"Venus, of course. Do you think I want to play hop-scotch all over the Solar System? Well, you finish your meal and give that stone worm a nice comfortable bubble to live in." And Teejay departed.
Later, after he'd evacuated the air from one of the bubble-cages and increased the temperature to seven hundred degrees Fahrenheit, after he'd supervised a slow warming process for the worm and seen it deposited, still drowsy, in the bubble with sufficient quantities of silicon-compounds to keep it well fed, Steve hobbled with his crutches to the general lounge. Teejay sat there with half a dozen of the Venusian experts, for the hunt would be much more protracted on that teeming jungle-world. The woman stood up at once and crossed the floor to Steve. "How's the worm?"
"Fine." He always felt a little edgy and on his guard when the woman spoke to him.
"And how's the extra-zoo expert's bum leg?"
"Coming along, I think."
Teejay turned to the six men seated around the lounge, said: "This is Steve Stedman, our extra-zoo man—at least temporarily. Stedman, Phillips knows more about amphibians than any man alive, Ianello is our arboreal expert, Smith ferrets out the cave-dwelling mammals—we hope, Waneki goes floundering around after sea-monsters, St. Clair is—"
Then something buzzed shrilly on the adjacent wall, and Teejay flipped a toggle switch. "Captain here."
"Radio from Earth, Captain. Mr. Brody Carmical himself."
"Is that so?" said Teejay, her eyebrows lifting. "Give me a circuit." And, a moment later, "What's the trouble, Brody?"