there were odd shapes scattered around it , patches of green and grey and white , but most of it was blue , so much and so intense a blue it felt as though the sphere was an eye before whose gaze they were helpless : they couldnt escape it , and the closer they got to it the more they felt its draw ; and every time they blinked , the blackness of their lids was pierced by countless luminous pinpricks , dazzling and formidable as life .