Jimmy Hapgood no longer slept.

There were periods of prolonged inactivity, but Hapgood attributed those times to maintenance subroutines the Terokians had built into his refitted body.

Not a refit, mused Hapgood. More like a total makeover.

As he pulled himself out of his power down mode, Hapgood would invariably relive some past event. Almost like watching a movie. Sometimes he tried to select an event, but he never could. He shrugged it off as a feature the Terokians had implanted into his operating system as some type of therapy. It kept him in touch with his original life.

... As a human

I’m still a human, insisted Hapgood. I just don’t look like one, that’s all.

Hapgood wasn't sure how to describe his appearance. There were no mirrors on his ship, Travelling Man. The Terokians had played him videos of his transformation after his accident. They had managed to salvage barely 15 percent of his organic body after he and Travelling Man slammed into their orbital defense grid.

The Terokians were a race of sentient machines. They had no experience with humanoid lifeforms in their sector of the galaxy. Out of their sense of responsibility they put Hapgood back together again - as a Terokian exploration mechanism.

He had no legs to speak of. The Terokians had perfected gravity null beams that literally allowed him to float up to several meters above any surface - a feature that came in handy on some of the bizarre worlds he had visited since finally leaving Terok.

Hapgood's main torso was egg shaped with extendable arms normally retracted inside. The bulbous top portion of the torso that housed his organic brain matter was just the right diameter to perch his old cowboy hat upon.

Travelling Man had been refitted as well. The ship still looked pretty much as it had before the crash, due mainly to the fact that the Terokians had managed to tap into the ships schematics. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the Travelling Man was a machine like the Terokians.

Takes one to know one, muttered Hapgood.

It had taken many years before Hapgood felt ready to venture back into space again. He had finally done so to fulfill a promise he had made thirty years earlier.

Three decades earlier he had stumbled across a colony of earth people on a barren, hostile world. Not really a colony, Hapgood corrected himself. It was a family - the Robinson family, their pilot - Major West, and a passenger named Zachary Smith.

Hapgood had sought them out to fulfill his promise, made as they talked by radio during his liftoff, that he would come back with help and get them back home. When he left Terok he had retraced his years of exploration to find the Robinsons planet.

Six months earlier he had found what was left of the planet the Robinsons had named Priplanus. It was now a big cloud of dust and rubble.

Luckily, Hapgood had detected the deutronium trail left by the family’s spacecraft as it fled the star system thirty years previously. He and Travelling Man had been following the trail from system to system ever since.

The trail from Priplanus had taken Hapgood uncomfortably close to Earth. Apparently the Robinson’s had made a close flyby of Earth, but had zipped around the sun and back out into the galactic rim.

Hapgood had lingered near Earth for several days, drifting out near Saturn. The ringed planet had been his original destination back when he and Travelling Man left their homeworld. He marveled at the strange beauty of the ringed world and its moons, but he had seen stranger.

He never ventured closer than Mars orbit to Earth herself.

He knew he could never set down on the planet of his birth again.

Hapgood also investigated a strange scent the Robinsons ship left that led directly to Earth itself. It was an old scent.

Too damn old, realized Hapgood eventually. The trail was fifty years too old.

So the Robinsons took a little detour in time along the way, chuckled Hapgood. Somehow, they had made it back to Normal Time and Hapgood continued to track them.

The planets the Robinsons had visited numbered in the dozens. Hapgood would personally inspect each campsite the family had called home. Sometimes he would puzzle over the litter they left behind.

From time to time he would find where the Robinson’s had settled down for a spell. Once Hapgood had thought he had lost them for good when the trail led him to the scene of another planetary disaster. That planet had been the victim of a close encounter with a rather large comet.

Once again the Robinsons had fled back into the reaches of space and Travelling Man had followed the scent.

Like a tin platted bloodhound, observed Hapgood.

Travelling Man alerted Hapgood that another planet the Robinsons had visited was directly ahead. There were two inhabited planets in the binary star system, but the Robinsons trail led only to one. And then off into deep space again.

As he often did, Hapgood would pay a visit to the alien inhabitants of the worlds the Robinsons had touched down upon. Some of the races had fond memories of the Robinsons. Others cursed the day they had set foot upon their world.

