LtCol Wes Greaves – Scheming

[Jacob Rittenhouse]

LtCol Wes Greaves – Scheming

 

((Gator Deck Holodeck, USS OEB))

 

The holodeck felt different once the program was gone. Without the hologram moving across the tatami, the room had gone still in a way it hadn’t been for the last stretch of the lesson. The even light overhead flattened everything into clean lines, mats, polished wood, weapons rack, the faint neon grid that lingered at the periphery where the program had already begun to recede. Wes stayed where he was for a moment, letting the quiet sit after the last of the instruction. Peri stood a few paces away, shoulders still carrying the residue of exertion, dark eyes turned toward the space where the opponent had been. Echo remained perched nearby, alert in that distracted way of small creatures who seemed half-curious and half-judgmental.

 

The physical part of the lesson was over, but the important part of it wasn’t. Technique was easy to mistake for the point. It never was. The harder thing to teach, and the more important thing to hold onto, was why any of it mattered in the first place.

 

Greaves: Anybody can get excited about learning how to hit harder. That’s the easy part. The hard part is judgment. Knowing when force is necessary, how much is necessary, and when to stop once the threat is handled.

 

Wes had seen enough situations go bad to know force was sometimes necessary. The problem had never been whether force existed. The problem was always who used it, why they used it, and whether they still remembered the line once adrenaline and fear got involved.

 

Katsim: I understand.  

 

Wes studied her face for a second, gauging whether she was answering the words or the weight behind them. There was a difference.

 

Greaves: Good.

 

He let the single word land before continuing, voice even and quieter than it had been during the drill.

 

Greaves: Because understanding it here is the easy version. Out there, when people are scared or angry and everything’s moving too fast, judgment gets harder. That’s why you train it now.

 

Peri relaxed a little at that, one hand lifting to tuck back a stray lock of hair. The lesson had ended, but the moment hadn’t fully broken yet. Wes could see she was already shifting out of drill mode and into whatever came next.

 

Katsim: Echo, are you ready?

 

At the sound of her name, the dragonet’s head snapped up. Wes watched the little creature cant her head, then spread purple wings and launch herself into the air. For one brief second her arc looked dangerously familiar, angled right toward the top of his head, and his posture adjusted on instinct before Peri’s small motion redirected her. Echo wheeled neatly and settled onto Peri’s shoulder instead.

 

A faint breath of amusement escaped him.

 

Greaves: Still trying to make a landing run at me, huh?

 

Echo answered with a bright little chirp that sounded altogether too pleased with herself. Perched on Peri’s shoulder, she bobbed once, then turned her head toward Wes as if weighing whether she’d actually been denied or merely delayed. Her wings gave a brief, indignant flick before she settled, claws tightening lightly in Peri’s fabric, her dark eyes never quite leaving him.

 

Peri glanced toward the doors, and that was enough to tell him she wasn’t just drifting toward the end of the lesson. She was leading it there. Wes fell in a step behind as she moved for the exit, the holodeck doors hissing open ahead of her. Beyond them, the dojo gave way to the black-and-neon emptiness of an inactive grid. The transition always made the room feel smaller after a program.

 

Greaves: You did well today. Learning something new is tough.

 

Katsim: Response

 

Wes stepped through the doorway after her, casting one last glance back into the holodeck before the doors started to close behind them.

 

Greaves: Shower back at our quarters?

 

The corridor outside felt more ordinary after the artificial quiet of the holodeck. Wes rolled one shoulder back, feeling the lesson settle into memory the way all good training sessions eventually did.

 

Katsim: Response

 

He looked over at her then, more closely now that the formality of the drill had dropped away. There was something purposeful in the way she was carrying herself, enough to make him suspect she wasn’t done with him yet.

 

Greaves: You’ve got that look. Like you’ve been scheming. What’s going through that mind of yours?

 

Katsim: Response

 

 

 

Tags/TBC

 

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Lieutenant Colonel Wes Greaves

Marine Detachment Commander

USS Octavia E. Butler NCC-82850

E239702WG0

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