Adapt
Chapter Nine
Enjoy!
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"Fix it!" Simmons had grabbed Lucas by the back of his neck and was jamming the teenager's face against a nonfunctioning console that was lit only by the battery-operated lantern Tollman held above the proceedings.
Westphalen and Bridger were being restrained as the coalition leader focused one last-ditch effort on the teenager who supposedly could, but would not, save the ship and its occupants.
"Do you not understand that we'll be evacuating and leaving you and your crew here to drown? You need to fix this now! We need this ship!" Simmons was fast becoming enraged beyond any measure the coalition would have expected from their mild-mannered leader. Clearly he, too, had felt the strain of policing the boat – and his own men. The thought of losing it all, and losing the crew of seaQuest as a necessary casualty, was more than the man could countenance.
"Suffocate," Lucas managed to gasp out between his panicky breaths as the large terrorist manhandled him. "We wouldn't drown."
"You think those tubes were closed when the pressure seals went dark?" Simmons' laugh came out more manically than he'd expected it to. "You'll drown."
"Oh," Lucas responded.
"That means-," Tollman looked from Lucas' terrorized and betrayal-stricken face to Simmons' desperate, furious expression. "We don't have much time to evacuate."
"No kidding," Simmons gritted out. He pulled out a pair of handcuffs and lashed Lucas to a supporting brace beneath the console. "Fix it or drown, then."
Simmons gestured to the coalition, who herded Westphalen and Bridger out of the room and they hurried toward the docking area.
Tollman did not look back at Lucas, who was eerily silent as the bridge emptied around him.
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"I can't do anything with this," Miguel shrugged. "And we're standing in water. This isn't working, and we definitely don't have an hour."
"Ooooh, man," Perkins moaned. Considering Miguel's words for a moment, he made a decision. "This has been one long disaster. Follow me and we'll salvage as much as we can."
"What?" Miguel had to run to catch up when the terrorist dashed out of the engineering interface area.
The two men sprinted together until they reached Perkins' de facto quarters.
"Take this uniform and put it on," Perkins pressed a jumpsuit into Miguel's hands and began to ransack the small room. The water was one level below them at the moment, filling the lowest level of the ship, and both were painfully aware that the docking area was only a deck above them. There was not much time to effect a covert evacuation. "I've only got three more uniforms."
"It will have to do," Miguel hadn't attempted to put on the jumpsuit. "That makes four people we can get out of here."
"Ortiz," Perkins protested, "We may not even find anyone else in time. Put it on."
"I'm going down with the ship," Miguel responded firmly. "Now take me to Lucas and let's make sure he's on the first transport out of here."
"The bridge?" Perkins shrugged helplessly. "I don't know if he's still there."
"It's a place to start. Let's go."
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Katie and Tim burst into opposite ends of the largest detainment area simultaneously.
"Follow him!" Commander Hitchcock quickly ordered the disoriented group of scientists her flashlight revealed. "O'Neill is at the other door and taking people to safety."
"Katie?" Ben's voice rang out over confused questions and noise in the room. "Katie? Way to go!"
"Thanks, Ben – keep these people safe!" The Commander spared a quick grin for the indomitable voice of support from the otherwise confused crew. "Take them with Tim and back him up!"
"Will do!" Ben laughed triumphantly and infectiously, helping those nearest him to navigate the very dark room toward Tim's dim source of light. The mood in the room instantly began to lighten into one of hope and optimism.
Katie ducked back out of the room, cursing the absence of Crocker. If she had gotten him locked in solitary confinement due to their conspiracy, then it might be a while before she could find him – and rumor had it that the aquatubes had frozen open when the power cut out. That meant they had to evacuate people to the highest decks of the ship and jury rig a solution before they all drowned waiting for the UEO to jumpstart the ship's systems. Leading crewmembers into any form of conflict in the docking area was unthinkable, Katie had unilaterally decided when she found out about the aquatubes, and so they had to do what they could without considering full evacuation as an option.
'I have to find him,' Katie frowned deeply. 'I got him into this, and I will get him out of it.' She began searching, corridor by corridor, praying that nobody would notice her absence and be so foolish as to potentially trap themselves in a rapidly submerging deck by trying to find her.
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Lucas stood motionless on the bridge, trying to wrap his traumatized mind around his predicament and to decide on a course of action. Gazing down at the powerless console, Lucas shook his head and considered in vain whether he should have helped fight the virus when he'd had a chance.
"Lucas!"
The teenager spun around awkwardly, favoring his left wrist in its metal cuff, and came face to face with a breathless Tollman.
"You were lying – using me --," Lucas accused angrily, instinctively backing into the console. "You turned on me."
"I, uh," Tollman knew Lucas was right, but he also knew that halfway to the docking area he'd found himself back in the role of Lucas' secret coconspirator. And he had come back. "I think I was lying the truth."
"What?" Lucas watched expressions cross Tollman's face and decided once and for all that Tollman was mentally unstable. "You should go. Go evacuate with the others." Lucas began to fight the handcuffs as Tollman stepped toward him.
