"Carey Rockwell - Tom Corbett Space Cadet 03 - On the Trail of the Space Pirates" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rockwell Carey)

arm, involuntarily pointed at the two men.
"Look, Roger-those men-" he whispered.
"Yeah," said Roger. "Those are the wise-guy space crawlers we met on the monorail,
the ones who called us punks!"
"How'd they get here so fast?" asked Astro.
"Must have taken a jet liner from Atom City, I guess."
Strong, who sat near Tom, heard the exchange between the cadets.
"You know those men?" he asked.
"Well-uh-not exactly, sir. We just had a little run-in with them on the monorail returning
from leave, that's all," said Tom. "Nothing serious. They don't think much of the Solar Guard,
though."
"I gathered as much," said Hawks dryly. He walked over from his desk. "I hated to give
them the license to operate, but I had to, since I had no valid reason to turn them down. They
have a good idea, too."
"That so? What is it?" asked Strong.
"They have an old chemical-burning space freighter in which they're going to take fair
visitors up for a short ride. You see, the big one, Gus Wallace, is an old deep-space
merchantman. The smaller one is Luther Simms, a rocketman."
"Hm. Not a bad idea at all," mused Strong. "They should make out all right."
With that, the two Solar Guard officers dropped the incident of Wallace and Simms and
turned to exchanging news of mutual friends and of what each had been doing since their
last meeting. Finally, as the conversation was brought around to the exposition, Hawks got
up and sat on the side of the desk, facing Strong and the cadets. His eyes glowed as he
spoke.
"Steve," he said, "this is going to be the greatest gathering of minds, thoughts, and
ideas in the knowledgeable history of mankind! There are going to be lectures from the
greatest minds in the system on any and all subjects you can think of. In one building we're
going to build a whole spaceship-a rocket cruiser-piece by piece, right in front of the eyes of
fair visitors. In another building we're going to have the greatest collection of musicians in
the universe, continuously playing the most beautiful music, in a hall built to seat a half million
people. Industry, science, medicine, art, literature, astrophysics, space flight, to say nothing
of a comparative history exhibit designed to show the people where our forefathers went off
the track by warring against each other. In fact, Steve, everything you can think of, and then
more, will be represented here at the exposition. Why, do you know I've been working for
three years, coordinating ideas, activity, and information!"
Strong and the cadets sat transfixed as they listened to the commissioner speak in
glowing terms of the exposition, which, until this time, by the cadets at least, had been
considered little more than a giant amusement park. Finally Strong managed to say, "And
we thought the Polaris was going to be so big, it'd be the center of attraction." He smiled.
Hawks waved his hand. "Look, I don't want to offend you or the boys, Steve, but the fact
is, the Polaris is one of the smaller exhibits!"
"I can see that now," answered Strong. "Tell me, Mike, just what do you want us to do?"
"I'll answer that in two parts. First, I would like the cadets to set up the Polaris, get her
shining and bright, and with quiet courtesy, answer any question anyone might ask
concerning the ship, referring any question they can't answer to the information center in the
Space Building."
"That's all, sir?" asked Tom incredulously.
"That's all, Corbett. You open the Polaris at nine in the morning and close her at nine at
night. You'll be living aboard, of course."
"Yes, sir. Of course, sir."