How else can he travel this far out?
Except there’s no indication that he used a star road or that he did a time jump. To get to Yulin, my family traveled on the ship for ninety days, but we jumped fifty Earth years into the future due to the time dilation. I’m actually a hundred and eighty-four Earth years old, but since I’ve done three time jumps, I’ve only lived seventeen Actual years. Confusing, right?
If Jarren did a time jump, he should be younger. Instead he appeared to be around thirty-eight A-years old, which lines up with his last trip being from Xinji to Suzhou. But what about the looter that said the time dilation sucked for us, implying not for them? He also mentioned an obscenely rich patron. Maybe they discovered a way to travel without causing a time dilation. Argh. Too many unknowns!
By my forty-fourth lap, I’m sucking air. Sweat drips from my forehead and my tunic sticks to my back. When I hit fifty, I count down instead of up. A mental trick that gives me some energy. The laps start to blur together. My tongue turns into a dried-out piece of jerky. The material of my uniform rubs painfully against my inner thighs. As a headache thumps in my temples and bile churns in my stomach, I’m glad I didn’t have time to eat breakfast this morning. My world shrinks to the blue mat right in front of my feet. I lose track of…everything.
Then I almost run into Elese. She’s standing in my way. I stop and stare at her.
“That’s one hundred,” she says.
“That’s…nice,” I pant. Then the mat rushes up to meet me.
Cold water splashes on my face, filling my nose. I gasp and sit up. Well, I try. Hands press on my shoulders, pushing me back down. Elese leans over me.
“Easy there.”
I stare at her. “What happened?”
“You fainted.”
Great. “I’m okay. Let me up.”
She moves off and I sit up, but the room tilts and I close my eyes until the floor steadies. A cold container is placed in my hand. I chug the water without opening my eyes.
“And eat this,” Elese says, shoving an energy bar in my other hand. “Let me guess, you didn’t eat this morning.”
I grunt between bites. The food and drink revive me and I peek out. The room remains still, but Elese is frowning. Glancing around, I spot a couple of the other officers watching me. Great, just great. They haven’t really accepted me yet and now I’ve gone and given them another reason to doubt me.
“Don’t tell my parents or Radcliff about this. Please,” I add because her frown deepens. “They’ve been so…”
“I know.” Her face smooths. She plops down next to me. “Why do you think I’ve been so hard on you?”
“’Cause you’re sadistic?” I joke.
She huffs. “Not my thing. Training gives you poise.”
“Poise?”
“Confidence, competence, remaining calm under pressure. Poise.” Elese taps my chest with a finger. “What it isn’t is being cocky. Rather, being careful and controlled at all times. Being aware of the dangers around you.”
Her comment reminds me of when I joined the mission to check the base for looters when we first arrived at Yulin. The body language of the security team was a calm confidence, while I fumbled with my harness and almost threw up in zero gee.
“That incident with Jarren has shaken you,” Elese says. “You need to get your poise back. Once you’ve reclaimed it, then everyone will stop being so careful with you.”
That surprises me. “You mean I actually had it at one point?”
“Girl, if you didn’t, you would have curled up into a ball in the pits when the enemy attacked and we’d all be dead.”
I mull it over. Now Beau’s comments make more sense. I’ve been waiting for someone to say, okay you’re good to go, while they’ve been waiting for me to say, I’m ready to go. If it wasn’t for the meeting with the astrophysicists, I wonder how much longer it would have taken me to figure it out.
Feeling better, I ask, “What is your thing?”
She smirks. “Dump Niall and I’ll show you.”
I laugh. “Not my thing.”
“Pity. But no worries, I’ve been getting to know one of the chemistry techs. She says my eyes are beautiful.” She flutters her long dark eyelashes at me.
“They are. It’s a shame your feet stink.”
“Uh-huh. I see you’re recovered. All right, Recruit. Time to finish your punishment.”
Groaning, I hand my water jug to Elese, and do a sit-up. Only