Author: MacKynzie
Rating: PG-13
Part 1/6
Disclaimer: SeaQuest and all her characters aren't mine, I'm just borrowing them.
A Hidden Past
"Hey, Lucas" Tim O'Neill called, trying to catch his young
friends attention.
"Oh, great," Lucas muttered under his breath. One of the people
he'd been trying to avoid. He didn't want to get stuck on a transport
back to SeaQuest with one of his friends prattling on about how great
their two week shore leave had been. His had been a living hell and
Lucas wished everyone else's had been too. But he plastered a smile on
his face, quickly putting his hand into his coat pocket in the process.
"Hey, Lucas" Tim said again, out of breath as he finally caught
up to the teen. Lucas studied Tim's excited face and hiper bouncing.
Smiling inwardly, Lucas asked the question he knew would keep the Lt.
occupied during the trip to SeaQuest and God forbid possibly longer:
"So, Tim . . . how was your shore leave?"
* * *
Thump! Finally! Lucas thought. He'd spent the last 30 minutes
listening to every family story Tim had ever heard, or so it seemed.
Not to mention the late transport, which compounded the problem a
hundred-fold. Now all he wanted to do was go to his quarters, lock the
door, and not come out for a couple days. Or months, Lucas thought, as
Tim finally finished the saga of his shore leave. " So then my niece
says: But mommy I thought that man was a doctor!" Tim started laughing
uproariously and Lucas forced a chuckled. Fwish! The hatch opened and
Lucas jumped out of his seat racing to be the first one out. Tim was
still laughing so hard he hadn't noticed Lucas' quick departure. He
got up from his seat. "Lucas? Hmm, musta been funnier then I
thought!"
Tim grabbed his bags and made his way to the hatch. Stepping
out, he noticed Bridger and Ford. "Captain, Commander" he said.
"Tim" Bridger replied looking distracted. "Is anything wrong with
Lucas? He tore by here looking rather traumatized."
Tim frowned, perplexed. "Well, I just finished telling him about my
shore leave. Must've been laughing really hard, Captain." Tim said,
pleased he'd found the answer. "Well," he said, making his way past
them. "See you on the bridge." Bridger and Ford nodded and when he was
out of earshot they looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Hmm,
more serious then I thought!" Bridger finally managed to get out.
"Yeah." Ford agreed.
* * *
Lucas set his bags down in his quarters and looked around.
Everything was just as he'd left it. Of course it was clean,
unfortunetly. Bridger had ordered all crew quarters spotless for the
maintenance and cleaning crews. Lucas hated having his room clean like
it was. It reminded him too much of his room at his father's house.
'Well, the guest room I used, anyway,' Lucas thought ruefully.
Messing the place up could wait. His bed looked very inviting right
now. But first, he had to check his wrist.
Lucas slowly took off his large coat, so as not to aggrevate his
bruises. He examined the brace; still secure. Good. He turned and
began rummaging through his bags, searching for the painkillers he'd
picked up. His whole body hurt like hell.
Since there was no chance Lucas would go to a doctors office, he
had simply hacked into a drugstore computer, wrote himself a
perscription, and picked it up. Determining the wrist hadn't been
broken, Lucas had grabbed the brace too.
'The wrist' Lucas thought, wrly. 'His wrist. No, it was better
to be detached.'Finally finding the object of his search, he grabbed
the bottle and took a couple. Working with Kristen had taught him to
get the right medication and not overdose on it. That much he was very
thankful for. Lucas stuffed the bottle in his bag, burying it under
his clothes. Wouldn't want anyone to come in here and find it. Lucas
gingerly sat himself on his bed, hissing in pain as he eased himself
into a laying postion. The pain wasn't so bad and Lucas knew it could
have been worse. Much, much worse. He had been lucky and gotten off
easy, that much he knew. That was as far as he got before he fell into
oblivion.
