"Sorry, this is restricted territory." " I seem to be lost..." " Where do you want to go?" "I left Phoenix, made a side trip to Lobos City." "I got off this road." "Haven't seen a sign for 40 miles." "Right here is where you made your wrong turn." "Who are you?" "What are you doing here?" "You have no business here." "How'd you get past the guard?" "Dr. Eliot..." "This guy broke in." "I couldn't help it." "He conked me." "Are you all right?" " Better call the hospital." " Better call the morgue." " What happened to him?" " Looks like a heart attack." "Take him out of here." "Sure, Doc, sure." "Atta girl, Susie." "I knew you'd come through." "What are you doing here in the salt mines?" "Didn't you and Vera have a date to go to the movies?" "Leaving right away." "I just dropped in to check on M47." "Here the data on M47's orbit." "Susie just finished the job." "Come on, Arnie." "Take a look." "There." "Like I always say, after you've seen one asteroid you've seen them all." "Sure, to you she's just a set of intercorrelated coordinates, what fun is that?" "She's a beauty all right." "Have you named her yet?" "I don't think I know her well enough to call her by name." "After all, I haven't even computed her ecliptic yet." "Great Scott!" "What's the matter?" "That thing is changing its course." "It looks the same to me." "You haven't been watching it as long as I have." "The orbit shows a slight perturbation, but it could be a grav pull from the moon." "No, I doubt it." "I set the exposure meter at 10 minute intervals." "Maybe we got enough photos to make a fix." " Is there anyone in the darkroom?" " Yeah, Vera is, of course." "Let's get down there, right away!" " How we doing, Vera?" " Here there are, Les." "What do you make of it, Arnie?" "Looks like a good 15 degree shift to me." "It's a little out of my line, Les." "But Susie can give us the straight dope, with no guess work." "Yeah..." "Let's run a double check before we take these to Dr. Eliot." "Get 'em dried off and bring them right upstairs." "There goes our movie." "Aw...chin up, Vera." "The movie was probably a dog anyway." "Right, Susie?" "Susie gets a lot more attention than I do." "Susie's going into her differential phase." " I never get tired of watching her." " Neither do I." " But why Susie?" " Very simple." "Synchro Unifying Sinometric Integrating Equitensor." "Put 'em all together, they spell Susie." "Well, it won't be long now, Les." "Everything points to the same conclusion." "Spectroscopic shift to the violet plotting coordinates..." " Having trouble, Dr. Culver?" " I can't figure it out." "The interlace and the diode loop went right out of sync for no reason." "I'm sure you'll be able to find it [?" "]." "Dr. Eliot, we've run on something you'll be interested in.." "Input level okay." "Feedback negligible." "Cathode checks." "Susie, speak to me!" "Seems like your girlfriend's getting temperamental." "Very interesting, Gaskell." "If your assumption turns out to be justified." "It's more than an assumption, Dr. Eliot." "Oh, of course." "Pardon the unfortunate choice of word." "Let me know if you find out anything more about the new orbit." " I can't figure him out." " He didn't seem to believe you at all." "Les, I'm stumped." "It may be an all night job before I find the bug." "Anything we can do?" "Nah, it's gonna take lots of work to get Susie back in shape." "Look, why don't you two go on to the show." "All right." "Might as well." "See you latter" "Come on, Les." "If we hurry, we'll just make the feature." "Yeah, oh sure." "That's the starter button, right there on the dash." "I should have phoned Professor Winter at Palomar or Burns at Harvard." "Oh, Les!" "Well, we'll want verification from other observatories anyway." "That's the only thing that'll ever convince Eliot I'm right." "Here we go again!" "I better go back and see what Arnie doing." "Besides, there probably will be more film to develop any minute." "I don't know when I've enjoyed a movie so much." "I'm sorry, honey." "I don't understand you, Les." "You've never been so tense about a planetoid before." "Well, M47 is my baby!" "Naturally I worry about her when she's ailing." "I know you better than that." "Something else is on your mind." "Yeah, that swing out of orbit not normal." "When I saw it I got a kind of chill." " It's weird!" " Very scientific." "Oh, I have my unscientific moments." "Would you be having one now?" "Maybe." "Say, you about through down there?" "What?" "Oh, yeah." "Susie's back on deck and rarin' to go!" "Diameter: 4.9 miles." "Mass over 6000 megatons and speed of 1750 miles per second." "And destination:" "Earth." "We can only hope it burns itself out when it enters the atmosphere" "With that mass, not a chance!" "Perhaps you're right." "Perhaps I've underestimated both of you." "That's