Aurora: CV-01 by Ryk Brown

fashion. And each time the scenario had ended poorly. It had been much the same way for the last few days. Every time he asked for a course, she objected. Every time he tried to deviate the slightest bit from flight protocols, she would quote the manual, chapter and verse. A few times she had been right, and Nathan had been the first to admit it. Even if it had been after the fact on a few occasions. But most of the time, he had good reason to stray from protocol. And to make matters worse, he knew damned well that she was aware of it despite her usual objections.
    “You’re too far below your proposed route,” she insisted.
    “How do you know?”
    “We’ve been on this course for two minutes. You changed your angle slightly on the way in to avoid that large piece of debris in our path, and you didn’t compensate with a course correction afterward.”
    “Probably because my navigator didn’t give me a course to begin with,” Nathan mumbled.
    “You still need to come up at least two degrees.”
    Nathan was getting tired of her games. “You know what? Thanks, but no thanks. If I’m gonna screw up, I’d rather do it on my own.”
    Cameron said nothing. And a few minutes later they exited the debris field, out of position, the sensors immediately triggering a contact alarm. Nathan could feel his heart sink as the inevitable downward spiral that had recently ended so many of their simulations was about to begin.
    “I’ve got four Jung ships, closing fast dead ahead,” Cameron announced, satisfaction evident in her voice.
    “Like we didn’t see that coming.”
    “They’re firing missiles. Tracking twelve inbound. Impact in three seconds.”
    For a split second, Nathan contemplated maneuvering to avoid the incoming ordnance. But with the missiles only three seconds away, there wasn’t much use. And the simulation ended poorly, yet again.
    Cameron felt a slight bit of guilt as Nathan resigned to inevitable failure. But as far as she was concerned, it his own fault for not listening to her in the first place.
    The lights came up, and the screens again switched back to pale blue as the back half of the room swung slowly open.
    “Scott and Taylor, you’re ordered to take a fifteen minute break, and then report to the captain’s ready room,” the sim controller announced over the comms. It had been entertaining to the sim technicians at first. They all knew there was going to be friction between the two of them after the captain had promoted Nathan. But after three days of the same old arguments, it was beginning to look like they were never going to get past their differences. And apparently, the captain had grown tired of it.
    “You know, if you’re gonna keep sabotaging me at every opportunity, we’re never going to get out of this simulator and onto the bridge,” Nathan said.
    “Don’t try to blame me because your crazy ideas never work.”
    “They never work because I never have any solid navigation behind them! And who’s fault might that be? Oh, I don’t know, the Navigator, maybe?”
    “You just want me to sit idly by and watch while you fly us into who knows what? Well that’s not the way my job works, mister.”
    “That’s Lieutenant to you, Ensign!” Nathan knew that pulling rank on her was not the best strategy. But of course, that hadn’t stopped him from saying it.
    “I believe, Sir,” she responded, emphasizing the word ‘sir’. “That it’s my job to point out available alternatives, Sir.”
    “Point out, yes! But you argue with me until my only choice is to do it your way or fly by the seat of my pants! I’m pretty sure that’s not in your job description, Cam. But I’m sure you’ll check the book and let me know if I’m wrong.” Nathan got up and left the simulator. He needed to be as far away from Cameron as possible right now, even if only for a few minutes.

    * * *

    Cameron topped the ramp leading to the command deck and turned toward the bridge. It had not really