Sweet Nothings

Sweet Nothings
The Abduction of Psyche
The British Are Coming
The Broken Pitcher
one-point-eight meters in height and an enormous six meters long. But the mound'ssize was of only secondary importance. What was truly astounding, if a surveillancemachine could ever be astounded, was the amount of heat radiating from beneath themound. The creature under that snowy hill must surely be well protected against thecold. A thin blue-white beam of light shot from one of the probe robot's appendages,its intense heat boring into the white mound and scattering gleaming snow flecks inall directions. The mound began to shiver, then to quake. Whatever existed beneath it wasdeeply irritated by the robot's probing laser beam. Snow began to fall away from themound in sizable clumps when, at one end, two eyes showed through the mass ofwhite. Huge yellow eyes peered like twin points of fire at the mechanical creature thatcontinued to blast away with its painful beams. The eyes burned with primevalhatred for the thing that had interrupted its slumber.