"I want to save you, Lucas," Tollman spoke again, his tone inappropriately light and breezy. "Come on, you can evacuate with me."
In a moment Lucas was uncuffed and being hustled down a corridor toward the stairwell that led toward the docking bay.
"Help!" Lucas called out, trying to fight the terrorist in the semidarkness that was illumined only by a military-issue glow stick attached to Tollman's uniform. "Captain! Ben! Anyone! It's Lucas! Help me!"
"They're going to die; we have to go." Tollman didn't slow down as he grabbed Lucas around the waist and threw him over his shoulder. They descended the stairs rapidly.
Lucas was pinned against Tollman's shoulder, facing downwards as they descended the metal stairs. He could see below them for a few feet, and as they descended he realized that the green glow emanating from Tollman's uniform was reflecting back from rising water a couple of decks below them.
"We can't go to the docking bay!" Lucas shouted as they descended quickly toward the water. "It's flooded!"
Lucas could tell that the water had only begun to seep onto the docking bay's deck, but he prayed that Tollman wouldn't realize that – Lucas had to get to the crew and help. Help save the seaQuest, and help the others survive.
"What?" Tollman stopped their descent a deck above the docking bay. "We're too late! I'll have to get us some scuba gear. Wait here."
"What?" Lucas didn't manage to protest or even realize what Tollman meant before it was too late.
The terrorist left the teenager cuffed to the stairs and headed off in search of breathing apparatus.
"Oh God, help!" Lucas howled up the stair shaft even as he found himself left in pitch blackness, in a rapidly flooding section of the boat.
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"Ben!" Security Chief Crocker called through the door of his cell. He could hear the loud, enthusiastic leader of the newly freed hostages as he hastened through the boat's mid levels. "Ben, can you hear me?"
"Crocker?" Both Ben and Tim hurried to investigate.
"We'll have you out in no time!" Ben quickly began working on the door as Tim took advantage of the momentary pause and walkie-talkied the few who still had access to their handsets at this point.
The security chief was delighted when the door opened to reveal a somewhat organized crowd of scientists and military crewmembers proceeding toward the bridge and upper levels of the boat.
"You've done it!" Crocker beamed. "Commander Hitchcock did it! It worked!"
"It sure did," A grinning Jonathan Ford rounded a corner at that moment and joined the group in the corridor. "We just need to jury rig the ballast to repressurize the aquatubes until power is restored. Where's Lucas?"
"Good question; the bridge?" O'Neill ventured.
"Let's find out," Ford nodded his assent.
The group continued on its way through the darkened corridors toward their destination.
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On the bridge, Miguel and Perkins were regrouping.
"It's too late to get to the docking bay," Miguel stated. "We need another plan. They must have taken Lucas with them; we need to focus on the rest of the crew."
"They're on the lower decks," Perkins nodded toward the now-sealed clam doors. "Maybe if we got them up here and sealed the bridge off?"
"That would work, but we need a non-systems oxygen source too," Miguel mused. "You gather all the oxygen masks and tanks you can find – look in the storage area one deck down from here. I'm going after the crew."
"Aye," Perkins responded automatically.
Miguel grabbed a flashlight and gave Perkins a quick nod of acknowledgment before the two split up in the corridor.
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Ford was the first to reach the bridge.
"Freeze! Perkins, isn't it?" Ford leveled his weapon at Perkins, who backed quickly away from the pile he'd been assembling of breathing equipment.
"Yes, I'm helping Ortiz – he's looking for you. The plan is to seal off the bridge and buy time to try to kickstart the seaQuest," Perkins quickly rattled off the plan. "Help me bring more oxygen from below."
"Nobody else is around," O'Neill quickly offered Ford confirmation. "He wouldn't be here if that wasn't at least close to the truth."
Ford nodded brusquely. "Let's get the oxygen up here, then. Where's Katie?"
"She went after the other-," Ben did a quick double take. "Who are the other hostages, anyway? Almost everyone's here."
"Lucas, Bridger, and Westphalen, to start with," Ford grimaced. "But they could be anywhere. That was not part of the plan."
"What do we do about her?" Tim looked to Ford automatically for orders.
"Nothing," Jonathan sighed. "She'll have to make it on her own, or maybe Miguel will find her, but nobody's leaving this bridge until we have it secured. And we're going to need everyone here to do that."
Everyone turned to Ford in a unified argumentative and accusatory stare.
"Come on," Ford responded to the mob sentiment. "Let's get this place ready for them when they get here."
Tim reacted first, obediently turning to Perkins. "Lead on."
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Lucas had slumped into a defeated sitting position a few minutes after having been left alone in the dark, but when the water began to lap at his legs as they sprawled over the lower steps, he had quickly stood up. Now he waited in horror as the water began to lap at his calves.
"Tim?" A voice echoed faintly down the stairwell to Lucas. "Captain Bridger?"
"MIGUEL!" Lucas bellowed with all his strength. "Miguel, it's Lucas! I'm trapped in the stairwell!"
"Lucas?" Miguel's voice sounded still fainter. "Dr. Westphalen?"
