94

You help an exhausted Marcel climb out of his metal prison.

"I wouldn't have got through that without you," he says.

Half the colony gathers around to inspect the findings from the trip. Celia Skarby is disappointed that you weren't able to keep your word about getting an ice core. In the insular environment of the ice tunnels, slights can fester and small matters can quickly blow out of proportion.

"I hoped you would keep your word," the geologist says, uninterested in hearing any explanation about the limits of fuel and sample storage space. "What a dark day for geology. This isn't the last you'll hear from me!"

The sticky web from the tri-slugs is scraped off of the submarine and into vials for testing.

"I suspect this substance is in part how much of the lifeforms are able to hang upside down from the ice," speculates Marcel. "Every creature shapes and is shaped by its biome."

No one is particularly excited that you managed to bring back a canister seemingly just filled with water. But the fact that it is also brimming with alien microbes means that it will still help the colony's progress in the brand-new field of practical xenobiology.

Sungura Kikwete is very pleased that you were able to fully document the unique crystal.

"This may well be quite lucrative for us," they tell you as they begin their plans to trademark the crystal structure in the Earth territories in which intellectual property still exists.

Everyone is impressed by the strange coral found and what it might teach everyone about life under the ice.

"We shouldn't call it coral," Professor Li insists. "It will only set us down a path of false classification. For now, this is sui generis."

Rheita asks if she can have a bit for decoration.