Renegade

Renegade Chapter 11

Chapter 11

They were outside of Earth's atmosphere, but traveling to the edge of the Sol system would take the rest of the day, so the people aboard the Guiding Star had some down time. For most of that time, Aria had been reading and studying "The Art of War" in her captain's room. Now with about an hour and a half left in the first leg of the trip, Dacia was knocking on Aria's door again.

"Aria, you in there?" she called out.

The door opened, revealing Aria standing behind it. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Come on, I wanna find a space on this hunk of metal large enough to practice some combat techniques," Dacia replied, turning from the door and walking away from her cousin.

Aria followed after her. They passed Gabriel in the medbay, watching a golf tournament on his laptop. Lawrence had been kind enough to install internet access on the Guiding Star. Kokona was still sitting in her pilot's chair, drinking coffee.

The two girls found one of the storage areas that wasn't filled with food or other supplies. Dacia set down a black duffle bag she had been carrying, and it made a rather loud noise when it hit the floor.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Dacia, what do you have in there? Bricks?" Aria exclaimed.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with...Yet." Dacia said in reply. She handed Aria a pair rough fabric hand wraps from the bag.

"Put these on," she commanded. "You haven't been keeping up with martial arts training since graduating, have you?"

"Not regularly," Aria admitted. "Go easy on me, for now at least. Okay?"

"No promises."

Dacia got out similar wraps for herself, and the two girls circled each other for a minute. Aria broke the pattern and aimed a jab straight at her cousin's nose. While Aria's arm was extending, however, Dacia thrust her knee into her stomach, knocking her cousin back a few inches. Learning from her mistake, Aria faked a left hook and when Dacia brought her leg up to kick Aria by the shoulder, she grabbed her cousin's leg and flipped her to the ground.

"Ow. Nice one, Aria," she said, trying to regain her breath. Aria bent down and helped her cousin up from the floor.

"Round two?" Dacia proposed.

The two girls went back to circling each other. Dacia broke this time and jabbed at Aria's chin. Aria was able to dodge the jab, but didn't make it out of the way of the uppercut Dacia released immediately after the first punch. Now Aria took a page from Dacia's book and thrust her knee in Dacia's side, just below the rib cage. Shortly after that, she also directed a 45 degree roundhouse kick to her cousin's head. Recovering quickly, Dacia got down on the floor and made a sweeping kick to Aria's legs, knocking Aria on the floor this time.

The impact knocked the wind out of Aria, who had to lay on the floor for two minutes to get her breath back, and then she got up on her own. "Best two out of three?" Aria asked.

"Agreed," replied Dacia.

The next round passed similarly to the others. Dacia tried to land uppercuts and knee thrusts on Aria, and Aria tried to land jabs and kicks on Dacia. In the end, Aria won. As Dacia rushed her one time, Aria bent down and grabbed her cousin around the waist, pulling both girls to the floor. They laughed, got up, shook hands, and brushed dust off their clothes.

Petro walked in the door at that moment. From the look on his face, Dacia and Aria could tell two girls laughing and sweaty was not what he expected to see.

"I thought someone had stowed away on the ship, Aria. You worried me," he said.

"Calm down, Petro. Dacia was just helping me keep my combat skills sharp," Aria replied, trying to calm the guard.

"Fine. I'll be outside if you girls need me."

Dacia went back over to the duffle bag and unzipped it. She pulled out two wooden sticks and tossed one to Aria.

"Shinai? How did you know I practice kendo?" Aria asked.

"Cousin, I worked for the Intelligence Service," Dacia said, her tone of voice indicating she thought that fact would be obvious. "I know everything."

"Well then get ready, Dacia. Because I will not go easy on you this time," Aria countered, taunting her cousin.

"Bring it."

Aria began fiercely with an overhead strike to Dacia's neck. It was blocked by Dacia, and Aria spun around and brought the wooden blade back to resting position. For the next twenty minutes, Dacia and Aria kept up the practice round, with some periods of almost nothing happening, and others periods with a flurry of movement so intense you couldn't tell which blade belonged to which person. Petro likened the yelling that came from the storage room to tropical birds screaming in the rainforest.

After a few rounds of practice with the shinai and more hand to hand combat without the weapons, the girls were sitting on a crate in the room.

Breathing heavily, Dacia admitted something to Aria. "Fine. I underestimated you," she said.

"You're not so bad yourself," Aria said, also breathing heavily.

Dacia reached into the duffle bag for a third time. "I also wanted to give you this," she said.

Aria studied what Dacia had pulled out. It was maybe 73 centimeters or a little longer and about the width of three fingers. A wooden handle was tied to a red lacquered wood sheath with cord.

Undoing the cord and drawing the weapon carefully, Aria held the sword up to a light to look at the blade of tempered steel. "Now that is a katana," she breathed in awe. "Thanks for the late birthday present."

"Use that blade well," Dacia instructed.

After Aria sheathed the sword and replaced the cord, both girls went to their respective rooms to shower. It was also about time for Dacia to send another message to Aria's father. When she came out of the shower, Aria dried herself and her hair off with a towel and changed into a comfortable white and blue jumpsuit. "The Art of War" was still flopped on her bed where she had left it when Dacia had come by. She picked it up and began reading where she had left off. The passage was about different types of ground and where to have your army make camp.

The ship's intercom buzzed. "We are nearing the edge of the Sol system. Please sit down in one of the secure chairs or otherwise strap yourselves in, as navigating through the exterior debris cloud could be rough," Kokona announced.