Konnici na Liriite - Chevalier Du Lys

The second "Rhapsody in Black" beings with Grainger shuttles Charlot and some passengers to the planet Rhapsody, an isolated religious community constructed entirely below-ground on a world too close to the parent star, because something valuable has been discovered there, and Charlot wants to negotiate for it. There, the crew is imprisoned upon arrival, but he and a few of the others escape.Grainger learns what's so valuable: there's a naturally occurring organism that just happens to be able to eat through the most common building material in the galaxy, and reproduces extremely rapidly given even moderate light. It could be extremely valuable, and it could also be a scourge to civilization, literally eating cities. Grainger later learns that the cave is worthless after all. The closed ecosystem of the cave was so stable that it couldn't handle the appearance of humans. All samples in the cave will be dead in a matter of days, no matter how many times they divide. The Hooded Swan leaves, ferrying the exiles to a new world.