It was a training day for several of the security officers, and Shara being the newest member was put in the hot seat to see exactly what she was capable of. She smiled as a couple of the other officers stood on either side of her as the other watched off the mats. She smiled at the two officers as she waited for them to move.
"What's the matter, boys? Afraid of a little girl?" she asked with a smirk.
That got them going, just like she knew it would. The man on her right came out at her with several punches, a mixture of high, low and middle, and a side kick, which she easily avoided. With swiftness befitting a panther, she kicked his feet out from under him. As the second man came after her, she easily jumped over his head and kicked his legs out as well, so that he had landed on his back. She was ready to strike his chest, but instead got up and helped both men to their feet.
"Want to try again?" she asked. She's wasn't even using a fraction of her abilities. She knew it, but if she had been using full strength, there would be injuries to go along with the lost breath.
The men got to their feet and attacked her at the same time, rather than taking turns like they had done before. Easily, she deflected all blows. Nothing seemed to land on her. She eventually took one man down, using his own body force against him. And the other, she gave a punch to his solar plexus that he couldn't seem to avoid. He stumbled back unable to catch his breath. Shara, on the other hand, hadn't even broken a sweat.
"Very impressive, Lieutenant," said a voice from the gym door. It was Commander Wallace.
"Thank you, sir," she replied with a smile.
"You don't even look tired, but those men do," he said.
"Well, it's no fault of theirs. They're actually very good, sir," Shara replied.
Wallace looked at her and nodded. "Come see me after you're done beating up the men," he replied with a slanted smile.
"Yes, sir," she replied as she watched him walk off. "Okay, who's next?" she asked looking at the other officers. She could hear mild groans.
After her training session, Shara showered and dressed, then headed to Wallace's office. She took a deep breath as she got closer. She wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to see her about, and not knowing always put her on edge.
As she reached his office, she was shown in. She stood at attention.
"Lt. Shara Mikori here as requested," she said.
"At ease," he said. "I reviewed your file. It's full of interesting twists and turns. I also see you weren't joking about your skills. You're quite a piece of work... Literally."
Shara bristled a bit, knowing he was referring to her genetic engineering. Though she'd mostly come to terms with it, like Karissa, she had a hard time when someone first found out.
"Yes, sir," she replied, keep emotion out of her voice.
"What I'm really curious about is the fact that you're in Starfleet. It's against policy... against the law," he said.
"What my creator or creators did wasn't my doing, or my fault, sir," she replied. "I didn't discover the truth myself until two years ago. My sister was the first told... By the Chief of Science onboard the Ronin. When I came aboard, it was just a matter of comparing the sequences. But even Starfleet didn't pick it up on the anomalies when we first entered the Academy. If you have further--"
He raised his hand to stop her. "I was only interested in how. So you were in Starfleet already at the time of this discovery."
"Yes, sir," she replied.
"This background doesn't seem to sit well with you, I've been noticing."
"Commander, it's really not something I feel comfortable talking about. Though it's given me extraordinary gifts, it's difficult to accept the fact that I wasn't born the way everyone else is. That I was created in a lab because someone thought it was a good idea. Someone who wanted a weapon in the form of a human being; someone who didn't take into account the souls of their projects. And I'd prefer to be thought of as something other than a genetic experiment."
Wallace looked at her and nodded. "I never did think of you that way, Lieutenant," he said. "Rest assured. But it looks like one good thing came out of that."
"What, sir?"
"You know who you are inside. It doesn't matter where you came from. You are yourself and no one can take that way from you. Not even the people that created you," he replied.
She smiled. "Thank you, sir."
He smiled. "Dismissed."
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