There was a clanking sound somewhere in the ship. The inner air-lock door closed. There were noises that told of the sealing dogs being tightened. Then, immediately, the outside lock door opened. Randy went to find Fallon. He came back, disturbed.
"Fallon just went outside. He's supposed to be off-duty, too."
McCauley frowned. Then he flipped the outside-communicator switch. As a matter-of-fact precaution, there was two-way communication with emptiness whenever anybody was outside the ship. Anything that came in was immediately heard from speakers all over the ship, so that the control room did not have to be manned all the time work was proceeding on the planetoid's surface. If an emergency arose, everybody anywhere in the ship would know immediately.
"Fallon," said McCauley curtly into the outside transmitter, "you're wanted. Come back, please."
Silence. No answer. There was only darkness outside the ship now. Stars moved steadily up from the blackness that was one nearby horizon, and down to the blackness that was the other. The red disk of Mars—very near, now—was the brightest object in the heavens.
"Fallon!" snapped McCauley. "You're wanted! Return to the ship immediately!"
A clanking sound came from all the loud-speakers inside the ship. Then Fallon's voice.
"Wait a minute." He panted as if doing some heavy labor where there was no weight. "Ah-h-h! Right! What do you want?"
"I want you back in the ship," said McCauley sternly.
More clankings. They were the type of sound that might be heard inside an air-filled space suit and picked up by its helmet microphone.