Craig shook his head. "Sorry, Adam. Nothing."
At his words, hope began to go out of the faded blue eyes. "Not a sign of the Andromeda?" the old man persisted.
"Not a sign. Why don't you ever ask about the Perseus or the Hercules? They went out into deep space too, you know."
"I know," Adam March nodded. "But the Andromeda was the first one to go out, she was the first deep-space ship. It seems logical that she might be the first one back. That's why I always ask about her."
"She went out twenty years ago," Craig said, then caught himself. Whatever it was that the old man sought in the Andromeda, there was no point in reminding him that the ship had unquestionably smashed up long ago. Let hope remain! "Sorry, Adam. Nothing, yet."
"They might not catch her until she was real close in," Adam March persisted. "She wouldn't be using her drive until she got in real close and you probably wouldn't catch her until the drive was turned on. Let me know, will you, if you catch anything?" The last was said quickly as Craig Randall began to move away.
"Sure thing, Adam, you'll be the first to know," Craig answered. Across the room, Mary Kirkham was trying to catch his eye, a needless effort in this case. If she was in sight, she always had his eye. She also had the eye of every other male in her vicinity, a quality which occasionally gave Craig the impulse to destroy half the unmarried men at the station. She was a bio-physicist, and a good one. She was assigned to the bio-physical research laboratories that were a part of the station. Mary pulled him down to the sofa beside her.
"Craig, we're going to get a whole new bio-physics lab here." Excitement danced in her voice and glinted in her eyes.
"That's fine," Craig said. He knew how much this meant to her. "How do you know?"
"The chief just got the news from Mr. Nuoy," Mary Kirkham answered.