We stayed overnight in my apartment. I don't know how I managed to sleep. I felt like a kid just before Christmas night eagerly anticipating the morning. Morning eventually arrived and I could hardly wait to get breakfast over with. I cleaned up with a vigor that I hadn't seen in myself in years. I never realized how droll my life had become until Mr. Whittleby arrived to shatter my sense of reality.

He ate with me, and expressed his enjoyment of it. He seemed amused at my excitement, and was as unruffled as yesterday, taking the whole affair in stride as if he did it every day. Come to think of it, he probably did.

After the apartment was put in order, I called work and explained that I'd be going on a long business trip with a client, and would check in with them when I arrived. Sharon wished me a safe trip, and asked where I was going. I told her I was going to visit some stars, and didn't at all feel the need to correct her when she assumed I was speaking about the movie variety. She expressed a little jealousy, told me how lucky I was and asked for all the details when I got back. She reminded me to be sure and get a few autographs.

Mr. Whittleby waited patiently for me, and when I hung up the phone requested to be able to use it himself. He dialed a number and I heard him asking for a cab, and giving my apartment address. After hanging up he said, " Lets go outside and wait for it, shall we?"

As we left the apartment and locked the door behind us, I wondered when we'd be returning, or if. I couldn't resist a last lingering look at the only place I had called home for years. I locked the door, and we left the building as the taxi pulled up to the curb. We got in and Mr. Whittleby gave the driver directions to a marina at the waterfront.

The drive through town was uneventful, traffic problems aside, and we arrived at the marina shortly thereafter. Mr. Whittleby paid the cab and tipped the driver much to his satisfaction. I heard him whistling softly as he drove off, so it must have been generous. It occurred to me that he needed some source for his funds or he couldn't have paid cash. I was curious to know how he got his money, and whether it was genuine or counterfeit.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you pay him? Surely American dollars aren't on the Galactic exchange yet. Is it counterfeit, or do you have some source of funding here on earth that you haven't told me about?"

He laughed and said, " I suppose your people would call it counterfeit, but not even your Treasury people would be able to tell the difference. Even the serial numbers will be found on their registry. We’ve got to be able to work within the local economy in an unobtrusive manner, and we're careful not to affect the economy in a significant way while we conduct our business."

He led me to the marina entrance and over to the office, where he rang the bell and waited. The door opened and we were ushered inside by a friendly middle aged man in need of a shave. He showed us to a couple of worn chairs as he asked us what he could do for us.

Mr. Whittleby did the negotiating, and seemed to be pretty shrewd at bargaining. He eventually settled on a pleasure cruiser to his liking and paid the man for three days up front. When the deal was made he was all smiles, and took us outside to show us our boat.

She appeared to be seaworthy, and in good repair. The name on the side proclaimed her to be the “Flying Maiden”. I could tell she'd been used, but someone had obviously taken pride in her upkeep.

" This is the best one I have for the price, and you'll find her a very trustworthy craft indeed. She handles like something alive in the water, like she was born to it. I hope you like her as much as I do. I've topped off her fuel and she's ready to go. Enjoy your trip."

He left with a wistful look at her like he was sorry to see her rented to a couple of land crabs like us. I don't know why he rented us his favorite boat, but he obviously had at a more than reasonable price.

I know nothing of boats, or navigation, and told Mr. Whittleby as such. I was content to go along for the ride and enjoy it. It didn't cross my mind that I might not be enjoying it in an hour or so. I had never been seasick before. Of course, I had never been to sea in a small craft before either. All I could see in front of me was adventure, and I was eager to get underway.

Mr. Whittleby started the engine and checked all the gauges like a pro. He untied the boat and gently nudged us away from the dock. Soon we were cleaving the water leaving an endless wake behind us as we headed out to the open depths of the sea.

I spent some time looking at the large variety of boats and ships as we left the harbor. Some anchored farther out were rusting hulks, not worth their salvage costs. Others plowed their own furrows on their way to wherever. Old decrepit buildings lined the waterfront standing right alongside newer modern facilities. I could see cranes unloading shipping containers in the distance from the deck of a freighter.

The entire scene evoked mystique and nostalgia, and provided a glimpse of a totally different way of life. I could well imagine coming into port in a far and foreign land and being just as excited to see the strange and unfamiliar, mixed with the expected and mundane. Too soon, or so it seemed to me, the harbor receded into the horizon and all around lay empty blue gray, unbroken except for the occasional freighter seen in the distance.

For a while a small flock of gulls kept us company, wheeling and diving overhead. They knew the prospects of a free lunch when they saw a rental boat and were quite persistent in trying to collect their due. There must be a lot of soft hearted tourists, for there are surely a lot of hungry gulls ready to accept their offerings. After an hour or so they left us and went off in search of an easier meal. Neither of us had brought anything to give them, much less for ourselves.

