Skybound

by S. W. Gunn

  “Let’s go. Our fitness regime is two hours long.”

  Two hours! Johnathan thought to himself. She must be completely insane.

  Turning back towards him she slowly brought her hands from in front of her chest and in a downward motion before asking, “How do you think I got to looking like this?”

  “Well I don’t want to look like that.” He said grumpily.

  “I know but when I’m done with you you’re going to have the body of a god.”

  “If I decline the offer can I go back to sleep?” He asked sarcastically.

  “Either you get your butt up or I’m gonna leave a mark on you like the one you put on me last night.”

  “You told me to do it” He stated quickly.

  “I’m not complaining silly, just a warning if you don’t get out of bed.”

  As he pried himself off of her bed and took a moment to look at her bedroom. The square bed was easily big enough to hold three people normally. It had four tall bedposts, some sort of thin cloth that hung down from the collecting rails at the top of the bedposts, and it was covered in all blue sheets, blankets, and pillows. Her room had one door that he knew went out into the hallway, one door that he guessed went into the bathroom and another that he was not sure what it was for. The carpets were blue and there was a large wooden dresser with a massive mirror. He found it odd that she had no other decoration in the room.

  While walking into the bathroom she announced, “Your clothing is in all of the right drawers of the dresser. I had them add some more appropriate fitness clothing for what we’re about to do.”

  Shuffling through the drawers he found some shirts and several pairs of shorts that looked like they were entirely too tight fitting for him. They were the only new items so he had to assume that they were what she was talking about. He slipped on the shirt and the shorts. Immediately he knew that he did not like them. They were very snug and a lot more revealing than he liked.

  Rose came back out of the restroom and while examining him she stated, “Oh yes. Those are perfect.”

  “They’re too tight.” He complained.

  “Maybe to you. This way everyone around us is going to see progress as I mold your body into a muscled machine of masculine perfection.”

  He grumbled as he headed to her restroom.

  When he passed by her she slapped him on his rear before asking, “Still like everything about me?”

  “No.”

  She laughed heartily before stating, “I had some new shoes ordered too. They’re right next to your boots. Your normal shoes won’t cut it for what we’re about to do.”

  He could hear her footsteps as she exited her bedroom. Taking a look at her restroom he was surprised by the size of the tub set against the right wall, it looked big enough to hold both of them easily. Opposite of the tub was a shower. After utilizing the facilities, washing his hands, and splashing water on his face he headed out to the living room. Rose tossed him a bottle of water before she knelt down and slipped on her shoes. He spotted the shoes that she was talking about so he knelt down next to her and slipped each one on and tightened the fasteners. She headed out the front door, which he followed behind her making sure to close the door. She was also wearing very tight fitting clothing, a shirt and pants. This time they were a light brown color. He could see the outline of a support garment underneath her shirt.

  “Where are we headed?” He asked her.

  “Normally the whole command staff works out together but I’ve already let them know that I’ve taken on a special fitness project so I won’t be working out with them for a while. We’re headed to the rear docking bay.”

  They walked all of the way to the rear bay in silence. He was just a bit too tired to converse. As he entered the bay he was happy to see no one else there. The rear bay looked very much like the lower bay except the placement of the doors along the back instead of the bottom of the room. Also bay had vessels, about twelve of them neatly lined up along the left wall. The bay itself was quite open for their workout.

  “Alright let’s start with a warm up. First we’ll stretch for a moment and then we’ll do a light jog.”

  “Okay.”

  She sprawled down on her back and started to stretch. He just copied each stretch as she did them. After some time stretching she stood up and gestured for him to follow her. Slowly they began jogging around the perimeter of the bay.

  “Our first exercise is going to be wind sprints. We’ll start from the rear of the bay and run towards the front. When I call out drop we’ll stop and drop down to do push-ups. You keep doing push-ups until I call out up. Then you stand back up and run again.”

  He could already tell that he was in for a nightmare of major proportions.

