Throughout the universe there are many unanswered questions. There are ones that people believe in and others who don’t. To take a journey to answer these questions would take lifetimes but for one it will take a single lifetime. The mysteries of space are indeed exciting but for our own planet Earth, the mystery always starts at home.
NASA the home central of space for the world has been quiet over the past few years. One of the chief managers who worked for NASA was reading the morning paper with a cup of warm coca. He was middle aged man with a grey beard and short small glasses. He was known as a man of logic and a person who could get the job done. He turned over his newspaper when one of his co-workers came inside his office with some papers that he handed over to him.
“What’s this may I ask?”
“These are some reports that have been in the past few months about some different cases you know,” he answered nodding.
“Geoff if these reports are not that important than you can file them yourself. This nice coca needs its alone time if you get the picture.”
“Well Doug these reports are quite strange as in the type of thing we dismiss very quickly,” Geoff answered.
Doug looked over the reports and saw paragraphs on UFO’s and he grinned to himself about the matter, “Your right and so I shouldn’t bother with this matter.”
“I know that both of us don’t believe in this type of thing but these reports are getting louder and there’s a part of me that thinks that maybe something is up. I know in the past there’s always a UFO sighting but these activities are getting interesting in details and there seems to be a link in some of them, even from country to country. I was thinking that maybe your friend Daniel Phoenix could look into this? Geoff explained.
Doug leaned back in his chair with his coca in his hand and slipped some of it. He picked up one of the reports and glared over it remembering his friend who used to work at NASA with him a couple years ago. How things change are time.
“I had to fire him because he was using our budget to go UFO hunting. While he carried a special charm about him and had a talent of tracking down hard information. This is just going to get him excited about these things again. Do you want me to rehire him, let him spent our budget again and then I fire him for a second time?” Dough asked.
“He could work undercover you know. Umm no one would need to know about this. One report talks about a UFO sighting in Los Angeles of recent times and the rumor is that there were two sighting that it dropped bits and pieces over the air into a park somewhere. No one has been able to find it and even the military hasn’t bothered to investigate it.”
“What are these bits and pieces that this report speaks about?”
“They could be anything really if you think about it.”
Doug turned around in his seat and pulled out a case file and sat it on the table. There was a photo of a man with brown hair and brown eyes. He looked half odd but a charming face, a face you could trust.
“You want this man, Daniel Phoenix who is a beloved nutcase with UFO’s to search for bits and pieces of a possible UFO?” Doug asked him one more time.
“Yes, if he finds nothing than no harm done. If he does what do we do?”
“I do not think we would need to think that far ahead,” smirked Doug.
Geoff picked up Daniel’s case file and started reading it, interested to know the man who was known as a UFO hunter, “Where is he now?”
“Unemployed at the moment by the last time I checked. He lives in New York and possibly finding work as a science teacher. Straight A student in his time and has a habit of getting himself into odd situations with the law. He’s known for breaking into different libraries and places of interest to study things. I would think it’s to do with his eternal research on the matter of what are we talking about. “
Geoff became worried about him breaking the law. Surely this Daniel Phoenix character wasn’t someone who would harm others in the name of research. He looked over his accounts and surprised to see he had some wealth to his name. He didn’t appear to be a person who was a UFO hunter and wealthy at the same time.
“He has a massive saving account over 200 000 dollars here. Where would he have saved all that from?”
“He saved most of it from working here and other jobs. He told me one time he would save it for a rainy day but didn’t get any clues on what this rainy day was about. I will contact him about this report and will get you in here soon enough. My coca is now lightly warm,” Doug responded to Geoff.
Geoff left the office room and the door closed. Doug looked at his desk with Daniel’s case file and the UFO reports to the right of the UFO hunter and tossed his head about the whole idea. He was the one who always pulled him back on these matters. NASA was meant to be the place of fact and exploring other worlds, not for stories about aliens and UFO’s, the strange and the plain odd. But this time he set to push Daniel into an investigation. Geoff had served at NASA for 15 years and had the same working model that he did. However he was surprised to see Geoff appear in his office with these reports, maybe he might be on to something with these reports but the chances are very slim. Doug decided to play along with the game and see what Daniel thought of these reports. It was also a good excuse to catch up with him to see how life after NASA was fairing for him.
A number of days past and Doug had pulled up in his car to the NASA headquarters where he saw a figure at the front doors with a baseball cap and a phone that the male figure was playing on. Doug knew straight away who it was, locked his car and walked up to him.
“Mr. Daniel Phoenix. It’s been a while since we have both seen each other in person. How are you and I’m guessing you received my message where you lived?” Dough said starting the discussion.
