Replete, Killashandra and Lars exchanged the depleted catering packets in their suits for fresh ones, donned their helmets, picked up the extra equipment, and exited the B amp;B to resume their explorations.
"Why are we trying to carve a hunk out of the junk?"Killashandra asked as they made their way back to the lower cavern.
"We were sent here to investigate the stuff, in situ, make recommendations as to its possible value, and/or usefulness," Lars said."And see what makes it luminesce.Any report on whether or not the hunk of the junk grew in captivity, Bren?"
"No.I mean, no mention of increase in the sample; however, the report said, once excised, the specimen lost all iridescence."
"The junk doesn't like light," Killa said thoughtfully."Could be it has to have darkness to sparkle.Or there's something in the composition of this planet that makes it iridescent?"
"And some element that makes it expand, grow, flow, whatever it does," Lars remarked, equally thoughtful."Down the sides and to the next level.All in four years or so."
"Never heard of anything that grew in such a deprived environment as this," Killa said with a snort.
"Well, we ain't seen everything yet, have we?"Lars responded equably.
A ten-second spray of liquid nitrogen turned the entire stalactite colorless, and when Lars gave it a sharp chop with his rock hammer, the end-a piece the length and width of his gloved hand-fell to the ground.Through her boot soles, Killashandra felt a sharp shaking, unexpected and severe enough to unbalance her.
"Did you feel that, Lars?"
"Indeed I did!"Lars had flailed his arms briefly to steady himself.
"Feel what?"Brendan asked sharply.
"A tremor, a shake, a quake.Did you register anything?"Lars asked.
"Hmm.Well, there is a minute blip on the stability gauge.Not enough to set off a stabilizer alarm."
"Look!"Killa shone her light to the opposite wall, and the two singers saw that the other intrusion had disappeared."A definite reaction to our action.The Junk has enough sense to retract from peril?"
"Sense or reflex?"Lars asked, scooping the colorless stalactite into the duraplas specimen sack he had pulled from his thigh pocket."Let's see how far it's retracting."
Guided by Bren and moving as fast as was safe in the dark maze, they returned to the first chamber.The opalescence was subtly muted, and they had to turn on their suit lights.Then they could see that the Junk had noticeably contracted on both sides of the wall, though the farther "rib" was longer than the one from which they had taken the stalactite.They saw no other change in the central portion of the rib.
"Hey, look, Lars, a channel," Killa said.She pointed to the faint shadow on the wall where the Junk had been."It makes a channel.Does it absorb rock as it extrudes?"
"Could it be making the caves?"Lars asked.That stunned both listeners into silence.
"Total absorption?"Brendan asked, puzzled."Most beings excrete some waste material."
"This Junk makes a waste of space," Killashandra replied, grinning at Lars."I can't see any movement now, but it sure moved incredibly fast in the twenty-odd minutes it took us to get back up here.Getting tape on this, Bren?"
"You bet."
"Well, then, let's try some comparison," Lars said.He motioned for Killashandra to follow him."The first team found nine such phenomena?Well, let's go see the next one."
"I'm hungry again," Killashandra added apologetically.
Brendan made an exceedingly gross sound, but he had more food ready for them when they reached the airlock.They ate while he changed sites.
And that became the routine of the next ten hours.Search and eat.Eat while searching.At first Brendan had clever, often hilarious comments to make about their "starvation diet", but then he became as fascinated as they by what could only be called the "behavior" of the Junk.
At each of the five sites they investigated, they found that the opalescence had diminished in size from the mass that the geologists had recorded.
"Hey, you two, I'm calling a rest period.Your vital signs are becoming erratic."
"With all the food we're ingesting?"Killa said, half teasing."Now that you mention it-whoops," and she tripped and fell forward into Lars.
"Now that you mention it," Lars continued, steadying her, "I could curl up for a hundred or so hours."
"Hunger would uncurl you in about three," Brendan replied."Chow's up!"
They waited long enough before eating to insert their suits in the cleanser and shower themselves.Bren did manage to keep them awake long enough after they had eaten to get to their bunk.
But the next morning, as he served an enormous breakfast, the two singers were alert and keen to examine the remaining locations.By comparing the exploration notes with the present state of the ribbing, they saw distinct differences: less alteration the farther the opalescence was from the rib they had sampled.
"Is this a mass defection, migration, withdrawal?"Lars asked, puzzled.
"Pinch me, you pinch us all?"Killa responded.
"How could one piece of Junk communicate with the others?"Brendan asked.
"That's the easy one," Killa said with a grin."Through the rock mass.We felt that tremble.Maybe that's communication."
"I'll credit that," Lars said, "but where is the Junk retreating to?Anything show up on the scopes, Bren?"
"Visualize me shrugging," the ship said drolly, "because I have checked all my systems for malfunction.The Junk refuses to have its picture taken.There isn't so much as a black blob registering on the walls of any of the caverns you've been in.But the Junk's very much in situ."
"Wait a minute, team," Killashandra said, a grin deepening, "I know what I missed… crunch underfoot.There's no debris or rubble or pebbles or anything in the caves!"
Lars blinked and lowered his head, frowning as he thought over her remark."No, you're right, there isn't.Only that small pile of dust."
"Where the rib finger had wormed its way down.It may eat its way down."
"I could draw a comparison between your appetites and the-hey!"Brendan protested as Killa lobbed a pencil file at his titanium panel.
"I wonder what it does eat," Lars said."Shall we whip up some appetizing bits and pieces for it to sample?"
"Didn't the explore team do that, Bren?"Killa asked.
"No, they did not."Bren's voice rippled in amusement."After they seemed to lose tools to its melt process."
"I don't remember a mention of that," Killa said, frowning.She had only just reviewed the reports during breakfast.
"I gather that by inference, Ki," Brendan said."And the inventory."
"So, what shall we offer up in sacrifice to the Junk God in the Grotto?"Killa asked.
"A bit of this, a bit of that," Lars said."Can I have a walk through your spare-parts hold, Bren?"
"And can we return to our first cave?"Killa said, speaking from an impulse she didn't quite understand."I'm beginning to feel guilty about carving off that hunk of the Junk.We really ought to make restitution by letting it have first crack at our offerings."
That was granted, and Brendan told them what to take, and graciously offered what little garbage was left from preparing their meals, as well as samples of protein and carbohydrate.The two resumed their now-clean suits, packed the tube wells for their snack, checked the oxygen tanks, snapped on their helmets, and cycled through the airlock.
"You know, you're right about rubble out here and none in the caves," Lars remarked.