Chapter Ten
March 21st 2157
It seamed that everyone was a little shocked by Jafta announcing his want to leave the company. Everyone stayed where they were for a few minutes before Mathews made a short announcement. “We have roughly an hour before we receive a response. I would suggest doing something productive with you time.”
With that Mathews turned and strapped himself in the harness of his workstation. Everyone else left in his or her own directions, and for Jake that was toward the kitchen. He wasn’t sure why, but he suddenly felt like he needed a snack.
Jake left the lab, passed through the sleeping quarters and the rec room and entered the kitchen. Opening the refrigerator and rifling though the scant contents, he shut it’s door without finding anything good. After going though several of the food storage shelves he decided to give up the hunt for anything that might satiate his hunger.
He headed back into the sleeping area and changed his clothes, deciding that a few laps around the grav ring will make him feel better. Once fully dressed for a run Jake moved to the end of the sleeping quarters and opened a hatch that lead down a long thin tube like hall way.
Jake began to float down the tube, but had to begin slowing himself by grabbing on the hand railings that acted like a ladder attached to the walls. After another several meters he realized that someone must be in the grav ring because he wasn’t to the ring and was already feeling over one G.
Upon reaching the ring, Jake gently lowered himself onto the floor from the ladder. It was clear that someone had turned the grav ring up to around two G’s. Performing his pre exercise stretches and warm up, then sighed heavily as he began jogging around the ring.
Jake didn’t really like running or jogging at anything more than one and a half G’s. But the rules in the grav ring were simple; who ever was there first gets to set the G’s.
One full circle around the ring was five hundred meters, two full laps and you have run, jogged or walked one kilometer. Having a nice easy measured lap made keeping track of progress easier.
On the floor of the grav ring there was a white line that divided the area into a right side and a left side. The right side of the ring was dedicated to running, and there was nothing on this side, other than the occasional person running on it. The left side is where everything else that you could find in a gym was located.
Weights, lifting machines, rowing machines, treadmills, medicine balls, and even a small pool were just some of the things on the left side. The pool was about three meters wide and six deep. Lasers would track the swimmer and adjust the flow of water and allow the swimmer to swim in place as fast or slow, as they wanted.
The first time Jake had seen the pool, he thought it was just absurd. Why would anyone haul that much water out into space just so someone could float around in it? He had since loved whoever thought about having this pool on the grav ring. For him, it was the single most used thing in the ring.
After finishing almost three quarters of a lap, Jacob came across Jafta. He was sitting on one of the weight benches resting after having just finished a set. Jake slowed to a stop, “Need a spot?”
Jafta looked up at him and nodded his head. Jafta lay back down to resume his bench presses and Jake moved into position behind his head. Jake noted that the weight on the bar read two hundred and twenty kilo’s. He was shocked, that was a staggering amount of weight. Then the realization hit him hard that he was lifting this in about two G’s.
“Jafta, how much weight are you lifting?” Jake was wondering if he had possibly calculated the weight wrong.
“It’s about half a ton,” he said while resting in between reps. He lowered and lifted the bar three more times and then replaced the bar in it’s resting place. Taking a second, Jafta sat up and looked at Jake. He laughed, “You know Neo’s are designed to be stronger than humans.”
“I knew you were stronger,” Jake said. “But I guess I never realized just how strong you were.” It just became apparent that if Jafta needed help lifting the barbell that he wouldn’t be able to do so.
Jafta looked down, “I guess we as Neo’s try to hide just how strong and smart we are so the rest of the world will leave us alone.”
Jake couldn’t hold himself back any longer, “Why did you ask to leave the station?”
Jafta looked up and stared Jake straight in the eyes. He wanted to run away but found he was frozen to the spot. “I have been away from home too long I suppose. Salim, Mel and I see something that I don’t think the rest of you understand fully yet.”
Jake tilted his head to the side slightly, he had no idea what Jafta was talking about. Jafta continued, “Finding this… cube, has changed everything. Nothing is gong to be the same as it used to be. I do not know in which direction it will take us, but,” Jafta nodded his head, “we are definitely going for a ride. And there is no going back.”
“Mel is afraid of what the changes will be. Just by being around her you can tell that she doesn’t like the cube. Maybe she believes that aliens will come looking for the cube, or that we will go out looking for aliens, and either way bad things will happen.”
“Salim, well he seems to be taking the opposite rout. He sees this as the door way into an unknown world full of new science and theory. To him it’s about the advancement of mankind.”
“And what is it to you?” Jake asked before Jafta had a chance to continue.
“To me?” Jafta paused, and a full minute went by, as it was visibly clear that he was thinking about the question. Finally he answered, “To me, I do not know if this will be good or bad. Most likely it will be a combination of both. But, I do see it as a major change in the known universe. I simply get the feeling that I would like to spend some time with my family.”
Jake understood, his leading desire was to talk to his family, his mother and brother. Beyond that he really didn’t have much desire to change anything right now. “Yes,” Jake said after a moment. “I hope I am able to talk to my family soon. I can’t afford to not be working right now.” Jake stopped speaking looked down at his feet.
Jafta hefted the heavy bar over his chest once again and began a new set of reps. Jake wasn’t really paying attention, but he guessed number of reps was around twenty. Once again Jake was amazed at the power of this man.
After Jafta set the bar back in it’s cradle, Jake stepped back and stretched a little more. Jafta sat up on the bench and looked over at him. “Thanks for the spot. I’m headed to the shower.” Jafta stood up and headed for the tunnel leading back to the station.
Jake finished stretching and then continued his laps around the grav ring. With nothing else to think about his mind wondered to his family. This was the first time he had been away from them in his life. In the past nine days he had sank into a deep depression caused by homesickness.
With in the first few days on the station he had been brought most of the way out with the help and friendship of the other inhabitants of the station. Jake still suffered from the occasional pang of homesickness, but he was getting much better.
Not sure how far he had ran, he soon found that his legs were having a hard time supporting his weight. It just happened that he stopped were there were some dumb bells attached to the wall and a weight bench next to them.
Jacob was conscious that Jafta had not changed the rotation speed of the ring and he was still in almost two G’s. He selected the ten-kilogram bum bells and sat down on the bench.
He began to do bicep curls, but quickly found that he could only do about five reps before he had to stop. He dropped the weights onto the floor and hunched over and placed his face in his hands.
He wasn’t sure how long he had cried, but a familiar chirp over the comm unit brought him back into reality. “Incoming message in approximately ten minutes, please gather in the lab.”
Jake hefted the weights back into their respective slots and latched them down. Walking back to the tube he reached the grav control station and turned it back to one G. It was slightly disorientating feeling the spinning ring begin to slow down.
Jake continued to the ladder and began to climb up back to the living quarters.