A stern-looking man with tight lips and menacing eyes was looking up from a litter of glass flasks and electronic devices. "Air twenty-nine per cent oxygen—a bit higher than on Earth. Sixty-five per cent nitrogen. Rest is a mixture of water vapor, CO2 and inert gases."
A small-boned man with a brown beard was saying, "Mass point-eight-three. That and the increased oxygen should make us feel like kids again."
A hawk-nosed man with trembling hands and a forehead glistening with perspiration said, "Temperature sixty-four Fahrenheit. No harmful radiation, pathogenic tests negative. Air pressure, eleven-point-three."
He pointed to an odd-looking flower and a tuft of grass in the window of a metal, box-like chamber. "Flora shows the same oxygen-CO2 cycle as on Earth. Only the flowers here seem edible."
The men looked at one another.
"Captain, is everything all right?" the brown-bearded man asked anxiously.
Captain Torkel sensed that the strange men desired an affirmative answer from him. "Yes," he said.
The brown-bearded man clapped his hands. "And we can go outside! How about it, Captain? Can we go outside without our suits? Can we go out now—please?"
Click.