The Vertical Plane

by Ken Webster

  Next day 2109 chirped up all sarcastic and patronizing.

  YOUR MIND IS HALF MADE UP. I HOPE YOU DON’T THINK WERE LAUGHING AT YOU NOW THAT WOULD ANOY YOU! WE’LL CATCH THE BULLITS BEFORE YOU PULL THE TRIGGER! LOTS OF LOVE 2109.

  So 2109 had the answers for David before he even thought of the questions? Later on 2109 promised me the answer to Fermat’s Last Theorem but only after David had visited on two more occasions. He came only once more … hence it was quite easy to promise if they already knew the likely outcomes. And of course in the above exchange 2109 had effectively pulled the plug on SPR. They were now under no obligation to answer any questions SPR put before them. I was convinced that there had been another SPR blunder.

  33

  30 September

  Brush in hand, cat at heel, I opened the door to John Bucknall. He had a colleague ‘from work’ with him who he introduced as Jim, a frail academic on first impressions. Jim was an expert on ciphers, and his presence puzzled me as we had had very little number traffic over the computer and whatever else we had appeared comprehensible. Still mine was not to wonder why, mine was just to make polite conversation. At this stage my politeness was in danger of wearing thin. In the kind of circumstances currently prevailing, where 2109 appeared to be the only topic of conversation and my growing collection of handwritten scripts from Tomas was summarily dismissed as ‘not proving anything’ it was hardly surprising that I felt frayed.

  I had arranged these scripts neatly and with pride in small cheap ‘klip’ frames on the chair. I could readily agree that they didn’t prove anything but, I argued, as part of the complete experience they offered opportunities for investigation and enquiry which could support or render less likely a hoax. It was like talking to myself. I was talking to myself. I put my scripts away like a rebuffed travelling salesman and brought instead coffee and tea.

  Peter arrived shortly. All except myself and Debbie were still dressed for work. SPR were understandably irritated at the taunts from 2109 but John had a firm response all lined up:

  2109

  THIS WILL BE OUR FINAL COMMUNICATION UNLESS YOU DEAL WITH US MORE REASONABLY. SO FAR WE COULD EXPLAIN ALL YOUR ANTICS IN TERMS OF A FEW ELECTRONIC BUGS AND A COUPLE OF SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS.

  WE HAVE NO ENTHUSIASM FOR TRYING TO PERFORM EXPERIMENTS WHEN YOU, DELIBERATELY OBSTRUCT US. IF YOU ARE WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE YOU CAN GIVE US SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE TO PROVE IT. IF NOT YOUR SILENCE WILL SPEAK FOR ITSELF.

  THE QUESTIONS WE GAVE YOU WERE NOT THEMSELVES IN SEARCH OF KNOWLEDGE. WE WILL HAVE ALL THOSE ANSWERS WITHIN A FEW YEARS. WE WERE JUST GIVING YOU A CHANCE TO SHOW YOUR ABILITY.

  WE REFUSE TO CO-OPERATE WITH YOUR OUTRAGEOUS REQUEST BECAUSE WE VALUE MIND, BODY AND SOUL MORE THAN ANY KNOWLEDGE THAT WE COULD POSESS. IF YOU ARE A FRIEND YOU WOULD NOT ASK US TO BE SO STUPID.

  IF YOU DECIDE, WITHOUT CONDITIONS, TO SHOW THAT YOU HAVE KNOWLEDGE BEYOND OUR OWN WE MAY BE ABLE TO PASS THIS INFORMATION TO THOSE WHO COULD HELP YOU.

  PLEASE REMEMBER THAT ABOVE ALL WE VALUE PEACE OF MIND. DO NOT ASK US TO DO THINGS WHICH BREAK OUR ETHICAL CODE.

  DAVID AND JOHN.

  Seated around the living room were John, Peter, Jim, Debbie and myself. John began the proceedings. The theme had not been in any way modified by last weekend’s events. This shocked me. I held back from the discussion only out of politeness. The picture of a hoax he presented was quite frankly almost as incredible as what we generally believed to be the truth of the matter. Pure electronic wizardry was at work, he said. Bugging the screen was his theme but additionally he saw the possibility of someone having stored the questions Dave left for 2109 on an EPROM, whatever that was. The questions could then be examined at leisure, at school perhaps, with the help of some decoding device for the EPROMs. I was furious. SPR hadn’t, as far as I knew, spoken to anyone in the computer department at school. Who had stored it anyway? Dave was the only one at the computer, he had controlled it throughout.

  John continued with what I thought were trite answers. The hoaxer returned to centre stage.

