You're Learning from Him?

Posted on Thu May 29th, 2025 @ 5:32pm by Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Lieutenant JG Benjamin "Ben" Dalton

2,838 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Cead Mile Failte
Location: Holodeck 2
Timeline: TBD

Ben arrived at the holodeck, saw a program was already running as he entered. it looked like he had entered a gym complete with mats, punching bags and rowing equipment. But he didn't see Kate which was odd as she asked him to be here. As he walked further into the gym, he glanced about still not seeing her until finally he spotted her in her brightly colored workout gear. He hurried over to her, "Hiya Sweetie, what's this new program you want me to see?"

Kate waved happily with two knives in her hand. The knives looked real enough but they were simulaid knives that took the place of the real thing, complete with wax edges that will leave a mark if slashed. Kate's brightly colored shirt was striped with such slashes which indicated she wasn't doing too well but her personality revealed that she wasn't even the least broken up about losing.

"Hey Ben! I'm developing a program to help me learn hand-to-hand combat from some of histories greatest not-so-greats!" Kate hugged Ben as he got close. "Figured maybe you would want to be in on this?" Kate handed him a knife just as a well-dressed man in a top-hat stepped into the room.

"Ah, the Illustrious Lieutenant Dalton," Jack said. "Kate speaks very highly of you, Ben. I must say -- the layout of the future of fisticuff dud's is desirable." He pulled the pocket watch out of his suit an shined the glass covering with his jacket. "... a tad bright for my taste but quite functional."

"He's great, isn't he?" Kate jumped on her feet. "I'm building programs for the bestest psycho's in Earth's history! Charles Manson, Matthew Grimes, John Booth, Justin Beiber, and Jeff Dahmer. I figure between the lot of them, I could learn how to defend myself againt the worst of the worst through copious bunches of failure until I get it right! Isn't it fantastic?" Kate asked.

Ben returned the hug and listened to Kate as she described what she was doing. "Sure honey, I'm game." He answered as a well-dressed man stepped out of the shadows and addressed him. "Um, thank you." He replied cautiously as he turned to Kate, who is this guy, Kate?"

"Oh that's Jack the Ripper!" Kate said with cheer.

Hearing her answer he shot her a disbelieving look. "What? You want to learn self-defense from serial killers and a bad singer? I'd ask if you are serious, but I can see that you are, so my next question is why? Why not learn from Chuck Norris or Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee?"

"Well yeah Beiber was a bad singer when he was in his teens and into his thirties but he went on that knife-wielding rampage in his mid fifties and was locked away for life," Kate stated. "An oh yeah! We should add them into the program too. David Carridean as well! I hear he mastered the choke hold!"

Kate honey why do you want to learn from psychos?" He quickly glanced at Jack. "Um no offense." Jack nodded back "None taken Ben." A smile on his face. Turning back to Kate, "You couldn't find better role models to learn from?" he paused, "You mean David Carradine sweetie."

"Well... When I first loaded up the program I found these guys..." Kate tapped a few buttons on her PADD. Two Starfleet Officers appeared in the room.

"Hello!" The shorter male officer said. "Today, we're going to learn how to defend yourself against a knife attack. Now watch closely, he has to come at you with his right arm first!" He asked his assistant to slowly move the knife toward him. "Now, first you take control of the wrist and hold your other arm under his elbow and pivot away from his side. It'll cause him to fall down and you can strip the knife from his hands."

Kate walked over to the two of them as they got back up from their demonstration.

"Okay, what if they come at you a different way? And faster? Or without warning?" She asked.

"Well, we have techniques for everything," the Starfleet instructor said. "There's the hand-hammer method, where you hold your hands and hit someone hard in the back. There's the leg sweeps, theres the..."

"Jack you try and attack him," Kate suggested

The officer watched as Jack approached him.

"Alright," the instructor said. "Which method of attack are you going to --," the instructor stopped talking because Jack ran at him and relentlessly pounded his knife into the instructors chest over and over. He fell over dead and the instructors assistant ran off.

Kate shrugged her shoulders and outstretched her hands to the dead instructor while Jack wiped his hands on the pants of the instructor.

"Do you prefer Jack, or Aaron?" Kate asked.
"Oh Jack if you please," Jack said. He turned to Ben while putting his hat back on. "They couldn't figure out who I really was for over a century. It was the DNA evidence that eventually narrowed it down when forensics made it out of the dark ages."

Kate nodded.
"Yeah that's pretty much why. Learn from your enemy," Kate quipped with cheer in her voice.

Ben listened to Kate as she spoke and saw the two Starfleet Officers who went through their demonstration. It was all very neat and pristine but had a feeling of being staged. Then when Jack came and instantly and without any fuss or muss killed the lead instructor, he understood why Kate had Jack to instruct her in the art of self-defense.

