This Isn't Fight Club, Pt. 2
Posted on Thu Jan 1st, 2026 @ 12:46am by Commander Rhupert Tyree & Lieutenant Katya Davi
1,583 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
On the Trail
Location: SS. Adealide. Cargo Bay 2
Timeline: At some point.
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.
Reaching down with his left hand, Rhu braced, then began pummeling Kat with strikes, trying to concentrate on her head and shoulders.
Letting go of his leg, she kicked him with both feet to get him off her long enough to roll to her feet.
Rhu sensed her intent, avoiding most of Kat's kickout. Then attempted to oversell his own intent of bull-rushing with a knee strike toward where he thought she should be.
Instead, he bent to touch both hands to the mat and went for a leg tackle, deciding on a grapple of his own.
Reading what he intended to do was getting easier as they practiced. Knowing how best to counter it wasn't. She decided to cheat. Her thoughts went to a recent burlesque video she recorded. No face or hair to give her away. Just the feathers and a bare thigh from the view of the audience. Then, without thinking about it, she ran at him for a football tackle.
Rhu caught her projection and grinned. She was learning and if he hadn't been suspecting her to cheat, he might have hesitated. Instead, he projected a little cheat of his own. A half remembered dream of two bodies entwined in the dark. The dream had had audio, which is what had been the most distracting at the time.
Both he and Kat slammed together, the pads lessening the shock of impact as they thudded to the deck and they both sought leverage. "Feathers?" Rhu grunted out as he tried for a pin.
"Mid 20th Century Burlesque," she replied, awkwardly evading his pin. She tried to take advantage of the opportunity to go in again to take him down. She knew that if she didn't, he'd pin her.
Rhu tried to tuck his shoulder and roll, attempting to get her shoulders to the mat and put too much pressure on his foot, which skidded instead of giving him purchase, leaving himself open as he attempted to bridge-up, all the while pushing the thought that his intent was to force Kat onto her stomach where he could transition into a choke hold.
She immediately went in with a knee and a fist to take Rhu down while she had the opportunity. This time, she let her training take control while she thought more about the videos she'd been watching of her burlesque routine--making very certain nothing would indicate that she was the dancer. That would be far too embarrassing.
Rhu grunted as her knee caught his groin and her fist found his jaw. The padding took the brunt, but they were take down blows so he played the good bad guy and flopped onto his back. "Uncle," he said. Then, "Lights up one third," this was sub-vocalized as he monitored his breathing and heart for a few beats. Around them, the lighting in the converted cargo area came up slowly, letting their eyes adjust.
"I'm glad you're wearing padding this time," she said after she caught her breath. "Although, if you hadn't slipped, I'd be the one on the ground." She would have to come up with better mental distractions, though...and not more videos of her rehearsals. The last thing she wanted was Rhu to be curious enough to go looking for them and find the ones from before she figured out the best use of her fans. On second thought, she should move them before anyone ran across them by accident. Which still left her needing to come up with better mental distractions to keep her thoughts from being picked up by a telepath. Mud wrestling might be worth exploring.
He felt her shielding flickering as she thought through things and he sat up, unwrapping his hands and pulling his helmet, "You're on the right track. Good fight," he commented. "Next thing we incorporate is how to distract people without using personal information or things that could give you away. Which can be used against telepaths and non-telepaths alike." He pushed the idea of telepathic white noise at her.
She got the point, and it made sense. "But then I have it in my head, and it's distracting." As a counter, she sent him a rapid series of images that had no context or pattern to them to see if that worked. She would have to be more careful in the future to make sure any images she sent were generic enough so no one would think they were of or about her.
Rhu considered for a few seconds, decided she was ready and said, "This is on a need to know and only you and I need to know about it aboard Adelaide and Valiant. The Fleet, Federation and the President don't need to know, so it's compartmentalized. With the gloves off, he reached out and placed a hand on Kats. The white noise he'd sent at her changed slightly and the telepathic energy he projected sharpened till something like an icy, jagged edge touched in her mind and up and down her nervous system.
Then he backed off and moved to untie his legging support. "There are a few Betazoids taking training further as far as how we use our abilities. More overt than covert. More...active than passive. It generally requires touch, but when you're in hand to hand it's thought to be a force-multiplier. Not even many on Betazed know it's being...explored."
She took a moment to process what he said. "I can see why. So, it starts with white noise and then...sharpens and becomes more focused. Right?" She could do that, with a more practice. She wondered if that same trick could work with other emotions. "Yes. It definitely needs to be explored." She turned her attention to getting out of her padding.
Finishing with his pads, he leaned back grabbing a squeeze bag of bug juice and took a long pull. "It's kinda like getting a sharp shock that will cause someone to blink. Just for a second. After that, they'll know something happened and shut down. So far, it seems to only work maybe once in a fight with someone. Another reason for doing this in crowded areas is to help obscure who might be doing what. For sparring, I'd request you practice on me...and in a fight as a last resort or when you can't be immediately accused."
He met her eyes, winked then lay back and stared up at the ceiling. "There's also a risk that you open yourself up as a conduit to another telepath. It's kinda like activating a cloaking device in that your shields blink."
"If I was going to practice on you, it wouldn't be that way," she teased, flashing him a grin. "But I get the point. I need to learn, and I need to not use it except when absolutely necessary." But first came the learning. And see if she could find a way to block it as well. If there was a way to do so. She liked the idea of a mental strobe, though. "Blocking..." She finished removing her pads, grabbed a juice, and sat on the mat to stretch.
"Torture works," Rhu said playfully as he rolled himself into a handstand, did a half-dozen wavering pushups, then did even more wavering twists at the waist as he moved his legs about testing his balance and stretching out his upper body. After a few calisthenics moves, he moved back to doing four one handed, hand-stand pushups, then came to his feet and retrieved his towel. Sweat slicked his skin and he shook his head. "My instructor suggested you picture yourself as the wind around a candle flame, trying to coax that flame to give up."
"So, be a mental blow-hard," Kat said, chuckling. "I can work on that." She finished stretching on the mat and stood, raising one leg over her head, then the other. She hadn't worked out in a few days and it felt good. She did a backward handstand and stretched her legs out to the side, then rolled to a split. It was not as impressive as a one-handed push-up, but she didn't pretend to have the strength Rhu did. Her moves were geared more to dancing than fighting. "I'll do better next time."
"You're doing fine," Rhu reassured her as he admired her form. "This is not a race. Everything happens in its own time and at your pace. You're interested and trying. I can't ask more than that and you shouldn't give yourself a hard time over it. This is the way."
She nodded, taking in his words. "I know, but I also know I can do better." She gave him a rueful smile. It was one of the reasons she practiced so much after everyone went to sleep.
She stretched. "Thank you. So, when do we do this again?"
END
A joint post by:
Commander Rhupert 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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