"Carey Rockwell - Tom Corbett Space Cadet 01 - Stand By for Mars!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rockwell Carey)

By now the slidewalk had carried them past the base of the Tower of
Galileo to a large building facing the Academy quadrangle and the spell was
broken by McKenny's bull-throated roar.
"Haul off, you blasted polliwogs!"
As the boys jumped off the slidewalk, a cadet, dressed in the vivid blue
that Tom recognized as the official dress of the Senior Cadet Corps, walked
up to McKenny and spoke to him quietly. The warrant officer turned back to
the waiting group and gave rapid orders.
"By twos, follow Cadet Herbert inside and he'll assign you to your
quarters. Shower, shave if you have to and can find anything to shave, and
dress in the uniform that'll be supplied you. Be ready to take the Academy
oath at"-he paused and glanced at the senior cadet who held up three
fingers-"fifteen hundred hours. That's three o'clock. All clear? Blast off!"
Just as the boys began to move, there was a sudden blasting roar in the
distance. The noise expanded and rolled across the hills surrounding Space
Academy. It thundered over the grassy quadrangle, vibrating waves of sound
one on top of the other, until the very air quivered under the impact.
Mouths open, eyes popping, the cadet candidates stood rooted in their
tracks and stared as, in the distance, a long, thin, needlelike ship seemed to
balance delicately on a column of flame, then suddenly shoot skyward and
disappear.
"Pull in your eyeballs!" McKenny's voice crackled over the receding
thunder. "You'll fly one of those firecrackers some day. But right now you're
Earthworms, the lowest form of animal life in the Academy!"
As the boys snapped to attention again, Tom thought he caught a faint
smile on Cadet Herbert's face as he stood to one side waiting for McKenny to
finish his tirade. Suddenly he snapped his back straight, turned sharply and
stepped through the wide doors of the building. Quickly the double line of
boys followed.
"Did you see that, Astro?" asked Tom excitedly. "That was a Solar Guard
patrol ship!"
"Yeah, I know," replied Astro. The big candidate from Venus scratched his
chin and eyed Tom bashfully. "Say, Tom-ah, since we sort of know each
other, how about us trying to get in the same quarters?"
"O.K. by me, Astro, if we can," said Tom, grinning back at his friend.
The line pressed forward to Cadet Herbert, who was now waiting at the
bottom of the slidestairs, a mesh belt that spiraled upward in a narrow well to
the upper stories of the building. Speaking into an audioscriber, a machine
that transmitted his spoken words into typescript, he repeated the names of
the candidates as they passed.
"Cadet Candidate Tom Corbett," announced Tom, and Herbert repeated it
into the audioscriber.
"Cadet Candidate Astro!" The big Venusian stepped forward.
"What's the rest of it, Mister?" inquired Herbert.
"That's all. Just Astro."
"No other names?"
"No, sir," replied Astro. "You see-"
"You don't say 'sir' to a senior cadet, Mister. And we're not interested in
why you have only one name!" Herbert snapped.
"Yes, sir-uhh-Mister." Astro flushed and joined Tom.