Six O'Clock on the Lakebed

A vast dry lakebed in the California desert in the early morning, long shadows across hard pale clay, distant hangars and brown mountains, a small rocket aircraft painted bright orange all over, a pointed nose with a long thin probe, short straight thin wings, one tall bare orange tail fin, four round nozzles at the tail, every surface plain uniform orange, the aircraft on a low steel cradle beneath the open belly doors of a large four-engined aircraft whose underside is bare polished aluminium, plain and unmarked, a rubber hose across the clay, beside the cradle an empty folding table with a film canister, the scene empty of people.