Chapter 642

The Retreat

... Before she could answer, Morales suddenly stopped, leaned well forward with his hands on his knees and his head down, obviously on the verge of throwing up.

“Don’t stop,” Diana snapped out.

“I’m done. I don’t have anymore,” he gasped.

“I don’t care. Move. Come on, Morales. It’s important not to stop abruptly like that. You need to walk down after a run, but we haven’t even gone a half-mile. Now, let’s go,” she insisted as she took his arm and pulled.

“Oh, shit. They told me you were a slave driver,” he gasped out, trying to joke, she supposed.

“Let’s go, Girls. This applies to you, too.”

Within a few seconds, she had them going again. A little later, she allowed them to walk for a hundred steps. “I’ll count our steps aloud, but when I reach a hundred, we will jog again. No excuses. The next step after one hundred will be a jogging one. See the white marker on the tree a hundred yards or so on down the road? That’s mile marker number one. At the marker, we’ll turn back uphill. Don’t even think about it being uphill. Just lean a little forward and tough it out. You can make it. We will not stop as we turn to go back. Understood?”

She thought they had all gasped out something that sounded like agreement. After they made the turn at the mile marker and started back uphill, Morales tried to chuckle before gasping out. “You are going to kill my ass.”

“Oh, poo. In a few days, you’ll laugh about it. You’re just using muscles that you rarely stress as much. Stamina will come; just keep at it. Positive attitude. Positive attitude. I will make it. I will make it,” she chanted.

A few minutes later, she allowed them to walk for a hundred steps again.

“You had better have a coffin waiting when we get back to that driveway,” he gasped out, his words spaced out and barely recognizable.

The women were struggling almost as much as Morales, but they didn’t waste breath trying to talk.

“I don’t think I can run another step,” Morales gasped out after a few minutes of silence.

“We haven’t run the first step — yet,” Diana assured him.

“Whatever you call it. I will call my ass dead if you expect me to jog back up this mountain,” he said, still gasping as they again walked for a hundred steps.

“Oh, bull. We’re spending more time walking than jogging, anyway,” Diana scolded. “Now you made me lose count, so it’s time to jog.”

“I didn’t lose count. You owe us twenty walking steps.”

Diana grinned over at the struggling man as he grinned back at her. “My Mom used to do something that seems appropriate just now. She would hold her hand cupped near my face when I was whining about something and say, ‘cry me a handful.’ Somehow that seems appropriate, Big Man. You, a big muscular guy, survived on that planet with practically nothing. You can darn sure jog for a couple of miles.”

“If I weren’t dead sure you could kick my ass right now, I would say kiss it,” he tried to joke, but it came out barely above a whisper. “Oh, shit, Diana. How in the hell can you do it without even breathing hard?” he whined.

“Tiny little Aiko is trying for ten miles today, and I think she’ll make it — maybe not in the time she is trying for — but she’ll make the distance. Morales, you have more muscle mass in one biceps muscle than she probably has in half her body. And that isn’t much of an exaggeration,” she insisted.

“Ten miles?” he said almost to himself. “Aiko?”

“Yep, that was Aiko and her daughter, Kei, who left in front of us with Arlene and Ann. The group that ran off and left us as if we were standing still — which we basically are,” she finished with a grin as she continued to tease the big man.

Diana began chanting. “Big steps. Big steps and count aloud.”

“That’s presuming I have enough wind to count out loud,” Morales griped, but he did what she told him.

They jogged along in silence for a while, other than Morales’ labored breathing, but he had stopped complaining.

“Look, part of your problem is the weight you’re carrying around. Oh, you aren’t fat — far from it. But all those muscles weigh even more than fat. Your body is capable of running. It will take training different muscles, but the first couple of days are the worst. Attitude makes a big difference, though. Aiko, for instance, did not want to train, but when she finally realized that her love would actually leave her here and go on the trip without her, she changed her mind and attitude. Now, she is as positive as she was negative a few weeks ago.

“She doesn’t have all that weight to carry around, but she had very little strength in the beginning. With Little One helping her every day, she has made astonishing progress. The gray matter between her ears is as much the reason for her progress as anything else. A positive attitude is hard to beat.

“When the Security people are training, the Sergeant runs alongside their column — backward — as they call cadence. I love to hear them sing about the military or Granny.”

They were walking again as Morales asked, “Granny?”

“Sure. You’ve seen the military running on TV while they chant out cadence, haven’t you? It has a bouncing type of cadence and goes something like this as Diana bellowed out:

“Look up there, up aheeead,

Think that’s Granny, this is what she saaaid.

