Chapter 15

The Vulcans Meet Their Match

Stardate 2360.014

It looked like a cross between yoga, tai chi, and a kata from one of the ancient sword fighting arts, and Sahrafel and her sister had recently just found out the classes were available about a week before they were to begin their second term at the academy. In their defense, both of them had been so focused on their studies, that they had not bothered to even look into what sorts of extra-curricular activities were available for cadets, and has assumed there were none geared toward Vulcans. Most humans felt the types of things Vulcans found relaxing a bit harsh and austere for their tastes. The twins were also not the type to mix and mingle with the other students much; they were quite content to keep one another company. As members of one of the founding families, they both felt an intense obligation to do their family proud, especially their grandmother. Ugaya had been talking to one of her Vulcan classmates who had casually mentioned that the class existed. Since she had been missing some aspects of her home, and had some time before classes began, she persuaded her sister to check it out with her. She did not expect much as she was used to being taught by masters on Vulcan, who had spent a lifetime perfecting their craft. But even if the class was a watered-down version of what she was used to, the discipline allowed for flexibility in individual effort, so she figured she could train as hard as she wanted if the leader of the class was too soft in her view.

The twins arrived to class early and chose a spot near the front. They were not sure which weapons the instructor had available for students, but for their first class, their terseht would most likely be enough. As they sat waiting for class to begin, they adopted the preparation pose, used to prepare the mind and body for extreme mental and physical exertion, so neither noticed when the instructor entered. When he did, he immediately adopted the same pose, as did the rest of the class; they had been here before. After a few minutes, he addressed the class.

"Good morning everyone, I see we have two new members of our class today. Besu, my name is Jon, would you care to introduce yourselves to the rest of the class?"

The instructor had used the term for any participant in the art. Roughly translated as "companion", it signified the idea that everyone was working together to reach a higher level of personal growth.

The sisters, still in a light trance, did not hear the instructor at first.

"Ladies?"

At the noise Ugaya and her sister finally opened their eyes and were startled to see the instructor and the rest of the room looking at them. They were confused, as on Vulcan, the instructor never interacted with students in this way. They also noticed that the instructor was a human. This was unexpected, as it never had occurred to either of them that humans were ever interested in the discipline, let alone had reached the levels of proficiency required to be an instructor. They had assumed that the person leading the class was going to be one of the Vulcan professors, not someone such as this man, who looked to be in all likelihood a fellow cadet. Their estimation of the value of the class started to diminish with each of these revelations.

"Would you mind introducing yourselves?" He inquired again.

Finally, seeing no harm in being respectful, the sisters answered:

"My name is Sahrafel Ka Ree."

"My name is Ugaya Ka Ree."

When everyone continued to look at them, they added at the same time.

"From Vulcan."

Jon smiled as it was of course obvious to everyone they were from Vulcan. When they did not add anything else, he continued.

"Wow, that's a mouthful. Why don't I call you Ree1 and Ree2?"

The sisters realized that he was poking fun at them for their reticence, but although it is not what they would have done to a new student, they tried not to take offense. As the class progressed, they saw that Jon was competent, but the forms he had the class doing were rather elementary. Still, they maximized their effort and managed to get a decent workout from the class.

Jon, for his part, was struck by the sisters' beauty at first. Not a stranger to female attention; this realization was more of an academic observation, rather than any sort of active interest in pursuing either one. When he saw they were quite skilled in the art, he decided to subtly ramp up the difficulty to see what they were capable of. While the rest of the class began to struggle, Sahrafel and her sister got through the forms with no problem at all, and actually seemed to enjoy the experience more.

Then it was time for the weapons part of the class. There was room in the space for two students at a time go through forms simultaneously. The choice of weapons ranged from wooden swords and knives, to staffs, and even a few weapons of Vulcan origin. The twins noticed another difference from what they were used to on Vulcan. The weapons were all make believe. No real swords or knives for example. They could not help but assume this was a reflection of a certain lack of fortitude and commitment to the art on the part of the people running the academy. She did see, however, that Jon had what appeared to be a very real katana resting beside his wooden blade. On Vulcan, all students, after a brief period of beginner's training used real weapons. Part of the learning was teaching students to understand their individual abilities and skill level, and to not exceed that limit until they were ready. If a student did exceed that limit, and got hurt, well then, they would have gained a better understanding of what they were and were not capable of, and would be less inclined to make that same mistake the next time.

