"Queen of Planet Earth" (closed)

[Apollo Wilde]

“Those are some ways of describing him, yes,” Eva added, once Claire was done explaining. She was surprised that Claire was even familiar with him, but chalked it up to her surveillance. If it could really be called that. “Bruce Lee….” she tapped a finger to her chin, trying to think of a way to describe him further, “was a famous martial artist on Earth. He really revolutionized the art form, and brought it to the attention of millions through his movies. He was the greatest. He’s the reason why I started taking lessons when I was a kid.” Surely that he could understand? Being inspired by someone else? Especially on the heels of all of that, “You’re our Queen” rot that she still wasn’t on board with. At least the mention of Bruce Lee was enough to give her brain a little bit of a much needed breather.

Her face brightened. “We’ll have to do a movie night. Enter the Dragon is still one of my favorites.”

“Spar?” Her face brightened further. Then, as if remembering that she had indeed used force earlier, her expression faltered. “I…uh…” She drummed her fingers against the sides of her thighs. It’d be a hell of a learning opportunity. Bruce Lee himself took bits and pieces from different martial arts to create Jeet Kun Do. Maybe they could show her something that she could work into her own practice. Make it that much better.

“Sure,” she said, with some slight hesitation. “I wouldn’t mind going through a few forms. Something to make me feel like I haven’t lost my mind.”

“ ‘Forms’?” Claire looked a bit confused.

“So, in some martial arts, you have stances, or sequences, that you train in before you even get to spar. Shaolin Kung Fu is about mastering one sequence under the approval of a teacher before you can move to the next. A lot of people assume that martial arts on Earth are about looking cool and beating people up. It’s really a lot more than that.” She raked her hair back from her face nervously. “I’m probably not making a lot of sense. Let’s just go.”

_____

The Training Center was about what she’d imagine - how different could gyms really be? It lacked the home-y feel of her Jeet Kun Do center, but that was to be expected. Against the somewhat harried pleading of Sarah, she didn’t wear any padding. She was, truthfully, unaccustomed to it. She’d never worn it in her years of Jeet Kun Do, let alone anything else. She’d had the bruises and black eyes in the past to prove it.

Now, though, in baggy black pants and a black tank top with her hair tied back and her feet bare, she seemed to be the most at ease than she had since she’d arrived. Feeling the mat beneath the soles of her feet was enough to bring back memories of her own gym, of the heady smell of sweat and incense.

 

[HornyDog2017]

As she watched Eva stretching with one of the Trainers, Sarah growled in a low volume to Claire, "You can not let her do this."

"Captain," Claire said, quietly but with a chastising tone. When Sarah looked to the other woman, paused, then bowed her head in respectful apology, Claire asked, "Why can't I let her do this?"

"Her majesty," Sarah responded quickly, mocking Claire's earlier tone. She didn't look to the Captain for a respectful nod, knowing that the officer wouldn't give her one. Instead she only clarified with concern, "Because she is the Queen!"

"So, I should tell our Sovereign that she can not do what she wants to do," Claire continued with an obviously sarcastic tone, "I should tell our Queen, her Majesty as you reminded me, I am sorry, I am not going to let you spar, because, you're just the Queen and I am--"

"She could get hurt!" Sarah cut in.

"I guaran-tee she will get hurt," Claire laughed. She asked with a more serious tone, "Are you concerned because she is our Queen? Or because she is a female?"

This time it was Sarah who laughed. She glanced about the floor before her toward the dozens of Royimin training or exercising. Females were still a minority in the armed forces of Earth. And of that minority of that minority were front line, combat personnel. Nearly half of the Royimin soldiers were female, a majority of their pilots were, and nearly every Defensive Arts instructor within sight was as well.

"Can't you at least suggest her Majesty use the appropriate body protection?" Sarah continued as she watched the Trainer and Eva. The two seemed to be demonstrating to one another techniques from their own forms of defensive arts. When she didn't get an answer, Sarah continued with a basic concern, "She'll get hurt."

