Chapter 1
A strong odour of hospital strength disinfectant was the first thing Rachel noticed as she struggled to wake up. Her body felt heavy and sluggish, her head pounded; a reminder of how she lost consciousness and the drugs they had forced into her system after the fact.
She had struggled against Granderson's soldiers. It had been a waste of time, something she would have learned by now after all the other times they pulled her out of the cell. She had zero fighting skills and her reward for her efforts had been a rifle butt to the cheek. She lifted a hand to her cheek as the last memories before she lost consciousness played through her mind. She winced as her fingers gently grazed the bruise and gash that seemed to had been tended to as she felt the surgical tape keeping the wound closed. She didn't want to think about what else had been done to her while she was unconscious. Rachel did a quick mental check and no other part of her body and felt no different but it didn't comfort her as her mind was still muddled from the drugs.
But she'd worry about that later, now she needed to get up and moving as it was the only way to clear the fuzziness in her brain. Walking around also helped with her nausea, the side effects of being drugged.
With that in mind, she opened her eyes and groaned in pain as she was greeted with bright fluorescent lighting. She immediately squinted wishing she hadn't opened her eyes but the damage was done. She took a couple of breaths to stop the roiling of nausea until the shock of bright lights wore off.
Once her eyes adjusted, she opened them fully and pushed herself upright. The room swam for a moment before righting itself but this time no urge to vomit followed for which she gave a grateful sigh.
She looked around the small room that had become 'home' if you call a cell 'home'. It was a self contained cell with just enough space for a toilet, vanity with a tap for water and her cot and a little walking space. An air vent above her head shafted cold air conditioned into the room. Three of the walls were made of brick and the fourth wall was made of what she assumed to be clear Perspex glass and solid steel frames. It wasn't glass as she had once tried to smash it with no success.
It was the only entry point into the cell. The room was sparkling clean as always. The linens on the bed were in good condition. She carefully pushed to her feet and walked over to the glass wall and looked out into the main room.
Kate laid stomach down on the bed. Her wrists and ankles were bound to the bed in leather restraints face was turned facing in her direction. She had a glazed expression on her face from the drugs and whatever else the Doctors and staff kept pumping into her body.
The vibrant and strong woman she knew was gone. She had slowly died as her body had wasted away from being kept in a semi comatose state. In the early days, Rachel remembered seeing glimpses of the old Kate when the drugs would wear off. The way her eyes filled with a fiery anger just before she would fight her restraints but soon the staff learned the speed of her metabolism and made sure she couldn't do anything more than exist. Medical staff, tubes and machines took care of the rest.
Rachel on the other hand had been left in her cell to watch the horror shows for the most part. In those early days, Mrs Granderson would come and talk to her about changing her mind in working for her cause. But Rachel refused every time. Dr Milowsky tried to woo her into the venture as he thought she would be enticed by the intellectual manner of his work. The man was a genetic engineer and virologist, he was in charge of replicating Avocet's work to make a gene therapy to produce more people like Kate and the soldiers who underwent the original program. He failed miserably and thought Rachel might be swayed to help him.
She stilled remembered the time as it was before she became a test subject herself. It was the only time was able to count the days with an accurate measure. Now the days all blurred into one another. The only way she kept track of time was based on her injuries. Which were fresh, how healed were the bruises on her body but it wasn't an exact art.
She saw her faint reflection in the glass wall and saw the bruise on her face was an angry blue and red. It meant maybe she had been passed out for what a day? she wondered how long it would be until they dragged her out of her room and strapped her onto the same bed Kate was in now. Drugged her again. How much time would she lose before she woke up back in her cell. Would she have more needle marks on her back and arms? How many would it be? The questions were what gnawed at her the most. What were they doing to her? What were the long term side effects of what they had done to her? She hated not knowing. She hated the questions that were going unanswered and the feeling that she would never know. That she would be stuck here until she died.
The most annoying part was that since she had no real concept of time anymore meant she had no idea how long they'd been here. All she knew was that it had been over a month. In the first few days of being a prisoner, she had stupidly hoped that Tom and the crew of Nathan James would come for them. She thought if not them, then Mike and Tex would at least attempt a rescue mission for Kate. He was supposed to be in love with her but Rachel must have misread the situation as no one came for them. She and Rachel had been abandoned.
In some ways she wished her captors would keep her in a coma like Kate so she wouldn't have to be cognizant of how bleak her situation was. That she wouldn't have to feel the dark knot of anger twisting painfully in her chest at being abandoned. She thought the motto they lived by was to leave no one behind and yet here she and Kate were.
