Captain Vir stared out the window of UNSC headquarters watching as a mass crowd of people trickled onto the staging ground. His ship sat over the horizon, large, dark, and imposing, Christened the U.S.S Harbinger for all military purposes, though it would always have a different name in his heart. He had made it a point to paint over the U.S.S Stabby BEFORE landing back on Earth, and he was glad that he did. He wasn't sure how the president of the UN would have felt about the moniker dubbing a military vessel after a two thousand year old meme. When he came back for the ranking ceremony, he had assumed it would be a small affair in front of UNSC, GA, and military representatives. But it looked like most of North America had shown up to watch. The entire staging ground had been surrounded by towering stadiums.

He was already beginning to feel nauseous.

"Forgot to mention that we invited a few other people." Captain Vir turned around to find Vice Admiral Kelly standing behind him hands resting lightly behind her back in her ramrod straight uniform. Behind her stood another woman, tall, dark skinned, and grey with age but with hard steely eyes. He quickly snapped to attention, for the Fleet admiral. In recent years it had become necessary to fuse air-force and navy into one body. Sure they were flying, but they were using ships to do it, but Vir understood the meaning of Fleet Admiral as much as he knew the meaning of those five stars on her uniform.

"At ease." She commanded, and he feel into an at-ease position as easily as he would have during his days at the flight academy. They waved him down, and he turned back to the window, "A few people?"

A hand rested on his shoulder, and he looked up to find the Fleet Admiral standing next to him staring out the window, surveying the seen like a hawk or an eagle, "Captain, you are a folk hero at the forefront of a new age, ushering in changes that we have no experienced in thousands of years. At this moment in time you belong to the people weather you like the idea or not. Your success or failure may well be an indicator of the success or failure of humanity."

He felt the blood drain from his face. He was having sudden and aggressive doubts, "That's flattering, but I..... I'm not some folk hero. I'm not exceptionally brave, or smart, or... or anything else. I'm just lucky, and sometimes I'm...."

She held up a hand, "Captain, I said you were a folk hero not infallible. That Luck of yours may have ushered you here in a golden carriage, but now you have to prove to these people that you are worth something beyond that, so buck up and stop being modest....." She stepped in front of him and looked him in the eye. He reckoned she was actually a little taller than he was, and her personality was quite imposing, "Tell me captain, can you handle this assignment?"

He took a deep breath standing a little taller, "Yes, Admiral."

"And why?"

He paused, "Because I am the most experienced man on the fleet." She seemed to be waiting for something else. He took a shot in the dark, "And.... I am an excellent Captain."

The corner of her mouth twitched, "There it is. Now, down to the staging area with you. The ceremony is ready to commence." He did as told executing an immediate about face and almost crashing into a doorframe before scuttling, flustered out of the room. The warm flush on his face and the ringing in his ears was enough that he had trouble distinguishing if he heard a chuckle or not

It turned out he did, and behind him, the Fleet admiral was shaking her head in mild amusement as was the Vice Admiral. Captain Vir was a strange man. A good man, but a strange man.

***

Sunny was standing by the door when captain Vir came down with her clan of warriors. In one of her hands she held her mother's massive war staff, and she had clad herself in Drev ceremonial armor like her other counterparts. Captain Vir had to admit she looked very impressive, regal even, better than her mother had. Other members of his crew were there as well, but they would be reading themselves for the staging grounds. No one really knew where to put Sunny and her clan, so he had suggested a course of action.

He gave her a weak smile as he stood by the door, and she watched and listened as the crowd outside swelled. Sunny worried about him, he looked almost ill. Then the crowd began to still, she could hear the call of brass instruments somewhere as thousands of people stood. More trumpet blasts, and they could all heart the thundering of marching feet on the ground. Glancing out the window, they watched as fifteen crews of men and women displayed themselves on the staging grounds in perfect rows. Drums rattled as they marched forming into their lines and ranks. They were hundreds of them all together as each ship could contain a sizable crew. The captains followed after splaying themselves in triple rows of five. There were seven women and eight men in those lines, and ALL of them were older than captain Vir some of them by a good ten years or more. All of them had the faces of combat veterans who had seen too much and were ready for more.

