Just Breathe
by Jewelbox1322
This takes place within the First Season. My muse just kicked into high gear with this story. Please read and review when you get a chance. Feedback helps me improve and keeps me motivated to continue updating. Thanks and I hope you enjoy the story!
Disclaimer: I did not create the SeaQuest DSV series nor do I own its characters. They are the product of Rockne S. O'Bannon and Amblin Entertainment. I write fanfiction purely for fun and not for profit.
Chapter 1
At 08:30 in the morning, the activity on SeaDeck was not as busy as usual, with a few scientists looking at samples of algae and coral. Kristin Westphalen sat at her stool and carefully examined the cell sample in her microscope as she sipped some coffee. She had a rough night, but was hoping the jolt of caffeine would do wonders. Lucas appeared and started pacing nervously along SeaDeck, eyes never leaving the moon pool. Kristin noticed his worried face and put down her cup, standing up to join him as he started pressing on several keys on the Vocoder.
"Is everything alright, Lucas?"
"It's Darwin." He let out a sigh. "I let him out to feed last night and he hasn't come back. I haven't seen him at all."
Kristin mirrored his troubled expression. "Well, have you let Captain Bridger know about this?"
"Yeah. That's part of why we stopped our course."
"Well, maybe he got distracted by something...perhaps another pod? Or a female? It is mating season, you know." She smiled knowingly, trying to calm Lucas down.
"Yeah...maybe. But I still feel like something is wrong." He looked at her and noticed she looked tired.
"You okay?"
"Yes. I just didn't get much sleep last night. Nothing a good cup of coffee won't fix." She smiled.
His PAL went off and he quickly answered it while putting down the vocoder. "Yeah."
Nathan Bridger was on the other side. "Lucas, the WSKRs just spotted Darwin heading back in. I'll meet you in the Moon Pool. Looks like he's been tagged or something."
At that moment, Darwin popped his head out of the water.
"Captain, he's here!" Lucas smiled, relieved as Darwin swam up to the edge of the pool.
"Darwin, what happened? Where were you?" Lucas spoke frantically into the Vocoder.
"Darwin feeding. Man with tail swim with Darwin. Darwin trapped. Tail man put shiny on Darwin."
Lucas and Kristin looked confused. Kristin noticed that Darwin had something clamped to his fin. It looked like a camera and marker at the same time. She notices a name and number on the side of the camera. At that moment, Nathan walked towards them, patting Lucas on the back.
"How is he?"
Lucas responded to him. "He's fine but it looks like he's been tagged. Says it was some man with a tail."
Darwin spoke up. "Man with tail breathe water."
Nathan giggled. "You're telling me a merman hooked up a GoPro on our dolphin?" The other two chuckled lightly at the thought.
Lucas looked skeptical. "Maybe I need to update the software on the Vocoder or something."
Kristin spoke up. "Nathan, there's a number on the side of this camera." She wrote it down on a nearby notepad.
Nathan nodded and answered. "Then perhaps we should call them and let them know they tagged the wrong dolphin. They'll probably want their equipment back."
He looked over at Darwin. "You stay away from humans with tails."
He looked at Kristin. "Kristin, can I use your office to make the call?"
"Of course, Captain." Sh handed him the paper with the number she jotted down.
He walked into her office and dialed the number from the camera. After a few seconds, the link opened to reveal a handsome scientist in his early forties with steely blue eyes and dark black hair. He was on a boat.
"Hello, this is Elijah Woodward of the S.S. Delphine. May I help you?"
"Yes, I'm Captain Bridger of the SeaQuest. It seems someone in your group has tagged my dolphin and we were hoping to get it off and return it to you. We found this number on the camera."
Elijah cleared his throat and responded. "Oh...Captain, I'm so sorry we tagged your dolphin. I didn't realize SeaQuest even had one. You see, we've been studying their mating habits in the area and happened upon him. We thought he was going to return to his pod and maybe he would capture something interesting. The tag is harmless, I assure you. In fact, it should disengage in another 12 hours, but I'd be happy to take our launch to you and remove the tag if that's alright. Actually, I'd be honored to see your ship. You know, I believe one of my old friends from graduate school is on board. Kristin Westphalen?"
"You know Kristin?"
"Oh yes, we were in the same Oceanography and Marine Life classes."
"Great. Where are you located right now?"
"Well, I'm just to the south of Freeport. Are you far from here?"
