Disclaimer: I don't own SeaQuest. If I did, it would be on the air.

Okay, thanks to all who reviewed. I hope you like this next chapter and I hope to have another written and posted in about 6 hours.

Dr. Jana Stefanekova had screamed involuntarily when Wolenczak was shot. She couldn't help herself. Tears sprang to her eyes as the pitifully small body jerked and fell in a spray of blood.

I've never seen anyone shot before. She thought stupidly. It looks just like the cinema.

Then she heard her own name. She looked up. One of the guards was moving toward her. She hadn't been paying attention to Williams but when she glanced at the horrified gazes directed toward her she understood.

She was next.

It was difficult to breathe suddenly. She gasped air in but it seemed to flutter in her esophagus instead of supply her lungs with oxygen as it aught to do.

The guard stopped in front of her and said in a surprisingly quiet voice, "Get up."

She couldn't speak. She looked up, her eyes bright with tears and terror. The man was frowning down at her and his expression was sympathetic but resigned.

"Please don't make me force you. It will be uncomfortable."

The rational part of Jana's mind told her that the sensible thing to do would be to comply. The man was armed and, even if he wasn't, much stronger than she was. He could stand her on her head if he wanted to. She knew she should get up and go with him but her body wouldn't obey her.

Tears continued to stream down her face, she continued to breathe in useless gasps and now her head was shaking violently back and forth.

I don't want to die!

The armed man sighed heavily and grabbed her by the arm. He pulled hard, painfully, obviously expecting resistance and floundered momentarily when Jana's body simply sagged in his grasp.

"Let her go!" someone said to her right. "If you must take someone, take me."

It was a man's voice and Jana was vaguely curious who was offering up their life in her place but by now her breathing really was becoming a problem and points of light surrounded by darkness crowded in her vision.

The armed man was still trying to pull her up but her legs were rubbery and wouldn't hold her. He sighed again and, once again with surprising gentleness, lifted her into his arms like a child and carried her from the room.

"I don't want to die." She whispered furtively. She wasn't really expecting much of a reaction but she had to say it out loud.

The man's only reply was an inarticulate grunt.

She knew she was being pathetic. That she should be braver and face death with dignity but she didn't want to die. She had worked so hard to get her doctorate and establish herself.

I wasted all that time. She thought sadly. I should have been more like Wolenczak.

Wolenczak was three years her junior, still only sixteen, and rather than waste time jumping through academic hoops as she had done, he went straight to work. Jana had been lucky to be included on the guest list at this gathering, and Wolenczak had been the keynote speaker. Now she would never have the chance to test her own theories and make her own discoveries.

I don't want to die. She thought again desperately. I just got here.

The man was carrying her through the lobby now and toward an office door. Jana was still gasping out silent sobs when suddenly something completely took her breath away.

There, sitting slumped on a sofa looking pained and breathless but very much alive, was Lucas Wolenczak.

He was grinning at the man named Williams. It was a defiant, confident grin and Jana once again felt ashamed of her incapacitating fear. Her head whirled. If Wolenczak was still alive…it had been a fake out. No wonder it looked like the cinema. The practical part of her mind commented.

She gasped loudly, her lungs finally demanding she stop holding her breath. The sound brought her entrance to the attention of the three people in the room.

Williams turned toward her. "Dr. Stefanek." He greeted her in a pleasant tone, as thought they were being introduced over cocktails.

"Stefanekova." She corrected automatically.

Williams smiled again. "Oh yes, I almost forgot that you were from an Eastern European country. I apologize but I've forgotten exactly where."

"Slovakia." Jana answered, once again running on automatic.

"Charles, I believe that you can put Dr. Stefanekova down here on the sofa next to Mr. Wolenczak and return to the ball room. My, my but we've managed to pick the two people in the room with probably the most syllables to their names, haven't we?" And Jana found herself feeling a growing annoyance at the man's calm and almost jovial tone.

The man holding her deposited her and actually gave her a brief smile before quickly making his exit.

"I know that what you've just experienced cannot have been pleasant but it was unfortunately, necessary. You may have also deduced why it is you we wish to present as our next victim to the UEO."

"Because I'm the youngest?" Jana answered as the reason suddenly occurred to her. "I mean, the youngest after Mr. Wolenczak? You want them to see you killing off the younger generation."

Williams eyes sparked. "Exactly, you and your young counterparts are the key to the future of science and technology on this planet. If the UEO is convinced that we are robbing them of the world's young bright things, they will be more likely to acquiesce to our demands."

"I'm not a thing!" Jana said suddenly angry. She liked the feeling. The anger made her feel strong.

Williams blinked in surprise. "No, you're not. Unfortunately, however, the leaders of the world see you as just that. Something to be controlled, even traded or sold. Something to be acquired. They see knowledge as leverage. We are using that against them today."

"Look," Wolenczak said then. "Don't get me wrong. I agree with what you want. But this isn't going to work."

"I think you underestimate your importance, young Lucas." Williams said with a quiet smile.

"I think you underestimate the Captain. What you're doing here? It's wrong." Lucas said angrily. "We have processes. The world has a system for…"

"The system is broken!" Williams shouted suddenly and Jana shrank back involuntarily.

"You think I haven't tried the system? You think I just woke up one day and said, 'I want the world to change for the better and the only was I can think of to accomplish this is to take hostages and pretend to kill them until I get what I want.'?"

Williams stalked across the room. "I have spent my life trying to preserve human life. I've traveled the world and fought disease and you know what I've seen? I've seen children dying from diseases that are easily treated and cured but they die because they have no medicine. The medicine is no longer produced because the disease no longer exists in the markets in which producing the medicine would turn a profit."

