“There are some things that even distance, hatred, and change can't conquer. Love is one of them.” – Elizabeth ‘Jeeves’ Pode

Joshua rolled over and stared at the sun-drenched ceiling. An eternity without natural light had left him just a bit sensitive. Having everything carefully adjusted for his comfort got old though, he finally felt alive again.

He rolled over once more to see long, dark-brown fur with brindle streaks, attached to the neck of a rather fluffy canine.

“This relationship is weird….” He mumbled out loud.

Joshua rose and stretched. He wasn’t particularly tall, a little over five and a half feet, but he’d long ago accepted this and moved on. His build should have been slight, but years of dedicated effort had added just enough mussel mass to make him respectable. The mirror showed dark circles under his deep green eyes, he’d stayed up a little too late the night before, again. Who could blame him, though?

The eyes framed a slightly narrow face that came mostly from his mother. A small, somewhat pointed nose sat serenely in the center of his face, like a kind of squat mountain atop which some guru should live. The eyes were sunken, just a little, and anyone who stopped to focus on them to long could tell they’d seen too much.

But the jaw line that held up the face was firm and strong, and could have come from only one place. Joshua’s grandfather, that fabled legendary hero of old, had had one just like it. Joshua wondered briefly if the jaw had originated with the old soldier, or if it’s lineage could be traced further back, to the dragon and dragons before.

But one feature still sprang out at him, roaring and screaming as it had every time he’d gazed upon his own reflection. He’d changed it ages ago, but he still saw it, hidden behind the invisible scars of the cosmetic surgery.

The high cheekbones that had resembled those of the man who sired him.

As quickly as it came, Joshua thrust the notion from his mind. Nothing that was in him or of him could come of that man, he refused to let it. He usually never let the thought get as far as this, it had caught him off-guard.

He brushed his teeth quietly in the bathroom down the hall from the master bedroom so as not to wake his wife, then dressed quickly and contemplated brushing his scruffy, dark-brown hair. The hair looked like he had cut it himself, which he had, and quite inexpertly. But it grew to fast and he hated barbers, so he’d long ago developed a habit of cutting it himself. Strangely, through sheer chance alone, he’d managed to produce a style that looked not unlike a very expensive haircut. Himself, with a pair of scissors and two mirrors. The scissors weren’t even hair-cutting scissors; they were just common desk scissors! It was disorderly and matted, but trimmed short enough as to be easily manageable.

Deciding it could wait, Joshua laced up his running shoes, chugged half a pint of electrolyte-enriched water, and began his morning run.

He reached the street and stopped momentarily, then resumed his run. This time of year, this time of morning, Garm was plainly visible in the sky.

Nine and months so far he’d been on this world, and Joshua was still disconcerted to be living on a moon. The orbit was a-typical, fifteen degrees from polar, and high enough that it always had an unobstructed view of the sun. The axis then was the same as the planet’s(with a bit of a tilt), and thus gave the moon an even day-night cycle.

Moon Garm, or so this world was called, was a very rare moon, because it was a moon with its own moons.

Difficult, though not impossible, just very unlikely, Moon Garm had two small moons of its own, and shared Garm with another four moons, creating a number of very intriguing cycles.

Dark Star was a small yet surprisingly round body in a fast, elliptical orbit around Moon Garm. It was invisible at night, but every three days it could be seen as a large black spot in the sky.

Night Star was a more traditional moon. Also small, but comprised of less-dense stone, it was in a fast, somewhat elliptical orbit and off-plane from Moon Garm’s equator. Night Star had an unusually high LUX, and became full every fourteen days. Reflecting light from both the gas giant and the suns, it was bright enough to read by.

The planet itself, called Garm, was a massive gas-giant and one of the largest on record. It was so large in fact; considerable scientific study had gone towards answering the question of why it was not a sun.

Not that the system had any shortage of those. It was a trinary system, consisting of three main-sequence stars very close together. Ironically, Moon Garm would not have been able to support life if not for heat reflected from Garm, the gas giant had an orbital period of around six years, well outside the star’s habitation zone.

There had actually been a planet within the habitation zone, a rocky world with a nickel-iron core. Unfortunately, it was too large to terraform, and did not support life on its own. The Foundation blasted it apart, and now ran a mining operation in the resulting asteroid field.

Life on the moon was strange. First off, having a gas giant appear in the sky was disconcerting; it gave him painful flashbacks to several near-crashes while piloting spacecraft. It had also brought on more than a few instances of vertigo, and he had only recently gained the ability to look up at it without feeling dizzy.

Garm filled up a good half of the sky right now, and the light it reflected made the morning sun bright and unusually orange.

Joshua ran through this, feeling sweat trickle out of every poor. He had first started with a whole assortment of running gear, but it felt surprisingly awkward when he found himself with other runners. Eventually, for the soul purpose of fitting in, he had ditched it all and ran simply in shorts, shoes, and sunglasses.

This was just the way things were. The local population was into active sports, but not into sporting goods. Running was extremely popular, but no one ran in more than they had to for basic modesty.

Other sports were limited to what was needed for protection, and nothing more. Basic protection, basic modesty, good to go.

And the local culture really was very modest. Every group has its outliers, but in general there wasn’t a lot of exhibitionism. Fashions evolved, but displaying one’s body never seemed to be the intent.

Moving right along, Joshua reached a street corner and paused to wait for the light to change. If things timed out right…

“Hey, man.”

Joshua waved as he checked his pulse and jogged in place. The light changed and the two men crossed at a run, keeping pace with each other but racing just a little.

“Hey, David,” Joshua called as they moved. “How’s that knee today?”

“Hurts like crazy,” David replied.

They reached a part and together crossed the grass to begin use of the track. A few older women were power-walking along the inside, but they almost always ran the outside edge anyway. It was a sort of competitiveness that drove them to fight over the outer-most spot.

Joshua had never spoken to David outside of their morning run. He had no idea what David did or even what his last name was. They’d met while running one day, conversed, and ultimately developed a friendship based around their mutual desire to get some exercise each morning.

“How’s the wife?” David asked as they rounded the turn and sprinted along the straight away.

“Oh, pleasant as a ray of sunshine,” Joshua wheezed back. “Studying hard for her police academy exam.”

“Wife’s gonna be a cop, huh?” David laughed. “You know, when I was first married, I got so much exercise at home, I didn’t even need to run.”

“Oh, I probably don’t need to throw the running in on top of it,” Joshua huffed. “In fact, you just wait, when my girl goes out of town for police training, I’ll probably lap you!”

“Things pretty good then?” David puffed.

“I guess,” Joshua admitted. “I dunno… stuffs a little weird sometimes, you know? Awkward.”