East and West -- Fiction; Giants -- Fiction; Science fiction
"Wish there were some humans, or something else to give a scale," said
Baker. "For all we can tell, it could be anything from doll houses and a
life sized statue, all the way up to an air base, and a reclining Buddha
to end all reclining Buddhas."
There was an expectant pause. Stimson, seeing that we had nothing more
to add, cleared his throat, glanced briefly out of the window behind his
chair, and hunched forward.
"This picture was made from an F-180A, modified for photo
reconnaissance. The plane was on a routine flight from Singapore to
Mindanao, over a solid deck of clouds. The pilot swung south over Yat
just out of curiosity. He approached the island at 50,000 feet, using
radar, and was about to pass over when he spotted a hole in the
overcast. Time was 1800--just sunset--but the edge of the crater was
well lighted, although the bottom was in deep shadow. More important,
the smoke generators had been turned off. Obviously the clouds had just
parted, and would close in again in a minute. The presence of the F-180A
at this particular instant was just one of those one in a million lucky
breaks. The pilot realized this. He put the ship into a dive and ordered
his photographer to ready the cameras.
"The plane approached Yat at a speed above Mach 1.2, so there was no
audible warning, and evidently the island's radar was off, for the
surprise was complete. Within 90 seconds the F-180A closed level just
over the crater and shot past with only a thin stratus layer between it
and ground. Time over the crater was hardly 10 seconds, and neither
pilot nor observer saw anything, but the synchronous vertical camera was
operating and four flashes were made during the middle four seconds.
Then the plane was in the clouds again at a 45 degree climb and a dozen
miles towards the Philippines before anyone on Yat could even get
outdoors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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