The cadet did not shut off his instrument. "I don't know," they heard him reply. "The switch didn't go bad-I just couldn't seem to move a muscle. I could hear you shouting but I couldn't move."
Matt went back to the airlock with the group, feeling considerably sobered. He suspected that there would be a vacant place at supper. It was the Commandant's policy to get a cadet who was to be dropped away from the ship without delay. Matt did not question the practice, but it jarred him when he saw it happening-it brought the cold breath of disaster en his own neck.
But he cheered up as soon as he was dismissed. Once he was out of his suit and had inspected it and stowed it as the rules required, he zipped to his room, bouncing his turns in a fashion not approved for in-ship progress.
He banged on the door of Tex's cubicle. "Hey, Tex! Wake up! I've got news for you."
No answer-he opened the door, but Tex was not there. Nor, as it happened, were Pete or Oscar. Disconsolately he went into his own sanctum and picked out a study spool.
Nearly two hours later Tex came bouncing in as Matt was getting ready for lunch and shouted, "Hey! Matt! Mitt me, big boy-shake hands with a spaceman!"
"Huh?"
"I just passed "basic space suit'-sergeant said it was the best first test he had ever seen."
"He did? Oh-"
"He sure did. Oh boy-Terra Station, here I come!"