Stand by for Mars!

by Carey Rockwell

  CHAPTER 4

  The first three weeks of an Earthworm's life at Space Academy are filledwith never-ending physical training and conditioning to meet the rigorsof rocket flight and life on distant planets. And under the gruelingpressure of fourteen-hour days, filled with backbreaking exercises andlong forced marches, very few of the boys can find anything moredesirable than sleep--and more sleep.

  Under this pressure the friction in Unit 42-D became greater andgreater. Roger and Astro continually needled each other with insults,and Tom gradually slipped into the role of arbiter.

  Returning from a difficult afternoon of endless marching in the hot sunwith the prospect of an evening of free-fall wrestling before them, thethree cadets dragged themselves wearily onto the slidestairs leading totheir quarters, their muscles screaming for rest.

  "Another day like this," began Astro listlessly, "and I'm going to meltdown to nothing. Doesn't McKenny have a heart?"

  "No, just an asteroid," Tom grumbled. "He'll never know how close hecame to getting a space boot in the face when he woke us up thismorning. Oh, man! Was I tired!"

  "Stop complaining, will you?" snarled Roger. "All I've heard from youtwo space crawlers is gripes and complaints."

  "If I wasn't so tired, Roger," said Astro, "I'd give you something togripe about. A flat lip!"

  "Knock it off, Astro," said Tom wearily. The role of keeping them apartwas getting tiresome.

  "The trouble with you, Astro," pursued Roger, "is that you think withyour muscles instead of your head."

  "Yeah, I know. And you've got an electronic calculator for a brain. Allyou have to do is push a button and you get the answers all laid out foryou."

  They had reached their quarters now and were stripping off theirsweat-soaked uniforms in preparation for a cool shower.

  "You know, Roger," continued Astro, "you've got a real problem ahead ofyou."

  "Any problem you think I have is no problem at all," was the cool reply.

  "Yes, it is," insisted Astro. "When you're ready for your first hop inspace, you won't be able to make it!"

  "Why not?"

  "They don't have a space helmet in the Academy large enough to fit thatoverinflated head of yours!"

  Roger turned slowly and spoke to Tom without looking at him. "Close thedoor, Corbett!"

  "Why?" asked Tom, puzzled.

  "Because I don't want any interruptions. I'm going to take that big hunkof Venusian space junk apart."

  "Anything you say, you bigmouthed squirt!" roared Astro.

  "Hey--knock it off!" yelled Tom, jumping between them and grabbingAstro's arm. "If you guys don't lay off each other, you're going to bethrown out of the Academy, and I'll be thrown out with you! I'll beblasted if I'll suffer for your mistakes!"

  "That's a very interesting statement, Corbett!" A deep voice purredfrom the doorway and the three boys whirled to see Captain Strong walkinto the room, his black and gold uniform fitting snugly across theshoulders betraying their latent strength. "Stand to--all of you!"

  As the boys quickly snapped to attention, Strong eyed them slowly andthen moved casually around the room. He picked up a book, looked out ofthe window port, pushed a boot to one side and, finally, removed Tom'ssweat-stained uniform from a chair and sat down. The cadets held theirrigid poses, backs stiff, eyes looking straight ahead.

  "Corbett?" snapped Strong.

  "Yes, sir?"

  "What was the meaning of that little speech I heard a moment ago?"

  "I--ah--don't quite understand what you mean, sir," stumbled Tom.

  "I think you do," said Strong. "I want to know what provoked you to makesuch a statement."

  "I'd rather not answer that, sir."

  "Don't get cute, Corbett!" barked Strong. "I know what's going on inthis unit. Were Manning and Astro squaring off to fight?"

  "Yes, sir," replied Tom slowly.

  "All right. At ease all of you," said Strong. The three boys relaxed andfaced the officer.

  "Manning, do you want to be a successful cadet here at Space Academy?"

  "Yes, sir," answered Roger.

  "Then why don't you act like it?" asked Strong.

  "Is there something wrong with my work, sir?" Tom recognized the smoothManning confidence begin to appear, and he wondered if Captain Strongwould be taken in.

  "Everything's wrong with your work," barked Strong. "You're too smart!Know too much!" He stopped short and then added softly with bitingsarcasm, "Why do you know so much, Cadet Manning?"

  Roger hesitated. "I've studied very hard. Studied for years to become aSpace Cadet," he replied.

  "Just to be a cadet or a successful cadet _and_ a Solar Guard officer?"

  "To be successful at both, sir."

  "Tell me, Manning, do you have any ideas on life?"

  "That's a pretty general question, sir. Do you mean life as a whole or aspecific part of life?" They're fencing with each other, thought Tom. Heheld his breath as Strong eyed the relaxed, confident cadet.

  "A spaceman is supposed to have but one idea in life, Manning. And thatidea is _space_!"

  "I see, sir," replied Roger, as a faraway look came into his eyes.

  "Yes, sir, I have some ideas about life in space."

  "I'd like to hear them!" requested Strong coldly.

  "Very well, sir." Roger relaxed his shoulders and leaned against thebunk. "I believe space is the last frontier of man--Earthman. It's thelast place for man to conquer. It is the greatest adventure of all timeand I want to be a part of that adventure."

  "Thank you, Manning." Strong's voice was even colder than before. "Butas it happens, I can read too. That was a direct quote from the closingparagraph of Jon Builker's book on his trip to the stars!" He paused."Couldn't you think of anything original to say?"

  Roger flushed and gritted his teeth. Tom could hardly keep himself fromlaughing. Captain Strong had scored heavily!

  The Solar Guard officer then turned his attention to Astro.

  "Astro, where in the name of the universe did you get the idea you couldbe an officer in the Solar Guard?"