Daniel looked up to him in the baseball cap and put his phone back in his pocket for now. The cap was mainly for Daniel about hiding himself when he needed to and if he was in the mood to be abit shady if the moment needed it. His short brown hair he messed up and a teenager styled shirt he worn showed off the oddness of the UFO hunter. Underneath it all there was a smart investigator somewhere.
“Yes I received your message. I was confused because I was fired for this type of thing Doug. Fired and now you want me to investigate these reports you spoke about. Is this some joke or just a way to fire me a second time? Every time I tried to go down this path there you would be blocking my way at every turn. It’s very hard to have a friend who does this to you all the time,” Daniel answered unhappy with Doug.
Doug put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder and smiled at him, “Geoff wants me to look at this one and the fact that you have next to no chance of finding anything. I’m going to entertain this idea and see how far you can run with it. This time, no pulling back and you can go for your life on this one. No road blocks from me,” Dough explained to him.
Daniel looked around the NASA building and how early in the morning it was for the two of them to be where they are, “I guess you already had the thought I always turn up early to these things. The thing I don’t understand is that why now after four years of working with you?”
“Daniel, you may be young but you are very talented and this is a second chance you could say. Geoff might have gotten through to me on that fact while I was thinking over your time here over the past couple days.”
“What about NASA? Do they know what you are allowing me to do?”
“No they don’t but we have a secret budget to help you on your way with investigations.”
“You mean the black budget, the one that every government on the planet has?”
Dough smiled to himself and looked up at the sun beginning to crack in for the new day. It was the same old Daniel Phoenix already investigating and questioning his old boss. Daniel popped out his phone and looked at his messages.
“Jack’s wondering if I made it here safely. You know at least he is a half-believer and actually listens to me with some faith. Can I start looking into these reports now?” he asked.
“Sure thing Daniel, that’s why you’re here for. You wouldn’t be here looking at moon rocks or anything fact based,” Doug answered digging into him.
The two of them came to the front doors and Doug scanned his card across the security scanner and the doors opened and so did the doors of investigating for Daniel Phoenix again.
Daniel Phoenix had been employed again by his old Doug to investigate into the sightings of UFO’s and especially the noted ‘bits and pieces’ that the people who sighted that fell over a park back a few months ago. Doug set up his office with the reports that Geoff his long time employee had drafted and released to him so Daniel could start looking into them. He read over the reports and put them down and tapped the desk where Doug was across.
“This woman I would like to talk to about these bits and pieces that keep on coming up in this report I have been reading. Her name is Mary and she’s 57 year old woman who sighted a light blue in the distance that traveled a slow speed for about three minutes. She notices sometime that falls from it, possibly one or two items and then it speeds up and disappears from sight. The whole account lasts for nearly five minutes.”
“The sighting sounds very common with the many that I have heard of,” Doug replied.
Daniel waved his finger towards Doug in disagreement, “Nah nah, UFO’s don’t normally drop things and especially that no one has done anything about cleaning up the area. Most cases you get the military coming in and collecting anything that’ remotely alien but not this one. I must travel to Los Angeles, Find the park and Mary and see if I can find anything interesting.”
“If that’s the report you want to seek out than be all means go do that. I’m not the expert in this field.”
Daniel picked up a couple more reports of interest to him and popped out his phone and called up his friend Jack, “Yeah Jack. Come to Los Angeles and meet me at the airport. Today is a rainy day. Yes it’s about the reports I said to you before. I know, just come. Ok? Good let’s do it.”
“Jack’s a police officer isn’t he?” Doug asked.
“Yeah he is and he is very handy at times when I need him. I’m just preparing for everything. Thanks for the reports and I will be back soon!” Daniel said heading off through the door and leaving the building. Geoff watched in the distance and came into Doug’s office.
“How is Daniel?” he asked.
“Pretty much the same as he always has been. He is on his way to talk to someone on one of the reports,” Doug replied.
“Cool. Let me know if you need anything,” Geoff answered heading back to his office.
A taxi was fetched by Daniel Phoenix at the arrivals when his friend Jack Williams was waiting with his bags. He was an older man in his 30’s being on the police force since he was 20. He had a ragged black beard and short black hair wearing jeans and an office shirt.
“You’re lucky that I have plenty of holiday time off to do this type of thing. You sure it’s the rainy day?” Jack asked Daniel.
“I’m mostly sure. The first trip is to contact Mary about her encounter than we might have a walk in the park,” Daniel replied getting into the taxi.
