"Blue."
"Anything besides green washed out," replied Mike quickly. "Now let's see, you have a replacement for Morgan in this unit. An astrogator."
"Greetings, gentlemen," drawled a voice that Tom recognized without even looking. "Allow me to introduce myself to my new unit-mates. My name is Manning—Roger Manning. But then, we're old friends, aren't we?"
"Stow that rocket wash, Manning," snapped Mike. He glanced at the clock over the door. "You have an hour and forty-five minutes until lunch time. I suggest you take a walk around the Academy and familiarize yourselves with the arrangement of the buildings."
And then, for the first time, Tom saw the hard little spaceman smile.
"I'm glad you made it, boys. All three of you." He paused and looked at each of them in turn. "And I can honestly say I'm looking forward to the day when I can serve under you!"
He snapped his back straight, gave the three startled boys a crisp salute, executed a perfect about-face and marched out of the room.
"And that," drawled Roger, strolling to the bunk nearest the window, "is the corniest bit of space gas I've ever heard."
"Listen, Manning!" growled Astro, spinning around quickly to face him.
"Yeah," purred Roger, his eyes drawn to fine points, hands hanging loosely at his sides. "What would you like me to listen to, Cadet Astro?"