by Don Viecelli
“Hello, Colonel. This is General Anderson calling.”
“Yes, General Anderson. What can I do for you, sir?” Dave asked. This was unexpected.
“Sorry for calling you so late. I know you’re on vacation, but we’ve got a situation here and we need your help. It’s a crash investigation.”
“I didn’t hear anything on the news today, General, but then I haven’t been watching very closely. What crash?”
“It’s not public news yet, Colonel. We’re trying to keep it quiet, but I don’t know for how long. Something went down in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula today. It wasn’t one of ours. I can’t tell you anymore until you read the report. We need you to fly to Duluth Air Force Base tonight to take charge of the investigation. It’s high priority and we need answers quickly. Can you do it?”
It wasn’t like he had a choice. “Yes sir. I can make it. I need to catch a ride from New River Station in Jacksonville. I could be there in an hour. It will take me two more hours to reach Duluth. Will that do?”
“I’m already ahead of you, Colonel. I’ve got a helicopter waiting for you at Wilmington. It will fly you to New River for a ride on one of our planes. I’m sending you a copy of a video-message and radar report. It will be on the plane by the time you get there. Let me know when you’re airborne. I need some answers for the Secretary of Defense and CJCS by 0700. This is a serious situation, Colonel. Keep me informed. Any questions?”
“No sir. I’ll let you know when I’m airborne. Once I read the report, I’ll let you know what I need.” The general said that would be fine and hung up. Dave just stared at the phone. “Damn” was all he could think to say. He knew the lieutenant general and had met him before, but he never reported directly to him on a past investigation. He heard he was a tough taskmaster, but he played fair and knew a lot of the top brass in Washington. This would be a good opportunity for me, he thought to himself, if I survives the investigation. You never knew for sure what was going to happen during a crash investigation. Things could get rough. One thing was for sure, though. His vacation was over for the time being.
Dave clipped the phone on his belt and hoisted the anchor on the boat. He started the engines and turned the boat into the channel, lights on. He motored down the waterway and headed for Snow’s Cut, the channel that connected the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic just North of Carolina Beach. It was only a mile or so down the waterway and took very little time before he found the inlet channel to the marina at Carolina Beach. Soon, he could see the big party boats docked at the peer ahead and the smaller fishing boats lining both sides of the marina. He had a permanent boat slip near one of the newer buildings on shore where he owned a condo. He had purchased the condo just after the divorce and used it to entertain his kids when they came to visit on vacations. He planned to settle down in this area after he retired from the air force.
Dave reached the boat slip just after 10:45 pm. It took a few minutes to tie the boat down, collect his things below, close and lock the hatch and walk up to his condo to pack his bags. He opened the door and turned on the light. It was cool inside since he had left the air-conditioning on to keep out the heat and humidity. He went into the bedroom, changed into his military clothes and packed his bags. It didn’t take long since he usually had clothes ready to go for this type of work. He carried one suitcase and a carry-on bag to the front door. He stopped by the kitchen and looked in the refrigerator. He was hungry and thought this would be a good time to eat something since he didn’t know how long it would be before he had a chance to eat another meal. In the refrigerator he found a leftover pint of Carolina barbeque pork, some hushpuppies, bread and milk. He microwaved the barbeque and hushpuppies and fixed a sandwich. He ate quickly, savoring the unique barbeque taste. Just for good measure, he ate the last Britts donut he found in the white bag he had stored in the refrigerator. Britts donuts were made fresh daily in a small store front shop along the boardwalk near the downtown beach and were well known to the locals and visitors to the island. Britts had been making donuts in Carolina Beach since 1939. He would walk down to the store and buy a dozen freshly glazed donuts every few days when he was in the area. They were simply delicious. He couldn’t get enough of them. He wished he had time to walk down to the beach and buy some more to take with him, but he didn’t. It would have to wait until he returned, hopefully in a few weeks.
Dave cleaned up the kitchen counter, checked to see if everything was turned off, made sure the light timers were on and turned up the room temperature to 78 degrees. Then he picked up his bags, walked outside, locked the door behind him and walked down to his car. He looked up and could still see the Northern Lights shimmering above him. He bet it would be in the local papers tomorrow. It was a rare site indeed.
Dave threw the two bags into the back of the car and got inside. He started the car and opened all the windows including the sunroof overhead. He wanted to enjoy the warm night air and see the lights while he drove to Wilmington airport 17 miles away. He pulled out of the driveway and headed up Highway 421 over Snow’s Cut Bridge. He knew a shortcut to the airport and took Highway 132 at Monkey Junction until he reached the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He cut across to Kerr Avenue and headed up to 23rd street that took him straight to the airport. He pulled into the parking lot and parked on the west side. He got his bags and walked a short distance to a small building used by the military and government officials in the area. The helicopter pad was behind the building. It was very quiet this time at night since most passenger flights had stopped for the evening. He was the only person in the building other than the security guard and a young, black military officer waiting for him at the door. He introduced himself to the officer. “I’m Colonel Hampton.”
