“Y’know,” Rachel said, “I broke one of my own rules.”

“What?”

“Don’t go to bed with anyone crazier than yourself.”

He laughed. “Would make life dull. Also, was no bed.”

“You agree?”

“A craziness contest? You win easily—a Librarian on Mars.”

It was her turn to laugh. “Maybe it’s a tie. We’re going down a deep hole together to cross-examine a life-form that looks like a carpet.”

They were in a crazily good mood as they descended. Zuminski had authority to lead small expeditions, so he used it—and had filed the proper notices electronically five minutes before they left the habitat.

Two hours later they approached the artifact, having taken longer than expected to electroshock their way past a massive valve membrane. They worked forward in deep gloom, through a somber fog that thickened toward the ceiling of the grotto.

The Mat pulsed suddenly with an ivory glow. It knew they were there. She crouched beside the camouflaged device she’d left and eyed the alien artifact. The three crystalline “eyes” of the thing lit up. A rippled pattern cycled, quick flashes of life. She picked up her device and checked its actions. It had emitted the coded sequence she had gotten from her buddies back at the SETI Library and, hours later, received a reply from the winking artifact. Her message had been a simple attempt to give the alien device a hail, plus some questions. Apparently the Mat had answered. With a few finger-taps she downloaded the info-content into her suit deck.

“Let’s call this thing the Sphinx,” she said.

“Why?”

“It’s old, mysterious, we don’t know for sure who made it.”

“The Sphinx doesn’t talk.”

“This one does.” She tucked the device into her gear belt and beamed at Zuminski.

“What’s the worst feature of these pressure suits?”

“Must pee in them.”

“Nope. I can’t kiss you.”

4.

Hassan fumed across the table from Rachel. His long black eyebrows fluttered like street signs in a hurricane.

“I just read your”—he nodded toward Zuminski—“report on the descent with Fraq. Frankly, it’s skimpy.”

Zuminski said mildly, “I keep it simple. Mat pulsed, blinded us. Alien got away, we followed. Found artifact in side cavern.”

“This constitutes an unauthorized contact with the Mat.”

Rachel said, “Stuff happens. You follow up on it. That’s how discoveries go.” She kept her slight, polite smile in place. She and Zuminski had managed to cover their own latest descent so far, but somebody would catch on to why so many sensors had curious blanks in them at the same time.

Hassan did not even look at her. He peered at Zuminski. “You were in charge, not her. You could have broken off contact.”

“Leave Fraq down there? Alone?” Zuminski laughed merrily. “Lose only alien we have right here?”

Rachel thought, Actually, not the only one, now….

Hassan brushed this away with a wave of his hand. “What did Fraq want from the artifact?”

Zuminski said, “We call it the Sphinx. What does anyone want from a sphinx? Who made it? What does it know? Fraq won’t say, either.”