Oli, A Very New Moon

  *

  “Doctor Branith,” called George, the Radar Operator at the UFO Investigation Department. “I’ve got something on my screen that I think you should take a look at.”

  Doctor Branith placed his cup of extra strong black coffee, his staple diet for the last week, on his desk. He pushed the photograph of the black space ship to one side and walked across the technology-packed room to the radar section.

  “What is it?” he asked. An unmistakable air of complacency in his voice. Was this going to be yet another meteorite burning up on entry, or maybe a weather balloon entering the very limit of the Earth’s Stratosphere? George played back the recording of a small object moving across the sky at great speed, and Doctor Branith immediately dismissed it as a meteorite.

  “I don’t think so,” said George, “mainly because it’s leaving the Earth’s atmosphere and accelerating.”

  George explained to his boss that he had started tracking the object over London, it headed out over the North Sea and as it left the atmosphere it accelerated to One hundred thousand kilometres per hour. At that point, he explained rather sheepishly that he had lost contact with the object.

  “Was it the ship?” asked Doctor Branith, a newfound animation in his voice.

  “No Doctor,” replied George, “the object was only about two metres in length with a mass of about two hundred kilos.”

  Doctor Branith immediately ordered the radar scan of space around the Earth to begin. The recently launched RadarX satellite was launched by the European Space Agency to accurately map the trajectories of all the space junk orbiting the planet. It was easily turned around to point away from the earth to scan the void of space. It had taken Doctor Branith a long time and many favours, but he had acquired temporary, free access to the satellite. They began the sweep from the last known position of the object and worked outwards. After just a few minutes, a tiny blip appeared on the screen, heading towards the moon.

  “That’s it,” cried Doctor Branith pointing excitedly at the screen. “Now don’t lose it! I want to know where it goes and when it returns.”

  He strode back to his desk, looked down at the photo and allowed himself a wry smile.