Captain Vir took a deep breath closing his eyes and then opening them again as he continued to watch the display. The flags were brought in down the center of the crews. With the size of the staging field, it took a good few minutes for the flag to make its way up the center, the flag of the UN right next to the newly sewn flag of the GA. Aliens didn't tend to understand human customs, but they had adopted the idea of a flag. Both flags were slotted next to each other, and a command was given. The soldiers saluted in unison the clapping of their heels rattling the windowpanes. Humans sure did like to make it a point to demonstrate their perfect synchronization. Above them, the civilians took to their feet, adopting the ancient custom of the Americas placing their hands over their hearts.

A line of men and women exited form a different door taking their positions. Not a one of them had anything lower than a star on his or her shoulder, accept for a single man. He was older with greying blond hair and stern steel eyes, he wore the patch of a sergeant with all the pride of any of the admirals unintimidated by his presence within them. Vir quickly struck the back of his hand across his eyes in a quick gesture seeing his father out there. The man had served during the last PanAsian war when he was only Vir's age or younger. He had always been proud to support the unification of Earth.

A cue was signaled somewhere, and the Drev marched out in their rank and file. They had been practicing their marching in the way that humans had, and found that it was particularly intimidating. They enjoyed the practice. With Sunny at their head, they marched in two double columns stopping and splitting apart with a clatter of weaponry. The crowd grew quiet, a few gasps echoed through the staging area. Sunny called a command in her native tongue powerful voice echoing easily towards the furthest reaches of the staging ground. Camera crews zoomed in on them as the Drev lifted their weapons in a sign of respect ramming them on the ground three times before drawing very still.

The man that stepped from the building was definitely the Captain, accept wiped of all nerves. The man that walked from that building held his head high marching with the strict and precise movements of a machine. The look on his face made him look almost five years older than he truly was. His squared shoulders gave the idea of height and power as he walked down the gauntlet of Drev soldiers. As he moved past, they raised their weapons to him, a salute to their clan chief.

Their Captain was here.

As he exited the line of Drev, he turned sharply right heels pressing together at a perfect 45 degree angle. The crew of the U.S.S Harbinger saluted at the call of their Lieutenant Commander. The captain returned the gesture hand snapping up to the brim of his cap, crisp and sharp. He returned the hand to his side and the crew was ordered to an at-ease.

Still with precision, he turned again and moved his way over to stand in front of the line of high ranking officers. His father snapped to attention first, Vir second, and the admirals third. Vir's father broke from the line on some unknown command stepped a few feet out and made the gesture to the line of admirals. He turned to face his son, and the two looked each other in the eye for a long moment. Vir stood still as the man stepped forward and removed the captain's bars from his uniform front turning towards the admirals, one of which now held a small, open black box with a set of finely polished silver wings spread wide. He took them and replaced them with the Captain's bars before turning and with great ceremony, gave his son wings.

Once attached, the man stepped back into line eyes glittering with moisture as the entire group made the exchange again.

Fleet Commander Vir turned to the staging ground, and another call came out. The captains snapped to attention with a clatter that heralded the same response from the rest of the open field. Even the Drev again raised their weapons in salute.

...And then they had to sit through another hour of speeches. It was dry and boring and ho. At least two soldiers collapsed on the ground having made the mistake of locking their knees at attention. They were quickly escorted from the field. Commander Vir kept his stance steady the entire time staring out at his new fleet of men and women sizing up the captains even as they did the same to him.

Eventually the podium was handed over, and he took a step up. He paused there, hands on either side of the lectern gloves hiding just how clammy his hands were, "Less than ten years ago there were many who thought that aliens didn't exist, that humanity was alone on this plane of existence. Now, a little over five years since my commissioning in the United Nations Space Corpse, and we are members of the Galactic Assembly, by ways of a more seamless integration than we could have imagined.

During my life I have lived through the times were we didn't believe, I flew as a crewman of the enterprise on her maiden voyage, I fought in the Drev war, I lost my leg, battled Post Traumatic Stress, recovered, and returned to be commissioned as a captain on the first vessel to fly on behalf of the Galactic assembly and the UNSC. Since then, it has been my mission to make peaceful contact with as many sentient lifeforms as I can. I have...... made mistakes and nearly died more times that I can count. Space is the Wild West, the final frontier. Humanity has always attempted to conquer the unknown, but instead of turning to the sea, we turned to the sky. I don't know if it's some form of Manifest Destiny, or something else, but I know that it was an inevitability." Commander Vir paused to look at the crowd.

