Way Station is a 1963 science fiction novel by American writer Clifford D. Simak, originally published as Here Gather the Stars in two parts in Galaxy Magazine in June and August 1963.

Born in 1840, Enoch Wallace is an American Civil War veteran who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg.

His job is to monitor the machinery, including the regular and emergency "materializers", and make sure the biological needs of the wide variety of travelers are met.

He has only a few friends, including old mailman Winslowe Smith and a woman in her early twenties, deaf-mute neighbor Lucy.

When he sees her pursuers approaching, he takes her into the house on impulse, breaking his rule of letting no human inside.

Alien factions opposed to expansion in this direction seize upon the incident to force the tolerant Vegans to deliver an official protest to Enoch as representative of the Earth and have the station shut down.

Long ago, a mystic had created the Talisman, which enables people to make contact with the universal "spiritual force".

Despite the news being kept secret, Ulysses suspects the unusual unrest in the galaxy is somehow linked to its disappearance.

It creates the mental inability to operate or understand machines for several generations before gradually wearing off.

He starts packing his journals and alien artifacts he has been given by travelers, having decided to remain on Earth, but is interrupted when a "ratlike creature" emerges unannounced from the official materializer.

A mob, incited by Hank Fisher's lies, comes for Enoch, but Ulysses has Lucy use the Talisman to calm them down.