* * *
"Please stop. No!! I'll fix it. Please, dad, stop!! Ahh!" Lucas
sat up like a bullet. His whole body frozen. He breathed a sigh of
relief. It was only a dream. Nightmare. It was kind of funny; the only
time he screamed was in his dreams. When it was really happening he
just took it stoicly, not making a noise, not giving his father the
satisfaction of hearing or seeing that he was in pain. Retreating into
the recesses of his mind, the only place his father couldn't touch. Not
yet, anyway. That only served to annoy his father and
he invariably took it as a challenge. The great Dr. Wolenczak, couldn't
even crack his own son. And Lucas intended to keep it that way. His
mother was the same way, chiseling away at his defenses, trying to
make him crack. She prefered verbally assaulting him and that was fine
with Lucas. He would just stand there and take it, his face a cold,
hard mask. His cobalt blue eyes like ice chips. He would never let them
win. No matter what.
Lucas shook himself out of his dark thoughts. 'It wasn't so
bad,' he thought, trying to be positive. He could take a lot of pain
and he knew how to fight dirty. That would help someday.
'Yeah, it's not so bad,' Lucas thought again, his eyes resting on
the alarm clock on his nightstand. 1400 hours. He had only managed 2
hours of sleep. It didn't really matter, he rarely slept more than 4 or
5 hours a night, anyway. Besides, his shift on the bridge started at
1630 and with all those bruises and scrapes it would no doubt take him
2 hours to get ready.
* * *
Promptly at 1630 hours, Lucas reported to the bridge and lucky
for him things were hectic and no one noticed the brace on his wrist.
Apparently a virus had just been found in SeaQuest's computer system
and it was wreaking havoc.
Lucas, christening the virus Lila, spent the next 24 hours
running around the ship from system-to-system, computer-to-computer
chasing the bug.
* * *
Finally! Lucas sat up from underneath the console. He had
successfully managed to eradicate it. He checked his watch for the
first time since he had started. Lucas did a double take. 25 hours!!
No wonder he was so exhausted. His wrist and whole body ached. Lucas
felt as if he had been run over by a truck. On the plus side, his
little nap had helped and he did feel better than he would have if he
had just jumped in. Another bonus was that no one had really bothered
him. Everyone knew he was working as fast as he could. A couple of
fellow computer techs had helped as much as they could in the
beginning, but the virus was very complicated and they soon became a
nuisance to Lucas, who was the only one that had any idea how to get
rid of it.
Now that he thought about it, Lucas was very surprised
Bridger or Westphalen hadn't come to tear him away from his computers
to take a break. But, then again, he knew they both were very busy
helping to get the ship back up and running. After a 2 week shore
leave they both were knee-deep in paper work and other various tasks.
A sudden and insistent beeping brought Lucas' attention back to
the present. "Dammit!" Lucas swore loudly. "Dammit to Hell!!!" Lila
was back.
* * *
Bridger frowned. He had just spoken with Kristen. Figuring she
would be the one to check up on Lucas, he hadn't really thought about
it. Bridger had also been up for nearly 25 hours with only a few short
naps to curb exhaustion. When he did think about it he realized that
he hadn't seen Lucas for several hours.Knowing Lucas had been hard at
work to eradicate Lila, he had foolishly thought that Lucas would take
a break sometime. Lila. Nathan chuckled, wondering just where
Lucas had come up with the name. His chuckle died quickly, however,
when he thought of Lucas. The teen hardly ever took a break when he
was working unless he was forced to. Stupid, stupid, stupid!! Bridger
mentally berated himself. And then there was Dr. Westphalen. That
conversation hadn't gone well.
Unfortunetly, she too was swamped with work and had assumed that
he, Nathan Bridger, would check on the teen. Kristen was also worried
when it became apparent that neither of them had seen the 16 year old
in several hours. Bridger quickly left and began asking around, seeing
if anyone had seen him.
After asking all of the senior officers, checking Lucas' various
work stations, and quarters ( where Bridger found Lucas' PAL) with no
sign of the boy, the Captain was now wandering aimlessly around the
ship searching. With orders out to the senior staff to keep their eyes
open, Bridger hoped it wouldn't be long before someone found the boy.
The computer bug was still present, so Bridger knew Lucas was still
hard at work somewhere .