After about an hour or so the adventure began to take on a new dimension. My breakfast began to undulate in my stomach out of sync with the waves. The swells and troughs had no predictable feel to them and I soon realized that I was about to be sick. I barely made it to the side before breakfast beat a hasty retreat over the side to mix with our wake. I hoped that once I'd emptied out I'd feel better, but it was not to be. I ended up huddled next to the wheelhouse, waiting in misery for the next round of nausea to send me dashing for the side again.

Mr. Whittleby was unaffected by the waves, but I didn't know if it was because of his non-human status, or some other reason. It didn't occur to me that androids might not get sick. I was a little too miserable to think of anything in depth at the time. He must have realized how rotten I felt though, because he kept reassuring me that it was only a little farther.

After a while, he seemed satisfied and began to shut the engine down. As soon as the boat slowed, I noticed the rocking motion increase along with my nausea. I realized quickly that I was going to be sick again and barely made it to the side in time.

Mr. Whittleby reached into his pocket and took out a small cylindrical object, which resembled a spray can and uncapped it. It was indeed a spray can. He pointed it at me and said, " Here, this will make you feel better." Then he sprayed a short burst at my face.

The mist had a faint smell of cinnamon or cloves and immediately cleared my sinuses. Its next most immediate effect was to end my nausea. I felt comfortable for the first time in hours.

" I apologize for not using this sooner. We usually reserve it for species that experience space sickness. It didn't occur to me that you'd be prone to sea sickness as well."

" Thanks. I didn't know I'd get seasick either. Where are we? How do we rendezvous with your space ship out here?"

" My ship's already out here. I called it up just before we stopped. We should be seeing it surface any time."

" You mean it's been underwater this whole time? That's incredible! It must be pretty tough to be able to take the pressure."

" It is. It has to be able to descend to the surface of gas giants. The pressures of some of them make your deepest ocean seem like thin upper atmosphere. It's a reentry craft."

Even as he spoke, the water off the port side began to heave. The surface of the space ship began to appear, far more vast in size than a whale. It dwarfed our pleasure cruiser. It had a circular shape, though far from a "flying saucer" in appearance. There were diamond shaped protrusions on three sides equally spaced. The top extended up above the waves the height of a six storey building.

As I marveled at the size and shape I failed to notice Mr. Whittleby restart the engine on the boat. My first indication of it was that we were moving again, toward the ship. As we got closer, a large port began to open on the side where there had been no indication of a door a moment before. By the time we drew near, the opening took on a size that staggered me. It was large enough to take in a Lear jet easily.

Slowly the port drew nearer until we passed through into a cavernous room the size of a warehouse. I turned around to see the doors close behind me and gradually shut out the light. At first it was pitch black, then a glow appeared and the room was lit with a mild, easy on the eye illumination from sources ringed around the room.

We were still floating, though now the water was still. Mr. Whittleby had shut down the engine. Slowly, I realized that more of the room was appearing. The water was being drained. Under me, I felt the keel settle, but the boat remained upright. Soon I could see the floor curving slightly away toward the wall. Under us was a cradle that caught the boat securely and prevented damage to the hull.

As soon as the water drained away, a door opened to the interior, and a small tractor like device came over to the boat. It extended a ramp and Mr. Whittleby beckoned me to come with him. He stepped over the side of the boat onto the ramp, and I followed him down to the floor. The tractor retracted the ramp and disappeared down the passageway it came from, as the door closed behind it.

He put a friendly hand on my shoulder and said with a smile, "Well, how do you like the trip so far?'

" I'm fascinated. Where do we go from here?"

" We go to the control room, but first you need to go through the life systems scanner. Our ship needs to recognize your life support needs during our journey. It already has a sample of your atmosphere and will keep you well supplied with air. It needs to examine your metabolism though, to determine your nutritional needs. It might help to think of foods that you like so that a menu can be arranged to suit you."

" You mean that your ship can read my mind?"

" It has the same capability as my pattern recognition device, which you're already familiar with."

Another door opened across the room and we crossed the room and entered. The door closed behind us, leaving us in a cylindrical chamber. I stood there a moment as Mr. Whittleby went to the wall and put his palm against the surface. A blue glow appeared briefly. The ceiling took on a halo that descended surrounding me in a sparkling field of energy. I felt my hair stand on end. Just as I began to be apprehensive, it shut off.

" All done. I hope that wasn't too unpleasant for you." He looked really concerned.

I sought to reassure him as I said, " It was more unnerving than unpleasant."

" Good. Let's go up, shall we?"

As we stood there the ceiling opened up and the floor lifted us up until we came to a stop in another room with a multitude of lit passageways branching off from it.

Mr. Whittleby chose one which led to another elevator that took us farther up into the ship. We came out into a room that had a circular shape to it, with a domed ceiling. The door closed behind us. A pedestal rose from the floor and a single recliner seat emerged from it.

" Have a seat and try it out," he said as he crossed the room.

