his shot missed the animal's head and tore through
some part of her left wing. She spun to the left, rose perhaps a
thousand feet, facing the city, sideslipped, recovered herself and
fought for altitude. She could not gain it. In the effort she collided
with two of the following planes. One of them smashed into her right
side behind the wing, the other flipped end over end across her back,
like a swatted dragonfly. It dropped clear and made a mess on Bedloe's
Island.

She too was falling, in a long slant, silent now but still living. After
the impact her body thrashed desolately on the wreckage between
Lexington and Seventh Avenues, her right wing churning, then only
trailing, in the East River, her left wing a crumpled slowly deflating
mass concealing Times Square, Herald Square and the garment district.

At the close of the struggle her neck extended, her turtle beak grasping
the top of Radio City. She was still trying to pull herself up, as the
buoyant gasses hissed and bubbled away through the gushing holes in her
side. Radio City collapsed with her.

For a long while after the roar of descending rubble and her own roaring
had ceased, there was no human noise except a melancholy thunder of the
planes.

The apology came early next morning.

The spaceship was observed to descend to the outer limits of atmosphere,
very briefly. A capsule was released, with a parachute timed to open at
40,000 feet and come down quite neatly in Scarsdale. Parachute, capsule
and timing device were of good workmanship.

The communication engraved on a plaque of metal (which still defies
analysis) was a hasty job, the English slightly odd, with some evidence
of an incomplete understanding of the situation. That the visitors were
themselves aware of these deficiencies is indicated by the text of the
message itself.

Most sadly regret inexcusable escape of livestock. While
petting same, one of our children monkied (sp?) with airlock.
Will not happen again. Regret also imperfect grasp of
language, learned through what you term Television etc.
Animal not dangerous, but observe some accidental damage
caused, therefore hasten to enclose reimbursement, having
taken liberty of studying your highly ingenious methods of
exchange. Hope same will be adequate, having estimated
deplorable inconvenience to best of ability. Regret
exceedingly impossibility of communicating further, as