***3 Weeks Later...***

Finlay laid on the exercise mats, shirtless, soaked in sweat, and gasping for air like a fish out of water.

*"How did I get here again?"*

Trying his best to remember the past few weeks. To determine what poor life choices led to this particular moment in his life. First, they had reached the Deep Space Transit. Which wasn't what they were expecting, 4 ships just as Large as the one they've been traveling on for the past few days met them around Pluto. Each with what looked like a ring on the widest part of the tear drop shape, with large metal flow petals. In Finlays' inexperience with engineering, he could only guess at Solar sails or some kind of shielding. Their ship slipped into an Empty Ring and shot off into true deep space in less than an hour.

...And then school began. In an alternating pattern of self-defense training and 3 hour sit down classes, with a myriad of subjects from alien alphabets to wilderness survival. It made logical sense, the I.U. spent who knows how much resources just to get the human race into space. Having them die due to something easily avoidable would be a great loss for everyone. Classes weren't an issue... it was SDT that had Finlay flat out on his ass. It wasn't bad at first, just basic drills... then some varied spars with different races. His first opponent was... himself. An Ouzonn had adopted his look and approximate combat knowledge for the the instructors to watch and build lesson plans around. Then there was today, What wicked trickster god had pulled this prank on him?

He felt small delicate fingers grip his ankle.

Finlay: "Oh no..."

Pulling him up and off the mat like a wet towel, he was thrown over head into the wall of the glass dome. Some how he bounced off the wall and landed on his feet, stumbling forward into his executioners range, seeing a shin coming straight for his head from the right he ducked and rolled under it, popping back up behind the small Asian person. Hada, had been soundly using him to mop the mats for the past 15 minutes. Today was a free-spar, pair up and duke it out to sharpen the senses. Beyond the barring of syncing with ones Holo, it was an unrestricted match and paramedics were on stand-by. 20 minutes, the winner could only be declared by knockout... Hada in all her mercy avoided knocking him out, as to avoid hurting him too much. Though he wished for the sweet release of forced sleep after the first over the shoulder flip.

He spun around to face Hada and watched as they too kept up the spin, that same leg coming back full circle and gave him a ferocious kick to the ribs. He had hoped for this, it was pretty much his only shot at escaping more pain.

Finlay: "GAAAH-ot you now..." *Clamping an arm over the offending leg and stepping forward to get Hada off balance he could see it now... just get them pinned for 5 minutes and the torture would be over. Then Hada's other leg shot up and wrapped around the back of his neck... if they were going down, Finlay was fucking coming with apparently. Shifting their body's weight they managed to throw off His balance and make it so he would hit the mat first. Hada's legs escaped and she went to straddle him. he only had a few seconds to turtle and as Hada rained down punches aimed for his face.* "Okay... maybe I don't..."

He hated this the most about fighting Hada. They were a professional, they had standards. Those standards being, apparently not talking and be a scary as possible while beating the shit out of their opponent. He wanted his banter buddy back. he spared a glance at the timer on the programmed glass.... just under a minute left. Hada's punches are finally slowing down, if there was ever going to be a time to strike it'd be now. "Spec... Cue playlist." Throwing a punch as soon as the bass of the song started. during training he found that having some kind of music playing helped greatly while on the offensive, it set the tempo to his attacks, and most of the time it threw his sparring partner off guard.

...Most of the time.

===============================================================================

Hada leaned back to evade the wild swing, and soon found themselves getting bucked off by a hip thrust from Finlay. There was still some fight left in him after all. They were somewhat proud pf him for the moment. Finlay had been getting some basic training from Hada and Lu between classes as well, he had gotten some core concepts down. Throw your opponents balance off and try to get the fight onto your own terms. He had improved greatly since the first sparring match between him and Ouzonn... that was a depressing sight. He had apparently only ever been in some drunken bar brawls... and none of which he had won.

Hada recovered from their forced tumble to see Finlay spin on the ground to face Hada again and get back into the pseudo boxing form. Bobbing to some beat she couldn't hear. *"Ah... that explains alot. He's in dance mode."* Watching Finlay bound first to his right and then to his left as he came forward, to maintain distance Hada stepped back, trying to figure out what rhythm he was following... Hada enjoyed these Sparring sessions. Whether it was against an alien or other humans at this point in the training. Xiao lu had some weapon experience, probably from working the land and he was strong, but that was an average Tuesday at the dojo, little boring. Aliens has of course completely foreign bodies to Hada and different methods of attack... but Finlay? he had speed, creativity and a humbleness to learn from each bout. Always bringing something new to the table and Hada could always eat their fill.

Finlay seeing Hada was trying to Read his rhythm, jumped into the fray for the moment to break his own tempo. "Spec, Shuffle." Landing from his wild downward punch and trying to sweep Hada's leg immediately after, they took the sweep and landed on their side. Rolling to continue movement, Hada was going to kick Finlay and stop him from trying for another grapple. They were in it now, another dangerous dance.

Proctor: "Enough! Point win, Hada."

