Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Herman Polanski liked to call himself a ufologist. He had been interested in unidentified flying objects (UFOs), or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) as they are now called, since he was a young child, and it kicked into overdrive as a teenager while attending Whitney High School.
He had seen several unusual items in the sky but had never experienced a close encounter with aliens. Through his social media site, SIRNVVTTT, he interviewed multiple people who encountered incidents with aliens and was always fascinated by their stories. He belonged to NUFON (National UFO Network) and several other UFO groups. His social media site showed UFO and unique sighting videos people sent him.
There were pictures of UFOs in the 1940s and films from the 1950s and 60s. With the advent of digital video cameras and smartphones with cameras, many more videos were now available to study. But over the last year, the number of Orbs (glowing circular objects) that moved fast across the sky, sometimes stopping and floating, occasionally making sharp 90-degree turns and suddenly disappearing, had significantly increased.
Occasionally, they appeared in groups of a few but would retain formations and appear to be part of a larger flying object which was never seen. Large formations were observed and recorded, moving rapidly on rare occurrences.
Since the 1980s, occasional sightings of flying individuals in red suits in the USA and rarely in other countries have occurred. These sporadic flying men observations seemed to concentrate only in certain metropolitan regions for several years and reappear in different urban areas.
When he was eight, he encountered a flying man in a red suit. One day, while playing in the park across the street from his house, a brown car traveling fast came up the boulevard. A blond, curly-haired man in a red suit with a black cape landed and rolled to a stop in front of the vehicle.
The red-suited man put his arms out and stopped the automobile. He then went around to the side, grabbed the door handle, and ripped the door off the car. He reached into the sedan, pulled both criminals from the vehicle, and threw them against it, knocking them unconscious.
Police sirens blared from a few blocks away. Herman watched these unusual actions when the man in the red suit glanced over and realized the boy was staring at him. He smiled at the boy, waved, turned, took three quick steps, and jumped into the air. He flew away just as the police screeched to a halt behind the criminal's car.
A policeman approached the child and asked, “Did you see who did this to the car and the men inside?” Herman nodded.
“Where did they go?” Herman pointed up. The officer smiled and walked away, thinking the child was confused.
He never forgot this sighting of a red-suited man flying away, which started his interest in strange things flying in the sky, even people. Herman collected news articles and video reports on UFOs and flying red-suited men. He created a database of current UFO sightings and categorized them. He sorted them by dates and calculated the number of orb sightings that had increased 10fold since the unusual extreme thunderstorm in the California desert last year. But the sightings of red-suited individuals had reduced to almost nil.
He determined a pattern in the orb movements. By tracing orbs on the same days and at various times, lining up the locations, and following the times, he tracked many orbs either leaving or entering the California desert. They seemed to be departing from or entering the Santa Margarita Canyon.
When he searched the location on Google Maps, nothing existed except desert scrubland. He decided to take a trip to the site to investigate. He researched the area and found that the Ruby Corporation owned a massive parcel of land there. This company was into everything and owned diverse companies all over the world. Some of this land used to be owned by the Green Corporation up until a year ago. Then, it appeared to have sold all its holdings and assets to the Ruby Corporation.
Herman drove his car toward the canyon but couldn’t progress very far, always finding the roads blocked by a ten-foot chain link fence with barbed wire on top. He could see the dirt roads continuing past the fence. He went down a paved road with a sign next to it that read, “Private Road.” Despite the warning, he drove down the road to a gate with two guards. A huge sign outside the entrance read, “Ruby Corporation Research Facility,” “Private Property,” “No Public Access,” and “All Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted.”
Herman got out of his car and approached the security guards. They both emerged from the guard shack with stern, intimidating expressions. They were wearing red long-sleeved polo shirts, black pants, and a Ruby Corporation badge with their names.
Herman approached them with a broad smile, “Hi, I’m lost. I'm trying to find the Santa Margarita Canyon to do some hiking and rock collecting and couldn’t find a way in. Do you guys know what the best way to enter is?”
The guard with “Bob” on his name badge replied, “The Ruby Corporation owns the Santa Margarita Canyon; it's private property. There is no public access to it.” As they were talking, a 30-foot panel truck with Ruby Corporation’s name on the side came up the road from the other side of the gate. The other guard opened the barrier to allow the truck out and waved at the driver. The vehicle took off up the road; Herman had just come down.
Herman had an idea, thanked the guards, hopped in his car, and followed the truck, but not too close, up the road and onto the highway heading toward Palmdale. He left a couple of cars behind the truck. The truck veered off the highway and drove into a warehouse district on the edge of Palmdale. The vehicle pulled up to a lone building with no identifying sign, only a number.
He parked his Ford a block up on the side of the road and walked back to the warehouse. He snuck to the side and peeked around the corner. A small sign was visible on a door, “Ruby Corporation.” He went to the back of the building on the side away from the highway and spied around the corner.
Nothing happened for quite a while. Then, a UPS truck pulled up and backed up to the dock. The driver got out, went up the stairs, and pushed a button next to the door. A loud buzzer rang from inside the warehouse. The garage door opened, and two men came out in red long-sleeved t-shirts with Ruby Corporation on them. They helped the UPS driver move several boxes from the truck to the warehouse.
The UPS truck departed, and nothing happened for another two hours. Then the mail panel truck came up, the mailman hit the button, and the garage door opened again. The same two guys came out. The mailman handed them three white plastic US Mailboxes full of mail and small packages. They gave the mailman back three empty white mailboxes. They all stood and talked for a short while, and the mailman left, and the garage door closed.
At about 5 p.m., one man backed the Ruby Corporation truck to the dock. One guy threw the boxes from inside the warehouse, and the other caught them and placed them in the back of the truck. They handled the containers as if nothing was inside them, but some boxes were printed with weights, 50 lbs, 75 lbs, etc. How could they do this? They weren’t big, burly guys. The two men loaded everything that arrived that day into the vehicle and left.
Herman thought about what he had observed as he returned to his Ford. This warehouse was the delivery address for the Ruby Corporation Research Facility. Herman's curiosity was exploding at a nuclear level. He needed to find out what was going on at this place.