Workout Chat

Posted on 19 Aug 2013 @ 4:55pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant JG Victoria Crawley & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton

3,147 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 6, Cargo Bay 3
Timeline: MD -01 - 1715 hrs

[ON]

Clear beads of sweat dripped furiously down Lirha's green forehead and bounced away from her face with every sprinting stride she took, some of them barely having time to grace the dark locks of her hair which were sticking to her forehead. Her arms swung methodically in tandem with the rest of her body as she furiously plodded away on the treadmill.

Galileo's makeshift gym was exactly as it seemed: a simple collection of workout machines and free weights situated in the corner of Cargo Bay 3. The tiny Nova Class was unfortunately not a ship built with many commodities installed which had led the crew to create their own workout area in the limited space available. Fortunately, the small crew compliment meant the cargo bay gym was less frequented, and Lirha was, for now, briefly enjoying a bit of time to herself as she worked out some undesired stress from her duty shift which had ended less than an hour and a half ago.

Victoria was tired. She could already feel her eyes starting to close and that was a bad thing. There was work that still needed to be done, and she still needed to catch up on all of the data from the last mission. Also, she hadn't worked on her Bajoran in a while and she wanted to at least get in a little study time. Yes, sleeping was out of the question and that was why she found herself heading to the cargo bay, determined to get in at least a very short run.

She walked in and instantly recognized the captain using one of the treadmills. Lifting a hand in greeting, she called out, "Hello Captain!" and went over to a treadmill, setting her water bottle down and starting the machine.

Absorbed in her own workout, Lirha barely noticed the new arrival had it not been for her verbal greeting. Taking a glance over her shoulder, her first glimpse of bright red hair made caused her to assume it was Siren, yet the voice was different and her appearance was not quite the same. It took a short moment of mental recollection but the captain quickly identified the slim woman as Lieutenant Crawley, the ship's psychologist.

"Hello, lieutenant." she replied as cordially as possible through huffed breaths as she continued to jog. "Here for a run as well?" she asked when she saw Victoria step near the treadmill next to her.

"Yeah," Victoria said as she started to ease into a jog. "It helps me think."

"Interesting...this is often where I come when I do not want to think." she replied with a sideways grin, then reached up to push a sweaty stray lock of dark hair from her eyes. She wasn't sure how far she had ran so far, but guess it was somewhere in the three to four kilometer range. It had been therapeutic, to say the least, and had provided her with an outlet for the tension of command which had built up over the past few days.

Victoria laughed lightly and picked up speed. "Yeah, I know what you mean," she said. She could just imagine herself as Captain and it wasn't a pleasant thought. As nice as it would be to be in charge, she didn't think she'd last five minutes in the Captain's chair. She had a great deal of admiration for the Captain, but she certainly did not envy her position. Looking over at Lirha, she could definitely see the tension marring her features. "Rough day?"

"Long would be the more appropriate word." the Orion replied in between breaths. The strange disappearance of USS Venture had kept her more preoccupied than she would have liked, and her fatigue was just as mental as it was physical.

Jacob had missed several days of his usual workout regimen and was quite upset at himself for doing it; so today he was going to make sure he wouldn't miss any more time, he packed his bag, put on some shorts and muscle shirt and went to the makeshift gym. As he walked by a few female cadets who stopped dead in their tracks just to watch him walk by; he just smiled and shook his head then entered the gym. He immediately saw his lovely Captain and Lieutenant Crawley already working out. "May I come in?" He said in a slightly embarrassed tone.

Lirha stole a quick glance over towards the new voice and quickly identified the large frame of Galileo's chief research officer. "Of course." she replied, not bothering to break her stride as she continued to job at an even faster pace now. "How was your shift, lieutenant?" she proceeded to ask the tall man.

Jacob smiled, almost blushing to be in the same room with the two lovely women, "It was well Captain. Very well." He smiled and nodded his head at Victoria, "Lieutenant Crawley, good to see you as well." He walked over to the free weights and began to load up the bar on the weight lifting bench until there was three hundred pounds resting there. He laid on the bench, took a deep breath, concentrated and took the bar off the rests and began to pump the bar like a slow but steady piston. Once, twice, three, four times and on and on until he reached twenty presses. He took a break of a few breaths and then went on to the next set. Notably, he did not seem to have much of a struggle with the weights whatsoever. After five sets of twenty presses he sat up, grabbed two fifty pound hand weights and walked over to the mirror and began to curl them, fifty times for each arm, as he watched himself to make sure that his body sculpting routine was having the effect he wanted.

Victoria nodded at the lieutenant's greeting but said nothing, finally breaking into a full out run. Falling into a good, steady rhythm, she let her mind wander a bit, looking around the room at the others and back to her own thoughts for a little while.

