Melbourne woke up to loud knocking that made him fall out of his bed in shock.
"Melbourne Acliate, come to the door now!" yelled a gruff voice.
Melbourne willed the displays in his system to show him the time without bothering to grab his smartwatch. It was 8 A.M. according to Sol Standard Time, the time measurement system based on the Martian time zone that Olympia was built in.
Melbourne rubbed his head in anxiety. His move from Lambdanville had really screwed with his circadian cycles. Jet lag was the culprit, of course. He had overslept. Would he be able to grab breakfast now before the mandatory training?
The banging rang out again.
"Did you hear me? I said... WAKE... UP! Don't make me tell you again!"
Melbourne thought for an instant that maybe it wasn't his mission trainer and that he had somehow been caught as an illegal cyborg. Maybe he'd open the door to find police officers or military operatives ready to arrest him.
He opened the door in his pajamas and was relieved to find that it was just a muscular, bald man with an Arian Horizons jumpsuit.
"I've been knocking for a whole minute!" announced the man angrily. "It's 8:01 in the morning, trainee! You have to board the Seeker at noon, so we don't have long to get your ZG Training underway!"
"ZG Training?" asked Melbourne, confused.
"It's a standard zero gravity workout regimen encouraged on any interplanetary flight. You don't get the luxury of spinning tori or artificial gravity on most interplanetary ships, so it helps to know how to keep your body in shape during the journey. You can't be going soft, now. The ship is going to have an onboard gym with specialized equipment for zero-G training, but Arian Horizons demands that all of its new employees going on an interplanetary assignment be trained by a professional trainer such as me for a two hour regimen."
"Alright." said Melbourne, wiping his groggy eyes. "Do I have time to get something to eat, at least? You said it's only two hours, right?"
"Jet lag?" asked the trainer, frowning.
Melbourne nodded.
"Alright, have a protein bar." said the trainer, handing Melbourne a small wafer that he had kept on him for just such a situation. "It has 30 grams of protein and other vitamins and supplements that will help wake you up just as well as an energy drink. Also, get dressed in the Arian Horizons training suit left in your hotel dresser! Make it snappy! You're going to have to take a one and a half hour spaceship safety course after this training session as well! Sorry, but you don't have the time to relax!"
Melbourne opened his drawers to find that the company had indeed left a training jumpsuit in the bottom. He changed into it and rushed outside, stuffing down the protein wafer that had been given to him.
"My name is Venochi Barisaami, by the way." said the man as he guided Melbourne back towards the ZG Hub. "I am a certified ZGT trainer hired by Arian Horizons to prepare people just like you for the rigors of interplanetary travel. Complete this training and your job and you will be well on your way to securing a very bright future with your resume."
The two arrived in a small geodesic facility in the ZG Hub that was full of gym equipment unlike anything you would see on the surface.
"As you probably already know, weights are useless for ZG gyms." said Venochi. "Of course, calisthenics like pushups and pull ups also provide no normal bodyweight resistance and thus do not work for ZG Training. This means that you cannot use these methods to stay in shape while traveling between planets. Unfortunately, this challenge presents itself to humans in the worst possible environment. Bone and muscle density decrease rapidly as you spend time in zero gravity and it is a very common thing for casual tourists to be permanently hospitalized after interplanetary voyages because they failed to maintain the recommended daily workout routine. You see, working out during your voyage is not only important, it is a requirement. Do you understand me?"
"Of course." said Melbourne. It was ironic that daily workouts were already a mandatory thing for him whether in space or not, but oh well. "You essentially use gym equipment that provides resistance training using elastic material, right?"
"Yes." said Venochi, smiling because he wouldn't have to explain that. "Much of the equipment in this gym simulates what soldiers and large scientific expeditions offer. People who stay here or on other space stations can, of course, use normal gym equipment in the gravity tori, but spaceships designed for long voyages very rarely have artificial gravity. It's not really practical, so we use alternative means to stay in shape."
