Superfluous Author's Notes:
* Floors are traditionally painted a different color from ceilings and walls, to establish a point of reference.
**Gravlock—personal gravitation system in the boots.
***Artificial Gravity
--Rated--
---
Jalissa Shepard grit her teeth as gravity vanished, releasing her from the blue-painted floor*. She slung her rifle across her shoulders. It was harder to get to than if she hung it from one shoulder only, but in a zero gravity environment she needed all the advantages of mobility she could get. Her stomach churned as she reached for the gravlock** on her boots.
"Sorry Shepard. Not today," Gunnery Chief Iverson drawled in her ear. Gunny Iverson proudly wore the title 'Dungeon Master', garnered as he oversaw these training evolutions with near omniscience.
If she hadn't checked, he'd have complained about her lack of procedure. Everyone knew Alliance standard-issue suits had gravlock systems built into the boots. It was why space servicemen's feet looked so big when wearing armor.
Shepard hated zee-gee, and intended to gain her rating therein as quickly as possible. She might move slowly, compared to others, but she made fewer mistakes and—as Iverson liked to point out—mistakes in zee-gee, or zee-gee combat, were more important than finishing fast.
It took Shepard a moment of drifting before she caught hold of the handrungs, fastened to the left and right sides of the corridor. Frigates rarely had such handholds, due to their smaller size, but the big behemoths did. Otherwise things went crazy instead of merely chaotic, when a-grav*** malfunctioned.
Nauseated by the lack of gravity, feeling somewhat ridiculous as she pulled her way to the door, Shepard switched sides of the corridor, kicking off the wall, and catching the handholds on the other side of the corridor. Reaching down, she palmed the lock open.
It buzzed, blinking red.
She couldn't hear Iverson laughing, but he had to be. Iverson did not give apocalypse scenarios to his green recruits—he taught them to stay alive. He did, however, taken almost perverse pleasure in making recruits he considered 'promising' stretch themselves. Hence, why the door opened so sweetly for the last recruit, but now remained steadfastly closed.
Hooking her elbow through the rung, Shepard activated her omni-tool, trying to open the door that way. Without better training, she knew she would not be able to pull something like this off—much less hack Iverson's control, and take over the exercise—but this was not real-life, and by showing she knew the steps to take, whether she could do them or not, meant he would have less to criticize.
It also meant he would make the next iteration more difficult. Oh well, at least she'd improve quickly and get the all-important rating.
The omni-tool beeped at her, indicating the attempt to hack the lock had failed. She monkeyed her way back to the emergency hatch, sliding up into it feet-first, like an eel. The dark confined space of the emergency access tubes would let her bypass the door below, unless those were sealed too—as in the case of leaks, or environmental contamination.
In this case, the door was simply blocked. Her omni-tool's scan gave no signs of fire, or any environmental concern, past the absence of gravity. "This is Shepard to engineering. Anyone down there receiving?"
"Engineering," Iverson's voice responded blandly. "We're glad to hear you."
"What's your status?" Always, always check status. Her original all-call had produced no response signals, which meant—in the spirit of the exercise—engineering was dealing with the core leak, the protective protocols separating the 'engineers', the core, and her demanding more proximity before they would function.
The scenarios Iverson came up with…
"Core leak, a-grav failure, complete catastrophe. How're you planning to get us out?"
"How's the secondary a-grav?" Shepard struggled to remember about secondary a-grav. Emergency measure only, it would let her walk on the floor, but would not keep her from drifting if she got knocked about.
"Af…negative, Shepard. Secondary a-grav is malfunctioning."
Malfunctions could be fixed. Shepard slid out of the access tube. "Engage emergency protocols, I'm going to lock down the ship." Iverson had better declare her zee-gee certified after this stupid run.
"Initiating emergency protocols—I don't want to roast, Shepard."
"If the core is leaking, then you're not in engineering. You'll be all right, once emergency measures are deployed. Just stay calm, it'll be all right."
"Famous last words, Shepard. You're already running slow."
But, as far as she had the manual for this sort of thing memorized, she hadn't missed any steps. That would impress Iverson more than a fast time and forgetting to check gravlock on boots, or something equally simple.
Shepard made for the nearest access station. Working upside down was difficult, but she managed to key in, routing her 'clearance' from 'shipboard computers' at her 'duty station' through her omni-tool, to the dummy ship's computers.
Shepard finally repaired secondary a-grav, grateful to have her feet firmly on the floor, when Iverson suddenly began shouting in her ear. "Shepard! You've got bogies!" Three words she hated above most others: you've got bogies.
Without thinking, her hand dashed across the screen, disengaging the secondary a-grav on this deck, but not the others. As her feet lifted from the ground Shepard kicked free of the console, knocking into the instructor as he struggled in the sudden relapse of zee-gee.
Grabbing his knife wrist, all he saw was Shepard's open palm headed towards his face, Yamada-esque.
Thunk.
The emergency lights stopped flashing, proper gravity resumed, duping Shepard and the instructor to the ground before her pretended blow landed. "Ouch." Shepard could not stop the whiny civilian statement from escaping her lips. Armor did not cushion a person against bone-jarring thuds.
Iverson appeared, amused by the look Shepard gave him as she tried to conceal her dislike of sadistic instructors. "Well, Shepard…you're officially zee-gee rated. You okay, Zed?"
Zed gave the thumbs-up.
Shepard heaved a sigh. It was over. She was rated…
"Shepard!" Iverson barked, startling her out of her sense of relief.
"Sir, yes, sir!"
"You're done! Get off my training ground." Iverson jerked a thumb over his shoulder, as though to say 'scram'.
