Iris

The thing that bothers me is the danger involved. . . . I've heard there can be permanent disorientation.... It seems to me that 'Deers' risk a great deal.'

'There's always the danger of a discharge when you interface with something that complex. I don't care how good the program is,' said Jana.

'Possible, yes,' said Ariane, 'but it's not very likely. I don't know. John seemed so unhappy before. Now . . .'

Axie laughed softly. 'It's that old black magic, I guess. Beta's the one thing I can handle. I don't know about DR, or love.'

Ariane stood and ran a finger down a seam of her fullbodies and the garment fell to the ground with an exaggerated speed as she stepped clear. 'I'm going to try a swim.' She seemed to tiptoe into the air, an almost vertical leap that carried her a third of the way to the top of the dome. When she reached the water it parted with languorous ease, then closed over her just as easily. The ripples cascaded back and forth across the limpid pool as she resurfaced.

'Not bad,' she said. 'Come on in.'

'I want to try to get in touch with Polaris again,' said Jana. She turned, walked to the dome's entry foyer, and was gone.

Axie looked back at Ariane. 'You look like you're having a good time.'

'This is very different from being in a zero-g tank. It seems like the surface tension is strong enough to lift you up.' She carefully placed her palms down on the water and pushed, raising up until she was exposed to mid-thigh. She grinned. 'Interesting, huh? Maybe it's just trapped air.'

'I wish I had my circlet,' said Axie. 'This seems completely counterintuitive. I'd've thought the water would slosh out of the pool when you dove in from so far up.'

'Ah, but did you notice? I hit the water so slowly I didn't impart much momentum to it. Elementary physics.'

'Can I climb up on the surface tension? My fullbodies won't adsorb the water.'

'I don't know. Try it and see.'

It worked, though it was difficult to present sufficientsurface area to support her bare half kilogram, especially since, after a first failure, she was giggling like a maniac. Finally she was riding dry on the tension of the shiny liquid, cradled in her little dimple like an ungainly water strider. Laughing, Ariane struck at the surface of the water with a cupping arc of her hand and sent a horde of silver globules racing across the surface, many of which were caught in Axie's depression. They popped and merged silently. She began to laugh harder, and she broke through, a leg first, then an arm, until she slipped into the hole she'd made and sank up to her chest. She flopped around, suddenly aware that any violent action might empty the pool. 'You know,' she said, 'this is fun.'

'Yeah,' said Axie, 'but how long can it last?'

Jana was sitting in her room, circlet on. She'd been trying to reach Polaris now for several minutes. Obviously they were ignoring her signal, unless their electronics were dead. 'Come on, you idiots,' she said aloud. 'I know you're receiving this transmission, so answer me!' There was a little burst of circuitry being activated, and then a presence came into her head. 'Hey! I thought you were going to cooperate with me on the planetology report, you bastards. What's going on out there?' This time the presence was clearly identifiable as Krzakwa. 'Oh, Jana. Well, we looked around Podarge for you; didn't land, didn't see much. We named a crater— what you called Soderblom is now Kickaha .'

'Kick-a-what?' asked Hu incredulously. 'What the . . .' Sealock: 'Look, Jana, we decided this is purely a fun trip for us. No science this time. When we get back I'll take you wherever you want. From now on, if we see anything interesting, we'll give you a call.'

'I don't expect you to understand this, but I made a commitment to the scientific community to get samples from I and II as soon as humanly possible. If you would just . . .'

'I read your report, you phony. You told them it'd be at least half a year, and it's nowhere near that. You're just worried someone else might show up here and beat you to it.

There's plenty of time for you to get your fucking samples. You haven't even finished Ocypete yet!'

'There's something I have to tell you. About Aello.'

'It'll wait.' Abruptly, there was nothing.

For an hour Jana sat alone and listened to the void. There might just be a way ...

Ariane Methol lay on her back in the cool water, staring upward with a blind gaze. She followed a train of thought, of things that she found perplexing in herself. The pool was something like the one in the Fitness Center of her arcology, its waters reflecting the light, throwing shards of moving brightness up onto the ceiling which were