Rachel looked out at Kate and watched as the Doctor dress in surgical scrubs inserted a needle into the back of Kate's hip and proceed to draw out bone marrow. Kate's face barely twitched in acknowledgement of what was happening to her. It was unbearable to see her in such a state that Rachel turned away from the window unable to watch.
She wrapped her arms around her middle to comfort herself but it did little to ease her sense of hopelessness. She barely took a step towards the back wall when an explosion rocked the room. Hot air and Glass blasted into her room and the concussive force from blast sent her flying forwards. She slammed into the wall so hard she lost consciousness.
On the Ship,
Tom sat at the head of the table in the wardroom with his son on his left and daughter on his right side. They were eating breakfast in a barely tolerable silence. His father sat with his morning coffee staring at the table deep in his own thoughts next to Sam who pushed his oatmeal around in his bowl looking despondent. He knew how his son felt as not even he could summon the energy to pretend everything was fine. It had only been two months since Darien had died. None of them had smiled since, not even laughed once or told an old story. Part of him wished he could talk about Darien but he couldn't. It was like his voice disappeared every time he wanted to say something which was so unlike him.
He knew it wasn't healthy but he just couldn't find an outlet for his grief thus all his pain and grief was locked up inside of him. His crew couldn't see his grief as they needed him to be this role model of behaviour. A man broken hearted and in throes of deep grief and tears did not imbue a sense of strength or comfort let alone what it would say about his professionalism.
It was a double edged sword because whilst he had this image to maintain on the ship as Captain. The man and the father he wanted to show his son and daughter couldn't be drawn out because he was on the ship. He had separated these two worlds and now they were smashed together and it left him immobile on what to do and how to act.
He looked at Ashley who was heartbreakingly quiet. Her face was blotchy and red from crying. Not that he'd seen her crying as she kept it hidden away at night or when he on duty because right now her face was drawn in a despondent and eerily calm mask. It was unnatural on her young features; he could only think his example of hiding one's emotions was the expected response to grief and was mirroring it. It was why he wanted-no he needed him to show them it was ok to cry, to be and feel sad, that it was also ok to be happy and laugh sometimes.
But all he seem to be able to show was this cold and detached man, who he knew was not him but he couldn't snap out of it. Or maybe the truth was that he was afraid if he did then he would have to acknowledge that he had failed not just himself but everyone around him. He'd have to admit that he was at a loss of how to move forward as he could no longer see the large picture. That his wife; the love of his life was gone because he was too late, that his children had a right to hate him for failing them but he had no idea what they were thinking just that they were in pain and he couldn't find the way out of his own grief and shortcomings to help them.
He wished he could just leave the ship with his kids and return to the man he knew himself to be underneath the flash and show of being a Captain. To be the man Darien had fallen in love with and chosen to have children with. To help his kids without his attention constantly fractured between them and his duty to the Nathan James and the crew.
"Sir"
Tom looked up from Ashley to see Lt Granderson at the door. The woman looked haunted, yet another person he failing. Her time with her mother and on the hospital ship had left her scarred and yet he couldn't find the words to reach her. He couldn't find the words at all. What did one say to a woman who had been so thoroughly disillusioned by the world. She however was cleared by medical and was on duty everyday doing her job. She seemed to be coping or maybe he wanted to believe she was coping either way her work was still exceptional.
"Yes, Lieutenant" he said in greeting to her.
"Tex is back on the ship and is waiting in CIC. He wants to speak with you" the Lieutenant said relating the information. Tex had been on the mainland with Anna. One woman who left Tom utterly exasperated as she was brutally honest to the point talking to her was unbearable. He was just glad she had an aversion to ships and water as she firmly refused to come on board the Nathan James. Thus it left Tex to act as a liason as they didn't trust their comms not to be monitored.
"Alright" Tom said, he set his spoon into bowl. He excused himself from the table and followed the Lieutenant down to CIC.
They didn't utter a word to one another as they went through the ship. The energy of the ship had changed in the past two months in a way that concerned Tom; it was yet another thing on his list he needed to fix but didn't know how. They reached the CIC and the Lieutenant stood to the side, Tom stepped in first the privilege of rank.
The room was a buzz with it's usual activity, Tom moved to the back area where they held tactical meetings to find all the usual suspects waiting for his arrival.
"Hey Commodore" Tex said with his usual wry smile as he stood at the main table in CIC with Mike, Major Barker, SCPO Taylor, Lt Bivas, Burk and Dr Milowsky. They parted way as Tom moved to Tex's side. The man held out a hand which Tom took and gave it a firm shake. It had been over a month since they'd seen each other in person.
