Fly Girls ptII

Posted on Sat Aug 29th, 2026 @ 4:57pm by Commander Rosa Coy & Commander Jenna Ramthorne

2,389 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Character Development
Location: DS9 Gymnasium

The jogging track had served it's purpose. By the time they stepped off it, both women were breathing harder, their shirts damp with sweat, and the lingering aches in their ribs had become impossible to ignore. Jenna walked toward the changing area with one hand resting briefly against her side while Rosa followed at a slower pace, rolling her injured shoulder as she went.

Neither brought up the conversation they'd just had. There was little left to say about it, for the moment.

They changed into lighter training clothes and returned a few minutes later. The gym had grown quieter in the meantime, leaving the padded section of the floor mostly empty. Jenna crossed toward the mats and lowered herself into a crouch, pressing one palm against the surface before standing again.

"How long's it been since you've done this?"

Rosa stepped onto the mat beside her and flexed her fingers. "A while."

"That's not really an answer."

"It's the answer you're getting."

Jenna smiled as she slipped her hands into position. "Fair enough."

For some reason, they had agreed on Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, or rather a form of it. They began with simple movement, testing balance and range before committing to anything more demanding. Jenna caught Rosa's wrist, and Rosa turned with the motion rather than fighting it, slipping free before catching Jenna's forearm. Jenna rotated with her and stepped inside, establishing a light grip around Rosa's upper body.

"You're leading with the shoulder," Jenna observed.

"I know," Rosa admitted.

"If you know, then stop doing it," Jenna suggested.

Rosa shifted her weight and used Jenna's momentum to turn her. Jenna stumbled half a step before recovering, and Rosa's expression brightened with quiet satisfaction.

Jenna gave her a skeptical look. "That was unnecessary."

"You were teaching," Rosa replied, releasing Jenna's arm.

Jenna rubbed her wrist where Rosa's grip had tightened. "I was."

Rosa stepped back and settled into position again. "Then teach me."

Jenna's mouth curved slightly. "Again." They moved again.

This time Jenna closed the distance first. Rosa caught her around the waist, lowered her center of gravity, and tried to turn her. Jenna widened her stance, hooked one leg behind Rosa's, and redirected the movement. Rosa dropped to one knee instead of going over, and Jenna released her immediately. "You good?"

Rosa looked up at her, breathing evenly. "I'm fine."

Jenna offered her a hand.

Rosa took it, and Jenna pulled her upright. Their hands remained together for only a moment before Rosa released her, but Jenna noticed the warmth of her palm even after the contact was gone. Neither commented on it.

They worked through escapes and positional changes, keeping the first few drills light. Rosa caught Jenna's arm, and Jenna slipped free. Jenna secured a hold around Rosa's shoulders, and Rosa twisted out, reversing the position with enough efficiency to earn a small nod of approval.

Jenna released Rosa's wrist and reset her stance, studying her for a moment. "You've been practicing."

Rosa rolled her shoulder once before settling back into position. "I've kept busy."

Jenna's eyes remained on her for another second. "Apparently."

Rosa caught the look and smiled faintly as they reset. The next exchange came faster.

Rosa stepped in, and Jenna shifted to meet her. Rosa caught her around the waist and drove forward, forcing Jenna backward across the mat. Jenna turned with the pressure instead of resisting it, but Rosa maintained her balance and took them both down.

Jenna landed on her back with Rosa above her. Rosa immediately loosened her grip. Jenna looked up at her, close enough now to see the fine beads of sweat along Rosa's temple. "That was much better."

"Thank you."

"Don't sound so pleased with yourself."

"I wasn't aware I sounded pleased."

"Well... you did."

Rosa's mouth curved slightly before she shifted her weight.

Jenna bridged beneath her. Rosa adjusted instinctively, widening her base to maintain position. Jenna turned her hips, trapped Rosa's leg, and created enough space to slide one knee between them.

Rosa countered. Jenna pushed. Rosa shifted. The position broke, and Jenna rolled them both, coming up above her.

For a moment Jenna held Rosa's shoulders against the mat. Neither woman seemed particularly concerned about the proximity, although Rosa's eyes remained fixed on Jenna's face.

"You're getting competitive," Jenna said.

Rosa's mouth curved slightly. "Not me. You."

