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hour that his mind couldn’t keep up with
it all. He could feel a headache coming on.
    “That’s 5,000 years in your time,” the
Protector said casually. He flopped down on the couch and
immediately two of the claws that were poking out of it at odd
angles started scratching his back. “Ooooh! That feels good!” said
the Protector, shifting around so the claws could reach him more
easily. He rolled his eyes happily.
    George’s mind was still reeling. There was
silence for a moment (except for the scritch-scratching of the
claws on the Protector's back) while George tried to figure out
which of his 1000’s of questions he should ask first. Finally he
said, “You’re from another world? A place called Kona?”
    “That’s ‘Kena,’, not Kona,” the Protector
replied. “Kona is a city in Hawaii, but Kena is a planet. It’s
about 50 billion light years from here, out in the Lipet sector.
Just past Nagow, the amusement park planet.” The Protector smiled
and his eyes glowed. “I’m going to stop there on my way home when I
finish my assignment here in another three years.”
    “Your assignment?” George repeated without
thinking.
    “Yep,” replied the Protector. “It’s part of
our education to go out into the universe for five stars, pick a
planet, and take an assignment as its protector. I’ve been here for
almost five stars now, so my time as protector on this planet is
almost up. Then I'll go back to Kena and go to high school.”
    “High school?!” exclaimed George in
surprise.
    “Yeah,” said the protector sheepishly. “By
comparison with the age of people on my planet, I’m just a
teenager. Even though I came here in the year 1500 and something or
other, and I’ve been here for almost 500 years of your time. Do you
want to see my contract?”
    George stared at him uncomprehendingly.
    “I had it signed right after I got here.
We’re supposed to make sure the natives want us to protect their
planet before we get started, you know.” He jumped up and went over
to a tall structure that looked something like a bookshelf. It had
a number of oddly shaped volumes and wrappings along its shelves.
Carefully the protector pulled out a faded parchment that looked
like it might crumble into dust any second. Carrying it back to
George, he pointed proudly to a large ‘X’ at the bottom.
    “That’s the signature of Chief Palomuk of the
Paiute tribe. He was the Indian chief in charge of this area when I
arrived in about the year 1500 or so as measured in your time, and
he agreed to let me be the protector of this planet for 500 years.”
The protector looked at the parchment wistfully. “Chief Palomuk was
quite a guy. He couldn’t read or write, but not only did he stop
his braves from killing me when I arrived, he offered for me to
marry one of his daughters after he signed this. Of course I
declined since she’s an alien to me, and I’m too young to marry
anyway.”
    The protector then looked across the room as
if seeing people and events from long ago written on the walls.
“It’s been quite an exciting time since then until now. I didn’t
think I’d get much activity protecting this little out of the way
planet, but boy was I wrong! Someday, I’ll have to tell you some of
the things that have happened and the times I’ve had while
protecting your planet. Or maybe I’ll just write a book about
it.”
    “However!” said the protector loudly before
George could say anything, “I believe you came here because a
certain little yellow bird stole that.” He pointed to George’s
leather pouch, which was lying on a purple table that was wearing
rubber boots on its legs.
     
    CHAPTER 8: The Uth Stone
    “My pouch!” cried
George, rushing to the table. He quickly looked inside and was glad
to see that the clear rock was still there.
    “I figured it must be something valuable,”
said the Protector casually. “That’s why I used the transformer to
turn me into a bird, so I could steal it