Hada: "What?" Dropping the fight at the instructors call. An older Ur'quanth male who has seen enough battle in his lifetime, judging from the scars marking the left half of his face and the broken horn.

Finlay: "Oh thank fuck." Collapsing back onto the mat and groaning from the pain of the multiple bruises.

Proctor: "Impeccable as always Hada, Great improvement Finlay. Though we still need to work on that mouth... you're both free for the rest of the day. Get some compresses from the medial station."

Finlay: "yay... I can't feel my ass... "

Hada helped Finlay up and over to the Medical station and watched as he was practically mummified in patches. They sped up the healing process using nanomachines. In order to avoid any more drug related mishaps but it was a bit slower than those miracle drug. Finlay seemed to develop a bit of an aversion after the race, so he preferred the compresses anyway. Now able to stand again, he went to his Little bird v.2. He got some minor upgrades after the first race. An alternate power source and adjustable air outlets some other neat little odds and ends. Xiao Lu got his Sync capable. Hada's had some cosmetic work done to their Omniwheels.

Finlay: "Who's cooking tonight?"

Hada: "It's Lu's turn. What do you think Ma po or Hot pot?"

Finlay: "Oh... I'm hoping for hot pot, that Ma po Tofu nearly killed me last time..."

Hada: "Hey now... I thought you were a spice lover."

Finlay: "Oh I love spice, I don't like whatever pain sauce he made last time... NO FLAVOR, Just hot..."

Hada: "Pfft, I'll be sure to remember that..."

Both of them making their way down the corridors of the ship to Lu's room. They started a bit of a schedule since the classes began. Along with 2 other chefs, Berthold and Kathrine. they took turns cooking meals and trying each others foods. It would give them a head start once they reach the planetary station and keep their knife skills sharp. They occasionally took in some guests like roommates or new friends from the station, a not so secret dinner party.

=================================================================================

Xiao Lu looked over his work... beaming with pride. This was a feast worth celebrating, and he was glad that he left his broth to simmer and dough to rise before classes started. He could have everything done before dinner early and cook to order. Dumplings were filled and sealed and ready for steaming, ground meats of so many animals, some were pork, some where chicken, some where Beef... most were of what Finlay called the Thunder- Cockerel.... a Massive multi-winged bird. Xiao thought Finlay may have been over-exaggerating at first, until the bird as large as his torso had finished printing.

Xiao: "What am I going to do, feed the whole ship?" He had the forethought to cut the large bird in half and freeze that for the next dinner party and got to work. Lots of mincing to do, made easier by the meat grinder but still... so much meat. Then some liberal seasoning and hand mixing. Salt, Pepper, green onion/chives, ground chicken/ Thunder-Cockerel, oyster sauce, cooking wine, chicken bullion- thankfully Finlay had some cubes of that just lying around... some minced carrots and Chinese cabbage and lastly egg as the binder. Forming a small patty and frying it to taste test the seasoning. Adding more seasoning if needed.

He had enough dough for a good 48 Bao... and maybe twice as much meat then he needed for that. it was time to cheat a bit. Some easy to use pre-made dumpling wrappers for the other half of the meat. this time going into the fridge for some jellified stock. he had added some corn-starch to a pot of chicken stock... it was easier than constantly reducing, even if the flavor suffers somewhat. Cutting the jelly into manageable cubes and mixing it with the remaining meat to turn the Bao filling into soup-dumpling filling. A simple change up to the flavor as well, thanks to the different seasonings of the stock... now he just had to spoon the filling in... over and over... until he was out of meat.... yay.

=================================================================================

Berthold Stared at the screen, the passive information spoken by the lecturer being recorded by his holo Yuri. He did NOT need to be here, No one needed to be here! it was Space college but even more boring. Survival classes... he camped regularly, this was like trying to tell a chef what a Maillard reaction was... which they did on the first day. mind numbing words he would go through and note later on his own time if it was something he wasn't already familiar with.

Katherine on the other hand was positively bubbly, she was loving all of this. Every lesson related to something she already knew the gist of sure... but there were also the moments where they show completely alien perspectives on. If she wasn't a former soldier, if she wasn't a chef. She would have been a teacher herself, maybe even an anthropologist. Her lessons were interrupted by a school classic... a paper football, with her name on it. Looking around for the source she spotted Berthold 3 rows behind her, miming for her to open it. Doing so, she was greeted by a simple. *"I'm boooooooored~"* Sparking some inner nerd fury she didn't know she had, she wrote back on the paper and folded it back up, taking her hair tie and slingshot it back to him. Smiling as it nails his forehead.

Katherine: *"Use the Holos you Neanderthal, what do you think this is, Highschool?"* Soon her Nunny pinged and a small notepad was displayed on the desk.

Berthold: "I'm not a caveman, I'm just losing braincells listening to this guy... It's how to survive in the woods not rocket science!"

Katherine: "Then tell me, how long you would survive after eating a J'turi fuit?"

Berthold: "... 12 minutes?"

Katherine: "That was the teachers name you dolt."