MacVickers touched it. It was quite hard, and warm only with the heat of the air. MacVickers' grey-green eyes met the sunken, sheathed eyes of the Earthman. His body hurt with the effort to control it.
"When we can no longer move," the whispering voice said, "they take us up the shaft and throw us over, into the mud. That's why you're here—because we were one man short."
MacVickers put his hand back on the ladder rung. "How long?"
"About three Earth months."
He looked at the blue-green stain that smeared them all. The color of the mud. His hands sweated on the ladder rung. "What is it?"
"Something in the mud. A radioactivity, I think. It seems to turn the carbon in human flesh to a crystalline form. You become a living jewel. It's painless. But it's...." He didn't finish.
Beads of sweat stood on MacVickers' forehead. The men standing watching him smiled a little. There was motion behind them. Loris and Pendleton stiffened, and their eyes met.
MacVickers said steadily, "I don't understand. The mud's outside."
Loris said, with a queer, hurried urgency, "You will. It's almost time for the other shift...."
He broke off. Men scattered suddenly, crouching back in a rough circle, grinning with feral nervousness. The room was suddenly quiet.