The hold contained nothing extraordinary. Several walls had been erected to separate different types of resources, and probably also to make the room containing the stasis cylinders less accessible. This one, having a stealth coating, must have escaped the Hogloos’ scanners, or at least its exact contents must have escaped them.

Going back up to the living floor, she decided to explore the secondary rooms of the main corridor. She already knew the infirmary, but there were several doors left. Opening the next one, she discovered an empty room where spare parts and construction materials were piled up.

Moving to the other side of the corridor, she discovered with surprise that all the doors on this side led to a single room, extending deeper than the others on the floor. On her left, there was a pool filled with water, while on her right stretched a sort of obstacle course, containing electric barriers and obstacles to climb or jump. There was even a rope that probably allowed one to move above the pool.

Libre was in the room, engaged in some sort of military training. Oddly enough, he wasn’t wearing combat armor, but was bare-chested and wearing pants with a motley pattern of green and brown: a sort of primitive camouflage pattern that was only seen in some old war movies.

He had a large training pistol in his hands that greatly hampered his various movements, when he jumped, crawled or threw himself to the ground to avoid the beams of the combat drones. Obviously set to inflict only light shocks, these small drones and a few padded androids harassed him at random moments of his progression. They then only retreated once they were hit by a beam from his pistol, or struck by his fists.

Sava couldn’t help but smile at the seriousness with which the Hom carried out these strange exercises. The combat armors performed all these movements in place of their users and automatically healed any sprains caused by these unusual actions: there was no point in training without them. However, the dedication that Libre put into this training commanded a certain respect.

She noted that he was not excessively muscular, rather what one could call “finely muscled”. In the Administration, most males of the different species, including theirs, liked to have impressive musculature and resorted to electrical simulation to develop their muscles much more than that. Perhaps Libre was a fan of more natural methods?

Throwing himself to the ground, he avoided a beam in extremis and pointed his weapon at the drone. Missing his first shot, he hit it with the second, forcing it to interrupt its attacks. Obviously, the Hom was aiming in manual mode. Catching his breath, he raised a hand to indicate to the automatons to leave him alone for a moment. His gaze wandered over the course and stopped on Domeria.

The young woman blushed and looked away. Men might have no problem being topless, but it was still a little awkward... And then, had she given the impression of looking at him a little too intensely? It would be annoying if he got ideas. After all, she was just looking to... understand him better... it was... natural for an administrative agent to look carefully at anything that could give it clues to understand the people it was dealing with, right?

“Do... Domeria? I didn't hear you come in.”

“Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to disturb your... your training. Do you like to do physical training as a hobby?”

The Man grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat that was dripping down his chest and face. He didn't use the drones' precision lasers.

“Yes… Well, it’s not just a hobby: it can always end up being useful…”

“Yes… in some extreme cases where the situation is already doomed… Sorry, I didn’t want to judge you…”

“But, do it. Even if I get offended, it’s my problem.”

“Not everyone will have that opinion. Personally, if you judge me in a way that offends me, I wouldn’t appreciate it.”

“I’m a Homtest: half the inhabitants of the universe certainly already have a bad opinion of me, without even knowing me. It’s not one negative judgment more or less that will have the slightest effect on me.”

“Okay: I find all this training ridiculous.”

“You said yourself that you wanted to take up sport again.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

She looked away, slightly embarrassed by his mocking look. By “sport,” she meant relaxation machines capable of improving the condition of muscles by stimulating them. Not a competitive sport or that kind of physical exercise.

“Well, here's a chance to start again: the course starts here...”

“What? No!”

“Don't worry: the model of clothing you're wearing has an antiperspirant system.”

“That's not the problem! Well, not the only one...”

“Of course: ‘Lost Truth’, reduces the difficulty of the training and passes it on one.”

Immediately, the course changed, sometimes under a visible impulse from the drones, sometimes without any apparent action. The barriers lowered, the slopes inclined a little more, several combat robots moved aside to park at the edge of the room and deactivate themselves...

“There.”

“I said I don't want to do this!”

“Because you're not capable?”

“Hey! Don't try to manipulate me.”

