FRIENDSHIP
Lucas and his friends from the SeaQuest were assembled in one of the relaxing TV rooms of the vessel. Usually the space was used by crew members wanting to wide down after their shifts. Due to it's size, today it was being used for the SeaQuest
crew to get a little more acquainted with Lucas's new friend Shep.
All of them had enjoyed a large meal put on to welcome to newest crew member, but now they were all intrigued to quiz
the pair about how they met and what they had done in the past.
Bridger and a couple of the others noted silently that they hadn't seen Lucas this happy in a long time. Every time they
looked at the blond-haired teenager at the moment, his face was split from ear to ear with a silly grin on his face and it was
usually due to some joke that he or Shep shared.
Lucas was now just coming back into the room with another round of drinks for everybody when he heard whales of
laughter coming from inside.
"I hope your not giving all our secrets away Shep" Lucas now said in fun.
"So tell us Lucas, Shep, just were did you two meet?" Bridger said, his curiosity about this long term friendship getting
the better of him. He had never heard Lucas mention Shep's name in the past. If they were such good friends, why
all the secrecy?
Shep looked at Lucas as he took his place beside him again on one of the large couches in the room. The seating was
arranged in a large crude circle so that everybody could see each other and join in on the conversation if necessary.
Shep was sitting to Lucas's right, Bridger to his left.
Lucas shrugged his shoulders as if to indicate that he didn't mind their secret becoming public. He knew that he had
never shared this friendship information with anybody from the crew. The friendship was just one that had grown over
a long period of time and he cherished it more than ever. Due to the distance between him and Shep, the topic just
never seemed to come out in casual conversation. Lucas and Shep usually communicated through e-mail late at night
when everybody else was in bed or working.
"Well, Lucas and I went to Stanford College from the age of 14 as you know" Shep began "We were like the odd
pair. Everybody else was a lot older then us and we just didn't seemed to fit in or be welcome in any of the college
groups, so we became friends."
"It must have been difficult for you two at fourteen to be going to college" Kristen now said. She had never really
taken the time to sit down with Lucas and ask him about how he coped at college at such a young age. She always
got the impression that it was a time he would rather not relive with memories.
"Oh yeah, but we kept ourselves amused with extra curricular activities" Lucas said with another big grin as he looked
at Shep. The two of them rarely had to say anything. They just seemed to know what the other was going to say.
"Extra curricular activities?" Ben Krieg now asked, sensing the mirth in the words. He knew his own days at college
and the U.E.O. Military Academy had such activities etched into them. Most of them would rather forget. There were
even a couple of incidents with the Captain's son Robert which he would never breathe a word of.
"Oh man, you have no idea of some of the mischief we got up to" Shep said with pride. They had been some of the
most fun times he had ever had.
"You remember about the grass and the fence line Shep?" Lucas now said as his mind took him back. He eyes were
sparkling with the laughter he felt at that moment.
"Do I ever" Shep replied, both of them then seeing the looks of the crew that said they needed to explain.
"Well you see" Lucas said as he began telling about this incident "The college had a lot of areas that they were trying
to grow grass on. They had them roped off so you weren't supposed to walk on them, but we did anyway. The fence
line of the college was some 500 metres beyond the back of the buildings. Anyway after a while the teachers got
mad about students walking across the young grass. They told us that we had to walk "All the way around" if we
wanted to get to class. So for the next week or so we would walk the entire 500 metres down to the back fence and
all the way around the perimeter of the college campus to get to the next building. Needless to say we ended up being
about 10 minutes late for each class. When the teachers confronted us about walking around we just told them "You
said to walk all the way around". By the time he finished the story, he and Shep were laughing and so were most of the
crew members seated in the circle. None of the crew members could ever being that bold back in their school years.
"Quite the little comics weren't you" Bridger said to the pair. He had come secret incidents of his own that he would
rather not reveal so he couldn't say anything too harshly about Lucas's and his friend's behaviour in days gone by.
"You don't know the half of it" Shep now said. "Hey Lucas you remember about the substitute teacher?"
"Oh yeah" Lucas said as another memory was suddenly pulled from his brain's archives. He knew he would have to
explain the story also. "There was this teacher, a woman, who wasn't really a teacher. She wasn't much more than
a baby-sitter when the regular teacher was away. So anyway, one day she walks into our class and says "I am your
substitute teacher today children".
"What did you do Lucas" Miguel Ortiz now asked.
"We all got up and walked out" Lucas said and then started to laugh again at his mischievous adventures.
"Sounds like you two had a ball. They sound like such great pranks for amateurs." Ben said with a smirk of his own.
"Amateurs" Shep said in amazement. "Man I haven't met you for too long yet, but when it comes to pranks, Lucas here is your man. He is the best man. Remember Mr Woodcock's car Lucas?" he now asked, tracing back over old steps again.
Lucas felt himself go slightly red at this memory. Although it was a good prank at the time, like Ben, it was one he
would rather forget. Now thinking back about it these few years, it didn't sound like a real nice thing to do to
someone. But then again it was Mr Woodcock. A teacher who had been the very thorn in his side during his college
years. Mr Woodcock and Lucas never saw eye to eye. Lucas didn't know if the teacher was jealous of his intelligence
or the fact that he had two people in his class that shouldn't have been out of high school. Maybe there was yet another
reason that he had never been able to put his finger on.
"What did you do Lucas?" Kristen asked with a probing expression on her face. This just made Lucas try and sink into
his chair even more. He felt like the kid who had been caught with his fingers in the cookie jar and was now being asked
what he was doing.
