Crystal Line

Chapter 11

As Killa was setting off for the next set of coordinates Donalla had obtained for her, she saw the other three singers readying their sleds in the Hangar.When she came back two days later, she had a full carton of deep amethyst crystals in fifths and thirds.They were not, of course, the black she had been after.But she had remembered that Clodine had said the darker shades were in short supply, so she had stayed to cut rather than return empty-handed.

Before she had lifted from the site, she had jotted down the coordinates and slipped the notation under the sheet of liberated markers taped to her console.In plain sight and yet hidden.Now if she could only remember that!She ought to think of some sort of code, something she would twig to the moment she saw it.She began to regret that she wasn't a good subject for hypnosis.She wondered how Tiagana, Borton, and Jaygrin were getting on.She was pleased that she could recall their names so easily.If she wanted to remember something, she really could!

She was in rare good spirits when she brought the cartons in to Clodine.

"Haven't I seen you here a lot lately?" the Sorter asked, grinning because Killa was.

"Sure!I'm enjoying an excellent streak of luck.It was bound to happen," Killashandra said blithely, "given the probabilities.Even if these aren't blacks."

Clodine held up the heaviest of the fifths, adjusting her eyesight to scrutinize the crystal.She put it on the scales and made minute adjustments, nodding all the while.

"Well, you remembered amethyst, and there's a good market for them right now.Two space stations are being constructed, and the big Altairian waystation is expanding, so darks are needed for their life-support systems.Lars'll be real pleased to know these have come in."

"I'll tell him myself, hear?"Killa winked at Clodine.

"It's nice to see you like this, Killa," Clodine said, and gave Killa's arm a tentative pat."And you're not even buzzing."

"No, I'm not.I feel as if I could cut forever these days."

"I'd heard you already had!"Clodine said with rare flippancy.

In great good humor, Killashandra laughed, then chuckled more heartily from her gut when she saw the final figure on two days' work.Many were the times in her past when she would have killed for such totals.Yes, Lars's idea of getting coordinates out of inactives was brilliant.

Before she went down to her quarters, she stopped in the Hangar office to ask for her sled to be ready for the morning.

"Why don't you just stay out, like you usually do, Killa?"Murr asked."You're like an overnight homer, in one day and out the next."

"I find what the Guild needs, I cut, I bring it in.Much more efficient that way, isn't it?"

"You're using a lot of fuel," he cautioned.

"I've the credit to pay for it, Murr.Humor me."

She left him there, but his morose attitude brought her down a bit.The moment she entered her quarters, the comunit buzzed.

"Muhlah!Can't I even have a bath first?"

"Killa?"Lars's image came up on the screen."Glad you're in, C.S. Ree.Would you join me as soon as possible in my office?"

She started to say something snide about his formality, but before she could speak he stepped to one side and she saw that he had visitors in his office: visitors who were wearing the clear plastic suits and breathing masks that meant their errand was urgent enough for them to risk possible contamination by the Ballybran symbiont.

"Permit me time to become presentable, Guild Master Lars Dahl," she said in a similar manner, and waved the comunit off.

Curiosity moved her to shower and change quickly.Very few people would take the chance these were.Urgent was almost always interesting.As she strode into the office, there was a new person at Trag's desk who looked up, seemed about to challenge her presence, hesitated, and then looked quickly back to the screen.She palmed the door and entered Lars's office.

"Ah, Crystal Singer Ree, I appreciate your alacrity.These are Klera and Rudney Saplinson-Trill.Klera, Rudney, this is the other member of the original Guild survey team."He gestured for Killashandra to be seated.

She noticed that there were snacks on the table beside her and blessed him for such thoughtfulness.He had even managed drinkers for the suited Saplinson-Trills.But he hadn't managed to indicate why they were braving the dangers of Ballybran.

"I'm not sure if you can recall the planet we visited some years back…" Lars began.

"Twenty-four years, five months and two weeks to be precise," Rudney Saplinson-Trill said with the quick humorless smile of someone to whom accuracy is more important than courtesy.The tinny and nasal quality the helmet speakers gave his voice increased the impudence of that unnecessary correction.

