Hiya peoples! Kipin has some more Savvy for you! This fragment is from Jakky's POV. He has a surprise phone call from Timo in the middle of a dangerous chemical experiment. Wish him luck!
Savvy, part three: JakkyDisclaimer: Jakky, Timo, Baeli and Derec are mine, but Proffesseur Fluide Le-Boum-Boum is not. I don't own QUIET either. Just for the record. I was nervous about this new chemical. I had already seen what it could do to a tile floor. Proffesseur Fluide didn’t seem too worried, though. That woman has no fear.
Unlike me.
“All right, Jakkee,” she instructed, “I seenk we are very close to somesing. Grab me zat beaker zere, ze one with ze yellow stopper een eet.”
I obligingly handed her the beaker. She must have noticed my hand shaking, because she said lightly, “Come now, Jakkee, you must seenk like a chemist, no? Eef you are afraid off ze chemicals, how do you esspect to conduct ze essperiments?”
“Sorry, Proffeseur,” I mumbled. My hand still shook. I’m sure she noticed, but she was most likely concentrating on not blowing us up to say anything. At least, I hope that was the case.
Half of the pale powder in the yellow-stoppered beaker went into the vial she was holding before I registered the label on the side of the beaker. “Um, Proffesseur?” I asked tentitavely.
She kept her eyes on her pouring. The vial was beginning to fizz. “Yes, Jakkee?”
“Um… that’s baking soda.”
“Yes, eet ees. Adds a very nice… how you say… nice bubbles,” she replied happily. “Bubbles, zey are good.”
Huh. Nice bubbles, nothing. Those bubbles might be the death of us.
Sometimes I can almost swear that Fluide is a mind reader. “Do not worree, leettle Jakkee, I know what I am doing, yes?”
“Yes,” I said, not really convinced.
The cell phone in the pocket of my lab coat vibrated suddenly. I jumped about two feet in the air, startling Proffesseur Fluide and causing her to spill a few drops of the caustic stuff we had created.
“Sacre Bleu!” she shouted in excitement, bangles tinkling. The stainless steel countertop was dotted with sizzling burn marks.
I fumbled the cell phone out of my pocket with an apologetic grimace. She waved me off with one hand, carefully holding the vial upright with the other. Still grimacing, I retreated to the storage room and flipped open the tiny phone.
“H-hello?” I stuttered into the mouthpiece.
Timo’s voice answered, “Jakky? What happened? You sound freaked.”
Am I really that transparent? Or is Timo just uber-perceptive? “How d-did you know?”
“You only stutter when you’re really freaking out.” Oh. That’s why. “So what happened?”
I thought of the ruined countertop and grimaced yet again. “Chemical sp-spill. What’s up with you?”
“Weeeeeeell…” He drew out the word. I knew it was bad.
“Well, what?”
“Weeeeeeell… I kinda blew up my computer and now the entire data center is sorta full of smoke. I think Baeli’s a little bit mad at me.”
Well, no duh. “You th-think so?” I asked scathingly. I can be really sarcastic when I’m nervous. “Is if fixable?”
“Derec plugged it up with a fire extinguisher.”
He did what? “Timo,” I said slowly, “Just how b-big of a hole did you m-make?”
“No, he didn’t stick the actual fire extinguisher in it, he sprayed the foam all over my cubicle to seal up the breach. Buried my gadgets too. I am so gonna make him dig them out – “
“And how exactly d-did you make this breach?” I interrupted. This sounded like a full-blown fiasco.
He hesitated before answering. “Ummmm… I kicked out the cooling fan. At least, that’s what Baeli says. I didn’t know it was the cooling fan… if I had, I wouldn’t have kicked it.”
Proffesseur Fluide’s voice called from the lab. “Jaaaaaaakkeeeeeee…”
“Listen, Timo, I have to g-go,” I stuttered. “You can t-tell me all about it in R-rec this evening, okay?”
“Jaaaaaaaaakkeeeeeeee…” called the Proffesseur.
“Okay, bye – wait. Wait, what’s going on?” Timo sounded agitated. I heard alarms going off in the backround.
Confused, I asked, “What did you d-do, set the fire alarm off?”
Then the alarms started going off in the chem lab as well. The noise was deafening. I had to shout into the phone.
“Timo! Why are all the f-fire alarms going off?”
I detected a tremor of worry in his answer. “Those aren’t the fire alarms, Jak.”
Before he finished speaking, I knew which alarms they were.
“Security breach. (HONK.) Security breach. (HONK.) Please proceed to the Hub immediately. (HONK.) All personnel to the Hub immediately. (HONK.)Thank you. (HONK.) Have a nice day,” said a pleasant woman’s voice. She was punctuated by a HONK from the alarms every sentence or so.
Slamming the phone shut, I hurried out of the supply room and through the chem lab. Near the doorway, I almost ran into the Proffesseur, who was still clutching her lethal beaker. Her eyes were wide, and her short, curly blue-black hair was in disarray.
“Jakkee,” she shrilled, “Ze security alarms are goink off! Come, we must run to ze Hub, where we will be safe.”
“W-what?!” I near-shouted. “Safe from w-what? I’m not g-going anywhere until s-somebody explains -”
She seized my arm with her free hand and ran with me out of the lab, pausing for an instant to swipe her ID chip and seal the door shut.
“We need to get to ze Hub, Jakkee,” she repeated as we tore down the deserted hallway. “Ze Nastonians are attackink.”
Rawharharharr. *makes piratical face* What thinkest thou? Hit the pretty little comment button and tell me what you think. Jakky makes me laugh, by the way. He's a mess of nerves, he is.
Hee, bubbles.
Commander Kip the Happy
Normal is overrated!
