The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH07

Jeremy was happy the training uniform that had been made for him was so sturdy, because he was confident the violence with which he put it

Jeremy was happy the training uniform that had been made for him was so sturdy, because he was confident the violence with which he put it on would have ripped anything else.

He had lost count of the times he’d caught sight of Gralgiran’s friend glaring at him in the distance. Of course, he always seemed to do it when Jeremy was with his friends, and not in a position to chase after him and put an end to this.

He hoped that his training put him up against someone able to take a punch, because if he managed to connect, he was putting the anger he’d built into it.

He scanned the fighting hunters until he located his trainer.

“Come with me,” she instructed once he reached her, and he followed out of the fight hall and to another room, where the hunters there firing at targets moving in the distance. He was worried that she’d ask him to shoot people when he noticed that instead of blood, those hit lost chunks, which vanished before reaching the floor.

“A hunter fights with more than his claws and his mind, cub,” she said. “You must be able to fight when you are out of range of your enemy.” She opened a cabinet. “This is where these come in.”

There was a familiarity to the weapons he felt jarring. While the details varied, the general shapes were close enough to guns and rifles he’d seen in movies that he wondered if they all came from some singular manufacturer.

Then he realized that with being so similar, there were probably limited ways weapons could be designed and maintain their efficiencies.

It didn’t matter how you curved a blade. If you wanted it to cut, the side that would hit the target needed to be sharp. If you wanted your gun to take down your opponent, it needed a power source, a way to generate the bolt and send it to the target in such a way that it was taken down. It also needed to be comfortable to use.

And there I noticed a detail no movie gun matched. The lack of a trigger.

“I thought Kelsirians didn’t do standard designs.” He motioned to the four identical rifles.

“We do have print technology. These were designed by a variety of Weaponsmiths. The designs that suits our needs have been adopted and printed as required.” She took a handheld one and handed it to him.

The grip fit his hand. And where shooters would rest their fingers, on the side of the weapon, above the trigger, in movies, was an indentation for his, with a well at the end for the tip of his finger. For his claw.

That was how the weapon was triggered.

“Normally, the grip of the weapon would be keyed to your palm print, but because of your gloves, the one you will train with needs to be keyed to proximity, same as hunters who are in the field. It means that you cannot allow someone to put your glove on and get hold of your weapon.”

“Wouldn’t a scan of my body be more effective?”

“I expect that if we are not using that, there is a reason.”

How small could a scanner get? They were handheld, but could those process the level of information needed to identify someone? The one in his weight machine was the size of his tablet, but its processing was centralized, and it was powered by the ship, the same way the machine itself was.

“Cub?”

“Sorry, trying to work through a problem I don’t have all the data on.”

“Ah.”

“Ah, what?” he asked suspiciously.

“Ah, you will be one of those,” she replied neutrally. “I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“One of those what?”

“One of those hunters who end up not belonging on the front line, but in a lab, making everyone but your Beta’s life easier.”

He almost protested. Then realized she was right. He’d always be thinking of problems he encountered and ways around them. And it didn’t make him less of a hunter. Just one with a specialty.

He was surprised at how much he cared about being recognized as a hunter.

“Always needs to be the best,” Byron had often complained when he didn’t know Jeremy was in earshot. It was part of what had led to him being picked by Doctor Manuel in the end. Something to focus on, instead of this pervasive discomfort that had been with him the entire time through university.

“So, just point and shoot?” He lined up a shot for the target area, only for his hand to be painfully be forced down.

“Do not point your weapon at anyone you don’t intend to kill. This isn’t a ballad, where you get to run around fire without thought and the editors make sure only the proper targets are hit.”

The chastising lost some of its effect at that image. “So you have those kinds of stories, too?”

Her expression was not pleased. “Yes. And they are the bane of those charged with training cubs to become hunters.”

“Like you.”

“Except I expected my cub to be mature about the weapons he was handed.”

His ears burned. “Sorry.”

