The Captain's Heart CH 07 (Patreon)

The music paused in the earpiece as Jeremy straightened. “Thirty repetitions,” the smooth voice said. “Starting minute-long pause.” The

The music paused in the earpiece as Jeremy straightened. “Thirty repetitions,” the smooth voice said. “Starting minute-long pause.” The music started again.

The bar on his shoulder no longer had weight, and he leaned it against its stand, walking to rest his legs while drinking the mix that had printed on his arrival. Exercising was the one aspect his education hadn’t warned him about. Throughout his courses, the instructions always emphasized being sure of his measurement, of the material strengths, or everything, except his body.

It had left him feeling like being an engineer would keep him at his drafting table, with the occasional trek to a company that needed specially made machinery.

And maybe it was like that for most engineers. Those hiring with construction companies or ship designers. But he had found work on a research station. And one at the frontier of anti-matter research; For humans, at least. His first day had been spent running from one emergency to another as a scientist overloaded this, and another burned out that.

He’d considered it a miracle that nothing had exploded, and hoped it was the exception, not the norm. And then Doctor Manuel had told him he’d passed her test, except for how out of shape he was. She’d ordered him to the gym to have an endurance training regimen worked out for him.

He’d resented her for the subterfuge, he didn’t need to be lied to give his all. But he’d followed her instructions, since she was his boss, and had continued with his training since. Nothing intensive, but he’d gotten used to being able to run across the station without falling from exhaustion upon reaching the reactor he had to fix before the melt down happened.

“Pause ending,” the voice said. “Please return to the exercise position for another thirty repetition at one hundred and two kilos.”

He placed the bar over his shoulder and adjusted his stance, then it weighed a hundred and two kilos. He did the thirty repetitions, and the voice interrupted his music to inform him he was done with this exercise.

On the way to the pulleys, he printed another drink.

“Sorry for being late,” Omar said, stepping to the printer next to the one Jeremy waited at. The two had started working out together a year in of Jeremy starting at the station, and after yet another visit to his doctor for his stomach issues—it had taken a while to adjust his medication so that his stomach didn’t trigger at the slightest stress.

Even back then, Jeremy could deal with a meltdown without his stomach acting up, but bumping into a muscular guy could have him worrying, and his stomach acting up. He didn’t remember getting beaten up by a bully, or just threatened, but someone, back in his childhood, had to have scared him to react like this.

At least now, he no longer noticed the others in the gym, even the massive ones, so his stomach no longer bothered him.

“Do you want to join me once you’re down with your warm up? I’m going to be at the dumbbells by then.”

“I’m going to stick to the order today. The system doesn’t like it when I don’t listen to it.”

Jeremy chuckled. “You know that’s in your head, right? It’s a computer. It doesn’t have opinions.”

Omar shrugged. “You’re going to be nearly done by then, anyway.”

He took the bottle. “Alright, but next time you lay into me for not hanging out, I will remind you of this moment.”

“And I’ll point out that this is one time out of too many to count, while I need to remind you there are other people than me and your friends at least once a week.”

Jeremy grinned. “You are already enough to deal with. I don’t need anyone else.”

“Ah, ah, ah.”

He reached the pulleys and the system’s voice told him how many repetitions he was set for. He put his friend out of his mind and continued with his exercises.

    *

There was something in the air, Jeremy thought as he walked through the crowd. People were taking excitedly in low voices. The best he could make out, it was about an arrival. He wondered who could be visiting the station that so many people were excited about it.

“You have any idea what’s going on?” Lucy asked as Jeremy took the salad out of the printer. She nodded to the cafeteria’s entrance.

“Someone’s visiting, I think,” he replied. “I’ve been in the labs all morning. One of the others might know.”

He waited for her meal to print, a large steak with far too many fries on the side as far as he was concerned.

Today, the available spots at the table for the late arrivals were next to Omar or Marcel. Lucy was already on Marcel’s side of the table, so he sat next to the doctor.

“Anyone knows who’s visiting?” Lucy asked before digging into her meal.

“Who told you someone’s visiting?” William asked.

She nodded to Jeremy.

“I heard someone talk about a ship on the way here. What else can it be?”

“It could be cats,” William replied, grinning. “But they aren’t visiting. They limped in and have been docked at the cargo ring.”

“Why there?” Alice asked. “There’s nothing.”

William shrugged. “I’m just at comms. I don’t get to ask why certain decisions are made.”

“So we have cats on the station?” Omar asked, grinned at Jeremy. “We’re getting our very own comedy show.”

“I hope not,” he replied, then expanded at the raised eyebrow. “Just think about all that fur flying around and clogging the air system. They aren’t designed to deal with it.”

“They’d be fine,” Janice said. “I mean, if you shave one of them and dump that in the air system, then yes, we’re going to be breathing that stuff for weeks, but them just walking around and shedding? We’re fine.” She grinned. “So I say we pull out the welcome carpet for them, and see what happens.”

The table exploded in laughter.

