The Octonauts and the Random Role Reversal

Chapter Two

When the OctoAlert sound died down around them, the rest of the Octonauts had assembled up in the HQ, looking curious as to what their next mission would be. Tweak was standing next to Kwazii, hostility evident between them as they threw each other poisonous looks. "Hello, Octonauts," the Captain greeted. "There's no emergency, don't worry. I just had an idea."

"Let's hear it," commented Dashi amiably. "Ideas are good."

"Well, since we seem to have a little bit of a dispute on our hands at the moment -" Barnacles looked pointedly at the two Octonauts in question, who looked slightly abashed. "I thought a little experiment might be the way to hopefully settle it for good."

Shellington perked up at the mention of his area of expertise. "I like experiments," he remarked.

"We know," replied Kwazii, still somewhat sullenly. "You're the scientist, matey, it kind of comes with the job description."

"Well, actually, that's sort of what I wanted to talk about," Barnacles jumped in. "I feel that we all get rather used to our separate job descriptions as part of the crew, and recent minor arguments have informed me that sometimes we don't quite see other people's points of view doing their jobs."

"Well that's why we were chosen as the Octonauts," Dashi reminded the captain. "For our individual skills that we can bring to the team. All our roles working together makes a good crew."

"True," he agreed, as usual trying to agree with everyone at once. "But it's been fairly quiet for the last week or so, not many missions, and not that many ways to exercise those skills. Plus, I understand that some of you might not get the chance to leave the Octopod as often as you might like. Dashi, for example, you've voiced that before."

The dachshund shrugged lightly. "Normally I can go out to nearby reefs to photograph them in my spare time, but here there's nothing but ocean so I haven't gone out in a while," she verified.

"That's true," said Inkling. "If there is any time to experiment, as you say, it would be when certain members don't have too much to do. I think I might know what you're about to suggest, Captain."

"Now, I know this doesn't apply to all of you, but I think we'd really benefit from a bit of a change," the polar bear started.

Now his crew was intrigued. "What like?" Tweak was the one to voice.

The Captain took a breath, wondering how his crew would take his somewhat impromptu suggestion. "Yes. Well, my idea is that we - swap jobs for a couple of days. You know, see things from each other's perspective. Learn to appreciate other team member's roles a bit more."

To his relief, no-one looked overly distraught at this proclamation. Most people looked pretty excited, for that matter, and even Tweak and Kwazii had brightened up as they considered the idea. "That could be so fun!" realised Dashi with a wondering smile.

"But what if we have to go on a mission?" Peso asked sensibly. "If someone tries being me for the day, for example, and there's creatures who are hurt or sick, can we swap back?"

"Of course," Inkling responded promptly. "We would act accordingly depending on the situation, as the Octonauts usually do."

"We'll try this within reason," Barnacles said. "Does anyone have any major objections to it? Would everyone like to give it a go?"

No-one seemed to disagree. "That's a great idea," agreed Inkling. "It will mean people can see what others do in the crew and develop all of your skills in a new interesting way. Why not?"

"Great!" Barnacles considered it for a moment, taking off his large Captain's hat and spinning it thoughtfully around his finger. "Shall we pick names out of a hat, then, write a list up?"

"There's no need," Dashi said efficiently. "I can get the Octopod computer to scramble us up with our roles automatically."

"Oh, okay. Good thinking, Dashi." Barnacles put the hat back on his head somewhat sheepishly, though he reminded himself he might not continue to be Captain for the next few days. It would be interesting to see how someone else adapted to his role as leader of the crew - and what role he was about to try instead!

"Okay," continued Dashi after a moment, having typed in some commands to the ship system and brought up a list of their Octonaut pictures with their jobs beside each image. "Ready to switch up our jobs?"

Barnacles looked around the faces of his crew one last time, looking for any signs of worry or disapproval and finding none. "Yes," he replied with a note of decision in his tone. "Switch us around, Dashi."

The computer systems expert pressed the button and the screen blurred for a minute as the computer considered the command, before the same list of Octonaut members returned to the screen, the text beside each one very much changed.