I was stunned by what I had seen and heard, and I lay back against the soft couch to sort things out in my mind.

"The Creators, or the Fathers and Mothers of mankind, must be the missing link between the ape-man and the human being. If that is so, then this place has been here on this planet for millions of years, but the Creators looked as if they were alive as they stood on the oval platform."

"Was this only a recording?" I asked Micro.

"Yes," Micro answered.

"How long ago was this three dimensional message placed in the Pass?"

"4 million, 2 hundred and 75 thousand, 5 hundred and 48 of your years,"

"Gee-golly damn! Then they are the Fathers of the human race. Where are they now?"

"We do not know. We lost contact with the Creators a few of your years in the past."

"The Fathers have been watching us, the human race, all these years, then?"

"Yes, Caleb. The Creators, or Fathers if you want to think of them as that, remained in this galaxy to bring your race to maturity. Then they left this galaxy as the other Creators had done. You are now in command of your race's destiny."

"What can I do to help the human race? I'm just one man stuck on a planet many miles from home!"

"You have the Pass and you have 3 hundred and one large vessels, which are equipped with deadly weapons. You are also in command of us, the Protectors."

"Tell me about the Protectors, Micro."

"The microbes, which were later named the Protectors, were artificially made by scientists to protect the body from disease causing bacteria. The microbes did this so wondrously that the scientists decided to design a stronger string of microbes which would cling together to form a layer of film. The film could then be used as a bandage over an open wound to protect the wound from infection while it was healing. Although the film worked wondrously as a bandage, the scientists found that the layer of film, after it was removed from the mended wound, could not be destroyed in any conventional manner.

"After many experiments with the layer of microbe film, the scientists realized that they had created an indestructible form of life, and that the microbes could be formed into clothing which would protect the wearer from any type of harmful disease or wounds to his body. However, since the clothing would never wear out, the scientist, for economical reasons, could not place their discovery on the open market.

"Nevertheless, the scientists formed suits of clothing for their families and themselves from the microbe film, and they also formed suits of clothing for some of the needier people in their midst. So, after many years, everyone on the planet had, or had access to, a suit of microbe clothing, and death became unknown to the Creator's race.

"With no death on the planet, the scientists realized that the planet would soon become excessively overpopulated, so they tried to limit the use of the microbe clothing. But to no avail because the microbes, which had been injected into the bodies of the people for so many years to protect them from disease, were now preventing the scientists from harming anyone as well.

"Meanwhile, the scientists continued to experiment with the microbes, and the scientists soon found that they were able to communicate various instructions to each microbe by thought. And too, if the microbes were joined together into a solid mass, such as the suits, the scientists could communicate their instructions to all of the microbes as one unit, and the microbes never forgot an instruction.

"From that time on, the microorganisms were referred to as the Protectors, and the scientists manufactured billions of them to form into many shapes, such as the objects you have seen on this planet.

"Also, you are not stuck on this planet, Caleb, because there is a large vessel setting on the blue plain outside of this structure that can, if you like, take you to any place in this galaxy."

"When did it get here?" I asked.

"The vessel arrived at the same time as the Father's images appeared on the projection stage. It is the vessel they used when they went to your planet. We who form this vessel have the special powers that the Pass has."

"Where are the other vessels?" I asked as I picked up the Pass from the table.

"They are at the Father's home planet, but we can bring them to anyplace in this galaxy that you wish when you need them."

"Why did the Fathers and Mothers hide their faces from me?"

"That was their privilege. You can do the same, when you want to, since you have a shield over your face that is invisible to your eyes. This shield also protects your eyes from the radiation of the stars."

I left the room and stepped up on the scooter. "Are the evil beings still here in this galaxy?" I asked as I sat down in the seat, spun the scooter around, and drove west toward the wide north-south hallway.

"No. They left this galaxy a few years after the Creators left for the other galaxy, but we expect that the evil ones will return since we no longer hide the Creator's worlds, except for the home planet, from the evil being's perception."

"But... but why was I picked for this job anyway, I'm just an old construction worker not a military man?" I asked as I turned the scooter into the wide hallway and sped toward the doorway into the Dove's garage.

"The Pass's instructions were to choose a male who had the genes of the Fathers in his chromosomes, which you have," Micro explained.

I turned the scooter into the small room where the other scooter was, drove past it into the Dove's garage, and up the ramp into the Dove. As I got off the scooter and headed toward the front seat of the craft, I said, "I would think that all of the human beings should have the Father's genes by now."

