Elias kept his feet under him by watching the floor instead of trusting his body.
Left still wanted to answer as right. His knees tried to lock whenever he meant to bend. Every correction came half a beat late, and every late correction made his ribs complain under the bandages.
He forced another step and stopped before he walked into the rack of medicine balls.
Paul leaned against the wall with a towel around his neck. "You are doing better than the rest of the penalty group, but I would not call that walking unless the floor agreed first."
Elias looked at the crooked line his shoes had made across the mat. "I am accepting progress from any source willing to offer it. The floor has been rude, but it has not killed me yet."
A woman near the side wall gave a quiet laugh through her nose. She had her arms folded and one shoulder braced against the padding, dressed in the same training gear as the others but wearing it like a court outfit she had been forced to tolerate.
Elias nodded toward her. "You are Faye, unless there is another recruit here who looks like she is waiting for a better room."
Faye looked him over before she answered. "Faye Lorne, former political family disappointment and current military property, which means you guessed correctly enough for morning conversation."
Elias had no clean answer for that. He touched near the wound under his shirt, felt the pull of healing skin, and let his hand drop before it became obvious.
Paul pushed off the wall. "Bui, Wes, and Tidwell are still trapped in their rooms. They are awake, angry, and learning that yelling does not count as physical training."
Elias turned too sharply and had to catch himself on the wall. "So the Doctor punished everyone who failed the requirements, not only me."
"Most of the people who failed received it," Paul said. "You were just stubborn enough to start moving before breakfast, which makes people think you are either motivated or too dumb to stay down."
Dot's hovered close to Elias's shoulder, her tiny glow dipping as she inspected his legs. "He is both in useful amounts, and that may be why he keeps surviving."
Kikaru walked over from the stretch mats. Her tracksuit jacket hung open, and when she adjusted it, Elias saw the blue branching under her skin near her side. The veins around her shard looked deeper than they had before, like the crystal had decided the flesh around it was part of its housing.
Elias looked away before staring turned into a question she had not invited.
Kikaru noticed anyway. "Mine moved after the Doctor's test. It feels buried now, but it still listens when it wants something from me."
"Does it hurt when it changes like that?" Elias asked.
"It feels wrong more than painful," she said. "That is the part I dislike, because pain at least admits what it is doing."
Faye nodded once, like that answer had landed somewhere private.
Kikaru's gaze shifted above Elias's head. "Your task window is still open. Since last night, most of us can see each other's assignment markers if we stand close enough."
Elias glanced up at empty air and saw only his own floating task. "I cannot see yours, which seems like another wonderful feature I received half broken."
"Maybe your shard is just shy today," Dot's said.
"My shard lives under my ribs and refuses to explain itself, so shy is one of the better options."
Kikaru frowned. "Under your ribs still sounds dangerous. Everyone else's shard has an entry point the doctors can watch. Yours is sitting near your heart."
Elias tried to shrug and made his left shoulder jerk instead. "The X-rays showed it below the heart, and nobody has found a polite way to ask it to leave."
Paul pointed at the workout board before that thought could settle. "Oliver left the morning plan, and anyone still breathing is expected to start. Elias, you can modify the sets so you do not tear yourself open."
The board showed the routine in bright block letters, and Elias hated each line more as he read.
Warm up meant jumping jacks, burpees, and two full laps around the gym.
Strength work meant pushups, sit-ups, and pull-ups before anyone reached breakfast.
Cardio with jump rope and three laps around the facility.
Stretching after, assuming anyone deserved mercy.
Dot's drifted closer to the board. "That list was written by someone who thinks breakfast tastes better after suffering."
Elias lowered himself to the mat. The motion took planning. He set his palms down, shifted his knees, and breathed through the pull across his side.
Paul crouched beside him. "Do not chase the number, chase control. If you collapse halfway down, I will still count it as comedy instead of training."
Elias bent his elbows. His body answered backward, turning the pushup into an argument. His chest nearly hit the mat before he locked his arms.
Faye watched from the wall. "He is going to be here until dinner."
"Breakfast comes before any heroic death," Elias said through his teeth. "If I die before eggs, I am filing a complaint with whoever manages the afterlife."
Kikaru started her own set nearby, smooth and steady in a way that annoyed him more than it should have. Paul moved to the pull-up bar. Dot's counted in a bright voice that became less helpful every time Elias failed.
By the time he reached fifty pushups, his arms shook hard enough that his palms slid on the mat.
He rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling beams. The metal grid above him was plain and clean, all straight lines and bolts. Nothing magical, nothing alive, nothing demanding a score from him.
For a few breaths, that felt like a luxury.
Kikaru tossed him a towel. "Fifty is useful, and two hundred can wait until you can tell your elbows which direction they belong."
Elias caught the towel against his chest. "At this pace, the aliens may retire before I finish warmups."
"Then keep moving before they get bored," Paul called from the bar.
Elias forced himself upright. He tried the first lap around the track at a jog and produced something closer to controlled stumbling. Every third step threatened to swing his body into the wall. Dot's stayed beside him and offered commentary until he threatened to use her as a timing marker.
He had just started to feel the rhythm, ugly as it was, when the door slid open.
Oliver entered first. Behind him came a woman with black hair threaded with white and the kind of posture that made the room correct itself before she spoke.
Oliver clapped once. "Line up for inspection, because the Chairwoman Division is here and I expect every one of you to remember where your spine is."
Elias stopped so fast his left foot tried to keep going.
Kikaru caught his elbow before he fell.