kill him with kindness," thought Tom, and fell fast asleep.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER 9

The three members of the _Polaris_ unit stepped off the slidewalk at the
Academy spaceport and stood before Warrant Officer McKenny.

"There she is," said the stubby spaceman, pointing to the gleaming
spaceship resting not two hundred feet away. "Rocket cruiser _Polaris_.
The newest and fastest ship in space."

He faced the three boys with a smile. "And she's all yours. You earned
her!"

Mouths open, Tom, Roger and Astro stood gaping in fascination at the
mighty spaceship resting on the concrete ramp. Her long two-hundred-foot
polished beryllium steel hull mirrored the spaceport scene around them.
The tall buildings of the Academy, the "ready" line of space destroyers
and scouts, and the hundreds of maintenance noncoms of the enlisted
Solar Guard, their scarlet uniforms spotted with grime, were all
reflected back to the _Polaris_ unit as they eyed the sleek ship from
the needlelike nose of her bow to the stubby opening of her rocket
exhausts. Not a seam or rivet could be seen in her hull. At the top of
the ship, near her nose, a large blister made of six-inch clear crystal
indicated the radar bridge. Twelve feet below it, six round window ports
showed the position of the control deck. Surrounding the base of the
ship was an aluminum scaffold with a ladder over a hundred feet high
anchored to it. The top rung of the ladder just reached the power-deck
emergency hatch which was swung open, like a giant plug, revealing the
thickness of the hull, nearly a foot.

"Well," roared the red-clad spaceman, "don't you want to climb aboard
and see what your ship looks like inside?"

"Do we!" cried Tom, and made a headlong dash for the scaffold. Astro let
out one of his famous yells and followed right at his heels. Roger
watched them running ahead and started off at a slow walk, but suddenly,
no longer able to resist, he broke into a dead run. Those around the
_Polaris_ stopped their work to watch the three cadets scramble up the
ladder. Most of the ground crew were ex-spacemen like McKenny, no longer
able to blast off because of acceleration reaction. And they smiled
knowingly, remembering their reactions to their first spaceship.

Inside the massive cruiser, the boys roamed over every deck, examining
the ship excitedly.

"Say look at this!" cried Tom. He stood in front of the control board
and ran his hands over the buttons an