Siege of Titan (Star Crusades Uprising, Book 1)
Page 10
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They had just finished a gruelling three-hour mixed martial arts session and Spartan was exhausted. He stood in the shower, both hands hanging low as the water poured out and down his back. He’d not been expecting showers but the water reclamation and recycling system on the ship seemed pretty efficient, certainly better than no showers. Around him the rest of his platoon were doing the same. At first it had been odd, but after weeks of training he and the rest of the mixed unit were too tired to really care anymore. As far as he could see a line of naked men and woman simply used the opportunity to relax. As he washed away the sweat and grime he spotted the Hispanic woman he’d first met when leaving the station.
“Teresa,” he muttered to himself as he remembered her name.
After just a few seconds he went across the shower block, moving the odd person who always seemed to get in the way. As he approached he felt a pang of embarrassment as he saw her naked. Her skin was dark and the water ran down her making her body glisten. Her black hair seemed longer in the shower, it ran down to her shoulders and for some reason all Spartan could think about was that surely it was against regulations. He was about to speak when he noticed her looking at him.
“Spartan, you okay there?” she said with a smirk.
He stood for a moment, a little surprised before regaining his composure.
“Of course, what are you doing here? You’re not in this platoon, are you?”
“Haven’t you noticed you’re down a man? Apparently, somebody has been getting a bit physical in the close quarter combat classes and they needed somebody new, I’m a replacement for your platoon. I volunteered.” She smiled at him as he laughed.
“Ah, I see. Am I supposed to be flattered?”
Teresa turned back to the shower, letting the water run over her face for a little longer before turning back to him.
“Maybe.”
“Anyway, how is the training going? We have Harris, he’s got a major hard on for bayonets,” she asked as she brought the subject back to their training.
“Yeah, same for us, these guys do like their little knives! We’ve done some marksmanship with the training rifles and loads of physical training.”
Teresa came out from under the shower, moving a little closer to Spartan. “Physical training, huh?”
The buzzer on the wall indicated the end of their shower. The water cut abruptly with just warm steam spreading through the room.
“L48 Rifle training to start in eight minutes,” came the voice before the system went silent.
The recruits left the shower area, drying themselves and getting dressed. Teresa and Spartan stood at the end of the block. Teresa noticed some of the scarring running down Spartan’s back.
“God, what caused that?”
Spartan stopped and tried to work out where she was looking. “Which one?” he asked, finding it difficult to identify the exact injury.
Teresa reached out and ran her hand along a scar from his shoulder to his ribs. Her unexpected contact made him jump a little.
“Ah, yeah, that one. It was from one of my last fights before I volunteered.” He put extra special emphasis on the last word.
“What kind of weapon could have done it?” she asked, genuinely interested.
“You’d be surprised, it was a blunt mace fitted with dull studs. It wasn’t supposed to cut the flesh, that was supposed to be part of the deal but somebody, I don’t know who rigged the fight and replaced the stubs with small spikes.”
“Christ! How did you get out of that one?” she asked as she pulled on her top.
“Well, at first I didn’t. The wound was massive but the guy was cocky. He made the mistake of getting too close to check on his handiwork.”
“I take it you explained this to him?” She stood there grinning at him.
Spartan looked away and at the recruits leaving the room, he took in a deep breath, remembering the bloody fight and the injuries involved. It was strange, at the time he had hated every single minute of it, but now that he looked back to the events just months ago he almost missed the action.
“Something like that.”