"When Vice Admiral Kelly told me they were organizing he first true Fleet for the UNSC and that my name was on top of the list to lead those men, I admittedly questioned the decision. Why would they pick me when I am young, inexperienced in life, and known to have made mistakes in the past...? I have come to discover since that conversation that that is precisely why they have given me the job. There is not a mistake, an erroneous conclusion, or a foul up that I haven't made, but that means despite less life experience, I have the most out of any man who has experience traveling the galaxy." He turned to address the captains now, "Perhaps you may be already questioning my leadership, either because of my age or my reputation, but I can tell you now... You are not ready for this assignment. You will never be ready. Things will happen to you that don't make sense, that shouldn't make sense and that will make you question whether you really want this job or not. I bet some of you are only a few months away from quitting, and you haven't even started yet. I have been given this job because if anyone can help you survive, thrive, and maybe even enjoy this assignment, it's me." His voice rose a little, "Despite hesitation on my part, I must leave you with a warning. We represent humanity, you are the first humans some out there will meet, and it is your example that will mold how others see is. IF you compromise our good faith with the Galactic assembly, if you behave in a way that is contrary to the values of the UNSC or to the TRUE virtue of humanity, I will be personally obligated to remove you, permanently from my fleet. I may be younger than some of you but I will not compromise on poor behavior."

He nodded to the admirals and stepped down. The entire crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief and began to clap. It was time to go find some air conditioning.

***

Commander Vir had retreated into the air conditioned building as soon as was prudent. It really was hot as hell out there, and inside the formalwear of his uniform he was hot, irritable and dehydrated, but despite these feelings, he was still forced to shake a thousand hands as other passed into the building. If this continued, he was sure his hand would go numb and just fall off.

Another part of him, the less cynical and more mid-twenties- average guy was sort of just freaking out. He was the Commander of an entire fleet of ships, and an entire fleet that had an average of AT LEAST five years on him in areas of command if not far more. Did he really have any idea what he was doing? How the hell did a person like him end up with so much responsibility? He still wore an eyepatch because he thought it was "cool" did he really have any place leading an entire fleet of battle-ready space aircraft carriers.

The thought was making him nauseous. A nausea that got a little better when his family stopped by. His father was still wearing his old army uniform and was beaming with his face fit to split in half. It seemed that the older he got, the more he realized his father was a real person with real emotions. He had been a great father when he was a kid, but he hadn't exactly been emotionally forthcoming. His mother was how she always was throwing her arms around him and hugging him close. She was so proud, he was going to do great, and she had always known he would make something of himself. She was even in a good enough mood to grace Sunny with a stiff smile.

All of his siblings were there, his sister with Kimber and their growing baby boy, David with his partner Jordan and their son, adopted at two years old, who looked at captain Vir with wide brown eyes, sure the two of them could have commissioned one of those designer babies based on their own DNA instead of adopting, but David had always been opposed to that idea. As long as there were still orphans in the world he was determined to give them a good home. Jordan didn't seem to mind, and Vir was glad to see the two of them were happy. Jeremy was with his girlfriend, the newest one in a long line of girlfriends, and Vir wondered how long he would manage to hold onto this one, she seemed like a sweet girl, she would be good for Jeremy if he didn't manage to screw it up. Tomas...... well Tomas was Thomas and that was another can of worms.

He was forced to cut their little reunion short as a group of fifteen people marched their way up the corridor. The bars on their uniforms glittered in the light, and he had to step away from his mother to face them. The captains stopped in a group and gave him a rather unnecessary salute. A quick look over their faces wasn't enough to tell him what he needed to know, but it was enough to tell him some things. There was no open hostility towards him, but some of them moved more sharply than others, covering what seemed to be resentful attitudes. There were about five of those, the next five were rather wary of him and the last five went from ambivalent to downright welcoming. Surprisingly, the oldest captain seemed to be the most pleased to see him. He had silver hair, bright blue eyes and a charming smile. He would probably have been a real ladies man back in his day and could probably still manage now. Aging had been remarkably kind to him. Vir would have estimated him to be in his sixties, but he had the body of a man half that age, so his age was rather indeterminate. When the salute was over the man walked over, and rather than shaking his hand he clapped him on the back, "Commander."

"Vir will be fine," He said in response,

"Vir than, A pleasure to be working under you. Always good to see younger people taking initiative." He glanced over at Vir's parents, "I can already tell he comes from good stock." Damn, the guy was just as charming as his face suggested. He had that sort of old cowboy feel about him, perhaps it was the hint of a southern drawl. Vir couldn't help but being a little jealous, he wished he was that good with people. The other captains were a little more reserved. The next person to walk up was a rather petite Asian woman with a serious face, but after greeting, he found her to be rather affable and with a descent sense of humor.

