by Aer-ki Jyr
She blew out an exasperated breath, frustrated with her failure, when she noticed herself rotate slightly in a new angle. She frowned, but otherwise didn’t move, still listing about uncontrollably. There had been no arm movement to trigger that, and she was pretty sure she hadn’t twisted her torso or head.
Then the epiphany hit her. She filled her lungs with air then blew out hard…resulting in a small, but significant rotation backwards.
From the ‘ground’ Paul and the others watched as Emily made no progress, and he wondered what he could do differently. He would be the next one to go, and if he didn’t figure something out he’d be spinning about just like Emily was…
Paul frowned. “Is she…” he whispered to Jason.
“I think she’s figured it out,” he whispered back as Emily, still tumbling uncontrollably, suddenly had a lateral drift manifest…and it was steadily growing faster, moving her over to the side wall.
“That a girl!” Brian yelled as it became clear that her sideways movement wasn’t an accident. She was still spinning about, but drifting steadily towards the wall, continually picking up speed until her flailing left arm hit. With the reflexes of a cat, she twisted about and swiped at the wall, brushing her fingers against the clingy pads and pulling herself to the nearest handhold. From there she made her way to the center and energetically punched the finish button. The clock stopped at 2:34.6 and she launched herself back towards the group.
Megan reached out and grabbed her arm as she came close, pulling her up to the wall. “How…”
“Use your breathing,” she said to everyone, but looked at Paul. “Like a low power jet engine.”
Paul smiled and pushed off towards the center rod, ready to use Emily’s breakthrough and get a decent time logged for the 2s. He thought through what the best procedure would be, dismissing Emily’s tumbling. She’d been blowing out each time she rotated around, but there had to be a better way than that.
Paul remembered what Gent had done, then a thought suddenly struck him as he grabbed the rod. He pulled himself out flat to the ‘floor,’ head down in a superman pose then released his grip. The rod retracted and he waited for the chime.
When it sounded he slowly breathed in through his mouth, then exhaled through his nose for several seconds, thinking that would be as close to his centerline as he could get his thrust. He sucked in another breath and repeated the process, sure now that he was moving forward at least a little.
After the fifth breath he spotted the small grid-like grooves in the ‘floor’ and used the end of his nose for a reference point, finally able to visually confirm that he was moving forward. He continued adding bits of speed with each breath before finally reaching the wall and grabbing a handhold. He raced his way over three meters to the center button and slapped his left palm on it, then glanced up at the clock just over his head, but he was too close to make out the numbers so he twisted and looked at the side wall.
1:22.4
“Better,” he said to himself as he flung himself sideways and down, floating slowly towards the others.
“In through your mouth, out through your nose,” he told Jason, who was up next. “Tilt your head for vector adjustments.”
“Will do,” he said, launching off the wall.
“Nice work,” Megan commented, bumping into his shoulder as she floated beside him.
“Not as fast as him,” Paul pointed out, glancing at Gent.
“We’ll work it out,” she said confidently.
By the end of the training session all of the 2s had their times under 40 seconds, with Jason scoring the fastest of any trainee to date the following day with a 26.4 second run, further chipping away at the 0s lead with a team average of 34.8 compared to the 0s’ 35.9 and the 1s’ 38.2, with the other seven teams’ attempts waiting for upcoming training missions.
7
With the first of three training segments completed, the 2s moved on from zero gravity training to low gravity drills, which required them to adjust all over again, but more so than before, since there were a range of artificial gravity levels available throughout the station and their training drills didn’t always occur on the same level.
Their quarters were based on level four, near the outside of the rotating disc, with every level closer to the center being a progressively lower gravity. This size of ‘disc’ contained 20 levels, not counting the small transit chamber they had arrived through, which unofficially was level 21.
They started their training drills on level 16, which had approximately 1/3 gravity, which was enough to keep them on the floor, but not enough for them to walk about normally. Every step they took wanted to vault them into the ceiling, but thanks to the days they’d spent in the zero gravity training, they’d learned a soft touch.
The problem was moving fast and begin agile. Their challenge for the day was to navigate an obstacle course for time…while getting pelted with fist-sized dodge balls from auto-tracking turrets spaced at vulnerable points around the course, like the narrow balance beam they had to walk across.
Paul’s reactions to incoming objects, whether they be paintballs, dodge balls, darts, or any of the other training devices used to keep them on their toes were geared for normal gravity, making him an easy target for the little red balls if he tried to control his movements. On the other hand, if he reacted normally, he’d careen out of control up to the ceiling or off the apparatus he had to navigate through. A balance had to be reached, and their reaction times reset, before any of them would be able to successfully navigate the course on time.
One trick they’d learned early on was that they could alter the artificial gravity by running with the spin of the disc or against it, giving them more or less grip. And while that wouldn’t help them if say they were on Luna or any other planetoid, it would work on any rotating station or starship.
