which looked more like an apartment than a prison cell, but since he was unable to open the door through which he had entered, he felt that he was yet a captive. He had just sat down and was unconsciously in the process of smoothing out his skirt when the door opened and a mar- velously attractive girl came in. She wore a floor length gown draped in such a way that it reminded Joe of the styles worn by Grecian women centuries ago. The material of her dress flowed as she approached and it appeared to be as filmy as chiffon and it seemed to change color with every movement, yet it was non-transparent and that fact seemed to contradict everything that he knew about ultra-sheer fabrics. Joe was stunned when he heard her speak in perfect English. "Hello," she said, "my name is Rhena." Joe recovered his composure enough to mumble a greeting and got as far as saying, "my name is Joe An-”, when he choked up and before he could finish his last name, Rhena spoke again. "Don't be nervous, you have nothing to fear here on the planet Verna. We are pleased to have you here as our guest Jo-Anne even if it was not by your own choosing. I'm sure that you must be very confused by recent events and that you have a great number of questions to ask, but there will be time for that when you have rested and had something to eat. The people of Verna also have some questions to ask of you, so you will find yourself restricted to this apartment for the next few days. You will find everything that you will need in the adjoining rooms and I'll return tomorrow when you have rested to begin our discussion." She turned to leave and had reached the door when she turned and re- marked, "You may be our enemy, but the men who brought you here have reported your actions in passing the test and things will surely go well for you now." Joe started to speak, but she had turned and left before he could stop her.

Now his head was really spinning with questions. How could he possibly be the enemy of these people whom he had never met before today? What did she mean when she said that he had passed the test? He grinned to himself as he realized that Rhena must have been an interpreter and she had somehow twisted the meanings of words around when she used the term men to describe his captors when she obviously meant women. He would explain the mistake when they talked tomorrow but at the moment he was starved.

He searched until he found the kitchen area, however there was no food to be seen anywhere. A small unit sat on the counter thought and he noticed that it had a three dimensional viewplate which showed what appeared to be a dish of unusual tropical fruit. He twisted a dial on the console and the image of the fruit was immediately replaced by

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