“What?!” cried George in amazement. Jiu Na raced over to the book. “What do you mean about our fathers?” she cried.

“They are here!” said Dogor again, in an animated voice.

“But why?” cried George. “Where did they come from? Are the Grak there too? Where is the Protector?”

“I haven’t seen any Grak, and I don’t know where the Protector is right now, although he was here a short while ago,” said Dogor excitedly. “All I know is that all three men are aboard this ship!”

"George, what do we do?” cried Jiu Na. George stared unseeing at the wall, thinking hard. “We know,” he said slowly, “that the Grak plan will only work if the three of us are on earth, and the three men are up in a ship in space. So if we go up there where our fathers are, there’s no way they can possibly fulfill their plan! All of the Uth stones will be together in one place! And with the power of the stones, we should be able to rescue our fathers!”

“But that may be exactly what they want us to try and do!” cried Jiu Na. “It may be a trap! They could easily transport us down to the earth’s surface again, after they capture us.”

“But don’t forget, we still have the Uth stones!” cried George. “If they try to transport us anywhere, we can avoid it. Don’t you want to go rescue your father? This is our chance! And nothing can go wrong if all the Uth stones are in one place.”

Spotting the bottle of Vleck on the table, he rushed over to it. “And there’s this, too!” he cried. “The intergalactic police have been listening to everything we’ve said. They know exactly where we’re going, and if there’s any trouble, they’ll swarm the Sus ship, just like they did when they rescued you.”

“I don’t know,” said Jiu Na worriedly, biting her lower lip. “I keep thinking of the Ziphon’s warning. And the Protector told us not to leave, remember?”

“But we’re just going to where he already is!” countered George.

“It may be pointless to argue about this,” said Donna Theresa suddenly. “We don’t know how to work the transporter, so we can’t go anywhere.”

George’s heart sank—then soared again. “I know how it works!” He cried, racing over to the transporter door and picking up the little black control box. “The Protector already set the coordinates for the Sus ship, because he went up there himself! All we have to do is press this green button, then walk through!”

For a moment, no one moved. “Come on!” cried George to them suddenly. “We’ve got to go now! Don’t you want to rescue them? This is our chance! We’ll get them quick, then bring them back down here!”

“But, George, stop and think for a minute!” cried Jiu Na in protest. “The only way our fathers could have gotten on that ship was if the Grak used the transporter they stole from the Protector. They weren’t supposed to be able to do that, because the Protector went up there to stop them. But he apparently didn’t stop them! That means the Grak are there!”

“The Protector may be in trouble, then!” cried George. “Now the intergalactic police will swarm all over that Sus ship. They’ll probably be there before we are. Come on! Let’s go!”

“Perhaps you are right,” said Donna Teresa, moving calmly toward the transporter door. “If my Jose is there, I cannot help him by staying here. Indeed, it would seem to be more dangerous here than up there.”

“All right, I’ll go,” said Jiu Na unhappily, as she walked over to the transporter. “But I still think it might be a trap!”

George pressed the green button, then set the box down. As he straightened up to go through the door, he was surprised to feel something small climbing up his leg.

Looking down, he saw Emberly, still in the form of a Flibbet. She crawled up his shirt and into his pocket.

“You can stay here,” he said. “There’s no need for you to go.” He knew that she had been sulking ever since they had come back from L91. She was so upset that she had apparently refused to be transformed from a Flibbet back to her natural form.

“The funny little leathery man said I must go,” she replied simply.

“What little leathery man?” said George, mystified. Sudden realization flooded his mind. “Do you mean a Ziphon? Did one visit you?”

Before Emberly could answer, Jiu Na cried, “George, are you coming, or not?” She was at the transporter, ready to step through. Donna Teresa had already gone through and disappeared.

“Yes, I am!” cried George, dashing over and following Jiu Na through the door. Once more there was a dazzle of color, and a rushing sound of wind.

And then they were through. They were standing in a bare room with three windows that showed the stars outside the Sus ship. There was nothing in the room except for a little creature that looked almost like a puppy. It wagged its tail at them, then spoke in a soft voice.

“Welcome. I am Dogor. The men you seek are in the next room.”

“Haven’t you seen the Protector anywhere?” asked Jiu Na in concern.

“Yes and no,” said the little dog. “We were not able to set up the disability screen on the transporter before he came. He was helping us get it set up when he seemed to disappear. The Grak may have pulled him through somehow.”

“George, this is looking more and more like a trap!” cried Jiu Na. “The Grak might be taking over. Let’s go back down to earth before it’s too late!”

“But if this were really a trap, the Grak would have been here to meet us!” answered George. “Besides, the intergalactic police probably tracked the Protector wherever he went, and went there too! They probably have all of the Grak rounded up by now! And besides all that, we’ve still got the Uth stones. Combined with the stones our fathers have, our strength should be more than a match for the Grak.”

