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Way Station is a 100,000-word novel by Clifford Simak, about a Civil War veteran who lives alone in Wisconsin, and who hides on his property an intergalactic way station, that allows aliens to travel from one planet to another, using Earth as an intermediate stopping point. Way Station was first published in 1964.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

Enoch Wallace is a U.S. Civil War veteran, who lives alone on his Wisconsin farm. He is visited by a mysterious space alien he names Ullyses (after Grant). Ulysses explains that a galactic civilization is expanding into this part of the galaxy, and needs a way station on Earth. Enoch agrees to tend the station. When built, it looks on the outside just like an ordinary house, but on the inside the station contains all the advanced equipment provided by Ulysses and galactic central. As a bonus, the time Enoch spends inside the station itself will be time in which he does not age; however Enoch keeps up the habit of going for walks every day, and he ages a little during those walks. As keeper of the station Enoch meets many different aliens; as they come through, the technology makes a copy of their bodies and sends them on to the next station, leaving the original in the previous station a lifeless mass. Enoch keeps a detailed journal of all the aliens he meets, and of all the news and knowledge he learns from his talks with them. Many of the aliens stay for a brief time, and Enoch makes a point of learning some of their languages. Some aliens leave gifts for him, which he keeps stored in a cavernous basement.

The book takes place about a century later or so later (the date is not very exact); Enoch’s only regular contact with other human beings is when he goes on his daily walk to get the mail (his property is very large and isolated). He and the mailman become friends, and Enoch often gives the mailman blocks of wood that the aliens have left as presents (although he does not tell where the wood came from). Early in the story Enoch also has an unexpected encounter with a deaf-mute girl who lives nearby, and he observes what might be strange abilities in her (she seems to be able to heal a butterfly). Enoch also does his best to keep up with Earth politics and history; he subscribes to numerous newspapers and scholarly periodicals (the editors of one of his science magazines write him a letter wondering how one man could maintain the same subscription for 90 years).

The political climate in the world seems to be drifting toward war, and Enoch uses a statistical skill that he learned from one of the galactic races to predict (if he is using the statistics correctly) that a very destructive war is almost inevitable. Enoch himself will be safe inside the station, which is nearly invulnerable to attack or penetration, but he still worries for the planet. Ullyses informs him that a solution might be possible. As the sole representative of Earth, Enoch could petition galactic central to exercise its most drastic solution to such problems—the galactics could render the people of Earth stupid overnight. Everyone on Earth would have IQ’s of only 50 or so, and so they would not be smart enough to operate the machines necessary to obliterate the planet. After several generations the human race would regain its intelligence. It’s a drastic solution, and Enoch himself must agonize over whether the cure of planetary stupidity is worse than the disease of planetary war.

Enoch gets visits from the various galactic races all the time, but years earlier one of his visitors, called a Hazer, had suddenly died on his couch. Unsure of what to do, Enoch sent a message to galactic central for instructions; they informed him that the tradition of this race was to dispose of the body according to local customs. Accordingly, Enoch buried the Hazer in a cemetery plot on his property, right next to where he had buried his father years earlier. He then placed a headstone over the grave, with an inscription written in the Hazer language.

Now Ullyses comes for one of his frequent visits, but this time it is on official business, and a very serious matter. Ullyses informs Enoch that the body of the Hazer has been moved (Ullyses was informed by the Hazers, who apparently have some kind of psychic link with the bodies of their dead). Ullyses says that the opening of the station on Earth had had its opponents, simply because some races had vested interests in diverting resources to other parts of the galaxy. Now when they learn of the disappearance of the Hazer body, they will surely use this as political leverage to get the way station on Earth closed. Ullyses is very worried that this will in fact happen, even if the body were now returned. Enoch will be given a choice of either staying on Earth, or of being transferred to another way station, leaving his home planet permanently. Ullyses further informs Enoch that there are problems in the galactic community. A device called the talisman had been invented years earlier; it allowed certain skilled people to communicate with a kind of oversoul of the galaxy. As long as the talisman was active there was peace-love-and-friendship in the galaxy. But now the talisman is lost, and as an indirect result there is more quarreling in the galaxy.

Enoch realizes immediately who has taken the Hazer body. He had been aware for some time that a man had been watching him and his house, but he hadn’t worried too much about this man because the house itself was impenetrable. The deaf-mute girl had come to Enoch’s place a little earlier, chased by her father and brother who were trying to beat her; Enoch had given the girl sanctuary inside the station, a breach of galactic protocol. Now Enoch returns the girl to her home, where he finds the man who had been watching his house (this man was the main character in the first chapter of the book), and tells him to return the body. The man reveals that he works for the government, and he agrees to return the Hazer body, though he would naturally like more answers.

Alone in the station that night, Enoch goes down to the basement, where he reads a letter left behind by the long-dead Hazer. He decides that instead of leaving Earth when the way station is dismantled he will take as much of the galactic information as he can and turn it over to the people of Earth. He begins packing things in boxes, but while doing so an alien unexpectedly comes through the way station’s materializer, assaulting Enoch and running out of the station. Enoch gets his shotgun and follows the alien, eventually cornering him. Ullyses joins the hunt, and the little deaf-mute girl shows up as well. After a struggle, the alien is killed. Ullyses reveals that this alien had stolen the talisman and had hoped to hold it for ransom. Now Ullyses is surprised to learn that the deaf-mute girl is one of the rare individuals who are capable of using the talisman properly, so she will become its new guardian. Ullyses then agrees that Enoch can reveal everything he knows to the people of Earth, since it only seems proper that the keeper of the talisman be from a member planet in the galactic civilization. Enoch then arranges through the government agent that the deaf-mute girl attend the peace conference then under way, and with her influence she is able to maintain the peace on Earth.