Tennis Lessons (backpost)
Posted on Tue Feb 17th, 2026 @ 4:33am by Lieutenant JG Rala & Captain Calypso Skyie
Mission:
Lower Decks
Location: Holodeck 1
Timeline: A few days before "The Next Arrival: Tial"
Rala’s combadge chirped at her. “Calypso to Rala,” came the slightly-tinny voice of the Captain—who, apparently, by her own preference, was only the Captain while on-duty or when something arose that forced her to put the metaphorical hat back on. It was something Rala was still getting used to.
Rala tapped the combadge. “Rala here, go ahead.”
”You know, I was thinking about things in my copious amounts of free time and was wondering if you were still interested in those tennis lessons we talked about?”
“Sure,” Rala replied. “D’you mean now? If so, give me a few minutes to wrap up what I’m working on.”
”Twenty minutes, holodeck one, wear something that you can move around in! We're going to get all sweaty and hot!” The voice clicked off.
Rala stifled a laugh, being fairly sure that Calypso had chosen her phrasing quite deliberately, before turning back to her work. She was nearly ready to reassemble her personal translator, but the individual upgraded components still needed some testing.
A pang shot through her. She was proud of the work she’d done on the device, and it was nice not having to rely on standard translation, but whenever she thought of ‘home’, the Chimera was starting to come to mind more than her homeworld, and she was beginning to chafe at the necessity of using a translator at all.
She decided she was at a decent stopping point. She shoved both the translator itself and her thoughts surrounding it away from her, then stood and went to get changed.
As Rala approached the holodeck that seemed to either be 'Offline' or in use by the Captain, whichever was more convenient for Calypso at the time, the blonde was stretching her legs a fair bit, white skirt bouncing up and down while the white tank top staying mostly, although it couldn't be helped that other things bounced as well. She waved with one of the two racquets she had, "Heya Rala! Welcome to Tennis 101!"
Rala had elected to wear a simple opaque sports bra and form-fitting exercise shorts, both in black, the latter of which didn’t redefine the term ‘shorts’ but certainly lived up to it, the sleeve for her tail covering more than either of her legs. She returned Calypso’s wave. “One-oh-one is good,” she said. “I’ve seen it played, I know the gist is ‘hit the ball back over the net’, but that’s about all I’m sure of.”
Calypso flipped one of the racquets in the air and caught it by the broad end and held the handle out to Rala as she triggered the holodeck door, "That's the primary purpose of it, but also knowing where all the boundaries are on the court are so that you can score points and beat your opponent. Of course, serving is one of the trickiest things to master, but we'll start with underhand on that, just to get you used to volleying the ball over the net."
Rala took the racquet, bouncing it in her hand a few times and giving it a spin to get a feel for the weight and balance as she followed Cally into the holodeck. “Sounds good to me,” she said. There may have been a hint of distraction in her voice, but it was certainly not because her eyes had been drawn to Cally’s backside and how it looked in that skirt. Because they hadn’t. No, definitely not. She made a small, deliberate effort and looked around at the holographic environment.
It was a standard tennis court, if someone considered Center Court at the Wimbledon Tennis Club as being 'standard', but the stands were completely empty with a single holographic referee in the seat above the center line and net, but they weren't moving at all as if frozen. Cally bounced her way out onto the court to keep limber and beckoned Rala to follow her, "Have you ever played at all? I mean, even just playing around with a ball and racquet?"
“I held a classmate’s racquet and smacked a ball against a wall at the Academy once or twice, but that’s it,” Rala replied, cocking her head at the frozen referee. After a second or two she shook her head and refocused on Cally. “And like I said, I’ve seen it played, a bit, but I wasn’t really paying attention to the rules. And I’ve never been on a court before.” She poked the court’s surface with a foot. It was solid, but just slightly soft and springy, as if it were at least partially composed of rubber. The soles of her feet had fairly good grip on it, and it felt like she could dig her claws into it if she needed to.
