What Lies Within Us
Thanks to my beta, Sandy, for your very accurate pointers!
Chapter 4
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"I don't know if I quite believe that you're from the future," Brody told Lieutenant Wolenczak. "But wherever you're from, that's an impressive piece of work." The security head gestured towards the vessel in front of them.
Lieutenant Wolenczak gave him a small smirk. Being on the team that helped develop them, Wolenczak had always wondered what Brody would think of the new sub-fighters they had been developing. Irrationally, he was happy to discover that Brody was impressed.
"I assure you that I am from the future," Wolenczak promised . "And just be glad you didn't see the prototype. It was pretty rough."
"Well, the end result certainly makes up for it," Brody acknowledged. "You do seem awful certain that you're from the future. What makes you so sure?"
"Other than the fact that you're all here, you mean?" Wolenczak laughed bitterly. "Because we certainly aren't all together twenty-six years from now."
"Yes, other than that. When you first woke up, you seemed determined that we were all part of some trick. What made you change your mind?" Brody asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
A way of sentiment washed over Wolenczak at that familiar Brody gesture, but he quickly pushed it out of the way. *I'm a soldier,* he reminded himself. *I don't have the luxury of being sentimental.*
"The Chaodai and Macronesians have been rumored to have been developing some pretty advanced torture techniques, including mind-altering substances," Wolenczak confided to Brody. "Since my last memory was of them in battle, I naturally assumed that they had captured me."
Brody nodded, giving the other man an indication that his reasoning made sense, even if he didn't completely buy everything Wolenczak was saying. "So what made you change your mind? You seem pretty confident that you've traveled back in time, and that we're not some sort of trick."
"Brody, you know as well as I do that torture has to have some positive effect for the torturer, right?" At Brody's nod, Wolenczak continued, "Well, how is this scenario beneficial to anyone who might be torturing me? None of you have harmed me, the only questions you've asked are the ones the enemy would already know the answers to, and you're allowing me to fix my vessel after having given me medical aide. Does that sound like torture to you?"
"No," Brody agreed thoughtfully.
"You should know," Wolenczak pointed out.
Brody glanced up quickly at that, his face painted with shock. "How. . .?" he questioned. Then he quickly recovered, and his face hardened along with his voice. "That's highly classified information, Lieutenant."
Wolenczak shrugged. "I'm Lucas, remember? There's nothing I can't find out if I want to. Anyone with a brain would know that you damn well should have been a higher rank than Lieutenant after the Korean incident. I wanted to know why you didn't. Turns out you would have, if it hadn't been for that little being held prisoner stint that virtually no one knows about – and the ensuing psychological toll."
Brody's jaw clenched and Wolenczak felt a pang of remorse. *Now, now, Lucas. Good soldiers don't feel remorse, either, do they?* "Look, what happened was hardly you're fault. I don't know why you're so upset that I know."
"Primarily because it's none of your business," Brody retorted. "I believe we have a vessel to repair, Lieutenant."
Wolenczak turned to walk inside, but stopped and turned back to look at Brody levelly. "I never told anyone else, Brody," he said quietly. "And I'm not planning on doing so."
"Look, I don't know who you are, really. The information on that capture has been hidden beyond just about anyone's ability to discover. Except maybe Lucas," Brody said in frustration. "If you are who you say you are, I know I can trust you."
Again a wave of sentiment washed over Wolenczak, and again he pushed it away, albeit with much more difficulty. "Come on, Lieutenant. We have a sub-fighter to repair," he said finally.
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Although SeaQuest was a large boat by submarine standards, gossip traveled faster aboard the vessel than it would have on a sparsely manned cargo sub. Mealtime was the best catalyst for such gossip.
"Where's Lucas?" Miguel asked as he sat down at the table where Tim, Lonnie and Tony sat.
"Which one?" Tim asked with a roll of his eyes.
His companions laughed. "I meant our Lucas," Miguel clarified. "Not the imposter."
"Oh," Tim replied. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather know about very angry and hostile Lucas?"
"The Lucas that can curse better than anyone in this room?" Lonnie piqued up.
"The Lucas who is a Lieutenant?" Tony questioned.
"The Lucas that doesn't know that Captain Bridger is the Captain of the boat?" Tim rejoined.
"No, no, no!" Miguel laughed again. "I don't want to know about the imposter. Well, I do. But first I want to know where our real Lucas is. Wasn't he supposed to join us for lunch?"
