Message #19064

[Bianca]

The three men rose as he approached, and I did likewise. They bowed as he stepped upon the dais. Each of my escorts then took a piece of metal, like mine, which I then discovered they were holding tightly in their hands, and in turn walked to the exalted one and pressed it to his forehead. I presumed I should do the same, and followed suit. When I touched his forehead with the metal I felt a tingling shock go through my arm and into the temples of my head. The exalted one sat at the operator's position in front of the instrument panel and we also seated ourselves.

He turned and looked directly into my eyes, and I noticed that his eyes also glowed. Like those of the others, his eyes seemed to penetrate deep within me. Then he spoke to me without lip movement.

"I bid you a cordial welcome to our base of operations on your planet, and it is with deepest esteem that I permit you to be our honoured guest because you have given so much of your time to establishing friendly relationships with visitors from space. We knew of your activities long before you tried vainly to contact us with your experiment. Prior to our personal contact with you, we had you watched. We were merely testing your sincerity.

"Having proven to us that you were a trustworthy person who had much willpower, you, above anyone else, were chosen to visit with us and learn of our purpose here on your planet. You have already learned many things about us. You have listened courteously without troubling us with many questions, but I am certain you have many you would like to ask us, so we are now prepared to permit you to ask any questions you desire; but we must be free to decline to answer any we feel is out of order. May we now hear your questions?"

Here indeed was the moment I had awaited; an invitation to satisfy my curiosity upon so many points and to hear the answers direct from the 'head man' of the saucer people on Earth. Giving the matter quick but considerable thought, I decided I must ask questions of importance for I didn't know how much time would be allotted for the interrogation.

My first question came out without great hesitation.

"How long have you been on our planet?"

He answered unhesitantly, "Since the year 1945 in your length of time."

I continued. "What is your main purpose in coming to our planet?"

"To obtain water from your vast bodies of sea."

"For what purpose are you using this sea water?"

"We cannot answer that, but we have shown you what we do with it once we obtain it."

"Do you intend to stay on our planet long?"

"Perhaps a period of fifteen of your planet years."

"Do you make trips back and forth to your planet while you are here on Earth?"

He did not answer "Yes", but replied, "We have been changing our crews every two years."

"I was told that you return some of the waste material from the sea water to the sea from which it came, but watching your process I did not see how this was done."

"The waste is returned in the small craft that bring in the fresh supply. It is actually strewn while the craft is in flight."

"Do you intend to cause any harm to our people while you are here?"