"Dammit!" The loud curse alerted Nathan to someone else's
presence. Where? He continued walking. There! Around the courner he
saw tennis-shoe clad feet sticking out from inside a bulkhead. As
Bridger approached, he was assualted by a colorful string of
expletives. It was definetly Lucas' voice. While Bridger
hadn't had the pleasure of hearing Lucas swear very often, it was
apparent he had talent.
"Lucas?" Bridger questioned when the litany was over. "Lucas." No
response. "Lucas." More insistant now.
"Yeah, yeah. Hang on." Bridger raised an eyebrow, but didn't
reply. Leaning against the wall, he waited. One minute. Two. "Lucas."
Another two minutes. "Lucas."
Another 3 minutes. Bridger finally sat down next ot the tennis-shoe
clad feet, subjected to the occasional furious curse.
A seemingly endless 10 minutes later Lucas shouted, "Yes!!"
Bridger stood up, startled. "Lucas?" A triumphant Lucas emerged.
Surprising the Captain, Lucas reached out and tapped Bridger's PAL.
Calling the bridge, Lucas asked Commander Ford to check the computer
and communcations sensory unit.
"Stand by," Ford replied. "Wow!" Ford's amazed voice came back a
moment later. It wasn't easy to impress the Commander. "Not only is the
virus eradicated, but resolution has increased by 23%. Nice job
Lucas."
"My pleasure, Commander."
That finally accomplished, Lucas turned to Bridger, fully
noticing him for the first time. Bridger, meanwhile, was just standing
there staring at Lucas, shocked by his appearence. There were dark
circles around his blue, bloodshot eyes. His thin face was pale,
making Lucas' eyes stand out.
"Captain?" When he received no reply, Lucas turned and began
replacing the panel to the bulkhead, wincing at the thought of the
chewing out he was about to receive.
"Lucas." Bridger finally managed to get out. Lucas turned back
to the Captain, the panel in place.
"Ah, yes, Captain." Lucas said, suddenly finding the floor very
interesting.
"You look terrible, kid." Bridger exclaimed.
"Thanks, Captain." Lucas replied wryly.
"When is the last time you've eaten or slept?!"
"Uh, well, I've been kinda busy here, Captain, but I'm done and
I'm going to get some sleep right now." Lucas hurried on, eager to
escape the Captain's wrath.
"Lucas," Bridger began, suspicious "how many hours straight were
you working?" Knowing Lucas was the master of evasion and lying by
omission, Bridger knew to be very specific in his question.
Lucas looked away, guilty, his eyes darting anywhere and
everywhere but Bridger's penetrating gaze. "Uh, well, a coupla hours, I
guess."
"You guess?" Bridger replied, skeptically. " How many, exactly?"
"Uh, 10, maybe 15."
Bridger's eyes narrowed, that didn't sound right. "Lucas" he
warned.
"Well, maybe 20."
"Lucas,"
"Alright, maybe, maybe 25."
"25!!" Bridger exclaimed, guilty and mad at himself that he
hadn't checked on the boy hours ago.
"I'm going right to bed now, Captain. No harm done, right?"
Lucas quickly slipped past Bridger and started walking down the
corrider.
"Wrong. I don't want to see you anywhere near a workstation for
2 days!"
Lucas whirled around, "2 days?!" he exclaimed, "but Captain, I've
got--"
Lucas stopped at Bridger's fierce look. "Care to make it 3?"
Lucas quickly raised his arms in surrender at the threat and made
his escape.
"25 hours! Bridger what were you thinking?!" Bridger berated
himself as he stalked down the corrider.
"Nathan!" a prim British voice called. Oh, great, just what he
needed. It was his own fault, however, he'd foolishly managed to walk
right past the MedBay.
* * *
"25 hours?!" Kristen exclaimed, outraged at what Bridger had just
told her. "How could you let him work for 25 hours straight?! You know
how he is; he'd work until he dropped if we let him! Why didn't you
check on him?!"
"Why didn't you?!" Bridger furiously countered, effectively
silencing her.
Kristen looked away. "You're right, I'm sorry I yelled at you.