"Yes, the one with the opalescence which we investigated for the late Guild Master," Lars continued."It was posited at the time that Heptite Guild members, protected by their symbiont, would be safe from the infection which had killed the original exploratory team exposed to the opalescence-"

"Fluid metal, Guild Master," Rudney said, "is a more accurate term for the material-FM for short."

"We called it Jewel Junk," Killashandra said, mimicking him.He didn't notice, but Klera did.

"Yes, we did, didn't we?"Lars said, clearing his throat."For lack of a more accurate designation," he added, nodding toward Rudney."You will remember that we actually made two trips there, the second one after our visit to Nihal Three.On the second one we fed some trash to several of the Jewel Junk aka FM."

Killashandra wanted to giggle at Lars, but mastered the urge.

"Actually, nine of the now twenty FM manifestations," Rudney said.

"Yes.As I was saying…" Lars's nostrils flared, a sign of rare impatience in him, and he gave Rudney a quelling glance."We also tried to establish communications with the, ah FM opalescence."When the scientist seemed about to correct him yet again he said more firmly, "Or has the opalescence abated?"Lars fixed the scientist with a cold glare, then looked back to Killashandra, rattling his strong fingers on the table in a complex roll.

What appeared to be a nervous habit in him, plus the use of the words "opalescence", "Nihal Three" and "the infection" began to stir memories for Killa.

"We established a form of communication with it," she said."Have you managed to enlarge on that beginning?"Why else would they be risking their lives visiting Ballybran?

"We are pure research scientists," Rudney said stiffly."We are attempting to establish the parameters of an extremely complex life-form."

"Then you agree that the Junk is sentient?"

Rudney made a gesture, discounting her assumption."We are only beginning to analyze its substance."

"Wasn't it impervious to diagnostic instrumentation?"Killa asked Lars.

"Ours is considerably more sensitive," Rudney continued inexorably, "and therefore we have made progress where the usual sort of instrumentation was inadequate to the purpose."

"So," Killa said, crossing her arms over her chest and focusing her entire attention on him.She had found this to disconcert the unwary."What is it?"

"We have not yet finished our initial survey," Rudney admitted.

"After twenty-four years, five months and two weeks?"

"With such an unusual material, one does not rush to conclusions," Rudney informed her.

"Did it ever digest the Ballybran crystal we gave it?"Killa was very pleased with herself for that recollection.

"Ah, no," Rudney replied, and cleared his throat, causing an awful rasping sound to be broadcast.The nonabsorption seemed to worry him.

"In fact," Klera said, plunging in, "all nine FM units prominently display the crystal shards in the center of the reservoir.That's what we call the central node.Though 'node' is not exactly accurate either."

"Would blob do?"Killa found scholarly precision tedious.

"Fluid metal is the proper description of its composition and, even, of its function," Klera said, her round face solemn.

"But have you established any level of communication with my Jewel Junk?"

"Yyyeesss, and nn-no," Klera said, momentarily flustered."Our xenolinguist had hundreds of hours of recording but…" She sagged with a weary sigh.

"No mutual lexicon," Killa said, adding her own sigh.

"The individual FMs, however," Klera said, brightening, "seem to be communicating on some level.Though whether or not it's through use of the crystal shards, we haven't been able to ascertain."She shot a worried look at Rudney.

"Just the nine, or the other Junks you've discovered?"Killa asked, wondering if that was the problem.

"We can't be positive that they don't have another means of interacting.But we have established that the crystals send bursts of piezoelectric current," Klera said.

"Though we have been unable to determine the exact reason for the activity," Rudney said, smoothly taking over the explanations."All the twenty FM deposits show irrefutable evidence of a thermoelectric effect, generating a voltage flow which, we have posited, is due to the extremes of temperature through which the planet goes.There is a recognizable tide, as it were, in the fluctuations of the thermoelectric effect that can be timed to the onset of deviations in the planet's rotation around its primary."

