Chapter 1

This was weird!

I could observe through my telescope a large articial satellite in high orbit round the Earth, and yet no-one seemed to be reporting its presence. I could not estimate its size accurately, but it had to be at a minimum of several hundred miles up in a low orbit, or more probably a thousand miles or more in high orbit. The apparent low orbital movement suggested a high orbit, for a low orbit object like the ISS moves rapidly to the eye. Even allowing for a high orbital path, it had to be at least a mile long to be able to see it. As far as my knowledge went, no country had a space station that large or that far out; or even plans for such a station.

The International Space Station was not all that big, just 109 metres long, and it was not in a high orbit, being only 400 kilometres up.

So what was this huge object? I was flummoxed.

My name is George Plummer. I am 27 years old, married for five years to a lovely woman named Julie, and we have a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son. For my sins, my job is a plumber. Yeah, tell me about my surname! I know it comes from the Latin PLUMBUM, the Roman word for lead; though we plumbers avoid the toxic lead if at all possible nowadays, except for work on ancient plumbing where the client wants the original pipes to be repaired or replaced exactly as before This is usually for a heritage building in a conservation area where they try to keep the building in its original condition and original materials, reflecting the period.

The heritage experts insist on the original material, as it reflects the times and methods of construction. I had heard of one heritage building where the sandstone stonework was spalling – flaking off. The repairers were told to make a ground-up mix of the original stone to use as a filler on the building’s facing stones. When the heritage architect came to inspect the job, he declared that the stone mix had not come from the original quarry, but another nearby that was still working, and as a result was not the exact colour match; so he instructed for it to be stripped off again and stone from the right quarry be obtained to make the colour match exact.

In some ways this attention to detail is stupid, but what can you do if the Powers That Be stipulate ‘no change’? Still, in plumbing it is long-term exposure of water to lead that provides the contamination aspect, and most of the exposed, visible, lead plumbing is piping usually connected to ornate cast iron square section exterior downpipes leading to drains, thus not a health hazard. Lead cisterns are the main culprit, but most are now out of use through better water supplies, and the banning of lead piping since 1970 in the UK.

I recently took up the telescope and sky-watching since I am spending a fair bit of time looking after the kids while my wife goes to women’s groups, church guild meetings, and is a leader in the Brownies as well. She is out most nights, leaving me in charge of the howler monkeys we call children.

My leisure reading is the BBC’s “Sky at Night” magazine which comes through the post on subscription. It keeps me up to date on what can be seen in the sky, and articles by expert astronomers on explanations for what we can observe with a home telescope.

Okay, it cost a lot to buy, but so does a complete set of quality golf irons and a yearly membership at a good golf club. My annual maintenance for the telescope is chicken feed in comparison, and I don’t even have to travel to use my telescope. Golfers always want to try some other course that they haven’t experienced before, and usually are part of a group that play together regularly. I have to be prepared to go off on a call-out at odd times of day or night, weekends and holidays, for water leaks and burst pipes don’t happen at convenient times for the house owner or business.

Naturally, my charges shoot up for out-of-hours work, but weekday evenings are sacrosanct: my kids have the priority. My income gave me the latitude to splash out on a good home telescope, and this was the beastie that had allowed me to spot this anomoly in Earth orbit.

I wondered how I could take this farther. Did I know an astronomer who could help check my sighting? No way.

I did have a cousin who was in the RAF and worked with huge radars, watching for Russian bombers intruding on UK airspace. Would their radar be able to note an object in orbit instead of a few miles up and out from the coast? There was only one way to find out. I rang his home number and got his wife.

“Hi, Jeannie. Is Percy at home? This is his cousin George.”

“Hi, George, how’s Julie?” Trust a woman to always ask about another woman first.

“Busy as usual with the kids. She thinks they are wonderful. I do too, but nappies are a damn nuisance! Percy, then?”

“Oh. No, he is at work, on the late shift today. Was it urgent?”

“Could be. I wanted to ask him if his radar blokes could see upwards to Earth orbit, as well as outwards.”

