Hello Mary, we have full use of the lightmobile tonight.

"Pick me up at 6pm and we can get on with our trick or treating" replied Mary.

30 minutes later, Hector and Mary watched as 4 children approx 10 years old rang a door bell. The 2 boys were dressed as Hans solo and as Darth Vader and the girls were dressed as a queen and as a witch. The Woman answered the door and was greeted with a chant from the children, "trick or treat".

Hector and Mary joined the children as they walked the sidewalk to the next home. One boy commented to Hector "you have the best costume I have ever seen."

The Man of the house gave the children each a candy bar and commented to Hector and Mary, "aren't you a little old to be trick or treating? and what are you dressed as?"

Hector answered loudly "TRICK OR TREAT". The man gave them both 2 candy bars and stared at them as they left.

Mary asked Hector "want to give the next one a fright"? Hector answered "we are being approached by the police"

"How old are you two", asked the policeman. Mary replied "we are 18."

The policeman replied "It would be better for everyone if you joined people your age at the high school Halloween party. You are 18 and an adult and should not be canvassing the neighborhood with children."

Mary replied "the high school party sounds great. But we are visiting from out of town. Can you tell us how to get to the high school party?"

Hector and Mary made their way to the high school. The party was being held in the high school gym. Hector and Mary were welcomed by a teacher acting as a chaperone.

The Halloween revelers were treated to food and drink and loud music and dancing. Mary and Hector studied the dance moves and soon joined in.

The gymnasium rocked with a kaleidoscope of flashing lights and loud brass music and high school students moving wildly. The live band went from music to faster music. And the temperature in the gym went up a few degrees. And as the music got faster and the beat got stronger, fewer students remained on the dance floor.

And then Mary and Hector were the center of attention. They danced faster and Hector threw Mary higher and the spins were tighter as the dancers became fewer.

And then Mary and Hector were the only dancers. The student body watched and clapped as Hector and Mary danced with the beat of the music. And then the music slowed, and the dancers held each other tight as they moved together. And everyone "knew" that Mary and Hector loved each other

A chaperone stopped the music and the crowd moaned their disapproval. "There will be a 15 minute break for the band".

Mary said to Hector "do you want to leave? Maybe we should avoid a scene and leave. This has been a great party and I have greatly enjoyed myself. But the situation has the potential to get complicated."

Hector, smiling, said to Mary "I am thinking we can do some work on our science project and our fellow students here, can help. Just follow my lead."

The M.C. announced "the ballots have been tallied and the winner of best costume for males is ... Hector. Congratulations Hector. And the winner of the best costume for females is, of course, Mary. I say 'Of course' because Hector and Mary has 'his and hers' versions of the same costume."

Hector and Mary approached the stage to meet the M.C. and receive their prize. "Hector, Mary you have the most original and really, the most complicated costumes I have ever seen. Can you tell us about yourselves and about your costumes?"

"My father is an engineer with Boeing. Mary and I built our costumes as part of our high school science project with my dad's help. We plan to go to MIT to study engineering, "replied Hector.

The M.C. asked "Would you like to remove your costumes and get more comfortable? Maybe show us how they work? Your six arms seem to move independently and you seem to have complete control of them. Your dance with Mary was graceful and spectacular. I believe 'spectacular' is a perfect description."

"Mary and I are honored. We appreciate your hospitality. And we are pleased to accept the first prize of season tickets to your schools football games. We should explain that we are from Seattle, visiting my aunt. The party and food and drink and the band have been great fun. Thanks for the hospitality. You will have to go to our schools science fair in Seattle to get an explanation of our costumes. The controls and the construction are far too complex to discuss here without visual aids. We cannot disassemble our costumes here on stage. We need the help of my father." And Hector returned the microphone to the M.C.

The M.C. congratulated Hector and Mary and announced that the party would end and the Gymnasium would close in one hour.

Three couples approached Hector with an invitation. "We are having a party at Mike's house. We would love to have you as guests." Hector and Mary exchanged names with the three couples and asked for time to call their parents to get permission.

Hector and Mary retired to a private corner. "Hector, I believe that we should politely refuse the offer and leave before this gets complicated" Said Mary.

Hector replied, "Suppose that we sort of invite these 3 couples to our lab and work on our science project together? We could learn from them and they certainly could learn from us. They could easily be persuaded to help us. We could finish by taking them to dinner. I am joking about dinner."

"Hector, suppose we modify our lab project. I can see fun possibilities in using these six people for our lab paper". Mary explained her ideas.

Mary thought deeply for several minutes. After more discussion, Hector and Mary returned to the 3 couples.

Mary offered "We would like to introduce you to our parents before we go to your party. Hector and I have a car large enough for all of us. Let's visit for 3o minutes and then return here for your cars. Please follow us". Three of the six called home. Then all followed Hector and Mary to the adventures of their lives.

"What is this car? Gull wing doors! Black windows! Beautiful, Sleek, Dangerous!" exclaimed Gail. And Peter added "She is hand built isn't she? Built by an aircraft engineer, I would wager."

Hector replied "I get her for the weekend as an incentive reward for perfect grades. Get in and I'll show you a thrilling ride."

The 'thrilling' comment added trepidation to three of the guests, but all got in the car. Mary sat in the rear seat and Peter rode shot gun.

The six passengers in the rear seat sat 3 facing each other 3. Mary indicated that all should fasten their seatbelts.

Before he started the car, Hector looked to Mary. Mary nodded and whispered "stasis".

The dashboard displayed a whirlwind of colors and symbols and numbers. Hector warned Peter not to touch anything. And then Hector punched in a 20 digit code and everyone except Hector and Mary became silent and rigid.

