of the Solar Alliance. It's designed to show the men of the future how
to do everything from treating a common cold to exploding nuclear power.
This capsule will be lowered at the end of your opening address. So,
most of the attention will be focused on the capsule, not you." The
commissioner smiled.

"All right, Mike," said Strong, grinning sheepishly. "You've got
yourself a speechmaker!"

"Good!" said Hawks and the two men shook hands.

Tom Corbett could contain himself no longer. "Congratulations, sir!" he
blurted out as the three cadets stood up. "We think Commissioner Hawks
couldn't have made a better choice!" His unit-mates nodded a vigorous
assent.

Strong shook hands with the cadets and thanked them.

"You want the cadets for anything right now, Mike?" asked Strong.

"Not a thing, Steve."

Strong turned back to the boys. "Better hop out to the spaceport and get
the _Polaris_ over the exposition site, cadets. Soon as you set her
down, clean her up a little, then relax. I'll be at the Galaxy Hotel if
you need me."

"Yes, sir," said Tom.

The cadets saluted sharply and left the office.

Arriving at the spaceport, they found the _Polaris_ stripped of her guns
and her galley stocked with food. The chief petty officer in charge of
the enlisted spacemen detail was roving through the passageways of the
rocket cruiser when Tom found him.

"Everything set, chief?" asked Tom.

"All set, Cadet Corbett," reported the elderly spaceman, saluting
smartly. He gave Tom a receipt for the list of the equipment that had
been removed from the ship and signed the logbook. Tom thanked him and
made a hurried check of the control deck, with Roger and Astro reporting
from the radar and power decks. With the precision and assurance of
veteran spacemen, the three Space Cadets lifted the great ship up over
the heart of the sprawling Venusian city and brought it down gently in
the clearing provided for it at the exposition site, a grassy square
surrounded on three sides by buildings of shimmering crystal walls.

No sooner had the giant ship settled itself to the ground, than a crew
of exposition workers began laying a slidewalk toward her, while another
crew began the construction of an aluminum staircase to the entrance
port in her giant fin.

Almost before they realized it, Tom, Roger, and Astro found themselves
busy with a hundred little things concerning the ship and their part in
the fair. They were visited by the sub