Working out

As it turned out, most of what Dustin could do while the various security forces investigated, tracked and traced the network of anti-governmental groups was… nothing. He wasn’t happy about it - but there really was very little he could do as one man, even with the entire power of the Solar Ascent at his back. The Uil’l deep caves made using the ship’s scanners a largely futile effort, and Yril’k had flatly refused to allow him to join any of her security teams on their joint sweeps through known hideouts of groups that were being watched by the government.

Some of those groups turned out to be complete duds. A group of Uil’l teenagers sitting around smoking and lazily discussing how they’d overthrow the government literally any day now, man, without anything more dangerous than a overflowing ashtray to their name. A group of angry older Uil’l who insisted that the world was better when they were young, for whom revolutionary activity mostly consisted of writing long-winded antisocial opinion pieces for increasingly smaller news site readerships. And many other groups that had a lot of noble or less noble goals, enthusiasm, and were about as dangerous as a wet napkin.

Then there were the others. Only a few, hidden in amongst all the random grumbles that any government inevitably receives - groups who would have usually been nothing more than angry people shouting at clouds (well, shouting at the rocky ceiling, the Uil’l being an underground race after all) suddenly having body armour, heavy **** weaponry, military-grade smoke charges and thermal goggles. It painted a distinct picture - one of coordinated destabilization. None of the groups had similar objectives; if they’d all acted at the same time, there would have been fighting in the streets as they attacked one another as well as security forces.

It reeked of outside influence, but they’d not been able to find a single common thread. Even the insurrectionists that had been interrogated had only given them more questions than answers. Anonymous donations, supply drops, sometimes raids on supposed ‘military’ warehouses that allowed bumbling amateurs to obtain stacks of equipment - from sites that weren’t owned by anyone as far as the actual military were concerned.

Someone or something was playing the varied and often incompetent grumbles of society like a violin, teasing notes here, plucking rhythms there, and under it all the vague hiss of chaos echoing down the long tunnels. It irked Dustin that he couldn’t spot any patterns in the shifting morass of data that was flowing in from Yril’k and the Uil’l guards; he felt it should be simpler than this - that there should be an obvious trail with this many moving parts that would lead them back to whoever was stirring trouble.

Staring at screens full of data in his ready room, Dustin’s head hurt. No matter what angle he took, he wasn’t having any more luck than the locals - or Meli, who he’d also tasked with investigating potential links between the various factions. Tossing his tablet down in disgust once more, he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. As he was doing so, he was vaguely aware of the door sliding open and someone entering; it was only when he looked up that he realized it was Yaerwen.

“Having a rough time?” She said, glancing across the array of screens and devices scattered on the table in front of Dustin before heading to the automat. “You need a break. It’s technically my night tonight according to that schedule thingy, but I don’t think the others will mind if we start a little early to get your head out of whatever funk you’re in from staring at pictures of shitty warehouses and packing crates. C’mon, I’ll grab you a workout drink and we’ll go burn off some stress.”

Dustin wasn’t entirely convinced of the Hoxx woman’s plan, but allowed himself to be chased out of his quarters regardless. She was trying to become part of his relationship after all - and if there was one thing he’d learned in space it was that his ladies usually came up with the right ideas at the right time.

The pair drifted along, talking idly, until Yaerwen led them into one of the ship’s gyms. Unsurprisingly given the time of day it was sparsely populated, a few of the crew nodding to the athletic woman or giving weary salutes to Dustin which he returned with a smile as the two of them crossed over to the changing area. Stepping inside one of the booths, Dustin changed quickly; the automat providing workout clothes and a storage unit claiming the casual wear he’d been dressed in.

Yaerwen was waiting for him when he emerged, her toned body filling out her sportswear in a way that did a lot to improve Dustin’s mood even before she gestured to the treadmills. “Your head is too full of stress to be safe lifting weights. Let’s run.” The amber-haired woman said, tapping the control on Dustin’s unit before seeing to her own. “Gentle walk and jog for a quarter mile, then we’ll up the tempo and work up a sweat.

The pair did as the Hoxx woman suggested; by the second mile, Dustin was alternating between focusing on his run and trying not to focus on how sweat beaded on the forearms and thighs of the woman next to him. The fact that the treadmills kept adjusting their angle to simulate the winding paths through rolling hills that were being projected onto the screen in front of them didn’t help, and more than once he almost lost balance. On the other hand, he hadn’t thought about the Uil’l situation the entire time, and that counted for something.

Sweaty and only slightly out of breath as the screens went blank and the run program finished, Dustin risked a glance at his companion. Yaerwen was already moving, casually considering the other equipment in the gym before settling on a set of dumbbells and sinking onto a bench. Sighing, Dustin moved to pick out his own set, noting as he did so that his go-to weight was slightly higher than the one chosen by the Hoxx.

“I want sustained exercise, not powering through a single lift,” the woman said as if reading his mind, curling her biceps as she did so. “This is well below my maximum weight, but it’s enough for a light workout to have an impact and isn’t so bad that I can’t talk while I’m working. How are you feeling now?”

Dustin set to work with his own weights, their heaviness a solid bulwark against any return of his frustration from earlier. “Better,” he said at last, grinning. “You were right to drag me down here - I was going crazy trying to figure out a connection between all the different groups.”

Yaerwen nodded. “That was the plan. Well, that and to get you all worked up; Bleu suggested that if I got a little heated and flexed a bit it might help my chances of progressing things like Defia managed.”

That comment almost caused Dustin to drop his dumbbells. “Bleu said that?” He asked incredulously. The idea of one of his women might suggest Yaerwen flex her muscles to get his attention certainly tracked with his expectations for them - but that it had been the ship’s medic to make the comment genuinely shocked him.

The amber-haired woman adjusted her grip on her weights and chuckled. “Yup. See, during that whole get-to-know-you thing you all made us do I took notes on everyone. I’m not a yes-sir kind of girl like Emely, nor am I particularly good about being all loved up like Meli or Trea’k or Rye. I kind of… need to do my own thing, you get me? So naturally I went to Bleu for advice. Did it work?”

Dustin snorted, his cheeks flushing slightly as he realized he’d been staring at her exposed midriff - and specifically, a drop of perspiration that had traced a path down from her top to the waistband of her shorts right above her… He blinked rapidly to clear his thoughts, then nodded. “Yea, I think it worked. We should… probably finish up with our workout?”

Yaerwen looked at him and grinned. “What, so we can get to a different kind of workout? Fucking finally… your place or mine?”

Setting his weights back on their rack, Dustin grinned. “Mine. We need a shower either way, and I’ve got the best one on the entire ship. No promises we won’t get company though, so if that’s an issue I’ll understand.

In reply, Yaerwen stuck her tongue out at him as she scrambled upright. “As long as they understand this is still my date night so I get first dibs on you, I won’t have any complaints about… assistants.”