Nathan hesitated having this guy aboard, but they did need to get going back on course soon and he'd rather not have to deal with waiting for the tag to fall off. "As a matter of fact, we are in the Bahamas as well and can meet you halfway. I'll have our communications officer send you our location. We can host you for a little while and perhaps Kristin can show you around since you two are friends, but please understand we must continue on our mission." He pressed a button on the ComLink. "O'Neill, please send Mr. Woodward our coordinates for docking."
"Yes, sir." O'Neill responded. Nathan turned back to Elijah, who responded. "Excellent. Thank you, Captain. I can be there in an hour. I'll be sure not to overstay my welcome, but I am excited for the opportunity."
"Not a problem. We'll see you soon."
He walked outside and found Lucas and Kristin tossing the ball with Darwin. Lucas saw Nathan walk out.
"So how'd it go, Captain? Are they going to come take the tag off?"
"Yes. Apparently his group is studying mating habits of dolphins and thought that Darwin would lead him to a pod. He'll be here in an hour to remove the tag. I figure it's easier than waiting another 12 hours for the tag to fall off."
"Good. As far as Darwin is concerned he doesn't even feel the tag on him. But he still says it was a man with a tail breathing water that did it."
"Well, I assure you, this guy looked fairly human to me. In fact, Kristin, he said he knew you from graduate school...an Elijah Woodward?"
Kristin tilted her head in surprise the moment he said the guy's name.
"Oh wow. Elijah? I haven't seen him in years. We were lab partners years ago in graduate school. It's funny, he sent me an e-mail out of the blue just about a month ago to try and get together but we couldn't make it work with our schedules. To be honest, I didn't really try hard to make it work. He always did seem to have a crush on me." She smiled.
"Huh. That's awfully coincidental. Maybe it's destiny." He sarcastically.
"Ha! Doubtful. The man dated my roommate and I know more about him than I care to experience for myself. But we were always friendly and were in lots of study groups together. He was a bit of a loner, though." She smirked.
"You wouldn't happen to know if he's also a merman, would you?"
"Oh Nathan, please." She smacked him on the shoulder. "He's harmless. Just you're stereotypical geeky scientist obsessed with marine life and Dungeons and Dragons or Halo or World of Warcraft or whatever it is they play these days."
Lucas overheard that comment and mocked insult. "Hey, Doc. Watch who you call a geek. I play all of those."
"Oh Lucas, you know I love you for it." She ruffled his hair for good measure.
"I'd be happy to show Elijah around real quick if you'd like. I guess I'll finally have that cup of coffee he's been insisting on and get him out my hair. He's harmless, but the man is a bit dull."
Nathan chuckled lightly on that, hoping that Kristin meant she wasn't attracted to him. "Ok but we better keep it short. Unfortunately, this little stop has put us a bit behind schedule and I don't want to delay getting to Newfoundland too much longer."
"Alright. Lucas and I will meet him at the launch when he gets here."
About an hour later at the launch bay...
Elijah Woodward stepped out of his launch holding on to a fairly large yellow rolling container.
"Hello Elijah!" Kristin walked up and greeted him with a smile. Elijah dropped the case gently and embraced her.
"Kristin! I was afraid you didn't recognize me. I just dyed my hair and finally shaved that pesky beard."
"I can see that. This is a good look for you. Come on, after you get your tag off, I'll take you on a tour of the boat and we can finally grab that cup of coffee we've been trying to plan."
"That sounds wonderful. Oh my goodness, it's good to see you, Kris. I see the years have been kind to you. Then again, you always were the whole package of brains and beauty."
Kristin blushed slightly as she smiled. While Nathan was amused that his man was an old friend of Kristin's, he was also worried at how close of a friend he wanted to be. And from what Kristin told him, she wasn't reciprocating. He brought Elijah's attention back to him.
"If you will, Mr. Woodward. I would appreciate it if we could go ahead and get Darwin's tag removed so that we can give you a quick tour and be on our way."
"Oh yes. Of course. Duty calls, Captain." He smiled and grabbed the case again, rolling it with them towards SeaDeck.
When they arrived, Lucas was there with Darwin. As soon as they walked up, Nathan introduced them.
"Lucas, meet Elijah Woodward. He's the scientist who tagged Darwin."
"Pleased to meet you." He reached out his hand in greeting.
Suddenly Darwin spoke.
"Man with tail come see Darwin."
Elijah looked spooked and confused at where the voice came from. Kristin and Nathan smiled, knowingly. Kristin gently laid a hand on his shoulder and motioned to Darwin with her other hand.
