“I was just in a bad mood, Rob,” Vox interjected. “You know how I can be sometimes, man.”
“I do,” the traveler nodded, “but, that doesn't mean you were wrong. Before us, we have two paths: one leads to Karl's, the other to Never Never Land. Which do you want us to take?”
“Well...” Vox began before pausing to think for several seconds. “Why is it that we should go to Karl's? Because I'm basically positive that we should.”
“What makes you say that?” Robert asked.
“Because, even though all small girl's points are completely valid, I'm sure you'd considered all of them while coming up with your plan.”
“I had,” the traveler agreed.
“That being the case, you have some reason for wanting to go to Karl's or for not wanting to go to Never Never Land.”
“Or both,” the traveler pointed out. “I want to go to Karl's because he makes me laugh and we could all use a laugh right now. I don't want to go to Never Never Land for much better reasons, though. If we go back, questions may be asked. Questions like: where is Celeste? This is particularly true if we end up with a repair crew crawling all over the ship. That is a question we seriously don't want to have to answer. Especially considering the number of crimes she's committed...”
“Rob, it's not like she really...” Vox interrupted.
“Leaving the ship without the captain's permission,” Robert counter-interrupted, “stealing an escape pod, going back in time without authorization – probably with the intention of altering past events – actively avoiding extraction, and stealing a star-ship. Not to mention all the other charges Sturm is going to be able to think up given time. Don't kid yourself, Vox. If the council finds out about this, she's looking at two or three hundred years, easy.”
“Not with you defending her,” Azure suggested.
“I could probably do a lot,” Robert nodded. “But, she's going to do time – even if it's only five or ten years – just to make a point. There is no way Sturm will let her off Scott-free and the law will be completely on his side in this case.”
“You could lie her way out of it,” Cleo pointed out.
“You're suggesting I should lie?”
“It wouldn't be to me,” she smiled.
“Cute. But, I think it's a situation it would be better to avoid completely.”
“I agree,” Vox nodded.
“Plus, whoever did whatever has been done to the ship – assuming that anything has been done to it – almost certainly did it in Never Never Land.”
“Someone's done something,” Vox replied. “We just overhauled her. Everything should be in tiptop shape. The doors could have been an outstanding issue that we just missed but, the backup power systems are brand new.”
“Brand new doesn't always mean: working perfectly,” Cleo pointed out.
“I think we should err on the side of caution,” Robert said, “meaning that, until we have Celeste safely back on board, we should avoid Never Never Land.”
“Karl's it is,” Vox nodded.
“We can keep checking the systems on the way there and back,” the traveler said. “As well as taking a little time to relax. The last week has been kind of stressful. I don't want any of the rest of you slipping your cogs and running away through time.”
“We won't,” Morgan smiled.
“Maybe not, but, we're going to do a little relaxing just the same.”
For some reason that Robert couldn't explain – which I personally happen to believe was no reason at all – he was completely confident that they wouldn't run into any more issues until after they had reached Karl's. As a result, he led the entire crew down to the bowling alley, where he proceeded to lose five games in a row. He quietly assured Morgan that he had done this in order to make the rest of the crew feel superior. The young man had his doubts, however, as the next game the traveler suggested was poker.
After close to two hours, everyone but Robert was almost completely out of chips, due to the traveler's almost super-villain-like ability to bluff, double-bluff, triple-bluff, and, occasionally even break out the dreaded quadruple-bluff. As Robert won yet another hand, Cleo suddenly became very curious about what kind of poker – other than slap poker – you could play without chips. She pointed out that she and Azure might have to start playing that way shortly, and that she had no intention of giving up until she had the opportunity to settle the score with Robert.
Something about the way she phrased this resolution made Morgan swallow. For one thing, both of the girls had been very overtly flirting with both of the young men since the relaxing started – if you didn't even count the fact that each of them had kissed the other's man right before Celeste ran off. They struck the young man almost like gambling addicts who were willing to play any game in town.
In spite of this, Robert seemed determined to stick with his just act normally plan and ignored both of them as if nothing was happening. Other than a few shocked looks, and Vox busting out laughing a few times, he and Doc took their cue from the traveler and paid no attention to the girls' odd behavior.
The perpetual pleading of two lovely ladies, however, finally removed the last of Morgan's resolve. He decided to tell them exactly what kind of poker you could play without chips – feeling that, at the very least, it would stop them from talking about it – when Robert's psychic senses seemed to kick in. The traveler told him that if he didn't want to play a hand or two of break Morgan's legs poker he would keep their little secret between the menfolk.
Immediately after this, Robert began losing for some inexplicable reason. Just as Cleo managed to beat the traveler for the third hand in a row, an almost imperceptible tremor ran through the ship.
“Something's wrong,” Robert asserted. “We've dropped out of non-space.”
The crew rushed onto the bridge, only to discover that the traveler's assertion had been quite correct. The ship had simply re-entered real-space, seemingly, all on its own. A quick check revealed the fact that the drives were offline, along with a number of other systems, including the stealth generators, several medical systems, and the comm. This was unfortunate for a number of reasons, but the main one was that it caused Robert to divide their forces in an attempt to get everything back online as quickly as possible.
