3 Weeks later, Monday. 07:00 Cafeteria

“So, John, are you doing your normal thing and taking all your finals today?” Alice asked.

“You know it. But man, I am fucking exhausted.” John was eating some bacon.

“Ops seems fairly mild. Two today and two tomorrow. No papers.” Jessica was eating some pancakes.

“Kevin and I have three engineering finals today. After they are done then it’s time to start my paper. I think tomorrow I have a calculus final.” Thomas said.

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Kevin said. He took a bite of his waffle.

“Could be worse. Theresa and I have four medical finals today. FOUR.” Alice shook her head.

“Yeah, but you don’t have any papers to write though. Command has as many finals as papers. At least I’ll be done around noon.” John just finished his eggs, he was spreading some jelly onto his toast.

“No one wants to hear when your done with your tests.” Andern laughed as he ate some bacon. “Three today, and one tomorrow here. John, if I send you a paper will you proof it?”

“Sure thing. Well good luck all, I’m heading to the lecture hall.” John kissed Alice on the cheek and headed off.

Kristin kissed Andern and went with John to the lecture hall. She had the same command finals as he did.

Kristin and John had a pleasant conversation as they walked to the lecture hall. She had learned really quick in their study session that John was effectively their friend’s group secret weapon. He knew literally every question that was asked. She was sure she’d score much better on the finals than the midterms.

16:00 Lounge

John had just got out of the shower. The summer semester, and the first year at the academy was finally over for John and his friends. He put some clean clothes and headed down to the lounge. When he got there, he sat down on the couch and turned the TV on and switched it over to the Ocho.

Ten minutes after he sat down Alice showed up and sat down next to him.

“Hey honey. How’d the tests go?” John kissed her as she cuddled in next to him.

“Aced the first three and just barely got an A on the fourth one.” She looked like she was ready to sleep for a week.

“Why do I get the feeling you’re going to have chow, then sleep?”

“Probably because that is exactly what’s going to happen.” She gave out a weak laugh. “Sorry.”

“We always have tomorrow. Glad to be done though?”

“Oh my god yes.”

Theresa and Kevin walked in. They also looked worn out. They sat in the loveseat in the corner, and both fell asleep without saying a word to them.

“They look tired.” John started to laugh.

Then he looked at Alice and she was sound asleep too. John was talking to himself. He chuckled a little at the state of the room.

Eventually the rest of the group showed up. Everyone was exhausted from the length of the tests they took. Dinner was an unsurprisingly quiet affair. Once the meal was finished everyone except Andern and John went back to their rooms. The two friends decided to play some cornhole to kill some time.

“So, you and Kristin, how’s that going?” John asked.

“Good. Really good in fact.”

“Nice. Grats. Seems like it’s less weird with Jessica now.”

Andern nodded. “We had a chat before we shipped off to the wargames. Still kinda awkward at times but it’s largely resolved now. Water under the bridge as you say.”

“Well, that’s good. I didn’t want to have to pick who’s my friend and who’s not.”

Andern laughed. “So, you and Alice. Super serious now, eh?”

“Yeah, tried to get couples accommodations but the only way they’d allow that is if we were engaged.”

“So, you proposing to her? Wait, it’s a matter of when right?”

“Pretty much. Though I do want to be romantic for this. Don’t want to cock this up.”

“That mean it’s happening soon?”

“Well, I know where I want to propose to her. Just not sure if now is the right time. It was a year as of Sunday since we’ve been an item.” John tossed an airmail bag and won the match. “Not sure if she’d freak out in a bad way if I propose now.” John was lying to his friend; he didn’t want to do this, but he didn’t want his plans to get leaked.

“I think we both know she’d freak out the happy way.”

“You think she’d freak out?”

“Yeah man. That’s Alice. No way she doesn’t go crazy over that. And she will definitely say yes.”

“Well look at you, giving me advice.”

Andern laughed loudly. “One more game and then it’s time to head to bed.”

“You’re on.”

Tuesday. 08:00 Cafeteria

Alice and John were having a quiet breakfast with one another. Everyone else had lunch earlier or was already taking finals.

“Want to have lunch with Jessica?” Alice asked.

“Thought she was flying home after her finals are done.”

“Oh crap, your right.”

“Hey, how about we go downtown and go shopping.”

“No watches. Look but no buying.”

“I love you, but you are not a fun person right now.”

