I sat in the sea dome almost every cycle, waiting for sunrise. I wished that I could see the stars some times, the glassy rock obscuring the sky, but it was worth it for the moments when the sun came up. The sea dome got cold by that time of cycle, having spent so long in the darkside, losing heat to the surrounding rock and the vacuum. Vacuum may be a good insulator, but not if what it's insulating is happy to radiate into the void. Warm rock does that. I'm told the earth gets a tiny fraction of that heat, infrared warmth that I'm sure they don't notice. Atmosphere keeps you warm. I could see my breath -- the air was moist, and in the cold, I think I saw frost forming on the dome walls above me. I pulled my jacket around me tighter. It was never quite warm enough, since it was made for dry air. Nobody planned our clothing for this. I didn't mind. As always, without warning, it started. The far side of the sea dome started to sparkle, the glass beads embedded in the rock caught the first light of sun. It started to reflect off the water, a thousand gems lit orange-yellow like fire. It grew, yellower and higher, the beads above catching the blues and greens at the edge of the sunlight, the glass diffracting the light. A myriad of rainbows spread across me as the sun took shape behind the faceted wall. The brightness grew, and the cold shrugged off. My breath vanished. Twenty degrees. The blues and yellows took over, the orange light dying as the sun rose, still low on the dome across from me, but a disc now, visible in the facets of glass. I took off my jacket. Twenty-five. Nobody but the firsters came to the dome, it seemed like. I sat on the cliff, made by us as a place to stand around the edge of the sea-dome. The comet's water only filled it three quarters of the way, so the steep walls sloped down below me. The water lapped at the rocky base, driven by the tidal forces of the earth above us. The temperature kept rising. I felt a bead of sweat run down the back of my suit. Forty degrees now. I stripped back my top, the one piece suit hanging loose around my waist, arms flopping. My skin hadn't seen the caress of the sun in more than two hundred cycles. At a certain point, you stop counting age in earth years. It's all cycles here. The seconds like my sisters never counted any other way. I still start to try to say my age in years, then give up. The light prickled my skin a little. Sudden heat, sudden light. Forty five degrees. I gave in and stripped my suit away, leaving it in a red and grey heap on the path around the sea dome. The air was so moist, there was no chill. The water looked inviting. Seventy meters below, it lapped at the rock, blue-grey, I could see the bottom, where the dust from the comet had settled over time, leaving us with pure and clean water. I'm glad I never developed a fear of heights on earth. Here, they're a fact of life -- while you live in small domes, there's always a reason to be climbing something, whether it's maintenance or pleasure. Climbing keeps your muscles healthy. I jumped off the cliff without thinking. After a moment, I remembered old films of divers on earth. I twisted my body as I fell, aiming head down. I remembered the position of the divers' arms, and I slapped them above my head as I neared the water. The water wasn't as gentle as I'd imagined. I think I felt a slap against my skin as I cut in, plunging deep. It surprised me a little, how much it squeezed me. I can only imagine what diving on earth is like, with the planet trying to crush you as you dove. The water was still cold, it was a lot of mass to heat so quickly. It wouldn't warm in a few minutes of sun like the air did. I gasped a little as I came to the surface. It couldn't have been more than twenty degrees. The cliff above me looked more imposing from this angle, the steep bowl's lip hanging a little outward from the wall. The grey stone didn't have very many hand-holds, though I wasn't worried about climbing out. "Ray" I froze for a moment and almost slipped under the water. I'd assumed I'd be alone until I climbed out and got dressed again. "Ray!" The voice above me was more urgent, and I squinted to see who it was. Eidothea. "What are you doing down there?" I felt prickly all over, with Eidothea yelling down at me from above, naked in the water. "Swimming? I haven't been swimming since I was a little girl." "Where's the path down there?" "Jump!" I saw Thea scrunch her lips for just a moment, considering the height, then she stripped in a moment and jumped. She would never let me show her up on anything, and this was no exception. She made a very elegant looking dive into the water, barely making a splash. Probably a better diver on her first try than I was, too, but that's how she always is. I was a little vindicated though when she came up sputtering. "The water's COLD!" "I know!" I grinned at her. "You could have told me!" "What, and spoil the surprise?" Thea sputtered a little more, then splashed me. I splashed back. "Race you to the top." "You're on." I'd been climbing a lot lately, and I was in good shape. She was a natural at anything athletic, but I couldn't resist her. I launched myself out of the water. I suppose you can't do that on Earth, but with a good kick, you can clear the surface here. I grabbed the rock wall, and Thea was right beside me. The basalt was smoother than I had anticipated. Twenty meters or so out of the water, I got to a smooth expanse without the slightest hand-hold. Thea was a few meters to my right, and glanced over at me a little nervously. She was gripping the rock however barely with one hand, but the other could find no purchase either. This was the part of climbing that I hated most. Usually, when you're working on a dome or something man-made, you can use a suction cup to hold on, making a hand-hold where there is none, or on something metal, you can use a magnet. We all carry those when we're working up at heights. Mine were among my tools in my suit, not that either would get a grip on the smooth but not polished rock. I watched Thea eyeing the rock above her, and after a moment, she launched herself as best she could upward. She caught a new hand-hold, a full body-length above her. I tried the same, but I misjudged the distance, and I found myself headed straight for the water again. I landed with a sputter, taking a glancing blow off the wall as I fell.