This night, however, was different. At about four o'clock in the morning, I woke up to a noise I'd never heard before within these ancient walls. It was a strangely regular knocking that seemed to be coming from the attic. I rose from bed and put my night-dress on.

Following the sound, I ascended the stairs to a small room in the attic where I had, many years ago, stored all the personal belongings of my late father.

Even though I'm not too superstitious, this sound sent ghost stories wandering around my mind. It was late at night in the old house, and the unnatural sound came from the place where my late father liked to spend most of his free time.

I felt cold sweat on my brow. Shivers went down my spine. I wanted to retreat back down the stairs and search the room by daylight in the morning. But I forced common sense to win: Even if it was my late father haunting there, I knew he would never hurt me.

So I opened the door and pushed my hand in, groping for the light-switch. Every moment I was expecting something awful in the dark to grab my hand. I hadn't visited that room in nearly four years, and I was afraid that the light-bulb might be broken. It wasn't. After I got the lights on, I dared to take a look in the room.

What I saw made me want to rush back out right away. An old mechanical typewriter on the corner table was typing by itself. Paper got up by itself, like a ghost was writing with the machine. Through deep horror, I got my mind settled. That's when I remembered my father claiming that this typewriter writes stories by itself. As a child I had believed him, but when I became an adult, I knew that he was kidding me, like fathers always kid their children.

I knew this typewriter was father's most dearest treasure. It had once belonged to a pulp writer named Edgar Rice Burroughs. My father had managed to buy it at some auction.

My father must have been the biggest Edgar Rice Burroughs fan in the world. He had all the first editions of his books -- shelves full of them, and a lot of other stuff about the writer, too. I had read only couple of those novels, since no boy likes the things his parents fanatically try to feed him.

As my peace of mind slowly returned, my attention fell to the typewriter. I saw father's old, yellowed typing paper rise from the moldy carton on the table and place itself into the typewriter. I walked toward it, and saw that it was writing some story in english.

I remembered how my father used to claim that this typewriter writes its own stories, and how father also claimed that this very same typewriter used to write stories by itself for the famous Edgar Rice Burroughs, who then released them under his own name.

I knew I couldn't get any more sleep that night after this strange phenomenon, so I went through the papers that the machine had written. They were in backwards order, and I was able to start reading them from the beginning, by taking the undermost one.

The story was told by some Earth-man named Tangor, and was quite unbelievable. This Tangor and some other earthlings had supposedly died and were transported into another solar system, about 450,000 light-years from Earth.

Anyway, I tell the story here faithfully to how it was written. I only corrected some strange expressions and words, which I considered to be typing mistakes.

TM

I believe Poloda science is ahead in many matters, but unfortunately Poloda science couldn't stop what seemed to be an everlasting war.

With my earlier contacts, I wrote how I came to Poloda, joined the Unisian air-fleet and how I went on a secret mission to Ergos, the capital of Kapara, our enemy. Then I told of my missions to Poloda's neighbour planets; how my trip to Tonos was filled with adventures. I brought back one small ray projector, but it didn't help us Unisians to end the long-lasting war.

Then I wrote of how I traveled to two more planets in the Omos system. My trips to Antos and Katos were just as adventure-filled, but I returned to Poloda empty-handed. I found no escape for Unisians to those planets, either.

When I came to Poloda from Earth, I had only one scientific discovery to tell them that they hadn't discovered for themselves. That was Einstein's theory of relativity, E=MC2. After I returned from Tonos, I remembered to mention that theory to the commissioner of war. I told him how back on my old world, scientists had believed that based on that formula they can build The Bomb -- the bomb that will end all the wars.

Unisian scientists were excited about this theory, and just after I returned from Katos, I heard that they had managed to build such a bomb. However, it was discovered that this bomb would not only totally destroy the Kapars, but it would also harm the atmosphere of Poloda and other Omosian planets, the circular atmosphere of which connects all eleven planets.

The scientists' findings left Janhai no other choice than to rule this new bomb to be too dangerous and immoral to use against Kapars. Therefore the war continued, and Unis continued to lose an average of a million men per year.

However, the theory I brought -- called Tangor's Theory of Relativity on Poloda -- allowed scientists to build new power plants that change hydrogen into helium. These new power plants mean that we Unisian now have an enormous amount of energy to use, and it eased many things in life. But the war continued.

In my earlier writings I told how I and my love, little Harkas Yamoda, were wed after I returned from Tonos. I may inform you that since then we have had happy family news five times: two daughters and three sons.

Sadly, the heavy war has cost the life of all three of our sons. After the last one died, I swore I will never have more children. I couldn't bear the pain like born Unisians. I also couldn't bear the silent suffering of my wife Yamoda.

I knew I could have escaped with my family to live among the friendly people on Tonos, but I couldn't abandon my adopted homeland in a time of war. That would have been treason, and a cowardly act.

Things on Poloda seemed to follow the same path endlessly until the recent happenings.

The story I am now about to begin is the story I put together from my own experiences and interviews I conducted with the five other earthlings that one day appeared on Poloda, in the surface garden above the underground city of Orvis.

