more reckless, like
losing 50 pounds in 4 weeks or body building for appearance rather than skill
and power.
Star Force was no nonsense when it came to training
and, basically, everything else. For those individuals who didn’t like that
approach and wanted other ‘variety’ there were corporate options for that if
you had the credits and Australia had surged to the forefront in that
subcategory as well. Though they were very much a part of Star Force they’d
emphasized their differences whenever possible and today Mina was glad for
that, for when her boat arrived she was greeted with a personal attendant that
took her inside the mountain-like complex and directly to her quarters without
having to see or hear from any of the other guests.
Mina had booked the most expensive training suite,
which gave her basically an entire mini facility on the island to herself. It
had a track, pool, obstacle courses, fitness rooms, sparring equipment, and
various challenge scenarios similar to what Mainline Star Force used. She
hadn’t wanted any formalization, so once the attendant dropped her off and made
sure everything was in order, Mina was left to herself and she got to work
right away with a stretching regimen followed by a few swimming laps in the
long pool.
Those were far more taxing than they should have been,
plus she was having to fight some claustrophobia from being in the water again.
It wasn’t so bad as before and mostly wore off by the
time she finished, but she was thoroughly drained by the time she was done and
that disappointed her. Normally she could have done a lot more, which testified
to just how out of whack she was.
Mina took a crash nap, then ordered some room service
that included a stack of pancakes and colored nutrient drinks. She’d save the
sugary stuff for later after she did a second workout in the day, but while she
digested she took a dip in her own hot tub and tried to work out some of the
soreness from the prior night’s run.
After an hour there she tried some light weights but
didn’t make more than 10 minutes before she had to quit for the day. Mina had
no energy, but at least her head was still clear. She retreated back into her
quarters for another nap then allowed herself to wander out into the commons
area of the facility and took a perch on a sunroof where she stripped down and
worked on her tan a bit more with a handful of other people doing the same.
They didn’t talk to her and she was glad for that, but
over the following weeks as her energy level slowly came back up to normal Mina
continued to mingle in the commons and even got into a few conversations with
people that seemed not to know who she was. They were here to train as well and
that offered a common topic of conversation. Most people here were Human, but a
handful of them were not and she was curious as to how they trained, especially
one of the Bsidd that stood shorter than she was and looked to be a living
bush.
Turns out he/it was a businessman that owned a
shipping company than ran supplies between the various races on the Alliance
worlds that were not part of Star Force. Apparently there was quite a market
for independent shippers so long as they could undercut the prices on the ADZ
transit grid. The Bsidd said that was easy enough so long as you owned your own
fleet of ships, and therein lay the hard part. One had to have the ships to
generate the credits…but you needed the credits to buy the ships. He/it had
taken more than 80 years of doing other work to save up enough currency for his
first purchase, then from there he’d made a living out of hauling cargo and
expanded his operations as quickly as possible.
He/it was another entrepreneur like herself, self-made
and taking advantage of the possibilities Star Force had sculpted within the
ADZ. No one had to work to live, but if you wanted to prosper you had to work
your ass off to do it. Didn’t matter what race you were, everyone had options.
She knew that
losing 50 pounds in 4 weeks or body building for appearance rather than skill
and power.
Star Force was no nonsense when it came to training
and, basically, everything else. For those individuals who didn’t like that
approach and wanted other ‘variety’ there were corporate options for that if
you had the credits and Australia had surged to the forefront in that
subcategory as well. Though they were very much a part of Star Force they’d
emphasized their differences whenever possible and today Mina was glad for
that, for when her boat arrived she was greeted with a personal attendant that
took her inside the mountain-like complex and directly to her quarters without
having to see or hear from any of the other guests.
Mina had booked the most expensive training suite,
which gave her basically an entire mini facility on the island to herself. It
had a track, pool, obstacle courses, fitness rooms, sparring equipment, and
various challenge scenarios similar to what Mainline Star Force used. She
hadn’t wanted any formalization, so once the attendant dropped her off and made
sure everything was in order, Mina was left to herself and she got to work
right away with a stretching regimen followed by a few swimming laps in the
long pool.
Those were far more taxing than they should have been,
plus she was having to fight some claustrophobia from being in the water again.
It wasn’t so bad as before and mostly wore off by the
time she finished, but she was thoroughly drained by the time she was done and
that disappointed her. Normally she could have done a lot more, which testified
to just how out of whack she was.
Mina took a crash nap, then ordered some room service
that included a stack of pancakes and colored nutrient drinks. She’d save the
sugary stuff for later after she did a second workout in the day, but while she
digested she took a dip in her own hot tub and tried to work out some of the
soreness from the prior night’s run.
After an hour there she tried some light weights but
didn’t make more than 10 minutes before she had to quit for the day. Mina had
no energy, but at least her head was still clear. She retreated back into her
quarters for another nap then allowed herself to wander out into the commons
area of the facility and took a perch on a sunroof where she stripped down and
worked on her tan a bit more with a handful of other people doing the same.
They didn’t talk to her and she was glad for that, but
over the following weeks as her energy level slowly came back up to normal Mina
continued to mingle in the commons and even got into a few conversations with
people that seemed not to know who she was. They were here to train as well and
that offered a common topic of conversation. Most people here were Human, but a
handful of them were not and she was curious as to how they trained, especially
one of the Bsidd that stood shorter than she was and looked to be a living
bush.
Turns out he/it was a businessman that owned a
shipping company than ran supplies between the various races on the Alliance
worlds that were not part of Star Force. Apparently there was quite a market
for independent shippers so long as they could undercut the prices on the ADZ
transit grid. The Bsidd said that was easy enough so long as you owned your own
fleet of ships, and therein lay the hard part. One had to have the ships to
generate the credits…but you needed the credits to buy the ships. He/it had
taken more than 80 years of doing other work to save up enough currency for his
first purchase, then from there he’d made a living out of hauling cargo and
expanded his operations as quickly as possible.
He/it was another entrepreneur like herself, self-made
and taking advantage of the possibilities Star Force had sculpted within the
ADZ. No one had to work to live, but if you wanted to prosper you had to work
your ass off to do it. Didn’t matter what race you were, everyone had options.
She knew that
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