A day had passed. George was now sitting in the protector’s house in the Volkswagen Beetle. The arms poking out of the couch were vigorously scratching his back, seemingly guided by magic to those spots where a good rub or scratch would feel heavenly.

To the right of George on the couch was Jiu Na, who had just been brought through the transporter by the Protector to join them. And on his left was Donna Theresa--the other person who had shared a former adventure with George and Jiu Na--who the Protector had also brought from Portugal. After hearing bits and pieces of everyone’s story, and in light of the inexplicable disappearance of George’s and Jiu Na’s father—and of Donna Theresa’s husband too, as it turned out—the Protector had decided that a face to face meeting would be the best and quickest way to try to figure out what was going on. That way he could get the details of everyone’s story at once.

“Now,” said the Protector, pacing quietly back and forth across the room in front of them, “If we carefully examine each of your stories and the way they are similar or dissimilar, we might find a clue to what’s going on.” He turned toward Donna Theresa. “You were saying a minute ago that your husband came for you about a week ago, here on earth. Is that right?”

“Yes,” she answered simply. Since they were all chewing the Protector’s language gum, none of them had any trouble understanding each other. “He said some creatures called the Glosh had rescued him from his captors, the Grak. They brought him here to get me, because they needed two Uth stones in their war with the Grak, and my husband was too sick and weak to go get them himself. So, they needed me to do it.”

“So we can see, after hearing Jiu Na’s and George’s story, that the Glosh—or rather, the Grak, since we now know that’s who they were—had come up with a clever plan to trick all three of you into going to the planet Uth to get two stones for them, since they are too evil to get the stones themselves. I presume you did go there, and get the two stones, Donna Theresa?”

“Yes, I did,” she answered.

“And then you found out the Glosh were really the Grak, right?” said the Protector.

“No,” said Donna Theresa unexpectedly. “The Glosh then simply brought my husband and I back here. And then he disappeared.”

“Hmm …” said the Protector, stroking his chin. “That is odd. You mean to say that the Glosh kept the stones and simply brought you back, like they’d promised?”

“That’s right,” said Donna Theresa. “Except, after their spaceship left, I was surprised to find that I had one of the stones with me, in a little box. I don’t know where the other stone is.”

“And I’ve got one stone as well!” cried Jiu Na. “My father must have had the other one with him when he disappeared.”

“And after George’s father disappeared, I found one stone in the little box where both stones used to be,” said the Protector, handing the little box with the stone in it to George. “Clearly, the Grak are behind all this, and made sure that you each had one stone, while the three men also had one stone each. And I think we can guess why!”

“You don’t mean—“ began George.

“That’s right,” responded the Protector simply. “They are apparently planning to do the same thing they did before--to use you three and the three men to create a power link between the fallen stars on earth and their ship in space, in order to stop the earth's rotation.”

“But how can they do it again?” cried George. “Don’t they know that we’ll do just as we did before, and take the stones back to the planet Uth?”

“I’m sure they do know that,” responded the Protector. “But I presume they’ve figured out a way to get around that problem.”

“But there is no way around it!” said Jiu Na. “There’s no way any of us would do differently than we did before. Even if they threatened our families! When we made that choice before, we did it knowing the price we would pay.”

“I know,” said the Protector with a gentle smile on his face. “It was a wondrous thing you all did, and I have no doubt you’d do it all again. But the Grak are very cunning, and seem to have a new plan up their sleeve. And they must think they can pull it off, somehow.”

“Have you checked to see if they’re nearby?” asked Donna Theresa suddenly.

“Yes,” replied the Protector. “When this all started coming to light, I immediately contacted the intergalactic police. They’ve searched the area, and found only one Sus ship orbiting the earth. There are no Grak ships anywhere close.”

“Sus?” said George curiously. “What’s that?”

“Not what,” corrected the Protector. “Who. The Sus are a very docile race, and usually spend their time studying things and adding to the body of knowledge in the universe. This particular Sus ship is here on an archeological expedition—of the moon, not the earth.”

“Well, if the Sus ship is the only one in the area, then the Grak must be on it!” cried George.

“My thoughts precisely,” said the Protector. “Which is why I had the intergalactic police do a thorough search of their ship. They found nothing.”

“But they must be there!” cried George. “Where else would they be?”

“I’m afraid,” said the Protector gravely, “it isn’t as vital for them to be on the Sus ship at the moment as you might think. You see, when your father disappeared yesterday, George, I didn’t realize at first that something else disappeared too. I only discovered it this morning, in fact. And it could make all the difference. It was a portable transporter.”