Ordinarily, in writing about personally meeting our brothers from beyond the night, contactees seem to feel duty-bound to include every little detail. Not so with me. Objectively speaking, there is no benefit gained from knowing that the spaceman is partial to peanut butter sandwiches, or likes to get Green Stamps with his purchases.

What is vital is the messages they bring, the wisdom they display, the compassion and understanding for Earthians that is inherent in all their personalities. Therefore I think it best to forego trivia in favor of that which is paramount.

As such, I will say this much only. I was informed of their intent to contact me on December 30, 1961. I received full instructions for preparation in the mail on December 22 of 1962. At 0200 hours EST I met them in front of my home, and we drove to the south for several miles. We turned onto a long plowed dirt road, and traveled to its end. I assumed that they had arranged for the plowing, and didn't ask. Ahead of us at the end was a tent-like shelter of some transparent material that acted as an insulator from the bitter cold. It was open at one end, but nevertheless it was quite warm inside. Once we had seated ourselves on the low chairs, Orii-Val, a mathematician I knew from earlier TV contacts, began the meeting.

"Bob, our meeting personally has at last become essential, and, because our adaptation base is nearly complete, quite practical. While we can deliver much in the way of information and advice via our radio and telescreen equipment, there are certain things that can be accomplished only by such meetings as this.

"With me are Gery Sol, one of our electronic engineers, and Sen Kor, a linguist who came with us at the last moment, to aid us in any potential difficulties with our communication because of language barriers.

"We have brought several photographic negatives for you to develop. The resultant pictures are to be kept unpublicized for the time being. [Note: there were second thoughts later, and I returned the negatives to him. They showed far too much.] Also, we have brought several devices that might interest you very much.

"This is the first, a small antigrav device. Let me demonstrate its use, and then I shall explain how it works, within the limits imposed by security."

So saying he slid a panel back on what I assumed to be the top, and adjusted two tiny controls in the revealed recess. Sliding back a panel in front revealed a small curved reflector and a hemispherical electrode in its focus. He pointed it at a nearby boulder, and pressed a button. Then he adjusted yet another control. In a few seconds the rock quivered slightly, then drifted upward like tumbleweed in an evening breeze. At about 140 feet up, it stopped moving and hung motionless.

Orii-Val continued, "By checking the setting of this control, I can tell you that the rock has a mass of 3,150 pounds, with an error margin of 20 pounds. "With that he brought it back down and set it on the exact spot from whence it rose. He then explained the operation of the device.

"As you know from your own research and from our contacts, gravity is merely another form of the universal force, magnetism. Unlike what your scientists call magnetism, gravity is in its normal state strictly an attractive force, having no polarity in itself.

"This is because the gravitic radiations are, instead of being polar and invariant as are the quanta that form your common concept of magnetism, oscillating at frequencies far beyond the visible light spectrum. Due to this high frequency, the general force will be attractive.

"Negation of gravity can occur only when the oscillations in the field of one body are exactly 180 degrees out of phase with those in another. At any phase angle more or less than 180 degrees, the net result is mutual attraction.

"In ordinary materials and under average conditions, the numbers of atoms with gravitic fields exactly opposite in phase with atoms in another body is minute compared to those at some other angle. In all materials, the frequency of gravitic oscillation is invariable, and all materials have exactly the same frequency. You can therefore see that the number of atoms at certain angles with atoms in another body remains quite constant, and thus the mutual attractive force does not vary.

"With this device, however, a field is induced that develops a force between the two bodies which is powerful enough to over-ride the natural force.

"The field thus generated creates a force between the two bodies which varies with our control settings. This force can be varied from one extreme, in which condition the net effect between the bodies would be exact resonance of all oscillations in them, to the opposite extreme, which would be a net interaction force that would be equivalent to exact negative resonance of all oscillations.

"In the first instance the attraction between them would be so intense that a massive amount of force would be required to separate them.

