Author's Note: I don't own any of these characters or creatures. It's going to get a little meta. Takes place in season one.
Lieutenant JG Tim O'Neill came racing down the corridor of the SeaQuest toward the bridge. The thin man barely missed crashing into Commander Ford as he skidded to a stop. He fixed his glasses and gasped for breath. "Sir! I'm sorry, I need to see the Captain."
Ford looked shocked and stepped out of the way for the communications officer. "He's in his cabin Tim. What's wrong?" O'Neill was already gone shouting something about his mother. "This doesn't look good." He sighed and headed after him.
O'Neill ran all the way to Captain Bridger's quarters and pounded on the door. The Captain opened it and was as surprised as Ford. "Tim! What's going on?" The normally mild mannered officer seemed to be in state of panic.
"Sir, Captain. I need to request a leave of absence. Please." He huffed out. "I just go an email, it's my mother. She's very sick. Please!"
Nathan held out a calming palm. "Of course Tim, just take a breath please. You can take a mini-sub. We're close enough to the coast that you can be there in an hour. Go pack a bag; I'll get it set up for you."
"Thank you sir! I... don't know what to do... if my mom dies..." His head dropped and he stared at the floor. "Thank you."
"Of course Tim," He placed his hand on the man's shoulder.
"Sir, if you could, please don't let people know. I don't want people calling me if it... gets bad." Tim asked still staring at the floor.
"Whatever you need," Nathan assured him.
Ford finally got to the scene and was trying figure out what was happening when Tim took off running again. "Sir?"
"Jonathan, O'Neill needs to take some personal time. His mother is ill. Please have a mini-sub ready to go for him."
"Yes sir. Does he know how bad it is?"
The captain shook his head. "He didn't say anything put if he's in this big of a panic it can't be good."
Lucas Wolenczak laid on his bunk tossing a ball in the air. He was bored, very bored. There had been nothing happening on the SeaQuest for a few weeks. All systems were operational, no crazy evil hijackers, no viruses threatening the world, and there weren't even any death threats against any of the crew members. The only excitement was Tim O'Neill suddenly running off the ship like the devil was after him. That was three days ago. Lucas groaned as the ball missed his hand and rolled across the floor. He thought about what to do next but was even bored with his video games and playing with Darwin.
The blonde teen happily jumped up when there was a knock at the door. "Finally! Something!" He opened it to find Ben Krieg grinning wickedly at him. "Hey Ben, what's up?"
"Hey Lucas, you'll never guess what I just got permission to do!" The tall dark haired supply officer said with a mischievous glint in his eye.
A million scenarios ran through the young genius' mind but none made sense. He narrowed his blue eyes in suspicion. "What?"
"Captain Bridger wants me to learn how to pilot the Stinger, and he wants you to teach me." Ben couldn't disguise his glee.
"No way, that's crazy, Ben. Is he that bored?"
Krieg considered being offended but it passed quickly. "Well, kid, I guess he didn't want to stick me with Katie in her Gazelle. I may not come back in one piece." He glared at Lucas but it soon turned back into his normal grin. "So, what do you say?"
"Of course, that'll be awesome!" He paused and rubbed his chin for a moment. "Ben, would you be offended if I double checked this with Captain Bridger?"
"If it was anyone but you, I would be." Ben said, snorting.
Hours later, after Captain Bridger confirmed that he did indeed want Ben to learn to drive the Stinger, Lucas was still showing him the schematics. "This is so boring, why do I need to know about the oxygen tanks?" He grumbled as Lucas pointed out the safety checks with a pen.
"Because," Lucas explained, "if something happens to the electrical you need to know how to survive." He popped his pen back between his teeth. "And I outrank you right now, I want to make this last!" He laughed loudly and Ben gave him a shove. The teen wobbled on his chair and bit down hard on the pen. The end snapped off and he felt ink flood his mouth. "Blech!" He started spitting blue all over the floor.
Ben couldn't stop laughing at he stared at Lucas' blue mouth, the ink was spreading over his lips and covered his chin. "Oh man, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to push you so hard... but damn that's funny looking!"
Lucas swiped uselessly at the ink on his face. "Ug, this is one of the new pens. It's supposed to be better for damp environments. It's never going to wash off! I'll have to let it wear off and that'll take days, thanks a lot Ben." He scowled at his friend.
"I really am sorry, but since the paper work is a watercolor painting now, maybe we could try some hands on training." Ben glanced down at the ink splattered paper.
"Alright." Lucas agreed still scrubbing at his lips. "I'll let the Captain know." He stopped as they were walking out to look in a dark window. "Geez, the inside of my whole mouth is dyed. You are so going to pay for this!" Ben kept laughing as he scurried away from the annoyed teenager.