As a result, Cleo and Azure had the opportunity to try to corner Morgan and Robert all alone. Which they managed to do. Although the young man was left to dread what Azure was doing to the traveler at that moment, he found what Cleo was doing to him more immediately disturbing. For one thing, she wouldn't pay any attention to her work and wouldn't stop paying attention to him. Everything he said seemed to have a double meaning to her and everything she said definitely had a double meaning to him.
When she got right up behind him – supposedly to watch him work so that he didn't make any mistakes – and started breathing on the back of his neck and whispering things in his ear that wouldn't have been fit for formal occasions, he decided he'd had enough. He did the only thing he could think of. He ran away.
The told her that he needed a left-handed brush so he could try to brush out one of the flux capacitors. Her laughter made him fairly certain that she didn't believe him but, he didn't care. The main thing was that she let him escape – for the time being, at least. He sought shelter from the storm in the medi-bay, feeling certain that Doc's presence would serve as a shield if she managed to hunt him down.
“Doc,” he said, marching into the bay, “do you have any tranquilizers?”
“Yes, Morgan, I do,” he replied. “Why?”
“I need a handful.”
“That would kill you, Morgan.”
“I'll take my chances.”
“I won't,” Doc said, stepping nearer the young man and taking him by the wrist. “You're heart-rate is a little high, I suppose. What's the matter?”
“Have you ever noticed that women are completely insane, Doc?”
“I have,” he nodded. “I've noticed the s
ame thing about men, as well.”
“Well, sure. But, men's insanity is way more predictable and easier to deal with.”
“To other men,” Doc nodded, “that's certainly true. I assure you that, to women, our minds are an enigma of almost equal complexity.”
“You could be right,” Morgan said, shaking his head. “But, I can't see it. Men are logical. We go about things logically. Logic is something you can follow. Trying to figure out what's going on in Cleo and Azure's minds is like trying to figure out what a cat tangled up in yarn plans to do next. No, in fact, it's worse than that. It's like trying to get the cat out of the yarn, when it's your girlfriend's cat and it doesn't really like you.”
At this assertion, Doc laughed quite heartily.
“It may seem that way to you,” he replied, “but, there is certainly a logic to the way most women – and Cleo and Azure especially – go about things. On top of which, I sometimes find Robert's train of thought somewhat difficult to follow. For instance, it seems to me that something is going on between you two and the girls.”
“That's an understatement.”
“And, yet, if I had to guess, I would say that Robert has decided that the best course of action isn't to speak to them directly.”
“You'd be right.”
“Instead, he's probably come up with some kind of plan that will allow him – at least according to some overly complex theory of his – to beat Cleo at her own game in order to prove that he's smarter than she is and that he's in the driver's seat of their relationship.”
“You know him pretty well.”
“I've known him for a long time.”
“So, we should just talk to the girls, then?”
“I'm not saying that,” Doc said, shaking his head. “Every relationship is different, Morgan. Robert finds fencing with Cleo extremely exciting. In my opinion, she finds trying to outwit him, and normally failing to do so, just as stimulating. So, here they are, both refusing to be direct with one another and moving the pieces around on the board; each trying to defeat the other. However, as I've never met two people more in love, I feel certain that, in the end, they'll both win.
“At least, that's the case if Robert isn't using lies to...”
“He's not,” Morgan interjected. “In fact, I think he's sincerely trying to be more honest with her as a general rule. Of course, he may have tricked me into thinking that. He is a phenomenal liar.”
“He is,” Doc agreed. “Which is why she often feels she can't trust him. Still, being consistently honest with her will soon mend that.”
“Her punishing him for lying will probably help encourage him to do that.”
“It might,” Doc nodded. “Although, that really has nothing to do with you and Azure. Both of you have obviously decided to go along with all this. How have you found it?”
“Unquestionably exciting,” Morgan replied, shaking his head, “very stimulating, a little terrifying, occasionally infuriating, and consistently confusing.”
“Do you like it?”
“No!” the young man instantly replied before pausing for thought. “Actually, now that you've asked me point-blank like that, I'm not sure that I don't like it. Obviously, I don't like the girls winning but, that's not exactly the same thing, is it?”
“No, it isn't,” Doc agreed. “So, you have to decide if you'd rather play the game, be more direct, or – like most people – do something in between. At least, if it's not likely to do permanent damage to your relationships. If it is, complete honesty and direct communication is the only course you can take.”
“Oh, I'm not worried about that,” Morgan chuckled. “I mean; they're just messing with our heads. If I thought for a second things were about to really go too far, I could get it all out in the open with a few well-chosen sentences.”
“What exactly is Robert's plan? Or am I not allowed to know?”
“I'm sure I can tell you and Vox,” the young man assured him. “Rob's current plan is: pretend the girls are acting normally.”
“Well, compared to many of his plans, that seems rather innocuous.”
“I'd have to agree. Obviously, I don't know what innocuous means but, you usually know what you're talking about.”
