Showing Off

Tamra had drifted off, down to the lower dance floor to chat with the girls. Visoca guessed that part of the reason was the group of men who'd decided to engage Visoca in conversation. They were alright in a jolly yet clueless kind of way.

"You mustn't be challenged much in a spacecraft, with those tight corridors it would be like killing fish in a barrel."

"Not necessarily, there are many added problems to fighting in such a space."

"Oh yes, but its not like you need to learn any new skills." One man said, it was comments like these which had caused Tamra to leave.

"I disagree," Tallula joined the conversation, "A lot of things can change suddenly when you're fighting. This is normal in any environment but in space these changes can be even more extreme."

The men all bowed, "Your highness, I'm afraid I don't understand, surely in such a controlled environment such changes do not occur?"

Tallula shook her head, "Perhaps not often, but gravity generators do fail."

"More often then we would like to admit." Visoca said with a laugh.

"You have those girls you've specially trained for those situations, I've seen you training." Tallula said.

"What kind of special training do you need for zero gravity?" One man asked, "Surely its just grab onto the nearest object and try not to throw up."

"Well that's what those who haven't the skills are limited." Visoca said, "Our girls train so that they can fight with great skill in zero g environments against similarly trained opponent."

"I'd like to see this special training." He said, with a sneer.

Visoca nodded, "Sure give me a few seconds and I'll get it sorted."

"What?"

Visoca tapped a button on her belt, it was a simple signal relay setting up a slight buzzing on the identical belts of ten other girls. She waited for a few moments then pushed a button on the large box, she could feel it humming. She turned carefully and addressed the men.

"Zero G fighting should be done with great finesse, like the very dances you've been doing this evening." Visoca said, "So now its our turn to dance."

Visoca gently pushed herself off the ground and floated gently towards the roof. Seconds later more forms began to rise from the crowd at varying speeds, people began to look up. Visoca picked out the King in the crowd and bowed her head to him.

"Your majesty," Visoca said, "My crew wishes to dance for you all."

Tallula said a few words into her father's ear, he nodded, "Go ahead captain Visoca, show us your skills."

Visoca began to spin slowly, her head still pointed at the ceiling. The girls began to tumble too in their preferred ways, scouting out the positions of the walls and the great pillars. This would be interesting, a completely unplanned zero gravity dance. But if anyone could do it her girls could.

She flipped and bent her legs to absorb the hit to the ceiling, above her stood the people looking up, all holding their breath. She smiled. With a forceful push she launched herself back down, straight at the king. She held her breath, now it was up to one of her girls. Right on queue Tamra came at her from an steep angle and took a hold of her outstretched hands. They spun, once, twice, three times then let go. Their momentum carried them to separate pillars only to bounce off again in search of new partners.

Visoca found Myna next, met her in the air over the lower dance floor. She grabbed a hold of the younger woman's ankle and gently flung her to another pillar, barely changing her own course. She began spinning slowly spread-eagled over the heads of the dancers. Four of her girls took the clue and took a hold of each of her limbs. They didn't have much more room though so Visoca whispered something to them before throwing them away.

They danced for a while longer, switching partners constantly. Visoca felt the time ticking by, with a minute left she began a really slow spread eagled spiral over the heads of the audience again. This time she got one on each limb, then each of those gained a girl. The nine of them spun into the middle of the room, then Tamra hit them. She grabbed an outsretched arm and threw the person off balance before throwing herself at the next person. They broke apart piece by piece, spinning wildly after Tamra's attacks. Visoca could feel gravity begin to tug at her again. Tamra hit her arm, but instead of throwing her into a spin Tamra had aimed it to stabilise her.

They drifted down to great applause, the girls landing in rings of admirers. Waiting beneath Visoca and Tamra Was the King and the men Visoca had been talking too. She decided to start addressing the group.

"As you can probably see, with the right training a crew can turn a disadvantageous situation such as a broken gravity generator and turn it into an advantage."

Visoca's feet touched the ground and she bowed to the King. He was smiling widely at her, looking enchanted by their display.

"That was an amazing display of skill, how much does it change when you use weapons?"

"Not as much as you might think, about half of the crew uses laser pistols which doesn't affect their trajectory. But for those using traditional weapons we merely have to compensate in a similar way to how we do when we swing each other."

"Only you can't rely on your weapon to do some of the work for you." Tamra added.

"It must take lots of practice." one of the men said.

"Its part of our daily training, an hour on regular weapons training and and hour of Zero g training minimum for these girls."

"That's some great dedication you have there, how often do you fight in Zero g?" The king asked.

"Not often, but those sort of situations its a matter of life and death, all depending on whether any of my girls knows how to fight in that situation."

"Do all your girls know how to do this?" The queen asked.

"No, you saw most of our zero g specialists just now."

"Why don't you train all your girls like that?"

"Its not really necessary, gravity failures are too rare for the skills to appeal to most of my girls."

"Surely if there was a way of inducing failures this training could be turned into an everyday advantage." The king said.

"Generally by the time you get to engineering you have the ship, but it would be useful." Visoca thought about this, she hadn't really considered the possibility before, zero g had been a bit of fun more then anything else, "You're right though, if there was a way we could."

The King smiled, "I'm glad to have made you think, but I must ask you if you will take a job for me."

"So sudden?" Visoca asked.

"Your display made me think of this job, its not much just a salvage mission." The king wrapped an arm around Visoca's shoulders, "Come into one of the side chambers."

In the room they were served drinks and sat together at a table. The king had to wait for some paperwork and it was a little awkward for a moment. He took one scroll from the pile and handed it to Visoca.

"Here's your baronety, from what I here its a rather nice little town in Angevin. You'll be answering to me directly there, Angevin's a bit sparse when it comes to nobles, Ducal family died out about twenty five years ago and there is a distinct lake of earls, marquis' and the like." The king sighed, "It's pretty much just viscounts and baronies left, and not many of them."

"Any reason?" Visoca said, wondering if there was a catch.

"Well Angevin and Castile are duchies which have been in royal control for some time now, and we just don't give out noble titles very often." the King said with a sigh, "Maybe we should really lower the bar when it comes to what deeds are rewarded with a noble title."

"Sounds interesting, but you had a job?"

"Oh yes, it won't be particularly hard for you." The king said, handing her another piece of paper, "However I'm meant to offer jobs to my nobles first and none of them have a good enough ship for this, let alone the skills."

"A salvage mission?" Visoca said scanning the piece of paper, "Isn't this a bit much to pay for a salvage mission."

"Probably, I had that ready to show to the nobles that weren't good at flying." The king said, "But the offer stands."

"We'll take it then."

"Good, the ship drifted in a week back and scans show its gravity generators are inactive. There's no sign of damage on the outside so the issue must be internal."

"No fear we'll check it out." Visoca said.