"Don't worry, it won't ruin your good looks kid! And for all we know, it'll be a new fad soon. You'll be the hottest thing around up-world, maybe you'll be on the cover of a bunch of teen magazines!" He shouted over his shoulder.
"Ok Ben, I'm giving the controls to you now. Just take it nice and easy over this cliff." Lucas ordered.
"Gotcha kid"
"You really need to stop calling me that Ben." Lucas scowled, "I'm nearly an adult you know."
"Well, I am an adult and people call me worse. Don't take it personally." There was a tone of hurt in Ben's voice that Lucas tried to ignore.
With a few jerks and sudden stops Ben got the Stinger flying effortlessly. "Hm, not too bad. A little touchier than a mini-sub but smooth after you get used to it." He grinned over his shoulder. "When are we going to open it all the way?"
"We aren't. I had to promise Bridger and Katie I wouldn't let you for a while. I don't think you realize just how fast this thing can go." Lucas said to the back of Ben's head.
Ben sighed, "crash a few subs and everyone thinks you can't drive..."
Lucas smiled, "I tell ya what. Head back over that cliff and you can start a sprint. Not too fast, but let's have some fun."
"Aye aye Captain Wolenczak!" Ben answered. He carefully came over the edge of the underwater cliff and pointed the Stinger parallel with its face. With a whoop of excitement he increased the speed.
The radio crackled and Ortiz's voice sounded through the small sub. "Hey guys, I just wanted to you know, you are showing up on sensors and Captain Bridger wanted to take a look at them after you're done."
"Ug, thanks Miguel. Hint taken." Ben said sighing, he decreased the speed by half. "Well, it was fun when it lasted."
Lucas was craning his neck trying to look behind them. "Did you see something? I thought I saw a flash of something, and it didn't look like a WSKR. Do you think Darwin followed us?"
"I don't see anything. Should I call the ship? They might make us come back."
"Why don't we wait on it? There shouldn't be anything too dangerous down here." Lucas decided.
Ben snorted, "famous last words, kid."
Lucas flicked a strand of blonde hair out his eyes. "Yeah, but nothing too bad could ever happen to us, we're the best looking people on the ship."
Ben and Lucas were still laughing when a mini-sub rose behind them and shot out a small device. It attached to the Stinger with a thump. "What was that?" Lucas asked, looking around wildly.
There was a fizzing sound followed by a pop and everything in the Stinger went dark. The two people inside felt the small sub start to sink quickly. "Uh, Lucas, remember what you said about the O2 tanks still working if we lose everything? Wanna do that now?" Ben whispered in the darkness.
"On it." Ben could hear the thin youth twisting around the confined space and heard the quiet hiss of oxygen enter the sub.
"Did you happen to notice how deep this trench was when we entered?" Ben asked, swallowing.
"You don't want to know."
"Ok..."
The Stinger softly settled on a rocky outcropping two minutes later. Lucas and Ben listened to any creaking to signal structural failure. Thankfully, they heard nothing. "I guess we'll just have to wait. Ortiz was watching us, they should be able find us pretty easily. What do you think that was?" Asked Ben, as he tried to settle into the seat.
"I'm guessing an EMP since it killed everything electrical in less than a second." Lucas answered.
Within minutes there was another, louder thump and the two in the sub sighed with relief. "Thank you Miguel! I think I owe you so... Ow!" The grappling claw that was hooked around the Stinger jerked severely, and Ben slammed his head against the window.
"Ben? Ben are you ok?" Lucas lifted himself in his seat to see his friend. Ben's head was slumped to the side and the only movement was the result of the sub moving. Still leaning over the pilot seat, Lucas was able to look straight up through the canopy. He saw the mini-sub that was attached to them. It didn't take all his brain power to note it was not a SeaQuest style mini-sub. "Oh shit," he mumbled
There was another soft thump this time followed by a bright electric flash. Lucas watched the lightning-like strands work its way up from the nose of the Stinger to him. There was nowhere for him to go and he slammed back in the seat before it reached him and he blacked out.
When Lucas opened his eyes it was pitch black. He could hear dripping water around him and one side of his body was pressing against cold metal bars. He was on something soft and felt blankets covering him. He looked all around him but couldn't see a thing. "Ben?" He whispered.
"He's here, he has a bump on his head but I think he'll be ok." Came a familiar voice, very close to Lucas.
"Tim? Is that you?"
"Yup."
"You ok?"
"Yup."
"I'm really getting sick of getting kidnapped."
"Yup."