2234 work in progress

Ik'hi

The changing room was completely empty, except for for the 2 officers. Normally there would be at least 1 or 2 other dolphins switching either in or out of their spider suits. Since the lounge room had a few pools inside of it, they kept it's artificial gravity activated at all times to prevent the water from floating through the entire room. 

"Come on, I want to go for a swim before we get called into the command room again!" Dart was impatiently floating around Ik'hi. 

"You're one to talk, try putting on one of these suits!" Ik'hi struggled to get into her Spider suit. Dart on the other hand didn't have any use for one of these suits, unlike her, he didn't have the brain implant needed to control it. 

"Can't, you know why", he gave her tail a little push in the right direction and finally she managed to slip into the suit. 

"I know, but only then you'd realize it's much harder than it looks", she grabbed Dart's tail with one of the mechanic arms of the suit. He flinched and tried to break free, but even with all his strenght, the arm was still stronger. She knew he was gonna get back at her for this, but she wanted to teach him a lesson.

"And don't ever tell me I'm the slow one again, after all, I have to get out of my suit to get into this suit, while you can just throw your bag into a corner!", she made him look directly into her eyes.

"I know, I know, I was just joking, I'm sorry...", that was enough for Ik'hi, so she let go of his tail.

"It's fine, now, do you want me to carry you or can you get to the pool yourself?"

"I can get there myself and you know that"

Ik'hi knew Dart really wanted to have her help, but would rather try to not look like he was completely helpless.

"Fine then, suit yourself."

Both of them entered the airlock and waited for the signal to go into the lounge. Dart already made his way down to the floor to not drop by the sudden change in gravity.

"Last chance, you really don't want to?"

He just waved her off with one of his pectoral fins, a gift she really envied him for. While Ik'hi was part of the newer generation of dolphins, she still wished she too had pectoral fins like him. Somehow the scientists who created Dart managed to give him the ability to bend his fins in the way human arms could, but noone actually knew until he did it, because his fins looked completely normal. 

The door opened by itsself and Ik'hi entered the lounge room, there were a few dolphins around so she decided to go for the bigger pool where currently only 2 young dolphins were playing with a ball. She stopped for a moment to check on Dart, who was lacking behind a bit, even though he had the ability to crawl over land by using his pectoral fins, he was still pretty slow. Ik'hi decided to not intervene and slipped out of her suit directly into the pool. The water felt alot better than the wet air in the rest of the ship, it was nice and cold, exactly what she needed at the moment. Ik'hi immeadiatly swam to the bottom of the pool and stayed there for a few moments, letting herself float. Meanwhile Dart dropped himself in the water, after a moment he dove down to Ik'hi.

"Hey, do you want to race a little? Winner gets the other's coffee tomorrow", he asked.

"No, but thank you, maybe later." 

"Come on, just this time?"

"Still no, I came here to relax a little, not to race."

"You're a killjoy, you know that?", Dart started to nibble on her side.

This was nothing Ik'hi didn't have to deal with before and normally she'd just push any dolphin who tried to get a little too close away, but this was Dart. The dolphin who had absolutely zero dolphin instincts and just defined almost all behavior patterns in a way that fit him. She knew him well enough to know that this was Dart's attempt to annoy her into chasing him. Ik'hi wasn't just gonna give him that satisfication, so she rolled a little to the side.

"Ahh, yep, that spot feels good, keep going like that!", she gave a little smirk when she noticed Dart was quite dissapointed by that reaction. He stopped and just let himself float next to her.

"Fine, you won..."

She looked at him with a smile, then gave him a light smack on his nose and dashed off.

"Catch me if you can!"

Ik'hi  had catched him completely off guard, exactly what she wanted. Dart immeadiatly zoomed after her when the moment of shock had passed.

She swam to the end of the pool and just when Dart catched up to her, she made a backwards jump directly over him and dashed back to the other end, leaving him in awe. Dart was fast and learned fast too, she knew that wouldn't work a second time. So this time she quickly swam below him, he missed he and overshot because of his speed. In the meantime the 2 other dolphins turned their attention off the ball to watch them, most likely impressed. Now Ik'hi tried to make a barrel roll around him, unfortunately Dart just barely managed to tag her tailfin.

"I got you, you're it!" he zoomed off.

Ik'hi turned around to follow him, but quickly realized this would be much harder than anticipated. Be that as it may, she wanted that extra coffee! In the first few rounds he always managed to outrun her. Now Dart attempted to dive under her, but this time Ik'hi was faster and cut his way off, he tried to turn back to find another way but just as he was about to take that, she cut his way off again. He moved backwards, trying to look for another way until suddenly his dorsal fin hit the corner of the pool. She had him cornered!

"You ready to give up?", Ik'hi surfaced directly in front of him, she gave it a big smile knowing that she got him. The other 2 dolphins cheered a little for her before turning back to their ball game.

"Alright, fine, you won again, you get my coffee tomorrow." 

Ik'hi couldn't help but keep her smile. But now up close she suddenly noticed that Dart wasn't as small anymore as he used to be, he had grown, despite the fact he was already supposed to be fully grown by now. But knowing him, she just shrugged it off as another side effect of the genetic manipulation. 

"Is something wrong Ik'hi? Did I grow a second head?", Ik'hi suddenly noticed she had been staring at Dart in a little odd way.

"No, no, it's nothing. you just look even more interesting than you already do up close, if I would've known that I would've cornered you sooner", she giggled, Dart only smiled at her.

"You're not getting any of these thoughts, are you?" Dart poked her chest where her hearth was with one of his fins, now he was the one to giggle.

"What? No, I don't!"

"I know, but leave what's happening with me to the scientists, they want a piece too, you know?"

Ik'hi had to admit that she was fascinated by his appearance and abilities, unfortunately she wasn't the scientist to document this. But it was of pure curiosity only, Dart was aware of that, yet he always had to make fun of her for it. Nontheless, Ik'hi liked her roommate, he might be annoying sometimes, but even then he'd manage to cheer her up. Dart was alot like the brother she never had, one day she should return that favor. 

"Dart, Ik'hi?", both of them looked up at the dolphin with a spider suit standing at the edge of the pool, 3rd Officer Ah'ki.

"Sorry to interrupt your romance but the Captains wants all officers in the command room now, you included." 

Ik'hi could've sworn Ah'ki tried to suppress a laughter when she said "romance", great, now there was 2 of them. Annoyed she made another back jump to get back to her suit.