“You guys know we have a Kelsirian on the station, right?” William said once he’d caught his breath, and the table fell silent, staring at him. “I guess you didn’t.”

“Why do we have one of them here?” Jeremy asked, slowing his breathing to keep his stomach from acting up. It wasn’t like it would know they’d been laughing at them.

“Because they are the reason we have a chance of joining that federation-of-alien thing. Didn’t you know that? Our border on this side touches theirs. We are literally the closest human station to them. So we have one of their ambassador or something.”

“You’ve met it?” Alice asked.

“I’ve seen him, but he doesn’t interact with lowly peons like us.”

“How do you know it’s an ‘he’, then?” Marcel asked.

“Because the first thing they told us when we arrived was that he was here, and we’d better watch how we treated him if he ever deign talk to one of us.”

“What does he look like?” Omar asked.

“Like…I don’t know, a cat?” William shrugged. “You’ve seen them in movies.”

“Those are movies,” Omar said. “You saw a real one.”

“He still looks sort of like that. Pointed ears on top of his head, short muzzle like thing, whiskers, I think. I think he’d fat. At least he looks it.”

“Maybe it’s all fur.” Janice chuckled. “Maybe it’s like in the movie and they’re nothing more than bone and fur.”

Jeremy chuckled and relaxed, too. It, he, didn’t sound as scary as he’d imagined.

“Well, I’m just glad they’re staying down there,” Marcel said. “As amusing as the idea of watching them pratfall around the station might be, I don’t think it’s a good idea to let them wander. There are kids here. Can you imagine what that’d do to them?”

The following silence turned uncomfortable and Jeremy focused on eating.

“Anyone know what Gregory did to get shipped out?” Alice eventually asked. “I saw him getting escorted to the shipping ring yesterday.”

Jeremy shook his head, since he had never heard the name before.

When Marcel spoke, it was in a whisper. “I heard he caught the Sickness.”

“That’s not what it’s called,” Omar said with a roll of the eyes.

“And?” Janice asked.

“It’s called Encephalo-thrometapil-darminal,” the doctor stated.

“I was asking if he had it,” she said.

“And now you know why everyone calls it the Sickness,” Marcel stated.

“I’m not his doctor, and before you ask, I can’t get access to his file without a good reason. Your curiosity isn’t good enough.”

“He might not have it, anyway,” Jeremy said, getting over his discomfort. He looked at Omar, hoping he’d pick up the thread, but his friend was looking at him with the same curiosity as the others. He sighed. “It’s not always diagnosed correctly, even now. They thought I’d caught it when I was a teen, but it turned out to be my stomach problem.”

Omar nodded. “It’s one of those conditions that, without the proper equipment, is nearly impossible to diagnose with certainty, which would be why he’s returning to Earth. They will diagnose him, and if it turns out that it is what he has, I’m certain he will receive the best care possible.”

“But why was he under guard?” Alice asked. “I’d expect a doctor, if he was going to a hospital.”

Omar shrugged. “I’m not familiar with how that sickness manifests. I’ve never had to treat someone who has it.”

“Maybe he did something that required him getting arrested and then they figured out he was sick,” William offered.

“Why don’t we have what’s needed to diagnose it here? Considering how far we are, you’d think it would be more convenient than shipping someone all the way to Earth.”

Omar looked at Jeremy, who chuckled.

“My specialty is anti-matter reactors, not medical equipment. For all I know, the machine’s larger than the station, and that’s why we don’t have one.”

That elicited a chuckle, and the conversation moved on to other subjects.

Author’s comments

• What I had to work from

Outline section

Following ‘weekend’. Jeremy is talking with some of his friends over a meal. Talk will be about one of the guards getting detained, and how he’ll be shipped away next shuttle to earth. Talk about the sickness will arise; someone will say that they’ll see him in a few weeks, tops, as the sickness is completely treatable. One of the friends gives the sickness’ real name, and tells of a relative being cured of it. [omar is amount jeremy’s friend, and will be the one to insist he come with them.

Talk of the cat comedy, invite Jeremy, he turns it down. As he leaves the mess hall, Omar shows up and convinces him to have social time with his friends, because all work and no play make Jeremy’s stomach hurt.

Jermy enjoys the movie, the comedy that makes Kelserian come across as buffons.

In the middle of that Jeremy will eventually be called up over the comm to come to the captain's office. He’ll be curious what in the world this could mean. It’s probably just having to do about rebalancing his schedule until they have more antimatter researchers on staff; the near accident earlier showed that it is necessary.

My additions

Nothing added

This ended up going better than I expected, considering I know I’d be taking out the movie, since I had that earlier. Using it to introduce the presence of a Kelsirian on the station works better than treating it as a ‘reveal’ since I expect Querik will show up in the next chapter.

The ‘toughest’ part was Jeremy exercising. I wanted to establish how Jeremy stays in shape both because I think it matters, since his job isn’t one the lends itself to staying that way, and because it will come into play down the line. Because of that, and even with adding Omar for a social component, it still feels like it’s shoehorned in.

What do you think? Should I do something different to establish Jeremy working out?