"Yeah, but he's working on something for Captain Bridger. Don't look for him to come out of our quarters 'til he does." Tony gave a dramatic groan and added, "Which I hope is before tonight, because it's awfully hard to get to sleep with all that typing."
"As for the imposter, who knows?" Tim remarked.
"I heard Captain Bridger tell Commander Ford that the imposter is in the landing bay with Brody," Lonnie supplied.
"That doesn't sound very safe for Brody," Tim observed.
"Oh, Jim can take care of himself. He's very strong, you know," Lonnie said dismissively, ignoring the eye rolls of her companions.
"Did you hear them say anything about this guy's claims?" Miguel questioned.
Lonnie shook her head, but Tony passed along a bit of his own gossip. "I heard from an orderly that works in sickbay that the imposter is claiming to be Lucas from the future."
"The future?" Tim asked skeptically. "You'd think if he were a spy for the miners, he'd have a better story than that."
"Well, if he was from the future, it would explain why he recognized you by the sound of your voice," Miguel suggested. "I don't know how he'd get such good intel to know something like that."
"You don't really believe that guy's cockamamie story, do you?" Tony asked incredulously.
Miguel shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't heard all of it. But we've gone back in time before, why should we be the only ones?"
Lonnie scowled. "You guys are forgetting something very important. He can't possibly be from the future. What would I ever do to have been demoted?"
Commander Ford began making his way towards the table at that moment, and they all wisely decided to end their gossip. Which meant that Tony, Tim, and Miguel were spared the task of answering Lonnie's question.
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Initially, Brody had been admittedly skeptical of Lieutenant Wolenczak's story. *Sure, we've traveled back in time before, but that had to be a once in a lifetime occurrence,* he'd reasoned. *People don't go time traveling whenever they feel like it, like this is Quantum Leap or something.*
However, whatever disbelief Brody had towards Wolenczak's claims was rapidly beginning to disappear. As the security chief assisted in fixing the targeting mechanisms of the sub-fighter, he came across U.E.O. signatures in the technology. All U.E.O. vessels had them. It could quite possibly be proof that the Lieutenant was telling the truth.
*Then again, it could simply be proof that the mess with the miners was more complicated than they had imagined,* Brody reminded himself.
Remembering the conversation he'd had with Dr. Smith in medbay, Brody frowned and went back to work, trying to keep an open mind. Nonetheless, he kept a cautious eye on the visitor.
Open mind or not, Brody wasn't happy or comfortable with the idea of someone else knowing something from his past that he tried so hard to keep hidden. *Well, I haven't had to try that hard,* Brody acknowledged. *Most people on the boat fall for the 'I don't want to brag about it' line.* It was believable that Lucas wouldn't and would do some digging around. *Nosey, but it sounds like Lucas alright.*
Maybe that solidified the lieutenant's claims. . . *Or maybe the miners have supporters much higher up in the UEO than we previously believed.*
Brody was jerked from his reverie with the sound of Wolenczak cursing angrily. Looking up from the console he had been repairing, he asked, "What's the matter?"
He was greeted with something he hadn't expected. Wolenczak's shoulders were slumped in a defeated posture. As Wolenczak sat in his defeated posture, Brody's trained military glance again surveyed his profile. In the slumped position, the other man bore a startlingly resemblance to Lucas.
"My ship was able to send an encrypted message before they were destroyed," Wolenczak said quietly.
"What's the message?"
Wolenczak shrugged. "I don't know yet, I haven't played it."
"Maybe you should."
Wolenczak gave Brody a slight smile. "Maybe so."
Minutes later, the image of Tim O'Neil filled the display panel in front of them. "Lucas, if you're receiving this transmission, then you already know SeaQuest has been destroyed. We've discovered the Macronesians and the Chaodai are planning a joint attack on UEO headquarters after SeaQuest is gone."
A man Brody didn't recognize came into view at that point. "It's imperative you stop them, Lieutenant. By whatever means necessary."
The transmission ended. Instead of the UEO logo, the screen simply went black.
Brody and Wolenczak simply sat in silence for a moment before Brody spoke up. "Well, I guess that's pretty much all the proof I need." Raising his PAL, he hailed the Captain.
"Yes, Lieutenant?" Bridger's voice questioned. "Is there a problem?"
"No, there's no problem, Sir. But there is something you need to see."
"Can you be a bit more specific, Lieutenant?" The Captain's voice held more than a fraction of irritation to it.
