ing of an
idea, not an idea yet but just the hint of one. I wasn't sure where it
led, or even if it led anywhere at all, but I was going to find out.

* * * * *

Karpin opened the doors for me. By the time I'd stripped off the suit he
was back to work. He was cleaning the single unit which was his
combination stove and refrigerator and sink and garbage disposal.

I looked around the dome again, and I had to admit that a lot of
ingenuity had gone into the manufacture and design of this dome and its
contents. The dome itself, when deflated, folded down into an oblong box
three feet by one foot by one foot. The lock itself, of course, folded
separately, into another box somewhat smaller than that.

As for the gear inside the dome, it was functional and collapsible, and
there wasn't a single item there that wasn't needed. There were the two
chairs and the two cots and the table, all of them foldaway. There was
that fantastic combination job Karpin was cleaning right now, and that
had dimensions of four feet by three feet by three feet. The clutter of
gear over to the left wasn't as much of a clutter as it looked. There
was a Geiger counter, an automatic spectrograph, two atmosphere suits, a
torsion densimeter, a core-cutting drill, a few small hammers and picks,
two spare air tanks, boxes of food concentrate, a paint tube, a doorless
jimmy-john and two small metal boxes about eight inches cube. These last
were undoubtedly Karpin's and McCann's pouches, where they kept whatever
letters, money, address books or other small bits of possessions they
owned. Back of this mound of gear, against the wall, stood the air
reconditioner, humming quietly to itself.

In this small enclosed space there was everything a man needed to keep
himself alive. Everything except human company. And if you didn't need
human company, then you had everything. Just on the other side of that
dome, there was a million miles of death, in a million possible ways. On
this side of the dome, life was cozy, if somewhat Spartan and very hot.

I knew for sure I was going to get a head cold. My body had adjusted to
the sixty-eight degrees inside the suit, finally, and now was very
annoyed to find the temperature shooting up to ninety again.

Since Karpin didn't seem inclined to talk, and I would rather spend my
time thinking than talking anyway, I took a hint from him and did some
cleaning. I'd noticed a smeared spot about nos