Travelling Man’s scans indicated a race with interplanetary space technology. There were was evidently regular travel between the two inhabited worlds. However, there were no signs the race had ventured outside there own star system.

Orbiting the more populated of the two worlds, Hapgood waited as Travelling Man analyzed the civilization below. Transportation systems, population distribution, communication networks were all factored into the equation. The answer was not good.

The world was dying.

At least the inhabitants were. Even Hapgood could sense the race below was on the decline. Cities were decaying. Roadways and other infrastructure were in poor condition. Communication on a mass scale was limited and consisted mainly of music. Music Hapgood found vaguely familiar.

"Sounds like rock n roll to me" he said aloud. "This I’ve really got to see."

There was no response to his radio hails. Travelling Man brushed off a weak, but colorful, planetary defense field and set down in approximately the same area the Jupiter 2 had landed decades earlier.

The immediate area showed no sign of activity. It was dusk in this area of the hemisphere and outdoor lighting systems were winking on along some of the roadways. A few buildings had interior lights that were functioning.

Hapgood waited nearly an hour before venturing out, floating out the ship and completely circling the largest structure. Most of the windows were translucent. He could detect shadowy movements through some of them, accompanied by pulsating displays of color and throbbing music that penetrated even the building’s thick stone walls.

Hapgood eventually decided on the direct approach, entering through the large rotating doors in the center of the large building. He whirled quickly around as the floated down the entranceway, catching a glimpse of a startled figure dashing around a corner.

He followed after the figure and turned the corner to face three humans.

At least, they appeared human. Hapgood had learned long ago that looks can be deceiving. There were two males and a female and they stared at him with an expression Hapgood interpreted as indifference. He decided to make the first move.

"Howdy" he said as he extended his right mechanical arm. "Hapgood’s the name. Who might y'all be?"

The faces stared back blankly and Hapgood began to think they would simply ignore him. They almost appeared to be ready to turn and walk away.

"I was hopping you folks might help me locate some friends of mine who paid a visit hear awhile back."

The blank stares continued and Hapgood was becoming exasperated.

"I know it’s been awhile" he declared "but you must know who I’m talking about. It can’t be everyday that you get families dropping by from Earth."

The reaction was distinct.

Their laughter was deep and hollow. Hapgood focused his visual scans more closely. All three of the humanoids appeared like typical humans. There was nothing distinguishing about them. Medium builds, somewhat tall. The two males sported shoulder-length hair. None of them appeared to be much older than their late teens.

Youngsters, thought Hapgood. Except for those eyes. The eyes were old and hollow as their laughter.

"Why would a machine come looking for someone from Earth?" asked one of the humanoids as the laughter trailed away.

"Well, sonny" he replied. "I happen to be from that neck of the woods myself." Hapgood spotted the furtive glances among the humanoids. "I’ve traveled a long ways in hopes of meeting up with the earth people. They were the Robinson expedition …"

"We are familiar with the Robinsons." The humanoid said flatly. "They left here a long time ago. We’ve no idea where they are now."

"Well, now, that couldn’t have been too long ago if you youngsters remember them." There were more quick glances and Hapgood began to wonder if his welcoming party might be telepathic.

"We’re not sure of the exact time frame, but they have a substantial lead on you by now. I’m afraid you’ll never catch up with them."

Hapgood pushed his hat had back on his chrome forehead. He did that whenever he switched to his bragging mode.

"Now, sonny, there ain’t a ship in this galaxy than can outrun me and Travelling Man. That includes the Jupiter 2. You just point me in the right direction and we’ll do the rest."

"The Robinsons were lost. Are you also?"

"Not lost at all. In fact I popped by earth not more than a few weeks ago. Didn’t stay long though."

More glances ensued among the humanoids. This time they seemed more pronounced.

These kids are getting excited about something, mused Hapgood.

"Your ship can reach Earth in a matter of weeks?"

"That’s a fact. Of course, I don’t plan on making a return visit. I’ve got different plans."

Hapgood waved his metallic arm past the humanoids and pointed down the hallway.

"I don’t suppose you’d mind if I have a look around, now would you? I like to do a little exploring whenever I set down on a rock."

