The headache woke her.
The headache, and the half cold, half warm temperature assaulting her body.
Someone moaned.
Her.
"Come on, Doc." A voice called softly in her ear. "I need you to stay with me this time."
The urge to go back to sleep was strong. So strong. To just close her eyes and go back to the unknown. Her body position was awkward. The bedding lumpy. But she didn't mind. The darkness called her and she wanted to return. But Evan's steady stream of words kept interrupting. She tried to force her eyes open, to tell him to go away, to let her sleep. To swat at him and push him away, but her arms wouldn't move. Nor would her body. It was too early. She needed more.
"Jennifer… Jennifer! You need to stay awake. Come on. Just open your eyes."
Letting his words wash over her, she felt a twist of annoyance when her upper body rocked slightly. It took several tries but her eyes eventually remained open, her mind a fog of confusion. Waking up in a bed you didn't remember going to sleep in. Waking up in a room you don't recognize. Waking up with someone else when you normally slept alone.
Blue eyes stared into hers.
He smiled.
"Hi Doc. Welcome back."
She blinked. Her mouth was dry. Her head ached. Her legs were freezing. Her upper body was warm.
"Come on. Talk to me. Stay awake." Evan's smile faltered and he leaned lower, twisting his upper body beneath hers. "You're okay. But if we're going to get out of this mess, I'm going to need your help. You're going to have to sit up. Can you do that?"
Sit up? Jen realized his face was tilted. She was looking down into his eyes. He was lying on his side and she was… reclined against him. On him. Leaning against him like a couch cushion. Why was she leaning on Evan?
Her body tried to obey his request to sit up but it was impossible to convince her limbs to move. Her torso constricted and she bent at the middle, pulling herself upright. She felt him shifting out from behind her.
Her legs were folded beneath her and she shifted them forward. When she was unable to use her arms for leverage, she lost her balance and fell into Evan who was now sitting up beside her on her left.
"Careful, Doc." Evan warned. "Your hands and feet are tied. Don't move too far."
Jen straightened, her eyes locked on the think yellow cord wrapped around her ankles. A modem of concentration and she was back upright, this time looking at the equally tight loop of cords around Evan's feet. Bare feet.
Bare because he was still wearing his patient clothes from his stay in the infirmary.
Her head twisted and she looked to the right, her mind struggling for more information to clear out the last of the cobwebs.
Brown metal walls. Wet. Wet walls? No windows. Only a small light over a closed door. No, not a door, a hatchway. The air was cold. She could see her breath. Her legs were cold. And her ass. Damp. The floor was damp, too.
But it was the realization of what was on the other side of Evan that caught her attention and kicked in the adrenaline.
"Is that water?" She croaked out, staring at the obviously wet liquid rippling through the rest of the chamber.
They were sitting on the edge of a platform, narrow enough to keep them out of the water, but barely. The circular room was small – maybe twenty feet across, and completely closed in – the only sign of an exit was the light, and the hatchway, to Jen's right. The center of the room was completely filled with water, and judging by the twisting feeling in the pit of her stomach – the water was deep. Very, very deep.
"Where are we?" Jen glanced at Evan, who was watching her with an equal mix of concern and worry.
"It's an underwater access hole to the underside of the star drive." Evan answered, glancing into the water before turning back towards her.
"Star drive?" Jen squeaked, her mind immediately calculating just how far underwater the star drive was. She looked up at the ceiling. "You mean we're…"
"A couple hundred feet under the surface? Yeah."
"Oh…" She exhaled with growing horror. "This isn't good, is it?"
Evan shook his head. "Probably not."
"What happened? How did you get here? How did I get here?"
"I came courtesy of a P90 to the spine. You came over the shoulder of Jonathon Liddell."
"Jonathon Liddell? The… the engineer? But why would he… Why would I… I don't understand." She shook her head then immediately regretted the snappy movement when the room spun. She exhaled slowly and rode it out, hoping that whatever was in her system would leave quickly. And without after affects.
Evan watched her carefully before answering. "I was hoping you might have an idea. Liddell and Merrill weren't willing to share much info with me."
"Merrill? Corporal Merrill" Jen frowned, struggling to remember what happened last. "I was on my way to my quarters… no… wait… I was in my quarters. I needed to get some notes for Rodney… I remember a sharp pain in my shoulder." She rolled her neck. "After that…?" She looked around the room.
"Do you have any idea why someone would want to kidnap you?" Evan asked, shifting his weight. "Or… me?"
Jen nodded and turned towards him. "Actually I think I do… Someone's been stealing medical supplies. More specifically, drugs. I had a funny feeling something like this was happening but because of the way we tracked the supplies with the off-world teams, it was really hard to trace. So that's why I changed the restocking procedure six weeks ago."
"I remember." Evan tilted his head. "Doubled my paperwork."
Jen made a face. "Sorry."
Evan shook his head, his eyes narrowing. "So… someone's been taking supplies out of the kits? And because we now have everyone report any medical supply used, they couldn't sneak them any more… and decided to what? Just take them right from the stock room?"
Jen nodded. "I was hoping I was wrong. That people were just… losing things." She looked around the room. "Merrill and Liddell? Jonathon Liddell. Oh… lord. I didn't see that one coming."
"Any chance someone would have seen you with them?" Evan asked hopefully.
