It wasn't long after that
that he had met Shinny. Connel smiled behind the protection of his
helmet, as he looked at the wizened spaceman, who was now old and
toothless, but who still had the same merry twinkle in his eye that
Connel had noticed the first time he saw him. Connel had signed on as
first officer on a deep spacer bound for Titan. Shinny had come aboard
and reported to Connel as rocketman. Shinny had promptly started roaring
through the passageways of the huge freighter in his nightshirt singing
snatches of old songs at the top of his voice. It had taken Connel four
hours to find where Shinny had hidden the bottle of rocket juice! Connel
laughed. He looked over at the old man fondly.
[Illustration]
"Say, Nick," said Connel, addressing the man by his given name for the
first time, "you remember the time it took me four hours to find that
bottle of rocket juice you hid on that old Titan freighter?"
Shinny cackled, his thin voice coming over the headphones of the others
as well as Connel's.
"I sure do, Lou!" replied Shinny, using Connel's first name. They were
just old spacemen now, reliving old times together.
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