There was a short pause before the humanoid doing all the talking nodded and extended his hand.

"My apologies, Mr. Hapgood. I’ve neglected to introduce myself. My name is Bartholomew." Hapgood’s claw grasped Bartholomew’s hand gingerly.

"I’m afraid we’re not prepared to receive guests at the moment. We must ask that you wait with your ship while we arrange a proper welcome for you."

Hapgood slowly rotated his primary sensor array around the room. He could detect that several dozen other humanoids were suddenly in the vicinity. They stayed back in the shadows.

"No problem" he said. "I need to run a diagnostic on my ship. I’ll wait to hear from you." Hapgood floated back to Travelling Man without further stops. The passageway back was quiet. The music returned as soon as he closed the door behind him.

Hapgood secured Travelling Man’s hatch securely and pondered the situation. He had no doubt he could leave this rock behind him without difficulty, but he felt uneasy.

"They’ve got plans for us, old boy" he told Travelling Man. "Yesiree, I can feel it in my bones."

More like by support struts, he corrected himself.

Hapgood decided to take a proactive approach to the situation. He snapped two drone mechs from his lower torso compartment and tossed them out the disposal hatch. The golf ball size spheres hesitated momentarily and then vanished into the darkness.

The drone mechs were Hapgood’s roving eyes. He saw as clearly from them as he did with his own and the mechs allowed him to return to the main building to investigate. He wasn’t about to wait for the zombies inside to come looking for him.

The mechs flittered in an out of the rooms that lined the massive hallways. Dozens of rooms that were in varying states of disrepair. Some looked like dormitories. Others like classrooms.

The dormitory rooms were dusty, unkempt and poorly lit. Hapgood had the mechs turn on their tiny flood lights in one room he was certain to be empty.

"Well I’ll be two headed rattlesnake!" he exclaimed. He hadn’t expected to find this.

The room reminded him of his college dorm back at Texas A&M. Clothes and food containers scattered haphazardly. But it was the walls that caught his eyes. They were lined with posters.

"I knew The Beatles were popular," he said to Travelling Man. "But I never thought they’d have a following out here."

The posters were dominated by images of the famous British group from the twentieth century. Most of them in a psychedelic motif. Hapgood had grown up with The Beatles. He never quite forgave them for breaking up during his junior year at Forsan High School. He had been happy to learn during his visit with the Robinsons that the three surviving members of the band had recorded some new material shortly before the Jupiter 2 had left Earth.

Several rooms later he found what he was looking for – a computer control center. He almost missed it, located just off a large room filled with humanoids that appeared to be napping on large cushions piled around a large elevated stage.

The mechs flittered around the consoles until they found a com port and latched on. Within moments, Hapgood knew what the planets inhabitants had planned for him. He didn’t like it. Not one damned bit.

The record of the Robinson’s visit three decades earlier was all in the archives. Hapgood learned how the inhabitants of the planet (named Delta) misled the castaways into believing they had reached Alpha Centauri. The inhabitants had disguised themselves as human. They had built an amazing façade for the Robinsons, using knowledge gleamed from earth radio and television transmissions that had traveled thirty light years to their planet.

When the Robinsons got here they must have thought they had stumbled back into the sixties.

The Robinsons eventually learned the true nature of their hosts. The inhabitants of this world were an old race that had stopped aging. Without interstellar traveled they faced stagnation and exscrutiating boredom of perpetual youth.

The aliens had tried to change their genetic flaw by extracting blood from the Robinson children – Will and Penny. They had almost succeeded until the Robinsons had seen through the ruse and escaped once more back to the stars.

They left the inhabitants in worse shape than before and their decline accelerated.

Most of the inhabitants clung to the façade of Earth. The sixties continue to live at planet Delta. They had ceased receiving transmissions from Earth when the Robinsons left the system when their satellites failed and no one bothered to repair them.

Old computer routines were being recalled to the control center processors. The inhabitants still believed that transfusions from Earth youths could remove the aging blockage of their species. The computers had pinpointed Earth’s location years ago. They had never acquired the transportation to get there.

Until now mused Hapgood.

It was clear what he had to do. He was determined to find the Robinsons, but he could not allow the aliens to get to Earth. Hapgood knew he could flee, but what if another space farer was lured to this planet?

