noon
Furniture had been adjusted to their size and needs . The only oversight Hockley could find was a faint odor of chlorine lingering in the closets . He wondered who the last occupant of the room had been . After a noon meal , served with foods of astonishingly close approximation to their native fare , the group was offered a prelude to the general instruction and indoctrination which would begin the following day . This was in the form of a guided tour through the science museum which , Hockley gathered , was a modernized Ryke parallel to the venerable Smithsonian back home . The tour was entirely optional , as far as the planned program of the Rykes was concerned , but none of the Earthmen turned it down . Hockley tried to concentrate heavily on the memory of Waldon Thar and keep the image of his friend always before him as he moved through the city and inspected the works of the Rykes .