Iris

'Perhaps. These decisions need not always be made. . . . In any case, summon my flyer.' The man bowed and went to do his bidding.

Vana sat in a plush swing that hung near her and shook her head. 'This is really something!' He nodded and said, 'We'll visit the Kaimodrang Empire and my good friend Ci te Tovolku . . . .' In due course a great silvery disk came to hover before the balcony, and a place in the side of the craft transmuted to a fenced gangway that was merged with the floor of the balcony. They climbed into the velour-upholstered circular well in the middle of the machine and took seats. Demogorgon seized the controls, pressing several of the semiprecious stones that dotted his armrest, and they flashed away, high in the air, heading into the west.

Vana looked over the side at the faraway landscape and, for the first time, noticed that the gravity here seemed Earth-normal. It felt strange but nice. 'What if I jump?' she asked. Demogorgon frowned. 'Don't,' he said. 'This world is designed to enhance and reinforce our perceptions of it as a reality. There are levels where that's not the case, where flying, transubstantiation, and the like are possible, but . . . I like this best. It's simple and believable.' He touched another control and the floor of the ship suddenly became transparent, not like glass or the walls of aspacecraft, but as if it had ceased to exist. Their chairs floated magically, frightening above the abyss.

Watching the squares of an agricultural land pass beneath them, Vana said, 'Yeah . . .' The wind whipping through her hair was the temperature of a comfortable autumn and the red suns were warm on her skin. She wanted to drink it all in, as if these moments might somehow get away. It seemed more real, now, than Deepstar and Ocypete.

'Are you a king here?' she asked.

'King?' Demogorgon was amused. 'Dear Vana: I'm God.' She thought about that for a while, then said, 'This is wonderful. I never want to leave.'

On the evening of the third day the 60vet expedition was approaching the edge of the ocellus. The ground grew rougher and more uneven, and the regolith grew deeper, more persistent. There were cracks in the ice filled with what turned out to be methane clathrate , a volatile admixture of water and methane. They steered well clear of these and the horizon began to bulge ominously. Suddenly they came upon a huge crevice that barred any further progress. The terrain had become a vast wasteland of jumbled, fretted ice with a relief of about a hundred meters. The massive forces and tensions working on the littoral of the freezing sea had spent their energies on the ab initio ice. In the distance, mountains were pushed up, jagged white teeth from broken white gums. The three explorers got out and stared.

'This is water geology, pure and straightforward,' said Tem, gesturing. 'As the ocellus melted, it overtopped the collapsing shores and spread beyond. When it froze again, it expanded and pushed everything back. If it weren't for glaciation moderating these processes, allowing the warm ice to be malleable, it'd be worse. Too bad Jana can't see this.'

'Shall we go farther?' asked Harmon.

'On foot? Nah. If there's any NH3eutectic out there, I wouldn't want to step in it. Not in these suits. It's time we started back, anyway.'

They returned to the car and got in. Harmon activated theair cleaner and they waited while the stray gases they'd brought in with them were filtered out. After a few minutes it was safe to remove their helmets, which deflated and collapsed. There was just the barest hint of ammonia left in the cabin, but it was very noticeable. If there were any HCN, and they certainly would hope not, it would be present in too small a quantity to do any harm.

Krzakwa was munching on a thin turkey sandwich, mayonnaise on white bread. 'Hey, you know what?' A little of the food was accumulating in his beard.

Biting daintily at a brioche, Sealock said, 'Tell me.'

'Well, a lot of this trip has been pretty damned boring, but it's been worth it. I think it made me realize something I used to know but kind of forgot. It all reminds of me of when I was a kid, when I used to sneak up to the outer surface of Luna and wander around. I kind of like exploring in places I've never been before.' He swallowed an unchewed mouthful of the sandwich and said, 'Too bad this is it. . . .' Sealock looked at him silently. For some reason, he found himself really liking the pudgy Selenite, thinking of him as a friend. 'Tell you what,' he said, 'when we get back, let's scrounge around the leftovers from Deepstar. Fuck everything else. I bet we can find enough parts to put together that little moonship we discussed on Earth. It'd give us a chance to really check the neighborhood out. Hell, there's got to be something worth looking at!'

Krzakwa's blue eyes brightened perceptibly. 'Hey! That's a great idea!' Sealock nodded, almost talking to himself now. 'We can recharge the Hyloxso matrices easily, build a small CM out of bubbleplastic . . .'

Tem cracked open a carton of grape soda, took a sip, and started in on another sandwich, this one roast beef. 'You know, despite the fact that you're such a weird fucker, sometimes I think you and I might be two of a kind. . . .'

Sealock tapped at the horn button which, of course, made no sound. 'Yeah,' he said.

The seven colonists were seated at uneven intervals around a large oval table in a clear space on the Irisward side of the dome that surrounded the CM. Packets of mandarines d'ortolans , a dish adapted from Escoffier , were passed around in silence except for the slithering arpeggios of a Beethoven string quartet. They began to eat, sparingly. It was delicious. The tiny, simulated buntings, barely more than morsels of meat, were nestled in an aspic delicately flavored by the essence of