At the end of this time the lights dropped out of the clouds, and I began to realize that they were brightly illumined objects. At the moment I couldn't be certain of how many there were. I thought of aircraft. But by the shape they were assuming as they moved closer, I knew this could not be correct. They were as yet quite undefinable.
"Well," I thought, "can they be helicopters?" That thought had barely formed when I realized it simply could not be true. As they came closer, dropping at a pitch of about 60 degress, their structural shape was becoming more apparent -- and more impossible to understand, compared to anything I have ever seen. I made a mental note that they looked like crystal lanterns, brightly glowing inside, square, with something dark protruding from each corner of the 'lantern'. They were indistinguishable groups at this distance, which I estimated was a quarter of a mile. Another ten seconds or so had now elapsed.
The objects continued to move toward me. They seemed to 'float' downward. I wondered briefly if they could be some sort of new top secret government missile or aircraft. I glanced hurriedly at a deserted workshop about a hundred yards away from me. (There were no other buildings close except the one I occupied). The glowing cubes were now about midway between the workshop and me -- a distance of not more than 200 feet -- and still moving toward me. The objects were now becoming distinguishable. Also, they were 'flying' in formation, in close groups, four to a group.
Unbelievable, but there they were. Appearance: three dimensional solid cubes (having depth and dimension like all things physical). The entire glass-like structure was luminous. Each cube appeared identical in size and shape -- mathematically perfect cubes, as nearly as the eye could tell. In the right side of each cube were two very bright but not dazzling tubes of light that looked a little like unfiltered neon light tubes. The tubes were in a vertical position; one tube on the extreme right extended from the bottom of the cube, approximately, to the top. Perhaps a foot to its left, the other tube was about two thirds of this height. The two thirds of the cube not occuped by the tubes of light glowed softly with milky white brightness, with just a hint of pale blue, like a mist.
Looking at the lampposts below, I was now aware that the cubes were less than a hundred feet from my windows and moving closer. The cubes seemed to be made of crystal; they were partially opaque. I could not see through them, although both tubes on the right seemed centered exactly in the middle of the cube. Comparing them to the dimensions of my windows, I believe the entire cube was close to four feet square, perhaps five feet. On each corner of the cubes protruded a dark, unillumined 'leg'. the legs were tapered, much in the style of a furniture leg. The color, I noted, was a deep, dark ruby brown. The legs, if they were legs, were set at about a 45 degree angle, and in length they were about half the height of the cubes. They were both on top and on the bottom of the cubes. The legs could be seen because of the general illumination of the interior.
As the groups approached within sixty feet, I could hear through the open window a sould like a distant tinkling of bells of different pitches, as if each object had its own particular sound to convey. I quickly turned off my radio to be sure that this was so. The musical tinkling tones continued. I presumed I had now been watching them for half a minute.
The closest cubes were not 40 or 50 feet from me, slightly above my windows. Here they stopped in mid-air and the bell-like sounds ceased. I quickly determined that there were six groups of four. They did not move at all for a few seconds. Then, in their group formation of about three or four feet apart, holding this distance exactly, the cubes began to drop very slowly beneath my windows. They dropped down a few feet below me, then went into a counter-clockwise orbit, an elliptical oval. They were travelling at a rate of about one half mile per hour. Once this pattern started, some of the objects rose above the window level as others dropped below it. I stared deeply into the objects, trying to find a living shape. But there was none. The brightly glowing tubes inside appeared, as a close guess, eight or nine inches in diameter. The light in these glass tubes was constantly moving in diamond-like crystalline flashes. In the centers of the flashes were dark spots, like small spheres. The bead-like string of dark spots, crystalline black, moved upward continually through the brilliantly glowing tubes. They seemed to swarm.
I did not count, but would guess that the cubes orbited my windows twelve to eighteen times. The time involved was possibly another minute or two. My hands reached out for the telephone near my radio. I touched the receiver. I don't know who I was going to call -- but somebody.
At this moment I heard a sound above me in the sky -- a familiar sound, the whistling noise of a jet airliner. My fingers crept away from the phone. What was I calling for, anyway? Who would believe me? What would I accomplish? It was an airplane. I could see its lights, coming over Beacon Hill, about a half mile away.
The cubes also, somehow, had observed the approach of the big plane. The moving dark spots within the vertical tubes bubbled upward more violently; there was a noticeable increase in the tempo of their pulsation. Momentarily I visualized something inside the tube as living beings. Perhaps they were elctronic detectors of some sort. But I had the definite impression that there was some kind of intelligence connected with the tubes, either directed or actual intelligence. They seemed to be anticipating the flight course of the airplane.
The cubes had now discontinued orbiting my windows and, still in perfect formation, they moved off slowly toward the sound of the airliner. They simply went into reverse, the tubes still brightly lighted on the right side of the cubes. From my view, they were flying against the wind.
I could see the airplane breaking through the clouds a little south of the building, and knew that it was flying toward a landing at Sea-Tac or Boeing Field. In a swiftly accelerated motion, the cubes travelled toward the plane. Their direction was southerly, as if in pursuit of the plane. As they moved, the bright light of the tubes became more intense. Having traversed a distance of three or four hundred yards in the direction of the plane, they stopped, waiting for perhaps half a minute.
CONTINUED