"Pft, I bet you can't actually fight, after all I've read your records and you were thought dead until just a few months ago, I bet you haven't fought a real opponent since your fight for freedom and I bet that was just a fluke on your part"

"Oh you really think I haven't regained my former strength?"

"Indeed I do"

"Then let's go at it Ensign"

"You shouldn't, after all I was the best in my class you can't beat me because you've just been going up against holograms and easy holograms at that"

The reason why the Ensign was saying that was because for the past few weeks she had been taking it easy in training but that was because she could tell she was getting less and less required sleep and so she simply did basic maintenance for the most part, though she did also do the harder programs just not as long and not as often either

"I think I can handle myself, after all I may not have been with Starfleet for a few years but I still have experience over you"

Her first opponent got into the standard starting position for hand to hand combat but Portland just stood there in a relaxed position. What Portland didn't know was that she was currently being monitored by one of the few teachers that knew of her abilities from the beginning remotely and they recognized her starting position

"Looks like she's going to be underestimated again"

"What do you mean?"

"That's Portland's starting position for hand to hand combat. You see back when she first started she had to learn our form of self defense and that included phasers, the whole reason we developed the Force inhibitors we use today with the bracelets is because Portland and the other Sentinel's simply can't fight without using the Force in some way and that includes sensing their surroundings. The problem was we knew the possibility of her not being able to access the Force for whatever reason and as such with her help we designed a way to temporarily take her ability to feel the Force so that she could get in practice fighting without it, apparently she based her Sentinel's Defense on the hand to hand combat training we gave her"

"Actually according to her the Force vision she had made her develop the Sentinel's Defense even if it was very raw the first time she used it, but I think if you want the whole story you'll have to ask her after this session"

Meanwhile the Ensign was taunting Portland because she was just standing there not even going into the standard self defense starting formation

"Are you too scared to put up your fists now that you don't have access to your precious Force?"

"Just start already would you?"

"Fine, but don't think I didn't warn you it's your own fault for not getting into the starting position when I did"

The Ensign makes a go at her but all of a sudden his punch was blocked and just like that the fight was on and everyone could tell Ashland was holding back on both her speed and strength and winning

"Come on Ensign surely you can do better than that if you think you're the greatest fighter Starfleet has after all you did get top marks in your hand to hand combat training...or did you lie about that?, surely you can beat a Sentinel who hasn't been with Starfleet in years due to being a prisoner and hasn't really been fighting an actual person since her fight for freedom several months ago"

The Ensign got madder and madder as he fought her and Ashland was just taking it easy, in fact the Ensign was so mad he didn't even notice when Portland started to speed things up a notch and even then everyone else could tell she was still holding back. Finally Ashland had had enough of the arrogant Ensign and dodged a punch aimed for her head (because he was at that point that he wasn't going for body blows like his training taught him but actually aiming for her head to do head damage) and punched him in the stomach hard, taking him down for the count

"Now then I think that's taught you not to underestimate an opponent, though tell me how did you pass the academy with your arrogance and anger issues?"

"His dad gave him a pass actually"

"Who is his dad Ensign?"

"Not quite sure but he was pretty influential in Starfleet, though not an Admiral because he boasted he was the first after a family of cowards who only fought with their words and never saw real action. Either way he got through because of his dad bribing the right people and making sure he didn't get noticed by the Admiralty"

"Well I hope he's just learned his lesson because otherwise he's going to get himself and others killed, now then next person is up and I hope you don't underestimate me like he did"

Another Ensign spoke up

"I'll go, unlike him I actually did get pretty high marks in self defense class, not the greatest but hey I only managed to get a blue belt before I decided to go into Starfleet"

"That's still pretty good, only three belt levels before black if I remember correctly"

"That's correct"

"Okay then I won't go as easy on you as I did the first person but remember this is just an assessment of your skills so no going all out okay?"