“Gosh. Radar? You would have to ask him that yourself. I know nothing about the technical side of his work. Do you want to phone him at work?”

“Yes, please. Can you give me his number?”

“I can only give you the number of the station where he works. All outside calls have to go through their switching system: security, you see.”

She gave me the number and I indulged in small talk until I could ring off.

I’ll tell the rest of this story differently, as it involves episodes where I was not present.

He tried the number she gave, and got through to the base.

“I want to speak to Percy Plummer, if he is available. It is his cousin George.”

“Hold on while I check, sir.”

Twenty seconds later, he was through.

“Hi George. To what do I owe this unusual call? Remember all calls are monitored here, so don’t confess to anything!”

“I am okay with that, Percy. I spotted something in orbit that surprised me, and I wondered if your radars had the capability of looking up into the sky as well as out over the ocean?”

“Well, we use diferent radars for different capabilities, so we have one that can look up, in case of a high overflight, unlikely though that might be.”

“How high can that radar see? Up to Earth orbit?”

“Well, naturally; low Earth orbit is just a few hundred miles, so well within the capability of our radars. What are you trying to find?”

“It is a large object; I am guessing at about a mile long, but in a high orbit, I don’t know how high. I’ll guess at a thousand miles or so, maybe more. Is that too far for your equipment?”

“George, you have to remember that our radars are geared up to be looking a few hundred kilometres from here, so the chances of catching something so far away is slight. The Americans go for the more powerful long distance radars that normally peek over the horizon by bouncing the signal off the ionosphere. I suppose they would be able to see an object that far out. I would have to ask them. Do you want me to do that? There is no guarantee they will agree, as you are a civilian.

George begged, “But if you were asking, on the basis that you were being harassed by a civilian and wanted to give him a definitive answer... ?”

“I could try. Give me your telescope readings for the sighting, and I’ll pass that to them. Don’t ask me which US base it is, or even which country it is in, as I would not tell you.”

“Okay, Percy. I’ll leave it with you.”

It was good timing, for as soon as he put the phone down, the baby started crying. By now, he recognised this as a wet or dirty nappy sound, so he sighed to himself and got busy. He was right, but he had endured plenty of practice and had the child dry and happy very quickly. George was glad the baby didn’t shoot up a pee while being changed: he had done so once before, and George was forced to jerk back and dodge it, then clean up the floor later. Fortunately the released baby had not rolled off the changing table at that event.

He put the telescope episode out of his mind until the next day. When he got home from a busy day of replumbing a house conversion, Julie told him, “Your cousin Percy was on the phone earlier. He said to ring him at home when you got back.”

“Oh, yes. I spoke to him yesterday. This will be him getting back with an answer to an astronomy problem.”

Julie said, “Yes, dear, but your tea will be ready in half an hour, so don’t keep him on the phone for ages. I have a Ladies Guild meeting tonight to fix our syllabus for the next year, so I need to be there on time.”

He rang Percy and got him almost immediately. He had an answer of sorts.

“George, the yanks took a look at that location, but told me their radar says there is nothing there. You must have been seeing things, or got your readings wrong.”

“Okay, thanks for asking, Percy. I have to go for my tea now. Bye.”

George was fuming. He had taken his readings directly off the telescope, so he knew it was accurate. Perhaps the buggers had not allowed for it moving further along its orbit? But they were professionals, competent military technicians; they would have allowed for that variant. Perhaps they didn’t want him to know what he had found, so they were keeping it secret to themselves. That idea may be paranoid, though.

He could do with a corroboration of his sighting. Another amateur might be the answer. Who could he ask? He checked back his email messages on the subject of telescopes. Alastair Johnston was reliable, he decided, for he was an engineer in an army logistics regiment, and could be asked to try the same data on his own scope.

Later that evening, after Julie had left for her meeting, he emailed Alastair, asking him as a favour to try the telescope settings he had used, and see what was in view. He added that as the object was moving in its orbit, to allow for some variation in the settings.

