“Captain Hood to see you, sir.” The Lieutenant Colonel's secretary said from the outer office.

“Thank you, sergeant.” The Colonel said into his desk phone. He sighed and turned to the bomb on his desk. He picked up the report that he received several days ago and opened it. The title of the report read: Recommendation for Private First Class Emerson, Emily S. for Nonjudicial punishment (NJP). He skimmed the report then put it down on his desk.

He opened his drawer and picked up another folder. This one was blue and had a big red stamp marking the report classified. Opening the report the Colonel read the title. The mental state of Class One Exotic Private First Class Emerson, Emily S code name Never. He skimmed down the report seeing words like potential suicidal if pushed, PTSD and mental judgment severely impaired. He winched.

The last paragraph recommended light duty for the rest of her combat tour. The Colonel sighed sadly rubbing his forehead. “That’s not going to happen. We need her too much.” The Colonel opened his desk drawer to pull out a bottle of pills. He threw two white pills into his mouth and swallowed them without water. “Well, let's get this over with.”

“Sergeant, please send in Captain Hood.” He said into his desk phone then he sat back to wait.

The Sergeant opened the door and Captain Hood waked in. The Colonel noted that the Captain looked good for someone who spent the last six months in a combat zone. The Captain came to attention and saluted the Colonel. The Colonel saluted the Captain back. Looking past the Captain he said. “That will be all. Thank you, Sergeant.” The Sergeant smiled and closed the door. “Please have a seat Captain.”

The Captain sat down and his eye’s found his report on the Colonel's desk and his eyes lit up in joy. “He really is as clueless as First Sergeant Douglas says he is.” The Colonel watched the Captain as he struggled to hide his excitement.

“Captain I just received SOFCOM’s report of your After Mission Statements (AMS) and I would like to go over it with you.”

“Yes, sir.” The Captain said eagerly leaning forward in his chair.

The Colonel turned to his computer and brought up the correct page. “I am going to summarize most of this so stay with me. Ah, here we go. From Special Operations Force Command (SOFCOM). Blah blah blah. Ok, here we go. A review of Captain John Hoods tactics in using the Class One Exotic code-named Never has shown a level of incompetence rarely seen by this office. Recommend removal of this officer from all combat operations.”

The Colonel clicked on another screen, ignoring the Captain surprise sputtering and continued. “Ok here is the report that explains what they mean. Blah blah blah. Ok, here we go. ‘Captain John Hood’s tactics in using code name Never had the exact opposite outcome that he intended. Captain John Hood success came from enemy stupidity and not from any tactics that he instituted. Captain John Hood’s tactics in placing Never on a continuous around the clock patrol rotation for six months was irresponsible and reckless. As stated in the medical report…’ ok, they are quoting from Never’s operational medical report here... ‘ while Never is able to physically stay awake indefinitely it has been found that Never is not mentally able to do so.”

“Sir I expressly told the Private to get some sleep at least three hours a day while out on patrol.” The Captain interrupted angrily. “I made sure to put that into my report.”

“Yes, the report mentions this. Let me find it ah here we go. ‘Captain John Hood’s order to Never to get at least three hours of sleep a day while on patrol displays either his criminal attempt to cover his complete disregard of medical advice or his ignorance of how a combat patrol is conducted.’” The Colonel said looking away from his computer to the Captain. “Since you're not in the brig we can assume they went with incompetence.”

“Colonel I stand by what I ordered. I ordered the Private to get some sleep while out on patrol. She chooses to disregard that order placing her fellow soldiers in danger!” The Captain said heatedly.

“Watch your tone Captain.” The Colonel said dangerously.

“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.” The Captain said sitting back into his chair.

“SOFCOM disagrees with you, Captain. More to the point I disagree with you as well. A combat patrol only stops for fifteen to twenty minutes at a time unless they are tracking something on road. Your order for Never to play bait means that whenever they stopped for an IED she would not have time to get some rest as she could have. That means that the only time she would have time for rest is when there was some suspicious activity that makes the patrol stop for an extended period of time. Any suspicious activity means increased danger. I would not want anyone on my patrol sleeping during that time. That brings up another point that SOFCOM talks about.” The Colonel said turning back to his computer.

