..."
On the lower deck of the passenger ship, Tom smiled as he faintly heard
his unit-mate's voice. He made his way to the jet-boat deck of the _Lady
Venus_ and opened the hatch.
"Hey, Astro," he called. There wasn't any answer.
He stepped inside and looked around the empty deck. Walking over to one
of the jet boats, he saw evidence of Al James's attempts to send out
emergency signal messages. He called again. "Hey, Astro--where are you?"
Still no answer. He noticed that one of the jet boats was missing. There
were three still on the deck, but an empty catapult for the fourth made
Tom think that Astro might have repaired the fourth and taken it out in
space for a test. The light over the escape hatch indicated that someone
had gone out. It was odd, thought Tom, for Astro to go out alone. But
then he shrugged, remembering how Astro could lose himself in his work
and forget everything but the job at hand. He climbed back to the
passenger deck.
When Tom opened the hatch to the main lounge, the sight that filled his
eyes was so funny that, even in the face of danger, he had to laugh.
Roger, with his hands clasped behind his back, was down on his knees
trying to push a food pellet across the deck with his nose. The whole
passenger lounge echoed with hysterical laughter.
Suddenly the laughter was stopped by the sound of the bell over the
air-lock hatch.
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