  “Good?”

  “Okay.” He grumpily replied.

  She laughed before saying, “Try not to sound too happy.”

  He just grunted in response.

  They made their way to the back of the bay and she yelled out, “Go!”

  She started off sprinting and he took off after her.

  They got about a third of the way across the bay and she yelled out, “Down!”

  She then dropped down and starting doing push-ups. He followed her lead.

  They stayed down pushing for a bit before she called, “Up!”

  She jumped up and started running again. He was already starting to get tired but he clambered back up and ran after her. They continued bouncing from exercise to exercise. About forty minutes in Johnathan paused and placed his hands on his waist to catch his breath. The whole program was exhausting and he wanted to do nothing more than stop.

  Grabbing him by the back of his neck Rose leaned a bit closer to him and said, “Never quit.”

  She let go of him and started running again. Groaning, as his muscles complained, Johnathan started after her. She continued pushing him for another hour, which included a lot of running, movement exercises, and upper body training. Every time Johnathan lagged at any point she was yelling, pushing, and ordering him to keep going. As they slowly jogged around the bay he glanced at his watch and saw that they had been at it for about two hours so hopefully she was done torturing him.

  She yelled out, “Time!”

  Flopping down on his back Johnathan was breathing quite heavily. He had never worked out so hard in his life and every muscle in his body was crying out in pain.

  Rose appeared over him and said, “Get up. You’ll cramp up if you don’t keep moving while your muscles cool down.”

  She reached a hand out to him. Grumbling as he took her hand, he pried himself off the floor. Reaching out with her other hand she passed him the bottle of water that she had given him early and he had set aside when they started. He drank deeply. The water felt cool as he drank. Rose lightly tugged on his free hand before holding his hand. A clue it was time to go back to her quarters. He slowly and painfully began walking.

  “You’ve really been cheating yourself on your fitness program.” She stated.

  He just grunted at her.

  “Let’s go shower and get breakfast. We’ve got about an hour before the work shift starts.”

  “My shift isn’t until midnight.”

  Chuckling at him she stated, “Was. I ordered your shift to begin at the primary shift from now on.”

  “Oh.”

  Turning towards him she asked, “What? Did you think I was going to go through all of the trouble to select the best man on the ‘Skybound’ only to go to bed every night by myself?”

  He grunted before saying, “I sure don’t feel like the ‘best man’.”

  She laughed before declaring, “The body can be molded.”

  After a brief pause she reached out with her free hand and touched his temple.

  “What’s in here,” She paused again before tapping his left breast and continuing, “And here cannot be molded.”

  He grinned at her. After briskly walking back to her quarters he pulled out some undergarmen
ts and his work coveralls. Unlike most of the crew his uniform was designed to get dirty from oils, grease, and dirt. He set them down on top of the dresser and walked into the bathroom. He could hear the shower running. As he slowly removed his shirt his muscles screamed out in pain. Slipping off his shorts he opened the plastic door to her shower and took a moment to admire Rose. She was soaking wet and covered in soap as she turned to look at him. She grinned at him as he stepped into the shower and closed the door.

  Wrapping her arms around his neck she pressed herself into him and asked, “Am I forgiven for this morning?”

  He shook his head at her, which she responded to by kissing him. They made love in the shower before drying off and getting dressed.

  Johnathan slipped on his boots at the entryway of her quarters when she walked up to him and asked, “Can you meet me back here around 1600?”

  “Of course.”

  “Excellent. I like to do my second exercise regimen before dinner.”

  “Second regimen?” He asked cautiously.

  Giving out a loud belly laugh she answered, “Yes. We’re going to one of the gyms to work on building muscles.”

  Johnathan groaned out loud, which caused her to laugh even louder. Rose pulled the sleeve of her white tunic up so that her whole arm was exposed.

  Flexing her arm she told him, “Hold that.”

  He reached out and grabbed her bicep. It was solid as a rock.

