Old Habits Die Hard

Posted on Mon Jan 18th, 2021 @ 12:00pm by Major Samuel King & Ensign Elegy Nascimento

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: Deck C - Gymnasium
Timeline: Day 155
1327 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

In the weeks since Atlantis' launch, Elegy Nascimento had seen so little of the gymnasium, he wouldn't have been able to describe it to a curious crewmembers. Truly, Elegy couldn't have even provided directions to which deck it was on. Like his time aboard Valiant, Elegy had much preferred functional exercise: taking a jog around an engineering deck, or crawling through the pylon tubes; maybe some push-ups in his quarters to start the day.

And then something shifted. Something changed.

Every day in the past week, Elegy changed into his bright blue Starfleet tank top and athletic shorts and he got to know C Deck very well. He traded in the maintenance tunnels for the treadmill. Like most days this week gone by, he warmed himself up for a long distance run. His sapphire eyes followed the movement he caught in his peripheral vision, when the door to the corridor opened. Elegy nodded to the entering figure, saying, "Good afternoon, Major."

As a former SEAL, an all round military man, Samuel always kept in shape. Sometimes it was the only thing he could control and it gave him great satisfaction when he completed a workout, a run or even something little such as weights. He was a frequent user of the gym so knew it well, knew the faces of those that went and when new ones popped up.

"Good afternoon, Ensign Nascimento. Not seen you in here for a good while. Everything alright?" he asked.

Perhaps it was the fatigue creeping up on him as he ran on the treadmills belt, but Elegy surprised himself by answering with anything other than a plastered smile and an I'm fine. Instead, Elegy answered the question with, "No. No, I suppose everything is not all right." --He took a slow breath in to prevent himself from panting-- "Between the state of our mission and all that running from the Vrav... I've lost touch with all my routines except for stress eating." --He took another pause to breathe-- "I think I'm hoping new habits will be easier to keep?"

Sam chuckled. "You are speaking to a man that has kept the same habits for over 20 years." he said as he got on the treadmill next to Elegy. He began to jog, a relatively even pace so he could keep up conversation with the man next to him. "It has been a challenging time, that's for sure. I have always found exercise to be a good stress reliever."

"Even in our shoes? The ship scattered to the wind?" Elegy asked rhetorically. As much as his words were full of disbelief and cynicism, his timbre was filled with hope that Sam might prove him wrong. He adjusted the settings on his treadmill to slow his pace slightly. Getting to the point, Elegy asked, "Does exercise really put a dent in that volume of stress?"

"Exercise is proven to improve not only physical health, but mental health too." Sam said as he noticed Elegy slow down. "Put it this way, after a session here, a run on board, do you feel healthier, somewhat lifted? Even for a short while?" he asked.

"Yes, it moves the needle," Elegy said, recognizing Sam's point in his reply. "Absolutely. It starts my day from a better place," Elegy said, as he jogged. The authenticity in most of his response was undercut by a quip: "The depths of my anxiety can only be cured by a workout if pharmaceutical prescriptions were involved."

Sam laughed softly. "I can only hope that the crew's anxiety as a whole does not affect how we operate." he said as his mind drifted to possible scenarios where people would freeze in the heat of a battle, stop in the middle of a potential boarding by enemies. It didn't really have any positive outcomes but he was sure other people were seeking appropriate releases for their anxiety. "But sometimes medicinal help is needed. Personally, I do not take anything but I have learned how to manage. Military life has a nasty habit of conditioning people."

"For my part, I'm awfully thankful for that nasty habit," Elegy said, and he held eye contact with Sam for a moment. "Your conditioning must have served us well while we were being hunted and boarded by Clan Ud," Elegy said with more than a little reverence. He'd seen the MACOs in action against the Vrav --if briefly-- and the way they moved might as well have been magic by Elegy's eyes. "That wasn't quite in the recruitment pitch I received."

"Mostly instinct now." Samuel admitted. He had been training that long now, been in the military that long that most of the training was engrained into his very being. It was never nice to fight and he never went looking for one, but he was sure that if one was to occur that those he was protecting would be on the winning side. "No, the recruitment ad never mentioned being stranded in an unknown sector of space with a long way home... but we must adapt as best we can. We cannot control what has happened, but we can control where we go from here. What we do, how we act."

"If you don't mind me asking, Major," Elegy said, narrowing his eyes at the other man in curiosity. Elegy took a sudden breath when he took a misstep on the treadmill and grabbed the handrails as he found his balance. He asked, "Did you ever imagine you would be serving in space? Utterly untethered by any world?"

Sam laughed a little at the mans question. He truly seemed to be quite an inquisitive person, very questioning so much so one might mistake him for a counsellor of sorts. "If you had asked me 5 year ago where I saw myself I would not have said amongst the stars." he admitted. "I transferred to the MACO Division in 2151 then placed on the Enterprise last year." he paused for a moment to catch his breath. "But no, I have always had solid ground, or our waters under my feet. Space is a whole new ball game as Americans say."

"Exactly," Elegy said, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. Misery loving company, Elegy said, "That's exactly how I've been feeling. ...This might sound ludicrous, but I still can't entirely wrap my head around it. Even after... I can't... conceive of the vast AUs between us and the nearest habitable planet." --He shook his head, as if this time the reality of it all might click into place-- "I almost think it would have been easier if we had been stranded on a moon or a planetoid. ...All alone in space is ...inconceivable."

"Being stuck in a large tin can with limited resources is never a good space for anyone to be in, especially given our history. We fought large scale wars over resources, as well as the slightest insult or remark can cause an explosion that the whole ship will feel. I am used to keeping my MACO's in check, we have a good release program but I would agree the 'emptiness' of our problem does weigh on me as well." Sam admitted. "I am used to seeing a problem and fixing it. The horizon is never far away but on the Atlantis it is more difficult to see."

"However, s much as I would want to have sold ground under my feet, I'd want it to be my own. There is nothing better than coming home after a long tour, and this one will be longer than most." Sam said as he slowed down his treadmill and eventually stopped turning to the man. Placing a hand on his shoulder in reassurance, "We will get there Ensign. I've got faith."

Sam gave him a little slap and went off humming a tune, mumbling words like 'faith' and 'heart'.