Its shards cracked, too; and its shards' shards. It was dust before it hit the ground.
On all sides, it was the same. Everywhere in the amphitheatre the aliens were shattering to atoms. In seconds, not one of them remained.
Convulsively, Dane twisted; managed to throw one anguished glance upward to the silver needle that was the Sandoz Shaft.
But so fast was the shaft vibrating that it now looked less like a needle than a flash of silver light.
Dane sagged back. Dully, he wondered how long it would take a man to die this way. Certainly there must be a limit to the amount of such maltreatment the human form could stand.
Yet he knew strength was not in him to break loose, tear away.
Was this, then, his destiny? Must he die here, a living conduit for the power now activating the Sandoz Shaft?
What a goal for a compulsion! What an end to a dream! He couldn't even see the spot where Nelva Guthrie lay....
Time blurred, after that. There were moments when he was conscious; more when he was not.
When he first heard the drone of the carrier's landing beam, he thought he was delirious.