"Well, all of the different courts have a different feel to them." Cally toed the court in front of them, "This is a grass court, cultivated over decades to have just the right feel to it. There are also concrete courts, which aren't used for competitions, and clay courts that aren't very forgiving at all. I prefer the grass, but you have to be careful about sliding on these things, once you get used to them you'll know just how far you'll slide before you stop and can use that when planning your shots." Cally grinned, "The net's always this height, and this game is all about centimeters, if the ball bounces on the line, it's called 'in', outside the line and the point is over." She took a couple steps away from the dragon, then demonstrated a smooth forehand swing on her right side, then a backhand swing on her left, "Practicing your swing is the most important part of the game."
Rala gave the racquet a few practice swings, mimicking Cally’s motions imperfectly but not poorly. “So what got you interested in tennis in the first place?” she asked, switching the racquet between hands to determine which one it felt the best in.
"I've been playing since I was pretty young," Cally kept up with the movements, "Remember to swing with a slightly upwards angle or the ball won't go over the net." She reminded Rala before turning back to the question asked, "Middle school and high school, won a few tournaments at that level, but got knocked out in the quarterfinals in the regional open tourney on Betazed before I enlisted in the Marines. I suppose I could have gone professional, but I would never have gotten very far. I was a much better swimmer, but still wasn't good enough for professional there either. But between the both, it's a really good workout so I don't have to worry about getting too much other exercise."
Rala nodded. “I get most of my exercise from running, climbing, and swimming. It’s part of why I built the Tikkana tree program; I can do all three in there.” She adjusted her swing as instructed. “I only ever played one sport competitively, as a youngling.” She frowned, trying to think of the best way to describe it. “Sort of like...dodgeball? But generally one-on-one; and you’re throwing airfoil rings, similar to, uh...” she paused her practice swings, trying to remember the word. “Chakram!” she held up her three free hands to indicate dimensions, roughly twenty-five centimeters in outer diameter and fifteen in inner diameter. “Imagine chakram, made of foam padding with a core of spring wire. Start with four of them, and try to land a clean hit on your opponent without getting hit yourself.”
She resumed her practice, a bit more quickly now. “I was only ever mediocre at it; fairly good at dodging, mediocre at catching, not so good at actually landing hits.” She did a few more practice swings, then gave her racquet a twirl. “Alright, I think I’m about as comfortable with this as I’m gonna get without actually hitting something.”
"Sounds like that was fun!" Cally grinned as she stepped around the net to where a basket of tennis balls on a short stool awaited, "I'd like to think I'd be able to dodge better, but if I can hit them away, I'd be fine." She picked up two balls and stuffed them in a pocket, then another pair, "I'm just going to lob these over towards you, let them bounce once and try to hit it back over. Don't worry too much about aiming, the goal is just to get the ball back over the net to this side, all right?" She bounced it on the ground a couple times to see how good the bounce was, then with a gentle swing of her own racquet, sent the ball over the net.
“It was,” Rala said, managing to get the first one back over the net, high and slow. The second and third went into the net, but then she adjusted her grip on her racquet and started reliably getting them back over the net. “Might have to try recreating it here.”
Smoothly, Cally had retrieved more balls and kept lobbing them over at Rala, changing locations to force the Draakri to adjust to where they were headed, "Count me in if you do, sports are always fun. We're going to move to your backhand for the same exercise, then I'll randomize forehand and backhand and after that, we can start more of what we call a 'rally', which is just hitting a ball back and forth between each other."
“Sounds good,” Rala said, breathing a little heavier now that she was starting to get a workout. She may have had much stronger legs than most humanoids her size, but she was also nearly twice the mass, and the laws of inertia would not be ignored, even when using her foot-claws as cleats for superior traction. Still, she managed to get most most of the tennis balls back over the net, and even managed to direct the last few roughly where she wanted them.
The switch to backhand ruined her streak, but it didn’t take long for her to adjust. She never managed to get any significant accuracy like she had with her forehand swing, though; and when Cally started switching things up, she even lost that. “Well,” she said, holding up a hand for a short break before moving on to the ‘rally’, “I can certainly see why those who take this seriously put in a lot of practice. Or at least, I’m beginning to.”
