I'm on a roll here :o) Chapter 3, and it didn't take me a month to write it. This is where things will hopefully pick up.
Enjoy!
Chapter 3
After lunch, Lucas and Ben headed back to Lucas's quarters so they could start putting together the spreadsheet and contacting the remaining crew members that they had not already talked to. Lucas sat down at his desk and Ben sat on his bunk.
"Thanks again for helping me, kid," Ben said with a sheepish grin on his face.
"No problem, Ben," Lucas replied.
Lucas started entering the data they had compiled into a spreadsheet, and Ben started making calls to various crew members.
Time passed fairly quickly, and before long, Ben had contacted everyone on the ship that he or Lucas hadn't already spoken too. There were several people who weren't happy about not being able to replace their personal items, but Ben wanted off the ship early, so he stuck with the 'We can only get the essentials now - everything else will have to wait' line. Who cared about laziness - there were good times to be had!
Around 4:00 in the afternoon, Ben and Lucas were finished. Ben realized that he could have done a better (or at least more thorough) job if he'd started earlier, and he would probably have been able to help people replace their personal objects, but they would get the necessities, and, more importantly, he and Lucas would get on land before the storms started.
"Great job, my friend," Ben said, slapping Lucas on the back. Now all they had to do was submit the spreadsheet with the requisition form, and they'd be all set.
"All in a day's work," Lucas said with a smug smile.
"Yeah," answered Ben, "who but a computer genius and the laziest man in the UEO could get at least three-day's worth of work done in one morning and afternoon?"
"Not many, I'm betting."
"You got that right, kid," Ben said. He watched as Lucas hit the button on his computer to submit the paperwork for all the replacement supplies. "Anyway," he continued, "I gotta go pack my bag and find out about getting us a launch. Meet you at the Moon Pool to say goodbye to Darwin?"
"Sure," Lucas answered.
Ben headed back to his cabin and started tossing clothing and toiletries into his duffle bag. Clothing? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Cologne? Cologne? Where was his cologne? How could he go out with the ladies smelling like he'd just spent a few months stuck on a submarine with a couple hundred bodies? After a few moments of frantic searching, he located his cologne under his bunk. Cologne? Check.
After going over everything in his mind one more time, Ben zipped up his duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder. Now the only thing left to do was find out about getting a launch. He headed for the bridge where he knew the captain would be.
Stepping onto the bridge, Ben looked around for the captain. He spotted him talking to O'Neill and headed over towards them.
Bridger caught sight of Ben out of the corner of his eye and politely excused himself from O'Neill. Moving to meet Ben halfway, the captain let a small smile spread across his face. Seeing the smile, Ben immediately began to worry.
"Ahhh, Lieutenant Krieg," Bridger said cheerfully. "Just the man I wanted to see."
"Oh?" Ben asked nervously. "Why's that?"
"I think we need to have a talk about responsibility and roping other crew members into helping you do your job."
"Oh, that," Ben said. "I'm sorry I didn't start the inventory earlier, Sir, but you know, things come up sometimes, and well..." he trailed off, not really sure what to say.
Bridger smiled and laughed. "Relax, Ben, I'm not going to yell at you. After talking to Lieutenant Commander Hitchcock earlier, I found I didn't have to. She said she gave you quite the dressing down."
"That she did," Ben responded with a smile of his own. "She's good at that."
"I bet," Bridger answered. He caught a glimpse of the duffle bag Ben was carrying. "All ready for leave, I take it? Lucas mentioned earlier that you were going to try and get off the ship early."
"Yeah," Ben said, "I was actually just coming to talk to you about that. We've got the request for replacement supplies all done and submitted, so I just wanted to get permission for me and Lucas to take a launch up to the base so we can get out of here before the storms hit. If we wait until the ship gets to base, we might not be able to get out of here."
"Well, the National Weather Service said it's getting pretty rough up there, but they haven't issued any official warnings yet," Bridger said. "If you leave now, and you promise to take care of Lucas, I don't see why you can't leave."
"Excellent!" Ben exclaimed before regaining his composure. "I-I mean, thank you, Sir," he stammered.
"You're welcome, Lieutenant," Bridger said. "Dismissed."
Ben gave a brief salute and headed off the bridge to meet Lucas at the Moon Pool.
Ben entered the Moon Pool to see Lucas standing by the tank talking to Darwin. The teenager's bag was sitting on the floor by his feet.
"Hey, kid!" Ben greeted Lucas enthusiastically. "All ready to go?"
"Hey, Ben," Lucas answered. "Yeah, I've got all my stuff here, there's just one thing."
"What's up?"
