(From beneath the water they felt Petra reach her mind into the pulsing mass: _There...._)
(As the tentacles encased her and she jammed the spear home again and again through the leaking membrane, she felt Jon's mind join in: There....)
The boat rammed into the side of the jellyfish, the planks tearing away the membrane and the thick, stinging insides fountaining over them. Now it nearly turned over, and tentacles flapped from the water in wet, fleshy ropes. The Second Fisherman was caught in one of the snarls.
Their green faces were lighted from beneath by the milky glow.
(_There...._) Suddenly it tore away from the planks, going down beneath the water. (_There...._) The Second Fisherman's head bobbed to the surface, shook the green fin that crested his skull, and laughed. (_There...._)
3 to 6, 3 to 6, (Jon's frequency oscillated from 3 to 6 as he drifted through clouds of super-heated gas) 3 to 6, 3 to 6--7 to 10! (Someone was coming.) U to 10, 7 to 10, (It was getting closer; suddenly:) 10 to 16! (Then:) 3 to 6, 7 to 10, 3 to 6, 7 to 10, (they had passed through each other. _Hi_, Petra said. _Have you any idea where we are?_)
(_The temperature is somewhere near three quarters of a million degrees. Any ideas?_)
9 to 27, 9 to 27, 9 to 27 (came puttering along and passed through both Jon and Petra;) 12 to 35, 10 to 37, (and then, again) 3 to 6, 7 to 10, 9 to 27, 9 to 27, 9 to 27 (_We are halfway between the surface and the center of a star not unlike our sun_, said Arkor. _Note all the strange elements around._) 9 to 27, 9 to 27, 9 to 27.
7 to 10, 7 to 10, 7 to 10 (_They keep on turning into one another_, Petra said.) 7 to 10, 7 to 10, 7 to 10.
3 to 6, 3 to 6, 3 to 6 (_At this temperature you would too if you were atomic_, Jon told her.) 3 to 6, 3 to 6, 3 to 6.
9 to 27, 9 to 27, 9 to 27 (_Where's our friend?_ Arkor wanted to know.)
pi to e, pi to 2e, 2pi to 4e, 4pi to 8e, 8pi to 16e, 16pi to 32e.
(_Speak of the_ ... Jon started. _Hey, we've got to do something about that. Not only is it transcendental, it's increasing so fast he'll eventually shake this star apart._) 3 to 6, 3 to 6, 3 to 6.
(_So that's what causes novas_, said Petra.) 7 to 10, 7 to 10, 7 to 10.
(At the next oscillation, Arkor, acting as a side-coefficient, passed through the intruder.) 32^{ 2}pi to 64e (Arkor got out before the second extremity was reached. The wave cycle stuttered, having been reversed end on end.) 642pi to 32e (It tried to right itself and couldn't because Jon spun through the lower end divisibility) 642pi to 16/9e (then Arkor jumped in, tail first it recovered and it resolved into:) 642pi to 4/3e, 642pi to 4/3e, 642pi to 4/3e (it quivered, its range no longer geometric).