I went to the pedestal and stepped up to my seat as Mr. Whittleby reached the wall. I sat down and watched him, wondering where he was going to sit. He put his hand to the wall as before and immediately the room changed. The ceiling took on the appearance of the sky. I could see every cloud in three dimensional view, as though I were actually outside looking around me. The walls showed the horizon in all directions, and I could see the waves lapping the sides of the space ship. It was all in such perfect clarity and realism that I could almost smell the salt in the air.

I looked around for a moment taking in the incredible view, and realized the floor also looked into the water with a view like a glass bottomed boat, only better. I could see schools of fish swimming by in silvery streaks. The depths were too murky to see far, though I didn't doubt that if needed one could peer to the bottom, no matter how deep.

I looked back in time to see Mr. Whittleby surrounded with a sparkling halo of light, much like the one I'd just been through. It grew brighter and I was forced to squint, and eventually avert my gaze. The glare abruptly ceased and when I looked over to see what had happened, Mr. Whittleby was gone.

For a moment I was shocked. Then I started to get up, intending to go look for him. Just as I began to get up I heard his voice speaking to me.

" Don't get up yet. I'm still with you, though in a different form. I had to merge with the ship. My cellular memory is an essential part of the ship's navigation system, and we're now one being."

I couldn't have moved at that point if I'd wanted to. The utter immensity of what he said was overwhelming. I felt like I'd lost a friend. I also felt so out of my element that I didn't know if I'd be able to keep my sanity.

" Don't worry, we can still talk to each other. I know what you're thinking now, since I'm now in tune with the pattern recognition device on board the ship. You haven't lost me, you've gained a bigger me."

His voice was soothing and conciliatory. I felt reassured, and told him so.

" Thank you, you are precious cargo, you know. I want you to enjoy this experience. You're the first human being to be granted this privilege."

" I'm honored, I'm sure. I'll probably appreciate it more as the strangeness wears off. How soon do we leave?"

"Now. Look around you."

Even as he spoke, the waves lapping the sides got lower and soon appeared on the floor. They receded and the horizon in all directions began to move closer to the floor. Clouds overhead got closer and then appeared to rush by. I could look down and see them from above retreating rapidly as more of the earth came into view.

I had absolutely no sense of motion or acceleration. I felt as though I were sitting in my living room watching a show on television. I had to fight the sense of unreality I was experiencing. We were accelerating at a rapid pace. I could tell we had already gained orbital velocity by how far we were above the earth. We were already out of the atmosphere. I could see the blue halo retreat, and the unbelievable multitude of stars shining clearly. Where the sun was the ship compensated by reducing the light seen to about that of a full moon. I found that I could see the stars right up to the solar envelope and marveled at it.

For the first time since the ship lifted off, I heard a low hum and felt a slight sense of motion. The ship was still accelerating, and was making a turning motion. I could see the earth sliding past on the walls, getting smaller and the moon growing closer. It seemed to fill the horizon for a moment, then flashed by at incredible speed.

The ship seemed to accelerate geometrically now. It continued to turn, and I could see the sun making an arc, getting smaller by the second. The earth had already become a bright blue star dominating the others with the exception of the sun. Another star grew brighter and soon I could see it was Jupiter, although the color was a little more blue than I was used to. I hadn't realized the Doppler effect was beginning to show. I looked back at the sun, and it too was already beginning to show a reddish tinge.

" We must be approaching the speed of light."

" Yes, we are. Soon we'll enter transition. You should enjoy it." Mr. Whittleby sounded like he was enjoying it himself.

Jupiter swung by, and shifted color from a blue to a red tint and the stars in front of me all began to look purple. Even as I watched fascinated, the stars began to slide rapidly to the side. I could not see any in front of me. A bubble of darkness extended in front rimmed with a halo of light from which purple stars emerged. Almost as quickly as they appeared they turned red and vanished.

" We have reached transition."

The halo blossomed, moved to the floor, got very bright, and receded rapidly. It now had a red core, and was the only visible thing I could see. It felt like we were passing through a dark tunnel, leaving the bright opening far behind until it vanished altogether. I wondered if I had just witnessed the light speed equivalent of a sonic boom.

The lights came back on, and the walls and floor were once again blank.

" Transition is complete. It will be a while before we arrive at Tau Ceti. Are you hungry? You didn't do a very good job of keeping your breakfast down this morning." He sounded concerned.

" Now that you mention it, I am. I've been so interested in the trip, I haven't paid much attention to it until now."

I had my arm on the arm rest, and moved it when I felt motion underneath. A tray blossomed out from the side and arced around, coming to rest in front of me. Another narrow pedestal grew out of the floor in front of me. It had a flat top with a clear dome sitting on it. Underneath the dome were a couple of sandwiches, and a beverage of some type.

" What is it?" I asked, wondering if it was real or some tasteless imitation.