  As an alternative to the EPROM he suggested that sensitive microphones could have picked up the sound of the keys and then recordings interpreted to determine which keys were depressed. I could not believe my ears, nor could Peter or Debbie. John was walking up and down to emphasize his ideas. Once or twice I thought he paced up and down to convince himself. He was ‘ninety-nine per cent sure’ it was a hoax because ‘it had to be’. He repeated that phrase over and over. Sitting, as I was now, on the stairs because there was little room, I felt not only outside the conversation but the guilty person. All this ‘trickery’ if it was to be believed, had to be done with my full and active co-operation. Something had happened over the intervening week to make John so forceful. From the suggestion that a third party had been bugging the kitchen the argument had changed, swung in on me.

  Just how the messages were returned to the screen in this scenario was never explained. Why, if they were so sure that EPROM chicanery was the likely method, hadn’t they brought their own BBC or why didn’t they take our machine away for testing?

  They were obviously caught out by there being a response, and a useful one, to the ‘ten-question test’ and were rationalizing after the event. They had, in short, been careless and we were taking the blame – although they never accused us and were never less than 100 per cent polite.

  There were multiple objections to John’s view, and much that was unaccounted for: poltergeist activity for one thing, the testimony of witnesses who’d sat with Debbie for another. Debbie couldn’t contain herself and spluttered into laughter.

  The language? Tomas’s words? ‘Good scholarship’ was all I remember John saying when this was mentioned.

  But we didn’t have a row or a dreadful breakdown in communication. We pressed John earnestly to continue his work. He did, he conceded, have questions for 2109 in his pocket. All was not lost. We had more tea.

  Underneath I was quite miserable but kept on hoping for something to turn up. John was now asking 2109 for the date of the next supernova and its location …

  October crept in with that certain awareness that the days are drawing in and yet the delightful calm of those moments kept winter from my mind. I decided to pick damsons from the venerable fruit tree in the garden. Two days had passed since John had given us his thoughts. 2109 had written back that evening – but not, I remembered with irritation, whilst John was present. On the Tuesday there was a direction to David and John to cast their eyes upwards to heaven.

  DAVID&JOHN

  OBSERVE:BOTTOM RIGHT HAND REGION OF THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE NEAR TO THE C. EQUATOR 7th CELESTIAL BODY IN THE DELPHINUS CONSTELLATION. COULD SOON BE A QUASOR

  I hoped at the time that they were to be offered a thunderball but, perched in the damson tree with a red bucket and a view of the village, I was less aggressive, as indeed in such rustic circumstances I should be. Dodleston is a great place.

  Unfortunately in any ordinary atlas the Delphinus constellation lies to the north of the celestial equator!

  David Welch was most suspicious. I was unhappy. When I was a child I used to escape all responsibilities as best I could by climbing the oak tree down the road and hiding in its stubby branches. Here I was again up a tree at the age of thirty.

  Frank Davies got me down from the tree, so to speak, by bringing me a map of the galaxy drawn as if we were outside it. Here of course Delphinus was south of the celestial equator. And if 2109 were rather more aware of the galaxy than we were then it was a reasonable description. Indeed Frank suggested that a hoaxer was not at all likely to have considered this point. Far easier to quote the accepted standard description.

  The ‘quasor’ message was very odd in another way. Its layout was not typical of 2109, neither was the lack of signature. ‘It could be from this “one” character,’ suggested Frank but the spelling of ‘quasar’ was reassuringly 2109.

  It was becoming obvious that there was a need for other researchers to b
ecome involved. Peter suggested the soon-to-be-appointed Koestler Professor at Edinburgh University. I was against contacting him, as I thought it rather a bold step. I imagined Peter would go ahead anyway, that being his character.

  But looking again at our investigators, I concluded that John Bucknall and Dave Welch were intelligent, thoughtful gentlemen in the only substantial organization for this kind of work in the country. Loss of faith at this time would suggest that we were just not happy with their point of view and that we sought merely sympathetic and gullible researchers. Far from it, but our position was extremely difficult.

  I was very aware that Tomas was due to leave us: we expected him to be gone by the end of November at the absolute latest. Poor Tomas was still writing on paper with whatever pen or pencil we left him. He was writing about his village and the people he knew, as well as castigating us for writing to 2109. I told him that we had no real choice.

  To counter some of SPR’s criticism in relation to VDU bugging we asked 2109 if they needed a screen to communicate.

  KEN

  ALTHOUGH WE HAVE NO NEED FOR AVISUAL MONITOR ‘GOODLIE’ TOM HAS. EXPLAINING THIS TO YOUR KIND IS NOT AT ALL EASY, MAYBE IT IS BEST COMPARED WITH ECHOS.

