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there's ground left."
"There's no hurry about that," insisted the commander. "You can't land in the
fog where am now; it'll
I
have to be down by the lake as usual, and you're not to do that until
I'm nearly there. Besides, I need to look at the pool how about more samples
from there right now, Seichi? Or have you been keeping track already?"
"There are lots of samples analyzed and filed," was the answer. "I don't know
the details myself; I've been doing them, not thinking about them."
"Status?"
"There has been a steady increase of complex organics in the pool. Material
presumably from
Commander Goodall's body and armor seems to have been diffusing at a rate much
higher than the temperature would render likely. Whether this can be the cause
of the color change is uncertain; their two rates do not match at all
closely."
Again, if any of the group felt discomfort at this calm report, none made it
audible. Once a friend was gone, his body was a data source; one remembered
him, not his flesh or his face. At least Good-all's experiment was providing
data as he had hoped.
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Maria thought a moment before speaking.
"We have a lab at the other pool here in the crater. Does it show anything
happening there?"
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"No. No significant change."
"How about the ones near the factory the one here?"
"The small changes I mentioned earlier. So far of no apparent significance."
"Check all these change rates, and any which come up from now on, against
probable effects of electron tunneling. Anything interesting from the seismic
net?"
"Yes. There seems to be a body of liquid below the crater, its horizontal
cross section about three times the crater area at one hundred twenty
kilometers depth. Its top is at a depth of fifty-three kilometers, its bottom
at least one hundred fifty. The resolution decreases with increasing depth,
but should improve with time." "Maria, get out of there! Get off the ground!
That's got to be a magma plume!"
"More likely water, Gene. Are you asking Ginger to land beside me in this
fog?"
"Well, no. But hurry down to the lake, and remember water magma here!"
is
"The commander has eighteen point five hours before emergency status," the
processor interjected.
"So who's worrying about your suit?" snapped Belvew. "That crater's trying to
become a volcano.
Eighteen hours could see its floor all cut up with faults or covered with fog
or with supercooled water ready to freeze around you or a landing ship."
"Is any sort of prediction possible, Status?"
Maria was not quite as calm as she tried to keep her voice.
"Not from present data. The liquid may be the source of the fog, but I have
found no trace so far of a feed from the depths to either of the fog sources.
The probability that both the fog and the liquid are water seems high, in
spite of the lack of ice crystal structure in the former."
"I can make a guess at that," lePing cut in.

Ile gas coming out of that crack is mostly nitrogen, with a healthy trace of
methane. Its temperature at the height where the lab is bobbing is about
hundred and a ten. I suggest the white stuff is water, carried up from the
magma chamber, showing no crystal structure either because it cooled so fast
when it got outside that it's a glass, or because the drops are so small that
surface tension keeps them liquid. Either would explain the lack of
structure."
"Maybe it would explain something else," the commander put in, using a tone
that bothered Belvew.
"What's that?"
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"I've just been knocked down by another shock "
"Why didn't you tell us, or at least Status?"
"Because it's becoming routine. I landed on my back as usual, and this time
rolled over to push up with my hands instead of my elbows. The white stuff is
sticking to the front of my armor, I see; and I think it must have been
sticking to the back for quite a while. That part has been feeling
surprisingly warm for the last half hour or more.
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I can't see or reach my back, but I bet the stuff's there, too. It could be
not only acting as insulation but providing heat as it really
freezes crystallizes."
"Why should it freeze?" asked Martucci.
"Loss of spherical shape would drop the surface tension and the pressure,"
said Carla. "Ask Gene why rime ice forms on wings "
"Of course, but theory later," cut in the commander. "I'm pretty well covered
by the stuff now. It sticks, whatever the cause. At least it's not interfering
with my walking."
"It's interfering with something else."
"What's that, Pete?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]