Chapter 37

The Royal Navy directed skyQuest to dock right next to the surfaced MR-3. While Ford was busy tying the sailboat off, Nathan saw O'Neill, Piccolo, Nichols, and Forrester disembark from the shuttle, all with their hands on their heads. Nathan cringed and shook his head. He had considered holding back until last, seeing to everyone else's safety and all that, but now he knew he couldn't. There was no safety issue here. It was just humiliating.

"I'm going first," he told Ford, who hadn't yet finished securing all the ropes. Nathan really hoped he would see Kristin some day so he could tell her how enthusiastic Jonathan was about his knots. She'd appreciate that.

The commander nodded silently to his declaration. Ford understood why without being told. Nathan could see it in his eyes. He would do the same if he was captain. The commander directed two of the enlisted men to get the gangplank ready.

The captain glanced back on the deck where everyone stood waiting in clean seaQuest jumpsuits, looking around nervously at the endless line of men on the dock, all pointing intimidating weapons toward the skyQuest. The gun-wielders wore red and black uniforms with silver hourglass TGA emblems emblazoned on their shirt fronts and ball caps.

When the plank was secured, Bridger walked up to it first. Ford slipped in behind him and Brody directly after that. Although Ortiz and Kendall both held the same rank, Ortiz stepped back and allowed the engineer ahead of him, either in deference to the skyQuest being his boat or perhaps because the sensor chief had taken charge of Lucas and intended to keep the teen in front of him, a move which might have been misconstrued by Kendall. Bridger felt good about Lucas's position. He was close enough to the officers that he would feel safe, and Ortiz would keep him in line, if need be.

However, Nathan had to admit that Lucas really didn't need babysitting anymore. Beyond the fact that he was almost eighteen and had matured considerably over the last few months, he'd been especially subdued since their ordeal with the Frenchman. It was as if the last six weeks had matured him several years. The captain could only hope that some of the old Lucas would come back with some counseling and emotional healing. He was still a kid and shouldn't have to grow up that fast.

An artificially amplified voice barked out to them: "Come down one at a time, slowly, and keep your hands where we can see them."

Nathan inhaled deeply, laced his fingers together, placed his hands on the back of his head, and then walked slowly down the gangplank. He held his head high, focused his eyes forward, and pasted a neutral expression over his face. He wasn't proud to be caught violating territorial waters, but he wasn't ashamed either. He'd had just as little control arriving here as he'd had in the Black Sea. This was embarrassing, but he hadn't lost a single member of his crew yet and considering what they'd all been through, that was something to be proud of.

Just as he set foot on the dock, two men in red and black ran up and blocked his path, forcing him to stop. One pointed his weapon at him while the other waved some sort of scanner wand around him. "Clean!" he shouted. The man with the weapon lowered it and moved aside. The man with the scanner hit him on the back. "Go wait over there."

The pain wasn't really that bad. Nathan could have easily hid it if he hadn't just lectured his XO about not hiding it. "Ow," he groaned. He turned on the man with the scanner and the other man reacted by retraining the weapon on him. Quite a few of the TGA men lining the docks also took aim. Nathan held up his hands to show he wasn't a threat, but he didn't reduce the fire in his eyes. He raised his voice, partly to communicate some anger, but also to make sure whoever was in charge heard it. "Hey, we've all had our backs whipped to shreds by an insane Frenchman, so I'd appreciate it if you'd refrain from slapping us there."

The scanner man gestured to the guard that it was okay, then he gave Nathan a polite nod. "My apologies, sir. Would you please proceed over there with the others so we can finish this as quickly as possible?" He swept his hand toward where the MR-3 crew stood waiting.

Satisfied that he'd made his point and no one else would be touched, Nathan resumed his former course. As he neared, Dr. Forrester grinned and extended his hand. The marine biologist had never left the shuttle and therefore hadn't yet seen any of the crew he'd helped rescue, except for O'Neill. Nathan paid him a smile in return and shook his hand. "Piccolo tells me you were the one who figured out Darwin's cryptic message. I reckon we'd all still be waiting for him to swim the whole way otherwise, so thank you."

