Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein Page B

and held it there, because Ganymede has one-third g. So there wasn't any urgent need to turn Noisy loose.
    Nor was there any rush to do so. We were still discussing it and some of the fellows were making comical remarks which Noisy did not appreciate when the same ship's aide came in, unstrapped Noisy, and told all of us to follow him.
    That's how I happened to attend Captain's mast.
    “Captain's mast” is a sort of court, like when in ancient times the lord of the countryside would sit and dispense the high and middle justice. We followed the aide, whose name was Dr. Archibald, to Captain Harkness's cabin. There were a lot of other people waiting there in the passage outside the cabin. Presently Captain Harkness came out and Noisy was the first case.
    We were all witnesses but the Captain didn't question but a few of us; I wasn't questioned. Dr. Archibald told about finding Noisy wandering around the ship while we were under acceleration and the Captain asked Noisy if he had heard the order to stay at his bunk?
    Noisy beat around the bush a good deal and tried to spread the blame on all of us, but when the Captain pinned him down he had to admit that he had heard the order.
    Captain Harkness said, “Son, you are an undisciplined lunk. I don't know what sort of trouble you'll run into as a colonist, but so far as my ship is concerned, you've had it.”
    He mused for a moment, than added, “You say you did this because you were hungry?”
    Noisy said yes, he hadn't had anything since breakfast and he still hadn't had his lunch.
    “Ten days bread and water,” said the Captain. “Next case.”
    Noisy looked as if he couldn't believe his ears.
    The next case was the same thing, but a woman-one of those large, impressive ones who run things. She had had a row with her ship's aide and had stomped off to tell the Captain about it personally— while we were under acceleration.
    Captain Harkness soon cut through the fog. “Madam,” he said, with icy dignity, “by your bull-headed stupidity you have endangered the lives of all of us. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
    She started a tirade about how “rude” the aide had been to her and how she never heard of anything so preposterous in her life asthis kangaroo court, and so forth, and so forth. The Captain cut her short.
    “Have you ever washed dishes?” he asked.
    “Why, no!”
    “Well, you are going to wash dishes—for the next four hundred million miles.”
6.    E = MC 2
    I looked up dad after they let us go. It was like finding a needle in a haystack but I kept asking and presently I found him. Molly and he had a room to themselves. Peggy was there and I thought she was rooming with them, which annoyed me some, until I saw that there were only two couches and realized that Peggy must be in a dormitory. It turned out that all the kids over eight were in dormitories.
    Dad was busy unclamping their couches and moving them to what was the floor, now that the ship was spinning. He stopped when I came in and we sat around and talked. I told him about Captain's mast. He nodded. “We saw it in the screen. I didn't notice your shining face, however.”
    I said I hadn't been called on.
    “Why not?” Peggy wanted to know.
    “How should I know?” I thought about mast for a bit and said, “Say, George, the skipper of a ship in space is just about the last of the absolute monarchs, isn't he?”
    Dad considered it and said, “Mmm . . . no, he's a constitutional monarch. But he's a monarch all right.”
    “You mean we have to bow down to him and say 'Your Majesty?” Peggy wanted to know.
    Molly said, “I don't think that would be advisable, Peg.”
    “Why not? I think it would be fun.”
    Molly smiled. “Well, let me know how you make out. I suspect that he will just turn you over his knee and paddle you.”
    “Oh, he wouldn't dare! I'd scream.”
    I wasn't so sure. I remembered those four hundred million miles of dirty dishes. I decided that, if the