Chapter 7

Qi sat in a chair with his healing leg in a peculiar machine that facilitated the regeneration of bone and muscle. The itch in his leg became pain. The pain grew from an un-scratchable itch to jabs of stabbing pain only to lapse and wane into a continuous painful throb at the end of the cycle.

He wasn't a prisoner but he was an outsider. People were nice to him. Those who were assigned to escort him to physical therapy were polite and friendly enough. They had no issues holding him or shifting him into the various machines. There were lots of questions about his past, small talk, and ship gossip.

Even with a broken leg, he was forced to work out. He had surprised them when he tried to stay in the exercise room rather than return to his bunk. He liked the easy camaraderie of the weight room and the structured drills of the fitness director. It didn't matter to Qi that every muscle and joint ached at the end of cycle because the pain made him feel more alive.

Last night Quiyo had slid over to lie at his side. She still couldn't roll without pain down her back. With her good arm she reached over and gently took hold of his flaccid cock. Surprised, Qi had reached across hid own body and began to stroke her nether lips. He used his fingertips to lightly stroke her labia and soft pubic hair.

His cock became proudly erect. Qi hoped that his touches were as soft as her's were on him. He pressed his finger between her labia and discovered that she was excited and wet. He explored both sides of her sensitive inner flesh before stretching down to explore the entrance to her vaginal channel.

Quiyo purred with encouragement and started stroking his cock slowly.

Qi returned his stroking to the top of her cleft and began to draw circles around her pleasure spot with his fingertip. The faster he went, the faster she stroked him. Her hips began to arch in rhythm with his stroking fingers. Except for their breathing, the room was silent.

The tension began to build as Qi went faster. His finger would accidentally brush against her swollen clit and her hips would skip a stroke. The tumescent pressure on his cock was tightening and his balls were swelling.

Qi recognized he was near the end of his control, he began to make circles directly on her exposed clit "Ai!" she softly cried out as her hips froze in place. Watching her orgasm caused him to experience his own.

"Ah, ah" Qi said as his cock spurted warm seed onto his belly. She coaxed the last drops out of his spent erection and gently patted it goodbye. They rested with their sticky fingers on each others thighs, enjoying the peace of the moment.

The pain in his leg ratcheted up and last night's memory was torn from his thoughts as the hand comp alarm intruded on his thoughts. Kay had handed him a hand comp earlier in the cycle, which he had not switched on yet. Volentin did not use the words "day" and "night". One cycle had two shifts and that was their "day". They only ate once a shift and all of these little changes were taking some adjustment on his part. It was all so alien.

He flipped on the comp just to get his mind off his leg, he told himself. There was a communication from Kay. She had given him a task. The onboard engineer claimed that he couldn't account for the dip in power whenever the weapons systems fired during the first 60 seconds while the main thrusters were also firing. All systems appeared normal.

"Find the missing gluons," she wrote.

"They're electrons," Qi said to the inanimate object. Much to his surprise, he had full access to the schematics and real-time monitoring of the ship's systems. The first item on his list was to confirm the evidence of the monitoring system.

Someone was in engineering. Qi paged them and politely asked them to read gauges. The person at the other end was even willing to open panel units and take a manual reading. After twenty minutes Qi was convinced the monitoring system was performing correctly.

The next step was to find the location where the electrons first disappeared. Qi looked at the specs with utter confusion. He wasn't an engineer and all of the writing sounded like a foreign language to him even though he recognized the words.

Someone released his leg from the machine. He hadn't even noticed that the device had finished its program. He looked up into the face of the therapist with bewilderment.

"Today, you will try to walk," the man said. His name was Treyoho. Qi remembered it, an unusual occurrence for him, but everyone else called him "Oh-Ho". He wasn't sure which name the man wanted him to use.

"Now?" Qi asked with a look of anticipated pain on his face. Treyoho held out his hand for Qi to take, giving him no choice but to respond. Qi grabbed the man's wrist and hauled himself up. He felt unsteady for a moment, waiting for his internal balancing system to get a good read.

"Oh boy," Qi said as he took a first tentative step.

"It's Oh-Ho," the man said.

"I don't know where your family got its sense of humor," Qi said as he took another step, "but I would send it back and ask for a replacement. Yi! The more obvious the joke, the more you laugh. Yi, yi!" Each step hurt.

Qi was halfway across the room. "The bone is fine. It's the knee and the hip that are complaining. If anyone was hoping for a rematch in the fighting ring today, tell 'em that tomorrow is a better bet."

Oh-Ho laughed. "Your humor is just as stale as mine. You're upset that what you thought was original material has already been well tread by an entire family. You are the one who needs new material."

"I need something," Qi said, trying to concentrate on his walking. "I need a direction. Where am I walking to?"

"Direction is one question that I won't answer," Oh-Ho said. Qi was about to say that he didn't mean anything quite so metaphorical but Oh-Ho kept talking. "Walk to that bar and stand next to it. We will work on hip extensions until you cry like a little girl."

"I don't cry like a little girl," Qi said testily. "I may squeal like one at times, but I don't cry."

"Writer," Oh-Ho said. "You need a new writer."

Hours later Qi was resting comfortably on his mat. He was by himself and completely immersed in Kay's puzzle. After deciphering the engineer's report, which took a great deal of time, he was now tracing a path through the schematic blueprint of the power system. He was doing well until he came to the junction where the power line split between weapons and the rest of the ship.