“I’m more surprised that Doug hired you again. You overspent the budget by 40 000 and then started circling around Area 51,” laughed Jack.
“I was young and stupid back then. I wanted to head butt my way to the top. But now I want to take things slowly. Read everything, talk to people and take it step by step. It’s going to be the old fashion detective way Jack.”
“Hope so for your sake.”
The taxi took them out towards the outer areas of Los Angeles a quiet and peaceful section of houses. Daniel told the taxi driver to stop in the middle of one of the streets and pointed out a small house two places down from where the taxi stopped. Daniel leaned over and told the drive to return in a couple hours time and gave him a hundred dollar note. The driver smiled and nodded happily and Daniel and Jack climbed out of the vehicle. They opened the white small gate to Mary’s house and Jack gently closed it after Daniel. A tap on the door was heard and a old woman opened it. She was quite short and had short white hair with her hand leaning on the door.
“May I help you?” she asked.
“My name is Daniel Phoenix and this is my friend Jack. We are here to talk to you about sightings that you had seen a few months ago and we would love to hear your story about it,” Daniel said.
“Why sure you can hear what I saw. Come on it I’ll make some tea for you two,” Mary answered with a smile.
The two of them came inside and Mary made her way to the other room to prepare some afternoon tea. She moved slowly and leaned on furniture pieces to help her walk. Daniel sat on the lounge next to Jack and looked at some of the old black and white photos on the book cases and walls around him. The house itself was a small, neat and tidy little place.
“These strange sightings you saw Mary, have you ever seen these type of UFO’s before?” Daniel asked her.
“Well no never in my life before. I was never into the belief of UFO’s in my life but when I saw this I didn’t know what to believe after that,” Mary replied from the other side of the room.
Mary came back into the lounge room with a tray of tea and some cake while Jack stood up to help her, “Let me help you with that madam.”
“Thank you, my legs are not as young as they use to be. My son suggests I should get a walking stick or a nurse to help but I still want to do things myself,” Mary said sitting down on her seat.
“Take me back to that night when you saw this UFO. What did you see in the sky?” Daniel asked her.
Mary moved around her seat to be conformable and turned towards the two men, “I was gardening quite late in the night because the heat during the day is too hard on me. So I took a small break and I looked at the sky ad there was this white saucer in the sky. Just like the ones that other people talk about on the television.”
“This white saucer that you saw I would believe that is a classical looking UFO. What was it doing? Was it moving at it and how high and far it was away from you?”
“It was in some distance away if I can remember right. It was moving in all types of directions and seemed in a panic or something. I don’t know if that sounds right to you sir?” Mary responded confused on what she saw of the UFO’s movement.
Daniel tossed and smiled towards her, “In the field of what I do nothing ever sounds right. So this UFO was panicking and you said in your report that dropped bits and pieces. Do you know what they dropped? Did it look big?”
“It wasn’t very big to be honest but with my glasses my eyesight was able to see that some strange thing was dropped over in the park a few blocks away from my house. Then after that part happened it shot straight up and disappeared from sight. I never saw it again.”
Daniel leaned forward to the coffee table in front of them and tapped on it. Using the table to describe what she had seen, “The craft drops something small in a state of panic and after that it makes a bolt for it away from the park when they dropped the item. Is there anything else that you saw?”
“No I’m sorry that is all that I saw and what I said in the report. Could they come back? I’m just worried that they saw me. I don’t want any trouble from them.”
“Highly unlikely they would make a return to a place when they are trying to get rid of something. I think you are safe, I doubt they would have seen you. They would have been busy themselves.”
Daniel slipped the last of tea and gave a card to her, “Thank you for time Mary. It was great to hear your account and we can see where we can go from here.”
“That’s alright, what you got enough food there. Have another piece of cake for the road,” Mary replied.
“Thanks Mary. It’ll fill me up in the car,” Jack said nodding.
The two of them left via the front door and waved Mary goodbye as they walked towards the white gate. Jack ate into the cake and asked Daniel what he was thinking, “Her account seems good but her age might not have picked up everything. What do you think?”
“The real interesting part was the state of panic that the UFO was in. Many UFO’s tend to zip and move very quickly in the air and that on her account she’s doesn’t know that’s a common theme with some sightings. However the fact that she saw them dropping something increases the chance and possibly true that they were in a fit about the item they dumped. We have to go to the park tonight and find what item was. If we can find it and it is indeed non-human this would be the big breakthrough I have been looking for all this time,” Daniel explained.
The taxi pulled up from around the corner of the block and Daniel and Jack entered it and told the driver to make a route to the park to investigate the item dumping.
