Page "Space Cadet" Paragraph 2

Burke eventually either resigns or is asked to leave, and goes into the merchant service, but the remainder do well enough to be assigned to working Patrol ships.

Dodson, Jarman and Jensen ship out on the Aes Triplex.

Their first real mission is to help search for a missing research vessel, the Pathfinder, in the Asteroid Belt.

They find it, but all aboard are dead, the unlucky victims of a fast-moving meteor that punctured the ship when the armored outer airlock door was open.

Before the accident, a researcher on the Pathfinder had found evidence that the planet which blew up to form the asteroids was inhabited by an intelligent species, and that the explosion had been artificial.

The captain of the Aes Triplex transfers half the crew to the repaired Pathfinder so that they can take the ship and the news of the startling discovery back to Earth quickly.

With the remainder ( including all three cadets ), he continues his patrol.