Final chapter of book one! Enjoy!

George woke up suddenly. Sunlight was streaming in his window. He was lying at home in bed. It felt soft and light and wonderfully warm and cozy. He yawned and stretched. He felt light and happy. He must have had a wonderful dream.

His door opened suddenly. “George?” said his mother in a whisper, poking her head in his room. “Oh, good, you’re awake!” she said with a smile, pushing the door open wide. “I don’t know how you could have slept through an earthquake like we had last night, but somehow you did. You are one sound sleeper.”

“Earthquake?” asked George stupidly.

His mother laughed. “It was a doozy. There were shocks that kept getting stronger and stronger. The last one got up to 5.5 on the Richter scale. Then they suddenly stopped. It’s all over the news.”

“Wow,” said George getting out of bed, and rubbing his head. A dim memory was stirring in his mind, as if he should know what she was talking about. “That’s weird. That was last night, huh? Why didn’t you—“

He stopped in mid sentence. There were two people standing quietly behind his mother. They looked like kids his age. Seeing his look, his mother smiled. “Proteus is here to see you,” she said warmly. “And his sister Emberly. He says you two just met and have been playing together. Why didn’t you tell me about them?”

“Well…” said George slowly, his mind trying to grasp what was going on. He didn’t know either of those kids. Yet the same nagging feeling was flopping around in his mind, as if he should know them, or know something about them. But for some reason, he couldn’t seem to remember. “I forgot, I guess,” he said at last.

“Well,” she said, turning to go, “come on out for breakfast in a minute. Then you can go out and play.” She disappeared down the hall.

The boy and girl stepped into George’s room. “Hello,” the boy said pleasantly. “It’s good to see you looking so well. Especially after what happened last night.”

George stared at them blankly. “It’s not polite to stare, you know,” said the girl after a moment.

“Do I know you?” asked George curiously. The nagging feeling of familiarity in his mind was growing stronger. But, like a shadow, it still eluded him.

The boy laughed. “Of course you know me,” he said. “I’m the protector.”

“The protector?” repeated George slowly. The name sounded vaguely familiar, yet George couldn’t quite place it for some reason.

The boy pulled a pen from his pocket and stepped over to George. He held the pen up to George’s eye and looked through it. George pulled back in alarm, but could see that it was not really a pen at all, but some type of hollow tube.

“Hmm,” said the boy. “I think I understand.” He put the pen back in his pocket, then pulled out three pieces of candy.

“Oh, good!” exclaimed the girl, reaching out for one. “I’m glad to see you came prepared.”

“Here,” said the boy, holding out the candy to George. He took it slowly, still looking curiously at the boy. Slowly he put it in his mouth. It tasted like butterscotch and fresh rainwater, mixed with chocolate. “Hey,” said George. “This is pretty good!”

And then he remembered everything in a rush.

“The fallen star!” he yelled. “And the Uth stone! My father had one too! The Grak tricked us, and nearly won! And then the Uth stone took me away!”

The protector laughed, holding up his hand. “Take it easy. One thing at a time. Whatever you went through last night made you experience temporary memory loss. The ‘remember all’ candy I just gave you restored your memory. I must say, I was hesitant to give it to you. You seemed so happy without it.”

“I’m so glad you did!” said George without hesitation. “I would never want to forget where I went, or what I felt. It was so beautiful!”

“Beautiful?” said the protector curiously. “When I started fighting the Grak last night and saw you tied to the fallen star, it sure didn’t look beautiful. And then suddenly you disappeared. Where did you go? And how did you escape?”

George opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again. How could he possibly describe what he had experienced? It was so overpowering, so fantastic and wonderful, that it seemed more like a dream than something that had really happened.

Emberly was still happily smacking on her candy. The protector sat down on the edge of the bed, not waiting for George to answer. “After I called you on the communicator ring and you couldn’t talk, I knew you were in trouble,” he said. “So I came rushing here and found you gone and the window open. I quickly transformed a cricket into a temporary likeness of you that would last a few hours so your mother wouldn’t panic when she found you gone. Then I headed straight for the fallen star. I found two Grak there, and could see you tied to the fallen star in the background. I was fighting the Grak when you suddenly disappeared. Then the Grak I was fighting ran to a nearby spaceship and rushed off as well.” He looked up at George expectantly, obviously wanting him to fill in what had happened next.

“Well,” said George slowly, “I guess it’s sort of hard to explain. The Uth stone took me away.”

“Really?” said the protector, fascinated. “I always thought it had strange powers, but I never thought it would be the key to your escape. I assumed it was just used to transport the fallen stars to earth.”

“Actually, the Uth stone was the key to everything,” said George. “It was the energy source used by the Grak to stop the earth’s rotation. They did it by some type of connection between the Uth stone I held in my hand on earth, and one my father had on the Grak ship in space.”

