"Carey Rockwell - Tom Corbett Space Cadet 08 - The Robot Rocket" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rockwell Carey)

quickly.
"Save it, Roger. Put that energy into getting these bunks moved around. I'll start
stringing up the colored paper."
Roger growled and Astro grinned, but both of them went to work with vigor. Out of the
corner of his eye, Tom watched them working together and felt a surge of pride. It wasn't
every unit in the Academy that could boast having the best power-deck cadet and the best
astrogator cadet. While he himself was happy to be the pilot and command cadet of the unit,
he realized that without their solid support his efforts wouldn't be nearly as successful as they
had been.
Soon the room was crisscrossed with strips of gaily colored paper, and the furniture had
been rearranged to make space for the table they were borrowing from the messroom.
Then, while Astro was getting the table and Roger went for the ice cream, fruit juices, and a
special cake brought all the way from Atom City by special messenger, Tom stripped a
sheet from one of the beds for a tablecloth and dug out the forks and cups hoarded for days
in anticipation of this event.
With nothing more to do until Astro returned with the table, Tom moved to the window
and stared down on his favorite scene-the grassy, brilliant green quadrangle that was the
hub, the center of the Academy. All around it the magnificent buildings of pure, clear Titan
crystal picked up the rays of the afternoon sun and reflected them in many colors on the
slidewalks that crisscrossed the campus, carrying the hundreds of cadets to all parts of the
Academy. His glance wandered over to the greatest sight at Space Academy, the Tower of
Galileo, and his eyes clouded with sudden emotion. To him, the magnificent tower was the
symbol of this year, 2356, the age of the conquest of space. Now, after centuries of life on
earth, men had broken the chains binding them to the mother planet. There were outposts of
spacemen on the satellites of Alpha Centauri, and the colonies on Ganymede and Titan
rivaled the largest cities of Earth, Venus, and Mars, the three planets of the Solar Alliance.
The Tower was also a personal symbol to Tom. It represented a whole new life. The day
that he first saw it, he changed from a carefree boy with no responsibilities to a serious
young man, destined to become one of the few who would shape men's future in space.
Tom smiled as he remembered his first days and weeks at Space Academy and the
efforts to adjust to his unit mates, Roger and Astro. It had been rough. Although a brilliant
boy, Roger had at first insisted on independence. He was a lone wolf and had resisted the
unit system of training at the Academy. Astro, on the other hand, while the most ingenious
power jockey in space, having cut his teeth on reactors of spaceships in the merchant fleet
as an enlisted spaceman, was unable to grasp theoretical knowledge. More than once, Tom
had seen him absolutely confounded when a problem on atomic motors was presented as a
question on an examination paper. And yet Astro could take those same motors apart and
put them together again blindfolded.
The greatest problem in those first weeks was learning to work together as a unit.
Captain Steve Strong, their unit commander, had recognized their potentialities and had
worked with them, driving them, threatening them, consoling them, until now they were
considered the finest unit in the Academy. That was the reason for the celebration. Captain
Strong would be passing his fifteen years as Solar Guard officer today, and he, more than
any other single factor, had been responsible for the success of the Polaris unit. The party
was small, but the gratitude and the deep feeling of respect behind it great.
"Take a look at this cake!" yelled Roger, entering the room laden with packages and
boxes. The cake was white, with a miniature spaceship on top, and the inscription read:
"Congratulations ... 15 Years . . . Tom, Roger, Astro."
Astro burst in a moment later carrying the table. "Hurry up!" he hissed. "I just saw
Captain Strong coming up the slidestairs!"