Skybound

by S. W. Gunn

  It was from Rose and it read, ‘I WILL get you back for that.’

  Johnathan heartily laughed as he opened the door.

  Setting aside his boots he heard Mark call out, “Welcome back.”

  Mark’s podium rolled closer.

  “Thanks Mark. We’ve got to fabricate the sensor array computer and a few of the smaller pieces so let me get this programmed real fast. I have to do them piece by piece.”

  “Johnathan where are your coveralls?”

  “Rose said I couldn’t wear them in her quarters when they were dirty.”

  “That makes sense. You do get quite dirty when you take on these sorts of projects.”

  Johnathan just nodded at him before he sat down on the ground and started to program his reprocessor. It would easily take most of the day to get the all of the parts made. Tomorrow would be the chance to try the first test runs of their new sensors. As he programmed the reprocessor his mind wandered to thinking about Rose. He found himself missing her quite a bit. It was not just her very pleasant appearance or demeanor. She seemed to believe in him in a way that even his parents did not when he was young. He found himself struggling to remember his childhood or his parents. The medical staff told everyone that as they aged their memory would constantly shift and they would slowly lose older memories that were not extremely impacting on their lives. They requested that everyone aboard keep a daily journal so they could keep their memories. Johnathan had been very lax on his journal. He did remember that his parents were not overly pleased with his social skills or that he was totally intellectually enthralled by electronic devices. Shrugging it off he thought back to his first time with Rose. It was brief but amazing so after he finished programming the reprocessor he stood up and dug out his journal. He wanted to make sure he included all of the details of the last few days.

  Once he finished Mark stated, “I was thinking that we should go piece by piece through the ‘Skybound’ and see about performing upgrades like the sensors. With your designs on the sensor array we might able to increase the efficiency of the entire vessel.”

  Rubbing his chin thoughtfully Johnathan said, “That’s a good idea. What do you think we should work on next?”

  “I would say our shielding system. It is important that we can keep physical objects from harming the vessel.”

  “Especially the energy collectors.” Johnathan interjected.

  The ‘Skybound’ had energy collectors lined in many spots on the exterior of the vessel that would absorb and transfer a wide variety of energy sources into energy the vessel could use for power. Everything from solar light to a variety of radiation types were used. Ideas immediately popped into his head. He knew that he could redo the wiring systems, the repulsion levels of the shield might be able to be increased by rerouting systems of power. He might even be able to turn it into a controllable function for the crew. Doing the quick math in his head he was able to even estimate how big of a meteor the new system might be able to deflect.

  “The cutting lasers too.” Mark stated.

  “Of course! I could easily remake the capacitors to increase output. I think our biggest issue is going to be with energy conservation to allow for all of this to work.”

  “Perhaps next you should work on our energy control systems first?”

  Johnathan excitedly replied, “Yes! We could remake the entire system to support a superior storage system. Also I could add energy collectors within the hydroponics bays. That would allow me to recollect the light energy being utilized in the bays for the planets.”

  Sudden someone, who he immediately recognized as Rose, started to laugh behind him. Johnathan turned to look at her and saw her standing at the entryway of the room that he was in. She looked quite pleased.

  “When I said that I wanted you to put on a show for me John I didn’t mean literally sit around in your undergarments waiting for me to come home.”

  He had forgotten that he was nearly naked. Pulling himself up off the ground he walked up to her and reached out to give her a hug and a kiss. She raised a hand to stop him before giving him a good look while standing there.

  “I can only imagine how great this show is going to be once I’m done molding your body. I’ve already started daydreaming about your chiseled muscles as you press me against the wall.”

  He just grunted at her. Reaching out towards him Rose put her hands on his sides before pulling him towards her. Responding to her he softly placed his right hand on the back of her neck and kissed her.

  After a brief kiss she said, “No more stalling, let’s get ready we’ve got some muscles to build.”

  “Dang. I was hoping to seduce you so I could get away from doing that.”

  She clucked her tongue at him before saying, “You might as well accept your fate. You’re my man now and I’m gonna mold you into a form that every woman on this vessel will desire. They’ll see me on your arm and daydream it’s them in my place. So let’s go.”

  He grumbled and followed her into the bedroom. Slipping off his undergarments he pulled out some shorts and a shirt, which he then put on. Turning around he saw Rose loosening her work tunic. She saw him watching her as she continued to undress and she winked at him. Once she was fully undressed he wanted nothing more than to take her but she said that they had to go to the gym so he did not make a move. She slipped on sport top and skintight shorts. Tilting her head towards the door she started walking. He stood up. They walked out to the living room and slipped on their exercise shoes.

  Taking his hand again Rose stated, “We’re going to go to the command gym. It’s on this level so we can take care of our fitness quickly and come back here fast. I’ll need to eat dinner fast afterwards because I have a meeting with the head of the hydroponics bays. He wants to see about doing some construction to add another bay.”

