Astro stepped forward to take his turn. He towered over the remaining
cadet candidate and glowered at the thoroughly frightened boy. "So," he
roared, "I guess this means you're going to handle the power deck in one
of our space buckets, eh?"

"Yes, very well," came the quavering, high-pitched reply.

"Give me the correction of thrust when you are underway in a forward
motion and you receive orders from the control deck for immediate
reversal."

Coglin closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and the words poured from
his lips. "To go forward is to overtake space, and to go sternward is to
retake space already overtaken. To correct thrust, I would figure in the
beginning of my flight how much space I intended to take and how much I
would retake, and since overtake and retake are both additional
quotients that have not been divided, I will add them together and
arrive at a correction." The cadet candidate stopped abruptly, gasping
for breath.

Secretly disappointed at the accuracy of the reply, Astro grunted and
turned to Tom and Roger. "Any questions before they blast off on their
solo hop?" he growled.

The two cadets shook their heads and Roger quickly lined three chairs in
a row. Tom addressed the frightened boys solemnly. "This is your
spaceship. The first chair is the command deck; second, radar deck;
third, power deck. Take your stations and stand by to blast off."