Page 31 of Under His Heel

“Did you like that?” Parsons asked, startling Alex with his sudden presence. “It was pretty cool, yeah?”

Both Parsons and his friend had somehow migrated so they were actually next to Alex. Parsons was still on his mat on the floor, but the chick was standing, looking over at the screens intermittently. Why the h—heck did Parsons think that Alex wanted to talk to him?

“No.” Alex looked up at Tracht, but there was no hint of help from that quarter. Alex shrugged. “It’s just two rocks.”

“Just two rocks,” the muscled chick snorted. “That’s a brand new landscape in space. Those little bits of rock will spread out over hundreds of thousands of kilometers. The big ones we’ll be able to track with our equipment. The small ones? They could hurtle at a spaceship with enough velocity to completely breach the hull.”

“Don’t exaggerate, Schultz,” Parsons said. “We have magnetic shields to help deflect the worst of the space debris.”

“Ms. Schultz isn’t entirely wrong,” Tracht interjected. “Debris and space junk are probably the largest threat to space travel. Especially here, outside of the communications zone. Nobody would be able to help us.” Tracht’s hand wrapped around some of Alex’s hair and tugged hard. “It’s easy to forget, sometimes, how isolated we are in this vast vacuum. We do what we can to mitigate those risks, but this is also why we have to be vigilant as a crew.”

“That’s why I’m saving up to retire on planet,” Schultz said. “I love the space life, I’m glad I got to see this asteroid collision, but once I can afford a nice house on Pylos, I’m done.”

You wouldn’t be able to pay Alex to go to a planet. Well, maybe if that payment meant he’d be set for life and free of Tracht and maybe included a nice punch to Nick’s face. Tough call. But Alex had heard enough about planets to know that space was infinitely preferable. No way was he going anywhere where the air carried deadly diseases that could infect you at a moment’s notice.

He didn’t say any of that, not wanting to encourage more talking. Thankfully, somebody else called Parsons’ and Schultz’s attention, and they left Alex alone after that. Another few minutes later, Tracht stood up and bade the crew farewell. “And I believe some of you have a shift coming up.” Tracht said, which set the crew grumbling, but they did start packing up. Several of them even thanked Tracht for setting up the viewing party, just like Tracht had predicted.

Tracht motioned for Alex to stand up, then led him out with a hand on the small of his back. Alex caught Parsons’ stare as they were leaving. Did the guy not know how to mind his own business?

===

Of course anytime Alex went to the gym alone after that, Parsons would be there. And he’d try to start a conversation every single time, no matter how much Alex blew him off. It was so annoying that Alex actually asked Tracht about it once. “Doesn’t Parsons have work to do? He’s always in the gym.”

“Hmm? His assigned hours must be the PM set.” Tracht tapped on his tablet. “Parsons, Jeremy... yes. He’s been doing quite a bit of overtime, but his main work hours are when we’re asleep.” Tracht looked up at Alex. “Why?”

“No, just...” Alex trailed off. He couldn’t figure out if this would get him or Parsons in trouble. He ended up shrugging. “He’s always there. It’s weird.”

“The crew schedule gets rotated every time we make port. I’m sure you can put up with it until then. Or are you finally feeling guilty about what you did?”

Then Tracht had Alex bend over the desk, so that was forgotten.

Alex was pretty sure that Parsons was doing it on purpose, however, because Alex didn’t arrive at the gym at the same time every day, and he was never there if Tracht came too.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than stalk me?” Alex growled the next time they crossed paths in the gym.

Parsons looked annoyed. “Hey, I’m trying to be nice. You just... you look like you could use a friend.”

“Seriously, just leave me alone.” Alex went to the weights, and just because Parsons was watching, he decided he would do some bench presses. He set up the weights on the barbell, got into position, and began lifting.

It was hard. His arms shook after just one rep. He couldn’t believe how weak he was. Dimly he was aware of Parsons still staring, but he kept going. Two reps, three, and—

Fuck fuck fuck, he couldn’t actually keep doing this. His arms strained and bent, and the weight slipped from his hands. He shouted when the bar of the weight landed across his chest, and he thought for a moment that his ribs would crack.

If he died here, at least it would inconvenience Tracht.

But then Parsons was there, pulling the weight up and helping Alex off the bench. “Hey man, you okay?”

Fucking hell, Alex didn’t want anybody to have seen that. But he was tired and hungry—too tired and too hungry to lift the kinds of weights he used to lift—and it was kind of nice for somebody to care. So he said, “I’m fine,” and refrained from telling Parsons to fuck off.

“I think you need a break. Come on, I’ll get you a drink.”

Parsons led Alex out of the gym and into the small adjacent lounge. Several crew members were playing cards at one table, and one person was reading on a small couch. Parsons had Alex sit on a larger couch closer to the door and told him to wait.

He went to the nearby vending machines and grabbed a bottle of water and some protein bars.

Oh god. Alex’s mouth watered and he tried to keep his hands steady as he casually accepted one of the protein bars. “Thanks,” he said in between bites.

Parsons smiled. “You’re welcome. I’m glad I was there to help.” He watched while Alex ate, and after a while the silence started creeping Alex out.

---