The Octonauts and the Random Role Reversal

Chapter Five

It was late the next morning - just as Peso had finished his morning stress-out session over whether the radar was about to show some huge storm, although the water was calm and perfectly blue outside the HQ windows - when the OctoAlert sounded out over the Octopod.

Dashi, who was chatting to Shellington, who didn't seem that sure what to do with himself when not breaking test tubes or absorbed in biology textbooks, jumped when she heard it. She had been wandering somewhat absently round the HQ, slightly envious of her usual spot at the desk where Peso now sat, his flippers a blur as he worried about storms and whales, and it took a moment to realise that it was Barnacles over the monitor, wearing his medic's hat and looking oddly worried, for him. She guessed he was pretty out of his comfort zone as well.

"Captain, there's an injured squid outside the Octopod," he reported.

Okay. Breathe, Dashi. Dashi breathed and tried to remember the content of her 'How To Talk Like A Captain' flashcards (pink, neatly printed in her handwriting, slightly rumpled from where she had slept on them overnight). "Right. Uh. Thank you. Octonauts, uh... to the Launch Bay!"

Barnacles just looked a little blank, and the Octo-Alert didn't cut to the camera footage of the rest of the crew hurrying to follow her instruction.

"I think you forgot to press the microphone button, Dashi," Shellington informed her quietly.

Ohhh. Dashi giggled sheepishly, gave a grateful thumbs-up to Shellington and repeated her instructions, this time broadcasting it over the entire Octopod, which would help.

"That was a good start," she commented as the sea otter hurried down the corridor next to her, the flippers of Peso rushing just behind them as the Octo-Alert finished its cry overhead.

Shellington chuckled ruefully. "We're all new to this, don't worry. First mission jitters."

Dashi tried to keep her knees from shaking underneath her skirt as the crew collected in the Launch Bay in front of the screen, her taking central position. Barnacles swam into sight, surfacing and removing his helmet as the squid in question followed him into the Launch Bay, wincing as she swam. Peso looked equally worried next to her, but managed to refrain from rushing to its aid, like he would be accustomed to doing.

"Octonauts, we need to help this squid," she announced as confidently as possible. "Capta ... I mean Barnacles, have you found out what's wrong?"

"My arm hurts!" the tiny squid answered for him, her voice surprisingly strong.

"Squids have arms?" Kwazii demanded in surprise, waving his own two melodramatically.

Shellington opened his mouth, ready to answer, but Dashi quickly nudged him in reminder, to which it was his turn to smile gratefully back. It might take slightly more getting used to effectively being someone else than they had thought.

Luckily, Tweak grinned at the now-lieutenant and looked quite pleased with herself as she provided the answer that typically the scientist would offer. "Most squids have 8 arms, and two longer tentacles," she explained.

"That's right!" the squid agreed.

"And it looks like one of yours is injured," Barnacles said kindly, still bobbing in the water. "What's your name, might I ask?"

"Susie." She tried to swim a little and looked pained. "Ow! My arm really hurts! A piece of coral hit me when I was swimming by the reef."

"Well, I can make that feel better, Susie," the polar bear offered, holding up the medical bag that you never normally saw a particular penguin without. He opened it and took out a bandage, looking uncertain, but Peso moved slightly so that he was right behind the former captain and murmured some instructions in his ear, which Barnacles followed methodically.