An opponent
"That was very generous of Captain Hudson to give us all that shore leave." Piccolo said to O'Neil as they were preparing to leave SeaQuest, "I think I am beginning to like him."
O'Neil side glanced at Liza and said, "I think you are not the only one who is starting to like him here, Tony."
Liza didn't really hear him; she was watching Hudson who was standing a few meters away with Ford and a brunette in her late 30's wearing a blue navy uniform. "Who is our guest?" She asked Tim.
"Constable Elaine Morse." He said holding his eye glasses, "Chief Constable of Perseid mining colony."
Lucas smiled, "That makes us her guests." The three men smiled and moved to leave, while Liza stayed in place staring at Hudson and how he was looking at the constable. She had a strange feeling eating away at her gut but she didn't know what it was, or she didn't want to know.
A couple of days later, in the food court, Liza sat with Lucas and Ford at the same table to have lunch together. Lucas was saying, "Commander, you mean the haulers disappeared without a trace!?"
Ford nodded, "Yes, and we are here to guard and defend ships."
"What about Constable Morse?" Liza asked, in a voice that she worked hard at, to make it sound hushed.
"She is the Chief Security Constable of the colony." Ford answered.
Lucas interrupted by standing up when he saw Dagwood coming into the Food Court, "Excuse me, I need to talk to Dagwood."
Liza looked at her plate and moved the food around with her fork without really eating anything, "It seemed to me that Captain Hudson had met her before."
Ford sighed, "Liza it's personal, I'm not supposed to talk about that."
Liza asked in amazement, "Personal?! You mean him and Morse have..."
"Had ... I think." Ford interrupted.
She pressed him further, "Come on Jonathan, talk to me."
He laughed, "I have never known you to be that curious… they have a history, he was going to marry her."
She looked at him in shock, before Lucas came back to join them at the lunch table, "So how long are we staying here, Commander?" Lucas asked.
"It has been three weeks without any attacks or mysterious disappearances of any more of the haulers." Hudson said, with his hands on his hips facing Morse, Stallone, Ford, and Wolenczack in the Ward Room.
"The pirates probably moved on." Ford commented.
"We need SeaQuest leading convoys." Morse said, sounding tense.
Hudson raised an eyebrow, "What? Forever!" he asked, sounding amazed. But he continued, as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, "SeaQuest is nothing more than a bandage here, it's not a cure."
Morse seemed to be aggravated by Hudson's statement and yelled at him, "So what!? You are going to shrug your shoulders and just leave! Then again, that's your style."
Hudson raised his eyebrows again, this time in shock and it seemed as if Liza and Lucas were too.
Liza felt suffocated when she heard Morse yell at him, and seeing how Hudson had reacted to her hostility, until she heard Lucas make a noise that suggested that he wanted to speak his piece.
Hudson turned to him, noticing how Liza's face had grown so pale and then asked Lucas, "You have something to say, Ensign?"
"Sir, if the pirates want a setting duck, then we should give them one." Lucas suggested.
Lucas had just finished his work on the bait hauler, when Liza asked him with a worried tone to her voice, "Are you sure it's going to work?"
He answered, "There's nothing to worry about, there are three isotopes that we can track and they are radioactive, they can be seen from here on SeaQuest."
Morse interrupted the two as she approached, "You've got to be right… If I disappear, everything goes to my cabin."
Liza asked grudgingly, "Has the captain approved this?"
Morse stopped to face her with challenge written on her face, "He is your captain, not mine. I have approved of that."
The three of them suddenly heard Hudson's hard voice, "Well, because I am going too."
Liza turned to him in amazement, "That's my hauler, the only way it's leaving here, is with me on it." Morse said, stalking off towards the exit.
Liza asked Hudson, in a voice so that no one else could hear, "You are going with her, sir?"
He smiled at her, "Easy Stallone, she isn't going to bite me."
Liza stood there watching Hudson as he was leaving... with Morse.
On the Bridge, Ford sat in the captain's chair, keeping track of the hauler with his crew.
"They stopped. Something is wrong." O'Neil said, sounding worried.
A moment later he continued, "I lost them, sir."
Liza became terrified when she heard Tim say those words. It wasn't her shift, but she wanted to be on the Bridge to get updates about her captain.
"Lucas?" Ford turned, to the young blonde to see if he had an answer for what had just happened.