I didn't understand many things these people told me about their life on Earth. They had to explain much, and I still don't understand it all. Earth sure has changed quite a bit since I left.

Tangor

It was an ordinary day for me. I work for the street police, keeping an eye on peace activists. I've worked as a street cop for many years now.

After I returned from my inter-planetary travels, I worked as a secret agent and made some dangerous rescue missions into Kapara. After that, I returned to the air-force of Unis and flew hundreds of air battles over Orvis and bombing flights into Kapara.

I rose in the ranks, and became general of the Unis military forces. I was almost elected Commissioner of War. But some Unisians didn't want an otherworlder to be elected into such a high place. I lost the election.

I kept going on secret missions for some while, until my superiors thought that I was too old for dangerous secret missions or inter-planetary research-traveling. I was given a peaceful retirement post with the street police.

I had lived several years in peace and love with my wife Yamoda in our underground city. The buildings of Orvis were no longer lifted to the surface between air battles. Bombing up on the surface didn't much bother us. I spent my days in the streets as a policeman, and my nights with my wife Yamoda. Life was easy and stable indeed.

This day seemed to be the same as usual. Peace protesters marched together with nature activists, both demanding that Janhai use the atom bomb against Kapara. The latter group said that Kapar bombing ruined our beautiful nature and kept people underground. They would rather take some radioactivity instead. Most of the protesters were women, mothers and grandmothers. Most men were at war.

They'd made headway in their cause, too. The latest rumour from behind the curtain said that the last time the Unisian ruling body Janhai voted, it was only 4-3 against dropping atom bombs into Kapara.

As I said, the day seemed ordinary. I walked the streets and kept an eye on peace demonstrators, until I saw familiar face among their number. Strange feelings and astonishment went through my body, because this peace protester was my own wife, Yamoda. She held a banner that said "USE THE BOMB!"

I could hardly believe that my Yamoda was part of that rabble. My wife, who silently suffered the death of her 13 brothers; my love, whose grief knew no bounds at the death of our three sons; my wife, the perfect law-abiding citizen. How could she now march with the peace demonstrators, and demand that Unis use the atom bomb?

I walked to my wife in wonderment. I took her banner and threw it away. I started to drag her out of the crowd. I didn't want to speak with her then, surrounded by the fanatic peace makers.

When we got a little further, my mind was still not totally re-organized from the shock. I didn't know what to say or where to start, so I simply asked, "For god's sake, what are you doing among these peace demonstrators?"

My wife answered by hugging me and starting to cry against my shoulder. "I have had enough," she said. "I can't take this any more. And I wanna have more children."

I stood silently. What could I possibly say? I guess even the most patriotic, law-abiding citizen can crack under the eternal pressure. I just stood there, holding my wife. I had no words. Thankfully, I didn't need to come up with any before we were interrupted.

There was a tap on my shoulder. It was another police officer. I was needed at police headquarters immediately.

So I went with the policeman, leaving my wife there in the street. Before I left, I begged her to go home. I don't know if she did.

While we drove toward headquarters in the police vehicle, I asked the officer what the problem was. He answered that apparently five naked people had appeared in the garden of Orvis, up on the surface. At first, these people were thought to be those poor regressed human beings of Punos. They were a mess, and didn't understand our language. They also seemed a little dotty.

They were taken in for questioning, but no one could communicate with them. Finally, some officer understood a few of the words they used: "Earth" and "Sun" being among the words I had used in the articles I wrote about my home planet for the Unisian encyclopedia. The police chief thought these people might have come from Earth, the same way I did so many years ago.

I was excited to hear this, since it was my knowledge that so far, only one other Earth man had been resurrected here on Poloda besides me.

At headquarters, the chief led me to the interrogation room, where the five strange-looking people were held. These people did indeed looked a bit like those regressed people of Punos. I started to ask questions in english.

And they answered me in that language.

At the festival they swilled booze and smoked pots. For some reason, Joe hit on a girl named Jane, but wasn't arrested for the assault. Jane was an innocent home girl, who had never used drugs or had sex, or presumably smoked cookware, but I guess she still had some rebellion in her mind, since something made her to come to these festivals.

These, then, were the five J's: Jake, Jimmy, Joe, Janis and Jane. What they were doing on Poloda was anybody's guess. But here they were.

As I interogated them that day at headquarters, it ocurred to me that all five were still naked. I offered them clothing, but they refused.

"Put those drab, gray establishment uniforms on our backs?" said Jake. "Why don't you just lock us up and throw away the key, man?"

It was just as well. Nude, I could tell the boys from the girls. The three men all had long, curly hair -- though scraggly beards did sprout from their chins, which helped to identify their gender. Jake and Joe were about middle-sized, maybe a little thinner than average young males. They were about 5 feet 10 inches tall and 155 pounds. Too scrawny to do any good at the front. Jake had tiny eyeglasses, with wire rims, but I don't know how he saw anything through them because they were coal black. And where he found them after being transported to Poloda, I never did find out. Jimmy had blue eyes, with red streaks through the whites. He was a bit bigger than his friends, about 6'1, with a heavily built body of about 190 pounds. But he wouldn't do the Army any good either, since he wobbled crazily -- presumably from smoking too many lawn clippings. Janis had long brown hair, tied back with a headband, and gray eyes. She was about 5 feet 5 inches tall, and just fine looking, if a little grubby. I noticed she didn't shave her armpits, which was a little disgusting. Especially since it was a warm day. Jane wore flowers in her hair. I guess she thought it was fashionable.

