Jack grunted as Spot's foot made contact with his side, definitely not full-force, but the captain was clearly not fully pulling his punches—or, rather, kicks. Jack staggered to the side and narrowly dodged a swing of the captain's fist. Geez, this guy is fast! he hardly had the time to think before Spot was swinging at him again. Jack jumped away, landing on his right foot first. Before his left could meet the deck, Spot was down in a crouch and had swung his leg out, knocking Jack off his balance and flat on his back on the deck.
Jack felt every bit of air leave his lungs in a single whoosh. There was some sniggering from the crew gathered around them. Jack felt too dazed to get up. After a few moments, JoJo—who had been perched on a nearby crate, peeling and slicing an unfamiliar fruit with a knife and eating the pieces directly off of the blade in what had to be some sort of power move—hopped up and strode over. She offered him her hand and helped him to his feet. Jack tried not to stare at the down on the back of her hand that transitioned into a rainbow array of feathers as it stretched up to her elbow. She wore a bright red shirt, puffy in the shoulders and chest but ruched around her midsection and in bands just above her elbows, where the feathers ended, and form-fitting black leather pants. She grinned at Jack as she helped him up and patted him on the arm with the hand that still held the knife.
"Don't take it too personally. Spot's had military training. No-one on the ship can beat him in a fair fight."
"Oh, yeah, that makes me feel so much better," Jack grumbled, rotating his arm as he followed her out of the ring.
"Who's next?" Spot grinned, baring a pair of sharp fangs.
.*.*.*.*.*.
The combat lessons continued much in the same way for the next four days. Jack didn't feel like he or the others were improving much, but JoJo assured him that they were, albeit slowly. No matter what, he felt constantly sore, and Race and Elmer voiced similar complaints.
On the second day, they dropped out of hyperspace in a busy system to recharge the solar batteries. Jack was instructed to tail Finch, Race to follow Romeo, and Elmer to follow Skittery while they were in the system. Elmer spent most of the stall crawling across the yard arms with Skittery, supervising the solar sails. Similarly, Finch soared up and down the masts to monitor the sails for tearing, while Jack did his best to keep up while shimmying up and down the rigging. Race and Romeo, on the other hand, stayed mostly on the deck, monitoring system readouts and scanner screens to make sure nothing was trying to sneak up on them. Everyone seemed on edge through the duration of the stopover, and everyone was armed with vibro-shivs and blasters for the two days that it took to fully recharge the solar batteries.
Once the ship was back in hyperspace, resuming its course for Hyrule, the combat lessons resumed for Jack and his friends—with one new addition. Now, they were joined by Charlie, the quiet human ever accompanied by Davey, and nicknamed the "Little Prince" by Spot and the rest of the crew.
"Why do you guys call him that?" Elmer asked, the day after they were back in hyperspace. He, Finch, and Specs were watching Jack and Charlie spar, a slow-motion dance of sorts as Charlie, JoJo, and Spot critiqued Jack's form.
"It started out as a kind of joke," Specs explained. "Charlie and Katherine—his sister, the one we're trying to rescue—are the adopted children of a business mogul in the core worlds. He may not be an actual monarch, but he's definitely given the royal treatment a lot of the time, and it's the same for his kids."
"It's not the nicest nickname, sure, but he doesn't seem to mind," Finch shrugged. "Katherine'll slap you across the face if you call her 'Princess'. She doesn't seem to like to be reminded of her privilege. But Charlie's a good kid. He's nice about pretty much everything. And not nearly as much of a diva as his sister can be."
Specs snorted, then coughed to cover the sound as Spot and Davey glanced their way, the captain arching one of his thick eyebrows. "It's not like she's that bad. She's nice enough. She's just… particular. Not to mention used to getting things her way."
"We don't mind going to rescue her, really," Finch said quickly. "We'd do it even if we hadn't been ordered to, probably. No-one deserves to be captured and have who-knows-what done to them by pirates."
"Speak for yourself," Specs said. "I have more sense of self-preservation than you. I don't really want to get into a fight with pirates again." Without another word, he kicked off from the deck and soared up towards the control center by the ship's wheel.
.*.*.*.*.*.
Jack's head bounced off of the hard deck and he groaned, glaring up at the stars streaking past the top of the transparisteel canopy. "Ow," he groaned. He was starting to get tired of how often he had been winding up in this position the past few days.
Charlie laughed, a soft, almost musical sound, and reached up to help Jack to his feet. "You're getting better, I promise," he grinned up at the taller man.
"You're just saying that to make me feel better," Jack grumbled. He let Charlie help him to his feet. "How'd you get to be this good anyways?"
"I've been training since I was adopted," said Charlie. "My father wanted me to be able to defend myself, just in case. Katherine too."
"Yeah, well, clearly the training paid off," Jack muttered.
"Thanks," Charlie grinned. He released Jack's arm and stepped back, bowing slightly. "You did well. Thanks for the spar."
"Yeah, sure," Jack mumbled, flushing slightly.
"Jack, let's run a sail check," Finch called.
Jack turned and nodded to the Rito. When he turned back, Charlie was already heading towards the upper deck, where Davey, JoJo, and Spot were standing around the control consoles. Jack bit back a smile and turned to head towards Finch, already looking forward to the next day's training.
.*.*.*.*.*.
"Captain Conlon?"
Spot looked up at the sound of Davey's voice. "Davey. We're out of hyperspace."
"I'd noticed," the mage said wryly, glancing upwards at the transparisteel canopy over their heads, through which distant stars were clearly visible, no longer streaking past as they had been for their journey, but stable in their positions. "Have we reached Hyrule?"
"Yes," Spot nodded, pointing at a large blue planet not far in front of the ship, resembling some kind of jewel suspended in the black canopy of space. The transparisteel on the starboard side of the ship was heavily tinted, blocking out the brilliant light of the system's sun, but the light still shone through the rest of the shielded deck. "There's a port on the east side of the main continent, along with many smaller cities across the islands in the seas of the southern hemisphere. I'm planning to make for the continental port. If my contact has been here, that seems like the most likely place to find information on her."
Davey shrugged. "If that's what you think is best."
Spot sighed. "If you have a better idea, feel free to go ahead and put it forward."
"I never said I did," Davey smiled tightly. "Just remember: it's my job to keep Charlie and Katherine safe"—
"Yeah, and you haven't been doing so great at that lately, have you?" Spot interjected. "Katherine's been kidnapped, and Charlie's lost a leg—and don't forget about the three members of our crew that are dead. Maybe if you give me a chance to do what I do best, we can keep further harm from coming to them or anyone else on this ship."