There's A Physical Readiness Test?

Posted on Wed May 22nd, 2019 @ 8:38am by Ensign Fiona O'Dell & Petty Officer 2nd Class 'Big Ethel' Jablonski & Ensign Briaar Gavarus

Mission: Fractured Fairy Tales
Location: USS Hera, Deck 11, Gymnasium 1
Timeline: 2396

In the recently-field dayed and now pristine quarters that had successfully passed re-inspection, half of the R&D department slouched on the cough, a small white tribble between them. The tiny redheaded Mariposian, Fiona O’Dell, half sat, half lay on the couch with a tumbler of synthehol whiskey held in both hands not unlike a child, which her proportions and dimensions emphasized. Briaar Gavarus, the large Tellarite also had adopted a similar posture, with a tumbler of whiskey balanced on her prodigious belly.

The furry white tribble was sitting atop a shallow cup of his own, also with an amber liquid in the bottom, which was how they could share a bit of synthehol with him, for the legendary parasite was perennially hungry. And drunks always wanted company, so Cueball was now a party to their alcoholism.

“Well, congratulations on passin yuir room inspection. Maintenance ought to be easier ta keep ye passin' noow. Plus we found Cueball, which is a definite bonus,” O’Dell declared, one hand reaching over to gently stroke the fur of the tribble, who hiccupped pleasantly, after which O’Dell did the same. “So what do we do noow? We’ve duty in a few hours, but til then we’ve naught ta do.”

Taking a swig if her whisky, the near-perpetually grumpy Gararus shrugged. "I dunno. I guess, in theory, we should try and sober up so you don't accidentally step on anyone in Thunderchicken testing."

At which point, she replaced the glass on her rotund personal table of a gut. "Ugh... There's always... Gods forgive me... Exercise."

“Well, aye. We could pump some iron or goo for a run, or maybe jump some rope or…” O’Dell had suggestions pouring out before she read the room and realized none of this was going over well. “Orrrrr we could put it off til tomorrow…”

With a groan, Gavarus slid her bulk down further on the couch until she was head level with the fuzzy white Tribble. "Ugh... you're supposed to be encouraging me, Fee! I'm tellin' ya', Cueball. Your Auntie Fee is an ENABLER!!! Without her, your mommy would be flying the straight and..."

But even as she spoke, Gavarus couldn't help snorting out a laugh.

“BWAHAHAHAHAH! Oh aye, ye’d be flyin’ alreet- horizontal passed oot drunk in a nest of yuir own dirty uniforms more’n likely, ye great lazy bugger. Well, if’n ye need inspiration, yuir dream girl is likely in the gymnasium bench pressing a shuttlecraft or something. If naught else ye kin go an ogle her while ye putter.” O’Dell held up her tumbler of synthehol in a toast. “Plus, ye’ve already switched from beer to liquor, so your good habits are already takin’ hold, aye?”

Raising her Glass to match, Gavarus tapped it against O'Dell's. "Yeah. Here's t' good frickin' habits. Let's do this shit!'

Twenty minutes later, Cueball was sleeping off his tiny Tribble bender in his pen and the Hera's notorious partners in crime were making their way to the ship's gymnasium. Gavarus was wearing a pair of tight black workout pants and a pair of pink laced white sneakers with a baggy, off the shoulder black T-shirt with rhinestones spelling out the word 'FASHION'.

The diminutive O’Dell was clad in white sneakers, some white bike shorts down to her knobby knees and a black top that looked like she was wearing her mom’s clothes. One that declared, written in rhinestones if one could read it with all the voluminous folds it made hanging off her small and lanky form, her to be a ‘Sexy Pig’. It was a hand-me-down whose message made her giggle to see, so she wore it to bolster both their spirits.

“Alreet! So what are we aimin for?” the Mariposian moppet asked of her porcine pal. “Cardio to build endurance, weights to build muscle, calisthenics to tone… what’s yuir…” as they entered Gymnasium 1, gavarus seemed to stop dead and stare, slack-jawed, as Petty Officer Second Class Jablonski, who was currently doing full- bar curls with a specially angled weight bar that used forcefields to provide resistance instead of large heavy discs of metal.

The behemoth bruiser was straining, and the tight white t-shirt she was wearing that bore the simple lettering ‘Hera’ across the broad and bulging muscles of her chest. Said t-shirt did nothing to hide the bas relief of her rather prodigious muscles straining mightily against the load she was currently curling, pushing over her head, bringing it back down for a curl, then bringing it back to the floor once more. Skin slick and covered with sweat, it was clear that the mighty maiden was pushing herself harder than normal, as her exertion was readily apparent.

The effect on Gavarus was just as readily evident.

Poking the flight engineer in the love handle, O’Dell waved a hand in front of the snout of the titanic Tellarite. “Oi, ground control to Gavarus, do you copy, over?”

"Huh, what?" Gavarus snapped out of the daze that the sight of Jablonski tended to put her in. "Uh... YEAH. Yes. Um... I guess I need... Uh... Less-Fatisthenics. What's that require?"

