"We did, and…" He paused briefly."Circumference is the same, but I'd say it was denser, thicker.Ask Rudney.The sort of thing he'd know."
She heard Bren, but her attention was somewhat distracted by the shift and play of color and pattern that radiated from the core down the sheet of opalescence.It was more colorful, too, than it had been: speeding up and down the spectrum of visible color even as arcs of shifting hues and shades rippled across.Try as she would to follow one pattern, it melded or was overrun by others.She remembered Junk doing that before but surely not as rapidly.
"Our instrumentation is picking up considerable excitation but not on a band usually occupied," someone said over the comunit.
"Crystal Singer," Rudney said, bouncing over to her and tapping her shoulder, "let's proceed.There's unusual activity recorded…"
"I heard," she said repressively.Abruptly, the thought of setting black crystal in that throbbing heart of opalescence disturbed her to a degree she had never experienced before."Having seen this one, I believe it would be wiser to install crystals in the lesser units first."
"I disagree," Rudney said, appalled at the sudden change of plans."Cave Fifteen is responding to some sort of-"
"Exactly!I'm not risking my wits on black until the last possible moment," she said, and, gesturing imperiously to the two carrying the carton, she started from the cave."I'll start with Three."
Rudney objected; he even jumped in front of her when they had left Cave Fifteen in his effort to stop her.She bounced away from him, urging the carton carriers to follow her.He tried to get them to follow his orders.
"You want crystal installed.I do it.I do it my way," she roared at him, and saw people recoil."Now, do I proceed to Three or back to the 1066?Because if you don't let me handle the installation my way, I'll leave.With the crystals, too, by the way, since they're the gift of the Guild!"
That threat, combined with pleas from Klera and one of the other senior members of his team, silenced Rudney's objections, and she was allowed to proceed.
Three had been a small, pretty cap of Jewel Junk when she and Lars had first seen it.Sothi, one of the carton carriers, told her that it had insinuated itself down three levels now.Smack dab in the center of its core was the original splinter of pink.Muhlah, if the Junk could do this well with only bloody pink, it would flood with the good green destined for its second crystalline intrusion.
The rest of the observers had filed into the cave by then, and the portable ladder was erected right under the core.Killa hefted the green shaft and peered at it in the radiance to be sure it had not somehow become flawed in transit.She clamped the forceps about the green and, carefully examining the position of the pink splinter, started to insert the new crystal.The moment it touched the opalescence, it was sucked up so rapidly that only her trained reflexes kept her hand from following it into the core.The forceps were gone.In the next instant, the pink splinter fell, and there was a flailing of gloved hands as three people tried to catch it.
"Got it!"Sothi exclaimed, holding up the splinter for all to see.
"More than a mouthful is impolite," Killa said drolly.She hadn't anticipated any success in trying to yank out the old splinter.
"Ooooh!"Klera's exclamation, anxious and fearful, brought everyone's attention back to the core.
"Bloody hell, it swallowed it!"Killa announced, unable to perceive any trace of the green."Of all the ungrateful…"
"Oh, there it is," Klera went on, pointing as the green slowly came into view again, positioned in the exact center of the core, with two-thirds of its length visible.
"We are monitoring increased activity in Three," was the report from the base.
"No quarrel with that," Killa said, delighted with the effect.And yes, she thought, Boira's theory about pattern talk was an avenue that ought to be explored.She found herself tracking a brilliant display of green, blue, and yellow herringbones that flashed from the core to the floor and disappeared.
"Crystal Singer…" Sothi had her by both hands, gripping tightly."You were swaying…"
Killa accepted his help down from the ladder.He pressed his helmet against hers."Don't watch the patterns, C.S.You lose time that way," he murmured.
Her lapse had gone unnoticed, save by Sothi, for the other observers were helmet to helmet in deep consultations.Killa wondered how much time she had lost.
"Does it happen often, Sothi?" she asked.
"Often enough to need to be cautious."
"Which cave is next?" she asked him.In that moment of distraction, she had forgotten.
"Two, which is only a step away," he answered, and suddenly she remembered the entire sequence and where each crystal was supposed to go.Time was not the only thing that you lost following Junk patterns, she thought.
Then, when Sothi would have signaled to Rudney that they were leaving Three, she caught his hand and waggled her finger at him."C'mon," she said, touching her helmet to his."We can get this all done in half the time if we leave these science types to talk."
Sothi seemed hesitant, but his companion, whose suit bore the name "Asramantal", pulled him toward the entrance.
Killashandra had done four, with Sothi or Asra neatly catching the discarded slivers, before Rudney and the observers caught up.She ignored Rudney's harangue and continued on her scheduled round.If she kept herself busy, watching her feet on the cindery paths, even doing a bit of pattern watching, with Sothi or Asramantal to pull her out if she dallied too long, she didn't have to think about installing the black in Big Hungry.As they had trudged from one cave to the next, she had confided some of her anxiety to Brendan and Boira.
"Can I count on you two for a bit of help?" she asked.
"What kind?"Boira asked.
"I might have trouble with Big Hungry…"
"What sort of trouble?"
"I'm not sure, really.Ah, well, it's mainly that I hate installing blacks anywhere for any reason," she said, trying not to infuse her voice with the anxiety that she could feel building into full-blown stress.Muhlah!This black wasn't being used-not in the normal sense-as a comcrystal.Maybe she was borrowing trouble.
"Feedback?"Brendan asked.
"Like you never felt before," she said.
"What can we do?"
"Stay tuned-and talk me out of the backlash."
"What form does that take?"
"It sings back through me."
"Gives you quite a jolt, huh?"
"That's putting it mildly."
"How do we help?"Boira asked.
"Could you suit up, Boira, and come down to Fifteen for the finale?"
"Sure.Be with you in two strokes of a hand pump.Only what do I do if you do freak out?"
"Get me back to Bren as fast as possible!I think I'll pull out on my own as long as there's distance between me and the black.And, by the way, Boira, your theory about patterns is not so far-fetched.The Junk radiates them in ever-changing displays."
"Hmm.Int-" Boira's voice was cut off.
"Boira?"
"She's in her suit and has not turned on the com," Brendan said in the patient tone of someone who was accustomed to such bungles.
With her confidence shored up by Boira's promise to be present, Killa completed the other installations.On her way to Big Hungry, Killa took a swallow of the suit's emergency ration-and immediately wished she hadn't.Somehow she had been expecting something considerably more palatable.
"Yecht!" she muttered.
"What's the matter?"Brendan asked.
"The suit's food!"
"Oh?So you do appreciate the lengths to which I went for you the last time?"
"If that's what I thought I was getting, yes."And the memory of more delectable flavors was indeed vivid in her mind.
She had no time for a pleasant review, for she had reached the cave entrance.Boira stood out from the others lining the big cavern: her suit was not only a vivid citron yellow but of a different design.She lifted her gloved hand in a salute to Killashandra.That alerted the other suited figures.Killa guessed that every member of Rudney's team who could be spared from the laboratory was now present.There was a jumble of comments that told her that there had been a draw to see who got to attend.Killa also heard excited reports from the few technicians still manning the instrumentation.Activity in the Junks had speeded up, pushing the monitors to designer limits to process the incoming data.