"Think it's safe to go out?" Jak asked. "Now you listen to your mother, and don't take any chances." "We won't," Jon told her, then answered his brother. "We'll wait an hour and see what we can see from here, then decide." "I sure want a closer look at that plant Life." Jak's eyes glistened, and he ran to get his binoculars to see better. "I ought to examine the hull and tubes, too, to make sure they aren't fouled or corroded," Jon told his mother. "It's nearly time for lunch." She turned away. "At least you must stay in until after that." It was plain she was still worried, and the boys tried to reassure her and quiet her fears. When she called they reluctantly left their vantage points at the ports and went in to eat the lunch she had prepared. Several times she had to caution them against bolting their food, as they talked eagerly of what they might find here. Finally finished, Jon rose. "Come on, Owl," he urged, "let's go outside and give it the once-over lightly." "Better break out our rifles first," the elder advised. "No telling what we'll run into." "If it's dangerous enough for guns, I wish you wouldn't go." Their mother was worried again. "They're just a precaution, same as Father would take if he was in charge," Jak soothed. "We won't go out of this clearing this first time." "You'd better give Mr. C. another feeding first, hadn't you?" Jak consulted his wrist-chronom. "Yes, it's nearly time, and we might not be back by the regular hour." The problem of keeping their father fed and in good health, apart from his head and leg injuries, had not proven too hard when they became convinced that he was not going to wake up often enough to eat normally. Jak, while working as orderly in the Centropolitan Hospital the previous summer, had assisted the interns and nurses in giving intravenous feedings to unconscious patients. So he knew the general procedure, as well as the composition and quantity of the nutrient liquid to be administered. "Will you come help me, Mother," he had asked when he was sure he was ready for that first feeding. "We've got to find certain things in our food stores." "You're sure you know how to do it?" "Yes, it's not hard. We need liquid proteins, salt, sugar and glucose." With his mother helping, he had gathered these from their stores, and taken them into the galley. There he had carefully measured out and mixed these ingredients in the proportions his books stated. Then he and Jon had gone into the workshop and there the younger, under his brother's supervision, and with pictures of the apparatus as a guide, had rigged up a drip-regulator to go into the mouth of a large bottle. To this they had attached a long, slender, plastic tube, and to the far end of that a large, hollow feeding needle.