17 November 1986….

It was a stormy day. There was a thick black cloud cover which made navigation difficult, the rain poured heavily, hitting against the windshield of my F-16 like small stones; thunder rumbled and lightning flickered across the sky. That day we had a training session over the Atlantic, but it was aborted due to the gradually worsening weather. Myself, Lieutenant Martin and five other comrades flew the F-16 in formation led by Maj. John. We were returning back to Atlanta airbase which was about 90 miles away, when something out the ordinary took place.  

My F-16 started receiving some strange signals. It was sent out in the distress frequency which is used by pilots in case of emergency. But this was so strange, it was a sequence of high-pitched and low-pitched screeching noises. I initially thought it was some interruption caused due to the lightning. But it became more and more strange when it kept repeating every thirty seconds, and every time it was the same sequence of noises.  I felt it was some sort of secret message been sent in the form of morse code, so I noted the sequence in a notepad that I had with me. But who was sending it?  And why?

“Sam, did you receive any strange distress signal?” I asked my comrade Sam who was flying in my vicinity.

“Eh... Negative, I didn’t receive any. Why?”, came the astounding reply.

“I picked up some strange signal. “   

 “What does it say?”

“It’s a sequence of high-pitched and low-pitched noise, I’m not able to perceive it’s meaning.”

“Oh, that’s so strange. But I haven’t picked up any signals.”

My mind was in a roller-coaster of thoughts. “What is the meaning behind this?”, “Why am I the only one receiving it?”, “Is this some sort of warning?” ………

This line of thought was interrupted by the next strange occurrence. A strange light appeared some distance above my plane.  It wasn’t a lightning, it didn’t flicker, it was a bright white light and it was following me. After a few seconds, some red and green lights appeared, which looked like those on an aircraft wing. But this was no ordinary aircraft.

“Whoa, what in the world is that?”, I asked Sam. “What is what?”, Sam replied.

“That strange thing just above us”

“Are you seeing some sort of illusion? I don’t see anything”

I could see it so clearly. To confirm, I asked the air traffic controller at Atlanta if he could find any another aircraft above me. “Eh...negative, there is no traffic above you.”, came back the reply that froze my heart for a moment. 

What am I seeing? Why am I the only one seeing it? First the strange signal, and now this strange light illusion. Am I in a dream? Is this some sort of strange hallucination? My mind went from one thought to another.

The very next moment, it became so silent. I couldn’t even hear the sound of my plane. All I could hear was my heart thumping with fear, and me breathing hard. The rumbling of thunder echoed in some distance, the sound of rain splattering the windshield, grew fainter and fainter. Suddenly, the cockpit started slowly filling with light. It became brighter and brighter, and all of a sudden, it became pitch dark. It was so silent, as silent as death. After about some time, I opened my eyes slowly, straining to adjust to the bright light. I was in some sort of room, and I was sitting on a seat, but it wasn’t that of my plane’s. My vision was blurred by the light, so I couldn’t perceive where I was.  Around me, I could hear some distant murmuring, but I was partially unconscious, I couldn’t understand what they were talking and who they were. I could feel the entire room moving like some space ship out of a movie.

After about a minute, I regained complete consciousness. And yes, I was in some sort of space ship. Around me were people talking in some strange tongue. A strange guy approached me, but I couldn’t see him clearly, he was literally glowing with a dim light. He reached out and held my hand, and helped me stand up. My leg was so weak, I almost fell, but he held me up. As we walked, I got a glimpse of everything happening around. There were many people like him, and all glowed with a dim light. Because of the glow, I couldn’t make out their figure. I couldn’t even figure out if they were humans. The entire craft was made of transparent glass, even the floors and walls. The people around were talking in a strange language.

The guy holding me, led me to a room. It looked like a cockpit, there were controls and screens, but a lot more than a normal aircraft. Then he led me down a few fleets of steps, and we reached a circular room which looked like an observatory. It had a 360 view of the outside. I was shocked to see my plane flying just below, and I was in the plane. I couldn’t believe what was happening, I could see myself seated in the cockpit of my plane while I’m actually standing in some space craft. How was that even possible? Was I in a dream? I could see Sam’s plane flying next to mine, and also other planes of my group. I was just mesmerised. I felt dizzy trying to process everything I saw then. He then led me back up, to the same seat where all this began. The moment I sat, the room started filling with light, just like what happened back in my cockpit. Behind the bright light, I could see the guy waving a bye. It then became pitch dark and dead silent.

The rumbling of thunder echoed, growing louder and louder. “Martin, do you read me?” I could hear the faint sound of Sam’s voice over the radio. “Martin?”. I took a deep breath, waking up from the what felt like a dream, slowly gaining consciousness.  I looked around panting, and I was back in my plane. “Yes, copy”, I replied to Sam, speaking out of breath.

“What happened? You were silent for 30 seconds.”

“I’ll describe everything once we land”.

What felt like an hour in the space craft, was just 30 seconds. With a dizzy and aching head, I managed to land my plane. Sam came rushing asking what happened. I described everything that took place, and everything I saw.  Hearing me he laughed uncontrollably.

“Oh my God! Is something wrong with you. There were reports about UFO sightings, but nothing like this has happened. First of all, you were the only one who received the signal, you were the only one who saw the strange object, whatever it was. And you say you were taken up into that thing? I don’t believe it.”

No one believed me, I tried my best to convince, but no one heeded. Even I myself thought it was a dream, but it wasn’t. Though no one believed, deep down I know it all actually took place.

And yes, the signal was a message in morse code, it translated to “We do exist!”. It was a message from a world beyond, from a world that wasn’t ours. It was a reply to my childhood question, “Dad, do aliens exist?”