not important now, sir." "What is important is M47 will strike the Earth within 16 hours." "And it must not be permitted to strike at all." " How can we prevent it?" " A job for the Army." "They've got the guided missiles, the nuclear warheads." "Intercept and destroy it before it strikes." "Standby to ready missiles." "Missiles ready." "Connect automatic radar tracking." "Missiles connected to tracking radar." "Standby to fire missiles." "Standing by." "All stations, at my signal the time will be X minus one minute." "All stations at my signal the time will be X minus 20 seconds." "Repeat, X minus 20 seconds." "19, 18, 17, 16, 15," "14, 13, 12, 11," "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5," "4, 3, 2, 1, fire!" "I will now announce time to intercept." "25, 24, 23, 22," "21, 20, 19, 18," "17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12," "11, 10," " 9, 8, 7..." " They found the target." " 6, 5, 4..." " The missiles are converging." "Guard your eyes." "... One, zero!" " What's happening, Les?" " Hard to say." "I think the missiles have done the trick." " No, wait." " What is it?" " What do you make of it, Arnie?" " It's not destroyed at all." "Those rockets carried enough explosive force to blow up all of New York." "They had no effect at all!" " Something's happening." " What, what?" "Get Eliot!" "Les!" "Failure of the atomic missiles to explode the asteroid is still an unexplained mystery." "General Miles reports other steps are being taken to cope with the emergency, but refuses to give details." "The atomic warheads seem to have had an effect on the object, however, causing it to veer in its course." "Unofficial estimates are that the asteroid will land somewhere on the North American continent, but no two experts agree exactly where that will be." "Chances of the object striking a large city are remote." "The Mayor, the police commissioner of New York urge all the people to stay where they are, and not, I repeat, not give way to unfounded rumors." "The asteroid is heading in the general direction of New York, but it hoped that it will pass over without damage to the city." "That unusual sound you hear is being given off by the approaching asteroid." "Ladies and gentlemen, please stay tuned to this station." "We will try to keep on the air." "We understand that static from the asteroid is interfering." "We hope the danger will be over any second." "The people of North American breathed more easily today." "By providential chance, the giant body missed the heavy centers of population and plunged into the Pacific" " off the Mexican coast." " Turn that thing off!" "Many churches are holding special services of thanksgiving for the deliverance from..." "Deliverance!" ""Danger averted!"" "What's the matter with them?" "Can't they see any farther than their noses." "Several scientific institutions are already talking about plans to" " send expeditions to study it." " Plans?" "!" "Do you realise how long it takes a scientific expedition to get under way?" "!" " I think I do." " Months!" "Les, the asteroid will stay put." "How do we know it will?" " What are you talking about?" " Look, Arnie..." "You and I saw M47 swerve in its path, take a course impossible to explain by natural physical laws" " Didn't we?" " Yes, we did." "Any mass ten times its size and density should have been pulverized by that atomic barrage, but it wasn't!" "Instead, it changed its path again, struck downward towards the Earth." "Like a wounded animal lashing out at its tormentor." " Well, what does all this add up to?" " What, Les?" "Intelligence." "Now, don't laugh." "Maybe it's just a crazy hunch, but..." "I got a feeling I'd like to go down there right now." "To Mexico?" "What'll ya see?" "I don't know." "Maybe nothing." "What about Eliot?" "He'll have to give his approval, won't he?" "Right now he's in no position to approve or disapprove!" " Oh, but Les..." " Look, Arnie..." "What if it is an intelligent being of some sort from... somewhere out there?" "Will it wait for our scientific expeditions to get under way 6 months, a year from now?" "Or will it make a move of its own..." " before that?" " From under 2 miles of ocean?" "Why not?" "It came through a billion miles of space." "You better turn back." "We're running short of gas." "[Speaking Spanish]" "It is very good." "That Vera!" "Packs our equipment and leaves out the chemicals!" "Is this what you're referring to, Dr. Gaskell?" "Vera!" "How did you get down here?" "!" "Took a plane to Mazatlan." "Hired a Jeep for the rest of the way." "Wow!" " You know what I mean." " I thought you might need these." "If you hadn't been so careless." "Careless, like a fox." "I don't know what you're referring to, Dr. Culver?" "Never mind." "Look, you must be hungry." "They tell me this Mexican