“How are you feeling this morning?” asked Maia as Sadie entered the gym.
“I’m fine.”
Sadie felt very far from fine. The sensors helping correct her posture made her muscles burn. The new, rich food must be getting to her because her insides felt twisted. Sleep was eluding her. Her internal clock shouldn’t have been so messed up. Sadie grew up underground where she never knew the sun, but the freighter was different. The reservation had a clear schedule and everyone knew when the lights dimmed, it was time for sleep. Here, time was as real as Maia. Maia was always ready and Louis didn’t seem to rest like a normal person. Access to a seemingly endless database wasn’t helping either. It had only taken four days for Sadie to become screen addicted.
“What would you like to start with today?”
“I don’t care.”
“Ballet lessons it is.”
Maia walked to the bar next to the mirrors and her clothing changed to a pair of black yoga pants and a tank top. Her hair wrapped itself into a thick braid and she flipped it over her right shoulder.
“I wish I could do that.” Sadie’s hair agreed, bouncing wildly with every step.
“You can. I can show you later if you like.”
“Why is everything I want always later?”
“Because what you want isn’t essential.”
Sadie took off her socks and threw them through the hologram. Maia smiled with a look that said she would be returning the favor. She started a stretching routine and Sadie mirrored her.
“I refuse to believe this was a real dance.”
“It was.”
“I also refuse to believe humans can be as flexible as you.” Sadie was struggling to get her leg up while Maia was holding hers in a way that didn’t seem anatomically possible.
“Years of practice,” grunted Maia. “You’re the lucky one. Most ballerinas are your size, tall and skinny. Girls with my legs don’t usually try this.”
“Then why do you?”
“A lot of athletes and warriors trained in ballet. It looks silly, but it improves balance and core strength.”
“You expect me to believe Louis can do ballet?”
“He hasn’t in years, but his flexibility would astonish you.”
“Do tell,” said Sadie.
“That’s airlock talk, honey.” Maia grinned and Sadie felt herself blushing.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“You did, and it’s okay. Just keep your hands to yourself.” There was a warning behind that grin.
After physical therapy was breakfast, which Louis was absent from. Then it was time for lessons, which consisted of sitting in her cabin either listening, reading, or working on subjects that Maia deemed important. When she was dying of boredom, it was back to the gym for another layer of working out. She could take a break at any time, but there wasn’t anything to do. Researching any topic she wanted was fun, but Maia always tried to return her to schooling. It didn’t help that the computer frequently reminded her if she wanted to be lazy, there was a prosperous future as a whore awaiting her. The message was even more confusing by Maia’s jokes that any advances on Louis would be met with deadly force.
“You seem distracted,” commented Maia.
“I’m bored. Isn’t there anything else we can do?”
“Such as?”
“What do people do for fun in space? What does Louis do when he’s bored?”
“Many things, few of which you are ready for.” Sadie was beyond done with these little jabs. Maia must have noticed her frustration. “I think I have an activity perfect for you. Back to the gym.”
“I don’t want to work out,” huffed Sadie.
“You’ll like this. Come along.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Grumbling, Sadie followed her back into the gym. Her anger changed to confusion when she saw a brown pole emerging from the floor like a miniature tree. It snapped open its branches, suddenly looking more like an out of proportion turnstile with pads. Some branches were longer or bigger. Comically, some were shaped like gigantic hands.
“May I introduce your sparring partner,” said Maia, a little too gleefully.
“What is it for?”
“Sparring. Level 1.” She addressed the practice dummy and a pair of arms at head height began to rotate slowly. “You can either dodge or parry the attack.” Maia demonstrated by ducking under the slow moving hand and stopping the next with her hand. The dummy hand began to rotate in the opposite direction. “Try it out.”
Sadie moved cautiously up to the dummy. It was moving so slowly that a normal person would not have found it intimidating. Sadie on the other hand, had been on the wrong side of enormous paws before. Its slow pace was spot on for an ursa. The biggest creatures always seemed to move at a slow lumber until they lashed out.
“It’s safe,” said Maia, reassuringly. Seeing the girl’s hesitancy, Maia closed her hands and every other branch retreated into the base pole, leaving only the slowly rotating fan on top. “Is that better?”
