"Radio reporting. All tracking and control stations reported or relayed in."
There was a pause. Then: "Stand by." The silence seemed to grow even more intense. The ticking of clocks and watches could be heard. The unreal atmosphere of a dream settled over the clustered buildings on the plain.
"Activators!"
Out on the plain, the rocket came to life. It surged and clattered against its launching rack, nearly leaping, pawing the ground with hot explosive blasts. Now it became a living wild thing, a bound monster surging against its chains, fighting to be free and away.
The voice, in a short while, came again, a little strained. "Ready.... Ready.... Ready.... ROCKET AWAY!"
The great, gleaming monster lifted up from the plain, bellowing its defiance of space with the voice of ten thousand waterfalls. It rode up from the center of a tremendous flower of glowing dust on a pillar of intense blue flame, slowly gathering speed, like a whale rushing up from the depths of the ocean.
For a while it lighted up miles of rolling plain with its glare, and sent its thunder out to crash against distant hills. Then it was gone beyond heavy clouds, leaving only a smear of light above and a hollow, boiling rumble, muted by distance.
In the thin, cold air above the clouds the rocket pointed its sharp nose eastward. It raced across the sky, a blue streaking and a stuttering scream. It crossed a nation with amazing speed and moved over the Atlantic.
In an instant the moon and the stars were gone and the rocket was looking at the sun. Clear morning fled away in fear of this flaming beast and it was noon within minutes after sunrise. In an hour the night returned, the stars and the moon with it.