The alien Formics twice attacked the human race. We barely won. Now, the international Fleet is drafting brilliant kids to train them to command our forces in the next war. And Sister Carlotta thinks she has found another one. From the teeming legions of unwanted children, she has plucked a promising candidate: Bean, the runt of the streets of Rotterdam - with a staggering brilliance as unexplainable as his mysterious origins, the secrets of which...