" You'd probably call it roast beef. The drink is iced tea."

I lifted the dome off the pedestal and set it aside on the floor. Immediately, it sank into the floor leaving no trace of itself, or the opening it went into.

" That's pretty neat," I said, as I picked up one of the sandwiches. I bit into it, and was gratified to find it palatable. Mr. Whittleby had done his homework. The texture was right, and so was the taste and color. It had lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles, as well as roast beef. If they were synthetic, I couldn't tell it. After taking a sip of the tea, I decided that meals wouldn't be much of a problem, though I wondered what I'd do about the rest of my bodily functions.

" I don't suppose you have a restroom facility on board, do you?"

" Of course we do, designed especially for you. You'll find everything you're familiar with, including a shower. Just let me know when you're ready for it."

" I can wait. Tell me about Tau Ceti while I eat."

" What would you like to know?"

" Well, for starters, is the planet we're going to anything like earth?"

" No. We aren't going to a planet. We are going to the nearest mobile outpost of the consortium. It's the mother ship from which this ship came. It's currently at Tau Ceti for refueling and repairs."

" You mean we won't be going to another planet this time?"

I was disappointed. To have come all this way just to see another space ship was a bit of a letdown.

" I know you're disappointed, but try to be patient with us. We'll be going to another destination before returning to earth, and you'll get your chance to see another planet, and some different life forms as well." He sounded almost sorry about it.

" Oh well, I'm basically along for the ride anyway. It's more than any human has a right to expect. The expense you've gone to must be incredible."

" It would be easily worth your national debt, but that's nothing compared to what a trade agreement would be worth to all of us."

I almost choked on my tea. The idea of mortgaging our nation's future for the sake of a single interstellar trip was simply mind boggling. If I understood the implications correctly the gains from the contract with Intergal must be too great to imagine. I could barely picture wealth on a personal scale of assets in the millions. I was totally unable to picture a global economy in the hands of a few men. Yet surely if those who entered in to the contracts were wealthy enough to begin with that they could mass produce something on demand, they would in the end control an economy to rival that of any nation on earth. Some even might profit sufficiently to affect the global economy in a significant way.

It began to dawn on me that this trip would have profound implications not only for my country, or my world, but for me personally. When I returned, my private life would be drastically changed. I might even become wealthy myself simply by virtue of the position I had been put in. While wealth itself didn't bother me, the loss of privacy did. I was certain to become an instant celebrity.

Suddenly I felt sorry for Sharon. She would likely be going crazy in the next few days fielding questions she has no answer to. I would definitely have to make it up to her when I got back. I had made it a policy not to become involved in relationships with my coworkers, partly because I didn’t want to have things go sour and ruin our comradery. I had to admit though, where Sharon was concerned, I was willing to make an exception. I’d been on the verge of asking her out several times, but caution held me back. Now as I had time to reflect on it, I decided that maybe I had been wrong.

" Could you tell me roughly how much longer it will be before we arrive at Tau Ceti?" I was a little more anxious now to get there and get things rolling.

" According to your current time sense, about a day. We will leave transition then and decelerate. We'll only be a few light minutes away from our rendezvous point by then. The mother ship will accelerate to match our speed and we will dock and go into a quick orbit around Tau Ceti."

"How do you plan to signal earth from there in any kind of time that makes sense to your plans? Won't the signal take years to get there? I could get back and never know if anything gets received, because I'd be long dead or something."

" If we beamed our radio signal through ordinary space, you'd be correct. Our trip would be wasted. We plan to use the same energy which attracts our ship to Tau Ceti to attract our signal to your solar system. We are going to use Tau Ceti as our transmitter, and our passage as an antenna. We left a powerful trail of ion energy which will serve as an excellent transition path for our signal. Your scientists should have no trouble hearing us." He laughed and added, " They'll probably even have to turn the volume down."

I was fascinated. The idea of using an entire star's energy to focus and send a message had never occurred to me. Nor did I dream that a radio wave could be made to transition as we did. But then again, I didn't think faster than light speed was possible either.

" I guess I'm going to be full of questions for a while. It will help the time to pass more quickly."

" Go ahead. I don't mind at all." He sounded cheerful.

" For starters, I thought that according to the theory of relativity it was impossible to exceed the speed of light. Since we have obviously done so, something must be wrong with the theory."

" Any theory is just that: someone's idea to explain how something works. A theory is only as good as the information used to base it on.

" Take for example the Copernican theory of how the universe is constructed. In it, every celestial object revolved around the earth. In later years men realized that the earth itself revolved around the sun.

" Your Newton made great strides in coming up with some convincing models that helped men predict with more accuracy how things interacted. Einstein also built on the foundation of those who had gone before him and came up with some brilliant answers of his own. Still, he could only use the information at hand to get where he did.

" Your present day physicists are getting closer to an understanding of how it may be possible to travel faster than light. Their studies in chaos theory, and the nature of gravity are breaking new ground.