The tubby Tellarite looked out at the sea of exercise equipment that looked as alien to her as ancient ruins and scoffed. "I mean... I'm a Tellarite. We're not made to be skinny. But I need to pass my damn physical so something here has to help, right?"

“Right… so… ah… I guess we put ye on the treadmill?” When it came to actual fitness, the little lass with the pipe-cleaner arms and legs and the metabolism of a hummingbird was perhaps not the best judge of what would and would not work. But she was certainly game to try, as she had to help her bestie pass her physical qualifications, or she might get bumped from flight duty. “Runnin should help ye sweat if off, aye?”

"Running while not being chased seems so... Exhausting. But I guess 'exhausting' is what I'm here for, right?" Gavarus's shoulders sunk a little. She had no idea what she was doing. "Sooo... Is there a treadmill here I won't break just stepping on it?"

“Yuir the engineer, stress tolerances are your business. My job is to push it til it breaks, dinna ye ken?” O’Dell shrugged plaintively. “Or we could go ask Mightor over there which one she uses or what she recommends. She dinna seem ta have any trouble keeping off fat.” With that said, O’Dell looked over to where the buff behemoth was currently doing pull-ups, which caused her abdominal muscles to flex and even through her top, display clearly defined six-pack abs.

Leaning in conspiratorially, O'Dell muttered behind her hand, keeping her voice down in an uncharacteristic moment of subtlety. "Call me a fruitcake and nutty as a squirrel, but ye know, ye could ask the mighty one over there for a wee bit of guidance. Might be a chance to talk to her, and if ye throw up on her shoes after a workout, at least ye have a good excuse, aye?"

"What?! No! That's..." Then the tubby Tellarite paused to think about what the miniscule Maraposian had just suggested. "That's... Okay... That's actually really frickin' smart."

"Soo..." Gavarus winced, looking down at O'Dell and complaining a little louder than she intended. "She looks super busy and I don't want to interrupt her just because I have no idea how any of this crap is actually supposed to work!"

"Aye, cuz I'm a bluiddy genius. She's allays busy cuz she's here ta work oot, but ye see her helpin' other people- look, she joost lifted that bar offa that fella there, see? Noow," Turning, the little leprechaun's brows dipped in the center as she looked up at Gavarus with a distinctly devilish expression.

"Ye've a choice, me old sod. Ye kin walk over there, tell her ye need ta git in shape and ask fuir her help, which'll show her that ye mean it and that yuir determined and that ye got the guts ta do it. Or I could go ask for ye and embarrass ya in front of yer favorite girl. Or we could try to program the transporter to leave a percentage of your ample storage of adipose tissue in the buffer." At that, O'Dell's eyes popped open to their normal wide-eyed state, as she looked up excitedly at her chubby compatriot.

"Hey wait... would that, with the transporter... could that work...?" While she wasn't much of a technical talent, O'Dell was occasionally given to a flash of inspiration, and she thought she had one now.

And for a brief second, Gavarus was actually considering It. "Well, I mean I read in the Academy about how a transporter accident screwed up an RNA sequence and turned crewmembers into frickin' children, but.... Wait, no. I'm trying to loose a little weight. Not all of it for being dead."

Taking a deep breath, Gavarus tried to work up the nerve to talk to the woman of her fantasies. "Okay. If I die trying this, I bequeath you Cueball."

Gingerly placing her hand on Gavarus' arm, O'Dell solemnly intoned, "If ye die doing this, they'll sing songs of ye in Valhalla. And make no mistake, I'll be sure ta drink yuir share here amongst the living."

Clearing her throat, the tall Tellarite stepped over to where Jablonski was finishing assisting another crewmember with her exercises, turning quickly to O'Dell to grimace slightly with anxiety.

Then, as Jablonski turned back towards where Gavarus was standing, the smitten engineer awkwardly stuttered, "H... h... hey, uh... Um... You, uh... I'm trying to..."

Then, Gavarus coughed slightly and let the rest just fly out in one breath. "SorrytobotheryoubutI'mtryingtomaybegetinsomebettershapeandwonderedifyouhadanyadviceonthebestplacetostart... maybe?"

The bulky bodybuilder paused at the torrent of words and seemed to edge back a bit, and even after Gavarus finished, she still looked wary. That was when the anxious engineer realized the last time she'd spoken to the she-hulk, she'd puked on her shoes, and it looked like she was arriving at the decision that wasn't going to happen again this time.

"Ah, okay then... sooo you wanna get in shape? Well, sure, I can help ya I suppose. So did you want a diet plan or a cardio regimen or you wanna focus on lifting- oh, wait, I'm gettin' ahead of myself. Okay, so, what's better shape mean to you, eh?" Having engaged, the genial giantess tried to establish the parameters of the exercise... literally.