The festivals went fine for these five J's. But at some point, the J-gang didn't get enough giggles from the booze and grass, so they started to take the LSD that Jimmy always brought with him. That was a powerful drug, I gathered, and it got them even higher than smoking lawn clippings. When some musician named Jimi Hendrix played, Joe managed to get Jane to taste LSD also. Then all five J's were high and happy.

I guess at some point they all fell asleep and saw beautiful narcotic dreams. Or maybe they just lost their consciousness.

Jake woke up first. He looked around, and saw that he was in an open space, with green plants everywhere -- no people, other than the other four J's. They all were naked like Jake himself. Well, the nakedness didn't surprise Jake too much. They had had naked mud-bathing before at the festivals, but now there was no mud. And all their bodies were clean.

"Did we have group sex again?" Jake asked his sleeping friends.

Jake's head started to get a little clearer. After a while, he thought: "God damn, we all fell asleep for so long that the festival ended and all the other people went home."

The other J's started to wake. They looked around then, I guess they had about the same thoughts as Jake had earlier. Jake told them his theory about oversleeping. Jimmy answered: "Fuck it. No one sleeps that long. We're still on the LSD trip, and imagined that there are no other people."

Jake's mind started to settle even more. "Yes, that must be the explanation," he reasoned. "We're simply still in the LSD trip. Yes, that's it."

They might have had this opinion a little longer, until six uniformed men with pistols in their hands appeared. Jimmy saw them first. He said: "Cops! God damn it, boys! Say hello to Vietnam."

Those officers arrested them, and spoke in an unintelligible language. They were taken to some sort of elevator, descending underground.

They were taken to a room they considered a prison cell. More police officers appeared, mumbling in the same strange language. Finally some really old, senile man came in and tried to speak with them in some prehistoric english.

I'm old, and may be out of practice speaking english. But senile? Yamoda doesn't think so. I suspect that my daughters think I am, sometimes. But they'd never say so to my face.

"Never trust anyone over 30," Jake said to his chums.

These five people were ordered into my care-taking. They were placed into an apartment building close to mine. It was my job to teach them some Unisian language and habits. I'd also study them, and recommend whether to Janhai whether these five strangers should be destroyed or not.

I spent the next couple days with them. I was interested in news of Earth. I hadn't heard anything about my home planet for a long time. I knew that the war in which I died was won, but now these newcomers spoke of another war in some place called Vietnam.

"War!" spat Janis.

"Huh!" added Jane.

"What is it good for?" asked Jimmy.

These five people seemed to be some kind of pacifists and war antagonists. I wondered if they could be any use for us in Unis.

I understood that grass and LSD are some sort of drugs. I never liked drug users back on Earth, but I remembered Aldous Huxley's "Brave new World." Maybe Earth was getting like he prophesied, since all these five use drugs and it was their testimony that all normal people on Earth do the same.

"It's a cool trip, man," Jake informed me.

So, maybe it is natural on Earth nowadays. Maybe they had so much pressure they can't get along without "mama's little helper," as Jane called it.

"Lucy in the sky, old dude," added Janis.

"The Beatles are far out," laughed Jimmy.

But what Lucy was doing up there, or why Jane's mother needed help in the first place, I didn't have the foggiest clue. I looked around for insects in the office, but knew the place was perfectly sanitary.

And besides. We have even more pressure and we don't need nor use drugs in Unis.

I was interested in the atom bomb. Had they used it since those two times in the second world war? They said no. Obviously, it hadn't ended all wars as we'd been told it would. Those people on Earth had something called "Cold War" now. I figured Vietnam must be in the Antarctic.

I had to ask if they know any scientific findings, that might be helpful for us. Jimmy answered that he knew how to fabricate LSD. And Jake knew how to build an "electric guitar." I didn't think those inventions would be of any use to us.

Meanwhile, I had serious conversations with my wife. I got her finally to promise that she wouldn't march with the peace demonstrators again. We had long, loud and emotional conversations, with heavy arguments. However, I reserve the right to keep some private family things private. I don't think that an author has any responsibility to reveal all his private things to the whole Universe.

Finally, after six weeks, Janhai took the case of these five strangers. I made the proposition that these five earthlings should be set free. I thought that they would be no threat to us and they might still prove useful. Earth science had obviously advanced a lot since we last had any Earth people here on Poloda. I mentioned the "electric guitar," which sounded sinister enough. But maybe my real motive was, that these five earthlings were my compatriots from America.

So, these five "hippies" were set free into our society, after Janhai ruled so.

