I welcome comments and criticism.

All I could remember was the blinding light and the pain, the burning searing pain. And then, blankness.

And now, I was awake. Not the gradual awakening as from sleep, but an immediate and full consciousness. I couldn't see, I couldn't feel, I could only be.

A voice intruded on my confused thoughts, “Don't be disturbed. You're going to be fine. We've only woken you to reassure you. Even when you're not awake your agitation is interfering with your recovery. I assure you, you will be alright in time. Rest.” At least I could hear.

And then, immediately, blankness. Not blackness, blankness.

Again, that immediate consciousness. I had no concept of time since the last event.

And again, the voice, “Matt, we've been able to identify you and we know why and what you were doing at the time of the incident. We have your emotions.... sedated so you don't injure your recovery as we have this conversation.”

They may have tamped my emotions some, but I was still bewildered. “Where am I? Where is this? Why can I hear and talk but can't see or feel?”

“Even sedated, this will be a shock to you. But, I assure you, you will be fully recovered in time. The reason you can't see or feel is because you have nothing to use those functions. Your body has been destroyed past the point we could reconstruct it. We were able to save your brain and some of what you would call DNA. Simply put, you can hear because we are connected to the auditory function of your brain. We will restore sight to you after we finish this talk. You will understand why we postponed it until then. You are really not talking as such, you're connected to a machine that is converting your thoughts to sound. ”

I said, “Alright, give me some time to assimilate this.” After much contemplation, I expressed my thoughts. “Am I to understand that I was killed and you rescued parts of me and you're going to restore me somehow. That seems to be far beyond any medical science I'm aware of.”

The voice responded, “You are right, there is no human medicine that could restore you, but we are not human. Your memory functions are fully functional. Do you remember anything of what transpired to bring you here?”

Again, I took some time to try to recollect what had happened. After some time, I remembered that I was alone in the far reaches of Canada to do some surveying for an oil company when I heard what sounded like a car crash through the trees.

I remember that there was the screeching sound of torn metal. But that was ridiculous, there weren't any humans or machinery for probably scores of miles except for me and my snow machine and trailer.

I hurried forward towards where I thought the sound came from and finally glimpsed something shiny between the undergrowth.

I couldn't make out the shape of it as it was torn and crumpled amongst the trees but I could hear cries and groans emanating from the largest portion

I pulled aside some of the wreckage to gain access to what seemed to be the control area and where the cries were coming from. The first creature I came across seemed to be an infant as it it was crying as a baby would. It was not any type of baby that I had ever seen. It was certainly not human. But it needed help and my help is all it was going to get.

I noticed fumes coming from the wreckage so I gathered up what I thought were probably infant things in the area and, picking up the infant, took it what I felt was a safe distance from the craft, and made it as comfortable as I could.

I returned to the wreck and, probing further, came across two other beings that I assumed were the parents of the smaller one.

It didn't take a lot of effort to remove them as they were slight in build and lighter than a human of comparable size. I carried them out and laid them by the infant. Returning again I took armfuls of whatever I could find that I thought would be helpful.

The survivors were obviously humanoid in form although strange in a way I couldn't describe. Their coloring was the most disconcerting. Although close to a white human, they had a blue-green cast. Their facial feature were approximately human but seemed to be smoothed out somehow so as to make them look sleek.

I didn't take the time to examine them further than trying to get them in comfortable positions as I wanted to get what else I could from the wreck

All this time the wreckage was giving off more foul fumes and making strange sounds. I thought I could make one more trip to salvage what I could and was approaching the debris when light started shining from the interior and getting brighter. I turned and started to retreat when the light got much brighter.

And then, all I could remember was the blinding light and the pain, the burning searing pain. And then, blankness.

Even with the sedation, if I had had a body, I would have been trembling as I remembered.

After calming a little, I detailed my remembrances to my audience and questioned him. “Who are you, and why are you helping me?

He replied “ We are a race that has been observing mankind for a long while. Much longer than you may realize, though you do have some awareness of our presence. We try very hard to justify it away as hallucinations and other ways. We are what you may call peacekeepers and also historians.

We were set to this task by a Higher Power than both our races. We do not interfere with you, even in your wars, although we try to guide you in very small and subtle ways to your full potential without pushing you in ways unnatural to you.”

