About the book: 2014 / Vitaly Shebaldin graduates from the Space Fleet Academy among the best. Ahead of him, coming from the “herd,” is a future that he could only dream of: the first stars on his shoulder straps, a prom, meeting his beloved girl, and then service in one of the guards regiments and flights as part of the youth crew of the newest spaceship . But all the brilliant plans collapse in a single moment, when it suddenly turns out that he will not be a part of the shield of the Earth and the Colonies, but just a despicable “screw” quartermaster. A “screw” admitted to the secrets on which the very existence of the Space Fleet depends.