Wow, I never thought it would take this long to update. Many, many apologies.

In the months before the new year, life got very busy with work and other obligations, and I promised myself that after the new year started, I would continue the story. Unfortunately, I found out that on New Year's Eve, my great-grandmother (my mother's grandmother) passed away, and the holiday was spent packing and making travel arrangements to go to the funeral. After I came back from the funeral, I wasn't feeling terribly motivated.

In any case, I am back now, and I will try to see the story through to the end. This chapter, and all those following, are dedicated to Grandma Rose as: thanks for teaching me to play poker at my parents' kitchen table, for teaching me how to bet using a bowl full of pennies, for driving me around in her old-fashioned red car with the fins and the hard white top, and for staying with me when my parents couldn't be around; an apology for not going to see her the last couple of years (even though it was hard and scary seeing her the way she became and remembering her the way she used to be, I still should have gone); and the goodbye I didn't get to say in person. With all my love.

As with chapters past, this chapter will start with a recap of the end of the last chapter. For those still reading, thanks for sticking with it (and with me).

Chapter 4

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.

Ben took a couple of deep breaths, trying to get his racing heart to still. Think, Ben! he said to himself. It must have been a dream. After all, his duffle was empty, and everything else was still sitting where he usually kept it.

As he started to calm down, Ben thought back to the dream and what it might have been trying to tell him. Damn, the inventory... he thought. Gotta get that done and get out of here before the storm!

Just as he had in his dream, Ben grabbed his uniform and started getting dressed, thinking of the best way to take care of the inventory. He finished buttoning his shirt and sat back down on his bunk. First step? he asked himself. Well, in the dream, he had gone to look for Lucas so that Lucas could help him with the inventory. That was a good idea, he said to himself with a mental smirk. After all, two heads are better than one - especially when one of the heads is a certified genius.

Leaving his cabin, Ben started heading for the mess to get breakfast. Halfway there, he ground to a halt. The sudden memory of the food in his dream reminded Ben of how much he disliked the food (if you can call it that, he thought) and coffee-drink in the mess. He decided that shore leave would come soon enough and that his opportunity to get some real food was a good motivator to get the inventory done and get off the ship. He also made a mental note to buy some more real coffee after he docked at Pearl.

Mmmmm, kona coffee, he thought to himself as he turned and headed for the gym to find Katie. He remembered that in his dream, he had finally located Lucas at the Moon Pool, but he decided that now he was awake, he would be better off finding Katie, which was a sure thing since she always worked out at the same time. After all, dreams weren't always accurate - Lucas probably wasn't in the Moon Pool at all!


A couple minutes later, Ben entered the gym, shivering a bit at the cooler air. He gazed around the room and finally spotted Katie using one of the weight machines by the wall. He headed in her direction.

"Morning, Katie!" he said in his cheeriest voice.

"Lieutenant," Katie barely acknowledged as her arms swung towards each other, pulling the weights.

Uh oh, Ben thought. Her referring to him by rank was almost a sure sign of a bad mood. "Nice look you got going here," he said with a smile, trying to get her to lighten up.

Katie paused her workout for a moment. She looked down at her lycra workout clothes that were stained with sweat and touched her hair, which was in a messy ponytail. "Did you actually want something, Krieg, or did you just stop by to comment on my choice of morning wardrobe?"

Ben flushed, thinking of his dream. This reminded him so much of what had happened in it. "Um, actually, I w-was just going to ask if you'd seen Lucas. You're always up and about so early that I figured you might have seen him or known where he was."

Katie raised one eyebrow. "Have you tried the Moon Pool?" she asked with a sigh. He slowly shook his head. "Uch," she made a sound of disgust as she started using the machine again. "Maybe you should try there." He nodded and started walking away. "You know, you might have thought of that yourself if you actually used half of the brains you were probably born with!"

Ben stopped in his tracks but didn't turn around. That was just what she'd said in the dream! Whoa, he thought. Total deja-vu...


As soon as Ben got into the corridor outside the gym, he took off at a run towards the Moon Pool. He slid to a stop inside the door. Sure enough, Lucas was standing by the edge of the pool, just like in his dream, looking into the water.

