"William Forstchen - Article 23" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forstchen William R)

in every minute, there were hundreds of passengers milling about. Justin threaded past a group of
Benedictine monks wearing the plain brown robes of their order, who were drifting down the corridor
alongside him.

"Heading to our new monastery orbiting Jupiter," one of them said excitedly when he saw Justin looking
at him. "Can't let the Franciscans and Trappists do all the work out here."

At the end of the open corridor, which stretched for several hundred yards and was lined with duty free
shops, they reached a shuttle tunnel that would take them to the B docking area. It seemed like a flood of
white uniforms was converging on the spot, and Justin looked around in surprise. During the summer
session the only cadets aboard the ship were the scrub class, their cadet instructors, and a few hundred
others who were engaged in special projects. Everyone else had been out at hundreds of different
research and work sites all the way from Mercury to Jupiter. He felt decidedly uncomfortable at the sight
of all the additional stripes on cadet uniforms, and he looked down self-consciously at his own empty
sleeve.

There were no seats aboard the open shuttle tram so he just floated into the long compartment, grabbed
hold of a strap, and locked his feet under the safety straps set in the floor. Brian was already lost to view
although Justin could hear his voice laughing and describing what a miserable bunch of scrubs he had
been forced to work with for the summer. Justin and Matt looked at each other a bit nervously,
especially when they noticed the disdainful glances of the upperclassmenas if the presence of two mere
third-class plebes were not even worthy of comment.

The tram started up and drifted into one of the tunnels leading to the outer rim of the station. As the car
emerged from the tunnel, Justin was overwhelmed at the sea of white uniforms floating in the B docking
area.

Leaving the tramcar, they looked around in confusion.

"Justin, Matt!"

"Hey, it's Madison Smith," Matt cried, and he pushed off to float over to their old classmate. Her dark
features were crinkled up into a bright cheery grin and, using her sticky bottom gravity shoes, she clumsily
walked over to them to give her two friends a hug. Justin looked around and saw his other friends coming
over; in the back of the group he noticed Tanya talking with Sue. She broke away from her friend at the
sight of Justin, came up a bit shyly, and extended her hand.

"Good to see you, Justin," she said quietly.
He had been nervously wondering about this moment ever since he left Earth. There had been that hug
and kiss on the day that he rescued her and a second kiss just before leaving for Earth. He noticed that
Sue was already up to Matt, giving him a hug. Hugs were acceptable according to Academy regulations
but anything beyond that was definitely frowned upon, in public and in private. The rules were tough on
that point, but everyone knew that when a bit of romance took hold it was kind of hard to clamp down
on it completely. But lie wasn't sure if he really wanted a romance with Tanya or not. They had, after all,
been bitter enemies right up until the moment he pulled her back from the edge of the cliff on the Moon.
Now he wasn't sure, and he instantly picked up that she was nervous as well.

She pulled back a bit.

"Ready to head back?" he finally asked.