Harder Better Faster Stronger I

Posted on 02 Jun 2013 @ 4:42am by

2,009 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: LTjg Maenad Panne's quarters
Timeline: MD10 0600 Hours

ON:

Maenad smiled, looking around the room. He was right, she realised. A pang of guilt struck her for not having noticed. "I'm sorry," she put her hand on her chest. "I didn't--" she paused. "Thank you," she smiled affably, blinking. He had done it before; every time Liyar came over he started cleaning the place. At first she found it irritating, but now she thought it was adorable. She looked around and saw the glint of the polished piano. "You even polished my..." she trailed off. "Liyar," she exclaimed. Then she tilted her head somewhat; he wanted to train. She didn't really want to, but she had nothing else to do. "If we do, can we do it here?" she asked him.

Liyar approached her and inclined his head. Fortunately there was a big enough space between the piano and the wall that it wasn't necessarily a problem. "Affirmative," he answered her, then looked toward her bedroom. "You should go and change. I do not believe that a blanket is conducive to exercise."

She held her ground, sticking out her chin, lips pressed. A smile formed at the corners of her mouth that any human would have recognised as something flirtatious. She slowly blinked, bringing one of her hands up to move the blanket from her shoulders, and it fell to the arm that held it together over her chest. "All right," she complained. Maenad watched him for a moment longer, then went into her bedroom to change. A few minutes later, she came back in a form-fitting white t-shirt and black exercise pants. "What are we going to do this morning, Mister Liyar?" she asked him, hands clasped behind her back, inflecting her voice with this morning.

Liyar watched her leave, stretching and refolding his fingers in front of him in seeming casualness. He walked over to the replicator and replicated some of the props he would be using, creating today's 'lesson' in the span of a few seconds at the top of his head. When she returned, he led them both into the center of the room and guided her to sit down across from him. "I apologize that I have been lax in continuing these sessions. I do still believe it is a prudent necessity. But, for right now," he held out both of his hands just below his crossed legs in invitation. "What you would call a warm-up. Clear your mind and try to relax your muscles. Let go of the tension in each muscle group. You can tense and then relax. Like a fist." He demonstrated his outstretched hand, contracting into a fist and letting it go.

She sat down, cross-legged, like she was told. With closed eyes, Maenad listened to the sound of his voice. She didn't understand the purpose of an exercise like this; why did she have to clear her mind if they were just exercising? She idly hoped that he wasn't planning a lesson in meditation. "You don't need to apologise," she said softly. She opened her eyes. "We've both been very busy."

"I am not planning to teach you to meditate," Liyar said, amusement hidden in his tone. "But it is important for you to let go. At least, for now. If you do not, all of these nagging stresses will cloud your focus and your judgment, both of which are required in kheile'a. Like so." He waited until she took his hands and slowly introduced a cord of calm through them, touching without altering, showing her a basis. Self-awareness, awareness in body and most importantly, awareness in mind. In for four. Hold. Out for four. Gradually Liyar could feel that she began to relax and slow down, and after several more minutes he rose to his feet and guided her as well.

She tried her best. Maenad didn't feel particularly stressed or nagging. After a minute of relaxing in the floor, she indicated that she was ready.

"Since we have limited space here, our lesson is going to be practical." He kicked the box he'd replicated lightly and knelt to retrieve the first item, a simple plastic cable tie. He held it out to her. "For today, I will be teaching you how to escape various situations in which you may be restrained. Starting from the most basic," he indicated the cable tie, "to the most complex." He looked down where a pair of ion and GAR restraints sat. He took the cable tie and tugged it down over his wrists which were bent to the side, and used his teeth to tighten the ratchet downward. He made sure she was paying attention before continuing. "This is the simplest and most common method of restraint. Cable ties are typically found on freight loaders, cargo vessels, in engineering scenarios, civilian transport ships, and pirate scouting ships. They are also favored by some militaries for their disposable nature, ease of access and one-time use. The one-time use makes it less likely to transfer diseases or infections. These are normally used to tie together cargo and they are an efficient method of immobilization. You can pull on them, but generally if the person has tightened them well, as you see," he looked down at his hands and wiggled them in the restraints. "The easiest way of course to break out of this type of restraint is by, simply enough, breaking them." He tightened it even further with his teeth. "You want to make sure it is as tight as possible against your wrist, because that will create the tension strength necessary to break the locking mechanism. This does not require a lot of body strength, because the quickness of the motion will create the momentum you need to push through the lock. Once you have them tight," he held his hands up, brought them over his head, then in a quick flash jerked them back down with his elbows at his side as hard as possible, flexing his shoulders back as he did so. The zip tie snapped and hit the ground and he stretched his fingers.

