A Saucerful of Robots

The Metal Monstrosities

On September 15, 1977, a group of one-legged robots descended upon the village of Paciencia, Brazil and subjected a 33-yr-old bus driver to a terrifying ordeal.

At 2:15 that morning, Antonio La Rubia was walking to work when he saw an object like "an enormous wide hat" sitting in a field. The object was 200 feet in diameter and dull grey in colour.

La Rubia took one look at it and tried to run for his life. But the disc fired a beam of blue light at him, instantly paralysing him. Simultaneously three bizarre robots silently materialised around him.

The robots were constructed from a pattern of overlapping metallic scales. Each had an egg-shaped body with two tentacle-like arms and a single pedestal for a leg. Their rugby ball shaped heads were topped by rapidly spinning antennae.

One of the robots pointed a syringe-shaped device at La Rubia. Then the entire group floated towards the craft, together with the Brazilian.

Picture Show

La Rubia could not remember how he entered the craft. But somehow he found himself standing alone in a white corridor. The outer wall was transparent, and through it he could see the ground falling away beneath him. Then a blue beam of light struck him, and he suddenly found himself in a circular white chamber.

The chamber was occupied by two dozen robots identical to the ones that had captured him. They appeared to be silently communicating with one another. "Who you are? What you want?" La Rubia yelled at them. To his surprise, they promptly toppled over onto the floor.

The Brazilian was temporarily blinded by a flash of blue light. When he recovered, he found that the robots had righted themselves. They were now gathered around a small instrument console which resembled an electric organ. As they manipulated keys on the console, a series of moving images appeared on the wall of the chamber.

Many of the images were of La Rubia himself, both clothed and naked. Other scenes depicted a peasant walking beside a cart, a dilapidated train entering a tunnel, and a production line in a flying saucer factory. One particularly gruesome sequence showed the robots "melting" a dog that had attacked them.

While La Rubia was watching the picture show, one of the beings jabbed a syringe into his right middle finger and extracted blood. The being then squirted the contents of the syringe at the wall, making a pattern of three circles intersected by an 'L'.

Back Down to Earth

Without warning, La Rubia suddenly found himself outside the bus depot where he worked. One of the robots was standing beside him, and the giant disc was hovering overhead. Then the robot vanished and the disc shot straight up.

Although he went to work as usual that day, La Rubia became very ill over the weekend. He suffered from insatiable thirst, vomiting, burning throat pains and dizzy spells.

On Monday morning he returned to work and reported to the company nurse. When he told her about his abduction, she had him physically restrained, thinking he had gone mad. Luckily for La Rubia, a psychologist examined him and pronounced him sane before sending him to hospital for a check-up. It took him several days to recover from the side effects of his encounter.

Sources

Alan Baker: Encyclopedia of Alien Encounters, pp183-184.
APRO Bulletin, Vol. 26 No. 4.