  Johnathan nodded at her and they headed out. He had been to the normal gym several times but he detested using the weight modulators. Made of a light plastic with a gravity adjuster, the modulators made it possible to increase and decrease the weight as needed. Since they were just simple rounded handles members of the eco-ship could use them in a variety of positions to work many different muscles. They even had a flexible strap to allow someone to strap them onto their body in a few different locations. Rose let go of his hand and jogged over to the rack holding the modulators. Johnathan was quite happy no one else was in the small gym with them.

  Walking back with four modulators Rose said as she handed him two, “Alright we’re going to do a series of muscle endurance exercises. We’ve got to move quick but I want to work on building your arms, chest, shoulders, and back.”

  He nodded at her. She reached over and tapped the controls on his modulators and they immediately became significantly heavier than he had expected.

  Dropping his arms under the weight of the modulators he commented, “They’re heavy.”

  She chuckled before playing with her own modulators and then extending her arms straight out.

  “Just do the moves I’m doing.” She instructed him.

  Shifting slightly he began to copy her. He had to admit that working out was much easier with her around than it was alone or with large groups of people, especially since he had something great to look at while doing it. She made him move from exercise to exercise performing each one several repetitions. His arms quickly began to get tired and he was struggling to keep the weight of the modulators up. She shifted and strapped each one to the top of her feet, which he copied. Then she did leg lifts forward, backward, and to each side. Right as he was certain his legs were going to fall off she stopped and removed the modulators. He copied her and collected both of them. He groaned loudly when she started doing more arm exercises, which she just laughed in response to.

  Right as he swore he was not going to be able to lift his arms anymore she called out, “Time.”

  He dropped the modulators joyfully. His whole body felt like loose rubber. She strolled over and
after playing with the modulators that he had dropped she picked them up. Jogging up to the rack, she placed the modulators on it before running back over to he him.

  She took his hand before saying, “Let’s go shower real fast. I’d hate to be late for my own meeting.”

  Saying nothing he followed her back to her quarters. Once they got into the restroom she started the shower and began stripping off her clothing. His muscles cried out in pain as he undressed. He weakly tossed his dirty clothes towards the chute. He would pick them up once his arms could function normally.

  As he stepped into the shower Rose pushed him into the wall and asked, “Are your arms weak?”

  “I can barely move them.” He informed her.

  “We’ll see about that.” She said to him before kissing him.

  He could feel her hands slip around him and reacted by pulling her closer.

  “Thought so.” She said as she broke their kiss.

  * * * * *

  Johnathan dug out one of his old basic tunics and some trousers.

  As he got dressed Rose said, “We’re going to have to replace most of your wardrobe. Once I’m done with you those won’t fit anyway.”

  Grunting loudly he commented, “Assuming I survive the abuse.”

  She laughed loudly before cheekily stating, “For someone who’s suffering so much you didn’t seem to have much trouble in the shower.”

  Once they both got dressed, she was wearing her work uniform, they headed out to the primary cafeteria. She seemed to favor this one above the others. Normally he would eat at a smaller one to be alone but he liked her company so he just followed her. After they ate their dinner she gave him a soft kiss on the cheek before leaving. He loved watching her walk away because she moved with such grace. He wondered how he had not noticed before. Maybe it was her position but he saw it clearly now. She moved with confidence like a leader should but she also had an elegance about her. As soon as she was out of sight he headed to the primary reprocessor because the new sensor array was probably ready. He was quite happy to see that it was indeed ready so he collected his dolly and hauled the array to the rear of the vessel. Once he arrived he slowly inspected the array. Everything looked perfect. Installing it would be much easier than removing it but first he would have to get the rest of the array from his reprocessor. Those would not be complete until later tonight so he secured the dolly and headed back up to Rose’s quarters.

  As he entered he heard Mark say, “Welcome back. I saw that the array is mostly ready.”

  “Yes it is. I’m very confident that it will function quite well.”

  “That is good. What did you plan to do until Rosemary returned?”

  “Hrmm I hadn’t thought of it.”

  “I have an idea that might prove useful.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “I was thinking you could upgrade my podium.”

  “How so?”

  “It would be most useful if I had some sort of attachments that allowed me to utilize tools while controlling the podium. Perhaps a pair of appendages?”

  Nodding excitedly Johnathan responded, “That’s a good idea! Let’s go dig in my boxes and see if I can get things started. It might take some time to get any amount of fine motor control but we’ll get there.”

  Slipping off his boots, tunic, and trousers Johnathan headed towards the room his equipment was in. Mark followed behind him.

