I awoke slowly and sit up. As I did, the bed folded back into a seat, "I had better go find out if the sun is still up," I placed my hand on the white steering sphere, "I hope I didn't sleep too long." I rolled the sphere forward, and the craft moved out of its garage toward the shimmering blue curtain at the entrance to the giant structure.

The black spot of the sun was just above the top edge of the mile high black wall on the west side of the glowing blue plain when I drove the oval craft out of the solid looking blue entrance wall.

"Looks like I've only slept a few hours," I said, stopping the craft beside the high blue wall, "I'll have plenty of time left before dark to see what's to the west of this island. But first, I'm going to have something to eat."

I took out the three gray packets from the pouches at my waist, got a couple of green packets from the cubicle in the side of the seat, and ate a late lunch of, what tasted like, ham sandwiches and cold beer.

"Gee-golly damn," I said, as I watched the empty packets dissolve into the black deck of the oval craft where I had thrown them, "I'm almost ashamed of the way I feel. I should be worrying about how to get home, but I'm not. In fact, I'm not worried about anything. Maybe this food is laced with some type of tranquilizer? Nevertheless, it makes me feel good, so I don't care if it is or not."

Feeling the urge to use the toilet, I touched the middle brown finger dent in the top of the console and got up to walk around to the shimmering blue column that had appeared between the two rear seats. As I stepped through the shimmering column, I was shocked to find that I was naked. I quickly stepped back out of the column, and I was fully dressed again.

"What kind of material is this suit made of anyway?" I said, wondering at my own sanity, "I know I can't feel it against my skin, but I can feel it with my hands, and I can see it. So, how in the hell can this suit vanish when I go in there and then reappear when I come back out? That, my dear Caleb, is just another big mystery that I'll have to live with for awhile until I can find someone who can answer a few of my questions," Stepping into the column, I sat down on the pink topped black stool and had a bowel movement.

When I was done, I stepped out of the column and checked the pouches at my waist to make sure my oval key was still there. It was, and so were the other small ovals, so I went back to the left front seat and sat down.

I touched the middle finger dent in the top of the console, and the shimmering blue column vanished. "I believe I'll name this island Mystery Island until I can find out its real name," I said, as I rolled the white steering sphere forward, "That name seems to fit it very well."

The oval craft sped across the glowing blue plain, through the arched tunnel under the high black wall, west along the glowing blue highway that lay between the high trees of the forest, down into the valley, across the wide valley, and around the long curve of the highway. I stopped it at the opening in the trees where the grassy road went up the hill to the blue domed black tower, which set above the horseshoe shaped cove.

To the south, I could see the end of the blue highway where it stopped against the black wall of what was probably the large building that set on the north shore of the bay.

I turned the craft to the right, drove it up the hill, around the black tower, down the mile long slope to the red beach, and headed it west out over the ocean. When I was quite a ways out from the island, I stopped the craft, and looked back at the island. I could see the top of the huge black structure, which jutted high into the sky. Below that, I could see the blue dome of the black tower, so I lined the craft up with the blue dome in the center of the black structure, and the black spot of the sun, which was a few hours above the horizon, straight ahead of the oval craft. This was the only way I knew I would be going almost due west without looking at a compass.

I rolled the steering sphere forward, and the sea around me blurred as it moved toward the rear of the craft. The black spot of the sun moved higher into the sky, and I stared at the horizon because I expected to see land rise up out of the sea at any time.

When the sun was far behind me and low in the eastern sky, I gave up the thought that this was my Earth because there was no place on it that you could go this far and not see some kind of land.

"Okay Caleb," I said, "so you're stuck on another Earth that is somewhere in time or space. What are you going to do now?" Taking my hand off the white sphere, I watched the waves as they rolled under the motionless craft and tried to think of what I was going to do next. But my mind was a blank.

"There's got to be someone on this Earth because someone built that structure on that island. Mystery Island, that is a damn good name for it! What about, Mystery Earth, that's a good name too.

"If there is anyone on this Mystery Earth, I'll probably find them on that land mass that I thought was South America, and it's probably straight ahead of me. So, I may as well go ahead and find out if they're there."

I rolled the steering sphere forward and in a few minutes I saw the land rise up on the horizon to the south of me. I twisted the sphere and rolled it back to head toward the land at a slower speed.

This was the same land that I had seen this morning; however, to the people living on this land, I would have been here yesterday evening. I could see the red desert that stretched to the snow capped mountains in the south, so this was the north shore of the continent.