"Tex" Tom said in greeting. He looked Tex over noting how much wilder the man looked with the longer beard and hair. He couldn't help but note the man's positive demeanour and hoped he had some good news for him as he needed it.
"Listen, I'll be quick because the intel is solid. I got a lead on Kate and the Doc. They are being held in this building located here" Tex said he gestured to the map on the main table tapping onto a red dot.
"No, they can't be there" Milowsky said, the man had helped Tom and his boarding party rescue Lt Foster and Lt Granderson from a hospital ship Granderson had been using to stockpile medical supplies and weapons. It had also doubled as a research facility.
The doctor had helped them and Doctor Rios in the past couple of months earning him their trust and a valued position on their crew. The only problem was the man had no idea how to replicate Rachel's work. Her research notes, their stock pile of cure, the primordial strain of the virus had been sent to Avocet but once they had recovered the lieutenants and learned Kate and Rachel weren't there – Well they destroyed it. They decided it was best to destroy it all than have Granderson turn the cure into a weapon.
Tom and Mike also agreed that Granderson was better off crippled than allowed to hoard the information and the cure to herself. Tom wondered if they had acted out more on their grief than it being a strategic move. Granderson had supposed to of been then ally instead she and her people had killed members of their crew and subjected two of them to god knew what whilst on the hospital ship. There was the fact Granderson's people murdered his wife and burned her body just so they could flick a light switch.
He knew Mike's reasons were from grief, not that Mike would talk about it. Hell, Mike didn't talk much at all these days except for when it was something ship related. Tom didn't push as he was in no place to offer support yet, he barely had enough to give to his kids. But he knew the man had singlehandedly taken back control the ship. There wasn't much left of Lt Norris when his body was tossed overboard. The other state troopers on the ship hadn't fared well in the exchange of power. They had lost six crew members in the end and had several wounded but only minor injuries luckily.
They needed them back. Kate was needed for her skills as pilot and in Tom's opinion for Mike's sanity. They needed Rachel back so she could continue to reproduce the cure. He promised the crew the opportunity to find their families and she was the only person on the planet who knew how to make it. She was the only person who could help him to keep his promise to the crew.
"Why not?" Tex asked Milowsky, pulling Tom's thoughts away from Rachel.
"Because it's been abandoned for over four months ever since the hospital ship was procured" Dr Milowsky answered.
"Well, my source says it was never abandoned and Granderson likes the natives to think it is so she can stash her treasures there. Apparently the Doc and Kate rank up there as something worth hiding" Tex said to everyone in general.
"How reliable is the intel?" Mike asked Tex, speaking for the first time.
"Very reliable, I wouldn't have come all this way with shoddy leads. Anna and I did some recon and found the installation is still operational which means they are doing something there and the amount of soldiers guarding the place suggests it's a good place to start. The only problem is Thorwald won't put any men on the ground but he's willing to help us part of the way. We as in Anna and I need a few extra bodies on the ground" Tex told him.
"Sir, I've looked over the specs of the mission with Tex and I think with a small team of six we can do this" Lt Green said with confidence.
"Tell me the plan" Tom said to Tex even though he already knew he was going to say 'yes'; he just needed to hear the plan first.
On the Mainland,
Rachel coughed and sputtered as the air was thick dust and smoke. She found herself half buried in drywall and rubble. She did a quick mental check of her person and while she had small aches and pains nothing seemed majorly broken or asking for attention. It seemed she came out rather unscathed if she ignored the scraps and cuts on her skin. She pushed the dry wall off her lower body.
The place was deathly quiet not even the sound of nature sounded into the room. She wondered if maybe she had ruptured an eardrum but if she had then she would have heard her own movement as her legs scuffed the floor. She looked around the cell and noticed half the wall had collapsed in to her cell. She could see outside as the wall no longer existed and she could feel the cold air as blew into the room. She slowly rose to her feet and dusted off her clothes. She wrapped her arms around her middle to protect herself from the cold. Though it wasn't working, she made a mental note to find Kate first and then scavenge for warmer clothes. She carefully stepped over the rubble and broken glass as she moved into the main room were Kate had been.
The place was a mess of charred bodies, blood and debris. Rachel took shallow breaths as the smell of charred flesh was nauseating. She felt her heart plummet into her stomach as she spotted the gurney laying on it's side. She saw Kate's hand hanging over the charred edge covered in blood, one of fingers was broken at an odd angle.
