Monday. 09:20 Armstrong Lecture Hall

John was putting the finishing touches on his first final of the day. Nothing out of the ordinary happened during the test. When he answered the hundredth question, he submitted the final for grading. He wasted no time in starting the second and final test of the semester. Kristin followed suit about twenty minutes later.

By the top of the hour John had finished and submitted his second final. He got up quietly and began heading out of the room. The professor noticed John moving and motioned him over. John saw that and headed down to the central lectern.

“John, please head to the commandant’s office. I suspect you already know what this means.”

“I believe I do. Thank you, sir.”

John headed out of the lecture room. He knew what was coming but oddly wasn’t in a hurry to get to the commandant’s office. John smiled as he felt the fresh air hit him as he walked outside. It was a beautiful spring morning. Not too hot, not too cold and just enough breeze to make things feel fresh. John savored these moments, there would be precious few of them once he graduated from the academy.

10:10 Commandant’s Office

“Good morning cadet. He’s in a meeting now. Take a seat and I’ll get you in to meet with him when he’s done.” The secretary stated as John entered the waiting room.

“Thank you, mam.”

John found a seat and sat down. He killed the time by looking through his tablet. He sold his position in a few investments, then reinvested the proceeds along with some of the money he had stolen in the fall into new investments. John continued to do this for about twenty minutes.

“Cadet Lief, he will see you now.”

Admiral Melnyk was sitting at his desk and appeared to be multitasking. “Good morning cadet. Take a seat.”

“Sir.”

“I presume you know why you’re here?”

“I believe it’s about August and our class getting assigned to ships. More specifically who the captains in my class are going to be.”

“Smart man. I’m sure your aware of how you did today on your tests?”

“Unless I’m mistaken, I’m still at the head of the class.”

“You are. Patrice, Kristin and Jerry are the top four and are expected to stay in that order after your finals.” Melnyk looked up from his terminal. “Are you sure about taking Kristin?”

“I would prefer to have her as my executive officer. But I would be happy to talk with her and let her make the decision herself.”

“Presuming she’s with you, I need a list of cadets you’re going to take on your destroyer by the end of the day.”

“I will work on that when I get back to the dorms sir. I should have the list to you by this afternoon.”

“Good man. Let me know the decision on Kristin when you know that.”

“Thank you, sir!” John saluted; he could hardly contain his excitement.

10:45 Lounge

John was at the terminal looking through lists of his classmates. He had his preliminary list well underway. He needed the opinions from his friends who had actually worked with or been in classes with them. Something he’d have resolved over lunch, or the early afternoon provided they didn’t have finals this afternoon.

Kristin was the first one back. “Hey John. All done, think I got a pair of As.

“Sweet.” John spun in his chair. “So, I need a no bullshit answer from you.”

“Ok, shoot.”

“Your number three overall in command. One of the three ships is yours if you want it. I can’t force you to be my executive officer if you’d rather have your own ship.”

Kristin sat down on the couch and tossed her backpack on the ground. “It’s my choice?”

“Yup. It’s your call.” John said.

“What would you do if you were me?”

John answered instantly. “I’d want my own command.”

“But unlike you, I wouldn’t necessarily get the officers I want or need.”

“You’d be drawing last.” John took a deep breath. “And I’m not getting the best of the best from our class.”

Kristin frowned. “So, the benefit of taking the ship now is that I get experience, but the drawback is I may end up with a crew that I don’t want or don’t gel well with.”

“Yup.” John leaned back in the chair.

“On the flip side, assuming you’re not full of shit and you are as good as you and I think you are, then the benefit of being your XO is basically I get ninety percent of the experience. At the end of the day, I’m just not the final shot caller.”

“Right.”

“I’ll wait this time.” Kristin answered immediately.

“Are you sure. I don’t want to unduly influence your decision.”

“Yeah, I’ll pass on the big chair this go around. I’ll take it next year.”

“Thanks, I’ll let them know.”

John sent a message to the commandant about Kristin’s decision. He also sent his preliminary list of names to his friends for any information on them. John figured he’d get the ball rolling on feedback on the extra officers he needed.

