Chapter 12

"Neither would I. It could wipe out a city, all right--any city within a radius of thirty miles. This is _really_ something to watch!" The freighter had encircled Earth twice and was now so close to its blue-green oceans and the dun-colored immensity of its continental land masses that it had almost disappeared from view. It had dwindled to a tiny, glowing pinpoint of radiance crossing the face of the planet, an erratically weaving firefly that had abandoned all hope of guiding itself by a light that was about to f…