Fifteen minutes.
I watched the tentacles of the Keeper grope over the tablet. Abruptly the flaming pyramid darkened—WENT OUT.
The radiant pillar hurtled upward like a thunder-bolt; vanished in space.
Before us stood the mount of cones, shrunken to a sixth of its former size.
Sixteen minutes.
All about the crater-lip the ringed shields tilted; thrust themselves on high, as though behind each was an eager lifting arm. Below them the hived clusters of disks changed from globules into wide coronets.
Seventeen minutes.
I dropped my wrist; seized the glasses from Drake; raised them to the sun. For a moment I saw nothing—then a tiny spot of white incandescence shone forth at the lower edge of the great spot. It grew into a point of radiance, dazzling even through the shadowed lenses.
I rubbed my eyes; looked again. It was still there, larger—blazing with an ever increasing and intolerable intensity.
I handed the glasses to Drake, silently.