"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.