"MIGUEL!" Lucas screamed. "Don't leave me here!" The water seemed to freeze his knees as it rose around him.
"Tollman?" Miguel's voice suddenly sounded closer, but this time it was a direct question and not a shout. "What are you-,"
"Up there," Tollman said urgently, pointing Miguel away from Lucas. "I-I left him up there. He's hurt."
"Miguel!!!" Lucas called desperately, realizing that Tollman was sending his friend away. "Help me!"
"What?" Miguel sounded terribly confused, and Lucas tried to guess whether he was two or three decks above the rapidly rising water. It reached Lucas' hips now, and he was beginning to despair that Miguel would get past Tollman in time.
Suddenly footsteps began to pound down toward him through the darkness, and a light began to grow on the stairs.
"I suckerpunched him, Lucas, keep talking!" Miguel dashed down the stairs at breakneck speed. "He's going to get back up, don't make me search for you!"
Lucas sobbed once with relief and quickly began calling up to his friend.
"I'm right here – on the stairs! Help me, the water's coming up above my waist!"
Miguel rounded the last corner and appeared just above Lucas.
"Handcuffs," Miguel stated flatly. "Let's see what we can do about that, huh? There's got to be an easy way to get those off."
"Are you just talking to calm me down because you don't know what to do?" Lucas demanded, holding his hands as high as he could, which was barely above the water's surface.
"Don't panic," Miguel answered straightforwardly, sensing that this was not a moment to finesse, "but yeah, I may need some help on this one. Any ideas?" The older seaman grasped Lucas' wrists and examined the cuffs. "I don't have anything that will cut metal, I definitely don't have the keys, and I didn't bring a weapon."
"Tollman!"
Both Miguel and Lucas started at the sound of an angry cry above them in the stairwell.
"Commander?" Lucas called.
"Commander Hitchcock?!" Miguel joined Lucas and the two of them began shouting up the stairs.
"Quiet down, will you?" Katie chuckled in desperate relief as she sprinted down the stairs toward the two. "I took him out; you two can come up now."
"Lucas is cuffed to the railing," Miguel informed Katie quickly. "I've got nothing to cut through metal."
"The water-," Lucas stopped himself from compulsively stating the obvious as the water crept up on his shoulders.
"I've got it," Katie snapped into action and pushed Miguel back a step through the deep water. "I could have just shot through it, but underwater…" Katie mused aloud. She reached into a small pocket on her belt and pulled out a jagged piece of metal left over from her decimated cot. "Lucas, you may have to hold your breath for a few seconds, but I promise that I'm not going to leave you here."
Katie spared Lucas one level, reassuring glance before reaching for his wrists.
"My breath?" Lucas gasped out, but managed to calm himself enough to surrender his wrists to the commander.
Katie went to work on the cuffs while Miguel grasped Lucas' now-submerged shoulders tightly. "You'll be OK," Miguel whispered to the quivering teenager. Lucas felt tears roll down his face as his helplessness and the proximity of his friends struck him hard after such a long separation. "You'll be OK, Lucas."
Katie could feel the cuffs' complicated lock begin to tumble, but she knew that it could still be another minute before she got it to release entirely. If Lucas began to thrash, it might become impossible. Looking up from her struggle in the dark for a moment, she saw by the shaky light of Miguel's flashlight that Lucas was going to lose the ability to breathe in another few seconds.
"Grab him and hold him, Miguel," Katie ordered. "Don't let him move too much, OK?"
Lucas instinctively began to fight at those words, feeling the water move over his upturned face and registering his body's inability to move above the surface – and Miguel's arms suddenly turning from supportive to restrictive.
Miguel gasped for his own breath as he held his friend under the water. Or, he corrected his thought, the handcuffs held Lucas under and Miguel held him still – to save his life. As he tried to remind himself why he was restraining his struggling, drowning friend, the cuffs released and he stumbled backward, pulling Lucas above the water's surface.
"Lucas! Are you all right?" Katie immediately grasped Lucas' chin and tried to assess his condition in the low, flickering light.
Lucas coughed, breathed deeply, and found he had no words to respond with.
"Never mind," Miguel gripped Lucas firmly, feeling the teen's whole body convulsing with the effort he was putting into gasping for air. "Let's just get up to the bridge."
The three hurried out of the water and began climbing the stairs toward the bridge. Miguel tried to support Lucas, but the younger crewmember quickly broke away and led the other two up the stairs. Katie took advantage of this when they passed Tollman's body – she was able to point it out to Miguel without Lucas seeing her gesture down the corridor at the corpse.
Miguel saw the body, and mimicked a gun discharging; Katie nodded. Score one for having stolen a lethal weapon from the coalition, she thought darkly.
They both hurried after the teen, sobered and too traumatized to exult in their victories just yet. The boat was still sinking, and it was possible that they had only delayed Lucas' drowning for another twenty minutes or so. The water was rising faster and faster as the boat sank into deeper waters and higher pressures.
They kept climbing.
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This story is amazingly almost finished! Thank you so much for the kind reviews!
-Hari
