Mark turned sullen again, “Well—I asked Dr. Vernadsky to see some data he had collected and he told me not to publish it before he did. He tried to make out that I was dishonest.”
“For the love of Earth, I was only joking,” came a yell from the audience.
Sheffield said, hurriedly, “Very well, Mark, you didn’t trust us and you felt you had to take action on your own. Now, Mark, let’s get to the point. What did you think killed the first settlers?”
Mark said, “It might have killed the explorer, Makoyama, too, for all I know except that he died in a crash two months and three days after reporting on Junior, so we’ll never know.”
“All right, but what is it you’re talking about?”
A hush fell over everyone.
Mark looked about and said, “The dust.”
Sheffield said, “What do you mean?”
“The dust! The dust in the air. It has beryllium in it. Ask Dr. Vernadsky.”
Vernadsky stood up and pushed his way forward. “What’s this?”