Chapter 11

Like most mornings, awareness came to me slowly. My brain was filled with fuzz and it took me a while to remember that I wasn't in my ship. It took me even longer to remember the events of last night. I don't think my brain had quite recovered from the experience. I cracked open an eye and when it could focus I took a look around. Not that I could see much. My field of view was taken up by hair, lots of hair.

Sometime in the night, it looked as if Katherine and Mari had changed positions. I now had Katherine and Anna bookending me with Mari was snuggled in behind Anna. Both of the younger women had their heads on my chest and seemed to still be asleep. I was trying to figure out how to get out of bed to drain my bladder when Katherine rolled onto her back and gave a mighty stretch. As she recovered she looked over at me, saw that I was alive and gave me a sleepy smile. Katherine then sat up, stretched again, and climbed out of bed.

About that time Mari and Anna started to stir. Mari rolled over and stretched, propped herself up on her elbows and looked around blearily. Anna lifted her head, looked around. It seems she didn't particularly care for what she saw, wrapped an arm across my chest and burrowed into me. Mari saw this, saw I was awake, and gave Anna a swift swat to the ass.

Anna came up, twisted around, and tried to tackle Mari, tried being the operative word. Mari seemed to have been prepared for this and promptly dragged Anna across her lap and tickle her into submission. Their laughter was loud and there was lots of begging and pleading on Anna's part. I watched for a moment, got out of bed and stumbled out of the room, grabbing my shorts on the way. I shuffled over to the other bedroom and used the bathroom there. After my shower, I looked in the mirror and noticed several marks and bruises on my chest. I guess Anna was marking her territory with hickies. I put on my shorts and made my way out to the main room in search of coffee.

Sam was in the room and pointed to an alcove where a replicator was. By the time I got over there, a cup was waiting for me. I grabbed it, turned and raised the cup in thanks to Sam, and took a sip. For a fancy hotel, the coffee profile that was in the system left a lot to be desired. Restaurant coffee was worse, but not by much.

I sat at the desk and tried to wake up. Ten minutes or so later, I was contemplating if another cup was worth my humanity or if I should call it quits. Mari exited the master bedroom and crossed to the other and disappeared only to emerge five minutes later in a sports bra type top and loose fitting shorts. Anna and Katherine appeared shortly afterward in tight shirts and yoga pants. All looked disgustingly awake.

"Max, get some clothes on," Mari told me, "it's time to hit the gym." She seemed to have forgotten that I'd gone last night. "We leave in 2 minutes, Max."

Sam tried to come to my rescue, I think. "You sure? He's liable to scare any small children on the way."

I am really not a morning person. It took me a moment to process that. I looked at Mari, she looked back at me, and I decided I was going to the gym whether I liked it or not. With that, I stumbled into the bedroom, changed into a work shirt and put on a pair of underwear before pulling the shorts back on, pulled on my gym shoes and followed them out. Mari handed me a water bottle and told me to drink some.

They chatted all the way down to the gym. I sipped water. When we got to the gym, there were a few people in there working out. I decided since I was there I may as well do something so I found a treadmill and started running. Running is not my thing. I got short legs and I look like a running brick. I force myself to do it because I know it's good for me. After thirty minutes or so, I stopped. I wanted caffeine but Mari had other plans.

She pulled me over to an area I hadn't noticed before. It was set up with mats covering most of the floor but what caught my eye were the heavy bag and speed bags in a back corner. But it didn't look like Mari was going to let me use them yet. Instead, I was to hold a pad while the girls whaled on it.

They suited up in protective gloves and started in on me. I have to say, Mari had done a good job training them. They knew how to hit and kick. At first they seemed to hold back a little, unsure of my capabilities but when they realized I barely moved, they started hitting and kicking harder, finally going all out at the end.

Then it was Mari's turn. I put on protective arm and hand pads and ran her through a series of high/low punches. After that it was the big pad. She just started all out from the get go. That woman had some power. With her height, strength and technique, I wouldn't want to go against her in a real fight. We'd both come out bloody mess and I'm not sure who'd win. She ended with a series of practice spin kicks and jumping snap kick.

When she finished up, I dropped the pad and wandered to the bags. Sets of thick boxing gloves and thinner practice gloves were in a wire mesh box and I grabbed the biggest set I of thin could find. The speed bag was on an adjustable height mount and after getting it to the proper height, I started up a series. This bag was for timing, speed, and hand/eye coordination. You get into a rhythm and it can almost be hypnotic. Ten minutes of that I then turned to the doubled ended speed bag suspended between two elastic cables and started. This bag was for practicing jabs, bobbing, and weaving. Not my favorite but its good practice. Last was the heavy bag and I had Mari hold onto it. I put the heavy gloves on and spent close to ten minutes nonstop on it. At the end I was putting as much power into my hits seeing if I could knock Mari loose. I think I came close before I called it quits and fell to the floor breathing in great lungfuls of air.

