Zeph was left almost speechless by the V-mail he just received from the Commissioner. It had not even been five minutes since Laxana's exam score was officially confirmed by the test cycle's AI and Krynienne in her official capacity as the exam coordinator. The only logical explanation that he could think of was that Biggs told him before it was even official.
It was not the fact he was being excused for the remainder of the day as a reward of sorts that made him temporarily mute, it was that Commissioner Justin Vaughn expected his entire squad to not only pass the exam but to do it before the next likely to pass active duty officer, Trevor.
Zeph could not tell if Vaughn was saying that he did not have high hopes of Trevor passing any time soon or if he was setting high demands for Squad One. Maybe he wanted to use Zeph's squad to help him ensure that he got promoted from XO to CO.
