"Oh, no. We'll just shoot your little station full of holes. Like the average spaceship, your station will be quite capable of handling communications even though the air is all gone. Filling us full of holes wouldn't do a thing; you see, we're wearing spacesuits."
"I guessed that. No, Murdoch, we have nothing to shoot at you this time. All we can do is hold you off until you get hungry. You'll get hungry first, since we're self-sufficient."
"And in the meantime?"
"In the meantime we're going to try a few things out on your hull. I rather guess that you'll try out a few things on the station. But at the present, you can't harm us and we can't harm you. Stalemate, Murdoch!"
"You're bluffing!" stormed Murdoch.
"Are you afraid to squirt that beam this way?" asked Channing tauntingly. "Or do you know it will not work?"
"Why are you so anxious to get killed?"
"We're very practical, out here on Venus Equilateral," said Don. "There's no use in our working further if you have something that is really good. We'd like to know our chances before we expend more effort along another line."
"That's not all—?"
"No. Frankly, I'm almost certain that your beam won't do a thing to Venus Equilateral."