PERCEPTION IS REALITY


 That's the code name of the government project initiated in 1975 after the crash of the ill-fated research ship, "T'Pol Ray", which housed some 96 passengers and crew - mostly students - who were on what could easily be said was the most exciting adventure Mankind (on our planet or theirs) has ever had.  


Yes, you read that correctly, our planet... OR THEIRS!


Imagine how frustrating it would be if we on planet Earth had some sort of method of traveling to the stars... yet even after we developed all that sophisticated technology, we still could find no other Life Forms like ourselves.  That was life for the people I'm going to introduce you to.


Now imagine that the search goes on for AGES, entire generations of your people live and die, yet STILL no Life is found anywhere else in the cosmos.  Imagine your frustration.  Then imagine that this frustration finally grows to the point where no one cares any more about the search.  Mankind's greatest quest becomes that of Don Quixote, meeting one windmill after another, all the while searching for dragons in vain.


Then imagine yourself, a young energetic sort who doesn't want to give up on the main drive of your life.  You hear about a legend - a mere rumor - from long ago of a blue planet.  Everyone knows this is a myth.  Certainly even HE knew it was a myth.  But there was one Captain who claimed it to be true, those legends of the Blue Planet from an ancient past tale.  Couple that with a Professor guiding a graduating class of would-be diplomats to a new world... if only there were a world to find!


You can see how it might have seemed worth the risk. After all, the risk was minimal.  Space travel was no more dangerous to them than a school bus trip would be to us.  Oh, the trip would still take a few months, but it would fulfill a Life's Dream.  What an adventure that would be!


As Fate would have it, your University would never fund such a thing.  For one thing it would be basically illegal to take a bunch of honor students on some joy ride to the cosmos, especially on an adventure to find a mythical planet full of Life that you can recognize and understand.  Yet these sorts of obstacles never can stand in the way of Youth and Enthusiasm!  


So that's how Professor Tom Townsend and his class of sparkling honor students met Captain Harvey Coarsen and his swashbuckling crew.  Everything would have been just peachy, too, if not for the accident.


The "accident" changed everything.  


How exciting it must have been to finally see the Blue Planet in real life!  Captain Harvey was good to his word.  Sure, they had to sneak out into space on a fake permit and they had to file a flight plan that was false leaving basically no record of their true whereabouts to their home planet.  That was worth it, you can see that... can't you?  


It was worth the RISK.


After all, they'd be back in a couple months after the adventure of a lifetime and the students could begin their lives having sown their wild oats. Captain Harvey Coarsen and the good Professor Tom Townsend would have fulfilled their Live's Dreams.  They would have at least tried to track down a legend.  That's exactly what they all expected.  No one really believed a planet with Life on it would be really found.  No one... not really.


Yet there was Earth!  Can you just imagine how excited they must have been?  The glory, the fame, the adventure that would be theirs?  Why, EVERYONE would know their names!  The discoverers of another planet with Life on it!  The very thought of it makes my head swim to this day, just as it made their head's swim back in 1975, our time.


The "accident" changed everything.


There was an explosion aboard the good ship "T'Pol Ray".  In truth, she had seen her better days, to be sure.  The passengers and crew barely had time to escape the craft before it plunged through our atmosphere and the into our Atlantic Ocean.  They escaped in 24 pods somewhat akin to our lifeboats on board an ocean cruiser.  Each pod held 4 people.


There were 96 of them in all.  They didn't come down to Earth in some obscure part of our planet.  They came down in New Jersey, during a shooting star night that no one paid any particular attention to.  Well, no one except your government, who happens to pay attention to just about anything that has to do with things falling from the skies.


In no time at all the 96 visitors were rounded up and taken away to a "facility" also in New Jersey.  What was left of their life pods was also gathered and stored in a warehouse.  If you live in the New York City / Northern Jersey area you've probably driven by the warehouse a thousand times.  


But the Facility that housed our VISITORS was in SOUTHERN New Jersey.  It goes by the code name "Perception Is Reality" to this day.


I'd like to share with you the story about these visitors, the capture, and their eventual escape. I'd also like to share with you my story, how I came to be in the employ of the good Captain Harvey and Professor Tom as probably the best Investigator on this planet!  That's me.  My name is Tiki Gibbs... the name stems from an Hawaiian vacation my mother took where she fell hopelessly in love with someone she would have sworn was Don Ho.  I'll tell you about it sometime, if we get to know each other better.  In the mean time, most people just call me Mr. Gibbs.  


I'm an expert at finding people.  I did it for your government (if you're an American) for 25 years.  I'm the very best there is at doing what I do. You'd maybe be surprised at how many people don't want to be found by our Government... and you'd also be surprised at just how many people our Government wants to find!  


The Captain and the Professor need my services because not everyone is accounted for after the escape back in 2005.  Four escaped with the Captain and the Professor.  It was an established fact that five others died, presumably due to a mistake or  bad judgement by the Captain.  More about that later.  Our guests are not too happy about that, as a whole.  They're not too happy they were captured and held for 30 of our years either.  But I will tell you of those stories as we progress.


Right now, we - you and I - need to find those other 85 alien visitors.  My investigations  found 4 in practically no time, but those were the 4 that escaped with the captain and the Professor.  They set those up as sort of a test for me.  I'll explain all that in my notes.  Once hired I did what I do best, I found some people.  Those 4 - the test group - were relatively easy.  I told you I was the very best at what I do.  I'm not bragging about it, I'm just telling you the truth.  That's probably why THEY were watching me.  They are very good at that sort of thing.


Now they need our help!  Let me share my notes with you, let me tell you what I've uncovered so far.  You might even KNOW one of these aliens!  We check out all leads, believe me!  


But first I need you to see my notes.  "Perception Is Reality - Investigation 1" is available right now on the order page.  Please read those notes and see the dilemma we are in and if you can help us find these people.  And, yes, I do say "people".  For all intents and purposes, they look just like you or me.  They look like... well... people!  


We have to find them.  I'd like you to come along with us on the journey.


READ MY NOTES!  Please.  We need your help.  THEY need your help.  


And for all YOU know... YOU may soon need MY help.  Because you don't know all there is to know about these aliens.  At least not yet.  READ MY NOTES!  Please.  You'll be glad you did!