George’s mind was racing. The Ziphon had said the time was now. Another Uth stone was outside, and his own Uth stone was glowing. Something was clearly happening. Yet, George still had no clue what he was supposed to do, and no idea regarding what he could do to stop the Grak.
“Calling Jiu Na,” George repeated again, firmly. Why didn’t she answer? With sudden inspiration, George said, “Calling Donna Tereza.” Maybe at least she would respond. But there was still no answer at all.
Should he try to call the protector? But if he did, wouldn’t that play into the hands of the Grak? Indeed, George realized with sudden horror, wasn’t that why Jiu Na and Donna Tereza were not answering? They had all received their rings from the protector, and if he was on the Grak’s side, then he probably was controlling their communications. In fact, he suddenly realized in horror that the Protector had probably listened in on each of the conversations Jiu Na and he had had in which they had talked about their suspicions of him!
A sudden shadow appeared to the left of the window. Before George could pull back or do anything there was a loud crack, and a whip darted inside the open window and curled tightly around him, binding him fast.
“NO!” George cried in desperation. Before he could do or say anything else, the whip was pulled tight and he was jerked through the window, falling with a thud to the ground. Rough hands grabbed him from behind and stuffed a gag in his mouth, and also tied his hands and feet. He felt a wave of cold and despair wash across him. He was turned roughly around and found himself staring into the face of another Grak, smiling at him cruelly, its foul breath nearly overpowering him.
Turning, George saw in shock that his father was standing a short distance away, his head bowed in sadness. Slowly his father walked over to the Uth stone, picked it up, and put it in a small envelope he pulled from his pocket.
George’s eyes opened wide in wonder. His father had brought an Uth stone! How did he get it, and why did he have it? His father looked up at him with glazed, sad eyes. His mouth moved, but no sound came out.
The Grak roughly picked George up and flung him over its shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He saw another Grak grab his father. Then the beasts started to move with amazing speed, racing down the streets that led out of town and toward the fallen star.
George tried to pound the Grak with his fists and kick with his legs, but was bound so tightly that he could hardly move. He tried to sing ‘Joy to the World,’ but with the gag in his mouth he could do nothing more than choke.
A waive of despair flooded over him. This was crazy. The whole thing was crazy. He was just a kid in California. He couldn’t stop a race of intergalactic monsters. He should have told the police or his mother or even Janet about what was going on. And now, tonight, he had let himself be distracted when he saw the other Uth stone, and had been easily captured. It had been no trouble at all for the Grak to get him. And now, all was lost. Whatever good he was supposed to do was clearly no longer possible.
In panic, George saw that they had reached the outskirts of town and were moving rapidly toward the field with the fallen star. He struggled again, trying to work his way free, but it was no use. He tried to cry out, but merely gagged on the cloth that had been rammed in his mouth by the Grak.
Suddenly, George heard a voice in his ear.
“George!” it said in a worried tone. “Are you all right?”
George’s mind reeled. Where was the voice coming from, and whose’ voice was it?
“George!” the voice repeated. “Answer me. Are you all right?”
In shock George realized it was the voice of the protector. The communication ring was still in his ear, unnoticed by the Grak!
George tried to answer, but of course could only gag and grunt.
“What’s that?” said the voice. “Did you say something? Is anything happening?”
George grunted and coughed again.
“I can hear something,” said the protector. “Can’t you answer? If something is preventing you from answering, try to make three quick noises in a row.”
George did his best, although with the Grak carrying him so roughly he nearly had the wind knocked out of him with every step.
“You’re in trouble!” yelled the voice. “I’ll be right there!”
George’s mind was reeling. Wasn’t the protector in league with the Grak? But if so, why had he sounded so desperate and worried, and then said he would come right away to help? Had George been wrong about him after all?
The Grak carrying George abruptly stopped. Twisting around, George could see that they were at the clearing with the fallen star. At least a dozen Grak were there, smiling cruelly. The creature which had carried him dumped him unceremoniously on the ground. George tried to stand, but his bindings held him fast. He could only struggle and grunt. The Grak laughed, with a sound like ripping metal.
George spotted his father at the edge of the crowd, being shoved and kicked by the Grak. He tried in vain to call out to him. Then George’s eyes widened. There was a small spaceship there, hardly noticeable in the dark because of its black paint. The Grak were pushing his father inside it.
His father turned and looked at George. There was a piercing sadness and a yearning, pleading look in his eyes. In the split second their eyes met George recognized the Dad he had known, who used to laugh and joke and make their home so pleasant. It was as if his father were reaching out to him with his eyes, pleading for understanding, for forgiveness, for hope. George knew in that instant that his father would never betray him, but had been used and controlled by the Grak.
And then the connection was broken as the Grak shoved his father through the doorway and slammed the hatch. In a matter of seconds the spaceship hummed, then roared into the sky and out of sight.
The Grak in the clearing were running back and forth, grunting to each other urgently, preparing for some unknown event that was about to happen. Suddenly George was picked up and tossed toward the fallen star. He landed next to it with a crunch, his legs buckling beneath him in pain. He felt the communicator ring fall from his ear.