It was. Sadie knew all the additional hands were still present, but for now, there were only two moving in a predictable pattern. Squatting down, she crept forward, keeping her body below their swings. She remained longer than expected, getting comfortable with its rhythmic movements. At level 1, it moved ungodly slow. The padded hand looked soft yet firm. She tentatively put up a hand and the pad hit her with the force of a small child. It passed by slowly and she smacked the next one lightly. It was enough pressure and the hands rotated the opposite way. Emboldened, Sadie stood up and smacked the other hand.
“Level 2,” said Maia. The hands slid around a little faster. Sadie pushed them back. “See? It’s easy.”
It wasn’t until level 7 that the speed became difficult. The best she could do was punch one of the hands and then duck before the other came around. It quickly turned into a squat session as Sadie couldn’t keep up.
“Level 5, variable rotation.”
The hands slowed, but no longer moved in a stable orbit. They randomly changed direction while losing very little speed. Maia said variable, but Sadie was pretty sure she was being screwed with. The hands always reversed just as she got close, making her look like a taunted kitten flailing its tiny paws.
“Will you stop it!”
“Stopping.” The hands froze.
“That is not what I meant.”
“Resuming.” A hand swung around at a much faster speed and slapped Sadie to the floor. “Reducing to Level 3.” Sadie could hear the smile in Maia’s voice.
“That wasn’t funny.”
“I am hysterical.” Maia nodded to the machine, the top limbs retracted, and two opened at the base. “Level 1.”
“Don’t do that again.”
“Or what?”
“Huh?”
“I said or what.” Maia faced her with a placid expression. “What will you do to me? You can’t hurt me.”
“Why are you hurting me then?”
“You?” The rotating legs extended out in a move that surprised Sadie, sweeping her off her feet. She banged hard against the padded ground. The legs were already back, freezing centimeters from her face. Maia stepped over her, no longer smiling. “We have remade your body on a cellular level. You have access to the finest education in the universe and I have custom tailored the experience for you. I have made myself available to you day and night in an effort to ensure your comfort and train you into something worthwhile. You are traveling with a mythical being that your species tells stories about around barrel fires.” Maia crouched, making the motion to clear tears from Sadie’s eyes. “Now why are you on the floor?”
“Because you put me here,” whined Sadie.
“Yes, we did. This might be the hardest lesson you’ll ever have to learn. You and everyone you grew up with were bred for subservience. Humanity was not always a meek species. We made you docile and stupid, busy and easily distracted because it makes you easier to control. If you want to succeed, you will have to break lifelong habits that told you to hide and never question authority. You will need to become stronger and when you can’t be stronger, smarter.” Maia stood up and the sparring dummy retracted itself into the floor. “I cannot help you get up. All I can do is give you the tools to better yourself.” Maia’s form flickered and then vanished.
Unsure of what to do, Sadie stayed where she was. Maia would come back any minute with something new for her to do. It quickly dawned on her that she was probably being given time to clean herself up. Being presentable was the equivalent of not showing weakness after all. Sadie stood, wiped her face clean, and straightened her clothes. Five minutes went by and Maia did not reappear. When ten minutes went by, Sadie figured she must be in the wrong place and returned to her room. Maia did not have her screen loaded with topics, questions, or quizzes. It was frighteningly quiet without her constant presence.
“Maia?” Sadie asked quietly, almost hoping she wouldn’t respond.
“I am busy. Please entertain yourself.”
The voice was bland, uninterested in her query. Knowing that she could be back at any moment, Sadie opened a new screen and found some of the lessons they’d been working on before. She could get ahead in anatomy and physiology. Sadie had never thought of them as interesting before, but it was enlightening after her body had been changed. She was terrible at everything involving space, which meant she should probably study that to not disappoint Maia later.
Her hands froze over the keyboard. Was she supposed to be doing any of this? Sadie had freedom to research anything she liked, but all of their lessons were directed by Maia. Would the computer get mad? Was Sadie breaking the rules? It was still hard to guess what the rules were. She could always ask Maia, but asking for direction could show her as incompetent and interrupt a more important task. Interrupting could lead to punishment, so Sadie closed the lessons.
But she should remain busy, which meant doing something productive. She could go back to the gym, only Maia had seemingly dismissed her from there. That left researching topics she found interesting, which frustrated Maia because they weren’t as useful. The most productive thing she could do were her lessons, but she didn’t know if she was allowed!
Pulse rising, Sadie pushed a button that started the ambient reservation noises. Then she dimmed the lights and curled into a mass of blankets. Someone would come back and tell her what to do eventually.