Authors note: This is music that I love. Thanks to everyone who has sent me co mments, please keep them coming. Authors love feedback! If your curious about linux, just email me.
The Seaquest's interior lights dimmed as the ship simulated nightfall. Captain Nathan Bridger walked down the corridor of C deck, whistling the Beatles Yellow Submarine. He was on his way to see Lucas. It was mainly just a social call, but Nathan had grown fond of Lucas. He was so full of life, cocky, but still ok. He had the brain to back up his attitude. When he got to Lucas's door, he heard the opening rifs of Iron Butterfly's In-a-gada-daveda. The volume was so loud, that it was all but shaking the door. Nathan wondered if something was wrong. Nathan didn't try to knock, he just opened the door. Lucas was sitting at his desk, typing on two keyboards at once. He was bouncing his head in time with the music. He looked happy, his total concentration was on the three monitors that were scrolling more lines of code than Nathan could read, much less understand. Nathan put his hand on Lucas's shoulder, as he leaned closer to watch the boy type.
Lucas became aware of the Captain, but then again he could have been standing there for a long time for all Lucas knew. He had been expecting Nathan to stop by. He and Nathan had started talking just after Nathan had become the captain of the SeaQuest. They had started simple, but now could talk about anything. The Captain had told him about Robert and Carol. Lucas had told him about some of his college days. Lucas looked up at Nathan. Nathan, in turn, looked down at Lucas and smiled. Lucas reached over and turned down the music. "Amazed at my cunning display of dexterity and programming skills?" Lucas said with a smirk. "Are you insinuating I should bow and call you the computer god?" Nathan answered with a smirk of his own. They both laughed. "What are you working on?" asked Nathan. "One program is for Commander Ford, the other is for Kristen." What's on the third monitor?" "I'm compiling the new SuSE kernel." "What," asked Nathan "Is that?" "It's a distribution on Linux. The original kernel was written by Linus Torvalds in 1990. It competed with Microsoft for awhile, then in 2012 Linux beat Microsoft in sales," answered Lucas. The third monitor stopped scrolling. Lucas pulled out a different keyboard and typed make bzImage; make modules; make dep; make clean; make modules_install, then hit the enter key. The screen started scrolling all sorts of file names. Just what did all that mean? asked Nathan. "That is how you manually compile a kernel. Those commands tell the computer how to compile it,"said Lucas. Nathan just smiled. The kid knew more about this stuff than Nathan knew about himself.
Nathan walked over and sat on the very cluttered bed. It had clothing, books, variously marked disks, plus several magazines about computer games. Lucas walked over and sat by Nathan. do you like my music? Yeah, I do. I didn't know you were into this old style of music, said Nathan. I love stuff from the 60's. I have 100 gigs of music from the 50's-80's alone. I have another 70 gigs from 90s through what they play today, finished Lucas with pride. was all that Nathan could say. If you want me to transfer any of it to your profile, just let me know. Don't let Bill know about this. You'll never get rid of him, said Nathan. What does he like? asked Lucas. He loves the Beatles, the Beach Boys, but his favorite is Fleetwood Mac. Said Nathan. Ina-gada-da-veda ended,The Devil went Down to Georgia came on next. What's your favorite, asked Lucas? It depends on my mood. Carol loved The Moody Blues. I'm more into CCR and Jimi Hendrix, Nathan finished. What about you? It depends on my mood too. I love Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and Jefferson Airplane. There is nothing more relaxing than hearing the Star Spangled Banner live at Woodstock. I also like Alanis Morissette, I really like the musical RENT. I went to a showing when I was 12. Very powerful. said Lucas. You like musicals? asked Nathan. It wasn't the sort of thing he could picture Lucas enjoying.
The music had changed to Sweet Transvestite from Rocky Horror.
Yeah, I like almost any musical. My favorite is Rocky Horror Picture Show. I went to my first convention when I was 10. They had a theater by the campus that showed it every Friday night at midnight. I was bored and wandering around when I found it. I really liked it. It was great stress relief to scream back at a movie and dance. Lucas finished smiling, as his eyes clouded over as he remembered the fun he had. You were de-virginized when you were 10? Nathan asked curiously. Yeah, I was kind of scared at first, but then all I had to do was eat a maraschino cherry with whipped cream on it. The people in the cast were really cool. They invited me to be Rocky Horror. I played Rocky three times. It was really fun. The crowd made it worth dressing up. I went almost every Friday night. Lucas finished with a smile. Nathan just shook his head. Lucas wasn't normally this open. It did seem like a good sign though.
So, when were you de-virginized? asked Lucas. The mischievous smile even reached Lucas's eyes. Nathal knew he shouldn't even answer. He already heard enough about swimming nude with Darwin. He decided it couldn't hurttoo much. I was 15. My girlfriend at the time loved it. She even had the underwear with Frank and the lips on them. Lucas cocked an eyebrow. Nathan just rubbed his face. He was now wanting something to hide under. Lucas on the other hand was enjoying Nathan's story. This one beat swimming nude with Darwin. Did you dress up? asked Lucas. Once, I was Rocky Horror too. Nathan said smiling. Is that when you saw her underwear? Lucas asked, ducking as Nathan threw a t-shirt at him. I will have you know I was a gorgeous Rocky! Nathan said. What did your girlfriend go as? asked Lucas. She went as Frank. She looked great. She didn't even have to get a wig. All she had to do was frizz out her hair. Nathan smiled as Lucas laughed.
Did you ever go with Carol? asked Lucas. Twice, once right after we gotten married, the second time when she was pregnant with Robert. She looked so cute doing the time warp. How far along was she? asked Lucas. She was 8 month in. She went as a pregnant Janet. Now it was Nathan's turn to reminance. Lucas had seen pictures of Carol before. He was trying to picture her pregnant dancing. It was a curious sight.
The music had changed to Monty Python's Galaxy. Nathan's thoughts turned to the song. This was the part where the guy is climbing out of the refrigerator' he thought. Lucas noted Nathan's look. I've got the movie. Actually I've got all of the Monty Python stuff. You should see Kristen when I play one of them. Lucas said with a smile. It was one way to get Kristen to almost run screaming. Nathan looked a little shocked, then he just laughed. So that's where the Lumber Jack song came from! Kristen was threatening to kill the computer people if they didn't get if off the computer. Lucas smiled his most innocent smile. Must have been Ben. He likes Monty Python too. Nice try Lucas, nice try. Nathan could see Lucas was beginning to play with others.The music had switched to Cat Stephens. Lucas smiled as he saw Nathan yawn. It was relaxing music. He was starting to like having someone around. It was a strange feeling being relaxed around people. It was even stranger having people relaxed around him. People normally felt intimidated by him, not his size, but his intelligence.
Bridger seemed truly interested in him and his work. Nathan was starting to slouch down. Lucas couldn't keep his comment back. Oh, is it the Captain's bedtime? Nathan just nodded. Yup. I'd better go before you have a roommate. Nathan stood up and stretched. His back popped in 3 places. Would you join me for a swim with Darwin tomorrow? Nathan asked. Lucas looked up, Sure. Is 11 ok? Sure. Good night Lucas. Nathan said with a gentle smile. Night Captain. Lucas said. Nathan walked out, feelilg better about his week. Talking normally helped and Lucas was normally willing to listen.
Lucas walked back to the desk and started to work on his program again. He was starting to like it here. He could get used to Nathan talking with him. With that thought, he turned his thoughts back to the three monitors.