"Only a few humans have the genes of all the Fathers. Each of the Fathers went to different parts of your planet to start the race of human beings. Because of this, it took many years before their genes came together in one human being."

I sat down in the seat, touched the black oval key to close the ramp, spun the Dove around, and drove it toward the shimmering blue curtain. When I drove through the curtain and out onto the blue plain, I saw a blue dome that looked like the Dove, but this one was quite a bit larger.

As I drove toward the dome, I asked Micro, "How big is this space vessel?"

"The highest part of this vessel is 1 thousand 3 hundred feet above the oval base. The oval base of the vessel is 3 thousand 9 hundred feet long and 2 thousand 7 hundred feet wide."

"Are the other vessels the same size as this one?" I asked as I stopped the Dove beside the mountain high domed vessel.

"One hundred of them are the same size, but the other two hundred vessels are much larger and there are two sizes. The largest is 52 thousand 8 hundred feet long, 31 thousand 6 hundred feet wide at the base, and it is 15 thousand 8 hundred feet from the base to the top of the dome. The other one hundred vessels are 26 thousand 4 hundred feet long, 15 thousand 8 hundred feet wide, and they are 7 thousand 9 hundred feet high from their base to the top of their domes."

I asked Micro to convert the measurements into miles and they were: Ten miles long, six miles wide, and three miles high for the largest vessel. Five miles long, three miles wide, and one and a half miles high for the middle size vessel.

I touched the left finger dent on the console, and the dent panel appeared in front of me. Placing my fingers on the bottom row of dents, I flew the Dove up into the air above the large vessel. From above, the vessel looked like a giant blue egg.

"How do I get into this vessel?" I asked Micro.

"Go through either side where the color is a lighter blue."

When I flew the Dove down and let it hover beside the vessel, I saw that there was a large part of the side that was a lighter blue. So I edged the Dove toward the skin of the vessel, and then through the skin into the vessel.

I had entered the vessel a few hundred feet above the glowing blue surface of, what Micro explained was, the hangar deck. The glowing white ceiling was a few hundred feet above me also. The hangar deck was as long as the vessel was wide and it was at least as wide as the vessel was. In the center of the deck were two blue domed craft, like the Dove, setting beside a shimmering green column that was about eight feet in diameter, and the column went from the deck to the ceiling.

I landed the Dove close to the column, beside the two oval crafts, because Micro said that the shimmering green column was the way to go instantly to any place in the huge vessel. Micro also told me that the two crafts were the ones which the Creators had used while they watched over the human race, and that four more of the blue domed crafts were in a small room to the north of the oval dent that I had used to turn on the food-water complex.

I touched away the dent panel and then touched the blue oval key, which turned black and opened the ramp. I stood up and walked over to the ramp and out of the Dove onto the hangar deck of the large vessel.

I went over to look into the other two oval domed crafts and saw that each had a scooter setting on the deck inside of them, but there was nothing there to show that the Fathers had used them.

Walking over to the shimmering green column, I asked Micro how I was to go to anyplace in this vessel if I didn't know where these places were, so Micro placed a vision of the inside of the vessel in my mind.

The control deck was at the top of the vessel a hundred feet below the outer skin. I thought of the control deck as I stepped into the green column, and I stepped out onto a large oval deck as if I had only stepped through a doorway. I saw that this thirty-four foot long by twenty foot wide deck had four sets of two seats, with a console between each set, spaced evenly around the outer edge of it, and I stood on a large green circle in the center of the black deck with the blue sky above me, and the high walls of the structure were way off in the distance.

I walked around the deck looking at each set of seats and saw that only one set had a console with a white sphere on it, and the other consoles had only the three brown finger dents on them. Therefore, I sat down in the left seat of the set of seats with the white sphere between them. I saw that there was no oval key in the oval depression on the console, so I reached into the pouch at my waist and pulled out the oval Pass. When I placed it into the depression, the Pass changed to blue.

I touched the left finger dent on the console, and the clear panel with the brown finger dents on it appeared in front of me, and I saw that it was the same as the panel in the Dove. I placed my fingers in the dents at the bottom of it, making sure that one finger was on the GOTO dent, and thought, "Take me to my home planet."

