"I knew it. Why?"
"Those tubes have been running on a maintenance load for days. They shouldn't blow out."
"Critter of habit, aren't you?" grinned Arden.
Don nodded. "A consuming curiosity, I guess."
Arden smiled as she continued to climb into her clothing. "You're not the only one in this family that has a lump of curiosity," she told him.
"But it's—"
"Don," said his wife seriously, "rules is rules and electricity and energy are things I'm none too clear on. But I do know my husband. And when he gets up out of a warm bed in the middle of the night to go roaming through a frozen world, it's urgent. And since the man in question has been married to me for a number of years, getting up out of a warm bed and going out into snow and ice means that the urgency-angle is directed at whatever lies at the other end. I want to go see—and I'm going to!"
Channing nodded absently. "Probably a wild-goose chase," he said. "Ready?"
Arden nodded. "Lead on, curious one."
Channing blinked when he saw the light in the room where the solar intake tubes were. He hastened forward to find Wes Farrell making some complex measurements and juggling a large page of equations. Farrell looked up and grinned sheepishly.