Night-time Interruption
by Kiddo
Disclaimer:
I don't have any rights to the TV show "seaQuest DSV" or its characters. I am also not making any money with this story.
This story is a translation of my German story "Nächtliche Störung"
Lucas Wolenczak was sitting by the Moon Pool reading a letter. This almost never happened, as all of his friends wrote e-mails. But this letter was a big exception; it was from his former nanny. Miss Taylor was over 60 years old and had never been able to get used to computers. Even after all their years of popular use, they were still a 'newfangled business' to her. At the age of five, Lucas had tried to explain to his nanny how great computers were, but his attempts had never gotten anywhere. And so, the teenager got a letter from Miss Taylor from time to time.
Darwin was observing the blond boy sitting on the edge of the Moon Pool with great interest. "What is Lucas doing?"
The computer genius looked up from the paper. "I'm reading a letter."
"What is letter?" The dolphin swam closer.
Lucas thought carefully about this. How could he best explain this to his wet friend? "Well, sometimes we humans write letters to each other. A letter is a piece of paper, and I write on this piece of paper what I would like to tell the other person."
"Why not speak to person?"
Lucas smiled. "You know, we write to the people we don't see very often. We do this to stay in contact." The teenager wrinkled his forehead thoughtfully. "Do you remember when I explained what an e-mail is?"
The dolphin nodded. "Message with computer."
The young genius nodded in confirmation. "Exactly! And my former nanny doesn't have a computer, so she writes letters."
For a moment, Darwin was silent. It seemed as if he was thinking about this, trying to take it in. "What is nanny?"
Lucas had to smile. Somehow, this was how most of their conversations went. One question led to another.
That afternoon, Lucas was sitting with his back to the aqua tube in his cabin. His knees were drawn up and a pad of paper was balanced on them. Next to him lay Miss Taylor's letter and a postcard she had sent a few weeks earlier.
Darwin swam through the tube and tapped the glass with his nose. The computer genius didn't need to turn around to see where the noise was coming from, and he automatically reached for the Vocorder, switching it on. "Hey Darwin, what's up?"
"Lucas get more letters?"
The teenager shook his head. "No, but I'm writing a letter now."
"What does Lucas write?"
The blond boy smiled. It wouldn't do any good to give the dolphin a lecture about postal secrecy. "I'm writing to tell Miss Taylor how I am, what I've done since the last time I wrote, and answer her questions and ask a few myself."
"What is picture on bed?"
The computer genius wrinkled his forehead. What did Darwin mean? Then his glance fell on the postcard on his bed. He picked it up and held it in front of the glass. "This is a postcard. We write these cards usually when we go on vacation, and the picture on the front of the card is of the place where we went. But, we also write these cards on other occasions, for example birthdays or just to say hello to somebody, just to show them that we're thinking of them and haven't forgotten them."
That night, Lucas was suddenly awoken by some sound. He looked around sleepily to try to determine the source of the noise.
The noise repeated. Becoming a bit more alert, he could identify it immediately. It was Darwin, tapping against the glass of the aqua tube again. The teenager rubbed his eyes, sat up a bit, and grabbed the Vocorder. "What's going on Darwin? Why are you waking me up?"
"Darwin want to write postcard too."
It was good that Lucas was sitting down on his bed, otherwise this might have caused him to fall over. "Okay, Darwin, I'll help you tomorrow."
The dolphin shook his head. "Not tomorrow, now!"
The computer genius groaned. What had he done to deserve this? From experience, he knew that Darwin wouldn't quiet down until he had gotten his wish. He groaned again and got up. The next time he talked to Bridger about his salary he would demand overtime pay… "Okay, Darwin, what do you have in mind for the postcard. After all, you can't write."
"Lucas write for Darwin," came the prompt answer.
The teenager nodded. He had already suspected that he would have to play secretary for the dolphin. "Alright, but where do you want the postcard from? I don't have any."
For a moment, Darwin was silent. This was a problem; he had expected that his human friend would own such cards.
The computer genius had to smile at what he guessed was the musing expression on Darwin's face. Ben always claimed that the dolphin had only one facial expression, but the teenager knew better. "You know, I have an idea. How about I just take a picture of you, work with it on the computer, and voila, we have a postcard."