Still, though, Sarah got no reply. She turned to find Claire had walked away to a bench near the wall, where she'd begun stripping off her uniform. Sarah didn't understand what the Captain was doing initially, but when she did she made her way to Claire with haste, asking, "What are you doing?"

One of the training soldiers helped Claire don her sparring gloves. She asked with a sarcastic tone, "What do you mean What are you doing? You know exactly--"

"You can not fight the Queen!" Sarah said, her tone and volume both rising a bit. When Claire asked why not, the servant said, "Because you are supposed to protect, not her beat her senseless."

Claire laughed yet again as she began stretching. "How do you know her Majesty will not beat me senseless?" Sarah continued arguing against the Captain's decision. Claire tired of the servant and, after looking about the training facility and calling out another soldier's name, said, "Fine, I will not spar with the Queen. Rudy will."

Sarah followed the Captain's head nod to an approaching warrior and her eyes and mouth both fell open. The nearly 7 feet tall man was rippling with rock solid muscles, pushing well beyond 250 pounds. As the Captain and her subordinate began discussing the task Claire had for him, Sarah just waved the conversation off, saying, "Fine. Just, do not hurt her."

"Are you sure that is not what she wants, Sarah?" Claire asked, moving from stretching to some rapid defensive and offensive strike movements. When the servant asked what she meant by that, Claire glanced to Eva, then back to Sarah. "From what my Agents on the planet learned about our Queen, she seems to be one for new adventures. For pushing the limits. For pushing herself."

The reports about Eva's life were far from complete, but Claire's pre-extraction team had done their best to profile their Queen. There had been a great deal of information accumulated, and the full team had worked tirelessly to learn all they could about Eva. But there had also been gaps in the young woman's life, too, including periods of time when she seemed to have fallen off the face of the planet for months at a time. They'd filled in one of those gaps, finding that she'd been living with a male in the Western portion of a North American state called Wyoming. But many of the others reflected the wandering life of someone living, as the Earthlings called it, off the grid.

Claire and Sarah argued quietly about whether or not the former was correct or just a furahia, a word that in most Earth languages would translate fairly closely to sadist. Claire only, leaning in close as she walked past Sarah to whisper, "I once knew a woman who liked that I was a furahian."

Behind her, Sarah's eyes again grew large, a fiery flush filling her face. How long had it been since Claire had made a reference to their long dead relationship? Twenty years? Thirty? More? As she watched her former lover cross to join in on the motion exercises with Eva and the trainer, Sarah reminisced on that almost forgotten time in her life when her and Claire's appearances had been so similar that many had often mistaken them for sisters.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

In Eva’s nomadic life, she’d held more than a few jobs, including a brief stint as a yoga instructor. It’d been one of her more beloved jobs -meaning she held it longer than a year-, and it was now, stretching, that she invoked that particular skill. To the somewhat astonished trainer, Eva, far from stretching with the woman, would often stop and freely touch the other one, offering minor suggestions or pushing her a bit further forward. Not that the Trainer was stiff by any means; just that the positions were strange.

It was in the midst of a tandem bow pose that Eva was aware of Claire’s presence. Without letting go of her ankles, she craned her head a bit to look at the taller woman. “I guess it’s you and me, then,” she said. With a controlled, slow exhale, she let go of her ankles, and eased her body back down to the mat on the floor. “Give me one more moment,” her voice was muffled against the floor as she lay forehead down, before carefully planting her feet and lifting into downward dog.

With her eyes closed, she seemed as if she had shut herself off from the presence of all else around her. Outwardly, her chest rose and fell with long, controlled breaths, her body showing no strain of the position she was in. Inwardly, the thoughts that had been pinging about in her head like bees slowly stilled. Things were still overwhelming; that much hadn’t left the pit of her stomach. That, she realized, with a long intake of breath, could only be relieved over time. There was an ultimate sincerity underlying all of this that was dreamy, and far too convincing to be a dream. For now, though, she would indulge in her body’s natural way of combating anxiety and pressure. Exhaling, she came to her feet, focus and eyes clear. A good spar would help settle her.

