place would look as if no one had been there.

Gently laying the spare steering sphere in the right seat with the food packets, I placed the oval key on the console and sat down. I kept my eyes on the black sphere for a while to make sure it wasn't going to sink into the seat, and then drove the oval craft toward the arched tunnel in the west wall of the giant structure.

When I drove out of the tunnel, I saw that there was a light fog obscuring the tops of the trees on each side of the highway. However, when I reached the valley, there was no fog there and the sky was clear of any clouds. I guided the craft around the curve of the highway, and when I found the wide grassy road that led to the round building on the hill above the ocean, I turned the craft into it.

Reaching the round black building, I sat in the craft looking out over the cove at the vast expense of open ocean beyond it. "I had better hurry if I want to catch the sun while it's still low in the eastern sky."

Rolling the white steering sphere forward, I drove the craft down the slope to the red beach and out over the low waves to the calm sea beyond the cove. I turned the craft to the south and followed the shore line around the island until I saw the black spot on the dome, which was the sun, and it was still low above the eastern horizon.

I turned the craft until the black spot of the sun was straight in front of me and rolled the white sphere forward. The ocean around me moved past in a silent blur as I rolled the sphere forward a little more, and a little more. How fast I was going, I had no idea, but each time I rolled the sphere farther forward, the blur of the ocean spread a little farther out away from the craft, and I could see the black spot of the sun as it moved a little faster upward into the sky.

I looked back over my shoulder expecting to see a rooster-tail of water from the air disturbance that this speed would cause, but there was none there. Somehow, this craft was not disturbing the air around it. As I looked back at the horizon ahead of me, I saw a layer of clouds rise up and cover the sky; then I was out from under the cloud layer under a clear sky again.

The black spot of the sun climbed higher into the sky, and I lost sight of it as it passed over my head and behind me. "At this speed I should see some land on the horizon at any time."

A few moments later, I saw what looked to be land to the north of me, and it stayed north of me for a while before it disappeared behind me. Then I saw some stars ahead above the horizon, and I knew that I would be in the dark in no time at all.

"Damn it all to hell. I must have gone too far to the south. That must have been South America back there, I'm sure."

Twisting the white steering sphere, I turned the craft in a wide circle and headed back toward the black spot of the sun that was almost below the horizon, but it rose above the horizon quickly as I headed toward it. "I'll bet that this is the first time anyone every saw the sun rise in the west."

Turning the craft a little to the north of the sun, I soon saw the land mass rise above the ocean on the horizon ahead. I saw that I was approaching the land too fast, so I rolled the steering sphere back toward me, and that slowed the craft a little but not near enough. I pulled my hand off the white sphere, and the craft stopped. I couldn't believe that anything could stop that quick. At least, not from the high speed at which the craft had been moving.

From below the craft, the white topped waves moved swiftly toward the high red cliffs, which were less than a mile away from where the craft had stopped, and the craft hovered above the high waves of the sea as if it was a platform attached to the ocean floor. The sun was out of sight below the top of the high cliffs, which would mean that there were only a few hours left before it would be setting in the west.

As I turned the craft and drove it toward the north, I watched the shore for signs of civilization. I also watched the sea around me for small boats or large ships; because, at the speed I was traveling in this craft, I would probably run into them before I could stop.

After traveling north along the eastern coast of South America for hundreds upon hundreds of miles, and not seeing any ships, boats, or signs of civilization, I became a little frightened, "It's going to be dark pretty soon and if I don't find some people pretty damn quick, I'll have to stop somewhere and wait for daylight. I know damn good and well that I should have seen some sign of civilization by now. This land is too big to be just an island, so it has got to be South America, or maybe even Africa. Nevertheless, I should have seen some sign of life along this coast."

I rolled the steering sphere forward a little, and, in just a few minutes, the land turned westward leaving the craft and I to fly straight north into the empty ocean. I quickly twisted the white sphere to the left, and I was heading toward the black spot of the sun, which was just about to sink below the horizon. The land now was to the south of me, on my left, and quite a ways off.