"We found a message sent to Lieutenant Wolenczak by SeaQuest before they were destroyed in his time."
There was a pause on the other side. "Report to the wardroom in thirty minutes. Bring the message with you."
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On the bridge, Captain Bridger shook his head. Even Brody believed the visitor's story. Shaking off the cold feeling left by the words Lieutenant Wolenczak, the Captain turned to Commander Ford. "Gather everyone in the wardroom immediately, Commander. I want to brief them on what we do know about our guest before he and Brody arrive."
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Undeniably, sixteen-year old Lucas Wolenczak was a genius. His shipmates knew this. His parents knew this. Lucas himself should have known this, as he had been reminded of this fact often throughout his childhood.
However, as he sat in front of his computer screen, blissfully unaware of the turmoil taking place outside of the comfort of his quarters, the sheer agitation of his current problem threatened his remembrance of that fact. The information on "Macronesia" and the "Chaodai" did not appear to be related at all. And Hudson? As far as Lucas could tell, the man had nothing to do with either one of the organizations.
Irritation and self-disgust permeated Lucas' thoughts and left him feeling more like a helpless child than a genius. *Come on, Lucas,* he scolded himself. *The Captain is depending on you.* The thought only served to further drive home the feeling of worthlessness.
Gnawing on his lower lip, Lucas considered the possibilities. Giving himself a mental kick as inspiration set in, he quickly ran a cross check on Charles Hudson with Macronesia.
As he achieved success, Lucas allowed himself a satisfied smile, extremely relieved that he hadn't let the Captain down after all. So engrossed was Lucas in his downloading of the information that he was caught off-guard when Tony barged into their quarters unexpectedly.
"Hey, Luke, heads up, we've got a meeting. The Captain wants us in the wardroom pronto!" Tony informed the teenager.
Trying to pretend he hadn't jumped at the sound of the older man's voice, Lucas turned his best scowl towards Tony as he replied. "Don't call me Luke. Do you always have to be so loud?"
"Hey, where I'm from, the only quiet people are deaf," Tony retorted.
Lucas sighed the sigh of a tortured soul. "The mute, Tony."
"What?"
"The mute. There's no reason for the deaf to be silent. Deaf people can talk. A large percentage do. It's the mute that can't talk."
"Oh. Well, aren't all mutes deaf? Or was it all deafs are mute?"
Lucas rubbed his temples and shook his head. "It's neither one, Tony, unless the speaker is an idiot."
"Whatever. Look, get your nose out of that computer and come on. The loony toon that's claiming to be you is going to be there."
That did pique Lucas' interest. Pressing a couple of buttons to save and encrypt the information he had discovered, Lucas turned off the computer and headed toward the wardroom.
Lucas had not really given much thought to the imposter while he had been working on obtaining information on Macronesia and the Chaodai. Nonetheless, he was certainly intrigued by the man's claims. The man's story didn't make a lot of sense, in Lucas' opinion. *Why would the miners use some guy claiming to be me? And if they did, why would they claim to have him be a lieutenant?*
"Hey, Tony?" he asked as they walked towards the wardroom together, "Have you heard anything about what this guy is claiming?"
"Yep. He says he's from the future," Tony supplied, "Which, if you ask me, isn't nearly as much fun as having a rich uncle Preston suddenly appear."
Lucas gave another exasperated sigh for good measure before commenting, "I don't know, Tony, if he really is from the future, he could tell us a lot." *Hmm. Miguel did say it was like he appeared out of no where. It was near that whirlpool too.*
A whirlpool that closely resembled the distortion that had taken the SeaQuest crew back in time only a couple months before.
"Like what?" Tony was saying.
"Well, he could tell us what the future's like. He could help us prevent mistakes, let us know about the good things ahead of time," Lucas argued.
"What's the fun in that?" Tony demanded. "Life's a sport, Lucas. You need to live it to the fullest. How are you supposed to do that if someone spoils the fun?"
"But if you know ahead of time what's going to happen, you can be prepared," Lucas argued.
Tony rolled his eyes, "You and being prepared. Takes the fun out of everything, Luke. 'Sides, I don't really think he is who he says he is anyway."
Lucas remained quiet for the rest of the journey to the wardroom, but he was not nearly as skeptical as his friend. In fact, Lucas knew that it was quite possible that the man was telling the truth.
Lucas was quite anxious to meet Lieutenant Wolenczak.
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