I should have checked on him."
"No, no, this is my fault. I should have made sure he was
resting. Well, anyway, I can guarentee he'll be taking it easy: I gave
him the next two days off. Lucas is not to show his face anywhere near
any major computer or workstation."
Kristen nodded her approval. "You need to get some rest
yourself." she said, taking in his bedraggled appearence.
"Alright, I'm going, I'm going."
"To bed" she finished.
"Yeah, to bed." he called over his shoulder as he exited the
MedBay. First stop would be the bridge. Afterall, it wouldn't due to
have the flagship of the UEO just sitting in dock for too long. Then,
when SeaQuest was finally under way, Captain Nathan Bridger would head
to his quarters for some much needed rest.
In all the excitment, Bridger had failed to notice the brace
that adorned Lucas' wrist.
* * *
The next two days were a nightmare. For Lucas anyway. He was
already behind in his work from shoreleave and Lila, the computer
virus, and now the Captain ordered 2 days off. 2 days! Lucas didn't
need anymore vacation, he had just gotten back from a 2-week break!!
Lucas hadn't even bothered to try and argue, knowing it would
just lengthen his sentence. Well, at least he finally got most of the
paperwork done that had been gathering for awhile. If it was one thing
he hated, it was paperwork. And, it also gave his battered body a
chance to recover. In another day, he would take off the brace
permently. Lucas was doubtful anyone had noticed or even thought about
it.
'Speaking of which,' Lucas thought as he slowly rose out of his
chair, hissing in pain in the process, and walked into his bathroom.
He carefully pulled off the turtleneck he wore, and procceded to
examine his battered torso and arms. Lucas winced slightly as he saw
the very visible hand prints on his arms. Those probably wouldn't fade
for another 4 or 5 days. Then, there were the massive black and blue
bruises that encompassed his entire left side. Not to mention the
plethora of bruises and scrapes that covered nearly every square
inch of his body. It would no doubt be at least a week, probably 2,
before he could handle any heavy activity. Oh, he was very good at
hiding it, and no one would find out. He'd done it before and he would
do it again. Simple as that.
* * *
Lucas yawned and checked the clock. 0400. He got off his stool
and stretched out the kinks in his body. Technically, his 2 day exile
was over, but he didn't think that Bridger or Westphalen would buy that
excuse.
At exactly 0001 Lucas had dashed out of his quarters and into the
moonpool. There was tons of work that needed to be done. Experiments to
finish, inventions to create, so much to do and so little time! And
there was the big thing. THE EQUATION. Definintly time to work on that.
'Maybe I should call it a night. Get some shut-eye. Yeah,
right,' Lucas smirked as he slurped more coffee down. Hmm-mm. Coffee.
The breakfast of champions. Lucas liked his straight. No cream or
sugar, just plain old black. The only way to drink it.
Lucas smiled, he was going nuts; talking himself about coffee. It
was insanity. He smiled again, he really did love coffee. Lucas sighed
and sat himself back on his stool. Back to work.
* * *
Thump! Nathan sighed as he contemplated the slop, which was
supposedly lunch, being unceremoniously dumped onto his tray. Bridger
frowned and made his way over to Kristen Westphalen.
"Oh, hello, Nathan. Rough morning?" she asked sympathetically.
"You have no idea." he returned
Glancing up, Nathan noticed a rather frazzled and sour looking
Lucas enter the mess. Kristen glanced up also.
"That reminds me, I didn't notice Lucas at breakfast this
morning." Kristen said, concerned.
"He probably slept in. I knew those 2 days R and R would do him
some good. You know, for someone who has been sleeping for 2 days and
is able to return to work, he sure looks irratated."
"Lucas!" she called, waving him over. Lucas didn't even glance in
their direction, but rather having just grabbed a roll, was leaving the
crowded dining area.
"Hmm, what's wrong with him?" Kristen asked, nonplussed at the
teen's behavior.
"I don't know," Bridger frowned. He knew when Lucas became
involved in something he rarely heard anything that was going on around
him.
"I'll go have a talk with him, see what's up. Later."
