Another Place Episode 31

Another Place Another Time

Book Two

Ben Cavanaugh

Episode Thirty-One

NASA has two Air Force jet fighters assigned to its command. The semi-official reason for their assignment is to investigate UFO sightings in the Nashville Flight Service Station Area of operation, and the FAA has officially given them that responsibility. However, that explanation isn’t the entire reason the two fighters are on twenty-four hour alert at NASA headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama.

It is a matter of public record the number of UFO sightings around particular military facilities, like White Sands Proving Grounds, Egland Air Force Base, and several top secret facilities in Nevada, is unduly high. NASA is a top secret facility, and that is the real reason the two fighters are under their command.

Richard Temple called NASA’s flight operation center and reported the UFO within two minutes of hearing the Delta captain’s description of the aircraft.

Despite the storm that was battering Huntsville, Alabama, within minutes of the first sighting of the aircraft, two delta wing fighters, call signs Kingfisher One and Kingfisher Two, were charging side-by-side down the runway at Redstone Arsenal, the Army Base that housed NASA. They lifted off the concrete and swept upward at a near impossible angle of attack. At ten thousand feet, they rocked through the last of the storm clouds and into the clear, moonlit north Alabama night.

At 10,000 feet Kingfisher One radioed NASA, “NASA control, this is Kingfisher One. Wheels up at 1641, Zulu. Heading zero two niner five. Switching to Nashville Air, frequency 111.8.”

“Kingfisher One NASA Control. Contact Nashville Air for vectors to the last reported location of the aircraft. Report your progress on NASA secure frequency only. That will also be your control frequency, Kingfisher.”

The veteran fighter pilot, washed in the red glow of the instrument lighting, twisted one radio frequency selector to Nashville Air Traffic Control and another to NASA’s classified and encrypted secure frequency; a frequency that changed daily.

Kingfisher One, keyed his mike and said, “Nashville Air, Kingfisher One, request vectors to the last known position of the unidentified aircraft.”

Geeson responded, “Kingfisher One, Nashville Air, squawk 1156.”

There was a pause as the pilot pushed a button, which identified his aircraft on the radar screen of the air traffic controller in Nashville.

Geeson confirmed the location of the two NASA fighters, keyed his radio transmit button, and said, “Thank you, Sir. We have you at ten thousand feet, heading two niner five. Turn to heading two eight zero.”

The fighters roared through the night for five minutes at a ground speed over five hundred miles an hour.

“Kingfisher One, Nashville Air, you are thirty seconds from the area of last sighting. The unidentified aircraft, on your present heading, dropped under our radar coverage, and we assume that it either crashed or continued flying at an altitude under five hundred feet, though that is unlikely in this weather.”

Kingfisher One and Two slowed to three hundred knots and lowered gingerly into the heavy cloud cover. In seconds, they were being buffeted by the storm, their cockpits alternating between total darkness and blinding white light as an intense lightning display lit up the night.

********

Kingfisher One switched his transmit selector switch to the NASA secure frequency and keyed his mike, “NASA Control, Kingfisher One. We are on the last recorded course of the aircraft. We are at 2,000 feet, more or less…it is impossible to maintain altitude in this storm. Visibility is zero. If the aircraft were directly below us, we’d never see it.”

“Kingfisher One, NASA. Climb back to ten thousand feet and hold over your present position. We have just found four Army Reserve Helicopters who are on maneuvers in Tennessee. We will advise you of their ETA as soon as we have it.”

“Kingfisher One, understood.”

Ninety miles from the point that Nashville Air had last tracked the unidentified aircraft, the two fighters made a climbing turn over a rambling two-story farmhouse that wasn’t visible to the pilots. The startled group, gathered around the dining room table in the farmhouse, looked toward the ceiling as a single person.

Charlie knew the planes were searching for him, and he explained that to Luke and the Parkers. He noted that it would be almost impossible for them to find him any time soon because of the weather and because he had managed to fly some distance on a new heading once he was below radar coverage. Then he added, “However, they won’t give up. As soon as the weather clears, they’ll put helicopters on my trail, and eventually they’ll find me unless I get out of here.”

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