He ate briskly, with a good appetite. Sandy was very silent.
Pam said abruptly, "We saw that case. And I smelled fresh air there. Not pure air like here in the ship, but not dead air like the air everywhere else."
"Near a power generator, Pam, there'd be some ozone," Holmes said patiently. "It makes a lot of difference."
"It wasn't ozone," said Pam firmly. "It was fresh air. Not canned air. Fresh!"
Holmes looked at Burke.
"Did you or Keller find out how the air's refreshed here? Did anybody throw a switch for air apparatus?"
Keller said mildly, "Apparatus, no. Air exchange, yes. I threw switches also for communication with base. Also emergency communication. Also dire emergency. Nothing happened."
"You see, Pam?" said Holmes. "It was ozone that made the air smell fresh."
Sandy was wholly silent until the meal was over. Then Holmes went moodily off with Keller, to use the cube-reading devices in the instrument-room and try to find, against all apparent probability, some clue or some communication which would enable something useful to be done. Holmes was trying hard to believe that things were not as bad as Burke announced, and not nearly so desperate that they had to try to find the descendants of a long-vanished civilization for a chance to offer resistance to the Enemy.
Keller said confidentially, just before they reached the instrument-room, "Burke's an optimist."