Sahrafel and Ugaya were the last students to take their turn. They began doing their forms slowly. Jon noticed that they had not chosen a weapon yet, and almost spoke up, but then refrained from interrupting when he saw how polished their technique was. At first, there was something odd about the way they moved but he could not put his finger on it. Then it slowly dawned on him how synchronized their movements were. Not as if they had practiced for a long time together, although that was undoubtedly true, but rather more like someone was holding up a large mirror and he was watching the one sister and her reflection. As he continued to watch, it became almost surreal how closely their movements matched.

Not realizing the premium humans put on not injuring anyone, the women removed their daggers from their hair. Almost in slow motion, their hair fell down over their shoulders and down their back in a cascading, jet-black waterfall. Everyone in the class, including Jon, was too mesmerized at this point to notice they each had four very sharp weapons in their hands.

In keeping with the ancient nature of the art form, the training center was built in the old style with lots of wood. As they moved, the twins gradually picked up speed. Sahrafel focused on one of the wooden supporting columns on the opposite side of the room, let fly one of her daggers, and impaled it at about the height of a human head. Her sister did the same thing at the exact same time to the column next to it. In quick succession, faster than anyone could track, they both leapt into the air and threw the other three. All of them hit the target in less than a second within a centimeter of one another. They stood stock still for a moment, eyes focused on the target. A few strands of hair had fallen down over their eyes and was stuck to the sweat of their foreheads. Not wanting to break their form, they blew it out of their eyes simultaneously, as if they had rehearsed a little bit of theatre for the amusement of those watching. Finally, with the form complete, they steepled their fingers and sat back down, closing their eyes. There was dead silence in the room. Whether this was from the surreal nature of the twins' performance, the shock of having real weapons thrown over their heads, or something else, no one knew, but all of a sudden everyone started clapping at once. Sahrafel and Ugaya had never encountered this before, and were not sure if they were supposed to join in the clapping or not. Finally, Jon spoke.

"Ladies, that was one of the most riveting performances we have ever seen here. Thank you very much for that."

He addressed the rest of the class.

"Class!"

He and the rest of the class simultaneously steepled their fingers and bowed toward them in the art's ancient gesture of respect and appreciation.

"I guess it's my turn now. As you veterans know, we don't use real weapons here because we don't want to increase the risk of injury. Our two newest members of course, can be forgiven, as this is the first time they have been in our class and they did not know we do things a little differently than they do on her home planet where this martial art originated. Most of you are probably not aware of this, but on Vulcan, they never train with anything but real weapons. Even rank beginners, after only a short time, are issued sharpened blades. There is nothing like slicing open your hand to teach you the proper respect for a weapon."

He smiled and the class laughed nervously.

"Anyway, I was going to wait 'til next week when we would have a fresh batch of plebes to do this demonstration with, but in view of the magnificent performance we just witnessed, I think I'll see if I can get these old bones to move a bit more than usual."

The class found this amusing because although they knew their teacher was older than them, they also knew it was by only a few years.

"I've been bringing my real sword here everyday since I began teaching this class mainly out of respect; she does not like being left at home when I am doing forms."

Oddly enough, as practitioners of the martial arts themselves, and who wear their weapons in their hair almost all of the time, the twins understood this sentiment better than most.

"As you know, the forms were designed to mimic the offense and defense one would use against a real life enemy. So I thought we'd bring to life one of the forms as best we can. Can I have four volunteers? Ree one and Ree two, could you be two of them please?"

He pointed to two other students.

"Ok, now see that bin over there with the bundles of reeds in them? I want each of you to go grab about twenty each and bring them to four imaginary corners, about nine meters from the middle of the room. You can just pile them up on the floor next to you."

He moved to the center of the room. The other two students started grinning. They didn't know exactly what was about to happen, but as their instructor had a flair for the dramatic, they figured it was going to be fun. They went and grabbed bundles of reeds about ten centimeters thick and a third of a meter long.

