This story has officially passed the halfway point of the 50 Passages challenge! Here's hoping it doesn't take another three years to get to the end…
013. The dark water boiled, and there was a hideous stench.
The mess hall was deserted at this late hour. Tim O'Neill crept quietly through the darkened serving area, feeling like a criminal as he slipped through the door marked 'Authorized Personnel Only'. The guilty look on Hitchcock's face when the door opened told him he wasn't the only one uncomfortable with the meeting spot that had been chosen.
"Tim! Glad you could make it!"
"Shh," he hissed, very aware of the fact that none of them were supposed to be where they were. "Could you keep it down, Krieg? If we get caught back here -"
"Then what? Is Commander Wolenczak going to hang us for treason?" That was Brody, who clearly still wasn't over the jaw incident.
"Brody," Hitchcock began, her tone sharp, and Krieg held up a hand to interrupt the bickering.
"People, please. This is supposed to be a pleasant get-together, remember?" He leaned against the counter. "Just a nice, friendly, secretive late-night gathering to try and figure out what's going on with Lucas. I've even preempted some of the culinary supplies to make you all some of my world-famous Tahitian blend coffee."
Hitchcock rolled her eyes at her ex-husband. "Ben, your coffee looks, smells, and tastes like motor oil. No one in their right mind would drink it."
Krieg looked offended, and a quick glance at O'Neill and Brody garnered little support.
"Fine," he said, miffed. "More for me."
As if on cue, the coffee pot made a low grumbling noise. The dark water boiled and there was a hideous stench.
"Disgusting," Hitchcock muttered, and moved over toward O'Neill.
"Where's Ortiz?"
"He drew the short straw; he's taking the double shift on sensors tonight," O'Neill supplied, and Brody sighed.
"Fine. I guess we're all here, then. Krieg, you wanted to talk, so talk."
"I don't see why we have to be here," Hitchcock interrupted. "There are plenty of public places on this boat -"
"All of which Wolenczak probably has bugged," Brody informed her darkly. "Do you really want Big Brother to know we're talking about him?"
"If he's Big Brother, then what's Callahan?" O'Neill looked around at his shipmates. "She shows up here with literally half a day's notice and brings a whole team of commandos with her, and she looks at everyone onboard like she's just waiting for an excuse to slit our throats. If you ask me, we should be more worried about her than anything else."
Lieutenant Callahan had made a significant impression on the seaQuest crew. They were all terrified of her, although probably only half of them would have admitted it out loud. It wasn't that she was all that physically imposing, but O'Neill was right; it was something about the way she looked at them, like they were ants at a picnic and she was trying to decide the best way to go about squashing them.
"I don't think Lucas likes her."
Ben gave Katie a questioning look. "What makes you say that?"
"I saw them together earlier in one of the launch bays. She was asking him a question and he seemed irritated to be talking to her." She shrugged then. "As irritated as he ever seems these days, anyway."
"That's what I'm talking about," Krieg told them all. "Lucas doesn't talk to us anymore. He doesn't tell us anything."
Katie felt a wave of sympathy for Krieg's position. In the two weeks since they'd been back aboard seaQuest, they'd all noticed how different Lucas had become. Some of it was to be expected, given that they'd been gone for ten years and he undoubtedly still harbored some hard feelings about being left behind, despite the fact that they hadn't deserted him on purpose. He seemed like an entirely different person now, though, and it was hitting Ben harder than the rest of them. Ben Krieg had been a big brother figure to Lucas, had been the boy's unofficial mentor in all the ways that Bridger couldn't. It was Ben who'd given him advice on girls, who he'd gone to when his first relationship started to get serious, and who'd guided him through much of the awkwardness of being a teenage boy surrounded by adults. Now he had shut Ben out completely, and no matter how much the morale officer pretended to be unaffected, Katie knew it had to hurt him. He was far more sensitive than most people realized.
"He's lived through a war," Katie pointed out, as gently as she could. "And he didn't have any of us there to support him. I'm sure he still resents us for not being there for him."
"I feel terrible about it." That came from Tim, who'd been sitting quietly on one of the stools next to the counter. "I can't imagine what it must have been like for him. I mean, we all know he never had any support from his parents. We were the only family he had, and suddenly we were all gone."
"But we're here now," Krieg argued. "We're here, and we want to help him, and he won't let us."
"I think we just have to give him time," Katie said. "He's been on his own for ten years. We can't expect him to fall back into the same relationships he had with us overnight."
Ben exhaled heavily and Katie gave his shoulder a surreptitious squeeze. Patience had never been one of his strong suits, and she knew it was killing him that his 'little brother' was treating him with such aloofness.
"What does Bridger have to say about it?" Brody asked, and Ben frowned.
"He doesn't exactly confide in me, Jim," he replied. "And where Lucas is concerned, I think it's unlikely that he's going to tell any of us anything he might find out. If he can get Lucas to trust him, he won't risk damaging that trust by talking to us."
Brody started to respond, but Tim held up a hand for quiet. They all fell silent, but after several moments Ben gave Tim a quizzical look.
"I thought I heard something," Tim whispered. "I think someone's in the mess hall."
"Maybe we should turn out the light?" Katie murmured to Ben, who shook his head.
"That would just make us look guilty," he pointed out. "Besides, I don't hear anything."
He was contradicted half a second later, when the hatch opened with a loud clang to admit Lieutenant Callahan.
Krieg was the first to recover. "Lieutenant Callahan! What a surprise."
"I'll bet," she replied icily. "Let's see here. Lieutenant Krieg, Lieutenant O'Neill, Lieutenant Commander Hitchcock, and Lieutenant Brody. Late night staff meeting?"
