Chapter 8: Master Alamea

Everyone thought it would get easier after we got used to the stress and workload, but it did not, our instructors pushed us even harder.

I was sent for 24 hours into the no light lock up for having a bad shave after returning from a 75 kilometer force march through the Jungle in just my underwear and a combat knife. The instructor argued that the knife was perfectly usable to perform a shave before reporting back.

Narth did not fare much better and was send washing dishes by hand for the whole camp, having a mud stain on his robe.

Our martial arts instructor was an old Saresii and the general consent was that he knew every fighting technique and martial arts known to the Galaxy. I had trained our brand of wrestling and brawling but he was beyond everything they taught on Nilfeheim.

For some unknown reason he loved to demonstrate his skills on me. Narth told me that he was well shielded and it was even for him impossible to anticipate the next move.

I lost count as to how many times I left his class room on the stretcher of a Med-bot with a broken bone or a serious concussion. Master Alema never expressed apologies for what he did; when I was laying on the mat with a broken limb and almost passing out with pain. He merely pointed out the flaws in my attack or defense to the class and showed them the slow motion recording of my errors.

After we graduated we could get skill implants that would give us instantly the skills of a wide choice of martial arts, but the Navy insisted that we learned the Navy standard Style hand to hand combat the old fashioned way. It was so we were told the amalgam of the fighting techniques of thousands of cultures and civilizations honed and mixed into a technique and style very unique to the Navy.

Of course Master Alamea did it to other cadets as well (at least to those Cadets that could break bones), he even sent Limbur more than once with injuries to Sick bay and Limbur was three times his mass and much stronger. I just had the impression he picked on me more than the others.

One Sunday afternoon we had a few hours to ourselves and I thought I would use that rare free time to go swimming. Camp Idyllic had several swimming pools and bathing in the nearby lake was fairly safe but way to warm to my taste. The survival and diving pool was the largest and deepest and they usually kept the water much cooler than the others and that’s why I liked it best. The water was still too warm for me, but it was clear fresh water and it was forty meters deep.

Usually this pool was deserted outside of training exercises those other cadets that used their free time to swim preferred the warmer water pools or the lake.

So I was surprised to see Master Alema there. He was sitting at the highest diving board in the lotus position with closed eyes.

I cursed under my breath. I didn’t want to go to another pool, especially since I didn’t have too much time, but I really didn’t want to run into that Saresii Transvestite.

All Saresii appeared to be female and stunningly beautiful, but some of them where men, made up do look like women. In class we learned that the Saresii were among the oldest species with a continuous civilization. They had been traveling space for much more than million years. Some event millennia ago wiped out all their colonies except their home world It was blamed on male aggression. So the Saresii banned everything appearing male. At first they had a matriarchal society, like the Saran’s but it changed and developed differently. Why all Saresii men decided to dress and appear like women and make this aspect the core of their civilization I did not know. Saresii joined the Unites Stars relatively late. Their technology was considered to be among the most advanced within the Union.

Saresii were most famous for their Psionic. It was believed, very Saresii was a telepath of considerable strength, some had telekinetic powers. A well known legend told that the Saresii rearranged the eight planets of their system into perfect orbits using their combined psionic powers. There had to be truth to the legend since the eight planets where arranged in such a way.

Narth was not impressed by the Saresii Psionic abilities and he told me that Narth considered the Saresii to be like children who just managed to walk.

Master Alema appeared to be a woman in every visual aspect. She could have been any age between 25 and 200. The face was very female with much larger purple colored eyes than humans, long lashes and beautiful shaped lips. Saresii ears where pointed and usually hidden under their long hair, but I could see the tips of his ears between the strands of the long silvery white hair.

The Saresii readily adopted Terran and Saran make up fashions and used this ancient female art to enhance their faces and appearance. Almea’s hair was straight and fell below the shoulder blades. It had the color of shiny silver. The only way we knew he was not a biological female was because Commander Letsgo always referred to Alema as him and we had to call him Master.

I turned and wanted leave but his voice caught me at the door.

“Come up here cadet.”

