"You mean just sit here and wait until they do something else?" asked Johnny, appalled.
The Captain thumped his shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll do something in some other area than communications. Hoskins—are those landing suits ready?"
"All but," rapped Hoskins. He scooped up the oxygen bottle and disappeared.
Paresi said, "We'll tell them something if we don't answer."
The Captain set his jaw. "We do what we can, Nick. We do the best we can. Got any better ideas?"
Paresi shrugged easily and smiled. "Just knocking, skipper. Knock everything. Then what's hollow, you know about."
"I should know better than to jump salty with you," said the Captain, all but returning the doctor's smile. "Johnny. Hoskins. Prepare for exploratory patrol."
"I'll go," said Paresi.
"Johnny goes," said the Captain bluntly, "because it's his first trip, and because if he isn't given something to do he'll bust his adrenals. Hoskins goes, because of all of us, the Engineer is most expendable. Ives stays because we need hair-trigger communications. I stay to correlate what goes on outside with what goes on inside. You stay because if anything goes wrong I'd rather have you fixing the men up than find myself trying to fix you up." He squinted at Paresi. "Does that knock solid?"
"Solid."