  Chapter 7

  Checking the reprocessor as he entered the room Johnathan removed all of the parts for the rear sensor array. He examined them before setting them down in a box. Digging through his half dozen boxes of spare parts he found the basics that he could use for a hydraulic arm. Tilting Mark’s podium to the side Johnathan opened it up and got to work. He would have to completely rewire the podium to allow motor control. The battery upgrade he made would make a significant difference in making sure the podium would be able to handle all the new functions Johnathan was adding. It took him a bit of effort to get the hydraulics working right. Even with pulling up some specifications on one that was similar to what he wanted he still struggled with getting it just right. He did much better work with computer hardware.

  As he played with the wiring around the grasping device he was adding Mark said, “Johnathan I believe that it is time for you to shower and go to sleep.”

  Glancing at his watch he frowned. It was already 2200 and Rose had not returned.

  He pulled himself off the floor and said, “Alright.”

  Grease covered his arms and a few specks on his chest. Johnathan was going to have to bring a pair of work coveralls from the room or find some other place to work. He could not be sitting on the floor nearly naked while working.

  “I think once you get the sensory array installed and working you can finish my arm.”

  “Yes. It shouldn’t take long to get the sensor array up, assuming everything works right. Then I’ll finish your arm before moving onto the front array. If it works the way that I think it will I’ll have improved your model by about three factors. It should give the ‘Skybound’ the ability to work its sensors for a very significant distance and with more accuracy.”

  “I saw your changes, they were quite impressive. I cannot wait to see what you will do with the rest of the vessel.”

  “Thanks Mark. It was all your idea; I’m just the hardware guy.”

  Johnathan gave Mark a grin before heading to the bedroom. He walked through Rose’s quarters before going into the bedroom and finally the restroom. Stripping off his undergarment he took a quick shower and dried off. He was a little more than disappointed when he climbed into the large bed by himself. He would have loved to see Rose before sleeping. He closed his eyes and began to daydream. As he thought more about the hydraulic arm for Mark he drifted off to sleep.

  * * * * *

  Johnathan was rustled out of his sleep when the bed began to shift from someone moving onto it. He realized immediately as he opened his eyes that it was Rose.

  She whispered, “Sorry if I woke you.”

  Groggily Johnathan said, “It’s okay. I missed you.”

  Rose snuggled closely up against him before whispering, “I missed you too. I’m sorry for being late. We got bogged down with the details of this expansion. I’m going to need your assistant to install all of the computers for the new hydroponics bay.”

  “Gregory can easily do that.” He said with a nod.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Not too bad. I got a lot accomplished with the sensor array plus I’ve started working on a hydraulic arm for Mark’s podium.”

  “That sounds exciting.”

  He was not entirely sure but he suspected that she was being kind and she was not really that excited about what he was telling her. He could not blame her; his work was not interesting to most people. As she got close beside him he could smell her perfume, it was very flowery. Once his hand made contact with her bare shoulder and she pressed into him he realized that she was not wearing anything. He rotated towards her and just gave her a kiss, which she responded to by laughing at him.

  * * * * *

  The morning alarm buzzed loudly again and the lights in the room immediately flickered on. Johnathan grumbled loudly. Rose chuckled at him as she popped off the bed. He could not understand how she could handle so little sleep and yet be right up so fast.

  Turning towards him she commanded, “Get up, it’s time for me to abuse you.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “Don’t care. If you want the rose you get the thorns.”

  He was not entirely sure what she meant but he got her hint so he pulled himself out of bed. After getting a drink of water and going to the restroom he got dressed with some shorts and a shirt from his drawer. They still were entirely too tight for his liking. One very distinct advantage of the nanotechnology running through the body every member of the ‘Skybound’ was the accelerated healing. Because of the nanotechnology they healed quicker a
nd built muscle faster than they could before the incident. He could already tell that just one day had made a very slight difference in the little excess weight he normally carried. He had no doubt that she would accomplish her goal if he did not find a way to dodge the torture sessions. Johnathan had little interest in physical fitness. He begrudgingly followed her through the ship and again back to the same rear bay of the ship. She started to stretch once they got into the bay. Once again he copied her as she stretched. When she was done she stood, which he mimicked, and started to run.

  As they finished the jog she turned and told him, “Okay we’ll start off with squats from one side and back. Then we’ll do a sprint there and back. Next we will do a spider crawl, frog leaps, and then repeat it all.”

  Johnathan groaned.

  She stepped out in front of him before asking, “See this?”

  Squatting down in front of him she slapped her rear. He had to admit that her rear was indeed lovely.

  “This is how it got that way and no comments about how you don’t want a rear like this. You’re getting your own version so get moving.”

  She stood up took a step and then squatted down again before repeating herself. He followed after her. They battled their way for an hour working on the exercises. His whole lower body and upper body were exhausted and they still had about thirty minutes left. As they finished the second run of sprints her watch began beeping loudly. She stopped running. Once he caught up with her he stopped next to her.