I'll Take That Bet

Kapitel 4

By Kiddo

Disclaimer:

I have no rights to the TV show "seaQuest DSV," and I am not making any money with this story.

A big "Thank You" goes to my wonderfull beta-reader Jackie and everybody who reviewed.


The next morning before breakfast, Benjamin and Lucas were hanging around the big restrooms. Now they were on their fourth, and last, bet. For this, they had Lucas's computer, a piece of paper, a pen, and a couple of stop watches in front of them.

This bet was a question of who needed longer in the bathroom, men or women. For this, they planned to time 10 male and 10 female crew members. After that, they would add the times up and see who needed longer.

Lt. Krieg had guessed that the women needed more time in the restroom, and the teenager had decided on the men.

The blond boy looked questioningly at Benjamin. "Do you really want to do this? We could just end this now. After all, the bet is already finished."

The moral officer shook his head. "No, a bet is bet. And besides, I'm 100 sure that I'll get the point this time."

"Really?" asked the teen as he looked at one of the watches when somebody left the bathroom. Then he typed the result in his computer.

Krieg, on the other hand, wrote the result down. He wanted to make sure that Lucas couldn't manipulate it with his computer. "Of course. There's no doubt about it."

The young genius raised his eyebrows. "Have you added the times of the people who have already gone?"

Ben shook his head. "No, why?"

"Oh I just ask because the men have already needed 7 minutes longer than the women."

The lieutenant shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, that doesn't mean anything."


45 minutes later, the bet was over. Benjamin and Lucas were eating breakfast with O'Neill, Ortiz, Dr. Westphalen, and Captain Bridger at a table in the Mess Hall.

The teenager was just emptying his glass of orange juice. He looked at Krieg and pointed to his glass. "Would you please be so kind?"

The moral officer grumbled something unintelligible, stood up, and walked away, taking the glass with him. The other crew members who were sitting around the table followed the exchange with interest and a bit of surprise.

After a short time, Ben came back and put the now full glass in front of the computer genius. "Thanks."

Suddenly, Miguel's eyes got big. "Hey, does this mean..."

Krieg looked morosely around at their little group. "I tell you, this is pure beginner's luck. And besides, I still think he bribed every woman on board."

Lucas rolled his eyes. Ben just couldn't stand losing.

Ortiz grinned. "What exactly was the result?"

"4 to 0 in my favor," the teenager said dryly before biting into his roll.

O'Neill, Bridger, and Westphalen were able to keep themselves from laughing. Miguel, however, snorted in amusement. The expression on Krieg's face was priceless. "Oh Ben, maybe you should take private lessons from Lucas."

This comment earned him a very angry look from Krieg.

Bridger looked at the boy for a moment. He knew that the boy was a keen observer, but he had never expected that he would win the bet by such a big margin. After all, it was a fact that Benjamin was older and therefore had more experience with women. "How could you know all this?"

"When I was little, I always saw my mother more than my father. All my babysitters and nannies were also female. You learn a lot that way," said Lucas.

"It was very similar later when I went to school. You know, when you're always the smallest and you get the best grades, the other boys don't really find you cool. In fact, it's just the opposite." He sounded sad. "I don't know why but with the girls it was the other way around; they always cared about me in a special way. Maybe I awoke their maternal instincts, or something like that." The teenager shrugged his shoulders. "When I first got to Stanford, I had a room in one of the boy's dorms." He paused briefly; should he really tell them? "Well, after a few weeks, one of the football players decided to take out all his anger by using me as his punching bag. After that incident, the dean thought it was too dangerous to let me stay there, and he moved me into the girl's dorm. I can tell you, you sometimes pick up more information there than you'd like to."

The others nodded thoughtfully. It was hard hearing that Lucas had had such problems at school. But unfortunately, his was not an isolated case. You heard such stories all too often. Any time someone was the slightest bit different, the others would give him a hard time.

In the end, the teen had been really lucky to end up living in the girl's dorm. But nevertheless, it wasn't easy to hear that Lucas had had those problems in college.

O'Neill tried to lighten the mood; he knew for certain that what Lucas had just said wouldn't be forgotten. Bridger would almost definitely talk about this with the teenager, wanting to know exactly what had happened. And if he didn't do it, Dr. Westphalen would. Somehow, those two had made it to their personal responsibility to watch out for their computer genius. "So that's how you know so much about the female psyche?"

The blond boy nodded. "Of course. I always try to learn something, no matter what the situation, even if it is only: 'Never do that again.'" He stopped talking and took a sip of his orange juice. "During the weekends, the girls sometimes had movie nights, and since they all thought of me like some kind of younger brother, they always invited me. Sometimes I went since I was too young to leave the dorm by myself in the evening and never visited my parents during the weekends. It was interesting to see which movies they pick and how they would react to them. One time we watched "My Girl," and I tell you, I never saw so many girls cry at the same time before. Of course it's a sad movie, but to cry because of it in public? I couldn't do that because of a movie. I think that's also one of the differences between the sexes; women usually have no problems crying in public, but men find it embarassing and try to avoid it. Women are kind of different like that." His forehead creased as he thought. "Sometimes I think that takes more strength, to admit when you need help or show that you are sad."

Dr. Westphalen nodded. She liked that the teenager thought about such things. A lot of people his age wouldn't do that. But Lucas was, and would always be, something special.

Benjamin Krieg was still looking grimly at his roll. He didn't like it one bit that he had lost this bet by so much. The others would probably hold it against him and make fun of him forever. "Why did you never tell us that you had been in a girl's dorm?" Krieg asked in an accusatory tone.

The young genius rolled his eyes. "Because nobody ever asked me about it."

The moral officer was still grumpy. "You still could have warned me."

Miguel shook his head in disbelief. "Pull yourself together and start being a fair loser. You really could acknowledge that Lucas won."

This comment earned Ortiz another dark look from Krieg.

Bridger decided that it was time to change the subject. "By the way, in five days we're having some visitors. A few scientists want to work on an experiment on the seaQuest."

Kristin nodded in agreement. She, of course, had already been informed about this. The doctor's glance now fell on the blond teenager. "Could you please for once tidy up your room and clean off the dust? I don't really think that any of our guests will lose their way and end up there, but better safe than sorry."

The computer genius nodded. "Yeah, no problem!"

He got a lot of shocked glances in response. They were all aware of the fact that Lucas's cabin was a land of chaos, and every criticism about it went by unheard. After all, the teen claimed that the chaos was an expression of his personality and life's philosophy. Now it was 'no problem' to tidy up?

Lucas grinned when he saw the other's faces. "Of course, I don't like tidying up." Then he smiled roguishly and looked at the supply officer. "But this time, I'll have a very hard-working assistant, isn't that right, Ben?" The teen planned on really making the best use of his prize.

Krieg swallowed heavily, his eyes wide and horrified. He already hated wiping down the dust in his own cabin, and now he'd have to do Lucas's? A cabin that had never seen a duster in the course of it's entire existence? "I swear to you, I will never make a bet with you again! Ever!"

For all the others, this was the signal to break out into peals of laughter.

The End

Written October 2004, Tranlated Winter 2005/2006


I don't know when I will be ably to translate one of my other stories. A part of my laptop-computer is broken and therforeit wassend out for repair. And this can take quite some time :-( . And if I get it back I also can't immidiantly start to work on a translation because i already have a pig pile of things that i have to do with the help of my laptop first.