Alice smiled as she finished her breakfast. “You don’t always have to spend money you know.”

“Funsucker.” John said under his breath.

Alice smiled and elbowed him in the ribs.

09:30 Retail District, Downtown Annapolis

They got up and walked out of the cafeteria. They walked to the business district which was about a forty-five-minute walk. They had all day off, so there was no rush to get to anything. The first stop was a clothing store that Alice liked. John didn’t catch the name of it, but now he had watched Jess try on a couple different dresses.

“So, which one do you like?”

“First one is more elegant but isn’t you. Second one just screams you.”

“Really? You think the second one is better?”

“You look great in both, but I like the second one.”

“Well, I’m getting the first one, I like that one better.”

John wanted to say something. He really wanted to say something, but if he opened his mouth, he’d be wrong, and in the doghouse immediately. Alice changed back into her clothes and walked out of the dressing room. She put back the one dress and brought the other one to the cashier to purchase it.

“So, honey, where to next?”

“Next door. Jewelry and watch store.”

The couple went to the next store. John made a note of every ring she tried on. She was drawn to two rings in particular. John tried a couple watches on. He tried to give Alice the puppy dog eyes look but that failed to convince her to give him permission. Much to the chagrin of both John and the salesperson, no watch was purchased that day.

Eventually they finished their shopping and the couple headed back to the dorms. They had lunch together with Kristin and Andern. After lunch Alice went back to John’s room where they made love a couple times. The couple talked about their year, how happy they were to have met and how much they looked forward to facing challenges together.

16:00 Lounge

The summer semester was now officially done for everyone. They had exceeded expectations in the wargames and were the only undefeated platoon in wargames for the full year including boot camp. There was a sense of pride that everyone felt. Academically everyone did an excellent job, even Andern managed to make the top fifteen percent of the class.

John was messing with his tablet searching for a few things and an article came up. It read:

Commander Veen accepted a plea bargain that resulted in an other-than-honorable discharge, demotion to ensign and forfeiture of any earned pension. He also accepted a permanent disbarment and was required to pay a fifty thousand dollar fine.

Captain Hamilton rejected a plea offer. He was eventually found guilty of perjury, criminal conspiracy, and adultery. Captain Hamilton was sentence to fifteen years hard labor at the Martian Military Prison. He is not eligible for parole. He will receive a bad conduct discharge upon completion of his sentence, demotion to ensign and forfeiture of his pension.

Former First Fleet Admiral Vandeberg was found guilty of one thousand three hundred forty-five counts of bribery, four hundred fifty-six counts of criminal conspiracy, thirty-two counts of abuse of office, eight hundred eighty-two counts of misuse of governmental property, and thirteen counts of treason. His appeals have been rejected. Admiral Vandeberg is scheduled for summary execution at the end of the year. He was given a bad conduct discharge, is held in isolation at Leavenworth, and has forfeited his pension. He also received a financial penalty exceeding thirty-five billion dollars. His family’s fortune has largely been seized and a sizable amount of that penalty has already been repaid.

Twenty-five other officers are currently being investigated for their involvement in the conspiracy to frame an unnamed cadet. The investigation is expected to be completed by the end of October and charges or pleas will be announced then.

It is the opinion of this paper that the Navy ought to be ashamed for the actions of these officers and for not reigning in the abuse of leadership exhibited by all of these officers. They had been highly distinguished officers as well. That they were targeting a cadet is beyond the pale and that justice appears to be barely met here.

John smiled. His preferred method of resolving these three individuals would’ve been an 11mm hollow point bullet to the head, but this way works too. The power struggle that both he and intelligence had expected had largely been avoided though. The core fleets would be more reluctant to act like they had before this situation. How long they would stay like that is anyone’s guess though.

The other issue is that younger officers trying to break into the group will likely think twice as they won’t want to do the dirty work and take the heat for the higher ups, especially without any sort of guarantee. Naval Intelligence went after the admiral’s family wealth and took virtually all of it, which hurts their ability to recruit new officers to their cause. The twenty-five other officers will undoubtedly be demoted to ensign and receive an other than honorable discharge at a minimum, if not hard time. That the admiralty didn’t try to save any of those officers would also slow down recruitment.

“You’re reading that article and were looking way too happy about that.” Alice smiled as she sat down. “And you need to take a shower.”

John lifted his arm and smelled his arm pit. “Good lord, yeah I do. Soon though, for now I don’t want to move.”

