Deep Blue - The Descent

19: What Light From Yonder Window Breaks?

Nick woke the next morning feeling surprisingly refreshed. Given the events of the previous night, he expected to still be fairly exhausted after only a few hours sleep.

He turned and sat on the side of the bed.

"Lights on."

Nick was getting used to Deep Blue's ever present computer A.I.

The lights faded to full strength as Syndi's image appeared on a nearby monitor.

"Good morning Lieutenant Commander Sheppard. I hope you are well rested.", Syndi greeted Nick with a moderately over-the-top cheerful tone. It was almost like she knew she had done something wrong and was hoping the Lieutenant Commander wouldn't notice. Nick tried not to read too much into it.

"Good morning Syndi.", Nick replied as he glanced over at the holographic image. There was no doubt about it, Syndi was smiling -- and not subtle smile at that. This was the ear-to-ear, the boy of my dreams just asked me out on a date smile.

Syndi continued with the smile, "The time is now 11:48 a.m., Doctor Marshal is in Lab 1 and Commander Kennedy is in the moon pool area."

"11:48?!", Nick exclaimed. "Damn it."

No wonder he wasn't tired, he'd slept through the entire morning. He quickly grabbed a shirt from a nearby hanger and threw it on.

"When did it get to be 11:48?", he said pulling the shirt over his head.

"It follows 11:47.", Syndi replied still wearing the huge smile, which gave the expression a whole new irritating meaning.

"Yes, Syndi. Thank you. I realize that.", Nick responded annoyed. He was also pretty sure he noted a certain amount of actual sarcasm in her cheery tone.

"But what happened to my alarm?"

"You asked me to delete your alarm.", the hologram replied. "So I did."

In his current rush it was hard to remember, but he did vaguely recall making a request along those lines the previous morning.

"Brilliant."

Nick couldn't tell if it was just the huge smile, or a certain smugness to that last line, but he almost believed Syndi was enjoying this.

He slipped on his shoes, and quickly headed to the corridor and toward the moon pool.

"Have a pleasant day Lieutenant Commander Sheppard.", Syndi said cheerfully even though Nick rapidly walked out of the range of her voice.

Even though Nick went from his bed to the moon pool in record time, he did his best not to burst through the doorway as if his quarters were on fire. He slammed on the brakes and entered the moon pool hub as -- casually as possible.

As Syndi had reported, Commander Kennedy was on the walkway of the moon pool applying some substance to the outer surface of the M.A.N.T.A..

Nick walked to the moon pool and rested his hands against the metal railing.

"Commander.", he said, giving Jordan a nod.

The Commander glanced his direction, "Sheppard."

She then returned to smoothing out whatever material she was applying to the M.A.N.T.A. and continued, "Is 'good morning' still appropriate to say?"

So much for Nick's hope that the Commander was too busy to notice his tardiness.

"My grandma says 'Good morning' all day long.", Nick smiled coyly.