Author's note: This is a standalone fic about an alternative story about Hitchcock and Krieg. It's going to get a little graphic but I'll try to rein it in. Placed in the first season.
I don't own any of these characters or creatures from SeaQuest, if I did, I would have had it on air much longer!
Captain Nathan Bridger was reclining on his bunk reading when his vid-link chirped at him. He tossed the book on the bed, and crossed to his desk. Clicking a button, he glanced up. "Yes, this is Bridger."
"Nathan, good to see you." The smiling face of his old friend Admiral Noyce looked down from the screen.
"Then why you look so guilty Bill?" Nathan narrowed his grey eyes suspiciously.
Noyce grimaced, his old friend knew him too well to pull one over on him. "I need to speak to Lt. Krieg and Lt. Commander Hitchcock, Nathan. I want them to use your vid-link because I believe it's the most secure... Well, except for Lucas' probably. But this is totally classified. I'm afraid I can't even tell you about it."
"I'll get them for you Bill." Nathan said dryly, looking annoyed. The Admiral nodded expectantly and he grabbed his PAL on the way out of the room.
He decided to call someone else instead. "Are you there Lucas? I need something."
"Yeah Captain, what's up?" The PAL said.
"There is a secured call in my quarters, I need you to hack in and record it. Don't watch it, just record it. I'll be there after it's done. I just need to know what is going on." Nathan ran a hand through his greying hair and proceeded to call his officers.
Ben Krieg and Katherine Hitchcock met Nathan outside of his quarters. "Any idea what this is all about guys?" He asked. They shook their heads but Nathan noticed they didn't look him or each other in the eye. He opened his door for them and pulled out his PAL. After checking that they were inside and not listening, he called Lucas. "Ready Kiddo?"
"Yeah, all set Captain."
After a while, Ben and Kristen came out of the cabin. "He needs to speak to you Captain." The tall good looking supply officer explained as they walked out. Again, neither officer would look him in the eye.
"Katie..." Lt. Hitchcock raised her light grey eyes, and Nathan was shocked into silence when he saw the raw fear written there.
Nathan walked into his cabin and glared at Bill Noyce on the vid-screen. "What to tell me what the hell is going on now?"
"No, I still can't. All I can tell you is that Krieg and Hitchcock will be leaving on the soonest mini-sub I can send, about three hours from now. I'm sorry if this is an inconvenience to you Nathan."
"Will I be getting them back?" The Captain asked in irritation, it was more than a simple inconvenience to him to lose any part of his crew for any reason.
"I just don't know, Nathan." Noyce clicked off abruptly and he quickly headed towards Lucas' room in extreme frustration.
"I don't understand Captain, what is happening?"
At a glance, Nathan could tell Lucas had already watched the footage. He ignored his annoyed feeling and sat at the desk. He knew what Ben and Katie meant to the boy and couldn't at all blame him for eavesdropping. He had been the one who told him to do practically that anyhow. "Play it."
Lucas hit a couple buttons and backed off to re-watch the feed. They could only see Admiral Noyce but could hear the responses from Ben and Katie.
"... Is this what we think it is sir?" Asked Ben's voice sounding unnaturally scared.
"Yes, I'm afraid it is Lieutenant. He's out. We figure he's been out for about a week. We don't know exactly how yet, but Dr. Lenox Watermann is free, and as of yet we don't know if he has someone working with him."
"Doctor!" Spat Hitchcock, "that man is no doctor. He's barely even human."
"I know how you feel, bu..." The Admiral began.
"NO! You don't know how we feel!" Ben raged brutally, "what, you saw some pictures? You didn't see everything that man did. You didn't hear the victims scream. You said he was going away, and we didn't ever have to think about him again. Now you have the balls to call us up and say..."
"Ben, please calm down." Katie's voice seemed a fraction less wild than Ben's, but it was shaking with the effort. "So what are we supposed to do? Do you want us undercover again? He knows us, it won't work."
Noyce shook his head. "No, this is completely about keeping you two safe. You were the principal witnesses at the trial. He'll come after you as soon as he can find you."
"Where will we go?" Ben's voice now came out dead and defeated, rasping slightly. "Where can we go that he won't find us?"
"We haven't figured that out yet. You'll be docking at Pearl Harbor and given orders. There is a safe house there, and after that I won't even be privy to that information. We are trying to have as few people as possible know." Noyce informed, them looking upset about their ordeal.
Even before the feed even ended, Nathan had his PAL out calling Ford. "Commander. I need extra security on every level right now. In about three hours a shuttle will be coming to pick up Hitchcock and Krieg. The shuttle needs to be met with an armed guard and I want everyone checking in at regular intervals."
"Aye, Captain. Can I ask why, sir?" Ford's voice came back.
"Something bad, I'll explain when I get there." He clicked back off and saw Lucas standing in front of the door, with his arms crossed looking apprehensive, but very stubborn. Nathan knew he would have to tell the boy more than he wanted to.
"Who is Lenox Watermann?" He demanded, leveling a gaze at his captain.