14:30 Lounge

Andern walked in and laid down on the couch. “Too many questions on the tests today.”

“Got what, one more test tomorrow?” Kristin asked.

“No, Wednesday, they aren’t letting us take it ahead of time today.”

“You see my list about operations students.”

“Yeah.”

John shook his head. “Do you have any opinions on the names?”

Andern was asleep. John shook his head and swung back to review the names he had compiled. He’d have to wait for Nathan to show up to get feedback. Alice and Theresa had already sent John four names for medical focused cadets at lunch.

Thomas and Nathan said they’d help John after their lone final of the afternoon. John stretched. He could hardly contain his excitement. Alice and Theresa then walked into the lounge.

“Your still overly excited.” Alice smirked.

“Can you blame me?” John smiled.

“I wish I could, but I know I can’t.” Theresa said as she set her bag down.

“How were the finals?”

“Two down, two to go tomorrow. I did as I expected.” Alice smiled.

“Same, what’s the deal with the slug?” Theresa was pointing at Andern.

“Said something about too many questions.” John smirked.

“Sounds about right. Did he answer your question?” Alice was rubbing John’s shoulders.

“Thanks, and of course not. Probably going to need to wait for Nathan.”

“Speak of the devil.” Theresa smiled.

“Unlike John, I am never up to anything questionable.” Nathan waived at the group.

“Hey, you see the list of names I sent you?”

“Yeah, I thought I had responded. Let me check something.” Nathan pulled up his tablet. “Ah hell, my bad. Didn’t send it. Should have it now.”

“Did you talk to sleeping beauty about this or was that just your opinion?”

“We chatted about it on the way to finals.”

“Chatted about what?” Andern woke up and was rubbing his eyes.

“John’s list of operations officers.” Nathan was just shaking his head.

“Oh, yeah, the only name I did agree with was Jenson. He’s a jackass, and not our kind of person.” Andern stood up and was getting the cornhole boards setup.

“Yeah, but you recommended Nixon. He’s a dumbass.”

“He comes off like one but he’s smart. He aced both our tests today.”

John stood up and walked over to the terminal and logged into it. “Your right, Nixon scored way higher on his tests and quizzes. Is this where he’s book smart but not street smart?”

“No, he’s smart, he just doesn’t talk much. Trust me, he’s the guy you want.” Andern was firm in his response.

“You know him better than I do.” Nathan shrugged.

“Ok, thanks, Nixon is in then. So, just have to what for Kevin and Thomas to show up and then we’re ready to go.”

16:00 Dorm Quad

After a couple games of cornhole the group moved outside to enjoy the nice weather. Shortly after the group got situated outside Kevin and Thomas showed up. They sat down on the grass and enjoyed the sun.

“Almost done with this school year.” Thomas said as he hugged Brian.

“One more final tomorrow and PE on Wednesday. Been a hell of a year.” Kevin said.

“Since y’all are here and I have a deadline, did you have a chance to look at my list?”

“Yeah, your top four are solid.” Thomas said.

“Alex, Kori, and Lewis are all solid. Thomas, you spend any time with Rob? I’m not convinced he’s good. Your eighth pick, Sato is an absolute headcase when it comes to class, but when it comes to hands on, he’s a bloody genius.”

John pulled up his tablet and looked at the top eight engineer cadets. The professor’s notes on Sato seemed to back up Kevin’s statements. He was noted during wargames as fixing a broken rifle and for coming up with a unique way into a hangar their team had to assault. Quick thinking was a trait that John respected greatly.

“Sato is in. Thanks guys. Looks like I got a crew.”

“Who’s your third in command?” Alice asked.

“Dae Joeng or is it Joeng Dae?” John paused. “Gonna ask him the right way to say his name, in any case he was my pick.”

“I hope that starts like six years from now. I want to relax this summer.” Andern caused the rest of the group to laugh.

“You guys cool with going to a Nationals game on Friday?” John asked.

“Depends on what you did to get the seats.” Jessica heard as she walked up on the group.

“You wound me Jess, seriously wounded here.” John tried to sound hurt.

