a moustached soldier in khakis and beret with a kalashnikoff slung over his shoulder grabbed izzy 's elbow to escort him from the sphinx enclosure , the hollow i formed about me when i first crash landed on earth and created human beings , a long , tiring process from the initial joining of nucleotides through the evolution of humans , through whom i could actuate my mental processes , and eventuating in the birth of tuthmosis iv , on whom i believed i could rely , but consciousness has its own intrinsic imperatives , so here i was , anchored in this blank , vasty shoal , cut off from the stars my home , and utterly dependent on the ministrations of a punch press operator from lockport , new york .