Forrester shook his head. "I really didn't do that much, Captain. I was ready to leave Darwin alone in the Aegean because I thought he didn't want to go back to seaQuest. Tony's the one who believed in him and was prepared to swim all the way to France without the shuttle."

Nathan's eyes widened. He leaned in to whisper, "Tony Piccolo?"

Forrester chuckled. "Didn't Kendall tell you? Piccolo basically threatened to accuse him of mutiny if he didn't send us fuel or remove Darwin from command."

The captain just stood there with his mouth open. Piccolo had stood up for Darwin, while upholding the chain of command, and still shown respect for Kendall? And not only that, but he'd somehow convinced the acting XO to do what the crazy dolphin wanted! I am seriously under-utilizing that young man's talents. If they made it home, Nathan resolved not to let that continue.

The captain closed his mouth and chuckled softly. "I'm out of commission for a little while and my dolphin takes over, recruits a gilled crewman with a history of discipline problems, and they both manage to inspire non-coms, enlisted personnel, and civilians to build a solar-powered sailboat with whatever spit and baling wire they could scrounge up. But no one knows much about sailing, so a rag-tag crew of submariners flounder along across thousands of kilometers of sea to check out a miniscule island identified solely by a dolphin with a Napoleon complex."

Forrester winked. "That's the condensed version, but yeah."

"I've got to get out more."

They both laughed. Ford arrived beside the captain. Forrester waved a greeting, but the commander was practicing his wounded and disgraced exterior, and doing a fabulous job. Quit laughing and remember you're a victim, Nathan admonished himself. But suddenly any notion of embarrassment over this situation seemed ridiculous. It was a downright miracle they were alive and together and if it wasn't for the fact that they'd abandoned the seaQuest in the Middle Ages, he wouldn't really give a flip whether these over-zealous time twits believed him or not. He watched as his people were scrupulously scanned, each moment working harder to stifle his impatience. After Ortiz came Dagwood carrying Dr. Smith.

"Put the woman down and walk out by yourself," the guard barked.

"Do you have a wheelchair?" Dr. Smith retorted evenly.

The dawdling hourglass boys shook their heads.

Nathan stepped forward and spoke up. "Then you're asking him to drop my chief medical officer on the deck and I won't have it. Her feet are injured and she's unable to walk. Scan them together or they both wait until you bring her a wheelchair."

The man with the wand directed his gaze off the dock where a Royal Navy Commodore and Admiral were chatting with two men in red and black blazers. A short bald man called back, "Scan them together, Ian." At least his tone didn't imply they'd been put-out to accommodate the injury. Ian nodded and returned to his wand-waving. Nathan tried to make eye contact with the suit who'd given the order, but the bald man returned his attention to the Naval officials.

Finally, Ian finished scanning everyone and gave a thumb's up to the suits. The bald man walked toward the dock where the entire crew stood nervously waiting. Kendall had the sense to call attention and everyone heeded it, including Lucas and the science staff. Only Dr. Smith exempted herself by default, but Dagwood looked awfully stiff for a civilian carrying an injured woman in his arms.

"Captain Bridger?" The bald man's red and black blazer had the same silver hourglass symbol embroidered on the breast pocket.

Nathan took a step forward. "I am."

"Major Edward Allen, Temporal Guardian Agency."

Nathan started to introduce his officers, but Major Allen precluded it. "Are there any surprises on either of your vessels we should know about?"

"Yes. One of Beauregard's associates is tied to the main mast. We'd be happy to relinquish his custody to you. We also have a dolphin in the center hull of the trimaran. We have a portable tank aboard the shuttle launch if you want him removed, but I request that you let my people handle him."

"We'll leave Ensign Darwin where he is for the moment. Anything else?"

This time cop knew the name and rank of his dolphin? It shouldn't have surprised him. Facts about the crew were included in official records and those records became history. No doubt they'd been digging up information ever since he identified himself in the English Channel.

"No, nothing else." The captain gave the "At ease" order and everyone relaxed a little.

Major Allen asked, "And you still maintain that François Beauregard is dead? He's not holding a knife to someone's throat, hiding somewhere on that boat?"

"No. He really is dead."

