The Captain's Heart CH 96

How was the trip? Productive. Ran into an old friend when I landed, but work kept us from catching up. Hopefully, the next time we’re back

How was the trip?

Productive. Ran into an old friend when I landed, but work kept us from catching up. Hopefully, the next time we’re back here.

Why not just go back down? The ship isn’t leaving for another day.

Too much to do here until then. How was your day?

Met someone new. He uses my weight machine.

Really?

He’s no good at fighting, so he prefers that to always ending up lying on the mat.

He needs better partners. Who you train with is supposed to push you, not just beat you. Do you think it’s going to work for him?

I don’t know. He definitely can’t use it the way I do. I might contact Medical at some point. Someone there might have an idea if this kind of training can cause him problems. At least supervise, so if a problem is building they’ll know and put a stop to it.

If that happens, send him to me. I’ll set him up with someone who specializes in training with beginners. She’ll be able to build him up until he can take on those training at the gym.

I’ll let him know. Did you visit your family?

I didn’t have to. They flew to the station, and we ate while they caught me up to what the rest of my family’s been up to.

Met you at the station…. Weren’t you going to call them to let them know you were on the planet?

It slipped my mind among everything I had to deal with.

Right. Slipped your mind. How are they? And your siblings?

They’re all well. Roum, he’s one of my brothers, got in trouble again for being in public naked. I swear, he’s like the Quartermaster the way he seems to love ending up in a cell.

Maybe you should introduce them.

Is Gezbiliam in your bed? Those two, in the same room, might bring the entirety of my society crashing down.

Come on. Two guys who like fucking so much won’t end anything. At worse, they’ll keep each other so busy they won’t get in trouble anymore.

I don’t think you understand how my brother is. He is the worse of us.

Jeremy grabbed hold of the fear as an image of him, naked, hard, approaching to use him, turn him in his thing, surfaced. When he had enough control to type again, he changed the subject.

How many siblings do you have?

Three brothers, four sisters.

That’s a lot.

Is it? Six to nine is the range for most families who can afford it. Not sure how financial instability affects family size.

Humans tend to have two or three kids at most.

Don’t you have two brothers and one sister?

My family’s slightly larger than most. I think my dad compensated for being an only child.

Have you thought about writing to them?

I did. But what’s the point? It isn’t like whatever I say will reach them.

It might. There are channels we can try. The Federation considers family important, just like we do.

It’s not about what Kelsirians or the Federation care about. It’s about what humans did to me. I don’t think that’s going to make them inclined to have anything of mine reach wherever it’s going.

It can’t be each and every Earther who feels like that about you. Even among the Earthers in charge, there has to be one who cares more about what family means than whatever threat they feel you are. And even if it can’t reach them. Writing it will get how you feel out of your system. It’s worked before.

I’ll think about it. We can talk later. I have to get ready for my shift and then figure out what I’m doing tomorrow, since it’s a rest day for my team.

Hang out with friends?

I don’t want to take them away from their families on the one day they have to dedicate to them. I’ll figure something out.

When his friend didn’t reply, Jeremy put the tablet away and headed for the shower.

    *

Jeremy dropped on the bed out of exhaustion.

When Alixianakaran Debaren had warned him that being friendlier wouldn’t change how he treated him during their shift, Jeremy had expected that to mean he wouldn’t be treated better, or worse.

Today, the Engineer, is supposedly friend, had run him ragged. He’d sent him to fix one problem after the other behind the walls, like there was no one else available. Six of the fourteen systems he’d had to repair he hadn’t even known about until he pulled up the information on them. Or course, because of the lack of standards in the components, and because a Technician didn’t bother the Engineer needlessly, Jeremy had had to take the damaged parts, scan them. Figure out how they’d failed, then build the print for them and hope he’d done it correctly.

He’d needed three tries with one of them, but at least access to the printers had come with the work he’d been assigned.

He wouldn’t tell Alixianakaran Debaren that, ever, but it had been fun to have to think on his feet like that. To take something he couldn’t plan for and have to fix it, or else.

In this case, the ‘or else’ wouldn’t be anything worse than disappointing the Engineer. But during that time, it was like he was in the middle of an emergency on Einstein. He couldn’t waste time thinking about whatever problems he had. He needed to fix the mess the scientists had made of his reactor, or else.