" How is it that I felt no sense of motion?"

" Our ship has a gravitic stabilizer, that interprets our motion and compensates for it by equalizing the forces acting on it internally. You may or may not have felt a slight turning sensation as we swung past the moon and headed outward."

" Yes, I do remember feeling a little vibration, and hearing a hum. It wasn't much though."

" True, but any at all is too much. We usually have the stabilizers tuned after every ten transitions, but this will be the twelfth. We still have to leave transition and it will require an extra heavy load on the ship. The ride may not be as smooth coming out."

" I guess I can handle it. After the water anything else will seem tame."

" I hope you still think so after we leave transition."

I was feeling a little tired, and ready for a nap. The sandwiches had been good, and so had the tea. I realized that I needed the use of the facilities and told Mr. Whittleby so.

A large cubicle arose from the floor on my right. Inside were all the amenities, and I availed myself of them gratefully. I decided to take a shower and did so. It seemed strange to be able to clean up while flying through space at who knows how many times the speed of light, all at normal gravity. After my shower, I noticed the absence of towels and wondered what I'd do to dry off. Mr. Whittleby had it figured for as I stood there in the shower wondering what to do, a jet of warm dry air began to blow on me and soon I was completely dry. I dressed and resumed my seat feeling much better.

Mr. Whittleby told me how to lean back in my recliner and I did so. The next thing I remembered was his voice waking me up, telling me to prepare to leave transition.

" Thanks, I'm awake now. I must have been tired."

" Considering how little sleep you got the night before, I'm not surprised. Would you like the viewer back on?"

" Yes, I'd like that. I found it fascinating."

The room darkened and again I could see nothing. Gradually I became aware of a pinpoint of red light on the floor beginning to expand as though it were moving closer to me. As it expanded the edges grew brighter and whiter. Inside I could begin to see vast numbers of stars, all with a reddish hue. As the circle of light expanded so did the distance between them, though near the brighter edges they were still close, and appeared to continue to emerge from the chaos.

The light grew until it covered the floor, then brightened rapidly, flashed up the sides in a brief purple flare and pushed ahead. Stars flashed by shifting from purple to red and gradually began to appear overhead again. Their purple glow faded slowly and they began to take on a normal appearance again.

I did not recognize the sky. There was no constellation there which I knew. It wouldn't have helped me much to know my stars at this point, because man had never seen space from this position before. As I watched in awe, the stars began to shift to the port side of the ship in a curve. One appeared somewhat brighter than the rest and it centered overhead.

" You're looking at Tau Ceti. We should be in orbit in an hour or so. The mother ship is waiting in an orbit about a third of the way around it from here." I realized I was hungry and began to wonder how long I'd slept. It seemed like I had just eaten.

" How long did I sleep. I feel like I just slept all night, and it is morning already."

Mr. Whittleby chuckled and said, " You did sleep the equivalent of all night. It is morning on earth again where you came from."

" I don't suppose it would be a problem to eat breakfast before we rendezvous, would it?"

" Not at all. Would you like coffee?"

" That would truly be a technological miracle. Yes, I'd enjoy a cup and whatever else you came up with."

The pedestal rose in front of me again, and when I lifted the clear dome, the aroma of a good blend of coffee tantalized my senses. Beside the cup was a plate with a steaming hot waffle, a pat of butter or margarine and some hot syrup. The coffee was excellent, as was the waffle. I asked for refills on the coffee and was obliged graciously. The waffle was filling and I had no desire for more.

As I ate, I watched Tau Ceti grow closer. I soon realized that the ship was beginning to compensate for its luminosity, dimming it down as it had our sun. We must have been approaching the outer edges of the Tau Ceti system for a planet came into view and flashed by to starboard. It went so quickly that I was unable to see much in the way of detail.

" We'll soon be slowing down more forcefully. I suggest that you finish eating. We may experience some sensation of motion as our sub- light drive takes over. Remember that our stabilizers aren't working properly."

" I'm done now. Thank you very much, you're a gracious host."

The pedestal disappeared. The bathroom cubicle was still up and I hastily made use of it. It sank to the floor as I regained my seat. Tau Ceti continued to draw nearer. I could make out a bright star passing in the distance and assumed it must be another planet. It had a faint greenish tinge to it. I heard a low hum about the same time as I felt a building vibration running through the ship. Tau Ceti began to slide in an arc to the side. We were beginning to enter an orbital path. As we curved I could feel a heavy force begin to press me into the side of my seat, which disappeared quickly as the stabilizers caught up with the motion.

Another star appeared in the distance and the ship began to brake, for its passage through the Tau Ceti system was noticeably slower. The star began to take on form, and I could see it was an artificial object, even though it was still a tremendous distance away.

