He left his nonhuman allies, and sought out Magill. He found him at the
western corner of the roof, examining the landscape visible beyond the
tail of the spaceship. A couple of pentapods were on hand, as usual.
Leo Dennis was making himself useful, sketching the western skyline on
a pad he carried, with the apparent intention of marking the sunset
point. Magill had evidently decided that an assistant navigator should
be able to get his own location on a planet's surface as well as in
space. Dennis was slightly handicapped by a total lack of instruments,
but was doing his best. Little approached the quartermaster.
"Has anything new turned up, Keys?"
The officer shook his head without turning. "The men are all over the
roof, to see if there are any ventilator intakes or anything else. One
of them pointed out that the lack of superstructure suggested that
the roof might be used as a landing place for atmosphere craft, and
found some blast marks to back up the idea. No one else has made any
worth-while reports. If there are any aircraft, though, I'd like to
know where they stow them."
"It might help, though I hope we won't be driven to using them. I
suppose the boys have their eyes open for large, probably level-set
trapdoors in the roof. But what I wanted to find out was: with whom am
I sharing a room?"
"Don't recall, offhand," replied Magill. "It doesn't matter greatly.
If there is any one in particular you want--or don't want--to be with,
you're at liberty to trade with someone. I told the boys that."
"Thanks. I want to spend some time with the Dennis boys, without making
it too obvious. I suppose they're already together. By the way, seeing
I'm still a medical officer, has anyone reported sick? The air is just
a shade on the thin side, and we've been breathing it long enough for
effects to show, if there are going to be any."
Magill shook his head negatively, and Little strolled over to Leo, who
had completed his sketch and was trying to mark the position of the
sun at five-minute intervals. He was wearing one of the few watches
possessed by the party. He was perfectly willing to have his erstwhile
roommate replaced by the doctor, especially when Little promised work
to be done. He agreed to speak to his brother and to Cauley, who had
originally been assigned to their room.
"Tell Arthur to bring his pack, with the kit he sneaked along," added
the doctor. "We will probably have use for it." Leo nodded, grinning,
and resumed his attempts to fix the position of an object, much too
bright to view directly, which had an angular breadth on the order of
half a degree. He didn't appear discouraged yet.
* * * * *
Little wandered off across the roof, occasionally meeting and speaking
to one of the men. Morale seemed to be good, he noted with relief. He
had always considered that to be part of the business of a medical
officer, since it was, after all, directly reflected in the health of
the men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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