George Brown and the Protector

by Duane L. Ostler

  With a rush they dove into the black hole as if into a pond of black water. As they did so, all the stars and their gentle singing instantly disappeared. Everything was now black and cold, with an iciness more frozen and penetrating than anything George had ever felt. Consciousness was fading. The end was here …

  … the sacrifice had been made …

  … the price had been paid …

  … and then suddenly, unexpectedly, there was light again. And singing. And unspeakable joy. For the first time on his journey George opened his eyes. The black hole still stretched in front of him, filling a vast expanse of space. Yet it was rapidly growing smaller, as if it were shrinking. Stars still spun around him as if on a whirling, black carousel, singing their songs of hope and joy. He looked at his hand. It was open and the Uth stone was glowing.

  “I do not know what is happening,” the voice said in his mind again, once more with incredible calmness. “Our bodies have somehow joined us here, and the energy link on earth with the Grak ship has been broken. Some other power is pulling us. It pulled us out of the black hole, and is taking us somewhere.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” replied George happily. “All that matters is that the link is broken. We did what we had to do. We made our decision, and made it in time. The earth is safe.”

  The music and the light of the stars flowed over and through George as if he were a fish swimming in a clear, bright stream. The peace and joy he felt was indescribable. It washed over and through George in wave after wave. “I never knew space was like this,” he said. “It’s so beautiful.”

  “It is,” agreed the stone. Then it suddenly seemed to glow, as if expanding in light. With a burst of sudden joy, its voice broke into George’s mind. “Now I know who is pulling us! I know where we are going! We are going home!”

  “Home?” asked George curiously. “But we just left there.”

  “Not your home,” came the voice again, brimming with happiness. “We are going to mine! Turn and look.”

  With a little effort, George turned and saw to his surprise what looked like a glowing, large star seeming to zoom toward them, brighter and more clear than all the others around it. Although its brilliance was dazzling, it did not hurt his eyes. He continued to stare at it in wonder, as if hungrily eating the pure light that was radiating from within it.

  The star loomed rapidly larger. As it did, George was startled to see that it was not burning like the other stars. Rather, it was clear and glowing.

  “This is my home,” said the voice again, happily. “A home I left millions of your earth years ago, when I was in my infancy. It is drawing us to it. It is taking me back. It has forgiven me for leaving.”

  As they drew closer, George could see that what he was approaching was a round ball of glass, billions of times larger than the earth. With wonder he saw that he could look right through it, through billions and billions of miles of its clear interior, and see stars glowing on the other side without the slightest distortion.

  The glowing planet loomed larger and larger. It filled George’s whole vision. And as they rapidly approached its surface, George could hear the singing of countless voices, united in a song of joy and gladness that far exceeded any music George had ever heard, even the song of the stars. The singing surrounded him, generated by the voices of untold numbers of stones like the one he was holding, who collectively made up this wondrous world.

  Gently, they touched down on the planet’s surface. To George’s surprise, it felt soft like a pillow, even though it looked like solid, hard glass.

  “Thank you,” said the voice in George’s mind again. “Thank you for joining my sacrifice. By giving up life, it was given back to us again. And it made it possible for me to come home at last.”

  George looked at the glowing Uth stone in his hand. He smiled. “Thank you, for answering my cry for help, and for saving me and my world.” Slowly he lowered his hand and let the stone fall from his fingers, toward the ones it loved. With startling clarity, George understood now that his stone and every bit of the planet where he now stood--which was made up of billions upon billions of similar stones--was alive and vibrant, singing and joyous.

  The stone fell gently from George’s hand, as if in slow motion. He heard a distant fading echo in his mind. “I’m home!” It said simply. “Home at last.”

  Looking up, George saw to his surprise that Jiu Na and Donna Tereza were standing across from him. Each of them held in their hands their stone like his. They were both smiling. He did not need to ask what had happened. He knew that they had shared an experience just like his.

  Slowly they too dropped their stones, which floated like feathers toward the surface. George grinned at Jiu Na and Donna Tereza, who smiled back in return. Joy and happiness seemed to leap between them like a living creature. It was an inexpressible joy, the likes of which none of them had ever felt before.

  And then, without knowing why, George slowly closed his eyes. He felt himself gently falling … falling … like a feather on a pillow.

  And then he remembered no more.

  CHAPTER 28: California Sunshine

  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. Could he even put it into words?

  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, with a beam of light shooting up into space. 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! And your father had one too!”

  The protector began to pace the room rapidly, smacking his right hand into the palm of his left one. “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 the Grak made sure only the 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. They undoubtedly used the men to carry the stones. 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'm thinking now that they weren’t really dreams. Maybe he really did come.”

  “Probably so,” 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 stone in your father's hand on the Grak ship, and the stone in your hand at the fallen star. It would seem they had to do that for about a year before the connection between the Uth stones could be fully and completely 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 o
nto 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, to return their stones.”

  “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. Perhaps it was 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.”