food is just wonderful." "[Speaking Spanish]" "Water!" "Water!" "Hurry, water!" "Eighty-two." "I'll do it." "Yes I understand." "Yes!" "I..." "I'll do it." "Cigarette?" "No, thanks." "Hey, Les..." "Manuel wants us to go clam digging with him." " How about it?" " Uh-uh." "Vera?" "No, thanks." "I've already dug up a clam." "I'm sorry, Vera." "Well, I've had more thrilling dates." "Look, Vera, this thing is on my mind." "Well, there's not a thing you can do about it 'til morning." "Why don't you stop worrying and try to relax?" "We'll go over the whole area again with a fine tooth comb..." " ...start out before dawn." " And if you don't find anything?" "At least we can get back to Labcentral before Eliot learns what a fool I made of myself." "You know, somebody might think that you're disappointed in not finding some... horrible beast from another planet." "I can't get over the awful feeling that this is the calm... and that the storm is going to break out any minute." "I never looked at the night sky without an awareness that there's more out there than we can ever hope to understand." "Things we might sense if we weren't too stupid to admit their existence." "Doctor, look at this." "Sedative, Nurse." "It's having no effect." "Ask Dr. Williams to prepare the patient for shock treatment." "Yes, Doctor." " Dr. Gaskell?" " Hmm?" " Will you marry me?" " Why, Miss Hunter!" " Can you cook?" " Cook?" "I wrote the book!" "Sew?" "I whipped this up all by myself." "Do you think you'll be able to respect a husband who's probably pulled the scientific boner of all time?" "Les, look!" "Les..." "Les, that thing!" "Look at the size of it!" "I knew it." "I knew it." "This is a great improvement." "Electroshock therapy daily, until further orders." "Yes, Doctor." "Dr. Eliot, do you hear me?" "Yes, yes!" "I want you to rest, quietly." "You've been through quite a siege." " Then it's true!" " Dr. Eliot!" "It's not a dream." "It did happen!" "You're not yourself, Doctor." "I'm myself for the first time since..." " How long is it since..?" "!" " Dr. Eliot, I must insist!" " Nurse!" " No, no, you've got to listen to me!" " What is it, Doctor?" " Call an orderly, hurry!" "For God's sake, listen!" "I don't know how much time I may have." "Please, let me explain." "You've got to help me." "Help me, Doctor." "That fog, you could cut it with a knife." "Occasionally, I get these lucid moments." "Yes, go on..." " Everything seems clear then?" " No" "No, that's just it it's clear and it's not." "I know I'm doing something terribly wrong." " During the periods you can't remember?" " Yes, but..." "But I can't tell what it is." "I just know that... it's as if I'm not myself, but somebody else." "Someone evil and dangerous." "Someone who should not be allowed to live." "You have impulses to do away with yourself?" "Not myself, but the other one." "This force inside me." "Have you ever tried to commit suicide, Dr. Eliot?" "What good would it do?" "He would live on..." "command the stars!" " What did you say?" " Command the..." "You don't believe me, do you?" " Of course I do, Dr. Eliot." " No, you don't." "Think I'm insane." "I'm not insane!" "This is the truth." "This is what's happening." "You've got to believe me!" "May 23rd." "The patient exhibits a marked paranoid syndrome, with manic-depressive effects." "The clinical picture is atypical, in that encephalogram readings are opposite to expected findings." "A patient's Alpha waves are violent during his lucid moments and read almost normal during his more violent seizures." "Electroshock therapy seems to bring on patient's fantasies, rather than to quiet them." "The patient is convinced he is possessed by a demon, an incubus which dominates his actions and makes him carry out its will." "Through this demon he is telepathic, dominating at a distance the inhabitants of some undisclosed world who subsist on pure electrical or atomic energy." "Finding their planet depleted, they are scourging the universe for fresh supplies." "Les, look!" "My glasses!" "My glasses!" "Les!" "Jump, Vera!" "May 24th." "Under continued shock treatment the patient's fantasy takes on more detail." "A great energy storehouse or to use the patient's word, accumulator has landed on this earth under the direction and control of his incubus." "Unless stopped some how, others will land and suck the Earth dry of all electrical and atomic energy resources." "Patient's cerebrospinal pressure has risen to 20 mm." "His blood chemistry shows an abnormal consumption of energy." "A thalamic examination shows marked abnormality." "Electroencephalogram..." "still atypical." " Doctor?" " What are you doing up?" "Give me that record." "But these recordings are private, you know that." "The things I told you must not be known." "You mean... you?" "!" "Impossible!" "Now