The dolphin nodded. "Yes. Darwin swim to Moon Pool. Lucas come too." And with that, Darwin left.
Lucas shook his head in disbelief while he slipped into his jeans and pulled on a baseball shirt. How had he gotten himself into this?
One hour and many pictures later, Lucas was sitting in front of the computer, working on the picture that the dolphin had chosen. When he was ready, he printed it a couple of times. If he was going to be doing so much work, he also wanted to have something to show for it. Miss Taylor would definitely enjoy just a card.
The blond boy took the first print and a pencil, and sat down on his bed. "Okay, Darwin, what should I write?"
The dolphin swam to the window as near as possible. "Lucas write many colors."
The teen's forehead wrinkled for a moment before he realized what his friend meant. He stood up and began to search his cabin.
A short time later, he sat himself back on his bed, holding a few different pencils up. "This is all I could find. Which color should it be?"
Darwin shook his head. "No, pens like Westphalen."
"I'm sorry, Darwin, but I don't have pens like those."
The dolphin was silent for a moment, but Lucas's answer did nothing to deter him. "Lucas get Dr. Westphalen pens."
The teenager was silent for a few moments. "That's not possible, Dr. Westphalen is asleep. I can't wake her up for this." Oh how the good doctor would give him an earful.
"Pens not in Westphalen cabin. In office in Med-bay."
The blond boy groaned. "Darwin, I can't just walk into her office and take something without asking."
The dolphin nodded. "Yes!"
"No, that would be really rude!"
"Lucas take pens!"
The computer genius sighed and rolled his eyes. He knew that this wouldn't end until one of them gave in or was able to convince the other. And since he knew from past experience that Darwin could be just as pig-headed as himself, he decided to give in this time. Otherwise, they would still be having this conversation in two hours. "Alright, I'll go and get the pens."
In Dr. Westphalen's small office, the teenager realized that this was not going to be as easy as he thought. He could only see one ballpoint pen on the desk, and he was sure that the dolphin hadn't meant this pen. With an extremely uneasy feeling, he opened the first desk drawer.
When Lucas saw what was inside, his eyes became enormous. In the drawer were pads of paper and many different kinds of pens. There were so many there that the scientist could open her own office supply store! If he ever needed a colorful pen again, he definitely knew who to ask.
Now the only problem was that he didn't know which kind of pens the dolphin was talking about...
Lucas picked two packages of pens that he imagined Darwin might like the most.
Back in his cabin, Lucas sat down on his bed and held the two packages up. "Okay, Darwin, which ones will it be?"
"These," he gestured to the boy's left hand with his nose.
The teenager put the other package aside. "Okay, and which color?" He yawned deeply.
"All."
"What do you mean?"
"Each word different color."
Lucas closed his eyes and counted to ten, telling himself not to flip out. "Darwin, that will take a really long time." Why had he ever explained the meaning of letters, words, and sentences to his friend?
"No worry, Darwin has time."
Lucas swallowed. Only someone who didn't need to get up early in the morning could say that. The teenager bit his lower lip and decided not to say anything. After all, the dolphin couldn't know everything, and it was actually nice to see that Darwin was interested in human activities. But why did it have to be in the middle of the night? "Okay, Darwin. Who do you want to write to?" He grabbed the first pencil.
"To Lucas."
The computer genius nodded and smiled. "That's really nice of you, but I would already know what the card said."
For a moment the dolphin was silent. "Then to Bridger."
The teen smiled again. "I'm sure that the captain would love to get a card, but isn't there anybody else you would like to write to? After all, you see Bridger every day and can talk to him whenever you like."
There was a longer pause this time.
"Darwin knows someone."
Lucas nodded and pulled out a pen. "I'm all ears..."
Lucas stood tiredly in the docking bay. The night had obviously been too short...
The teenager yawned as Seaman Marc Webster came around the corner. "Hey, Lucas, what's up? You look like you just fell out of bed."
The computer genius nodded. "Sounds about right, only difference is that somebody threw me out of bed."
Webster grinned and glanced at the envelopes in Lucas's hand. "Should I take those with me on the next mail run? The shuttle will be heading to the mainland in 22 minutes."
