Farther out in the deep blackness, he could see Mars, glowing like a
pale ruby. Before long he would be up there again. Before long he would
be blasting off in the _Polaris_ with Astro and with Roger--
Roger! Why had he acted so strangely at dinner?
Tom remembered the night he saw Roger in Galaxy Hall alone at night, and
the sudden flash on the field a few days before when they had won the
mercuryball game. Was there some reason behind his companion's strange
actions? In vain, Tom racked his brain to find the answer. There had to
be some explanation. Yet what could it possibly be? He tossed and turned
and worried and finally--comfortable as the monorail car was--he fell
asleep from sheer exhaustion.
* * * * *
Atom City! Built of the clear crystal mined so cheaply on Titan, moon of
Saturn, Atom City had risen from a barren North American wasteland to
become a show place of the universe. Here was the center of all space
communications--a proud city of giant crystal buildings. Here had been
developed the first slidewalks, air cars, three-dimensional stereos and
hundreds of other ideas for better living.
And here at Atom City was the seat of the great Solar Alliance, housed
in a structure which covered a quarter of a mile at its base and which
towered three thousand noble feet into the sky.
The three cadets stepped out of the monorail and walked across the
platform to a waiting air car--jet-powered, shaped like a teardrop and
with a clear crystal top.
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