During the next three days he learned a few things the hard way,
however. In spite of Garm's assurance that nothing could melt the sky,
he found that his sample would melt slowly under the heat of the torch.
In the liquid state, it was jet black, though it cooled back to complete
transparency. It was also without weight when in liquid form--a fact he
discovered when it began rising through the air and spattering over
everything, including his bare skin. The burns were nasty, but somehow
seemed to heal with remarkable speed. Sersa Garm was impressed by the
discoveries, and went off to suck his thumbs and brood over the new
knowledge, much to Dave's relief.
More work established the fact that welding bits of the sky together was
not particularly difficult. The liquid sky was perfectly willing to bond
onto anything, including other bits of itself.
Now, if he could get a gang up the thousand miles to the sky with enough
torches to melt the cracks, it might recongeal as a perfect sphere. The
stuff was strong, but somewhat brittle. He still had no idea of how to
get the stars and planets back in the right places.
"The mathematician thought of such an idea," Sersa Garm said sourly.
"But 'twould never work. Even with much heat, it could not be done. For
see you, the upper air is filled with phlogiston, which no man can
breathe. Also, the phlogiston has negative weight, as every school child
must know.
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