On the the reported something odd out in space, Lockley at about twenty minutes to eight. That was usual. He'd slept in a sleeping on a mountain-flank with other all around. That was not unprecedented. He was there to make a line for a map of the Boulder Lake National Park, were now being built. Measuring a line, with the of apparatus, was more or less a job for Lockley.
This morning, though, he and that he'd about Jill Holmes again, which was a he ought to break. He'd only met her four times and she was going to somebody else. He had to stop.
He stirred, to up. At the same moment, were in places away from him. As yet, no object in space had been observed. That would come later. But away up at the Alaskan a man on watch was by another. The man took over the of the giant, football-field-sized that recorded its on magnetic tape. It that on this particular only one other the along a long of the Pacific Coast. There was the Alaskan installation, and the other was in Oregon. [6]It was for only those two to be operating. The people who about it, or most of them, that official orders had somehow gone astray. Where the orders were issued, nothing out of the ordinary appeared. All was normal, for example, in the Military Information Center in Denver. The Survey saw nothing in Lockley's being at his post, and other men at places to his in the area which was to Boulder Lake National Park. It also perfectly natural that there should be operators, surveyors, steelworkers, men and so on, all at in the for the project. Everything normal everywhere.
Up to the time the Alaskan reported something in space, the of was neither consoling. But at 8:02 a.m. Pacific time, the changed. At that time Alaska reported an object of size, high out of and moving with slowness for a in space. Its was and it would land in South Dakota. It might be a bolide—a large, slow-moving meteorite. It wasn't likely, but the entire report was improbable.
The message the Military Information Center in Denver at 8:05 a.m. By 8:06 it had been to Washington and every plane on the Pacific Coast was ordered aloft. The Oregon unit reported the same object at 8:07 a.m. It said the object was seven hundred fifty miles high, four hundred miles out at sea, and was toward the Oregon coastline, moving to southeast. There was no major city in its line of travel. The impact point by the Oregon station was near South Dakota. As other [7]computations other observations, a second place of was calculated, then a third. Then the Oregon reported that the object was decelerating. Allowing for deceleration, three of its landing point agreed. The object, said these calculations, would come to earth near Boulder Lake, Colorado, in what was to a national park. Impact time should be 8:14 a.m.
These events Lockley's in the wilds, but he nothing of any of them. He himself wasn't near the lake, which was to be the center of a for people who liked the outdoors. The was almost and was a deep, rich blue. It what had been the of a millions of years ago. Already had out to it through the forest. Men with and on and on across small streams. There was a for them. A hotel had been designed and were in the ground where its would be poured. There were big-mouthed in the and in many of the streams. A Wild Life Control trailer-truck about such as were practical, to these matters. Yesterday Lockley had it in as it moved toward Boulder Lake on the nearest to his station.
But that was yesterday. This he under a sky. There was complete cloud overhead. He and woods-mould and in the morning. He the of tree moving in the wind. He noted the cloud cover. The clouds were high, though. The air at ground level was perfectly transparent. He his and saw a that being in the and satisfying.
Mountains up in every direction. A some thousands of him, and it other valleys, and a white water to an unknown destination. Not many wake to such a scene.
Lockley it, but without full attention. He was with of Jill Holmes, and she was to Vale, who was also in the park some thirty miles to the northeast, near Boulder Lake itself. Lockley didn't know him well since he was new in the Survey. He was up there to the with an survey like Lockley's and on the same job. Jill had an from some magazine or other to an article on how national are born, and she was at the to material. She'd learned something from Vale and much from the while Lockley had to think of himself. He'd failed. When he about her, he about the that she was to Vale. That was an thought. Then he to stop about her altogether. But his mind somehow on the subject.
At ten minutes to eight Lockley to dress, fashion. He by on his hat. It had on the of by his bed. Then he the of his in the exact of the order in which he'd them.
At 8:00 he had a small fire going. He had no that anything out of the ordinary was going to that day. This was still the Alaskan report. At 8:10 he had and a small almost by the flames. Events and he nothing at all about them. For example, the Military Information Center had been of what was later privately called Operation Terror while Lockley was still cooking and thinking—frowning a little—about Jill.
