Seymour - "Flashback pt2"

Who: Seymour, Wolfgang, Alota
When: Just after getting back to the Blue Dwarf
Where: Blue Dwarf
Minutes after getting back to the Blue Dwarf, Seymour thrust his daughter into
the hands of the first crewman he found. This happened to be Wolfgang, who was
walking down the corridor past him.
"Zis is not unt fair!" Wolfgang protested, but Seymour walked away shouting.
"You're a Health and Safety office,r she's safer with you than with anyone else
on the ship. Just before Seymour disappeared from sight he shouted "Don't let
her do any burrowing, she's getting quite good at that now!"
"Burrowing? Vot is dat?" Said Wolfgang, but Alota was already clapping her tiny
hands together and creating a mini wormhole.
<Tag Wolfgang, can you stop Alota from disappearing? Does she take you somewhere
else? Maybe to the spacestation?>
As Seymour got to his Quarters he immediately headed for the shower. As he'd
downsized into Jay's quarters, Seymour was annoyed that his shower was now only
2 metres wide, and not his massive 3 metres wide. Although this was the second
most luxurious shower on the ship, it wasn't good enough.
Seymour grumbled, and it made things worse when he realised he was out of his
extremely expensive bottle of Hand-made Free-range Aeron honeybee shampoo.
"I can't even have a decent wash!" He grumbled to himself as he massaged the
dregs of his shampoo into his hair. "I must remember to ask the Aeron Ambassador
for more Hand-made Free-range Aeron honeybee shampoo."
Then he stopped as he realised he probably would never see the Aeron Ambassador
again.
"For the love of Jesus and the orphans!" He wailed to himself. "I'm not a Royal
Ambassador anymore. What about my perks?"
He started to list them off on his fingers as the warm water cascaded over his
body. "No free wine... no free accommodation... no presents from third world
planets who want to impress me, no fame, no posh Ambassadorial banquets... no
meeting delegates... no gazpacho soup with officers..."
He sighed deeply. "My dream world has ended!" He started to cry, but you
couldn't tell as the tears mixed with the water from the shower.
Until the water stopped and the lights flickered, then dimmed.
"Oh god, what now?!" Seymour shouted.
Holly appeared on his bathroom mirror. "Sorry Captain, the power's down." Said
Holly.
"You digital imbecile! You've got the wrong person." Said Seymour, grabbing a
towel. "You need to tell Amber."
"Sorry dude." Said Holly. "But this is the Captain's Quarters."
"I know. I live here now."
Holly nodded, and his eyes looked up as if he was making a mental note. Then he
looked back at Seymour. "Oh by the way, what's you're job title now that you're
not Royal Ambassador?"
Seymour was stunned to silence. He was about to shout at the idiotic computer
for asking such a basic question.
"I'm....I....I don't know." Seymour said.
"Wot?" Said Holly. "Everyone needs a job title."
"Well I'm... I guess I'm...."
"You're a wot?"
"I guess I'm ...between jobs." Seymour said as proudly as he could muster.
"Unemployed, right." Said Holly and started to fade away.
"No of course I'm not!" Seymour shouted, making Holly come back. "How dare you
compare me to a common chav with no prospects, no money and no future!"
"Sorry to break this to you dude." Said Holly. "But you don't have a job, money
or much of a future right now."
"Preposterous!" Said Seymour. "I can get a job. I can get any job in the
universe!"
"Well what job would you most want?" Holly asked.
Seymour thought back to his childhood.
-----------------------------------------
Who: Young Seymour, 17 years old, and his family
Where: The Niples household, England, West Yorkshire
When: 24 years ago
<snip>
"But I don't want to join the Space Corps!" Seymour said. "I want to be an
Antique Dealer, or... or... a wine taster!" He said, and reached for the bottle
of wine but his mum slapped his hand away.
<end snip>
There was a knock at the door, and Seymour's mum opened it.
"It's your Uncle Pete." She said, and greeted him. He was a tall man with bushy
eyebrows.
"He's not my uncle!" Said Seymour rudely. "He's just some guy that Dad met in
the pub."
It was true, Pete Tenshal wasn't an uncle by blood. But he'd been around the
family enough to earn the name, although he did occasionally disappear for long
periods of time, and nobody really knew where he lived.
"Fancy coming with me to London?" Uncle Pete asked Seymour.
Young Seymour crossed his arms. "Absolutely not." He argued. "Not with him. He
might be a peodophile."
"Seymour!" Snapped the child's father. "That is not a polite thing to say!
Apologise at once to Uncle Pete!"
"No. Look at him, look how bushy those eyebrows are. They're definite paedophile
eyebrows!"
Seymour's dad whacked him with a the latest newspaper, which really hurt as it
was was on an iPad. "Sorry Pete, I'm not sure what's got into the lad. He's just
angry because we want him to get a job in the SpaceCorps."
Seymour stomped his foot. "I want to be an antique dealer!" he shouted.
His Dad forced him to put on his coat, and practically pushed him out of the
door.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of him. He'll enjoy a day out in London." Said Pete
Tenshal.
