She has the talent, but I’m not sure if she has the guts.

These words haunted Luna, more than anything her bullies or her family (some of whom were one and the same) had ever said to her. This phrase comprised the closing of her last psychiatric evaluation before graduating from Starfleet Academy. It was her opinion that she’d proven she had the guts. But this was one of the many issues that arose from being an overtly shy stammerer with all of the physical prowess of a cushion. You were constantly underestimated, constantly having to prove yourself. Sure, cushions were soft and comfortable and that was no bad thing, but when it came down to it a cushion was as useful in a fight as… well as Luna was. And that was a problem. But Luna, despite outward appearances that might suggest different, had plenty of courage and determination. It was with both in her heart she set her fears aside and walked into one of Lieutenant Ashfield’s self-defence classes.

These were a different beast from the kind of training Security might provide. Geared towards patients of Starbase Bravo’s counselling team, these were designed to help those unfamiliar, intimidated or traumatised by combat, aggression and danger. They could overcome their hurdles in the safe environment of the counselling suite with counsellors present to aid them should they need. It wasn’t often that one of the Counselling staff took the course, but after her encounter with a prisoner and with some of the more unpredictable patients the Counselling team had to deal with, Luna had quickly concluded it would be a boon to be less hampered by displays of force or hostility. Secretly she thought she’d never get used to it but being less useless was appealing, if only to assuage judgement from fellow officers. Luna offered Ryke a gentle smile.

“Lieutenant Ashfield,” she greeted him a professional kind of warmth.

“Hey Luna!” His smile was wide and broad as he crossed the mats to greet her. “It’s just Ryke here. We’re all one and the same on the mats.”

He leaned in a little to murmur, making sure that his voice was too low for the patients already assembled at the side of the mats. Half looked like they were ready to bolt at the slightest noise, while the rest were doing the stiff-backed ‘not bothered at all’ act that stood out like a sore thumb. “It helps with some of the guys if there’s no rank involved at the same time as they’re facing a fear of hostility. Gotta love ingrained societal expectations, eh?”

Luna tried not to look too embarrassed by the snafu and failed at it slightly.

“Oh, s… sorry,” she replied, in just as low a voice. “Of course. Makes sense.” Luna could see rank might be a problem, but she took solace in being ‘Lieutenant Black’. Lieutenant Black was a Starfleet Officer. Luna was just a timid girl from Setlik two. She scanned the assembled officers and crew Ryke referred to. Most of them looked how she felt. Still, it was his room and his class, he knew best. “Ryke…” It felt odd. It really did feel odd.

He winked. “You’ll be fine, promise.”

Moving to the center of the mats, he stood and waited for a moment for those assembled to look at him. “Good morning, everyone. Some of you know me, some of you might not. My name is Ryke, and while I am a counselor, I’m not here in that capacity today. Instead, I’m going to be your instructor for today for this self-defense class.”

Some of the tense shoulders in the room eased at the revelation he was also a counselor, but he was used to that reaction. He was a big guy, he knew how threatening he could be. He’d traded on that fact way back when…

“So, just to recap. This is going to be a specialist self-defense class. Most of you know the basics of self-defense, but we’re going to be switching it up today. I’m going to be adding aggression and hostility to the situation to enable you all to experience and learn to handle that in a safe environment.”

As he expected, the tension was back in the room as they all looked at him with trepidation. No outright fear, though, so that was good.

“And because this is a safe space,” he added. “We are going to be using safe words and safe signals. When we’re in the middle of a scenario, if you give me either of those, then we stop, instantly. Okay?”

Had Luna been a slightly more dynamic, self-assured person she might have mentioned to the group that while she was staff, she was also taking the class herself. But there was a large group of people, all looking somewhere roughly in her direction. This was her nemesis. Besides, if she had been a more dynamic self-assured person, she wouldn’t have even been there in the first place. Luna stood awkwardly, not with the students, somewhat behind Ryke, observing the reactions. They mirrored her own. Luna had had many new experiences recently, in her mind she simply wasn’t sure how she’d react to this.

There was the smallest of murmurs from around the room. Ryke just smiled. “There are counselors in and around the room; some are here for support, some are here to help me. Some,” he winked. “Might even be here assessing me, so be sure and make me look good, okay?”

