Jacqueline climbed on to one of the treadmills. "Sounds good. I'll try my best. I wear a uniform, but my field is mathematics and physics." Running was one of her better skills physically; she had good endurance. "Were you the star athlete back in school? You seem like the type."

Hrolf jogged slowly.  "I've found that I have to take extra care to work on my endurance when shipboard.  It's easy to get out of shape even if you are using weights."  He smiled at her and shook his head.  "I played all the typical contact sports.  I was fairly good and even played on a couple of teams during OCS but nothing to write home about."  He continued jogging, glancing at Jacqueline as they ran together.  "I've found that my mind is sharper with the exercise.  There is something in me that gets restless if I don't work out vigorously.  What about you Jacqueline?  You seem comfortable running." 

"Me? I danced ballet when I was young." Jacqueline said, pirouetting gracefully before beginning her run. "In high school I, um" she said then verbally stumbled, blushing. "I, I cheered. It's been a long time."

"Back home, sports is mostly done in domes. The atmosphere isn't conducive to outdoors activity. At the Academy, going for a run seemed to clear my head." she said, a little rushed. "But I can't claim any particular track expertise."

Hrolf watched admiringly as Jacqueline twirled on the treadmill and then started to trot.  He ran for a bit in silence as she spoke using the time to get into a rhythm. "Cheer is a difficult sport.  The girls were out on the field nearby doing their practices while we worked out.  The gymnastics, athletics and dance skills required in some of the routines was impressive."  He chuckled.  "Of course the girls were impressive themselves as well.  It could be pretty distracting while we were trying to focus on the game."

He shook his head.  "We were blessed with a T-prime environment on Karin.  It was a good place to grow up although I'd imagine living in a domed world would make you sharp and ready for any disaster." Hrolf didn't seem to notice Jacqueline's hesitations and blush.  It was possible that he'd missed it or perhaps was avoiding the more emotional subjects.  "Well let's run for a bit then, clear our heads and loosen up and then we can work with some of the weights."

"It could be difficult. I can't say I was ever the most gifted, but I always did enjoy dancing." Jacqueline said. She giggled a little when he said the girls could be distracting too. "Well, we can't have distractions on duty. Should I promise not to get out my old pom-poms?" She was getting more at ease around Hrolf and more able to joke.

"You were fortunate to grow up there, Hrolf. You never realize how frustrating a tainted atmosphere is until you go to a planet that's perfectly breathable. After that, it's awfully frustrating to put a breath mask again. But I suppose it did make me aware of danger." she said, getting a slightly far-away look in memory. She nodded and focused on running, trying to keep a steady pace.

Hrolf chuckled with Jacqueline as his natural reticence was slowly overcome as he got to know the lively and intelligent woman. "The skills in dance are similar in some ways to sword fighting and close combat.  If you want as the cruise progresses we could practice with cutlasses or hand to hand combat with the marines." He shook his head, a broad smile on his face.  "I just got a picture of you with pom poms on the bridge.  That was funny.  But you would be very, very distracting and likely cause me to drive the ship into a star."  His tone was light, pleased and relaxed as they jogged slowly and chatted.

He glanced over at her as Jacqueline spoke.  "Growing up in a place like that does give you an advantage in serving in the confines of a ship.  Learning to live in the cramped spaces, especially on the little escort I spent a good deal of my career in was very difficult."

Jacqueline shook her head. "Fencing, maybe I'll try. Hand to hand combat, no way. Nobody beats me up when I practice dancing." She had nowhere near the confidence she would need to spar with some marine twice her size.
"I'll avoid cheering then, I can't be responsible for this grand ship burning up. My old cheer routines are probably rusty, anyways" she said, smiling.

"I don't mind being on the ship so much, but I love to visit new worlds, so I take every excuse I can to go down to the surface." she mentioned as they ran.

Hrolf nodded slowly in agreement with Jacqueline.  "Fencing is a good all body work out and your dancing experience should shine if we use rapiers rather than sabers or cutlasses." He returned her smile as he imagined her in a cheer outfit on the bridge.  Hrolf blushed for a moment and shook his head. "If we can get shore leave I'd be glad to escort you planetside.  The new cultures and planets are one of the perks of the navy.  When I was on the Gazelle class escort we did a lot of patrolling and made a number of show the flag kind of port calls.  I'm not sure how that will work with a big ship like our lady here."

"Oh, I might take you up on that. I understand there's not much to see on Mtensic, dry word with a sparse population, but I'd still like to see it. Someday the experience of seeing new worlds might get old, but that's still a long way away for me." Jacqueline said. "Do you know if we're sending anyone down to the surface?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:30, Wed 23 Sept 2020.

Hrolf ran along quietly for a bit as Jacqueline spoke. "I've heard there will be limited general liberty.  As you said the population is limited and a big shore party on leave would swamp the place." He was quiet for a while again.  "I'm not sure that traveling will ever get completely old.  Still, without a home hearth to call my own I can't judge how I might feel if I had a family and land."

"True, true. The trick is how to be part of the 'limited'" Jacqueline responded. "Is that your goal, land and a family when you leave the service?"

Hrolf shrugged. "As officers on the bridge I am sure we can apply to the XO for permission.  It is perhaps leaning on influence a bit but then why not see the planet at least a bit if there is time."  He was quiet again for a while.  "A family certainly when I leave this life.  Land is stability and prosperity back home, there could be many analogues for it if one live more broadly.