"Yes, waiting would probably be wise." Kristen replied
Bridger sighed again as he returned to his plate. It would
probably kill him.
* * *
Lucas had moved from the moonpool to his office. There were
papers strewn everywhere and 3 computer moniters displaying long,
complicated numbers and equations. All this just to prove someone
wrong. His father and many other scientists said it couldn't be done.
That particular equation was strictly theoretical and it couldn't be
solved. But Lucas was determined to prove them all wrong. Ahh! It
was so frustrating! Lucas was pretty much furious by now, they were
probably right, it probably couldn't be solved.
Suddenly, he whirled around and grabbed the headphones that
had been discarded hours ago and slapped them on. Usually, they helped
him to think. Sighing, Lucas grabbed a piece of chalk and, unaware that
he was humming to the music, started mapping out the long multi-
variable equation again, searching for any and all flaws.
* * *
Nathan knocked on the closed door that bore the label Wolenczak,
Lucas, Computer Analyst. Receiving no response, Nathan walked in and
gaped at the mess before him. Recovering, he looked at the chalkboard
and recieved an instant headache. The long complicated numbers and
equations was enough to turn anyone's stomach. Lucas stood in front of
it, tapping the chalk against the board, alternatly humming to his
headphones and muttering something under his
breath.
"Lucas?" Bridger stepped forward, trying not to step on papers
and placed his hand on Lucas' shoulder. Big mistake. In a flurry of
motion, Lucas whirled around and took the defensive. Nathan coughed,
trying to get his breath back, very much aware of the fact he was
now sprawled face-up on the cluttered floor.
Lucas blinked and snapped out of it. "Oh, geez. Captain I'm so
sorry. I didn't mean to knock you over like that. Oh, man, I'm so
sorry." Lucas frantically apologized as he helped Bridger up.
"Hey, it's alright, Lucas." Bridger replied, his breath returned.
"I shouldn't have snuck up on you like that. Don't worry about it. No
harm done."
"Are you sure you're o.k.?" Lucas questioned quietly, still
concerned.
"I'm fine." Bridger said firmly. "What are you working on,
anyway?"
At this, Lucas' expression darkened. Strike 2, Bridger thought wryly.
"THE EQUATION!" Lucas practically shouted. "This stupid
equation!" He snapped in furious frustration.
"Now, Lucas, calm down. You just need to take a break and--"
"You don't understand, Captain." Lucas said more reasonably. "I
worked on it before I left. Then I took a break. A 2-week, 3-day break
in fact. Now I've been at it for--" Lucas hesitated slightly "a few
hours and still nothing to show for it. Nothing!"
Bridger noticed the slight hesitation but decided not to push the
matter, the teen was riled enough as it was and Bridger already had 2
strikes against him.
"Lucas listen to me; you should be very proud of yourself. No one
your age would even think about tackling something like this. Heck,
most people my age wouldn't. You are a extremely intelligent young man;
you already has so many accomplishments under your belt. The Vocorder,
numerous computer gadgets, software, and who knows what else. If you
don't solve the equation, it really isn't the end of the world.
Lucas was frowning glumly, but he nodded his head slowly.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Lucas paused. "Thanks,
Captain, I needed that."
"That's what captains are for. Now, I want you to take a real
break and eat some real food." Bridger said, looking pointedly at the
roll, sitting uneaten on Lucas' desk. "And not just a cup of coffee,
either." Bridger added, knowing how Lucas was when it came to coffee.
"Alright?" Bridger asked, making his way out of the cramped
office.
"O.K. Thanks and sorry again about the-- you know." Lucas
replied, taking a sip of coffee.
"Don't worry about it. And I expect to see you at dinner."
"Yes, sir." Lucas gave a mock-salute. Bridger just smiled and
shut the door behind him.
Nathan frowned, however, as he walked to his quarters pondering
Lucas' strong reaction to the simple touch on his shoulder.
"No, Bridger, you're just paranoid. He was just startled." Nathan
told himself firmly. But something inside of him made Nathan think it
was an incident he would remember for a long time.
* * *