 Why were the cadets outside alone?
Earth couldn't turn out enough starmen in the schools, so promising kids were being shipped out for training as cadets on their twelfth birthday. The two he'd drawn, Kaufman and Pinelli, seemed to be totally devoid of any sense of caution. Earth had ordered him to detour here, after leaving his load of deep-sleep stored colonists on Official World 71, to check on any sign of Hennessy. Now the three were streaking at fantastic speed to a spot near the ship, to hover excitedly above something that moved there. One, at the front, was stuttering into life, and Gwayne dashed for it as the exit port slid back.
 They were young and untrained.
 They were lost.  They were young and untrained.  They were on a mission.  They were insubordinate.