“Okay, okay. But, are you sure you wouldn't want to try?”

Well: in fact, the experience was tempting… The fact of making a fool of oneself in front of Lhom, a little less… But, with the training reduced to level one, there was not too much risk of being ridiculous…

“Okay. How does this course work?”

Lhom explained the different steps to her and then gave a light version of his training weapon and a shoulder strap to carry it more easily. It was probably the level one version.

Feeling a hint of excitement at this unusual entertainment, Sava threw herself into the course. She ran, bent down to crawl, jumped over barriers that weren't that high, shot at a few rather slow drones... Well: this last point wasn't quite perfect, since she had machine-gunned almost the entire room before managing to hit them, when they were finally close enough. In any case, no one, at least no soldier or hunter, ever used manual mode in real conditions... But she could feel the Hom's amusement at her failures and it was quite frustrating.

Then, after climbing the representation of a mountainside with a 45° slope and many holds, she found herself facing an impressive obstacle: the rope bridge over the water. At her level, there were three ropes: one to walk on and two to hold on to. On the other side, it was the end of the course. In theory, Lhom would then swim across the pool, but she had no intention to bathe.

She advanced, one step at a time, on this thick but moving rope. She had never been afraid of heights, but the feeling of finding herself up high, in an unstable balance, made her heart beat. It was not unpleasant.

Then she slipped.

As her feet left the rope and waved in the void, she desperately grabbed the same rope with both hands. The sudden tension of her own weight on her arms was painful, but the fear of falling allowed her to hold on. She couldn't help but scream as she lost her balance, then scream again as she kicked her legs in vain in the void. She heard Libre's voice:

“Don't be afraid: there's an anti-gravity fall retarder. You won't crash on the water.”

With tears in her eyes, she nodded. Her hands, enduring the full harshness of the rope, begged her to let go. Now that she had the assurance that her fall would slow down, she could let herself go.

Sava let go of the rope and fell like a stone into the water, accompanied by a large spray. Rising to the surface, spitting out the water she had swallowed and pushing aside her soaked hair that was obscuring her vision, she did a few strokes to quickly reach the edge of the pool. She tried to lift herself out of the water without success, then groped along the edge until she found the ladder to get out.

Laughing, Libre handed her a towel and she wiped her face before looking at him furiously. Her suit didn't deform when it came into contact with the water, but, soaked, it seemed as full inside as it was dripping outside.

“A FALL DELAYER?” she screamed. “REALLY?”

“But yes, there is one... However, it only works if the systems, depending on the angle of the fall and a whole bunch of details, detect a physical risk when falling...”

“I thought I was going to land gently on the surface of the water and float to the edge!”

“What? Why do you think I put this rope above the water and not somewhere else?”

“Well... For optimizing space?”

“Well no.”

Furious, she began to walk towards the door, each step creating a puddle and spraying water from every hole in the suit. Trying to hide his amusement, Lhom pointed out the changing rooms in one corner of the room, where one could change for the pool. The internal interface could teleport new clothes directly from the matter synthesizer. With a grunt, she changed direction to one of the changing rooms.

In the shelter of this booth, she shed her soaked clothes and sat down on the bench there. Taking deep breaths, she calmed herself. Although he had encouraged her to try this course and couldn’t help but make fun of her, she had to admit that she had no real reason to hold a grudge against Libre. In fact, she felt mostly humiliated… and wet…

If she was already soaked, she might as well go swimming: at least it was a hobby she had already practiced. She ordered a swimsuit on the interface that left her arms and legs free to move. She hesitated to leave her back free, but after thinking about it decided that she would feel too uncomfortable with such a choice. It’s not that she was afraid of Lhom’s gaze… well, a little bit anyway…

When she went out, she discovered that Libre had fallen asleep on a gel chair installed near the water. It was certain that after his stupid training, he must have been tired. She was about to go down the pool ladder when she stopped, an idea forming in her head…

“No,” she said to herself, “I’m not a kid anymore: such revenge would be ridiculous… But fun…”

With a vengeful smile, she gently pushed the chair so that it floated on the water… and when he will want to get up… She refrained from snickering at the thought.