Frontier: Book One - The Space Cadets (13 page)

Aisha realized she was the only
one not eating. “Go on,” said Soo-Kyung. “It won
’
t hurt you. Maybe a bit messy, but that
’
s part of the charm.”

“
I’
m not
very good with chopsticks,” she said finally.

“
Then use your fingers,” said
Patrice, putting his chopsticks down again and using his fingers so
she wouldn
’
t be alone. Instantly, his
hands were covered in black goo. He slurped the noodles down, and
then licked his fingers.

“
Go on, what are you waiting for?
If I can do it
…
”

Aisha laughed and dug in. Seamus
was right. They
were
good. And it was nice to have a taste
from home, even if it was somebody else
’
s,
instead of the endless supply of mess-hall food.

***

Once Aisha had had a few days to
recover, Soo-Kyung had booked one of the exercise rooms, and
cleared it out to make a dojo. Together, she and Aisha had laid out
mats.

“
I will teach you basic
self-defense,” she said, “before you work with Patrice. I know you
can
’
t wait to get your hands on him, but
you can work with me first.”

Aisha blushed. Soo-Kyung only
smiled more.

“
It
’
s
okay,” she said. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“
I’
m not
so sure it
’
s a secret anymore,” Aisha
replied, quietly.

“
You are bigger than I,” said
Soo-Kyung, “and stronger. I would have no hope against you in close
combat -- if it were just a question of mass.”

There was something about the way
Soo-Kyung moved, a confidence and litheness about her that Aisha
hadn
’
t noticed before.

“
Okay,” she said, grabbing the
front of Aisha
’
s uniform. She twisted her
wrists, bent her knees and turned at the hip. Suddenly Aisha felt
herself being flung to the ground. The smaller girl had thrown her
like she was a toy. She had done it with enough control so that
Aisha didn
’
t get hurt.

Soo-Kyung laughed a little, and
reached out a hand to pick Aisha up.

“
It
’
s
just physics,” she said. “It
’
s the concept
of a lever. These allow you to exert a large force over distance by
applying a small force at the right place. My arms are the levers.”

Soo-Kyung
twisted her hips like earlier.
“
So when I twist my hips like this,
I can turn your own weight against you. Now, you
try.
”

“
But I
’
m
bigger than you.”

“
It doesn
’
t matter. You aren
’
t strong
enough to pick me up and throw me, are you?”

Aisha shrugged. Gripping Soo-Kyung
the same way she had been gripped, she twisted her wrists and
turned from the hips in the same way. Nothing happened.

She pulled harder, and lifted
Soo-Kyung a little, but by turning she lost balance and fell,
pulling Soo-Kyung down on top of her.

“
Am I interrupting
something?”

They turned to look at the source
of the voice: Patrice.

Soo-Kyung lifted herself off Aisha
and nimbly jumped to her feet. Patrice smiled and reached down.
Aisha took his hand, and he effortlessly lifted her to her
feet.

“
Nice effort,” he said. “But you
need to work on it.”

So Aisha grabbed the lapels of his
uniform, flicked her wrists and twisted at the hip. The expression
of surprise on his face as she threw him to the ground was
perfect.

***

For the next few weeks, life
continued apace in the Academy, and things began to take on a
feeling of normalcy. Aisha was even beginning to enjoy her classes,
especially the science and math ones, at which she
excelled.

The highlight of each week was
when Simms took them flying. While others, such as Soo-Kyung and
Ronaldo, were extremely effective flyers that Aisha could never
hope to match, she did seem to have a knack for strategy. Simms
regularly called upon her to command groups of flyers against ones
that he set up.

At first, his teams won easily.
But, over time, she began to see how he thought, and how he
did
things. That was his weakness -- his
predictability.

The first time she beat him, it
was a tough slog and narrow victory. After that, the wins came
easier and easier, until he didn
’
t seem to
be much of a challenge anymore.

Her sessions with Patrice were
also extremely rewarding. Not only was she learning a lot about
self-defense, she also found herself growing in confidence as she
understood the art better. She remembered the first day that
Soo-Kyung had shown her basic throws, and how the smaller girl had
held herself. Now she felt more comfortable in her
stance.

She hadn
’
t yet dared go into the mess hall, but she knew the
day was coming soon.

Patrice became more and more
interesting every moment she spent with him. He was certainly a
very masculine guy, but not the clich
é
musclebound moron that she
’
d known around
her old school. It went beyond intelligence, too -- there was
something deeply insightful about him. When he began to share his
hopes and dreams for the future with her, she realized that she
wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.

Far from the privileged rich kid,
he was humble, he was caring, and he
knew
about the things
that mattered in the world. She had hated talking with rich kids in
the past, stuck in their little self-absorbed bubbles. But he
wasn
’
t like that.

He clapped her on the side of the
head with his bo. It had a huge set of pads on the end, which
softened the impact of any hit. The pads also added weight, and
therefore momentum and force to any attack.

“
Wake up,” he said, smiling.
“You
’
re daydreaming again.”

“
Sorry about that,” she replied,
before doing a spin move that caught him on the back of his leg,
buckling it and sinking him to one knee. Turning again, she got him
on the back of the head, knocking him flat. “Who
’
s daydreaming now?”

