A Spaceman

Chapter 4--A frightened new world

"How old are you seriously?" I ask, cuffing the back of Titus' head. He's watching a video on his tablet and giggling hysterically. It's probably some insidious prank he played on Commander Thorn. I really don't know how he hasn't gotten in trouble for those yet.

"Look though, I made Commander Thorn sit on thorns and it's intensely uproarious," he says, laughing as he tries to show it to me.

"Don't care, come on, want to go for a run?" I ask. He likes running and if he's nice and worn out then he's easier to manage. Yeah so I read a dog training book and all the things in it are working. On Titus.

"Always, I'm just sending it to Tess," he says, tapping on his tablet.

"And what does your daughter say about this highly illegal thing you've done?" I ask.

"That's what she said."

"No I asked what she said," I say, tapping his head to get him to look up from the tablet. He finally does.

"No, I know, her response was 'that's what she said' that's what Tess has programmed in as an automatic response if she's not online. The problem is half of the time it applies to the random things I send her so, it took me a while to realize that's what she'd done," he says, "But that's what she said so that means she hasn't looked."

"Is she in class?" I ask.

"No, actually, she said she wasn't feeling well I told her to stay and rest, it's not like she'll miss anything," he says, shrugging, as we walk towards the gym.

"You want to go see her?" I ask. We're in the pressurization chambers to prepare our bodies for space, and therefore cannot leave, but that has not stopped Titus before.

"I asked her that. She said she was fine. I may go though. There have been a few reported instances of the Plague," he says, frowning. If he cares about anyone, he cares about that girl.

"Yeah let me know, poor thing, she was probably just up too late reading or something like you," I point out, to lighten the mood. I don't think Titus has been sick a day in his life. Well, he has I know but it doesn't actually stop him from going around and doing things.

"More than likely, yes, or she wanted to do something and is lying about not feeling well, no matter," he says, shrugging.

"Oh, and Quinn's mouth doesn't taste bad that was totally shoe," I say, as I scan into the gym.

"It was not. I am telling you, woman, I know what my shoes taste like," he says.

"I hate walking in on your conversations," Kip says, passing us on his way out.

"I hate our conversations----and tell me how you can know what your shoes taste like---no, wait, don't," I say, shaking my head. sometimes I don't know why I bother.

"Have you seen my cadet anywhere?" Quinn asks, slowing on a running machine.

"No, I didn't know you had one," Titus says as I gesture wildly for Quinn not to talk about it around him.

"What—he's going to know," Quinn says.

"But it can be delayed for the child's sake," I say.

"My last cadet was fine."

"Titus wasn't around."

"I can hear you," Titus says, setting up his tablet to read while he runs. Yeah he's combined his two favorite things since they put tablet mounts on the machines. Because of a memorandum he wrote and signed. With Thorn's signature. The other day I had to literally drag him off of the running machine while he was like, dying, because he was so busy reading he didn't realize he was like, dying.