The others were a bit harder to read, they had the strong silent captain, with the patch on his shoulder indicating that he hailed form one of their units out of Africa. The guy was a flipping mountain. What vir wouldn't have given to have his physique? There were others of course, and they hailed from all over. At least one other from somewhere in Asia, he wasn't able to read the patch, one from Russia, one from India, and one from Brazil. There were others whose tags he was unable to read.

It had been years since anyone identified themselves based on national ideals. The last war had brought China into the UN once and for all uniting planet earth as one cohesive body of humanity with a single governing body, but the old love still remained. It was hard to take Russia out of a Russian or America an American. Thousands of years later, and they still couldn't give up their old selves, but that was alright with Vir as long as they made sure to put earth first.

He still wasn't totally sure about them, and he wasn't sure about their crews. You never truly understood someone until you gave them a chance to do something stupid and or aggressive, and he had some plans in the works. He wanted to know who he was hiring on before he put the fleet to work.

As the Captain's walked away, Commander Vir motioned Sunny over and leaned in, "Tell the crew to start setup."

"What did the admiral say?"

"She thought it was weird, but she agreed when I gave my reasoning."

***

What was this plan that captain Vir had in mind? Well It was sort of crafty but rather genius is sunny did say so herself. The man wanted to know who was on his crew, and he wanted to know who was on the other crews, so he had designed to set up a little bit of a party. His reasoning, people get dumb at parties, and if I can see them at their dumbest, I can weed out the troublemakers early on. Plus he also wanted to have a little fun, but that was only collateral.

In essence, His plan was threefold have fun, examine the men, and see how the crew would accept him when he wasn't wearing the uniform. The commander didn't lead in his military greys, and there were some people who had a problem with that. If he could catch the captains true feelings about him early on, than he could deal with them early on. So he invited all available crew members from the fleets, they had music set up, and drinks and gambling tables. There was something for everyone, and Vir intended to use it. He intended to put these men and women into a great place to do something stupid. Additionally, he had ordered the Drev members of his crew to mingle with the crowd. If these men could not handle contact with the Drev than they would have to go. Commander Vir was both a clan chief, and the main human ambassador to the Drev world, so he would not tolerate any sort of alien hostility. If they couldn't handle the drev he couldn't be sure that they would be proper to a more delicate, less indestructible alien race. The rest of his crew would be doing the same noting down any major problems they saw and making sure that everyone stayed in line. Not everyone was going to make it out of this night and still have a job.

***

By the time the crewmen started filtering in, Sunny already had the music up and running. Vir had to admit that she was one damn good DJ. The crewman of the other fifteen ships seemed surprised when they saw the bright blue Drev and her green headphones running the systems with some pretty good classic rock, a genre that could never really die. There was hardly any hesitation from most of them, there was drinks, descent music and the uniforms of earlier had been replace with casual ware often intended to attract other humans. This was the night before their first deployment and they intended to make the most of it.

With fifteen crews to accommodate, it didn't take long for the place to fill up. Of course there would be men and women skipping to stay with their families, but Vir wasn't particularly worried about them. He was worried about the kind of people that are attracted to trouble. And while, parties are fun and not everyone who goes to them is a troublemaker, they did tend to foster very specific enviornment for behavior the Commander could not abide. The Drev were deployed once the human entries had gone down to a slow trickle, they entered the room in pairs to keep eyes on each other. Some of these men had been involved with the Drev war, so they couldn't be sure if those men would still harbor anger towards this other species.

Watching from a discreet upper window, Commander Vir saw the hesitation in the humans as the Drev entered, but there was nothing overtly hostile towards his crew members. He would have to wait though, it was early in the night, and no one was drunk just yet.

***

Krill stared out the little observation window next to the Commander, thankful the walls were thick enough to block the thundering human music. He could still feel the beat through the floor and past the pain of glass, the thudding beat made him dizzy, the Vrul's cortical pathways were't known to tolerate and complex patterns like the humans specifically auditory ones. His brain always desperately tried to keep up with the beats, and it took most of his concentration not to go into a passed-out trance as he tried to follow the music. He would argue though, that the humans were not that much better. Down on the floor they rolled and churned in a single mass hands in the air writhing and spinning in disjointed jerks and sways. Their eyes were closed, they pressed close to each other as if unaware how strange their behavior seemed to an outsider. The way their bodies moved with the music was something he had only seen from humans and the Drev. Matching their movements to a background beat as they did. It wasn't as pretty as actual dancing, but it was an impossible feat for anyone not human or Drev.

