"Brendan, did you have to tell Boira about that?"Killa asked, halfway between irritation and amusement.
"She insisted that I explain why I spent so much credit on food stores."
"Why?Did she think you'd wined and dined pretty girls all in a row while she was incapacitated?And thank you, Boira, I am hungry, but not starved and certainly nowhere near another Passover gorge."
Boira liked food as much as Killa did, and they compared notes until the next Jump.Both women were spared the company of the Saplinson-Trills, though Boira periodically enquired solicitously after their health and well-being.The two did emerge when the last Jump brought them into the Opal system.Rudney asked Brendan to open a channel for them, so that he and Klera could get caught up on any new developments.There were enough to send Killa and Boira into the galley to get away from the scientific jargon.
"You'd think, from all that gibberish, that they were activating a sorcerous spell or something," Boira said.
"Equations are a form of spell, aren't they?"Killashandra asked.
"Hmmmm, perhaps, if you get the right answer."
They batted the notion about until Brendan quietly informed them that they would be landing in fifteen minutes.
Rudney and Klera were excited about something, the upshot of which was that they wanted Killa to install the crystals as soon as possible.Rudney sputtered, close to being inarticulate in his instructions.Fortunately he had a diagram of where he wanted crystal installed, though to judge by the strikeouts, the list of priorities had altered several times.He wanted the biggest, or strongest, of the crystal pieces to go in Cave Fifteen, which Killa shortly learned was the one that she and Lars had named Big Hungry Junk.
"It already has crystal," she began.
"It must have the best of the crystals," Rudney insisted, spittle spattering Killa in the face.
"I really don't believe that FM Fifteen will surrender the one it has when the larger unit is installed," Klera said, her face screwed up with concern."I really do feel that we have no way of adequately explaining that we need the old shard for one of the smaller FMs."
"Is that what you want to do?Exchange?"Killa asked, surprised.
"Of course, of course.You only supplied us with twelve crystals.We now have thirty FMs to be brought into the comnet we posit."
"Have you ever tried to remove anything from a Junk?"
"A Junk?"For a moment, Rudney was confused."Oh, please employ the proper nomenclature."
Killa gave him the sort of look that had once been extremely effective in reducing affectations.
"No, we actually haven't," Klera admitted.
"It's always been on the receiving end, though, hasn't it?"Killa said."Well, I'll try, but I'm not risking a finger or a hand."
"We're most certainly not asking you to take a physical risk," Rudney said.
To prove that, he and Klera were among those in the A amp;E installation who suited up to watch Killashandra install the crystal.When Rudney pompously introduced her, she got the usual guarded reaction from the staff assembled in the decontamination room, but there were several broad smiles of welcome as well as help when she began suiting up.
There was one black crystal, not a large shaft but tuned to a dominant, and this was the one she felt Big Hungry Junk deserved.
"Surely this one," Rudney said, pointing officiously to the largest, a pale blue, "would be more suitable."
"It's blue, a minor and considerably less stable than the black," she said in a tone that she hoped would end the matter.
"But-but-"
"Rudney," she said in a loud firm tone, "I am the crystal singer, not you!"
Rudney seemed surprised at her vehemence and stood there, blinking in astonishment.She became aware that everyone else was regarding her with similar surprise.Well, Rudney might be a boor to her but he was clearly held in considerable respect by his staff.
"Black," she began in a milder tone, "is the most powerful of the Ballybran crystal range.Even a small one, like this, is three times as useful as the large pale blue.The paler colors are notoriously fragile."She held up the black, though she could feel the tingle of the damned thing right through her heavy vacuum gloves."The black is also in a dominant key, which increases its potential threefold.Minors are good for small repetitive jobs, but you want some character for Big Hungry Junk to work with.Now, let's go."
She gestured for the two who had been assigned to carry the crystal-packing carton to put on their helmets as she adjusted her own.A few more moments sufficed for the usual pre-exit tests, and then everyone was checked out as ready to go.She activated her private com to Brendan and Boira.
The airlock cycled open to the black bleakness of Opal's surface.Changes had been made: light flooded the cindery surface, illuminating paths from the facility to the various caves, each path neatly signposted for its destinations.Big Hungry, posing as Cave Fifteen, seemed to be the most popular direction-the path was the smoothest in appearance.Killa struck out, leading the way, Rudney having missed the chance to get in front of her.
As she neared the cave, she could see splotches of brilliance penetrating to the surface."Big Hungry must be really big," she murmured to herself.
"I can pick you up at that level, Killa," said Brendan softly.
"What did you say, Crystal Singer?"Rudney asked, reaching forward to tap her arm.
"I mutter a lot," she said loudly enough for her voice to carry to his comsystem.Then she smiled.Nice to be one up on Rudney!"You really have improved the place," she added.The approach had been cleared of all rubble, and the steps down to the entrance of the cave widened.Lights weren't needed: blue radiance leaked up the first five steps.And suddenly dimmed as Killa's helmet adjusted to the increased exterior illumination.
Even with that aid, she was nearly blinded by light as she turned the corner into Big Hungry's cave.Her gasp elicited a concerned request for explanation from Brendan and a smug chuckle from Rudney, which turned into a gargle of surprise.
"Great Muhlah on the mountains of Za!"She was transfixed in the entrance until Rudney brushed past her.
"Can I have a reading on why the pattern has so dramatically altered?" he asked in a sharp tone.
No one could miss the shower of complex interlacing designs that expanded from the center core.They were different from the idle banding she had first seen as she paused on the threshold.Majestic, they radiated down the sides of the cave, to disappear below the floor.
"It's most unusual, Doctor.First time this one has been screened," one of the technicians told Rudney.
"Maybe it's a welcome for me," Killashandra said facetiously.
Rudney shot her a fierce look of disgust and denial as he brushed past her and into the cave.
"There is a considerably higher level of static," the technician added."Now it's dropping to normal output."
Hastily, Killa stepped to one side, watching the last of the fractal-like design slide out of sight.She shivered.To divert herself, she looked about the magnificently festooned cave.No one had told her that the fluid metal completely covered the walls of its site.She had thought it had merely sent tendrils to the lower levels.How many had Klera said Big Hungry went down?Nineteen?Incredible and yet… All it may have needed to grow was some decent food.
As the plasglas of her helmet darkened sufficiently in the gloriously lighted cave, she finally made out the central hub of the Junk, a now-infinitesimal sliver of crystal standing upright at the pulsing core.Rudney probably used a more accurate scientific name for the heart of the Junk.Odd, though, Killa thought, searching her memory for details of that earlier visit.She could resurrect little beyond knowing that Big Hungry had grown.
"Bren," she asked softly, "did we ever measure the original center of Junk?"