Jack was pleased to see the next several days pass relatively smoothly. Once a routine was established, it simply became a matter of passing the time. Their mornings were usually filled with various chores that needed to be done to keep a relatively small area livable despite such a large number of inhabitants. The afternoon was typically spent playing board and card games, watching movies, and occasionally planning what they would do once they could resume working outside.

Another week of physical therapy passed with only slight complications brought on by the presence of so many onlookers. It made Jack more than a little self-conscious but also gave him the drive to push himself a little harder and longer. Any comments that anyone might have foolishly considered making at Jack's expense were quickly silenced by a glare from S'haar. Except, of course, the ones that came from Lon'thul.

Jack was catching his breath after a light jog around the living room when Lon'thul walked up. As usual, he seemed utterly oblivious to S'haar's intimidation tactics. "You know, Jack, seeing you push yourself to overcome your injury is really inspiring! It's like we have a room full of Aragorn's, Gimli's, and even Gandolf's," He nodded his head toward Angela as he said that, "and you're like Sam, always getting back up no matter how many times you fall!"

Jack raised an eyebrow at Lon'thul as he finally stood up straight. "Ok, first off, that's a compliment. Sam is badass! Second, and I'm afraid to ask this question but... who do you think you are?"

Lon'thul lifted a few head tendrils and whisked them over his shoulder while shaking his head dramatically to settle them in place. "That's easy, I'm Legolas, obviously!"

Angela was far too amused to keep her opinions to herself. As she floated over, she gave Lon'thul a measuring gaze. Her eyes went from head to toe, then back to his head, all while she perched the crook of a finger on her lower lip. "I don't know, that's not quite right..."

With a snap of her fingers and a widening of her eyes, Angela's voice took on the kind of excitement one's does when making a significant breakthrough. "I've got it! You're Peregrin Took! You are totally the type who would throw a rock down a well just to see what would happen!"

Everyone within earshot broke out in laughter, but none louder than Lon'thul's rival, Tel'ron. This, of course, drew Angela's attention to the other young argu'n. "That would make you Merry! You two are perfect fits for the roles! I swear, keeping both of you out of trouble is a full-time job!"

Now it was Tel'ron's turn to look crestfallen as everyone else in the room laughed at the young argu'n's misfortune of ending up at the mercy of Angela's wit. Soon enough, both men recovered from their verbal whipping and joined back in the laughter.

Angela took a bow in front of her audience. "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week! Remember to tip your waitresses!"

-

Once again, Jack was pushing himself to his limits, this time with some free weights Angela had crafted for muscle training. They had plenty of iron sitting around, and she considered the energy used as an investment in getting Jack back in proper working order. The workers were fascinated by the idea of doing something for no other reason than to build muscle.

Currently, Jack was trying not to be too embarrassed by the fact that the weight he could barely bench press was below what S'haar could curl with one arm. They'd found this out when Jack had pushed himself hard enough that he couldn't reset the weights, so S'haar, who was spotting for him, had to lift them into place for him. As she began reducing the bar's weight so Jack would do a few more sets, S'haar admonished Jack. "Don't worry about what I can do. Worry about what you can do. Besides, comparing yourself to me wouldn't be fair even if you fully recovered." To emphasize her point, S'haar flexed her arms the way she'd seen humans do in several movies.

Jack admired her form before he sighed while bracing his arms to do the next set. "My brain agrees with you, but my gut still doesn't like it. A lifetime of social conditioning doesn't go away that quickly or easily. That's ok though. I'll just have to use that frustration as motivation to push myself harder, while at the same time working to overcome my personal insecurities."

Angela was currently sitting on one of the weights. It slightly threw Jack's preception off since his brain told him one side should be heavier than the other, but she'd told him that having to steady the free weights was better for overall muscle development than a more streamlined machine would be.

Once Jack started lifting again, the AI decided to add her own two cents to the conversation. "Well, that's very mature of you. Keep that up, and you might just become a fully functional adult!"

Jack held his peace while he finished his set, then spoke up between breaths while his arms virtually dangled from their handhold on the bar. "Yeah, two things though. First, it's easier said than done, and I'm not sure how much praise I deserve just for realizing something so basic I need to work on. Second, the idea of a fully functional adult is just a myth. You can take the single most self-sufficient man or woman in the world, and there's always going to be an area of life they need help with. That's just the nature of being a finite being in an infinite universe."

