Of
course the problem varied with each cadet, but it remained essentially
the same.
"Seven-and-a-half minutes. Commander Walters will be surprised, to say
the least," thought Steve.
Forty-five minutes later, Roger, as unruffled as if he had been sitting
listening to a lecture from a sound slide, handed in the rest of his
papers, executed a sharp salute and walked out.
"Two down and one to go," thought Strong, and the toughest one of them
all coming up. Astro. The big Venusian was unable to understand anything
that couldn't be turned with a wrench. The only thing that would prevent
Unit 42-D from taking Academy unit honors over Unit 77-K, the unit
assigned to Lieutenant Wolcheck, would be Astro. While none of the
members of the other units could come up to the individual brilliance of
Corbett or Manning, they worked together as a unit, helping one another.
They might make a higher unit rating, simply because they were better
balanced.
He shrugged his shoulders and collected the papers. It was as much
torture for him, as it was for any cadet, he thought, and turned to the
door. "All right, Astro," he said to himself, "in ten minutes it'll be
your turn and I'm going to make it tough!"
Back in the quarters of Unit 42-D, Tom and Astro still pored over the
books and papers on the desk.
"Let's try again, Astro," sighed Tom as he hitched his chair closer to
the desk.
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