"Naturally, we established a control group of three," he went on, settling himself in his chair for a long lecture."Caves Three, Nine and Fifteen remain as we found them on our arrival, complete with their central nub of crystal.We've divided the others into three groups according to size, giving each group a special diet: organic wastes, which seem to have little effect on growth; inorganic wastes, which demonstrably increase the size exponentially to the amount offered; and a mixture, half and half, to the third group which seems to thrive the best."

"We've done hours of recordings," Klera managed to slip in while Rudney took a deep breath, "which I do maintain are not merely thermoelectric statics.Fizal, our linguist, is certain that the various rhythms are conversations of some sort."

"That's not as immediate or as interesting as the history we have postulated about the primary 478-S-2937 and the planet's relationship to it," Rudney went on."Star 478-S has been through many stages, and our investigations point to the probability that the planet, Opal, was formed from ejecta of the various stages of the star's development."

"Now, Rudney," Klera said firmly, "you know that Sarianus's theory is equally viable."She turned to Lars."Our astrophysicist is of the opinion that the star was a huge new star, formed near the remnants of others."

"That has yet to be proved, Klera.That theory does not explain-"

"The flares, Rudney," Klera said, and the pair ignored the others in the room to continue what was obviously a long-standing argument."The solar flares affect the planet.We've noted the exceptional activity of the 'static' messages shortly before and after solar flares."

"Klera, you cannot seriously believe that FM is controlling the flares?"

"I do, Rudney, and there is much evidence to support this."She looked at Killa as if requesting her support."I believe that the FM has developed intelligence-a bizarre form, to be sure."She pointedly ignored Rudney's crackling snort."Its vision and sensory systems would be electric and magnetic fields, ions and electrons.Its pain would be changes in the strengths of those fields and their threat to its existence when the solar flares are especially violent.Until recently-well, recently in solar terms-it has been the sun which has manipulated the planet's environment, and therefore it tries to control the sun by emanations of its own thermoelectric fields, making sunspots come and go as needed.Our geologist has noted that the planet has had more than its share of magnetic pole changes, many earthquakes, and some major readjustments in consequence of the polarities.You might say it's attempting to avoid 'pain'.But it follows that the FM is intelligent, because it is attempting to adjust its environment.Only intelligence seeks to do this.I also think," she added, shooting a repressive glance at Rudney, who kept opening his mouth to interrupt, "it is capable of reproducing itself by asexual fission in order to increase its ability to control the sun.We have monitored a steady growth in all FM units…"

"How many levels do they go now?"Killashandra asked, suddenly remembering that part of their investigation.

"FMs with crystal nubs receiving the mixed diet have descended nineteen levels," Klera said, as pleased with such growth as a doting mother."Those without crystal do not make significant progress and…" She faltered, glancing nervously at Rudney.

"Food plus crystal means growth?"Killashandra asked.

"And intelligence," Klera said emphatically."The FMs with crystal nubs exhibit more thermoelectric activity than those deprived of crystal.Who knows what progress could be made in measuring FM intelligence if they were all equal in opportunity?Or if they had undamaged crystal!"

That sentence came out in a rush-and the purpose of their visit became clear to Killashandra.

"We've tried," Rudney said, his tone nearly apologetic, "to obtain a modest budget from the Solar Investigative Society to cover the cost of small pieces of undamaged Ballybran crystal…" He trailed off lamely and raised his hands in appeal.

She glanced at Lars's bland expression, not sure if she was amused or annoyed with him.When he was trying to put the Guild on a more solid commercial basis, how could he entertain what was clearly an appeal for a donation of crystal for these scientific types on a project that had nothing to do with the Guild?It seemed to her that Lars was seriously contemplating this request.Why else had he invited her to the conference?

As the silence lengthened, Rudney turned redder inside his protective suit; Klera just kept running her finger up and down the seam of her sleeve.

"I gather that no more deaths have resulted from contact with the opalescence?"Killa asked.