And like those times, this had left him pleasantly exhausted.

Well, it had been pleasant in the glow of success.

Now he was just exhausted and in need of a shower.

The tablet buzzed, and he was tired enough he answered before checking who it was. “Hello?” Then he had to clamp down on the panic at not recognizing the name.

“Technician Jeremy Bradshaw?” a woman said.

He pushed through the programming ordering him not to reply. It still caused him to hesitate. “Yes?”

“I am Brelendrirano Karotirekfrem. I would like for you to meet with me tomorrow.”

Trap!

“W—why?”

“We will discuss that when we meet.”

She’s one of his agent. She will turn you into his thing.

He had trouble fighting the argument.

“I don’t think—”

“The location will be lightly populated. There will be witnesses to our meeting. You can bring one of your friends if you feel you should. I believe one of them is a hunter. They should be able to protect you if you feel threatened.”

“I don’t know….” What? If he’d go? If he should bother Thuruk? Atarikna? What did this woman want?

“I leave the decision to you.” She ended the call, and he stared at the time and location that appeared on his tablet.

What kind of ending was that? The decision was his? If it was his, then he wasn’t going. He dropped the tablet on the bed and went to shower.

    *

With a snarl, he grabbed the tablet, dripping water, and called Leiha Tergrobar. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the conversation and he needed someone else’s opinion. As soon as she answered, he laid out what happened.

“Do you want to go?” she asked.

“Of course not. I don’t know who she is. For all I know, she’s planning on cutting me apart and feeding me to him.”

“I don’t believe that is how he wants you.”

“Yeah, well, it’s how the fucking programming words it. And yes, I’m curious. What would some stranger want with me? Of course I’m curious. But I’m also not stupid. I don’t know who she is, or what she wants.”

“What can you know?”

“Nothing!”

He caught his breath in the silence.

“She’s crew,” he said, “or someone related to the crew. I’m including hunters in the crew.”

“What else?”

“I don’t think the captain would bring on anyone outright dangerous to the general population. But,” he added, not needing the programming to prod him, “he can’t know everything about everyone who lives here. Someone with some form of deviance could have slipped through.”

“That is true. How likely do you think someone like that, who poses the threat the programming is telling you they are, could remain unnoticed?”

That was a good point. The ship was a sealed environment. It was nearly impossible to do something that affected others and not have it quickly noticed.

“She could be someone who just joined.”

“Also true. She has left the decision in your hands. That means she won’t be in a position to object if you decide not to go.”

“But then, I won’t find out what this is about.”

“Also true.”

“You suck as a Psychologist, you know that?”

She chuckled. “You called me at home.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. But even if we were in my office. You know I won’t make the decision for you. You need to evaluate the situation. I can help you evaluate the risks, but you have to decide if they are worthwhile.”

“I know,” he whined. “And if not for this fucking programming, I wouldn’t be second guessing myself all the fucking time. I’ve thrown myself at reactors on the brink of blowing up because I’d worked out the probabilities I could defuse it. This is so much simpler than that, but it feels like the explosion of getting it wrong will destroy everything I know.”

“Knowing that. What do you want to do?”

“You so fucking suck!”

“I’m told I am quite good at it.”

“I can’t believe you went there.”

“I smelled an opportunity.”

“Yeah, well, don’t be surprised if I call you tomorrow so you can talk me out of doing something stupid.”

    *

He stopped as a man and child walk out of his destination, the open door letting him hear the sounds of fighting. Bodies hitting a mat. The child and father both had damp fur, so he couldn’t tell which one had been fighting, but what parent took their child to watch them fight?

Well, it was just training for Kelsirians.

He hadn’t imagined a Kelsirian gym when she said it would be lightly occupied. He had no idea what he’d imagined. But it meant that if she tried something, the people there would be able to help him. So maybe it made sense as a way to make him feel more at ease.

He entered, and as with other place where physical activities happened on the ship, was immediately in the changing room. Men and women were dressing and undressing. Going to and leaving the showers, and he kept looking ahead. The programming was already loud enough about how each of them only needed a glance from him to decide he wanted to be used. The fact kids were in the same room did not make him feel any better.

The other side was open and the fighting louder.

