<b>From the back cover of the Baen first edition:</b> "Be careful what you wish for... Three weeks ago, there were only three things Tom Jenkins wanted out of life: 1) He wanted off of Brighthome, the interstellar reformatory, and into the Space Guard. 2) He wanted Alex, the latest incorrigible to be "enrolled" on Brighthome, and the prettiest, to notice him. 3) He wanted to find out who he was: an orphan, with no memory of his origins, he has washed up on Brighthome because everyone figured he was kin to the pirates.
<p>Now, after an encounter with space pirates in which the pirates came out on bottom and Tom Jenkins on top, he's on the Space Guard ship <i>Daedalus</i>, three weeks out of Brighthome, and the Guard's newest cadet. He's won the friendship of Alex (if not her undying, and undivided, love), and he's got the entire resources of the Space Guard files to search for the secret to his background. Now he is faced with the challenge of living up to the expectations of the Guard... and making the Guard live up to his."
