COMMAND

Ranma dropped the Valkyrie onto the deck of the Promotheus and taxied over to the lift lock. He pulled out his thermos--a specially designed one with a built-in heater--and changed back to male. When the lift lock had cycled, he hopped out of the cockpit and ran for the door.

"Hold it, Saotome."

He skidded to a stop and turned to face Commander Hayes.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"I'm looking for a volunteer for an experimental project."

Ranma knew damn well that that meant he'd already volunteered.

"Ah, what project, ma'am?"

"We have a class of Valkyrie pilots graduating in a week. Seventeen of these are female. Two are new recruits; the rest are former U.N. Spacy personnel who signed up to pilot Valkyries and were...disappointed. Lieutenant Grant and I want to form a new squadron. I'm authorized to give you command of that squadron."

Good, not as bad as he'd feared. "Okay, Commander, count me in. Who'll be replacing me in Green Squadron?"

"Captain Kramer, from Skull Squadron. Some of the graduating class are going into Skull to fill some holes anyway, including your buddy Hunter." She tossed him an envelope. "Here are your orders. Oh, and you've got a five-day leave, starting now. Enjoy it."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Dismissed."

~Why do I have a bad feeling about this?~

* * * * *

Ranma walked into the White Dragon and over to the Skull table. Granted, he had not flown as part of Skull Squadron in two months, but he was always welcomed by the long-time Skull pilots.

Currently only Roy and Mark Kramer were at the table.

"Hey, Kramer. Want some hot gossip?" Ranma sat down at the table.

"Sure." Kramer grinned. "Who's it about?"

"You."

"Really? Do tell."

"Word has it you're getting your own command again."

"What squadron?"

"Green."

Roy squinted. "Isn't that your squadron, kid?"

"Was. Apparently, I've been transferred to a new squadron full of trainees."

"Hey, that says a lot about the brass' opinion of you, kid. Normally, trainees are assigned a commander with a hell of a lot of experience. And to give you a squad of nothing but trainees..."

"Yeah, well..." Ranma shrugged.

The door opened, and Akane walked in, grinning from ear to ear.

"Excuse me, Lieutenant." Ranma moved to allow Kramer to stand. Kramer walked around to the other side of the table and sat next to Roy, leaving a blank spot right next to Ranma. Akane scowled at all three of them, but took the spot.

"Well, I've officially graduated flight school and Valkyrie training. Graduation ceremony's tomorrow, then I get four days of leave. And I've already been posted to a new squadron."

"Really?" Ranma grinned a bit. "They told you who your commanding officer will be?"

"All Lieutenant Grant said is that she was a 'shit-hot pilot with more brass than a Flag Officer's Ward Room', end quote."

"Uh...she?"

"Yeah. Apparantly, it's an all-female squadron, right down to the CO."

"Kuso..." Ranma tore into the packet and pulled out his orders. Sure enough, it directed the formation of a new fighter squadron, all female, to be under the command of...

"Ranko Saotome?" Kramer frowned. "Hey, you got a sister, Lieutenant?"

"I hate my life...I hate my life..."

Akane laughed. "So THAT's who she meant!" She picked up a glass of water and dumped it on Ranma's head. "Captain, this is Saotome Ranko, Ranma's...ah...sister."

* * * * *

Ranma banged on Commander Hayes' Quarters' door.

"Can I help you, Lieutenant?"

He whirled, to find himself face to face with the Commander. Apparantly, she'd been out, probably at the Gym, judging from her attire.

"Commander, is this some kind of sick joke?"

"What exactly do you mean, Saotome?"

"I've been posted to an all-female squadron! Hell, I've been put in command of an all-female squadron! I'm a guy, damnit!"

"Apparantly, you're not a guy one hundred percent of the time. Look, why don't you come in for a minute, and I'll try to explain this a little better."

Ranma scowled, and nodded. Commander Hayes unlocked her door, and ushered him in. Five minutes passed while Hayes made a pot of tea as Ranma fidgeted. Finally, the Commander sat down opposite Ranma and started to speak.

