The SSV's Zagreb

She'd been on the list for a smart ship for almost four years before they gave her a command of one. Her recruitment class had spent five years doing flight simulations, taking personality tests and neuro compatibility tests. Seventy recruits went down to twenty by the time it was all over. When she first saw Ziggy, she cried and asked her fellow trainee Balal what he looked like. In the end, they all cried. It couldn't be helped. With so much anticipation, so much invested and sacrificed, so many invasive medical procedures, so much intensive training and so much painful, racking hope. Nothing beat Zig.