Last Stop on the Titanic
Author's notes:
This is a bit of a different twist for me-- a non-comedy story that isn't A. very long, B. doens't drastically change the characters, in personality of situation by the end of the story.
Note: inflatable slides done up in the "titanic" motif exist-- I've seen them.
AP News:
Today at 8:05 PST, a massive sea quake was detected by geophysicists across the world. Fortunately there appears to have been no damage or tsunamis resulting from the sea quake. However, it appears that the wreck of the RMS Titanic was buried under thousands of cubic feet of seafloor soil and debrie. This has placed several companies specializing in visits to the stricken liner in some economic distress. The Titanic was the greatest merchant shipping disaster of the early 20th century, the initial damage compounded by…
Dr. Possible turned the TV off—breakfast or dinner, the parents had a firm rule about TV—which generally could be summed up as: NO. Not that it always was followed, mind you.
"Wow." Kim said. "That's…" She paused, "That's really weird that a quake could do all of that and not hurt anyone else."
"It's very deep, Kimmy-cub." Her father said, spearing a chunk of ham with his fork. His wife might grouse at the "death breakfast" …but she still made it, although James knew that he'd be hearing "bad cholesterol" related comments for the next week. Anne was a doctor, after all.
"Not that it's such a bad thing." Her mother said, sitting down, and trying to pretend that she wasn't eating the exact same sort of breakfast.
"Mom?" Kim said, surprised, "But think of all-"
"The tourists who won't be able to gawk at a tragedy?" Her mother said, "Kimmie, the real scientists have been over that ship a dozen times…it's just lookie loos now." She paused, "maybe those poor people will have some peace, now." Kim looked at her mom, one hand holding some toast—she had cheerleading practice in the morning, and you didn't want to overload before that…. Well, not more than once, as Ron had once demonstrated…all over Mr. Barkin.
"Isn't there a display at the Middleton museum?" Jim asked.
"Yeah!" Tim said, "It has all the old stuff they brought up…" The two frowned.
"They dumped the cool exhibit—'great disasters in science' for it." The two pouted.
"Now, Jim, Tim…there is nothing 'great' in using a plus instead of a minus in creating nuclear fusion." Their father said.
Kim shook her head, grabbed her bag, and headed for the door.
"Bye Kimmie." Kim gave her mother a kiss and headed on out, to where Ron was heading up the street.
"Ready for practice?" Kim asked him.
"The Maddog is always ready, always prepared, and always unchained!" Ron shouted, taking his 'Maddog victorious' stance.
"And always ready to annoy Bonnie…" Kim said, grinning.
"Always!" Ron answered. With that, they headed off to school.
At lunch, Kim luxuriated in the fact that there had been no calls. No calls at all. Not a single world wide catastrophe, disaster, or otherwise dangerous issue needing her attention. In fact, maybe today she could hit the mall with Monique, or catch a movie with Ron… Her Kimmunicator beeped it's distinctive tone, and Kim pulled it out, suppressing a sight.
"Go Wade." She said, "What's the Sitch?"
"The Middleton Museum wants you to handle security over the next couple of nights for their Titanic exhibit." Kim blinked. They wanted her to babysit part of a shipwreck?
"Why?"
"It seems that over the last six months there's been a run of bad luck on items from the Titanic—and now that the ship is gone, the museum directors are afraid that the exhibit will attract thieves…" Wade paused "And they're willing to pay…"
"Wade, I don't-"
"C'mon Kim." Ron said, "It' just like babysitting…except it's like…bigger, and older."
"Yeah, Girlfriend." Monique added. "If they didn't get you, they'd just pay a guard anyway…"
"Um….ooohhhh Okay." Kim said. She'd had her eye on a dress at Club Banana…so this once.
After school, Ron and Kim headed over to the museum. Kim sighed.
"I need a car." She said, holding onto Ron as they sputtered down the road.
"Why?" Ron asked.
"Whenever we have packages, or stuff like that, we always need mom….and Bonnie has a car."
"Bonnie also scares puppies and small children when she walks down the street—and you don't want that, so why the car?" Kim burst into laughter at that.
"Ron! She's not…well, maybe she is."
"There's the museum."
"What's that?" Kim asked. Outside the museum they had an inflatable object, made up to look like the stern of the doomed liner, just before it's last plunge—at exactly the right angle so kids could slide down the rubberized slide. In fact, there were already a few lining up at the steps for the attendant to let them climb up to the stern and do just that.
"Wow…that looks fun." Ron said.
"Ron, it's a kid's ride…" Kim said, and remembering her mother, muttered: "and one in really bad taste."
Inside the museum, they found that the lights were dark in comparison to the outside, the banners reading Titanic, Voyage to Disaster and similar cute sayings. A replica of one of the huge bronze propellers rose in the center of the museum main hall, and smaller halls had been set up as replicas of parts of the ship, with some of the windows being blocked off or turned into "portholes" to add to the ambiance. Scattered among the replicas were real items from the ship—chunks of the hull, glass cases holding artifacts from the ship or the debrie trail that had accompanied it on its fatal plunge. Kim passed on such case, holding a dolls head. The hair and dress had long since decayed, but the eyes were intact, the blue of the glass gleaming in the dark chamber. Kim suddenly shivered.
"Hey KP…want my wind breaker?" Ron asked.
"No….no, it's nothing." She said.
"Kim Possible!" A voice came and a bluff, cheerful looking man with a white beard, stocky form full of energy, came hustling up. "I'm so glad you could come. I'm Dr. Wilson."
"Thanks." Kim said, as he took her and Ron's hand and energetically shook them until both teens worried about their arms. "You want us to guard this display?" Ron looked around.
"It doesn't really seem like something people could walk away with." Ron said.
"It's not….but someone could destroy it—which would make any other artifacts, say those in the hands of private collectors, far more valuable."
"That's…" Kim shook her head, and didn't continue. A curator of the exhibit probably didn't want to hear her opinion.
"Yes?"
"Nothing." Kim said.
"What about other guards?" Ron asked.
"They've… been unwilling to remain here after dark."
"Oh, Ghost stories?"
"Nothing so…. Apparent." Smith said, "Just the typical problems remaining in a building full of gloomy shadows…" Kim grinned.
"Well, don't worry about that—we'll keep the exhibit safe!"
Vacation was nice, but boring. Shego thought. That's why she was back in Middleton.
"Seems old junk is in vogue." The beautiful mercenary said to herself, as she held her binoculars up, and observed the Middleton Museum. "A few trinkets and mama Shego's a lot richer than she was." She grinned. Then she lost her grin. That scooter…
"Great. Possible and the Sidekick… wonderful. Don't they ever do anything normal?"
TBC in: Bump in the Night.