continued, "That business on the _Icarus_ started the
war, but both sides have been feeding it ever since. I have to admit that
we Planeteers lord it over the spacemen like we were old man Cosmos
himself. So they get back at us with dirty little tricks while we're on
their ships. We command on the planets, but they command in space. And
they sure get a great big nuclear charge out of commanding us to do the
dirty work!"

"We'll take whatever they hand us," Rip assured him, "and pretend we like
it fine." He gestured at the other Planeteers. "Tell me about the men,
Koa."

"They're a fine bunch, sir. I handpicked them myself. The one with the
white hair is Corporal Nels Pederson, from Sweden. I served with him at
Marsport, and he's a real tough spacewalker in a fight. The other
corporal is Paulo Santos. He's from the Philippines, and the best
snapper-boat gunner you ever saw."

He pointed out the six privates. Kemp and Dowst were Americans. Bradshaw
was an Englishman, Trudeau a Frenchman, Dominico an Italian, and Nunez a
Brazilian.

Rip liked their looks. They were as relaxed as acceleration would allow,
but you got the impression that they would leap into action in a
microsecond if the word were given. He couldn't imagine what kind of
assignment was waiting, but he was satisfied with his Planeteers. They
looked capable of anything.

He made himself as comfortable as possible and encouraged Koa to talk
about his service in the Special Order Squadrons. Koa had plenty to tell,
and he talked interestingly. Rip learned that the tall Hawaiian had been
to every planet in the system, had fought the Venusians on the central
desert, and had mined nuclite with SOS One on Mercury. He also found that
Koa was one of the seventeen pure-blooded Hawaiians left. During the
three hours that acceleration kept them from moving around the ship, Rip
got a new view of space and of service with the SOS--it was the view of a
Planeteer who had spent years around the Solar System.

"I'm glad they assigned you to me," Rip told Koa frankly. "This is my
first job, and I'll be pretty green, no matter what it is. I'll depend
on you for a lot of things."

To his surprise, Koa thrust out his hand. "Shake, Lieutenant." His grin
showed strong white teeth. "You're the first junior officer I ever met
who admitted he didn't know everything about everything. You can depend
on me, sir. I won't steer you into any meteor swarms."

Koa had half turned to