“Are you alright?”
“Yes, but why did she attack me?” Kal asked as Lucy reassumed her earlier position.
“I don’t know. She’s done it since I got her.”
“I’ve petted her stomach before.”
“She likes her belly touched, except when she lies like that.” I brushed his scales. “Are sure you’re alright? I can take you to the medbay on my way to the gym.”
His forehead creased. “Why are you going to the gym?”
“Urgg talked me into going to blaster practice. Apparently, you guys have a shooting range in your gym.” I shrugged.
Kal’s lips pressed together, and I knew he was trying to keep from making an overprotective and completely unnecessary remark.
“I will be fine. I want to make some friends.” My voice came out in a rush as I wrung my hands.
“I worry.”
“I would’ve never guessed.”
Kal rubbed his forehead and nose against my jaw. “Maybe you can join my combat practice?”
“Sure.”
“Truly?”
“Yeah.” I moved toward the door. “Wash the scratches, please.”
“I will.”
I stepped into the gym, nervous, which wasn’t shocking. Being nervous was basically my normal state of existence. The gym was nothing like I expected. Treadmills and weight benches were nowhere to be seen. The front of the room had three separatemats for grappling, I assumed. On the back wall were ring targets similar to the ones found on Earth. The difference, these weren’t paper. The five targets were black squares with glowing blue rings, making me think they connected to NAID.
Maybe they had a separate gym for weight training and stuff? For all I knew, they had several gyms. Pretty much everyone here was ridiculously buff.
Urgg stood in the center. Their hulking green form was clad in black leathers. They smacked a crewman’s back and sent him sprawling. Urgg immediately began to apologize and helped up the drakcol man with bright yellow hair.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one overwhelmed by Urgg’s enthusiasm.
My muscles felt heavy and tight as I took a single step back toward the door. Fighting through the curling unease, I darted to Urgg’s side.
“Seth, you made it,” they said, practically shouting.
Everyone turned toward me, and I wished the floor would swallow me whole. “Yep. I’m here.”
“It’ll be so much fun.”
“I’ve never fired a gun before.”
“Not a problem. Commander Monqilcolnen will teach you.”
The serious commander strode around the targets, checking something on his tablet.
“I didn’t realize he was teaching the class,” I commented.
“Is that a problem?”
“No,” I replied. He was Kal’s cousin, but I hadn’t spoken to him.
