The Path to Valor

[Kazinsal]

"C'mon, kid, let's head to the first little training scenario," Petrov said. He put his hand on Jasmine's shoulder and started walking towards the elevator.

"Hand. Off. Now."

Petrov quickly retracted his hand, thinking of what this little bitch would be able to do through Jacob. He envisioned being strapped to the back of a fighter and launched into space, without a suit, and shuddered.

"Sorry," he said, opening the elevator door and letting Jasmine in.

She nodded.

"Now," he said, entering the shaft and closing the door, "have you ever been in a zero-gravity combat room?"

"Not that I can remember, so probably not."

"You're going to have fun with this one."

"Yeah, as long as I can keep that sandwich I ate in my stomach, we'll have... 'fun'."

"I make no promises," he said as the elevator door opened.

The hallway was short and lead to another elevator at the end. A door on their right about halfway down the corridor was where Petrov stopped. He opened the door and let Jasmine step through before him. He closed the door behind them.

"Put on a training suit," he said. "It'll keep you safe."

She slipped on a suit and waited. Petrov pressed a button on a wall panel and the gravity turned itself off. The inside door slid open and Petrov pushed himself gently off the floor with a single step. He glided through the air and pushed himself off of the artificial rocks floating around the room. He jumped from rock to rock until he reached the other side of the room, where he stopped himself with the wall.

Jasmine's eyes widened. "There is no f***ing way I'm doing that," she said.

Petrov burst out laughing. "You have to," he said. "It's how we train our new kids!"

"Our?"

"You're one of us, girl."

"Wonderful," she said sarcastically. She tried to push herself off of the floor, but she leaped without thinking, sending her flying into the ceiling.

"Ow, f***! And you do this for training?"

"Yep. You'll get used to it soon enough. It just takes practice. You can't jump without thinking. The hardest part to remember though, is that there is no 'up' when there is no gravity. Without gravity holding you to a 'down' position, there's no way to tell what's 'up' and what's 'down'."

"Right. Now I totally get it."

Petrov chuckled. "You any good at math, kid?"

She shrugged.

"Imagine this is all about angles and force. Push one way and you go the other. Try it."

Jasmine sighed and aimed herself at a rock. She pushed off with her feet slightly and flew towards the obstacle slowly. She caught the object and pushed herself towards another.

"This is kinda fun," she said.

"Told ya you'd get it."

"Shut up."

Petrov laughed and watched Jasmine push herself off of the rocks and towards Petrov. She reached his side of the wall relatively quickly.

"Wow," he said. "That's really good. Normally the ones that we take in don't do that well so quickly. Guess you get it from your dad. Now, I've got an idea. Let's race from this side to the other. Sound good?"

"You'll probably win."

"Maybe not, you're pretty good at this."

"You're on," she said, jumping to the first rock.

Petrov pushed himself past the first rock and to the second, then to the third. He was already ahead of her, but not by much. He continued to fly from rock to rock, getting ahead of Jasmine.

She jumped and hit him, rebounding to a rock. He flew towards the wall and slammed into it. She flew from obstacle to obstacle the rest of the way.

"Ow, son of a motherf***ing bitch, that hurt!" Petrov said. He pushed himself gently off a wall and back to the room with the suits.

"I win," Jasmine said, chuckling and floating towards the suit room.

"Take off that suit and hang it up. You've (ouch) done well for your first time in the room. Have you been assigned quarters yet?"

She pulled off the protective suit and placed it on the empty hanger it came from. "No," she said.

"Right. I'll assign you a room," Petrov said, pulling out a computer pad and looking through the station map for large empty quarters. "Ah, there we go. Deck three, section gamma-eleven. Very nice quarters. I'm sure you'll love it."

"Well, I don't have any bags, so I'll need to get some stuff."

He nodded. "I'll escort you up to your quarters and then go get my ass handed to me by your dad. I have to talk to him anyways."

"Alright."

"So," he said, turning the gravity on and opening the door to the hallway. "How do you like it here so far?"

"It's nice. A lot of f***ing s***heads here. Don't know how you can stand it."

"You'll get used to them. They have a habit of... 'disappearing' sometimes."

She laughed and opened the door to the elevator. They stepped in and rode up to deck three.

---

Retired, permanently.