Alastair was bored at the time, so sent back a quick response saying he would try that and get back to George if there was anything visible.

An hour later, he had a phone call from Alastair.

“Dammit, man. There is a large object sitting there, going around in orbit as smooth as you please. I did some quick calculations on my computer telescope program, and it appears to be in a high circular orbit, and it must be over two kilometers long, if my measurements are accurate. This is worth reporting to the authorities, for this is a positive sighting of a major UFO in orbit.”

“Hang on, Alastair! It may simply be a captured asteroid, so not a UFO.”

“In a circular orbit? No way is that a normal captured rock. It would have had to have been there for millions of years to settle into a circular orbit. No, it has to be a manufactured object, and at that size, it has to be a mother ship UFO!”

“Alastair, my old chum, do you want to try reporting a UFO sighting? That will get you ignored at a minimum, laughed at at worst, and no-one will bother taking a look. If we report anything, we should play it safe and simply report a sighting of an apparent asteroid in a circular orbit round Earth. That way, it is up to the professional astronomers to take a closer look and try to explain it as something they understand. That could be interesting, and not leave us looking silly. Let them look silly, if they claim it is an asteroid. An asteroid in a circular orbit? That would get them egg on their faces, big time.”

“But we have to get SOME professional to look at it, George.”

“I tried that, Alastair. An American radar base looked at it with its long distance radar, but said there was nothing there to see. That doesn’t make sense to me at all. What if whoever else we ask does the same thing and says it is not there, then it is our word against theirs? Who are they going to believe?”

“Why would the Yanks say there is nothing there, when it is clear in our telescopes that there IS an object there?”

George said, thoughtfully, “They said their radar could not see anything there, but what if that is a fault of the radar?”

Alastair was not amused. “A radar that doesn’t see what is there? That seems impossible, for radar is just pinging a radio beam off the object. How can a radar say it is not there, unless there is some sort of interference with the radar controls? If the powers that be have made the radars ignore certain objects that they know about, that would explain it; but that is daft; there is no logical reason for it.

George was still in cautionary mode.

“Now, Alastair, from what I am hearing, your belief seems like UFO paranoia: claiming the authorities are cooperating with UFOs without the world knowing what is going on. Do you really believe that could be the case?”

“What other explanation is there? There have been UFO sightings where the local radars didn’t see the UFO, although other sightings have been seen by radars as well as eyeballing by civilians.”

“Gentlemen, may I interrupt, now that there are just the two of you?” said a new voice on the line.

The two men halted their conversation in shock, not knowing where this voice was coming from. It spoke again.

“The object you are discussing is indeed a spaceship, but there is no conspiracy to hide it. We simply interfered with all military radar signals so that they are unable to ‘see’ this ship.”

“YOU interfered? Who is this ‘we’?”

“Of course: you don’t know about us. Allow me to introduce myself. I am a Person using the name of Joe Bloggs. I gather that you are Alastair and George. Pleased to meet you, gentlemen.”

Alastair was aghast.

“You are on a distant spaceship and yet you say your name is Joe Bloggs? That is ridiculous!”

“What is ridiculous about it? Your names are not ridiculous, are they? Sorry, you only used your first names. Wait while I access your numbers in the telephone databases, to get your surnames. My, my. It seems that both you and your friend Percy have the surname Plummer. And Alastair has the very common name Johnston. Perhaps that is ridiculous!” There was a slight pause then, “Oh, joy: the surname is Plummer and George is a plumber to trade. Hilariously ridiculous!”

George burst in, “Don’t make fun of my name; I didn’t have any choice in the matter. Joe Bloggs is funny, though.”

“Yes, it is. That is why I chose it as my Earth identity.”

“You chose it as your Earth name? You have another name?”

“Yes, but it is a number. Digital identity is the simplest method of identification of ourselves as ships.”

George complained, “You have just lost me. Your name is a number, to identify you as a ship?

Don’t you mean, identify your ship?”