you're the only one that knows, and you will never tell." "The strange monster is alleged to have appeared without warning at this isolated spot on the shore of the Pacific," "100 miles south of [?" "]." "The story was phoned in from Los Santos by Dr. Leslie Gaskell, the well known and reputable scientist from Labcentral." "He flew down to investigate the asteroid." "We've recorded Dr. Gaskell's report and here is a portion of it." "Thought we'd found an earthquake..." "We saw it standing." "It's about 100 feet high, made of gleaming metal." "I can only think of the giant Kronos." "It hasn't moved, since." "It may not have dangerous intent, but certainly looks formidable." "As you can hear the telephone connection from Los Santos was very poor." "Dr. Gaskell's mention of the giant Kronos, refers to the great evil monster of that name from Greek mythology." "A good name for this modern Kronos." "Perhaps one that will catch on." "Here's an artist's conception, drawn after Dr. Gaskell's description." "Pretty scary looking, isn't it?" "Perhaps a gift from another world to ours." "Who knows?" "Speaking of Labcentral, Dr. Hubbell Eliot, Director of Labcentral, was discharged today from Phoenix General Hospital, only a few hours after the tragic death of his attending physician, Dr. Albert R. Stern." "The well known neuropsychiatrist was accidentally electrocuted in his own laboratory by a defective circuit." "Navarez Electro." "Navarez Electro." "Navarez Electro." " There he is!" " That's the Navarez Electro plant." "Great Caesar's Ghost!" "Military planes!" "This is Captain Torres, Mexican Air Force." "Evacuate area at once and do not approach military objective." "Give me the mic." "You're not thinking of attacking that thing are you?" "!" "Discontinue radio, please, and evacuate military area." "I've never been down in the insulation chamber before." "There's nothing to be afraid of." "The Alpha chamber is lined with lead and titanium 4 feet thick." "It can withstand any cosmic ray known." "Fine!" " Who is?" " Gaskell." "Just a moment." "Dr. Eliot," " did you give this interview?" " That's right." "They can't do it." "Don't you understand, they can't!" "The Pentagon has given the green light." "Preparations are already underway." "You haven't seen that monster, Dr. eliot!" "Are you suggesting that anything in this universe can withstand a multiple thermonuclear attack?" "You yourself have generated the heat of a dozen suns in the nuclear furnace on the other side of that wall." "I tell you that Kronos has plates more impervious still." "Not only can he withstand any force we're able to throw against him, but he will actually absorb that energy." " Become more powerful from it." " Have you any proof of this, Gaskell?" "No positive proof, but I'm convinced that the giant sucks up energy like a sponge, feeds on it, is a walking storehouse of energy!" "And you propose to feed it the most concentrated dose of pure energy that man has ever been able to devise!" "Why did he choose a power plant in the first place?" "Who knows." "A boulder rolling down a mountain doesn't know or care what it destroys in its path." "You're falling into a trap, Doctor, if you think of this thing as blind, undirected." "Its very construction is proof of intelligence, of a degree of organization man may not realize on this earth for another thousand years." "If man is still around." "All right, Leslie." "What would you do to stop this thing?" " I don't know yet, but..." " See you have no positive plan." "In the meantime, the giant is marching up the coast of Mexico." "It's turned inland." "We can not wait 'til it reaches populated territory." "We must hit it, now!" "Les!" "Les!" "Right, Arnie." "Got it." "Just what I need." "Les, this something you should know." "The Phoenix Hospital just phoned and..." "Dr. Eliot?" "I'm sorry, I thought..." "What were they telling at the hospital about me?" "Why, nothing." "Nothing..." "There's no need to lie." "I know very well what they told you." "Les!" " Les!" " Hang on, Arnie." "Les!" "Eliot!" "Be careful, Les, he's a maniac!" "Dr. Eliot..." "Are you all right, Dr. Eliot?" "!" "Listen." "I don't know how much time I have." "Gaskell, you must listen." "Gaskell," "Here on Earth we have learned only one half the nuclear secret." "We can transform matter into energy." "Up there, they have the other half." "They transmute energy into matter!" "They have learned how to create the basic elements of matter." "Electrically and atomically." "You mean like the experiments Halard at Boston Tech has been conducting?" "But their planet has become depleted of energy." "How can that be?" "What has happened to them may well happen here, if we continue using our resources at the present rate." "Now they're sending down accumulators to find