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‘Not convinced,’ said Rast stubbornly.

Jo-Jo felt a rising annoyance. They didn’t have time for a difference of opinion. The Extros would already know they were no longer submerged. ‘We hang around here exploring and we’ll end up like your crew.’

Rast rolled slowly onto her side so she could see Jo-Jo’s face. Her blue eyes were bloodshot to hell and her face and hair were glazed with floor goo. ‘Where - are - they?’

‘On the other side of me. I’ve felt down there. I think it’s Latourn. Long hair.’

She began to turn over. ‘Lemme past you,’

‘Wait,’ he ordered. ‘I’ll move first. Both of us at once will cause waves.’

Surprisingly, she listened.

With painfully slow movements, he slid his body around behind hers in a semicircle until their heads almost touched. ‘Now you go.’

She rolled more slowly this time, until she was positioned above the spot where Lat’s body was encased.

Jo-Jo closed his eyes, not wanting to see her reaction. He felt the surface tremor as she plunged her hand below.

‘I can’t get him to move,’ she gulped, struggling to keep her own face from being pulled beneath.

‘I know,’ said Jo-Jo, still studying the inside of his eyelids. ‘I checked him.’

‘What’s that mean?’

‘Means his lungs are full of goo.’

‘And?’

‘Unless they’re set up like the tubercles in a biozoon, I’m thinking he’s dead.’

‘But the floor was solid before. I don’t get it.’

‘I bet Medium’s capable of changing lots of things internally.’

‘Medium?’

‘That’s what it’s called. Maybe it transforms into something more liquid when it’s in travelling mode. Maybe sound travels better through the goo.’

‘Well that shoots down your theory about it being planetside already.’ Rast’s calm reaction told Jo-Jo that she didn’t believe him.

‘Maybe,’ he conceded. ‘Whatever. But if I’m right, best to be on top than underneath it, I reckon.’

She made a disgruntled noise. ‘How did you get me out?’

‘I pulled a plug off your mouth and nose seal. You started to drown and reacted by swimming to the top.’

‘Why didn’t Lat do the same?’

‘His mouth and nose seal was already gone when I found him. He had no breathing reflex.’

‘What about Catchut?’ Her voice sounded grim now.

Jo-Jo opened his eyes and turned his head to try and look at her, his eyes widening. ‘Dunno. But he was making noise down there, so maybe he’s . . .?’

Her blue eyes blinked and fixed him with a fierce look. ‘Find him,’ she said.

They began to move away from each other, taking turns to roll; Jo-Jo towards the scar, Rast in the opposite direction.

Jo-Jo found the movement getting easier, as if the surface tension had increased. Just short of the scar, he saw something opaque below the surface. ‘Over here.’

With a single, careful movement he delved downward. The resistance was definitely greater, but he touched something solid. ‘Randall! Hurry over.’

‘I know, I can feel it.’ She was sliding back toward him quickly.

Jo-Jo felt the seal over Catchut’s nose. It was intact but moving his fingers had become an effort, and he felt pressure building up around his arms.

Rast was able to balance on her knees by the time she reached him. The jelly-floor was solidifying. ‘Get him out,’ she cried.

Jo-Jo ripped the seal off and forced his other arm under. It was like reaching into a vat of cold honey.

Rast was doing the same.

Even though the surface gave them more purchase, the pulling was harder. Catchut started moving of his own accord but not with the vigour that Jo-Jo or Randall had been able to. He was asphyxiating in the hardening gel.

‘More,’ gasped Randall.

Jo-Jo strained his muscle-weakened shoulders until he thought his arms would dislocate.

Between them, they dragged Catchut’s head and shoulders out. The layers of drying Extro fluid cracked into shards as soon as his skin reached air. He clawed at his nose and mouth to clear them.

‘Again!’ Rast hauled with strength she shouldn’t have had. The rest of Catchut’s body cracked free, his clothes tearing from it, boots left behind underneath.