Lucas didn't appear to have heard Ben's less than graceful entrance. Forgetting what happened next in the dream, Ben quietly made his way up to Lucas, clapping his hand down on the teenager's shoulder. He got a quick reminder as Lucas's elbow flew back into his stomach. Ben let out a groan of pain.

Turning his head, Lucas winced. "Ben! Man, I'm sorry - I"

Gently rubbing his stomach, Ben finished the thought. "I know, you didn't hear me."

Lucas frowned. "How did you know I was going to say that?"

Ben opened his mouth to speak, but then he closed it. He thought for a moment before replying, "Lucky guess. Don't worry, it happens all the time."

"I'll bet," Lucas said, smiling. "What's up?"

Ben paused for a second, thinking of how uncannily like his dream this was. "I've been looking for you," he began as Lucas started looking back at the water. Deciding to learn from his mistakes, dreamt mistakes as well as real ones, he wisely decided not to bring up anything pop culture-related. "Ok, I give - what's so fascinating about the water?"

"I'm waiting for Darwin," the teenager replied. "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 I won't be stuck here."

"Couldn't you just look on the Internex for a weather update?" he asked, belatedly thinking that this was exactly the question he asked in his dream.

"I could," Lucas began, "but you know the meteorologists never know what they're talking about." As Lucas paused to take a breath, a name came to Ben's mind. Stu Kerr, he thought. "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." Lucas continued, completely oblivious to the amazed look on Ben's face. "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." He paused, waiting for Ben's response. When he didn't receive it, he turned to look at Ben more closely, seeing the odd look on his friend's face. "You ok, Ben?"

Ben shook his head, trying to get it all straight. "Uh, yeah, just having a moment of deja-vu." Lucas nodded, as if that explained everything. Ben tried to smile reassuringly. "I'm, uh, actually trying to get off the ship early myself. Only I have this monster inventory to do, and I was hoping you, my best and definitely smartest friend in the world, might be willing to help me out. 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, of course."

Lucas took a moment to think as Ben watched him, trying to remember what Lucas said next in his dream. Just as the words came to his mind, Lucas voiced them: "I guess I can help you out."

"Great!" Ben cried as he spied the gray of Darwin's fin heading through the water towards the edge of the Moon Pool. "Excellent timing! He can tell us about the weather, and then we can get started on that inventory..."


After hearing Darwin's forecast, Lucas and Ben stepped out into the corridor to make their plans, leaving the dolphin to swim out to the Aqua Tubes.

Just as Ben remembered them doing in his dream, they agreed that Lucas would talk to the science crew, Captain Bridger, and Commander Ford, thereby saving the lieutenant from the imminent lectures he would get from the doctor, the captain, and the commander about responsibility. He knew he'd be going to Katie to get her list, and he'd had one dressing down from her already. Well, three, if you count the two in the dream, he thought.

After deciding to meet up at lunchtime, Lucas headed towards the science labs and Ben headed to Engineering.

Before looking for Katie, Ben gathered the other crew members there around him and explained that he needed lists from them of items that needed to be replaced. "Only essential items," he told them. "Personal objects will have to wait until after shore leave." The crew members groaned but grudgingly went back to their stations to start making up their lists.

Ben hung around for a while and collected the lists once the engineering crew were done. He then went in search of Katie to ask for her list.

"How you ever got to be a lieutenant is beyond me," she said to Ben. However, Ben's eyes were focused on the fingers of her right hand, which were playing with the collar of her uniform. "What exactly are you looking at, Lieutenant?" she asked harshly.

"Nothing," he said quickly moving his gaze up to meet hers. "And in response, I must say that my dazzling wits and charm are responsible for me being elevated to the auspicious position of Lieutenant."

"Yeah, right," she said.

"An-y-way," he continued, "can I have your list so I can order your replacements before I go on leave or what?"

As he expected after what happened in his dream, Katie had her list already finished. She took it out of her pocket, but unlike in the dream, Ben grabbed it out of her hand before she could hold onto it. She gave him a brief look of surprise before telling him that he was lucky she'd written it up a couple of days earlier when she was expecting him to come asking for it.

"Yeah, I'm real lucky," he acknowledged sarcastically. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a boat full of people to talk to."

