Even pirates break down and need help, so they play nice. Those who don’t play nice get put on a kill list and usually don’t last more than a year.... There is an unwritten spacer code of no harm to ship or personnel in distress.It wasn’t a Null jump, so Mom had the coordinates plotted and a course laid in within minutes that avoided all known space debris, asteroids and gravity fields. We changed course and headed out at 22% light speed, the best our old crate could muster.It took a little over 4. My hope was for any kind of improvement in our next roommates, but our luck was better than that. It was Sam who spoke up when Chief Duncan started assigning the next class their quarters. “Hey Chief,” he said. “You know we got that ancient bunk bed, right? Think you can hold off on giving us new guys until we get some real racks for 'em?” The Chief looked like he might snarl, but Sam grinned at him. “First in the class, second in the class,” Sam said, pointing from me to himself. The Chief. I couldn't figure out to break the news to him 30 years ago and I still don't know how to do it. After all, they weren't lying to him, after a fashion. However, someone had certainly lied to the both of us."I was told the same thing," I answered him. I don't think I managed to keep my voice as steady as his."I suppose it had something to do with your job. Your real one, I mean. Not the UPI one. Nor the one that had to do with entertaining lonely Lieutenants far from home."If he had slapped me I. Russia didn't appear short of them, but then, scientific and engineering professions had been oversold to the youth of Russia. And also, it was continually pointed out, Russia had a history of powered flight as least as long as the Americans. John was surprised to learn that the Wright Brothers were a fraud and that it was a Russian who'd first taken to the air in an aeroplane. 'Every Russian schoolchild knew that, ' John had been told, 'how could he have been so gullible?'Sergei Ilyushin had.