First Meeting

From TFC Galactopedia

Mariah Kingshot sighed nervously as she looked at the gym complex at Starfleet Academy. The somewhat small Irish setter wore a pair of loose fitting knit workout shorts and a baggy t-shirt, a head band keeping her long flowing hair out of her eyes. While physically fit, Mariah was not at all looking forward to what was to come in the next hour. She had, after all, postponed this till the very last possible time. A wallflower and study addicted as her gorgeous thoroughbred roommate would say, Mariah had dreaded taking the self-defense coarse since day one, mainly because she had no idea exactly what to do in one. She was a medical student after all, not a tactical cadet, she had no want at all to even think about fighting.

Well she thought with a sigh, no use in postponing it any longer… With that, the setter walked through the door with as much composure as she could bring to bare. While that was quite a bit, it was still obvious that she was nervous as she walked into the gym. It was also obvious that the normally quite early setter was in fact, the last one in the class.

“Cadet Kingshot?” a gruff looking cougar announced from where he stood, martial arts gi wrapped about his frame, though the belt on the gi possessed the insignia for a lieutenant, this was obviously the classes teacher.

“Yes sir?” the setter asked in her soft, cultured oxford English accented voice.

The cougar harrumphed looking her over. “You’re late Kingshot.”

Mariah blinked and looked at the crono at the opposite end of the gym, the clock said, according to local time, she was still two minutes early. However, she was the last one to arrive, and apparently this teacher liked to start early. Mariah took a second to mull over her options, she could have protested, but, that probably wouldn’t have done anything in her favor, and, to be honest, wasn’t much like her at all. So, the setter just nodded in acknowledgement and moved to a place on the mats with the rest of the cadets trying to keep from initiating any confrontation, after all, she didn’t want to bring any more attention to herself than she had to.

As the setter settled in the cougar looked over the gathering of students, and Mariah could see he was not impressed. She did see one student she recognized, a tellarite badger, but other than that, she recognized no one. That made he a little more nervous but she strived to squash those feelings as she watched the teacher.

“I know for some of you, this coarse is a mandatory pass/fail,” with that the instructor looked directly at Mariah with a harsh gaze. It made the setter want to flinch away but she forced herself to continue watching so she didn’t disrupt the class. “However, in my class, you will perform to you absolute best, I will not hesitate to fail any of you for failing, weather you are the son of an admiral, or, the ‘brightest and best performing’ student in your class,” again his eyes focused harshly on Mariah as he paced back and forth in front of them, “unless you measure up to my standard of excellence. Is that clear?”

The class murmured a demure ‘yes sir’ which Mariah joined in with. She felt the acidy taste of bile forming under her tongue as she sat and watched, she was getting a very bad feeling about the class, and to be honest, she was scared. Scared of failing and having to repeat the class, scared of ruining her record and to be honest, scared of the prospect of being tossed.

“Kingshot!” the instructor called out loudly, bringing the setter out of her scared thoughts and she jerked her head up immediately from where she had been staring at the blue mats in thought, her distinguishing trait, her ice blue eyes which she knew was technically a genetic ‘oops’ somewhere in her DNA coding, but, had always taken secret pride in being just a bit difference in appearance than other irish setters blinked rapidly for a few moments.

“Yes sir?”

“Front and center Kingshot.”

Mariah blinked again in surprise but did as the instructor told her, all the while the back of her mind screaming at her to try to get away, something was going to happen she would not like. She was however, for all intents and purposes, trapped. She could not, after all, run out of the building. This was a class, and if she just ran and abandoned it, what would others say? What would the instructor do to punish her? And how would it look before the Commandant and other teachers?

Mariah stopped a meter away from the instructor, ad he paused again, taking one last look at the canine before scowling at her. “Come at me.”

“Sir?” she looked on in confusion, and she was sure the dread was now beginning to show on her features.

“You heard me Kingshot, come at me, throw a punch, try to kick me, come at me.”