The high black wall and blue sky I was looking at vanished to be replaced with a small blue circle smeared with white and brown splotches and streaks, with a smaller gray circle close beside it, setting among millions of bright pin points of all colors of light in a black blanket that surrounded the invisible dome of the vessel. Then I realized that what I was seeing was a planet and its moon that were surrounded by millions of distant stars in the black void of space.

"Is this my Earth?" I asked hopefully.

"Yes," Micro's thought-voice answered.

"How far away from Earth am I?"

"One million miles."

I took my hands from the panel and lay back in the seat to absorb the beauty of this scene that, to my knowledge, no human had ever seen from this distance before.

To my right and behind me was the milky-way; where there were so many stars that they looked to be clouds amidst the brighter stars of the galaxy, while to my left and in front of me the stars were not as thick, so the deep blackness of outer space could be seen between them.

I placed my fingers on the dent panel and turned the vessel, but all I could see of the sun was a black spot that had a white ring around it, and then, I realized that the vessel was hovering in space between the sun and the earth.

"Why did the vessel stop here?" I asked, "Why didn't it arrive closer to the Earth?"

"This is where the Fathers placed this vessel while they watched your race mature, and they used the mobiles to reach out to your planet."

"I'll bet my bottom dollar," I thought, "that the domed oval craft were the UFOs, or flying saucers, the people have been seeing all these years," but out loud I asked, "Did the Fathers also use a telescope to watch us with from here?"

(UFO is the acronym for Unidentified Flying Objects.)

"Yes. Touch the viewer and telescope dents. You can guide the magnification of the image that appears on the viewer with your thoughts."

Turning the vessel until the earth was in front of me, I reached forward, placed two fingers on the dents, and a small replica of the earth and moon appeared above the panel. They looked so real and solid that I took my hand from the panel and tried to touch them, but they were only images, so my hand went down through them.

I imagined myself turning a knob on a telescope and the image of the earth swelled until it filled the oval viewer that hovered above the dent panel. As I continued to turn the imaginary knob of the telescope, I concentrated on a greenish-brown spot, which I figured was land covered with streaks of white clouds, and the scene swelled rapidly until I was looking down at the swaying leaf covered tops of a few trees. I also could hear the rustle of the leaves as the tree's limbs swayed in the wind, and the sound of laughter as two people run from under one of the trees to vanish, from my sight, under the thick foliage of another.

"This is more than just a telescope to see with," I thought, "it magnifies the sound as well." Concentrating on the tree that the two people were under, I turned the imaginary knob of the telescope and the tree's foliage seemed to dissolve as it swelled on the viewer. Then I was only a few feet above the man and woman where they lay on a blanket that was spread out on the grass, and the man was saying something to the woman, but I could not understand him; however, it sounded like he was speaking in the French language.

When the man placed his arm around the woman to pull her closer to him and began to kiss her, I backed away from the scene, until I was looking down at the tops of the trees, because I didn't want to be a peeping-tom to the couple's love making.

Backing farther away until I was well above the clouds, I could see the outline of the coast and the ocean beyond it. I moved the telescope toward the ocean and across the ocean until I saw the outline of another coast, but this time I could see the high cliffs along the coast as if I was looking at them while lying on my side.

As I broke my concentration of the scene on the viewer, I thought, "This viewer makes everything look so real that I actually believed that I was there above the ocean," Then, placing my fingers on the dents at the bottom of the dent panel, I rolled the vessel until the coast line was horizontal on the viewer.

"That's better!" I said, as I moved the telescope to the left, or south, along the rugged coast with my thoughts. This was the northern part of the east coast of North America; therefore, because I was trying to stay close to the shore, and since it was on the edge of the sunlit hemisphere, the farther south I went, the coast line seemed to sink into the ocean.

"It looks like it'll be three or four hours before the United States is in the daylight," I thought as I pulled away until the full sphere of the earth was on the viewer, "so I may as well get this vessel a little closer. But I don't think I should let anyone see this large vessel yet because it would probably scare the hell out of them."

Touching the viewer and telescope dents, the image of the earth vanished from above the dent panel. I placed my fingers on the bottom row of dents and drove the vessel toward the earth. And then I decided that it would be best if I left the vessel on the back side of the moon and take the Dove down to earth since it was smaller and less likely to be seen by anyone.

As the earth and moon swelled before me, I turned the vessel until the moon covered the earth and now the moon looked to be a large gray crescent surrounded by millions of bright stars.

"I guess I could leave the vessel here, but I think I'll land it on the moon so I'll know where it's at for sure," I thought as I drove the vessel toward the bleak pockmarked surface of the back side of the moon.

