s desk.

"I wanted Captain Strong here for this meeting," the professor
continued.

"Of course," replied Walters. "Captain Strong _should_ be here." He
turned to Connel. "Have you seen him, Connel?"

As Connel lowered his bulk into a soft chair, he sighed. "Steve is with
his unit, chewing them out over that fight with the _Capella_ unit."

Walters grinned. "You heard about our trial, Professor?"

"Yes," replied Hemmingwell stiffly. "Frankly, I cannot see how Captain
Strong can ignore this meeting to hold hands with those infantile
cadets."

Connel's face turned red and he glanced quickly at Walters, whose face
was approaching the same color. Neither expected such a comment from a
scientist.

"Professor," said Connel heavily, leaning forward in his chair, "I
assure you Steve Strong is _not_ holding their hands. In fact, I would
hate to be in those cadets' shoes right now."

Hemmingwell grunted and drew back from Connel's burning glare. "Be that
as it may," he said. "I cannot see that the staff of this institution
has done anything constructive for the last three days. So far as I'm
concerned, this childish talk about a common fight has been a complete
waste of time."

"Professor Hemmingwell," said Commander Walters, rising from his chair,
"if there had to be a choice between your project, as valuable as it may
be, and the valuable lesson learned today by my cadets, I'll tell you
right now that the lesson would come first. This was a very important
issue. The cadets had their real taste of democracy in action today,
down on a level where they could understand it. And, I dare say, there
are quite a few boys who heard that childish talk, as you put it, and
will remember it some time in the future when they are called on to act
as officers of the Solar Alliance."

Connel cleared his throat noisily. "I think we'd better get on with the
meeting," he said. "Do you have the plans and specifications,
Hemmingwell?"

But the wiry professor refused to be dissuaded. He faced Commander
Walters and wagged his finger under the spaceman's nose.

"You have a perfect right to your own ideas concerning the education of
your cadets!" he shouted. "But I have a right to my ideas regarding my
space projectile operations. I've devoted a good part of my life to this
plan, and I will not allow anything, or anyone, to stand in my way."

Before Walters could reply, Connel jumped up and growled.

"All right! Now that we've got the s