"I didn't see any sign of life on the eastern shore," I said, "or on this part of the land either, so I'll try the west and the south coast. But if I don't see anything there, I'll have to go inland."

I searched the coast line along the north and west part of the continent, and, even though there were many beautiful places for them to settle along the west coast, I never saw any signs of the natives of this Earth.

I was searching along the south coast, without finding any civilization there either, when I saw the mouth of a very large river, so I decided that to go inland would be the best bet. However, with the sun almost at high noon, I thought I would drive the craft onto one of the small delta islands and have some lunch.

The island I chose was pie shaped with a few short trees in the center of it, which were surrounded by green grass, and the ocean side of the island was about a hundred feet wide with a red beach, so that is where I drove the craft up the beach and stopped it on the grass beside the trees. The small island was only one of many that were spread out around the mouth of this wide river.

While I was eating from the gray and green packets, I noticed that the shadows cast by the trees were on the south side of them, and that could only happen if this continent was south of the equator.

"I know damn good and well," I said, "that the Mystery Island is north of the equator because the sun was always a little to the south at high noon," I looked up at the black spot of the sun, "Gee-golly damn, all this traveling around the world has confused my sense of time and direction. The sun looks as if it's high noon now and a little to the north, but I'm not sure of anything right now."

A few minutes later, I saw that I was almost correct. The shadow of the trees grew a little shorter and moved to my right, so the sun was in the north, but not quite high noon. Therefore, this place had to be south of the equator, and that made me feel a little less confused.

"Damn it! I'm getting tired of running all around this world looking for someone that can tell me where I am and how I got here. I have half a notion to go back to the Mystery Island because I don't believe there's anyone on this Earth but me." I reached over and touched the finger dent that made the shimmering blue column appear, then I got up to use the toilet.

When I came out of the shimmering blue cleaning-toilet, I walked around the oval deck and looked out at the many small islands, which formed the delta of this large river, and at the mainland a few miles to the north. To the south, I could see only the wide expanse of the open sea.

Walking back to the front seat, I said, "I might as well go up this river to see if there is anyone else here but me. If I don't find anyone along the river, I'll know for sure that who ever built the structure on Mystery Island is no longer living on this Earth."

I sat down in the seat, touched away the shimmering blue column, twisted the steering sphere to turn the craft to the left, drove it off the island onto the river, and headed the oval craft toward the north.

The wide river twisted and turned as I traveled farther north, and it reminded me of the great Mississippi river, which split the U.S.A. in half, with all the sand-bars and the drift wood along its muddy banks.

After two or more hours and not seeing a sign of human life, I stopped the craft at the mouth of a smaller river, which came from the east, and said, "If I go up this river for a ways and don't find anything, I'm going back to the Mystery Island. There has to be an answer to how I'm to get back home, and how I got to this Earth, inside of that huge black structure somewhere."

I followed this other river northeast until it became a narrow, but swift, stream of water that cascaded down over many small waterfalls from a higher waterfall in the northern hills.

"Gee-golly damn," I said, "but that's beautiful! However, I'm not looking for beautiful scenery, and since I've not seen any sign of human life, I'm going back to Mystery Island.

"What's wrong with me anyway, I've said that two or three times, and that's all I've thought about since I got here to this continent. It feels as if I saw something there, which is important, but I can't remember quite what it was, or I'm going crazy talking to myself."

"No, you are not going crazy. We were trying to get your attention. Why would I think that? You did not think that. We are speaking in your mind."

"Now I know I'm going crazy," I said as I spun the oval craft around and headed it back down the river, "when I start answering myself with strange thoughts."

"We know that you are not accustomed to this type of communication," my thoughts said, "so we will stimulate your eardrums with our thoughts. Thus, you will hear us also," a voice, which was neither male or female, said in my ears, and the voice was also in my mind.

I pulled my hand from the steering sphere, which stopped the craft in the center of the river, and looked around me.

"Who are you?"

"We are everything which surrounds you."

"Do you mean that you are in the rocks and the river?" I asked, "That's hard for me to believe!"

"No Caleb," the mellow thought-voice said, "We are the clothing that you wear, the seat that you are sitting on, the mobile which you refer to as the craft, and the structure on the island. We are the microorganisms which have been formed into these shapes, eons ago, by the Creators."

"Then this craft is made from living organisms. Is that right?" I asked.

"Yes, this is true," the thought-voice said.

I sat straight up in the seat and looked around at the other seats and the solid looking deck, and I couldn't imagine that this craft could be made of anything living.

