Part 14 (1/2)
”What are the flying stingarees?” he asked quietly
Scotty shi+fted position in his chair and looked at Rick quizzically
”You don't expect an answer But I can tell you a few things they are not”
”Tell away,” Rick urged
”They are not flying saucers, aircraft, kites, sting rays, birds, fish, or good red herrings Beyond that, deponent sayeth not, as the legal boys say”
”Uh-huh And why are they not flying saucers?”
”For the same reason they're not aircraft If you recall all the talks with people who've seen them, they don't maneuver, and they don't travel very fast They appear--or they're noticed, let's say--and they just get smaller and smaller until they vanish They move, but not much”
Rick nodded ”The circle we drew around all the sightings doesn't cover a very large territory All the sightings have been within that circle
People had to look toward Swa interesting They grew srow smaller?”
”Apparent size decreases with distance,” Scotty replied prohtings are all within a circle only a few miles in dias had to be going up”
Rick agreed ”That's how I figure it, too It also explains why the circle of sightings is so ser visible Or they're not so visible that they attract attention I suppose we could work out soe an object can be seen readily at what distance? Then we could apply a little trigonoreed, ”but do we need to? Let's assu was it?”
Rick thought it over He had had only a quick gliray of the storm His vision had been obscured because of the rain ”Maxiht tall
It was probably less”
”Okay So the reason sightings are confined to this area is because the objects are fairly small When people see them, they're relatively close, and fairly low Even the ser than the flying stingarees, but when the planes go over at about five thousand feet, they seearees ood visibility”
”I read you loud and clear So the objects are sent froht up, though The wind carries them The reason I think so is that the one I saw ht down the creek towardeffect of the creek and into the river, then it went up pretty fast At least it seemed to have risen fast when I looked over the top of the boat at it”
Scotty crunched an ice cube ”We're getting so thing I know of Are you with me?”
Rick finished his drink ”Balloon,” he said crisply
”On the bea that doesn't fit is the shape”
Rick asked, ”What's a balloon? It's just a gas-tight container We're used to thinking of balloons as spheres, because it's the most efficient shape for internal pressure But a balloon can be any shape Another thing--balloons for high altitudes aren't fully inflated on the ground
Maybe the flying stingarees have a different shape when they get higher and in less dense atas distends thee, too, if you didn't want people to recognize the balloon But ould a strange assortment of characters like Merlin and company send up balloons?” Scotty wondered
Rick s that myself Would they send up a balloon that didn't carry so anything?”
Rick sat upright ”Maybe it was! You know, I haven't even thought of it since then, but I think there was a splash when it went by Soed off the rail over me, even if it didn't dent the rail
Do you suppose the thing dropped its payload right next to us?”