Part of Dee and Kat's Pixie series, written by Dee's young son.

A Game of Tag

By C.Garcia

G

In the docking bay Zack watched the bay lights turn the run-about into shimmers of beautiful rainbows lighting effects. Six year old Zack sat on one of the steps and tossed small plastic soldiers against the wall barely hearing the sound of clicking every time they hit. He was totally bored out of his mind. His Vulcan features where hidden by his long brown hair but his face reflected his boredom. He was just about to go back to his quarters when he felt a light tap on his back.  Swinging around fast he caught the sight of an arm retreating to the other side of him. Zack smiled.  His green eyes lit up as he turned real fast the other way, only to catch T'Lin staring at him and then breaking out into small giggles. T'Lin was only eleven.  She had big soft hazel eyes and long sandy brown hair that was usually pulled back and braided but today it was in a large ponytail, which seem to swing every time she moved her head. Zack jumped up.  He couldn’t hide his joy as he faced his sister.  His cheeks started to turn red as she noticed his soldiers scattered all over the dec.  “Hi Pix!  I’m glad you’re here.  There’s nothing to do.”  He said with a self-concious shrug.

He watched as her face dropped and she looked at him with defiant hazel eyes, then her hand went to her hip. ”Zack babies are called Pixie, I’m a big girl now my name is T'Lin.” She stated

He could only look shyly back at her. “Okeee, T'Lin.  Do you want to play maybe tag or hide and go seek?”

Zack watched as her eyes showed a sparkle at the mention of hide and go seek, but he could have kicked himself. Hide and go seek was not too fun when he played with T'Lin.  No matter how good his hiding place was she seemed to always find him, but it seemed like he could never find her. Playing hide and go seek with her was very frustrating.

T'Lin eyed him then smiled as if she read his mind.  “Zack why don’t we play secruity and bad alein? I’ll be the security.  I’ll chase you and when I catch you, then you’re the sercurity and I’m the bad alien.”

Zack’s mind whirled not a bad idea but one thing bothered him.”Pi... T'Lin .Can we hide?”

He could see her thinking.  ”I don’t think so,.  Plus I get bored waiting for you to find me. It’s more like tag.”

Zack couldn’t help but feel relieved.  ’Then I'm it?” He asked.

T'Lin only shook her head “Boys.  I’m security which means I'm it. I’ll count to three so you better run fast.”

Zack had hardly turned around as T'Lin started to count.  He was only a few steps in front of her as he heard her count of three.  ”Three!” she yelled out. She was off like a shot.   Zack was amazed at times that for a sister she could run pretty fast.  In fact she almost already had him tagged. Zack had pulled a little bit a head of her only to pause for a minute and look back. That gave T'Lin the little extra time that she needed to tag him. He had just turned to start running again when he felt her hand touch his back and her voice yelling out in excitement “Got you!”

Zack laughed, tossed up his hands and turned to face T'Lin who started to giggle at him.

“I’m the security guard now at the count of three.”

T'Lin stopped laughing her eyes widened as she turned and started to run from Zack at the count of two.

At the count of three Zack started to chase after her but she was now only a step or two from him.  There was no way he was going to let her get away.  If only he had a little more.  She was only a hairs breath away from him. Then he pounced knocking then both over onto the ground.

Sprawled out on top of T'Lin,  Zack jumped up to help T'Lin to her feet, but she scrambled up on her own ignoring him.

“I got you”  Zack smiled he was starting to enjoy this game

“You pounced me.  You didn’t even warn me.” She scowled at Zack.

“So, I still got ya.”  He said

“You could have at least growled so I’d know.” She answered back.  ”You cheated.”

“I did not.  Pouncing wasn’t in the rules or growling warnings.” He answered her back.

T'Lin hugged herself after brushing off her pants.  “I don’t want to play with you anymore. You didn’t even warn me, and you pounced me!”

“Well it wasn’t in the rules!  You're just mad cause I got you. Well PixiePixie I don’t want to play with you either. So there.” He said gruffly.

T'Lin stuck out her tongue only to have Zack growl back at her. Each turned and walked in opposite directions from each other, determined to find someone else to play with.