"In the second condition, there would be absolutely no force between them, attractive or repulsive.

"Causing motion is the idea with most applications. Therefore, a third force must be put into play. This force is created in resonance with the phase of the body we wish to move and affects only the atoms contained within the extremes of its boundaries.

"The force is generated by a projector as a point source some set distance from the object, in the required direction of travel.

"This small generator can create this third field, but it must be used in conjunction with another radiator to create the point-source effect. This effect is in essence obtained by the intersection of the two separate beams at the required distance. All force in the beams then radiates from that point.

"Due to the nature of the device's circuits, only the object that has been degraved by the first field will be effected by the second. We have larger ones that can handle several objects at once, but these work on only one body at a time. In this case, that rock is the body.

"This is the principle on which some of our smaller ships are propelled. As you will see when you later enter one and examine it, the entire craft, when ready for flight, is shielded by a material especially designed to negate the gravitational force.

[Note: this method was ultimately abandoned when it was found that shielding half of a ship from gravity while the other half remained exposed resulted in strong acceleration due to the unbalanced application of the gravity from the combined mass in the universe. This is confined to deep-space vehicles. Conventional drive systems are still in use on and around planetary bodies.]

"There is one other force that I have not mentioned, namely centrifugal force. As you saw, the boulder was hovering for a time. We did not completely cancel its attraction, but merely placed it in equilibrium with the centrifugal force.

"When we want to go straight up from a rotating body such as a planet, we simply cancel all attraction, and the outward force slings us off like mud off of a tire.

"But we have dwelled enough on the AntiGrav. We have other devices to show you."

He placed the AntiGrav in a metal box, and took out another, a cylindrical gadget, apparently sealed. It was about an inch in diameter and 4 inches long. Upon close examination, it revealed an opening in one end perhaps ten thousandths of an inch in radius. Aiming it at the same rock, he depressed the opposite end. A long pencil of what seemed to be white light stabbed at the boulder. After five seconds he switched it off and asked me to examine where the beam had struck.

What I saw astonished me. The beam had punched a hole right through the rock and had emerged from the other side. The stone was white hot for half an inch around the hole, and untouchable for an inch and a half. The energy from the device must have been in the order of megawatts, I thought.

"This device is a more efficient, smaller version of what your scientists cell a laser amplifier. Ours uses a rare gas instead of rubidium, but the principle is the same. The energy is supplied by cells which convert matter to electromagnetic energy per Master Einstein's formula, E=MC².

"The power you assumed was in the order of megawatts was actually only 800 kilowatts. Coherent light packs far more energy than regular light. These cells did not reach one-tenth of their potential with that load. The energy was converted to infrared light, which looked white due to intense heating of the atoms in the air around the beam.

"Larger versions of this in use on Perimeter Defense satellites could have turned the rock into vapor in microseconds. These satellites, by the ways are stationed around all solar systems for protection against any hostile forces that might desire to attack us. They are our most powerful defenses, since we have had no military action against anyone in many years, and we would be unready if suddenly assaulted. These satellites are robot-operated, as a note of interest.

"The third device we have is another light-producing apparatus." He took out small sphere about the diameter of a grape.

"This is the heart of the device. It is a sphere of an alloy we call Photonium-3." He showed me a cube of translucent and partially transparent substance. The cube came apart in two sections, with locating pins for correct alignment when reassembled. The inside was hollowed out for a tight fit with the sphere. He put the sphere inside and placed the halves of the cube together. As soon as it was sealed, a soft yet brilliant light of a cream-white color flooded the area around us like daylight. Needless to say, this was extremely mysterious, and I asked how it worked.

"The scientists of your world would, after careful study, call it a form of fluorescence. Actually, the cube, when closed, forms an intense field of energy in the sphere. The cube consists of five common elements, which I cannot reveal, since this same combination of elements in different proportions could be used in a weapon to dwarf your nuclear bombs, and this of course we cannot allow.