It didn't take too long to find out that these people didn't want to melt into our society. They didn't like to use our clothes, so they made their own. They were a strange looking group, with their long, curled hairs, things hanging from their necks and black, grubby clothes. The girls had some sort of dress with a long skirt, and the boys' clothes didn't differ much from those of the girls. During conversation, I wished they were naked again, so I could keep their names straight.

Obviously, they got lot of attention everywhere they went in Orvis.

My daughters were excited that more people from their father's home planet had arrived on Poloda. Naturally, they wanted to get to know these people and therefore learn more about the Earth, where their ancestors lived, and its people.

I couldn't forbid it, even though I thought that these hippies were not a good example of Earth people. And, as a father, I didn't think they were good company for daughters, with their strange looks and drug habits. But on Earth and Poloda one thing is constant: No father can control what his daughters do, or whom they associate with. I was thankful that there are no drugs on Poloda for them to use. I was too optimistic, of course.

Apparently, my daughters "hanged" with these guys every evening. They went to the bars and pubs. They drank noticeable amounts of alcohol. We do use alcohol on Poloda, but always a moderate amount. And, as I said, these hippies got attention everywhere they went. Now, my daughters were getting that attention, too.

Apparently my younger daughter, Angela, got a crush on Jimmy. She spent lot of time with him, more and more all the time. Also, a lot of other Unisian youth were interested in these hippies and wanted to know about them and their life-style.

"He's so cool and cute," Angela told me.

"Cool?" I asked. "Perhaps the underground environmental controls need adjusting."

"Dad! You're so not with it. Jimmy's bright, and intelligent, and has such a great ideology and values."

Well, I can't understand why she likes him, if he's so cold. I seriously doubt that intelligent part. And what values, I really didn't know. Cute as my ass.

"How many of you hang up with these hippies?" I asked.

"Hang out, dad," she replied, exasperated at my terminology. "Well, there's Monica and me, Jimmy, Jake, Joe, Janis, Jane and Morga Shanda, and then there's people that come and go."

"Morga Shanda?" I asked, because the name sounded familiar.

Angela answered, "Yes, she's Joe's girlfriend"

I asked, "But wasn't Jane and Joe a pair?"

"They split up a long time ago," Angela answered. "Jane is so dull, but they let her hang out with us."

"Jane's OK," interrupted Monica. Obviously, Monica had became a good friend with Jane.

I only later learned that Morga Shanda was the niece of late Morga Sagra -- the Unisian traitor with whom I first traveled to Ergos, the capital of Kapara.

We continued to talk some more, but I couldn't get anything important out of them. They avoided my questions when I tried to ask what exactly they did in the evenings.

So I can't tell you what these hippies and my daughters did together or what talked about, since I just don't know. But I really would have liked to know.

I guess I was not too perspicacious. I went to work as street cop every day. At first I didn't notice any change at home, until one day my younger daughter was wearing the same clothes and necklaces as those hippies did. She had flowers in her hair. Gone was the red dress common to all unmarried maidens in Poloda.

My wife and I were shocked, of course. Loud voices were used, rounding threats were proposed. Again I want to reserve myself the right to keep private family talks private. I'll just say that a lot of arguments were had.

Anyway, if I thought that would prevent my daughter from going out with these hippies, I was dead wrong. My concerns were ever more increased as I heard that these hippies practiced unmarried sex out in the open, on the garden in surface. I also heard from the other cops, that these hippies had fabricated synthetic drugs here in Poloda. The new drug was called DSL, don't ask me why.

Anyway, hippie ideology spread and every day I saw more and more them, while patrolling in the streets. More and more born Unisian youth joined them. They wore grubby clothes, peace-signs hung from their necks and they smoke some sweet smelling cigarettes. I later heard that they were made of some Polodian plant. We never had any smoking habits here before.

As more and more Unisian young men joined the hippies, more and more refused the military service and going to war against Kapara. These war-resisters started to bring worry among the common citizens. If we don't fight, Kapara will destroy us, they said.

Janhai ruled that everyone who refuses army-service and all those who use drugs will be banished to the Island of Despair, the prison island at the southern tip of Unis.

My daughters had left home a long time ago, as just about all the young children of our neighbours and friends. They had all joined the hippies. I barely saw my daughters any more, only accidentally in the streets, while patrolling. My younger daughter, Angela, didn't speak to me any more. Her boyfriend Jimmy was sent to the Island of Despair because of drug use, and she blamed me. I was thankful that my daughters weren't caught and sent to the prison islands, because I had heard that women aren't treated very nicely there.

The news told that the Kapar army had snatched hundreds of prisoners from the Island of Despair. No one knew why -- probably in order to find some traitor, that would reveal some of our important secrets. But no such prisoner were held there, that could reveal anything.

But soon these islands were totally filled with people. Janhai had no place to put all the law-breakers. It had reached the point that Janhai had to rule that law-breakers must be either destroyed or the law must be abandoned. It was already obvious that the drug-laws will not end the drug using, no matter what the punishments are, nor it will end war-refusing. So the tight laws were abandoned.

Hippie people had started some sort of music culture. They played loud music out on the surface. Thousands of people gathered at those concerts. They used drugs and had sex orgies. Sometimes Kapara fleet bombed them.

