"Joseph Green - Forgotten Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Joseph)

Hungrily, they sat back in their foam-pad seats, biting into the sandwiches and sipping
from the plastubes of milk.
"I see you haven't lost your appetites," a cool, friendly voice said.
The boys turned their heads. Sergeant Brool was standing beside them.
"Oh, hello, Sarge," Jim said.
"Sarge, is it?" A hint of a smile came over the dark features of the spaceman. "You lads
are learning fast. Though it beats me how you know my nickname."
"How long will this trip take?" Jim asked.
"About five hours."
"How fast is the Pioneer?"
The sergeant rubbed his chin with a thick thumb. "Top speed is about one hundred
thousand miles an hour."
"Then shouldn't we be on the Moon in less than three hours?" Jim asked.
The Guardsman shook his head. "It's not that simple. Takes about two hours to reach
top speed, and another two hours to slow down so we can land."
"Then we travel at top speed for only one hour out of five?"
"That's about it."
"Well, we've got plenty to learn," Ken said.
 "You will," said the sergeant. "I'll be stationed at Luna Spaceport for a while. I may have
a chance to teach you a little space-manship myself."
"Would you?" Jim and Ken exclaimed.
"Aye, it's a promise. If you boys ever get lost, I'm the one who has to find you. The
sooner I make spacemen out of you, the easier my job's going to be." He broke the stiffness
of his face with a good-natured smile and left them. The boys watched him go up the aisle
toward the pilot's cabin.
Both boys found that they liked the stern, grave Guardsman.
"I hope we're going to be friends," Ken murmured as he leaned back in his seat.
Time passed, but the boys hardly noticed it. The air was filled with the lazy drone of
conversation. They dozed from time to time.
The voice of the pilot over the loudspeaker startled the boys. They were to land, he
announced, in thirty minutes!
"Dig must be starved!"
Ken sat up and looked at Jim. He reached for his belt pouch and tapped the sandwich
and plastube of milk he had hidden.
Jim nodded and left his seat. Casually the two boys strolled to the rear and slipped
through the door. Out of sight of the passengers, they hurried to the small observation cabin.
Jim rapped quickly on the spacesuit locker and almost immediately Dig Allen came out.
"Hope you brought me something to eat."
Ken tossed the plastube of milk to him. It floated slowly and lazily through the air. Dig
snagged it with a quick snap of his hand, flipped off the cap and drank eagerly.
"Ah," he sighed. "Just right!"
While Dig ate, Jim and Ken told him about their conversation with Sergeant Brool, and
his promise to teach them spacecraft.
"You couldn't ask for a better teacher," Dig said.
The forward braking rockets began to blast, slowly at first, then faster until the ship
shuddered from the rapid explosions.
"Getting ready for the landing," Dig explained. "The pilot is swinging the Pioneer around
so that we come in on our tail rockets."
"How will you get off the ship?" Ken asked, a worried frown on his forehead.
"As a member of the crew. I'll get into a spacesuit and work on the landing gear. Once