“Hello, Colonel Hampton,” the officer said as he saluted. “I’m Lieutenant Williams. I’ll be flying you to New River Station.”
“Lieutenant,” Dave said as he saluted back. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Let me help you with that bag, sir,” he said. “Follow me.”
They walked out of the building toward the air force helicopter a few yards away. The lieutenant took the bags and put them inside the back of the helicopter and showed Dave his seat. He then walked to the front of the helicopter and got into his seat. The co-pilot was already in his seat and saluted Dave. As soon as Lieutenant Williams was in his seat, he started the engine. A few minutes later they were in the air flying towards the air force base at New River Station in Jacksonville, NC, 51 miles North of Wilmington. Dave closed his eyes and tried to get some rest before they landed. It was a short, noisy ride.
Fifteen minutes later they landed at New River Station. It was a small air force base, routinely used for training air force and navy pilots. Dave stepped down out of the helicopter, grabbed his bags and walked over to a jeep waiting for him nearby. The lieutenant in the jeep saluted Dave. “Hello, sir. Welcome to New River. I was instructed to drive you over to the cargo plane waiting to fly you to Duluth, sir.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Dave said and jumped in the jeep. He held on as the jeep pulled away. It was a short ride across the runway to the cargo area where he could see a plane warming up on the runway. It looked like an old Boeing 737 modified for military use. Hopefully, it would have a decent seat to fly in.
The jeep stopped just in front of the wing tip. Dave got out, grabbed his bags and walked to the stairway. A major was standing there with a folder in his hand. It was marked in red ‘Top Secret’. “This is for you, sir,” he said as he saluted. “General Anderson told me to give this to you personally.”
“Thank you, Major,” Dave said as he saluted and took the folder. “Tell the General I’m on the plane and will call him as soon as I read this.”
Dave climbed the steps and entered the cargo plane. Luck was with him. There was a small cabin area behind the pilots with four seats and a conference table. It looked like this plane was used to ferry officers between air force bases as w
ell as cargo. He could get some work done as he flew. He stowed his bags overhead and sat in one of the window seats. He loosened his tie and took off his jacket and put in it the seat next to him. He turned on the overhead light and looked for a computer access port. It was in the center of the table along with a power plug. Dave opened the folder and took out an official looking brief and instructions for downloading the video message. He opened his carry-on bag and found his notebook computer. It was very compact and lightweight with a large LCD screen, small keypad and video camera built into the top cover. He used it to take notes and pictures of the crash scene as needed and for video conferencing. He plugged in the power cord to recharge the batteries, but didn’t need to use an Ethernet cable since everything used high-speed Bluetooth/Wireless LAN connections now.
“Hello, sir,” the pilot said as he poked his head out of the cabin. “We’re almost ready to take off. Do you need anything?”
Dave looked up and said to the captain, “Yes, I could use a cup of coffee or something. Do you have anything on board?”
“Yes, it’s in the galley behind you. We have just about everything you need in there. You can get a cup as soon as we’re airborne. It should take us just under two hours to get to Duluth. Glad to have you on board, Colonel. Enjoy the trip.”
“Thanks, Captain. I’ll try,” Dave responded and settled in for the ride.
The captain closed the cabin door and began to taxi the plane out to the runway for liftoff. It was 11:45 pm. Dave started to read the military report. It started off like any other report he had read with basic details on the time of crash, radar readings and location information. But it was the reference to UFO that immediately got his attention. Usually, reports of this nature were very precise on the type of aircraft that went down. Then he read the part on where they thought the object had originated from and how they had filled in the missing pieces from the video message from some astronaut on the ISS. No way had he anticipated this. When the general had said it wasn’t one of ours, he assumed it was a plane from another branch of the military. This was too unbelievable, even for him. He began to think it was a hoax or some sort of military blunder. No wonder the general couldn’t speak on the phone about this. It was obvious that he had to see the video message as soon as he could download it.
Dave found the instructions for logging into the Air Force Intranet web site and where the video message was stored. He was given a password to access the file. As the cargo plane leveled off at cruising altitude, Dave was listening to the report filed by Commander Julian Bonario on the ISS. The timestamp was 8:45 pm CDST, Monday, June 1, just two hours ago. Commander Bonario was still in the ISS airlock waiting to decompress as he mentioned in the video message when he gave a detailed verbal report on his experience outside the orbiting base station and his encounter with the UFO. It was difficult to believe what the commander was saying, but then the pictures he took were astonishing. Most of them were very clear, except for the ones that showed some kind of bluish light emanating from the spacecraft that caused too much glare to see the front of the spacecraft. Dave decided he would have these pictures analyzed in greater detail as soon as he could.
