We stood before the airlock, the old man and I, and watched them go out. Ellison was a granite man and I was just the lad who threw the switches. I was new at it. They had sent me out with a pat on the back and a commission, but I didn't feel like a Mercury run officer. Mining uranium on the Sun's firstling was no job for a green kid of twenty-two. Outside were lakes of molten zinc and a temperature of 790 degrees Fahr. No part of that temperature seeped into us, but just knowing it was out ther