2234 work in progress

Cedric

The Captain swam a few rounds through one the lounge's pools. He was alone, finally Cedric could devote himself to his own thoughts. The spider suit he used was shutdown on the side of the pool, swimming without a suit started to feel strange for him, now Cedric understood why humans wore clothes. He started swimming in circles. Either way, Ikeda and the Scout Officers should arrive soon. In the last few weeks these three did everything in order to keep the Quasimodo save and running, their devotion deserved to be aknowledged.

He didn't even notice someone had entered the room until Ikeda slipped out of her suit into the water with a splash and jumped over Cedric only to dive under him and to reappear next to him. Normally that would've been considered disrespect towards the Captain, but he wasn't in the mood to complain.

"You wanted to meet with me?", Ikeda chattered in perfect Terranic, as always. 

"Yesss, I want an updat-te on the repairs on the engines."

"Well, they're in the best state they can be, but considering we haven't done any proper repairs since we left Mars...", she started swimming back and forth in the pool, "...they won't tolerate much more."

"It-t will have to do." Cedric couldn't say he expected anything better, the state of the Quasimodo was questionable, it was only a matter of time until the ship would finally succumb to it's wounds.

"I suggest we try to reach the nearest allied fleet to get towed to a safe spaceport. If that should be possible. I'll take care of the engines until then."

"You don't need to do anyt-thing now, leave the next-t moves to me. And have some trussst in your work, we'll make it-t, you'll see Ikeda." Cedric wiped one of the dirt stains off Ikeda's head, when was the last time he'd ever seen her not covered in it?

"But Sir, someone has to make sure nothing goes wrong. It's my work and therefore it's my responsibility to ensure that everythings works fairly smoothly. Because otherwhise who would deal with any possible- AAHHHH!" 

Without any warning Cedric had dived down into the pool only to shoot up to bump into Ikeda, catapulting her into the air. Confused she splashed back into the water and before Ikeda knew it, he had lifted her over the water on his back. 

"Oh sssorry, did I catch you off guard?" 

Cedric gave it a slight chuckle while Ikeda failed to get off. With a sigh of defeat she gave him a light smack on the side of his head.

"Dad, I'm not a little kid anymore! Oh, if I didn't leave my suit...", this was the first time she had called him Dad since they left Earth. Cedric couldn't tell how much he missed that, yet he preferred that the crew didn't know.

"Alright-t, I'll let you down, but you have to promissse to me that-t you'll leave your work alone for a while. And finally get a real bath, just-t look at you, I don't even recognise my own daughter anymore."

Ikeda hesitated.

"Fine... you got me."

"Good girl." 

Cedric dove down, allowing Ikeda to swim around again. She immeadiatly darted off to swim a few rounds, the captain followed. Eventually Ikeda slowed down and swam next to him, she slowly nudged his mechanic fin replacement.

"Are you doing okay?"

"I'm doing asss good as I can be, why the sssudden concern?"

"I never took my time to ask you how you were after the incident, I'm sorry..."

"Don't worry about it, you had better t-things to do."

"But..." Cedric softly nudged her in the side, his way of telling her everything was okay. Ikeda took it as that and didn't protest any further. 

Just then, the door from the changing room opened, revealing a dolphin wearing a spider suit dragging a rather furious turquoise dolphin after her by his tail. Ik'hi was making fun of the fact that Dart couldn't use a spider again. Luckily Dart wasn't the contentious kind of dolphin and let himself be dropped into the water without any further complaints while Ik'hi slipped out of her suit as well.

"Scout Officers Dart and Ik'hi reporting for debriefing, sir!" Dart tried to take stance as best as possible, despite the obvious fact he was more than exhausted. Ik'hi didn't even try. The last time both officers slept was almost 3 days ago. 

"Easy up, Dart, I don't want-t to cause you more stress than you already have." 

Cedric could tell Dart was relieved, he could only understand him too well, after all he once was in his position too. He must've made both of them pretty nervous when he send Ka'taia to tell them the Captain wanted to have a private talk with them.

"Do you know why I called you here?" The captain slowly swam in circles around the 2 officers and checked them up and down. Only now he noticed the scars both of them had carried away from the last weeks, barely visible, but they were there.

"We assumed you weren't impressed by our leading skills lately, sir." Ik'hi replied, slightly confused by their Captain's behavior.

"No, your leading skills were a prime example on how t-to do your job. You should be proud of yourselves."

"But then why did you call us?" Dart replied slightly irritated, he'd never seen the Captain behave so casual around him.

Cedric stopped swimming around them and took stance himself in front of them, instinctively Dart and Ik'hi did the same.

"Easssy, I called you here to thank you for what-t you did to keep the ship and it's crew sssafe." He lowered his head as a sign of gratitude, while allowing himself to scan both officers with his Sonar. Normally that would've been considered rude, but neither Dart nor Ik'hi seemed to complain, instead he noticed both of them felt like a great weight fell off their fins.

"We're honored sir, but we just did our duty."

"I wouldn't be Captain if I took the efforts my officersss made for granted. And congratulations, you were bot-th nominated for the Galactic Star (highest honor a space traveller can reach). You both have earned yourself a good night's sssleep."

"I-I... we..." Dart could only utter, he was speechless.

"W-we don't know how to thank you, sir." Ik'hi finished for him, they both lowered their heads.

"You'll never have t-to, go on, you're freed of your duties for now, get sssome rest. Meanwhile I'll put Ka'taia and Hannes in charge. And be sssure to come by t-tomorrow for your-"

"Dad, I don't think they can hear you anymore." Ikeda nudged his side and pointed at the officers, both of them were already fully asleep, floating at the surface of the pool, a gift only few uplifted dolphins possessed.

Cedric wasn't even mad, he was amazed, one more Sonar scan revealed to him that both were already off to the dream realm.

"Should we wake them?"

"No, let-t them sleep, they deserve it. Can you bring t-them back to their room? I need to get back to my duties."

"Sure can." The smirk on Ikeda's face already told him that she was up to something, but he wouldn't interrupt her on that. His daughter should have some fun while she could.

"Good girl, I can always rely on you. But finally go wash yourself properly!" He wiped a few more dirt stains off Ikeda while she giggled a little. Then he got back into his spider suit and made his way to the Quasimodo's bridge, Ka'taia should've gotten that report by now...