"Fifteen."
"And when you're eighteen years old you'll go on a fifteen-hour shift?"
"Of course. But I'll have three days vacation when I get married."
"Did you know the Center is taking boys thirteen now and next year will begin calling them at the age of twelve?"
"All the girls know about it. The boys are glad to get out of the factories. They talk about nothing else. And they say the age to go out is going to be lowered to eighteen and maybe seventeen."
"Yes. We're learning better and faster ways to make men out of kids. And the numbers in the crews are being cut down. The ships are better. One man now can perform all the operations three did a few years ago."
"The training? Is it very hard?"
"No. It's just necessary. We know we have to learn and develop in order to survive. It's just like growing up."
Sue hesitated. "Is it true—" She paused again, cheeks coloring. "It is true that you can read a girl's thoughts?"