that something a little lighter would be appreciated here - say, one of the decadent but amusing comedies of the 1980's, which had invaded the airways in such numbers with the collapse of TV censorship.
There were no more volunteers for this job, so the Commodore moved Mrs. Schuster and Professor Jayawardene into adjacent seats and told them to start program-planning. It seemed unlikely that such an ill-assorted pair would produce anything useful, but one never knew. The main thing was to keep everyone busy, either on tasks of their own or co-operating with others.
"We'll leave it at that for the moment," concluded Hansteen. "If you have any bright ideas, please give them to the committee. Meanwhile, I suggest you stretch your legs and get to know each other. Everyone's announced his job and home town; many of you must have common interests or know the same friends. You'll have plenty of things to talk about." And plenty of time, too, he added silently.
He was conferring with Pat in the pilot's cubicle when they were joined by Dr. McKenzie, the Australian physicist. He looked very worried - even more so than the situation merited.
"There's something I want to tell you, Commodore," he said urgently. "If I'm right, that seven-day oxygen reserve doesn't mean a thing. There's a much more serious danger."
"What's that?"
"Heat." The Australian indicated the outside world with a wave of his hand. "We're blanketed by this stuff, and it's about the best insulator you can have. On the surface, the heat our machines and bodies generated could escape into space, but down here it's trapped. That means we'll get hotter and hotter - until we cook."
"My God," said the Commodore. "I never thought of that. How long do you think it will take?"
"Give me half an hour, and I can make a fair estimate. My guess is - not much more than a day."
The Commodore felt a wave of utter helplessness sweep over him. There was a horrible sickness at the pit of his stomach, like the second time he had been in free fall. (Not the first - he had been ready for it then. But on the second trip, he had been overconfident.) If this estimate was right, all their hopes were blasted. They were slim enough in all conscience, but given a week there was a slight chance that something might be done. With only a day, it was out of the question. Even if they were found in that time, they could never be rescued.
"You might check the cabin temperature," continued McKenzie. "That will give us some indication."
Hansteen walked to the control panel and glanced at the maze of dials and indicators.
"I'm afraid you're right," he said. "It's gone up two degrees already."
"Over a degree an hour. That's about what I figured."
The Commodore turned to I-iarris, who had been listening to the discussion with growing alarm.
"Is there anything we can do to increase the cooling? How much reserve power has our air-conditioning gear got?"
Before Pat could answer, the physicist intervened.
"That won't help us," he said a little impatiently. "All that our refrigeration does is to pump heat out of the cabin and radiate it away. But that's exactly what it can't do now, because of the dust around us. If we try to run the cooling plant faster, it will actually make matters worse."
There was a gloomy silence that lasted until the Commodore said: "Please check those calculations, and let me have your best estimate as soon as you can. And for heaven's sake don't let this go beyond the three of us."
He felt suddenly very old. He had been almost enjoying his unexpected last command; and now it seemed that he would have it only for a day.
At that very moment, though neither party knew the fact, one of the searching dust-skis was passing overhead. Built for speed, efficiency, and cheapness, not for the comfort of tourists, it bore little resemblance to the sunken Selene. It was, in fact, no more than an open sledge with seats for pilot and one passenger - each wearing a space suit - and with a canopy overhead to give protection from the sun. A simple control panel, motor, and twin fans at the rear, storage racks for tools and equipment - that completed the inventory. A ski going about its normal work usually towed at least one carrier sledge behind it, sometimes two or three, but this one was traveling light. It had zigzagged back and forth