Ryk Brown - Aurora CV-01

“Captain wants to see you in his ready room right after chow, Sir.”

“Understood.” Nathan’s expression suddenly soured.

“What is it?” Vladimir asked, seeing the change in his friends mood.

“The captain wants to see me.”

“This is bad?”

“I haven’t been doing so well in the simulations,” Nathan admitted. “I think I might be getting fired.”

“Nathan,” Vladimir explained, “In the military, they do not fire you, they reassign you. They could demote you as well. But you are already only ensign. And that is the lowest rank an Academy graduate can have, I’m afraid. So he cannot demote you. But he could give you really bad job. Like, maybe waste processing plant.” Vladimir shuddered at the thought of the place.

“Thanks for the pep talk there, Vlad. You’ve really cheered me up.”

“What are friends for?” he responded as he finished his meal.

“Well, I might as well get this over with,” Nathan decided, rising from the table.

“Think positive thoughts,” Vladimir advised him. “And keep chin up, always look strong and confident.” Vladimir moved closer and lowered his voice. “That way, no one knows you are scared like little bunny.” Vladimir laughed and slapped Nathan on the back, sending him on his way.

“Ensign Scott, reporting as ordered, Sir.” Nathan stood straight as a board, eyes straight ahead. The one thing good about standing at attention was that I made it easier for him to hide how nervous he was.

“Ensign Scott,” the captain began. “At ease.”

Well at least he’s still calling me ensign. That’s a good sign.

“How’s the training going?”

“Sir?” Nathan wondered if it was a trick question.

“How are you doing in the simulations?” the captain asked more directly.

“There’s definitely room for improvement, Sir.”

“Yes, Ensign. I’d have to agree with you on that.” The captain leaned back in his chair, something he liked to do while considering his next statement. “And how would you say Ensign Taylor is doing?”

“Better than I am, Sir.” Nathan figured if he was going to be honest, he might as well be brutally honest.

“How so?”

“She knows her flight and navigation protocols better than I do, Sir. And she stays more level headed under pressure.”

“And you feel that’s a good thing?”

“I would think so, Sir.”

“Why?”

“Sir?” Nathan was confused, unsure of what the captain was getting at.

“You seem to think that Ensign Taylor has an advantage over you at the helm, because she is more level headed under pressure. I’d like to know why you think that’s an advantage.”

“I believe it allows her to think more clearly, weigh all her options, and choose the best course of action.”

“And you don’t think you’re capable of doing that?”

“I didn’t say that, Sir.”

The captain leaned forward on his desk again. “But you do think it gives her an advantage. What are you doing that she is not?”

Nathan stumbled for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. “Sir, I believe that I get too emotionally involved in the situation.”

“You mean, you take it more personally?”

“Yes, I believe so, Sir.” The captain was looking at Nathan, like he was waiting for him to elaborate further. “It’s, it’s like I’m fighting a battle, Sir. Like it’s me against the scenario, and I don’t want to lose.”

“And you don’t think Ensign Taylor has this same problem?”

“No Sir, she doesn’t. She just looks at the problem, and calculates the safest solution.”

The captain leaned back once more, taking in a deep breath. “If you don’t bet big, you don’t win big,” he mumbled.

“Sir?”

The captain rose from his chair and started making his way around to the front of his desk as he spoke. “Mr. Scott, there are two kinds of officers. Those that follow the book, and those that use it as a general guideline.” The captain sat down on the front of his desk, facing Nathan. “Are you following me so far?”

“I’m guessing that Ensign Taylor’s the first kind of officer, and I’m the second?”

“Actually, Ensign Taylor probably has the damned book memorized,” the captain chuckled. “Hell, she probably sent the brass a list of grammatical errors.”

The captain’s joke raised a smile on Nathan’s face. For the first time since he came into the ready room, he didn’t feel like he was in trouble.

“You, on the other hand, “you’re the one saying, ‘there’s a book?’”

Suddenly, Nathan became nervous again. Captain Roberts could see the uncertainty in Nathan’s eyes, and decided to cut to the chase.

“Piloting a ship, that’s a monkey skill. I can teach anybody to fly this ship. Hell I can just tell the computer where I want to go and the ship will go there. ‘Flying’ on the other hand, well that’s a feeling, an instinct. And you can’t teach instinct. You’re either born with it or you’re not. I can sharpen it for you, but first you’ve got to have it.”

Nathan looked at the captain, not sure if he was understanding him correctly.

“That’s right, Mr. Scott, you have it. Hell, you’ve got it in spades. But, either you don’t realize you have it, or you don’t believe you have it. I haven’t figured that out yet.” The captain rose, walked back around and returned to his seat. “Now Ensign Taylor, she doesn’t have it. She’s a skilled pilot, to be sure. And she’s definitely as cool as they come under pressure. In fact, she’s the perfect type for a navigator, and a top notch one at that. But the helm is not where she belongs.”

Suddenly it dawned on Nathan. “Are you saying…”

“That you’re my new helmsman, Mr. Scott.”

Nathan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “But Sir, don’t you think that…”

“…A simple thank you sir would be the correct response.”

“Of course, thank you sir. It’s just that Ensign Taylor has been doing so much better in the sims than I have. Hell, I crashed and burned most of them!”

“But not all of them, Ensign. You even managed to pull through a few that there wasn’t supposed to be a way out of!”

“But I don’t see how…”

“…You need to give yourself a little credit, Son,” the captain said. “Do you really think Fleet just tossed me whatever graduates nobody else wanted? Hell, I handpicked every last one of you.”

Nathan was taken aback. Up until now, he had been sure that getting assigned to the Aurora had been either some cosmic joke, or the result of his father’s influence.

“I picked you to be my helmsman, and Ensign Taylor to be my navigator. You wanna know why? Two reasons. First, 'cause you’re both perfect for the job, and second, 'cause you’re polar opposites. You two fit the bill perfectly. Now all I’ve got to do is get the two of you to stop arguing like an old married couple and start working together.”

Nathan’s head was reeling from his sudden change of fortune. Ten minutes ago, he was sure he was about to get thrown off the ship. And now he was being offered the job of lead pilot, which also meant he was about to be promoted.

“Sir,” Nathan said. “May I ask a question?”

“Please do.”

“If you knew what positions you were going to assign when you picked us, why did you put us through all this cross-training, this competition?”

“That, is an excellent question,” the captain admitted, seeming quite pleased that Nathan was finally thinking instead of reacting. “I needed a way to make you want the position, a way to make you realize what you were capable of in the helmsman’s chair. And of course a little cross training never hurts.”