(Val tried to shield Amber from the impact of the deadly globules)

The falling objects were near enough now to be discerned as tiny globes of varicolored metal, the size of Terrestrial golf balls. They were either gossamer light in structure or else partially filled with some buoyant gas, for they descended with the soft slowness of falling snowflakes.

Their release had been aimed with superb accuracy. They settled downward in a vast, evenly spaced blanket that reached almost to the limits of the Khaldorian section, and no farther.

The many-hued globules made a sight of eldritch beauty in the pale sunlight in the last few moments before they struck. Had it not been for the blasted traffic planes, Barnes thought grimly, the shower of shimmering little bubbles might almost have been taken for some new and spectacular stunt on the between the halves program.