Bamarren years (English Version)

The pit:

The next morning Charlotte woke up with a slight backache. The hard surface, like the rest of her new home, had taken a lot of getting used to.Together with her fellow section members, she moved towards the dining room to have her breakfast. She sat down on her regular seat where eight and nine also sat. When Charlotte wanted to join them, she was examined critically by Eight.

Charlotte could not be silent any longer and so she addressed her roommate: "Is there a problem?"Eight seemed as if she had already been waiting for this question: "Yes, there is. You are the problem!"The blonde-haired girl pulled her fine brow ridges up: "Excuse me?"
The person opposite made a jerky movement with her head while her caramel-colored hair fluttered slightly: "You have already understood correctly. You think you are better. Just the arrogance with which you stroll through the institute. You just don't need to fool yourself just because you are half Bajoran, you are just like us only admitted because there is the tolerance bonus. "Hey, now calm down. Arguing just consumes unnecessary energy," Nine began carefully.
"Nine is right," said Charlotte, nodding in her direction. "We should save the energy for pit training. "Oh, now you have the sensible one, although in truth you are not," Eight began again, Charlotte decided to ignore her. Two Ketay, the section head from level two, now interfered: "Stop that! Or do you want to be punished on the first day of school?" That seemed to work, because there was now a pleasant silence between Charlotte and Eight.

Lost in thought, Charlotte shoveled breakfast into her mouth. She just wanted to go back home. This was not the place she wanted to stay for three years. She noticed someone tapping her from behind. Bored, she turned and saw her brother. Her expression changed immediately: "Alon! How nice that you are here. I missed you so much." Charlotte immediately noticed the sharp looks of her fellow section members: "Um ... What's your numerical designation again?" "Four Lubak" her brother whispered softly. "Unfortunately we don't have much time and I have to go again. Male students shouldn't talk to female students for so long."
"But, you are my brother, how ..." Alon left her alone and left the dining room. Now Charlotte felt even more abandoned and lonely than ever.

After breakfast, the group moved back to their quarters and the girls swapped their long skirts for black and green sports pants. When it comes to sporting activities, the section head recently said that a skirt would be unfavorable. Then the first lesson took place. The group gathered in the scorching sand of the pit where regular eye, hand, and foot sessions were held. The principle behind pit training was to teach the body parts to function independently. These sequences of movements were called stratagems. They ranged from simple kick and punch combinations to complicated contortions and elegant movements.
In order to warm up optimally, everyone jogged through the gloomy corridors until they finally reached the outdoor facilities. Then the section leader demonstrated some complicated stretching exercises to the new students. Again and again, Two Ketay encouraged the other that it would become less painful over time and that repeating it several times would improve the flexibility.
"An interesting mixed troop," remarked Calyx, the combat instructor, while his gaze is fixed on the mixed races. Which ultimately led to the other students staring at the three of them.
Then Calyx began to explain the principle of pit training and explained in more detail the purpose of the lessons. His voice sounded very soft, almost too relaxed and he smiled. He turned to the three hybrids again: "The training here is very demanding and for some of you it can be very frustrating at first. But don't let it get you down, do your best and you can perform as well as the average student here"
He first demonstrated the formations that will be taken during this hour.

First, a light-looking position was taken. But when the students tried it out for the first time, they noticed that it took a lot of getting used to. You sat in a heel seat with your toes being subjected to a great deal of stretching and wrapping your arms together. It was very exhausting for both the toes and the arms. When Charlotte looked around, she noticed that the others were not doing any better either.
Eight had been the hardest. At first she tried to keep up with the exercises but after a certain time she capitulated and sat down on one of the empty benches where Two Ketay was also sitting. "You will have a lot of work to do, Eight," Calyx said only to her.

More exercises were now a little easier for Charlotte. She even performed some of the positions herself several times. A cornerstone of Cardassian "early education" consisted of physical training. In Cardassian culture there were no sports like: soccer or baseball, as was the case in human culture. There were only a few sports that were practiced. Women often did gymnastics or dance sports. Men, on the other hand, often did strenght training or military fitness. Martial arts, on the other hand, were practiced by both sexes.
Charlotte used to go to the country with her older brother and always rode a riding hound. Hound riding was not that common on Cardassia Prime as the sport was mostly practiced outside of the cities. Advanced riders could even do acrobatic figures. But this modified form was seldom practiced because this sport has a Hebitan origin.