“Captain John Hood’s tactic of using code name Never as bait at every IED sited had the exact opposite results than he intended. Constantly using only one person in the open to detonate an IED twenty-four hours a day for six months did only one thing and that was to tell the enemy that Never was a super. This can be corroborated by the reduction of IED sites by sixty percent while Never was on patrol and the lack of any meaningful attempts to ambush the patrol. This also suggested that the enemy had no super to counter Never.” The Colonel said leaning back in his seat taking his eyes off the computer to look at the defeated looking Captain.

“Now normally this would not be a career-ending mistake. We would normally just pull you from being a line officer and transfer you to some supply command. You might even get promoted if you were good at your job at your next duty station but your time as a combat officer would be over. Your platoon even had a successful combat operation despite you being in charge. You could easily go into the political field and tote your past military record and no one would bat an eye. No, what makes this a career ending is this and this.” The Colonel said holding up the NJP recommendation and the second blue folder together.

“As you are probably aware we have a healer embedded in our company for one purpose and that is to monitor the mental health of our Main type super. The identity of the Healer is classified to prevent contamination of the report from superior officers. Even I don’t know the identity of the healer. This blue folder is a copy of the classified report that was submitted on the mental health of Never. This report has gone all the way to the joint chief of staffs and may have been briefed to the President of the United States and it reads like a nightmare.”

“You may be asking why the President would be briefed on some lowly Private. Well, that is because of her war record so far. I know for a fact the President has been briefed twice on the actions of our Never. The first was when she killed the Butcher in one on one combat. The second was when she killed three main type supers during an ambushed designed specificity to kill her. He may have been briefed on her actions during the assassination of the Afghan Main super right before you took over as CO of the platoon.” The Colonel said with an angry glare at the wilting Captain.

“People were cutting each other's throats to get the chance to be the commander officer of Never and your daddy use his political clout to get you the job. It was an almost guarantee of being put on the fast track for promotion because of just how high of a profile Never has become. Now your daddy had enough political clout to bury this medical report before anyone has seen it but you had to go and loudly recommend Never for an NJP and people are asking why.” To make his point the Colonel said tossed the classified medical report on his desk on top of the Captain’s recommendation.

“Now I have to go ahead with your recommendations for NJP and punish Never for your stupidity. You made too many people aware of it. Do you have any idea what kind of position you’ve placed me in? I have to punish Never for the good of the order and I can’t be seen as too lenient or people will say I am giving special consideration to a super.” The Colonel said angrily slamming his hands down on the desk.

“People consider Main type supers like we used to consider aircraft carriers during world war two. You were like a captain on one of those aircraft carriers. You screwed up and let your carrier get damaged. Worse you caused the damage yourself through willful neglect. You were not just the commanding officer of the Platoon you were also the commanding officer of a Main type super! You couldn’t do more damage to the operational readiness in Afghanistan if you tried.” The Colonel said standing up. He paused and tugged his jacket down. He then sat down and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

“Normally I would make the rest of your very short career in the Army a living hell but someone has already beaten me to the punch. Your transfer orders came in this morning. You’re are to head to Kasotochi station on Kasotochi Island in Aleutian island chain in Alaska. I had to look that one up. It’s a bird watching station. You will be the only active duty personnel on the island. The base does have two part-time civilian employees but they are not under your command. According to your transfer paperwork, you will send out the last two years of your obligation to the service on the island. You have made someone really powerful mad at you. Not even your daddy will be able to get you out of this one. Now get the hell out of my office and pray you never see me again.” The Colonel said furiously.

As the Captain scrambled to get out of the office the Lieutenant Colonel wondered if the Captain realized that the station was an independent command. That meant the Captain was the commanding officer of himself. The best part of this punishment was that the command was technicality a promotion. The Captain’s daddy will have no ability to pull his son from the island without making it seem like the Captain was getting a demotion. If that happened it would ruin the Captain’s future political career.

“I give him a six months before he cries to his daddy to get him out of there.” The Colonel thought to himself with a satisfied smile.

His smile fell to a sad frown as he looked to the Captains report. Sighing the Colonel hit the intercom button on his desk phone. “Sergeant please set Never’s NJP hearing for this Friday.”