Character Perspective: Curtis

“What in all things holy is this place!?” Plum cried out as we all sank down into a weightless, open field of an area that reminded me of an old school football field surrounded completely by metal walls with what looked like hand grips evenly spaced in lines on every surface. On either end of the large field were two incredibly large round hoop like devices floating effortlessly in place. One by one Commander Allen had affixed a small band around our waists before shoving us into a hole in the ground as soon as we arrived for our Afternoon Team-Building session.

“This is our Free Float Arena, great for Team-Building and of course the occasional game of Gravity Ball,” Commander Allen explained as he floated in behind us. Most of the crew, sans Mendez were still trying to get their grip on feeling of free floating, with Sera in particular waving her arms to the side to try and right herself as she started to “fall” backwards. “The belts I have placed on each of you come with an emergency button on the clasp that if you hit it,” he instructed, demonstrating as he hit his own button and began to lift toward the “ceiling” that we had dropped through until he could grasp onto one of several hand holds. “Will bring you immediately up here.”

“This is friggin awesome!” Mendez shouted as he hit the button, flipping himself over so his feet were toward the ceiling and retriggering the button just as he planted himself and launched down into the field at full force with a loud “WHOOP” of a holler.

“Mendez! Get back up here, the Commander didn’t dismiss us,” I shouted toward him as the Commander held out a remote to me.

“Here Captain, “ Commander Allen said as I took the device, “This will recall all belts to your location, so use it as needed.”

“Aye sir,” I replied as I looked over the simple remote and hitting the button, causing the others belts to blink and Mendez to start rising back up toward us feet first.

“Today is about orienting yourself and learning to work together in the emptiness of Zero-G. Moving around a field like this requires coordination, communication, and trust. Yes, it is fun to throw yourself around and just float, and you will all have more than enough opportunities to do that, but as you all have already seen, your teamwork needs to be shored up,” Commander Allen explained, pulling himself up and over as he planted his feet and launched toward the base of the room in a fluid motion that made Mendez’s launch look amateurish at best. “All of you, too me,” he called out once he hooked his feet onto something that I couldn’t quite make out but assumed were hooks similar to ones on the ceiling above us.

Mendez didn’t even hesitate, hitting the button on his belt to force himself to the ceiling before copying his prior launching technique, though his trajectory was off course and by the time he made it to the ground he was several dozen yards away from Commander Allen.

“Well you heard the Commander,” I instructed, following Mendez’s initiative and utilizing the belt button to start my traversal. Air was still flowing in the room and although we were in a Zero-G field, I felt oddly refreshed by it as I found myself quickly trying to right my body before I crashed into the ground, only managing to turn onto my side as I ran straight into the floor… or was it a wall?

“Like Space, Zero-G has no cardinal directions!” Commander Allen called out and I could see the others all colliding with the ground in similar ways to myself. “But a good rule of thumb is the entrance port up there is North and it is easiest if you orient yourself that way,” he explained.

“How the hell did Doc do that so easily,” Ty complained as she corrected herself and set her feet into a pair of grips.

“Four years tumbling and acrobatics, hermana!” Doc called back as he floated his way over toward the Commander.

“Bullshit,” Sullivan grunted, “I’ve seen you trip over your own feet Julio.”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t in Zero-G,” Doc replied before the Commander cleared his throat pulling out a touchpad. His hand darted across it and our belts all began to shift in color, each taking on a different color of the rainbow while several cubes dropped into the room, floating with a light drift based on their injection. Each one was shining in a color similar to one on each of our belts.

“For your exercise today, you will be tasked with assembling the rainbow here at my feet, each of you has a color that only you can retrieve. Your belts will no longer auto-recall to the ceiling for the duration of this trial, each of you will be scored on retrieval of your cubes,” Commander Allen explained as he looked between each of us. “Begin.”

Mendez was the first to move, his feet unhooking and shoving off wildly into the room toward the purple… or… was that indigo… Before I could read the room, Sullivan had pushed off himself followed closely by Ty and Sera. Novarod hadn’t been as quick to react, but somehow, he was drifting off of the ground and was struggling to push himself back toward the hooks, his hand already trying to activate the belt that Commander Allen had just told him was deactivated.

“Bridge halt!” I shouted, reaching for the remote on my belt and hitting the recall button, watching as they each stopped before being dragged backwards towards the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a satisfied smirk across the Commander’s face.

“Good catch,” Plum muttered under her breath, luckily the only other one of our group who had stayed put.

“Damnit Captain, I was almost there,” Mendez complained as soon as he was back in reach, and I grabbed his leg and hauled him down to the ground.

“This is a Team Building exercise Doc, how did you expect to get back to the ground once you grabbed your cube? How did any of you? Was that even your color or was that Plum’s indigo instead of your purple?” I asked and his mouth snapped shut as the joke he was clearly prepping died on his lips. “Yes, I can recall you here, but I don’t think we’d be accomplishing what we are here for if we lean on that crutch, would we Commander?” I asked as I finally looked back over to him.

“You’re the Captain,” He said raising his hands, though I could tell I had hit the nail on the head.

“Right,” I said looking back to my bridge who had all circled around me. “Doc and Sullivan, Ty and Spacefly, and then Nova, Plum and myself. Those are the teams. We have an hour in here today, this exercise isn’t about timing, it’s about working together. Let’s try and actually take advantage of that instead of just speeding our way through it,” I ordered.

“Aye Captain!” The bridge called back.

“Good. Call out ideas and techniques as you think of them,” I said.

One failed trial wasn’t going to shake my confidence, and neither was one berating.

The Commander had been right, it was important to take control of things and it was important to assert my command but being the leader of a team that was supposed to be as tight as a family meant knowing when to actually be upset with them. I had wanted to be mad at Sullivan. I really really did, even if I had tried to keep it down during our team’s debriefing. But when I said that to Commander Allen, he hadn’t been pleased.

I looked back over to him, and he gave me a nod of approval. He had intentionally given us distracting orders and it had been specifically to test me, that much I knew for certain. Without explaining himself he unhooked his feet and pushed up into the air.

“Well, looks like your Captain has everything under control then,” the Commander said as he floated upwards in a gradual motion right for the ceiling’s exit. “I’ll be watching from the monitoring room, I don’t need you knuckleheads crashing into me. Captain, you decide where you assemble the rainbow, regardless of when it happens, that is still your mark for completion of this.”

“Aye sir,” I said with a nod unable to suppress my own smirk. I looked back to my crew who had yet to move an inch. “Let’s go Bridge, and really guys, let’s have some fun with this.”