United States or United States Virgin Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
They took a long ship that could better have been used somewhere else. Half my men are down with the virus. They almost cost me my schedule. And to what end? Just another piece of paper somewhere. Put Miracastle on the scale against some nice, heavy report and see which way the scale tips." The general closed the diary. It was late now. He was very tired. Mr.
Yet, on further inspection, you see that each line contributes to a rather bewildering variety of perspectives. I strongly suspect that the city and the people of Miracastle will remain one of the great, unsolved mysteries of the universe." Mr. Wallace was finished with his remarks. Mr. Ryan nodded.
The sun was an orange star only slightly larger than Sol and as near to Miracastle as Sol to Earth. The orange rays splintered against the fog and gloom was perpetually upon the dark face of existence. This was the first two-stage planet man had ever attempted to colonize. Miracastle was so far from Earth that the long ships were destroyed twice to reach it.
"The new detectors have put Miracastle on the fringe of things." "I've followed the work," the general said. "I try to keep up. It involves a new concept of mass variation, doesn't it?" "It just about makes it uneconomical to colonize a two-stage planet any more. Or to keep one going." The general's eyelids flickered. His body moved beneath the wrinkled folds of the surface suit.
Tucker and two of the three other members of the Committee donned surface suits and, together with Captain Meford, the cartographer assigned to Miracastle, they boarded the surface scout. They arranged themselves in the uncomfortable bucket seats and strapped in. "Little early for an easy ride," Mr. Tucker commented. "I've been out before," Captain Meford said laconically. It was his usual manner.
The technicians came, commanded by General Max Shorter, sixty-three years old. Men wearing the circle whose diameter was etched in ruby steel enclosing a background of gleaming ebon the emblem was a silver D over a sunburst of hammered gold. The surface of Miracastle roiled with unfamiliar storms and tornados and hurricanes.
Taking men away from their work, basically." He tapped his teeth with his right thumb in reflection. "I'd better check up on all the domes tonight, just to be sure." "Yes, sir." "I wouldn't want anything to go wrong because they're here." In the dressing quarters, they donned surface suits and exited through the locks to Miracastle.
"The thought naturally occurs that the aliens were the rather decadent relics of a highly developed technological civilization existing on the planet in the not too distant past. Yet Miracastle offers no evidence for the existence of a prior technology no ruins, no residual radioactivity from atomic operations. In short, the city has no apparent genesis in the past.
Miracastle: The initial landing had been made on a flat plateau among steep, foreboding mountains which seemed to float through briefly cleared air. In the distance a sharp rock formation stood revealed like an etching: a castle of iron-gray stone whose form had been carved by alien winds and eroded by acid tears from acid clouds. Far above was a halo where the sun should be.
"If anyone's to blame, it must be me." "He obeyed the orders." "What did you say?" "I said he obeyed the orders, sir." "Of course he obeyed the orders," the general said. "What else could he have done?" The long ship hung in orbit above Miracastle and discharged its passengers.
Word Of The Day