"I suppose it all comes down to influence" Jacqueline said. She nodded cheerfully at his  "It's good to have goals, ambitions. I hear the Navy is a good way to rise in life"

She put on a burst of speed. "I'm okay so far, but weights are where I really embarrass myself."

Hrolf shrugged. "As long as we don't abuse it a bit of influence isn't a bad thing.  It's sort of expected within limits."  He sped up himself to match her burst of speed.  "The navy is the senior service of course.  You can rub elbows with the nobles and well connected if you want.  That's not so much my goal though; I don't set my sights quite so high.  I'd rather enjoy my service than fight for every bit of position and privilege."

He considered her for a moment.  "We can keep the weights light and go for aerobic exercise rather than heavy lifting.  You have the endurance to do a lot of reps at low weights and get a lot out of it."

"As long as it's within limits" Jacqueline said. "You certainly can. But I tend to agree with your policy" she said, stifling a giggle.

"Do you think this will be an interesting deployment? I kind of wish we were visiting more populous worlds." she said a little hesitantly. "I'm not expecting any real trouble... which suits me just fine, to be honest."

"Lead on, fearless leader." she replied to his suggested changes to the exercises.

Hrolf came to a stop on the treadmill.  He was sweating and breathing a bit faster but didn't seem to be too fazed by the work out so far.  "I think we will have a very intense deployment.  The captain is dead set on making a name for himself and the ship and there are political actors in the Navy and the nobility that seem to be dead set to see us if not fail then be less than successful.  I strongly doubt if we'll see real action but we will all need to be on our toes ready for anything that comes at us."

He bowed slightly to Jacqueline and then led the way over to the weights.  The set up was strictly one of machines with only a few well secured free weights.  Hrolf took a look at Jacqueline and set the weights on one of the machines.  "Try that... it may be light but it's best to start out easy and work into it.  Just grip with both hands and pull upward in a rowing motion.  You want to stand with your legs about shoulder width apart."

"An intense deployment isn't really to my liking" Jacqueline admitted after coming to a stop. She was breathing hard, but she'd held up pretty well. "Politics is always so dull, I'd take mathematics any day."

Jacqueline smiled at Hrolf's bow. "I'll do my best." She walked over to the machine and started working with it, although her performance wasn't impressive. (OOO: STR 5!)

Hrolf nodded sympathetically.  "Intense or not the chance to serve aboard a heavy cruiser in billets a grade or two above our ranks is not to pass up.  It'll help later on with other jobs but just having the ability to be part of the senior staff and make important decisions and actions is worth it for me."  He snorted.  "The politics be damned."

He helped Jacqueline get set up if she needed help and then started his own work out.  Hrolf kept things light and focused more on reps than weight. "It's about Will and making your goal rather than some impressive lift.  I'm impressed that you're willing to step out of your comfort zone."

"I suppose it will help, but I don't usually worry that much about advancing my career. Astrogation is different depending on the Jump drive, and bigger ships have more amenities, but really, my job doesn't change much whatever ship I'm on." Jacqueline admitted. "I supposed I'd have more assistants to worry about."

She kept exercising. "Thanks! I'm just awfully glad I didn't join the marines."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:09, Tue 10 Nov 2020.

Hrolf nodded silently as he worked out for a set of reps.  "If this cruise works out we may as well get our choice of our next service.  I think that would be better than an automatic promotion of cushy job on a staff planetside."  He shrugged.  "The drawback about promotions is that you get to do less and less of the meaningful work.  That is one reason I don't hunger for promotion."

At Jacqueline's words he laughed in a friendly fashion. "No, I'm not for the Marines either especially after my accident.  They rebuilt me nicely but I've never quite been the same."

"Hopefully it will work out. What's your dream assignment? Frontier? Capitol?" Jacqueline asked.

She paused and looked over curiously. "Accident? What happened?" Then she looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry."

Hrolf worked for a bit.  "I'd say something out on the Frontier, maybe even as far as the Trojan Reaches or even the Far Frontiers sector.  There is more flexibility away from the main commands."  He looked over at Jacqueline.  "And what about you?  Do you want to join the giltterati in the Core?"

He looked at Jacqueline. "I was assigned to a light cruiser in the Jewel subsector.  We were showing the flag along the neutral zone.  My job was flying a fighter.  We got into some close confrontations with Zhodani ships and my fighter was bumped and damaged.  I made it back to the cruiser but the docking was hard.  I was in regeneration for three months to fix my legs and back."

"Brave man" Jacqueline replied as she worked out. "I'm sure the Core worlds are beautiful to see, but I'm not sure I would want to work so close to all the brass hats. Seems like we'd be under the microscope. I'd just like to be posted to somewhere with a lot of interesting worlds and cultures, but not bordering the Zhos or Swordies. I'm not afraid, but my work is easier when no one is trying to kill me."

Jacqueline paused and looked away shyly. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. I'm just glad you are okay now."

Hrolf considered Jacqueline for a bit.  "I think the frontiers would suit you well.  They aren't as rough as you hear and there is more diversity in worlds and cultures.  Certainly being near the Zho would be dangerous as would my cousins in the Sword Worlds." Hrolf grins at this last bit.

He shrugged at the mention of the injury. "It was bad for a while but I'm over it I think."

Jacqueline recovered when she realized she hadn't offended Hrolf. She smiled at his words. "I'd like to see that, although I never saw myself as the tough frontierswoman type. The farther I keep away from the Zhos the better. I don't like the thought of the rifling through my mind. The Swordies seem like they could be nice, at least between wars."

She admired the way he seemed unbothered by what had happened to him in the accident. She doubted she would have been able to do the same.