“Sir, I’m not exactly sure that I’m the best…”

Mariah blinked and tried to register the fact that she was no longer looking at her instructor, and the fact that the whole view of the world had just changed rather abruptly. She could feel that she was lying on her back, and the girders in the rafted ceiling of the gym confirmed what her body was telling her. Unfortunately her body was also telling her that her back and rump hurt, a dull ache reaching up from the base of her tail through her spine, her medical mind cataloging the fact that she must have landed on her rump and the shock had traveled up her spine from there. She wanted to let out a whimper at the ache and try to figure out exactly what happened to her, but she forced herself to restrict her acknowledgment of the pain to a few coughs as she sat gingerly up.

“Get up Kingshot.”

Mariah did as ordered, a little unsteady, but she did get up, the way her back felt at the moment, she counted that as a success. She was sure she was being a bit of a ‘whimp’ but for a girl who had studiously avoided any form of physical confrontation in her life, she didn’t really care that she was a wimp at the moment.

The cougar looked at her as she stood uneasily and faced him, that scowl a bit more apparent. “that was just a simple throw Cadets,” he announced to the class. “A easy, and elegant way to get an attacker off you, or to surprise someone unexpected like Cadet Kingshot here. Now, are you going to actually put up a fight this time Kingshot? Because I will come after you again.”

Mariah winced but nodded, putting her fist up in a poor version of a fighting stance as she looked at the cougar. She had no idea what she was going to do as the instructor stepped forward. All she could think of doing was throwing a punch towards the cougar, which, she did when he commanded.

That punch however Mariah thought was probably a bad idea as she felt her wrist grabbed in a strong, almost painful grip and felt her entire body surge forward towards the instructor. The setter let out a frightened yelp as she continued forward, the instructor disappearing from her view, and her brain was given just enough time to register the harsh push against her back that changed her course towards the mat before she felt her muzzle and chest impact rather roughly against the ground. Her muzzle skidded a little, causing she knew, what would be a slight ‘rug burn’ on a bit of her delicately shaped muzzle and her chest hurt horribly from that sensitive part of her body taking the full brunt of the crash to the ground. This time she could not prevent herself from letting out a whimper, it just hurt too much, and her mind was starting to keep a running tab on the bruises and aches she would have in a few hours.

Again the instructor commanded her to get up and, as she tried, she could have sworn she heard at least one voice giving a soft chuckle at what was happening. Weather the other cadets were laughing because they found the predicament funny, or were of the ‘I am so glad that is not me’ mentality, she didn’t know, all she knew was, as she stood with a wobble to her step trying to refrain from such un-lady-like actions as rubbing her horribly aching chest she was sure that for some reason, she was being made an object lesson of some sort.

“Again,” the instructor announced as Mariah had just bearly gotten her feat under her, and this time, he didn’t even wait for her to be ‘ready as he charged in.

Mariah let out a squeal of fright and through instinct more than anything else raised her arms to protect her face and muzzle and tried to step back and away but learned that mistake when she felt a large arm wrap around her mid section and feel as if she were being lifted into the air before the arm disappeared and she crashed into the mat again, adding more aches on top of still fresh memories of the last trip to the ground. Mariah could hear the instructor making comments to the rest of the class, and she heard those two or three chuckles again from her sensitive ears, she recognized one as her fellow medical student, but at the moment she didn’t really care that he was laughing.

The instructor ordered her up again, and again, for two more times Mariah stood, only to be within moment thrown to the mat again. Tears began to form in her eyes and though she didn’t want to let anyone know she sobbed quietly each time she hit the ground from the increased and added pain. The last time she had tried to defend herself by kicking the instructor as he charged in, but all that had earned her was him grabing her leg, twisting it roughly and pushing her whole body to the ground again, this time on her back, staring up at the ceiling trying desperately to keep the sobs quiet to keep the other from knowing just how frightened and pained she felt.

This time she didn’t want to get up, even as the instructor ordered her, she had, she decided, had quite enough of being a punching bag and wanted to just lay where she was and suffer her pain and fear in silence. She heard the instructor call to her again and she realized that he wasn’t quite done with her yet, and closed her eyes, wondering what she had done to deserve the beating she was receiving, because that was how she thought of it, a beating, and tried very hard to sit up.

“Sir!” a strong male voice called out, bringing Mariah somewhat back to her senses. That wasn’t the instructor she knew, and it wasn’t one of the voices she heard early. She wondered who it was as she bit her lip to hold in a groan.

“What is it Cadet Rikes?” The instructor asked in his gruff voice.