Leeeft, right, leeeft, right, leeeft.

Leeeft, right, leeeft, right, leeeft.

“It goes on and on, telling of Granny’s exploits — some of them quite naughty, I would imagine. Anyway, Jeff says there are literally hundreds of verses. It helps get the troops’ mind off the boredom and monotony of running ... and the pain.”

“Yeah, I suppose all branches of the military do something like that, but I’m too old to start that kind of thing now.”

Diana smirked, and Morales caught it. Oh, shit. What have we gotten ourselves into?

... When they were finally back to their starting point, she made them walk slowly around for a bit before allowing them a few sips of water, then a few minutes later, more, but she wouldn’t let them sit.

“While we’re resting, shall we do a few sit-ups and pushups to relax our bodies?” Diana asked them in an oh-so-sweet voice.

Morales would have bitched, but he didn’t have the strength.

“We can do women’s pushups, right?” Ashley asked.

“Sure,” Diana agreed with that look on her face. “You can call them anything you like as long as they look like this.” While standing, she dropped into a perfect pushup position, her back ramrod straight, her arms fully extended and shoulder width apart. “Ashley, please come and put a hand on the ground under my chest and between my breasts. Now make a fist. Call out anytime I fail to bump your fist with my chest — not my boobs. I’ve watched some women bump their breasts against the ground or floor and call it a pushup. The ones with big boobs barely have to lower themselves at all. That is not a pushup, nor is having your knees on the floor or ground as you do a pushup. Understood?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Ashley unconsciously responded.

In less than a minute, Diana had performed twenty-five perfect pushups. When she stood, she didn’t appear to be the least bit out of breath. “We won’t do any sit-ups until we’re inside on a smoother surface.”

Seeing the expression on the women’s faces, she added. “Look, all of us have been enhanced. It takes a bit more effort, but women can train their bodies to do regular pushups and sit-ups almost as well as men. We don’t need a crutch just because we’re women. If you put your mind to it, it will happen. And remember, all of this is to give you the strength necessary to complete Jeff’s obstacle course and for the Sergeant to train us to take care of ourselves. If I can do it, then you can, too.”

“Today, we’ll ride back up the driveway. I won’t make you walk up for a few days yet.”

Again, Morales stood looking up the beautiful, but seemingly impossibly-steep driveway and remembered looking over into the abyss on the way down. How in the fuck did they pave that thing? They would have had to use some type of tracked crawler to help pull the equipment up the incline, wouldn’t they? If that’s so, what about the dump truck that usually moves along pouring asphalt into the paving machine as it needs it? Shit. However they did it, I’ll bet it was a bitch. That railing looks substantial, but I’ll bet driving those steel poles that support it was a bitch with that angle to contend with, not to mention staring down into that (what did Diana call it? Oh, yes, the abyss from hell) while they were doing it.

“Okay, guys. Shall we go back to the Retreat?” the Clan Queen asked.

As Morales held the Escalade’s door for his women, he could feel his legs trembling. Hell, before this morning, I thought I was in decent shape. My women claim they get turned on by looking at my body, and they certainly run their hands over it enough. I’ve never been a gym rat, but I’ve done a few pushups and sit-ups now and then, and I’ve cut and split a winter’s worth of wood for the cave, and I’ve already started working on next winter’s. But that little jog down the mountain — and back up — trashed my ass, and my women are so tired they aren’t even gossiping.

On the way up the driveway, “I think I know, but how far is a marathon?” a tired Morales asked.

He could see Diana’s smirk in the mirror as Jasmine said, “I’m pretty sure it’s 26 miles and something.”

“Point two,” Diana offered.

“He runs twenty-six point two miles every day?” Jasmine asked, very impressed.

“Well, not every day. If there are storms, or the snow is too deep, or there is something on the agenda that takes precedence. But he probably averages at least five days per week.”

And I’m slaughtered by two miles with even a good bit of that just walking fast, Morales thought as he sat staring out the window.

Diana must have seen his expression and correctly interpreted it. “I’m sure that Aiko would not mind my telling you this, since many of us already know. Anyway, she had never exercised in her life, but that little lady decided she would do whatever it took to get into shape so she could pass the obstacle course. She and the others are running ten miles today, and she is hoping to do it at an eight-minute pace. All of them have done it except Aiko, so we’ll see how she does.”

“And eight-minute...” Christine began.