Jacob then into general calisthenics, doing a routine of fifty crunches, fifty push ups, fifty one handed push ups, then another round of fifty sit ups. He then sat back on the weight bench to gather his concentration once more, then added more weight to the bar; it stood at six hundred pounds when he finished. Laying back down he went in to rhythmical breathing and then started a series of ten bench presses before resting one minute and then continuing.

A few moments passed and the captain finally reached her limit and began to slow her pace on the treadmill. A quick cool down jog slowly restored her heart rate to a more appropriate level, after which she stepped off the machine and bent over to grab her towel and wipe her face and neck clean of sweat. She casually noticed that Pendleton was lifting what appeared to be massive amounts of weight. Many Orion males were his same height and build as well, and she fondly thought of her homeworld for a brief moment while she took deep breaths and regained her stamina. "Do you come to the gym often?" she asked him.

"Not usually.." As he continued his bench press workout, ".. I normally run one of my training holosims, but I thought I might change up my routine today.." He took another minute of breath then moved over to the universal machine so he could work his legs. "How about you Captain? Do you use this gym much?"

"A decent amount," she casually replied after taking a long drink of water from her bottle. She wondered how often Pendleton was able to use the holodeck especially considering the small ship's cramped nature; with a crew of over 70 and only two holodecks, it only left the average crew member with maybe an hour or two per week of usage time. Perhaps he had traded time with someone else? As for Lirha, her primary workout routine was here in the makeshift gym and also on the Deck 2 where she would run laps down the corridors every morning for twenty minutes before starting her shift. "It would be nice to have more expansive facilities, but sadly we do not have the space." she added with a fatigued sigh.

Victoria turned off her machine and looked over to the captain and Lt. Pendleton and considered what they were saying for a second. A pool, she decided. We need a pool. That would be fantastic. If there was a pool and a fully equipped workout room, Victoria would probably never leave. She couldn't help but pipe up wistfully, "That would be amazing," before going back to getting every last drop she possibly could out of her water bottle.

The Orion captain nodded in agreement. "Normally I would not mind converting a cargo bay into a full recreational area...however, we already have lost one bay to our new auxiliary shuttlebay, and there is not much room left to sacrifice for storage capacity. We already have several crates of various items being stored in the vacant crew quarters." she explained.

Jacob nodded, "Well, we'll make due as best we can. I am just glad that not everyone wants to use the holodecks at the same time, that saves me a lot of headaches for sure." He got up, wrapped his hands and started in on the body bag. He didn't hit it hard at first as he began with just warm up jabs, hooks and kicks.

Sitting down on a nearby bench, Lirha watched Jacob begin to workout on the large bag. Had he not been over a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than her, she probably would have asked him for a quick sparring session, but there was no realistic way she could win such a friendly match without the assistance of a phaser or by applying lethal force, as her command training had taught her. Instead, she glanced over at Victoria and gave her a small smile. "A phaser range would be nice, I admit." she mused.

Soon Jacob was warmed up and now pounding the bag... HARD.. so much so that he was close to making the bag jump of the hook. It was a rare moment as he usually few people ever got to see him release his frustrations, anger or energy upon something. Finally though he did a jump, reverse heel kick that indeed blasted the the bag right off its holder. It hit the floor with a hard thud. Jacob's focus now came back to the room and remembering he was not alone; he blushed sheepishly, and went and retrieved the bag and put it back on the hook. He cleared his throat and pretended that neither Lihra nor Victoria were paying attention.

Victoria nodded vehemently at the captain. "God, yes! It would be a great way to unwind or de-stress, for sure." One thing she loved doing back at the Academy was target practice. If there was a big test or she was upset about something, she'd often find herself there, firing away at the target as if her life depended on it. A phaser range on board would definitely make Victoria a very happy person.

The captain noticed Pendleton knock the bad off of its hook but didn't say anything, except for a silent mental chuckle. As long as it wasn't broken - which it didn't appear to be - she didn't mind, but apparently a simple punching bag was not enough of a challenge for him. Maybe she could requisition some additional holodeck training programs specifically for hand-to-hand combat once they returned to port.

Turning to back to Crawley, she tilted her head in thought as she considered the idea. "Perhaps we could incorporate a phaser range near our security offices. Because of the holographic nature of the training, it would require slightly less space than a full workout area." she nodded to herself in approval of the idea. "I will speak with Starfleet Operations the next time we dock at a starbase. Perhaps they will be able to assist us with the logistics and installation."