"A good strategy. I stand corrected darling. Learning from your enemy is definitely a better option and you can also learn all the dirty ways to fight and either disable or kill your enemy. Something you will never get from Starfleet instructors."

Kate scrolled through the files of people she can add.
"Oh okay! We got Jackie Chan, Orange Juice Simpson?" Kate squinted her eyes at the PADD in confusion and kept scrolling. "Brick Shoes Polly, General George Patton, There we go! Chuck Norris!" Kate tapped the PADD twice and the image of a young man with a light brown/blond beared and an intense stare stood in front of her.

Jack the Ripper walked around and nodded at him.
"Who is he?"

"They say that he got into a fight with a horse and gave the horse an uppeercut to the jaw. It's descendants were known as the Giraffe," Kate explained plainly to Jack. She looked to Ben, "Have you heard that he once got bit by an Eastern Diamondback Rattler? After three grueling days, the snake finally died. He's not allowed on Starfleet Ships because he can unwarp the warp field..."

"That's Chuck Norris." Ben replied quietly trying not to stare all while looking at the man and his intense stare. It was intimidating by itself and would stop most people from even thinking of doing something illegal. "He's a master in. unarmed combat and a multi time world champion. He's a good choice to learn from as well. What do you think of him Jack?" Ben asked their other guest instructor.


Jack walked around Chuck and looked down at his arms.
"Let's find out..."

Jack moved his arm to attack Chuck but Chuck grabbed his inner elbow, followed by moving his other hand to his wrist. He stepped in behind Jack while leaning over his chest and brought his knife-hand over Jack's shoulder by bending his wrist while kneeling forward. Jack fell off balance and his knife was stripped from him.

Using the only good hand he had available to him after having his wrist bent inward long enough to sting, he held a thumbs up.

"Oh I approve!" Jack wheezed.

"Wow." Ben whispered as Chuck silently and effectively disarmed Jack. it was a most impressive display of what one could do if one had the skills and the training.

"Rumor has it, he can divide by zero," Kate whispered in Ben's ear before landing a kiss on his cheek while giggling. "What self defense and offensive stuff do you know?" Kate asked while simultaneously jumping into Ben's arms.

ben smiled at Kate's kiss on his cheek and his smile grew as she jumped into his arms. "I'm good but I'm not Chuck Norris or Jack good. I use martial arts like Chuck." He answered before he kissed her back.

Kate nodded in understanding while holding onto Ben.
"Yeah, I suck at this. I don't think I'll ever be good at it. If 'SUCK' were an ocean, and the atmosphere above it is in expertise above sea-level, I'm simply trying to get my depth to periscope depth," Kate explained. "Because I at least want a fighting chance next time someone tries to get inside me. Well -- Except for you of course but I'm talking scalpels, and knives, and lasers, and all sorts of James Bond Style frackery..."

Ben stared at Kate open mouth as she rattled about her reasons for beginning this. self defense training and then adding that she wanted a fighting chance to defend herself someone tried to get inside her. He blushed scarlet when she somewhat clarified that he was the lone exception to her statement. Finding his voice after her comment, he quietly commented. "You don't suck Kate, you just need more training and Chuck and Jack can help you...and me." He added with a smile.

Kate continued to hug Ben and smiled as she closed her eyes. Chuck Norris commanded the wall to lean against him so that he could watch the sight rather than lean against the wall. Jack scoffed at Chuck's sudden understanding of the holographic matrix and how to manipulate it in such a cheatingly well fashion.

"Seriousy?" Jack stated.
"Well yeah, it's too people that love each other. Not something you really got to see considering the circles you kept in your time," Chuck stated.

"Yeah well, everyone knows me," Jack the Ripper stated.
"I have a Starfleet Vessel named after me," Chuck said.

"Oh go on and rub it in. You're only significant becuase you're more current than I," Jack stated.

"Pearls before Swine, Jack," Chuck said.

Kate stepped back from Ben and then looked back at the others'

"So what's next on the agenda?" Kate wondered.

Ben looked at Chuck and Jack. "Now that is a very good question." He commented. "What do you and Jack suggest we do next?"

"Well, I looked over your last mission reports," Chuck Norris stated. "I believe the very first step in self defense is communicating with your senior staff regarding better first-contact protocols. Especially when meeting with cultures of the past that are well known for violent tendancies." Norris stated.

Kate shook her head,
"But I'm just a low-level officer."

"Oh poppycock! It's the lemmings way that got society where it was in the dark from the fledging," Jack spat in contempt.

