"Carey Rockwell - Tom Corbett Space Cadet 05 - The Revolt on Venus" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rockwell Carey)

"You're already here, spaceboy!" yelled Roger into the mike, leaning over Strong's
shoulder. The captain silenced him with a glare. No one could speak to the examinee but
the testing officer.
Tom closed the valve of his jet unit and blindly jerked himself around again to drift feet
first toward the ship. Strong watched this approach closely, silently admiring the effortless
way the cadet handled himself in weightless space. When Tom was fifty feet away from the
ship, and still traveling quite fast, Strong gave the second order to break his speed. Tom
opened the valve again and felt the tug of the jets braking his acceleration. He drifted slower
and slower, and realizing that he was close to the hull of the ship, he stretched his legs,
striving to make contact. Seconds later he felt a heavy thump at the soles of his feet, and
within the ship there was the muffled clank of metal boot weights hitting the metal skin of the
hull.
"Time!" roared Strong and glanced at the astral chronometer over his head. The boys
crowded around as the Solar Guard captain quickly computed Tom's score. "Nine minutes,
fifty-one seconds, and two corrections," he announced, unable to keep the pride out of his
voice.
"We win! We win!" roared Roger. "Term honors go to the Polaris!"
Roger turned around and began pounding Astro on the chest, and the giant Venusian
picked him up and waltzed him around the deck. The three members of the Arcturus unit
waited until the first flush of victory died away and then crowded around the two boys to
congratulate them.
"Don't forget the cadet who did it," commented Strong dryly, and the five cadets rushed
below to the jet-boat deck to wait for Tom.
When Tom emerged from the air lock a few moments later, Roger and Astro swarmed
all over him, and another wild dance began. Finally, shaking free of his well-meaning but
violent unit mates, he grinned and gasped, "Well, from that reception, I guess I did it."
"Spaceboy"-Roger smiled-"you made the Arcturus unit look like three old men in a
washtub counting toes!"
"Congratulations, Corbett," said Tony Richards of the Arcturus crew, offering his hand.
"That was really fast maneuvering out there."
"Thanks, Tony." Tom grinned, running his hand through his brown curly hair. "But I have
to admit I was a little scared. Wow! What a creepy feeling to know you're out in space alone
and not able to see anything."
Their excitement was interrupted by Strong's voice over the ship's intercom. "Stand by,
all stations!"
"Here we go!" shouted Roger. "Back to the Academy-and leave!"
"Yeeeeooooow!" Astro's bull-like roar echoed through the ship as the cadets hurried to
their flight stations.
As command cadet of the Polaris, Tom climbed up to the control deck, and strapping
himself into the command pilot's seat, prepared to get under way. Astro, the power-deck
cadet who could "take apart a rocket engine and put it back together again with his thumbs,"
thundered below to the atomic rockets he loved more than anything else in the universe.
Roger Manning, the third member of the famed Polaris unit, raced up the narrow ladder
leading to the radar bridge to take command of astrogation and communications.
While Captain Strong and the members of the Arcturus unit strapped themselves into
acceleration cushions, Tom conducted a routine check of the many gauges on the great
control panel before him. Satisfied, he flipped open the intercom and called, "All stations,
check in!"
"Radar deck, aye!" drawled Roger's la/y voice.
"Power deck, aye!" rumbled Astro.