"Well," began Lucas, "Darwin here made another trip up to the surface, and he said that the weather is getting much worse. He said it's a lot windier, and the water is getting more and more choppy. I'm not sure if it's safe to take a shuttle up."
Ben considered this for a moment, but then he shook his head. "I don't think it's a problem. I was just on the bridge talking to the captain. He said the National Weather Service hasn't issued any warnings, and that as long as we leave now and I promise to keep an eye on you, we're all set to take a shuttle." Lucas looked somewhat skeptical. "Come on, what's the worst that could happen?"
"Ben," started Lucas, "we're talking about you and me in a shuttle in bad weather. The worst that could happen is pretty bad."
"Touché," said Ben with a smile. "All the more reason to get out of here ASAP." Lucas still looked hesitant. "Hey, first round of drinks is on me," he said. "Non-alcoholic for you, of course," he added.
Lucas smiled and shook his head. "Eh, why not? Besides, if anything happens to me, Bridger will have your head."
"I'll remember that," said Ben, throwing his arm around the teenager's shoulders. He started to lead Lucas out of the Moon Pool so they could head to the launch bay, but he stopped and turned back to the tank where Darwin was still waiting near the edge. "See ya later, Darwin!"
"Yeah, see ya, Fish Face!"
"Bye, Ben. Bye, Lucas," came Darwin's response.
Ben and Lucas both smiled and left the Moon Pool, heading for the launch bay.
After getting clearance from the bridge, Ben had piloted his and Lucas's shuttle away from the seaQuest. As they neared the surface, however, Ben had to slow down.
"I knew we should have waited," Lucas grumbled as the shuttle started getting bounced around harder and harder.
"Yeah, well you know what they say about hindsight," Krieg said through gritted teeth as he fought to keep the shuttle under control. It certainly wasn't easy, and Lucas's sarcastic remarks were definitely not helping here.
"Yeah, it comes around to bite you in the ass as soon as it gets a chance," Lucas responded under his breath.
"I've never heard it put quite that way," Ben replied, trying to lighten the mood even though he was starting to agree with Lucas that they shouldn't have left early.
"That's my version," Lucas said.
Suddenly, just as it felt like they were about to be rolled by the wild water, a warning light started going off on the console in front of them. "Just perfect," groaned Ben.
"It looks like the instruments are working fine," Lucas said, giving everything the once-over. "A wire probably came loose and set off the warning light off. Want me to take a look?"
"Better not," Ben said. "Like you said before, if anything happens to you, Bridger will have my head, and the best way to make sure that nothing happens to you is for you to stay put."
"Come on," Lucas started, "I'll be careful. Besides, what if it's not just a loose wire. Better safe than sorry, right?" He started unbuckling his seatbelt.
"I guess," said Ben, unable to keep the worry out of his voice, "just be really careful. I value my life."
As steadily as he could with the shuttle bouncing around like it was on a trampoline, Lucas slid out of his seat and onto his knees on the floor in front of the instrument panel. Ben tried to watch him out of the corner of his eye as he took the front of the panel off to take a look at the wires, but he had to quickly return his full attention to the shuttle.
"See anything?" asked Ben.
"Yeah," Lucas began, "it does look like a loose wire. This'll just take a sec-"
Lucas's words were cut off as the shuttle gave a particularly violent jerk. Lucas's head hit the bottom of the console with a dull 'thud,' and Ben's head hit the controls. The last thing he saw as pain filled his head and his vision went dark was the sight of his friend's body sprawled on the floor next to his feet...
BEEEEP! BEEEEP! BEEEEP!
Ben groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He moved his hand to his head to feel for the welt that must have been there after he was knocked out by the controls, but all he felt was the smooth skin of his forehead.
Actually, now that he thought about it, his head didn't even hurt. Weird, Krieg thought, my head must be harder than I thought. All of a sudden, he remembered something. Lucas!
His eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright. As he did, a blanket fell from around his shoulders. He looked around frantically, but there was no sign of Lucas anywhere! As his eyes kept moving around him, he realized something. He wasn't in the shuttle - he was in his cabin on seaQuest.
That's not right, he thought to himself. He tried to focus. He forced himself to calm down and really looked around for the first time since waking up. There was his duffle bag - his empty duffle bag - on the floor in front of the closet. There were his toiletries on top of his locker. He thought for a moment and then hung over the side of the bunk. Sure enough, there was his cologne!
BEEEEP! BEEEEP! BEEEEP! The alarm clock continued to go off until Krieg slammed his hand down on it.
Was that all a dream? It had felt so real. What the hell is going on? Ben asked himself.
End of Chapter 3
Ok, so what do you think? Hopefully I haven't lost anybody yet. Remember, criticism is welcome, as long as it's constructive.