Tel'ron was watching the goings-on with some interest. He'd already inspected the weight bench when it had been first brought out, and now that he was watching it in action, he had questions. "This device's only function is really just to help you lift heavy things to build muscle? Is it common for humans to need to do something like that?"

Angela hopped off the weights to address the question so Jack wouldn't interrupt his exercise attempting to do so. "It's much the same among humans as it is with the argu'n. Those who have the kind of jobs that require the heaviest lifting are usually those with the most developed muscles. Now, look around at all the machines in this house. With a heated stove, there's no need to chop wood. With indoor plumbing, you don't need to haul water. Having seen all this, you need to understand that this house is still 'roughing it' by human standards. Where Jack comes from, humans don't even need to walk between villages. They have machines that will carry you back and forth. Almost every physically demanding aspect of life is taken care of by machines now."

Tel'ron's head was spinning with the attempt to think of the kind of machines Angela was talking about. He tried to imagine something to carry a person between villages. All the smith could think of was a really long rope with seats, stretched between pullies like the ones Em'brel had designed for the well. He knew that it would never work for various reasons and suspected the reality was far stranger than he'd ever be able to think of on his own.

Angela continued her explanation. "There's even a word for replacing physical labor with machines. It's call automation. The problem with automation is humans quickly found that they weren't moving, lifting, or pushing nearly enough every day. As a result, they began experiencing a significant decline in fitness and health. So, of course, humans did what humans do and studied how to fix the problem. They came up with the idea of exercising. It's the concept of doing a more intense physical activity over a shorter period to replace the day-to-day physical activities that were no longer a part of their lives."

As Jack finished another set, he collapsed onto the bench, unable to bring himself to do any more for at least a few minutes. Angela nodded in his direction. "The reason Jack is pushing himself so hard is that rather than merely maintaining a healthy body, he's replacing lost muscle mass. That takes a lot more work, but hopefully, he'll be in pretty good condition by the time spring rolls around."

Tel'ron shook his head. "It almost sounds like all this progress just brings on more problems for you."

Jack jumped into the conversation, finding this a great excuse to take a break from his workout. "Yeah, it's been a bit of two steps forward, once step back, but overall we've still made a lot of progress. When our society was at a similar point in history compared to your own, only about half our children would survive to adulthood, and the average life expectancy of a human was only about twenty-eight to thirty-six years. These days, roughly forty-nine out of fifty children reach adulthood, and the average life expectancy is about a hundred and fifty years, with some people getting up to around a hundred and ninety."

The room had gone quiet as everyone present stared at Jack. Jack was just starting to feel self-conscious, wondering what he'd said wrong, when Em'brel shot to him like a bullet, wrapping her arms around his waist while sobbing into his chest. "No! You can't leave that early! It's not fair! You have to hang around until I'm old and grey!"

Jack did his best to console Em'brel while looking up to S'haar for answers. "Why? What's the average argu'n's lifespan like?"

Fea'en is the one who spoke up from her chair. "Well, it might not be my place to interrupt, but I've lived through roughly two hundred and twenty winters so far. It's not common, but also not unheard of for an argu'n to live well past three hundred."

Angela was going a bit of math off to the side. "Even taking into account the differences in your planet's orbit, that would still add up to about two hundred and eighty human years!"

Holding a sobbing Em'brel while looking back at S'haar, who was now staring down at him with wide eyes, all Jack could offer was an eloquent, "Huh..."

-

It took Jack a good half an hour to calm Em'brel down and assure her that he wouldn't go anywhere anytime soon. Still, that information bomb definitely put a damper on the evening.

After dinner, Jack put on a movie. He immediately found himself sandwiched between two very distracted argu'n. Jack suspected that neither S'haar nor Em'brel was paying much attention to the film. Maybe it was the fact that S'haar's eye seemed to be focused unblinkingly on some distant point far beyond the ship walls, or perhaps it was because Em'brel kept looking over at Jack, getting misty-eyed, then looking away again.