A Grak standing next to the fallen star laughed, then roughly lifted him up and without warning, swung a large, curved knife straight toward his heart.
CHAPTER 26: Despair
It seemed as if time stood still as the knife blade came slowly toward George. The Grak’s eyes gleamed red and cruel. Then the blade struck home—not into George, but across the bindings on his hands and feet, which fell loose on the ground. The Grak grabbed George and forced his hands apart, then pointed at his right hand. Looking down, George saw in alarm that he was still carrying the bag which contained the glowing Uth stone.
George quickly closed his hand over the bag, but the Grak pried it open again, and held it open. Then another Grak gingerly lifted the bag, wincing in pain as he did so, and turned it over so that the Uth stone fell into George’s palm. The stone was hot, and seemed to be throbbing. When George closed his hand over the stone the Grak grunted in relief.
George was twisted around again, and his other hand was forced up, onto the hook of the fallen star, where the Grak deftly tied it in place with a stout rope. Then it looped a scabby, brittle belt tightly across George’s hand that held the Uth stone, so that he couldn’t open it or drop the stone. The binding was so tight and the stone so hot that George winced in pain. The Grak laughed in his face, its putrid breath nearly overpowering him.
A Grak at the side of the clearing suddenly barked an order, and Grak from around the clearing started running toward him. In that instant George realized that there was another black spaceship behind them. All but two of the Grak boarded the ship, which quickly roared to life and lifted into the sky.
One of the remaining Grak ambled over to George, and smiled cruelly down upon him. Spittle dripped from its open mouth onto George’s leg, stinging him like a wasp where it landed.
“Thank you,” the Grak said unexpectedly with a mock bow. “Thank you for helping us destroy you.” Then
it laughed a course laugh that sounded like breaking glass, and walked to the other side of the clearing.
There was sudden, unexpected silence. The two Grak stood quietly at the side of the clearing, watching, doing nothing. No one else was in sight, and nothing moved. George struggled vainly against the bindings that held his hand tied to the hook of the star. He also tried to stretch his other hand, to shake off the belt that held his folded hand carrying the Uth stone. He tried to bite off each of the bindings, and to twist his feet up and push against them to pry them lose, but it was all in vain. The bindings were simply too tight. The Grak at the side of the clearing laughed with evil pleasure.
And then, a brilliant shaft of light split the air as if the sun itself had come down to the clearing. In shock and amazement, George saw that the shaft of light extended from somewhere north of him in space, and came down to his hand holding the Uth Stone. It enveloped the hand with a brilliance that made George shut his eyes, temporarily blinded. Yet, amazingly, there was no burning or heat. The stone in his hand now felt cold, like a small lump of ice.
The earth suddenly shook and reeled, knocking George off his feet. Staggering, he tried to stand up. The beam of light did not change, but continued constant and steady. The Uth stone in his hand was growing warmer. Looking around, George saw that the Grak had taken shelter behind a large rock at the side of the clearing. They seemed afraid of the light, yet remained there, watching George. The earth rocked again.
And then, in horror, George understood.
He was the link. He and his father, and their two stones. The powerful beam of energy needed to grasp the hooks and stop the earth’s rotation was not from a power source on the Grak’s ship. It was a link between the stone his father held in his hand on the Grak ship far above him in space, and the stone he was holding himself in the clearing. That was why the intergalactic police had found nothing on the Grak ship. The energy was from the Uth stones themselves. And George had no doubt that the same link had been made between Jiu Na in China and her father on the Grak ship, and between Donna Tereza in Portugal and her husband Jose. The protector had said only the pure in heart could touch or use the Uth stones. Therefore, the Grak could not use them, although they had somehow discovered their secret. The purity of he and his father and the others was being used by the Grak to destroy them all.
George tried to call out, but gagged again on the cloth in his mouth. He choked in despair, his eyes filling with tears. He fell to his knees, shaking uncontrollably in horror and hopelessness.
The shaft of light continued, uninterrupted. The earth swayed again, stronger this time, twisting George around to hit the fallen star. His eyes glazed at the impact, and for a second things went black. The Uth stone in his hand was growing slowly warmer. George felt dizzy, and sensed that consciousness was fast leaving him.
In a last desperate surge of despair he cried out with all his might for relief and for help. Once again his cry caught in his throat because of the gag. But then three things happened in rapid succession.
First, George heard a cry of pain nearby, as if from a creature under attack. He heard angry shouts and the sound of fighting.
Second, he noticed the beam of light waver shooting up into space from the fallen star twist as if it were a snake.
And third, he heard a clear voice in his mind, speaking directly to his soul, a voice so soft and gentle it seemed completely foreign to what was happening around him. It was a voice he had never heard before.
“What is it you want?” the voice asked simply.
“I need help!” George answered in his own mind. “The Grak are using me to destroy the earth. I need a way to stop them!”
“Why?” came the voice again.
“Because if I don’t stop them, everyone will die!” George answered in frustration.
“And what price are you willing to pay for help?” came the voice.