"Ok, this is what we're going to do. You guys," pointing to the four, "are Romulans. I want you…"

"But T'Kehr, we are not Romulans."

"My apologies Ugaya. Just pretend you are a Romulan in this case ok? Now…"

Sahrafel looked confused.

"But T'Kehr, how would I do that?"

"Tell you what ladies, you can just be yourselves for the purpose of this exercise."

Sahrafel and Ugaya, always respectful, steepled their fingers and bowed.

"Thank you T'Kehr."

"You are quite welcome. Now…"

He paused, looked at the twins and raised an eyebrow theatrically, as if he expected them to ask yet another question. Some of the students giggled at the joke. The twins just looked at Jon with no expression, although they thought that the humor at their expense was getting to be a bit much. He continued.

"What I want you to do is take these bundles and throw them at me. Ugaya, wait until I am into the form for about five seconds, and go first. The rest of you, after the first throw it's a free for all; try to hit me as best you can, just space the throws out so your pile lasts for the minute and a half it will take me to complete the form ok?"

One of his students looked worried.

"But T'Kehr, won't the bundles hurt if they hit you?"

"Naaawwww…"

He paused dramatically.

"Well maybe a little bit…"

He reconsidered.

"Yea probably."

Everyone cracked up at this. His reputation for the melodramatic was well founded.

"That's if you hit me!" He added.

"What do we get if we hit you T'Kehr?"

"A very good question Jason, I am so glad you asked. How about this, each time you score a hit, you get a beer from my private stock!"

The two human volunteers cheered. Jon was an amateur brewer and collector of old time craft beers. The kind with real alcohol, not the stuff with synthehol now commonly used. He had quite a collection, and rarely was as generous as this with his inventory.

One of the students still sitting spoke up.

"But T'Kehr, what about the rest of us?"

Jon had to think about it.

"Hmmm… Good point. Ok, who's got a stopwatch?"

One of the seated students held one up.

"Alright, form three is supposed to last exactly a minute and a half. You time it. If these guys," indicating the throwers, "or the rest of the class can distract me sufficiently such that I miss that mark by more than a second in either direction, everyone in the class gets a beer. Sound fair?"

The whole class, save for the Vulcans, erupted into even louder cheers.

"Ok, everyone ready?"

"Yes!"

Jon closed his eyes, assumed the 'beginning of the form' position, and said quietly.

"Begin."

Five seconds.

He started out slowly. Sahrafel tentatively threw the first bundle. Jon parried it easily. Then the rest of the throwers joined in. He quickly became a blur, parrying and slicing the bundles while still keeping to the form. The twins were very surprised at his skill. Even without people throwing things at him, his form would be better than many of the skilled practitioners they had seen on Vulcan. Both of the women momentarily had forgotten they were supposed to be trying to hit him with the bundles.

"Ugaya throw!" One of the seated students shouted.

30 seconds, zero beers down.

The shout startled the twins out of their reverie. They realized they had been staring in surprise at their instructor as if they were schoolgirls who could not control their emotions upon seeing their first celebrity. The form was already thirty seconds in and between them they had thrown only once. Embarrassed, they began to coordinate with one another and throw the bundles quickly and in earnest. Jon did not appear to be having too much trouble keeping up.

45 seconds, zero beers down.

A slight sheen of sweat began to form on his face. He was exerting himself more but still going strong. Neither the sisters, nor the other two students had managed to tag him, even though they had thrown eight of their bundles, six in the last fifteen seconds.

Frustrated, the twins each gathered up three at once and threw them one after the other in quick succession, trying to bracket him. Jon, seeing that they had picked up more than one, anticipated what they were trying to do, gave the illusion he was about to strike with his sword, but actually kept it stock still and moved his body instead. Even so, one of Sahrafel's bundles came within an eyelash of clocking him in the head. When this happened, he couldn't help but wink at her as if to say "nice try but not good enough!" Sahrafel, for her part, was shocked, and for a moment lost the connection with her sister. She had never had anyone in her life assume such a familiarity with her, let alone a fellow student. She had a moment of satisfaction however, as one of her bundles hit home.