Alice just shook her head at her boyfriend. “Hey, any plans for our time off?”

“We should go out to eat tomorrow night. Just the two of us.”

“I’m game for that. When was the last time we went out to eat?”

“And that is why we need to do that.” John started laughing. “Hey, how are you feeling about giving the Ritz-Carlton another try?”

“Bring a gun.” Alice winked, then laughed. “Maybe you can convince them to give us a room upgrade?”

“Ooh, I like that. I’ll get the reservation done.” John smelled himself again. “Ok this is awful; I need a shower.”

“I do too, but I’m not joining you tonight. Dinner at 17:30?” Alice stood up and was looking at John.

“Sure thing.”

19:00 Lounge

John and Andern were playing cornhole.

“Surprised Jessica went home.” John said.

“She wasn’t going to see her messed up parents. Her grandparents wanted to see her.” Alice said.

“Makes sense.” John shook his head at Andern, who just airmailed a shot in. “Damnit, that’s your game. Got me be one point.”

“Am I the only one that is desperately looking forward to a summer off next year?” Andern asked.

Kristin busted out laughing. “Dude, that’s like eight months from now. There is a crazy amount of work to do first before we get to that point.”

John was just looking at him and shaking his head. “This summer wasn’t that bad.”

“No, actually this summer was awful. I’m siding with Andern here John. Those three weeks at the training center sucked.” Alice didn’t want to remember all the PE work they did.

“You can blame most of that work on the rest of our class. Half of them didn’t even go to their weekly PE classes.”

“Shut up John. That didn’t actually happen.” Theresa stood up on the couch.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what happened. Too many got a little soft around the belly. Not this crowd, though thanks to that summer we all had we’re toned as fuck.” John flexed.

“Honey, show them the six pack.” Alice smirked.

“No.” John shook his head.

“Dude, you got that ripped?” Andern stopped playing. “Show it”

“No.”

“John, stop being a stubborn jackass.” Kevin joined in the crowd.

“No.”

At this point everyone in the lounge was badgering John. Thomas and Nathan walked in hearing that, and they flipped his shirt up. John at that point relented and took his shirt off. He then did some Mr. Olympia like flexes. John always had the muscles he had, but his muscles were never really defined. You could tell he was strong as hell, but he had a very blocky like build. Now though he looked more ripped than most NFL linebackers.

“Jesus man. You are fucking cut.” Kevin laughed.

“Rawr.” Alice smirked.

“Ok, shirt’s going back on. Y’all are assholes.” John laughed.

Kevin and Theresa wanted to play some cornhole, so Andern and John tapped out. John sat down next to Alice. He showed Alice that their room got upgraded free of charge. She asked if they did that on their own or if John had done that. He figured that was a question that was going to follow him for his whole life.

Wednesday. 18:00 Ritz-Carlton Hotel

“It’s amazing being here again. Kinda feels weird.” Alice said.

“Hell of a lot less stressful. Not having to shoot anyone is a plus.” John snorted at that.

Alice smiled. “Thank you for dinner once again. It has been a great year, hasn’t it?”

“There were some dark times here and there but overall, I’d have to say the school year was stellar.”

“It’s not going to get any easier, is it?”

“Well, no more wargames. So, there’s that. But we’re looking at nine or ten hours of classes four days a week. Only eight hours of classes on Fridays. If Andern thought last year was brutal he’s in for a rude awakening in the fall. Oh and plenty of PE too.”

“I hope he can read the damn emails they send us.”

“Right? I don’t get how he never does that.” John finished the wine.

“He’ll learn sometimes I hope.” Alice shrugged.

The couple got up and left the restaurant. They went up to their penthouse suite. They walked out onto the patio. There was a warm breeze tonight. Alice walked up the ledge and looked out. John hugged her from behind and kissed her cheek.

“Gorgeous night, isn’t it?”

Alice leaned her head back onto John’s chest. “John, thank you for everything.”

“It’s been a pleasure. I hope this was just the first year of many more to come.”

“I’m so happy that I’m not the only one thinking that way.” Alice got John to let go of his hug. She turned around and kissed him. “I love you.”

The couple stayed there outside in their embrace for a few moments. They continued kissing. Eventually the moved into the room. They quickly removed their clothes and crawled into bed. They made love for several hours that evening. They ended the night by falling asleep in one another’s arms.