s were much
bigger, nearly all capable of holding an atmosphere. But to the
infuriation of scientists, for no known reason not all of them did. This
would be the fifth mapping expedition to the planetoids of Yancy-6 in
three generations. They lay months away from the nearest Earth star by
jump drive, and no one knew what they were good for, although it was
felt that they would probably be good for something if it could only be
discovered--much like the continent of Antarctica in ancient history.

"How can a planet with so many neighbors be so lonely?" Ryan asked. He
was the captain, so he could ask questions like that.

"Some can be lonely in a crowd," Nogol said elaborately.

* * * * *

"What will we need outside, Ryan?" Ekstrohm asked.

"No helmets," the captain answered. "We can breathe out there, all
right. It just won't be easy. This old world lost all of its helium and
trace gases long ago. Nitrogen and oxygen are about it."

"Ryan, look over there," Nogol said. "Animals. Ringing the ship. Think
they're intelligent, maybe hostile?"

"I think they're dead," Ekstrohm interjected quietly. "I get no readings
from them at all. Sonic, electronic, galvanic--all blank. According to
these needles, they're stone dead."

"Ekstrohm, you and I will have a look," Ryan said. "You hold down the
fort, Nogol. Take it easy."

"Easy," Nogol confirmed. "I heard a story once about a rookie who got
excited when the captain stepped outside and he couldn't get an
encephalographic reading on him. Me, I know the mind of an officer works
in a strange and unfathomable manner."

"I'm not worried about you mis-reading the dials, Nogol, just about a
lug like you reading them at all. Remember, when the little hand is
straight up that's negative. Positive results start when it goes towards
the hand you use to make your mark."

"But I'm ambidextrous."

Ryan told him what he could do then.

Ekstrohm smiled, and followed the captain through the airlock with only
a glance at the lapel gauge on his coverall. The strong negative field
his suit set up would help to repel bacteria and insects.

Actually, the types of infection that could attack a warm-blooded mammal
were not infinite, and over the course of the last few hundred years
adequate defenses had been found for all basic categories. He wasn't
likely to come down with hot chills and puzzling striped fever.

They ignored the ladder down to the planet