Ship B’s training room was much the same as A’s. It was a chamber so small she always felt her back hitting metal when she was trying to avoid attacks from the robots or her liaisons. But Mr. Erin wasn’t attacking her this time around, and Mr. Xan had opted to rest in his room, not that Sasha was surprised. The few times he wasn’t in the cockpit, he was asleep in his room.

“Alright, Sasha. We’ll start basic. Activate your field.”

“Right.”

She held GT close, signals rising around her as she covered herself in gravity. The shimmering field always gave her fur a slight tingle.

“Alright,” Mr. Erin said. “Now, try to spread that field onto the ground around you.”

She nodded, pushing GT onto the floor. As she did, the barrier began to spread, falling down her feet and over the tiles of the training room. It spread in all directions, Sasha’s signals reaching out to the rest of the world.

“That’s it. Keep going. As far as you can reach, Sasha.”

She winced. “I think that’s all I got, Mr. Erin.” She started to retract.

“Wait! Hold it just a little longer, Sasha.”

Her whiskers twitched. It was like someone was grabbing her tail and pulling. She wanted to snap it back, but she tried to hold on, jaw tightening.

A training bot rolled over, black trends flowing behind its wheels. It moved around her, marking tiles while Sasha pushed her signals out. Cripes. It was too much. Her field snapped back into place, Sasha falling to her knees as signals flooded back inside her.

“Gah.”

She leaned against GT for support, the training bot returning to Mr. Erin’s side. Her breath came out in heavy pants, sensations gradually returning to normal as her field faded.

“3.3 meters.”

She coughed for air. “W-what?”

It was the robot’s voice, Mr. Erin nodding at the amount.

“3.3? That’s a tad smaller than I expected, but I suppose we can work with that.”

She groaned. “What the heck does 3.3 mean?”

“It’s how far you can stretch your field,” the weasel explained. “3.3 meters in all directions. Which would be roughly…hmm…30 meters in a singular direction.”

She looked up.

“34.2 meters to be exact,” the robot said.

“Ah, yes. 34.2. Thank you, training bot.”

He patted the bot's head while Sasha continued to stare in disbelief. 34 meters? You're joking, right? As if reading her mind, Mr. Erin motioned to her.

“Go ahead, Sasha. Try it. Focus your field again, but aim for that target over there.”

He pointed across the room, where a straw training dummy was standing at the ready.

“Y-you’re serious?” she asked.

“As always, Ms. Panther.”

She looked down at GT. It wasn’t chiming low battery so she had plenty to work with. Though she doubted the possibility, she let her field return anyhow, pressing the staff into the ground again. The signals spread in front of her, Sasha reaching out to the stuffed toy at the far end of the room.

Her eyes grew to saucers when it actually crumpled.

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“Holy!”

The field snapped back, Sasha feeling a slight jolt but managing to stay upright the second time around. The same could not be said for the dummy, which had been smushed under her gravity. Mr. Erin came over to give her a congratulatory pat on the back.

“That,” the weasel said, “is the true extent of your power, Ms. Sasha.”

He pulled out a commpad, the screen flicking over to reveal, much to the panther’s surprise, a holographic version of herself. The tiny cat even had a tiny GT in her hand.

“It’s something I’ve always noticed,” he said. “Whenever you activate your field, you tend to maximize your gravity output, which is fine in theory, but in practice often leaves you to burn through reserves.”

The tiny cat’s staff waved, a holographic sheen enveloping her body. It barely lasted a second before vanishing, along with the weapon. The tiny cat collapsed in dismay, of which Sasha couldn’t help but giggle. Was that really how he saw her? The tail brain.

“Is that why you told me to stop using it so much?” she asked.

“Exactly. By doing so, you’ve gotten a better handle on your gravity’s finer controls. And your field by extension.”

The hologram reset, tiny cat stamping her staff into the ground, though the field didn’t rise this time. Not completely, at least. While portions were covering tiny cat’s legs, the majority were moving along the ground, creating a shimmering disk under her feet.

“What you just did,” Mr. Erin said, “was expanding your field to your surroundings. By spreading it out, you lose the benefits to your body but gain the ability to manipulate foes from afar. Doing that, you negate the need for direct contact. Your opponent just has to step into your range. Think of it as a gravity trap."

Sasha smiled. A gravity trap, huh? She could remember seeing Mr. Erin do as much several times in the past. He’d simply point in someone's direction, and they’d be forced to the ground, crushed under his gravity field. And now…She waved GT, letting her field expand out again. The training dummy crumpled even further, becoming a flat mound of straw, much to Sasha’s joy.

“Oooh! Okay, this is gonna be fun to use. GT, how we doing on reserves?"

"Holding steady at 80%," the staff said.

"Sweet! Let's see how many before we-"

“Hang on, Sasha," Mr. Erin said. "Don’t forget what we came here for.”

“Huh? Oh, right!” She scratched her head. “Sorry. So how do we go from this to time control?”

The weasel chuckled. “With lots of delicate practice. Observe.”

He waved his wand, Sasha’s ears twitching as she felt a spike in signals. The training bot rolled away, chest cavity opening to reveal a digital clock. It began to rapidly tick down from 60.

“You’ll have to really focus your signals,” he said. “Think of them as an extension of your hand, reaching out and wrapping around your target.”

The glyph began to appear in front of him, yellow light glowing as he widened his stance, eyes focusing forward. The clock had already reached 30.

“And when you finally get a good hold,” the weasel said, “give it a squeeze.”

The clock halted dead at the 10-second mark. Sasha’s eyes shined with anticipation, the panther practically squealing as she watched. Mr. Erin let out a sigh, the wand lowering as the signals and glyph vanished. The clock resumed its countdown, running down until it finally reached 0.

“There,” he said. “Now you try.”

She nodded with the speed of a cheetah, Mr. Erin having to remind her to calm herself before she could even attempt to focus. She took a small breath.

Alright. My turn. Time displacement, here we go.

She pressed her staff into the ground, eyes landing on the training bot and its countdown clock. It had already reset, counting down from three minutes this time around. Underestimating me already, eh? She let the signals flow out of her.

She was a hand. A hand reaching out to the metal bot and giving it a tight squeeze. She felt her gravity field under its body, snaking over the metal and seeping into the machinery's frame. It started to bend. Alright. Freezing…now! She squeezed as tight as she could.

And the bot crumpled to the floor.

“HOLY!”

She immediately snapped her field back, staring in horror at the training bot. Its clock was crushed, motor oil spilling to the ground. She immediately ran over, its chimes as distorted as the digits flashing on the timer. Mr. Erin dropped next to her, a pouch of searing liquid in hand.

“Don't worry, I prepared for this," the weasel said. "Easy, training bot, I've got you."

He poured the gray substance around it, the machine relaxing as the leakage began to subside. Sasha looked on full of shame.

"I'm so sorry, training bot," she said. "And Mr. Erin."

It chimed back at her. "Training bot will persevere."

"Not today it won't," Mr. Erin said. "For the time being, I think we'll be sticking to training dummies, Sasha. Just, please try to be gentle moving forward."

She could only nod at that.

The next few minutes were spent having the other robots cart training bot to the Infirmary. By the time it was gone, Mr. Erin had set up training dummies for her to work on. The straw manikins with clocks on their chests weren't perfect, but compared to crushing crew members, Sasha much preferred the downgrade.

Especially as she ended up crushing three dummies in a row before GT had to recharge.