Krill was very much under the impression that enviornment like this were specifically designed to increase the human's desire for mating. The Commander hadn't argued with him when he pointed this out. Clubs and bars were the sort of places that humans went for that kind of thing. In an entirely new mass of people, it was easy to lose your identity and inhibition making your actions more obvious and more reckless. But it was also a perfect time to root out the people Vir did not care for, bullies, sexual predators, violent drunks, etc. The crews had no idea what was waiting for them.

***

Captain Vir walked into the room with all the confidence of a man who knew exactly what he was doing. It wasn't far from the truth, he was comfortable in enviornment like this loud, exciting, and with lots of people, but he wasn't totally here for the fun. With Cannon at his side, he walked into the maze of tables set up with decks of cards and sets of gambling chips.

He was dressed down as casual as he could manage jeans, a boot, shoes didn't fit on his prosthetic anymore, and a brown leather bomber jacket over a white T-shirt. He had removed the uncomfortable fake eye and replaced it with his preferred eye-patch. The thundering beat drifted in from the other room, a constant background of chaos just under the rise of voices through the room. He scanned the crowd finding what he was looking for and walked over pulling up a chair at one of the tables and taking a seat.

The Captain's, at least six of them, looked up with surprise at their intruders, one of them being aver nine feet tall at the least. The next table over seated one or two of the captains giving him nine out of the fifteen in total. He could see by the looks on their faces, that they didn't recognize him at first. He pulled aside the lapel of his jacket so they could see a replica of one of the wings pinned onto the inside, "Mind if we join?" He asked casually.

They sat back in surprise, "Commander."

"Adam or Vir would be fine, none of us are working." He eyed them, singular, as they looked at him. There was surprise, ambivalence, welcoming and.... Ah ha, some narrowed eyes. He casually reached for the deck, cut it and shuffled it speedily, "Thought I might as well come to get and know the men and women I in my fleet. Seems as good a time as any."

One of the captains stood up and went to walk away. The Commander could tell by his actions that he was not interested in hanging around. He shuffled the cards back into a pile, "SIT down, Captain." He allowed the smile to fall from his face, and his voice to deepen copping his father, a man who could be very intimidating when his four boys got out of hand.

The Captain stopped, turned around, but did not take his seat.

Commander Vir turned to his cards examining them with a critical eye, "I assume you know what the word sit means?" Cannon shifted in his seat next to the Commander, and the captain sat mouth twitching a little. Commander Vir tapped the table with two fingers and then looked up as his turn passed, "You don't like me very much, and I find that a bit odd seeing as we haven't even formally introduced ourselves."

"I never said that, Commander." The man said icily. The entire table shifted rather nervously.

"I may be young, but I'm not stupid. Standing up and walking away angrily immediately after someone sits down is the universal sign for not liking someone. If you were trying to be discrete about it you may need to brush up on the rules of human body language, and if you did it on purpose, you wanted me to know, but you didn't plan on getting called out for it, so either you tell me what it is that's bothering you right here and now, or you can stop behaving like a petulant child." That comment seemed to have stung coming from a younger man and going to an older man.

"Permission to speak freely then?" The man asked after a few moments. The commander folded and cut his losses tossing his stack of cards to the side as he looked at the other man, "Of course, that's why we're here isn't it."

The man paused then, "I think you're a joke."

The commander tilted his head, "A Funny one I hope?"

Teeth ground against teeth, "That's the root of the problem. You're too young to take anything seriously. That position should have gone to someone with more experience. You were only promoted to captain a few years ago, and now they have you commanding a fleet. Something seems wrong to me, favoritism or bribery."

The Commander tilted his head thoughtfully in the other direction, "Who do you think should have taken the position..... someone like...... you?"

The man floundered for a moment in response, and Captain Vir leaned a little forward resting his elbow on the table, "No honestly, I'm listening. Suppose you were promoted to Commander, I assume you have studied alien culture extensively, or you have personal experience. You know what NOT to do to be thrown in a Rundi prison, or that a Tesraki doesn't consider it morally wrong to lie during a business deal, or the proper rituals for greeting another Drev commander?"

Around the table, the captains shifted uncomfortably. The instigator remained silent.