Realizing she was fighting against the two past disaster attempts at talking to the Amazonian vision, Gavarus tried to slow her brain down and her mouth with it. "Okay... sorry. I... Uh. I... W... W...well, at this rate I'm going to flunk my next Starfleet physical and... I..."

Trying to figure out her next words and think through the best words to say, she instead just kept letting words fall out. "I'm good with engines. Engines make sense. I can take them apart and put them back together and that's what I do. That's, like, all I do when me and... Well, that's what I get. That's what I...I mean... I... Don't pay attention..."

Then Gavarus waved her thick, three-fingered hands across her ample middle, "Uh... To all of... This!"

That was when the tower who was one of the only people on the USS Hera who could look Gavarus in the eye when she was standing up straight, drew herself up and crossed her arms, a gleam settling into her eye. "Your PTF quals. You're afraid you're gonna flunk your physical fitness test, and now you're taking it seriously."

There was a tense moment of looming doom from the imposing security officer. Then the lighting shifted, and big Ethel nodded and smiled.

"Okay, okay, we can do this, sure. Tell you what- why don't we do this the easy way, huh?" Jablonski offered a buck-toothed smile and a guiding hand toward one of the exercise mats. Bopping along behind them, the statuesque security officer nodded back at O'Dell. "You too, ma'am."

"Uh... Okay sure. I mean... At this point, I'm pretty much certain I'm gonna flunk them. I... Know I need to..." Gavarus was just a stammering mess as she followed behind the statuesque security officer "I'm... Kind of a mess, I know. Uh... thanks?"

The last bit was said not as a statement but rather as an impossibly awkward question as Gavarus looked over at O'Dell and bit her lower lip nervously.

"Oh, hey, it's no sweat, right? We're shipmates, and we help each other out, right? Okay, so... you know how to lay on your back, raise your knees and do a sit-up, right?" Jablonski knelt down on the mat, gesturing to the greater expanse of it for Gavarus. "Why don't you do it too, Ensign? Show a shipmate some support, right? Pretty sure I can hold your feet too."

At that O'Dell jumped slightly, pointed to herself, then a frazzled smile broke out across her face.

"See, thing is, twice a year, gotta pass them PT quals, officer or enlisted," the honor guard captain explained. "You can fail one, you can fail two, but if you fail three, they start assigning you PT as extra duty. And who wants that, right?"

Grunting louder that she would like to be heard doing, Gavarus lowered her prodigious bulk down to the mat, her more that ample rear filling a full section of the pad all on its own. "Yeah, Fee. Support me. Do it for the Thunderchicken!"

The commentary was more than a little sarcastic right until the instant that Ethel Jablonski put a hand over Gavarus' feet, at which point the anxious engineer felt her stomach begin doing flips. "Uh... O... O... Okay. So... S...sit ups?"

"Yeah, you betcha! So computer, start two minute timer on my mark. I'll count how many you can do in two minutes. Cuz that's the PT test, right? Okay, y'ready?" With O'Dell laid out beside her, placing her fingertips on her collarbones, the midget Mariposian gulped.

Flumping to lay flat on her back, Gavarus crossed her arms high over her thick chest, slowly catching her breath under the strain of both her larger than not cheat and rotund middle. "T... This is my... Maximum level of readiness."

"Okie doke, ready set go, eh? Computer, mark!" With that said, the timer started for two minutes of sit-ups.

Immediately, Gavarus began to strain as she struggled to pull off the required exercise. As she struggled, her cheeks turned beat red as the blood seemed to be being forced up into her head. "Holy... Shit... Holy... Frickin'... Shit!"

"Aw, yer not supposed to curse, ma'am, or that means you auto fail your PTF. Just saying so's ya know," the burly gymbot in boy shorts informed the superior officer.

As Briaar huffed and puffed, her torso inched incrementally forward, shuddering. After a long moment of straining, the ovaloid engineer finally and difficultly crested up to a semi-seated position and uttered a hoarse, "O... o... One '

Flumping back down, she struggled to catch her breath, realizing the entire sit-up easily took a solid twenty seconds to pull off.

"Okay, so remember, you just hafta touch your elbows to your thighs- that's it," said the musclebound mistress of the gym who had no gut to overcome to do such and exercise. "C'mon, the first one's the hardest. You can do it, eh? Show me what you got!"

Encouragement from the statue the sculptor carved to make other statues feel shitty about themselves was somehow less than encouraging to Gavarus.

"Touch my knees with... oh, for... okay!" In spite of her reluctance, she began pulling back up again as her head felt like a zit about to pop. But she didn't want to look any more pathetic in front of the woman of her dreams than she already did.

With a strain, she shook as she ever so barely tapped her knee with her elbow. "TWO!"

Proceeding to flump back down, she gasped before trying for a third. "Ohmigawd, I'm gonna diieeee... THREE!"

"See, now you're getting it! C'mon, show me what you got, ma'am!" the perennially cheerful colossus encouraged the out-of-shape engineer. "Just starting out can be rough, but once you get the hang of it you'll be shaping up in no time. C'mon, up ya go..."

