Sifting the wheat from the chaff

Five months had passed since Renati had commenced her training with the Anla'Shok. In this period of being exposed to the lesser species she had been more shocked, surprised and offended than she had been in a lifetime.

But what worried her most is that towards the end, she started to enjoy it. Their company was no longer repulsive, it was not pleasant neither, but she no longer felt the need to kick them out of the solar system for their incompetence.
She merely laughed away their mistakes and corrected them where she could.

They would never become the Anla'Shok the Minbari were, but after a long talk with Anla'Shok Na and his advisor, Rathenn, they had concluded the Human Anla'Shok would be cut out for a different kind of mission than the Minbari. In some cases there would be overlap, but the main objective would be blending in , focused on environments where Minbari naturally stand out.

Renati had also come to learn she was not the only pioneer in this project. A total of a hundred and fifteen Humans were being trained by different Sechs on Minbar.
The insinuation of their involvement in the future Enan'Fi fleet had met with large protest of Renati's once again, but Lennon was pleased with her evolution.
It was no time to push the bucket.

Thus the moment had come for their final mission: survival.

Renati took them to Tikir falls, a peaceful nature-filled area a hundred kilometres East of Tuzanor. She stated it would be a three day leisure trip to break the training.

On the last day of their leisure trip, Renati explained they would do a practice reconnaissance mission.
She divided them into 2 groups: 1 group of 8 and another group of 10.

In the group of 8, four of them carried red scarves. They needed to bring those scarves, which symbolised classified information, to a checkpoint while they were being hunted by the other 10.

Bonus points were awarded to each team for inventiveness and good judgment. All recruits had sufficient time to prepare for the 'excursion' and got to choose what they would bring along.

The scarf team was dropped off in front of the mountains, so they had 3 choices: the hard road through the mountains, the longer but safer road along the river or the open road near the fields.
These fields contained Minbari fruits that grew like the Humans grow grapes, with levels in between.
The scarf team had a 30 minute lead on the pursuers' team.

They decided to split up into 2 groups: a group of two went over the mountains and the other of six went along side the river.

Next, the pursuers' team was dropped.
Renati had them dropped at strategically valuable positions and she had given one of them a stun gun, just to make it interesting.

Three were dropped at the end of the river, 2 at the end of the fields, another two in the centre of the fields near the mountains and the last three (along with the guy with the stun gun) on the starting position of the scarf team.

Renati would keep an eye on things from a small transport ship when necessary, but had placed some beacons to avoid flight but ensure complete control of the situation.

To her dismay, she concluded the Humans were not up to this type of mission yet, at all.

None of them had thought about bringing extra food or a blanket and nightfall arrived. They had estimated it would take half a day to hike the 40km parcours. One can do that in half a day on a flat field, but not when going through the mountains.

Misjudgement number one.

Nights on Minbar were generally cold, as it was the only time that all 3 suns did not hit the surface, so most of the Humans would be really cold that night.

The Scarves team at the river used their common body heat to warm each other along with sleeping in some holes they had dug in the ground to be out of the wind.

The other scarf team in the mountains had found shelter in a cave that held a pleasant temperature of 12 degrees. How inventive of them!

The two persuaders that had been dropped off at the centre of the fields, had crossed the mountains. At nightfall, they also made use of their body heat because they didn't bring a lighter.
They did however have binoculars and saw in the distance that one of their companion teams had lit a fire to warm themselves. They would attempt to join with them the next day.

The last team didn't have any provisions left and was freezing to death, so Renati disqualified them to keep them from getting any sicker. After reluctantly picking them up with her flyer, she returned them to Tuzanor, where they were treated for hypothermia.

Some of them begun to realise that this mission might not end at the next dusk – or dawn for that matter.
"We will have to ration", Tristan said to Trisha. She agreed.

The next morning the scarf team in the mountains, Trisha and Tristan, had got up at 4 o'clock, first sunrise, to outrun the others.
Trisha unfortunately had sprained her ankle the day before and was in a bad condition to cross the mountains. However, she kept going.

They found the other team sleeping between some rocks and decided to efficiently get rid of their competition. Trisha took off her bandages and handed them to Tristan who tied their opponents together before continuing their journey.

They now had binoculars!

Tristan noticed the two enemy camps at either side of their fellow scarf mates, who apparently had had the same idea as them of getting up early.
Trisha signalled the exact numbers and location to the others and agreed to meet up in the mountains.

In the meantime Renati had retrieved the two infiltrators who were bound together to keep them from hypothermia as well.
The mission was not going to her liking.

As the trip progressed, Trisha was becoming more and more of a nuisance to the group, she was holding them back. So she decided she would give her scarf to her companion and leave the group in order for them to get to the meeting point alive and with all scarves. She was picked up by Renati as well when the time was right.

When the 7 scarves arrived at the meeting point, they noticed they had entirely outsmarted the others, as they were collected on the far other side of the field and hadn't even noticed them yet. They were greeted by Renati who congratulated them as a team.

"There are blankets, tea and most of all warmth inside the transport ship. Help yourselves to it", she explained, eager to return to base.

The welcome the persuaders team got was a little less pleasant. When they finally arrived half an hour later, Renati gave them a piece of her mind.

"What was that?", she asked in disbelief.

The recruits knew they had screwed up, but apparently the situation was worse than they thought.
"If I were a Centauri general and you were my soldiers I would have you hung from a pole and picked on by birds for stupidity!", she bellowed and paused to look at their shocked faces.

"Lucky for you, I am a merciful Minbari. Now get in the ship!"

Her disappointed eyes followed William who was in the assaulter's team. She had expected more from him. What was she thinking? She had expected more from every one of them. If it wouldn't have been for her intervention, the Human race would be 8 Humans short.

Pathetic.

Renati did not know there had been a small ruffle between William and Patrick, who carried the stun gun. Patrick's ego had been the main reason for the failure of the trip, but William was not one to sell out a fellow comrade.

The full punishment would follow the next day. For now, they were escorted into a different compartment to the others, where they found 2 of their team mates still tied together. Arguments soon sprouted amongst the human recruits.

Renati announced her return to Anla'Shok Na, but he was on mission off world. His advisor, Rathenn, however welcomed Renati back to the base and congratulated her on returning with all Humans.
"You have no idea how tempting it was", she commented before retreating to her quarters.