LtCol Wes Greaves - Responsibility

[Jacob Rittenhouse]

LtCol Wes Greaves - Responsibility

 

((Gator Deck Holodeck, USS OEB))

 

The training space had narrowed in Wes’s attention until it was mostly motion, distance, and timing. The holo-opponent drifted across the mat in its programmed evasive rhythm, never hurried, never fully still, while Peri worked opposite it with growing control. The low hum of the holodeck and the faint scuff of bare feet against tatami filled the pauses between impacts. Off to the side, Echo had made herself irrelevant to the lesson for the moment, leaving the center of the room to the drill and the two officers inside it.

 

Wes didn’t need perfection from her. What he needed to see was whether the corrections were starting to stick once the target stopped cooperating. Earlier, she’d been trying to remember each part of the movement separately. Now she was beginning to let the pieces connect on their own.

 

Greaves: There it is!

 

She gave him only the briefest glance, but he hadn’t expected more. Her focus stayed where it needed to stay: on the moving target and the space between them. Good.

 

Without a word, she went again, working back into the drill with a little less interruption between thought and action.

 

Greaves: Yes. Again. Same patience.

 

Two a row wasn’t bad.   Wes shifted a half-step to keep both her stance and the hologram’s centerline in view. The improvement was there now, if still fragile. She wasn’t trying to overpower the drill anymore. She was starting to solve it.

 

Katsim: Repeat?

 

The corner of his mouth pulled faintly upward.

 

Greaves: Repeat.

 

She never really fell out of stance before re-engaging. Wes noted that too. The mat gave softly under her feet as she adjusted position, the hologram breaking and reforming its shallow pattern in response to her angle.

 

Peri’s eyes followed the hologram’s movements.  Although it offered no counter attacks, simply because she was a beginner and Wes was easing her into the finer points of self defense, she still had to make sure she understood timing and the best place to move in.  Before her approach, it had kept a steady rhythm, the shuffling of its feet against the floor setting a hushed beat, its impassive face very much like what someone who did not care what happened to their opponent and knew they were no match might wear.  Since Peri was smaller, she had to learn how to move and work with what she had, and she was grateful to Wes for helping her learn to do that.  

 

Once she approached, the hologram switched up its movements.  The feet broke their shuffling tempo, and its hulking form adjusted its posture and position based upon where she stood and came at it.  Taking her time, Peri went in and executed another round.  That time, when she pulled back, she didn’t stop to talk, but watched, waited, and then timed her next set of movements, then repeated that several times more. 

 

Greaves: Don’t speed up just because it worked. Let it happen the same way.

 

Katsim: Response 

 

He let her work.

 

The program kept shifting, but she wasn’t treating every small change like a surprise now. She held her structure longer. She closed distance with less waste. Each pass through the combination looked a little more connected than the last. Not polished. Not natural yet. But connected.

 

That was enough for one lesson.

 

Greaves: Alright. Break it there.

 

Wes lifted a hand toward the program.

 

Greaves: Computer, end opponent routine.

 

The hologram stilled at once, then dissolved into a shimmer of light that scattered and disappeared, leaving the mat open between them again. Wes stepped in a little closer, not crowding, just enough to change the tone away from drill master.

 

Katsim: Response 

 

His eyes flicked briefly to the empty place where the hologram had been, then back to her.

 

Greaves: That matters, because this isn’t about winning exchanges for the sake of it. It’s about responsibility.

 

The word sat comfortably with him. It was the right one.

 

Greaves: If you ever have to put hands on somebody for real, it means everything else has already broken down. Talking failed. Distance failed. The situation failed.

 

Katsim: Response 

 

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.

 

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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