Possibly the situation was reversed here, though of course it need not
be ...
"Hm," said Cochrane when the films were all run through. "Ice-caps and
land and seas. Plenty of green vegetation, so presumably the air is
normal for humans. Since you're alive, Holden, we can assume it isn't
instantly fatal, can't we? The gravity's tolerable--a little on the
light side, maybe, compared to the glacier planet."
He was silent, staring at the blank wall of the control-room. He
frowned. Suddenly he said:
"Does anybody back on Earth know that Babs and I were castaways?"
"No," said Holden, still very quiet indeed. "Alicia ran the
control-board. She told everybody you were too busy to be called to the
communicator. It was queer with you away! Jamison and Bell tied
themselves in chairs and spliced tape. Johnny, of course"--his voice was
very carefully toneless--"wouldn't do anything useful. I was space-sick
a lot of the time. But I did help Alicia figure out what to say on the
communicator. There must be hundreds of calls backed up for you to
take."
"Good!" said Cochrane. "I'll go take some of them. Jones, could we make
a flit to somewhere else on this planet?"
Jones said negligently,
"I told you we've got fuel to reach the Milky Way.
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