Charlotte carried out the movements with full precision. Every time the instructor led the next exercise, she tried to do it as accurately as possible. The sun burned her head, but Charlotte showed no sign of it. She didn't want to fail and so she stayed in formation until Calyx instructed something else.
After several hours, the afternoon had come and so was the end of the training. Calyx then turned to each student individually and gave his feedback on the lesson before he left the group alone and returned to Ketay.Finally, stretching exercises were performed before going back to the section.

While the others left and wanted to relax, Charlotte stayed behind in the pit to quietly ponder Calyx's words: "The flexibility is excellent. The focus and concentration are impressive. But do you want that too? Or do you just want the needs of others fulfill and be fair? "These words made her think: On the one hand, she would like to make more of herself and want to go far in Bamarren, on the other hand, she is still confused and still has no plan what is going on here.

After half an eternity, Charlotte decided to make her way back too, so she got up from the bench and moved forward. "Here she comes" she heard someone whisper. Charlotte wanted to look around, but she couldn't react in time. She was grabbed from behind and pushed face first into the hot sand. After a few seconds, which felt like hours, her attacker turned her away from the sand and Charlotte looked into the attacker's face. There were Eight and Ten, she didn't recognize the other Cardassians. They were either older students or from another section.
Probably both! Charlotte thought to herself. "Well, thought about the words?" Eight scoffed. "You're right eight," began Ten in her high-pitched voice. "She actually thinks she is better and thinks that because of that she doesn't need to choose either side" "Which side?" Asked Charlotte and spat out the last bit of sand. "Oh, you know exactly what we're talking about," replied Eight. "What it was all about and what it will be about all the time"

"Let's see if you're still that arrogant once we're through with you," Ten said challengingly, and her dark eyes got a threatening twinkle. Ten reached out and Charlotte felt the fist on her face. Then a second, third, and fourth. She was kicked in the stomach and she couldn't breathe.It was then that she realized that she could never have a comfortable life on Cardassia Prime.Or does it?

" What's going on here? "called an unfamiliar male voice." Charlotte used this brief moment to struggle to her feet and attacked the first possible attacker. She caught Eight and tore a strand of hair from her head. Screams filled the silence. Then Charlotte was grabbed from behind and pulled away by the attackers. She turned and saw a male student with large dark eyes and distinctive features. She wanted to say thank you, but she just couldn't find the words. Whatever the student had done, it chased away their attackers. She wanted to turn around and thank her rescuer, but he was gone.



"What kind of action was that?" asked Ketay. After the incident, Charlotte, Eight and Ten were immediately confronted by the section head before the evening class. She continued: "No, save your excuses. I don't want to hear any more about it. I finally found out from other sources. You didn't want it any other way: Seven, Eight and Ten Keisha, you have cleaning duty in the hygiene chamber for the week "

Two ketay had exempted the three from class and dinner and immediately condemned them to their punishment. First, Charlotte, Eight and Ten moved to the storage room to pick up the utensils. On the way to the bathroom, she ran into her brother, who was moving with his group to the dining room. He immediately caught his breath when he saw his younger sister: "Oh dear, what happened? I only heard from a good friend that you had been attacked in the pit"
"Yes, I was attacked," replied Charlotte and carried the bucket into the hygiene room. "And why are you doing the punishment at the moment?" He asked. "Because your dear sister is not as innocent as she pretends," commented Eight. Alon's gaze became hard, he turned to Eight: "You'd better be quiet before I make sure that you scrub toilets longer" "I was reported for undue hardship," answered Charlotte Alon's question. "I could have defended myself differently without tearing someone's hair"

"I just can't believe I have to do the cleaning right now," Eight complained. "I definitely have better things to do during the week than scrubbing all the hair off in the showers""Cardassians don't hair, so we don't have to shave, and as a result, the drain doesn't get clogged with the hair."
"The know-it-all is at work again," scoffed the half-Bajoran and gave ten a provocative look. Ten fully responded: "These are facts and they have been scientifically proven. Weren't you paying attention at school?" Charlotte was amazed. She wondered how the two of them could have teamed up and decided to attack in the pit and without attacking each other.

Then Charlotte paused briefly and thought briefly: What if her savior hadn't shown up? How would the fight have ended? Would she even have survived him?