He laughed. That was one of the
things she was beginning to
love
about him. She had just
humiliated him, but he was good-natured enough to know that she had
succeeded
. That it wasn
’
t about
him. It was about
her
.

She returned his smile and helped
him up.

Then she heard the sound of a slow
clap. Sebastian stood in the door, mocking applause. “Utter crap,”
he said slowly, smirking towards Patrice. Lim was in tow, mockingly
watching Aisha.

But Patrice, credit to him,
didn
’
t take the bait. He ignored Sebastian
and returned to his fighting stance, facing Aisha.

This time, Sebastian
wouldn
’
t allow himself to be ignored.
Standing between them, he faced down Patrice. “I
’
ve beaten everybody in this school except you,” he
said. “Because you are too scared to fight me.”

“
If you insist.”

“
Don
’
t
mock me. Don
’
t brush me off.”

Patrice said nothing, and just met
the other boy
’
s eyes. He dropped his bo,
and stood straight.

“
You
will
fight me,” said
Sebastian, his eyes icy cool. “I
’
ll make
sure of it.”

Taking Lim
’
s arm, he swept out of the room. Aisha caught her eye
as they left, and Lim smiled a frozen smile.

***

Aisha lay in bed, unable to sleep
and not knowing why. She flicked on her window and set it to show
scenes from Canada.

His country.

She looked at the beautiful city
of Vancouver, a city on the water with grey/green skyscrapers
soaring into the sky, looking like they came straight out of a
science-fiction movie. Beyond to British Columbia and the dramatic
mountains. She looked at scenes of people skiing past snow ghosts,
of kids playing hockey on outdoor frozen rinks.

Could this be in my future,
she wondered as she slipped into a peaceful, happy
sleep.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘An eye
for an eye would make the whole world blind’, which is a wonderful,
peaceful, sentiment.

But if you aren’t willing to poke
out your enemy’s eye, then only you will be blind, and he, fully
sighted, will be encouraged and empowered to continue in his
oppression of you.

So, if your enemy tries to take
out your eye, don’t take out his. Take off his entire head, and
make sure he can never hurt you again...

Having practiced
with
Patrice and Soo-Kyung, attending the fighting contests took a new
interest for Aisha.

“
You shouldn
’
t,” said Patrice. “Not yet. You don
’
t want to be called out.”

“
Called out?”

“
It
’
s
common. If you are present, and someone calls you out, you really
should fight them. And while you
’
ve
learned and grown a lot, you aren
’
t yet
ready.”

“
Can
’
t I
just say
‘
No
’
?”

“
Sure,” he said, pausing a little,
“but if you do, you have no chance of earning any respect with the
older kids. You need them on your side if you
’
re to get around this Sebastian thing.”

“
Has he ever called you
out?”

“
Never.”

“
Why?”

“
Because he knows he will
lose.”

“
That
’
s
not how he sounded yesterday.”

“
He
’
s all
talk,” said Patrice. But he didn
’
t sound
as sure of himself as he usually did.

“
I still want to go,” insisted
Aisha.

“
I can
’
t
stop you, but I can only ask you not to.”

His words were on
Aisha
’
s mind all day, and she
couldn
’
t focus on her classes. Why did he
want to prevent her from going to the fights? What if she took
someone on, and lost? There was no shame in that. And if she put up
a good fight, she
’
d earn a lot of respect.
And just like the combat simulations with Simms -- if she only ever
practiced against one person, then she
’
d
only ever be good at combat with that person.

She resolved to go. There was open
competition in the makeshift dojo that night.

Then she remembered Patrice, and
his face full of concern telling her that she shouldn
’
t. She didn
’
t want to let
him down, but--

“
Wake up,” said Soo-Kyung.
“You
’
re a light year away.”

“
Sorry,” said Aisha. “I just
don
’
t know what to do.”

“
Do what your heart tells
you.”

“
It tells me conflicting
things.”

“
Then sort them out, but keep your brain
focused on your proper work.
”

As always Soo-Kyung was right.
Annoyingly so. Aisha sighed. Whatever would she do?

***

I
’
m going to regret this,
she thought as she
slipped out the apartment. Soo-Kyung was in the shower, so she
could be at her destination before her friend suspected
anything.

She
’
d
slip in the back and find a discrete spot just to
watch
. It
should be easy.

Sure enough, the room was full,
and the open space was divided into four areas where students would
match up against each other using the padded bos.

Sebastian was nowhere to be seen.
She felt a little vindicated,

The concept was simple. Win, and
you stay on the mat. Lose,
and you go to the back
of the challengers line. Some of the
challengers were
hopelessly overmatched and barely lasted a few seconds against
their attackers.

One boy, David, was amazing. His
speed was unmatched. Even Patrice would look slow up against him.
He also exuded calm -- watching his opponent, measuring them, and
figuring out the combination that would take them down. He then
executed flawlessly, taking them out of the fight effortlessly. His
skills were apparent in his ability to simply apply the correct
amount of force to take out his opponent. No more, no less. And he
was always perfect.