"Want to come along?" asked John.
"Sorry. I have to stay here to help Dr. Smithson. I'd like to—maybe another time. We are both on duty today." She smiled, and the settled sadness of her face was gone for a moment.
"Well, thanks," said John, unfolding his map slowly.
"Oh, yes," she added, "and never go beyond sight of the entrance if you go out on the desert. You can see for miles even though the horizon is nearer up here. If danger comes you can make it back to the door easily. But there are very unpleasant things on this planet. The safety is all underground. Maybe you'd better have one of the manuals. It will be light outside and you can read." She took a thin booklet from the bundle of papers in her hand and gave it to Hilda, then walked briskly away.
They pushed open the room door, and stepped cautiously down a dry, dark passageway. Old marks of ray blast on the sandstone walls showed that all this underground world was artificial. Red desert sand underfoot was hard, dry and clean.
"Oh, John, it does seem good to be by ourselves again. All these sick folks depress me."
"Yes, and what depresses me is how I'm going to get you back to Earth. It may be months before another ship comes. And they won't dare to let us go back and tell, until the experiment is well established." He folded the map carefully.
"Think of all the hundreds of families back home who must be frantic."
John's voice was savage as he answered, "I found out a bit about that from the Major. It seems that every family got a printed letter, telling about the new colony and claiming it was mostly for the good of the patients. And there is a systematic health propaganda planned to follow that up, conditioning the minds of their relatives to the undertaking in all its implications. I believe the patients are even allowed to write letters—censored, of course, and delivered once in two years. You know there is no radio contact."
They walked on, in understanding silence, until she took his arm and indicated a great copper door. "Look, John, on the map it says that door 101 is an outside entrance. Let's go and see."