Starquake.pdf

walls made out of high quality superconducting plate, but even if the walls were extremely tall, the fringing
fields would come in over the top. That wouldn't work at all."
"I didn't mean a regular room, open to the sky," Zero-Gauss explained. "My laboratory is under the
crust and has a domed cover of superconducting plate over the top, like the 'ceilings' or 'roofs' the
humans use on their living and working compounds."
"You wouldn't catch me working in that place," Moving-Sand muttered. "I don't trust things over top of
me."
"The dome is artificially cooled to simulate the cold of the sky," said Zero-Gauss. "That helps me a lot
when I'm working in there. Since it is as dark as the sky, I can't see it, so it is easy to pretend it isn't
there."
"That must be an amazing structure," said Cliff-Web. "I presume there are pillars and double-arches
holding up the domes like those in the human cathedrals. How big is it?"
"It is thirty millimeters square and has a post every centimeter. The top of the dome is five millimeters
up," she replied. "Would you like to see it?" She hesitated, then added, "We limit direct access, since
each entry allows a little more magnetic field to leak in. However, we have an array of remotely
controlled video cameras that will let you look at any portion."
"I would like to see it," Cliff-Web told her. He led the way back from the potting rooms through the
gardens to the front
door of the compound. Slurge was quietly trimming the lawn, and Rollo and the Slinks were gone. As he
activated the compound door, the area was suddenly full of Slinks. Using his body to block the Slinks
from getting out into the street, Cliff-Web escorted Zero-Gauss out the door, for the first time touching
the large female.
Moving-Sand came up to chase the Slinks from the doorway and'trummed after them. "You can't go
now. You just got here. You haven't even read your message file. You must have six dozen messages to
answer."
"I'll get to them later," Cliff-Web answered as he led the way down the slidewall toward the Inner Eye
Institute.
"One of them is from the Rejuvenation Selection Committee," hollered Moving-Sand. Cliff-Web paused,
then continued on down the street, silently thinking.
Zero-Gauss got his attention with an electronic whisper that tickled his backside. "I am impressed. The
committee only started announcing the names of those that were being selected for the rejuvenation
process a dozen turns ago. You must be up at the top of the list."
"It must be a long list," he said.
"No," she said. "I know of only one scientist at the Institute who is on it. Don't forget, the process is so
time-consuming and costly that they are only able to undertake one rejuvenation every three turns—only
four dozen cheela in a whole great of turns. It must be tough having to make the decision of who are to
be the lucky few who are going to be allowed to live a second life while the rest of us will have to die
when our time comes."