“I’ll give anything!” cried George again in his mind. “Anything!”
“Anything?” asked the voice again, gently. “Even your life?”
George hesitated. He thought of his mother, no doubt awakened by the shaking of the earth. She was probably beside herself at not finding George in his room. He thought of Janet and the fun times they had had together in earlier years, in spite of how obnoxious she sometimes was now. He thought of his father, so kind and gentle, who seemed to always know just what to do. He thought of his friends, Alex and Michael, and other people he knew in Bartletville. Was he willing to give them up? Yet, if he didn’t what would happen to them?
“There is hope, if you decide quickly,” came the voice again, in a peaceful whisper, almost like laughter. “I, too, am being used to destroy. I am the stone in your hand. Together we can act, but only if we both are united in our sacrifice and act quickly. Neither of us can hold back, and neither of us can do it alone. We must both be willing to sacrifice everything in order to achieve success. Are you willing?”
And then George understood completely. The person he least suspected who might betray him had not been the protector or his father or anyone else. It was he, himself. His own hesitation and unwillingness to act would betray not only him, but all those he held dear. This was why the Ziphon had kept saying he had to act quickly. If he stopped to think, if he hesitated, the opportunity to stop the Grak would pass.
“Are you ready?” the voice asked again, simply, yet urgently. Without being told, George knew that he could no longer hold back. The decision had to be made NOW.
George closed his eyes tightly. He could feel tears stinging his eyelids. “Yes!” he cried in sudden anguish. “Of course I will. Yes! I will! I WILL!!”
A gentle ripple of laughter echoed through his mind. “Well done,” said the soft voice. George could feel the earth reeling again beneath his feet, and knew even though his eyes were closed that the beam of light and the energy connection between the Grak spaceship and the fallen star was still there. He could still hear sounds of distant fighting, and was aware that the earthquakes were growing more frequent and more violent. Yet he strangely now felt no fear. He had descended below fear.
“Come,” said the voice, softly. “Let us journey together.”
CHAPTER 27: The Journey
And then George was flying. As if pillowed on a cushion of velvet, he found himself rising gently into the sky, away from the clearing, away from his city and from California. His eyes were still tightly closed, yet he could see with a greater sharpness and clarity than he had ever seen before. Colors were before him, colors with a texture and beauty that he had never seen. They tickled him with a radiance of light as he lifted gently through them, making him laugh in spite of himself.
And then he was soaring into space. Stars littered his vision in all directions, so many that he could not number them. They seemed to be endless, growing in number and brightness the farther he went. And in the quiet of his inward vision he realized with a start that the stars were singing. The melody was beautiful and lifting, a tune so sacred and simple that George knew he would forget it the instant it stopped, yet it would haunt his memory forever.
He was picking up speed. Instead of the slow movement past clusters of stars he had experienced at the beginning of his journey, the stars now seemed to race alongside him for an instant then disappear, leaving a faint trail at their passing. The kaleidoscope of stars shifted around him, as if each one reached out with invisible hands and rocked him gently onward through their midst.
And then he suddenly saw something black and cold. It seemed to arise from nowhere, then loomed larger and larger with alarming speed. While the heavens around George were so full of stars that he felt like he was in the middle of a black ball full of bright holes, this dark mass blocked out all signs of light in the path it occupied. Yet, while it loomed ever larger and colder before him, George still felt no fear. The humming melody of the stars whispered comfort to him, and bore him onward.
“This is what those on your world call a blac
k hole,” came the gentle voice again in his mind. “Our only choice now is to throw ourselves into it.”
“Why?” asked George in a detached voice. He strangely felt no alarm at this unexpected announcement. He felt only peace. His fear had been left behind. He regarded the black hole as a bird would look at a rock; passive, disinterested.
“Because the journey we have taken is of our minds only,” came the reply. “Our bodies are back at the clearing, attached to the fallen star. By throwing ourselves inside this hole, our minds will be consumed, and the energy link destroying your world will be broken, for it cannot exist without our minds to sustain it. Then the Grak will be stopped, and all will end.”
George looked calmly at the black hole, pondering what the voice had just said. Finally, he asked, “Can’t you just use your power against the Grak? Why was it necessary to journey here?”
“Because you are holding me,” came the simple reply. “You are between me and them, so I could not act against the Grak unless I destroyed you first. And that is something I could never do, since you are pure in heart.”
“Our only alternative was this journey, and this sacrifice. But it must be a joint sacrifice to be effective. I must also sacrifice myself to stop the energy link on earth. Your sacrifice or my sacrifice alone will not work.
“It is still not too late to change your mind. Even now, your sacrifice must be voluntary, not forced by me. And mine must be voluntary as well.”
George looked disinterestedly at the black hole looming before him, hovering like an evil mouth of cold, ready to swallow them. Then he asked, “And what is inside the black hole?”
“I do not know,” came the voice again. “I only know it is black. If we go in, I do not believe we will ever come out.”
They stood on the edge of the hole for only an instant. Then in complete calm, the voice again said, “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” responded George without any hesitation.
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