" You're looking at the mother ship. We're about two hundred of your miles away from it. As you may surmise, it's very large. We'd have a hard time cloaking it in your solar system. We can do it, but it would be an expense better suited to emergency defense."

If I could see it at this distance, it must be the size of a large asteroid, or a small planet. The scale of such a large manufactured object was unimaginable. I couldn't begin to guess how large it was.

" I know you are wondering how big it is. It's just over twenty miles in diameter. It was laboriously carved from an asteroid almost a thousand of your years ago, and is currently running on its third graviton drive. The drive system itself takes in about two cubic miles of the asteroid. Ten miles of it are storage and cargo, five for living and environmental, and the rest is protective mass."

I was again staring awe in the face. I could not conceive how beings could transform an object of that size and put it in motion. We were getting closer. I could see an ovoid shape now, somewhat like an egg. On two opposite sides a long crystal shaped appendage bulged outward and ran the length of the ovoid. The crystal appearance would have been six sided, but one face was attached to the ovoid curving with it to stop near the point. It looked generally smooth at first, but as we got closer I could see a host of finer bands and ridges. Towers, bubbles, and geometric shapes began to take on definition. By now it was beginning to fill the upper half of the viewing room.

" We're about fifty miles away now. We should be docking soon." Mr. Whittleby sounded like he'd be glad to get there.

One of the geometric shapes, an octagon, began to take on a greater prominence as we drew closer. It appeared to be raised above the surface, with a sculpted interior filled with precisely spaced ridges and a series of squared flattened areas. It now filled the view area, and we appeared to be going to one of the squared sections.

As it began to fill the view I saw it start to open up from the center outward, like the shutter on a camera. Inside was an immense pocket of emptiness. We continued to move toward it until the doors passed by and we seemed to be going through a long dim corridor. We emerged into a vast cavern that seemed miles across and slowed to a stop. I could see the doors repeat their reflex action to close. The cavern remained lit from within.

The walls were seamless and sleek. They looked almost glassy and possibly had been melted smooth. I spent some time looking around to see where the light was coming from and when I looked to my right, I saw a smaller shuttle emerge from an opening across the cavern and come in our direction. It had a shape that reminded me of a quartz crystal, similar to the prominences on the outside of the ovoid. The shuttle was much smaller though, and soon docked with our ship.

" Well, it's time to go. Would you like me to accompany you?" Mr. Whittleby sounded almost teasing.

" You know I'd be lost without you right now." I answered seriously.

" Just a moment," he said as I got up from my seat.

As soon as I stepped down from the pedestal, it began to sink into the floor again, leaving no trace that it had been there. A door opened across the room and Mr. Whittleby walked out with a smile on his face. " How did you like your trip?"



Together, we went down a bare corridor to an elevator, descended to a lower level, and came to an airlock. As we entered the chamber the door closed behind us. No door was visible. I could feel the air shifting around me. Then the wall opened in front of us and we went down a ramp to the interior of the shuttle. It closed behind us and we were on the shuttle.

Mr. Whittleby led me to a room with a variety of surfaces. He pointed to a padded benchlike shelf protruding from a wall and said, " Here's your seat. I'm sorry it isn't as luxurious as your earlier ride but this is the economy shuttle. We transport so many different types of beings here that we have to keep things simple."

" No apology necessary."

I sat down and Mr. Whittleby went over and sat on a pedestal facing the wall. He touched the wall and it became a viewscreen, showing a view of the cavern interior. He passed his hand along the bottom and the view scrolled along with it until the reentry ship we'd just left came into view. When he had revealed the docking area between the two craft, he ceased scrolling and brought up some symbols on the screen. He touched one and I felt the shuttle craft shudder as she uncoupled from the reentry vehicle. He touched another and began to make hand motions in the air. The shuttle craft responded by pulling away and turning toward the far end of the cavern. I felt a mild acceleration and was pushed into my bench a little deeper as we turned. There was evidently no need for a stabilizer on board the shuttle. This felt more like real flight.

We accelerated for a moment longer, then began to drift rapidly toward a docking bay on the far side that was becoming visible. It was well lit, and had what appeared to be an observation tower built above it. When Mr. Whittleby decided the time was right he applied reverse thrust by motioning with his hand again and we began to slow. He then rotated the craft slightly to bring us in at the proper angle. I felt a gentle nudge and then we were stopped. " Well we're here. This is where you earn your keep and meet lots of new and interesting people." He smiled as he stood up.

" People? As in humans?"

" No, people as in intelligent beings," he said as he cleared the viewscreen. " Are you ready for it?"

He stood there and looked at me a moment. I was wondering how I would relate to my first non human, non android encounter with a living intelligent being.

" I guess I'm ready for it. It's what I came to do after all."

" Great, let's go."

He turned and led the way down the corridor to the docking bay. I followed along dutifully, trepidation growing by the minute. I hoped that whatever I was going to meet, it wouldn't look like something out of a science fiction nightmare. Mr. Whittleby must have understood how I felt, for he said as he walked, " The best way to face your fears is not to worry about them, but simply to deal with what you encounter as you arrive."