"Oh... Gods... please... not... 'Ma'am'..." Gavarus grunted, heaving a breath between each word as the sit ups became, if not easier, at least more consistent. "Briaar... Gavarus..." Then the Tellarite engineer looked over to her whimsical wingman, O'Dell. "How... are you doing... Fee?"

The short and spindly test pilot, without the detriment of a bountiful belly in her way, was slowly levering herself up and down, straining against the iron grip Jablonski had on her feet. "This ain't s'bad, it's the later stoof... that gets t'me..."

"C'mon, Gavarus, you're doing great, eh? You're at 12 now, keep it up! Feel the burn, right?" the positive petty officer prompted the porcine personage.

"Yeah... 'Burn'... sounds... about... right." Gavarus griped, as she was wont to do. Finally, as the two-minute chime went off, she flumped back on the mat and let her arms flump down to her side.

"Holy... shit..." Gavarus panted, "That was... frickin'... What? What was that?"

"Language. Well, you did twenty-two, which is twenty more than you thought you could do, right?" Jablonski smiled. "And you got how many in, Ensign?"

"It's O'Dell, thankye. And I did forty-two meself!" the sprightly redhead was proud of herself for her accomplishment, and the thickly-muscled petty officer nodded her approval and offered a thumbs-up. The woman's fist was about the size of O'Dell's ribcage, and arriving at that realization made the small Starfleet officer blanch and take an instinctive step back.

"Good, that's real good for your first time. So now let's roll over to do some push-ups, okay? Same deal," the towering taskmistress explained. "I'm gonna start the timer, and you show me how many push-ups you can do in two minutes, okay? Back level, and you have to go at least halfway to the deck. Pretty much when your boobs touch, you're about right, Gavaris. Okay, you in position? You both ready?"

Turning over with a loud grunt, the already exhausted porcine engineer did her best to prop herself in the proper position. It was an awkward exercise considering both the volume of her belly and bosom that already were hanging quite low and the disproportionate smallness of her hoof-like feet that protested their part in this endeavor.

"Well... this is going to be interesting. Tits are halfway there on their own." Gavarus grumbled, muttering slightly under her breath. "Okay... I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be for this."

"That's the spirit! Okie doke, here we go..." Jablonski declared, then she called out, "Computer, mark!"

With that, the timer began and beside her, O'Dell struggled to do her first push-up. While sit-ups were just core strength, push-ups were mostly upper body strength, which O'Dell severely lacked. Straining out her first push-up, her arms were already beginning to shake a little as she went down for the second one.

Whereas, remarkably, Gavarus was actually doing fairly well this time. Hours spent lifting engine parts and working underneath Runabouts and Shuttles gave the tall Tellarite a minor advantage and a decent amount of upper body strength. To say nothing of her bouncy belly picking up some of the slack in helping support some of her weight on the way down. "Gods... I don't... actually... suck... as hard... at this!"

She was still breathing heavily, but managing about two to three push-ups for every one O'Dell was completing. Which was becoming four to one as the spindly-armed tiny test pilot strained to keep going. Her arms wobbled and shuddered as she pushed herself, until finally she collapsed onto the mat, unable to make her arms continue. When the timer finally sounded, Jablonski began to clap.

"Okay, so that was pretty good, eh? O'Dell, I counted nineteen push-ups there, that sound right to you?" The pixie pilot rolled over onto her back and gasped a bit, holding up a shaky thumbs-up. "But you- fifty-one push-ups! That's outstanding, huh? Way to go Gavarus!"

"T...T... Thanks." Gavarus stuttered nervously, pausing to rest on her elbows. "Do we even want to know what you do in two minutes?"

"Nahhhhh! It doesn't work that way, yannow. You just gotta do better than your personal best every time. See, you aren't competing against anybody but yourself here," said the petty officer who looked like she could intimidate the fat off someone just by growling at it. Internally Gavarus suspected her dream girl turned taskmistress probably didn't do push-ups for fear of moving the starship off course with every push. "So two minutes for rest, then we're gonna do the run. Or it can be a swim if you want?"

"I'll run! I canna swim worth a darn, I allays sink," O'Dell volunteered. Which made little sense until one considered that she had very little to no body fat or muscle mass, which meant that her natural buoyancy was quite low, and half her effort in swimming was spent keeping her head above water.

Grunting, Gavarus struggled back up to her feet as she tried to catch her breath. "Well... on top of that... neither of us brought suits... so.. I guess... UGH... we can try and run. I guess." The awkward Tellarite tried to put on a forced smile so she didn't look miserable with the entire affair for the benefit of Jablonski.

"Aye, we'll run together, and we'll swear never to quit urgin' the other on, right? Or til yer first cramp, which is prolly g'win ta be aboot forty meters in. Tis a 2.4k run, an old Earth tradition Starfleet somehow sticks to. I bin trying ta do twice this every day down here in the gym, while you been eatin' donuts. Ye need one now, maybe wi' sprinkles on it?" O'Dell grinned at Gavarus.

