The Stickmen by Edward Lee

York, to Eureka, Utah, over a
hundred witnesses reported very similar observations. An elongated,
low-flying object with a bright light glowing at its base.
Sometimes the object hovered, and other times it moved very
swiftly. Then, according to witnesses, it disappeared over Ohio.
Minutes later, it stopped again in Eureka, Utah. NORAD calculated
the object’s forward velocity at 18,000 miles per hour.”
    He showed her several of the grainy photos
of an elongated, glowing object in the sky. Then he showed her the
aeronautical charts showing zigzag lines over a map of the United
States. A closer map, labeled Eureka, Utah, had an X on it. After
that, he unreeled the two-foot-long ribbon of paper, like a ticker
tape—a print cipher from the early ’60s.
     
    …BEGIN CIPHER…18/04/62…13:45[Z]…OP STAT
ALERT STATE WHITE…VIA MAJESTIC TWELVE PROTOCOL GUIDELINES &
USAF REG 200-0-A OF 25/05/54…DECRYPT AND WAIT… … … …WAITING… … … …
WAITING… … … …DECRYPTION SUCCESSFUL…READ, DESTROY & REPORT
FOLLOWING MESSAGE…MESSAGE BODY… … … “TARGET PERIMETER
POSITIVE” … ”CRASH VERIFICATION- - - - PARA-ORBITAL AIRCRAFT
NOT OF TERRESTRIAL DESIGN” … … …FURTHER STATUS FORTHCOMING… … …
END CIPHER… STOP
     
    “This ‘aircraft not of terrestrial design,’”
Garrett continued with no hesitance, “landed very briefly in
Eureka. Witnesses reported a loud humming and banging sound. When
it took off again, it seemed to falter in mid-air, sort of
sputtering ahead.”
    Lynn brought a finger to her chin. “Almost
as if—”
    “As if it were experiencing some sort of
propulsion malfunction,” Garrett finished for her. “Project
Moondust recovery operatives were dispatched to the alleged landing
site and discovered an eight-inch-deep indentation along the
surface of a soybean field. The indentation measured 197 feet.”
    Now Lynn was examining a drawing of an
elongated cylinder in the sky, and the typed words ARTIST’S
RENDITION OF OBJECT AS RELATED BY WITNESS #6. A stack of eerily
similar sketches followed, all the way up to Witness #154.
    Another grainy B&W photo of the desert
came next, a large area of space littered by debris. Lynn
shuddered.
    “The object falteringly left the Eureka
area,” Garrett went on, “and, according to the charts from the VLA
Radar Laboratory, exploded over the Nellis Reservation. A starburst
radar configuration was recorded on the VLA scopes.”
    “This,” Lynn assumed, finding several 9x12
negative sheets of radar marks. Another cryptogram read:
    The vehicle exploded violently over the
Nellis perimeter, then crashed. A second explosion blew the vehicle
into thousands of pieces. All of the vehicular debris was
recovered. So were the remains of what we presume to be four of the
vehicle’s crew.
    “The vehicle’s…crew,” Lynn whispered and
shuddered again.
    “Yeah,” Garrett said. “Check out the next
photo.”
    She was looking at a photograph of a long
thin shape: two arms, two legs, a spinal column but no ribcage, and
a head about a foot long but only three-inches thick. It appeared
blackened with char.
    “Just the bone structure?” she queried.
“This looks like some kind of bizarre skeleton.”
    “Yep. Four bodies were recovered by cleared
SPs with Nellis’ 1109th Bomb Group. Skeletons. They’d all been
thoroughly burned by the explosion, no flesh remaining on any of
them. Three of the skeletons were intact. The fourth was found in
pieces. Now look at the initial examination pix.”
    A series of more photos showed the elongated
skeletons lying on morgue platforms. The fourth platform lay
scattered with blackened jags and pieces.
    Garret explained, “On the morning of April
20th, 1962, a B-36 Convair flew the charred skeletons and the
debris from Nellis to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
Government officials, including the President, viewed the skeletons
and the debris. After that, it’s not clear what happened. One Air
Force