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head motion through nerve impulses picked up by contact lens-like receptors and would change spectral ranges to enhance the definition of the features surrounding him. No matter how fast he moved his eyes, the symotes would be on target. The dim light on Hunter's modulator turned green. He looked up; his lights shone blue.
       Hunter took out his Vimap from his pocket. He called up a 3D realtime map the Kalo robotics were creating as they hurried through the passages ahead. He noted his team's first stretch was along a monotonous, winding, gently sloping corridor nearly five kilometers long. About midway along the corridor two passageways branched away from it. The right-hand passage, which was the one Hunter's team was going to follow, was a wide, straight channel. The left passage, which ran toward the shaft where Sid and his team members had died, was a narrower, meandering channel littered with slabs of rock thought to have been dislodged during a strong, recent marequake that was registered by seismic monitors buried around the planet.
       Hunter began hiking again, and after a while he became preoccupied with Arielle's mood. Despite seeing in her the strongwilled, temperamental woman he was all too familiar with, when they were discussing STEPS, the worry in her eyes told him something else. On top of that, Edison seemed nervous too. Both Arielle and Edison jumped at the electras. Could Garrett have caused that by spooking them with his Severon nonsense?
       Hunter stopped to examine an angular grayish-brown rock wedged in a crack in the wall above his head. He dislodged the bubbly-textured rock and noticed a series of bluish-green bands running through it. "Arielle!" he called out. "Take a look at this." When she got back to him, he handed her the rock.
       As she turned it over repeatedly, scrutinizing every inch of its surface, Hunter scrutinized her. Despite Arielle's belligerence, she was drop-dead gorgeous. From the moment he had met her, he reveled in the sound of her throaty, sensual voice and the allure of her voluptuous curves.
       "The fractures in this limestone appear to have been mineralized with a mix of copper and titanium hydrates," she said, looking up. "They appear diagenetic, but they could also be an in situ feature."
       Hunter continued to observe Arielle, noticing she was biting her lower lip. Then his eyes became focused on her hands, which appeared to be shaking.
       She cleared her throat. "Hunter, I said it's a copper-titanium replacement. It may have formed after the deposition of the sediments. But then again—where did this come from?" She held the sample out toward him, her hand definitely quavering.
       "Where, what?" he asked, her geologic prowess ruffling his concentration. "Uh. Over there." He pointed at the wall.
       Arielle stepped up to examine the wall. "Nope. Float rock. You know, only one other locality on the planet has displayed such replacement. In the Selinax Complex, but two thousand meters down. Finding something like this near-surface is exciting. A bit puzzling though. We need to keep our eyes glued to the walls. See if we can find a source bed."
       He gave her a sheepish grin. "Good idea. Keep our eyes glued. Could be an answer here. Interesting. Uh, excuse me. I just remembered. I need to talk with your boyfriend."
       He hurried forward and caught up to Ramon who was at the front of the line, soon becoming consumed in a lengthy discussion with Ramon about their water sampling and analysis plans for the cavern. Time passed. The group reached the split in the passage; a small yellow light on the wall in the right passage, placed by one of the Kalos, was blinking like a lighthouse beacon.
       "Follow me, por favor," said Ramon. He started into the passage, everyone following closely, except Garrett who was straggling some distance behind.
       After they had hiked for a while longer, Hunter looked back, his eyes immediately catching