Off Topic
November 1, 2061 | Forever Land | Across the way, in a dark corner of the cave, the interim roster flashed on the duty screen. White letters on deep, ocean blue background. LaDonna Spike disengaged with the pitching machine she’d been connected up to, and went to the readout. Everything was ready. The new code was perfect. Get a guy in there and in three, maybe four pitches, POPPER (the Perfect Operations for Pitch Potential Examination and Recalculation) device would know everything there was to know about the pitcher’s motion, as well as how to optimize it.
She used a fresh towel to daub perspiration from between her shoulder blades and came to stand next to Steele, her husband of the last four years. They were perfect for each other. Both health nuts. Both number nerds. Their first date had been at the university gym, their second had been at the Greens and Proteins Shake Shack so they could go over the reports of their respective workouts. Their third date? Well, she blushed remembering it. That all three of those dates had been the same evening was testament to their connection. That they had both graduated with top scores confirmed everything about everything. LaDonna Montgomery had known Dirk Spike was meant for her the minute their eyes had locked across the physical classroom where the prof had been rattling on about enzymes, electrolytes, and recovery cycles.
Now here they were, Drs. Spike, living their dream life alone together on this remote Pacific Island, studying peak physicality together in more ways than one. It was a great gig, really. Live alone in paradise for eight months a year, then be home to a rabid gang of baseball nerds for the next four.
“It’s a shame,” LaDonna Spike said as she scanned the program roster. “Only two waves this year.”
“A shame?” her husband said in the melodic tone she would always love. He stood there, stoic, his arms long and supple, but bulging in just the right proportion. Blond and chiseled. He was a beautiful man in all ways. She loved the way he smelled, too. Gently musky in a way that mixed with scents from the faintly wild breeze that always swirled over the black-sanded beaches of their home island.
“Usually we get twenty-five or thirty guys to torture over the winter,” she explained with a sardonic sigh. That’s what the Krill paid them to do, after all. Torture their players throughout the winter months so they play better through the summer.
“Ah, I see,” her husband replied, consoling her by rubbing a bare shoulder. His smile matched her tone. “But this way we get to torture the same guys longer.”
“That is a silver lining,” she agreed as she leaned back into her husband’s chest..
“Always look at the bright side of life,” Dirk added.
She scanned the hovering holo-display holding the expected roster of the first wave:
Paul Worboys: Conditioning
Jose Guevera: Sec Pitch or Control
Steve Truss: Improve Movement
Winston Morris: Endurance Training
Enrique Villareal: Endurance Training
Brain Capps: Endurance Training
Graham Aubry: Conditioning
Mauro Oksuzian: Bat Speed
Benji Amberman: Contact/BABIP?
Abdul-Muta'al bin Essam: Bat Speed
“Looks like we need to take another pass at the cardio and endurance systems,” LaDonna said. “And the Launch Angle Tracker has an update to install. Zamora is a stickler for seeing things his way.”
“Like he thinks he’s the hitting coach.”
Steele’s soft-shoed joke made her smile.
“I guess we should get to it,” she said, crossing her arms and standing fully on her own now. She was well aware that the players called her and Dirk’s home “Pain Island.” The name made her happy, Sheld been working on the lab harder than ever to maintain that reputation. Ten long programs weren’t just going to make themselves happen, after all. "Next four months are going to be busy as hell," she said anxiously
Dirk took her shoulders and turned her to face him. “They won’t be here for three days,” he said, something obviously on his mind. “I think we have time.”
“For what?” But she would have known what they had time for even if his eyes hadn’t been sparkling, and even if those same eyes hadn’t been set at what she'd come to call "third date angle."
Yes. LaDonna Steel thought as her husband stepped closer, he was a beautiful man in every way.
