"Come on, Bill, open up the hatch for old Ronald," the voice carried through sepulchrally.
"Shut up!" Manet yelled.
The voice dwindled stubbornly, then cut off.
A silence with a whisper of metallic ring to it.
Why hadn't he thought of that before? Maybe because he secretly took comfort in the sound of an almost human voice echoing through the station.
Manet threw back the bolt and wheeled back the hatch.
Ronald looked just the same as had when Manet had seen him last. His hands didn't seem to have been worn away in the least. Ronald's lips seemed a trifle chapped. But that probably came not from all the shouting but from having nothing to drink for some months.
Ronald didn't say anything to Manet.
But he looked offended.
"You," Manet said to Veronica with a shove in the small of the back, "inside, inside."