The major let loose a huge sigh of relief. "We thought you were trying to tell us something."

Nathan frowned. "If I was, wouldn't I still be lying to protect whomever had a knife to his throat?"

Allen looked back with a curious expression. "You might." He waved to a team of black-and-red uniforms, calling out, "Scan everything on the highest sensitivity."

The scanning team answered in affirmative and jogged up the gangplank. Ian and his guard boarded the MR-3.

Major Allen locked eyes with Nathan. "And now, Captain Bridger, would you like to join us inside so we can talk about getting you home?"

"Just like that?"

"If you're willing to walk away, then I believe Beauregard is dead and the threat is over. You wouldn't turn your back on a hostage."

"You're right. I wouldn't. But I'm not leaving the rest of my people with weapons pointed at them either."

"What?" The major acted like he hadn't noticed. "Oh, sorry." He turned and raised his voice. "Put the guns away." He returned his gaze to Nathan with a sheepish expression. "That was for Beauregard, not you."

"But you believe me now that he's dead?"

"Are you coming inside?" When the captain didn't answer immediately, he added, "We have a conference room large enough for everyone."

The captain narrowed his eyes. "Is it an invitation or a strong suggestion?"

"For you, Captain, it's an urgent pleading. As for the rest… I can't allow them to wander around the base, but they may stay on the dock, if you wish."

"Ford, Brody, O'Neill, Ortiz, and Dr. Smith with me. Dagwood, you'll need to carry her, so you're with us too."

"Actually, he doesn't have to. I sent for a wheelchair when you mentioned she was injured. It's here now." He gestured a short way off where a sailor was jogging with an empty chair in their direction.

Nathan nodded his appreciation to Allen. He wouldn't understand why Dagwood was so uneasy and not really suited to sit through a debriefing. If they could keep the GELF from being directly involved, it would be easier. "Good. Dagwood, please leave Dr. Smith in the wheelchair and then report to Chief Kendall."

Dagwood gave a lopsided smile. "Yes sir, Captain, sir."

Nathan continued while Dagwood carried the doctor to the chair. "Science staff may come or stay as suits your fancy. Mr. Kendall, please stay with the skyQuest along with everyone I didn't name."

"Aye, Captain," Kendall said, looking quite relieved. The captain couldn't decide if he just wanted to guard the boat or he didn't want to be questioned.

Dr. Hernandez opted to join the captain's party, but Forrester decided to stay on the dock. One could hardly blame him after being stuck on that sardine can for nearly two weeks. Fresh air had to be feeling mighty good.

Their resident computer genius had a lost look in his eyes that Nathan couldn't place. "Lucas?"

He faced the captain, looking a little more alert, but he didn't say anything.

"Do you want to come with us or stay here?"

His blue eyes looked… conflicted. "Do you need me?"

Do I? Truthfully, Nathan didn't relish the thought of letting the kid out of his sight, but he couldn't argue that he wouldn't be safe with Kendall. The captain had never forgotten how Lucas didn't want to attend the UEO summit with Secretary Dre, but she'd compelled him to go, using a tedious computer chore against him as leverage. And Nathan had let her. Lucas almost died along with all the UEO leaders because of that. Never again would he drag the teen along just to impress people. It had to be his choice. The captain lowered his voice a bit."I guess that depends on how you define 'need'. I value your input and I want you with me, but not if you don't want to come."

"No, I want to," Lucas said. Was that eagerness in his voice or did Nathan imagine it because he wanted to hear it?

He flashed a glance at Wendy, who arrived in the wheelchair, pushed by O'Neill. She'd been watching the whole exchange with that 'concerned doctor' look on her face, but when Nathan made eye contact, she just raised her brows at him and shrugged. Maybe she didn't know what was wrong, or maybe she just wouldn't tell him. It was a bad time anyway.

The captain patted Lucas lightly on the shoulder and whispered, "Thanks."

The teen nodded and grinned in return, which was enough to assure Nathan he wasn't coercing him.

Major Allen gestured with a sweep of his arm and then took off at a brisk pace. The seaQuest crew followed.