Rachel rushed to the gurney dodging the legs as she moved around it. Tears filled her eyes as she felt unprepared herself to find Kate to be like the others in the room. She didn't want Kate to be dead but as she rounded the edge of the bed and her breath caught in her throat at the sight before her.
"Damn" Anna said as she and Tex rounded the block and pulled the SUV to a stop. She put it into 'Park' and pulled the handbrake as she looked out the front windscreen. They had planned to extract Dr Scott and Kate from the site they were being held. They had with Thorwald's help procured state trooper uniforms, transport papers and a shiny SUV. All they had to do was walk into the building and get them out.
But from the looks of it, someone had beat them. The street before them was shambles, dead bodies laid scattered on the ground. Blood stained the snow as fires burned from where explosives had been thrown. "Reapers" Lt Bivas whispered from the back seat of the SUV where she sat next to Burk. The sound of her flicking the safety switch of her weapon sounded. "Look to your 9 o'clock" she said more to Anna than Burk or Tex.
Anna looked out her right side and saw the graffiti tag on the wall under a message written in blood red paint. 'God has forsaken these souls' the message read with the tag of a 'R'.
She hated those guys, they gave psychopaths a bad name and they usually left a mess of dead people in their wake which was not good for their mission. It didn't mean they would turn and leave like a normal person would. Anna would comb this area until she found something useful.
"Ok" Anna said as she turned off the engine. She undid her seatbelt and held her hand out to Tex. The man handed her a rifle, she gave him a grim look knowing he knew what she was thinking. Their chances of recovering Kate and Dr Scott had dropped to zero. It was now a job of recovering their bodies. She tapped the button on her throat mic on her radio.
"Boyscout, you got eyes on us?" Anna asked.
"Yeah, no movement in the area" SCPO Wolf Taylor replied over the comm into her ear, she could hear the annoyance at her calling him 'Boyscout'. It made her smile at how the man was so easy to annoy. "You're clear on IR sensors until you get inside the building" he added.
"We have survivors?" Anna asked a bubble of hope formed in her even though she knew better.
"Hard to tell, I saw a flicker of something in the second floor before it went out of my range or the rubble is too dense. Could have been a bird that flew away. I'd have to move in closer which means losing my position" he told her.
"Stay put, we'll check it out on the ground. Just keep us posted on any changes" Anna told him.
On the Ship,
Mike stood in CIC waiting for the update from Lt Green on the current search of Kate and Rachel. Two months had passed and he'd been teetering on the edge. He felt like someone had hollowed his insides out with a spoon, everything hurt in a constant ache of emptiness. Breathing, moving and getting up every day was a struggle. But he got on with the job, he performed his duties and put in over time helping with the repairs to the ship. If he wasn't working, he dedicated a good chunk of his time to the gym. Running and pounding the bag with his fists to point of complete exhaustion were the only way he could sleep. Even then it was only for a couple of hours before he got up and started all over again.
He still remembered seeing Christina over 6 weeks ago.
**** Flashback****
"You have half an hour" The state trooper told him as he pulled up in front of a nicely groomed neighbourhood. It was like the cul de sac had been untouched as kids played in the streets and the yards of all the houses were beautifully kept.
"For what?"
"House number 23, it's Granderson rewards compliance. But you only get half an hour" He told him.
Mike looked at the house as he stepped out of the SUV. He walked up the pathway to the front door of the two story Victorian style house the state trooper had pointed at.
He knocked on the door unsure of what to expect. He didn't want to dream for one second of who was on the other side of door. Was it his kids? Was it Kate? He still had no idea what had happened to her but he didn't have to wait long for some answers as the door opened.
Mike froze in shock and confusion as his wife stood in front of him. He drank in her as he had forgotten how beautiful she was. At the 5ft 6 brunette, her hair effortlessly styled into long soft curls. She wore black tights and a snowy white jumper with a cowl neckline. She looked no different from when he left her over 5 months ago. She looked up at him in surprise.
"Mike" Christina breathed, a smile lit up on her face as she saw him. She pulled the door open wider and jumped at him. Out of old habit or reflex he didn't know which he opened his arms as she came at him. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest taking a deep inhale as her arms squeezed him. It was almost like the clock had turned back to a time when they were truly happy. He stepped into the house with her in his arms and kicked the door shut behind him.
Her arms tightened around his neck as he dropped his head into the crook of her neck. He should have felt some sense of familiarity, relief and welcome warmth that tended to bloom within whenever he came home. It was why he always had felt they had a chance as she and the kids were home. She was always happy to see him in the first few hours before she resented him for being back. He relished those moments and now here she was in his arms and he felt strangely cold and disconnected from her.