and store up new sources of energy." "Life's blood." "So that's how the giant grows." " How can we ever stop it?" " I don't know." "Reverse the process, somehow." "Kronos... only the first." "If he succeeds, more will come, drain the Earth of energy, of every last bit of power." "The bomb..." "Get me the Pentagon." "Well, clear the line!" "This is an emergency!" "I don't care if the plane is on its way." "Call it back!" "That bomb must not go off!" "Contact BX-89 and order him to return to base at once." "Yes, sir." "Ground Control to BX-89." "BX-89, you are to return to base." "Repeat, return to base immediately." "Am I reading you right?" "You say..." "You are reading me." "Return to base at once." "But we are in sight of objective!" "You heard the order." "Return to your base at once." "Yes, sir." "BX -89, are you returning to base?" "We're out of control." "The controls are frozen!" "We are being pulled to the objective." "Control to BX-89." "Come in, BX-89." "All right, let's go over it once more." "Kronos was governed by a distant intelligence." "Somehow fastened on Dr. Eliot." "The records from the hospital all fall in line now." "Right!" "Vera, run that tape again, will you?" "Gaskell, you must listen." "Here on Earth we have learned only one half the nuclear secret." "We can transform matter into energy." "Up there, they have the other half." "They transform energy into matter." "Energy into matter." "Anthropic conversion!" "How can we ever stop it?" "I don't know." "Reverse the process, somehow." "Yes, but how?" "How, in heaven's name?" "Oh, come on, old girl." "I know I'm asking an awful lot." "Please don't go into a nervous breakdown." "Nervous breakdown?" "Susie can stand just so much input, then her feedback circuit overloads and jams and she goes into a regular tizzy." "Wait..." "Couldn't we do that to Kronos?" "What do you mean?" "Apply the Attenberg Theorem." "Destroy the monster with his own energy." "Set up a field of force...here!" "A concentrated shower of Omega particles." "Matter derived from energy, could cause change of polarity!" "A reversal process would trigger the conversion." "Kronos power to destroy would be turned upon himself!" "By setting up an internal chain reaction, Kronos would become his own executioner." "Yes..." "Yes, thank you." "I'll tell him." " Think it'll work?" " It'll have to." "Kronos is headed for the atom bomb stockpile at Hueneme." "Once the news got out that Kronos was heading for Los Angeles it was impossible to prevent panic." "Police and National Guard have been powerless to stem the wild rush away from the doomed city." "Military authorities state that the city is in the monster's path on his way to the huge stockpile of nuclear weapons at Hueneme." "One more hope remains." "Dr. Leslie Gaskell of Labcentral, at this moment, is closeted with officers at an air force base just outside Los Angeles while a lone jet plane wings in from Boston Institute of Technology with rare radioactive elements on his order." "What Dr. Gaskell proposes to do, the world has no idea." "Nor, scientist that he is, will he make any firm predictions about an event hedged with so many unknowns." "If your plan fails, only the mountains can stop him." " It can't fail." " It won't." "I know it won't." "Right!" "We made radio contact with the jet." "We're switching controls to the control tower." "4J574 calling AFB144." "Can you pinpoint objective for me?" "Objective is at 27 14 52 North." "175 18 07 West." "How soon can you make contact?" "Urgent!" "Contact within 4 minutes." "Report back when you sight objective." "Right!" "4J574 calling AFB144." "Come in 4J574." "Objective sighted." "Dead ahead." "Hang on." "Get me Meteorology." "MT3." "MT3, pilot has made contact with objective." "Take over." "Right." "MT3 to 4J574." "Go ahead, MT3." "Wind drift: 8 miles per hour and 160 degrees." "Approach target at 20,000 feet." "Air speed: 360 from 320 degrees." " Fire 1 mile 7 tenths in advance of target." " Check." "That wind better hold steady." "Just better hold steady." "Leveling up at 20,000." "Proceed." "Okay, [?" "], here I come." "MT3 to 4J574." "The wind has shifted." "Cancel target run and circle for further instructions." "Got you." "Sergeant!" "MT3 to 4J574." "Wind now at 195 degrees." "Drift: 6 mile per hour." "Approach 360 air speed at 20,000 from 15 degrees." " Fire 1 mile 9 tenths in advance." " Check." "Les, you've done it." "You've done it!" " Thank heaven." " What'll happen now?" "The chain reaction will keep on until the last stored electron of mass has been neutralized." "Kronos is literally eating himself up alive." "We're witnessing his death throes." "I can get back to Susie and you two can go to the movies." "Les, do you think they'll send any more down?" "If they do, we'll be ready from them."