Astro, you are sentenced to serve on the enlisted man's work gangs here
at Space Academy for a period of exactly six months. All pay and
privileges to be denied during that time. Case is closed!"

[Illustration]

CHAPTER 13

"Atom City rocket liner now loading on Ramp Two!"

The metallic voice of the dispatcher echoed through the waiting room of
the subspaceport on the outskirts of Marsport and the passengers began
moving toward the field gate, where the stewards of the ship checked
each ticket against the liner's seating plan. Near them, a squad of four
Space Marines scrutinized all passengers carefully as they boarded the
waiting jet cars that would take them to the ship far out in the middle
of the field.

Tom Corbett sat at the refreshment stand in the waiting room, sipping a
glass of milk thoughtfully and eying the squad of Space Marines. He wore
a big-billed hat pulled low over his face and a tight-fitting black
jacket, the standard uniform of a merchant spaceman.

"Anything else?" asked the pretty waitress behind the counter.

"Yeah," growled Tom. "Gimme another glass of milk and another of these
crummy sandwiches."

"Well, you don't have to be rude about it!" snapped the girl. "Somebody
should teach you space tramps some manners!"

As she flounced off angrily the young cadet smiled. He knew his disguise
must be good indeed to fool this young girl, who met hundreds of people
at the spaceport every day and could easily recognize a person for what
he truly was. Now his only hope was that the disguise would fool the
squad of Marines at the gate.

After having abandoned the jet truck, Tom had moved through the
glittering city of Marsport carefully, keeping to the dark alleys and
shadows. Gradually he had worked his way back to the area around Sloppy
Sam's where, for a few credits, he had been able to buy a merchant
spaceman's clothes with no questions asked. He buried his cadet uniform
in the loose ground near a construction project.

Then, staying in the area, he wandered in and out of the dingy bars and
restaurants looking for the man he had seen at the spaceport, the driver
of the truck that had crashed the fence.

He spent three days in his search, not daring to ask questions, simply
keeping his eyes open for the man. Finally he had been forced to abandon
the search when he saw a stereo newscast reporting that the missing
cadet, Tom Corbett, had been traced to Skid Row. He decided that it wa