But I
just couldn't wait to see the _Queen_." He balled his huge hands into
tight knots and stared at the floor.
"Now hear this!!!"
A voice suddenly rasped over the PA system loud-speaker above the door.
"All cadet candidates will come to attention to receive the Space
Academy oath from Commander Walters." The voice paused. "_AT-TENT-SHUN!_
Cadet candidates--Staaaaannnnd _TO_!"
"This is Commander Walters speaking!" A deep, powerful voice purred
through the speaker. "The Academy oath is taken individually.
"It is something each candidate locks in his spirit, his mind and his
heart. That is why it is taken in your quarters. The oath is not a show
of color, it is a way of life. Each candidate will face as closely as
possible in the direction of his home and swear by his own individual
God as he repeats after me."
Astro stepped quickly to the window port and gazed into the blue
heavens, eyes searching out the misty planet Venus. Phil Morgan thought
a moment, and faced toward the wall with the inlaid star chart of the
sky, thinking of sun-bathed Georgia. Tom Corbett stared straight at a
blank wall.
Each boy did not see what was in front of him yet he saw further,
perhaps, than he had ever seen before. He looked into a future which
held the limitlessness of the universe and new worlds and planets to be
lifted out of the oblivion of uncharted depths of space to come.
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