Looking down at O'Dell, Gavarus grimmaced. "I'm going to cramp and pass out and fall on you, just so you know."

"Like hell ye will, ye great tub 'a guts. I kin run away, joost watch me!" O'Dell, interlaced her fingers and cracked her knuckles out confidently before Jablonski suddenly loomed up behind her.

"Say, seeya takin a stretch there?" the petty officer enthused as O'Dell jumped, startled by the big woman's sudden appearance in her blind spot.

Casually, Jablonski leaned into a groin stretch. "Oh yeah, even once you've stretched and warned up, limbering up is important, doncha know. Especially before a big run where you wanna make the time count." Leaning to the other side to stretch her left inner thigh, the personal trainer resident of Gymnasium 1 continued. "So I'm gonna do some stretches- you maybe wanna do 'em with me? Limber up a little?"

Watching and only somewhat slackjawed, Gavarus muttered, "L .. Limber... Yeah...." Then, shaking off the moment of staring, the exhausted Engineer tried to match Jablonski's position, stretching out her own thick thighs. "Yeah... YES! Right. Stretching. So I don't die. Stretching. Like this?"

"Yeah, sure... angle like this... yeah, you too O'Dell, don't you stretch before you run every day? Yeah no, you should stretch. Here, follow me, do what I do, okay?" The petty officer walked the duo through a series of basic stretched, ending in a long overhead stretch, side to side. Okay, so here, we're gonna run right over here. The forcefields keep pace for us and give us tread. I'll run with you, so I can set the pace and encourage you both to keep up. Keep abreast of me if you can, or just chase me, but do your best to keep up, okay?"

Petty Officer Jablonski did a waist twist, then reversed it. Somehow chasing her didn't sound like the worst idea in the world.

"Keep a-what-now? Right. Got it." Gavarus muttered trying desperately to remember she was there to exercise, not oogle. Shaking her head to try and focus, the trembling Tellarite stepped behind the towering security goddess onto the force field pad and almost immediately felt her hooves slide out from under her as she stumbled forward, off balance.

"Oh SHIIIIIIIIIIITTT!" Gavarus yelled as she fell forward trying to avoid hitting either woman on the way down.

Which was when Jablonski grabbed her by the workout pants, far and away the strongest garment the irascible engineer was wearing. Sweeping her hooves back underneath the tall Telarite, Jablonski set the woman back on her feel like Gavarus could do for O'Dell.

"See, gotta practice that language thing, Gavarus, so it doesn't flunk you. Okay, so what we'll do is hit the forcefield running, so we start off on regular ground then run onto the forcefield, okay? Easy stuff once you know what you're doing, right? Okay,m here we go, try to keep up, ready?" Then Jablonski ran onto the forcefield and started running in front of Gavarus in tight black shorts.

"There's the best motivation ye'll ever get in this lifetime," O'Dell whispered before taking off running after the petty officer, moving in to start keeping pace with her.

'this is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy.' Gavarus thought to herself as she did her best to run onto the force field after Jablonski and O'Dell.

It took a second of wobbling, but the unsteady Engineer found an awkward stride on her disproportionately spindly hooves. It was slightly awkward to keep pace and not overstep or understep as her legs were actually fairly strong.

But her ample middle gave her all the protestations it could as she huffed and puffed behind the source of her inspiration. "I... could... always... just.. get a... job... on... a... freighter! Oh Gods... I'm... Gonna... die..."

"Ach! Nobody ever succeeded by givin oop, Briaar! So ye run til ye canna run no more, then ye walk a bit, then ye run s'more. Ye kin do it!" O'Dell chastized from the other side of the moutain of muscle between them, who then spoke up.

"Hey, so, not to tell ya what to do, but if you can keep in step with me, it gets easier. We're about the same height, so we have a similar stride. And doing it in cadence lets you focus on that instead of how much your body wants to quite. Now, try controlling your breathing with me... like this." As she spoke, Jablonski emphasized her breathing do the tubby Tellarite could hear it as she did so.

"Inhale one two, exhale one two. If you can't breathe you can't run, so that's a big thing, right? So focus on your breathing and keeping in step with me, okay?" The genial Jablonski instructed as she jogged, and as she started softly singing cadence, both women were reminded of their days at Starfleet Academy, and runs they had taken as part of the regularly scheduled exercise regimen enforced there. Which was likely the last time either was in any sort of decent shape.

"I don't know but I've been told...
Starfleet captains are quite bold.
Alpha, Beta, Delta quad
Boldly going makes you odd.

Sound off, 1,2...
Sound off, 3,4.
Sound off one, two, one two... three four!"

Doing her best to match Jablonski's breathing, Gavarus forgot for the instant just how much she hated running. She listened to Jablonski and even O'Dell, who was breathing along with the same rhythm as she heard her own hoarse breath rasping outward.

"Okay... I'm... Breathing...*wheeze*... technically."

