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"Of course, " Trudeau realized. "If they own the patent we will have completely reverse-engineered the technology. " "Yes, sir, that's right. Nobody will ever know. We won't even tell the companies we're working with where this technology comes from. As far as the world will know the history of the patent is the history of the invention. " show a being of about 4 feet tall. The body seemed decomposed and the photos themselves aren't of much use except to the curious. It's the medical reports that are of interest. The organs, bones, and skin composition are different from ours. The being's heart and lungs are bigger than a human's. The bones are thinner but seem stronger as if the atoms are aligned differently for a greater tensile strength. The skin also shows a different atomic alignment in a way that appears the skin is supposed to protect the vital organs from cosmic ray or wave action or gravitational forces that we don't yet understand. The overall medical report suggests that the medical examiners are more surprised at the similarities between the being found in the spacecraft (note: NSC reports refer to this creature as an Extraterrestrial Biological Entity [EBE]) and human beings than they are at the differences, especially the brain which is bigger in the EBE but not at all unlike ours. | wrote on into the first of many nights that year, drafting rough notes that | would later type into formal reports that no one would ever see except General Trudeau, reaching conclusions that seemed more science fiction than real. | was most happy not because | was finally working on these files but, oddly enough, because when | sat down to write, | believed these reports would never see the light of day. In the harsh reality of the everyday world, they sound, even now as | remember them, fantastic. Even more fantastic, | remember, were the startling conclusions | allowed myself to come to. Was this really | writing, or was it somebody else? Where did these ideas come from? If we consider similar biological factors that affect human beings, like long distance runners whose hearts and lungs are larger than average, hill and mountain dwellers whose lung capacity is greater than those who live closer to sea level, and even natural athletes whose long striated muscle alignment is different from those who are not athletes, can we not assume that the EBEs who have fallen into our possession represent the end process of genetic engineering designed to adapt them to long space voyages within an electromagnetic wave environment at speeds which create the physical conditions described by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity? (Note for the record: Dr. Hermann Oberth suggests we consider the Roswell craft from the New Mexico desert not a spacecraft but a time machine. His technical report on propulsion will follow.) The EBE Therefore, perhaps we should consider the EBEs as described in the medical autopsy reports humanoid robots rather then life forms, specifically engineered for long distance travel through space or time. A hot Washington summer morning had already settled over the Potomac like a wet towel on the day | finished the first of my reports for General Trudeau. And what a report it was. It set the tone for all of the other reports and recommendations | was to make for the general over the next two years. It began with the biggest find we had: the alien extraterrestrial itself. Had | not read the medical examiner's report of the alien from Walter Reed with my own eyes and reviewed the 1947 army photographs and sketches, | would have called any description of this creature pure science fiction; that is, had | not seen either this or its twin suspended in a transparent crypt at Fort Riley. But here it was again, just a yellowing sheaf of papers and a few cracked glossy prints in a brown folder sitting among scores of odds and ends, bits of debris, and strange devices in my nut file. 39 "It's the perfect cover, Phil, " the general said. "Where will you start?" "I'll write up my first analysis and recommendation tonight, "| promised. "There's not a moment to lose. " "The photographs in my file, "| began my report that night over the autopsy reports, which | attached, CHAPTER 7