"Where are these Creators?" I asked, "I want to know how I got to this strange world, and how to get back home!" I sat so stiff in the seat that my muscles began to ache.

"Relax Caleb," the thought-voice said, "The answers to these questions, and many more, will be explained to you when you place the Pass, which brought you to this planet, in one of the depressions in the top of one of the tables, which set in the living quarters, inside of the structure on the island, which you refer to as Mystery Island."

"Is the Pass what I have here in this pouch?" I asked, placing my hand on the oval key.

"Yes, but it is not the same as the oval that controls this mobile. The Pass is far more important to you," the thought-voice said.

"Then I had better get back to the island," I said, and I placed my hand on the steering sphere.

"There is another way," the thought-voice said, and the clear panel appeared in front of me. And I was surprised when I noticed that the wavy symbols, beside each of the brown dents, were now understandable to me.

"How come I can read these symbols now?" I asked.

"The moment you clothed yourself in the suit, we began teaching you the Creators language," the thought-voice said, "And now you can speak, write and read the language."

The oval panel seemed to be an oversized computer key board. The bottom row of dents controlled the movements of this mobile craft: UP, DOWN, RIGHT, LEFT, SLOW, FAST, STOP, REVERSE, SPIN, AHEAD, TURN, and GOTO were what the symbols meant. While the symbols on the rest of the panel consisted of the alphabet, numbers from zero to nine, and some special words like: VIEWER, TELESCOPE, and many other words.

"Does this mean that I can fly this craft back to the Mystery Island?" I asked the thought-voice.

"You can fly the mobile to the island," the thought-voice said, "or you can go to the island by touching the GOTO dent and thinking of the island."

I touched the GOTO dent at the bottom of the panel, and I thought of the high walls of the structure. The river, and the rocks along side of the river, and the daylight vanished. I was now under a sky filled with stars. Pushing the panel forward, I stood up and saw that I was also above the island with its blue highway, and the blue surface inside the walls of the structure, glowing brightly below me.

"How... how can this craft move that fast?" I said. I noticed a glow in the east which meant that the sun would soon be up.

"The mobile ceased to exist at the river," the thought-voice said, "but it existed above the island at the same moment."

Along with that statement, I saw an image of the craft in my mind that showed the craft as it set above the river and above the island at almost the same moment.

"How high above the island am I?" I asked, as I sat back down.

"You are six thousand feet above the highest part of the island, and you are one thousand feet above the top of the structure where we manufacture food and potable water and place them into the packets," the thought-voice said.

"So that is what this place was built for. But where are all the people that this place could feed?" I thought.

"That question will be answered when you place the Pass in one of the depressions on top of one of the tables that set in each of the living quarters inside of the structure below you," the thought-voice said.

"Okay,.... Say, what do I call you?"

"You can name us anything you want, Caleb."

"You said that you are microorganisms, so I will call you Micro. Okay?"

"Yes, Caleb. We are Micro."

"Okay, Micro, will you teach me to fly this craft?"

"Place your fingers in the dents of the row nearest you on the panel, then you think of what you want this mobile to do and it will do what ever you think," Micro said.

I placed my fingers in the dents and thought, "Take me home," but nothing happened.

"Your home is far too distant for this mobile, Caleb."

"How far away is my home?"

"205 thousand trillion of your miles, or 34,872 of your years if you traveled at the speed of light."

"Gee-golly damn!" I said, "Am I thirty-four thousand years older now?"

"No, Caleb. The Pass brought you to this planet instantly."

"But," I said, "how did that small Pass bring me here if this larger craft can't travel that far?"

"We who are in the form of the Pass have very special powers. You must place the Pass in the depression on one of the tables in the living quarters of the structure below you if you want more knowledge."

"Okay, Micro. But first, I want to learn to fly this oval craft," I placed my fingers in the dents and thought, "Fly toward the sun," and the craft turned and moved toward the east.

In a second or two, I saw the black spot of the sun straight ahead of me, then I noticed that the sun was staying in the same spot, but when I looked down, I saw that the craft was rising higher into the sky away from the sea, so I thought, "Stop," and the craft stopped moving.

"Why did the craft go up into the sky?" I asked Micro.

"You wanted to go toward the sun," Micro answered.

"Yes, but.... Oh, I see what you mean. But what I meant was that I wanted to fly around the world toward the east," The craft moved in that direction instantly.

"If this craft would have gone into outer space, could I have survived?"

"Yes," Micro said.

"Well, I don't want to go into space. Not yet anyhow!"

