Chapter Five:

"Rosie!" Thelma called, as soon as the girl got off the Command Post.

"Yeah?" Rosie asked.

"Would you help me with something?"

"Sure! What is it?"

"Tell me about the creature that bit Radu?" Thelma requested.

"I didn't actually see it." Rosie said doubtfully. "I think he described it as a. . .six-legged cat with a monkey's tail."

Thelma blinked. "What an interesting description."

Rosie smiled. "Yeah. He also described it as a feline with six-legs and a prehensile tail."

"Ah! That's much easier to understand!"

Rosie laughed.

"My implanted memory banks do not recognize this creature." Thelma said. "Would you like to help me search the Christa's computer?"

"Oh, you really should get Suzee or Ms. Davenport to help you with that, they're much better with computers than I am."

"Suzee is busy, I believe attempting to pull a prank with Harlan. Ms. Davenport. . .does can not help me."

"What do you mean? Sure she can!"

"No." Thelma shook her head. "The Christa does not think thats a good idea."

Rosie nodded, not really understanding.

"So, you will help me?"

"Of course!" Rosie exclaimed.

Harlan set the metal box down in the middle of the hallway, and glanced behind him.

"Do you really think the creature will fall for this?" Suzee asked doubtfully.

"It's just a wild animal, Suzee." Harlan said with his usual confident grin.

"Maybe."Suzee said. "But it might be something else."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

Suzee shrugged.

"I don't know. Something that has a brain and uses it?"

Harlan was slightly too dense to see the implied insult in that statement. He nodded grudgingly and Suzee had to cough to cover a laugh.

"You alright?" Harlan asked worriedly.

"I'm fine." She said, grinning. "Do you think that's enough traps?" She looked at the long row of 'metal' boxes, each one actually a phase-through box with something akin to a mouse-trap inside of it. The box itself was just to hold the trap together.

"Yeah, I think so." He typed into his CompuPad and the boxes, and the traps inside them, disappeared. "Thank god the Lumanians developed this, at least on a small scale."

"There's no practical way to apply that to the ship, Harlan." Suzee said in a slightly patronizing voice, guessing what he was thinking. "The ship isn't uniform enough for the field to keep shape, and even if it could, all the space debris out there would render it virtually useless anyway."

Harlan made a response, but Suzee didn't hear it.

"Did you hear that?" She asked suddenly.

"You know, usually its Radu who says that." Harlan commented dryly.

"Harlan, I'm serious! Listen!"

Frowning, Harlan did as she asked.

"What the heck!" He exclaimed. "That can't be good!" He ran off in the direction of the unidentified keening sound., and Suzee followed on his heels.

Radu looked up from the navigation console. "Bova?"

"What is it now?" Bova asked in a bored tone.

"N-nothing." Radu said hesitantly.

"No, really, I'm interested." Bova said unconvincingly, turning around to look at Radu. He jumped a bit. "Radu? Your eyes. . ."

"What?" Radu asked.

"They're. . .glowing." Bova said.

"Glowing?" He reached a hand up to touch his eyelids.

"That's what I said."

"But. . .my eyes don't glow. Andromedan eyes don't glow."

"They do now."

"That's impossible! Rosie-" He cut himself off there, remembering that Rosie too had mentioned his eyes, but wouldn't tell him what it was she'd seen. "It's impossible." He repeated.

"If you say so."

Radu was quiet for a moment. "So. . .what's with your hand and the Commanders head?"

"The wall did it."

"Pardon?"

"The wall did it. The Commander leaned his head against the wall, and put my hand on it. . .and they came away like this." He held up his red 'painted' hand as if to make a point.

"Oh," Was all Radu said.

"Yeah." Bova looked up again. "They stopped glowing." He reported, turning back to his console.

Radu bit his lip. Andromedan eyes don't glow, he thought. No andromedan had ever served on a Lumanian ship with an Earther, a Murcurian, a Uranian, a Yensidian, and only two adults before either, but that was a moot point.

"Bova, I'm going to go to the MedLab." Radu said, already in the jumptube.

"Oh, sure, leave me here all alone while you're supposed to be on duty." Bova said, rolling his eyes. It was really nothing out of the ordinary for him.

Radu exited the jumptube in the MedLab and looked around. It was the right MedLab this time, or so he thought.

