Chapter 6: Interview

“I am Flight Sergeant Dunbar of the RAF Regiment. I understand you are a reporter, what can I do for you?”

“I want to know what is going on here,” said Iestyn Williams, “And I asked to see the Station Commander.”

“I am actually the highest ranking member of the Royal Air Force currently on the base, and so I am what you would term the Station Commander, though that rank or post no longer exists. Any non-secret information about activities here or on any RAF base will be issued to the press via the normal channels.”

“Then why have I been detained and my telephone confiscated?” Clearly Iestyn was almost at the end of his tether.

“You actually asked to come on to the base, in spite of the signs warning that this is a prohibited place within the meaning of the relevant Acts. You were admitted and will not be allowed to leave until the emergency is over.”

“What emergency?“

The Sergeant sighed and said, “That information is classified.”

“I demand to see your superior officer,” Iestyn almost shouted.

“I will pass your request on,” was all the reply he got before he was returned to the room where the two policemen and the golfer were eating the cold buffet.

The next interruption for the Angel team was the arrival of Iestyn Williams, angry and not a little frightened.

“Who are you?” he demanded of the nearest person.

“I’m Huw Harris and in charge here. What can I do for you?”

Iestyn switched on a tape recorder.

“What’s your rank?” he asked aggressively.

“I am a civilian,” replied Huw courteously.

“I demand to see the Station Commander at once,” snapped Iestyn.

“I’ll ask,” said Huw and went to the door.

Opening it he said, “The man demands to see you,” and the RAF Regiment Flight Sergeant came in.

“Don’t be stupid,” said Iestyn, “I already had this run around. How can he be the Station Commander?”

“By being the highest ranking member of the RAF on the station at the moment,” said Huw, “He reports to me. You also asked to see his superior officer.”

“Well, what’s going on and why was I arrested?”

“I’ll answer those in reverse order,” replied Huw, “You were arrested to stop you passing unauthorised information to anyone else and thereby causing widespread panic. It was done using emergency powers in the DORA legislation.”

“Wait a minute,” Iestyn interrupted, “The Defence of the Realm Act was passed in 1939 for World War Two. That finished seventy years ago.”

“Yes. It was very remiss of the intervening governments not to repeal the Act, but it can be useful at times. I would be interested to know what you think the answer to your first question, ‘what is going on,’ might be?”

“I don’t know but it is all very hush-hush and nobody will tell me. The public have a right to know, but I expect it is far less important really than all this kerfuffle makes it seem. Am I right?”

“What do you really think?” Huw persisted, “To justify all this security?”

Iestyn sighed, “Probably it will be all over the TV tonight and the papers tomorrow, but it will be some politician visiting, I expect.”

“Close, but it isn’t a visiting politician. I agree that it is unlikely that it can be kept quiet. What is really going on is that in about an hour or so a spaceship is expected to land on the tarmac outside.”

“A what?” screamed Iestyn.

“A spaceship,” Huw confirmed, “From outer space.”

“Ours or theirs?”

“That depends on who you mean by ‘theirs’,” said Huw.

“Ruskies, Chinese, Americans, whose is it?”

“None of those, nor is it ours,” said Huw, “We don’t know where it came from, but it’s not from anywhere in the solar system.”

Iestyn temporarily fell silent as he grappled with the concepts involved. “You mean I’m at the site of the first alien arrival on Earth and I’m under arrest and can’t report it?”

“Not exactly,” said Huw, “You can report it, but not yet. You can’t release your report for a few hours mainly to avoid widespread panic. Purely by chance, you will be the only reporter to be in the control room and see it all happen. How long you remain an insider or depends on you.

“What do you mean?” demanded Iestyn.

“As long as you don’t publish without explicit approval you can stay in here and see everything that happens. If you leak anything, we’ll have you arrested and you won’t even be able to report from the other side of the perimeter fence with everybody else. If that isn’t acceptable you can go back upstairs now and be released when the others are.”