Cmdr. Katsim Peri - "Step By Step"
Amanda Nordstrom
((Gator Deck Holodeck, USS OEB))
The lesson in the holodeck was certainly eye opening. While Peri wasn’t completely incompetent, she realised how much more she still had to learn when it came to self defense. This only undermined the importance of the lessons she had requested of Wes, who had willingly and with some enthusiasm agreed to teach her.
Setting her feet, Peri shifted her position to settling her weight directly between them, leaning more on either. She bounced slightly on the balls of her feet twice, as if to settle herself into balance, then ran over the images of Wes in her head as he showed her how to move, how to act, how to strike. In her head, the motions were smooth, practiced and powerful. While she was not him, and did not have the years of training behind her, the image gave her something to work towards, a model to follow. So, setting up a second time, she set herself back into position and watched her opponent as it stood, coming to a position and prepared to move with anything she threw at it. Bringing back her arm, she attempted to swing her hips and execute the motion as her teacher taught her.
Greaves: Better. That one stayed under you.
Katsim: Okay.
Though the words came out as a response to Wes, her mind whirled not with his affirmation as much as it did with linking it to what she had done right, so she could repeat it and, hopefully, improve upon it. The hologram stared at her with its emotionless gaze, and the marine shifted to get a better view of her position and stance.
Greaves: Don’t rush to catch it. Make it move into a worse position first.
He lifted one hand and traced a short angle through the air, illustrating the line he wanted rather than the target itself, and Peri opened her mouth, then shut it. A worse position meant putting her opponent in a situation where she could take advantage of an opening and, hopefully, get them more off balance, which would help her even further.
Katsim: I’ll try.
She stated and approached as he suggested, without rushing. Feeling herself stiffen, Peri tried to keep Wes’ words in mind and find a balance between tense enough to move and relaxed enough not to lock up. Her eyes watched as the figure moved, unhurried, perpetually patient, simply waiting for her to attack, yet guarding itself as well. She hesitated, not out of fear, but to allow her more time to study, and Wes took the opportunity to call out more advice.
Greaves: Watch the hips and chest. Not the hands. The core will telegraph them more than their hands.
Katsim: Right.
Her eyes drifted away from the hands and settled somewhere between the hips and chest, keeping both in her peripheral. In the back of her mind, she remembered something from biology courses, that the periphery of the eye actually detected motion faster than straight on sight.
When the hologram shifted to the left, she watched it, turning so she kept it in front of her, but it adjusted, though it fell into the same pattern it had previously. Peri waited, and adjusted her own position, taking to heart Wes’ words not to rush it. So she didn’t. She watched. She moved in little by little. She waited.
And then, she saw it - an opportunity. The hologram didn’t do anything differently, but after watching the rhythm of its movements, she recognised the downbeat. Almost sliding forward, she inserted herself, one strike, then two, and then back, out of the way of the hologram and back into a position that allowed her to respond to any counteracts. However, the hologram, once recovered from her strikes (which Peri suspected were not as hard and effective as it acted like they were), it merely settled back into that same swing.
Greaves: There it is!
Wes received a mere glance, for Peri didn’t want to break her concentration which was centred on the figure that didn’t really pose any sort of threat. It was merely a hologram, but she had made progress, and that’s what mattered. Without a word, Peri tried to repeat her performance, inching in slowly, carefully, allowing the rhythm to pulsate until she felt the proper timing and executed another move.
Greaves: Response
Two a row wasn’t bad, but Peri still had a long way to go before she could consider herself ‘competent’, and able to utilise whatever she learned in a real scenario. Still, a start was a start, and she would take any progress.
Katsim: Repeat? But did she really need to ask? Before Wes even had a chance to answer, she resumed watching the hologram, never really falling out of her stance. As he had said, she had to be ready for the next round.
Greaves: Response
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: Response
-- Commander Katsim Peri Chief Science Officer USS Octavia E. Butler M239008AD0