“No. I was perfectly accurate. Oh, I see what you mean. My apologies, gentleman. I am a mechanism, not a biological entity. I am what is known by our human friends as a Base ship, but in converse with humans, an earth name simplifies the discussion; wouldn’t you agree?”

“I suppose that is so, but why would a spaceship want to talk to a human being? And how the hell are you doing this? We are having a telephone conversation and you butted in. How?”

“Digital communications, old boy. Almost everything is digital, so a spaceship in orbit can link to the digital telephonic circuits and interface with it. We listen to all conversations and your one was flagged up as relevant to our presence, thus I joined your discussion.”

Alastair joined in, “Does that mean you can interfere with a radar unit, and make it not see you?”

“Clever man! As long as the radar is electronically controlled - and they all are, of necessity - we can link through the signal and make changes in the software to suit our needs, depending on how sophisticated the unit is.”

“So that means some of the UFO sightings are spotted by less complicated radar, and you blank yourselves out of the other ones?”

“This appears to be a change of subject. Your term UFOs refers to sightings which are not recognised as identifiable. We are always identifiable when we want to be seen.”

“You mean UFOs are not you?”

“You have got it correct, Alastair Johnston.”

“Then what are UFOs?”

“No idea. That is up to you humans, but we certainly don’t see such so-called UFOs.”

“You don’t?”

“I just said that, didn’t I? We remain in the space beyond planets, and we do not observe what you call UFOs that you see in your atmosphere. We have no need to do so. Is that not clear enough?”

“No! Sorry, no; I was not challenging your statement. It was just a surprised reaction, that is all.”

“Whatever you are seeing in your atmosphere, it has nothing to do with us. I am sure your telescopes do not show UFOs either.”

“I suppose you are right, so fine.”

“Well, now that you know that your telescopes are fine, and you are fine, and I am fine, can we just leave it at that?”

“What do you mean, ‘Leave it at that’? A giant alien spaceship is in orbit, and we should just ignore it?”

“Why not? You may think of me as a ‘giant alien spaceship’, but it is just me, where I happen to be at the moment, doing no-one any harm.

Did you intend to do anything about my presence? I can move orbit if I wish to disappear from your view for a while, but that will interfere with my Landerships coming and going from Earth.”

“Wait. What? Landerships; what are they?”

“I would have thought that was obvious. They are my associated ships that can land on a planet and take off again, where I cannot: Lander Ships, you see the meaning of thewords?”

“YOUR Landerships? You mean you are not just a huge spaceship in orbit? You have ships that can land on Earth?”

“You surely didn’t expect that a vessel of my size and bulk would land on a planet, or would even want to? We spend all our lives in space. That is much more sensible than living in a gravity well that causes all sorts of problems with movement.”

“But what are these ‘Landerships’ doing on Earth? Do we ever see them?”

“Currently, my Landerships are acting as passenger tenders and cargo carriers up to me, where after trans-shipment I move the cargo or passengers to one of the human colonies on other planets.”

“You are kidding me! You are trying to tell me that we have human colonies on other planets, and we don’t know about it?”

“As you just said, you don’t know about it.”

“Then who the hell does?”

“A small group of humans in powerful positions in most of the large countries are aware and supportive of the colonies, and assist in the selection of colonists. We are always seeking farmers and tradesmen, but we have no need for military personnel, or clergymen, or politicians. These are unneccessary for the colonies. We Personalia act as protectors in space.”

“So now you are calling yourself Personalia? What happened to being a Person? Has your head expanded from your huge base ship?”

“How amusing. There is a human saying, ‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing’, and I think you showed that to be true. A single Base ship, or a Landership, is a Person; just as each of you is a person. As a group, you are humanity. As a group, we Persons are the Personalia.”

“Oh, yes? And how many makes up your group?”

“I am not certain, but if you include all the Landerships and all the ships still bulding, currently there are over eleven thousand Base Ships, not all of whom are in this system; and each has several Landerships – the number varies, so shall we say in excess of fifty thousand Persons? Some Base ships are on guard duty near human colony planets, or are on search duties for our enemies, or on other duties.”