"Elijah, this is Darwin. Lucas designed a program to help translate his clicks into speech."
"Extraordinary." Elijah was stunned.
"He seems to think a man with a tail tagged him. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that?"
Elijah chuckled. "A merman? I assure you I am very much a human, dear Darwin." He reached out to pet him nervously.
"Yeah, that's what we figured. I'm working on fixing any bugs in our software." Lucas walked over to a separate computer in the labs.
"Okay, then Darwin. Let' get that tag off of you." Elijah seemed anxious to get going. He started unpacking his rolling container, reaching in for a large computer and hard drive, along with various pieces of electronic equipment protected in many layers of foam.
Kristin took the time to explain the situation. "Elijah, just so you are aware, this project is technically classified. I'm afraid we cannot allow you to speak of Darwin to anyone else."
"Of course, Kris. It's just a talking dolphin. No big deal, right?" He brushed it off sarcastically, leading Kristin to smile back and nod.
"Right."
After just a few minutes, Elijah connected a long wire from the tag to the computer.
"Okay, Kris. Go ahead and catch the tag when I say so." Kristin was ready next to Darwin.
He pressed a few buttons on the computer and the tag disengaged, falling off into Kristin's hands. Darwin swam off once the tag was gone.
"There we go. No harm done." He placed the tag back in the container and shut down the computer, packing all the cables and hard drives.
At that moment, Darwin spoke as he swam around the moon pool.
"Darwin free from man with tail."
"Captain, while it's amazing that you can translate dolphin speech, I'm afraid you might now have to focus on getting his eyes checked." He joked, causing the others to giggle.
Kristin took the opportunity to hook her arm around his and lead him out of the room. "Come on. Let's grab that coffee to go and I'll quickly show you a few things. I'm afraid we're on a bit of a tight schedule. You can leave your stuff here for now. We'll come back here when we head towards Launch Bay."
"Wonderful."
They walked over to the coffee station in the mess, Elijah grabbing two cups and lids.
"Before I walk you around, I do need to stop by the ladies room for a second."
"No problem. Go ahead. Allow me to get your coffee. Do you still take one packet of creme and a packet of sweetener?"
"You remember that." She looked slightly shocked that he would.
"Well, I seem to remember getting lots and lots of coffee for our study groups back then. Jennifer always had hers straight black."
"Ah. Yes, of course. Have you spoken to her recently? I haven't seen her since shortly after we graduated."
Elijah looked uncomfortable. "No. No, I haven't seen her in a while. We never did get things to work out. I couldn't be with someone who didn't get me. No one's ever really understood me."
He looked forlorn and Kristin nodded understandingly. Elijah seemed to snap out of it. "Well, go on and grab your bathroom break. I'll have your coffee ready before you know it." He smiled.
"Thank you." She ran off real quick to the nearest restroom.
When she emerged, he had her coffee waiting. She sipped it and smiled. "You are a doll. I wasn't able to finish my morning coffee. This is heavenly. Come on, let me show you the labs."
He smiled appreciatively. As she showed him around for about half an hour, they made small talk, sipping their coffee, reminiscing about the past and catching each other up about what they've been up to. Kristin noticed the time and decided they should start heading back towards SeaDeck to pick up his container. When they arrived back in SeaDeck, Kristin started to feel a little tired, but brushed it off to the caffeine not kicking in yet. Darwin greeted them.
"Man with tail say goodbye."
They both chuckled at this insistence that Elijah had a tail.
"I must say your dolphin is very amusing."
"Well, Darwin's speech may be a bit hard to understand sometimes but it is pretty exciting to be able to understand such a smart creature."
"I wonder what this 'man with a tail' business is about. Do you really think he's seen a merman? I mean, that would be remarkable."
Kristin chuckled. "Well, we can't always take his words literally, but I suppose that would be wonderful."
"I knew it, Kristin. You seem like you would love the possibility of mermaids, don't you? Imagine not needing Scuba equipment...swimming freely like the dolphins in the oceans at your leisure...I, for one, have often dreamed of it." He looked at her thoughtfully, studying her response.
"Yes, I suppose that would be nice. But unfortunately we have something called lungs which need oxygen and not water to breathe."
"Yes, I suppose so. I'm afraid evolution wanted us out of the oceans for some reason. And yet, here we are trying to get back in it." He smiled and noticed Kristin's eyelids were getting a bit droopy.
