kept them supplied, and handled their message traffic. The Planeteers did
the hard work and the important work--or so they believed.

To become a Planeteer, a recruit had to pass rigid intelligence,
physical, aptitude, and psychological tests. Fewer than fifteen out of
each one hundred who applied were chosen. Then there were two years of
hard training on the space platform and the moon before a recruit was
finally accepted as a Planeteer private. Out of each fifteen who started
training, an average of five fell by the wayside.

For Planeteer officers, the requirements were even tougher. Only one out
of each five hundred applicants finally received a commission. Six years
of training made them proficient in the techniques of exploration,
fighting, rocketeering, and both navigation and astrogation. In addition,
each became a full-fledged specialist in one field of science. Rip's
specialty was astrophysics.

Sergeant Major Koa 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