This Isn't Fight Club - Pt. 1
Posted on Thu Jan 1st, 2026 @ 12:46am by Commander Rhupert Tyree & Lieutenant Katya Davi
1,596 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Post Cards from Past
Location: SS. Adealide. Cargo Bay 2
Timeline: At some point.
Katya finished the repair and stretched before pausing to listen to the sound of the newly-repaired conduit. Then her PADD chimed. It was time for another training session with Rhu. She was getting better at coordinating her telepathy with the Betazoid martial arts, but she still had a ways to go before she felt truly competent.
She put her tools away, changed to more comfortable clothes, and headed to meet the captain.
With a little more room aboard the Adelaide, Rhu had gotten his security chief to set up one of the smaller cargo bay into a sparring and workout area for the crew. He wiped down the mats, set the temperatures, adjusted the lights then laughed at himself.
It was kinda like setting up for a date.
He'd changed into a light blue, compression shorts with looser gym shorts in a darker blue and a muscle mapping anti-rash white shirt. Rhu dropped two pad-kits into opposite corners, then began stretching slowly, warming up while he ordered his mind.
Kat had chosen snug-fitting biker shorts and a tank top with a llama sticking its tongue out for both comfort and because the llama made her smile. She dressed to move and fall as she would do a lot of that today. But she was slowly getting better. She was also getting better at reading other thoughts and shielding her own, allowing only what she wanted to be read. That was because she needed to use telepathy as part of her training. But some of her thoughts were better kept to herself. It was something that still embarrassed her. At least he hadn't seen her dancing videos.
She walked into the cargo bay and smiled. "Hi."
Rhu settled himself down upon the mat, switching to a cross-legged position. A light sweat having formed from doing handstand pushups. "Hey there," he said as he leaned back on his palms, slowly rolling his shoulders. "Nice llama," he added with a grin.
Kat grinned back. "Sometimes, you just have to make a statement." She dropped onto the mat to begin her warmup routine. She'd done some stretches while she was working, but she wanted to make sure she took care of the rest before finding out how she was going to fall this time.
Rhu caught a few stray thoughts, and decided to mess with her just a little. "You're apprehensive. You know the only really hard thing about this training is the floor. And sometimes the walls."
"Sometimes the walls precede the floor, which doubles the...fun." But his comment did make her laugh. "Especially in my case. But there are mats, and massage, so it's all good." Then her smile turned provocative. "But maybe today will be your turn to hit the mat."
"What you lack in confidence, you make up for in stamina," Rhu said as he watched her. "After that, it's all muscle memory. And being Betezoidian, you're learning to use your mental gifts in concert. Once you're used to it, you'll find combat slows down a little, subjectively. At least when fighting non-telepaths."
Grinning then he said, "You know. In the best traditions of the BDF, we're going to have to get in some bar fights at random ports of call for training purposes."
She raised an eyebrow. "Why bar fights?"
"Sparring isn't fighting," Rhu said as he pushed himself up onto his feet and began jogging in place. "Even full contact isn't the same. Species think differently and it's valuable to learn how to sift those differences into dross and focus on intent and menace."
"Then there's the chaos of a brawl," he grinned. "No holodeck can replicate all that for us."
"That makes sense." She didn't feel ready for it, but then, she wasn't sure that she would until she actually got through her first fight. Something about the devil you know? She went through a series of stretches on the mat.
Rhu gave them a few minutes, then moved over to begin strapping on the pads he'd brought, watching Kat critically. He mostly had his in place and walked over to the set he'd brought for Katya
"You ready for a little hands on?" he asked with a grin.
She looked at the pads, then at Rhu and grinned back. "Yes." She looked over the pads to assess them and how they were worn.
Rhu finished tightening his wrist strap with his teeth, then moved to help Katya. The gloves padded the knuckles, back and palms of the hands and wrapped the wrists to support them, all leaving the fingers free. Picking up the padded thigh length tunic, he held it open for her. "First the actual armored gambeson, then the padded booties and gloves. Then the helmet," he instructed.
She nodded as she slipped into the tunic and fastened it. The padded booties were easy enough, but she needed a little help with the gloves. She'd do better as they went along. She did a couple of dance moves to see how they fit and nodded again. "Okay. I think I'm good."
Rhu stepped beside her for a moment and said, "Ok, let’s work through some of the kata to warm up and work on muscle memory. A question, how's your range with picking up a person's surface thoughts. Not being able to read, but when you're aware of them being around?"
"I'm not sure...It depends on mental noise and interference..." She paused for a moment. "If I'm paying attention, I can sense the people on the ship--as long as I'm not masking them. Maybe 500 meters? When we're on a planet or station, I'll pay more attention."
Rhu picked up the pace slightly and asked, "Next question to go along with that is how easy is it to sense their intent, most beings project when they get excited. Even trained telepaths: and then their intent can slip past to surface thoughts." He kept his tone even but a slight bit of amusement crept into his tone. "Fighting. Sex. Things tend to slip past and paying attention to that is a cornerstone of N'ral." His lips twisted into more of a smile as he said, "Interestingly, N'ral can make both better.."
"I'll have to take your word for that," she replied cheekily. Then she focused on his question. "I notice, but I don't know how to quantify how easy it is because I don't consciously pay attention to it. It's just...there. Loud or soft depends on focus--theirs and mine." And now she was going to be paying attention to how often she actually noticed. At least she'd been practicing shielding her own thoughts.
Nodding as he finished helping her with the pads, Rhu stepped back and then began bouncing on the balls of his feet again. "Yeah. Typical Fleet narrow mindedness when it comes to telepaths. Betazed learned that lesson the hard way. That's why we train in crowds. You'll want to sift through them looking for ill-intent. Most people wear that kind of thing on their sleeves the closer to the event they get. There are some stories about Betazoid intel telling the Federation oversight committee on telepaths to get bent."
Kat nodded as she followed his lead. "That explains why I haven't heard of this before. And it makes sense. Not good sense, but sense." She'd met enough people who had an unwarranted paranoia about telepaths to understand. She began to bounce on her toes as well, continuing her warmups. While she did, she stretched out her telepathic awareness to exercise that as well. She needed to be prepared for whatever Rhu had planned for this training session.
Grinning, Rhu said, "Well. I think we're about ready." At that command phrase prompt, the lights in the training room blacked out and he swept a slow kick toward Kat's head.
It was slow enough that she was able to sense his intent--or what she thought he intended. She tightened her shields and thought of her last dance recording as she went low and plowed into his side to knock him off balance. She didn't wait to see his reaction, spinning out of his reach and silently squatting down, her hands on the mat, ready to react to his next move.
Taking the push, Rhu tumbled and popped back onto his feet. Not hearing or sensing movement, he decided she went to ground or was holding so he took two steps forward and launched a general kick, where he thought she might be. It would likely be some cat and mouse and he pushed his thoughts out, searching for her intent.
Kat thought about what she would like to do, which was kick the leg he was standing on to knock him off balance. But even as she did so, she launched herself forward and up, coming under his leg and lifting up to knock him backwards.
When Kat moved to knock him off his feet, Rhu caught her intent as she launched. He jumped, getting his planted foot off the mat and bringing his other down, attempting a heel strike.
It was partly successful. Kat rolled away, but his heel caught her in the kidneys, knocking her flat for a moment. Then she rolled over and wrapped herself around his leg to trip him up.
A joint post by:
Commander Rupert Tyree
Master and Commander,
USS Valiant, aboard the SS. Adelaide.
Lieutenant Katya Davi
Chief Operations Officer
USS Valiant, aboard the SS Adelaide
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