They flew to London in Pete's ship. It was an old Blue Midget, one with the
tracks and no legs. It was completely battered and looked like it could barely
fly, but managed to get them to the capital city in one piece. They flew past
Big Ben, which had recently been converted to digital.
"This doesn't make sense." Said young Seymour as they parked up and got out.
"This is a Blue Midget type 388. It's a brand new model that came out less than
6 months ago. But for some reason this one looks like it's a hundred years old.
Pete started to look uncomfortable. "You must be mistaken." He said. "It's
just... had some wear."
"No ship that's only 6 months old can look that battered!" Said Seymour. And
what's this written on it?"
"Please, come this way." Pete said to try and distract him.
"It's got some words written on it, but you've painted over them." Said Seymour.
"It said Dwarf... something Dwarf."
"It's not important." Said Pete.
"Bl... bl... Dwarf." Said Seymour. "Was that the name of the ship you stole it
from?"
"I didn't steal it!" Said Pete.
"Yes you did." Said Seymour. "Space Corps regulation states that if a Jupiter
Mining Corps vessel is to be sold as a civillian vessel it needs to have a valid
tax disc, and I didn't see one on your windscreen.
"Bollocks." Said Pete. "Okay, I stole it." He admitted. "Can you come with me
now. I want to show you something."
Pete started pulling him towards a big crowd.
"Also there's something else peculiar about you." Seymour pointed out.
Pete sighed. "What?"
"That coat you're wearing, It only came on sale six months ago."
"So?"
"So I've seen you with my dad for years, but you've always been wearing that
same coat."
"What can I say? I'm a trend setter!"
"No." Seymour shook his head. "You're a time traveller."
"What?!" Said Pete, and pulled Seymour away from the crowd that he'd been
leading him towards. "Is it that obvious?"
Seymour tapped his foot. "To a 17 year old with a good imagination, yes!"
Pete breathed heavily through clenched teeth. "This would have been easier if
you would just come with me and didn't ask any questions. I've got something to
show you."
"What is so important that you have to travel back in time to show me?"
"The thing I want to show you is something which will allow you to release your
true... potential."
"Potential?"
"Yes. You have this stupid idea that you want to be a wine taster..." Said
Potential.
Seymour looked up at him. "Or an antique dealer!"
Potential rolled his eyes. "Yes but do you know how much impact on the universe
you will make if you become either of those?"
Seymour shrugged his shoulders.
"None." Said Potential. "Absolutely none. You'll live and die, and nobody will
care. But, if you become an officer in the Space Corps... you'll do much much
more."
Seymour tilted his head in interest. "How much more?"
Potential encouraged Seymour to stand up onto a parked car so he could see over
the crowd. They were all waving flags and throwing streamers to celebrate the
launch of the brand new SpaceCorps flagship, the SCS Ark Royal. The Captain of
the ship was dressed in a brilliant white uniform, and saluted the crowd to a
lot of cheering. The stood in front of the Ark Royal, a sleek spacecraft the
size of an aircraft carrier, which was parked on the Mall near Buckingham
palace.
Next to the Captain stood the King of England, and his pregnant wife. The Kind
threw a bottle of champagne on the Ark Royal to christen it, and the ship
rumbled and took off into the sky.
"Amazing!" Said Seymour, as he watched the ship fly up into the sky. "Good old
British engineering at it's best!" He put his hand on his heart and started
singing 'God save the King'. Others in the crowd joined in and soon there were
thousands of people singing to the King and his pregnant Queen.
When it was finished, Seymour turned to Potential, whom he knew as Pete Tenshal.
"So Uncle Pete, if you've seen the future, what happens to me? Do I become
Captain?"
Pete grinned. "I don't want to give too much away..."
"Pleeeeeease!" Said Young Seymour.
Potential nodded. If you try hard enough you'll become Captain, and more. He
stared at the Kind and Queen. Seymour followed the stare, and turned quickly
back to Potential. "What? Really? I'll be King of England?"
Potential simply grinned, then looked at his watch. "We should be heading back."
He said, and they flew back in the old Blue Midget.
When back at Seymour's house, Seymour bounced in the door shouting to his
parents. "I know what I'm going to do with my life! I'm going to join the Space
Corps! I'm going into outer space!"
His parents looked at each other and grinned. Then they looked at Potential, who
simply smiled and walked away. Then disappeared. The Niples family never saw
Pete Tenshal ever again.
------------------------------------
Who: Seymour and Holly
Where: His Quarters
When: After the power went out
"Well what job would you most want?" Holly asked again.
Seymour snapped out of his daydream. "I... I just realised what I want to do
with the rest of my life." He said. "It's something I've done before... I want
to be Captain again."
"Of this ship?" Asked Holly.
Seymour shook his head. "No, this ship has a fine Captain already. I'm going to
apologise for getting Jay fired, Then I'm going to become Captain of a new
ship." He took a deep breath as he prepared himself for the gravity of his next
sentence.
"I'm going to have to leave the Blue Dwarf."
<OOC – I have a plan. Email me personally if you want to know what it is and how
you can help!>