Jen shrugged. "Before I… disappeared… I was talking to Rodney. I asked him to go through all the names of anyone going off world when supplies went missing, against the supplies that are missing, and factor in who was here the past 3 days. I have a feeling these past three days were all just an attempt to cover their tracks."
"A glorified robbery?"
Jen nodded.
"Damn."
She glanced at Evan.
"I was hoping for something a little cooler to put on my mission report." He grinned.
Jen shook her head and rolled her eyes. "You're incorrigible." Then she shivered again. "So, now what?"
Evan shifted his shoulders and wiggled his bare toes. "You wouldn't happen to have a knife on you, would you? Homing beacon? GPS transmitter? Anything?"
Jen stiffened and blinked.
"What?" Evan looked immediately concerned.
"Actually…"
With an echoing clang, the hatch snapped and swung open before she could finish.
A P90 let itself into the opening followed by the clean shaven young face, and beefy body, of Corporal Merrill. He smiled and glanced at the man standing behind him.
"Dr. Keller, glad to see you're awake."
The nasally voice of Jonathon Liddell matched his weasel like appearance. Tall and wiry, his nose was long and thin, the perfect support for his wire framed glasses. Clean shaven and otherwise very neat, Jennifer would never, ever, have guessed the detail oriented, soft spoken engineer to be involved in anything illegal, much less theft and kidnapping. Her disdain must have shown on her face for he made a soft, tisk-tisk sound.
"Now, now, Doctor." He smiled. "Surely you can't fault a main for trying to make a living?"
Make a living? Jen shook her head. "What are you talking about? Why have you brought us here?"
"I'm talking, my dear Jennifer, about money." He leaned against the door frame and nodded at Merrill.
"The corporal and our civilian friend have been stealing drugs for a while now, haven't you?" Evan looked pointedly at Corporal Merrill, who at least had the grace to shift uncomfortably under the direct bore of his commanding officer. She did notice Merrill didn't stop pointing the P90 at them, however.
"Very good, Major." Merrill nodded in agreement. "We were doing just fine until Dr. Keller here decided to document everything. Each off world trip wouldn't miss a little bottle of this, vial of that. But with the added paperwork, we couldn't hide our indiscretions any longer."
Jonathon urged Merrill into the room, and stepped onto the platform behind him. "It made it… a little more difficult to complete our transactions." He continued. "But, we worked around it. As luck would have it, my contract is up," he looked at his watch. "In seven hours. So… I decided to make one last… shopping trip… before I retired."
Jen was beginning to feel dizzy from the speed at which she was shifting her eyes between Jonathon Liddell, and the barrel of the Corporal's P90. She was also rather shocked to think she'd been right about the robbery.
"So the shelves, the messed up supplies, the animials... it was all just…"
"Just a cover up." Merrill nodded. "Your supply boxes are filled with water and vitamins. Your staff shouldn't notice for a few more weeks, at least. Although I actually wish I'd thought of the animals. The distraction certainly made it easier to get into the room and complete our…mission. I'll be sure to properly thank whoever did do it."
"Your lax supply tracking has set me up with a nice, steady business on Earth." Jonathon smiled at her, as though she'd just done him a huge favour. "Our latest collection should be enough to set me up with a nice beach house, someplace warm, tropical, wraith and replicator free. I'm just sad you won't be around for my good-bye party tonight. We're having drinks on the balcony. Should be quite fun."
Jen swallowed hard.
She really, really didn't like the way Merrill was holding his weapon.
"Let us go, right now, and I'll see what I can do about making things a little easier on you at the hearing." Evan suggested, his words biting out.
The Corporal laughed. "Actually Major, there won't be any hearing. It's hard to accuse someone without any witnesses. Lack of solid proof and all that." He looked at Jonathon for confirmation.
Evan shook his head. "By now people know we're missing. It's only a matter of time."
Jonathon smiled. "That's where you're wrong. You're far enough under the city the sensor's aren't programmed to read for life signs. I mean, yes… there's a good chance someone's discovered you've taken an exceptionally long trip to the bathroom, and Dr. Keller's escorts might be awake by now, but, anyone who is looking will be searching the city by sensor readings. You aren't on the sensors, so you won't be found – or rather, your bodies – won't be found, for quite some time I'm sure."
"You can't be serious." Jen exhaled, the cold dread in her chest equaling the cold feel of the floor beneath her.
"Oh, I'm quite serious."
When the Corporal adjusted the barrel of his P90, Jen felt all the breath leaving her body. It wasn't right. This wasn't how it should be. A robbery? It was too… Earth like! She hadn't finished everything. She hadn't even started! There was too much to say. Too much to do. She-
The gun fired and she screamed, her body jumping with shock.
But there was no pain.
She opened her eyes and glanced quickly at Evan, her heart stopping with what she knew she was about to see.
No blood.
Evan stared at Corporal Merrill.
Jen's head spun back towards the Marine.
Merrill's eyes were wide with shock – his body stiff – turning, slowly to face the doorway. The hatchway… and Jonathon Liddell, who was holding a service revolver directly out in front of him.
Jen watched in equal parts of horror and dread as Merrill staggered backwards, knees buckling, feet slipping on the edge of the platform, sending his body plunging into the deep water.
Under a burble of bubbles, he sank into the blackened depths, and disappeared.