"Well?" he asked. "This is your first
struggle with justice. Each of you, Tom, Roger, Astro, Alfie, will be
faced with this sort of thing during your careers as spacemen. What
would you do?"
The four cadets looked at each other, each wondering what the other
would say. Finally Connel turned to Alfie.
"You're first, Alfie," said Connel.
"I'd send them to the mines, sir," said Alfie.
Connel's face was impressive. "Roger?"
"Same here, sir," replied Roger.
"Astro?" asked Connel.
"I'd do anything to help the kids, sir," said Astro, an orphan himself.
"Tom?"
Tom hesitated. "They deserve the rock, sir. I don't have any feeling for
them. But if they go to the rock, that doesn't do any more than punish
them. If they go to the mines, they'll be punished and help someone else
too. I'd send them to Titan and exile them from Earth forever."
Connel studied the cadets a moment. He turned to Shinny.
"Think they made a good decision, Nick?"
"I like what young Tommy, here, had to say, Lou," answered Shinny. "Best
part about justice is when the man himself suffers from his own guilty
feelings, rather than what you do to him as punishment.
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