Images flickered in his mind. Images of another life. Images of another world. Another world where he was free, where he could do whatever. Images of a girl, a young girl who seemed so free.
The dream faded and Shay woke up. The computer next to him was still sleeping, so he knew that it wasn't yet morning. So he just lay there, savoring the freedom of his dreams and remembering that girl.
She was able to do what she pleased, while he was trapped in the childish daydream that the computer had been creating for him. All he wanted was freedom; he wanted what the girl had.
'I wish I could switch lives with her, just to see what it's like,' Shay thought. 'It's too bad she was only a dream.'
And on that thought, he went back to sleep, craving the freedom of his dreams once more.
Crash! Shay woke with a start and looked around wildly. What was that?
"Shay? Are you alright?" The ship's "mother" computer appeared in place of the one that was already there at his bedside.
"I'm fine, computer," Shay said. "What was that?"
"I... don't know," she said. "But your father and I are working on it. Don't worry, sweetie."
She lingered for a little while just to make sure the boy was alright before she and the other computer disappeared from the console, leaving Shay alone. She locked his door so she'd know where he was, though.
Shay lay there again. All thoughts of his previous dream left his mind and all he could concentrate on was that noise. It wasn't normal, and that both scared and intrigued him. Nothing abnormal ever happened on the ship.
A small creature stood up and unhooked himself from the small machine. Where was he? It didn't look like his restaurant. It didn't even look like anything in his underwater home. It felt... weird- there was no water. The creature began to panic and ran around in circles, eventually hitting his head on his machine. It didn't hurt.
He felt around his head. It was covered with a helmet- a helmet full of water. He sighed in relief. What happened? Maybe he'd accidentally pressed the button on the teleporter instead...
The creature, Plankton, looked around. It appeared that he was in a giant... bedroom. Well, maybe not giant, but it was quite big compared to himself. He could hear something breathing in the bed just above his head. He clutched at the sheet and pulled himself up onto the bed. There slept the strangest creature he'd ever seen. It was huge and definitely not a fish. It didn't have a helmet, either- it breathed air. And it was awake, but seemed... inactive. It was just staring into the distance. Plankton climbed on the creature's nose.
"Hello? Hola? Kwarf?" Plankton said, not sure what language the creature spoke or if it even spoke at all.
"Huh?" The creature looked at Plankton, who was standing on its nose. "Who are you? What are you? How did you get in here?"
"I am Sheldon J. Plankton," Plankton said. "Where exactly is here?"
Shay picked the tiny creature up off of his nose, sat up, and set plankton back down on his knee. "You're in my bedroom, on the spaceship Bassinostra. How did you get in here without the computer catching you?"
"I don't know," Plankton replied. "One minute I was in my lab, the next I was in here. I must have pressed the button on my teleporter instead of the one on my 'Switch-Lives-Just-to-Know-What-It's-Like-o-Mogrifier' thing."
"Switch-Lives-Just-to-Know-What-It's-Like-o-Mogrifier?" Shay asked, his eyes lighting up.
"Yeah, it's right down there. I was going to use it to switch places with my enemy so I could see what it's like to be successful... And to eat real food and not just the holographic meatloaf that ,y computer wife makes."
"Holographic meatloaf...? Never mind. Where is this 'Switch-Lives-Just-to-Know-What-It's-Like-o-Mogrifier' thing? Can I use it?" Shay asked.
"I don't see why not," Plankton said. "It's right down here." He jumped down from the bed and stood by his machine.
Shay got out of bed and sat on the floor, looking at Plankton's machine. "It's so... tiny."
"Well, it was made for me, so..."
"If only we could make it bigger somehow..." Shay said, looking at the machine.
"Well, we could always use my Unshrink Ray," Plankton said, pulling something out of his tiny pocket. He shot his other machine with it and the machine grew until it was big enough for Shay to use.
"Now," said Plankton. "I'll let you use it... On one condition- you allow me to explore your home for miscellaneous parts to make a teleporter and get me back home (and possibly steal the Krabby Patty secret formula in the process)."
"Deal," Shay said, not hearing the part about stealing the formula.
Plankton helped Shay hook himself up to the "Switch-Lives-Just-to-Know-What-It's-Like-o-Mogrifier". He then started flicking through silhouette images of people, stopping only when Shay saw a girl who looked similar to the one in his dream.
"Where does she live? Can you find that out?" Shay asked.
"Sure, kid," Plankton said. He went over to a panel on the side of the machine. "I can't find the name, but it looks something like this." He held up a picture of the girl's world- a small town surrounded by hills on one side and beautiful fields on the other.
"I'd like to switch with her," Shay told Plankton.
"You sure? I mean... I can't guarantee that you'll still be a boy after you switch..." Plankton said.
"I don't care," Shay said. "Anything to get away from this fake reality. Oh, and you might want to shrink the machine again after. Almost nothing slips past the ship's computer. She probably would've caught us had she not been distracted by a... something."
"Yeah, I get the feeling," Plankton said. "My wife's a computer. I'll also leave the machine here in case you switch back after I leave. Wouldn't want you switching back at the bottom of the ocean or anything."
Plankton told the boy everything he needed to know about the machine. He told him how to switch back and what things could happen. And then he activated it.