"Of course not," Saplinson-Trill said, flicking away that consideration with his fingers as he resumed his professional manner."We follow a strict regiment of decontam and weekly med checks.We are extremely careful not to touch the FM with anything but the instruments kept in the cave for that purpose which have been made of a special alloy that FM does not melt."

"The lapses certainly haven't proved fatal," Klera added candidly.

Rudney smothered an oath as he glared at her.

"What lapses?"Killa asked, covering her delight with a bland, inquiring expression.

"Nothing fatal, or even producing physical discomfort," Klera said quickly.

"What sort of lapse?Memory loss?"Killa remembered that both she and Lars had spent long moments admiring the brilliant, shifting coruscation in the caves.Like a very sophisticated fractal, it had been beautiful to watch, almost mesmeric.

"What Klera refers to," Rudney told them, the rasping edge to his voice communicating clearly his wish that she had not spoken, "are periods when the FM displays the most thermoelectric activity.Several of our team members experienced what, ah, I suppose, could be termed time lapses…"

"The Jewel Junk's shifting patterns had a certain hypnotic rhythm to them when we were there, didn't they, Guild Master?"Favoring Lars with a quick glance, Killashandra began to perceive another reason why he had wanted her in on this meeting.

"Yes, they did," he agreed amiably."While the Guild does not make a practice of assisting outside research in crystal applications, it just happens that there are some useful shapes and colors available from apprentice cuttings that could be released to you.They are now unflawed crystal, having been retuned, but not of the size, color or warrantable stability of pitch to be offered for commercial sale."

Utter relief flooded Rudney's face.Klera, after giving a squeak of delighted surprise, covered her mouth as if afraid she might say something wrong and compromise the offer.

"However, the Guild requires that a singer install the crystal," Lars said, "and right now, the Guild needs all experienced singers in the Range.We can't spare one for the time it would take to make the trip."

"But, Guild Master, we've the services of a B-and-B ship," Rudney surprised both singers by saying."That's the only way we, as leaders of the FM Project, could justify our absence."

"A brain and brawn ship with a Singularity Drive?"Lars asked, expecting a negative response.

"Yes, indeed, Guild Master," Rudney said."Archaeological and Exploratory are exceedingly interested in the FM Project and put a ship at our disposal for this important mission.The BB-1066."

"How very convenient," Killa said, twitching an eyebrow at Lars."I'd be tempted to take the assignment if only to see Brendan and Boira again."

"You are, C.S.Ree, one of my most experienced singers," Lars began repressively, and Killa wondered why he was glaring at her.Surely he was merely priming the pump to haggle a good fee for her services.As he had the right to do.The Guild had a reputation to maintain-especially right now.

"I am due some relief time away from Ballybran," she said.

To her surprise, Lars frowned."This really isn't the time for you to be away from the Ranges, C.S.Ree."

He spoke so firmly that she was uncertain how to proceed now in this interview.She was also peeved at him, for she really could use some time off-planet.And who else had previous experience with the Jewel Junk?As Guild Master, he really couldn't leave Ballybran but she could.Muhlah!

"In that case, I shall plan to return to my duties tomorrow," she said stiffly and, bowing courteously to the scientists, marched out of the office.

"Well?" she asked Lars as he entered their quarters much later that evening.

"Well, what?" he said, scrubbing at his hair with irritation and fatigue.

"Did you give them crystal?"

"You heard me.FM, indeed," he muttered.She had ordered Yarran beer and some light snacks, which she served him."Thanks!"He sighed with gratitude as he tipped the recliner back.

"So, how much did you get?"

"Hummm?" he mumbled over a long pull of the beer.

"How much for a singer to install the crystals, and whom have you chosen?Because I insist on going."

"Sunny, I need you here…" he began.

"You can do without me for the eight-ten days it'll take by way of the B-and-B.And frankly, I could use the break."

"Not when you're cutting crystal every time you go out."

"Aren't Tiagana, Borton and Jaygrin?"

"Of course, but-"

"And anyone else you can talk into this direct-line approach to cutting, I'm sure," she said."I thought that was why you had me sit in."

"I had you sit in to see how much you could remember," he said.He gave her a quick grin."You did better than I expected."