[New Mission: ZG Training
*Learn about basic zero gravity exercises to maintain your fitness and good health over interplanetary journeys
*Reward: 10 XP]
Melbourne licked his lips in excitement and the XP gain he'd get from the system. Training was indeed starting to become addictive as he anticipated the growth he'd receive from his next level up.
[Daily Mission Temporarily Cancelled
*Analyzing ZG Training to update Daily Mission
.\|/]
A loading screen showed up in Melbourne's vision that he was soon able to will to disappear.
"Alright, let's get this training started!" exclaimed Melbourne with a level of enthusiasm he had not had before his new system mission.
"Alright, newbie. I'm going to start you on the flywheel. It's a very old space training device that dates back to the very early days of human space flight and is still a very widely used method on voyages that only last a few months to a year like yours is expected to. It's so useful because it provides resistance training up to five-hundred kilos. The harder you train, the more resistance the machine will output until you arrive at that maximum number. It also provides a cycling mechanism for cardio workouts. I'm not going to bother having you go through the majority of these fancy contraptions because this machine is really enough for a full body workout and it is what they have available on your voyage anyway. I'm going to have you perform a thirty minute cardio workout first before we move on to strength training."
Melbourne used the pedals in combination with elastic bands that he was instructed to pull tightly while he pedaled. The artificial resistance made the exercise feel like real bicycling back on Mars, and after ten minutes he really started to sweat.
After finishing the task, Venochi instructed Melbourne to begin with arm resistance training that involved putting his feet against the machine and bending his torso ninety degrees to perform pulling rows that trained his pull up muscles. After a set of two hundred, he was instructed to exercise his pushing muscles by leaning his back against the device and pushing the elastic bands outwards two-hundred times. These workouts were intense despite the ease with which anything could be moved in zero-G. Melbourne's muscles felt the burn with a surprising intensity.
"Good job. Now I'm going to show you how to workout your leg muscles by simulating squats and calf raises."
The instructor had Melbourne put his feet in the looped ends of the elastic bands then push outward and back in. He was told to push his toes outwards at the end of the outstretching to work the calves along with all the other leg muscles.
"Now the core." said Venochi after 200 grueling ZG squats.
Melbourne was shown to strap himself against the wall where the flywheel was anchored and then the elastic bands were hooked around his torso to provide the necessary resistance. After his long set of ZG sit-ups, he was repositioned so that his legs could now be hooked in the elastic bands for ZG leg lifts.
Melbourne's legs trembled as he finished the final ten repetitions and he collapsed into a floating ball as he finally performed his 200th leg lift.
"There you go." said Venochi, handing Melbourne a suction pack of electrolyte water to hydrate with. He took the pouch immediately and gulped gratefully as he clenched his sore chest. The workout regimen had been even harder than what Aclito had put him through over the last week. "That's essentially a full body ZG workout for zero gravity job assignments. You'll be needing to workout on a daily basis but you may alternate the muscle groups from day to day."
[Mission Complete: ZG Training
*+10 XP
*XP: 51/100]
Melbourne had, of course, received one XP yesterday shortly after exiting the vacuum balloon through a gym visit before visiting Arian Horizons. It had cost him only 10 crypts. He had 100 crypts for his voyage from his parents and was now down to 90 crypts. Luckily, Arian Horizons had paid most of his living expenses.
[Bonus Reward:
*+1 Str
*Str: 5
*Due to diligent training over time, your strength has increased by one point. Keep grinding."]
Melbourne smiled at this notification.
That smile was turned upside down when he saw another familiar person in the gym with a similar black Arian Horizons jumpsuit. Why oh why of all people in this godforsaken solar system did James Kurkoniff have to be interned for the same voyage.
On a less dark note, he saw another familiar face being trained by another Arian Horizons trainer. Smiling at him as he drank his electrolyte water was the red haired woman he had spoken to on the deck of the airship two nights ago.