The peace movement was getting ever more stronger. It looked like Unis no longed had any choice but to drop the atom bombs into Kapara or surrender to the Kapara forces.

Since Janhai gave up the drug law, almost all police forces were ordered into the war against Kapara. They were needed there more. Only a few old enforcement officers like myself were left to patrol streets. We no longer arrested or reported war refusers or drug users. Frankly, we didn't have much to do.

There were rumours of a large amount of hippie-lookalikes coming from the direction of Kapara. Marching towards the same hills.

I arrived to the place, and it was an unbelievable sight -- a valley full of hippie people, young people everywhere, people with long hairs and unclean clothes, some wear no clothes at all, and most of the girls were at least with bare breasts.

And that noise! I saw a group of people playing on some sort of stage. They played something that one maybe might call music, although I thought of it as irrational noise. They sand about love and peace; other songs were about sex, drugs and something called rock'n'roll. I didn't think there were too many people there who were not high with drugs, among these millions.

I wondered how they got the energy for their equipment out here in the wilderness. But I suppose they had some sort of portable power generators. The army had some of those, but I don't know how the hippies got theirs.

I was a bit concerned about my own safety. There were only a couple police officers, and we must patrol alone to reach at least most of the area, if needed. But I knew I would be totally helpless if anything would happen.

As I watched this "end of the world" looking party, I thought to myself that it would be the end for hippies if Kapara would now make a bombing flight here. I thought that all the hippies in the world were gathered here. Maybe Unis should make the bombing flight here themselves, I thought. Maybe we would be better off then. But I knew that we cops were ordered here because Unis still felt it had to provide some safety to its youth. They were still our hope.

There were Kapar youth as well in the crowd. That amazed me. I didn't quite understand how come they managed to get here. I didn't know what to think about that and them. I couldn't believe that people could just leave the totalitaristic Kapara. I had visited Ergos a couple times and knew it was impossible. But, still, these people were here. I knew that Kapar bombing flights had decreased in recent times. I didn't know what to make of it.

There were the black hairs of Kapars and brown hairs of Unisians in the crowd, although some Unisians had coloured their hair black. Some interracial pairs were formed. I wanted to ask some Kapar about what was going on, but they were not interested to speak with a police officer. They just showed me a peace sign and said, "Peace, man!" or "Have some peace and love, man."

Thankfully no Kapar or Unis youth attacked me. I guess they considered me so old and senile that it would be shameful to harm me.

I was still waiting for the moment when Kapara fleet would arrive and start bombing. Somehow I was sure that it would happen.

I went to met them. They were obviously all high. DSL, I suppose. My other daughter, Angela, was with Jimmy, who obviously had been released from the prison island. Angela had bare breasts, but it seemed natural there and I knew my anger would do no good, so I pretended to ignore them.

Between the noise, we couldn't talk much, although I tried. But I can't be sure I understood all they said. I asked Harkas Monica, "Who is this boy?"

She represented him to me as Horthal Gullym, the son of Horthal Gyl. I can tell you I wasn't too enthusiastic about him. I remembered that tiring four-year-old Horthal Gyl, that I met back in Ergos a long time ago. I didn't think too highly of him. I also didn't think this apple could have dropped too far from the tree. I also remembered the horror story of the other Earthman who was later tortured by the grown-up Horthal Gyl at the Zabo (Kaparian secret police) prison in Ergos.

So, I didn't have warm feelings towards him. However, I was really interested to know how Kapars had managed to come to these festivals, or even leave Kapara, so I asked him. But I couldn't get the answer because they said Jimi Hendrix is starting to play.

Surrounded by the noise, I asked "Who he is?"

Monica answered that he's the best guitar player there is: "He's resurrected here from the Earth."

Yes indeed, I saw the black man playing on the stage. I have never seen a black man on Poloda before. I asked her when he had arrived and why no one had told me. She said that Jimi appeared in the surface-level garden of Orvis, right into the camp-fire in the hippie party one night. Hippies took him to their shelter and healed his burned legs. They never told the authorities. Jimi had lived and played his guitar on Poloda for almost a Polodan year already.

I watched the stage and thought to myself that this noise resembled an air attack warning. Then I realized that it was an air attack warning. Kapar airplanes descended upon us. I turned my head back towards my daughters and the J-gang, but half of them had disappeared.

The four J's had vanished -- only Jane was left. My daughter Angela lay unconscious on the ground, with my other daughter Monica kneeling beside her. Monica's Kapar boyfriend and their friend Morga Shanda looked upon them. I went to my daughter Monica and asked what happened? She had strange amazed look in her eyes as she answered: "They disappeared and Angela fainted." I check my unconscious daughter's pulse. It was quite slow, but not critical. I asked Monica, "What do you mean they disappeared?"

"They vanished," she said.

We didn't have any more time -- Kapar fleet was almost above us. I took my daughter in my arms and started to carry her towards the trees nearby. I ordered the others to follow us to the small forest. It seemed the safest place. So we rushed into the small forest, which was filled with hippies hiding from the bombers.