“Remember this lesson, and I will be satisfied.” She led him to a partition and keyed in information.

In the distance, a Taournian appeared.

“Is it just going to stand there and let me shoot it?”

“As you don’t have any training, I don’t expect it will need to move to survive you.”

He stared at her. He’d seen enough movies to know how this went. It wasn’t like back when they used chemical propellant. There was no kick to using these. He glanced at the target, lined up his shot, looked at her and tense his finger for the claw to extend.

And nothing happened.

He looked at the target and it didn’t again.

She didn’t smirk or twitch an ear when he looked at her. “You forced my arm down. I thought that meant the safety was off.”

“I will force a cub’s arm down even if the weapon they use is a facsimile. It is something that needs to be learned for not just when your weapon is live, but for all conditions. Your weapon could have a fault that prevents it from shutting down properly. Carelessness leads to the death of your allies, instead of your enemies. You should not be the reason a hunter enters the Forest, that it be their appointed time or not.”

He looked away. “Sorry.”

“Learn the lesson, and I will be satisfied. You are a cub, I do not expect you to know everything. But you are older, so I expect not to have to teach the same lesson twice.”

“You won’t.”

“Good.” She showed him the one she held, finger also in the trigger well. She took it out. “Under the well, closer to you. Curl your finger until it fits comfortably. Extend your claw. There will be resistance, push through. Then your weapon is active. It will remain so until you deactivate it or it moves out of range.”

He didn’t feel anything where the tip of his finger rested, but looking at it, he saw the hole his claw would go in. He tensed, and the claw extended. The glove returned tactile information he’d learned to interpret as his claws not being able to fully extend, such as if his fingertips pressed against a table top. He tensed it harder and the sensation changed.

To go with it. A dot turned blue on the side of the trigger well.

Instead of being cocky, he kept his eyes on the target as he lined the shot, tensing his finger caused the weapon to twitch and he missed. That was easily remedied.

He missed again.

And again.

He ground his teeth.

This shouldn’t be so hard. It was just pointing and triggering it. After that, it was about accounting for the discrepancy between the notch at the end of the barrel he used to line the shot and where he hit.

With a snarl, he fired until the blue light turned yellow, then red, and nothing happened when he triggered it.

“Did you get it all out of your system?” she asked, and he glared at her.

“How about you let me change what the target looks like?” He could think of one person that would motivate him to hit right now.

“No. This is not the place to enact vendettas. If you have a problem with another hunter, meet them on the mat.”

“He’s not a hunter,” Jeremy grumbled.

“Then talk with him.” She took out a cartridge from a pocket. “Charge pack.” She turned her weapon to the side, pressed a claw in another well, and a same pack pushed at of the back of the grip. She took it, put the other one in and lined a shot she didn’t take. “Now you.” She handed him the pack.

There was more resistance than he expected, as if the tip of his claw was what pushed the pack out. It was an interesting safety to ensure the pack wasn’t taken out by accident, but in the middle of a firefight? He could see that being a problem.

When he had it in, she handed him another pack. “Again.”

Seven times she had him do it before motioning to the target, still standing.

“Leave your emotions out of it,” she instructed.

“Only bad things come from anger,” he said, reciting a line from one of the comedies he’d enjoyed with his friends back on Einstein.

“No, anger has its place, but when you need to think, to aim, it will interfere.”

Right. She couldn’t get the reference.

He controlled his breathing, lined the shot and kept his hand relaxed as he flexed his finger and triggered the weapon.

A chunk of the Taournian vanished out of its chest and he fired again. Another chunk and he fired again, and again, this time imagining mottled fur, browns, whites and blacks. That glare just before he ran off.

“There,” he said, grinning when the light turned red and only the lower body was left.

“Maybe anger does have its place for you at range.”

“Just who do you hate that much?” Thuruk said, and Jeremy spun in surprise.