“Fantastic!” exclaimed the protector, standing up in excitement. “So, that’s why the intergalactic police never found any large energy turbines, or any other power source on the Grak’s ship! You were carrying it around in your pocket the whole time!”

The protector began to pace the room rapidly, smacking his right hand into the palm of his left. “How silly of me not to see it!” he exclaimed. “It all makes sense now. That’s why they kidnapped your father and Jiu Na’s father and Donna Tereza’s husband, and why all three of you found Uth stones. The Grak probably threatened your father and the other men, saying they would hurt you if they didn’t cooperate. Those stones were the key to it all! I should have realized!”

“And I guess that’s why I had all those dreams where my father came and wrote in my hand,” said George. “Only, I guess they weren’t really dreams. He really did come.”

“Probably,” said the protector. “It must have been all part of how to make the Uth stones work, how to make the energy connection between the Grak ship and the fallen stars. I guess they had to do that for about a year before the connection between the Uth stones could be made.” The protector turned to stare intensely at George. “But you still haven’t told me how you escaped, and where the Uth stone took you.”

“Well,” said George slowly, sitting up in bed and looking out the window at the bright California sunshine. “It just kind of … did.” George felt a medley of confused emotions coursing through his mind. Part of him wanted to tell the protector everything, but another part held the experience he had had with the Uth stone as being so sacred, that it almost seemed like it would be cheapened by being put it into words.

And then there was the whole issue of the sacrifice he and the Uth stone had been willing to make. How could he ever talk about that? Pulling the bed sheet up to his neck, George suddenly felt very self conscious.

“It must have been quite something, for it to be so hard to tell” said the protector quietly. “Just fill me in on the general details. There’s no need to tell me all the specifics.”

“Sure,” said George simply. Although he felt a bit uncomfortable talking about what had happened, he was still greatly relieved to be able to trust the protector again, to know that he was not in league with the Grak as George had suspected. Silently, George vowed to never tell the protector of his suspicions.

And so, George slowly told his story, starting with the Ziphon’s warning, the glowing Uth stone he had seen through the window, his capture, being carried to the fallen star and then being tied to it, and finally the gentle voice that came into his mind.

When he came to this part he proceeded slowly, pausing often, reliving the amazement, the trust and peace, and the joy that he had felt while his mind traveled through space with the mind of the Uth stone. He told quickly of their going into the black hole, and then of the wonder of being pulled out of it, and from there all the way to the planet Uth. By the time he finished, George found he was speaking in a reverent whisper so that the protector and Emberly had to strain to hear him.

“Wow!” said the protector quietly after George had finished. “That is absolutely amazing! Incredible!” He began to pace the room again, shaking his head in wonder.

“Didn’t you know the stars can sing?” asked Emberly unexpectedly. “We hear them all the time on my planet.”

“No,” said George, looking at Emberly in surprise. “I didn’t know that.”

“Nor did I,” said the protector, looking at Emberly with a suppressed smile. “Probably there are only a few creatures in the universe who can hear them. Being linked through the Uth stone while traveling through space, George had that pleasure, at least temporarily.”

Turning to George, the protector said, “Did I hear you right in saying that the entire Uth planet is alive?”

“Yes,” said George simply. “And it wasn’t just a single life form, but billions and billions of them, all in one place. And they all seemed to be singing …” Remembering the brightness and beauty of the Uth planet, he could feel again the incredible sense of joy and peace he had experienced there. It was truly indescribable.

“They are tremendously powerful,” said the protector quietly. “To generate enough energy to grab the fallen stars and stop the earth’s rotation—that is an immense amount of power! And then to pull you out of a black hole, and instantly bring your body there from earth, and to preserve your life—since there is no air to breath in space—and then to pull you all the way to their planet! And finally to send you back home to your own bed unharmed …” His voice trailed off, while he shook his head in wonder.

“There’s one thing I can’t figure out,” said George after a minute. “How did the Grak get the Uth stones in the first place? The Grak aren’t pure in heart. I can’t imagine any of them going to the planet Uth to get them, although my Uth stone told me he had left his planet a long time ago.”

“That is a good question,” replied the protector. “Who knows how the Grak somehow stumbled onto your stone and five others like it, and knew enough about their powers to try to use them in their plan. The Grak are cunning, and are always searching for new weapons they can use to accomplish their goals. They naturally wouldn’t pass up a chance to seize something as powerful as the Uth stones. But how on earth they found them is a complete mystery.”

George looked thoughtfully at the protector for a minute. A single question had been stirring in the back of his mind ever since his memory of the events of last night had returned. Although the joy he had recently experienced had masked it for a time, it could do so no longer. It was not a pleasant question, and George had been avoiding asking it, as if the failure to put it into words would somehow make it go away. Now however, he knew he could delay no longer.

“What about my father?” he asked quietly. “Where is he now? What will the Grak do to him?”