" I've got the shakes, but I'm still moving," I said with more enthusiasm than I felt.

"Good, we're almost there." He gave me a reassuring pat on the back.

We entered the docking bay and the passage closed behind us. I heard the hiss of the air lock activating. When the pressure equalized, the door in front of us slid open silently and revealed an empty corridor. It was fairly long, well lit and curved gently upward. As in the smaller ship numerous passages branched off, leading to various portions of the mother ship. The passage we were in was sized about right for me to feel comfortable in. I wondered if other areas of the ship were sized to accommodate larger creatures, or smaller ones as the need arose. Mr. Whittleby took a passage that branched to the right, and stopped in front of a closed door. He touched it with his palm and it seemed to dissolve right in front of me. Even as I stood there amazed, he entered and invited me in.

" How do you like it?" he asked.

I was standing in a greenhouse filled with the largest assortment of plants I'd ever seen under one roof. The room itself could have been a quarter of a mile long, and about half that wide. The ceiling may have been three hundred feet high. Fully grown ( at least to my eye ) trees, shrubs, plants of every shape and color formed a veritable jungle of vegetation. None of it looked even remotely familiar.

We followed a path that took us in between some rather large tree like growths. Their bark was more like the skin of an alligator than a tree. One stood over a hundred feet tall as near as I could estimate looking up. It branched normally for a tree, but the similarity ended where its leaves should have been. Instead of leaves it had mossy clumps with prodigious amounts of fine green hair hanging down in long flowing lengths. When I got near enough to touch it, I saw that it was quite wide. Four men would have had to stretch to reach around it. It smelled almost like an animal.

I reached out to touch it and its bark was soft and yielding, more like skin, and warm to the touch. As I touched it I felt Mr. Whittleby touching me on the shoulder, and I turned around thinking he wanted me to move on. Mr. Whittleby was standing about ten feet away looking on with amusement as I realized to my shock that he hadn't touched me, the tree had. A questing branch was exploring me as curiously as I had explored the trunk.

I stood there a moment trying to decide if I liked the experience or not when the branch lifted away and hung there at eye level. Some of the moss parted revealing three fingerlike projections, one shorter and opposable like a thumb. From above I heard a voice speaking and I looked up, but couldn't identify the source.

" Hello," it said. " I see you've finally arrived." The branch waved its hand at me.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm from the fifth planet of Rigel, called Waas in our language. You can call me Seesh until you get to know me better." The branch lowered some and approached me at waist level. Not knowing what else to do I reached out and shook hands with it.

" I'm glad to meet you. How is it that you speak my language so well?" I asked as it raised its hand again back into the upper reaches of its foliage. "Our pattern recognition device not only records any medium, but plays back in any medium as well. It is simultaneously translating our conversation and projecting it into our minds as we listen to each other speak."

"Do we even need to speak then? I mean if I'm understanding you so well now, why speak at all?", I asked.

Mr. Whittleby answered this one. " The devices used for pattern recognition all have privacy features programmed in. Speech is considered permission to use the translation function. I can record your thoughts, but play them back only to you. Only authorized agencies have access to their full potential. Thus, unless you speak to each other, you won't understand each other. There is only one exception to this."

" What's that?", I asked.

" A sentient species that doesn't have the ability to make speech."

" I should have guessed that.", I replied feeling a little foolish. Then another thought occurred to me. " You were talking to me, weren't you?", I asked. " Where I come from trees are the closest thing like you and they don't talk."

" Well then, I'm glad not to be a tree, otherwise I wouldn't have had the pleasure," Seesh replied. He then added, " I don't suppose they move around much either, do they?"

" No, actually they don't. They can't survive unless they are rooted in one place. They have no minds or brains to think with."

" Oh, that would be dull! I'd go crazy if I couldn't move from time to time."

I was astonished. " You mean you aren't rooted there?"

" Not permanently, no. I have tendrils in the soil which help nourish me. I also eat what I can catch with my arms. When food is scarce from these sources, I use light. Usually my diet is a combination of them all. When I want to move on I just pull out my tendrils and move on."

" You have legs?" I asked.

" Not like you, no," he replied. " I'm similar below to what you see above the soil. So similar in fact we have jokes about those who move on to resettle in a new place and fall asleep, forget which side is up and resettle themselves upside down."

" Does that actually happen?"

" Oh yes! With both ends open to the light and air the effect can be quite intoxicating. We have to be careful to only move at night. Usually it only happens when one of us fails to observe how close it is to daylight, and gets caught in the sunrise. The intoxication is enough to befuddle the most intelligent of us. It doesn't hurt to get planted upside down, it's just terribly inconvenient. We have to stay that way until dark, and can't talk or eat until then. Whenever one of us is angry and refuses to talk for a while we say he is sunstruck."