What followed was about the strangest air battle in the history of Poloda. Traditional Kapar planes came first, but they didn't drop bombs. Behind them came the newer, turbine-motor planes.

Kapars and us now had these faster turbine-planes. We both got the idea from the Earthman that arrived in Kapara about two decades ago. Kapars copied it from our planes that crashed in their lands.

The air-battle started between these two Kapar fleets. Older planes just tried to land; sometimes people tried to parachute jump, letting their planes crash into hilltops. Thankfully, none crashed among the crowd. Newer planes mercilessly fired upon the older ones and the parachutists. Only a few returned fire. At the same time, the Unisian fleet came to the scene. First they fired upon all Kapar planes, but that lasted only a couple seconds. I guess there was a bright captain in the Unisian fleet, who quickly realized that there were something strange among the Kapar forces.

The Unisian fleet fired only on the newer Kapar planes. The terrible battle lasted only a couple minutes before most of the newer Kapar planes were shot down, unfortunately it was unavoidable that many of them crashed upon the crowd.

Only a couple Kapar planes tried to escape back to Kapara, but they were chased and shot down as well. All the older Kapar planes had landed, but no no Kapar ground forces emerged from them.

Our fleet landed also, after they returned from the chase of enemy planes. I had watched the fight, which now seemed over. I guess I should have gone to help those who were injured under crashing planes, but at the moment I was too concerned about my daughter Angela to leave her.

I finally got a chance to ask my other daughter's Kapar boyfriend what the hell had happened in Kapara? He answered that the hippie ideology had grown in Kapara. Those hippies that Kapars snatched from Unisian prison island had taught them the ideology. Kapars snatched those people, because they thought that they are Unisian traitors that had been sentenced to the prison island, and they might be useful them, in their quest to destroy Unis.

It turned out that the young prison guards were interested in the hippie ideas and spread them among the other Kapar youth. When Zabo realized the danger, all Unisian hippie prisoners were executed, but the seed had already grown. Soon there were peace-protesters and hippies everywhere, totalitarian Kapara couldn't except that, so they sentenced all caught hippies to death.

Soon, news of the big hippie festival in Unis spread among the underground Kapar hippie movement. They wanted to see Jimi Handrix. Kapar hippies made a mass escape. Many of them were shot, but many managed to escape and travel to Punos and there to the Unisian border to attend the "Woodstock on Poloda" festival.

I asked him what he made of the air battle we just witnessed.

"I think there may have been a revolt in the Kapar army and revolutionists escaped with older planes," he answered. "Newer planes can be piloted only by those who are absolutely faithful to the Kapar ideology and ruling, where as all the young men in Kapara are forced to the military service, many of the old planes were piloted by the people who wanted to escape, if given chance."

A Unisian army officer came by then, and asked how the girl was injured. I replied that I am Tangor, and that this wass my daughter, she just fainted, I don't know why. Soon she was taken with the hospital plane into the hospital at Unis. She was still unconscious.

I couldn't take the same flight, so I stayed behind to watch my other daughter and to do some humanitarian services as a police officer.

We arrived in Orvis and went to the hospital. My wife Yamoda was already there and she cried against my shoulder. Well, I wasn't too good to pacificate her. We went to the hospital day after day, our daughter didn't give any sign of awaking. At some point I started to visit less and less, but my wife Yamoda kept going every single day.

It turned out that the air-battle we witnessed was the last there have been in the Polodian sky. It also turned out that what Horthal Gullym had told me was about correct. After the big hippie mass escape, the whole system in Kapara crashed. Revolution started, their ruler Pom Da was ripped to pieces by an angry crowd and people gained their freedom.

The Unisian army interrogated Kapars that landed into the festival that day and Unis started the occupying mission immediately. Unis army took over Ergos without violence. That mission was only performed because Unis wanted to make sure that Kapara would no longer threaten us. The occupation didn't last long. We didn't need to perform any war crime trials, since angry Kaparian people had already killed all their former leaders. And when Kapara elected new democratic leaders, we let them rule themselves, after most of their weapons and the factories that produced them were destroyed.

At the festival, about 70,000 people were killed by crashing planes and fires they started. It's a big number, but then again, Unis used to lose 100,000 soldiers in one month of war during the last 130 years. So those dead hippies were a small price to pay for peace.

My daughter Monica later married Horthal Gullym. I wasn't too happy about that, but I guess a father has no other choice than to swallow the things he doesn't like. Jane was maid of honour. She was the only Earth hippie left. All the rest seemed to have totally vanished from the surface of Poloda.

Thankfully, they don't use drugs any more. The hippie ideology seemed to lose strength after peace came. Many of them are stockbrokers now.

Orvis was now a surface city. With no bombings, we had no reason to hide underground, so all the buildings were lifted to the surface level. I watched the unemployed crowd shouting their slogans "Give us a job," and "Laziness is worse than war" and "Send us to a new battle."

The look of the protesters was quite different these days than a couple of years earlier. Back then, demonstrators were mainly women, mothers and grandmothers. Now they were mostly young men. These men made for quite a strange scene. The long hair of the hippie days had given way to men with things pushed through their noses and cheeks; their heads were bald, some had some sort of bristly green or red hair in the middle of their head. They listened to totally awful, bawdy music. Well, that is, if one is open-minded enough to call it music.