"Works for me"

Ashland could quickly tell that this Ensign not only rightfully earned the belt but dedicated himself whenever possible to keeping his skills up, finally though Ashland got three points and won but only because of the fact that she was a more experienced Starfleet officer and as such had more field experience in using her skills in a practical setting instead of a theoretical or testing setting

"Good job keeping me on my toes, the only reason I won in the end is because I have a bit more experience taking the advantage when I see it, I actually gave you a deliberate opening once so that it wouldn't be one sided but you missed it and didn't take the opportunity"

"Yeah, I never saw an opening as far as I could tell so if there was one I did indeed completely miss it but hey I still gave you a workout and managed to get in two points. I honestly thought I had you with that leg sweep but you managed to turn it around quickly"

"But only just, if I had lost my balance with that move I pulled you would have managed to get a point instead, trust me I've been taken down by more than one opponent with that move"

"I see, I'll keep that in mind if I ever have to use these skills in real life"

Soon Ashland was done assessing the Ensigns and gave most of them good points and bad points but her first opponent wasn't all that good and simply wouldn't listen to her

"Fine, don't say I didn't warn you though, because your arrogance and anger could get you or even another person killed one day"

"Yeah right"

"You don't believe me do you? I guess you still have much to learn I did and I learned my lesson the hard way, back during my first summer training session. I read up on the assignment and thought I knew everything there was to know about the culture and rituals of the planet we were going to on a simple diplomatic meeting. Stupid arrogant me almost got the entire away team killed, as it is we did lose a Lt. and everyone else was wounded in varying degrees, I myself spent two days under sedation. Turned out that not only had I botched a greeting one day I also messed up on who to bow to when greeting important people and accidentally bowed to an assistant of one of the senators instead of the senator himself, because once a week that region doesn't dress like they normally do which denotes roles and instead allows a person on staff to wear higher ranking clothes if they're an apprentice getting close to taking over either their own business or are far enough in their training that within the next two years their teachers are going to step down and let the apprentice take over the role. Due to that unique tradition the usual greetings used to address the senator doesn't apply and instead of addressing the apprentice as the senator I should have bowed and greeted both equally as an off worlder who isn't there as much is supposed to, and that's for the entire planet actually though we weren't called on it until that day because of the fact that we were Starfleet officers. Problem was several people were insulted on the senators behalf and a minor skirmish ensued before we managed to beam off planet"

"Why didn't you know that aspect of the culture if you had read up on them as much as you say you have?"

"Thing is that wasn't in the files until after the meeting because it isn't often that they got off worlders and every other time someone visited they left after only a few hours, two days maximum. After that day I not only read up on the culture and rituals of the planet before going down I also observed the actual people to see if there was something missed in the reports given to officers of away teams"

The Captain had come down to help sort out any other issues and spoke up then

"And she's saved lives because of that a few times according to her files"

"Yeah well, the one mission was a complete accident after all I wasn't even supposed to be on that mission but was chosen at the last minute by the Admiralty deciding I needed more exposure to a culture so unique even I had never experienced something like it in the Republic. Just be glad I was there because otherwise everyone would have been executed"

"Why would everyone have been executed?"

"The thing is the people were a very private people at the time of the mission so we basically knew nothing about them except a few greeting protocols and the person elected to speak to us by the people. Now then these people have a unique culture in that they don't really have a religion per se but they have customs and rules that must be followed to the letter else something will go wrong in some way, a fellow cadet hadn't paid attention to the speaker when he mentioned forbidden zones and the proper way to greet certain people and accidentally headed towards a forbidden zone soon after we were dismissed to get to know the place we were going to be staying at for a while. I managed to stop him before he entered that particular zone because that zone was only meant for the leader of the planet and any representative's of the regions and any off worlders. Normally the punishment might have been some time in a security hold or community service for the offender, neither lasting longer than two months Earth time, but to enter a representative's zone of living was punishable by death for the trespassers and for off worlders that included the entire team that came to greet them including the representative of the off worlders. After we would have been killed communications would have been cut off with the Federation and the ship would have been forced to leave immediately or face destruction"

"Oh, and just how could you tell that just by observing people?"

"The body language of everyone when the forbidden zones were mentioned, more specifically that forbidden zone, it told me that we had better stay away from all the zones but particularly that one at all costs, I only learned of the death punishment after we left and they gave us more information about their culture"

"How did your team leader manage that?"

"Actually it turns out I was the one who managed that without saying a word unless directly spoken to, all because I observed and respected their rules to a degree that I could pass as one of them all without having access to the Force"

"You did all of that while under the influence of a Force inhibitor?"

"Yes, and let me tell you everyone was impressed by how well I did getting the planet to open up even just a little bit all through simply observing and respecting their culture"

The Captain decides to speak up to explain a few things further for everyone including Portland who had never really heard about the planet since her mission as a cadet