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"Then there's the problem of the Sleep," Killa said, making a sour face.

"Oh?"Brendan prompted.

"Yes.Having stuffed ourselves like hibernators, we then sleep for the duration of the actual Passover."

"Or rather, our symbionts force us to sleep during the combined transit of the three moons," Lars explained.

"How long?"

Lars shrugged."A week.That's why we stock up so heavily."

"For a week's sleep?"

Lars shrugged, then grinned at Brendan's column."Not my choice."

"Then you eat again?"Brendan asked solicitously.

"Just before we fall asleep, even the sight of food makes us nauseous.That's generally how we know we'd best get into a comfortable position," Lars explained.

"Most unusual," Brendan said mildly, "though I've heard and encountered weirder ones."

"You're most reassuring," Killashandra said dryly.

"I try to be.You'd best belt in," he added.The main screen was showing their precipitous approach to the pock-marked moon.Seeing that, the two singers hastened to obey.

Brendan was an excellent pilot-as he was the ship, to all intents and purposes.As he neatly deposited them on the soi-disant surface of Opal, Lars and Killa applauded in the traditional manner.Then they concentrated on eating the enormous meal the ship served them-items that Brendan knew they particularly liked and in quantities that should have daunted a normal appetite.

"You really do stow it away, don't you?"

Killa and Lars were too busy stuffing themselves to give any reply other than a distracted "Hmmm…"

At last they were replete; and, groaning a bit, they squeezed into their vacuum suits.Killashandra found herself wishing, if only for a moment, that "space suits" had not evolved to be quite so lean and efficient.But theses suits were perfect for non-atmospheric explorations.The close-fitting shell provided the wearer with a nearly impervious second skin.Fine controls for digital manipulations were available; sanitary arrangements were as unobtrusive as possible.The helmet afforded complete head mobility and visibility; the tubes for eating and drinking were housed at the neck rim.The oxygen unit fitted snugly across the shoulder blades and down to the end of the spine, which it also served to protect.Helmet, digital, and arm lights illuminated a wide area around the wearer.Versatile tools attached to special rigs on the belt and stowed in thigh and leg pouches gave them additional external resources.

"I've stocked your suit packs with a rather tasty high protein, followed by a sweet confection that might just relieve hunger pangs," Brendan began.

"No matter what you feed us, mate, we'll have to come back for more than any suit could supply," Lars said as he and Killashandra entered the airlock."All right now, Bren, let us out."

They had both studied the log records of the Toronto, so they knew to turn left as soon as they exited the outer lock.

"Humpf," Killa said, training her arm light on the fluorescent line the previous expedition had painted on the porous shell."Nice of them, considering."

"They expected to return," Lars remarked quietly.

"I see the markings," Brendan said in an oblique reminder to narrate their progress more explicitly.

"For posterity then," and Killashandra began the running commentary as they followed the guideline down steps that had been cut by their predecessors.There was even a line sprayed across a low threshold to warn them where to bend and hunching over, they started down the short passage into the larger chamber.

"Hey, there's light ahead," Lars said, and turned off his beams."A sort of blue radiance," he went on, gesturing for Killa to extinguish her lamps.

The light source did not actually illuminate the passage, but the glow was sufficient to guide them to its source.

As they entered the big cavern, they were both speechless for a moment.Luminescence cascaded in flinders of brilliance-like sparks, except that they didn't shoot out of their parent substance.The material that arced across the high ceiling seemed to flow, dark blue and dark green and then silver.

"I am not there," Brendan reminded them politely.

Lars turned on his helmet light, and immediately the radiance was quenched.Where the helmet beam touched, the material writhed with bands of black and dark blue and dark green.Almost, Killashandra thought, as if rushing blood to heal a wound.Did light on this lightless world constitute a threat or injury?She wondered if the sun's rays-unfiltered, with no atmosphere to reduce ultraviolet and infrared-penetrated the cavern to the jewel?For jewel it appeared to her, one graceful long sweep of jewel, a living necklace across the vault of the cavern.Or was it a tiara?

"It's the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time," she murmured."And I've seen some magnificent crystal."She paused, frowning."I also don't know why or how, but I agree with Trag, Brendan.This jewel junk is alive.Who knows about sentience-but definitely a living organism!"

"I agree with that," Lars said quietly, then began to examine the chamber while Killashandra concentrated on the gem cascade.

"It's grown, too, Brendan, since the team was here four-five years ago.It's made a complete hoop across the ceiling from floor to floor," Killashandra went on.

"And down into the next cavern, if there is one," Lars added, kneeling to shine the pencil-thin line of his forefinger light where the shimmering opalescent seemed to penetrate the floor of the cavern.The jewel itself darkened and seemed to contract, to retreat from the light source.

"To the basement level for housewares and utensils," Killashandra recited in the tone of a robotic lift device, feeling a need to dispel the unusual sense of reverence that the chamber evoked in her."No!" she cried in sudden fear as she saw Lars reach out to touch the narrow descending-tongue? facet? finger? probe? tentacle?-of the opalescent.

Lars turned his helmeted head toward her, and his white teeth flashed a grin."Let's not be craven about this.If the symbiont protects me, it protects me.After all, I'm suited…"

"Use an extendable," Brendan said in a tone remarkably close to command."The material of your suit is only guaranteed impervious to known hazards."

"Good point, Lars," Killashandra added.

He gave a shrug and snagged a tool from his belt.A light pass of the instrument across the coruscating extrusion gave no results.When he prodded it gently-and suddenly jerked back his arm.

"Wow!"

"Report?"Killa reminded him.

First he looked at the tool."Well, I'm glad you stopped me, Bren."He turned the implement toward Killa.She tongue-switched the magnification of her visor and saw that the end had melted, blurring its outline.

"Hot the material is, but it gave on contact," Lars said.

"Pliable?"Brendan asked.

"Hmmm, flexible, maybe, or able to absorb intrusions," Killa suggested."Or is it semiliquid, like mercury, or that odd stuff they found on Thetis Five?"

"So far, except for your observation that the ah-" Brendan paused, "-semiliquid has spanned its cave in the four years since discovery, you have trod in the same path the geologists did.They also melted a few instruments trying to probe it."

"I know, I know," Lars said, "but I like to draw my own conclusions."He passed his gloved hand over the material several times, being careful not to touch it."Any heat readings on record?"

"None, and I'm getting none either from the instrumentation you're carrying," the ship responded, sounding slightly disgusted.

"Any movement?"

"Negatory."

"Can you give us a reading on whether the ground beneath us is solid or not, Brendan?"Killa asked.

"You are currently standing on the intersection of three caves approximately two meters below you.Two of them are large, the other is small, less than half a meter in width and height.My readings corroborate the expedition's report that this satellite is riddled with cavities, probably right down to what used to be its molten core, in irregular layers and with equally irregular cavities."