Cally gestured over to the seating for the players where a couple of towels were also sitting in case of sweating, though she hadn't even started. "If you ever want to see something in full action, I can always show you with a holographic opponent, or we can call Jenna and she and I can show you, I'll eventually beat the little twerp one of these days. She COULD have gone professional and been good at it, but she joined the Fleet instead."
Rala waved off the offer of a towel; she didn’t need one—yet—but she hadn’t quite been ready to be running around so soon. She moved through a quick series of stretches; nothing fancy, just limbering up like she probably should have to begin with. “No, that’s okay,” she said in response to the offers. “What about...what’s it called?...pair against pair...’Doubles’? Not for today, but maybe once I’m better at this; you and me versus her and a hologram of similar skill? Unless there’s someone else on board who plays at a suitable level.”
"Maybe we can go with you and me versus just her?" Cally asked with a harsh laugh, "I haven't even beaten her yet, ever." The Captain shook her head slowly, "Of course she'll probably say yes with a smile and then proceed to beat the both of us. Doubles is very... Different than singles play, both team members have to be very much in sync with each other."
“Maybe someday, then,” Rala said. “But if you can convince her to accept a two-versus-one match at some point? Let me know. Win or lose, that sounds like it’d be fun.” She finished her stretches and gave her racquet another spin in her wrist. “Alright. Rally?”
"Right!" Cally spun the racquet in her hand as she moved the stool and bucket of balls, tucking another pair into her skirt pocket before grabbing a third. "We're going to start from the this center line, same thing as before, really, but we're not going to try to trick the other intentionally, but pass it to each other gently. As we go on, we'll move further back, which means we'll have to hit it harder to get to each other and so on, all right?" She bounced the ball a couple of times, then hit it over the net so it would bounce and reach Rala at the apex of it's height.
“Got it,” Rala said, taking the indicated starting position. Her first return was fairly accurate laterally, but went longer than she’d intended, heading almost directly toward Cally’s feet.
Calypso adjusted her positioning back a couple steps and to the side by a wide step with a bounce in her step, sending the ball back perfectly to Rala so she wouldn't have to move her own feet to play it with a forehand. She grinned as she did so, "Don't worry, just keep hitting the ball, I'll adjust and adapt." She had to catch up to the next one as she spoke, but always kept moving back to roughly where she had been initially.
Rala focused on returning shots more accurately, and managed to get to sixteen in a row before the ball glanced off the top of the net, taking a mostly-vertical arc back in her general direction. “Kaaah, damn,” she said, moving up to grab the wayward ball.
"Don't worry about it, this is why professionals and even talented amateurs like myself practice often." Cally smiled as she waited for Rala to return to her position and restart the volley, "Once you get used to hitting the ball back and forth and learning what racquet angles do what to the ball and I'm more than willing to help you with all that." She grinned as she hit the ball back to Rala again, "Eventually you'll understand it all purely by instinct."
“Yeah,” Rala said, starting to feel more confident even as Cally spoke. “I wasn’t actually that frustrated, it’s just a habit to curse whenever an inanimate object—” Another flub at the eight-count interrupted her, denting that confidence, eliciting an irritated snort from her. “—Doesn’t do what I wanted it to,” she finished, retrieving the ball and starting again. As this third rally passed ten, her confidence started growing again. She smiled and deliberately sent her next return just outside of where Cally could reach without moving.
‘Good!’ Cally thought to herself as she took the step to the side to send the ball back in er typical bounce before moving back to her neutral position in the center of the court again. “In the heat of the match, your opponent will be doing their own best to put it where you don’t want it to go, so that you hit the ball out, but everyone makes mistakes.” The rally went on longer this time, with Rala sending the ball to other places along the court, clearly getting used to guiding the ball expertly, so this time Cally made Rala have to move, sending it what would be three feet out of Rala’s reach if she didn’t move to go after it.