Williams turned back to the two teenagers, almost desperate.

"The knowledge is there! But the companies won't release it. People, children, die because a company hoards the cure that would save them on the off chance that it might one day be valuable to them again."

Wolenczak smirked, "Uh, yeah. Preacher?" He pointed at Williams. "Meet the choir." And he pointed to himself. "I agree with you, Man. 100. That doesn't make what you're doing here right. The Captain's not just going to sit around and let you do this. He's going to stop you. You might as well just give up."

Wolenczak frowned thoughtfully, "You might get away. I could tell him not to chase you. I mean, you haven't really killed anyone, just taken hostages. I'm pretty sure he'd be willing to just make a show of trying to catch you."

Williams laughed loudly.

"You're going to have to explain to me how you know Nathan. I can tell you know him well. You have absolute faith in him."

"He's my Captain." Wolenczak said simply.

Jana was confused. She was very happy that her breathing had calmed and she was thinking much more clearly but had no idea who this Captain Nathan they were discussing was. She wanted very much to ask but wanted even more for them to continue to ignore her.

Williams turned his attention back to her and looked as if he were about to say something.

No such luck. Might as well ask the question.

"Who is Captain Nathan?" She said before Williams could speak.

Williams smiled. "Nathan Bridger. He's a sometime scientist, sometime sailor. Runs a sub called the SeaQuest, you might have heard of it."

Jana's quick mind flashed through the information it held on the subject of both Capt. Nathan Bridger and the SeaQuest.

"Oh." She said quietly. "I've always wanted to meet him."

She couldn't believe how calmly she had uttered that statement.

Wolenczak turned to her but then gasped in sudden pain and clutched his chest. He was suddenly coughing weakly. The woman who had been sitting quietly in the corner of the room rushed to his side and patted at his chest with a concerned look.

Jana's mind whirled again. This was the most emotionally and mentally confusing situation in which she had ever found herself. These people were their captors. Threatening their lives and now suddenly its all a show and they're treating wounds.

Wolenczak apparently was having none of it.

"Get away from me." He gasped. "You don't…get to hurt someone…then kiss it better." He glared at her. "You..." He had to cough again. "You did this."

"Lucas," the woman said. "If you only knew. You haven't seen the tiny graves…"

"Please leave me alone." Wolenczak said pleadingly. "I might agree with your agenda but I do not agree with your methods. You're not going to convert me. I think you're only trying because you want to feel better about what you're doing which should tell you right there that what you're doing is wrong."

The woman sighed sadly. "Yes. What we're doing is wrong." She said with a soft accent. "But it was the only choice."

"There's always another choice." Wolenczak protested weakly.

Williams smiled. "Wrack up a few more decades, young man. Then we'll talk."

Wolenczak only glared in response.

"Young lady." Williams said turning to her and she was oddly grateful that he had chosen to address her in that way. It made her angry.

"My name is Dr. Jana Stefanekova." She said in a voice that sounded much bolder and braver than she actually felt.

Williams bowed apologetically but with a smug smile.

"Young Doctor," he began again. "I am going to leave you here with young Mr. Wolenczak. In approximately 30 minutes it will be necessary to bind you, gag you and dress you in the equipment we recently used on Mr. Wolenczak. Is there anything I can get for you in the meantime?"

Jana couldn't believe it. "Are you serious?"

Williams grimaced. "I would prefer this to be as painless as possible."

"I don't need anything." Jana said simply.

"Very well then." Williams started to turn toward the door and the woman with the accent followed him. "I will leave you now but one of my associates will be guarding the door. Please do not do anything so foolish as try to escape."

Then their two captors were gone and it was just her and Wolenczak. There was a long, heavy silence. Jana had no idea what you were supposed to say in these circumstances.

Finally, Wolenczak broke the silence.

"So, um, I know this is weird but," He tried to shrug and winced instead. "We haven't exactly been introduced."

"Oh, um, I'm Jana." Jana said awkwardly.

"Lucas." He held out his hand tentatively and Jana shook it as gently as possible.

"It hurts." She said simply and even she could hear the dread in her voice.

Lucas gave her a sympathetic, no, empathetic look. "Yeah, actually, it does."

Then he smiled. "But I lived."

Jana choked down a sob and sat without speaking. She was afraid to open her mouth. Afraid she might scream or cry or otherwise humiliate herself.

"So, um, you told Williams you were a doctor." Lucas said at last. "What's your field of study."

"Genetics." Jana answered curtly, still trying to limit the amount of time her mouth was open.

"Oh."

"You?" She asked politely.

Lucas smiled. "I don't really have a field. I'm not a doctor and I think I might have some kind of attention disorder or something. My mind bounces from thing to thing."

Jana didn't know what to say but felt like there should be more talking.

"I was really keen to visit here." She said at last. "The Meyer complex is one of the first underwater facilities to use biological means of oxygen production and carbon monoxide scrubbing."

Lucas jerked as though he were going to sit up straight but then collapsed in gasps and coughs.

Jana looked on helplessly as he regained his breath, cursing the fact there was nothing she could do to help.

"You mean, there is a bio scrubber here?" Lucas finally gasped.

"Yes. 85 of oxygen production comes from the bio scrubber in the east wing. It's really fascinating, actually. Geneticists were able to create a type of algae that consumes hydrogen from water molecules and creates oxygen as a by product. There are separate filtration systems throughout the complex that are basically just rooms full of another design of algae that consumes carbon monoxide and also produces oxygen as a by-product….What?" Jana couldn't understand the expression on Lucas' face.

"I think I just figured out how to get us all out of this." He said triumphantly.