  “My post work regimen is how my arms got like that. I can hold my own weight hanging with one arm for just over an hour.”

  He had to admit that he was impressed. He doubted that he could hold his own weight with one arm for more than a few seconds. She took his arm and nodded a clue for him that it was time to get breakfast. The primary cafeteria was serving omelets again so he brought her there. This time she had him sit with her and the command staff. Johnathan sat quietly as the command staff talked about their plans for the day. They talked about a bunch of work shifts, meetings, and reviews. It all sounded dreadfully boring. After breakfast Rose brought her cheek up against his before kissing his cheek softly.

  She said, “Good luck at work dear. I’ll see you at 1600.”

  “Alright I love you.”

  She squeezed his hand and replied, “I love you too.”

  Johnathan watched her walk out of the cafeteria with the command staff. He went back to her quarters, making sure to take his boots off before going on the carpet.

  As he entered the room where his stuff was Mark said, “Good morning Johnathan.”

  “Hello Mark.”

  “How was your evening?”

  Johnathan laughed before answering, “My evening was wonderful.”

  “Your morning did not seem to be much fun.”

  “No, no it wasn’t.” Johnathan replied solemnly before continuing, “Alright let’s upgrade your wheels. I am thinking to replace the motor with something a bit stronger and give you a more powerful battery. This way you can work with me more closely by using the podium.”

  “That sounds great. Have you considered my proposal?”

  “Well I’ve been a bit distracted Mark but I have already drawn up some ideas in my mind.”

  Mark chuckled before saying, “Rosemary came in earlier and informed me that you’re greatly improving in your performance.”

  Johnathan just mumbled to himself. He dug through his boxes to find some tools. Slowly tilting Mark’s podium over he removed the entire engine that would allow Mark to move the wheels and then he removed the wheels. Taking out his small molecular reprocessor he had it break down the old engine and programmed it to build a stronger engine. He used the spare excess parts from previous work to provide the reprocessor with material. The reprocessor was going to take about an hour to complete the task of reforming the materials provided into the engine that Johnathan had designed. Picking up a datapad he sketched out the schematics for the sensor array hardware. He had the idea that replacing and upgrading the whole system should work.

  Mark reviewed his schematics before saying, “Yes that will get the main system ready. We will also need to replace the sensor scanning systems. I’ve downloaded a suggested design but honestly your creativity with physical designs really would help.”

  “Alright let me take a peek.”

  Johnathan pulled up the design Mark sent him. He chuckled to himself when he noted it was filed next to the ‘Kama Sutra’ Mark had mentioned earlier. He decided to give it a look later but it was work time right now.

  “I’m going to make some changes to your design Mark. This one is too big for my reprocessor so we’ll have to remove one of the old arrays and have it reprocessed into the new design. I think the eco-ship will survive for a few hours without the rear sensor array.”

  It took Johnathan a while to tweak the schematics that Mark gave him but he believed that he came up with a design that would easily handle the requirements they were after. The reprocessor beeped to let Johnathan know that it had completed the engine. Setting down his datapad he opened the access panel of the reprocessor and pulled out the engine. It looked perfect and after a microscopic inspection he installed the engine and new wheels.

  Setting Mark’s podium upright he instructed, “Give it a test run.”

  Mark shot off quickly. Johnathan laughed. He purposely used the reprocessor because it was probably one of the very few computer systems that Mark did not have access to. It was fun to see Mark make a mistake since Johnathan was probably the master at making himself look foolish.

  Mark commented, “It appears that I miscalculated the power of the engine.”

  “So it does.”

  He was now able to wheel about at a pace fast enough to keep up with Johnathan running. With the new battery he should be able to keep the engine going for half a day or more.

  “Let’s get to the rear sensor array.”

  “Lead on Johnathan.”