"They are gone… they just disappeared. The sensors can't read anything, even the isotopes." Lucas said, sounding confused.
The crew on the Bridge became worried when they heard those words from Lucas. Tim looked at Liza with sorrow in his eyes, when he saw the terrified look in her eyes. She couldn't see Tim, she actually couldn't see anyone. The only thing that Liza could see was Hudson's last smile that he had given her as he was leaving SeaQuest, for what could have been the last time. She felt her heart breaking, as she imagined that she wouldn't get to see his rare smile again.
In her room, Liza was setting on the edge of her bed crying silently to herself thinking of him.
He was so kind to her these past few months. He wasn't really as bad as he had seemed on his first few days on SeaQuest. He cared about all of them. He's sincere. She couldn't imagine working with any other captain, or even just staying on SeaQuest for one more moment without him. That can't just be the end. She was just getting started to... feel somehow connected to him. Until that Elaine showed up, that is. Damn it, she had ruined her life since the first moment that she had showed up on SeaQuest. But she wouldn't allow it; she won't let him go that easily. He deserves to be fought for! Liza got up off of the bed and threw her door open and started running towards the bridge. Once she had arrived, she saw Lucas working at his console, "Setting sensors to adapt to various water temperatures." She heard him say as she entered the room.
"How could that help?" Ford asked.
"The displacement of a moving vessel causes the surrounding water to heat up." Lucas replied, with a smile on his face, and looked up to Ford, "I got them!" He said, sounding victorious.
The pressure on the Bridge was suddenly relieved by those words and the crew became hopeful.
"Let's bring our Captain back." Ford said, as he sat back down in his chair in relief.
On the pirate's submarine, where Hudson's hauler had been captured, Hudson stood next to Morse, who had her arms crossed while facing their capturer.
"Dustin Thaw. I must have thought Deon was behind all of this." Hudson said.
"So smart Captain, Isn't it? You could never figure it out." Thaw replied, but he was interrupted by his sonar officer, "Sir, SeaQuest is approaching fast."
Thaw smiled confidently, "They will never know you are here, Hudson."
Hudson suddenly hit the guard next to him in the face and Morse followed his lead and did the same to the guard next to her, so that both of the guards fell to the ground. Both Hudson and Morse took the weapons from the guards and pointed them at Thaw and his officer, who had started speaking with fear in his voice, "SeaQuest fired! Two incoming torpedoes, Impact in 10 seconds!" Hudson moved towards him quickly while Morse kept her gun aimed towards the others, "Open the channel… Open it!"
The man connected him to SeaQuest, "SeaQuest, this is Captain Hudson, confirmation code 3delta06, hold your fire." Hudson called.
Then Fords voice could be heard in reply, "Confirmed. Roger, Wilco."
A couple of seconds later, they felt the boat shaking after the torpedoes had exploded meters away from them.
"Commander Ford, send us our people to put this crew in custody." Hudson said looking at Morse with a smile.
In his quarters, Hudson shut off the vidlink and turned to Morse, who looked at him with a challenging smile. "You are stubborn Elaine."
She caressed his navy shirt button unfastening it, "And this is why you loved me."
He projected a grin and replied, "This is why I couldn't live with you."
They heard knocking at the door, "It's open." Hudson said.
Liza entered with a big smile on her face but it quickly turned into a masked face, when she saw Elaine's hand on Hudson's chest, "Sorry, I didn't know that you were... not alone."
Morse put her hand down easily, while Oliver replied quickly, "It's okay, Lieutenant, Constable Morse was just going to leave."
Elaine raised an eye brow for a second, then kissed him lightly on his cheek, "See you Oliver." She said, before leaving the room.
Hudson looked embarrassed when he saw Liza's face turning red out of rage, as she followed Morse with her eyes, then she turned to change her expression to look at his face and then the unfastened button.
He fastened his button back and asked, "How can I help you, Lieutenant?"
She gave him the book that she had been clutching in her hand from the moment that she had come into his quarters, "I came to give you your book... Sir."
"Did you like it?" Hudson asked.
She didn't answer, so he asked her, "Come on Liza, what is that all about?"
She sighed and whispered to him, "I came to say welcome back; I am glad that you got back safe, Captain."
He cheered up and said, "Thank you, Lieutenant; this is so sweet of you. But you really didn't need the book trick to come to my quarters. You liked it?"
"Did you mean the Book, or your quarters, sir?" She asked, smiling.