Volunteers packed the auditorium. Volunteers to become the first of the Space Patrol.
"The importance of your duties cannot be exaggerated," the general told them. "To survey astronomical bodies, to combat space piracy, to swing by the other side of the sun from time to time and check nothing untoward is going on back there. I know you all expect as much, but understand this."
He surveyed the body before him, thousands of men and women distinguished by courage and ability. "Out of everyone who enters the training, a few will die. A third will wash out. And a fourth of those who remain . . . They will have to become space pirates, because there aren't any to combat yet. A fourth for now. We're still unsure of the proper proportion."
"Can't we just wait for people to take that up themselves?" one volunteer asked.
"There's the first washout."
"I'm not saying I won't do it. I think we all just want to fly around in spaceships."
"Glad to have you back in the program, son."
Finis
No comments:
Post a Comment