Admiral Dixon, I understand you want these three in my class, but they need to be in good physical shape. I can't bring in three students, wearing that rank, and them not perform, not to mention, the oldest one isn't even 15, the youngest I'm allowed to accept."

"Commandant, your familiar with the Starcarrier program?"

"Yes, Admiral, I am. There isn't a student at this academy who isn't."

"Ask these three any questions you want about the ship's they are assigned to; and tell me if you aren't satisfied with their answers. Two subjects they aren't allowed to answer though: they can't tell you what they do on the ships, and they aren't allowed to answer any software questions."

Admiral Dixon then introduced us to Comendant Ayers.

"First this is Susan Garis, she specializes on USF-SC00, the Tsunami. This is Elisabeth Bradford, USF-SC01, the Typhoon, and Johnathan Bradford, USF-SC02, the Hurricane."

"well this is the first time I have heard service designations for them, or names. Does this mean they are in service?"

"Yes, next question please." I answered. He looked down at me in the wheelchair.

"Alright missy, what aspect of, Tsunami, is unique from her sister ships?"

"Quiet Jay," he looked like he was about to argue about his ship's personality. "Commandant Ayers, please don't insult me. It's her interdiction capable jump bridge. She can, and has successfully excited four jumps without malfunction after being spooled up in interdiction mode for over 14 hours."

"Only four jumps after 14 hours? That's kind of strange."

"Commandant, I said four jumps without malfunction. Currently no other ship in the USF fleet can say that. She sucsessfully did those jumps with a combat spool, the fifth jump was a normal spool-up, however it had not cooled down from four consecutive combat jumps in one half hour, at which point it catostrophically failed, and injured a crew member when a coil punched through the flight deck four stories above it."

"It did those four jumps in a half hour?" I could tell he was now impressed. "Alright, Elizabeth, same question on the Typhoon."

"The Uniqe attribute of Typhoon is her flight bays compared to the other carriers. Typhoon is able to carry twice as many drones, fighters, and bombers than her siblings." Beth finished with a smile.

"And you, young man, Hurricane's unique attribute she brings to the battlefield."

"Hurricane is unique in that he is solely equipped for Cyberwarfare, and as a result carries only drones and fighters, as the entire bomber bay was scratched in the design phase for the most advanced cyber suite available at the time."

"And the fourth carrier, where is the expert for that one, Admiral?"

I interrupted Dixon before he could respond. "Earthquake was unique in the Starcarrier program in that he could carry six times as many drones, but had no fighter or bombers. His crew was planned to be one quarter the size of the other ships as a result. Earthquake was also not equipped with any ECCs, however had quicker turret motors, and faster reload times than the three other ships. Ernest, the expert on Earthquake, went down with his ship."

"They are barely out of Drydock, and one was already sunk?"

"Zanyix learned the location and struck while Earthquake was still in the dock, it was never officially christened, however, we will not be assigning the registration number reserved for it." Admiral Dixon didn't seem happy about the comandant's flippant remark.

"Alright, each of the ships blueprints called for a very specific type of engine to be used, what is the major drawback to the engine?" He asked us. We looked at each other and shook our heads no.

"You don't know, then you aren't much..."

"No, Commandant, we know, but the answer to your question falls into the perview of the topics we aren't allowed to talk about while not actively completing our tasks aboard our respective vessels."

"Well, that's close enough of an answer to me."

He asked us technical questions for the next two hours before Admiral Dixon stopped him.

"Commandant, these three children have answered every question posed, that they are allowed to, have shown great technical knowledge of their field, even taught you some things about the ships that hasn't been officially declassified yet; all without asking for water or a bathroom break in the last two hours. Show me one of your 25 year old candidates who can do that."

"Alright, they can stay; but I want marked improvement of their physical capabilities, and they will sleep in the infirmary just in case there is a medical problem. There is a three day field exercise just before graduation, you will be expected to do all of it. Make sure you can handle it, if you fail that exercise, you fail the course. You will be excused from normal PT on all but the final test day, which is the morning we leave for the field exercise, so get yourselves rested. And Susan, the chair won't be allowed for those three days."

"Understood, Commandant."

With that he turned and walked away, and our three months here began.

"Alright, I got you out of normal PT, but you need to update yourselves to fix the burnout problem, Susan, the PT run is 4 kilometers, and you will need to walk with a 150 lb rucksack for an additional 12 kilometers that same day, average 12 kilometers over the next two days, and then a 15 kilometer walk, with a rucksack, back. That's what you three need to be ready for."

"Yes sir." We said together.

"I don't want you to get perfect PT scores, just above passing, anything more will throw a wrench into this."

"Yes sir." We said again.

Our first couple of days went as expected, I managed to repair most of the damage to my legs, so I could use them again, the lactic acid was still building up too quickly, and it took all three of us working together on a solution to get one within the first week.

Several of the canidates in our flight, or class, treated us as novelties, or mascots our first couple of days, when training pertaining to the Carriers came up, we rarely offered our responses, unless the response given was completely wrong.

The last day of our first month here our flight was visited by the Commandant.

"Good morning everyone, Susan, it's good to see you out of the wheelchair."

"Thank you sir."

"Have you been answering all the questions on the carriers?"

"No sir," Beth answered, "we agreed to only interject at times where the answer was blatantly wrong, so as to ensure our flight members did not rely on our expertise in our field, as well as to not austricize ourselves from the group. Our ages have done enough of that, we agreed we shouldn't add to it."

"Good Answer, Elisabeth. So tell me, how is it that you three became subject matter experts on these three ships. I know you are allowed to answer that.

"My dad is Lowell Bradford, Captain of the Hurricane." Jay replied.

"My mom is Danielle Bradford, Captain of Typhoon." Elisabeth repeated.

"My adoptive Mother is Heather Garis, captain of the Tsunami, and the Strcarrier's Fleet Captain" I finished. At the mention of fleet captain, all eyes in the room rounded on me. "My knowledge comes from multiple sources, this is the only one the three of us are allowed to publicly acknowledge. Commandant, your question is dangerously close to a breech of security with the Starcarrier project, and in direct violation of a Fleet Admiral's direct order."

"Perfect answer Susan. Did everyone hear what she did? She answered the portion she knew she could, and then respectfully reminded me of not only a possible security breech if I continued, but the order given to me by her battlegroup's Fleet Admiral." He stopped scanning the classroom at this point, and looked straight at me. "Tell the class what I am not allowed to ask."

"Commandant, we were given the security classifications of every member of your school, with the exception of you, no one on these grounds not a member of the Carrier battlegroup has the clearance to know the response."

"Your going to tell me an 11 year old kid has a higher clearance than my instructors? I think not."

"Commandant, you are treading a very dangerous line." Beth said as she pulled out her communications headset. Jay and I followed suit.

We put them on and plugged them in, sent our messages, then put them back in our pockets.

"What was that about?" The commandant asked.

"You will find out before the day is out." I quipped. "I don't want to be near you when Heather comes."

At that he scoffed and left the room. The instructor gave us a fifteen minute break after that. I went straight to the restroom, then back to the classroom, when class was about to start, Heather walked in the door.

"You, you, and you," she said pointing at each of us in turn, "follow me."

"Mam, you can't..." And here is where the instructor checked her rank. "Erm... Sorry Fleet Captain, do you know how long these students will be out?"

"Not a second more than they are needed Station Marshall."

"Thank you, mam."