Confederation -- 4

Chapter 4

It was alt-day shift, and most of the crew were resting in their cabins. Liz grabbed my hand, shushing me with her finger held across her lips. We slipped out of the door to our room, and she shut it carefully.

"The kids will be fine for thirty minutes or so," she whispered.

"What's this about, Liz?" I was curious. I thought I knew what she had in mind; we were so closely linked mentally, but I wanted to hear her say it.

"I've been wondering about something, and I want to find out," she answered.

We went through the transporter to the hold. It was still in the zero-g mode, that being a little more economical on the grav-system. When the door opened, we floated out, both giggling like kids. Clothes sailed off in various directions as we came together in mid-air.

It was a workout. We had to hold tight to each other, and there was no gravity-assisted coming together. Even so, it was exhilarating. We were able to take positions that would have been far too difficult with gravity. In the interest of decency, I'm going to leave our actions to your imagination.

Thirty minutes later, we floated back into the transporter, stepping down into normal gravity. Liz embraced me with warmth as I activated the thing, still radiating passion. "Dec, that was the most amazing thing! We have to do that again," she said.

"I agree, but it might be a little difficult if the men find out what we've been doing. There aren't any other women on board, and I'm pretty sure they'd be very envious," I said.

"Yeah. Why is that, anyway? Why no women?" she asked with a frown.

"I guess I thought I was outfitting just a fighting force. I should have been a little more thoughtful. Women can handle weapons, too. And, zero-g fighting would more than equalize any strength differences unless it came to grappling."

"We should pick up some women crew members at the first opportunity," she responded. "Make sure they're willing to fight. I don't want them to sign up thinking they're just here to keep the men happy."

"Okay. We'll come back to Earth and add some crew eventually. We've got to get the Pug-bears out of our system first, though."

I was considering the grappling concept. "Liz, you're trained in judo. What do you think would work in zero-grav? You can't do throws the way you would on the ground."

She paused to consider, "No, obviously not, but I think that joint locks and things like armbars or chokes would work fine. We ought to get the Marines working on those sorts of things. They've just been practicing with unloaded guns so far."

"Yeah," I responded. "We should see about using knives, too. I think that would be handy."

As a result, we began to work out techniques in human-style hand-to-hand. The process fascinated Kasm and his people. They even went so far as to join us.

I cautioned them about claws and teeth before they started. Kasm told me not to worry. His people were completely aware of the natural advantages they held over us puny humans. I wasn't so sure about their ability in zero-g. Strength is acceptable, but leverage is critical. As Archimedes said, "Give me a lever long enough, and I can move the world," or something like that.

We entered the hold, and the Sim-tigers watched as we did our usual workout. One experimentally jumped a couple of times to see how the heavier gravity affected him. He was so strong in the legs that it didn't seem to matter. He easily jumped high enough to touch the ceiling with his manipulating arms. The others joined in, leaping around for a few minutes. Then, they laid down at the side of the room and watched us sweat our way through the rest of our grappling workout.

When we finished, Frazzle gradually lowered the gravity, and we relaxed into zero-g. The Sim-tigers didn't seem bothered by this. After a minute or so, Kasm gently floated over to where I was.

"Dec, show me how some of those hand-grabbing things work," he rumbled in his growling voice.

"I'm not sure how they will work with you," I answered. I tentatively caught one of his manipulating hands. He pulled me close and wrapped his front legs around me in response. I started to pull back but felt his claws against my back.

"This is not to your advantage," he said. "I can dig my claws in and pull my arms apart. You'd be seriously injured."

"Yes, and you can bite, too," I agreed. He was holding me loosely, and I hooked a leg across his hips, spinning myself as I shoved up under his chin. The maneuver allowed me to slip downward and simultaneously twist him around to face away from me. His manipulating arms were jointed roughly like a human's, and I held onto his wrist as I floated free. I had been thinking about the concept of an armbar, and it seemed natural to slip one leg on each side of his arm and across his chest and then pull. It was precisely the type of thing a human wrestler would try on another human. It worked. I was able to extend his arm, but then he used his rear paws to shove my legs towards his head, twisting me out of my position.

"That was interesting," he admitted. "You might have been able to hurt my arm. It's not as strong as my legs. I still could have bitten your leg, though."

I grinned and shrugged, "Well, I don't think any human would voluntarily get in a wrestling match with you. Let's try this."

I spun around and shoved off the ceiling while holding to his arm. My momentum dragged him around, and I let loose as he started to turn towards me. The result was he went sailing away, and I flew towards the wall. He fetched up against the opposite wall and leaped towards me, but I shoved at the floor with my hand and gently moved beyond his reach as he went past. I got a sense of amusement from him as he mentally sent, "We could dance around like this for a long time without touching each other."

I answered, "Striking with a blunt object like my fist or foot wouldn't work very well. I'd fly off the other way, and the blow would be weaker than if I was standing on the ground. Your strikes would be more damaging simply because of your claws. Perhaps we'd be better off using knives or your sword."

"That's what I was thinking," he growled aloud. Then he sent, "I can see how I'd have a little more trouble with the sword. I'd spin away from the blow in reaction, but I think my target would be cut, nevertheless."

I sent, "That's right. Every action would have an equal and opposite reaction. Your added mass would make you more dangerous than a human, though. The thing is, a zero-gravity fight would probably be in a hard vacuum. We don't have a vacuum suit for you, but if we can create one, your sword would allow you to penetrate an enemy's suit, and the vacuum would kill them, if nothing else."

"I want vacuum suits for my people," he responded.

"I'll ask Frazzle if we have the facilities to make them for you," I said aloud.

We used the rest of the time for human-on-human practice. Kasm communicated with the other four Sim-tigers, analyzing what we were doing and figuring out if they could use some of the same techniques. The problem was that none of the Marines wanted to practice with them. They were definitely intimidating.

Things were going along about as well on Rudy's ship. Whistle was a competent pilot and kept the larger ship within a few hundred yards of ours. Rudy reported that his Marines and tigers were working out in heavy g and zero-g, just as ours. He wasn't participating as yet. He was still undergoing treatment on his injured arm.

He'd taken a bullet in an ambush over a year ago, and his left elbow was locked, rendering him unable to straighten his arm. The Sunnys had a medical device that was gradually stimulating a gentle healing. He now had recovered almost his entire range of movement, but Whistle refused to allow him to endanger the arm.

"Rudy, you got to keep de arm from being hurt," he cautioned. "De regenerator works, but arm not strong enough to do much yet. Let it heal for a long time, and then I tell you when it ready to work hard."

Rudy followed his advice and stayed out of the wrestling, only doing some of the exercises in heavy-g to keep in shape.

We gradually approached Uranus. The in-system Em-drive was so powerful that we could have gotten there much faster, but I felt that we needed the time to get used to our new environment and get organized into at least a semblance of a fighting force.

However, the day came when we were close enough to see Oberon with our naked eyes.