>Yup, not just in rank (I thought UF G promoted her to LCDR when she
>left) but IIRC she originally left to take the helmsman position and
>now she's moved to the center chair.

Correct; Ruri served as helmsman of IPS Steamrunner for at least that ship's first deployment (under Maria Tachibana, no less). Maria returned to Ishiyama after Steamrunner's first cruise - that would've been in late 2406 or early 2407 - and sometime between then and Operation TRIDENT, Ruri was promoted again and given command of Assailant. This is in keeping with the IPSF's ongoing plan for fleet expansion: of the first wave of officers to gain experience in testing and making operational the early ships in the two DDNG classes, many were expected to go on to command the production vessels built during that time.

Which goes to illustrate that, specifically designated oddballs like Valiant aside, not every starship in the galaxy has a rate of officer turnover as slow as, say, WDF Enterprise. Indeed, Enterprise is a bit of a running joke (albeit a respectful one, not derisive) within (and without, to a certain extent) the WDF for the top-heaviness of her command staff. She's known in the fleet, as well as in the Royal Salusian Navy and the friendlier parts of Starfleet, as the Ship of Seven Captains. By 2410, every one of the ship's department heads holds the rank of captain (O-5) or higher.

Fortunately, the WDF is a strange enough outfit that all those captains aren't sabotaging their careers forever by declining reassignment to stay with the team they're most comfortable being part of, like they would be in, say, Starfleet (indeed, in Starfleet they'd all have had to turn down that last promotion; they'd all still be commanders, and would've kissed any prospect of captaincy, let alone flag rank, goodbye forever by now).

(There's widely held to be something odd about starships named Enterprise in this regard. In galactic history there have been three notable ones, and they've all had weirdly static quarterdecks. The original WDF Enterprise never once turned over an officer; the current one hasn't since well before becoming a WDF vessel; and lots of people agree that someone should've either promoted Will Riker out of the current USS Enterprise by force or, failing that, sold him to the Freespacers by now.)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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