Finding a level place between two large craters, I set the vessel down on the moon, touched away the dent panel, picked up my oval Pass, and stood up. Because I remembered that these words were said when man first landed on the moon, I said, "The Eagle has landed!" and smiled. Then I thought, "That's what I'll call this vessel the, Eagle," then I walked over to the green circle in the center of the black oval deck.

As I stepped on the green circle, I thought of the apartment deck, which was just below this control deck, and I stepped out of the shimmering green column to see that I was in the center of a large oval room that had seventeen doorways spaced evenly around its black wall.

Micro said, "Sixteen of these doorways lead into living quarters, and one of them is a doorway into a conference room," Micro would now answer my questions before I could consciously think of them.

"Thank you, Micro," I said as I turned and thought of the hangar deck as I stepped into the green column, and I stepped out of the green column onto the hangar deck in front of one of the blue domed craft.

"This one is the Dove," Micro said, answering my questioning thought.

I was getting accustomed to Micro's thought-voice in my head, and, possibly because I began to think of Micro as a him, Micro's thought-voice seemed to sound more masculine than before.

Walking over to the Dove, I put the oval Pass in one of the pouches at my waist and, as I touched one of the small ovals there, Micro said, "They are tools which can also be used as weapons. One is for light to see by, or it can be used to cut through any living or nonliving matter. One of the tools can lift any size of object away from the pull of gravity and pull it toward you, or it can add to the pull of gravity to make an object seem heavier than it truly is. One of the tools can be used to join living or nonliving matter together, or it can disintegrate living or nonliving matter. It can also be used to stun living organisms for a few minutes or many hours. The other tool is a thought communicator that will allow other beings to communicate with you. The communicator is to be worn around their neck. However, it can also be used to control the mind of that being.

As Micro explained this to me, I saw a vision of each oval that Micro was explaining about. The blue oval was the one which changed from a light to see with into a LASER to cut with. The brown oval was the gravity imitator. The red oval could integrate or disintegrate matter, and could stun living organisms. The black oval, which had the thin strap attached to it, was the thought communicator or mind controller.

(LASER is the acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.)

I sat down in the left control seat of the Dove and touched the left finger dent on the console. The dent panel appeared, and I took the Dove up into the air above the hangar deck. Then I turned the Dove toward the side of the vessel and flew it toward and then through the vessel's side out into the vacuum of space that existed on the Moon.

"There are a few more questions I wanted to ask you," I said as I let the Dove hover above the beautiful cratered landscape of the moon that was two or three thousand feet below me.

"From the time you arrived on the planet," Micro's thought-voice answered, "we guided you from harms way until you learned the Creators language. We also absorbed the nut fruit to force you to try the food in the packets, which we supplied. The planet's name is Sustenance."

Those were the answers to the questions I had in mind, so now I began to think of a way to get to my home. That is, without causing too much panic when the people would see this blue domed spacecraft, which they would, no doubt, think of as an another UFO.

"Are you still guiding my thoughts?" I asked Micro, not believing that I would worry about a panic.

"Yes," Micro's masculine thought-voice answered.

"Well, don't do it anymore. I'm a big boy now, and I'll do my own thinking from now on! And, if I need your advice, I'll ask for it! Okay?"

"Yes, Caleb," Micro said.

I wasn't worried about causing a panic. I just wanted to get home as fast as I could. However, I didn't want to scare anyone either.

Keeping the same distance above the cratered surface of the moon, I flew the Dove toward the black, almost obscure, spot of the sun until I saw the Earth rise above the jagged horizon ahead of me, and a little less than half of the sphere was lighted by the sun, so I turned the Dove away from the moon and headed it toward the daylight side of the Earth.

When I could see the sphere in full daylight, I stopped the Dove in space and waited for the Earth to turn all of the United States toward the sun. While I waited, the full realization of where I was, and what the Fathers wanted me to do, flowed through my mind.

"Micro, how many people does it take to control each of those space vessels that the Fathers gave me?"

"Eight. But there are quarters for many more of your people in each of them."

"What are the extra living quarters for?"

"In each of the vessels there are many small mobiles such as the Dove and the scooter."

"Gee-golly damn! That's three hundred times eight people, so that's two thousand four hundred people to man the vessels, and thousands more if the vessels are fully manned. How am I going to get that many people to help me fly those space ships? I guess I'll just have to think of some way to get them."