LJ Idol season 9, week 15 - Chekhov's Gun
“You know Keelie, I kinda like life about the ship.”
Keelie’s response with her blowhole sent mist across the room.
“No need to be rude about it! I miss the ocean, of course. You know I do. We both dream of it. But there’s an exciting new world to explore and giant oceans for us to swim in… this huge horizon just waiting for us. So, we wait for it. In the meantime, we’re here and we deal with this place. And, it’s not so bad, really.”
‘You not stuck in tiny ocean!’
“I know, I know. You can’t get out and see the rest of the ship like I can, or meet the people. I just wish…”
‘Why sad Kara?’
“Well, there’ve been little things happening… things that make me think someone doesn’t like me. One day, I had chili powder in my food. It was so spicy that my throat started to close up. A week or so later, I found one of your fish in my bed, but it was all gross and rotten. And then last week, one of my drawers had been filled with water. Salt water, like your tank. All of my uniform pants were soaked and I didn’t even have any dirty ones to wear because I had just done laundry the night before. I had to wear wet ones. Wet clothes suck.”
‘Wear wet clothes all the time when you swim with me, Kara. Is not bad then?’
“Oh, there’s a difference between clothes that are meant to get wet and clothes that aren’t. I know it seems like there isn’t, but there is, and then they dried and all the salt against my skin was itchy... It sucked!”
“Someone came into your room and soaked your clothes in salt water while you slept, Kara? How did they get in?”
Kara jumped at the sound of Doctor Hiller’s voice as he came through the door.
“Holy crap! Don’t you knock?”
“I would knock, if this weren’t my workplace as much as yours. Why haven’t you told me about these things?”
“They’re just silly stuff, Dr. Hiller. Like pranks you’d play on someone you didn’t like at summer camp. No biggie, I just wish I knew who I’d pissed off. We’re going to be pretty cozy as far as colonies go, and we all need to get along.”
Dr. Hiller looked Kara in the eyes. “I can’t imagine you pissing someone off. Maybe someone is just a prankster and has decided they like your reaction to their little jokes?”
“Yeah, well, I’d think so too, but I have a mild allergy to chili peppers. Nothing life threatening, but that one was definitely unpleasant.”
Dr. Hiller nodded. “Let me do some checking around, see if I can find anything. Okay? In the meantime, let me know if any more unpleasantness happens?”
**The events from my Week 6 story - Step on A Crack take place in between these two sections of this story**
The aviary section of the ship wasn’t a long walk from the tursiops area, but walking wasn't getting him there fast enough. Jacob almost slammed into the door at a full run. He took the couple of seconds while the door opened to try to calm himself. It almost worked... until he saw Don Engler’s face.
“You sunnuvabitch!”
The look on Engler’s face turned from smug satisfaction to shock, and then to fear as Jacob wrapped his fingers around his throat.
“It wasn’t enough for you to that you, somehow, still weaseled your way onto the colony ship? You had to go after Kara. You are swine. You are worse than swine.”
Dr. Lambert slowly peeled Jacob’s fingers from Engler’s throat, and placed himself between the two enraged men.
“Jacob, explain yourself!”
Jacob closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. When he opened them, he managed to speak without screaming. Barely.
“Sir, after the micro-meteorite hit the tursiops area and put Kara into the sick bay, I remembered something she had mentioned about someone playing pranks on her. One of which almost went too far, because she has a pepper allergy. So I started doing some digging in the computer records. That bastard not only delayed the tursiops project on Earth with his ineptitude - which is why I fired him, and hired Kara, if you recall. He then managed to somehow get on the avian team and wind up on this colony team. But he is also responsible for this 'accident'. Apparently, he holds a grudge against Kara. I found computer records that he reduced the energy screen around areas of the tursiops bay, which is what allowed the micro-meteorite to get through, punch the hole in Keelie’s tank, and damn near killed Kara.
“With all due respect, sir, I request that Don Englers be taken into custody and put on trial. I will be happy to provide the data I found - data that he tried to erase, but wasn’t quite smart enough.”
Jacob looked over Lambert's shoulder. “Story of your life, isn’t it, Don?”
This time, the other avian scientists had to hold Don back from Jacob’s throat. Dr. Lambert considered the two of them.
“I will look at the information you say you have Jacob, but it would take a lot to remove a valued member and pair-bonded scientist from the team. You’ll have to prove...”
“Attempted murder’s not enough? I think I can prove that beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Lambert’s silence from the shock of being interrupted lasted long enough for Jacob to turn on his heel and head out of the avian bay.
“But I would put him in the brig if I were you, because if he comes anywhere near me, the tursiops bay, or especially anywhere near Kara - I just might space the bastard myself.”
Where does the “gun” come in? Chekhov was right -you can’t just leave the gun on the wall - or so Kara tells me.