Only the rustle of the papers, or the occasional sigh of a cadet over a
problem, disturbed the silence in the high-ceilinged room, as the
hundred-odd cadets fought the questions.
There was a sudden stir in the room and Tom looked up to see Roger
Manning walk to the slot and casually deposit his tube in the
green-bordered slot. Then he leaned idly against the wall waiting for it
to be returned. As he stood there, he spoke to Dr. Dale, who smiled and
replied. There was something about his attitude that made Tom boil. So
fast? He glanced at his own papers. He had hardly finished two sheets
and thought he was doing fine. He clenched his teeth and bent over the
paper again, redoubling his efforts to triangulate a fix on Regulus by
using dead reckoning as a basis for his computations.
Suddenly a tall man, wearing the uniform of a Solar Guard officer,
appeared in the back of the room. As Dr. Dale looked up and smiled a
greeting, he placed his finger on his lips. Steve Strong, Captain in the
Solar Guard, gazed around the room at the backs bent over busy pencils.
He did not smile, remembering how, only fifteen years before, he had
gone through the same torture, racking his brains trying to adjust the
measurements of a magnascope prism. He was joined by a thin handsome
young man, Lieutenant Judson Saminsky, and finally, Warrant Officer
McKenny.
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