016. So they both lived, delighting in their own devices, and feared no assault, nor wrath, nor any end of their wickedness.
"So Bourne's goal is what? World domination?" Bridger shook his head, disbelieving. "It's like something out of a comic book."
Lucas shrugged. They were sitting in the wardroom, at the end of yet another double shift of upgrading the boat's systems. Lucas had been looking a little run down over the past few days, and Bridger suspected that he was working more than just the double shifts that the two of them and Hitchcock had been covering. It made sense; presumably, his job with the Intelligence Security Division hadn't ended just because the Navy had loaned him to Bridger to help upgrade the seaQuest. Regardless, the dark circles under his eyes made Bridger wish he could still order the boy to bed like he used to.
Right now he was draped over one of the chairs in the wardroom, long legs stretched out in front of him and his arms resting loosely at his sides. He looked as relaxed as Bridger had seen him since before the seaQuest disappeared. The captain had asked him for an informal assessment of the situation that had led to the war, and Lucas was supplying him with a wealth of information peppered with a little of his trademark dry wit, which Bridger suspected not many people got to hear anymore. The new Lucas was far more reserved; it was rare to even catch him smiling, let alone joking around with Bridger or the crew like he used to. It was sobering for Bridger to see how Lucas had changed, and he often wondered what the young man must have gone through during the years that the seaQuest had been missing.
"Bourne wants to run the world. He's just like every other power-mad dictator in the history books."
"And General Stassi?"
"Where Bourne is devious, Stassi is flat-out dangerous." Something in his eyes changed, and Bridger got the feeling that of the two, Stassi was the one Lucas disliked more. "He's Bourne's right hand man. He'd slit his own mother's throat if Bourne ordered him to."
"So he's a good soldier."
The look on Lucas's face at the subtle dig was priceless, but it only lasted a moment and then he was back to his own indecipherable 'good-soldier' expression.
"He's not what he appears," Lucas replied at last, and that was all he would say on the subject. Eventually Bridger started asking about the ramifications of the seaQuest's return, both because he needed to know and because if he hadn't changed the subject, he might have lost the easy rapport he was currently sharing with Lucas. He'd started to stiffen up the first time Stassi had been mentioned, and Bridger's little quip about being a good soldier had taken some of the camaraderie out of the room's atmosphere.
"Bourne has to be furious that seaQuest is back," Lucas told Bridger. "He'll see it as a huge stumbling block. seaQuest could keep him from expanding his little empire past its current borders."
"I gather that the UEO hasn't had much luck with that so far."
"We haven't had the support from the other confederations that you would expect. The North Sea Confederation has been embroiled in some political scandals of its own, and many of the smaller confederations have been using the ostrich method of defense."
"Sticking their heads in the sand," Bridger interpreted. "And meanwhile, Bourne and Stassi are chipping away at the edges of their borders, taking all the little bits for themselves."
"And so they both lived," Lucas agreed with a sigh. "Delighting in their own devices, and feared no assault, nor wrath, nor any end of their wickedness."
"Until now."
Lucas was visibly caught off guard by Bridger's rebuttal.
"Until now," he agreed finally, and they shared a brief smile that made Bridger's heart leap. The old Lucas was still in there somewhere. Now he just had to figure out how to bring him to the surface again.