“A mile every eight minutes for ten miles. Nothing spectacular except for someone who has just started running only a few days back. She did things a little differently, though. As I said, she more or less demanded that Little One get rid of her soreness every morning. She can push hard with fresh and fully rested muscles every day and doesn’t have to worry about tearing or overly stressing them. Something worked. She’s progressing at an astonishing pace.”

Jasmine, sitting in the front next to Diana, said, “Where did she get all that incentive? As if I had to ask?” She finished with a chuckle.

“You don’t,” Diana responded, “and you would be right.”

“I can understand,” Ashley said. “I wanted Morales just as much — still do.”

“Me, too,” Christine broke in to add as Jasmine smiled at her husband.

Diana parked near the steps. “Well, here we are. Let’s have a light snack and maybe some juice, then I’ll run you through an exercise routine. After that, we’ll go see the Sergeant.”

“If I’m able to walk,” Morales said with a grimace as he unfolded himself from the back.

Ship’s Training Mission for the Miadax Crew

The First Officer paused as he looked around to see if there were any comments. When there were none, “AI, sound Battle Stations,” he calmly said as he unconsciously gripped the arms of his seat.

When every station reported ready, there was a long pause before, “Helm, engage at full impulse.”

“Engage at full impulse,” Helm repeated, pride in his voice.

The Hunter leapt forward as if she were just out of Space Dock, her engines, warp drives and decks shiny and brand new. She might not have been as pretty any longer, but she was just as functional — except for that one array. A few seconds later, the ship, guided by a master hand, perfectly centered the shimmering wormhole.

They really must be all different, the First thought as his body seemed to turn itself inside out, and the sensation of his grinding his teeth came full force, even though he had them firmly locked together. There was a glimpse of raw interstellar space and the billions of stars as if he were floating in the vacuum naked. With a wrenching that seemed to tear his body apart, he was again sitting in his seat, hearing mutterings and the unmistakable sound of someone discharging his stomach into a puke bag.

The last was the Weapons Officer, but one glance revealed that he was at his post staring at his screens even as he held the bag to his mouth while he gagged and fought back another discharge.

Helm, acting upon orders, turned hard-to-starboard as soon as they had exited the wormhole, but ... there was nothing around. First had already instructed the bridge crew to maintain passive scanning only. “Science?” he snapped out.

“Nothing near,” Science reported. “It might take some time to detect a reaction while using only passive scanning if they are not close by, Sir.”

The First Officer gave orders to come to a new heading before asking, “Planets?”

“Four that the AI has detected so far. And ... one moment, Sir...” There was a delay of a few seconds. “There seems to be an object — yes, there is a ship in orbit above the fourth planet. According to the AI, it takes light five and a half minutes to reach us from there, so we will not know if they are aware of us for a few minutes yet, and even then, we would only know that they moved their ship. It is too far to tell anything else about the ship unless we go to active scanning.”

“Helm, full stop on impulse engines. We will drift on our present course for a time and see what happens. The pirates might well have thought there was no need to keep a diligent watch on the wormhole on this end, since they certainly had what should have been more than sufficient armament on the other end.”

After a pause, he continued, “It is tempting to get a good scan of that ship, but maintain only passive scanning, Science.”

“Maintaining only passive scanning, Sir.”

“How long now before our arrival could have been noticed.”

“If they were very diligent, they should know now, Sir. But, of course, it will take light the same amount of time to come back. We should know in ... a little over four minutes from now, Sir.”

“Should they detect us, I cannot imagine them just sitting there. If they do not move, I am going to assume they are unaware of us. Of course, they might not show any reaction until they make up their minds what to do,” the First Officer added. After a moment of contemplation, “Helm, continue our present course, which is approximately perpendicular to light’s direct course from and to the planet. If they do not respond after thirty minutes, we will approach from the new vector as incommunicado as possible. With luck, we might get within firing range of their ship while they remain fat dumb and happy.”

“Sir, that is a locked orbit — geosynchronous — over one place on the planet.”

The destroyer is probably hovering over their base. Can you see anything on the ground?”

“Not without active scanning, and maybe not even then. There is a massive storm over the area — possibly a sandstorm. I am not certain, but it is huge,” Science responded.

“Fat, dumb and happy,” the Captain repeated with a raised eyebrow.

“Uh, I have been researching our history and some expressions from the period came up. It seemed to have a ring to it.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you are ... unusual?” the Captain asked with a grin.

“Uh, yes, Sir. Uh, someone who is sitting quite near me as we speak, but I think he used a slightly different and more ... colorful adjective at the time.”

They both chuckled. “Now we wait,” the First Officer said.

After ten minutes without the pirate ship showing any movement, “AI. Announce stand down from Battle Stations.”