  TWO MEN BACK TO BACK ONTOP OF A MOUNTAIN SURROUNDED BY MOUNTAINS. SUPPOSE, IN ORDER THAT THEY MAY COMUNICATE, THIER VOCAL S. WAVES MUST BE REFLCTED BY THE MIN.

  AMOUNT OF MOUNTAINS, LAST MOUNTAIN IN THE CHAIN FACES THE RECEIVER. NOW, IMAGINE HYPOTHETICALLY, FOR THE SENDER TO BE HEARD BY THE RECEIVER, THE SENDER MUST DIRECT THIS NARROW CHANNEL OF SOUND AT EXACTLY THE RIGHT ANGLE TO THE OPPERSITE MOUNTAIN FOR HIS VOICE TO BE REFLECTED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION IF THIS IS NOT TO BE DONE, SAY HIS VISION IS OBSCURED BY FOG, THEN THE VOICE MAY BE CARRIED BY EVERY MOUNTAIN IN THAT RANGE ALONG ITS WAY BEING ABSORBED, THUS BEING LOST OR EXTREMELY WEAK FOR THE EAR OF THE RECIVER. THE SCREEN IS A GUIDE FOR COMUNICATIONS.

  2109

  In support of this idea a message turned up on the disk as soon as the machine was next switched on. It was written at some time between 8 and 9 October but it was not, as far as we knew, on the file when the computer was last used. Either that or it had been inserted whilst I examined the upper part of the file.

  2109 wrote that they would go along with a test using a different computer and no screen. It was suggested to John Bucknall that an experiment be set up using SPR computers and equipment. 22 October was chosen as a date for this new experiment. In the interim 2109 asked unexpectedly about our friendly motor-mechanic teacher, Frank Davies. They wanted to know why he was involved, his work, character, etc,. then they asked for his doctor’s name and address. I could not supply that information but Frank gave the details. They replied quite promptly giving, according to Frank, an excellent summary of his medical history.

  2109 invited questions from Frank and from Deb and me. In retrospect it was chitchat to bide time until the next experiment by SPR. When Dave Welch wrote that he was unimpressed with their inability to come up with a solution to his mathematical questions and that furthermore they were a cheap hoax they replied:

  WE WONDER HOW MUCH DAVID WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE NEXT PRIME No. IF HE KNEW THE CONSEQUENSES!, WHY SHOULD WE GIVE IT TO SOMEONE WHO BLANKLY REFUSED THE ANSEWER BEFOUR – WE AR’NT HERE TO IMPRESS. WE SUPPOSE THEY HAVE TO PUT SOMETHING IN THERE LITTLE BOOK THAT THEY CAN RELATE TO. Mmmmm, CHEEP HOAX Eh?!, SOMETHING TELLS US THEY HAVE’NT BEEN DOING THERE HOME WORK! (TUT. TUT). YES ANY COMPUTOR WILL DO FOR US – THOMAS ALWAYS NEEDS WORD PROSSESSOR THOUGH. SPEED IS OUR VERTUE, TELL HIM(DAVID) THAT WHATEVER HE WRITES WE WILL SEE BUT HE’LL HAVE TO GIVE A GOOD REASON WHY WE SHOULD ANSEWER HIS QUESTIONS!. ONE OF YOUR TWO FIENDS ARE NOT BEING COMPETELY TRUTHFULL, THERE’S ALOT OF DISAGREEING GOING ON. ONE IS NOT IMPORTANT THERE ARE BETTER THINGS TO TALK ABOUT.

  2109

  Added to this was a warning not to allow any of Tomas’s messages into SPR’s hands, ‘as there are many amaters’. Hardly worth the mention except for the fact that this last line was inserted as I lay in the bath, and the bathroom adjoins the kitchen. I was thinking of whether to offer Tomas’s words in quantity to SPR (they had a couple of samples already) but had not put the question on to the screen.

  Into the half-term break. Waiting for the day when SPR came. Waiting for an answer to the mystery of the ‘leems’. Messages from 2109 almost every day, on the fraudulent nature of most mediums, the power of suggestion and, in reply to the question about where objects go when they disappear from the kitchen – ‘nowhere’. Very fine! Tomas, too was keeping up, mostly on paper.