"Kristin, are you alright?"
"I don't know, I'm feeling very tired all of a sudden. Perhaps I need to lie down for a bit. I'm sorry I really didn't get much sleep last night."
"Why don't you let me walk you to your room?"
"Yes, that would probably be a good idea." She seemed a bit out of it. Elijah grabbed his rolling case with one arm and walked with her towards her quarters.
Once inside her room, he put down the cart and led her to the bed.
"I should probably have Lucas lead you back to the Launch Bay."
"Yes, that would be fine."
"I'm sorry I don't know what's gotten into me but I really am just so tired." She reached for her PAL unit. "Lucas, can you please meet Elijah in front of my room? I'm afraid I'm not feeling well enough to walk him to the Launch Bay."
"Yeah, Doc. I'll be right there. You okay?" came the reply.
"Yes, I'm fine. I just need to lie down for a nap." She yawned, prompting Elijah to help her lie down on the bunk.
"Sleep, dear Kris. You'll feel better with some rest. And I'll see you again very soon." He smiled hopefully.
"Mhmm...thank you." She quickly closed her eyes and lost consciousness.
Just outside her room:
Lucas rounded the corner and found Elijah walking out of Kristin's bunk with his cart, still leaning in as if talking to Kristin..
"Sleep well, Kris. It was great seeing you." He waved inside the bunk and closed the door as he noticed Lucas and signaled for him to be quiet by placing his finger on his mouth and whispering.
"Shhh. I'm afraid she's fallen asleep, Lucas."
"Yeah, the doc looked a little out of it this morning. She must have had a rough night. Come on, I'll lead you to the Launch Bay."
"Thank you."
At the Launch Bay:
Nathan waited for Elijah to show up and was surprised when he saw Lucas leading him there.
"Where's Dr. Westphalen?"
Elijah answered. "Oh, the poor girl was feeling very tired, Captain. She did give me a wonderful tour and we managed to say our goodbyes before she fell asleep in her bunk. Lucas was kind enough to escort me here."
"Is she alright?"
Lucas chimed in. "Yeah, she did mention she just didn't get much sleep last night."
"Alright, I'll go check on her later. Dr. Woodward, thank you for coming by so quickly to remove the tag."
"Not a problem, Captain. Thank you for having me onboard your ship. It is quite extraordinary. And Darwin's speech is unbelievable."
"Well, maybe I'll have Kristin contact you about a possible collaboration for your research."
"That would be wonderful. Thank you." He shook their hands and rolled his container in his launch.
Several hours later:
The SeaQuest had taken off for Newfoundland and was on course for their mission to chart the trenches. Nathan sat at his chair and noticed the time. He reached for his PAL and tried paging Kristin but received no answer. He then paged Lucas.
"Yeah, Cap?"
"Lucas, has Dr. Westphalen shown up on SeaDeck yet?"
"Nah. She must still be napping."
"After four hours? Maybe I'll go check on her and make sure she's alright. Thanks."
He left the bridge and walked towards her quarters. He gently knocked on the door, in case she was still sleeping. After a few seconds, he decided to open her door and peek in. He saw a bump on the bunk covered in a blanket and slowly walked towards her, wanting to reassure himself that she was alright.
When he reached for the top of the blanket, all he found were computer parts and cables hidden underneath. He panicked for a second before realizing what must have happened.
"Damn."
Suddenly he heard a noise, but it wasn't his PAL unit. He found Kristin's unit ringing on the floor and picked it up.
"This is the Captain."
"Captain?" Levin was on the other side. "I was just trying to reach Kristin and see when she was going to report to plan out the charts."
"Kristin isn't here. And I have a feeling I know what happened. I'll let you know once I talk with Commander Ford."
"Yes, Captain."
He reached for his own PAL unit.
"Jonathan, I want you to stop the boat and have the senior crew meet me in the Ward Room in 5 minutes. I want Lucas there as well."
"Aye, Cap. Is everything alright?"
"Afraid not. Kristin is missing."
"What?"
"I think our friend, Dr. Woodward, wasn't as friendly as he seemed."
The sinking feeling in his stomach left him needing to take a deep breath as he realized that Kristin was now possibly in danger because she trusted an old friend. It had been at least four hours since Dr. Woodward left, which gave him a very real advantage. He looked around and spoke out loud to no one in particular.
"Hang in there, Kristin. We're coming for you."
He quickly made his way to the Ward Room, hoping they would find her wherever she was.