"I also assume that you know a Starborn's Telekinetic waves will disrupt the warp systems of a space vessel, and that you need to change the frequency on the signals." He glanced at his cards again, "You may have more experience in war, and commanding men, Captain, but I've already made the mistakes necessary to know what I am doing when it comes to space travel." He threw a chip into the center of the table, "If you can't let go of your pride and admit that I might have more experience in this area than you, than we aren't likely to get along, and I enjoy getting along with people." They threw down their cards, and one of the other captains won, she pulled them towards her.

He looked up, "Well, keep going, I want to get it all out in the air BEFORE I have to work with you. I need you to trust my command and respect me if this is going to work out, and that's not going to happen if you are harboring thoughts like this."

Another pause, and the Commander refused to look away until another concern was raised, "It's hard to see you as a proper commander, when you dress like a space pirate and act like an eccentric movie character. It very much seems like you are trying to 'be cool' to impress other people, but you aren't doing it in an adult way you are doing it in a way that makes it seem you are trying to look like some edgy movie character who is supposed to be the 'cool guy'. It makes you seem weak and desperate for other people to see you as something you aren't."

The commander smiled, "A stunning psychoanalysis of my motives." He paused tapping one of the poker chips on the table, "You're right." The entire table seemed a little surprised, "I love old movies, I love cool movie characters. I think the eyepatch makes me look dashing and roguish, but you do have one thing wrong." They waited, "I don't where this eyepatch to impress you, I wear it because I think it's fun and I'll be damned if I have to remove it to impress you. If I truly was so desperate for people to see me as cool, I would go change into my uniform right now in order to demonstrate to everyone at this table with how serious and task oriented I am."

He leaned back in his chair waiting again, "Well, go on, I am sure we can come up with some worthwhile concern."

A soft, but stern voice raised from the other table, "I think, Commander that you try too hard to be friends with your crew, and in turn you lose some credibility as a leader. It's fine to be someone's friend, but you have to let some of that go in order to lead properly."

He turned in his chair and took a deep breath as if he was going to say something paused and then, "Alright, that one hurt, so it must be true. Go on."

That hour was when the commander learned he wasn't totally ok with taking criticism. He thought he was, and it was fine when what the captains were saying wasn't true, or they had something wrong about his intentions, but it was an entirely different matter when he sensed some truth in what they were saying. He tried to listen, tried to learn, but after a while he just couldn't anymore and excused himself from the table with a nod, and a, "I will think about what you all said, but I have a few other matters to attend to before the night is over." He tried not to look stiff as he walked away ruminating silently on what they had said to him. He may have at least gained their respect, but at what cost.

He glanced over at cannon, "Do you think I'm insecure?"

Cannon looked down at him with a raised eyebrow, "Is that supposed to be a question?"

"F**k Cannon, yes it was a question."

Cannon Shrugged his large shoulders, "What, do you want me to do, lie to you?"

The captain stepped in front of the Drev and stalked onto the lit dance floor, suddenly feeling very stupid in his eye patch and jacket. This night wasn't supposed to have ended up like this. He scanned the crowd and found Sunny at her DJ position seeming quite pleased with herself. He pushed through the crowd leaving Cannon behind and walked up to her.

She gave him one good look and paused, "What's wrong!" She yelled over the thundering beat

He sighed and leaned back against the wall, "I just got all of my insecurities, issues, and flaws dissected by people I barely know, and now I feel like shit."

She laughed at him.

"Well thanks, Sunny, So glad I came to you for help. Such a supportive friend."

She grinned again then grabbed him by the hand, "Come on grumpy; let's dance."

***

He had recovered reasonably by the end of the night, and there were other issues to deal with anyway. At least seven of their new men had attempted to gang up on one of the Drev who had gone out to get some air. They had their asses handed to them in swift fashion as the Drev had almost as many limbs to fight them with as there were people attacking. There were at least three cases of sexual harassment, not an issue humanity had managed to get over, yeah they had managed to shatter the glass ceiling and equalize the sexes, but now EVERYONE participated in equal measure, so that had to be dealt with. Regarding other issues such as fighting, aggressive behavior and excessive drug use, they ended up kicking out nearly twenty people and putting at least forty others on probation. Sure there were people that argued, but the Commander refused to budge on these areas, and told them exactly where to stick their complaints.

The Captain's weren't exactly happy with some of the people getting kicked off their crews, but now they were at least willing to listen to him, as he had managed to listen to them.

The problem now would be managing to put his ego back together enough that he could rationally take a look at himself and decide if what they said was true.

That was going to take a while.