Rematch as promised...

Posted on 12 Apr 2012 @ 4:44pm by Tarishiana Barel & Captain Jonathan Holliday

2,176 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: Holodeck 1 - USS Galileo
Timeline: MD 02 - 1800 hrs

[ON]

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Tarishiana was once again clad in her usual holodeck attire. Granted the color of this dress was a pale green instead of the white she had worn last time. That dress was still in disrepair. There was a little bounce in her step at she approached the holodeck to find John just arriving as well. She grinned a slightly devious smile prior to speaking, "You ready to make me dinner?" She leaned against the panel as she awaited his response.

John had been waiting for this opportunity for a while now, in fact, he was rather desperate to get his own back after the rather unexpected defeat he had suffered at the hands of his colleague only a few days ago. This time he had decided, he was not going to hold back.

"Depends Miss Barel, have you discovered some kind of parallel universe where I don't kick your butt in about 5 minutes time? You best be ready with that replicator" John replied with a smirk of his own, before reaching over her head to enter a few commands into the control panel; the standard combat program that he had so humiliatingly lost at earlier on.

Tarishiana's grin widened as she pushed off the wall. Within a few steps she was in the familiar holoprogram. The twinge of adrenaline was already beginning to move though her system as the impending match approached. With a roll of her shoulders she approached the weapons table at her end of the holodeck.

With a sudden turn Tarishiana eyes John both appreciatively and strategically. "Are we going for a full rematch including weapons...or do you want to see if maybe you can beat me unarmed?" She couldn't help but sound a little cocky.

"Usually I'd say lady's choice, but after last time, I think I'm gonna avoid slicing through any more of your outfits, apparently that never sits well. Computer remove combat weapon options"

As he called out, the various weapons and their associated tables and racks swiftly disappeared back into nothing more than photons, fizzling out of existence as if they had never been there at all.

Tarishiana laughed slightly as she kicked off her shoes and moved into the sparring ring. "Hand to hand it is." She grinned as she stretched both arms across her chest one at a time. She pulled on her shoulder to loosen up her back some before the match. "Whenever you are ready...Sir"

"I was born ready Warrant Officer!" John took note of the inflection in her last sentence, she knew exactly which buttons to press in order to get a response out of him, and it was working. He had to remember however, after last time, not to allow himself to get overly confident, just because he had advantages in raw strength and size, didn't necessarily mean he would come out on top. Plus, his relationship with the replicator usually consisted of coffee and ration packs, at least after the last few days, finding time to eat had been rather....superfluous.

Grinning to his opponent, John quickly traversed the few paces in between them and let loose with a punch aimed straight towards Barel's jaw, he had no intention of holding back this time, she would either dodge or deflect his hit, or take a blow to the face like any good opponent should!

Tarishiana saw the punch coming and easily threw her arm up to block. The movement was easy the actual block wasn't. As her arm moved up her upper body moved off to the side as she threw up an extra arm to deflect the hard attack. A knowing smile crossed her lips as she realized he wasn't taking it easy on her this time.

Tarishiana pushed against his arms throwing him off balance slightly as she threw a punch of her own. Her target had been his solar plexus.

John was glad to see that this was going to be a free fight, no restrictions or rules against one's choice of moves, that said, he was less than impresssed to see his fist come into contact with nothing more than a forearm block, certainly not the target he had aimed for. In fact, before he could contemplate anything further, he had to deal with a counterassault, his stomach tightening as his eyes focused on the incoming fist, aiming straight to knock the wind out of his sails.

Recovering from his first attack failure, John used his opposite arm to drive down into the incoming punch from Barel, enough to prevent her from hitting his stomach at the very least. Watching as her arm missed, he quickly turned his arm around and sent a sharp elbow towards her midsection before stepping back a few paces to get out of counterattack range.

"Come on Chief, you'll have to do better than that, I told ya, I've had my coffee this morning!" He goaded, waiting for her own attack to come back towards him.

Tarishiana saw the impact before she actually felt the elbow come in contact with her midsection. She had tightened her muscles before impact lessening the amount of air lost. She watched his goading with a grin before she attacked again.

Throwing a punch as a ruse Tarishiana's hand came in contact with John's shoulder as her unseen foot made contact with the back of his legs. She pressed down against the Commander's shoulder as she knocked him off balance.

There wasn't a huge amount John could do to prevent the inevitable, with the extra pressure on his shoulder, the Commander had no choice but to let gravity take its toll and drag him down to the mat. It seemed to take an age for him to fall, as if he were in slow motion, the holodeck ceiling slowly becoming more and more visible to him as he tilted backwards, before he finally felt the tell-tale shock of the floor matting and his back becoming very closely aquainted. He grunted with effort as the wind was knocked straight out of his chest, his mouth gasping wide to catch his breath as he became aware of the position he was now in.