"A phaser range.." Jacob remarked as he spoke between his resumed pounding of the body bag, "...would be excellent in my estimation as I need to work on my phaser and rifle skills as much as I do my physical training.." He started to speed up his punches and kicks again, "..although it will never be as satisfying as my Wrestling simulation or my gridiron football simulation.." He smiled as he smashed the bag with a devastating right hand. It was clear to anyone watching that perhaps it was a good thing that Jacob was a 'gentle giant' simply because if there was almost any individual, almost regardless of species, standing there instead of the bag.. they might need an emergency room or possibly even a morgue.

Victoria laughed and shook her head. She almost felt sorry for the punching bag; Lt. Pendleton was pummeling it as if it owed him money. Okay, you have to admit that's kind of impresseive. She made a mental note not to get on his bad side and finished her stretches, reaching for her water bottle and taking a gigantic swig. Tired but satisfied with her workout, she sat on the floor and watched Lt. Pendleton continue to assault the punching bag.

Lirha moved over and sat down next to Victoria, then leaned over and whispered in her ear while she, too, watched Jacob strike the bag. "I think we need to replicate a larger, heavier target...one more suited to his size." she grinned.

Jacob's hand and feet were a flurry. It was obvious he was not only large of muscle but athletic as all get out. He was deft, light on his feet and very quick for man who was almost three hundred pounds... although that weight was probably all muscle... probably muscles on top of muscles as his massive arms seems to suggest bulging out from his sleeveless shirt.

Victoria smirked and continued to stare unabashedly. "Maybe one the size of a shuttle?" She sipped her drink and held the still slightly cold bottle to her forehead.

"Well, we do have a workbee currently sitting unused in our auxiliary shuttlebay..." Lirha chuckled softly in reply, then spoke up to Pendleton when he finished a series of strikes on the bag.

"I am curious, lieutenant...why are you not serving in the Security department? I would have thought someone with your genetics would have been recruited for that field early in your Academy training?" she wondered out loud, unable to resist asking the question.

Jacob took a deep breath and turned to face both of them, he grabbed a towel and wiped his face, "Well Captain, I could have gone that route, but I love learning, knowing, understanding and the 'whys' and 'what ifs' about things.. besides.. I really am not an aggressive man.. I am uncomfortable with having to use force or aggression..." He looked at their faces when he said that, looked at the body bag, then back at them, "...Inanimate objects used for exercise and practice and holograms used for such purposes do not count.." He smiled at both of them.

The captain nodded in understanding, then took a long drink of water from her own bottle. "That is a valid reason, absolutely. But I must confess, it seems that you could be an asset to our security department should the need ever arise. Have you thought about cross-training at all? It would allow you to develop and hone your security skills while still maintaining your research and science duties aboard the ship." she proposed with a raised eyebrow.

"Your former Marine Captain Fernandez thought the same Captain. And if you thought I would make good asset that way, then who I am to contradict my own Captain? I have no problem with cross training I assure you, but in truth Captain, I am a Scientist, I am a gentle man in most respects as I have stated with the caveat I just made, so I do not know how good to you I'd be but I would give you my best regardless if that would be your decision." Jacob sat down on the workout bench and took a drink of his Gatorade.

"I will keep that in mind during my next evaluation report, and perhaps I can speak with Lieutenants Rice and Rhodes to see how they feel about possibly working with you in the future. Maybe you could teach them a thing or two about scientific method, in return." Lirha winked. Security was a rather small department and no doubt they wouldn't mind an extra pair of hands, especially if the circumstances called for it.

Victoria nodded in agreement but said nothing and sipped her water. She would definitely feel better with another set of hands on the security team, especially after this business with the Venture. It would be nice to have extra protection for the ship and crew, should there be some kind of emergency.

The captain finished hydrating then gave her sweaty face one last wipe with her towel before rising from the bench and briefly stretching. She looked over at Crawley and Pendleton. "Unfortunately, I must return to my quarters for a shower now, then prepare for dinner." she politely informed them. "It was good to see you both, and I am pleased that you are keeping yourselves in shape." she added, then gave them a wave of her green hand before heading towards the exit.

Waving at the captain, she got up as well and turned to Pendleton. "I guess I should go, too. I've got a lot to do still." Just thinking about the pile of work waiting for her made her want to shudder. "Maybe I'll see you in the lab tomorrow?" She smiled at him one more time as she gathered her things and walked out of the cargo bay.

Jacob waived to both of them; waited until they both left the room, walked over to mirror and looked at the day's work and thought he looked pretty good, and then taking his shirt at the top he ripped it ala Hulk Hogan style and flexed his massive muscles just for fun. He then chuckled at the move and got his second shirt from the bag and put it on and then left the gym.

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Victoria Crawley
Psychologist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

RSS Feed