She began to move lightly from foot to foot, further waking up the muscles warmed by the stretching. Noticing Claire’s gloves, she stopped. Claire paused, and, for a moment, looked uncertain. Eva held up her bare hands, and wiggled her fingers playfully.

“We don’t usually wear gloves in the martial arts I practice,” she said. “Bare feet, bare hands. Even in matches. I’ll be fine.” She added the latter as a reassurance - though she knew, without even saying it, that Claire would more than likely not fight as she was used to experiencing in matches. “You know…even with all this ‘queen’ business, I want you to spar with me honestly.”

Even as the words left her mouth, she knew they wouldn’t sink in.

“Majesty,” Claire inclined her head in a slight bow. Eva just grinned.

“So, I don’t know how you guys start things off,” Eva shot over her shoulder, pacing to the center of the room, “Usually my teacher just nods or whatever. Do you want to tap gloves and then start?”

“ ‘Tap gloves?’” Claire’s eyebrows were raised.

“Yeah, like this.” Closing the gap between them, Eva balled her hands into fists, then let the gesture drop. She took Claire’s hands in her own, and gently shaped them into fists. “Now, hold them like this,” and Eva made her fists again, and quickly, gently, tapped her knuckles against Claire’s. “Like that. It’s basically a gesture of friendliness. In theory. Some people are just assholes, though. Want to make a match personal.” She gave a slight shrug. “Anyway,” and nearly skipped away, as light as she was on her feet, to increase the distance between the two. Bemused, Claire watched, then took her own stance.

Eva, though smiled, watched intently. For the first time in her life, she honestly had no idea what she’d gotten herself into - insofar as fighting went. All of the fighting methods she was familiar with were, well, earth based. The thought of being exposed to an interstellar method of fighting was straight from a comic book, and the thought was enough to make her giddy. Ah! She had to make sure that Claire wasn’t going to take it easy on her, though - and so, she was instantly on the offensive.

Though Eva was characterized by a somewhat laconic nature on Earth (“zombie,” one might even put it, by how unflappable she generally was), that perception was instantly thrown aside in fighting. If she had to personally hazard a guess as to who in her life knew her the best, free from all artifice, she’d say without hesitation the people she fought with. They saw the Eva as she really wanted to be. The fact that Claire had stepped up to spar with her hadn’t gone unnoticed - nor was it an assumption on Eva’s part that Claire would have been her opponent. She had assumed it’d just be someone else - but now that Claire was involved, Eva found herself surprisingly touched, and, because of it, wanted to show her best. Wanted to repay the gesture of kindness.

Eva’s forward strike was so quick that it took Claire by surprise, and she stumbled to put space between them. In her surveillance of Eva, she’d known that the woman did some sort of exercise, though the details beyond that were scant. Now, the taller blonde found herself quickly trying to evade each of Eva’s strikes. Eva’s movements were precise, and inhumanly quick. She clearly wasn’t pulling her punches in her precision, and wasn’t giving Claire any wiggle room to keep dodging. In short time, she had Claire clearly on the defensive. A half-hearted cross counter to Eva was slapped down by a flurry of arm movements by the shorter woman, a backhand coming precariously close to Claire’s nose. Though her face was partially obscured by their upraised arms, it was clear that Eva had a bit of a smirk on her face.

“Are you going to get serious now?” She lightly tapped Claire’s nose, before breaking away. Claire, her face flushed mildly by the exertion, could only respond with a similar grin. There had been no pride, no harsh ego in Eva’s comment.

And Claire responded in turn. Quickly, the tables turned - and now Eva was on the offensive. Claire’s methods were similar to that of a traditional boxer - rapid jabs and strikes that, for all of their power, were incredibly fast. Though initially surprised at how quickly the tables had turned, Eva’s face was gleeful. As she nimbly wove around a thrown punch, she let out a slight laugh, before throwing a startlingly high kick. To a skilled observer, the kick was not thrown haphazardly, or as a cheap move - but meant to free up space between the two of them. Claire responded by backing up, but quickly closed the distance with an elbow strike. Though Eva was fast, she wasn’t that fast, and the elbow strike landed firmly against her left eye, sending her back a few feet.

