Four days later, Cooper underwent surgery for her injured shoulder. As she regained consciousness, she felt like the past few days were just a dream. 'A test! It was only a test! I can't believe it!' she thought as she drifted in and out of awareness.

'When I read that one of the Explorer class ships was no longer in service I thought they had scuttled it, not that it was being used for training,' she mused. 'I have to admit that it was a very realistic scenario.'

It turned out that they had gassed the six candidates while they were sleeping and transferred them over to the other heavily damaged Explorer class ship. They had also set things on a timer so that everything went haywire all at once. From the sideways thrust, to when the alarms sounded everything had all been carefully planned and orchestrated.

The one thing that had not been planned was someone getting badly injured. That was the reason that they had cut the test short.

Under the original plan, the candidates were meant to spend a week before the Lexington reached out to them and told them it was all a simulation. It was all thanks to her dislocated shoulder they had been let off the hook seven days early.

'The good news was that Simmons and I both scored very well,' Cooper thought. 'We won't know the actual scores until I'm out of med bay.'

---

There had been some minor complications with Cooper's arm, but she could finally leave sick bay after another few days. All the other candidates, except for Johnson, had visited her regularly now that the mandatory double shifts were a thing of the past.

'I'm glad to hear that,' Cooper thought as she made her way to her berth to wash herself off and to put on a new jump suit. Then her belly growled, and she decided to go to the mess hall for a bite to eat.

For a change, Simmons met Cooper in the hallway as they both made their way to the mess hall. There they met up with Anderson and Watanabe who were just finishing their meal.

"I just heard the most wonderful news," Anderson said as Cooper and Simmons sat down across from the two female officers.

"What's that?" Cooper replied.

"I heard that the brass have come to a consensus and that Captain Wilson will announce our new ranks to us sometime today," Anderson said with a conspiratorial wink.

"That is good news," Cooper said as she took a bite of her food and a drink from her cup.

"I'm so excited!" Anderson exclaimed. "I can't wait to see who get's to be captain."

Watanabe chimed in, "I am sure that you will score highly, Cooper. I, on the other hand, I did not do so well."

"Watanabe, don't put yourself down," Cooper said. "It was an extremely stressful situation, and you had never been in an emergency like that."

"Neither had you," Watanabe responded. "You still performed a lot better than I did."

"Our training included very realistic drills," Simmons said as he ate a fork full of meatloaf smothered in catsup. After he swallowed, he continued, "Therefore it was pretty easy to fall into leadership roles."

"If Simmons hadn't taken charge I would have," Cooper admitted. "They grilled that into both of us. Always take charge of a situation if there is no other qualified leader."

"That true," Watanabe admitted. "You both did wonderfully."

"So Anderson," Watanabe asked, "How did things go with Johnson in main engineering?"

"It was a disaster," Anderson admitted. "Not only was he a pain to work with, he tried to micromanage everything. We didn't even make it to engineering by the time that you had stopped the lateral spin."

"Quite frankly, I am surprised that Johnson made it this far in the selection process," Simmons said as he ate Cooper's meatloaf with catsup. "Even if his senator father pulled a ton of strings, someone competent should have replaced him long ago."

"Hell, let's be honest. Johnson would be a good first lieutenant. However, he has no place in the upper chain of command," Cooper said with some vitriol.

"I was thinking it, but I didn't want to be the one who said it first," Anderson admitted. "He is, after all, a fellow candidate from the GUSA."

"I agree with Cooper," Watanabe chimed in. "While Johnson needs to be weeded out of the command staff, he is a competent officer."

"Well, it looks like we are about to find out," Simmons commented as all four of their portables began vibrating at once.

---

When they made it to the office door and rang the chime, the Captain gave them immediate entry.

Captain Wilson looked like a totally different man now that the competition was over. He smiled at the four of them with genuine affection. "I would offer you a place to sit, but this office is too small for seven chairs and seven candidates."

"Can I get you something to drink? A soft drink or fruit punch?" Captain Wilson offered as Simmons and Cooper stood with Anderson and Watanabe. "I am afraid that the other two candidates are running late."

"I'm fine," Cooper and Simmons said in almost perfect harmony. Anderson and Watanabe made a similar response.

Just then, the door chimed and opened at Wilson's command. The two remaining candidates stepped into the room and took their places in the line of officers.

"Alright now that everyone is present, let's begin," Captain Wilson said.

"As you know, we scored the six of you according to your observed behaviors, ratings by the officers in charge during your training, what you accomplished during your weeks in a position, and most heavily on your behavior and abilities displayed while on the derelict ship."

"The upper brass then came to a consensus on who should hold a given position based on these criteria as well as political concerns within the Alliance. Please keep that in mind as I announce your names. The politics have had a definite impact on how the ranks are distributed."