He clapped his hands. “Right, so… safe words and signals. We’re going to use ‘banana’ as a safe word. It’s not a word that often comes up in a hostile situation, not outside of kids’ cartoons anyway, so it’s a safe pick. Now, if you can’t speak for whatever reason, then two taps on me, the floor… whatever. Failing that, stick your tongue out and blow a raspberry at me. You do that, everything stops. Sound good?”

Luna laughed nervously. Sure she was on edge, but funny was funny.

“Banana?” She said quietly as a joke, trying to lighten the mood for the patients.

Ryke chuckled, casting a smile over his shoulder at her. He knew she was nervous; it was written in every line of her small frame. He’d have to be really careful with her when it came to the actual scenarios.

“For a start off, we’re going to go through some attacks and defenses, just walking them through,” he said. “So I want you to partner up with each other. This section will just be the movements. Nice and easy, nothing to worry about.”

Nightmare. School all over again. Luna getting chosen last. She intentionally waited for the pairing up to be decided so she could go with whoever was left over. She played it as if it was intentional and she was thinking of that person who was left. She wasn’t. She was scared, as ever. As it happened there was nobody left over. Luna looked at Ryke awkwardly.

“Always the same,” he grinned at her, motioning her over to an empty corner of the mats. “No one ever picks me. Okay, guys, watch in. We’re going to start with a basic hold and release. Now, say a guy like me grabs someone Luna’s size… problem right?”

He moved closer to Luna, motioning that he was going to step in and wrap an arm around her neck, his hand on her opposite shoulder.

Luna indicated this was okay, her eyes apparently not having got the message her lips were giving to Ryke. They watched the arm as it moved into place, noting his bicep was a similar size to her head. This, he, was a whole different world from what she was used to.

“So… the nicey-nicey self-defense peeps are going to tell you all kinds of ‘nice’ things to do. I’m not.” His voice hardened a little. He wasn’t just interested in getting them past their blocks with aggression, but in giving them some real-world defense skills. “If you find yourself in this situation, you are going to be brutal. You are going to fight back, gouge, and stamp if you have to, okay? So Luna, if this happens, this is what you’re going to do…”

Quickly, he coached her through the hold and how to break it. He was a big guy, and he always made sure to wear kinetic-reflect sparring gear during these sessions, so it didn’t matter if the students actually hit him.

It wasn’t easy to believe that anything Luna did would help her to be free of someone so much stronger than she. Fortunately the sexism of her childhood worked both ways. Don’t get rough with your sister were the standing orders from her parents. Even so Luna knew well how much stronger her brothers were and they, while taller than she was by a few inches weren’t near Ryke’s height. But still, she did as instructed moving down and to her right to loosen Ryke’s grip, twisting and taking him off-balance so he fell, being forced to release her. Luna beamed.

“I did it!” She said happily, offering her colleague a hand adorned with french tips of emerald green to help him up. “P… promise you didn’t just let me do it?”

Her joy was infectious and he grinned as he let her ‘help’ him up to his feet. “You did do it! And no, I didn’t just let you. Here, watch…”

He moved her into the same position as he’d been in a moment before, albeit without her arm around his throat because she’d never have reached. Instead, he had her loop her arm around his waist to approximate the movement.

“So when I twist around and step in here, with my leg here behind your knee,” he said, turning while still holding her arm in place. “And I push, there’s nowhere else for your attacker to go.” He only took her a little off balance, holding her easily. “It’s biomechanics… the body only works in certain ways and you can use that. See? So that was totally all you.”

Putting her back on her feet, he backed up out of her personal space. She seemed okay, but he wanted to be sure.

Luna smiled. She was finding this exhilarating. She’d never been able to take classes such as these on her own terms before.

Turning, he looked around the room. “Okay, people… now you all try it, exactly as you saw Luna and I go through the movements.”

Luna watched as chatter erupted around the room and the rest of the pupils started to work out who was going first, checking each other’s boundries and working on the correct positions. She decided to share her earlier observation with Ryke.

“I’ve never b… been able to do this in a safe environment before. This… was a great idea.”

“Yeah? You’re doing great!”

Ryke had been a little concerned about Luna at the start of the session, which was one reason he’d controlled the room so she was partnered with him. He’d watched her closely during the session though and realised she was far more resilient than she gave herself credit for. She just needed a little encouragement that she was on the right track.  

“Do you want to go through it again?” he asked. “Then we can move them all onto the scenario-based portion of the session?”

Luna nodded.

“Okay.”