One minute, two beers.

One of the other students had managed to take advantage of the twins' last coordinated attack and hit him as well. That was too many for Jon and he started to pick it up a notch.

Confused, Ugaya could not understand how the man was avoiding the bundles they were throwing. Normally when she and her sister coordinated in almost any discipline, it was almost impossible for a single opponent to avoid their combined attacks. And that did not take into account the other students trying their best to hit him. Yet here was this T'Kehr, barely breaking a sweat.

Sahrafel, incensed that he had mocked her, was equally determined. How could it be, she thought, that she rarely missed anything with her daggers, which were small, at much greater distances, but was having such a hard time with something like the bundles, which were much larger? The twins realized that their emotions were coming to the fore, for them, to an unusual degree. Sahrafel also felt, and this was new, that she frankly just didn't give a damn. All she wanted to do was hit this arrogant son of a bitch hard to teach him not to ever mock her again. She was tempted to smile as one of Ugaya's bundles hit home.

One minute and 15 seconds, three beers.

Jon started to breath a bit heavily at this point. Still, the girls thought, his ability to concentrate under such trying circumstances was impressive. Another small part of them also noticed he was quite attractive doing it.

This caused them to lose their connection again, as they had never had such thoughts about any male before. Neither had ever found any male interesting in any way other than as a teacher with knowledge to pass along for example, or as a fellow student working with them on a project. Now that they thought about it, this was the way they thought about anyone other than their family, whether they were male or female. For some reason, this whole train of thought regarding their instructor just made them even angrier.

One minute and 23 seconds, three beers.

The last student managed to tag him. Each of the four had hit him exactly once, leading some in the class to wonder if he had let the throwers hit him on purpose. This certainly seemed plausible because even though he was clearly exerting himself, his form was still nearly perfect, and he did not appear to be having any trouble avoiding the bundles as the final seconds wound down. Sahrafel missed him twice more.

One minute and 26 seconds, four beers.

Ugaya and Sahrafel were not about to finish the exercise with only one hit apiece. They gathered the last of the six bundles they had between them.

One minute and 27 seconds, and four beers.

Jon sensed the sisters' determination and moved to concentrate a bit more on them to the exclusion of the other students, with the result that the one last bundle left between the other two students barely missed his leg. He didn't know how he knew it, but he could sense they had a connection of some sort, almost as if they were communicating with each other in real time.

One minute 28 seconds, four beers.

They each threw their first bundle straight at his head. Two objects coming at him from different locations, effectively obstructed his view for a fraction of a second. While he was concentrating on avoiding that first throw, the twins jumped away from each other, twirling at the same time. This was to lend additional force to their throws, widen the angle between them, and hide from him until the last possible second, exactly where the throw was coming from. They then threw their last two bundles at the same time, one with each hand. Sahrafel's went high, Ugaya's low.

One minute, 29 seconds, four beers.

Having barely avoided the bundles heading straight for his face, Jon's eyes widened in surprise at seeing four more coming at him from different parts of the room so soon after. Time slowed. At least one of the bundles was probably going to connect. Part of him was kind of happy in anticipation of learning more about these two women who were so accomplished in the art form.

One minute 30 seconds, four beers.

Time slowed even more. One bundle was headed for his head again and as he began the last leg sweep that was part of the form, he inclined the upper part of his body just enough so the missile would miss his right cheek by a whisker. At the same time, he brought his sword up and swatted the second bundle out of the way that was threatening to hit his left shoulder. Too late.

[Thwack, Thwack!]

One minute, 31.5 seconds, six beers

The last two bundles of reeds hit Jon in the right hip, dangerously close to his groin, and in the left knee at the same time. The class went silent for a second. He winced in pain, which caused him to hesitate before sheathing his sword, the last part of the form. Sarahfel just glared at him.

"Owww."

He rubbed where he just got hit in an exaggerated way.

"Quite the arm you've got there ladies! So how long did it take me to complete the form Jim?"

"One minute, 32 seconds."