With his Science officer firmly positioned above him, John wrapped his arm around her exposed neck, and placing his other hand under her armpit, he quickly flipped her over his head, until she came to land firmly opposite him flat on her back. It had relieved the pressure on his chest, but he was still having to fight to get his breath back.

"Not...not bad....you must really want your dinner Barel..." he panted.

Tarishiana had seen her mistake but couldn't do anything about is as she felt her lower body leave the ground. She slammed into the ground not far from where John had landed and felt the air pressed from her lungs simply from the force. "I just...enjoy beating you." She started as she pressed herself off the floor and moved to a partially standing position as her hands rested on her knees. "You making me dinner is just an added bonus." She extended her hand to offer her assistance.

Slowly, the commander managed to find his breath again, and felt much better for it. Looking up at the hand above him, he was not going to be arrogant enough to decline it, taking a strong grip of her wrist and forearm and using the leverage to heave himself free of the floor.

"You haven't...had the chance to taste my cooking yet...you might not feel the same aftewards" He chuckled, wiping the perspiration from his forehead as he planned his next move.

Tarishiana let out a laugh as she took a few steps back. She couldn't help but look over Holliday for a moment. "Whatever you say Commander." she started with a taunt. "I have no intention of going easy on you...like last time." she was hoping that last little bit would spur him into attacking if not she had another trick up her sleeve.

"If I remember, last time you stuck your hand in my brain with your telepathy and damn near crippled me....if that's going easy I'd hate to see you in a bad mood!"

John had no intention of being caught out like that again, all Starfleet officers went through a degree of conditioning to resist some levels of mind control, but unfortunately a full blooded member of any telepathic species usually has enough practice to get through those defences. Intelligence operatives were a different matter, but that wasn't John, he didn't enjoy sneaking around in the shadows.
Taking in a deep breath, John launched himself across the mat, aiming a fist at her midsection to see what response, if any, it would generate.

Tarishiana's next move was the beginning of her mistakes. She sidestepped the initial attack but her instinct was to move the wrong direction. Instead of making contact with his extended fist Tarishiana collided with the mass of Holliday's body. The force was enough to send her off balance. Her next mistake was getting tangled up against John as she began to fall. His forward momentum was enough to send her colliding with the floor where she had just been standing. She felt the air rush out of her lungs from the impact with the mat.

Damn... Tarishiana thought to herself as her lungs pulled hard to return the oxygen that has been so suddenly robbed from them.

John was rather glad that he had at least managed to avoid doing too much serious damage to himself in that last assault, and was even more surprised to find that his opponent had made such a basic mistake and ended up in a much worse position that he had ever intended her to be from a single lunge. Hauling himself back to his feet, this time it was John who had the honour of putting our his hand to help their science officer to her feet.

"Not like you to make a mistake like that...everything ok with you Miss Barel?"

"Even the best of fighters lose eventually." Tarishiana said with a grin as she took the offered hand and rose to her feet. "Besides if I never let you get a hit in every now again you won't want to play with me any more." she gave him a mischievous grin as she moved across the mat. "Shall we go again or would you prefer to end on a high note?"

"Depends, have I won my dinner or do I need to knock ya down again?" John replied with a grin on his face. It was true that by now he was starting to get a little tired out, and would have welcomed nothing better than a respite and the chance to get himself off to bed, but he wasn't going to let himself lose that easily, after all, he had his own reputation and dignity to look out for.

"I will honor our agreement." Tarishiana said with a grin as she stretched her now sore shoulders. "However, I won't be able to do it this evening." She gave him an apologetic grin. "My time has been previous reserved by Commander Remmington." She finished with a grin. "But I assure you I will repay you."

"Ahhh a date after a fight huh? Well, I'm sure our dear Ops officer knows what he's let himself in for if he gets the menu wrong."

John laughed as he rubbed his back, that last impact had jarred him a little, nothing serious enough to warrant a visit to sickbay, but enough to make him think twice about making the same mistake again next time they fought.

"It isn't a date." Tarishiana said with a slightly shake of her head as she moved off the mat. "Simply a dinner among friends." She grinned up at him. "Unlike most Betazoids I am fairly low maintenance." She called for the end of the program. "Perhaps tomorrow I will make you dinner or lunch...Depending on your schedule."

"I'm sure I can fit you into my busy life in between Bridge duty and writing reports...its all go in the XO's schedule!" John smirked to himself as he headed out towards the holodeck doors.

"Good match Tarish....enjoy your date" He grinned as he turned his head back towards his opponent. Whatever she had said it was, John was a sucker for taking the mick out of anyone he thought might be strong enough to take it.

In a very childish but very fitting to her personality Tarishiana stuck her tongue out in response to the taunt. "That's it...I am bring you peanut butter and jelly." She let out a laugh as she watched him leave as she shook her head slightly. "Enjoy your paperwork Commander"

--
[OFF]


LtCDR John Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

MWO Tarishiana Barel
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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