"As long as you can still breathe, you can still move. So stick with us, okay? We're all in it together!" the practically paleozoic petty officer encouraged. "Howbout you, Ensign O'Dell, you keeping up?"

"Aye! Tis easier wi' yuir breathin an' keepin a steady pace, yuir right!" the Mariposian moppet nodded, her hair in an enormous poof ponytail bobbing along behind her. She'd been at this for a week now, so she had at least started moving. The course corrections from the local gymnasium supervisor were making it much easier for her though, as it had for military recruits since the dawn of the marching column.

"Lookit ye go, yuir doin' great Briaar!" O'Dell chirped, hanging back a bit to eye her porky piggie pal who was sweating and huffing in time. "I'll eat me words and admit it- 100 meters and yuir still nae clutchin yer side! Look at ye go, aye?"

"I can't... Stop... to... Grab my side..." Gavarus panted out. "Or... I... I'm pretty sure... I'll... just... die. Actually... I think... I might... already be... dead... and... once I stop... moving... the message... Ohmygawd... Will... reach... my brain."

"Yeah, see, now you're talkin! You get that disconnect where you stop listening to your body tell you ya can't do it, and you do it! You just never know what's inside ya until you go digging down reaching for it doncha know!" the cheerleading gymbot continued to offer advice. On the bright side, she was still speaking between puffed breaths, and she was chugging at the same military pace, building up a sweat just like the two out-of-shape slackers she was tugging along in her wake.

"Holy... You're saying... This is... A good... feeling?" Gavarus groaned as she felt her legs wobbling as her lungs felt frozen and the stitch that O'Dell had been all but promising in her side began to stab at her.

"Ow! Shit!?!" Gavarus started slowing down to a slow, limping half-walk, half-stumble.

"That's it, that's it there... see, yer down, but yer not out, yer still tryin! See, that's the way ya do it. If you can't run you walk, and if you can't walk you crawl, right?" Jablonski was still keeping pace, although O'Dell was looking red in the face and having trouble keeping up with the titanic taskmistress.

"Yeah... A... about that." Gavarus wheezed as her knees buckled and her feet were pulled by the motion of the force field treadmill out from under her.

"Ohsiiit!" the titanic Tellarite muttered as she fell hard to the floor with a thud. Landing on her belly, and laying face down, panting, the force field slowly began pushing her back. Inch by inch Gavarus slid backwards until half of her was off the force field onto the regular mat as she panted and groaned.

"Okay, sure, that's not so good," Jablonski admitted as she easily stepped off the forcefields to heft Gavarus back up onto her hooves, seemingly with minimal effort. "Okay shipmate, let's walks it off, right? C'mon, you just stay in one spot you'll just seize up. Let's walk that off, okay?" Literally supporting her, the Security officer steadied the overweight engineer and kept her wobbly legs moving forward.

Even as she did so O'Dell began to flag a bit without the NCO setting cadence for her, and the burly bodybuilder put her hand on O'Dell's back to continue to urge her on. "Count it with your paces, Ensign. You can do it, I know you can."

Somewhat shocked at the comparable easy in which Jablonksi lifted her nearly 180 kilogram bulk back to her feet, Gavarus was trying to catch her breath and force her wobbly legs to move. "Yeah... I'm... I'm flunking out... for sure. Ohmygawds... What the frickin' hell."

"Naww, see, you'da flunked cuz I carried you a little there maybe but you don't flunk completely unless ya quit. And you're not gonna quit on me now, are ya big girl? You're a big tough engineer, you can finish a mile and a half, right?" Jablonski was picking up the pace as she spoke, getting Gavarus shuffling along. "Besides, today isn't the test. Today's the day you realized you had to pass the test and did something about it, doncha know?"

"Offer her a... donut if she... finishes," O'Dell wheezed, still gamely shuffling along although at a much slower pace than when Jablonski was setting cadence.

"Well sure, carb loading can be important," the large and in charge petty officer agreed. "Cuz you don't wanna change your shape, you just wanna be fit, right Gavarus?"

"Oh... My gods..." Gavarus grumbled as she tried to keep walking forward back on to the treadmill, knees wobbling. "You are never...letting... that donut... frickin'... GO... are you... Fee?"

"Nope!" the cheerful leprechaun replied as she huffed along.

"You suck... so... so hard... that your suck... has its own... frickin' event horizon!" Gavarus griped at her grinning best friend.

Picking the pace back up ever so slightly, the exhausted engineer switched to the most physically awkward mini-jog ever. Her gut undulated from side to side while her arms flopped, half lifted. "I think... I could... eat a whole... box of 'em... on a... *Huff" frickin' holosuite somewhere! That... sounds... FUN!"

Eventually the 2.4K was done, and Jablonski walked them through some cool-downs, and as they did some stretches to keep their muscles from seizing up, the powerhouse petty officer reviewed their scores.

