Bridge Officer's Test

by Starsinger

I'm currently out of ideas for anything else, although Rihannsu keeps banging around in my brain, and prompts given previously are trying to worm their way into a story. Bridge officer's test came up in the Next Generation's: Thine Own Self where Counselor Troi decided to take the test so she could command the bridge. Normally, an officer not of the line (i.e. counselors, doctors etc.) would not be allowed to do so unless properly prepared. The ship would go through every other officer and enlisted personnel before going to medical personnel. Learned that in ROTC. This test was designed so that those officers who had not taken such tests such as the Kobayashi Maru, could command the bridge. There is not a no-win scenario in here, just a difficult command decision that does need to be made. Both Uhura and McCoy decide to take it after finding M'Benga on the Bridge late one night. Don't own them.

It was late as McCoy and Uhura finally got off the shuttle and back on the Enterprise. How someone had scheduled both a linguistics conference and a Starfleet Medical conference on the same weekend at the same place was beyond either one's comprehension. The results were rather chaotic. At one point McCoy found himself in a meeting on Andorian while Uhura was in a symposium on the latest autopsy techniques. McCoy came away confused and Uhura came away looking a little green. "You almost did that to Kirk?" she asked.

McCoy said, "Almost." Fortunately, the topic of this conversation was safely aboard the Enterprise. They both reported to the bridge to find Dr. M'Benga in the Captain's chair looking rather comfortable. "Hey, M'Benga, I didn't know you were rated to command the bridge," Uhura said looking surprised.

M'Benga grinned, "Yeah, I passed the Bridge Officer's Test about six years ago on a whim. I don't do this very often, but it's a nice bit of a change, and gives the Captain one more officer to give the conn to if necessary. Been a quiet night."

"How do you take this test?" McCoy asked, intrigued.

"You ask your Senior Officer, Spock in your cases, and he either administers the test or he requests someone from another ship to administer the test. It's not a no-win scenario, Leonard, but there are some tough decisions that have to be made during the course of the exam, especially the engineering portion. It also gives me the ability to move up to the rank of Commander when and if the time comes. Good night, you two," he said as they walked off the bridge.

The next morning they both found themselves in Spock's quarters. He looked at them carefully, "I believe you'd both do well taking this test, but I am intrigued, what brought this on?" They told him about encountering M'Benga on the bridge the night before. "Neither of you were aware that you could do this?" Both shook their heads. "I believe I am too involved to give either of you the test objectively. I will call someone to come aboard to do this." They both nodded, it would take a few days for everything to be arranged.

A week later they rendezvoused with a shuttle from the USS Joshua. This brought back a familiar face as Administrator Kris McDaniel, Fleet Captain Ret, stepped off the shuttle with a big grin on her face, "Uhura! Good to see you again!" Uhura smiled back at the older woman. "You must be Doctor McCoy, Shirley had a lot of good things to say about you. Said you were faster with a hypo than she was."

"Are all Starship Captains this difficult?" McCoy asked whimsically.

"No, just the more adventurous ones, or the ones who marry Klingons anyway. Okay, Uhura, you're up first. We'll start in the rec room. They have a new holo emitter that'll allow us to make the rec room into a simulator for everything we need. Now, while this won't automatically promote you to Commander, it'll get you to the next rank up." They both nodded as they escorted Kris to her quarters. An Ensign would be available to take her to see Lieutenant Commander Giotto, Chief Recreation Officer, in the morning.

Later in the mess hall, Spock, Uhura, Chekov, and Scotty all sat around the table talking. "Oh, I retired about two years ago, and John offered me a teaching/Science position on the Joshua. We're old friends, so I accepted. I'm trying to drill common sense and diplomacy in to fresh faced Ensigns. Tactics and ethics are fine in theory, but if they don't have a filter between their brain and their mouth, I can't help them much."

"Who took over the Gagarin?" Spock asked.

"Liz, who else, she's a good officer. I should know, we graduated from the Academy at the same time. Dumark came with me, said she needs a change of scenery. Oh, Guldarth is fine, he retired from the chancellorship last month, keeps threatening to come see me. The Motark is the only Klingon ship that the Federation will ignore when crossing the Neutral Zone." She added with a laugh. "Well, some of us should get our rest. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

Uhura met up with Kris the next day, "Okay, Nyota, I'm a civilian, I think we can be on first name basis. Up first is Tactical, then Command, Ethics, Diplomacy, Medical, Science, and then Engineering. You've probably been warned that you'll be faced with some tough decisions during the course of the test, so be prepared."

Tactical was surprisingly easy, maybe it was serving under James Kirk for the past four years that made it so. Command, Ethics, Diplomacy, Science and Engineering weren't that bad either. Unfortunately, when it came to Medical, she couldn't make the call. The triage, telling the difference between those who would live and who would die was her downfall. She just didn't know it yet. "It's okay, Uhura, it's okay. You'll have the chance to pass it again. Give yourself a day, I'm bringing in McCoy tomorrow." Uhura shuddered, she knew which would be McCoy's biggest hurdle: Engineering.

Tell me what you think, I'll go more into detail about the Medical Scenario and Engineering Scenario in the next chapter.