The two men spoke in hushed voices while observing the occupants of the room.
"So, what do you want to do?"
"I donno yet."
"Why not? It shouldn't be that hard to figure out."
"Well, what about you?"
"I don't know either."
"Just sit down and talk to her."
"Only if you do the same thing with me."
"I don't know if I want to do the long distance thing again, it didn't go so well last time."
"So, you're older and wiser now. And it's not like you're proposing, you're just talking to her."
"Yeah, right. Why don't you want to?"
"I... Uh... I'm not good at this."
"Just don't let your ears turn red."
"Oh... you saw that?"
"Yeah, I think everyone did."
"Dekára."
"You know it's still swearing when you do it another language... Don't make that face at me, it's true."
"But you don't know what I'm saying, that's what matters."
"Right...Whatever makes you happy man."
"You guys do know that standing here like a couple of creeps is not the way to a woman's heart, right?" Lucas and Tim spun around at the sound of another voice. Ben Krieg was smirking at them while leaning on the mess hall's wall. "Are you going to talk to them or just stare at them? Because I'm pretty sure that's called stalking."
"We're trying to decide how to." Lucas said defensively.
Ben sighed and shook his head. "You two are hopeless, just hopeless." He angled around them with his tray and confidently walked to the table, where the subjects of the discussion were sitting. "May I?"
Rylie smiled up at him. "Of course. I'm Rylie Tyson. And you are...?"
"Ben Krieg, moral and supplies officer extraordinaire, at your service. If you need anything, just let me know." He told her with a small bow.
Rylie fought a laugh while Jayde rolled her eyes. "Nice to meet you Ben. This is Jayde, she'll be in the science labs with Dr. Westphalen. And I'll be on communications when Tim is off."
"Oh, so you know Tim?" He sat across from her and smiled innocently.
"Yes, of course, he was training me this morning."
"What do you think of our language master?"
"Um, well... he's very good at his job... and nice I guess." She lifted an eyebrow at his question.
Ben nodded looked around with a grand gesture, "we have two extra seats, I wonder who we should invite to join us before we get some one who will bore us to death." He paused and with exaggerated surprise, noticed the two in the corner. "Tim! Lucas! Come sit with us!"
Red-faced, Lucas and Tim started for the table. The dropped their trays and glared at Ben, who was grinning back at them mischievously. "Uh, hey Jayde, Rylie... we, um, didn't see you there."
Jayde smiled sweetly back at him, "how has your day been, Lucas?"
He shrugged, "fine I guess. Hardwick isn't the most pleasant guy to hang out with, but he knows about computers. The Atlantis should be ok with him."
"Oh," Ben started, dropping his fork. "Computers..." The others looked at him with confused expressions and raised eyebrows. "That reminds me, you have a package waiting for you kid."
"I do? What is it?" Lucas asked.
Ben shrugged, "I didn't know the name of the company the address was from, so Crocker opened it to be safe. It kinda looks like a crown. Are you going to be the official prince of the ship?" He smirked and the annoyed expression he received.
"A crown? What the... Oh!" Lucas jumped up and knocked into the table, nearly sending everyone's trays flying. "I can't believe it's here! It wasn't suppose to be ready for a few more weeks!" He was almost bouncing up and down with excitement.
"Whoa, chill there." Ben said laughing. "You're scaring the normals. What is it?" Lucas didn't bother staying to explain, he took off running out of the door, abandoning everyone.
Tim and Ben exchanged a look with each other and their food. "Want to see what it is?"
Ben shrugged, "it's locked in my room, he'll have to wait for me anyhow."
"No, he won't." Tim snorted.
"Ah damn, he's gonna break in. And I just had my locks changed again." He stood and nodded to the table. "Ladies, we must take our leave."
"You do that." Jayde said dryly, returning to her less than spectacular meal.
Lucas was inside Ben's room when the two men reached it. "I'm going to have to get a new code again. I'm running out of numbers." Ben complained.
"It's statistically impossible to run out of numbers. And he'll just hack it again." Tim pointed out. "It isn't like he'll steal something from you, I don't know why you're worried. He's been able to get into my room since he got here. Sometimes it's useful if he needs to fix something."
"No, not steal, but he would glue my bed to the ceiling or something."
"Just don't pick on him."
"But it's so hard not to." They walked into the room and tried to get Lucas' attention. He was looking at a silver circular device in his hands, it was labeled Mindweave on one side. "So, what is it?"