Hissing in pain, Eva was undeterred, though she was clearly hurt. Already the dark skin had begun to blossom a deep red, and begun to swell. Before she could retaliate, however, Sarah’s horrified voice cut through.

“Majesty!”

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Eva was breathing hard, but she was still light on her feet, hopping from one foot to the next, ready for the next strike. “I’ve had much worse,” she added, “but it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a blow to the face,” and, despite the hushed horror in the room, she started to laugh. Her feet stilled, and she bowed to the taller woman. “Thank you, Claire. I look forward to learning more from you.”

She stood now, and walked over to the Royim woman, and offered her her hand, much as she had with David. Clearly surprised, Claire took it nonetheless, and Claire gave it a soft shake. “Handshakes. Means no hard feelings,” and she smiled up at the taller woman. For the first time since she’d arrived, the expression was genuine, lighting up the rapidly bruising face.

 

[HornyDog2017]

After taking Eva's hand and following the lead concerning appropriate strength of grip and shake, Claire smiled. During her short time on Earth with the Surveillance and Extraction Team, she'd seen people engage in hand shakes. But she'd never seen the gesture used in this manner.

"No hard feelings?" she asked. After Eva explained the phrase, Claire smiled. She repeated with understanding, "No hard feelings, Majesty."

Then, she took one step back, stood taller and stiffer, fisted her right hand, and pressed it to her chest with a thump. With a commanding voice she pronounced, "To the Queen!"

Throughout the Training Facility, the sound of movement exploded about Eva as nearly a hundred fisted hands slammed to chests and, as one voice, the match's audience repeated the declaration, "To the Queen!"

As the sparring match neared, proceeded, and finished, those already in the Training Facility had slowly begun forming around the pair to watch, keeping a respectable distance. And more had hurried to the compartment as word spread, until finally there was a tight circle of soldiers, diplomats, and servants not only on the main floor but on the mezzanine above where much of the exercise equipment was positioned.

Claire watched Eva's reaction, then smiled broadly. She said softly, for Eva not the others, "If anyone doubted your worthiness, Majesty, I dare say there are far fewer such people now." She looked to left and right, giving a dismissive wave that sent the Royimin slowly back to their training. She looked to Eva again, telling her, "And it is I, Majesty, who could learn from you." She mimicked one of Eva's moves, asking, "Will you show me that one. Does it have a name."

As Eva was demonstrating the move that had resulted in her nearly sharing in the bruising aspect of the match, movement nearer the door of the facility caught her attention...



As had Sarah, David had be anxious about the upcoming sparring match as well. But, his reasons were far different than were those of the personal servant. Despite his mild mannered, respectful, professional personality, Ambassador Davieridicininna Muru Secu had for centuries successfully hidden a fetish: he loved what some Earthlings might call a good chick fight Despite it having absolutely nothing to do with his own duties, David had for years kept a close eye on the posted training schedules, often showing up in the Training Facility when the hand to hand combat exercises or competitions were underway. With the Military's high percentage of female personnel, David was almost always certain to find a pair of girls punching one another. When the action ended, David would return to his quarters where one or more Sexual Consorts who exclusively serviced the Diplomatic Corps' Executive Embassy Staff would be waiting to provide release of David's built up tension.

Of course, this match would be different than any of those David had every observed. This was his Queen. He wasn't supposed to fantasize about Her Majesty while a Consort was sucking his cock or developing a sweaty sheen while rocking above his groin. And yet, by the time Eva and Claire had reached hands out to shake, his cock was rock solid and he knew he'd be imagining her in his bed later.

"Excuse me, sir."

An unexpected voice caught his attention. David turned to find a DiploCorps junior officer handing an Info Pad to his Aide. The Aide's eyes widened with surprise, and he hurriedly walked to David's side to whisper close to his ear. David snatched the Pad, read it, and without hesitation turned to face Eva.

"Please forgive me, Majesty," he said, bowing quickly before rising to apologize, "but a matter of grave importance has arisen. Forgive me."