“I'm saying that his plan seems safe enough to me,” Doc explained. “And, I can certainly understand wanting to intellectually wrestle with his lady love. I myself find the female mind not only intriguing but, very stimulating.”
“Doc, you old dog,” Morgan chuckled, “I never thought you had it in you.”
“I'm not sure what would have given you that impression,” Doc said, gazing at him with a knowing smile.
“I don't know,” the young man said with a shrug. “You don't have a girlfriend.”
“Not at the moment,” Doc nodded. “However, that's only because the right girl hasn't crossed my path yet. I assure you, when she does, I intend to make the most of the opportunity.”
“Have you seen Azure?” Robert asked, poking his head into the medi-bay.
“No,” they both replied.
“What are you doing in here, Morgan?” the traveler asked.
“Hiding.”
“Is it working?”
“So far.”
“I'll join you,” he said, moving quickly into the chamber.
“I take it she got you alone?” Morgan asked.
“More than once,” Robert admitted. “I kept finding reasons to go talk to Vox or have him come into the drive room but, he finally asked me to leave him alone for five minutes so, I had to leg it. Cleo didn't manage to...”
Robert shot Doc a quick glance before finishing his sentence.
“To tag you again, did she?”
“She didn't really try. Azure?”
“The same.”
“That's a mercy,” Morgan observed.
“Agreed. I think they're done firing the big guns. Now, they're just planning to keep us on the run with small arms fire.”
“It seems to be working,” Doc chuckled.
“For the moment,” Robert ceded.
“I think I got it, boss,” Vox said, stinking his own head into the room.
“What was it?”
“The stealth generator had been taken offline and put into diagnostic-mode. However, it had also been rigged to look like it wasn't. So, you couldn't bring it online and when you put it in diagnostic-mode to find out why, you were actually putting it in live-mode, so you couldn't run any diagnostics.”
“That would make sense,” Robert agreed.
“It certainly would,” Vox nodded. “I suspected the same was true of the main drive, and it was. However, the software modification wouldn't let me bring either back online because, when they weren't in diagnostic-mode, the computer thought they were.”
“We should be able to override that.”
“No need,” Vox asserted. “I got to thinking about what happened with the doors and how, after the power went off, you couldn't find any problems with Cleo's lock. So, I cut power to the stealth generators completely. When I powered them back up, everything was working normally. We can have the main drive back up and running in less than five minutes.”
“Mmmm,” Robert hummed. “I don't like that.”
“Why not?” Morgan asked. “That seems like a simple enough fix to me.”
“Oh, I agree,” the traveler replied. “The problem is, that the drive couldn't have been like that when we jumped into non-space.”
“No, it couldn't have,” Vox agreed. “Meaning that its operating software was overwritten just before we dropped back into real-space.”
“Exactly. And, that means Cleo didn't manage to completely get rid of the Stur... that virus we got hit with.”
“It could be that,” Vox replied. “Or, it could be that someone managed to get some piece of hardware on board than can force a software update on our systems while they're in live-mode.”
“Suggestions?”
“We can disable remote up
dates and put a code-lock on diagnostic-mode on all the systems on the ship, including the door locks.”
“Good idea,” Robert nodded. “We should go ahead and get on it. That's going to take a few hours.”
“Yes, it will,” Vox agreed. “We can start with the drives though, that way we can work on it while we're on our way to Karl's.”
“Agreed,” the traveler replied. “We'll work in teams of two; Morgan and I, you and Doc, and Azure and Cleo – just in case.”
“In case of what?” Vox chuckled.
“Alright. You and Doc can work alone.”
After several hours of non-stop work and flight, the ship dropped into real-space somewhere above Karl's – the up and coming famous outlet for quality used merchandise. Robert had decided to up the ante by having the entire team go on the shopping excursion – all dressed in their uniforms. It was his theory that the ladies would somehow be lusted into submission although, Morgan didn't put much stock in it. Especially considering how much counter-lust was going to be thrown in their direction.
“Morgan,” Robert said, “hit the intercom and make sure the girls are ready to go. I don't want to be here too long. The sooner we get Celeste back, the sooner Vox's mind will be at ease.”
“I've been thinking about it,” Morgan mused, “and I wonder if we ever offend anyone by referring to them as girls. Some people can be really sensitive about things like that, you know?”
“Cleo and Azure don't seem to mind. Plus, most of the woman on the island are centuries old. They sure don’t mind being called girl any more than I mind being called boy.”
“Of course you don’t mind being called boy,” the young man chuckled, “you think you’re Peter Pan.”
“I don’t think I’m Peter Pan, Morgan.”
“Is there anyone on the island named Hook?” Morgan asked after several thoughtful seconds.
“Sure,” Robert replied. “Lots of people. Why?”
“Are any of them captains?”
“You think Captain Hook may be our secret nemesis?”
“Well, you seem to be sure that it’s not Sturm.”
“It’s not Sturm,” the traveler assured him. “Now, shut up and call the girls.”
Bad Behavior (The Last Time Traveler Book 3) Page 18