"I'm always competitive." Jenna's smile softened. "You, on the other hand..."

Rosa twisted suddenly. Jenna reacted quickly, but the movement caught her slightly off balance. Rosa trapped her arm, rolled through, and reversed the position. Jenna landed beneath her, the impact jarring her ribs hard enough that pain flashed briefly across her expression before she could suppress it.

Rosa saw it, and she eased her weight immediately. "Jenna."

"I'm fine."

Rosa remained where she was, though her grip loosened.

Jenna looked up at her. "I said I'm fine."

"I heard you."

"Then why are you still looking at me?"

Rosa's expression softened. "Because you're lying."

For a moment, Jenna simply studied her. "You're getting better at this."

Rosa's mouth twitched. "And you're getting worse at it."

The exchange should have broken the tension, but neither woman quite laughed. Rosa was still close enough that Jenna could feel the warmth coming from her through the thin fabric of their training clothes, and Jenna became suddenly conscious of how carefully Rosa was holding herself above her, as though the instinct to protect her had overridden the exercise.

Jenna shifted beneath her. "Are we training or having a conversation?"

Rosa adjusted her grip without looking away, her face contorting ever slightly. "Both."

Jenna exhaled and pushed against her. Rosa resisted.

The muscles in both women's arms tightened as they fought for position without allowing the movement to become violent. Jenna bridged again, harder this time, while Rosa widened her base and followed the movement. Jenna turned her hips and drove one shoulder into the mat, searching for space.

Rosa stayed with her. Jenna slipped one arm free. Rosa caught it again. Jenna rolled. Rosa rolled with her.

Their movements became faster as the conversation disappeared beneath the rhythm of the exercise. The mat absorbed each impact while their breathing filled the space around them, uneven and increasingly close. Jenna caught Rosa's wrist, rotated her own hand, and breaking the grip. Rosa immediately changed position and caught Jenna's other arm.

"Ugh, you're stubborn."

"So I've been told."

Rosa shifted her weight. Jenna pulled. Rosa followed. Jenna reversed. Neither woman gave the other enough time to settle. Rosa caught Jenna's leg and stepped across it. Jenna tried to retract it, but Rosa followed the movement and caught her around the waist again.

This time Jenna laughed softly through her breath. "You really don't like letting go."

Rosa tightened her grip just enough to keep Jenna from slipping free. "Neither do you."

Jenna stopped struggling for a moment. The words carried farther and with more weight than Rosa had intended. Rosa's grip loosened almost imperceptibly.

Jenna could have easily escaped, but she didn't. Instead, she studied Rosa, taking in the flushed skin along her face, the damp hair at her forehead, and the uncertainty that had replaced the easy confidence from a moment earlier.

"Sometimes," Jenna said quietly, "you have to."

Rosa held her gaze. While something moved behind her eyes. She means herself. Rosa swallowed. She means you. Coy's voice followed, quieter than the first.

Rosa shifted her weight. Jenna's instincts returned before either of them could decide what the moment meant. She turned beneath her, planted a foot, and rolled them across the mat.

Rosa followed the movement, but Jenna caught her momentum and reversed the position again. They separated only far enough to come up facing one another on their knees, both breathing hard.

For several seconds, neither woman spoke. They had changed positions. They had changed the conversation. They had both changed.

---

They remained on their knees for a while, neither quite ready to move back into the exercise.

Sweat had darkened the fabric along Jenna's shoulders and collected in the loose strands of hair at Rosa's temples. Both women were breathing heavily, though Jenna had already begun forcing hers into a slower rhythm, drawing each breath carefully around the pain in her ribs. Rosa noticed. She always seemed to notice things like that.

The gym continued around them. Somewhere beyond the mats, a resistance machine hissed as someone released its weight. Footsteps crossed the upper level. The station's ventilation system pushed cool air through the room, carrying away some of the heat they had built between them.

Rosa lowered her hands to her thighs and looked down at the mat. "You keep saying we did everything we could."

Jenna's breathing slowed another fraction. She looked at Rosa, waiting. "Because we did."

Rosa nodded faintly, though the gesture held little agreement. Her fingers curled against her thighs as though she were trying to hold something in place beneath her skin. "Then why do I feel like I abandoned them?"

