The sun was setting over the quiet soccer pitch. The grass shimmered with a strange perfection, almost as if the world itself had been polished clean. Just hours earlier, the med bed aboard the United States Space Force orbital clinic had finished its work.
Nelly stretched her legs slowly, testing them. She bent down, touched her toes, then jogged a few steps.
“Joe…” she said, half laughing in disbelief. “I feel like I’m eighteen again.”
Joe rolled a soccer ball toward her with the inside of his foot.
“That’s the Tesla tune-up,” he said with a grin. “Factory reset for the human body.”
Nelly trapped the ball instinctively and flicked it up with a little juggle. One touch. Two. Three.
She stopped and stared at him.
“How is this possible?”
Joe leaned against the goalpost like an old coach watching practice.
“Simple rule,” he said. “Mastery takes ten thousand hours.”
He pointed toward the field.
“Every legend—every musician, every astronaut, every soccer player—they all pay the same price.”
Nelly raised an eyebrow.
“Ten thousand hours?”
Joe nodded.
“About three hours a day for ten years. That’s the deal.”
He tapped the side of his head.
“But now you’ve got something nobody else had.”
Nelly spun the ball on her finger.
“What’s that?”
Joe gestured upward toward the fading sky where the faint silhouette of the orbital clinic could barely be seen.
“A body that doesn’t break down.”
Nelly laughed.
“So what are you saying?”
Joe walked onto the pitch and took the ball from her feet with a quick steal.
“I’m saying,” he replied, dribbling past her, “you’ve got time to become dangerous.”
She chased him immediately, competitive instinct firing.
“Oh no you don’t.”
Joe cut left and right, the ball dancing between his feet.
“Ten thousand hours,” he repeated.
Nelly slid in, stole the ball cleanly, and popped up laughing.
“Good,” she said, starting a run toward the goal.
“Because I plan on putting in eleven thousand.” ⚽