To dream you must have faith. To command requires conviction. To fail is not an option.

Sixteen-year-old Zach Aurelian has held the same dream since he was eight years old—to attend the Earth System Alliance Fleet Academy and train to become a command officer like his mother, who went missing in the system-wide civil war that fractured the Alliance. He believes in his soul that she’s still alive and is determined to reach the stars to find her, no matter the challenge. Zach soon learns that not only will he face down his anxiety disorder and the rigors of the Academy, but the ghosts of his mother’s past who would stand in his way.

From Outstanding Creator award-winning contributing author and editor of Dragons of a Different Tail comes this exciting debut young adult science fiction novel. A coming of age, space military academy adventure that follows Zach as he takes on fighter pilot training, navigates friendships and budding romance, and learns what it means to be a true leader and serve in the ESA Fleet. But the spiteful Commandant Trask has made it his mission to see him wash out of the Academy, and tensions of reignited interstellar war are building. Zach's anxiety and body will be pushed to their physical limits as he musters the courage to fight through whatever Trask and the Academy throw at him, lean on his friends and allies for support, and step up as a Command Cadet when everything he knows and believes changes.