Northern Gunboat Training School, 2 January, Y184
        "Lieutenant Killik," the Personnel Officer said, "let me find... ah, here you are... Certified for boat command... high placement for Boat Commander Course... That's the best thing for you, certainly. With the Boat Commander Course, you won't have to come back here for the Flotilla Commander Course. Problem is, the next class is three tendays away. I can't let you stay idle... Let me see..."
        "Sir, if I may," Killik said, "I'd prefer to enter a training cycle immediately, skip the Boat Commander Course, and get back to the front as a boat commander as soon as possible."
        "Well, that's certainly possible," the Personnel Officer mused. "Let me work on that. I may have an opening in the cycle for you next tenday or the tenday after that. In the meantime, I am going to send you to professional education classes, which all line officers need. Let's see... ah, there's a class in Tactical Intelligence starting tomorrow. Let me print out the data... yes, here you goŠ report to the indicated classroom at the indicated time, with a datapad. Dismissed."
        "But, Sir..." Killik protested.
        "Killik, I have other incoming officers waiting for me to process them. Come back next Firstday."
       "But, Sir, I..." Killik protested again.
        "Dismissed!" the Personnel Officer snarled.

Northern Gunboat Training School, 11 January Y184
        "Ah, Killik," the Personnel Officer said. "You did well in Tactical Intelligence. Your instructor said you are a natural. He even remarked on the speed of your analytical abilities. He wants you to attend the Advanced Tactical Intelligence course in two tendays. He says he can get you posted to a command cruiser. How would that be?"

        "I want combat, not a staff job," Killik said.
        "But on a command cruiser, you'd see lots of combat!" the Personnel Officer said. "For now, I am going to send you to the Biological Threats Course, which starts inŠ an hour. You had better take this assignment card and pick up your datapad."
        "I need to enter a combat training cycle," Killik said, "not another development class. I am a gunboat officer, certified for boat command, and I have entered priority requests for an immediate combat assignment. If you don't have one for me, I am going to go see the Inspector-General about being side-tracked without justification."
        "Now see here, Killik," the Personnel Officer said, "you don't want to go around threatening senior officers, especially not those who have been trying to help you, those who have your best career interests in mind."
        "It's not threat," Killik said, "just a statement of fact. I know the system, I know the regulations, and I cannot be denied a training boat slot without a review board, which has no grounds to deny me one. I'm here to train up a boat and take it back to the front, not to waste my time in classes that have nothing to do with commanding a boat. Now, about a combat training cycle assignment?"
        "Very well, Killik," the Personnel Officer retreated, knowing that without anything in writing, he could not sidetrack Killik out of a boat command, not over Killik's objection. Klingon officers who demanded combat assignments went to the head of the line for them, unless they were somehow disqualified. Quiet words from a flotilla commander to get Killik onto another career path would not stand the scrutiny of the Inspector-General. "The problem is that I had you scheduled for the Biological Threats Course because there is no opening in the training cycle for a boat commander."
        "I am sure you can correct that," Killik said.
        "Actually, I cannot," the Personnel Officer said. "Not without displacing someone who started the course an hour ago, which would be bad for everyone. Please reconsider and take the courses and assignments I am offering to you. They're really for the best."
        "I am a certified boat commander," Killik said, "and that's where I am going, either by your order, or by that of the Training School commander after the Inspector-General calls him. Please do what you can to fix this problem."
        "Very well," the Personnel Officer said. "CheckingŠ No space thereŠ no opening thereŠ Ah, there. Very well, you are now scheduled to enter a training cycle as a boat commander at 0600 on Secondday of the next tenday. You finish the Biological Threats Course on Eighthday, so that gives you a four-day weekend to look forward to, and yes, I will authorize you to spend as much of that in the simulators as you want. Here are your orders. You know the system, and you know that those orders cannot be changed without cause, and we both know that I'm not going to find a cause unless you give me one. Now, get yourself to the Biological Threats Course and learn something."
        "Next tenday!" Killik protested. "That won't do. I want combat training, and I want it today."
        "Look here, Killik, I don't have a boat command slot in the training cycle that started today. You're too senior to take the gunner's course or the navigator's course without it looking like remedial training, and that would look bad on your record. You have orders in hand, and being late for the Biological Threats Course gives me grounds to rescind them. Spend your evenings reviewing the records of the teams coming out of stage-two training and by the time you start your Boat Commander Course, you will have already picked out your crew. Dismissed!"

Training Section Four, NGTS, 7 February Y184
        "Killik, do you realize you're about to fail this course?" the Lieutenant Commander asked him.
        "No, I did not," Killik said. "I am confused. I have achieved the victory conditions every battle, even successfully escaping that hopeless debacle in Scenario Five. My boat has sixteen fighter kills, 38 drone kills, three gunboat kills, and I have defeated and driven away another five gunboats and another dozen fighters. That's a better record than two-thirds of my class."

        "Rankings on paper are only part of the story. The problem, Killik, is speed," the Lieutenant Commander said. "There is hesitation in your every move. It is good that you master your fears and - eventually - take your boat into combat, but you need to do that instinctively, instantly, when ordered to do so, not after you waste ten or twenty seconds bringing your nerves under control. When you fly wing, you do well, but when you are on your own, you do not. If you did as well on your own, or leading a section, as you do flying wing, your scores would be far higher."
        "I have no fear," Killik scoffed, "my biofeedback readings prove that. What you are seeing as hesitation is my evaluating the battle space and selecting the best plan. That's why I was one of only three boat commanders to win Scenario Six. I was the only one who saw ahead of time that the Kzinti APT was the key target, and how I could get to it without being crippled. Korian got it by accident, and Kowalt figured it out only after winning two gunboat duels he didn't need to fight."
        "Caught you!" the Lieutenant Commander said. Killik looked nonplused, then in shock. "You admitted what the biofeedback systems could not prove. You're no coward, Killik, but you do think way too much. You barely survived Scenario Two because the Kzinti freighter got inside the asteroids before you could catch her. You did survive Scenario Five, but you did so by breaking contact, while the rest of your flotilla engaged the Kzintis, destroyed several targets, and then realized that the situation was hopeless and they still escaped. The scenario victory conditions have been rewritten now to prevent anyone else from doing what you did and receiving a passing score."
        "My overall scores are still very high," Killik protested.
        "No one else thinks as much as you do," the Lieutenant Commander pointed out, "and all of them - except for Kurgal, who is frankly an idiot - have passing scores. Gunboats are all about aggression, instant reflexes, instinctive tactics. You need to select a 'good' answer in one second, not the 'best' answer in ten."
        "I hear your words, and I shall strive to reach good decisions more quickly," Killik promised.
        "Learn quickly, Killik," the Lieutenant Commander warned. "If you don't show instant improvement in this matter, you will be failed from the course, your certification removed, and you will be sent back to the front as a gunboat officer barred from ever holding a boat command. I suggest you put in some simulator time tonight and be ready for tomorrow's class."
        "I shall, Sir," Killik vowed.