The soft chime of a muted bell interrupted Walters as he was about to
reply. He opened the switch to the interoffice teleceiver behind his
desk, then watched the image of his aide appear on the teleceiver
screen.

"What is it, Bill?" asked Walters.

"_Polaris_ unit reporting for orders, sir," replied the enlisted
guardsman. "Cadets Corbett, Manning, and Astro."

"Very well, send them in," said Walters. Switching off the teleceiver,
he turned back to Governor Hardy. "Ever hear of the _Polaris_ unit,
sir?" he asked.

Hardy paused, rubbing his chin before answering. "No, can't say that I
have." He smiled. "From the look on your face, I see I should know about
them, though."

Walters smiled back. "I'll just say this about them. Of all the cadet
units trained here at the Academy in the last twenty years, these three
lads are just about perfection. Just the material you'll need on your
initial operation."

Governor Hardy raised his hand in mock protest. "Please! No brain
trusts!"

"Well, they have the brains all right." Walters laughed. "But they have
something else, an instinctive ability to do the right thing at the
right time and that indefinable something that makes them true men of
space, rather than ordinary ground hogs simply transplanted into space."