Continuing, he said, “As for why we are helping you I think it may be clearer if we restored sight to you now, as you already know and remember our appearance.”

And suddenly, I could see. It was a strange type of vision as I couldn't move my eyes around to focus on objects but had a very panoramic field of view that was equally sharp everywhere. If I concentrated my attention on any object I could see it in a clarity never before experienced. It took me only a few minutes to become used to it as it was superior to my previous way of observing through glasses and contacts.

I now observed my attendant who was, as I remembered, one of that race, medium height for a human, quite thin, but showing no sign of weakness. He had the, odd for me, complexion I had seen before. I had no one else to compare him to so I took him to be an ordinary member of his race.

He quietly watched me as I scrutinized him and then said ”You now remember rescuing my people from the wreckage. I must tell you of them. The adults were very important personages in our society. If they had perished it would have done severe damage to our whole civilization.

“If you had not removed them from their craft and done what you did for them they would have died. It was still a very close thing that they did live. Their craft had sent a distress signal before it crashed and there were rescuers on the way even before the crash, but they didn't arrive until after the conflagration that killed you. They were badly injured but because you had cared for them they recovered completely.

“We would have taken care of you and restored you, but then would have returned you to human civilization without any memory of what had happened. You would have been one of the amnesiacs that appear from time to time. But we owe you a debt and gratitude we can only try to repay. I, especially owe you, for I am the infant you saved.”

It took me a few moments to digest what he'd just said, but then shouted “What! How long has it been since the crash.”

He looked into whatever substituted for my eyes and said, “ I'm sorry to tell you it has been over twenty of your years. You have been healing all that time. We have been growing a new body for you from the information we received from the DNA of yours that we saved and it's almost ready to receive your consciousness.

“It will be better than what you had. It will age but won't get ill. Your sight will be perfect and will stay that way. You will stay sharp of mind and, barring accident, in good health until eventually you will die at an old age. We found some areas in your DNA that were not optimal but repaired them”

“But, but, what'll I do, where will I go? All my acquaintances and friends won't know me and if they did, they'd want to know why I haven't aged and where I've been.”

He replied “I'm afraid you would be one of the amnesiacs I've told you about. We would have to erase your memory. You could be in a different location, your choice, different name, with enough money to start a new life or business or even retire comfortably if you wanted. I told you we feel we owe you.”

“Wow, I'm going to have to do a lot of thinking about that” I replied.

He smiled and said, “While thinking on that I have another option I'd like to present to you. Your compassion for our people and obvious intelligence, which we tested while you were unconscious, has led us to offer another choice.

"Because of our appearance we can't appear in human society so we need to have someone to be an agent of ours at times. I have to tell you that sometimes it will be dangerous, but there will be safeguards.

"Your body will be much stronger and faster than the one I previously described. It will not age or, barring accident, grow old and die. You will retain the vision that you are experiencing now but it will also see into the ultraviolet and infrared when needed plus will be able to see almost as a microscope or telescope. Try not to be taken to a hospital for surgery as they would have a very hard time operating on your almost impervious skin. Very lethal poisons and noxious gases might make you nauseous but probably wouldn't kill you. I'm not trying to frighten you as we have other agents and have very rarely, during the centuries have they ever had occasion to need any of these protections. But it has happened.

“You will have unlimited funds to carry out your assignments and whatever else you care to do while not on assignment.

"There are other advantages we can give to you, but think about what I've told you and let me know which option you would like to follow at our next meeting or you can summon me by concentrating on me and I'll return as soon as I can. You may even think of a third option and if we can we'll try to bring it about.”

Well, I did do quite a bit of thinking on my options over my next few days. As I didn't seem to need any sleep I had a chance to consider a third option, but I couldn't think of any. So, I concentrated on the being that I had received my options from, and he showed up a few hours later

I quizzed him,”What's your name and what do you call yourself?”

“We don't have names as do you humans,” he said with a smile. “Amongst ourselves we communicate more with emotions. You might call us telepathic but that wouldn't be correct either, I'm afraid you don't have the lexicon in your society to describe it to you. So any name you wish to use to think of me will be just fine and I will reply to it as I did when you summoned me.”

“Okay then, I'll think of you as Simon. That's about as close to summon as I can come up with. So tell me, Simon, where do I sign up?”

And that's how I became an agent.

To be continued if anyone likes it.