Keff heard a whine of stressed metal as something else hit the side of the ship.

They turned round to see Lamm, a distant figure against the far-away clouds, firing up at flyer-pad supports five or six decks above, the invisible beam licking flame around the stressed metal.

The stressed metal groaned as it shifted, and small pieces fell off and rattled to the bottom of the chasm below.

The stressed metal had been drawn very fine, and seemed about to snap.

These mechanisms enable a stressed metal to be rapidly filled with dislocations (something like 10 per square centimetre) and thus to flow under a steady load or the blow of a hammer quite easily.

The pouch-seat clutched me again as the ship suddenly bounced sideways with another grinding crunch and shriek of stressed metal.

When the crashing stopped, noise still remained, a whining, droning symphony of stressed metal and escaping air and gases like sobbing breathing.

Paris hoped the guy wasn't hurting himself in there, when a squeal of stressed metal made him cringe.

There was a squall of stressed metal.

With a groan of stressed metal, the Nautilus popped free.