That bit wasn’t always helpful, because some of the obstacle courses moved laterally, also some of the sections where they could have used more grip required them to move against the spin of the disc, causing them to actually have less. Regardless of whether they were able to turn that factoid into an advantage, Paul and the others learned quickly that they had to be aware of the changes at all times.
What was fun about the whole thing was the fact that they essentially had superhuman strength and jumping ability on the course, which was designed accordingly. The room they were currently in was double high, meaning that it encompassed two levels, allowing for some climbs and jumps over barricades that the trainees never would have managed otherwise.
Paul had quite a blast with the hangtime at first, then cursed the vulnerability it gave him when the turrets tracked his way, because he couldn’t move again until he touched down. Many a time he got pelted in the back or stomach while he was jumping over obstacles. After a few bruises he learned to side jump the barricades or go over head first, keeping his body in as low an arc as possible. Superman jumps were a straight up invitation to getting pelted.
Dan adjusted the best to the course, and got under par time before the rest of them did. Paul didn’t get the pillar walk for some time, which was the second to last obstacle on the course consisting of 10cm tall pillars spread out over a 20 meter stretch of hall that he had to pass through without touching the ground, which would result in immediate disqualification. He’d gone through the course 5 times and kept failing on this section before finally getting the knack of making small, quick steps side to side.
The dodge balls were coming from the end of the obstacle, with two small launchers extending down from the ceiling. At first he’d tried to long jump over most of them, but had found that made him an easy target and the impacts would knock him down and off the pillars, resulting in a DQ.
After that he’d tried smaller jumps, but still couldn’t dodge the balls coming at him from straight on, and since this part of the course was enclosed, he didn’t have the luxury of watching his teammates’ attempts, though Dan did give the group some
pointers after his first successful completion. They needed everyone getting under par today, else there’d be a points penalty for the team.
It finally sunk in to Paul that the point of the pillars and turrets was to force him to sidestep his way through, making complete redirections of his momentum with 1/3 the normal grip he’d normally have. Once he had that concept firmly implanted in his mind, he took to the course again and approached the pillars slowly, dodging a few balls that came out after him before he even got to the first small octagonal steps.
Paul ducked to the left, then stepped up to the first pillar, barely large enough for his one foot, then he stepped to the right as a ball flew through the spot where he’d just been. When he stepped down on the right, he launched himself diagonally up to the next step less than a meter ahead of where he’d previously been, smiling wide as he dropped down in a crouching pose as another ball flew over his head. Like a lot of the challenges being thrown at the trainees, this one was deceptively simple, and now that he knew how to attack it he wasn’t going to have a problem.
That said, he still had to move quick or get pelted, which happened about halfway through, but since he was staying low to the ground and taking short hops it didn’t completely knock him out of place and he was able to catch himself with a very long and flexible reach with his left leg over to the next pillar, which he immediately pushed off of and landed in a more normal position on the pillar to his right.
He went through five more diagonal hops before he passed underneath the turrets, which were unable to depress low enough to hit him at point blank range, thankfully. Paul jumped over a small barricade and moved on around a corner, never having made it this far, and saw the finish pedestal ahead of him.
It was, however, on the other side of a large red section of floor that he instantly recognized as a disqualification pad. He was going to have to jump over the entire thing…and there were four turrets, two on the right with another two on the left, waiting to shoot at him.
Paul thought it over for a few seconds, deciding that speed was his best ally and backed up as far as he could to get a running start, which was more like a ‘loping start’ in the low gravity. Just before he took off, however, he added a slight variation to his plan as a thought struck him. Using his left foot he pushed off on the wall to add some initial momentum and lunged forward, running up to as quick of a sprint as he could manage.
But instead of running straight on, he angled to the left in the last few steps and jumped towards the wall in between the two turrets, taking a nearly point blank hit on his left hand that he deftly placed in between himself and the turret in mid air. He let it knock his arm aside, but kept as much of the momentum off his torso as he could so as not to affect his alignment as he began to fall downward.
Before he could hit the floor, he bounced himself off the wall, redirecting his motion back to the right and getting a half jump extra out of the maneuver. He landed face forward on the far side of the disqualification pad, managing to roll out of it in a somersault and get back to his feet and ‘run’ the last two steps to the finish pedestal, which looked more like a giant, slow motion leap with a pogo hop enroute.
Paul smashed down the finish button and quickly looked over at his time, posted above where the rest of his teammates were standing…
1:27.8
He blew out a tired breath, relieved. Par was 1:40, which meant he wouldn’t have to go back through it again today. The individual time trials would be tomorrow along with the team run, which had everyone on course at the same time, with all having to finish before the clock would stop. Seeing as how he was one of the slowest today, he guessed that he’d be the team’s dead weight along with Randy, who had only managed a 1:34 about a half hour earlier, though he’d gotten the hang of it far sooner than Paul had.