The genius nodded; after all, that was the reason he had gotten up so early. "Yeah, thanks." He gave the envelopes to the seaman.
"No problem, all a part of my job."
Again the teenager had to yawn and decided to head back to his cabin to lay down again.
On his way there, he met Dr. Westphalen.
Her sharp eyes didn't miss how tired the teen looked. "Good morning, Lucas." She stopped and stood right in the middle of the corridor so that there was no way around her.
"Morning."
The doctor folded her arms. "Where are you going?"
The computer genius knew he was screwed. "To my cabin?"
Kristin shook her head. "I don't think so, young man. If I know you, you probably haven't even had breakfast." The teenager nodded in confirmation. He knew that denying it would only get him into trouble. Without further ado, the red-headed doctor took the youngest crewmember by the arm and pulled him along. "Good, then you can keep me company."
Lucas made a face, but luckily for him, the scientist couldn't see it.
Only a short time later, Dr. Westphalen and Lucas sat down at a table where Captain Bridger was already seated and having his breakfast.
Nathan took a sip of his coffee. "Good morning you two."
The doctor smiled at him. "Morning."
Lucas, on the other hand, only managed to nod his head. What he wouldn't give just to be lying in his bed and sleeping...
The captain raised his eyebrows. "Trouble sleeping?"
The blond boy nodded. "You could say that."
Kristen sighed in frustration. She really loved the boy, but why did he always have to be so careless about his own health? "I'll bet! Most likely you were awake playing on your computer or hacking into something the whole night."
Lucas gave her a dark look, mostly because there were nights in the past where he hadbeen up all night doing those very things… "Not at all. This time it really wasn't my fault," he said defensively.
Dr. Westphalen folded her arms. "I'm all ears."
"Shortly after I fell asleep, Darwin woke me up and kept me awake nearly the whole night."
"Why would he do something like that?" The doctor took a sip of her tea.
"Because he wanted to write a postcard," Lucas stated, just like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Kristen choked on her tea, and Bridger was patting her back with a big smile on his face. Yeah, that sounded like his dolphin. "Where did he get the idea to do that?"
"Oh, I got a letter from my former nanny and was writing back to her. Darwin saw me, and last night he decided that he wanted to do something like that."
Dr. Westphalen wrinkled her forehead thoughtfully. "Interesting. He copies human behavior."
Lucas just nodded. After all, this wasn't anything new. The dolphin was quite vocal and often asked him questions about people and their habits. Sometimes it seemed that Darwin was studying them the same way they studied the ocean. The teenager really wanted to know what his friend told other dolphins about them.
"Oh, and I also had to borrow some of your pens from your office. Darwin insisted that I use them," added the teen.
Kristen nodded. Her thoughts were more focused on Darwin than the fact that Lucas had gone into her desk. "No problem."
"Hey, who did Darwin want to write to?" asked Bridger.
"First me, and then you, but I convinced him to write to somebody else, which he did."
Nathan made a face, but it was clear that he wasn't really mad. "Oh that's a pity. I would have really liked to get something in the mail from Darwin."
The computer genius sighed. "I promise for your next birthday I'll try to get Darwin to write you a card, or rather to dictate one to me."
Bridger smiled and nodded. "Alright."
The red-headed scientist put down the roll she had been eating. "Then I want one too."
Benjamin Krieg was just walking by, his tray full of food. "What do you want?" Without waiting for an invitation he sat down.
"Lucas told us that he had to write something for Darwin last night, and now we're asking for something like that for our birthdays," explained Bridger.
Krieg gestured with his hand. "Oh, you mean the postcard. Half an hour ago, Miguel and I were at the Moon Pool, and Darwin told us all about it. That's really cool! Needless to say, we also asked for postcards, and Darwin promised each of us one. Miguel already told Tim and Crocker, and now they want to ask Darwin for one too." The morale officer thought about it. "And then I told Katie and a few others; they were all interested, so they all want cards too." He looked happily from one person to the other.
Lucas desperately let his head slide onto the table. What had he done to deserve this?
THE END
Written August and September 2005/Translated July 2007
Information:
This story had a little special effect for Snuggles, Yury, Samusa and now also Peppypower. I think you can imagine what it was…