"Look north," ordered Bud, "and east ... about thirty thousand
elevation. If you see five black dots in the sky, they ain't
asterisks--they're us. Flight B, keeping an eye on the Mountain that
Walks Like a Man."
"Then he--he's in sight?"
"How can you miss him? He's bigger than the landscape. Can't you see
him yet?"
"No."
"Well, I'm afraid you will. He's heading your way now. Keep an eye on
the horizon and--"
A sudden roar rose from the throngs swarming the safeway. It was a roar
of fear, but deeper even than the note of fear was that of awe. Rocky,
looking up from his vocoder swiftly, beheld two things simultaneously.
First--the dawn of a new day. Saturn-rise, breaking swiftly, suddenly,
over the horizon, brooming all shadows in its path immediately. And the
second phenomenon--
* * * * *
Colossus! Colossus rising over the horizon ... a head, then mighty
neck, broad shoulders, naked torso ... rising from the other side of
the world like a vast, bestial nightmare. A tremendous Colossus whose
head was so far above the veiled cloudlets of Titan that from time to
time he was forced to bob and weave in order to avoid collision with
the "rogues," those tiny bits of cosmic debris escaped from Saturn's
Ring which besprinkle space in the neighborhood of the girdled planet.
"Rocky!" Bud was chattering on the vocoder. "Rocky, what's the matter.
CX, Rocky Russell. CX, Rocky Russell.... Are you all right, Rocky?"
Rocky answered slowly, "I'm all right, Bud. But I just saw him. We all
just saw him. He--he's tremendous!"
"You're telling me? See them manacles? He's grown so big they've split
in half ... right up the back! They look like the only reason they're
hanging on is because they're imbedded in his flesh! And his height....
Whew! The navigator here just shot an estimate! Over six thousand feet,
Rocky! Colossus is more than a mile high!"
Rocky said, "Keep on the beam, Bud, and don't mind if I don't answer
you immediately. I'm fighting my way north on the safeway, hunting for
Lynn. She's in New Boston--"
"New Boston!" Bud's voice was horror-stricken. "My Lord, no! She
mustn't be, Rocky! That's where he's heading for right now. He can see
it ... he's got a glint in his eye ... a blood-lust.... Oh, great gods
of space.... Rocky!"
The voice died in a tiny wail.
Russell needed no explanation of his agonized words. For he, too, saw
the climax of that frightful action. Colossus had climbed completely
over the horizon, now. There was no doubt he had spotted the city.
He seemed fascinated by its twin towers. Like a destructive child
experimenting with some new toy he leaned over, gripped the spire of
the nearest between a massive thumb and forefinger ... and snapped it
off!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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