Anyway, while I watched the demonstrations, my celluloid phone started to ring. It was my wife. She was quite overwrought. At first I couldn't make out what she said, but finally she calmed enough to say: "Our daughter, Harkas Angela had returned. She's regained consciousness. Come to the Poloda Memorial Hospital immediately!"

I was excited. Could it be true after all these years? I said to my wife that I would come at once and that I loved her. Our younger daughter had been in coma ever since she fainted at the "Woodstock on Poloda" festival, when she was taken to the military hospital. But those doctors couldn't return our daughter into consciousness in all these years, they just kept her lying there.

I rushed to the hospital and hugged my daughter, crying tears of happiness. I guess I had happily forgotten the distance that had grown between me and my daughter before she left us.

I thanked the gods that I had her back. I asked how she feels, she said "Fine father. I was on Earth."

I didn't believe her, until she told us things that I had never told her about Earth. I guess her boyfriend Jimmy could have told her those details, but maybe indeed she was on Earth while unconscious.

Angela said that she and her friends had been dropping DSL at that "Woodstock on Poloda" festival. They passed out, and woke up in a mental hospital on Earth.

Jake, Jimmy and Joe had woken up in the mental hospital, too. They'd been there, unconscious, since that other Woodstock on Earth in 1969. Nurses had considered them totally insane all those years, they had never more than momentarily show flashes of brain activity. The three J's later had thought that it must had been those times when they hallucinated that they returned to Earth in their DSL trips.

The J's were quite sure that they had spend all these years in LSD trip and only their minds were on Poloda and rest of their bodies in the mental institute. They thought that the same had happened to Angela, her mind had jumped to Earth via the DSL trip -- while her real body still lived on Poloda.

A couple months after they arrived on Earth, Janis came to see them. She had awaked in a common hospital and came looking for the other J's.

It took almost half a year before my daughter and the four J's were released from the mental institute. My daughter, of course, was aksed many questions. She had no papers or anything, but they finally accepted that she was no illegal alien, which they'd suspected, since she spoke a foreign language. Funny thing was, she really was an alien. More alien than those Earth doctors could know.

By the time they were released, Janis had checked where Jane's body might be held. She found out that Jane was also comatose, but her parents' had pulled the plug off her life supporting machines many years ago. Maybe that's why she never returned to Earth.

Anyway, my daughter lived couple of years on Earth happily, using LSD and later cocaine and heroine. It was her testimony that all young people on Earth she met used drugs. She lived with Jimmy all these years, first in USA and later they moved to England.

In 1976 they were in London's Hyde park to see a free concert by Queen. They bumped some old high school friend of Jimmy's who had moved to Britain many years earlier. This friend had LSD, which was more rarely used these days. Of course they all took a taste, and when Brian May howled his guitar and Freddie Mercury sang "Now I'm here, Now I'm there.." my daughter was no longer there, she was here, back on Poloda.

I guess I wouldn't have believed my daughter's story, but for one thing: She was pregnant. Now, either the child was seeded on Earth by her boyfriend Jimmy or the hospital staff had sexually abused her while she was unconscious.

At first I rather believed that latter. I asked a lot of questions at the hospital until the baby girl was born. She was blonde-haired and blue-eyed, just like Jimmy, who vanished from Poloda too many years ago to have possibly seeded this baby here.

My daughter still wishes to return to her love Jimmy back on Earth. She has told us that if she is ever comatose again, we are not to prolong her life. Well, I rather don't like the idea.

These days my daughter Harkas Angela takes DSL every evening and sits in the front of her house looking up to the skies, wishing that this trip would take her back to Earth. Beside her sits the little girl, wondering what her mother is dreaming in that drug-induced fog. So do I.

The next day I read "Beyond the Farthest Star" and "Tangor Returns." I couldn't find any more stories about Poloda from father's collection.

In the sheets spewed forth by my father's typewriter, Tangor said he wrote about his trips to Poloda's neighbor planets. And who was the other Earthman, whose name Tangor never mentioned? Over the next couple of days, I turned the house upside down. But no Tangor stories were found.

I found the answer in my father's diary, which I had never read before out of respect for his privacy. And because I could never bring myself to do it.

On Oct. 30, 1960, father's diary claims something amazing. Apparently father was home alone, me and my mother were visiting my grandparents. Father was making coffee in the kitchen, when he heard the type-writer back in his work-room starting to write by itself. Father rushed to the room and witnessed how the type-writer wrote by itself. Apparently father was totally excited, his long time dream had came true. Father went and started to read what the machine wrote.

The next pages in the father's diary reveals the plot of the story he received. I have tried to search the original manuscript everywhere, but it seems to have disappeared.

Therefore I tell you what father wrote in his diary.

According this manuscript, he got his wish.

Mr. Burroughs resurrected on Poloda. From all the planets in the Universe, he just happened to reach one of those he placed his stories. He must had been thrilled.

