Read Crystal Universe - [Crystal Singer 03] - Crystal Line for Free Online

sample,” his partner suggested.
    “Take a sample of the rock, too,” Brendan added.
    “Now, look a’that,” Killa said, holding her light steady on the opposite wall, where the liquid opal had intruded as well. “How many layers of this cave complex did the geologists explore?”
    “At the original landing site, they penetrated several miles below the surface before they could proceed no further, but not here. However, records indicate that, in the cave above, the arch of the junk was incomplete. Nor do they mention that it penetrated below the first level in the landing site.”
    “Fascinating!” Killa commented. “How many such manifestations were recorded, Bren?” Dammit, she had studied those reports only last night and she couldn’t recall the details.
    “In nine of the twenty-three sites explored, they observed this opalescence. By then they hadn’t found anythingelse particularly noteworthy, so they decided to proceed to the next system on their route when …”
    “Hmm, yes, indeed, when!”
    “You’d think it would grow up, out of the core,” Lars mused, “instead of down from the surface.”
    “If it
is
indigenous,” Brendan suggested.
    Lars and Killa were silent a moment, considering that theory. “Well, being alien to this system would answer why it’s topside instead of down below,” Lars remarked.
    “Is there a way to prove alien origin?” Killa asked.
    “If you could find a sample that’ll submit to examination, possibly,” the ship replied wryly.
    “Suppose we explain that this won’t hurt?” Killa was feeling waggish at this point. Faint from hunger, maybe. She sucked on the tube and got a mouthful of something rather more sweet than she liked. But it did depress the hunger pangs. “An alien substance? Hmm. Wherever could it have originated?”
    “ ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio …’ ” Brendan intoned in a marvelously sepulchral note.
    “Nonsense, Bren, there’s usually a scientific explanation for
every
thing,” Killa said sharply. The very idea of something like the opal just “dropping” in made her slightly nervous. They hadn’t discovered
anything
about it yet. And it had killed a whole exploratory team.
    “I wonder,” Lars said slowly, “if a quick freeze might not work to get us a sample.”
    “Work how?” Killa asked, her mind taken off both stomach and apprehension.
    “I can’t imagine how this stuff generates heat enough to melt an alloy as tough as the chisel, but maybe liquid nitrogen …”
    “Wouldn’t hurt to try,” Bren said. “Fight liquid with liquid?”
    “Have you got some?” Killa asked, again surprised.
    “My dear Killashandra Ree, this ship has everything!” Bren’s voice was smug. “My inventory shows that there are two cylinders of liquid nitrogen in storage. I have both spray and stream nozzles that will fit the standard apertures.”
    “Hmmm.”
    “I’ll have one ready when you return for your next meal,” Brendan added at his driest.
    “And more luminescent paint, too,” Lars added as the last drop dribbled out of his marking tube.
    They retraced their steps very carefully, feeling the cindery crunch of the surface under their booted feet. Again something teased at the back of Killa’s mind but refused to be identified.
    The promised meal awaited them in the airlock, and they could barely wait until the iris had cycled shut and the oxygen level was adequate before they undid their helmets and attacked the food.
    “Oh, this is good, Bren,” Killa said, gobbling down refried steakbean and reaching for the orange-and-green milsi stalks of which she was particularly fond. Lars, as usual, was munching on grilled protein.
    “Is indeed,” Lars mumbled.
    “You’ll notice the nitro tank?” Brendan asked pointedly.
    “Hmmm …” Killashandra waved a forkful of beans at it. “Appreciate that.”
    “And the marker tubes?”
    It was Lars’s turn to reply. “Thanks.”
    “You’re