Enjoy:
McCallister
walked the length of the ship. Everybody else was in bed and asleep, or at
least he hoped they were. He’d been having trouble getting there and his body
was too wired. Excitement about being home circled his body with joy. Redux
had had to pull a double shift straight after a triple delivery job to some of
the stations out here. Sixteen weeks of pirate duty had followed ten weeks of
deliveries. A little over six months, with a few days off here and there, had
been grating on him. He needed to be home.
He’d already walked from his
quarters to the end of the ship when he got an urge to call home. With a sigh
he moved to the Captain’s quarters and knocked. Whenever that urge arose the Captain
had always let him use her quarters and transmission signal to call home. He
was a private person and he frowned on the day the crew found out. No answer
greeted him and he knocked again. With a frown in place he pushed open the door
an inch and stopped. She was already up, somewhere on the ship.
He closed the door and turned,
forcing his combat boots to lightly tread over the metal flooring. There was one
place in mind and he moved down the corridors and down a flight of stairs until
the gym came into view. The sound of jingling metal, the sign of weights being
lifted, caught his ear and he pushed the door open.
On one weight bench, the furthest
from the door, sat the Captain with a hefty amount added to the silver pole.
Silently he crossed the room and stood at the head of the bench. Her eyes met
his and she pushed on the metal bar, pushing that and the weights up into the
air with straight arms. “Yes Lieutenant?”
“You need a spotter.”
“I’m fine.”
She brought the bar back down to her
chest and pushed. “As your Second in Command I feel I should remind you that
you tell us to train in pairs.”
“And you should know that as the
Captain I break my own rules.”
A smile lifted the corners of his
mouth. The Captain pushed the bar straight back up. Mentally he checked how
much weight she was benching, 80 kg, and nodded. “Zach and Soko still on the
bridge?”
“Soko is. I’ve ordered Zach to get
some sleep. We’ll be home in two days and he needs to fix his sleeping before
then.” He nodded. Zach had a bad habit of breaking the basic rules of life. More
often than not he became a night owl. Nothing but the sound of metal pushing against
metal filled the room for several minutes. “Add five for me?”
He nodded and grabbed two 2.5kg
weights, adding one to each side. He watched in silence as she pulled the bar
down and struggled to lift it back up. If anybody else was pulling the same
stunt he knew the Captain would have them, he would too. But this was a normal occurrence
aboard Redux. “I was wondering if I could call home,” he said.
She pushed the bar up and nodded. “Go
ahead.” He nodded and continued to stand there, hands by his side in case he
needed to move and fast. She didn’t move. Just lifted her eyes up to him. “What
are you waiting for?”
“I want to make sure you’re not
going to crush yourself Captain.”
She laughed and the weights wobbled
in her grasp. His hand came up but she shook her head and put the bar back
where it belonged with a relieved sigh. “I’m done for the night.”
He nodded and took a step back,
waiting. The Captain pulled herself up and threw a towel over her shoulder. After
a few moments of silence she sighed and rolled her eyes. “It’s almost one in
the morning. Go make your call before it gets to be too late.”
“Yes Ma’am. Just don’t let me find
you back here.”
“I’ll take a walk. Relax my muscles.”
He let a smile loose and moved off
back through the ship until he came to the Captain’s quarters and pushed on the
door. It was closed again and he turned the screen on. It took a few seconds to
load but he tapped on the ‘call’ button, dialled up the number from mind and
waited.
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