Sparring with the big guy

Posted on Mon Jul 7th, 2025 @ 10:33pm by Lieutenant Commander Eirly Andersen & Civillian Dekon Lera & Lieutenant JG Razka Kas

1,330 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Gone, Without Ever Knowing the Way
Location: Deck 26 - Small Gym
Timeline: Backpost

Kas entered the gym, one of Bella's friends was trying to start a sparring club and he'd been asked to join. He was hesitant; his style of sparring often left people injured and he was under the impression that this club was going to consist of a lot of civilians. He was even more surprised to see the number of women as he approached the group.

“Mr Razka I'm so glad you decided to join us, I'm Hanna.” A short woman said.

She looked to be human, she was wearing a sports bra and form fitting cargo pants. She gave him a cheeky smile. “Bella's has told me a lot about you.”

“You have me at a disadvantage then,” Kas smiled.

“Bella and I were at the Academy together.” Hanna explained. “I put on the bulletin that it was open to civilians, and it seems that most of the starflight officers interpreted that as civilians only”

“Yes, that does tend to happen,” Kas sighed.

“No offense, but I'm not sure who I'll pair you with.” Hanna said sheepishly. Looking around the room, Kas was half a head taller than most of other and much heavier. “Well, we'll figure that out in a little bit, for now join the warm ups.”

Kas thought that people were stretching and making use of the heavy punching bags. he moved to the largest bag and began throwing punches and elbows. Inwardly, he was cursing Bella for not telling him more about this group. He knew it was deliberate. She'd been pressuring him ‘to get back out there.’ Since taking custody of Keena, his social life was almost nonexistent. He had no regrets he loved his daughter, but it was true that he'd become more isolated. he couldn't help but smile when he'd seen that they had set up a reinforced bag for him. He had knocked the normal human bags right off their supports. He put his gloves and headgear on and began working the bag throwing punches and elbows. He hadn't noticed a familiar face among the people warming up.

Eirly was doing her own warmups and was focusing on stretching the muscles in her legs the same way she used to when she had been dancing. After taking a moment to realize how long she hadn't been dancing for, she frowned and thought about potentially starting up her own dance classes again, but then the doubt of whether she was skilled enough to be able to teach others crept in. She shrugged nonchalantly and instead, focused on the stretching.

Since coming back from Lhasa, so much stuff had happened, and it had become a bit of a whirlwind for her. She'd defined her relationship with Malcolm and was starting to feel an endgame situation there, and now her brother was on the scene and most likely going to stir up some trouble before he inevitably left again. Feeling the lingering stare of someone watching her, Eirly looked up to see Kas standing a short distance away, so she smiled, "Hey Kas. I didn't expect to see you here at something like this."

"I'm here as a favor to Lieutenant Rodriguez," Kas sighed. "I should have asked more questions."

She laughed in response, "I don't think you're too out of place here. These sessions are open to everyone, after all." Noting the gloves already on his hands, she didn't realise that he'd already started the session, "I'd be happy to pair up with you if you want, I don't have a partner to work out with?"

"I would be grateful," Kas smiled. "Stretching is a good start to warms, you might want to work one of the bags to practice your strikes. I understand this is meant to be 'MMA style."

Kas liked the human concept of MMA; they had more rules than he was used to, but Starfleet also had less tolerance for training injuries.

"To be fair, this kind of thing," Eirly gestured to the class they were in, "Is something more up my brother's alley, not Kasper, but my youngest brother, Leif. He's the more adventurous and sportier one of us all."

Kas nodded, "We'll start slow. The Academy's hand-to-hand training is a good foundation we can build. I've always found it a little lacking."

The Hybrid gestured to protective gear, "You'll want gloves and possibly the headgear. I find it cumbersome; men don't normally wear it."

"Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense." Eirly nodded as she went and grabbed some headgear and gloves. The helmet felt snug and like her cheeks were squished but it was all part and parcel of sparring, right? "I don't expect to have it easy, by the way. Maybe like 60% of your strength?" She knew that Kas was powerful and would hate to come up against him as an enemy.

"I'll be careful," Kas smiled. "We'll go slow."

"Okay, so. How about a punch, punch, duck, dodge kind of combo, or we could potentially switch it up? What are you thinking?" She asked in ernest as she smacked her gloves together a couple of times, refusing to put any kind of mouthguard in because ew, no.

Kas smiled, "Let's start with footwork. From the stretches you chose to warm up, I assume you have a dance background. That will be useful."

Kas moved onto the mat, "When faced with a larger opponent speed and agility are your best bet. With the right footwork, you can evade strikes while delivering blows."

"Ok then," Eirly replied as she moved into a stance with her right foot forward and her left behind her. "Let's begin then."

Kas assumed an on-guard stance, he began to move to Eirly's left "We have space, so circular movement is best, close quarters are a different matter."

"Come on then," Eirly mirrored his own movements and was the first to strike out with a right punch straight in front of her, stopping short of actually hitting Kas in the face. If she was going to get mad, it would be at the thought of her brother being the self-entitled ass that he normally was. Luckily though, she wasn't at that point. Yet.

Kas counter her strike with his right arm, he use enough force to knock Eirly of balance then shifted his weight, driving his shoulder into her. Then smoothly caught hold of her with this left arm to take her to mat softly.

He looked down and smiled. “You're sparring needs to simulate combat, always strike your target.”

Eirly nodded her understanding as she stayed down on the mat a moment before sitting back up. The knock to her shoulder had been a little bit harder than she had expected but that would be an issue to deal with later. She definitely wouldn't be passing her own hand-to-hand combat certification any time soon at this rate.

Wincing slightly as she rotated her shoulder, she stood back up easy enough, "Simulate combat, strike the target, overcome the enemy and neutralise the situation. Correct?"

The chirp of her commbadge broke the concentration Eirly had just managed to gain, Commander Andersen, you're required on the Bridge,. Something must've been going on if she was getting called to the Bridge and not to the Security Offices. "Give me five and I'll be there," she confirmed as she stepped off the mat.

"Sorry, Kas," Eirly apologized with a frown, "We'll pick this up another time?" A nod from him was the confirmation she needed so she smiled before hurrying out of the gym with her gear in hand. "I'll chat with you later."

OFF


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Lt. Commander Eirly Andersen
Second Officer, Chief Security Officer
USS Astrea


Lt. Commander Razka Kas
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Astrea

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