2150 A.D.

"Not immediately," he replied. "They plan to give you a royal reception, show you what they believe are the virtues of Micro Island existence, and then try to persuade you to allow them to help you complete your time translation." '

"Then," I said, "I suppose they feel I'll be so grateful that I'll want to stay here forever among them, right?"

Orion looked at me very carefully for a moment before he said, "They are very clever and will use every trick they can think of to get you to allow them to complete your time translation. You see, they believe that if this happens before you are level three it will mean that you will regress in awareness and be unable to live happily in the Macro society."

"Okay," I said, "then it only becomes dangerous for us when they see that I've successfully resisted their persuasion to let them complete my time translation. We'll plan to return here just before that happens."

I suddenly realized that Orion did not believe that would be possible and was vainly trying to hide his doubts concerning my success with the Micro Islanders. I found myself begi

He slowly nodded his assent, then walked with us to the begi

Looking deeply into Carol's eyes he lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them. I was somewhat surprised when he turned and gave me the same warmly affectionate farewell.

He then raised the force field and allowed us to step outside the protected area. Once we had done this, both Carol and I could clairvoyantly see the force field return and knew that we now stood unprotected, except by our own minds, before what looked like the entire population of Micro Island.

As we stood uncertainly examining the vast throng of humanity that stood before us, a great cheering began and out of the center of the crowd came two of the most dazzling individuals that I had ever seen outside of a rock concert. As they came closer I could see a powerfully built man at least six and a half feet in height and with a massively handsome face as hard as though it had been chipped out of granite. He was dressed in white robes embroidered with blue, yellow, and green stones and thousands of what looked like sequins that sparkled in the noonday sun. This, I thought, must be the president of Micro Island, Elgon "Ten," formerly level seven in the Macro society some 80 years ago.

He had regressed in awareness level, then added "Ten" to his name and declared himself level ten. He had stopped wearing the aura-reflecting tunic at the same time.

My attention turned to the woman at Elgon's side who I knew must be Sela "Nine," the regressed level six who had been Elgon's Alpha mate. Since I knew she had left the Macro society 70 years ago, I realized that she must now be well over a hundred years old, yet she didn't look a day over twenty-five. Her beauty was the lush sexually stimulating glitter of a film star.

She was so powerfully alluring that I felt my whole body tingling in response to the sight of her. Her costume was a stu

Suddenly Carol's soft laughter echoed through my mind as I heard her thinking to me, "I hope you haven't forgotten about Lea and me already!"

With more effort than I thought it would take, I shifted my gaze from Sela to Carol and washed my mind in her fresh, clear loveliness. At last I managed a wry smile. "Thanks for pulling me out before I drowned."

"I was almost overwhelmed by lust for Elgon," Carol admitted. "Then I realized there must be hundreds of his telepathic assistants in this crowd trying to telehypnotize us into believing that we can't live without the sexual pleasure of those two."

"So that's why-" I began when Carol interrupted me with the warning, "Prepare your mind to be attacked and remember your last Macro contact."

I had just enough time to begin the process of Macro contact recall when I felt the delicious contact of Sela's body pressed against mine and the incredibly exciting sensation of her wet tongue touching my lips, then slipping inside my mouth.

Dimly I heard Carol's voice saying, "Please let me go, Elgon. Your overly sexual greetings are not part of our customs, as you well know."

From somewhere deep within my mind I summoned the strength to push Sela gently but firmly away from me. She smiled a mocking smile, and I noticed that there were dangerous lights dancing– hypnotically in her glorious eyes. They were darker than the darkest night of hell.

It was not until then that I noticed her magnificent mane of glistening mahogany hair that fell to her waist in rich graceful waves.

"Welcome to Micro Island," Elgon said in a deep resonant voice that I immediately recognized as being powerfully hypnotic. "I am Elgon Ten, President of Micro Island."

"Thank you," I managed to respond in a relatively calm voice. "But if you don't want us to turn around immediately to seek sanctuary behind the force field, you'll have to end the hypnotic barrage."

Elgon locked his eyes with mine and I felt suddenly as if I were teetering on the edge of a dangerous precipice. It took all of my deepest mind strength to overcome the lethal desire to fall into the abyss below. I wrenched my gaze away from his eyes and heard him laughing in a great booming voice. As I turned to Carol he said, "Have no fear, Jon Ten. You have just demonstrated tenth-level awareness by resisting not only the mind of Sela Nine and myself but also of the thousand telepathically, linked minds who were sending their hypnotic suggestions at you. You have succeeded beyond anything we imagined, and I promise you we will make no more futile attempts to control your mind. You are Jon Ten and truly as great as I."

"Master," Sela cried out, and knelt before me, "let us show you our island and truly answer all your questions so the misconceptions that C.I. has implanted in your mind will be balanced at last by the truth."

I turned back to Elgon and said, "All right, show us your island."

Sela was back on her feet and shaking her head, "The invitation to visit our island extends only to you, Jon Ten."

"I'm sorry, but I must insist on taking Carol with me wherever I go," I said, deliberately addressing this remark to Elgon and ignoring Sela.

Elgon shrugged his powerful shoulders and said, "Our admiration for you, Jon Ten, is so great that we will bow to your wishes."

Saying this, he made a signal to the crowd, which immediately parted, allowing us passage to where a large open-topped transair stood. Carol and I followed Elgon and Sela into the rear portion of this conveyance that appeared to have two drivers up front separated from the six-swivel-seated passenger compartment by a glasslike partition. We all took seats except Elgon, who remained standing to accept the cheers of the wildly shouting crowd as our vehicle moved slowly past.

When we had left the crowd behind, the transair rose to about 300 feet off the ground and proceeded at a very slow pace, possibly 50 miles an hour, toward the interior of the island. Elgon, after a last wave at the distant crowd, seated himself facing us and began telling us about Micro Island. I'll summarize its main features.