Everybody who is anybody has an implanted augment. PhD student Andrew Lundin Collingwood III has a one-hundred-percent organic augment installed by an alien factory thousands of years old. He's also a 14-year-old cadet whose mother happens to be a living legend in the Space Arm, and when his mentor creates a 4-G Interorbital Racer for him, Mum is not impressed.
However, his talents and his ship are essential to the success of their mission: to prevent armed conflict in the Barnard System. So he has to grow up fast to fulfill his role in stopping the first-ever full-scale space battle before it has a chance to waste a bunch of precious lives.