 Why did David press the button?
Over the mesh-covered speaker, two knobs glowed red. There was no sensation of place, no feeling of up or down, no direction. The name meant nothing to me, but I thought about it, watching the relentless lights that shone below the dials. It waited for human hands to make it operate. They stood for anything I might guess, and something kept pricking my mind, telling me I had no time to guess. It meant the engine or engines took up half the ship, cut off from the forward half by the instrument studded shield. It couldn't be pried apart, and I searched again and again for a release mechanism.
 He wanted to get more information from the voice.
 He understood his name.  The experiment was successful.  He wanted to leave the spaceship.  He wanted to get more information from the voice.