“Sir,” the voice said again with an interesting accent, Mariah knew whoever the voice belonged to wasn’t English, there was a drawl to his voice, but at the same time there were some distinctly English accents to it. “I believe that Cadet Kingshot is tired from your demonstrations.”

“Well I need a volunteer Cadet Rikes, and since no one else has stepped forward…”

“Ah’ll volentee’ah, Suh” the voice said, the accent suddenly becoming thicker and had a tinge of anger in it Mariah thought.

“All right Cadet Rikes, step forward, Cadet Kingshot, back o the rest of the students.”

Mariah needed no more encouragement as she shook her head, finally fully getting sat up. She gave a couple coughs and rubbed her face with both paws as if to clear her face but in reality she was tring to get the tears from her eyes. As she looked up she saw a young, athletically thin English setter striding forward in lightweight drawstring workout pants and a lightweight cotton t-shirt with the word ‘ACADEMY’ emblazoned across his chest. His long, feathered ears were loosely tied back, not so tight that they would cause pain in the sensitive part of the ear, but enough to keep them from flying into his face. His hair was short, and he had intense liquid brown eyes that, at the moment Mariah could swear were flashing in anger.

Mariah watched as she wobbled back to the line, already feeling the onset of the aches and pains she would endure for a few days. As she plopped herself down in her former place, she blinked as she watched the young setter square off against the instructor. While it was clear that the other setter was not the caliber fighter the instructor was, he put up a sight better defense than Mariah ever could have. There was even several times that he was able to actually land a punch or a kick, sending the instructor back.

When it was all over, the cougar just nodded to the setter and went back to addressing the class, talking of various situations defending ones self would be needed in Starfleet service. Mariah, whose aches and pains were slowly growing just wanted to have the class over with for the day, she had a Pathology class after this and she just hoped she would be in good enough condition to pay her normal attention. She glanced over and noticed the English setter, still rather angered looking at the cougar. She wondered about that, but, tried to put it out of her mind as she ran through a list of herbal remedies in her mind, trying to remember one that was a painkiller that wouldn’t dull her mind, even 24th century medicine hadn’t figured that one out yet.

Mariah just achefully stood as the class was dismissed walking stiffly out of the gym complex and towards the dormitory where her quad was assigned, she had an hour to get a much wanted shower and see if she could find the herbal painkiller she was thinking of. However, as she walked she heard the scuff of running shoes against the ground.

“Excuse me!” the uniquely accented voice called out and Mariah turned slowly, and stiffly to see the English setter jogging up beihing her, a worried look on his muzzle and the beginnings of quite a black eye forming about his right eye.

“Oh!” Mariah exclaimed, a bit surprised at his condition. “are you all right?”

The setter smiled a gentle smile and looked at her. “I’ve had worse, I’ve roughhoused like any child, and played some rough sports. The question is, how are you doing?” His voice turned if it was possible, even more concerned than it had been before.

She looked. “I’m, sore… I admit…”

“And I am sorry for what he did to you. He had no right to single you out, or treat you like that,” a growl was actually added to his voice, and the accent began to thicken again.

“My question is, why did he do it to begin with?”

The English setter gave a sigh. “I’ve heard rumors from other Cadets, nothing solid, but, from what I have been able to piece together, he dosen’t much like admiral’s children, or medical students.”

“What?” Mariah asked with some surprise, wincing a bit from the aches. “Why?”

“Don’t know exactly,” the setter had taken to walking at Mariah’s side as if escorting her back to her Quad. “Only vague rumors that he thinks that medical students get a by on some of the more important classes, like he thinks his is, and because of it, he thinks they’re too soft and fragile.”

“Well, I guess I did prove his point,” Mariah returned softly.

He gave her a looked. “I’d like to see Lieutenant Yarcroft go through an ER shift like your suppose to be able to do when you’ve graduated, probably come out an incoherent mess.”

“Thank you for your support, but, that still does not help my situation. I have to pass his class, it’s a required pass/fail for me, and I have a feeling I won’t come anywhere close.”

“Well, maybe there is something we can do about that.”

“What?”

The English setter gave a easy, gentle smile, “well, I’m passable, maybe if we work together…”

She blinked, looking at the setter, not really knowing what to say. “Are you sure?”

“He nodded. “I’m sure.”