Tarik: Entry Level Warfare (10 page)

Tarik walked into the large room with the pools. Goddess was standing tall in the
center
 walkway waiting for him. He pushed his fantasies from his mind; he just wanted to get the punishment over. He walked to meet her, careful not to get too close. Goddess said nothing; she just turned and ran off. Tarik ran after her, they followed the same path as last time. As Tarik crested the first incline he was careful to watch out for an attack, when none came he chugged along. They ran the same route and she kept the same distance as before but at a considerably faster pace. When they got back to the start of the track, Goddess again paused at the edge of the pool and dove in as graceful as ever.

This time she waited on the surface, her jumpsuit had lights on the front a rear. Tarik jumped in feet first and swam to meet her. Goddess swam to the middle of the pool and submerged herself, disappearing under the walkway. Cautiously, Tarik followed her under the water. Goddess swam underneath the water back to the wide edge they had both jumped in at, exiting on the right side of the walkway. Tarik did as best he could to keep up, by the time he reached the end of the walkway his chest burned and panic urged him to get out from the under the walkway as soon as he could. He tried to break early but his path blocked by a clear barrier, there was only one way out of this and that was to finish the swim. Tarik spun around and kicked with everything he had left, he tried to crawl along with his hands but couldn’t get a grip. The panic caused such a distraction he hadn’t noticed how far he came until he bumped his head on the wall at the end of the pool.

He found the exit and burst out of the water gasping for air. Thankfully he wasn’t pulled under this time. He looked for Goddess and saw she was already at the narrow end of the pool
toweling
 her hair. Tarik swam the distance of the right pool and lifted himself
over the edge
 onto the landing falling at her feet.

He flopped over and started to laugh then.

“What is so funny?” Goddess asked.

“Your name is Goddess and I keep falling at your feet.” He got out between heavy breaths.

“You odd, even for a
human
.” She looked down on him. “Decent pace this time; Plan for an increased distance for our next meet.”

Tarik took his time getting up. He grabbed a towel that was sitting by the door and said nothing to Goddess as he left.

Tarik finished his cleaning duties and went to end of day meal. As he ate alone at the kiddie table he pulled up his log. His last meeting had gone from tentative to
mandatory
 but the details remained hidden, only a map and a countdown of twenty minutes were available.

Tarik got to the room which was above the medical facilities and not on the
training
 floor. The door was still locked when his
timer
 had less than a minute remaining. Curious, Tarik pulled up the log again to see if any changes had been made; no new information had been entered. As the countdown expired the door unlocked and opened automatically.

Tarik walked into the dimly lit room; as he neared the
center
 of the room the door closed and locked behind him. He spun around; the floors were spongy like they were made of foam. The lights came up gradually and the padded white walls of the circular room greeted him.

“Some of the crew thinks you're too dangerous.” Dav said as he separated from a wall behind Tarik.

Dav wore an all-white robe like garb, a simple black belt at his waist, bare feet exposed to the floor. Tarik had heard about this, some kind of body art where you used yourself as weapon.

“Isn’t that what you hired me for?” Tarik asked.

“I hired a scared kid who showed some promise, not a rampaging lunatic.” Dav retorted. “I think you can learn to
control
 yourself. Unfortunately, your strength and passion has turned off my normal trainer. He believes you are too wild to be taught. He actually suggested we put you down. I put myself up for this in a
last ditch effort
 to teach you some
control
. Now, I want you to attack me.”

“Won’t you have to fine me again?”

“Not here, I’ve turned off the security recording and put myself in an off duty status. Here I’m just a normal guy. So what’s it going to be? Are you going to be little ‘Chickenshit’ or are you going to pick up your skirt, grab your balls and hit me?”

“If this is what you want.” Tarik said as he sized Dav up.

Tarik knew Dav was fast but Tarik had height, size and reach over him. He figured if he could just
get his arms around him
 he could probably wrestle him to the ground. Tarik moved in fast, not so fast that Dav could get a surprise
hit on
 him but not slow enough that Dav could not move out of the way.

Dav let him come, not even changing his stance. Tarik grabbed Dav’s shoulders ready to pull him to the ground. Dav sent both his arms up and pushed out on Tarik’s wrists breaking the hold. Tarik planned for this and brought his right knee up to hit Dav in the stomach or balls, he didn’t care which. The knee never connected, Tarik had no idea what happened but he bounced off the wall then. His left foot, ribs, left shoulder and strangely his left ear all burned with pain. The only pain he could explain was the spot of his tongue that he bit.

“I didn’t ask for a hug Chickenshit. Get your bitch ass over here and TAKE ME DOWN!” Dav yelled.

Tarik smacked the floor with his hands as he raised himself back to his feet. He walked to Dav with his fists balled, changing his plan to use his fists and not let Dav get to his body. Tarik tried to use his reach and jabbed for Dav’s chin. Dav dodged the jab and open hand slapped Tarik in the face. Tarik became more enraged and threw a right hook with all his weight behind it. Halfway through the punch he knew he had made a mistake. Dav hit Tarik’s body with two terrifyingly powerful blows and finished it off with an uppercut. Tarik saw white lights as he fell to the floor, a ringing sound in his ears.

“What’s wrong Chickenshit? Are you only good at fighting overweight women and other chickens? Maybe Rye was right, we’d have been
better off
 if your ancestors were exterminated.” Dav taunted.

