"Robert A. Heinlein - Space Cadet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

Tex Jarman looked at him understandingly. "Your folks always worry,
don't they? I fooled mine-packed my phone in my bag." The slidewalk swung
in a wide curve preparatory to heading back; they stepped off with the crowd,
in front of Hayworth Hall. Tex paused to read the inscription over the great
doorway. "Quis custodi- What does it say, Matt?"
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes. That's Latin for: Who will watch the
guardians?"
"You read Latin, Matt?"
"No, I just remember that bit from a book about the Patrol."
The rotunda of Hayworth Hall was enormous and seemed even larger, for,
despite brilliant lighting at the floor level, the domed ceiling gave back no
reflection at all; it was midnight black-black and studded with stars. Familiar
stars-blazing Orion faced the tossing head of Taurus; the homely shape of
the Dipper balanced on its battered handle at north-northeast horizon; just
south of overhead the Seven Sisters shone.
The illusion of being outdoors at night was most persuasive. The lighted
walls and floor at the level at which people walked and talked and hurried
seemed no more than a little band of light, a circle of warmth and comfort,
against the awful depth of space, like prairie schooners drawn up for the night
under a sharp desert sky.
The boys caught their breaths, as did everyone who saw it for the first
time. But they could not stop to wonder as something else demanded their
attention. The floor of the rotunda was sunk many feet below the level at
which they entered; they stood on a balcony which extended around the
great room to enclose a huge, shallow, circular pit. In this pit a battered
spaceship lurched on a bed of rock and sand as if it had crash-landed from
the mimic sky above.
"It's the Kilroy-" Tex said, almost as if he doubted it.
"It must be," Matt agreed in a whisper. -
They moved to the balcony railing and read a plaque posted there:
USSF Rocket Ship Kilroy Was Here
FIRST INTERPLANETARY SHIP
From Terra to Mars and return-Lieut. Colonel Robert deFries Sims,
Commanding; Captain Saul S. Abrams; Master Sergeant Malcolm
MacGregor. None survived the return landing. Rest in Peace.
They crowded next to two other boys and stared at the Kilroy. Tex nudged
Matt. "See the gash in the dirt, where she skidded? Say, do you suppose
they just built right over her, where she lays'
3
 One of the other two-a big-boned six-footer with tawny hair-answered,
"No, the Kilroy landed in North Africa."
"Then they must have fixed it to look like where she crashed. You a
candidate too?"
"That's right."
Tm Bill Jarman-from Texas. And this is Matt Dodson."
"I'm Oscar Jensen-and this is Pierre Armand."
"Howdy, Oscar. Glad to know you, Pierre."
"Call me Pete," Armand acknowledged. Matt noticed that he spoke Basic
English with an accent, but Matt was unable to place it. Oscar's speech was
strange, too-a suggestion of a lisp. He turned back to the ship.