"Returning to the topic, this field of energy is enclosed within the spherical cavity in the cube, where it reacts constantly with the sphere, composed of materials which are highly fluorescent under certain types of radiation. The light thus created is emitted through the translucent cube.

"You wonder about the energy cube, I note." I had indeed intended to question him on this, and I gathered that they, as do our other space brothers, possess an advanced degree of telepathic ability. "Yes," he said, "We are telepathic, but only insofar as the common principles of private thought allow.

"Now, the cube contains a very rare isotope of radium which your scientists are aware of but have not found a use for at present. This particular isotope emits non-harmful forms of high-energy radiation, as opposed to the alpha, beta and gamma particles in normal radioactive emissions. These energies are called Xeori Quanta, after the man who discovered them.

"The sphere is coated with ten-thousandths of an inch of a material which reflects them back inside, once they have entered, and will permit only light radiation to be emitted. The cube is coated with the same material. In both cases, the material is of a polar nature, passing in one direction only, and reflecting in the other. Thus, all energies created in the cube are contained therein. These energies cause a chain-reaction effect, and they build up almost instantly to a steady value dependent on the degree of the control element in the cube's material.

"The energy loses effectiveness gradually, and has a useful life of 35 years. The cost of these light devices is equal to approximately two dollars on earth, so it is really a very cheap form of light. It is used mostly as we are using it now, where there is no ready source of power."

"These things you have shown me are, if I may use the word, miraculous. Do you think that our scientists will ever be able to duplicate them." He thought about my question for a moment, then replied, "Bob, if your scientists would apply what they know already, with no further research, they could build these devices today. In fact, they could have done so five years ago. However, the general applications of science seem always to hinge about one criterion: 'What is its military value? How can it be used to more effectively kill people? Witness atomic energy. Where was the first full-scale application?"

I shuddered as I thought of the slaughter of thousands of innocent people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by the demon-inspired and hell-fired nuclear horror. He again took the laser, aimed it at a small rock and turned it to full output. The rock disintegrated in a flash of dazzling light and a bang like a gunshot. When the vapor dispersed, there was a hole melted into the snow perhaps two yards across.

He looked straight at me and said, "Can you imagine the terror and destruction that could be wrought if your militaries were to achieve a practical application of this principle in the form of a weapon?" I thought, stunned, of whole cities being turned to white-hot vapor and rubble in the time it takes to press a button. It was horrifying to think of millions of men, women, and children screaming their last agonies as temperatures in the thousands of degrees seared their flesh and turned them into flaming corpses.

As these soul-tearing scenes flashed through my mind, I thought aloud, "The implications are staggering. But how can we stop it?"

"That is what our operatives are attempting now. Your scientists have not yet grasped the concepts of utilizing these weapons, and we believe we can forestall such a development until no need for weapons will be present. Meanwhile the race of man lives the threat of a horror to make your concepts of hell seem as nothing in comparison.

"We of other worlds have thus commissioned many of you to act as our voices to your people, and to deliver to them the warnings of continued hatred, fear and intolerance.

"Let me show you one more thing, as a final demonstration of what might be your fate." He took from the box a device that fit in every way the classic picture of a Buck Rogers ray gun. He took aim on the large boulder that had previously been drilled by the laser. A searing flash of green light enveloped the boulder. The heat was intense. When I looked again, the entire 3450 pounds had been reduced to molten lava. The snow was melted for ten feet, and the water was steaming within three feet of the lava.

"Our earliest energy weapon. We borrowed it from the Borani Museum of Science. a division of Galactic Archives on the planet Boran, especially for this demonstration. Since this device was constructed, weapons have been created which push this into utter insignificance.

"The point is that there are a few of your scientists who have the secret of this weapon already in their records. They may not recognize its application as such, but if one of them happens to be in a moment of inspired thought -- well, imagine that boulder to be New York, Washington, London or Moscow."

