Crash, Bang, Wallop
Posted on 03 Apr 2016 @ 10:00pm by Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Ensign Miraj Derani
Edited on on 07 Apr 2016 @ 7:09pm
1,678 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: USS Galileo - Cargo Bay
Timeline: MD 92 1630
[ON]
Miraj arrived in the cargo bay wearing baggy grey sweats and a baggy black vest with a white skull and crossbones on the front, feeling very apprehensive. It had taken Caleb Stillinski and Caelin fifty hours between them to get her through basic combat training. She wasn't sure what the bajorran security officer could do to improve on that. As her brother was fond of saying, you couldn't polish a turd.
"Lieutenant Benice? Are you here?" she asked out loud, not seeing anyone in the cargo bay.
"I'm here," Gyce called from the middle of the room.
She had used anti-grav lifts to move crates around so that she could place a blue crash mat on the floor. A rubber dummy slotted on a swinging pole, which was placed in the middle of the mat. Gyce herself, was pulling off her shoes and socks just inches from the mat.
The outfit the Bajoran worn was akin to a Kung Fu uniform, but had a more simplistic tunic with only a frog at the top to either close or open the collar of the black shirt.
"I'm guessing your classes were one-on-one scenarios against other students, correct?" Gyce asked the pilot as she stood up stiffly and limped heavily to the dummy. It was time to take another pill, but she purposefully failed to so in order to make a point - That anyone could learn to defend themselves.
Miraj watched Benice limp around with a frown, her orbital arches drawn tight and shadowing her eyes, not sure she should be asking for PT training from someone who looked like they needed to sit down. "Yes, ma'am. Most of them were bigger than me, and if not, they were stronger. You know, Vulcans, Andorians."
Gyce nodded at that, and punched with her whole body at the dummy. Only once and enough so Miraj could see the dummy sway left and right on its axis. The rubber arms were angled so, that if you hit one arm, you immediately had to block from the other side or else get swiped in the head.
"This dummy's purpose is to teach you defense," Gyce told the ensign. "But in order to do that, you must learn to hit correctly... Which depending on the martial art form and your personal strengths, the way to hold your hand varies."
Gyce demonstrated by first balling a fist and just using the strength in her arm to jab the face part of the dummy before she jumped back out of the range of it's swaying arms.
"A straight shot to the forehead with just the fist requires great strength in just the arms themselves. A brute force style of fighting where you hit hard and first so that your opponent will not strike back," Gyce explained. "I had to do several hours of strength training to compensate for a bad leg, in my younger years. In doing so, this was the style and philosophy of fighting I had to use... until recently."
"What happened recently? " Miraj asked before the part of her brain that governed tact and diplomacy could react.
"I have nerve damage from something that happened during the Occupation," Gyce explained simply. "I take an experimental drug that takes the edge off and allows me to have a more normal quality of life... And now that my right leg is strong enough, I've been working on a more agile and defensive way of fighting."
"Oh," Miraj said, relieved that she at least hadn't forced the bajoran to bring up some sort of fresh torture, and that she wasn't going to make the bad leg any worse. "Agile and defensive sounds good. Even on my best day I don't think I could brute force my way past a geriatric ferengi, let alone an actual threat."
"First you must learn to hit properly," Gyce smiled. "One can't find a style until the basics are mastered. And I showed you the way brutes punch. now I'm going to show you how someone agile punches."
Gyce made the same balled-up fist and instead of just punching with her left fist, she brought her whole left side into the punch as she made contact with the dummy's neck, making a massive smacking sound on the dummy. Gyce ducked the swinging arms and stepped back instantly.
"Jabbing is difficult with this tactic, for you're using your body to generate the power in your fist. One could argue you generate more force from your body, than someone just using their arm and fist," Gyce explained. "But you are also fighting from your strongest side, which makes you a smaller and more difficult target to hit back."
Miraj had flinched at the sound that echoed around the cargo bay, and then watched wide eyed as the limping bajorran dodged aside with grace and speed. Agile and deffensive looked even harder than brute force.
"Sooo," Miraj looked at the rocking dummy. "Make a fist?"
