Lars desisted then and must have told Brendan to leave off inquiring, for neither of them said another word until the BB-1066 landed near the Big Hungary Junk-as Killa dubbed it-with the sweet-tuned slivers of crystal that they had salvaged.
"Old home week," she said with unforced gaiety as they suited up.
"Do we know what we're doing, Killa?"Lars asked as he settled his helmet over his head.
"No."
"D'you know why you're doing it?"
"No."
"Maybe the Junk is sentient."
"You mean, some sort of psionic emanations?"Killashandra was not only skeptical but incredulous.
"Why else would you have such a harebrained notion to feed Ballybran crystal to an opalescent rib?" he demanded.
"I got the notion on Sherpa, not in the cave.I could have understood some sort of a connection if I'd thought of it then."
"You probably did," Lars replied, "you just forgot it.And don't snap at me over your lapsus memoriae!Let's get this experiment on the pad."
Even as he spoke he touched the lock release and it cycled open.Oxygen left the airlock with a whoosh.They stepped out on to Opal's cindery hide and followed the bright paint markings to Hungry Junk's precinct.
"Hey, improvement," Lars said as soon as they had descended to the level of the cavern.The blue radiance, edging toward white, made their suit lights unnecessary."Wow!"
"Wow what?"Brendan asked when the silence went on for fifty seconds.
"You're sure your instrumentation doesn't read anything?"Lars asked.
"Not a thing.What occasioned your unusual exhortation?"Brendan asked flippantly.
"We fed it too much," Killashandra replied softly.
"Naw," Lars said, "but we fed it good."
"Tell me, do!" was Brendan's slightly sarcastic remark.
"Sorry, Bren," Killashandra replied, "but it's a bloody shame you can't see.Junk's covered the entire cave, and there are long fingers that we'll probably find have descended to the next level.It's more beautiful than ever, all colors now, reds and oranges and yellows, as well as the blues, dark greens and purples that it originally had.They seem to flow in and out of patterns…"
"Like fractals," Lars added, sounding oddly languid."I could watch-Hey, what'd you do that for?"She'd given him such a push he'd nearly lost his balance.
"You were becoming thralled.Junk's hypnotic."Killa said, her voice sharp."Maybe even addictive."
"Should we give it crystal then?"Lars asked, his tone crisp and alert again.
"That's what we came to do.So let's do it!"
"All the crystals to old Hungry Junk?"
"No, just one," Killashandra said."Let's see what happens."
She pointed to a large swag of the Junk that was flowing toward the floor.Lars took the largest crystal, the B-flat, and, holding it in the calipers, inserted the blue.Junk obligingly flowed over it.
The two crystal singers held their breaths as they watched.
"Yup!"Killashandra let out a triumphant crow."It can't eat crystal."
"It can't?"Brendan asked."What's it doing?"
"Holding it in its cheek," Lars said flippantly, grinning at Killashandra, "having a good taste."The Junk was rippling back and forth across the crystal insertion, going through all the colors of its visible spectrum without altering the outline of cube.Then it seemed to push the cube upward, toward the crown in the center of the ceiling.Though apparently drawn deep into the opalescence, the crystal patently retained its integrity.
"Now what?"Brendan asked when the singers had nothing further to report.
"Look!"In astonishment Killashandra pointed to the half-open sack of crystals at her feet.They pulsed from midblue to dark and then paled."Damn!"She dropped to her knees beside them."Are they singing?Can't hear a bloody thing."
Tentatively Lars placed the tip of his gloved finger on the faceted surface of the nearest one.
"Vibration all right."He grinned in triumph."Communications established?"
"Could be, but pulsations and color alterations are no more intelligible than drum codes-until a code or even a language can be established.And semanticists we are not," Killashandra said, a degree of regret in her voice.
"Then let us by all means leave it to the experts," Brendan said."Around such an unknown quantity, I find that I get almost as nervous for you as I do for Boira."
"Why, thanks, Bren," Killashandra said, touched by the ship's concern."But I don't think we're in any danger."
"You are edible," he replied succinctly.
Killashandra laughed and Lars grinned at her.
"I wonder if any of the other Junk has expanded."
"We only fed this one," she replied."Let's go see."
Lars picked up the remaining crystal, which continued to glow until they had entered the airlock and Brendan had lifted from the immediate vicinity of Big Hungry.They checked the other locations and found that no other formation had increased as significantly as Hungry Junk, although all had begun to flow downward again.
"Got anything on board to feed the starving?"Lars asked.
"In point of fact, I do," Brendan said."Penwyn had non-recyclable wastes he did not care to dispose of on-planet…"
"Dirty stuff?"
"Obliging I am; stupid I'm not!No, most of it's clean litter from the spacefield.I thought we might use the refuse to better effect."
"Indeed we can."Killa said, pleased."I think the Junk's starved too long."
Lars was dubious."We might be making more problems…"
"We might," she said with a shrug, "but I can't not."
"I've kept a file on the metallic and organic content of what we're feeding it," Brendan said.
"Then we do a comparison, a standard scientific practice," Lars replied, dismissing his reservations."We feed four metallic and four organic."
It was tiring work, even in.7 gravity, distributing and feeding eight very hungry opalescents.As they trudged back to the 1066, both singers felt a curious satisfaction in the heightened glow and vigorous flow as Junk ingested their meals.
When they had finished, the two singers returned briefly to the Big Hungry to check on the crystal.
"Not even Junk can eat Ballybran crystal," Killashandra said proudly.
"The cubes you left in the lock, however," Brendan remarked, "have remained dormant."
"Too bad we didn't have any dirty waste to give the Junk," Lars said, "to see if it could digest half-lifes."
Killashandra regarded him warily."You do want to live dangerously, don't you?"
"Well, I don't think we've done any lasting harm.How long can one good meal last Junk?I think we leave this to the experts.Singers we are; scientists we're not."
"We're a lot smarter than that exploratory team who found Junk," Killa said.
"Are we?"
"Who can say at this juncture?"Brendan said, deftly diverting an argument with his outrageous pun.Lars and Killa groaned in unison as he went on."You've done more than you were required to.And, while I hate to press you…" he added tentatively.
"Yes, yes, of course," Killashandra said, suppressing any comment on the fact that he was indeed pressuring them."You're anxious to collect Boira."
"I think we've got more than enough to prove to Lanzecki that we earned our fee," Lars added, giving her a meaningful nod.
She exhaled restively, swinging her arms indecisively.But the men were right: they'd done more than was expected even if not what had been anticipated, finding a Heptite use of the Junk.Its fate would now be decided by others.
Lars moved to the exit arch, and with one more backward look at the surging flow of the Big Hungry's questing "finger," she followed.But the feeling that they hadn't done enough remained with her.