Not long before he passed away, my old friend Arthur J Crudworthy gave me a box of old manuscripts and, for want of a better word, junk: scribbled notes about his latest idea for a flying car, smokeless pipes, that sort of thing. The manuscripts I had placed in a safety deposit box and never really bothered with the rest. With some free time over Christmas and New Year I decided to see what was in the box, just for curiosity between Christmas films. Near the bottom was a sealed envelope addressed to Crudworthy, neatly written and a little overly fancy. The stamp was half torn but I could see the 'd' denoting it was before decimilisation, and indeed the post mark was '1948'. I opened the envelope, which felt surprisingly bulky and there within were half a dozen photographs and several pages of handwritten text. I won't relate the entire contents of the letter, but what I saw and read astounded me. The letter was from a Lord Proudbotham of Nether Crutchley, and told of an adventure he and his manservant Rudders had been on in the latter years of the 19th century, 1897 to be precise. This was no trek to darkest Africa or India, but... and here dear reader I have to ask you to suspend your belief, Proudbotham and Rudders had travelled into space! Not to the Moon as one would suspect, but to the Martian moon of Phobos! I would have dismissed this as either a flight of fancy or utter madness... but for the photographs. Cracked with age and a little dark around the edges the six photos were remarkable for what they showed. Not only the two men on the surface of Phobos, but exotic and fearsome animals, dinosaur-like in their appearance. I would like to share with you these astonishing photographs, for discussion and dissection. Are they, as they purport to be, genuine images from another world? Or was it a cruel hoax played on a fledgling writer, my old friend Arthur J Crudworthy? * * * * Yes, can't keep the old man down ^_^ I wanted to keep the flame of Crudworthy alive without returning to Space Science Digest and book covers, so came up with this idea for a series of photos sent to him from an adventurer aristo. This one uses Cybertenko's deep sea diver and Mostdigital's flag. Hope you like it. Another one tomorrow, and the rest to follow. As ever, thanks for looking. Iain