Naturally he nothing of orders sending all aloft. He wasn't about something reported in space and for an impact point at Boulder Lake. As the impact time arrived, Lockley coffee into his and put it on the flames.
At 8:13 of 8:14—this is from the tape records—there was an small earth recorded by the Berkeley, California, seismograph. It was a very minor shock, about the of the of a hundred of high a very long away and to record its location, which was Boulder Lake. The of that or was not visually. There'd been no time to observers, and in any case the object should have been out of until the last of its fall, and where it was reported to the cloud was unbroken. So nobody reported it. Not at once, anyhow, and then only one man.
Lockley did not the impact. He was a cup of coffee and about his own problems. But a a hundred yards his site over and downhill. It started a of and rocks. The did not travel far, but the original and rolled for some it came to rest.
Echoes rolled the hillsides, but they were not very loud and they soon ended. Lockley at a dozen possible for the small rock-slide, but he did not think at all of an from a like high going off thirty miles away.
Eight minutes later he a deep-toned noise to the northeast. It was low-pitched. It rolled and the horizon. The of a hundred of high or an impact can be for thirty miles, but at that it doesn't much like an explosion.
He his without enjoyment. By that time well over three-quarters of the Air Force on the Pacific Coast was and more after instant. Inevitably the air traffic was noted by civilians. Reporters to telephone to ask a was on, or something more serious.
Such questions were natural, these days. All the world had the jitters. To the ordinary observer, the looked for but disaster. There was a in the United Nations, which had been once and might need to be again. There was a the United States and Russia over in orbit. They were of to at on signal. The Russians the Americans, and the Americans the Russians, and may have been right.
The world had been so for so long that there were from Chillicothe, Ohio, to Singapore, Malaya, and again. There were permanent trouble at places where anything was likely to at any instant. The people of every nation were jumpy. There was pressure on governments and on political parties so that all governments looked and all parties helpless. Nobody look to a peaceful old age, and most to middle age. The of an object from space was calculated to the of whole populations.
But Lockley ate his without premonitions. Breezes and from every along the into the air and into designed to anything that on or to atom-headed at anything their that didn't.
At eight-twenty, Lockley to the line which he was to use this morning. It was a of the used to clock in their and measure their from hundreds of miles away. The purpose was to make a map of the park. There were other in other line-of-sight positions, very away. Lockley's called for them to measure their from each other some time this morning. Two were on bench marks of the grid. In twenty minutes or so of cooperation, the of six such be with and in to the bench marks already over the continent. Presently would overhead, taking pictures from thirty thousand feet. They would the survey points and the them would be exact, the be used as stereo-pairs to take off lines, and in a days there would be a map—a cartographer's for and detail.
That was the intention. But though Lockley hadn't of it yet, something was reported to have from space, and a like an impact was recorded, and all would be changed. It would be noted from the beginning, however, that an impact equal to a hundred-ton was a very small for the landing of a bolide. It would add to the of reported deceleration, though, and would suspicion. Justly so.
At 8:20, Lockley called Sattell who was of him. The used and gave of by and reading phase differences. As a of the be by a microphone, so the same be used for while on. But the were in a very tight beam. The device had to be right and a had to be at the if it was to be used at all. Also, there was no to call a man to listen. He had to be beforehand, and with his right, too.
So Lockley the and on the instrument. He said patiently, "Calling Sattell. Calling Sattell. Lockley calling Sattell."
He it some of times. He was about to give it up and call Vale when Sattell answered. He'd slept a little later than Lockley. It was now close to nine o'clock. But Sattell had the call. They the of their against each other.
"Right!" said Lockley at last. "I'll check with Vale and on out of the park, and then we'll put it all together and it up and take it home."
Sattell agreed. Lockley, absurdly, he was going to have to talk to Vale. He had nothing against the man, but Vale was, in a way, his although Jill didn't know of his and Vale it.
He off to Sattell and the line to make a check with Vale. It was now ten minutes after nine. He the accurately, the switch, and to say as as before, "Calling Vale. Calling Vale. Lockley calling Vale. Over."
He the for reception. Vale's voice came instantly, and and frantic.
"Lockley! Listen to me! There's no time to tell me anything. I've got to tell you. Something came out of the sky here nearly an hour ago. It in Boulder Lake, and at the last there was a and a up the of the lake. The thing that came under water. I saw it, Lockley!"