"We were just leaving," Tim started to say, but a dismissive gesture from Callahan froze him in his tracks.
"You aren't going anywhere, Lieutenant."
"If he doesn't get some sleep, he'll be tired for his shift tomorrow morning," Krieg pointed out helpfully. If looks could kill, Callahan's would have decapitated him where he stood.
"If he doesn't tell me what's going on here, he'll have more pressing concerns than sleep deprivation."
"Going on?" Krieg echoed, as guileless as Katie had ever seen him. "Nothing's going on. Just a few friends grabbing some coffee."
"Please. Lieutenant O'Neill's expression alone is enough to prove to me that you're all guilty of something."
Tim, who'd never been particularly good at concealing his emotions, blushed furiously.
"Have you considered that he may just find you intimidating?" Brody pushed away from the counter, squaring his shoulders as he glared at Callahan. "Especially when you wander unannounced into restricted areas of the ship at all hours of the day and night."
"Let's talk about that, Lieutenant Brody." He was both taller and heavier than Callahan, but if anything, she seemed to find his threatening stance amusing. "Since you and your friends are also in a restricted area of the ship, and I assume you don't have any good reason to be here."
"We were making coffee," Krieg offered again, determinedly jaunty. "You know how it is. Middle of the night, everything's too quiet, you decide you just need a nice strong cup of joe -"
"So this isn't a secret meeting of an underground faction of the crew?" Callahan's smile was cruel, her expression hinting that there was nothing she would like more than to expose them as traitors. "A little get together of a couple of bridge officers who are unhappy with the way things are going around here? Because the galley would be quite the clever place to plan a coup. There are snacks on hand if treason makes you hungry, and it would be so simple to, say, poison some of the ingredients for tomorrow's breakfast. Eliminate a few of the loyal UEO officers standing between you and a position as Bourne's new favorite lapdog."
"It's an old seaQuest tradition."
The entire group turned with varying degrees of surprise to find Lucas standing in the doorway. While the others gaped at him, Krieg, who'd had the most experience at thinking on his feet to get himself out of trouble, grabbed the nearest empty mug and the coffee pot.
"Glad you could make it, Commander," he said, no trace of either fear or guilt in his tone, and Brody felt a grudging admiration for him. He always had been smooth under pressure. "Coffee?"
"Thank you," Lucas replied easily, taking the mug from Ben before turning to face Callahan. "If I'd known you were going to be starting your rounds so soon after coming aboard, Lieutenant, I would have given you a more thorough briefing on the ship's operations."
"Secret meetings of select members of the bridge crew in off-limits areas are considered standard ship's operations?" The scorn in her voice was thick, but Lucas responded as though the question hadn't been rhetorical.
"It's no secret. Lieutenant Krieg is the ship's morale and supply officer. Occasionally, he gets in a shipment of a specifically requested comestible item and offers to let some of the crew taste it after hours before it's put out for public consumption."
"So you expect me to believe that this is - what? Some sort of harmless coffee klatch?"
Lucas shrugged, visibly unconcerned. "What you believe isn't particularly important to me, Lieutenant." He took a sip of the coffee Ben had handed him, and Tim was impressed that he managed to keep a straight face when the vile brew hit his taste buds. "Hmm. Interesting bean selection, Lieutenant Krieg. Very piquant."
"Thank you, sir," Ben replied, all seriousness. "Commander Hitchcock picked it out."
"She has unique taste."
"I've always thought so."
Callahan had given up any pretense of civility toward Lucas, and was now glaring at him the same way she'd been glaring at the rest of them when he arrived.
"If you're protecting them, Commander, you'd be wise to stop, or when I figure out what they're planning you'll go down right along with them."
Lucas raised his eyebrows. "The uninitiated might take that as a threat, Lieutenant," he pointed out, with emphasis on her rank.
"I never make threats. Sir."
"Neither do I."
A brief staring contest ensued. Callahan blinked first, turning abruptly on her heel and stalking out of the mess hall. The seaQuest crew breathed sighs of relief, and Ben turned to Lucas.
"Man, Lucas, you showed up just in time -"
"This stops now." Lucas sounded as though he couldn't decide whether to be angry or disappointed. "Whatever nonsense you're planning? Whatever ridiculous idea possessed you to break into the galley after hours? It has to stop. It's going to get all of you killed, or worse." Noticing Brody's defiant expression, he added, "Believe me, you don't want to experience the 'or worse', and if Callahan decides you're working for Bourne, odds are that you will."
"You think she's going to drag us off to a secret UEO prison and have us tortured?"
Lucas's bland expression suggested that was exactly what he thought.
"The situation with the Macronesians is that bad." Katie shook her head in disbelief, talking mostly to herself. "No one on this boat is free from suspicion, are we?"
"That's why Callahan is here," Krieg said slowly as the pieces fell into place before his eyes. "She's not just in charge of her little group of commandos. She's spearheading a witch hunt for traitors."
Lucas inclined his head in Ben's direction, tacitly acknowledging the accuracy of his statement.
"I can't keep protecting you. Any of you."
"Can't? Or won't?"
He gave Brody a measured look. "Keep this up and it won't matter, Lieutenant. Semantics become unimportant when you're begging for mercy, and she doesn't exactly strike me as the merciful type." He turned to leave, then glanced back over his shoulder. "Dump out that toxic sludge you call coffee, Krieg. The cooks will know something's going on if they come in tomorrow morning and find a coffee pot with a fresh hole eroded through the bottom."
Without any further discussion, Lucas disappeared through the same door Callahan had used. Ben looked around at the others, who were all wearing similar shell-shocked expressions.
"Well, that could have gone better," he declared, and reached for the coffee pot again. "Anyone else want a cup?"