"Christina" Mike said after a moment passed. He pulled her away from him and looked down at her. "Where's Maddy and Zoe?" he asked her wondering why his little girls hadn't run out to greet him. He looked to Christina and watched as her face fell and she looked away.
"They're gone" She said, she pulled away from him and hugged her arms around her torso to comfort herself.
"Gone" Mike repeated in a breathless tone as he felt like someone had just pulled the stuffing out of him. Tears fell down her face. "What do you mean?" he demanded his tone harsher than he meant it to sound.
"The warlords attacked the safe zone. They were killed in an explosion-" Christina burst into tears and Mike pulled her into his arms, holding her tight even though pain, rage and guilt ripped him open on the inside. Tears burned his eyes but he refused to shed them.
"It was horrible; there was nothing to bury. But I'm so glad you're alive and safe" she whispered out in grief. Mike felt chilled to his bones as she was lying. She hated him when Lucas died and now their daughters were gone and she was happy to him?
Mike slowly released her and stepped away from her. He looked at her with suspicion "Our children are dead and you're glad I'm alive?" Mike asked her incredulously.
"I know we were rocky-" She started in a watery voice, she through up her hands in gesture of frustration and he saw her rings were gone.
"You're not wearing your rings" Mike said, he knew he was a hypocrite for saying it as he was wearing his but his emotions and body were fully engaged in a relationship with Kate but the funny thing was he wasn't angry about her cheating, he was angry because he felt like she was trying to manipulate him into thinking she still cared for him. He wondered why she would bother.
"I had to barter them for food to feed our children" she told him bitterly. She turned away from him and ran her hands through her hair in aggravation. He knew he should feel like an ass for pointing it but he looked at the nice house she was in. The electricity powering the lights and heating; his instincts told him that she had already moved on. That and he spotted the corner of a discarded shirt underneath the lounge. From the colour and the piping he knew it belonged to a highway state patrolman.
"I'm sorry" he said sincerely, he truly meant it and for some reason he didn't know why; he felt a sense of closure with her as he knew which side she had chosen. He wasn't going to begrudge her for choosing his enemy to survive but he wasn't going to be ensnared by her again either. He wasn't going share his grief with her or support her as he could see she was better off without him and vice versa.
"Forget it, we're together now" Christina told him as she wrapped her arms around his neck or attempted to as Mike caught her hands by the wrists and pulled them away from him.
"No, we're not" he told her, he shook his head as whatever tethers they once had holding them together were gone.
"You're my husband" she said confused. He gave a sardonic smile.
"Let's be honest I haven't been your husband in years. Not a real one to you or the one you truly deserve; the only reason I stayed in our marriage was for the kids. Now they are gone; there's no point in pretending anymore" he told her as he released her hands and stepped away from her.
"But-" she started.
"We make each other miserable and something tells me that you'll be better off without me" he told her as he pulled off his wedding ring.
"Mike-" Christina started but Mike cut her off.
"Goodbye Christina" Mike said he placed the wedding ring on the table and walked out of the house. He didn't even look back as he walked to the SUV and jumped into the passenger seat. The state trooper frowned in confusion as he'd barely been gone 10 minutes.
"That was a quick reunion" he remarked. Mike looked out the front windscreen of the vehicle.
"More like quick divorce. Take me back to my ship" Mike told the officer.
****End of flashback***
He looked to the large screen all they knew was on that map being displayed was a location where Kate and Rachel were being held. He wondered if he going to find out that she too was dead. He wasn't sure how he would handle her being dead after everything they had been through. He was still angry about how he'd not been able to find her after Lt Norris took over the ship. Listening to that asshole gleefully tell him how he stuffed Kate into a box and flew her off to parts unknown.
How smug Norris had been, how he spoke about her like she were some kind of golden goose and that Mrs Granderson was going to be so happy with him for his exceptional work. The days where Norris mocked him with information of what they were going to do to her and the female members of the Nathan James crew. He had just snapped, all the quiet plans he'd made to get the ship had gone out the window.
He'd gotten the ship back but not without losses, the following weeks he wore the guilt of his failures. His anger at the loss of life not just his kids but those under his command. It all burned inside him with his grief. He wanted to be out there searching for Kate but he had his duty to the ship and the crew. He also knew if he couldn't keep a level head out there. He knew the only way Kate could be saved is by people who could remain calm under the pressure and he couldn't where she was concerned. If she died or was already dead, it would tip him over the edge. Something that he didn't want to think about what would happen.
