Dolphin Day

By PhoenixTears80

Have you ever seen the movie "Groundhog Day"? Well, this is "Groundhog Day," only done seaQuest style. I know it's not terribly original, but hopefully this will be much better than it sounds. Just go with me on this one :o) If you decide to stop reading, or if you leave me terrible reviews, I promise that I will understand, and there will be no hard feelings.

I have to send my infinite thanks and appreciation to Kiddo for her encouragement. It's been a long time since I posted my one and only story, and she keeps telling me to write more.

I'm used to being the beta-reader for stories that are not my own, and, as such, I have no beta-reader of my own. Any mistakes belong entirely to me. And on that note, here's a list of things that do not belong to me: the seaQuest, its crew, "Groundhog Day," or any money that has ever been made (or will be made) off of the first three items listed. I wrote this for fun.

To give you a context, let's say this story takes place after the episode "Nothing But the Truth."

And now, on with the show!

Chapter 1

BEEEEP! BEEEEP! BEEEEP!

Lieutenant Ben Krieg, of the UEO submarine seaQuest, woke up for his shift at 6:00 a.m., one day before shore leave. Groaning loudly, he reached over and slammed his hand down on top of the alarm clock that had ripped him out of dreamland. Rubbing his eyes, he forced himself to sit up, knowing that if he continued to lie there, he would most certainly fall back asleep.

The coming day was going to be hell. He had to complete a thorough inventory and check with each crew member on the ship to determine what supplies would need to be delivered while everyone was on leave. He did his best to ignore the little voice in his head that told him he should have started a couple of days ago. All he wanted was to make it through the day, pack his bags, and get off the ship to enjoy a well-deserved break.

After the exhaustion of studying for his officer review and helping to save the seaQuest from terrorists, he didn't think anyone would make him do any actual work! Unfortunately for him, he was wrong. It was all because of this stupid Colonel Schraeder mess. First, they had to get everything cleaned up after the hull siphons pumped as much of the water out as possible, and then he had to figure out what had been ruined and needed to be replaced. What a nightmare!

He had really been hoping to take a shuttle and make it off the ship early too. The National Weather Service had been calling for severe storms in the area around Pearl Harbor, which was where the ship was supposed to dock, and Ben was afraid that if he waited until the next day like he was supposed to, he might have to wait out the storms on the seaQuest, thus cutting into his precious vacation time.

Oh well, thought Ben as he stood up to start putting on his uniform. The sooner I get started, the sooner I'll be finished, and maybe I'll make it off this tin can tonight before the storms hit. Just as Ben was buttoning the last couple of buttons, another thought occurred to him, and he smiled broadly. Lucas wasn't doing anything that day - he could help with the inventory! After all, two heads are better than one, he thought.

After leaving his quarters, Krieg went straight to the mess to grab a genetically enhanced coffee-like drink, and a carb-free bagel with non-dairy cream cheese. Alternately taking bites of the bagel and sips of the non-coffee, Krieg headed towards Lucas's cabin. He shook his head briefly as he choked down a piece of too-dry bagel with creamy white goo on it. He missed the days of real food and drink. It was a shame that the bag of real coffee he'd hidden away before the Schraeder mess had gotten ruined in the flooding...

Finally reaching Lucas's cabin, Krieg shoved open the door without knocking, thinking he could find a fun way to wake his friend up. Alas, luck was not on his side. The bed sat on the far side of the messy cabin, and it was empty. Cursing to himself, Krieg tossed his drink cup in the overflowing trash can and turned to leave the cabin. Standing outside the door, he thought to himself, If I were a teenage computer genius, stuck on a submarine the last day before shore leave, where would I be?

His eyes took on a wicked gleam as he remembered that right about now was Katie Hitchcock's regular workout time. She was still pretty tense after the whole takeover thing, so she'd be in the gym, trying to blow off some steam. This would be the last day the hormone-ridden teenager would have to watch her using the weight machines.

Turning to his left, he headed for the gym.

Twenty minutes later, Krieg left the gym with a slightly red face. His ex-wife was clearly not in the mood for his oh-so-charming comments about how she looked in her workout clothes.

After many heartfelt apologies, Ben managed to ask Katie whether or not she had seen Lucas on her way to the gym. She tersely told him to try the Moon Pool and then proceeded to mention that if he'd actually used half of the brains he was probably born with, he might have thought of that on his own without having to bother her.

After a few minutes' walk, Ben stepped into the Moon Pool. Sure enough, Lucas was standing by the edge, staring into the water. Thinking that maybe Lucas was in a better mood than Katie, he walked silently up behind the teenager and clapped his hand down on the kid's right shoulder. He hadn't taken into consideration the fact that it was still early and Lucas might not be totally awake yet. He received a reminder when the teenager's right elbow shot back and hit him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

Lucas whipped his head around. "Ben! Man, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you!"

"It's ok," Ben wheezed, "happens all the time."

"I'll bet," Lucas smirked, thinking of Ben's famous 'people skills.' "What's up?"

Rubbing his stomach, Ben said, "I've been looking for you for the last 20 minutes or so." He noticed that Lucas's attention was drifting back to the water. "Ok, I give - what's so fascinating about the water? Did it start moving in shapes on it's own 'Abyss' style?"

Lucas's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "'Abyss' style?" he repeated.

Ben shook his head. "Obviously not a Spielberg fan." Lucas looked at him questioningly. "You know, Spielberg? The director? He did Jaws, Jurassic Park... never mind." Ben decided he would never get Lucas to help him with the inventory by insulting his lack of knowledge of pop culture icons. "What do you keep looking into the water for?"

"I'm waiting for Darwin," Lucas explained. "He was going to swim up to the surface and come back to tell me if the storms have started yet. I want to try and get off the boat tonight if I can, so that I won't be stuck here."

Krieg smiled, liking how Lucas's thoughts were going in the same direction as his. "Couldn't you just look on the Internex for a weather update?"

"I could," Lucas said, "but you know the meteorologists never know what they're talking about. There was a weather guy that my grandparents told me about once. His name was Stu Kerr, and he always said that he would never give his forecast without first looking out the window." Ben nodded for Lucas to continue. "Well, looking out the windows here won't do me much good, so I sent Darwin up to see what the weather is actually doing."

"Gotcha," said Krieg. "I'm actually trying to get off the ship early myself. I have this monster inventory to do, and I was hoping my best pal might be willing to help me out." Before Lucas could start shaking his head 'no,' Krieg rushed on. "You know, it will get done a lot quicker with two of us, and then we can get started on some fun times involving beaches and margaritas, non-alcoholic for you."

Lucas thought for a moment. His bag for shore leave was already packed, and he didn't have anything else planned for today except to wait for Darwin to get back with the weather report. "I guess I can help you out."

"That's the spirit!" Ben cried enthusiastically. Out of the corner of his eye, Ben caught sight of a bit of gray in the water heading towards the edge of the pool. Ben pointed. "Perfect timing! He can tell us about the weather, and then we can get cracking on the inventory."

Darwin broke the surface and playfully splashed a small amount of water at Lucas and Ben. Laughing, Lucas put his hand out to stroke Darwin's head. "So, Fish Face, what's the forecast for today?"

End of Chapter 1

So what do you think? Worth continuing? My inquiring mind wants to know.