"Rosie?" He called softly. "Are you here?" Recieving no reply, he sighed and sat down on one of the waiting seats. The Mercurian 'nurse' would be in soon enough.

"Ms. Davenport. . ."

"Don't you give me that!" Ms. Davenport exclaimed, pointing a finger at him angrily. "You took advantage of the fact that I fainted to steal my students during classes."

"You couldn't have taught them anything laying on the ground unconscious." Goddard pointed out.

Davenport closed her eyes and counted to ten, then opened them again. "Commander Goddard, I know for a fact that Thelma could have easily woken me."

"She could have?" The Commander asked, though it was obvious he already knew that.

"You know very well-"

"TJ, the kids were stressed out enough, they didn't need you lecturing them."

"Oh, and I suppose working on the Command Post is relaxing to them?"

"Bova went to the Galley." The Commander said blankly. Then a grin crossed his face.

Davenport stalked up to him, slapped him across the face and walked away.

"Ow." He said, gingerly touching his sore cheek. "Who knew TJ Davenport could hit that hard?"

Suddenly there was a yelp from outside the door, followed by a thud. Reasonably concerned, Goddard walked out the door.

There sat Davenport, one of her feet caught in a mouse-trap like device, with another on her left hand, where she had obviously tried to break her fall. Goddard stiffled a laugh, but Davenport caught it anyway.

"Commander, this isn't funny."

"No, it's not." Goddard said seriously. "I'm going to have to have a little chat with the students about - ow!" Walking down the corridor he'd stepped on one of the mouse-trap devices. In a clever attempt not to fall, he began jumping up and down on one foot, trying to remove the device. It was quite a comical picture. While jumping, he stepped on a second one and slipped back, landing on a third with a slightly girlish yell.

Davenport giggled. Well, giggled might not be quite the best word for a woman as old as she was, but that was the best description Goddard could think of for it.

"You think this is funny?" He asked.

Davenport pursed her lips and refused to answer.

"Still no results, Rosie." Thelma reported, watching the super-fast icons appear on the screen in the girls bunkroom. It had taken quite a while for Rosie to finish cleaning up the mess left by the tornado, and for a while Thelma had worked alone, with bits of input from the cheerful girl.

Now, though, Rosie was sitting cross-legged beside the android, who was kneeling.

"Try searching. . .six-legged feline, prehensile tail, short-furred." Rosie said thoughtfully.

"Searching." Thelma said. She tilted her head as the images scrolled. "No results."

"Ok. . .try adding 'black' to the list I just gave you."

Thelma did as much. "Searching."

Rosie stood up and started pacing the room.

"What are you doing, Rosie?" Thelma asked.

"Hmm. . .oh, I'm pacing. I'm just bored, that's all."

"Oh. If you would like, we can take a break for now, and try again later?"

"Sure! Thanks, Thelma, you're the best!" She disappeared down the jumptubes.

"I'm. . .the best?" Thelma asked out loud, then shrugged.

The Christa informed her of a wall segment that needed to be re-stabilized, and she shuffled off to do so, leaving the screen still scrolling through images.

Hello, Thelma.

Thelma turned, slightly startled.

"Oh, it is you. Hello, Iiana." She said, one of her fingers turning into a stabilizing device. She began running it over the veins of the wall, which crawled slowly.

The creature looked at the wall, then back at Thelma, tipping its head slightly.

"I'm stabilizing the wall, so it doesn't start to leak." Thelma explained.

You're trying to find out what I am.

"Yes. You are a puzzle to me."

Give up now.

With that, Iiana turned and padded away.

"Well, that was odd." Thelma said, and felt the Christa's agreement.

Rosie landed in the MedLab and saw Radu sitting in one of the waiting chairs.

"Oh, Radu!" She said. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you." He said.

"Oh. Why?"

"Because I need you to scan me again." He paused. "Bova said my eyes were glowing."

Rosie laughed nervously.

"That's what you saw earlier, isn't it?"

She nodded, and smiled sheepishly, lifting the Macro-Scanner from its usual place and moving it across Radu's face. She glanced at it.

"Everything is normal. No abnormal tissue growths, nothing." She said, more to herself than to Radu, though she knew he could hear her. "Nothing that would give any reason for phosphoreus irises. Nothing at all." She looded up. "There's nothing wrong with you."