“Your attempt at reverse guilting me won’t work big guy.” Jessica was clearly unphased.

“The tickets were acquired through legitimate means.”

“And how were they paid for?” Kevin asked.

“Credit chit.”

“You are not going to elaborate anymore, are you?” Brian asked.

“I am not.”

“Fuck it, I’m game.” Andern said.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Kristin smiled.

“We get shot at, taken hostage, have a ship crash land on us…” Brian began listing out things.

“Technically, the ship didn’t crash into me. The stations junk whipped me.” John smiled.

“Pretty sure we can rule that out happening. Fuck it, it’s been ages since I’ve been to a game. I’m down.” Kevin decided to join the group.

Eventually the group decided to go to the game. John smiled as he ordered some killer seats on the club level. Free drinks along oversized seats that had an awning over them, private bathroom and a private chef for the suite. When dinner was called, they headed inside to eat. After dinner they brought their cornhole boards outside on the quad and enjoyed the nice spring weather.

Wednesday. 08:00 Outdoor Obstacle Course

“Good morning cadets. Today is your last PE session of the school year. And it’s a simple one. Ten laps in under forty-five minutes.” The instructor smiled. “On your marks. Get set.”

The instructor fired a blank from the starting gun. The cadets ran off onto the course. John led his group of friends and set the pace for them. Today wasn’t a day for him to run off and be annoying.

“Need to match this pace for the ten laps. Keep it up.” John said between breaths.

The others just nodded and focused on the run. John continued with his encouragement. He fell back a few times to help some other groups of cadets maintain the pace needed to meet the insane goal. John’s reasons for this help weren’t entirely righteous, the groups of cadets contained people John wanted on his ship. He wanted all of them to achieve the passing time.

John bounced from group to group encouraging them and pushing them forward. Lap after lap he did this. Speeding up, slowing down, encouraging here and there. Giving tips to get over the obstacles more quickly and efficiently. He was a man on a mission.

“All right. One lap to go, we have a three-minute window. Give her hell.” John hollered.

He slowed down to the slowest group and drove them forward. With a minute and forty seconds remaining the last group and John passed the finish line. Everyone John selfishly wanted to succeed had done just that. Everyone looked exhausted and worn out. John was hardly out of breath and barely worked up a sweat.

“Cadet, walk with me.” Commannder Jarvis said to John.

“Aye sir.” John saluted and ran over to the instructor.

“Last class we had under ten percent make that insane time goal. You tripled that result. I’ve seen you do a lap in two and a half minutes. Why the change of pace?”

“Sir, during the school year the PE sessions aren’t a group bonding experience, it’s to ensure our core muscle groups are in peak physical form.”

“What changed today?”

“I had a vested interest in ensuring certain cadets achieve targets they didn’t know were achievable. I’ll need their help and cooperation in succeeding in the fall.”

“Clever. Your dismissed.”

“Sir.” John saluted and jogged back to his friends.

“Commander, how did he know he had a student commission?” Lieutenant Gibbens asked.

“He was either told or discovered, legally or otherwise, that he had received the commission. Since he had individuals in mind chances are the Commandant told him and gave him free reign to create his own command crew.”

“Every single person he pushed beat their average lap times anywhere between ten and forty seconds.” Gibbens could hardly believe the results.

“Have to give it to the cadet. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cadet with ten percent of his drive.” Jarvis smiled. “Well, let’s get the paperwork wrapped up.”

13:30 Armstrong Conference Room 2B

Cadets were trickling into the room. John and Kristin were at the center. Joeng was sitting down to the left of John. The three command cadets had a chat a half hour earlier. John gave them an overview of his plans and then a chance for them to voice their concerns and added any new items to it.

Andern, Alice and Kevin all made motions towards John indicating everyone was present. John dimmed the lights slightly and turned on the projection screen above him.

“Good afternoon. Congratulations on successfully completing another semester. We’re at the halfway point. My name is John Lief if you weren’t aware or acquainted with me.”

John paused and took a sip of water. He displayed an image of the destroyer, CNS Marcinko.

