CTF2

"Is it two against two?"

"No, three against three."

"That leaves two more ships."

"Correct."

Mansel thought for a second. "I give up," he said. "Who are the other two?"

"The Explorers."

"The Explorer-A?" Mansel smiled. "I haven't worked with Captain Vaughn in a while. Welcome surprise. Now who is the other ship? The Force-A?"

"No," General Brungess smiled. "The original Explorer."

"Excuse me, sir?" asked Captain Mansel. "The original Explorer?" He stared at the General as he walked over to Mansel's small, refrigerated ice cooler and took out a root beer. "Who's going to command it?"

"Your commander," said Brungess. "He's been in command of a ship before. He knows what he's doing."

"Are you splitting up the crew of this Explorer to go to the old one?" Mansel asked.

Brungess nodded. "Yes. Its at your discretion."

"The Explorer is hardly spaceworthy, sir."

Brungess nodded. "I know. This whole exercise is going to be via a network of simulators." He gauged Mansel's reaction to be a bad one.

"Come on, Jim, not simulators. You know we don't work well with sims, especially my engineer."

Brungess shrugged. "You're gonna have to deal with it, Mansel. That came from Commander-in-Chief Story himself. Don’t worry, Mansel,” said Brungess to Mansel’s grim expression, “Admiral Blackbird doesn’t like it either. The only other people who don’t seem to have a problem with it is the Black Sea crew and the Foch-C crew.”

“That’s because they don’t fully know their ships yet,” said Mansel. “Let me call my commander in here and see what he thinks of this.”

***

"We're doing what?" asked Lieutenant Commander Fleury in the staff meeting later on that day. General Brungess had left, confident that the Explorer team, as he dubbed the group of ships, would win. Fleury had thought that idea of "capture the flag" was a good one, until he heard it would be via simulators. "I can't work like that," he complained. "I'm under limitations as it is already."

"Deal with it," said Mansel. "The Explorer crew is gonna have to be broken up into two teams: one going to the original Explorer, and one staying here."

"This is how it breaks down people," piped up Commander Vaughn. "I'm in command of the Explorer. I'm taking the following people with me. Lieutenant Commander Talaj, you'll be first officer and science officer. You're Acting Commander. Problem?"

"No sir."

"Good. Is Lieutenant Mansel here?"

"Back here," she piped up from the back of the briefing room. All specially ordered crewmembers that weren't bridge staff officers had been invited to the briefing.

"Lieutenant Mansel, you'll be my Acting Chief Engineer and Acting Lieutenant Commander."

"No!" wailed Fleury. "We're a team!"

"Too bad punk," said Vaughn. "Jason"

"Yes sir," said Broadaway.

"You'll be doubling as Tactical and Navigation officer. Acting Lieutenant Commander."

"But I'm already a Lieutenant Commander," Broadaway protested.

"Too bad. Ensign Smoots."

"Right here sir."

"You'll be my Communications officer. Acting Lieutenant."

"Roger."

Vaughn looked at Mansel. "That's my crew sir."