"
"Well, what are you doing here?" Tom was amazed and impressed.
"Simple. I want to be an officer. I want to get into the Solar Guard and
handle the power-push in one of those cruisers."
Tom's eyes glowed with renewed admiration for his new friend. "I've been
out four or five times but only in jet boats five hundred miles out.
Nothing like a jump to Luna City or Venusport."
By now the slidewalk had carried them past the base of the Tower of
Galileo to a large building facing the Academy quadrangle and the spell
was broken by McKenny's bull-throated roar.
"Haul off, you blasted polliwogs!"
As the boys jumped off the slidewalk, a cadet, dressed in the vivid blue
that Tom recognized as the official dress of the Senior Cadet Corps,
walked up to McKenny and spoke to him quietly. The warrant officer
turned back to the waiting group and gave rapid orders.
"By twos, follow Cadet Herbert inside and he'll assign you to your
quarters. Shower, shave if you have to and can find anything to shave,
and dress in the uniform that'll be supplied you. Be ready to take the
Academy oath at"--he paused and glanced at the senior cadet who held up
three fingers--"fifteen hundred hours. That's three o'clock. All clear?
Blast off!"
Just as the boys began to move, there was a sudden blasting roar in the
distance. The noise expanded and rolled across the hills surrounding
Space Academy.
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