What the Stars May Bring

The Voyage to the USS Lexington 2

Cooper spent the following week trying to get to know the other candidates. At first, the others did not respond. In fact, they did their best to ignore her. However, she eventually started making headway with the other two females. This was mainly because Cooper kept playing cards with Anderson and Watanabe.

While most of their conversations simply involved talking about the games they were playing, Cooper kept trying to start a normal conversation with her companions.

"So, where are you from originally?" Cooper asked Watanabe while playing poker.

"I am originally from Hokkaido," she replied. "Sapporo, to be exact."

"Isn't that the second-largest city in Nippon?" Cooper asked.

"Yes, that's right," The Asian young woman replied. "Only Edo is larger. Of course, that isn't including some of the cities inside of the Empire. Since they are not part of mainland Nippon, they usually aren't included."

"How about you Anderson? Where are you from?" 

"I'm from the Midwest," the blonde-haired officer replied. "Topeka, Kansas to be exact. How about you, Cooper?"

"I'm from a little town about two hours north of Londinium." Then, in an effort to steer the conversation back to the other two she asked, "So how did you get picked for the mission, Anderson?"

"Well, first of all, it's because of my age," Anderson answered. "But I guess all of us are here because of our age."

The trip to Alpha Centauri was going to take roughly forty-three years. Otherwise, they would be too old to complete the exploration of the multi-star system. As it was, everyone on Hope would be in their early to mid-sixties when they got to their destination. That was why everyone was fresh out of the academy.

"The second reason was that I was the salutatorian of my class at The Greater United States Naval Academy, in Annapolis," Anderson continued. "Since I was the highest female academic achiever in the officer training schools throughout the GUSA, I got the position."

"That's impressive!" Cooper exclaimed. "I guess your story is about the same Watanabe?"

"Yes, I had the best scores of any female in the Imperial Nipponese Aerospace Academy as well," Watanabe admitted. "However, Kobayoshi graduated at the top of our class, so he is a much more qualified candidate than I am."

"That's also impressive," Cooper admitted. Then turning back to Anderson, "How did Johnson fare in school?"

Anderson looked around to see if Johnson was in earshot then she whispered, "Johnson attended The Greater United States Military Academy at West Point, New Amsterdam. However, he only graduated third in his class."

"Then how did he get the candidate slot?" Cooper asked in a whisper of her own.

"His father is a United States senator who is on several defense subcommittees," Anderson said. "I'm sure that you can clearly understand the reason he was selected..."

"That's horrible!" Cooper reacted with a scowl. "Nepotism should have no part in determining who will be in command of the Hope expedition."

"I agree, but such political maneuvering is common in Nippon as well," Watanabe admitted. "In fact, they considered it the normal way of doing things in some parts of the Empire."

"How about you and Simmons?" Anderson asked. "How did the two of you get selected? You both seem quite close."

"We both attended the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth England," Cooper admitted. "In case you don't know, that's about a four-hour drive west of Londinium. Since it is a rural area, there wasn't much to do for fun, so I challenged Simmons, the head student in our year to see who could graduate higher than the other. We competed nonstop for four years, neck and neck. Finally, our last grades came in and Simmons beat me by seven one-thousandths of a grade point. As a result, he was valedictorian, and I was salutatorian. So we have been friendly rivals for a long time."

"You're lucky," Anderson stated. "Johnson barely talks to me, and when he does, it is always in a derisive way."

"So he's an ass to you as well?" Cooper asked.

"Oh yeah," Anderson admitted. "He acts as if I am below him."

"What about you, Watanabe?" Cooper asked. "How well do you know Kobayoshi?"

"To be honest, I do not know him well at all," Watanabe admitted. "In fact, we never interacted back in school."

"I have heard that they segregate women from the men in Nippon," Cooper admitted. "Is that why you two never got to know each other?"

"That was part of it," Watanabe said. "But the main reason was that we didn't take the same classes. We also took part in different after-school activities."

"So you two must not talk much?" Cooper asked.

"We only talk when we are playing a game or if it is important." Watanabe said, "We are actually under orders not to become too friendly with candidates from the other two Empires."

"How about you Anderson?" Cooper asked with interest. "Are you under orders not to socialize with the other candidates?"

"Not so much under orders, just told to watch what we say."

"Wait. Hope is an Alliance ship, crewed by people from each of the three great Empires. The Alliance has been around for decades, yet the member nations are asking its representative to stay away from candidates from the other nations. That simply doesn't make sense," Cooper explained. "When we are literally light years away from Earth who will care that the captain was from nation X while the first officer is from nation Y? Besides, the six of us are going to be the highest commissioned officers on Hope. We will spend almost forty-five years together waiting to arrive at Alpha Centauri. We will have to get along then, so why not start socializing with each other before we make it to the Lexington?"

"I like how you think, Cooper." Anderson said. "When you put it that way is makes a lot of sense."

"I agree," Watanabe said. "We have to get along on Hope, so shouldn't try to get along now?"

"Exactly."

---

By the time the skiff was almost to their rendezvous with the Lexington, Cooper was on good terms with everyone but Johnson. 'He's so stuck up that I doubt he even cares,' she thought as she played cards with Watanabe and Kobayoshi. 'He has not tried to make friends with anyone.'

As she looked up from her cards, she could see Anderson and Simmons happily chatting as they played a game on the vid.

'At least I was able to get most of the candidates to socialize with each other,' Cooper realized. 'Unfortunately, it took three weeks to do so and we will dock with the Lexington tomorrow.'

"Call," Watanabe called out, and everyone showed their hands.

"Full house, aces over queens," Cooper announced.

"Beats my two pair," Watanabe announced with a frown.

"It also beats my three of a kind," Kobayoshi said as he gathered up the cards. It was his turn to deal.

Meanwhile, Cooper grabbed the pot and began sorting the chips into their colors. 'It's good to win for a change,' she thought as she looked at the piles in front of Watanabe and Kobayoshi. Both of the other candidates had larger piles in front of themselves. 'Their luck has to run out, eventually.'

"So, Cooper, what do you think the Lexington is going to be like?" Kobayoshi asked.

"Crowded," Cooper said. "Crowded and uncomfortable. Oh, and smelly too."

"No showers on board?" Watanabe asked Cooper

"Only for the Captain and first officer. So we will have to use sani-wipes for the entire voyage."

"Oh, boy," Kobayoshi replied. "The ship is going to smell like a high school locker room."

"Hopefully we will get used to the smell quickly," Watanabe said. "After all, we have been using sani-wipes for the past month and we have been doing ok."

"The crew of the Lexington is made up of over two hundred people. So I imagine the smell will be much stronger onboard," Cooper pointed out.

"Cooper, you can be very pessimistic sometimes," Kobayoshi pointed out as he slowly dealt the cards.

"Not so much pessimistic as realistic."

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