The second asteroid followed
a near-vertical course and slammed with tremendous force into the
ground a half mile from the atmosphere-generating plant. The sun rose
onto a land choked with dust. When the dust settled back to the surface
about midday, the people of Westcott saw only a crater a mile and a
half wide. There was no sign that any human artifice had ever existed
on the spot.
Almost sixteen hours later, on an overcast afternoon in the empty
northwest, the third asteroid struck. Its target was the atmosphere
plant located 51 degrees north of the equator and 141 degrees west of
the central meridian-southwest of a small crater which was the home of
a town called Morris. It was centrally located for miners, prospectors,
farmers, arborists, and mobile scientists, who lived near or roamed
throughout the locale.
By this time Zimbardo's message was known all over the planet and the
utter destruction of the first two atmosphere generators had shown that
his threat was to be taken seriously. Morris had been abandoned, and
its 25,000 residents were in panicky flight to the northeast, opposite
the plant. Few people saw the asteroid make a direct hit on the two
billion solar complex.
Seven hours and 12 minutes later, the fourth asteroid demolished the
atmosphere plant located nine degrees south of the equator and 167
degrees east of the central meridian.
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