Lockley blinked. "Wha-a-at?"
"A thing came out of the sky!" Vale. "It in the with a explosion. It under. Then it came up to the surface minutes later. It floated. It up and out of itself, pipes or wires. Then it moved around the and came in to the shore. A thing like a opened and ... got out of it. Not men!"
Lockley again. "Look here—"
"Dammit, listen!" said Vale shrilly, "I'm telling you what I've seen. Things out of the sky. Creatures that aren't men. They and set up something on the shore. I don't know what it is. Do you understand? The thing is there in the now. Floating. I can see it!"
Lockley swallowed. He couldn't this immediately. He nothing of reports or the record. He'd a roll the him, and he'd a the horizon, but like that didn't add up to a like this! His was that Vale was out of his head.
"Listen," said Lockley carefully. "There's a set over at the camp. They use it all the time for orders and reports and so on. You go there and report officially what you've seen. To the Park Service first, and then try to a through to the Army."
Vale's voice came through again, at once and despairing, "They won't me. They'll think I'm a crackpot. You the news to somebody who'll investigate. I see the thing, Lockley. I can see it now. At this instant. And Jill's over at the camp—"
Lockley was relieved. If Jill was at the camp, at least she wasn't alone with a man gone out of his mind. The was normal. Lockley had nothing out of the ordinary, so Vale's report insane.
"Listen here!" Vale again. "The thing came down. There was a explosion. It vanished. Nothing for a while. Then it came up and a place where it come to shore. Things came out of it. I can't them. They're in my binoculars. But they aren't human! A of them came out. They to land things. Equipment. They set it up. I don't know what it is. Some of them exploring. I saw a of steam where something moved. Lockley?"
"I'm listening," said Lockley. "Go on!"
"Report this!" ordered Vale feverishly. "Get it to Military Information in Denver, or somewhere! The party of that off hasn't come back. I'm watching. I'll report I see. Get this to the government. This is real. I can't it, but I see it. Report it, quick!"
His voice stopped. Lockley the again for Sattell, thirty miles to the southeast.
Sattell answered the call. He said in an voice, "Hello! I just got a call from Survey. It that the Army there was a Survey team in here, and they called to say that had something from space, right after eight o'clock. They wanted to know if any of us noticed anything about that time."
Lockley's suddenly. Vale's report had him, but more for the man's than anything else. But it be true! And he that Jill was very near the place where were happening.
"Vale just told me," said Lockley, his voice unsteady, "that he saw something come down. His was so wild I didn't it. But you pass it on and say that Vale's it. He's waiting for instructions. He'll report he sees. I'm thirty miles from him, but he can see the thing that came down. Maybe the in it can see him. Listen!"
He just what Vale had told him. Somehow, telling it to someone else, it at once less but more as a possible to Jill. It didn't him that other people were endangered, too.
When Sattell off to the report, Lockley himself a little. Something had come out of space. The to him and appalling. His mind at the idea of non-human who ships and travel through space, but had reported the of a ship, and there were official that nearly matched Vale's account, which was therefore not a to have the incredible. Something had and more was likely to, and Jill was in the middle of it.
He the to Vale's position. His hands shook, though a part of his mind that were these days, and in common one had to them as false of "Wolf!" But one that some day the might come. Perhaps it had....
Lockley it difficult to the to Vale's exact location. He himself that he was a to be afraid; that if were to come it would be by the of men than through from the stars. And therefore....
But there were other men at other places who less skepticism. The report from Vale to the Military Information Center and to the Pentagon. Meanwhile the Information Center ordered a photo-reconnaissance plane to photograph Boulder Lake from aloft. In the Pentagon, staff officers to orders to be if the report of two and one eye-witness should be substantiated. There were such-and-such trucks available here, and such-and-such available there. Complicated paper work was in the organization of any movement of troops, but to out a plan not at all in the United States.
Everything, though, on what the plane might show.
Lockley did not see the plane it. There was the of in the sky. It moved toward the north, eastward. The plane that the noise was invisible. It above the cloud which still out nearly all the overhead. It on and on and presently died out the toward Boulder Lake.
Lockley to Vale back, to tell him that had his report and that it would be on by the military. But though he called and called, there was no answer.