The class paused for a second and then upon realizing what this time meant, started to cheer.

Jon smiled good-naturedly.

"Well I guess I'm going to have to stock up again. Everybody, my place in an hour!"

The twins had politely made their excuses and had not attended the festivities at Jon's house the previous week. They had read about, and experienced during their first term, enough of human mating rituals to understand all too well they did not want to subject themselves to them yet again. After they arrived on earth to attend the academy half a year ago, they had quickly realized that human males apparently found their company appealing. Some of them were quite forward about it and kept finding excuses to run into them by "accident," or to ask one of them to accompany them to this or that function. All of their overtures were politely rebuffed – they usually just had to be their normal, unemotional self for the boys to get the message. There was one who required Sahrafel speak more forcefully, but on the whole, it was more of an annoyance than anything else.

The get-together at their instructor's house promised to be more of the same and after the storm of emotions they had experienced in class the previous week, they needed time to process exactly what had happened. After much discussion, they concluded that he had manipulated their competitive drive and desire to be the best. They had both expected that no human could possibly be their equal in the art - an assumption they freely admitted they were wrong about - but in their defense, neither had actually never seen any human practice the art at all, let alone heard of one who exhibited any competence in it. When he taunted them, they felt that since he was a fellow student, he was unjustifiably saying he was better than them. This, they could not abide, and felt they had to defend not just themselves, but all of Vulcan kind in a way.

Now, one week later, as they sat in the front row of their first class of the term, they felt content. Advanced warp physics promised to be a very rewarding class not only because physics was their best subject, but also because they had heard many good things about the professor, a J. Sanderson. After they had reflected on it, they knew their line of reasoning about last week's class had been illogical, and based more on emotion than anything else. They vowed to put the whole unpleasant experience behind them and not make the same mistake again.

Ugaya saw Jon enter the room and make his way down to the front of the class first. At first she thought he wanted to sit by her and her sister. As he kept moving down the steps, reading something on his tablet, her next thought was that he just wanted to talk to her. That, she figured she could handle. Competent in the art or not, the classroom was not the time or place for private conversations. As he made his way further, he ignored her completely and deposited his tablet on the podium at the front of the room. By this time Sahrafel had seen him as well. They were surprised, then confused, then disbelieving as it slowly dawned on them that this man, who they had thought was nothing more than an arrogant student, was actually about to teach the class they had been looking forward to ever since they had signed up for it a year ago on Vulcan. Surely not, she thought.

"Good morning class. My name is professor Jon Sanderson, and I look forward to expanding your knowledge on a subject that has allowed all of our species to explore and colonize the stars."

Nooo!

It couldn't be!

The twins felt the negative emotions from the art class coming to the fore again. They had to make a conscious effort to tamp them down. Jon looked up and noticed the twins for the first time.

"ReeRee! Good to see you. We missed you at yesterday's noble path class. We could have used your input. Will you be joining us tomorrow?"

Was he daring to mock them again? They were still a bit embarrassed that they had only been able to hit him four times. Sahrafel was about to respond angrily when he interrupted her.

"Class, as you know I teach 'the art of the way' class here. Last week, these young ladies graced us with a performance the likes of which I have never had the privilege of witnessing save for the time when I first trained on Vulcan."

That did not sound like mocking. Did he say he trained on Vulcan? Neither knew what to think or say. It was as if all of their assumptions about humans were suddenly wrong.

"You trained on Vulcan?" Was all they could think to say at the same time.

"Yes, with master Tu'Pa."

If they had been drinking something, they would have sprayed it out of their mouth in surprise. Tu'Pa was considered the foremost teacher of the art on Vulcan and only rarely took on students. That he would agree to teach a human was unheard of.

He noted their surprise and said:

"My father was assigned to Vulcan for a number of years and met Tu'Pa through his friendship with the high councilor. Tu'Pa took pity on a lonely six-year-old boy and asked him if he could teach me the art. Who was your teacher?"

In a very small voice both the sisters said simultaneously:

"Tu'Pa."

"I knew there was something about the way you two moved! So will you be at the next class? I am sure the rest of the students could benefit from your experience."

"Yes master."