Jenna did not answer immediately; she couldn't. The lump that formed there would not allow her to. The question settled between them with a weight neither of them could move around. Jenna lowered her eyes, studying the mat beneath her hands, because looking at Rosa suddenly made the answer too easy.

She knew exactly why. "I think," Jenna said carefully, "because surviving leaves you with too much time to imagine what you might have done differently."

Rosa's eyes lifted.

Jenna drew another measured breath. Her ribs protested sharply, but she kept her expression composed. "I was the one at the helm." The words seemed to surprise even her.

Rosa remained still.

"I was sitting there when it happened. I had my hands on the controls. The ship was coming apart around me, and my job was to keep her moving." Jenna's gaze drifted toward the far wall, though she was no longer seeing the gym. "I watched the weapons pod disappear. I saw the impact coming. I tried to turn us farther away, but there just wasn't enough time left to maneuver."

Her hand moved unconsciously toward her thigh, fingers tightening against the fabric. "I keep going back to that moment," she continued. "I keep finding another fraction of a second that wasn't there. Another vector. Another way I could have turned. I know what the instruments said. I know what the ship could do. I know what the reports are going to say when they're finished." She swallowed. "None of that seems to matter when I close my eyes."

Rosa's expression softened.

Jenna finally looked at her. "I keep thinking that if I had been faster, someone else might still be here."

Rosa breathed out slowly, her shoulders dropping as though some tension had finally been given permission to leave. "I was in the shuttlebay," she said.

Jenna waited.

"I was sitting inside the fighter, waiting for the launch order. I had people all around me." Rosa's voice remained quiet, but something underneath it had begun to fray. "Then the bay doors just... disappeared, and everything started moving."

Her hands tightened against her thighs. "I watched the first shuttle go."

Jenna's eyes remained on her.

"I knew there was someone inside it. I could see them through the cockpit. I knew them, Jenna." Rosa looked down again. "I watched the ship pull them into space, and I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even get my own shuttle free."

The memory seemed to pass through her rather than simply return. "The whole bay collapsed so quickly. One moment everything was where it belonged, and the next there were shuttles tearing loose, people falling, equipment flying everywhere. I kept reaching for the controls because that was what I knew how to do, but there was nothing to fly."

Jenna's expression changed at that. Nothing to fly. It was perhaps the cruelest thing either of them could have said to the other.

Rosa drew a shaky breath and continued. "I keep thinking that if I'd gotten out sooner, I could have helped somebody. If I'd broken the restraints. If I'd forced the shuttle through the opening before the bay collapsed. If I'd just..." She stopped and pressed her lips together, gathering herself before finishing. "There were people right in front of me, and I watched them disappear."

Jenna moved closer without choosing to do so. Her hand settled against Rosa's forearm, light enough that Rosa could have pulled away without resistance. She didn't.

"You weren't abandoning them," Jenna said.

Rosa looked at the hand, then back at her. "I know that's what you want me to believe."

"It's what I believe."

"Do you?"

Jenna's fingers tightened slightly around her arm. For a moment she looked away. "No," she admitted.

Rosa's expression changed.

Jenna took another breath, slower this time. "Not when I'm alone anyway." The admission seemed to take something from her. Her shoulders lowered, and the practiced certainty she'd carried through the entire session finally loosened.

"When I'm looking at the reports, when I'm talking to the crew, when I'm telling somebody else that they did everything they could, I believe it." Jenna's thumb moved absently once against Rosa's forearm before she realized she'd done it. "But when I think about that bridge, I don't think about what I did right. I think about the things I didn't do or the things I did wrong."

Rosa's eyes stayed on hers.

"That's what I keep telling myself," Jenna said quietly. "That we did everything we could."

Neither woman spoke for several seconds. Their breathing gradually steadied, though neither had fully recovered from the exertion. The heat of the exercise remained between them, but the quality of it had changed. There was less competition now, less need to prove something through movement.

Rosa glanced down at Jenna's hand still resting on her arm. Jenna followed her gaze. Neither moved away. Then Rosa shifted her weight, drawing one knee beneath herself. Jenna's hand slipped from her forearm. The moment passed without either woman pretending it had not happened.

Rosa looked toward the center of the mat. "Again?"

Jenna studied her for a moment before nodding. "Again."

They moved back into position, and this round neither one needed to ask what the other was trying to prove.

TBC

 

RSS Feed