“Beginning in August all of us in this room will be serving on the Marcinko. She’s a Sojourn class destroyer, the last of her kind in service.” John smirked. “She’s a glorified rust bucket, out of date and out of class. But she’ll be home to us for four months.”

John moved forward to display a cutout of the ship.

“As some of you have surmised, because I’m speaking in front of you and asked all of you to come here, I will be commanding the ship. I was given an opportunity to select the command crew. Not all of you are the best scholastically or practically, but you all show great promise and I’m confident we’ll be a hell of a crew.”

“Besides us there are a pair of doctors and nurses onboard, an academy observer, and the enlisted crew that servers on her. The enlisted crew will have an average of three years of service on the Marcinko. While you are above the enlisted in the chain of command, you are not above listening to them. Use the information they give you to produce the proper commands. Above all show them the respect they are owed due to being naval peers.”

John paused and took another sip of water. He smirked internally that public speaking was terrifying. There was one more item he needed to add to his list of things to get better at.

“As you can see space is limited. Armstrong station is going to look huge in comparison.” John shook his head. “I’ll check with the enlisted to see if the cargo hold can be utilized as an additional recreational facility.”

“If I’m not mistaken everyone should have received confirmation from the Academy about our assignments and the dates we need to report back here. For any that didn’t get it, or didn’t bother looking at it, I am looking in your general direction.”

Andern said under his breath. “Bullshit, you weren’t looking at me.”

“We are to report back to the Academy by August second. On the third we have a pair of PE sessions and classroom sessions to familiarize ourselves with the ship. The morning of the fourth we have a PE session then head to a station to be determined. The next seven days we drill and familiarize ourselves with the ship. Then we push off and do patrols around Sol.”

John finished his water then began powering the lights up slowly. “With that, open floor for any questions.”

Sato raised his hand and stood up. “Am I correct in assuming that we will be continuing with classes while embarked.”

“Good question Haruki, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we will still have classes while embarked. There’s going to be hands on experience obviously, but everyone is responsible for two or three classes in addition to their duties.”

“Thank you, just call me Sato.”

John nodded and looked at the crowd for any other questions.

Kori followed suit and stood up. “Will each division have a chain of command?”

“Thanks Kori. Kevin will be the chief engineer, but the core chain of command consists of myself, Kristin and Joeng. What the specific hierarchy will looking like in Engineering has not been determined yet, by the time we get on the Marcinko it will be known and shared with all of you.”

Nathan stood up. “So, us operations don’t have a chain?”

“The blunt answer when it comes to operations is that it doesn’t matter as much since y’all are typically not flag officers. That said an overall hierarchy will be made available when we set off. Any other questions?”

Caleb Nixon stood up. “What can we expect while disembarked?”

“Cramped spaces, average food, shipping lane monitoring, lots of drills, two long weekends and a weeklong shore leave.”

“So basically a ‘normal’ ship deployment.” Caleb used air quotes.

“Which should avoid any shooting or general silliness.” John crossed his fingers on his right hand for all to see.

Kara Kiffin, a medical student, stood up. “What are your expectations of us?”

“In short I’m expecting excellence from all of you. I know you are all capable of that. This morning was proof of that. Last year just ten percent of the class achieved that time goal. This year thirty eight percent did, but more importantly every last one of you achieved that time goal today. You all did something that most of you didn’t think you could have done.”

“I’m not going to bullshit you and say it’s going to be all sunshine, hookers and blow. It’s going to be hard. But I think we have the potential to be a crew that the academy will always refer to in glowing terms.”

The lights were fully on. John turned around and shut the display off. He looked back at the group and addressed them one last time.

“I won’t take any more of your time. Have a great summer vacation. A couple last points that I want to call out, but PE work needs to be tracked throughout the summer. And please for the love of God don’t do anything to get hurt, killed or expelled. With that, have a good one y’all.”

John had the biggest smile on the eastern seaboard. The summer was going to be excellent. He and his friends were going to get a week to hang out, stress free with no scholastic focus. There was a marriage happening in just over a month along with a honeymoon. And lastly, his first command starting at the end of the summer.