Ryk Brown - Aurora CV-01

“You’re too far below your proposed route,” she insisted.

“How do you know?”

“We’ve been on this course for two minutes. You changed your angle slightly on the way in to avoid that large piece of debris in our path, and you didn’t compensate with a course correction afterward.”

“Probably because my navigator didn’t give me a course to begin with,” Nathan mumbled.

“You still need to come up at least two degrees.”

Nathan was getting tired of her games. “You know what? Thanks, but no thanks. If I’m gonna screw up, I’d rather do it on my own.”

Cameron said nothing. And a few minutes later they exited the debris field, out of position, the sensors immediately triggering a contact alarm. Nathan could feel his heart sink as the inevitable downward spiral that had recently ended so many of their simulations was about to begin.

“I’ve got four Jung ships, closing fast dead ahead,” Cameron announced, satisfaction evident in her voice.

“Like we didn’t see that coming.”

“They’re firing missiles. Tracking twelve inbound. Impact in three seconds.”

For a split second, Nathan contemplated maneuvering to avoid the incoming ordnance. But with the missiles only three seconds away, there wasn’t much use. And the simulation ended poorly, yet again.

Cameron felt a slight bit of guilt as Nathan resigned to inevitable failure. But as far as she was concerned, it his own fault for not listening to her in the first place.

The lights came up, and the screens again switched back to pale blue as the back half of the room swung slowly open.

“Scott and Taylor, you’re ordered to take a fifteen minute break, and then report to the captain’s ready room,” the sim controller announced over the comms. It had been entertaining to the sim technicians at first. They all knew there was going to be friction between the two of them after the captain had promoted Nathan. But after three days of the same old arguments, it was beginning to look like they were never going to get past their differences. And apparently, the captain had grown tired of it.

“You know, if you’re gonna keep sabotaging me at every opportunity, we’re never going to get out of this simulator and onto the bridge,” Nathan said.

“Don’t try to blame me because your crazy ideas never work.”

“They never work because I never have any solid navigation behind them! And who’s fault might that be? Oh, I don’t know, the Navigator, maybe?”

“You just want me to sit idly by and watch while you fly us into who knows what? Well that’s not the way my job works, mister.”

“That’s Lieutenant to you, Ensign!” Nathan knew that pulling rank on her was not the best strategy. But of course, that hadn’t stopped him from saying it.

“I believe, Sir,” she responded, emphasizing the word ‘sir’. “That it’s my job to point out available alternatives, Sir.”

“Point out, yes! But you argue with me until my only choice is to do it your way or fly by the seat of my pants! I’m pretty sure that’s not in your job description, Cam. But I’m sure you’ll check the book and let me know if I’m wrong.” Nathan got up and left the simulator. He needed to be as far away from Cameron as possible right now, even if only for a few minutes.

Cameron topped the ramp leading to the command deck and turned toward the bridge. It had not really come as a surprise when the simulation control officer told them to report to the captain. She knew that Nathan and her were not meshing as a team. But she was equally sure that she had been correct to point out the flaws in his unorthodox solutions. It wasn’t her fault if he couldn’t admit when he was wrong. If he would just heed her advice more often, she was sure that they would be doing a lot better in the simulations.

The more she thought about it, the more she felt like he was out to get her, to make her look bad. But surely the captain would see through his little charade? Surely the captain would recognize that Nathan had no discipline, and no respect for procedure. The guy just jumped in and made things up as he went, with no planning or foresight. That was probably just fine for him before, when his daddy’s money and power could pull his butt out of whatever fire he inadvertently jumped into. But this was different, he might be taking the entire ship into the fire with him.

Cameron tried to calm herself. After all, he was just the helmsman. It was the captain that would be making such decisions, not Nathan Scott. And the captain knew what he was doing. He had an exemplary record, she had checked. He had demonstrated the ability to innovate while respecting established protocols and procedures. If the captain veered away from policy, it was for good reason, and with the full understanding of not only what, but why he was doing so. The captain would never ‘wing it’ as Nathan had so frequently done.

Cameron turned the last corner before arriving at the bridge. She was mentally preparing to defend herself in front of the captain against any unjustified attacks that Nathan might launch at her. She would make sure that any decision the captain made was based on the truth, and not on the wild accusations of Lieutenant Nathan Scott.

Cameron’s determined pace suddenly slowed as she saw Nathan standing outside the entrance to the bridge. She was instantly curious as to why he was standing there, apparently waiting for her. But all she could bring herself to say was “Lieutenant.”

“I thought we should enter together,” Nathan said. “We are supposed to be a team, after all.”

The gesture surprised Cameron, but she wouldn’t let it show. “As you wish.”

They entered the captain’s ready room together. Only this time, as the senior officer, Nathan would announce their presence.

“Lieutenant Scott and Ensign Taylor, reporting as ordered, Sir.”

Both Nathan and Cameron raised their hands in salute.

“At ease,” the captain instructed, adding “close the door, please, Ensign.” He waited a moment for Cameron to close the door and return to stand at ease next to Nathan before he began. This time, his tone was far more formal than it had been in previous meetings.

“It has come to my attention that your performance in the flight training simulator has fallen far below acceptable levels. The report states that on multiple occasions you failed to act as a team; you let personal differences interfere with the timely performance of your duties; and you failed to achieve the goals of the given scenario on at least thirty percent of your simulations.” Captain Roberts leaned back in his chair. “Thirty percent? Hell, I should’ve canned you both at five percent.”

“Sir, I take full responsibility for our poor performance,” Nathan said.

“Well that’s certainly admirable, Lieutenant. But I don’t remember asking for your opinion just yet.” The captain sat there staring at Nathan, waiting for him to say something else. But Nathan only swallowed, hard. He looked at Cameron next, but her eyes were staring straight ahead, and as usual, her expression was cold and emotionless.

“I spent the majority of what should’ve been my rack time last night, reviewing the video logs of your simulations. And I have to say that I am appalled. In fact, I’m not really sure which one of you I should be chewing out. Hell, if you two were married I’d be advising you both to seek divorce lawyers.”

Captain Roberts got up and walked around to the front of his desk, just as he usually did when he was trying to make a point. Only this time, he stood in front of his desk instead of sitting. He folded his arms in front of his chest, looking long and hard at each of them.

“Normally, I’d send you both packing and call up any cadets that have passed their sim qualifiers to replace you. But since we’re due to start trials in a few days, I don’t have that luxury. I know the two of you can fly this ship. And since I’m going to be on that bridge telling you what to do, all you have to do is execute my orders,” he said. “And you will do so without hesitation. Is that clear?”