Inside the director's office, the floating screens filled the room with movement different groups of cadets across different islands, each one showing a completely different approach to the same problem. Some were already mid-fight with each other, apparently deciding competition was the answer. Some had found timber and were lashing it together into something vaguely raft-shaped. Others were sitting in groups looking at the ocean with the particular stillness of people who had no idea where to start and were hoping the answer would arrive on its own.
Vance stood with his arms folded, moving his attention between screens.
"I'll admit it," he said after a while. "This year's cadets are adapting considerably faster than the previous group."
One screen shifted to show Lucas's team moving through dense forest, staying in formation, Sylvia at the front with the others close behind.