He bowed to Eva again, ordered the junior officer to stay with the Queen should she need anything from the DiploCorps, and hurried away.



"Commander!" David called out as he hurried through the door of the Fire Control Center. "What have you done?"

Taylor turned to the Ambassador, a somewhat annoyed expression filling his face. He'd been expecting David, of course. You don't conduct a military strike on Planet Earth without the Royimin Ambassador's knowledge without that very same Ambassador coming totally unhinged.

"I have done my job, Excellency," the Commander answered firmly. Turning away from David, he said, "But you will have to excuse me for a moment, because the correct answer to your question should have been I am doing my job, present tense, not past."

"You will cease this operation immediately!" David demanded, moving around to stand immediately before Taylor. David ignored the Commander's extra six inches in height and 40 pounds in weight, continuing, "You do not have authorization for this attack, and you will terminate it NOW!"

"I do have authorization for this attack, and I won't terminate it," Taylor said, moving closer, literally looming over the shorter man. "And if you do not remove yourself from Fire Control and from my view, I will have you removed!"

David hesitated a moment before responding. His fury was quickly being replaced by memories of Taylor pummeling soldiers, sometimes to unconsciousness, down in the Training Center. He drew a deep breath, exhaled, and in a calmer voice responded, "Without the Queen's approval for--"

"She's not the Queen yet!" Taylor cut in. He gave David a moment to contemplate what he meant, then made sure the Ambassador remembered the current situation by reminding him, "Until the coronation, she is nothing. She is just a passenger on my ship." He leaned in closer, growling, "Now. Get out of my way."

David stood his ground, but for only a moment. He turned aside to allow Taylor to return to his work without actually yielding ground. David waited where he was for a long moment, studying the activity taking place all about him. The crew had been training every day for years for just such activity, and despite not agreeing with what was happening, David found himself impressed. As his gaze shifted about the compartment, David found a friendly face near the back of the Fire Control Center. Kylie was his Chief Liaison to Commander Taylor, tasked with keeping the two men informed about those aspects of the other's job that affected each. He moved quickly to the woman, asking quietly, "Kylie, what the hell happened?"

"There has been an exchange of thermonuclear weapons between nations in Eastern Asia, sir," she answered, using the easier term of sir as was permitted between DiploCorps officers. As she lifted an Info Pad before them, her hand hovering over it, she manipulated her fingers until an image of the Korean Peninsula appeared. "It began here. The city of See-oh-uwl."

"Seoul," David corrected. "It is--" He caught himself, taking a calming breath. He corrected, "It was the capital of South Korea."

Kylie reviewed with David what he was seeing on the Pad. Tensions had been high in the Korean peninsula for well over half a century, what some had called a regional cold war. Now, it had become very hot. Two South Korean Cities were gone, as were two Japanese cities. One of the latter was Hiroshima, the significance of which David had to explain to less historically knowledgeable Kylie. A nuke had been detonated over the ocean as well, which David didn't immediately understand.

"A fleet of warships, from the United States of America, had been launching missiles from there, sir," Kylie explained. "Thermonuclear devices, and conventional weapons as well. North Korea detonated a device near it. There was no missile tract, though. Commander Taylor believes the device was on n sea vessel, possibly underwater.

She pointed his attention to nearly two dozen icons indicating nuke detonations inside North Korea, explaining that they had been small yield devices, tactical nukes. Just as had the Royimin, the US forces had identified the targets as civilian and military nuclear development facilities, and they'd been targeted to bring a permanent end to the country's nuclear program. She then gave a command to the Pad: the view zoomed in closer to North Korea, showing the strike points of hundreds of cruise missiles.

"Commander Taylor believes that each of these targets was a military one," Kylie continued. "Military command structures, aircraft, armor, transportation access points that would allow the North to invade--"

"And this?" David interrupted, pointing toward an icon in the sea to the southwest of the peninsula.

"A second fleet, sir. It, too, was launching missiles, but they have since stopped."

Kylie hesitated to glance toward Taylor, then back to David. It was pretty obvious that the Commander had had something to do with the ceasing of missile launches. He dismissed the liaison, saying, "Thank you, Kylie. Continue your good work."