Kate raised her brow at Jack, not becuase she disagreed with him but because she had absolutley no idea what he said. She turned back to look at Chuck Norris who shook his head at Jack over being so stuck in his time that the only thing that could come out of his mouth was comparable to noise.

"You see, Kate," Chuck began. "As a team, it's perfectly okay to point out problems to your commanding officers in the field if you see fit to notice danger, up to a point. And they should know this too. Ego has gotten many people killed in many lines of work. Not listening to subbordinates when they have a legitimate concern is part of the ego. And if you can combat that, you may avoid actual combat altogether."

Kate looked up at the sky as it turned black. A big yellow star with trailing rainbow stripes arched over their heads and the logo "The More You Know" sprinkled over them. Kate's brows furrowed as a jingle reverberated over the environment around them.

"What the frack whas that?" Kate asked.
"Oh I do believe someone bolloxed the whole holodeck with nonsense a long time ago."

Chuck shook his head.
"Take Lieutenant Draper, for instance. The last person to service the holodeck to make sure that the safeties were always on -- decided to input her inappropriate humor into many of the simulations to adorn her own humor. Her ego got in the way of her professionalism, but the rest of the program is intact."

"I'll have a talk with her," Kate said.
"The wench transferred to the USS Archer months ago," Jack added.
"Oh," Kate sighed. "Wait, how did you know that?"

"Well if he can rummage through ships records, why shan't I?" Jack retorted.

Kate shruggged her shoulders and looked to Ben.
"I guess we just learn from Chuck," she said with a Chuckle.

"Good point Jack." Ben replied. "I agree with Chuck. Ego is good until it interferes with your professionalism, your job and how you approach challenges. If you do things just for the main reason to make yourself look good or get noticed. You are doing it for the wrong reasons." He smiled at Kate, "Kate is the best department head I have ever worked for. She isn't about g the sole reason to get noticed. She gives credit where credit is due and deserved. She gets on you if you do something you shouldn't have but she'll back you all the way if she feels you are right."

Kate hugged Ben and squeezed him while pointing at him with her free hand.
"He forgot to mention I jump his bones, too! I'm a fll featured department head!" Kate winked.

Jack and Chuck stood next to each other equally expressionless as Kate said that. Kate looked to Ben and then back at the killer and the upstanding legend before adjusting her clothes as if it needed adjusting despite needing any adjusting.

"Well, let's skip the awkwardness and get back to fighting techniques!" Kate recommended as if she had some special license to point out the odd moment even though she was its creator.

Ben blushed as Kate mentioned her jumping his bones. It was also obvious that Chuck knew what she was referring to but Jack was at least somewhat confused. "Yeah! She's a great um bone jumper. Really gets into it."

Norris took a moment to step closer to Ben as Kate began doing pre-fight exercises. He hesitated a moment before leaning into Ben as not to be overheard.

"I take it people in your century have gotten a little laxed in the modesty department?" Chuck mused. "Either way, I'm glad you came. If we can teach you both at the same time, we won't give her any actual advantages." Chuck Norris couldn't help but smile with amusement.

Ben gave a small nod of agreement. " Just a little sir. Kate is totally uninhibited and it takes some getting use to." He gave a small smile, "Thank you, I'm glad to be here, I want to learn all I can and I couldn't agree more."

Kate tappeda nother button on the PADD.
"Oh here's another guy that can help us too!"

Kate pressed the button an an older man, with long flowing brown-grey hair, beady eyes, weathered skin, wearing a dirty brown overcoat, a shoulder bag, worn jeans, and a pair of weathered grey boots appeared. Kate tilted her head to see the reaction on the mans face as he saw Chuck Norris and he turned to run off into the distance as Chuck looked right through him with a menacing glance. Kate looked to watch as the hat flew off the other mans head as he ran off into the sunset.

"What was that about?" Kate asked.
"I second the inquiry," Jack stated.
"It's proof that the Holodeck programmers knew good history," Chuck said, simply. "Now come on... Let's load up a dojo and start learning. I have all day but you guys don't." Chuck clapped his hands together as the room transformed into a matted playground filled full of punching bags, sparring gear, and exercise equipment.

Ben looked around at the mats, punching bags, sparring gear as well as assorted exercise gear. "Looks like we have everything we need to get started." Ben announced as he rubbed his hands together. "Let's get started."

"Alright world! Look out!!" Kate said as she ran up on a reflex bag and hit it as hard as she could. The two bands tensed as the bag flew away from her impressive connection, just before rebounding right into Kate's face. Her legs took flight into the air as her head flung backward. Her slender figure went into ragdoll mode as her torso bent backwards and her feet ended up higher in the air than her head. Jack raised a brow as he watched it go down while Chuck Norris watched deadpan.

"I'm okay now!" Kate squeaked the words out from the floor.

 

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