Tarik felt his blood boil, he didn’t bother planning his next attack he just charged blindly like an animal. The thought that Dav himself was mostly European didn’t even enter his mind. Dav let Tarik grab ahold of him and Tarik pulled him closer. He lifted Dav
over his head
 ready to slam his body to the ground. Dav twisted and wrapped his leg around Tarik’s neck. Tarik grasped wildly at Dav’s legs trying to dig into them with his fingers, when that didn’t change anything he started to punch at the legs; finally he tried to bite the legs. Dav flexed his muscles and Tarik’s vision started to go black. Tarik punched feebly twice more then felt the world go cold and dark.

Tarik woke up with his face planted into the floor. The blood from his nose formed a small puddle that touched his lips. His mouth tasted like iron.

“It’s called a blood choke.” Dav said while resting on the wall. “Only takes about eight seconds to take effect and leaves your opponent incapacitated for about thirty seconds. I’d say those are pretty good numbers.”

Tarik rolled over to his back, pain surged throughout his whole body. His head pounded in rhythm with his heart.

“Thirty seconds Jimmy, that’s how long I had to do with your limp useless body as I pleased.” Dav said as he stood. “You have power I will give you that.” His cold steel voice returned. “You lack
control
 and technique. I’m giving you an hour a day of my own personal time which is pretty fucking sparse as is. You will not be given any contracts until I think you're ready.”

The door opened and Dav made his way over. “It’s going to take time but you show some promise. Give me everything you have when you're here with me and you may turn out to be not only the most dangerous but the most disciplined man on this ship.” Dav stood at the doorway. “Get some ice on that face soon or you’re going to swell up like a Szarg’s pussy when she’s in heat.”

Tarik lay on the floor trying to recap what just happened. He only counted what he knew for sure. First, he had his ass handed to him by a man probably over twice his age. Second, that man was not only one of his few friends’ father but also his boss. Third, he hurt everywhere and didn’t even know how half of it happened. Fourth, he’d been restricted from contracts and by extension any bonus payouts. Lastly, he was Jimmy again.

“Well this is about as fucked as it can get.” He said to another empty room.

Tarik woke up before the warmth of the red giant could greet him. Instead cold water had leaked from the bag that contained the ice he had on his face. He checked his log to see that he'd only woken an hour early and decided to not try to sleep more.

The red giant rose on the wall, the comet from yesterday almost completely devoured, just a few twinkling sparks as it fell to its
doom
.

His body hurt everywhere; he knew the ice hadn't done much to decrease the swelling. He swung his legs off the edge of the bed and tried to sit up. His ribs made their protest known, his right eye refused to open. This was going to be a very long day.

It was early but with his body so busted up that he figured he could use the extra time. A clean jumpsuit lay on the floor, deposited by
unknown
 forces yet again. Dressing himself proved difficult, his left arm refusing to work as instructed, bruises along his ribs were purple with green edges. He only hoped his face didn't look as bad.

He limped to the door holding his left arm at an angle which caused the least amount of pain. A pilot walked past as his door opened, he had his flight suit on, a helmet with a
blue
 triangle and the
number
 three stenciled in white.

“Holy shit.” The pilot said at the sight of him. “Are you alright? Do you need medical?”

“No.” Was all Tarik managed to grunt out through the pain. With that type of reaction he could safely say he must look really fucked up.

“Did you fall down a maintenance shaft or something?”

“No… Dav.” Speaking hurt too much to continue so he started to limp to the bathroom.

“Well if you need help just shoot me a message.” The pilot said and moved on.

Tarik was still trying to undress when Mange and Goddess walked into the dressing area. Mange stepped back when he got a good look at Tarik.

“You are greatly injured.” Mange said in a voice that seemed too low and deep to suit a being of his size.

“Did Razor do this to you?” Goddess asked.

Tarik didn't know who Razor was; he didn't even know Mange could speak until now. “Dav.” Tarik said already tired of saying his name.

When nobody spoke Tarik tried to reach back to pull his arm out of the jumpsuit, the pain was so great he had to sit back on the bench. Tarik felt like crying, even when he had his leg crushed he couldn't remember pain this great.

Mange walked behind Tarik and stepped up on the bench beside Tarik. Mange reached across Tarik's shoulders and pulled his sleeve over the bruised shoulder. Goddess walked
over and assisted with
 the rest.

The thought of Goddess undressing him normally would have stirred him up but sex was the furthest thing from his mind.

With the welcomed assistance Tarik was undressed. He slowly got to his feet and turned towards the mirrors.

Goddess stopped him. “You really do not wish to see.”

Mange shook his head quickly and moved to the side of him.

With Goddess and Mange on either side of him they helped him into the shower stall. They sat him on the floor of the stall and turned on the water for him.

“Alert us if you need help getting out.” Mange said and closed the stall door for him.

Tarik watched the dried blood become liquid again, its spiral path took it towards the drain. Tarik couldn't scrub so he only waited until blood stopped coming off his body. He made his way to the dressing area and against the advice of Goddess he looked at himself in the mirror.

His right eye had swollen shut, a cut above his brow the only patch of red in a mix of purple,
blue
 and green. The left side of his face looked like it was almost good until you got to his fat lip, cracked with a shine of fresh blood on the raised bulges. Both sides of his neck were black where Dav’s legs had applied the blood choke. His recently repaired shoulder wasn't
discolored
 but looked lumpy and misshapen. His ribs, left hip and a spot where he thought his liver was located all showed bruises in the pattern of knuckles. Looking down the inside of his
groin
 had a patch of green in the shape of a foot. His own right foot had a lump on the top of it. Disgusted Tarik limped to the urinal to relieve himself. He rested his head against the wall the cold tile which felt good on his hot face. Even trying to urinate hurt, as a stream finally started to flow he looked down and
saw red
 mixed in with his urine.