David neared Taylor again, waiting until he was done with spitting out orders to ask, "Excuse me, Commander. May I respectfully request an update on what actions you have take on the planet below?"

Taylor glanced at David, gave some more soft commands to the Officer at the main fire control station, then turned back to David. "I have taken actions to bring the action in Eastern Asia to a halt."

"What actions?" David asked, maintaining his demeanor despite the fact that his heart was still thumping in anger. "If you don't mind giving me specifics."

"We deployed a tempif over the fleet," he said. When David didn't respond, Taylor clarified, spelling out, "T-E-M-P-F. Tactical electro-magnetic pulse, fusion--"

"I know what it stands for, Commander," David cut in, his annoyance obvious. "Please, continue."

"The fleet is dead in the water," Taylor continued, turning to invite David to follow, "and it's barrage has ended."

They arrived at a mezzanine standing a few feet above a tactical display table similar to though larger than the ones in either David's or Eva's living quarters. On the round table before them was a topographical representation of Korea. It included indicators of the nuke and conventional attacks on a larger scale than had been on the Info Pad, as well as the projected movement of the radioactive clouds; and in the air above it was a 3D representation of Planet Earth. Taylor gave an order to a Fire Control Technician, who manipulated both displays to help illustrate what his Commander was explaining.

"We deployed four additional tempifs over or near the Korean peninsula to disable still functioning military bases on which we detected the presence of nukes," Taylor continued, using the same short hand for thermonuclear devices that an Earthling might use. "I had hoped that disabling the forces fighting there would be enough, but it wasn't."

Another command to the Technician caused hundreds, then thousands of tiny icons appear on the globe before them. They were red and green and located for the most part within the borders of Earth's known nuclear powers. "We have been monitoring Planet Earth's nukes since long before the ship arrived in orbit. The theory was that once the Queen was crowned and her subjects on Earth accepted her rule over them, that the devices would be surrendered, disarmed, and dismantled."

David clenched his teeth, grimacing. Taylor had never believed that Mission Earth could be pulled off without direct military action against the Earth forces. To be honest, David hadn't believed it could be done either. But he hadn't expected that action to occur so quickly. The ship hadn't even been in Earth's orbit for a full day, and already the Royimin were attacking?

"Shortly after our arrival," Taylor continued, "military forces across the globe had gone on alert. That had been expected, of course. However, this nuclear exchange in the Korean Peninsula was not. Less than ten minutes after the first nuke detonated, we detected intercontinental ballistic missile pre-launch activity across the globe. Additionally, aircraft capable of delivering nuclear payloads took to the air."

"You are disabling them?" David asked, already knowing the answer. On the globe, the red icons had been rapidly turning green, which David presumed meant that they were no longer a threat.. "Were any of these missiles deployed?"

"Yes and no, Excellency," Taylor said. "Yes, we have been disabling the missiles. More than 4,000 thus far, and we should have that portion of the operation completed within 10 hours. And no, none of the missiles were launched. But then, would you have had us wait and try to shoot them out of the air instead?"

"When did you begin this operation, Commander?" David asked after a long moment. His tone was obviously accusatory. "This did not just happen while I and our Queen had our backs turned for a sparring match."

"While you and the Captain of the Bodyguard were making our soon to be and still unconscious Queen comfortable in her quarters," Taylor answered with a patronizing tone, "I was preventing a nuclear apocalypse."

"This began 16 hours ago?" David asked with a growing fury. "And I am just hearing about this now?"

Taylor's response to what he thought was David's disrespect for his position was to look to the entrance of the FCC and say sternly, "Lieutenant! Why don't you escort our Ambassador out of Fire Control..."

He turned to look at David with a hard expression. Taylor feigned a polite smile and gave the Diplomat a way to save some face, saying, "I am sure that his Excellency would like to make his report to the Queen."

David searched his mind for some way to gain the upper hand in the situation, but really there just wasn't one. Command of the ship and the military within it was entirely Taylor's purview. Taylor didn't answer to David. And while David didn't agree with how Taylor had handled the situation, he had to admit that a full scale nuclear war would have been disastrous, not just for Mission Earth but for Earth itself.