"Follow me, if you want to see the three men," said the little dog as he started to trot down a bare hallway to their right. George darted through and ran after him, followed by Donna Teresa and a reluctant Jiu Na. In seconds, they burst from the hall into a large, open room with many control panels and blinking lights in it. This apparently was the bridge, or control area of the ship. And standing in the middle of this room were George’s father, and the two other men!

“Father!” cried Jiu Na, rushing forward to a short Chinese man with gray hair at the temples. Next to him was a swarthy, dark skinned man with a mustache. This must be Jose.

“George!” cried out his father. “You came! Thank heavens! Hurry and untie me.” In shock, George saw that all of the men’s hands were tied to a large, metal ring. The circular ring was about 3 inches thick and 6 feet across. It sat up off the floor on spindly metal legs.

George rushed over to his father and grabbed for the ropes that bound his father’s hands to the ring. But as he did so, a most amazing thing happened. His hands went right through his father’s hands, as if they weren’t even there!

“What in the world?” cried George in wonder. Looking up, he saw the same astonished look on Jiu Na’s face, as well as Donna Teresa, as each also tried to untie the other men.

George’s father and the other men unexpectedly stepped back from the ring. They hadn’t been tied at all! Yet George realized in horror that now he was himself fastened somehow to the ring! His left hand was gripping it tightly, and was held fast by an invisible force as if stuck there with glue. What was going on?

His father and the other men smiled at them, then started to laugh. It was a cruel laugh, that cut George to the very heart, and made Emberly jump out of his pocket and run for cover. Everyone was so absorbed with what George's father was saying that no one paid any attention to her.

“My, oh, my!” said George’s father with a huge smile. “You certainly were easy to fool. And you were so willing too! You walked right into our little trap!”

George’s head felt like it was going to explode. He looked at his father in horror. How could he be saying such things?

“Do you still have your Uth stones with you?” asked his father suddenly. And as he did so, his father pulled from his pocket the other stone.

Then there was still hope! All six stones were here on the Sus ship. George groped in his pocket and pulled out his own stone. He saw Jiu Na and Donna Teresa do the same.

“Thank you once again, for performing that last little bit of service for us,” said George’s father. Then, amazingly, the stone in his father's hand vanished!

“You see, George, the stone you thought you saw in my hand wasn’t real. But you each need to be holding your stone in your hand in order for the beam of energy to work. Meanwhile, your father in California, Jiu Na’s father in China, and Donna Theresa’s husband in Portugal, are all holding their own Uth stones while gripping onto the fallen stars--since if they don't we have promised to kill their families! They still know anything about stopping the earth's rotation, and don't realize what is about to happen, and that their families are about to die, anyway."

"In short, we’ve just basically switched places from where you all were last time we tried this little experiment.”

"My father…” gaped George. “He’s down there? Then that means that you are—“

“A fake?” George’s father—or at least, the person he had thought was his father, smiled cruelly. “Yes, that is correct. I’ve been a fake all along, from the very beginning.”

In sudden rage, George tried to wrench free of the metal ring, and tackle the taunting figure of his father. But it was no use. Somehow the Grak had done something that made his hand stay glued to the ring. He couldn’t budge.

His fake father laughed once again. “Don’t bother trying to pull free. There’s no way you can do so. But even if you could, you wouldn’t be able to hurt me.” He walked suddenly over to George, who swung wildly at him with his free fist. But his fist went right through his father as if he weren’t even there!

“You see, George,” said his fake father with a taunting smile, “I’m nothing but a holographic image. The image of your father is projected into the air by a tiny, floating control device, the size of a grain of sand. I’ve been programmed to mimic every move and gesture of your real father, and have every bit of his memory stored in my electronic brain, so there is no question I can’t answer that he would know. I’m a very real and convincing image, don’t you think? Except for the fact that I can’t touch or be touched!”

“But that’s not true!” screamed George through gritted teeth. “I touched you once, and you were real!”

A shadow of sadness crossed his fake father’s face. “Yes,” he said slowly, “I almost was.” He paced across to look out at the myriad of stars through the ship window. “L91 was an amazing planet. It turned dreams into realities.” He turned suddenly on George. “And what do you think I am?!” he screamed suddenly in a frenzied voice. “A dream! That’s all I’ll ever be! A dream image of your father! But there …” he paused, calming himself down with some effort. “There, I had the chance to be something more. I started to become real. If we had stayed, I would have become alive, as real and breathing as any human being!”

In shocked recollection, George remembered how spongy his father’s flesh had been when he touched him. He hadn’t been fully real then! And when his fake father had walked across the clearing and he and the Protector had watched, his father had sometimes cast a shadow and sometimes hadn’t. He hadn’t reached the point of being fully real then, either! And then there were the strange things his father had said, about coming alive--things George had not understood at the time, but which made perfect sense now.