Walking away, Ben suddenly turned around to ask, "Hey, where's your necklace?"

Katie's fingers still fiddled with her collar as she snapped, "I just didn't feel like wearing it today, ok?!"

Ben wisely kept his mouth shut and continued on his way out, wondering why his mentioning her necklace bothered her so much.


During lunch, Lucas cheekily told Ben that the captain wanted to talk to him. "Great," came Ben's mumbled reply. They then proceeded to exchange notes on who they had already talked to.

Before Lucas could bring it up, Ben mentioned the idea of heading to Lucas's quarters, calling the rest of the crew on their Pals, and starting a spreadsheet to submit electronically with the requisition form. Ben tried to hold back his laughter at the astounded look on Lucas's face.

"What's the matter, kid?" Ben asked as he watched Lucas's jaw practically hanging on the floor.

"Nothing!" Lucas cried in response, finally closing his mouth. "You're never going to believe this, but I was thinking the exact same thing!"

"Well, you know what they say, great minds think alike," Ben replied with a grin a mile wide. "This is gonna be perfect."


After finishing the inventory and enduring the inevitable groans from crew members who were told that their personal items couldn't be replaced until after shore leave, Ben finished packing (remembering that his cologne was under his bunk), and he and Lucas made their goodbyes. They headed for the launch bay, Ben brushing aside the concerns Lucas voiced about the weather.

Ben was excited to be able to actually get off the ship so he wouldn't have to dream about it anymore. Powering up the shuttle, Ben piloted it away from the seaQuest, thinking only of the first round of drinks he'd promised to buy Lucas.

With the shuttle nearing the surface, Ben's thoughts went back to what happened in his dream as they started getting bounced around. As if from a distance, Ben thought he heard Lucas say something like, "I knew we should have waited..."

"Sorry, kid," Ben started. "Hindsight is always 20/20."

"Yeah," Lucas answered, gripping his seat. "It also comes around to bite you in the ass as soon as it gets a chance."

"Your version?" Ben asked, trying to lighten the tense mood that had fallen over the two.

"Yeah," Lucas said, just as the shuttle felt like it was going to roll.

With dread, Ben looked at the console in front of them, just as the familiar warning light started going off. "Just perfect," he groaned.

Lucas looked over the console. "It looks like the instruments are working ok, so a wire probably came loose and set off the light. Want me to take a look?"

"I don't think that's a good idea, kid," Ben said, remembering the dream. "Remember, my ass will be grass and Bridger will be the lawnmower if anything happens to you."

"Come on," Lucas said, already unbuckling his safety belt. "I'll be careful, and just in case it's not a loose wire, it's better to know. Better safe than sorry, right?" he asked as he slid to his knees on the floor in front of the instrument panel.

Famous last words, Ben thought to himself as the shuttle started jerking around harder and harder.

Seeing Lucas crouched down like that made Ben incredibly nervous. "See anything yet?" he asked through gritted teeth as he fought to keep the shuttle under control."

Lucas took the front of the instrument panel off to take a look."Yeah," he said, "it is just a loose wire. I'll only be a sec-"

Damn! Ben thought as the shuttle was shaken violently. Knowing it would happen but powerless to stop it, he saw Lucas's head hit the bottom of the console right before his own head came in contact with the controls. He lost consciousness to the scarily familiar sight of Lucas laying on the floor by his feet...


BEEEEP! BEEEEP! BEEEEP!

The second he heard the obnoxious sound, Ben's eyes shot open and he sat straight up. He looked around in a panic, expecting to be in med bay, the hospital, or dead - anywhere but where he actually was.

Somehow, he was back in his cabin! There was his duffle bag! And his toiletries! He bit his lip, wondering if he dared... He decided he did dare and hung over the edge of his bunk. Sure enough, there under the mattress was his cologne!

Ok, this can't be just a dream, Ben thought frantically. It can't even be a dream in a dream! What is happening to me?!

End of Chapter 4

Ok, I know this is listed as humor, although I guess it's kind of dark humor. I had intended this to be much funnier than it's turning out to be. If only I could figure out how to write the slapping montage from the movie "Groundhog Day..."

Oh well, let me know what you think!