"Yes. You want to make sure the knuckles are straight upon impact," Gyce explained as she gently balled Miraj's fist properly. "Keep your wrist locked, else you will hurt your hand."
"Knuckles straight, wrist locked," Miraj repeated, as Gyce folded her fingers up and kept her thumb outside. "Then what?"
"Then you strike at open, key areas that will disable someone," Gyce explained as she pointed to the neck, groin, shins, stomach, and temples of the dummy. "Best to strike the higher areas for now. We'll work on kicking techniques more appropriate for the lower areas, once you've gotten adept at punching."
"Higher areas, higher areas," Miraj mutterd to herself, wound up, and swung for the dummy. Her fist connected with the jaw with a meaty crack, and she gave a squeal as pain erupted through her knuckles. She forgot totally about the dummy's ability to swing back like a quintain and the squeal was cut off as the swinging arm whooshed around and backhanded her in the side of her face.
The half-breed stumbled sideways, crashed onto her knees and then keeled over.
"Might be best to jump back real quick, after punching," Gyce noted with a small chortle, and offered Miraj a hand. "But that was a good attempt, all the same."
The conn officer took Benice's outstretched hand, and got to her feet, wincing at the stinging in her face. It was going red. But she gave a huff of determination, squared her shoulders, balled up her left fist, and went again.
This time she got the blow off and dodged back just in time. "Woot!" she gave an air punch as the return swing whisteled past her. "Got you that-" The momentum on the dummy took it all the way to the far end of its rotation, and then it snapped back, and got her on the same side of the face as before.
She hit the mats again and looked up at Gyce. "Ow."
"Might need to jump back a bit further the next time," Gyce laughed lightly before she offered Miraj another hand. "But that's a great punch, all the same."
Miraj got to her feet, unsteadily. Her face was really beginning to throb. "Maybe I should just start with something that won't hit back?"
"This dummy cannot damage you very much," Gyce explained. "That's actually a good thing, until you learn to dodge and evade."
"Tell that to my face," Miraj touched the beginnings of what would be an exemplary shiner, and winced. Then she brought her balled fists up again, and bounced on the balls of her feet with more confidence than she felt. "Okay. Go again?"
"You must fall before you can rise up," Gyce told Miraj. "Just keep jabbing and dodging."
"Falling's the easy part." And Miraj stepped forward again, and got smacked again, but this time, she was moving back, and it was only a clip, which stung but she kept her feet and threw herself out of the path of the return swing with time to spare.
Again and again, left then right, she kept going, until she was slick with sweat from head to toe, and managed to dodge at least twice out of every three goes. She'd taken several more to the face, but more to the arms as she had blocked and they were beginning to ache. She'd be stiff with bruises if she didn't get to a regnerator once this was done.
"Better?" She asked Gyce, hoping for the bajorran's woman's approval.
"For a beginner, yes." Gyce gave Miraj an approving smile. Then she stepped up to the dummy and made her own demonstration.
Gyce impacted the dummy's face with the palm of her left hand, then immediately ducked low and into swept high and left to block the incoming right arm of the dummy.
She was sluggish as her right leg began to interfere, but she grit her teeth and finished the display by rolling behind the dummy and kicking up and into the small of the dummy's back. Then Gyce rolled hard and right to avoid the fast-approaching rebound of the dummy.
All-in-all, it took a matter of seconds to show Miraj. And also to prove that determination was a key fact in surviving a fight stacked against you.
"You'll be doing this, end-of-month," Gyce explained and caught her breath as she stood and limped to her gym bag. It was time to take another pill to dull her pain. "Two sessions a week with me... plus an hour a day on a hanging bag in your quarters, I'm thinking."
Miraj gaped at the impressive display of agility and violence. "I don't think I'll ever be that good," she said wistfully.
"Not at first, no." Gyce admitted. "You'll get faster and stronger as you gain more confidence with yourself."
"Well, if you're wrong, you can explain my face to the doctors," Miraj laughed.
[OFF]
Lieutenant JG Benice Gyce
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Galileo
Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo
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