Spensa arrives at Alta, the location of the base. A girl named Kimmalyn arrives at the same time, and they discover that they are in the same Cadet Flight. (A “flight” is a group of pilots—or in this case, pilots-to-be—who work together as a team.) Kimmalyn’s genuine openness and friendliness surprise Spensa, and they walk toward their assigned room together. Spensa admits that she has already chosen her callsign, Spin, because it is what her father used to call her. The buildings in the base are more open to the sky than Spensa is used to, and the sight disturbs her somewhat.

Spensa and Kimmalyn observe the mock cockpits in their classroom. Several classmates are from different caverns than Spensa. She recognizes one of the boys who gained automatic admission. He immediately tries to order everyone around, and Spensa dubs him “Jerkface” and starts arguing with him just as Mongrel arrives. Mongrel gets the students in order and instructs them to call him Captain Cobb. He warns that most of them will not make it through the four-month training because they will either drop out, be kicked out, or be killed.

Cobb assigns Jerkface, whose real name is Jorgen Weight to be the group’s flight leader.