The Thing from Another World Page #3

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- Hello, captain.

- Hi, professor.

- Dr. Carrington, Capt. Hendry is here.

- Yes, I know.

- How do you do, captain?

- Doctor.

Miss Nicholson, would you add

a note to the others?

Surely.

November 2, 11:
30 a.m.

Deviation in sector 19 continues

No lessening or wavering

of disturbing element.

That's all.

- Captain, can we start now?

- Mind telling me where we're going?

Your message said an airplane crashed.

Is that what we're looking for?

I don't know, captain.

- I think you better explain.

- I'm sorry.

Miss Nicholson, would you read

Capt. Hendry my first notes?

I was thinking only of the vagueness

of my information. I dislike being vague.

- "November 1 st...

- Yesterday.

...6:
15 p.m. Sound detectors and

seismographs registered explosion due east.

At 6:
18, magnetometer revealed deviation

- That deviation has been constant.

- We ran into it before we got here.

"Such deviation possible only

if a disturbing force equivalent...

...to 20,000 tons of steel or iron ore...

- 20,000 tons?

...had become part of the earth

at about a 50-mile radius."

You're getting a bit beyond me,

but it sounds like a meteor.

Yes, very much. Except for one thing.

- Will, show it to Capt. Hendry.

- Yes, sir.

We have some special telescopic cameras.

On the appearance of radioactivity,

a Geiger counter trips the release...

...and the cameras function.

They were working last evening.

This is the result.

This first picture was taken

three minutes before the explosion...

...or 6:
12.

You can see the small dot

below there in the corner.

On the next picture, one minute later,

that dot is moving from west to east...

...fast enough to form a streak.

- What shutter speed is it?

- 1000th of a second.

- Moving pretty fast. Wasn't it?

Here, at 6:
14, it's moving upward.

and vanishes.

A meteor might move almost horizontal

to the earth but never upward.

- Then it isn't a meteor.

- That's obvious.

How'd you find the distance of impact?

- By computation...

- Dr. Carrington?

- Ready?

- It's quite simple, captain.

We have the time of arrival

of the sound waves and detectors.

And also the arrival time

of the impact waves on the seismograph.

By computing the difference, it becomes

obvious they were caused by the object.

- The distance from here is 48 miles.

- I'll take your word for it.

One thing, doctor. 20,000 tons of steel

is a lot of metal for an airplane.

It is for the sort of airplane

we know, captain.

- Yeah, we'd better be going.

- Redding will check every quarter-hour.

- Will you want me, doctor?

- It won't be necessary.

- You come with us, Bill.

- Yes, doctor.

We'll be there pretty soon now, Pat.

Bob, get Carrington up here.

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