Farkin was having a tough time falling asleep. He often did on the night before a landing. He had consumed 6 large ice cubes of frozen Poloskovian Vodka as he reclined in his freezer-bed, and at last the alcohol began to take effect. He had been perusing an ancient Terran manuscript called Valley of the Dolls in an attempt to familiarize himself with the creatures he might encounter on Tern, but he found the religious references and complex symbolism daunting. This Jacqueline Suzanne must have been some sort of high priestess of the prevalent Terran religion of the late Twentieth Century, Hedonism.

At last the words began to dance before his eyes, the words to conjure strange associations in his mind, and he clicked off the bulkhead light and drifted into sleep. His dream was one he had often, of Ballonder, his home. In his dream he was working with his brother in the depths of the Malakeist mine, and though he knew somehow that his brother had liquified in a reactor accident aboard a Neptunian Starfrieghter, he did not question Gonden's presence, nor his own in this place. They worked happily, as they had so many times before, bringing down with great pick-strokes the sheets of Malakeist. They would hum together one of the wordless hymns of their kind, their low voices vibrating together in a harmonic synchronicity. "They say it is coming again " said Gonden at last, " the Great Melting." And Farkin knew that his brother spoke of the great cyclical climate change that struck Ballonden every 1236 Terran years. It was the event of which the Priests of his kind spoke often, saying " as we were born in ice, so shall we die in water." Water. It had once been a near mythic substance to him. Ballonder's mean temperature was -26 Celsius. Farkin spoke to his brother. " Do you think that in the melting we cease to exist?" Gonden lowered his pick-axe. " A veil is drawn across that chasm, Farkin. The priests themselves do not know. But this I can tell you...this planet that you see before you, solid with the ice and peopled with those born of the Crystal, was once a moving sea of formless liquid. This was changed by the coming of the Creator, who showered this sea with the life-bringing snow and ice. Gradually it was transformed to this strong and solid world, and from it we were brought forth. When the great Melting comes again, we shall all return to that void of water. But I think," said Gonden," that perhaps nothing is really changed. Perhaps ice and water are actually the same thing. Maybe, brother, as you and I are together in ice, so shall we be in water." Here Gonden touched his forehead with his fingertips, and leaned forward to touch Farkin's face.

Farkin awoke to see the interesting phenomenon of light coming from outside the Enterprise. A voice came over the intercom: " We are entering the atmosphere of Tern. Landing Crew please take your stations."