I thought about it. I saw scenes of New York being leveled; of people reduced to smoldering ashes; of the few survivors who had gone insane and succumbed to subhuman motivations; of an all-out nuclear retaliation for the attacks; of the grand and glorious human race, which had been so long the masters of the Earth, destroyed in a flash, leaving only the dying embers of civilization to illuminate the cold night closing in over eternal silence like the shroud of doom and death.

I contemplated it with horror, and then rose suddenly at the sound of a voice crying, "God in heaven, anything but that!" Then I recognized the voice. It was my own.

Gery Sol said quietly, "We were watching your thoughts, and we fully understand your shock. However, unless you can get to your people with the messages of peace before science unlocks the secrets of Hades, to unleash destruction on your brothers in the name of 'principles', this fate or one perhaps worse is in your future. Now you know the urgency of our visits and the messages we deliver to you."

Sen Kor took over. "Many other contactists have presented the words of our brothers on Venus, Mars, Saturn and the other worlds near Earth. [Note: IC, usual pattern.] You are, however, the first, to our knowledge, to be shown the awesome destructive capabilities of natural forces improperly applied. You, therefore, moreso than the others, know what you are working to prevent.

"Remember always the things you have seen and thought tonight. It will give you the courage to forge on through any obstacles. The destiny of the human race rests on the shoulders of those who know where the present course will lead, and who are willing to do something to present it to others to change their philosophies.

"Antipathy, segregation, war, intolerance -- these are all unnatural and not normal to the evolution of a race. They must be inbred and fostered, made to grow into a way of life. They will not bear fruit of themselves.

"You, our spokesmen to your people, must try to bring them to assert themselves in constructive, humane works of love kindness, consideration, and brotherhood. You will have many followers. Encourage them to spread the word to others. Eventually, all will listen and, if it is not too late, the pattern of human events will finally take an upswing toward the light of true universal happiness, life, and love of all men.

"It is innate in men to be good. You must act to encourage this goodness to burst into bloom, spreading good will to all men. That is your real challenge, my brother. It will be a hard road to travel, but perseverance is the parent of success."

So intently had I been listening to Sen Kor that I did not notice that the others had made ready to leave. When Sen Kor had finished speaking, Orri-Val said, "It is growing late, end all of us must be returning to our respective posts. So, we must bring to an end this meeting."

We all climbed into their car and remained silent during the ride home. As I was leaving to go in to meditate on the events of the morning, Sen Kor said, "Brother, we will meet again soon. Until then, go in peace and understanding. Courage be yours."

I watched as they drove off into the darkness, and after a minute, turned to go in. I was just at the door when I stopped momentarily to look southward. Rising from behind a stand of trees, a silvery disc climbed skyward and vanished into the night.

In May of 1963, a couple of residents of the town where the meeting was held were hiking along the dirt road. They came upon the site of the meeting and found the rock that had been melted. It had spread in a rough circle as it cooled, forming an anomaly for which they had no explanation. They apparently contacted some authorities beyond the local police. It was not reported in the media, so I assume that it was suppressed.

Word-of-mouth reports indicated that a few military vehicles were seen in the area the day after the discovery. The following day, an unmarked, winch-equipped flatbed truck of the type used for carrying wrecked cars went up the dirt road and came out with something on the bed that was covered with a canvas tarpaulin.

No doubt the rock sits in a warehouse or storage site somewhere, and every so often someone wonders, "Where the hell did that thing come from?"

Let them continue to wonder.

Some might ask why a people dedicated to peace develop weaponry of fearsome power. To that I reply that the Alliance is committed to peace through strength. They are well aware of the hostile forces "out there", and that the inability to defend themselves is an open invitation to attack and conquest. The Alliance is not militaristic, but they do maintain an advanced military capability, which they have used and will use if no other alternatives are available.

Text proofread and edited for typographical errors and improved wording 20080909.