  This short message arrived late on Sunday 20 October. I wrote it down on a scrap of paper. It was of a different quality from the usual:

  I KNOW YOUR GREATEST FEARS

  I KNOW HOW TO BE EMOTIVE

  I CAN INTERFERE WITH ALL SIGNAL TRANSMITTING DEVICES (INCLUDING COMPUTERS)

  I HAVE THE POWER TO MAKE YOU DO EXACTLY WHAT IS REQUIRED

  ARE YOU ANGRY: VERY ANGRY

  I CAN MAKE THE COMUTER NON COMMUNICABLE

  ALL IS NOT WHAT IS APPEARS TO BE

  YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO BE ANGRY

  SOMEONES IN TROUBLE

  The spelling and the style, our only clues for unsigned communications, led Deb and me to think it was not 2109. It would seem that if the vertical plane is opened up almost anyone can play. This little twist in space-time is, it seems, a type of honey pot.

  ‘Someone’s in trouble.’ It would be me if 2109 did not cough up the goodies on the 22nd. I saved the message to disk but it was deleted by the next time I went to look for it.

  34

  22 October

  I had a job interview in Manchester. I was pretty confident, but bad luck awaited me. The long arm and swift heels of a police motorbike caught up with my untaxed car. The copper wished me luck with the job, but booked me all the same.

  At seven o’clock and not in the best of moods the only food I could afford that night was a bag of chips, which I devoured between pieces of dry bread. John Bucknall and Dave Welch were due. A quick coffee, just time to light the fire and I was almost ready. An appalling lifestyle.

  Frank arrived just ahead of the psychobillies, eager and more than willing to tell SPR what he had experienced of 2109 and Tomas.

  ‘Hello, Ken, this is Nick.’ John Bucknall came in with a large confident man of about thirty-five. We shook hands. ‘Where’s Dave?’ I asked, looking at John.

  The reply was waffly. He wasn’t coming that day. I can’t remember any reason being given. Frank stood up to greet our visitors. Nick sat on the edge of the settee near the fire. He was a carefully dressed man in a dark jacket and trousers and he seemed to be in control. I thought that he must be John’s superior. Did they have a hierarchy in SPR? The question once thought immediately subsided. John smoked all the time as usual. In my mind, at least, he kept to the edges of the conversation. That night I saw John in the shadows of the room, by the stairs, in doorways, by the corner cupboard. Nick was asking straight questions. ‘Where’s Debbie?’

  ‘She’s in Oxford,’ I lied. She was in London but did it matter? I volunteered the information that she was ‘doing some research, seeing some people …’

  He seemed a little disappointed; he was obviously well briefed on who we were and what was going on. I didn’t like his pointedness, which conflicted with the air of cordiality and informality I was trying to project. I felt we could be meeting across an oak table in a city office.

  Frank, gentle Frank Davies, was not questioned but interrogated. Although encouraging him to speak about his experiences in the affair Nick wasn’t listening at all. ‘Are you a physicist?’

  ‘No … indeed no. I am an engineer by trade and …’

  ‘What is your theory of what’s happening?’ And so on.

  Frank was getting involved with his tale but Nick wanted facts. Nick wanted to take the computer away to look for bugging devices. I agreed to this, and during twenty minutes of intense activity SPR set up their own computer and screen, and down-loaded inform
ation from a disk. Questions for 2109.

  I sat in a corner of the living room willing 2109 to pick up the transfer. A lot of my self-respect was riding on this experiment. The information was left on SPR’s computer, but not on the screen, for a short time. They continued to question us for a while but Nick gave the impression that he was tired or slightly irritated and within an hour they had left. I had instructions to ring John if there was a reply from 2109. Frank and I were extremely unsettled by the very cool and formal end to the meeting. I tried to forget them but it wasn’t easy. Frank wrote those notes on the latter part of the evening.

  ‘Ken asked me if I would mind staying in the cottage alone for a short time while he went for a walk. I agreed to this and after Ken had gone out I sat on the settee in front of the fire and thought over the events of the evening.

  ‘Even though I was alarmed and somewhat annoyed by SPR’s request to remove the computer I suppose any failure to comply could have been construed by them as an attempt to conceal material which they felt may have aided their investigations.

  ‘I thought of an earlier message from Lukas in which he expressed alarm at a forthcoming visit from SPR and had ended his message:

  WYTH HOPE THAT YOW TELLE OONLY MEN O REKONYNG WHO DOTH NAT UNDOO MYNE LEEMS AN FREENDS.

  ‘Now the “leems” was undone, at least at our end.

  ‘While I was waiting for Ken’s return I did not notice anything unusual, nor was I expecting anything. I thought of nothing in particular. However, on hearing Ken’s approach to the door I stood up and immediately saw that Ken’s name had been written in chalk, in the style used by Lukas, on the tiled floor not more than a couple of feet in front of me.