Rala had begun moving a little as they rallied, even when she didn’t strictly have to, so the semi-urgent need to lunge a meter to her right didn’t catch her completely unprepared. It did, however, affect her aim, just as Cally had indicated. Her return went high, long, and well to Cally’s left, prompting another dissatisfied grunt from the Draakri, followed by a wry smile and a mock-accusatory waggle of her racquet at the other woman.
Cally didn’t see the waggle except out of the corner of her eye as she tracked the ball in the air and moved to where she spotted it would land. Sure it was much longer from where she was starting at, but it bounced right on the line and she just couldn’t help but NEED to try to rescue it. She ran under it and spun, eyes looking for where Rala was as her hand whipped around and hammered it with much more force than she’d intended right at the Draakri instead of to one side as she’d intended.
Realizing Cally was going to try to return the ball, Rala took up her stance again, just in time for it to come zipping right at her face. She jerked her body back and to the right while bringing her racquet up in a backhand pose, more to block the ball than anything else. Still, her reflex managed to get the ball back over the net, just barely.
It bounced weakly a couple times before rolling towards Cally as she just watched it from the baseline in defeat. There was no way she would have been able to get to that shot unless she's strapped a warp drive to herself, "And my booty isn't that big." She muttered to herself even as she used her racquet in a 'clapping' move with her free hand, "Nice shot there, self defense though it was." She shook her head with a smile, taking another ball out of her pocket and giving it a slow lob over to Rala to start a new volley as she moved back to near her original position, tapping the still-rolling ball enough to send it to the wall of the the court.
“’Self-defense’ is right,” Rala said, giving her racquet another wrist-spin as she caught the ball, tossing it in her hands a few times as she moved back to the center of the court. “That ‘torpedo’ wasn’t intentional, was it?” she asked, bouncing the ball off the ground before giving it a thwock back across the net to Cally.
"Not at all, I was just trying to get it back over and was a bit... Enthusiastic with it and missed my aim by a fair bit." She aimed her next shot so that Rala would have to move in two directions to get to the ball, back and right, "It's a good tactic to employ against other players, hitting the ball so that they have to rush to it to attempt to play it, of course, most volleys happen from the baseline, that one at the back, because it gives you the most reaction time."
“Makes sense,” Rala said, dipping back and to her right, intending only to get the ball back over the net and keep it in bounds. She succeeded, and the rally continued, with Cally varying how much Rala needed to move to reach the ball, and which direction, but never putting it completely out of reach. Rala continued to be satisfied with ‘over the net, in bounds’ past twenty successful returns—by which point she was noticeably breathing a bit more heavily—until Cally, having lured her up close to the net, tried to send the ball over her head.
Rather than chasing it back toward the baseline, she took a crouching half-step backward and leaped a good half-meter higher than a human likely could have, intercepting the ball in-flight and delivering a thwack! that sent it rocketing past Cally toward the back corner of the court, where it bounced...just out of bounds.
Cally's eyes had followed the ball even while her hand began to move out to intercept with her racquet, but pulled back before making contact. The slight smile on her face as it landed out proof she'd made the right choice.
Rala tried to land in a smooth backward roll, but flubbed it, coming down a bit harder on her tail than she’d intended and jamming one of her horns into the surface of the court, ripping up a chunk of the pristine grass surface and making her stumble as she came back up to her feet.
"Are you all right?" Cally asked, eyes open as she looked across the net, "I didn't expect you to actually get it that high!"
“Yeah,” Rala said, using her three free hands to simultaneously rub her neck, rub her tail, and pull the wad of grass off her horn. “I’m okay. Misjudged my landing. Tail and neck are gonna be a little sore tomorrow, but I’ve had worse.”
"In that case, did we want to call it now and go through a cooling off routine? A sauna is always a good way to keep muscles from just knotting up, or a hot tub, just something that we can control the temperature." Cally made the suggestion seriously, she'd been there and done that.
Rala opened her mouth to decline and say she was fine to keep going, then stopped before actually speaking. She was having fun, and felt like she was getting fairly good—for a beginner—but they had been at it for a while and she was starting to get a bit sweaty. After a few seconds of thought, she said, “Actually, a hot tub sounds pretty good.”
"Computer, Skyie Forty-Three."