  "I can handle anything with push in it, sir!" Astro smiled hisconfidence.

  "Know anything about hyperdrive?"

  "Uhh--no, sir."

  "Then you can't handle everything with, as you say, push in it!" snappedStrong.

  "Er--no, sir," answered Astro, his face clouding over.

  There was a long moment of silence while Strong lifted one knee, swungit over the arm of his chair, and looked steadily at the two half-nakedboys in front of him. He smiled lazily.

  "Well, for two Earthworms, you've certainly been acting like a couple ofspace aces!"

  He let that soak in while he toyed with the gleaming Academy ring on hisfinger. He allowed it to flash in the light of the window port, thenslipped it off and flipped it over to Corbett.

  "Know what that is?" he asked the curly-haired cadet.

  "Yes, sir," replied Tom. "Your Academy graduation ring."

  "Uh-huh. Now give it to our friend from Venus." Tom gingerly handedAstro the ring.

  "Try it on, Astro," invited Strong.

  The big cadet tried it on all of his fingers but couldn't get it pastthe first joint.

  "Give it to Manning."

  Roger accepted the ring and held it in the palm of his hand. He lookedat it with a hard stare, then dropped it in the outstretched hand of theSolar Guard officer. Replacing it on his finger, Strong spoke casually.

  "All units design their own rings. There are only three like this in theuniverse. One is drifting around in space on the finger of Sam Jones.Another is blasting a trail to the stars on the finger of Addy Garcia."He held up his finger. "This is the third one."

  Strong got up and began to pace in front of the boys.

  "Addy Garcia couldn't speak a word of English when he first came to theAcademy. And for eight weeks Sam and I sweated to figure out what he wastalking about. I think we spent over a hundred hours in the galley doingKP because Addy kept getting
us fouled up. But that didn't bother usbecause we were a unit. Unit 33-V. Class of 2338."

  Strong turned to face the silent cadets.

  "Sam Jones was pretty much like you, Astro. Not as big, but with thesame love for that power deck. He could always squeeze a few extrapounds of thrust out of those rockets. What he knew about astrogationand control, you could stick on the head of a pin. On long flights hewouldn't even come up to the control deck. He just sat in the power holesinging loud corny songs about the Arkansas mountains to those atomicmotors. He was a real power-deck man. But he was a _unit_ man first! Theonly reason I'm here to tell you about it is because he never forgot theunit. He died saving Addy and myself."

  The room was still. Down the long hall, the lively chatter of othercadets could be heard as they showered and prepared for dinner. In thedistance, the rumble of the slidewalks and test firing of rockets at thespaceport was dim, subdued, powerful.

  "The unit is the backbone of the Academy," continued Strong. "It was setup to develop three men to handle a Solar Guard rocket cruiser. Threemen who could be taught to think, feel and act as one intelligent brain.Three men who would respect each other and who could depend on eachother. Tomorrow you begin your real education. You will be supervisedand instructed personally.

  "Many men have contributed to the knowledge that will be placed infront of you--brave, intelligent men, who blasted through the atmospherewith a piece of metal under them for a spaceship and a fire in theirtail for rockets. But everything they accomplished goes to waste if theunit can't become a single personality. It must be a single personality,or it doesn't exist. The unit is the ultimate of hundreds of years ofresearch and progress. But you have to fight to create it and keep itliving. Either you want it, or you get out of the Academy!"

  Captain Strong turned away momentarily and Tom and Astro looked at Rogersignificantly.

  "Stand to!"

  The three boys snapped to attention as the wide-shouldered captainaddressed them again.

  "Tomorrow you begin to learn how to think as a single brain. To act withcombined intelligence as one person. You either make up your minds tostart tomorrow or you report to Commander Walters and resign. Thereisn't any room here for individuals."

  He stepped to the door and paused.

  "One more thing. I've been given the job of making you over intospacemen. I'm your unit commander. If you're still here in the morning,I'll accept that as your answer. If you think you can't take"--hepaused--"what I'm going to dish out, then you know what you can do. Andif you stay, you'll _be_ the best unit, or I'll break you in two in theattempt. Unit dis ... missed!" And he was gone.

  The three cadets stood still, not knowing quite what to do or say.Finally Tom stepped before Astro and Roger.

  "Well," he said quietly, "how about it, you guys? Are you going to layoff each other now?"

  Astro flushed, but Roger eyed Corbett coolly.

  "Were you really taken in with that space gas, Tom?" He turned to theshower room. "If you were, then you're more childish than I thought."

  "A man died to save another man's life, Roger. Sam Jones. I never knewhim. But I've met Captain Strong, and I believe that he would have donethe same thing for Jones."

  "Very noble," commented Roger from the doorway.

  "But I'll tell you this, Manning," said Tom, following him, fighting forself-control, "I wouldn't want to have to depend on you to save my life.And I wouldn't want to be faced with the situation where I would have tosacrifice mine to save yours!"

  Roger turned and glared at Tom.

  "The Academy regs say that the man on the control deck is the boss ofthe unit. But I have my private opinion of the man who has that jobnow!"

  "What's that supposed to mean?" asked Tom.

  "Just this, spaceboy. There's a gym below where I'll take you _or_ yourbig friend on--together--or one at a time." He paused, a cold smiletwisting his lips. "And that offer is good as of right now!"

  Tom and Astro looked at each other.

  "I'm afraid," began Astro slowly, "that you wouldn't stand much of achance with me, Manning. So if Tom wants the chore of buttoning yourlip, he's welcome to it."

  "Thanks, Astro," said Tom evenly. "It'll be my pleasure."

  Without another word, the three cadets walked out of the door.