"The Angel Squadron concept began when I discovered that you could change genders basically at will. When I heard that you could interface with the Mecha better in female form. And when I heard from Major Fokker that females make better fighter pilots. You stated that you couldn't notice any difference in things like pain threshold, gee tolerance et cetera when you flew as a female. I've seen your dossier, Lieutenant. As a martial artist, you would have trained above levels normally attainable by either male or female. In fact, I'm willing to bet that your tolerances are so high that any benefits gained in female form are simply coals to Newcastle.

"This concept of an all-female fighter squadron was furthered when I interviewed several women in the U.N. Spacy. Mostly those who were showing dissatisfaction with their current duties. Many women did join the U.N. Spacy expecting to pilot Mecha. Your fiancee is one of those.

"Of course, it stands to reason that in an all-female fighter squadron, the pilots would resent a male commander..."

"Did you forget that my fiancee knows about the curse?"

"No...but will your fiancee tell anyone about it?"

"Probably not...but did you forget that the ward room of a fighter squadron only has one change area?"

Hayes frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Suppose that, in my female form, I were to walk into the ladies' room in a restaurant downtown...and you were in there."

"Mmm...Good point. And your fiancee is a lot better trained in hand to hand than I am. I'll talk to Construction, get them to put in a separate compartment for you."

"Won't work, Commander. All that'll do is reinforce negative feelings between me and the squadron." He considered for a moment. "I'm just gonna have to tell 'em. Make sure they know what's goin' on. Ya gotta keep the faith, y'know? Get that extra compartment put in anyway."

* * * * *

"Good morning."

The ward room was barely controlled chaos. Seventeen females of different sizes and appearances sat talking among themselves. When Ranma spoke, however, they fell silent.

"Before we start, I have something to tell you. I'm your commanding officer--"

One girl, only sixteen from the looks of her, jumped up. "Sir, I thought we were to be given a female CO?"

Ranma poured some water on his head. "As you can see, I'm a female part time."

There were immediate and loud complaints from at least half of the pilots. Ranma waited them out, then jerked a thumb towards a door behind him. "That's my change room. So you don't have to worry about me using my gender changing curse to peek on you or nothin'."

"Just our luck, we got a pervert for a CO," grumbled one girl.

"What's your name, girl?"

"HUH? Uh, Kanzaki Shoko, sir."

"Corporal Kanzaki, you can get this straight right now. It's a curse that makes me change gender. I'm not happy about it, and I'd get rid of it if I could. In this case, however, my bad fortune is your good luck. Commander Hayes decided that I should lead this squadron and ensure that the pilots in it are the best in the whole damn fleet. She decided this because despite my curse, I have been flying fighters for two years now, and have over two hundred and fifty hours of combat. Need I remind you that bad pilots are weeded out in the first five minutes of combat?"

The room was completely silent. Being fresh from the Academy, not one of the girls present had seen combat at all.

"In a war, a unit needs to have complete confidence in their commander. I made sure all of you knew about this curse now, because it would sure as hell make you mad enough to chew nails if you found out about it later.

"Now then. I still have to organize this Squadron." She turned to the whiteboard and started jotting down names, both in Roman script and Kanji. When she was done, the names were organized into three columns. "These are the flight assignments. They are based on your simulator scores. The two strongest pilots are lead for their respective flights. The five weakest pilots are under my lead."

"Uh, sir...ma'am..."

"Better make it ma'am, at least in public."

"Yes, ma'am...Why not have the five strongest pilots under your command?"

"What would they learn then? And who would the weakest learn from?"

"Oh...right."

"Good. Then the flight leaders, besides myself, are Tendo Akane and Kanzaki Shoko. You'll be breveted to Warrant as soon as possible. Kanzaki, I don't have your dossier yet...are you a martial artist?"

"Uh...yes sir. Aikido, First Rank."

"Ah. Martial artists tend to make better Valkyrie pilots. Now, as to our first mission. We've been given a simple one first off, and I intend to make the most of what's normally wasted time. We have close patrol duty today. That means we'll be within visual range of the SDF-1 at all times. That also means that we have no actual navigation do be done. We just fly around the damn ship. Suit up and report to the launch deck."