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Month 9 Day 8

(Shore Leave Day 9)

0930 Hours

Bugalu

The gym was nearly empty. It might be the middle of the work week on this planet, Bugalu thought as he paused to consider the various pieces of equipment.

“Hurry up,” Tall Bear called to him.

Bugalu walked over to where Tall Bear stood with Mac. “I figured I’d just do my own workout.”

“I wouldn’t call what you do a workout,” TB returned with a poker face. “Look, Mac says she’s fine, but she seems nervous. Jumpy. So maybe if we do this as a trio, she’ll calm down.”

Now that he looked, Bugalu saw pink flags of color in Mac’s cheeks as she flexed her joints and warmed up. “You okay, Mac?”

She gave him a smile as she moved toward the largest machine. “Don’t worry, Bugsy, I know who I am. In fact, Kolla’s memories are an... add-on to mine. I can explore them, but they don’t present themselves as mine.”

“That’s good.” He watched as she adjusted the weight she intended to move around. No hesitation, no grimacing, no pausing to figure out the math. She just dialed it in, as if math isn’t an ordeal for her.

“Not that much,” TB told her. “You haven’t been working out lately.”

Now she grimaced. “Too little time, too much to do.” She dutifully lowered the weight and got into position in the machine, gave the unconcerned TB a hard look. “You ready?”

“Any time,” he responded.

She began her workout, and although she was obviously putting effort into it, she used far less effort than any non-heavy-worlder would have thought necessary for that much weight. Still, it wasn’t long before she started to slow down, and then she stopped half-way through a movement. “Help,” she muttered, and Bear stepped forward, helped her move the weights to their resting position. “Thanks,” she got out between pants. “You’re right. I haven’t been doing this enough.”

“Good of you to admit it,” Bear returned, and reached for the weight controls. Mac slammed her body backwards to put more distance between her and his hand. Bear turned to Bugalu. “See?”

“What’s wrong, Mac? It’s been a while since Bear has made you this nervous.”

“I have a theory,” she stated as she got out of the machine. “Not being a bio-chemist, I don’t know if it’s any good. When I had that allergy attack, they scanned my brain chemistry and found it significantly changed from human normal.”

“That what Doc said. That’s why everybody’s been watching you ever since.”

“Yeah, it’s creepy,” she muttered, then tossed him a bright smile as Bear got into the machine, the weight adjusted for him. “On the other hand, it’s nice people care about my state of mind.”

“Friends,” Bear rumbled as he moved the weights rhythmically. “We’re called friends.”

She gave the AmerInd a thoughtful look. “For most of my life, I wasn’t allowed to have any.”

“Don’t get side-tracked,” Bugalu suggested. “When Doc pulled up the scan from your first day on the Fireball, your brain chemistry was well within normal human parameters.”

“Right. So that’s what they worked to get my brain chemistry to. And I feel like myself again.” She hesitated half a minute. “Like I just got to the Fireball.”

“Well, that’s...” Wait. She could hardly hold herself together that first day. The panic in her eyes when I asked how she got her lieutenant’s stripe. Once I saw how she’d been treated on her previous assignments, I understood, but it took time to get her out of the mindset her father had installed. “Pa is back?” he asked quietly.

“As strong as ever,” she admitted sadly. “I hope it won’t take so long to get him quieted again. I like having friends!”

“What’s that mean, her pa is back?” Bear asked.

“Her father taught her that letting a man touch her was tantamount to letting them rape her,” Bugalu explained. Mac didn’t protest, but her face turned pink. “That’s why she was nervous.”

Bear grunted. “Then I’m glad I noticed. But, Shorty. I’m tired of getting a black eye, so stop falling asleep in public, okay?”

“Yes,” she agreed quietly, then gave him a good look. “Doesn’t look like I gave you one the other day.”

“No. But you weren’t exactly yourself.”

“Very true,” she agreed. “Between remnants of Kolla’s bio-chemistry, and those berries mucking things up, I was very much not myself.”

“Welcome back, Mac. Even if it does complicate my correcting your form if its needed.”

Bugalu saw her brows start to push together at a simple statement that ‘Pa’ might consider flirtatious. “How you holding up, Mac? Need a nap after this?”

“No!” She seemed horrified by the suggestion. “I’ve spent half this shore leave sleeping and recuperating.”

“Yeah,” Bear agreed. “Dog and I had to recuperate from that trek, too. But don’t tell her I told you.”

Mac nodded. “So the sauna, a shower, and then what?”

“I suppose you want to go shopping.”

“I did that with the girls.”

“Even your whiskey?”

“Don’t want to hear it!” Bear declared, and ended his time in the machine. He sat and took a deep breath before he got up. “Your turn, Bugsy.”

Bugalu groaned and turned to Mac. “Now you’ve got him calling me that!”

“Not her fault,” Bear told him. “Been looking for a nickname for you for years. Now, if the captain calls you that...”

Mac laughed. “I want to be there when that happens! Come on, you two, what else is there to do on shore leave?”

“Well, half of the 5th floor of the mall is a giant gaming arcade,” Bear stated. “I don’t think Xenokis would mind if you joined us this afternoon.”

“Matt and Bugs spent all their down time in the Academy arcade,” Mac stated.

“Not all of it,” Bugalu corrected. “But Matt did love Nooto.”

“That game is fun,” Bear agreed. “And this place has the latest version, so Xenokis and I are going to check it out.”

“That’s fine for me,” Bugalu stated. “But Mac doesn’t play.”

“What makes you think I don’t play?”

“You never did at the Academy.”

“Right. For 2 years, I watched you 2 play, trying strategies, tweaking plans. Finding what would work and what wouldn’t. Then you graduated. I wasn’t going home. I had 2 summers to try my hand playing against the automated version. Believe me, the better I got, the harder the computer played. Which means, Bugsy, that you haven’t got a chance.”

“You can’t turn down a challenge like that,” Bear observed, and the thing was settled.