A message came through; it was like a brief query, chopped short: "Your name..." "Cardona," tapped Joe.

He tried dropping down and broadcasting a brief query on commercial bands, but got no response.

After two minutes of silence he reached across to the terminal and keyed in a brief query.

Mr. Turner guided the talk with a few more brief queries - "How is it different from a real fan?"

Basalom tried a brief query on his commlink, but got nothing but static in reply.

A brief query to the American elicited an immediate response.

A brief query over Wally's squawky produced a flat negative.

Pushing aside a corner of the material cloaking the panel, she woke up the science station and made a brief query back to the Ops computer and its adjacent sensor array.

In either case, a large and mixed group being present, no more than brief queries were made, eliciting replies such as those listed above.

A brief query flits across your mind - "Did you really always think that?"