An long time later the and of the plane across the heavens. Lockley still did not notice it. He was too with his to Vale again, and with of what might be done by from another world when they the near the lake—and Jill among them. He pictured in what they might scientific of fauna. But somehow that was less than the images that an that the of the might be men.
"Calling Vale ... Vale, come in!" He the call into the instrument's microphone. "Lockley calling Vale! Come in, man! Come in!"
He the and listened. And Vale's voice came.
"I'm here." The voice shook. "I've been trying to where that party went."
Lockley the speech and said sharply, "The Army asked Survey if any of us had anything come from the sky. I gave Sattell your report to be forwarded. It's gone to the Pentagon now. Two reported the thing to a landing near you. Now listen! You go to the camp. Most likely they'll orders to clear out, by wave. But you go there! Make sure Jill's all right. See her to safety."
The once more. Vale's voice was desperate.
"A ... while ago a party of the started away from the lake. An party, I think. Once I saw a of steam as if they'd used a weapon. I'm they may the camp, and Jill...."
Lockley ground his teeth. Vale said unsteadily, "I ... can't where they went.... A little while ago their ship out into the and sank. Deliberately! I don't know why. But there's a party of those ... out exploring! I don't know what they'll do...."
Lockley said savagely, "Get to the and look after Jill! The may have panicked. The Army'll know by this time what's happened. They'll send to you out. They'll send help of some sort, somehow. But you look after Jill!"
Vale's voice changed.
"Wait. I something. Wait!"
Silence. Around Lockley there were the of the wilderness. Insects noises. Birds called. There were those small and and high-pitched which in the wild stillness.
A from the speaker. Vale's voice, frantic.
"That ... party. It's here! They must have up our beams. They're looking for me. They've me! They're coming...."
There was a as if Vale had the communicator. There were pantings, and the of blows, and profanity—horror-filled profanity—in Vale's voice. Then something roared.
Lockley listened, his hands in at his own helplessness. He he movements. Once he was sure he a like the of an animal on stone. Then, distinctly, he squeakings. He that someone or something had up Vale's communicator. More squeakings, somehow querulous. Then something the on the ground. There was a crash. Then silence.
Almost Lockley his around and it up for Sattell's post. He called in a voice until Sattell answered. He reported with just what Vale had said, and what he'd after Vale stopped speaking—the roaring, the of and gasps, then the and the of the for the of lines for an map of the Park.
Sattell agitated. At Lockley's insistence, he every word. Then he said that orders had come from Survey. The Army wanted out of the Boulder Lake area. Vale was to have been ordered out. The were ordered out. Lockley was to out of the area as soon as possible.
When Sattell off, Lockley off the communicator. He put it where it would be safe from the weather. He his equipment. A mile and four miles west there was a leading to Boulder Lake. When the Park was opened to the public it would be well used, but the last traffic he'd was the big trailer-truck of the Wild Life Control service. That vehicle had gone up to Boulder Lake the day before.
He his way to the highway, a to the spot where he'd left his own car parked. He got into it and started the motor. He moved with a deliberation. He knew, of course, that what he was going to do was useless. It was hopeless. It was possibly suicidal. But he ahead.
He northward, pushing the little car to its top speed. This was not his instructions. He wasn't the Park area. He was for Boulder Lake. Jill was there and he would for all time if he like a man and got to safety as he was ordered.
Miles along the highway, something to him. The line had to be right for Vale or Sattell to up his voice as by its beam. Vale's or Sattell's had to be as to their voices to him. Yet after the he'd overheard, and after Vale had been either or killed, someone or something to have up the communicator, and Lockley had squeakings, and then he had the smashed.
It was not easy to how the had been perfectly while it was up and at. Still less was it that it just right so he when it was and crushed.
But somehow this did not his feelings. Jill be in from Vale said were not human. Lockley didn't accept that non-human angle, but something was there and Jill was in the middle of it. So he to see about it for the of his self-respect. And Jill. It was not behavior. It was emotional. He didn't stop to question what was and what wasn't. Lockley didn't give any attention to the problem of how a pointed right while the that sent it was up, and at, and smashed. He gave that particular no at all.
He the of the car and for Boulder Lake.
