On the Trail of the Space Pirates_ A Tom Corbett Space Cadet Adventure - Carey Rockwell [42]
They walked across the high-ceilinged lobby toward the desk. All around them, the columns that supported the ceiling were made of the clearest crystal. Their feet sank into soft, lustrous deep-pile rugs made of Venusian jungle grass.
The boys advanced toward the huge circular reception desk where a pretty girl with red hair waited to greet them.
"May I help you?" she asked. She flashed a dazzling smile.
"You're a lucky girl," said Roger. "It just so happens you can help me. We'll have dinner together—just the two of us—and then we'll go to the stereos. After which we'll—"
The girl shook her head sadly. "I can see your friend's got a bad case of rocket shock," she said to Tom.
"That's right," Tom admitted. "But if you'll give us a triple room, we'll make sure he doesn't disturb anybody."
"Ah," said Roger, "go blow your jets!"
"I have a nice selection of rooms here on photo-slides if you'd care to look at them," the girl suggested.
"How many rooms in this hotel, Beautiful?" asked Roger.
"Nearly two thousand," answered the girl.
"And you have photo-slides of all two thousand?"
"Why, yes," answered the girl. "Why do you ask?"
"You and Astro go take a walk, Corbett," said Roger with a grin. "I'll select our quarters!"
"You mean," asked the girl, a little flustered, "you want to look at all the slides?"
"Sure thing, Lovely!" said Roger with a lazy smile.
"But—but that would take three hours!"
"Exactly my idea!" said Roger.
"Just give us a nice room, Miss," said Tom, cutting in. "And please excuse Manning. He's so smart, he gets a little dizzy now and then. Have to take him over to a corner and revive him." He glanced at Astro, who picked Roger up in his arms and walked away with him as though he were a baby.
"Come on, you space Romeo!" said Astro.
"Hey—ouch—hey—lemme go, ya big ape. You're killing your best friend!" Roger twisted around in Astro's viselike grasp, to no avail.
"Space fever," explained Tom. "He'll be O.K. soon."
"I think I understand," said the girl with a nervous smile.
She handed Tom a small flashlight. "Here's your photoelectric light key for room 2305 F. That's on the two hundred thirtieth floor."
Tom took the light key and turned toward the slidestairs where Astro was holding Roger firmly, despite his frantic squirming.
"Hey, Tom," cried Roger, "tell this Venusian ape to let me go!"
"Promise to behave yourself?" asked Tom.
"We came here to have fun, didn't we?" demanded Roger.
"That doesn't mean getting thrown out of the hotel because you've got to make passes at every beautiful girl."
"What's the matter with beautiful girls?" growled Roger. "They're official equipment, like a radar scanner. You can't get along without them!"
Tom and Astro looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"Come on, you jerk," said Astro, "let's get washed up. I wanta take a walk and get something to eat. I'm hungry again!"
An hour later, showered and dressed in fresh uniforms, the Polaris crew began a tour of the city. They went to the zoo and saw dinosaurs, a tyrannosaurus, and many other monsters extinct on Earth millions of years ago, but still breeding in the jungles of Tara. They visited the council chamber of the Solar Alliance where delegates from the major planets and from the larger satellites, such as Titan of Saturn, Ganymede of Jupiter, and Luna of Earth made the laws for the tri-planetary league. The boys walked through the long halls of the Alliance building, looking at the great documents which had unified the solar system.
They reverently inspected original documents of the Universal Bill of Rights and the Solar Constitution, which guaranteed basic freedoms of speech, press, religion, peaceful assembly and representative government. And even brash, irrepressible Roger Manning was awestruck as they tiptoed into the great Chamber of the Galactic Court, where the supreme judicial body of the entire universe