  Johnathan chuckled as he grabbed his toolkit and slipped on his boots before heading out the door. It was quite pleasant that he could have Mark follow him everywhere. Outside of philosophy discussions, he enjoyed spending time talking with Mark. Well the discussion about Johnathan’s newly discovered sex life was a bit uncomfortable but he knew that Mark just had his best interests at heart. Utilizing his watch Johnathan sent off a notification to his supervisor, the Lead Engineer that he was going to be taking down the rear sensory array. When Johnathan first became the Senior Computer Technician his supervisor would question everything that Johnathan did. At this point he had realized that Johnathan knew what he was doing so all Johnathan received from him was a confirmation reply. When Johnathan had redesigned the computer processors he had proven himself to the point that he was just left alone to his own devices although it seems based on what Rose was saying maybe his supervisor did not know as much as Johnathan thought. His assistant Gregory did most of the primary computer checks and Johnathan was allowed to do whatever he wanted although he still had to do the shift computer checks. Once they made their way to the sensor array Johnathan began prepping it for removal. He had to seal off the array so that the interior of the eco-ship was not exposed to the vacuum of space. Taking an hour to seal the array he then slowly worked the entire array out of position. It was much harder than he initially anticipated but he was able to work it free. Now it was just a pile of metal so he set a heavy dolly under it to take it to the reprocessor. His watch beeped with a waiting message.

  Johnathan stopped and reviewed the message which said, "Meet me for lunch at the primary cafeteria."

  After sending off an affirmative message he moved quickly to get the sensor array to the primary reprocessor. He had about an hour to program the reprocessor to process the old array into the framework. The smaller and more detailed pieces of the new sensor hardware he was going to have to make with his personal reprocessor but the primary one could easily handle the framework. It took him another hour to program the specifications into the reprocessor before he was
able to get it started. He had about five minutes to wash his hands and then get to the cafeteria so he jogged. Mark headed back to Rose’s quarters. Johnathan did not want to miss lunch with Rose. As he entered the cafeteria he saw her sitting at a table by herself. She spotted him and gave him a soft smile. Johnathan got lunch and a drink before sitting down with her.

  “Looks like you’ve been quite busy.” Rose commented looking at his coveralls.

  Glancing down at himself he saw that his coveralls were covered in grime and filth.

  “Yup.”

  She took a bite of her salad with a fork before saying, “You aren’t bringing that dirty thing into our quarters.”

  “How am I to get in? I’ve got nothing but briefs underneath my coveralls.”

  Laughing loudly Rose stated, “Let me know when you’re coming. I’d love to watch you running down the hallway in your briefs.”

  Johnathan grumbled at her before he took a bite of his food.

  “So how is it going? Lead Engineer Mugabe told me the rear sensor was coming down today.”

  “Well I’ve only just got the new array started. I’ve got a lot more fabrication for the finite parts. On a side note I’ll be heading to work with my equipment in your quarters after lunch.”

  Rose frowned before stating, “But I wanted to watch you running down a hallway nearly naked in a hurry trying not to be seen and I’ve got a meeting right after this.”

  He laughed before saying, “Sorry.”

  She paused for a moment examining his overalls before reaching out and grabbing a spot she found that he guessed was clean before saying, “I’m expecting a private show later tonight since you’re denying me my right to see you near naked running down a hallway.”

  He laughed at her as he continued eating his lunch. Once they finished lunch she gave him a light kiss on his cheek from a good distance away. He could not blame her because his coveralls were smeared very heavily in grease from him removing the array. She was wearing a pair of gray skintight pants instead of a skirt, which he had to admit he really liked since they showed every curve of her body. As she walked away he gave her a little slap on her rear. Turning back towards him she gave him a sly wink and then kept walking. Johnathan laughed heartily when he saw that he had left a hand print on her pants. He decided not to say anything just to see how she would react. After she was out of sight he headed towards the primary reprocessor to check the progress of the new sensor array. It was going smoothly so he headed back to Rose’s quarters. He stopped just outside the door. He felt silly stripping off his clothing and midway through his watch beeped at him with a notification.