Mari sat on her butt and propped herself up, looking at me with a scowl. "I think you may have knocked some teeth loose."

I grinned up at the ceiling. Mari may have technique on her side, I have brute force. "Teach you to bring me here before I'm human." I looked over at Anna who looked like she was about to take a swing at the bag. "I wouldn't if I were you."

"Why not?"

"Give it a push."

She did, or at least tried to, with one hand. She then gave it a shove with both a hands and was almost knocked on her ass when it came back at her. She looked at me with wide eyes. "That's fucking heavy."

"It's called a heavy bag for a reason. You hit that without the proper equipment and it'll feel like hitting a wall." She just shook her head.

Mari got to her feet and gave me a hand up. She helped pull off the gloves and tossed them and the light gloves into the used equipment bin where they'd be picked up and washed later.

I grabbed my water bottle and drank what was left as we exited the gym and made our way back to the room. In the room we all grabbed more water, me a two liter bottle and the women smaller bottles. I checked my email and drank my water while they went and took showers. When Mari came out of the shower in the bathroom we shared, I went in and rinsed off.

I'd finished up and was starting to get dressed when Katherine poked her head into the room. "Wear the other clothes we got you yesterday."

I had actually planned on wearing what I'd worn yesterday. "Why? I only wore that other stuff for a couple of hours."

'The look' came out. "You wore it yesterday."

"So?"

"You wore it yesterday," as if that was all that needed to be said.

"This isn't something a guy will ever understand is it?"

She continued to give me 'the look'. If she was going to look at me like that, I knew the others would also and decided I'd rather not try to understand female logic. I grabbed out the other clothes and held them up to show her that I would wear them. She nodded and left.

We went back to the lower level of the station for a light breakfast. We'd gone to the gym early enough that it restaurants were still serving breakfast when we got there but lunch was just a couple hours away. I insisted that we swing by a coffee shop on the way. We found one and I was able to get a good 'Red-Eye' for myself and foo-foo drinks for the ladies.

After eating, we wandered around a little until it was time to return to the clothing store and do a bit more shopping. Thomas was there and helped Katherine pick out a few more things for me. She insisted that I pick out some nice underwear and socks. I gave her my 'what-the-fuck-are-you-talking-about' look. She rolled her eyes up at me, went to a display, and picked some out herself. If Thomas was trying not to look amused he failed miserably.

Katherine insisted and tried to get me to pick out some exercise clothing there. I looked it over and told her to save her money. I knew a place that carried better quality stuff than the designer crap they had.

We made our purchases, including the stuff held for us from the previous day, and left for Hannigan's. Hannigan's specialized in suits and formal wear. The saleslady listened to what Katherine wanted and made some suggestions. She didn't even bother to talk to me, she knew who was in charge of this. We went over to a private area and I was told to strip to my underwear. As surreptitiously as I could, I removed the shoulder rig and jacket and handed them to Mari.

When my shirt came off there were some gasps and Anna was turning red. The hickies on my chest stood out for everyone to see. A man came over to take a number of measurements and didn't even bat an eye at the markings.

I was then in mannequin mode as a variety of suits were put on me and debated over.

Sam, who was monitoring the whole thing via the optical unit which had been transferred to Mari, was laughing at me over my implant. "You should see the look on your face."

"Shut it."

"I have to admit it, though," Sam went on, "Katherine knows what she's doing. You don't look half bad."

A suit was finally agreed on, by them, and the man started to pin the clothes for alteration. When he started on the jacket, Mari spoke up and told him to keep it loose. He looked over at Mari, eyed her up and down, nodded, and went back to work. We also pulled out the clothes from the other store and he pinned them also.

I was finally allowed to redress and we were told to come back in a couple of hours. Once outside, I led the way to an outer edge district. The shops there were geared towards workers and laborers. Cheaper restaurants, sandwich shops, and a few bars (all closed since lunch was till an hour or so away) were mixed in with shops that sold tools, repaired equipment, and carried inexpensive household goods.

One place that I'd been in before that sold the work clothes that I favored also carried some active wear. Here, I picked up a few shirts and shorts. I also grabbed a new pair of gym shoes since the ones I had were getting a little worn out. The ladies also found a few things, though Anna and Katherine expressed a little concern over them being designed for function as opposed to style.