Nathan rubbed his weathered face, "how do I explain this? How much do you know about movies from about ten to fifteen years ago?" Lucas shrugged. "Well, there was a ... I guess fad for what people sometimes called 'torture porn'. There were several movies made that were essentially good looking men and women being tortured for some reason or another."
"Oh, yeah. I remember some of them. Saw and Hospital or something." Lucas said, stepping forward, and relaxing his arms now that he was getting information.
"Hostel," corrected Nathan. "Did you ever see any of them?"
"No, not really my thing. I always thought they were kind of gross."
"Well, Lenox Watermann saw them as a young teenager. He loved them and watched them many times over. It basically corrupted his mind. He became infatuated with the idea of how much pain people could survive." Lucas paled and looked sick.
"He was very bright, not as smart as you I'd bargain. But he was able to finish medical school at the age of twenty-one in 2010. He started some... experiments. His specialty was removing the skin from living subjects." Nathan shook his head trying to rid himself of the metal images.
"No one was able to find his backers, but most educated guesses centered on warlords who wanted to know how far they could push their soldiers."
"I knew he was finally taken down in 2015, when the UEO found a way to send in some young operatives, but I never... I never dreamed it was Katie and Ben. They were protected from the media at the trial. The horrible things they must have seen in there..." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm assuming, now, they were sent here afterwards as an added precaution."
Lucas was staring at him in horror, and didn't know if he could force himself to respond. "We can't let them leave. If he gets ahold of them up-world..." he couldn't finish the thought.
The Captain shook his head. "They will have the best protection the UEO can offer. I don't know if they'll be safer on or off the ship, but if they are off, we'll be safer at least."
"So you're letting them go to save your boat?" His face darkened and Nathan knew he was in for an argument.
"I'm trying to protect my people, Lucas. I think you know that." He tried not to rebuke the youth.
Lucas sat on the bed, and slumped. "I know, I'm sorry. Can I at least say goodbye to them?"
"Yes, I think that will be ok. But remember we can't know about this. Play dumb... if you're able." He tried to smile but seeing Lucas' face made the grin slide off. "There will be armed guards at the air lock. And I have them all over the ship already. After the shuttle docks, I want you in your room with the door locked."
Nathan pointed a finger at the young man, "don't think for a minute this is just about keeping you in one place. Everyone will be locked down, even Darwin. No matter what you hear, you are not allowed to open the door unless I, or Commander Ford comes to get you. Do you understand?"
Lucas nodded in easy agreement. This was one over protective order he could follow without a problem.
An hour later, Chief Shan knocked on Lucas' door. "Hey, I'm here to bring you to see Ben." He glanced at the teen. "Any ideas of what this is all about?"
Lucas shook his head, not trusting his voice. He tried not to feel bad about lying to the young security officer. Instead, he stared at Shan's sidearm with a growing feeling of dread in the stomach.
Shan dropped Lucas off outside of Ben's room and took a watchful position against the other wall. Lucas swallowed and knocked. Ben's face appeared in the window, and he opened the door quickly. "I thought I'd see you, come in." Ben knew leaving Lucas was going to be harder than leaving the rest of the crew. The kid was like a brother to him.
Walking into the room, Lucas saw Katie quietly sitting with a small bag, looking worried. He wasn't surprised and smiled at her. After Ben shut and locked the door he turned to the room. "So how much do you know, kid?"
The time seemed to fly by as the three crew members just talked about everything, but why they had to leave, and soon there a knock on the door. Nathan stood there surrounded by Chief Crocker and Commander Ford, with Shan still leaning on the wall. "It's time." The Captain said gravely.
Lucas helped Katie with her bag and with a look, challenged Nathan to say he couldn't come the air-lock. There was no argument and the group slowly walked down the hall.
Lucas looked at the three officers waiting around the dock. All this safety for the ship, what about Ben and Katie? He turned to Katie and started to shake her hand but the Lt. Commander grabbed him in a hug. "Be careful out there," he whispered.
Ben circled an arm around Lucas' shoulder. "You be careful too kid. Watch my stuff. I don't want to have to go chasing people around for my goods when we get back." Lucas nodded, suddenly unable to speak or respond to the quip.
The Captain approached the trio, "Call us when you can. We want to know that you are ok."
"Yes sir." Ben's voice was choked. He turned to Katie. "Ready?"
They heard the sound of a shuttle docking and stepped back to let the doors open. Just as the seal was released, a small disk flew through the opening. Nathan had a chance to yell and shove Lucas backwards as the room dissolved into a flash of white light.
Lucas landed on his back and slid a few feet. His eyes were blinded by the flash and there were spots dancing in his vision, but he wasn't hurt. He could see the blurry shapes of bodies strewn in front of him as he tried to get up. A hand appeared and he took it. "You must be Mr. Wolenczak, I've read up on you young man."
Lucas attempted to step back when he heard the unfamiliar voice but the hand tightened, and he had to stop. "Who are you?" He squinted to try to get his eyes working properly, and was only able to make out a handgun pointed at his face.
"Oh, how sad, I thought I was more famous than that. But you are very young I suppose. I, my young genius, am Dr. Lenox Watermann. Perhaps you have heard of my work?"
Author's note: I know I'm pretty biased about the saw movies even though I never watched them. I just think they're nasty.