“No one,” he hurried to say. And the look both gave him said he had better come up with something good unless he was willing to tell them about his stalker. “The humans got my dad to come here and they’re going to use him against me.”

Thuruk winced.

“I see,” his instructor said. “Then it might be best if we resume this once you have processed the event.”

“No, I’m fine,” he protested.

She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Cub, you hurt. What you did there makes that plain. Family shouldn’t be used against you, but not everything is as the gods wish.”

He wanted to ask how things could go against what gods wanted, but she was looking at Thuruk.

“If your training is done, why don’t you take Cub with you to change?”

Before Jeremy could protest again, she walked away.

Thuruk took the weapon from him, returning it to the cabinet, then led him back to the locker room.

“I’m sorry your father’s being used against you like that.”

“To be honest, I doubt it took a lot of convincing on their part for him to do this. The way I remember things, he, more than my mom, didn’t take well that I was drawing naked men. She sort of went along. I remember her looking scared, for me, I think. He…. I remember angry tones, accusatory ones. Like I was guilty of something.”

“A bond between parent and child should be stronger than that,” Thuruk said. “It is a gift the gods grant us and we must cherish them for it.”

“When are the gods going to gift you and Nirlakasar with one?”

“Oh, they already have, three times.”

Jeremy stared. “What? How come this is the first time I’ve heard about this?”

The look his friend gave him was bashful. “You weren’t exactly comfortable with how sexual we are, and our oldest, Teni, he was entering that stage where everything for him is about sex.”

“I’ve been here for well over a year now. There was plenty of time to introduce me since.”

“Not unless you are interested in explaining, with demonstrations, the way Earthers and Kelsirians are different sexually to him.”

“He’s still in that phase?”

Thuruk sighed. “We are despairing of him ever leaving it. We have no idea where he gets all that sexual energy or interest.”

A hunter at another locker snorted, and Thuruk glared at her.

Jeremy didn’t comment, but with how often he’d seen his friend sneak off with someone, he figured this was a case of son taking very well after his father.

*

“Technician Jeremy Bradshaw,” Nirlakasar greeted him, adding a hug. “It is a pleasure to see you again.”

“I think that technically it’s cub Jeremy Bradshaw right now. Hunter training and all that.”

“I hope you don’t mind I talked him into coming here,” Thuruk said, rubbing muzzle with her. “After how he decimated the target he was practicing on, I figured he needed to relax. You didn’t have anyone scheduled, and I know he likes your massages. I am going to see if Krefiren’s available.”

“You don’t have to make time for me,” Jeremy protested. “I’ll be happy with any other masseuse.”

She replied, but he didn’t hear it, noticing mottled black, brown, and white fur further within the shop. He’d been on alert for him to show up the entire walk, and the bastard had gotten here ahead of him, got naked, and clearly comfortable with the guy next to the table.

And okay, maybe he was reaching. Why would Toomerimortoral bother undressing if this was about ambushing him with more glaring? Which he wasn’t doing right now. He wasn’t even looking in his direction. The guy’s attention was entirely on the other one, and he was getting hard.

And okay, was he bigger than Gralgiran? Almost certainly longer, and considering how his Heart reacted to Jeremy’s head, he could see how he might have enjoyed time in bed with that guy.

And he so didn’t need that image right now. He certainly didn’t need his body reacting to what he was unwillingly imagining when he was about to get naked in front of Thuruk’s mate.

“Technician Jeremy Bradshaw?” She called to him, motioning to the table.

“I’m going to need a minute.” Or more, if he couldn’t get his mind to stop imagining his Heart with his stalker going at it. “I’m…” His face burned, caught fire when she looked around him and smiled.

“He is rather fletching.”

“I’m with someone,” he replied, despairing that any of his friend would stop teasing him about other guys.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy what you see, or imagine the possibilities.”

“You aren’t helping,” he grumbled in his hand.

She chuckled, and the air between the two of them and the others became opaque. “Undress. You won’t be the first aroused male I’ve had on one of my tables. Relaxing your body will cause that to also relax.”