"Try it with the Micro-Scanner." He pressed.

"Alright, if you say so." She did as he asked, then looked at the readout. "That's odd. . ."

"What? What is it?"

"I don't know. . .I'll have to run a few tests to be sure. . ."

"What do you think it is?"

She looked at him. "To be honest with you, Radu, I have no idea. It looks like the neural networks in your brain are being re-written. I don't see how that could affect your eyes, but I suppose it might. I'll need Bova's help though."

"He's off duty in about an hour. I should be up there with him."

"Then go and finish your shift, then come back here with him afterwards."

"You sure that's alright?"

"I don't see why not." She shrugged. "I'm going to run these readings through the Christa's library while you're gone." She gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Radu, I'm sure its nothing!"

He nodded, unconvinced, and headed up to the Command Post.

Having finally detangled themselves from the 'mouse-traps', and from each other (don't ask), Davenport and Goddard stood up and looked around.

"This is ridiculous." Goddard said. "How are we supposed to go anywhere if we don't know if we'll be stepping in another of those traps?"

"I suppose we don't go anywhere, then." Davenport said. "Or we use the jumptubes. Your choice."

"Let's go try the jumptubes." He said, taking a step towards the door. He stared at the ground cautiously.

"Oh, go already!" Davenport exclaimed, pushing past him. Goddard fell back and landed on another of the traps with a disgraceful yelp. "Sorry! So, sorry! It was an accident!"

"Some accident." The Commander growled, glaring up at her.

"Some of the traps have gone off!" Harlan exclaimed, looking at his CompuPad and stopping.

Suzee stopped as well, and checked hers. "Yeah, too many." She said, her voice dropping. "Where are the Commander and Ms. Davenport?"

"Oh, no!" Harlan moaned. "Now we're gonna get it."

The keening sound they'd been going after was completely forgotten.

"This was the stupidest thing I've ever done." Suzee said.

You've done worse.

Suzee turned cautiously, and seeing nothing, followed Harlan down the hallway. Harlan laughed.

"I'm not sure it's the stupidest. . ." He said. "Maybe just the least practical."

"You're right." She said. He grinned proudly. "Listening to you was the stupidest thing I've ever done." His face fell. She laughed. "You know, you're kinda cute when you do that."

"Really?" He said, smirking.

"Yes, really." She said. "Now then, about the Commander and Ms. Davenport?"

"Right." He sped up, in the direction of the classroom.

"Just so you know," She informed him. "I'm telling the Commander that this was all your idea."

"Just so I know." He repeated. She nodded. "Well, just so you know, I'm telling him it was yours."

"Hmm," Suzee said, "My word against yours. . .I wonder who they'll listen to?"

The sarcasm wasn't lost on Harlan.

Carefully avoiding the remaining traps, they crossed the rest of the distance to the classroom in silence. Harlan was the first one there, Suzee only inches behind him. Entering the room, he found the Commander and Ms. Davenport in a very. . .questionable, position. Namely, the Commander was practically laying on top of Ms. Davenport.

"Well, well, Commander." He chuckled.

"Band! It's not what it looks like!"

"Heavens no!" Davenport exclaimed. "The Commander fell on top of one of those traps I'm assuming you had something to do with."

"We might have." Harlan said vaguely. "So, what is this?"

"She tried to help me up. We fell." The Commander said flatly.

"You haven't moved yet." Suzee pointed out.

Both the Commander and Ms. Davenport blushed slightly as they seperated quickly. Both Harlan and Suzee snickered.

"If only you two could see your faces." Harlan laughed.

Suzee elbowed him in the ribs.

"Hey! What was that for?"

Suzee ignored him.

"So, are you two ok?" She asked.

"We're fine, dear." Ms. Davenport said.

"I"m a bit concerned with why you were setting traps on the ship." The Commander said pointedly.

"We were, uh, trying to catch the thing that bit Radu." Harlan said.

"And did occur to you that if this thing could pierce Radu's andromedan skin, it could do much worse to you?" The Commander asked. He sighed. "I can see from your faces you didn't. What were you planning on doing with this thing once you caught it anyway?"

"Uh, we hadn't, uh, gotten to that part of the plan yet."

The Commander stared at them as if they had both gone insane.