Chapter One: Twenty-Three Percent

His gray work jacket had been washed almost colorless. On his shoulder clung an old cadet pilot badge with most of its paint worn away. That badge would be taken back today. "Voss. You hear me? Your turn." The instructor's voice came through the testing hall speakers with the rattle of cheap metal. Cadets filled the seats on both sides of the hall, all of them wearing the black and blue uniform of the Federation Preparatory Academy, silver serial numbers shining on their chests. Leon's work clothes looked like a piece of coal that had somehow fallen onto a command deck. He stepped onto the synchronization platform. The platform was a ring of support struts around a translucent neural interface pod.