"So, good news is you finished, which is great good job, both of you!" Jablonski offered as encouragement up front. "So O'Dell, you got in 42 curl-ups and Gavarus, you got 22. Just to pass the test at all you need to do 54 in that 2 minutes. So a little work for improvement there, eh?"

Panting as she leaned on her weak knees, Gavarus gasped. "Fifty... Fifty FOUR?! That's more than double... Oh frickin' hell."

"Then on push-up, O'Dell, you got 19, while Gavarus, you did fifty-one. Twenty is the minimum for this one, so Gavarus, you actually scored outstanding on that one, and O'Dell, you were really close, so way to go, both of you, eh?" The bucktoothed brawler smiled, a close-mouthed affair that did not show her teeth, of which she was self-conscious.

"Okay... I can... I can figure out how to complain about that later." Gavarus muttered with a similarly close-mouthed grin, as the tubby Tellarite was also self-conscious about her teeth, due in large part to the prominent lower tusks of her race that she had shaved down as regularly as was possible, bit still stuck out when she smiled.

"Now as far as the run goes... 2.4K in under 15 minutes is what we're aiming for. O'Dell, you came in at 18.2 minutes- really not bad, Ensign. I see you've been working on it and it shows," Jablonski gently patted the tiny test pilot on the shoulder, her hand only managing two fingers of contact as she worked to not hurt the spindly starfighter. "Now Gavarus, you came in at 23 minutes, which may sound like a lot. But that's your first time in a long time, and you finished- that's the real important thing. So tomorrow it'll get a little easier, and the day after and the day after."

Looking down at O'Dell, Gavarus winced as she silently mouthed, Tomorrow?!

"Neither of you is in irredeemable bad shape. You just need a little time and practice to be able to pass your PT quals. Today you took some real good steps, and I'm proud of you, huh? Huh? Proud of yourselves maybe a little too, huh?" The walking wall offered some cheerful encouragement.

Staring at the object of her affections as if Jablonski had just sprouted two extra heads, Gavarus's heart sank just a little. And not because of having to do all of this again the next day. Ultimately, she looked at the woman of her dreams and began to realize that the two quite probably had absolutely nothing in common whatsoever.

Her breath was just beginning to come back to her as the irascible engineer righted herself. "Yeah. Uh... proud." But the sink in her energy was clear on her deflated face. "Um... Thanks for helping. I... we... We really appreciate it. Yeah."

“Aye! And thanks for nae makin us feel like fools in the process, that helps a boonch,” O’Dell managed to wheeze as sweat dripped off her chin, and she accepted the bottle of water Jablonski handed to her, as well as to gavarus.

“So tomorrow morning you’re gonna wake up way stiff. So be sure to do those stretches I showed ya, before you go to bed and when you wake up, as well as before and after your work out, okay?” The solid Security officer offered. “You’ve still got three weeks until you have to pass your PTF, so you shold be able to get in enough practice to pass it easy at this rate. Good job, huh? Good hustle!”

If Jablonski noticed a change in Gavarus’ demeanor, it didn’t show as she continued to cheer them on to further fitness goals to which neither particularly aspired to, yet were both going to have to embrace.

"Uh... yeah. " Gavarus continued, feeling unusually awkward now as she had no idea what to say next to the living work out tape of energy that was Jablonski. "Stretching. We will both totally remember to stretch, right Fee?"

“Aye. Explains why me legs wouldnae work right after the first few tries- stretching, who knew?” O’Dell opined, which brought forth a throaty chucle from the tank in a t-shirt.

“Awwww, you both learned all that at the Academy, you don’t fool me,” Jablonski, looked mildly self-conscious as she spoke. “But I’m happy to help out, and I’ll do your PT test with you every day if you want, to help make sure you pass it?”

"Ha. Ha ha... yeah. At the academy." Gavarus forced an awkward chuckle, when the sad fact is that it was clear that both women dumped the physical education part of their academy training out of the minds the second they could. But, as she spoke, Gavarus realized what Jablonski had just said.

"Every... Uh... Every day?" The tubby Tellarite was frantically trying to think of an excuse to not have to do this every day. "Uh... Fee... aren't we doing... flight sim testing tomorrow morning? Right?!"

“Aye, sure, flight sim testing…” O’Dell frowned as she looked up at the two considerably larger life forms than herself. “But, um, ah, I’m still gonna come to the gym… I need ta be able ta run a ways and be in better shape so’s me heart don’t burst tryin’ to fly the you-know-what.”

To all the world, O’Dell looked like a guilty child. She felt guilty for wanting to better herself, guilty for lying to the hulking gymbot for Gavarus and guilty for being so out of shape in the first place. She knew a true friend would like and cover for her pal, but Briaar Gavarus was the one who had suggesting exercising in the first place. Now she looked miserable and she wanted to be somewhere else, so O’Dell was confused and a little upset by the turn of events, but gamely tried to play along.

