Two weeks later, Cooper was working with Simmons to maneuver the large package into place. It had taken both of them all day to manhandle it from one end of the Lexington to the other. Even with the help of a free-floating rocket sled, it had been very hard work.

"Let's clamp it to the ship's superstructure and call it a night," Simmons said in a very weary voice.

"Rest sounds fantastic right about now," Cooper responded as she began nudging the house-sized package towards the Lexington's ladder-like superstructure.

This was by far the longest EVA either of them had ever had. 'Eight hours in a space suit is not my idea of a good time,' Cooper thought as she delicately used the rocket sled to dock the package with the side of the ship. Then she activated the rocket sled's clamps and double checked to make sure that the clamps had a good hold.

"Allright! We have successfully connected her to the Lexington," she announced.

"Wonderful! Please come back to the primary hull for some food and shuteye." Marshall directed the two of them. "You both deserve it."

"Thank you, sir," Simmons responded as both of them began to make their way to the main hull.

---

After they finally took off their space suits and spent a few minutes in the latrine, both Simmons and Cooper drug their weary bodies to the mess hall. Luckily, the cook had left six meals just as he always did. 'Otherwise, the candidates would go hungry half the time,' Cooper thought as she carried her tray to the table that the candidates usually ate at.

Upon removing the top off of her plate, she was not happy. "Dehydrated soy meatloaf. I do not know how the Yanks can eat this regularly."

"What I wouldn't give for some bangers and mash," Simmons replied.

"Or some tea and crumpets," Cooper said. "Well, at least breakfast is pretty good. Reconstituted eggs, with bacon or sausage isn't too bad."

"True, although I just wish they didn't include those bagels that the yanks seem to love."

"I've had a lot worse," Cooper admitted. "At least we can trade them for cereal... well, that is when we're in here eating with others. I have found that I rather like 'corn flakes.'"

"They are pretty good," Simmons agreed as he picked at his entrée. Without a word, Cooper handed him her catsup packet.

"Why thank you. At least catsup makes it edible."

"If you say so."

---

After crawling into her capsule, Cooper went to sleep as soon as she used the webbing to seal it. Then she slept for the entire eight hours of rack time that she was allowed by the captain.

As she was getting dressed, she noticed her own body odor, so he hopped into the latrine with a sani wipe and quickly wiped herself down before getting back into her jumpsuit.

"I can't report to Marshall smelling like I haven't bathed myself in a week," she muttered as she hastily grabbed her shoes from her locker. Then she hurried off to meet with her superior.

Fifteen minutes later she was floating next to Simmons in front of Lieutenant Commander Marshall's workstation in main engineering.

"Cooper, I am glad that you and Simmons could make it. I also want to thank you once again for your help in transporting the spare reactor to the front of the ship."

"Thank you, sir," Simmons responded before Cooper could open her mouth to speak. "I am also glad that Cooper recommended me for this project."

"I am thrilled with your work on the operation. Originally, I thought she had just recommended you because you are both from the Britanian Empire. Now I know the partnership you have with each other, and I am pleasantly surprised. The two of you make a great team."

"Thank you, sir." Cooper said, this time beating Simmons to the punch." I also thank you once again for considering, much less implementing my proposal."

"Well, it wasn't like Snyder was going to switch the reactor out. Instead, he all but drove poor Green to distraction," Marshall said. "That's why I took you up on your kind offer to replace it for me."

"Of course, sir. An officer's job is to identify issues and do what needs to be done," Cooper said.

"I think you will both be wonderful officers on Hope," Marshall said. "But before that happens, I need you to pull the malfunctioning reactor and replace it. So, you're only about a third of the way through the process."

"Yes, sir," Cooper said with a salute.

"Dismissed," Marshall ordered.

---

Cooper and Simmons spent the next twelve hours in space suits. This was mainly because of a stuck coupling fastener. It had taken two hours just to unscrew the one bolt. Needless to say, there were some bad words spoken over coms.

The other fifteen bolts took a little longer to remove than they had estimated, mainly due to their inexperience. Still, they decoupled the old reactor and slid the new one into place. Then they clamped the old reactor to the Lexington's superstructure.

Marshall had pity on the pair and allowed them eight hours of sleep before returning to work. 'Thank God,' Cooper thought as she floated towards the primary hull. 'I think I could sleep for a week.'

However, as soon as she cycled through the airlock, took off her suit and used the latrine she made a beeline to the ship's galley.

"Yes," she said as she took a seat across from Simmons at the table where they usually sat. "Fish and chips!" she exclaimed when she saw what was on Simmons' plate.

"I haven't had this since we left Luna City!" she said as she ate the crispy food. "Wow, and they are pretty good, too."

"If you're not going to use them, could you please give me your catsup packets?"

"Let me guess it's for the next meatloaf day."

"You hit the nail on the head," Simmons said as he put the packets into one of his jumpsuit's many pockets.

---

After their rack time was over, the two of them went back to work after they had a quick breakfast.