Hapgood armed himself and floated outside.

"Keep an eye out for me Travelling Man" he instructed his ship. "I think it’s time to kick some hippie ass!"

There were more than a dozen or so of the Deltans waiting for Hapgood just inside the main entranceway. Even before he had been reborn as a Terokian machine, the humanoids would have had a tough fight on their hands.

Now his compressed metal armor merely shrugged off their laser weapons. Hapgood wanted this planetary excursion over so he dispatched the first wave quickly. Sonic disrupters left them sprawled on the floor. Hapgood flew quickly down the corridors, barreling through wave after wave of Deltans.

Reminds me of that game against Bronte back in ‘71, chortled Hapgood, his mind replaying his last time on the home field at Forsan High in west Texas. It had earned him a scholarship that later gave him a shot at the astronaut program.

Heavy defensive fire from the Deltans brought him back to the present. Hapgood knew his opponents were fighting out of desperation. They wanted his ship to get them to Earth for their DNA alteration program. Hapgood wasn’t about to let them snatch Earthlings so that could change their decaying society. Even if they did like The Beatles.

At last, he burst through the large assembly room near the computer control center. He paused briefly to retrieve his mechs before reducing the main consoles to scrap metal. He exited the control room back into the assembly area to face dozens of Deltans, bleary eyed with the realization that their short-lived plan of raiding earth had collapsed under the onslaught of mechanized Texan. They lurched forward.

And then the alarm sounded.

Hapgood jerked as the clarion sounded, followed by eye piercing rainbow colored lights and the music. Loud, pulsating music that even he found somehow hypnotic. The Deltans froze in their tracks and then climbed onto the large platform and began dancing. They were oblivious to everything. The sparks flying from exploding control panels.

They ignored Hapgood as he returned to Travelling Man and blasted back into orbit.

Hapgood monitored the situation from 200 miles up. He spent the next several days placing warning buoys in orbit around the world. He had destroyed the Deltans DNA alteration programs, but he wanted to be sure that other space explorers avoided this system until ...

"Until what, Travelling Man?" wondered Hapgood aloud. "What’s gonna happen to them down there?"

During the past few days in orbit, the global communication system had been pulsing non stop. The same mind numbing riffs over and over and over. Hapgood was ready to move on, but he knew what he had to do.

The global communication network was built around a relay of fixed orbital satellites. The music was fed from one broadcast station to the entire chain to encompass the entire world.

Hapgood floated through Travelling Man’s hatchway and drifted to the central communication satellite. He tapped into the main circuitry and the music pulsed through him.

He had thought about his next action for several days. The Deltans, obviously were stuck in a cultural rut. They had latched onto a piece of the sixties and never let go. It was time to move on to something else.

With mechanical precision he patched in the Sony Walkman he had left Earth with. Like him, it had been rebuilt by Terokian technicians, and would probably outlast the very star that gave life to this planetary system.

He severed the Deltans music link and rerouted it to his walkman CD player. He inserted a CD and set the player on autorepeat.

The hardest part of his plan was to pick what CD to give the Deltans. He surmised that the easily susceptible population would weave a new culture around whatever controlled their communication network.

Hapgood pressed the play button. He was certain he made the right choice as the music began and the vocal began with the words ...

If things work out right, thought Hapgood, I might have to revisit this rock.

It was several days later that Travelling Man got a firm lock on the Jupiter 2’s trail. Hapgood hoped that the family had fared better on their next alien encounter, but he doubted they did.

As he prepared to launch back into hyperspace, Hapgood began programming his onboard music player. The Terokians had been kind enough to reconstruct his entire CD collection byte by byte. As a precaution, they had transferred the entire collection of 175 CDs onto a data cube. Hapgood had prided himself for having a particularly diverse collection of music - everything from The Beatles to Hank Williams. He could summon up music from the cube by artist, style, genre, whatever he desired.

As he powered his ship up for the drop into hyperspace, he thought back to those dusty posters on the Deltans dormitory walls and he made his request from the cube. He went so far as to pick the album and the track.

With a press of a switch, Travelling Man shifted from normal space to hyper space as the Hapgood’s selected music welled up on the ship’s speakers.