The first person that Zack ran into was Tri, who was standing in front of a panel in the main corridor, but he seemed busy. Sitting in front of Uncle Trip where junk parts from this and that machine.  With a screwdriver in hand he was unscrewing a screw from an odd triangle part. Zack coughed twice. Trip never even looked up but he did become aware of Zack.

What do you need Zack?” Trip asked as he was still tinkering.

Zack stood tapping his foot nervously and looking down at his feet. ”Do you want to play?”

Trip was still tinkering “Sure.”

Zack perked up and smiled but Trip didn’t move. ”Unc do you want to play?”

Trip still didn’t move or look up as he said, “Sure, we'll play a little bit later. I have to do this.  You want to help me?"”

Zack just shook his head and mumbled"boring."  Grumblingd under his breath, he left.

T'Lin was still looking for someone to play with when she ran into Hoshe's and Trip's daughter, Charlie.  Her dark hair was covering her face as she leaned over to read a big book. T'Lin smile and tapped her on her shoulder.  "Do you want to play?”

Charlie shook her head.  "Sorry Pixie.  Mommy gave me this book on old earth languages.  I'm trying to read it."  As she went back to her reading, T'Lin shrugged her shoulders then walked out leaving her to her book.

Zack was bored again.  Everyone he had asked didn’t have time to play with him. Maybe Father would play a game with him; heck he'd even watch waterpolo it was better then not doing anything. Walked into his parent's quarters, he found Jonathan standing with his hands behind his back pacing.  He kept glancing at his communicator every few minutes.  ”Dad?” Zack said softly.  When Jonathan looked at him he continued.  “Can we play a game or watch water polo.”

His father stopped pacing and picked up Zack in his strong arms.  Giving Zack a quick hug he sat him down .”Sprite, I’m really busy today. I 'm waiting for an important call from the planet below us but we can watch water polo a little later and toss the ball."  Zack gave his father a big hug around his knees.causing his father to bend down and kiss Zack on  his forehead. "Zack?  Why don’t you find your sister? .Didn’t I see Pixie running around here earlier?”

Zack shrugged “Yea.”  Zack looked down and kicked out his foot. Archer smiled and patted Zack on the back. Zack slowly turned and walked away. He found himself sitting back on the steps in the cargo bay tossing plastic soldiers at the wall.

T'Lin was still looking around.  She could think of only one other person who might want to play with her,  Hoshi.  Grabbing Hoshi’s arm, she yanked it. Hoshi looked down and smiled.  “Hi Pixie aren’t you pretty today.” Hoshi said in a sweet voice as she glanced at the pad in her hand. T'Lin frowned.  She had finally given up telling everyone that she was now T'Lin instead of Pixie.  It was a hopeless cause.  ”Hoshi, can you play with me?”

“I’m sorry Pixie honey but I’m going to translate this for your daddy.  You want to come with me?”  Hoshi said sweetly as she held out a data pad. T'Lin didn’t reach for the pad. Little Pixie she thought to herself, yek.

“Thanks Auntie, but I think I’ll skip on that.”  With a frown she wondered what Zack was up to.

Zack missed playing tag with Pixie. He thought about what happened earlier.  Maybe she was right, he thought to himself as he tossed another soldier, hitting the wall.  All of a sudden he felt a tap on his back and a big smile crossed his face.  Pix.   Zack turned quickly towards the other shoulder that wasn’t tapped and there stood Pixie with a big smile.

“Do you want to play tag ?” she asked him as she tossed him another bright smile.

Zack jumped up.  ”Sure! And I promise to follow the rules.” He said as he crossed his heart . As Zack turned away to go into the area cave where they played, T'Lin was a step behind him.  All of a sudden he heard her growl and then she pounced almost knocking him down. T'Lin scrambled off of Zack  “I got you!” she yelled at him

“You pounced.” Zack said with a shock.

“But I growled first, and you're it.  .Plus it was kinda fun.”  T'Lin said as she turned and starting running down the hallway.

 Zack chased behind her yelling "I’m going to get you for that.”

Laughter followed them as their voices echoed down the cooridor.

THE END