I want a chance to live—even if it means a chance of getting killed.
I can’t stand to be shut up here, when things are happening.“ He caught a sobbing breath. ”If you want to be really kind, send me out to explore the comet on the Invincible.“
She stepped back quickly, her face suddenly pale.
“I didn’t know you knew,” she whispered. For a moment she was silent, and then she shook her head regretfully.
“I’m sorry, Bob,” she said.
“I had no idea you felt this way.
John and I are very proud that you were chosen to be the next keeper of the peace.”
She looked at him anxiously.
“Doesn’t that promise you danger enough?”
“But how can I ever learn to face danger?” he demanded bleakly.
“If you and father keep on treating me like a child.
Guarding me like a prisoner!”
“I hope we haven’t sheltered you too much.”
Moving closer to him, she seemed to hesitate.
“There—there’s something I’d better tell you, Bob.”
He stiffened, at the sudden gravity of her voice.
“You know you made a very brilliant record at the academy, Bob —your father and I are very proud of that.
Only one student ever finished with a higher average.
He was Stephen Oreo.”
He winced from that name, his fingers drifting instinctively toward the scar on his forehead.
“When you graduated, Bob, the commanding officer told us he was worried about you.
He thought you had driven yourself too hard, trying to beat Oreo’s marks.
He showed us a report from the staff doctors.
They agreed that you were near a nervous breakdown, and they advised a year of complete rest for you before you were given any duty.
He warned us not to tell you about the report until you were better.”
She smiled at him hopefully.
“I’m sure you’re all right now,” she said.
“But that’s why you’ve been here.”
Bob Star was staring past her, at the windows and the ragged near horizon.
“It wasn’t overwork that hurt me,” he whispered faintly.
“It was Stephen Oreo—”
But his mother wasn’t listening.
He turned, and saw that his father had entered the room.
John Star came striding across the wide red floor, trim and straight as always in the green of the Legion.
Hard and slender, he looked little older than his son.
He came straight to Aladoree, and administered a brief soldierly kiss, and handed her a heavy, sealed envelope.
“Darling,” he said, “this is an order from the Green Hall Council.”
Gravely preoccupied, he turned to his son.
“Robert,” he said, “I wish to see your mother alone.”
Bob Star stood speechless.
The jade-green walls were cold as ice.
The red floor was a terrible emptiness.
His knees were going to buckle, and he had nothing to hold to.
“Please, sir—” His dry throat stuck.
“Let him stay, John,” his mother said quickly.
“If it’s about the comet,” he muttered hoarsely,
“I’ve already seen it.”
“It is,” John Star looked at Aladoree, and nodded abruptly.
“You may sit down, Robert.”
He collapsed gratefully into a great chair and clung to the cold red hardwood, trying to stop the trembling of his hands.