Unknown object with flashing lights and laser beam behind the Hou ARTCC building/very fast moving

I was an air traffic controller at the time.  Often we'd see objects on our radar and on a few occasions NORAD would scramble on them. (That's another topic).  
The incident that I'm reporting occurred after the end of my shift. Three of us were hanging around in the parking lot talking.  One controller made a comment that Venus was bright that night.  
We then started visibly scanning the sky.  We noticed a brighter light to the North of the ARTCC building and wondered if the other light in the sky was indeed  Venus, then what could that be. (The back door of the center faces east and leads to the back parking lot). The object was standing still and was just visible above the far tree line. Someone made a comment that it was probably a street light.  
An airliner became visible climbing out of IAH but farther North of the light we were looking at.  The light then dimmed.  As the plane got farther away on its climb out, the light came back to the full density as we had seen before.  That got our attention.  We were wondering out loud what it could be.  
At that moment,  the object moved from our left to our right at an extremely fast speed and stopped immediatley. almost a blur.  As fast as you can turn your head from 10 oclock to 2 oclock was the speed it seemed to move. (if east was 12 on the clock, then the object moved from 10 to 2).  We could not judge how far away from us it was.  
The object then just stood still for a minute or two.  Very bright red, blue and green lights starting flashing around the object.  A thin laser like beam of light, approximatley 6 to 12 inches in diameter, lit up part of the parking lot and starting scanning the parking lot.  
All three of us ducked behind a car without saying a word.  The beam shut off and the flashing lights stopped.  The   white light on the object then came back on and the object began moving very slowly back to our ten oclock position and stopped at the exact location it was when we first noticied it.  We didn't say a word for about a minute.  
When it sunk in what we had just seen, all three of us jumped in our cars and left for home.  
The next day, we considered reporting this to a national hotline number in Washington D.C., that the FAA had provided us to report strange occurences that we observe on our radar screens (UFO's)  but no one ever  did for fear of losing our airman's certificate.
Witness indicates that the date of the event is approximate.  PD