Kenred probed the face with a thin, sharp prong the Engineering Department had given him. It went in sometimes nearly a meter, sometimes just a few centimeters. Except for his hands, he remained inside the airlock in the spacecraft’s gravity field. After several more minutes, Kenred saw what appeared to be black powder covering his hands.
“Damn!” he swore, turning the argon on his left and then his right hand. He examined both hands carefully and gave them another argon blast. “The microbots act a lot like moon dust,” he said into the circuit.
“And what do you know about that?” eDaphne said with a teasing lilt to her voice. “You guys had not yet reached the surface of Logan when we found you.”
“Yeah, yeah, but I read and watch holorecordings.” He patted the side of the spacecraft. “Neil