"I know now that it isn't South America," I thought mournfully, for I knew that if this wasn't South America, and it couldn't be Africa, then this land wasn't even on Earth. "I wonder if I can find that island again. The answer to how I got to this place has got to be there, somewhere, inside of that huge black structure."

I slowed the craft and turned it to the south toward the land. I wanted to get a good look at this land to make sure in my mind that it wasn't inhabited by human beings. As I got nearer, I could see that the northern coast of this continent was not as green as the eastern coast had been. In fact, this part of the land was nothing but a red desert as far as I could see to the east and west, and looked as if the desert went all the way to the snow topped mountains, which were quite a few miles inland to the south.

"Hell! I'm not going to have much time to explore this place because it's going to be dark in less than an hour. I may as well head toward the sun and hope that I can find that island out there in the middle of the ocean."

I turned the oval craft toward the sinking black spot of the sun and rolled the white steering sphere forward as far as I dared. The sun rose up into the western sky, and the land on my left vanished. I was now traveling faster than I had ever thought possible for anything to travel, except in outer space. The sun rose very fast, and was behind my head in less than a second, so I rolled the sphere back a little to slow the craft down. I didn't want to miss the island because I was going to fast to see it. However, in the very next instant, I saw the flat topped black structure rise up on the horizon, straight away, out in front of the craft.

"I'll be damned!" I said as I slowed the craft even more, "It almost looked as if the island rose right up out of the sea," I shook my head, "This can't be just a coincidence. There has to be some sort of homing device on this craft. Nevertheless, I did find the island, and that is what's important."

I drove the craft around the island until I saw the dome of the round black building which set on a hill above the cove, but the dome of the tower was not blue as it was before. I drove the craft into the cove and up onto the red beach, and stopped it there. Picking up the oval key, I got up from the seat and went out of the opening in the side of the craft where the ramp had appeared. I felt as if I had arrived home from a long vacation, but my muscles were stiff and sore from sitting so long in one position.

I walked along the beach to stretch my muscles, and I thought about the trip I had just made and the possibility that this place wasn't on my Earth at all.

"If this isn't Earth, then it's a damn good imitation of it."

Looking up toward the black round building, I saw that the sun was still hidden behind it, so the trip across the ocean and back had taken about four hours. Maybe even less than that. I turned around and looked back at the blue dome of the oval craft, and thought, "That is one hell of a machine! I wonder who built it? Although I don't like to say it, I don't belive it was built by people. That is, human people from Earth."

I looked at the oval key, which I still held in my hand, then I slipped it into one of the pouches at my waist, and pulled out one of the small ovals that were there in the pouches. This one was red, and it fit so well into my closed hand that I knew it had to have a very special purpose, but for what, I just didn't know. I put the oval back into the pouch and walked back to the blue domed craft.

I was getting hungry, so I got the packets from the right front seat, and squeezed the remaining food and water into my mouth. I then tossed the empty packets on the black deck, and watched as they were dissolved into the deck.

"That is probably what happened to the nuts I brought aboard this craft! No one stole them. They were just absorb by the material that this craft is made of."

Taking the oval key from the pouch at my waist, I placed it on the console and sat down in the left seat, "I may as well go to the giant warehouse and turn on all the lights and open all the doors. Then, maybe the ones that built this place will show up. If they don't, maybe I'll take a trip to the west this evening to see what I can see."

Placing my hand on the white steering sphere, I drove the oval craft up the grassy slope to the round black building, around it, and then down the wide grassy road to the smooth blue highway, which came to an end at the black wall a short distance to my right. I turned the craft to the left and sped around the long curve, across the wide valley, up the long hill between the tall trees of the green forest, and eastward along the wide highway toward the mile high black wall of the huge structure which contained the giant warehouse.

"Gee-golly damn but this place is huge," I said, "I should have known that it couldn't be anywhere on my Earth, or I would have heard about it. It had to have been built here a long time ago because it took quite a few years for that red dust to build up as deep as it is. Well, if who ever built it is still here on this Earth, they sure haven't been taking very good care of it."