When it was time to call it a night, S'haar helped Jack to his bed again, even though he didn't need the help anymore. Once he was settled in, rather than say goodnight and leave as she usually did, S'haar crawled into bed with Jack, wrapping her arms tightly around him, locking him into a rather fierce embrace.

Jack started to say something, but S'haar cut him off with a terse, "Shut up!" Her grip lacked any feelings of lust or longing. Instead, Jack felt like he was a teddy bear of some kind, being tightly held by a scared young girl to ward off whatever monsters might lurk in the dark.

S'haar's grip continued tightening until Jack started having trouble breathing easily. He decided to try once again. "Your grip is a little too tight!"

His words were met with was another whispered, "Shut up!" but S'haar's grip loosened just enough to breathe.

After being held like that for a long while, Jack felt S'haar's grip loosen a little more, and he listened as her breathing slowed enough that he was confident she'd finally fallen asleep. But when Jack tried to shift into a more comfortable position, he found that S'haar's hold wasn't going to completely let up any time soon.

With a sigh and a whispered, "Well, this is my life now, I guess..." Jack let himself settle in as best he could. Despite the embrace's discomfort, Jack couldn't help but notice a sense of peace settle over him. This was totally different from other times he and S'haar had shared a bed. This time just felt right. Like some hole in his spirit had been filled. Eventually, Jack's thoughts slowed, and he slipped into the embrace of sleep.

In his dreams, Jack found himself back on earth. There was a gentle breeze, and he could hear birds singing and bees buzzing while a slow-moving stream provided relaxing background noise. Jack found himself floating over an older S'haar, who seemed to be visiting his grave. She alternated between grumpily cursing him for leaving her alone once again and laughing while smiling and telling him about her day. It was oddly comforting in a sad sort of way.

When Jack woke in the middle of the night, he noticed that both of their pillows seemed strangely damp.

-

By breakfast, the somber mood from the night before had mostly lifted. Though Jack noticed, Em'brel still seemed to be stealing glances at him with greater frequency than usual, and S'haar seemed to be hovering just a little closer than usual. Still, at least the tears seemed to have mostly dried, and the smiles were slowly making a return.

They were listening as Angela described the concept of a water mill to Em'brel and Tel'ron when suddenly the AI stopped speaking and got that far off look in her eyes as though she were listening to a distant conversation of some sort.

When She refocused her eyes on the group, she spoke with excitement evident in her voice. "I think the freeze is coming to an end soon! It's a few days out, maybe a week, but there are signs of a warm front approaching!"

This announcement was met by a cheer, and everyone started speaking excitedly at the same time. Jack could only make out snippets of conversation going back and forth, but one thing Lon'thul said caught Jack's attention. "Finally! This was a long one!"

Turning his full attention to Lon'thul, Jack asked the young hunter the question that was bothering him. "How long was this freeze, relative to a normal one?"

Lon'thul looked deep in thought when Fea'en answered for him. "It was a long one. I don't think it was as cold as I"ve seen in the past, but probably the second or third longest I've lived through."

Shifting his attention to the craft master, Jack asked the next question weighing on his mind. "How do you think the village fared? What condition are they in?"

The table grew quiet as she weighed the possibilities. With a solemn voice, Fea'en answered. "Well, they're probably alright at the moment. It's likely only the oldest or weakest couldn't get to the shelter on time, but as long as the freeze lasted, their supplies are probably severely depleted. The rest of the winter will probably be very rough on the survivors."

S'haar leaned back in her chair for several minutes, eyes closed and arms folded. When she opened her eyes, she found herself the center of everyone's attention. The room was so quiet, Jack jumped a little when she cleared her throat. Looking to Jack, her voice held the note of an apology. "I know there's still a lot of work to do, but I want to put together an expedition to return to the village as soon as the freeze passes. We have the tools and ability to supply them with the wood and food they'll need to make it through the rest of the winter. I know it's a setback in your plans, but..."

Jack cut her off with a raised hand. "Don't apologize. That's precisely why I want you in charge because you'll make calls just like that one. Honestly, if you didn't come to that decision, I was going to recommend something along those lines. We can save lives, and we should. We've got a few days before we can act. I suggest we take this time to plan how we're going to pull this off!"