 Which word doesn't describe the cadets?
They were something more—and something less—they were, in short, humanity's hopes for survival! Captain Gwayne cursed and rolled over, reaching for his boots. The starlanes between Earth and her potential colonies were rough on the men who traveled them now. The blobs were a peculiarity of this planet about which nobody knew anything. They looked like overgrown fireballs, but seemed to have an almost sentient curiosity about anything moving on the ground. 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. But something had happened to the exploration party fifteen years back, and to the more recent ship under Hennessy that was sent to check up. The Sol-type sun must be rising, since there was a dim light. 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. He saw the two cadets then, heading back to the waiting ship, just beyond the movement he'd seen through the mist. One seemed to be almost eight feet tall, leading the others directly toward the spacesuited cadets. One, at the front, was stuttering into life, and Gwayne dashed for it as the exit port slid back.
 cautious
 cautious  naïve  embellishers  young