"Hey, Wallace," yelled Simms, who had walked away when the argument started. "Come on. We gotta fix that reactor unit!"
"Yeah—yeah," Wallace called back. He turned to Roger again. "Just remember what I said, cadet!" Brushing the boys aside, he strode down the aisle to join Simms.
As the two men disappeared through the power-deck hatch, Tom turned to Roger and tried to calm him down. "Skippers are skippers, Roger, even aboard a piece of space junk!"
"Yeah," growled Roger, "but I don't like to be called a squirt or a punk! Why, I know more about reactor units than—"
"Reactor units?" broke in Astro from his seat.
"Yeah. Didn't you hear what Simms said?"
"But this is a chemical burner," said Astro. "Why an atomic reactor unit aboard?"
"Might be a booster for extra speed," offered Tom. "And more power."
"On a simple hop like this? Hardly out of the atmosphere?" Astro shook his head. "No, Tom. It doesn't make sense."
"Well," chimed in Roger, "here's something else I've been wondering about. They charge one credit for this ride. Which makes a total of about fifty credits for a capacity load—"