Jason inquired as to whether they could get any more practice time in today, now that they’d all gotten under par, and the trainer informed them that they could if they wanted, but that any times they registered wouldn’t count towards anything. Jason nodded his understanding and urged the others over to the start line.
“Let’s start with pairs,” he said, pointing at Dan and Brian, the fastest of the bunch so far, “then we can work up to more. I have a feeling we can use each other to get over some of these obstacles faster than going it alone.”
“You mean like throw Paul over the pillars,” Megan teased.
“Actually…” Jason hedged, “I was thinking something like that for the balance beam.”
Kip smiled widely. “Brilliant,” he said, thinking through various possibilities.
“He’s right,” Dan added, “there’s potential for assistance on several spots.”
Paul quietly laughed to himself. So much for being done for the day…but Jason and the others were right. They needed to practice more, especially for the team run. According to the 0s’ and 1s’ results, their team course times were considerably slower than the individual ones, so maybe they hadn’t thought to work together. If that was the case, and the 2s could manage to shave off a chunk of time, it’d be another opportunity to close the points gap.
“I’m all yours,” Paul joked, teaming up with Megan for their pair run. Dan and Brian had already taken off, not bothering to start the timer, so Paul assumed they’d all get out on the course together to try and sort this out. He let the pair get a twenty second head start and glanced at his teammate.
“Let’s go,” she said, game as always for another challenge.
8
The next day they started with the individual runs with unlimited tries within a two hour time block. Paul took two, shaving his time down to 1:22.9, placing him 7th out of his teammates and 25th out of the 30 trainees to test so far. When all was said and done, the 2s had an average of 1:19.3, ahead of the 1s’ 1:20.2, but trailing the 0s’ 1:18.5 and losing a few points to them.
The second part of the day’s challenge was the team run, again with unlimited tries confined to a 1 hour block. What points they’d lost in the individual challenge they needed to make up here, and based off their practice runs yesterday, they figured they should be able to beat both the 0s and 1s by at least 10 seconds, which would be a huge swing in points if they could pull it off.
“Ready?” Jason asked everyone as they stood on the start line. He received nine curt nods, then depressed the start button with a tone sounding in sync, informing the others that the challenge had begun.
As practiced, Dan and Brian sprinted out into the lead with the long, loping steps that proved most effective in the 1/3 gravity. They came to the first obstacle, a gauntlet tunnel, staying side by side and locking arms as multiple dodge ball launchers pelted them from both sides. Using each other as leverage, they managed to stay on their feet and make good time while providing a distraction to the turrets.
With them playing decoy, Emily, Megan and Kip slipped through in single file behind them, having to fend off only a few balls flung their way coming from behind, which when they hit only propelled them forward even more, though askew. Without having to worry about getting hit from the front, thanks to their blockers, they were able to anticipate the hits and keep their momentum throughout the 45 meter gauntlet.
When they exited that section the course took an abrupt left turn into a monkey bar horizontal ladder over a disqualification pad. Emily took to it first and quickly made her way across, double swinging the bars thanks to the lesser gravity and her lighter frame, smallest of all the 2s but with just as much length of limbs as the rest of them. She dropped down on the far side several meters ahead of Dan and took off to obstacle three, leaving the others behind.
The balance beam came next, and required her to walk across a 10cm wide beam for 20 meters while being targeted by two slow firing turrets, one on each side that fired randomly, never letting you know from which direction or at what time you would be shot at. With that unpredictability, it was difficult to reposition your weight to deflect a hit, and usually result
ed in the trainee being knocked off onto the disqualification pad below…and in the team run, one person’s disqualification meant a points deduction at the end, which none of the teams could afford.
Emily got to the beam early, with several seconds lead over her teammates, and had a few options available when crossing. Some previous successful attempts had been to crawl across, keeping handholds on the beam so that the balls wouldn’t knock you off. It was slow, but effective for the ones that kept falling off.
Another tactic was to walk slowly and try and bat at the balls coming your way, absorbing the impact on the arms like shock absorbers and keeping them off your torso. The third and most popular method was to just charge ahead, jumping out and trying to leapfrog your way across, hoping to not get hit at all. Most of the time this technique failed, but when it didn’t it provided the quickest method of crossing.
They couldn’t gamble with the team run however, given that they needed everyone across and statistically speaking it was likely that at least a couple would go down if they attacked the obstacle in that fashion.
When Emily reached the beam she didn’t hesitate, they’d planned out each obstacle beforehand and she immediately leapt into what looked like a long jump attempt, flying through the air and landing on the center of the beam as a ball pelted her in the back, tipping her over to the right.
Fortunately she’d already been collapsing down on top of the beam by design, so the impact didn’t knock her off. It spun her about as she grasped the beam like a monkey and swung about underneath, then crawled inverted almost all the way to the end, continually getting shot at by the turrets and swaying back and forth with each hit, but her crossed legs and arms held firm and the balls couldn’t dislodge her.