She had to encourage him again when it came time to remove his pants, then she had him on his stomach on the table.

“So,” he said, to give himself something other than those two to think about. “Thuruk mentioned something about your oldest discovering sex?”

She groaned. “I swear, the gods took my mate and copied him into our son.”

He chuckled. It seemed like at least one of the parents knew where their son got it from.

*

“No.” Alix glared at him.

“Come on, I don’t care that we’re at the station. You have got to have something for me to do. Do you have any idea how boring it is with everyone else able to wander off there and me being stuck here?”

“I’m sorry, Jeremy, but I can’t have you work. You shouldn’t be on the ship—I know why, so no need to explain it to me. But it means you can be called at any moment to present yourself. I can’t have that happen while you’re in the middle of a task. Take the time to work on one of your projects.”

“I don’t want to work on my projects. I have to be at home for that. Alone, for that. Gral’s out there fighting for me, and I’m stuck in here not doing anything. Please, be a friend and just give me a board to watch.”

“As your friend, I don’t have the authority to allow you there. And as the Engineer, I can’t afford the possible disruption your sudden departure might cause.” He placed a hand on Jeremy’s arm and squeezed. “Just relax, Jeremy. Soon you will be called to fight for yourself before those who want to take you from us. Rest. Make sure you have the energy to stand up to them.”

Jeremy headed away. He couldn’t rest. He had too much energy to burn off . This fight was about him; for him. He should be involved. Instead, he had nothing to do but simmer in his anger.

He headed for the leisure alley, and his weight machine there. Working out would help him burn this off.

Outline section 

Jeremy had more than a little misdirected anger today, and he was doing his best not to let it spill out on those around him. The trial regarding his mental competency to stand declare his own nationality, the additional news his father was going to be a witness at that trial, and Toom prowling around him like a jealous lover...

...well thankfully today was when he started firing guns, so needless to say those targets aren’t going to be harming anyone ever again.

Once he’s calmed down enough to approach, Thuruk will ask what is up. Not being willing to bring up Toom, Jeremy focuses on the trial. To be exact how the human government has gotten his father to testify against his mental health; entirely based on the propaganda the government force fed him and his mother.

This will bring up talk of parents, which given how this book ends will be needed. And from parents to children, and namely if Thuruk and his heart are ever going to have some. To which Thuruk is very surprised it never came up before, but he and his heart already have [insert number here] kids.

This is news to Jeremy, and Thuruk says at the time Jeremy first boarded the ship their eldest had just hit that age where he started obessing about sex; didn’t seem a good time to expose him to Jeremy. To this Jeremy will say it’s been [insert number here] years, to which Thuruk laughs... he has no idea where his son picked up so much ‘enthusiasm’.

This is worth a group laugh, brokenly only by a question if they are done, since if they are this is the kinda talk best shared with the other Techs.

###

At Thuruk’s suggestion, Jeremy heads to Thuruk’s heart’s spa rather than heading straight home. It will throw off supper a little bit, but Jeremy messaged Gral to let him know. Besides, it can’t be denied Jeremy needs it after today’s training session.

While there, Jeremy goes through the normal procedure, he has a weather eye out for Toom. And sure enough he’s there. And given he’s there incognito, he’s actually taking advantage of the spa... so Jeremy gets to see quite a bit of why Gral might have had sex with this kelsirian. Jeremy puts that thought out real quick. Thinking of Gral having sex, even with another kelsirian, is enough to make him inappropriately arroused.

This masseuse doesn’t mind at all, and Toom... it’s a bit hard for Jeremy to read, even after years of adjusting to kelsirian emotional tells.

Addition 

Some level of time skip. If they aren’t at the station at the start of the chapter, it might need to be added before the end of it. Possibly with the setup that leads to the encounter with Toom.

Most of the chapter follows the general shape of the outline. the physical fight was changed to range mainly because I wanted to show the training in varying methods of fighting.