"Let's go to Mars and impress them. Under the Pacific ocean is closer, but might frighten them." And Hector agreed. Hector and Mary restrained the hands and feet of their passengers and left earth for Mars.

Twenty minutes later Hector placed a small chain with an amulet around Peter's neck. Hector punched a 7 digit code and Peter regained conscience. Peter looked out the windows, looked at his comatose friends, looked at his restraints, looked at Hector, looked at Mary and screamed in panic. His heart rate went to 210. His blood pressure went to 200 over 65. He fought his restraints and broke his skin and drew blood. He screamed obscenities until Hector punched in another code. Then all was quiet.

Hector said to Peter. "You will remain paralyzed but conscience. And Mary and I will explain your circumstances. And we will give you options. You friends will remain comatose while we sort through those options. I will remove your paralysis after you calm yourself." Mary and Hector removed their head gear and revealed their true likeness. Peter's fright increased.

"Mary and I are from a solar system on the far side of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Mary and I are in a school equivalent to your high school. We enjoy Halloween because we can partially reveal ourselves, and mingle with humans. We have visited earth the past two Halloweens. We had no intentions in kidnapping anyone and we can get in trouble with our parents for doing so. Our race lives with a prime directive. We cannot interfere with the development with any intelligent race. You are not as intelligent as we are, but you qualify as 'intelligent'.

I am going to release your paralysis and if you act crazy again, I will paralyze you again. Mary and I will return you to earth and you will have learned very little. If you want to experience what no other human has experienced then behave and we will talk."

Hector released peter from his paralysis.

Peter looked at Hector and at Mary, and then sighed. "I am full of conflicting emotions and have a million questions and I feel drained. Maybe you should explain why you kidnapped us and what you want with us."

"We are in orbit around Mars. We brought you to mars to impress you. We want you to have no doubt that what we say is true. We will show you planets and asteroids and moons in your solar system. You will visit your earth's moon. You will see our space stations."

"Mary and I are students and we have a science project. We invite you to be part of our science project. In return for your participation in our project, we can offer adventure. We offer the stuff of your dreams."

"We are bound by the 'prime directive'. We cannot give you knowledge that the human race has not attained on its own. For instance we cannot show you how to go faster than light, but we can go faster than light to entertain you."

Peter scratched his head, sighed, fidgeted then asked "How can you show us space stations, bases and asteroids and not violate your 'prime directive'? How can you be talking to me now and not violate your 'prime directive'?"

Mary answered "we have been granted a limited 'permit' to work with humans for our project. We can involve no more than 6 humans. We can demonstrate our space ships, but we cannot tell you how they work. We cannot tell you the nature of our faster than light space travel."

Hector added "the thought is that you can tell your fellow humans that we exist, but that no one will believe you. So we can demonstrate our technology but we cannot help you attain similar technology. We can take you for a ride but we cannot show you the engine."

Peter asked "You will not ask us to keep this experience a secret?"

Mary answered "no, we will not demand your silence".

Peter asked "What do you want us to do? How do we help you in your science project?"

Mary answered "your human species propagates by fertilizing a single egg carried by the female. The female carries the resultant fetus in her body for 10 months. Our species propagates more efficiently. The female deposits approximately 600 eggs in a nest after the male fertilize them. The eggs grow in 6 of your months into a male or female of our species. We can discuss issues we have of over population and child care and population control if you wish. But let me describe our science project."

"Our project will study your mating process. We have studied your sexual habits; we have read your literature about procreation. But no one of us has done an in depth study of your sexual coupling. Our project will monitor all your bodily responses, your emotional, your mental responses, hormonal responses. And we will do this with modern scientific equipment. We will film and record all six of you having sex. We have miniature probes that will record all aspects of your union, from inside and outside your bodies. We will record all the physical responses during all phases of sex. We will record all hormonal responses. We want to see the travel of the sperm. Then we will compare the responses of the male and females. If 3 couples participate, we can factor and consider human emotions such as love, fear, nervousness, familiarity, length of foreplay, length of the sex act.

Our project will compare our procreation to yours. If you like you can watch us have the equivalent of sex."

Hector asked "are you interested?"

After some thought, peter responded "I am interested but let me explain some realities. We do not take procreation lightly. It is a big commitment to carry a child to birth and an even larger commitment to raise a child to adulthood. We practice birth control when want to have sex but no resultant child. I know that one girl, Gail, of the three women, is on birth control and can participate without fear of pregnancy. But I know nothing of the other two women. So they might not be able to participate. And some of our females refuse to have sex until they marry; again I know nothing of 2 of the women."

Mary responded "we have to control our birthrate. Before we learned to control our environment, the survival rate for fertilized eggs was .01%. It is now 50%. To prevent overpopulation, we have learned to control fertilization of the egg. Pregnancy prevention will not be a problem. I believe we should remove your friends from stasis invite them to participate. But have you decided to participate?"

Peter's thoughts rambled. "Are these beings honest? It would be great to see more planets, to see more of their civilization. Do I have a choice? They are being nice. They kidnapped me. Will I be able to perform with them watching and studying me? Will they let us go after we perform? Can I talk then into revealing more of themselves to us? Will the girls agree? What an adventure this is in any case."

After a few minutes of thought, Peter agreed to participate. He asked to watch Mary and Hector have sex.

The 5 friends of Peter were removed from stasis. An hour was spent showing the 6 humans Mars and mars moons. Mary again described the science project and asked for volunteer participants.

The men all agreed that the project would be worthwhile and fun. Peters' girlfriend Gail was enthusiastic about the project and agreed to participate. Steve was with Diane and they had never had sex together, but neither were virgins. Diane was reluctant but agreed to participate when Mary and Hector sweetened the reward.