"I won't need your escort's company, Commander, but thank you for the offer," David said. He glared for a moment, then turned on a heel and hurried for the exit, saying over his shoulder, "Please keep my Liaison informed, Commander."

After David was out of sight, Taylor just shook his head and went back to watching the operation unfold, murmuring to himself, "Yes, Excellency. I will be sure to do that."

 

[Apollo Wilde]

Claire’s salute, and the resounding sound from the training room was almost enough to give Eva a start. Instead, she merely smiled, a sheepish expression that curled in around the corners of her mouth. Her cheeks flushed from embarrassment now, and, tenderly, she pressed her fingers to her bruised eye. It’d definitely be black and blue by the next morning.

The taller woman’s voice snapped her out of her slight daze, and, that hard won honest smile on Eva’s face fell. “Fighting ability alone doesn’t make anyone a good leader.” She gave the taller woman a pointed look, the expression losing some hostility due to the rapidly swelling left eye. “If this isn’t some weirdly, vivid, specific dream, if this is true,” she sighed, “Then I have a very, very long way to go before anyone could even dream of following me. The concept of having a leader to begin with is weird.” She ran a hand through her sweaty hair. “I guess that doesn’t make sense, coming from a planet that’s got a ton of leaders - some who people even vote for.” She shook her head. “Time for that later. Much later,” she said, her tone laden with a playful lilt, as she tried to change the subject. There would be plenty of time for all of this other political bullshit - and she’d do her damnedest to put it off for as long as she could.

At Claire’s comment, she laughed, the sound startlingly loud. “No, that doesn’t have a name,” and she mimicked it, much slower, for Claire’s benefit. “Just an average strike. But I can show you something I think you’d love. Most people know it as a ‘one inch punch.’” She glanced around the training room. Sand bags, punching bags - seemed like a typical gym. “Huh. No boards.”

“Boards?” Claire paused in her careful imitation of what Eva had shown her. “Do you need one?”

“Yeah; I mean…” Eva’s eyes darted around the room, before landing on a much battered dummy. “Actually, no - I can use that,” she jerked her head towards the dummy. “Come over; I’ll show you.”

Sarah, still watching from the sidelines, was beginning to have the color returned to her face. She had known, clearly, that Claire was an accomplished fighter, but to see the Queen engage so was…startling, to say the least. It appeared that she still had much to learn about this woman.

“So, the theory in this,” Eva was saying, standing causally in front of the dummy, Claire not far behind her, “is that it makes your normal punches better or stronger. Or at least that’s one way I’ve heard it explained. An efficiency thing. So, look, a normal punch,” Eva drew back, and gave the dummy a solid right jab, “requires a lot of space.” She repeated the punch, just slower to show the full range of motion. “This one, not so much. Look at the end force.” Again, Eva repeated the right jab, and the dummy rattled on its stand, the force of her jab reverberating within it. Stepping closer, Eva stood the signature inch away from the dummy - and struck. The dummy shuddered with the same amount of force as her earlier strike. “Hard to tell with this - it’s easier, flashier, with boards,” she turned to face Claire fully now.

Claire’s face was incredulous. “How is that possible?”

“All in the wrists,” Eva shook hers, playfully. “It took me years to master that. I couldn’t tell you how effective it’d be against a person, though. I was always too scared to hit someone with it.”

“The potential for this ending a close combat fight is incredible,” Claire mused, “why wouldn’t you want to use it?”

Eva rubbed the back of her neck, rolling her head to loosen up the muscles that were beginning to stiffen. She really needed to put something on that eye. “…Because I’ve never wanted to hurt someone like that. There’s a lot of force in that small space. When you’re sparring, it’s about…” she paused, clicked her tongue, “gauging yourself, thinking on your feet, using what you’ve learned and using the fight to learn how to adapt. Like dropping a bomb to get rid of a beehive. Overkill.”

She had no idea how ironic her words, at that moment in time, were.