"Liyar," she moaned, tilting her head. There was no way she would ever be able to muster the body strength to break a ziptie like that. Average Vulcans had three times the strongest human's strength, and Maenad wasn't even close to the strongest human. Liyar was probably a stronger than average Vulcan; of course he could snap a flimsy little ziptie. Who did he think she was?

"Relax; and trust yourself," Liyar reminded her. "You remember what we discussed during your last session." He tugged her arm gently and drew her forward until she was resting almost against him, taking her hands in his and securing the cable tie over her wrists, tightening it until they made a pair of makeshift handcuffs. "If you do come face to face with an individual who intends to harm or restrain you, remain calm and passive. Hysteria or aggression will only encourage your attacker to harm you more. Try not to move your hands too much," he tapped her wrist to still its movements. "There. Now you want to move the cable to the space between your wrists, in the center. Like that. Now, tighten it, lift your hands as high as you can and you want to angle your elbow out, so you do not get yourself in the stomach. So you will be bringing your arms down at an angle." He mimicked the movement. "At the same time, you want to almost try and bring your shoulderblades together as your arm comes down, you want both shoulders to flex outward, so as if you could bring them together, but backwards." He showed her the same movement again and then squeezed her hand lightly, stepping back. "You want to do this as hard and quick as possible to use the gravity of your body to break free."

The ties dug into the flesh around her wrists, leaving purplish red lines. She knew this was a waste of time; she would never be able to break from them. She eyed him plaintively, but followed his instructions anyway. After some difficulty, she was able to move the cable to where he wanted it. She didn't think it would work. It relied on strength and body weight combined with speed. She could do the latter, but the two former she was skeptical about. Still, Maenad raised her arms like he told her. "This isn't going to work," she told him. Her shoulder blades stuck out behind her, which meant that her hands were as high as they were going to go. Then, she thrusted them down, arms straight, against her stomach, wrists out, and the next thing she knew her hands were free.

Maenad looked down at herself, unable to believe her own eyes. Two pieces of snapped plastic lay broken by her feet. Her mouth was wide with astonishment, and she raised her eyes to Liyar's. She looked excited. "That was incredible," she laughed. She held out her wrists, which ached from the stress of the plastic, and showed the lines of where it tightened on her skin, but she was more impressed with herself than she was with the distant sting. "I thought I'd never get out of those," she beamed with delight. "Wow," she laughed some more. Maenad examined her wrists again, "Liyar, did you see that?"

"I did," Liyar nodded, and he ran his thumb over the raw marks at her wrist. "You have this confidence inside of you, Maenad. I would like to see you transfer that to these lessons. I assure you, I will never ask you to do something you are incapable of doing." He turned her around against him and captured her hands once more, easy and even amused. "There is, however, another method to escaping, which would happen if you were restrained in this way." He guided her to bend over and hunch her back, then lifted her arms behind her back and pressed them against the hard plane of her tailbone. "Essentially it has the same properties as the last movement, and you want to make certain the zip tie is tight enough to generate enough power to break through the lock. So," he pulled the cable cord down until it was snug against her wristbone. "You want the same motion. The cable in the center, shoulders out, arms up and then using the flat part of your tailbone to provide the strength."

Maenad turned her head over her shoulder to look at him. A sly grin spread across her lips. The back of her thighs were pressed against his, her bottom was in the cradle of his lap. Her shoulders ached from being twisted so awkwardly, and the already tender skin on her wrists hurt with the new bindings. With his hands on the small of her back, she thought that she looked like she was getting dirty dancing lessons. "Liyar," she laughed, but really had nothing to say. "You'll have to let go of me, if this is even going to work." Something about the whole thing, she thought, was weirdly erotic. She didn't mind being tied at the wrists; it could be fun. She stepped away from him a few paces and turned around. "Maybe," her tone was suggestive of something else, "I don't want to get out of these," she almost laughed.

Liyar's eyes had a mischievous glint to them, but to any casual observer he looked perfectly composed. He drew her closer to him, turning her around and placing his forearm over her shoulders like a bar. "Then you would be at the mercy of your captor," he said, a hidden mirth in his voice.

OFF:

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer, SSC
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

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