Taking advantage of a situation

"#$%#ing snow!" Dirk gasped as he finally got himself out from under
the pile of ice and snow the drunken captain had buried him under.
The scientist's face was red and numb. His teeth chattered slightly.
There's nothing better to sober a man up than a face full of snow.
"Where's Dren?" he was finally able to ask after dethawing.
"Said something about beach,......lagoon,.......observation deck. The
rest is fuzzy," Niples replied.
"Sounds like that's fuzzy." Dirk grabbed the staggering officer and
began to lead him to the observation deck. "We'd better see what he's
up to. Besides, this whole deck is going to turn to slush in another
hour. The temperature's rising already."
In the observation deck, Dren had already lined most of the floor with
sand. In the middle, he'd taken some large metal crates and lined
them up. The scutters were busy welding to make them one big pool.
"Whatcha up to, Little buddy?" Dirk called out as he entered.
"Just making my own tropical paradise. I found all this dirt and sand
in the mining department (it's not like we do any actual mining
anyway) and all these palm trees and plants in a big box
marked...um..terror froming?"
"Teraforming, huh? Sounds like a plan."
"Yeah, just wish Darla was here," Dren trailed off in thought. "You
think that we might be able to go get her since that Flingers guy got
loose?"
The three left for the stasis chamber, which is where Darla was last
seen. On the way, they heard something about the Promenade being
under two feet of water and crew members being carried off by
undercurrents to the other end of the ship. Once they reached the
stasis chamber, a heart wrenching scene occured.
Dren saw Darla lying face down on the floor.....TORN! "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!
GOD NOOO!!!!!" He ran to his faithful companion and picked her limp
body up in his arms. "WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE YOU?!!! IT SHOULD HAVE
BEEN ME!!! I SHOULD NEVER HAVE LET HIM NEAR YOU!!!" He cried into
the deflated doll.
"Is he alright? I mean, psychologically," Niples asked.
"If you ask me as his friend," Dirk answered, "I'd have to say that
he's okay, just a little on edge. If you ask me as some average Joe,
I'd have to say that he's #$%@ing nuts."
Hours later, the scutters had finished with the artifical beach and
filled the pool with water. Dirk layed back in his beach chair,
sipping on a margarita. Niples sat a little uncomfortably next to
Dren, who was still lamenting the loss of Darla.
"Maybe if we get a puncture repair kit...?" Dren began to say.
"No, Dren," Dirk said. "Face it, she's gone. She was here for a
while, and now she's not. It's all a part of the game. We've all got
to go sometime. It was her time. Don't make it any harder. Just let
go."
"Are you sure we should have done this?" Niples finally asked.
"Hey, you're the head honcho. What you say goes. You want a beach,
you got a beach."
"But, I didn't want a beach, did I?"
"Yeah, you did. It's one of the last things you said before you lost
your memory. I specifically remember it. You said, 'Hey! Wouldn't
it be nice to have our very own beach right here on the Blue Dwarf?'
Isn't that right Dren?"
Dren nodded. It seemed as though he was getting over the sudden lose
of Darla. "I think we should have a service. She'd of wanted that."