I couldn't help laughing. The notion of an angry upside down tree was just about as crazy as a drunk one that imbibed a little too much sunlight. Still I wondered what type of creatures Seesh caught and ate with its arms.

"You seemed to know I was coming. How did you know?"

"Oh, it wasn't any secret. Your planet has been an object of much study and speculation since we first discovered you. It was we who put the finishing touches on the android you know as Mr. Whittleby. How do you like him?"

"Very well, thank you. I have to constantly remind myself that he isn't human."

"Good, he was designed to relate to you specifically. I'm glad to hear that we were successful. I think you'd better go with him now. It's almost time for your broadcast. We'll get more time to get acquainted later."

"It was nice meeting you, as well as quite a surprise."

Mr. Whittleby began to move back toward the door we'd entered in by and I followed reluctantly. I would love to have stayed and seen what else lived in that room. We entered the hallway and the door rematerialized behind us. Mr. Whittleby led the way farther up the corridor and turned left down another passage. At the end it opened out into a large room about the size of the greenhouse we'd left. There were numerous openings surrounding me of various sizes. In the center of the room was a raised pedestal. Mr. Whittleby led the way to it and together we stepped up to it.

When both of us had stepped onto it a glowing shield surrounded it, and it began to rise like an elevator. Above us the ceiling opened up and we passed through into another chamber. The platform we were on then began to move forward at a high rate of speed. Doors and openings sped by in a blur. We made turns down various passages and finally came to a stop in another large chamber similar to the one we'd left behind. The glowing shield vanished, and we stepped down.

"We're almost there", Mr. Whittleby said as he led the way across the chamber.

"Are we going to the broadcast room?" I asked.

"We're going to the central control room, but that's where we'll broadcast from."

We entered a small room and the door sealed behind us. I felt motion like an elevator going up, and then the door opened. We entered a large circular room similar to the one I'd journeyed from earth in. Two pedestals arose from the floor, one elongated and shaped in a curve around a smaller rectangular pedestal in the center. Mr. Whittleby led the way toward the center pedestal, and we stepped up. Two comfortable seats arose and we sat down.

Mr. Whittleby pressed a pad on the side of his armrest and a screen appeared in front of us. The curved pedestal in front of us revealed a console with a myriad of displays and mysterious functions. Our pedestal shifted bringing us closer so that everything was in arm's reach. Mr. Whittleby reached out and passed his hand over a glowing area and a holographic display appeared in front of him about the size of a laptop computer.

"I've just accessed the primary function control for interspace communication," he explained as his fingers flew across the holographic image.

"Now I'm telling the ship to alter the magnetic envelope around Tau Ceti so that it will resonate on detectable radio frequencies. Not only will the SETI agency pick you up but every television and radio carrier on earth will be broadcasting your message simultaneously. When I'm done all you have to do is give your message, and the system will do the rest. Tau Ceti is now your carrier frequency."

"When do I start?" I asked.

"When you're ready. Now, if you like. We can play it back and edit any portion until you're satisfied with it before we transmit."

"OK, let's go for it. Hello, my name is Mitch Cole. I work for the Broadmoore Associates Advertising Agency as the Advertizing Director. At this moment I am sitting in the control room of a space ship in orbit around Tau Ceti. The entire trip took me only a day at speeds much faster than light. My personal secretary is Sharon Gantry and can vouch for my identity, and can confirm that I am indeed out of the office at this time. I have met with representatives from at least one extraterrestrial civilization, and a major intergalactic trade organization interested in establishing trade links with the earth. "This isn't a hoax, as you may be able to tell by now. To give you further proof, here are some personal details about me and how I got here, that you can investigate to verify my identity."

I then gave my full name, address, phone number, social security number, driver's license number, place of birth and other vital statistics. I also detailed how I'd met Mr. Whittleby, who he was and where we'd been together. I told which marina we'd been to and that we still had the boat, and would be returning it in good condition. I ended with a plea to take this broadcast seriously, and to recognize it for what it is: a wonderful chance to better the lives of our people across the face of the earth.

"How's that," I asked.

"Not bad," he replied. "Do you want to change anything?"

"Let me hear how it sounds, and I'll let you know."

He passed his hand across another area of the console and I heard my voice speaking. As I listened I heard something I wanted to change and asked how. Mr. Whittleby told me what to do and the replay sounded better. A couple more revisions left me satisfied.

"Now it's broadcast time," he said.

He selected another screen with a wave of his hand and a small holographic image appeared in the upper right corner. He pointed to it and said, "This is your message."

He then put his finger on it and it seemed to hang on the end of his finger as he brought it around to the image of Tau Ceti. He touched the image of Tau Ceti, and it seemed to resonate for a moment, then it brightened and returned to normal.

"Message delivered," he said. "You've just become the most famous man on the planet."

"Sharon will be never forgive me."