"I did, did I?Well, thank you, Guild Master."

"Donalla says a lot of memory is association.The more-"

"And thank you not for discussing me with Donalla!"Killa wasn't certain why that made her so mad, but it did. "I'm not inactive yet, by a long twig, Lars Dahl.And I don't need hypnosis to remember!"

"You proved that conclusively today," he said in the mild tone he used whenever he wished to defuse her anger.

"Now stop manipulating me, will you?"

"I'm not, Sunny."There was a genuine note of surprise in his voice.In one lithe movement, he slipped from the recliner to her chair and embraced her.She kept herself rigid, refusing to relax and let him think he had cajoled her into a better humor.

"I also had to get someone else in the office or I'd've kicked Rudney out," he went on."Wasn't he the pompous ass!"

Killa did relax a bit then, glowering and still suspicious."Asshole, you mean.Though she wasn't as bad.Why would she put up with him?"

"Why do you put up with me?"And Lars flashed a smile at her.

"Then why did you give them the crystal?"

"Ah yes."Nudging his hip against her to make her give him some room, he slid his arm about her."Well, I received an urgent burst requesting assistance from Archaeological and Exploratory.Seems our Jewel Junk is exceedingly important."

"Then why do they entrust it to a dork like Saplinson-Trill?"

"Because, despite his manner, he's tops in his field."

"Which is?"

"Planetary mechanics.His is not the first group to try to solve the mystery of our opalescent junk, but he's had far more demonstrable success than any other.And Ballybran crystal is very important to the success of the next phase of their investigations.Or so A and E seems to think."

"Why didn't A and E pay for the crystal?"

"Too many slices out of their budget already."

"Then who's paying for a singer to install 'em?"

Lars cleared his throat."The Guild was asked to absorb the cost."

She hauled herself about to face him, scowling.He pinched her lips shut.

"Oh, don't worry," he said."The Guild got concessions I've been trying to wangle for the last three years."

"Such as?"

"Permission to publicize the employment opportunities of the Guild…"

"What?"That was an exceptional concession.

Lars grinned smugly."And the Guild is being allowed to actively recruit specialists on nineteen human planets."

"That must be a first!"

"In living memory."

"So, they've finally realized how important Ballybran crystal is."

"I'd say that's a fair comment."He stretched languorously beside her, arching his back, before he cocked his free arm to cushion his head."A good day all totaled."

"Who's the new dork at the desk?" she asked after a moment.

"Oh."The frown returned."Him.Well, he's a spare pair of hands, and he'll be more useful when he becomes accustomed to the filing codes."

"I'd hazard the guess," she said after a long pause, "that you also can't afford to annoy the Council and A and E by sending an incompetent singer to set those crystals."

"I'm not letting you go, Sunny," he said sternly.

"Who else can you send?" she asked reasonably."I'm the only one qualified, and you can't afford to have the installation messed up, can you?"

Lars gave her a long searching look and then sighed."You're right there.Much is at stake."

Just as he gathered her closer, she caught a fleeting expression on his face that might have been satisfaction.She didn't have time, then, to sift the matter through, because he distracted her thoroughly.

Being aboard the Brendan/Boira 1066 was a mixed pleasure, since Killashandra had to share the ship's good company with Rudney and Klera.Fortunately, the two scientists had brought reports with them to study, and they spent most of their time in their cabin, or using Brendan's powerful and complex computer banks.

"They did the same thing on the way out," Boira told Killa.

"The tedium was palpable," Brendan added, in the exact affected tone Rudney used.

Killa and Boira smothered laughs.Killa had taken to Boira the moment she had seen the 1066 brawn.Not that Boira could be described as brawny: she was of medium height, and her figure was compact.She was very attractive, smooth-skinned and with the symmetry provided by reconstruction; her eyes were dark, and her dark hair was kept at shoulder length.She moved with an odd grace that Killa suspected was also due to the accident that had left Brendan unpartnered during the singers' first expedition to Opal.Best of all, Boira had the same quick wit and ready humor that had made Brendan such a good travel companion.