Half the large room was occupied, and most of them were children, with adults instructing them. A few adults were fighting, and those were fast and seemed overly brutal to him, for something they considered normal exercise.

“Technician Jeremy Bradshaw,” a woman said, and he turned. “I’m glad you decided to come.” She only wore pants. Fabric spilled out of the seat she was vacating, which he would be her vest.

“It’s not like I’d find out what this is about otherwise.”

She was only slightly taller than him, her fur pale cream that was almost white, going darker along her arms, until it was dark brown at her fingers. The same dark brown around her blue eyes, short muzzle, and her ears.

The six mats on either side of the one she stepped on weren’t in use. It was good and bad. The lack of close crowd made him feel at ease, but it also gave her time to do something to him before anyone could reach them, then she could flee…

To where?

She motioned for him to approach, and he stepped on her mat. At nearly three meters in diameter, he had no idea if it meant it was large.

“So?” he asked. “What is this about?”

Out of the corner of his eye, children were pointing in their direction, but the adults setting them back to the fights.

“Show me your hands.”

He narrowed his eyes, and she motioned for him to hurry. With a sigh, he raised them. She took one in hers, turned it, studied it, then repeated it with his other.

“They might not work,” she whispered. Before he could ask, she pulled something from behind her and presented it to him. “Put those on.”

‘Those’ turned out to be a pair of gloves. Supple material with hardened finger tips. The shape made him suspect that claws could extend. They were tight, and the fingers not quite long enough.

“Tighten you hand, curl the fingers.”

He did so. She shook her head. “You’re going to need a different design. I’ll have to see if there’s one for anyone who’s suffered claw amputation. Until then, we’ll start with close hand style.”

She closed her hands in fists and raised them.

Danger!

No. He clamped down on the urge to run, reminding the programming predators chased when the prey ran. And it didn’t mean he was in danger.

He still backed to the end of the mat. “I don’t exercise this way. I have my weight machine.”

“This isn’t about exercising. Take them off, close your hands, and raised them like this.”

He didn’t. “If that’s not what this is about, then why am I here?”

“To be trained.”

“Trained in what?”

“Combat, what else?”

He took the gloves off and threw them in the seat with her vest. “I don’t fight.” He turned away.

“You were taken by Earthers twice,” she said, tone casual.

He rounded on her. “And what does fighting have to do with that?”

“Do you think they’re done trying to take you away from us?”

“It’s not like I plan on ever giving them a chance to try it again.”

“Do you think they’ll wait for you to give them an opportunity? Or do you mean to never leave the ship again?”

“It’s not like I need to go anywhere else than here.”

“What about when your friends go on a station? When they ask you to come with them, because they want to enjoy your company? Show you sights they believe you’ll enjoy seeing? New experiences.”

“I’m not going to be alone then.”

“You weren’t alone the last time.”

He closed his eyes and tries not to see her body. “That’s not fair.”

“I’ve been asked by those who care about you to ensure it never happens again. That no matter how the Earthers try, you will have the skills needed to stop them. That you won’t have to rely on others to keep you safe. That you won’t be a reason they are injured when the Earthers try to take you again.”

He kept from thinking of who was included in ‘those who cared’.

“Now, close your hands and raised them as I have.”

He looked at his hands. Made fists and felt ridiculous.

“I’m not a fighter.”

“No. You are a warrior. And I intend to give you the skills needed to ensure anyone who goes to war with you regrets it.” Her tone hardened. “Raise your hands.”

He raised them. He couldn’t put his friends at risk needlessly. He at least had to have fought back as best as he could first.

“Good.” She extended her left arm, then brought it back to her. “That is the first motion.” She did it again. “Copy it.”

This was a waste of time.

But until she saw that, he’d stick with it.

Outline section 

No Outline

Addition 

More progress for Jeremy

The conversation over text was planned, since it was already established they talked like that.

Alix ‘overworking’ Jeremy wasn’t exactly planned, but I needed a way to show how their relationship was progressing, and this is what came. I’m pleased with it.

Jeremy was always going to receive combat training, and it was always going to start before he thought he was ready for it. I also realized, thinking ahead to other sessions, that once he had enough training to actually fight, I’ll have to show the difference between how he and the others end up fighting.