The craft, which I named the Dove because if I had it on Earth I could bring peace to the world with it, was very simple to control after I thought of it as just an extension of my body, and when I wanted to go down, up, slow, fast, or any combination of the bottom row of dents, the craft responded just the way I visualized the movements in my mind. However, I felt as if I was sitting still watching the outside world spin and turn on a wrap-around television screen.

When I flew over the continent on the opposite side of this planet from the island, I saw that the mountains in the north were shaped in a half circle around the red desert, but everything was green to the south of snow covered mountains.

"What happened to shape the mountains that way, Micro?" I asked, as I hovered a few thousand feet above them.

"These mountains were formed by an explosion."

"Is that where the red dust, that's in the giant warehouse, came from?"

"Yes," Micro said, "the dust settled from the atmosphere after the explosion a few million years ago."

"What caused the explosion?"

"When evil beings fired a weapon at this planet, this is where the projectile struck and exploded."

"What evil beings?"

"This will be explained to you when you place the pass on one of the low tables in the living...." I stopped Micro by saying, "I know, I know!"

Less than half an hour later, I landed the Dove on the glowing blue surface of the plain beside the glowing blue wall that covered the opening into the roofed part of the structure. Placing my hand on the white steering sphere, I drove the Dove through the blue wall and toward the Dove's garage where the other craft set.

After I parked the Dove beside the other blue domed craft, I asked Micro if the steering sphere needed to be charged, and Micro said that the sphere should always be in the cubicle while the mobile is not in use, but it would hold its charge for millions of my years if it was left in the mobile, and, also, if the mobile was occasionally moved into outer space where the steering sphere could receive radiation direct from the stars, it would never lose its charge.

I reached over and touched away the clear dent panel and started to pick up the oval key, but, when I touched it, the blue key changed to black, and I looked over my right shoulder and saw that the ramp had appeared.

"I don't have to remove the oval key either?" I asked.

"No," Micro said, "But, if you had used the Pass, you would have had to remove the Pass to open this mobile."

I stood up, walked over to the scooter, which set on the deck at the rear of the Dove, sat down in the left front seat, placed my hand on the white steering sphere, spun the scooter around, and drove down the ramp out of the Dove.

"Does it matter which apartment I go to?" I asked, as I drove the scooter through the doorway at the back of the Dove's garage.

"No," Micro answered.

I drove past the other scooter setting in the small room, out through the other doorway, and turned the scooter to the right, for I knew that the apartments to the south were closer than the ones to the north. When I reached the hallway that went east, I turned left and stopped at the first doorway into an apartment on my left.

I stepped off the scooter and walked into the large living room. The carpet in this room was light green, and the tables and couches were dark brown. Stepping over to the table on my right, I saw that there were two oval depressions in its top, so I sat down on the couch and placed the oval Pass, which I had in a pouch at my waist, into one of them, and the Pass changed to blue.

As I looked up from the Pass, I saw eight human figures standing on the oval platform that set in the center of the room. All of them were over six feet tall, and I could tell that four of them were female. All of them were wearing the same type and color of clothes that I was wearing, but their faces were covered with a smooth silver mask.

One of the males stepped forward to the edge of the platform and, holding out his hands palms up, spoke to me in a strange language that I, to my surprise, could understand. This is what he said:

"Eons will have passed when you, my son, understand the message we, your Fathers and Mothers, will leave on this Pass. The Pass is very important to you because it will open all of the doors on the worlds which we are placing in your care.

"Many years ago, an evil race of beings invaded this galaxy. They would have destroyed our race, but we defended ourselves without the need to harm them. Nevertheless, they continued the battle against us and destroyed two of our worlds.

"We could not tolerate the destruction of our worlds; therefore, we built large vessels and deadly weapons that would have eliminated the evil ones, but we could not bring ourselves to use them. We are creators not destroyers.

"After a meeting of our thoughts with the Protectors, we built larger vessels to take our race to another galaxy far from this one and the evil beings. We placed the Protectors around our worlds to hide the worlds from the evil ones until a new race could be created that would be able to use the weapons to eliminate the invaders of our galaxy."

He turned to face the others and spread his arms out toward them, "We are the ones which are to travel to the planet of your birth to mate with the primates there and begin the new race," turning back to face me, he said, "You, my son, are one of the new race of beings."

He stepped back among the others and said, "The large vessels and deadly weapons are yours. Defeat the evil beings, for the galaxy belongs to you and your race. Peace be with you my son," All of the Creators held out their hands with the palms up, then they vanished from the platform.