"A neural interface." Lucas said in awe. He gingerly placed the mindweave on his head and adjusted the front nodes flush with his forehead. His blue eyes were full of excitement.
Tim reached for the box and pulled out the invoice. He let out a low whistle, "how much did this cost? I thought these weren't released to the public yet."
"They aren't." Lucas smirked, "I just have some awesome connections. The company wants to see if it will work on a system as big as SeaQuest's."
"Two questions, what is it? And what are you talking about?" Ben asked, warily looking at the device on Lucas' head like it might bite him.
Lucas sighed and pulled his new toy off. "I already told you, a neural interface." Ben blinked with confusion and Lucas sighed again. "I can use brain waves to control a computer."
"Brain waves?"
"Yeah, I think it and it happens on the computer, understand?" Lucas tried to remain patient. "They have been around for years to help amputees use robotic appendages. This," He gestured with the mindweave, "is much more powerful."
Tim looked worried, "is it safe? I mean, if you connect to the ship's computers, can some one else get into them through that?"
"I don't think so," Lucas explained. "And I won't connect to the main systems right away. They would have to hack it when it's connected and if I'm using it at the time, I'll know it and can fight it. There is very little software in it, but don't worry, I'll run all the tests on it."
Ben was still struggling to catch up. "So if you're on the 'nex and you just think of something, it'll pop up? Without typing anything?"
"Sort of." Lucas chewed his cheek, holding in laugh. "You're not allowed to use it. Especially when there are other people around. We don't want to shock anyone with what you'll pull up."
"I do think of other things you know." Ben retorted.
"No, you don't." Lucas and Tim answered in unison.
Lucas opened his laptop and pushed a button to turn the interface on. Ben and Tim found a place on his bunk after shoving clothes and several circuit boards aside. "How do you find anything in here?" Ben asked him, looking around at the mess.
"Organized people are just to lazy to look for things." Lucas informed him. "Besides, haven't you ever heard of organized chaos? I know where stuff is, no one else needs to know. It works better than a lock, I know if anyone has been in here digging around."
Ben chuckled, "so you're just too lazy to clean."
"You call it lazy, I call it busy." Lucas pulled the interface on his head and turned to them. "Ready?" He positioned the laptop so they could see the screen, and stood the side. Then he scowled at it, concentrating. A music program started playing immediately, loudly. "Very cool." A smile broke out on his face.
"What else can it do?" Ben asked over the song, not seeming impressed by the display. "Other than make you look like more of a dork." Lucas rolled his eyes and concentrated again. The music turned off and another program opened. Files flashed by rapidly, they came to a stop with a picture of Ben's face. Underneath, was list of his many transgressions and a few accomplishments. "Hey! You're not suppose to see that!"
Tim began to laugh, "you did want to see what it could do. That seemed faster than it normally is, Lucas. Is that because you knew where to go or just from using the mindweave?"
Lucas started shutting down the files. "A little of each I think, I knew where to go. The firewall the UEO uses for these kind of files is set to change daily, so people can't get as easily, but it isn't nearly as much work to open them, this time."
"This time?" Ben started to ask. "What do you mean this time?"
"They should have had you design it." Tim said shaking his head and ignoring Ben.
"I asked if I could help when I heard they were redoing it," he admitted. "They didn't want to give me the clearance." Lucas pulled the device from his head and shook out his hair to style it. He pulled a wire from the box the interface came from, and plugged it in. "I'll run it through my virus programs before I use it on anything else."
Tim nodded, "what are you going to try it on next?"
Lucas considered for a moment. "I think the vo-corder. If we have a problem with it again, like with the heat, I'll be able to fix it faster and we won't have to deal with the Regulator."
"You thought he was interesting." Ben pouted.
Lucas snorted, "yeah, until he kidnapped Darwin."
"We got the chip." He pointed out grudgingly.
"And then kidnapped Darwin."
"You aren't helping Tim." Ben scowled.
"I wasn't trying to help... you." Tim chuckled.
"How long will the debugging take?" Ben asked, changing the subject.
Lucas shrugged, "about an hour I think."
"Great, I think it's time for me to teach you two how to speak to women." Ben said with a smile.
Tim groaned, "I'm pretty sure this is going to get us slapped."
Ben scoffed, "do you doubt my abilities?"
"Yes." They answered together.
