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
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.
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