 Why were the cadets outside alone?
They were something more—and something less—they were, in short, humanity's hopes for survival! The Starship Pandora creaked and groaned as her landing pads settled unevenly in the mucky surface of the ugly world outside. 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. They looked like overgrown fireballs, but seemed to have an almost sentient curiosity about anything moving on the ground. "And our two cadets sneaked out again. 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. The Sol-type sun must be rising, since there was a dim light. Even the deep gorge where they'd found Hennessy's carefully buried ship was completely hidden by the fog. There were three of the blobs dancing about over the grazing animals now, as they often seemed to do. 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. It was too far to see clearly, but Gwayne grabbed the microphone, yelling into the radio toward the cadets. 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. The creatures dived downward into lower ground, beginning to disappear into the mists. They'd have to get to the group with the cadets in a hurry or the horde would all vanish in the uneven ground, hidden by the fog. The thing was standing directly ahead of him, a cadet on each shoulder. Another jeep had drawn up, and men were examining the cadets. Pinelli was either laughing or crying, and Kaufman was trying to break free to kick at the monster. The two were loaded onto a jeep while men helped Barker and Gwayne stow the bound monster on another before heading back. I want to know what happened to Hennessy and why that ship was buried against detection.
 They were young and untrained.
 They were lost.  They were young and untrained.  They were on a mission.  They were insubordinate.