The protector looked somberly at George. “I only wish I had an answer to give you,” he said in a whisper. “I checked this morning with the intergalactic police, and they said that all the Grak ships have left the area. All I know is that the Grak almost never kill or physically harm their captives, although they can abuse them mentally. While you say your father looked very sad when you saw him, he must be very strong to have survived this long.”

George was silent, not knowing what to say. The thought of his father still in the hands of the Grak was almost more than he could bear—especially when he considered how angry they must be at the failure of their plan. What would they do to him now?

“I suppose a bigger question,” said the protector slowly as he began to pace the room again, “is why your father and Jiu Na’s father and Tereza’s husband did not appear on the planet Uth as you and the others did.”

“That’s right!” exclaimed George in sudden realization. “They had Uth stones too! Why didn’t they and their Uth stones come as well?”

The protector shook his head. “I can’t say for sure. I would guess, however, that its probably because they didn’t have the knowledge that you and Jiu Na and Donna Tereza had of what was going on. The Grak probably just told them they were doing some little experiment here, and if they didn’t cooperate you would be hurt. So, they didn’t know what the Grak were up to, or that their plan was to destroy the earth, and therefore they didn’t know how vital it was to stop them.”

The protector hesitated. Then he added softly, “The only other explanation I can think of is that perhaps the Grak have found a way to control their minds—although if that’s true, I can’t figure why they wouldn’t have used the same mind control methods on you and the others.”

George felt cold and uncomfortable, in spite of the warm sunshine streaming through the window. The idea that his father’s mind might be controlled by those horrible creatures was more than he could stand. The beauty and joy of his recent visit to the Uth planet seemed suddenly distant and far away, clouded by worry for this father and fear of what he might be going through.

“There’s one more thing you need to consider,” said the protector softly. “The Grak don’t give up easily. When one of their plans fail, they usually try another. Although I hate to say this, perhaps it will give you some hope for your father at the same time that it frightens you. I think the Grak may try again at their scheme to stop the earth’s rotation. It may not be through you and Jiu Na and Tereza this time, but perhaps through others. Since the three men know about earth and its customs, they will probably be preserved and used by the Grak for that purpose. Hence, your father could still be a key part of their plan, and they will probably not hurt him physically.”

George said nothing, but looked quietly out the window. A part of his mind was fighting what the protector had just said, not willing to accept it, while another part was leaping in hope. Perhaps the Grak would indeed preserve his father for that reason. But that would also mean that the earth was still in danger, and that the Grak could strike again. And this time, George would not have an Uth stone to help him.

Emberly was standing by the window. Suddenly she pointed to something they could not see.

“The ice cream store!” she yelled. “The one on wheels that we went to yesterday! He’s right over there!”

The protector strode to the window. “You’re right,” he said with a smile. “He must have turned his music off, or we would have heard him. Do you want to try another bomb pop today?”

Emberly screwed up her face in distaste. “It might explode in my mouth,” she said loudly.

“But remember, we told you, it’s not really a bomb,” said the protector. “It’s just food.”

"Well,” said Emberly, looking back out the window at the ice cream truck. “Maybe I’ll try one of the funny faces. Maybe they’ll talk to me before I eat them!”

The protector laughed, and even George’s lips curved up in a smile.

“Let’s go!” said Emberly excitedly, racing to the door.

“Hold on, now,” said the protector. “George isn’t up and dressed yet.”

Emberly grabbed George’s shirt and pants and threw them on his head. “He can get dressed on the way,” she said simply. Then she opened the door and was gone.

The protector went to the door. “Well, I guess I’d better follow her. There’s no telling what she might do or say. Why don’t you get dressed and come along?”

“Sure,” said George getting slowly out of bed.

“Remember,” said the protector, reaching out and putting his hand on George’s shoulder. “Emberly’s world was also attacked by the Grak. Her parents and all she knew and loved were turned to stone. Yet she can still laugh and find joy in life, somehow.”

George smiled at the protector weakly. “I’ll try not to worry too much about my father,” he said slowly. “Hopefully, he and the others will find a way to escape. They must each still have an Uth stone, which should eventually help them find a way out, as mine helped me.

“There’s a very good chance of that,” said the protector with a smile. “When the time is right.”

“Come on out as soon as you’re dressed,” he said, turning to the door. “After the ice cream, we’ll call on Jiu Na and Donna Tereza and get their stories. Then we’ll dial up the intergalactic police to tell them your story, and get an update from them. Who knows? There still may be something we can do.”

The protector smiled back over his shoulder, then disappeared through the door. George slowly started getting dressed. The protector was right. The story wasn’t over yet. His father could still return. His father still had an Uth stone, and it was inconceivable that its world would leave one of their own kind in the hands of the Grak forever. When the time was right, perhaps when it seemed there was no hope left, they would rescue it—and his father.

Tossing his pajamas on the bed, George quickly went through the door to join his friends.