Shep decided to tell the tale since Lucas was still trying to cover up his embarrassment. "We had this teacher,
Mr Woodcock that absolutely just had it in for us. It didn't matter what we did and how good we were at the work,
he just went out of his way to remind us that we shouldn't have been in his class. Anyway, one day when Lucas just
got sick of the insults, we secretly drilled a hole in the floor of the classroom. We concealed the hole with the desk.
"Do I dare ask what the hole was for?" Bridger asked dreading what he was about to hear. It couldn't be anything
good he surmised.
"Well, after the hole was made, one day we poured a whole bottle of constructive adhesive into it. Then over the
next couple of hours, very discreetly we then proceeded to push little balls of paper down the hole as well." Shep
said, barely able to continue to tell the story without going off into fits of laughter. Lucas still had a very red hue
to his face about the whole thing.
"I still don't get it" Tim O'Neill said with confusion on his face. The prank sounded slightly messy, but nothing
over the top.
"Well" Shep added, "Our classroom was a two-storey building as just happened to be built over the teacher's
car park. When we went to see where the glue and paper had landed, we couldn't help but notice that it all landed
on one car in particular."
"Let me guess" Commander Ford said as he assumed the end of the tale "Mr Woodcock's car".
The laughter that came from Lucas and Shep only confirmed his guess to the rest of the crew.
"Well when you two think you are good enough to contend with the King of Pranks" Ben Krieg now said as he
got up and excused himself so that he could start his night shift.
Ben however had left the room by the time every body else saw a certain look on the faces of Lucas and Shep
that signalled a war was about to begin…………
"Oh boy, I don't think I want to know" Captain Bridger now said as he saw Lucas and Shep. You could almost
see the pair of them with their minds already ticking over about what to do to Ben.
Lucas forgot about the war for a minute but suddenly had another question in mind that came from the past. He
turned to Shep and asked "Did you bring it?"
Shep immediately knew what his friend meant "Did you think I wouldn't" he replied and started to dig around in
the pocket of his jacket for the mystery object.
The people now left in the room now watched in anticipation as they saw Shep pulled out a small metal looking
thing. Upon closer inspection, it was a small blue and chrome harmonica.
"Bluie" Shep said proudly as he introduced his inanimate object to the SeaQuest crew.
"Bluie?" Bridger asked in puzzlement.
"Short for the Blues" Shep asked and then primed his mouth up. The crew were then rewarded with the slow,
distinctive sound of the harmonica playing a blues tune. "My grandfather was into the blues years and years ago.
When he died, he left me the harmonica. I play it all the time. Especially when I was in college.
"Did you learn to play it too Lucas?" Kristen now asked.
"Huh, Lucas play this. No way. He is not allowed within 100 feet of this beautiful instrument" Shep answered.
"What he means is that I play very badly" Lucas admitted. He had tried it a couple of times when he and Shep
were at Stanford but he had been very bad a holding any sort of musical note.
"Well people" Bridger said as he rose from his chair and tried to get the kinks out of his body from sitting so long.
"We will be at the Munitions Depot at about lunch time tomorrow. I suggest we all get some rest before we start
all that work tomorrow." he said and then turned directly towards Lucas and Shep for emphasis. He knew that
the friends would likely talk all night otherwise about their old college days and not be ready to start on the computers
at the Depot tomorrow.
"Don't worry Captain, we won't be talking all night" Shep now said in their defence. "We have much more important
things to plan don't we Lucas?" as he stared intently at his friend.
"Yeah" Lucas replied with an evil grin. There had to be something he and Shep could do to fool Ben.
Everybody left in the room now got up and left the room. Most of the people left were headed towards their quarters
and bed like the Captain. But later during the night a light could be seen coming from Lucas's quarters.
The battle lines had been drawn and it was time to find out who were the best at practical jokes: Ben or Lucas and
his college friend Shep………………………..
I KNOW THIS PART IS VERY SHORT GUYS – SORRY BUT I WANT TO INJECT A LITTLE HUMOUR
INTO THE STORY BEFORE I START THE GOOD STUFF.
OH AND BY THE WAY – THE THING ABOUT THE GRASS AND THE FENCELINE AND THE SUBSTITUTE
TEACHER ALL COME FROM FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE. THAT WAS SOMETHING ME AND MY
FRIENDS DID IN HIGH SCHOOL WHEN WE WERE LITTLE BRATS. THE THING ABOUT THE PAPER,
THE GLUE AND THE CAR CAME FROM A FRIEND OF MINE EXCEPT THAT IT WAS WOOD SHAVINGS
FROM A WOOD-WORKING CLASS RATHER THAN PAPER THAT WAS SHOVED DOWN THE HOLE
IN THE FLOOR AND STUCK TO THE ROOF OF THE CAR.
THE HARMONICA WAS INTRODUCED NOW BECAUSE I HAVE A SPECIFIC IDEA FOR IT TOWARDS
THE END OF THE STORY.
ARE YOU LIKIN THIS ONE Yet ???? ……………………….
In relation to the name of the Munitions dump, firstly I just stole the name from the episode. But someone did ask
what sort of mining creates radio-active waste – that's easy – uranium mining – uranium is the main core ingredient
in most nuclear weapons. There is a lot of it in Australia where I come from and there even has been talk of tapping
into sources under the ocean like in this story. Mostly I just stole the name because I couldn't come up with a better
one of my own…..
JULES