"Oh Man, look at that! Amazing! all those stars. What were we thinking? So many stars in this sky and so few in my time, still there but obscured by city lights, polluted air. What were we thinking?"

The Cheese was slowly rising in the warm, still, night sky, traveling by the power of his restored mind. Moving over the land, south to a large body of still water, he gazed on the reflections of the stars in the water. That was truly groovy, He watched the reflections in awe. A ripple of breese disturbed the surface blurring and distorting the reflections from dots to wavy diamonds.

"Wow, now that was trippy"

The warm south breeze moved him, away from the lake. Pushed north, he glided silently, a small heartbeat on the vastness of night. The Northern lights played blue and red, purple and gold, dancing in sensual sheets and seducing waves, drawing him, enticing him, on. A fragmenting meteorite traced a furry bronze gold arrow across the night sky pointing him to the distant horizon. Snow glinted in the starlight on far tall peaks. He came to a single lonely mountain, steep, rocky and stark, detached from a small tree covered mountain range. A difficult mountain alone.

A sudden light shone up from the middle of the lone mountain. The beam looked similar to the shattering meteorite trail. Like a radar beam landing path but visible to the eye. Three triangular clusters of lights appeared in the night and approached the beam, as they moved across the night sky the stars blinked out and defined an ominous shape. The stars were blocked for an instant and reappeared as the objects passed. They slid down the path of bronze gold light, straight into the side of the mountain

A second fragmenting bronze gold meteorite splashed the night, this one from the west. Minutes passed. A light from the mountain pointed west, summoning a further three triangles of light. The lights passed in front of the defining stars and slipped into the lonely mountain. A third meteorite flashed from the north, a wait, a beam, three more tringular lights decended into the mountain. There was an audible rumble and groaning from the very rock beneath the mountain. A forth bronze gold streak lit the night sky. The rumble and groan increased, multi colored lights were flashing on the faces of the solitary mountain. The light shown out to the east, two triangular objects dove down the path. More rumbling and a shaking disturbing the grassy plain around the mountain. A second bronze gold flare crossed the sky, a third, a forth flashed. Someone was late or dead. The lights on the mountain flashed again and shut off. The mountain ripped itself from the plain and hurtled up to the stars, the base glowing green, a flash, gone.

"Holy Shit!"

A lost and lonely little triangle of lights arrived and shuffled across the rumbling plain where the mountain had been. If it had been vocal it would have mewed like an abandoned kitten. The lights hovered uncertain, and forlorn. A beam like the feathered mereorite lanced up from the still quaking plain. The lights shattered, disolved, and were no more. No fragments, nothing.

'Shit...shit...more shit...fucking shit...goddamned shit...fuckfuckfucking shit. Two Voices needs to know about this.' "HEY!"

"What's up, Cheese?"

"You mentioned that the old coot's masters were liquidated by not nice people?"

"Yes?"

"I just had a firsthand encounter with "not nice" people."

"You're still here, couldn't have been too bad."

"It was bad, worse than combat."

"Tell me."

The Cheese started from the destruction of the single ship and worked his way back to sitting on the ground by the tipi. Two Voices was very patient and accepted the Cheese'es slow and slightly scattered rendition without interrupting. The Cheese finished.

"Again, from the beginning."

Starting from the tipi, he told of the stars, the lake, the breeze, the meteorites, the mountain, the beams, the three sets of three ships, and the two ships, the three meteorite signals, The launch of the mountain and the death of the last ship.

"One more time, with questions." THis time the Two Voiced One grilled the Cheese. Pounded him with questions. Exhaustively examined every answer. Plumbed the depths of his mind and was satisfied. "I need a pretty good sized rock...ah, this one will do." A boulder the size of a pickup truck jerked out of the ground and slowly flew over the plain where the mountain had been.

KAZAP!

"I don't think we want to go there."

"You are soooo right, lets go home."

"Hey, Cheese. That's the first time you called the valley home."

"I guess it is. My hat is there." He joked, "home is where you hang your hat."

"What do you think, Cheese? Should we tell the people about this?"

"Yes, but program the carpets to avoid that place."

"I'll do that," Two Voices thought,'The Cheese is becoming the leader he doesn't want to be. True responsibility comes with difficulty. The best person for political office is the one who doesn't want it!' He/she grinned...and made a note to self. Program Carpets.

"I'm wore plumb out," said the Cheese.

"Toasted?"

"Yup." and the Cheese laughed, "Toasted Cheese! That's funny. You're getting ratty, Two Voices, very ratty indeed!"

"And you, my toasted Cheese, are becoming the true human I was sure lurked inside that raffish exterior. Keep it up and my thesis will be a resounding success."