"Do be careful, Bren," Boira murmured."You'll set me off again.Bren had me in kinks," she told Killashandra."It got to be embarrassing, because every time they ventured out of their cabin, they'd say something that Bren had lampooned and I'd dissolve-in a coughing fit, of course.Wouldn't do to laugh in their faces!"

"Then it isn't just me," Killa said, grinning broadly.

"Oh, no," Boira assured her."It's them!The only time they acted human at all was during decomposition."

"Then they were very human," Bren said caustically."Had to circulate and clean the air nine times."

"D'you still have the radiant-fluid tub on board?"

"Indeed, we do," Boira said, "and back in your cabin."

"What'll you do about them, then?"Killa asked, jerking her finger in the direction of the Saplinson-Trills.

"Oh, them!This time we may let them stew in their own juices, as it were," Brendan said."I can close off the vents to their cabin so we're spared the stench.At least they cleaned themselves up afterwards."

"And what about you?"Killashandra asked Boira.But apart from a mild headache, Boira was not adversely affected by decomposition.

"Repetition dulls the effect," she told Killashandra, "though it'll never be my favorite way to spend five of the longest minutes ever invented by the mind of man."

"So, did you see much of the FMs?"Killa asked, drawling the term sarcastically.

Boira gave a snort."After a very lengthy briefing and all sorts of dire warnings about keeping my mitts to myself and going through a rather ridiculously involved decontam.It was worth the effort," she said."The brilliance, the design… I really think they ought to pay attention to the complex patterns-What did you call them?Jewel Junk?I suggested," she added, grimacing at her recollection, "that the patterns the Junk displays could be another attempt at communication."

"And?"

"I got told in long chapters how such a theory was ludicrous and had no possible scientific basis."She shrugged."I am entitled to an opinion."

Killa mulled that over."Pattern is as good a method of communication as any other.Aren't words patterns?"

"Hmmm.Hadn't thought of it in quite that way, but they are, you know," Bren said."Full marks to you, Killa."

"I gather they didn't test your theory, Boira?"

"Fardles, no!What does a ship's brawn know about esoteric life-forms?"

"Fifteen minutes until the first Singularity Jump," Brendan announced, and Killa immediately adjourned to her radiant fluid tank.

Awash in the fluid, Killa had only the mildest of decomposition willies.When she returned to the main cabin, where Boira and Brendan were running a systems check, she jerked her head in the scientists' direction.

"Oh, them?"Boira grinned."This time they took the precautions we always recommend.Never have understood why the cerebral types think I don't know as much about my profession as they know about theirs.Hungry?"She smiled slyly.

"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?"

"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.

"Watch out, you guys and gals," Killashandra said as Sothi and Asra positioned the ladder under the core."You ain't seen nothing' yet."

"What precisely do you mean by that remark, Crystal Singer?"Rudney demanded, his apprehension reflected in his voice as well as the sudden stiffening of his suited figure.

Killa had been talking to bolster her own confidence and wished Rudney didn't require so many explanations of casual comments.She sighed as she clamped the forceps firmly about the black.If she could avoid touching it at all, its effect on her would be reduced.She had gotten the hang of jamming crystal into cores now, and she didn't plan to bungle this final, and most crucial, insertion.

"Watch and observe, Dr. Saplinson-Trill."She extended her arm, noting that Sothi and Asra stood ready to catch the old splinter.Oh, Muhlah!She swore silently as a new thought struck her.This wasn't the last she had to install.There were all the old slivers to be put into the new Junks.

"Observe what?"

"Wait and see," she said.Taking a deep breath, she touched the black to the Junk, quiveringly ready to drop forceps and all at any sign that the black was going to react.

The black shaft was ingested so swiftly her reflexes had no time respond.Forceps, crystal, and her gloved hand were pulled into the sudden maelstrom of frenzied, turbulent patterns that cascaded down the Junk-and flowed through Killashandra with such devastating force that she felt her death was imminent!Her whole life flashed across her mind, pushing her down into black oblivion.