Cooper was exhausted, but they kept going as quickly as they could. As long as the reactor was offline, the Lexington had limited maneuverability. The good news was that the new reactor was easier to install than uninstalling the old one. It also helped that they had already put the new reactor in place the day before. Basically, all they had to do was fasten it down.

About four hours into the EVA, Marshall asked over coms and asked, "How are things going out there?"

"We only have four bolts left to go and then we can move the spare to the aft of the ship," Cooper responded.

"Please let me know when it is fully installed so I can get Snyder and company working on things from the inside."

"Will do, sir. Cooper out."

"He sounded a bit anxious," Simmons pointed out as they locked another bolt into place.

"He probably has the captain on his backside," Cooper said as she began tightening another bolt.

"I was thinking the same thing," Simmons commented as he screwed in the next-to-last fastener. "The captain seems to be the type to micromanage the heads of his departments."

"Don't say that too loud or someone might charge you with insubordination."

"Yep, I need to be more careful over coms," Simmons admitted.

"This bolt is finished. Moving to the last bolt," Cooper said.

"This one is done," Simmons said as he began packing up his tools.

"Give me five minutes. This bolt is giving me a little trouble."

"Will do."

"Done!" Cooper exclaimed. "Cooper to Marshall. We have successfully installed the reactor. We're packing up the tools now and will be moving the faulty one to the stern of the ship."

"Take your time and just clamp the old one to the superstructure after you take it to the stern," Marshall directed them. "You can worry about putting it away properly tomorrow."

"Thank you, sir. Cooper out."

"Okay, let's get back to work." Simmons said as he floated over to the rocket sled.

"No rest for the wicked..." Cooper responded with a chuckle.

---

"I know that the Alliance is very careful with the disposal of their fusion reactors, but it doesn't make sense to take the entire thing back to Mars," Simmons said as they fastened the faulty fusion unit into the spare parts cradle.

"The last thing that the Alliance needs is for the EU to get even a faulty reactor. If they can reverse engineer one, then the Alliance would lose their main technological advantage over its only real rival." Cooper reminded him.

"I know that. I'm talking about pulling the core out of the reactor and taking that with us instead of taking the whole unit with us."

"Well, you need to ask that question to the Grand Senate, since they made the laws in question," Cooper said. Besides you are just tired of man-handling this reactor."

"Yes. I am exhausted, and this is the last step in the project. I hope they give us a few days of rest before putting us on the next assignment."

"I doubt it if the captain has his way. But I agree that we both need a day or two to rest after this."

Then, after decoupling the unit from the rocket sled, Cooper announced, "We are now officially done as soon as we put the sled back into its berth."

"Thank God," Simmons groused.

---

The following day both Cooper and Simmons were summoned to main engineering as soon as they went on duty.

"Uh-oh, I wonder what we managed to screw up," Simmons commented as the two were donning their space suits.

"Who knows, it may end up being something positive," Cooper said as she put on her gloves and clamped them into place. "We will know as soon as we report, now won't we?"

"Yes, we will," Simmons said as Cooper switched on his coms and then helped him put on his helmet.

Then Simmons did the same thing for Cooper, after which they both entered the airlock. After the pumps removed all the air from the small chamber, they each activated their sleds and made their way up Lexington's stern.

After they reached the airlock to the rear of the ship, cycled through it and took off their space suits Cooper joked with Simmons by saying, "Don't worry, I will take half the blame for you if there is a problem."

Simmons just chuckled and said, "You should take most of the blame because it was all your idea in the first place," Simmons responded.

"Okay then, I will take a third of the blame."

"That's even worse!" Simmons exclaimed as the inner door opened to main engineering and floated over to Marshall's workstation. Lieutenant Commander Marshall had an angry look on his normally kind face.

'This does not bode well,' Cooper thought as she saluted and said, "First Lieutenants Cooper and Simmons reporting for duty, sir."

Marshall's angry look turned into a scowl as he looked at the two junior officers.

"I'm angry," Marshall said. "Do you want to know why I am angry?"

"Yes, sir?" Cooper said while wearing her best poker face and trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"I am afraid that the captain will not make an exception for the two of you despite my reports. How am I supposed to give you the proper treatment when Wilson will not give an inch?"

"I don't know, sir," Cooper responded. "Perhaps I could figure it out if I had more information about what punishment you had in mind, sir."

"Punishment? Who said anything about punishment?"

"Sir?" Cooper said.

"I told you two that I would give you both a few days of R and R if you completed the project without a snag. Captain Wilson wouldn't allow it. Therefore, for the next three days I will have you working here in main engineering. During that time, you will read up on things. I don't care what you end up reading or even watching, but I will put you on light duty during those days. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir." Cooper said with a smile. "So, does that mean the new reactor is now functioning properly?"

"Of course, it is. You both did a marvelous job. By the way, the normal timeframe for switching out one of them is seven days and a crew of four people working together. You did it with half the crew and in half the time. Congratulations!"

Suddenly everyone in main engineering broke into a round of applause. Cooper and Simmons were both taken by surprise and simply smiled back in response.

---