Star Trek: From Ashes and Darkness

Chapter 5: Connections

Year 1981

"Gah!"

Ashley yelped before she grit her teeth and swung herself bodily up and over Khan's shoulder, twisting his arm before he could break hers and forcing him to loosen his grip just slightly. She used the moment to wriggle herself free, but Khan caught her leg and brought her crashing down underneath him again anyway.

"Damn!" Ashley groaned, shaking off the pain from hitting her head on the ground as she relaxed her body while Khan smirked as he loosed the hand around her neck.

If that had been a real fight, she would have been dead instantly. But, Khan noted, she had managed to break his grip on her arm. She's learning.

"Ugh, three minutes, twelve." Ashley grumbled as she checked the stopwatch on her wrist, which timed their fight. "This is pathetic."

"Yes, it is." Khan agreed as he got off of her, standing in one fluid motion while she glowered at him. He just smirked as she also got to her feet, almost as smoothly though not quite. Still, she was improving there too, Khan noticed.

"Thank you, oh great leader." She said, sarcasm dripping from her words. "If you were any more encouraging, I would probably faint from sheer joy."

He almost laughed; sometimes, she was so absurd. As it was, he kept his face neutral, save for a small tugging on the corners of his lips that he just could not control, as he informed her: "Your recovery time needs work. It does nothing if you can avoid one maneuver but fail to counter it."

"I know." She sighed, running a hand through her ponytail. "I'll do better next time."

And there was the reason Khan still trained with her, even though it had already been six weeks. He'd expected the girl to give up by day three, if not two. When she hadn't, he'd been somewhat surprised but had gone through every day for the first week expecting her to break sooner or later – and he'd put his money on sooner.

And yet, six weeks later and Khan was pleasantly surprised to see she had yet to even crack, let alone break. He'd already broken two of her bones before (the second time had been accidental. He remained mum on the first incident) and yet, all she requested was that he show her some moves slowly while they waited for the bones to mend.

'Looks like I wasn't wrong about her spirit.' Khan thought to himself as he watched Ashley practice a few moves on her own, going through them carefully to check they were correct before her next bout with Khan started. 'She is strong at heart. Now, to make her strong in body, too.'

"Ready?" He called, her five-minute break over.

Ashley nodded, and faced him once more, her stance shifting to defensive. Khan noted with pride that her front foot was carefully placed just forward enough to balance her and not enough for him to get an opportunity to swipe at her leg and trip her up. That had been her first lesson from him, and he was pleased she'd never repeated that error.

That was another thing about the redheaded girl: she rarely ever repeated mistakes. She was quick to learn but also quick to correct. The only mistakes she repeated were the inevitable ones, the ones that took time and effort to improve.

Like now.

Khan almost sighed as he caught Ashley's leg once more, a few minutes into their fight, after she'd successfully managed to break out of one of his attempts to capture her. However, he was surprised when she suddenly twisted, using his grip to wrap her leg around his waist before shoving her whole weight and all her strength against him.

Their eyes met as she did, and Khan saw once more that passion that burned in those green eyes, a burning fire that exploded every time they dueled.