Alema had noticed me despite the fact; he was sitting on the ten meter tower with his eyes closed.

I sighed and kissed my afternoon goodbye but I climbed up, stepped on the board and saluted.” Cadet Olafson reporting, Sir.”

“You think I pick at you more is that not so?”

“It appears to me that way, yes.”

“I do demonstrate on you more often than the others, because you have great talent and you never give up. I like that.”

I did not know what to say so I remained silent.

Alamea continued and asked: “You are from a water world?”

“Yes Sir.”

“I believe they call you Neo Vikings. A culture modeled after an old Terran tribe of warriors.”

“Yes Vikings, Nordic peoples—Danes, Swedes, Germans and Norwegians—who raided and settled in large areas of eastern and western Europe during a period of Scandinavian expansion from about 800 to 1100 Terran.”

“Do you fight others while you in the water?”

“Yes we fight in every environment, and in the water, against each other and pretty much everything that lives in the ocean of Nilfeheim.”

“Fight me in the water.”

Alema jumped and I dutifully followed right away. I was planning not giving this experienced master of all martial arts much time to adjust. This was my element and I was a good water fighter, even for Nilfeheim standards.

I was right after him. I impacted feet first directly on him, buried my heels with force in his back and pushed him further down. I did this many times during fight class as others did it to me whenever possible. I had to admit I also was more than just annoyed to have my few few hours ruined by that sadist and acted much more violent than I perhaps should have.

My eyes where much better adapted to see under water than those of standard humans and I hoped Saresii eyes where human in that regard. Also I had another advantage, no matter how good he was, I had a virtually unlimited oxygen supply and did not need to pay attention to my oxygen supply.

He had to hold his breath and had air for maybe 2-5 minutes at best. Part of his concentration had to be diverted to that. My gills opened and the cool water rushed in me. It was always a wonderful experience especially after being on land and dry for a long time, being in my most favorite environment stimulated me always.

Water fighting with the intent to kill was completely different from fighting on dry land. Water put tremendous drag on everything you did, swinging chops or even straight punches where almost impossible and lost much of the damage inflicting energy. Hitting something fast was similar difficult. Instead it was better to use the entire mass of the body just like a missile and in close combat short kicks and straight stabs to soft body areas where much more effective.

Alema was good, he wasn’t fighting under water for the first time, but I had trained with Gustav Aikson the unrivaled Champion of my world. It was no real contest and after burying both heels into his stomach. I saw bubbles rush out of his mouth and the expression of pain on his face.

I suddenly realized I was about to kill him. If he tried to inhale, he would drown. I rushed after him and pulled him to the surface and had to perform CPR. A gush of water came out of his mouth and he started coughing. I was rushing to the next COM unit to call for help.

Alema coughed and spat water. “Don’t call for help. I will be fine.” He coughed once more and took a deep breath and sat up. “Why did you not press your advantage? You clearly had me and your style of fighting shows you do not fight for sport but to kill.”

“Neo Vikings don’t do much for sport, expect perhaps bashing skulls, killing others and drinking. But I am not on Nilfleheim. I could not let you drown, Sir. That be murder.”

“I caused you much pain and humiliation in my classes. You could have killed me out of revenge. The records clearly show it was me who ordered you to fight me.”

“You did nothing to me that would deserve killing, Sir. I dislike your classes yes because I never get used to the pain that goes along with breaking bones and I do feel you are selecting me more than others but I will not seek revenge for that. I accept this as part of my training and rite of passage.”

He pushed himself up and walked to a bench. Seeing him walk like that I couldn’t believe he was a man. The black skintight bathing suit clung to a very female body and I became quite jealous.

Sitting down one one of the warmed pool side benches, he held his stomach and coughed again. Then he said. “You are honorable. But are you willing to kill?”

“Sir, if I am asked to kill an enemy in the course of battle, during war or conflict. I am prepared to kill. I will resort to lethal force if I have no other option or defending my friends, but I won’t kill for sport and most certainly do not derive pleasure from it.”

“You killed before.” Alema said this in a matter of fact, not as a question.