Looking down at O'Dell, Gavarus began gnashing her teeth behind her lips. Even when the miniscule Maraposian wasn't actively trying to apply guilt, Briaar Gavarus was completely defenseless against it. It was like a cosmic force that just radiated out of the tiny redhead.

Letting out a big sigh, Gavarus slapped her forehead in an exaggerated, cartoonish fashion. "Wait. The testing was moved to oh nine thirty hours. We... we can totally be here." Awkwardly, Gavarus smiled a wide, toothy grin that let her nubby tusks show a little more than she'd like. "Sorry. Power dumb of me. We will totally be here. Same time, right Fee?"

The minuscule Mariposian smiled wide, her mood instantly changing to one of gleeful excitement. “Aye, that’s the spirit! We’re g’win ta whip that test somethin’ fierce, aye? Set records for the department even!” If enthusiasm alone could power a starship, O’Dell on a good day could pull it off. Bouncing about excitedly, her cheer was somewhat contagious.

"How do you have the energy to do that?" Gavarus grumbled, favoring her aching side.

As for Jablonski, seeing Gavarus’ wide grin expose her lower tusks made the shy Security officer break into a full smile of her own, revealing overlong front teeth that seemed too long and wide for her mouth, creating a definite overbite that it was clear she was self-conscious about, but emboldened by Gavarus’ on tusky grin.

"So... see you... Uh... first thing, then Coach Jablonski." Gavarus returned the grin, her awkwardness pushed aside in the moment, as the girl of her dreams renewed, was smiling at her.

Placing her hand on Gavarus’ shoulder, the burly beauty grinned openly, revealing her rather prominent buck teeth once more. “The first day is the worst, but if you can keep it up, you’ll feel better, sleep better and fitness just raises your quality of life. I’ve got confidence in you!”

“Aye, me too! Now I'm confident we’d better get a shower before we report for duty, aye? Otherwise we’re liable ta get written up for bringin' the funk!” O’Dell chirped as she skipped away.

“Your little girlfriend always like that?” Jablonski asked, chucking a thumb in O’Dell’s direction.

Smiling slightly, Gavarus responded before she took in exactly what Jablonski had said. "Yeah. O'Dell seems to draw energy from some kind of pocket dimen... Wait, what?!"

As she spoke, her sphincter clenched as her face went a little flush. "She's... We're not... I mean, yeah. She's my best friend but she's not my GIRLfriend!

Stammering, the words just kept tumbling out. "I don't have... Uh... I'm not... *Ahem*... We're not a couple."

“Oh!” Jablonski’s face actually lit up a bit at that news. “I didn’t… I mean, I don’t… ah, friends, right. I just… you’re always together, so... and I… sorry, I kind of don’t get people. I didn’t mean anything bad, honest. Sorry..."

Confused and stammering, Gavarus didn't know what was happening as she glanced over at Fiona, who was... gone. Vanished into thin air apparently. Or as she would put it, 'Pessed oaf so's you could have some privacy, aye?'

"We're... Really good friends. We work together and we hang out a lot, but.... I... I... don't get people either. But we get each other so we're friends. Ya' know? I don't know. I can't stop talking. Shit." Gavarus stammered, biting her tongue to make herself shut up.

"Nahh, s'okay, I get nervous with people too. Plus they aren't used to crewmen our size, right? I even think I'm near a doorway I'm already duckin, yannow? And y'see 'em jumpin' back all spooked, right?" Though her voice was low and soft, still, the big girl commiserated with the big pig.

Listening, Gavarus nodded awkwardly. She was actually talking with Jablonski without burping, farting or throwing up and she desperately wanted to not jinx the situation. "Yeah... When they want to torture you, they'll put you in a Type 15 shuttle. It's more comfortable to fly in a torpedo tube, I think."

"But... Ahhh... O'Dell was right. We've got duty soon... so... I need to go shower and get ready. But... Um... Tomorrow morning?" Gavarus tilted her head with a cricked half-grin.

"I'll be here at 04:30!" Jablonski called back, wiping off a bench and strolling over to grab a pair of barbells, programming them for her preferred weight setting, then beginning to heft and pull at them in a complex curl of some sort, the straining muscles of her biceps and forearms expanding from the effort.

As she watched with eyes wider than seemed possible, Gavarus swallowed and began slowly backing up to leave. "O... Okay. S... See you then..."

Then she almost broke into a light run to get out of the gym and back into the corridor. As the door wooshed closed, Gavarus backed up against the wall and began a string of verbal diarrhea. "Oh sweet evil Gods of smut and cooch. Ohmigod. She frickin' talked to me. She frickin' talked to me and SSSSHIIIITTT!!!! LEG CRAMP!!! GYAAAHH!!!"

"Suck it oop and walk et off, sausage fest," O'Dell teased, as she was leaning against the wall where she had been waiting for her porcine pal to emerge from the gymnasium of Amazon delights. "C'mon, we got time for a shower and a uniform sniff test before duty, and you ain't even had yuir breakfast."

As if by magic, O'Dell produced a glazed donut, which she offered up to her best pal.