The Congressional Select Subcommittee for the Investigation of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena was held at the 390 Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC. Often referred to as the “Old House Office Building”, it was designed in Beaux-Arts style of architecture featuring formal symmetry of Italian Renaissance form with columns, pediments, and balustrades and was completed in 1908. A tunnel connects the Cannon House to the Capitol building. The wall of the large meeting room had twenty-foot-tall windows covered with gray and brown curtains. From the ceiling hung two enormous chandeliers. At the front of the room was a semi-circular seating area where the nine Congresspeople sat.
“So what, in your expert opinion, Professor Hawker, are these UAPs?” Congressman Sargrass, the Chairperson of the Subcommittee, asked.
Jack Issac Hawker, late thirties, had dark hair, adjusted his microphone, cleared his throat, took a sip of water, cleared his throat again, and said. “Electromagnetic phenomenon originating from Earth, radar malfunction, drones of foreign countries, test equipment, light refraction, many other things. But not alien in origin.”
“Uh-huh. So no alien beings flying over Wrigley Field or one of our aircraft carriers?”
“I think if some organic alien being had entered our atmosphere, it would make itself known, don’t you?”
“I agree, like the take me to your leader deal.”
“Something like that.”
“And that sure hasn’t happened.”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“What did you say, electro-refraction?”
Hawker nodded to his associate sitting in the crowd, who held up a device that looked like a small remote control. A hologram of a spacecraft similar to the Starship Enterprise appeared in the hologram between Hawker and the Subcommittee.
“This life-like craft is made of a low-cost helium-neon laser.” The associate flew it around the room then, landed it on the desk in front of the chairman, then zoomed it to the ceiling, and it hovered.
“But looks real, and if you saw it at night—“
“—It would freak you out,” Congressman Sargrass said.
“Yes, sir, probably would,” Hawker said.
“And another UFO sighting.”
*Bonus content from the novel PANTHEON