The story was engrossing enough with the commander trying to escape the harmful effects of the solar radiation and the damage to the ISS from the explosion. But the incidence with the UFO was just mystifying. Why would an alien spacecraft get so close to the ISS and try to help him? The Commander obviously felt the aliens had saved his life. The damage to the spacecraft by the solar array power generator was totally unexpected. Dave wondered if the aliens knew that the solar flare was about to explode on the sun. No one could predict that sort of thing as far as he knew. Dave made a mental note to follow up on that thought with someone in NASA. It might be useful to know later on in the investigation. His mind seemed to work in this fashion. He would think of random things that seemed to be linked together in a crash investigation, but couldn’t be proved until more evidence was found. Sometimes, it was never proved, which was just one of those frustrating things about his job.
Dave listened to the video message from Commander Bonario in fascination. Then he watched it again making notes in his notebook. More questions than answers popped up. How do we know that this is really a UFO? How do we know that the spacecraft crashed? How do we know that the UFO that crashed in the UP is the same one? The questions came one after another. He wanted to talk to the commander directly, but he knew that it must wait until the commander was debriefed by NASA. He decided to study the military report again and see how they made their conclusions. But first, he needed some coffee.
Dave got up out of his seat and stepped into the small galley behind him. He found a working coffee machine with a red light on and pored himself a cup. He added a little cream he found on the side in a bin. Then he returned to his seat. He let the questions in his mind repeat themselves a few times and then he read the report over again highlighting the key points.
NASA had reported an earlier UFO approaching the ISS, but then it disappeared on satellite radar screens. There was no sighting at all near the ISS, yet the pictures clearly show it was there. Then there were no radar sightings until an object was sighted over the U.S. just before an explosion near the Michigan Upper Peninsula. The flight path of the UFO was extrapolated by someone in U.S. Space Command. It was an educated guess using the data they had. They had ruled out missiles and other objects due to the size of the UFO and speed of descent. There were no other reports of military or civilian planes going down in the vicinity. The only thing left to prove was the plane that crashed in the UP was a UFO, and that it was the same one as shown in the ISS pictures. It was doable, he thought to himself. At least he thought he could prove it one way or another as soon as he reached the crash site. He thought of several people he knew who could do this kind of work. He was going to need a lot of people he never needed before to help him on this investigation. He hoped he wasn’t out of his league here.
After Dave felt that he thoroughly understood all that the video message and the report told him, he switched gears to figure out whom he would need on this investigation. He would need help from his boss, Brigadier General Carl Wolenzski, Chief of Safety, U.S. Air Force; a DOD Public Affairs person; some people from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). He would also need a process expert, a structural specialist and people with various technical expertise from the DOD and NASA. If he were dealing with alien technology and alien bodies, he would need biological scientists or medical doctors. He began to worry about contamination, quarantines and security issues.
How in the world can you keep something like this quiet, he thought to himself. All it would take is one picture, one person who saw the explosion or crash to make this public. He would have to prepare for that possibility and see how the general wanted to handle this. The issues were growing exponentially. Could he handle it? Could the world handle it? He began to wonder how this would all end. It was going to get hot and he knew he would be in the middle of it all. Maybe that’s why the general called him. He needed someone to take the blame if anything goes wrong. Either way, he decided he could handle this. Someone had to do it and he was as good at this as anyone in the air force. He decided to call the general and let him know what was going to be required to handle this investigation. It was now 12:45 a.m. EDST.
Dave adjusted the notebook computer camera to show his face in the LCD screen. Then he accessed the video conferencing application program to call Lieutenant General Anderson at the Pentagon. The notebook asked him what number to call and Dave said the number verbally. The computer automatically dialed the number and converted it into an Internet Protocol (IP) address. All video conferencing calls were now handled over the Internet, or in this case over the secure military satellite Intranet connection.
The phone rang in General Anderson’s office. He had two choices, pick up the phone or turn on the computer screen to take the ca
ll. He could see on the PC who the caller was and decided to use the video conferencing mode. Dave’s picture appeared on the monitor.
“Hello, Colonel,” General Anderson said. He could hear the plane background noise. “Where are you?”
“Hello, sir,” replied Dave. He did not have to salute. “I’m still in the air. We should be landing in 30 minutes or so. I thought I would call you to discuss the investigation.”
“What do you think, Colonel?”
“I’m greatly surprised, General. I wasn’t expecting anything like this. I have a lot of concerns, General, but I’m ready to proceed. I can’t quite believe we have an alien UFO yet, Sir, but the evidence looks convincing. Have they found the crash site yet?”
“No, but we’re getting some unconfirmed reports from people in the area that they saw an explosion in the air. They called 911. We ordered two helicopters to take off from the closest air force base, which is Duluth, to investigate around 2230 local time. They should be in the area now. We should hear something soon.”
“If we’re really dealing with a UFO here, sir, then we need to prepare for the worse. We don’t know what type of contamination we will face. It could be biological, chemical or radioactive. The search and recovery teams need to use contamination suits and quarantine the entire area. Nobody should inspect the crash site without using hazmat suits, sir.”