The Ziphon had been right once again. Things were not as they had seemed. And he had not made enough effort to touch and feel his father.

“You liar!” yelled Jiu Na at the fake image of her father. “You beast! No wonder you never let me touch you. How could you have deceived me like you did?”

“It was easy, my daughter,” said the fake image of her father. “I was programmed by the Grak. What else could I do? I have no feelings for you—none whatsoever.”

“You’ll pay for what you’ve done!” cried Jiu Na. “The intergalactic police know where we are! They’ll be here any second!”

“Oh, really?” said George’s father, raising an eyebrow in mock fear. Walking over to the window, he pointed at a pinprick of light in space. Looking closely, George saw that it seemed to be on fire!

“There’s your precious intergalactic police!” he spat. “Do you really think that the mighty Grak are going to be stopped in their plans by a handful of simpletons!”

“But the work teams at the fallen stars on earth,” said George. “You can’t fulfill your plan with them there!”

“And, why not?” cried his fake father. “Who do you think the lead technician in California is, after all? Your precious father! And it’s the same in China and Portugal. Who cares if the other team members suddenly see a beam of energy connect to the fallen star? By the time they see it, it’ll be too late for them to do anything about it. They’re simple earth men anyway. How are they going to stop us?”

George was almost weeping in frustration. “What have you done with the Protector?”

His fake father smiled. “I haven’t done anything with him,” he said simply. “But they have.” He pointed toward the hall where George and the others had entered. And standing there was Dogor, and other creatures like him! All of them looked like little puppy dogs.

“It was so nice of your friendly protector to help us,” said Dogor with a sneer. “We sent for him of course, and had a nice trap waiting when he arrived a few minutes ago. And of course, the fact he had set the coordinates of the transporter so you could all follow him in coming here was also most helpful. We are SO glad you came!”

George was still staring at the puppies, his mind groping to comprehend. “But I thought the Sus were peaceful creatures,” he said in confusion.

“They are,” said the puppy with a smile. “Unfortunately, your so-called Protector was so excited about the disappearance of your ‘father’ and his precious transporter, that he forgot to notice another little item of his that we stole … his transformer!”

Sudden realization flooded over George. “You mean you’re—“

“Yes, we are,” Dogor replied. “We are the Grak. We took over this Sus ship and replaced all of its crew as soon as we got the transformer, and could change ourselves to look like them. We never had transformer technology before. It’s very handy!”

Suddenly, Dogor and his crew did a very strange thing. Trotting over to a panel, they pulled out what looked like gas masks, and put them on. George then heard a soft hissing sound from somewhere above his head.

“We’d like to thank the three of you one last time, for helping us out once again,” said George’s fake father in his taunting tone. “You see, last time you caught us off guard because we left you alone, with no one to talk to. That let your minds wander, and then your silly Uth stones were able to worm their own thoughts into your minds. So this time, we knew we had to distract you, to keep you talking, until the gas started to take effect.”

Gas! George blinked his eyes in horror. He suddenly felt very groggy. He had been tricked again! If he had spent the last few minutes communicating with the Uth stone in his hand, instead of talking with his captors, he could have escaped the same way he did the last time! In panic, he tried to focus his mind toward the stone. He could feel its presence, reaching desperately out to him. But his mind was not able to think clearly enough to reach back.

In sudden anger, George tried to throw his stone with all his might. If he could get the stone out of his hand, the connection and energy beam the Grak were counting on would be broken. But his effort was pointless. His hand was gripping the Uth stone tightly, and seemed to be frozen in place. The stone was trapped in his palm. Indeed, both of his hands were held fast by an invisible force put in place by the Grak. This was apparently another change they had made from last time, when they had bound his hands with ropes and belts. They must have obtained some other, new technology.

In total panic, George jerked and twisted, pulled and screamed. He had to stay awake! He tasted blood in his mouth, and realized he must have bitten his lip in his rage. Tears streaked down his cheeks. But he could feel his mind slowly slipping away.

The Grak had won. They stood sneering at him, along with his father. His beloved father. His traitorous father. How could he have been so blind? Why hadn’t he try to feel, as the Ziphon and the voice on Uth had told him to do?

As George passed in and out of consciousness, he could feel the energy building in his hand. He knew, without having to see it, that an energy beam had shot down from the stone in his hand to the one being held by his real father in California on earth. The same was happening between Jiu Na and her father in China, and between Donna Teresa and Jose in Portugal. Even now, the earth was no doubt heaving and pulling against the resistance of the energy beams, as it tried to continue its rotation. And in just a few minutes, thanks to George and his foolishness, that rotation would be forever stopped, and all of earth’s inhabitants would perish.