But the story soon revealed that Burroughs didn't have very good luck after all. Of all the countries in the Universe, he happened to resurrect in Kapara.

Now, no one could expect a warm welcome in the totalitaristic and war-crazy land of Kapara. But Burroughs could not expect even as warm a welcome as any casual inter-planetary traveler would have in Kapara.

That's because before Burroughs' arrived, a man name Gurrul, the former chief of Zabo (Kaparian secret police), had died and resurrected on Earth. Gurrul wrote back to Poloda from Earth how some man named Edgar Rice Burroughs had wrote disgusting stories about the cruelty of Kapars and spread awful propaganda and filthy lies about Kapara and Zabo.

Kapara's ruler Pom Da was furious to heard that Kapar's honour was ruined and filthy propaganda about their cruelties were spreaded through the Universe. Pom Da sent the orders that Gurrul must kill that man Burroughs. Unfortunately, Gurrul was forced to report that Mr. Burroughs had happened to die already of natural causes.

And when Burroughs resurrected in Kapara, Pom Da was pleased.

However, Mr. Burroughs wasn't too happy to find out that he was in Kapara. He was even more dissatisfied when he heard what these Kapars thought about his stories.

Pom Da was just about to order Mr. Burroughs to be tortured to death, when he remembered that Gurrul had mentioned something about the "fate worse than death" that Burroughs' books always referred to. That sounded like a good torturing method, Pom Da thought. He asked Gurrul to send detailed descriptions about how this "fate worse than death" method works.

When Pom Da received the information, he didn't quite believe it. It didn't sound like a torture method at all. Pom Da thought that apparently those Earth people are quite different than Polodans, so he ordered Burroughs to be tortured with the "fate worse than death" method. He also asked that patriotic unmarried young Kapar maidens volunteer to work as torturers.

One day Pom Da came to the prison-complex to see how the torturing of Mr. Burroughs was going. Pom Da saw how the beautiful young Kapar maiden tortured Burroughs. Pom Da was still not totally convinced about this torture method.

A Zabo agent named Horthal Gyl was responsible for making sure Burroughs received his "fate worse than death" torture every day. Pom Da asked him if Burroughs is suffering while been tortured.

Horthal Gyl answered: "Well, at least it makes him sweat and scream, but then again, I would sweat and scream in his situation, too. But it wouldn't be because of pain."

Pom Da said that if it does make Burroughs scream and sweat, then the man must be really suffering, because Gurrul had wrote that based on Burroughs' books, these Earthmen take the torturing silently and calm. They never give enemy the pleasure of seeing their pain.

Horthal Gyl said that he would still like to use more conventional torturing methods on Burroughs. Pom Da forbid it, though. "Our methods could kill him and he would probably just resurrect into some other place, safe from our hands. No, this method doesn't seem to mortally harm him, we must hang on to this torture method and show him that resurrecting into the hands of the Kapars is truly a "fate worse than death.

"And if we ever again catch that cursed Earthman Korvan Don, alias Tangor, we will make him taste this torture method also," Pom Da continued.

When Pom Da started to leave, he informed Horthal Gyl that his own daughter also wanted to torture Burroughs and that she would be coming in the morning.

Horthal Gyl knew Pom Da's daughter, Kantos Janida. She was probably the most beautiful Kapar maiden there was. He wondered how can it be, that so beautiful a creature had come from the seed of probably the ugliest man in Kapara.

Horthal Gyl dreamed about the beauty of Kantos Janida, that optimal shaped body, that beautiful oval face surrounded by long black hair, perfected with deep green eyes and fullness of lips. He wished from the bottom of his heart, that he could also be tortured via the "fate worse than death" method by Kantos Janida.

However, secret agents of Unis had heard that the Earthman named Burroughs was held as prisoner and savagely tortured in Ergos, the capital of Kapara. This information reached Tangor, who started the rescue mission immediately.

Tangor returned to the enemy city and after many exciting happenings, Tangor managed to secretly reach the prison cell, where Burroughs was held.

But when Tangor offered him the escape opportunity, Mr. Burroughs didn't want to leave Kapara. It required lot of convincing from Tangor to get the man go with him. Tangor had to promise that he will arrange for Mr. Burroughs to receive the "fate worse than death" torture in Unis as well. Tangor also claimed that young Unisian maidens are much more beautiful than those of Kapara. Mr. Burroughs thought of Kantos Janida, the girl who regularly gave him his torture, and wasn't all that convinced that there could be any more beautiful maidens in Unis.

But I guess the will for freedom eventually won, and he escaped with Tangor.

I read through his diary, but only a couple of unimportant mentions of the type-writer were found. Father never told where he put the original manuscript.

After several weeks of searching, I haven't found it. I still don't know if my father really received that story from Edgar Rice Burroughs. Were these notes in his diary just his imagination? Maybe they were notes for a Burroughs pastiche he wanted to write. I guess I shall never know.

I believe that those other stories Tangor mentioned in his preface about his trips to the other Omosian planets were received by whoever owned the typewriter before my father.

If I ever find any of these missing stories, or if the typewriter writes a new one, I will tell you. But for now, it is time for a little fate worse than death.