"I will begin with those who received the lowest scores to those with the highest scores."

"Any questions? Good, then let's continue."

"Johnson, we will start with you. You achieved the lowest scores across the board. Your commanding officers have called you everything from insubordinate to hateful, to some things I don't want to say with the lady's present. Even when you weren't acting aloof and better than your instructors, you constantly did things in the most easy way possible."

Anyone who looked at Johnson just then saw a red-faced young man who was about to lose his cool in front of the commanding officer of the Lexington.

"However, as I said before politics played an important part in the selection process. Just think about one thing. Your family member only has influence in the Greater United States of the Americas. He has zero influence with the other two Empires that make up the Alliance. As a result, politics had nothing to do with your appointment and rank."

"Officer candidate Johnson, I have demoted you rank to the rank of lieutenant junior grade and the brass has agreed to take you off of the Hope project so that you can learn the proper way to act as a soldier."

"You can't do this! I will go over your head and..."

"You will do nothing since the president of the GUSA signed off on these orders. You are dismissed Lieutenant Junior Grade Johnson."

"But!" Johnson began only to be shut down immediately.

"One more word and I will have you escorted to the brig!"

With that being said, the furious Johnson stormed out of the captain's office.

'Wow!' Cooper thought. 'Remind me to never get on Wilson's bad side.'

"Next is Anderson," Willson continued. "I am afraid that you did not score very well, but that was mainly because of your GUSA partner. However, you did well in all of your other metrics. That is why I am herby promoting you to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Congratulations officer Anderson." he said while standing up and reaching out for a handshake.

Anderson stepped forward and shook his hand. She was all smiles. "Thank you so much Captain Wilson." Anderson said as she stepped back into the line.

"Now on to Watanabe," Wilson said. "Your promotion is also based mostly on your work since you did well on your solitary tasks, but your performance during the simulation was low. You ended up dislocating Cooper's arm after all."

Watanabe nodded and said, "I understand, sir. I feel terrible about Cooper's arm and I will accept any punishment you may give me."

"Punishment? Who said anything about punishment? I don't know why a new Lieutenant Commander would ask about punishment?" Wilson said as he rose to his feet and reached out to shake her hand.

"Me? You're promoting me?"

"Yes Watanabe, I am promoting you," Wilson said.

With a smile, Watanabe stepped forward and shook the captain's hand. "Thank you very much, Captain," she said and then gave the commanding officer a very low bow before stepping back into the line.

"Next up is Kobayoshi." Wilson announced. "You have performed well in all aspects of your testing. Even during the simulation, you performed admirably. However, the top brass thought that you didn't display the drive of a command level officer. Unlike the two remaining candidates, you didn't jump in and act as a leader when it was needed. Therefore, I hereby promote you to the rank of Lieutenant Commander."

"Thank you sir," Kobayoshi said and bowed deeply to Captain Willson before shaking his hand. Then he took his place in line.

"Now then, on to Simmons and Cooper. I have good news and bad news," the Captain said. "Which do you want to hear first?"

"The good news," Cooper said. Simmons nodded his approval.

"The good news is that you both scored above the other four candidates by quite a lot."

"Thats great news!" Simmons said while turning to face Cooper and extending his hand to congratulate her. Cooper took his hand and gave him a strong handshake in response. "Congratulations!"

"Congratulations!" Cooper said in return with a smile on her face.

"Now for the bad news," the Captain went on.

"Cooper, despite receiving a higher score on the tests than anyone, politics require that a male be the captain of the Hope."

"What do you mean?" Simmons asserted with a frown. "If she received the highest score, then Cooper should be captain."

"I am afraid that the Emperor of Nippon disagrees with you," Captain Wilson replied. "In fact, if they had their way there wouldn't be any female officers in the command staff. Remember Nippon is still very patriarchal even when compared to the other two Empires."

"Sir, this isn't fair!" Simmons exclaimed. "If it wasn't for her quick thinking, we would have failed the mission on the derelict ship."

"That fact has been noted, and I have added a commendation to her record. I wish I could make her the captain, but this comes from well above my pay grade."

"I understand," Cooper interjected. "Besides, this just means that Simmons will be in charge during the ship's Mainday and I will be in charge during its Alterday. Oh, and he gets an extra gold stripe on his sleeve. I am a little jealous about that because gold is my color."

"Cooper, you are taking this rather well," Captain Wilson pointed out. "I thought you would be more upset about this news."

"Sir, you have to understand that I was just named the first officer of humanity's initial starship. What's not to like?"

"When you put it that way your enthusiasm is understandable."

"Yes sir! Thank you, sir."

---