They didn't have far to walk before they came to the conference room. The building looked like most of the others on the base, utilitarian and spartan from the outside, but inside, the conference room was spacious and reasonably well-furnished with carpeting, a large oak table, and comfortable chairs. The walls had wood paneling and portraits of famous British admirals hanging every six inches. At least Nathan assumed that's what they were. He could only identify two-thirds of the men and those were famous admirals.

O'Neill helped Dr. Smith get from the wheelchair to one of the conference chairs. The rest took seats around the table without regard to rank or position. Lucas sat on Nathan's left, Ortiz on his right. How long had it been since they'd sat in chairs that weren't made of stone? It felt like years.

The major folded his hands and set them atop the table. "Perhaps we should start with introductions. Captain?"

Nathan took his cue. "Commander Jonathan Ford, my executive officer." He indicated Ford and gave him time to acknowledge with a nod. "Lieutenants Jim Brody and Tim O'Neill, Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz, my chief medical officer: Dr. Wendy Smith, and Dr. Alberto Hernandez, one of our research scientists whose sailing expertise has proven invaluable on this trip."

The major gave a nod to each one in turn, greeting everyone with a rank or 'doctor' appellation.

"And this is Lucas Wolenczak, my chief computer analyst."

The major's eyes lit up with what had to be recognition of the young man's future accomplishments. "Mr. Wolenczak, a pleasure. And I am Edward Allen, head of the Temporal Guardian Agency. We try to make sure that only authorized historians and Temporal Agents have access to Mobius Hole technology, so that no one disrupts history or uses time travel to evade the law. We have been after François Beauregard for a very long time. He is the 'Most Wanted' time criminal on our books. How much damage has he done to your crew?"

Nathan looked around at the faces, seeking someone willing to answer. They all nodded tacit permission for him to answer on their behalf. He drew a deep breath. "That madman tortured eleven of us for over six weeks. The men were whipped with cat-o-nine-tails on their backs. Dr. Smith was beaten on her feet with a rod and a strap."

He paused. There was no point in bringing up the psychological effects if the major wasn't awed with beatings. Major Allen looked very concerned, wincing and shaking his head in sympathy.

"He kept us all in solitary confinement…" Nathan was about to say 'except during torture sessions', but Ortiz cocked a brow at him. The captain could have continued without skipping a beat, but he hadn't intended to lie. "Excuse me, he kept most of us in solitary confinement except to force us to watch each other's tortures and…" He looked back and forth between Ortiz, Smith, and O'Neill.

Wendy spoke up to finish the sentence, "…and he forced Henderson and me to choose mates because he wanted us to breed." She used a suitably disgusted inflection on the last word.

"But that wasn't until the last week or so," Ortiz added.

Nathan returned to his narrative. "He put Ford and Brody's legs in guillotines and then asked Lucas to choose who lost a leg."

"But I refused to choose," Lucas said, "so he chopped off both of them, or so it appeared."

"We thought so too," Brody said. "The blade fell and the pain was intense. There was lots of blood. I still don't know if he cut my leg off and reattached it or if he just made it look like it. There's a pretty nasty scar."

Major Allen scoffed. "If he left your leg intact, it was only so he could take it off more slowly and painfully the next time." He stopped himself and raised both hands. "My apologies. I didn't mean to belittle your suffering." He motioned for Brody to continue, but Brody looked back at the captain.

Nathan licked his lips. "You're already aware of what Beauregard is capable of. And now he's dead. Is there any reason for us to elaborate further?"

"We need your depositions in order to decide the fate of that associate of his. What were you planning to do with him?"

"Lieutenant O'Neill questioned him, but he showed no remorse. I felt it would be irresponsible to just set him free. I hadn't decided what to do with him yet."

"Then you have no objections if we try him as a time criminal." It was a statement, not a question.

"As long as you give me your personal assurance that he will never be able to hurt anyone again like he hurt us."

"That would be our goal, of course."

Nathan could tell that several of his men were biting their lips and barely holding back their anger. "I'm told there's no UEO in this time period, so if anyone has anything to say, it cannot be held against you. Speak freely."

O'Neill coughed and cleared his throat. "If you had ever put it to a vote, Captain, I would have endorsed capital punishment."

Hernandez looked shocked, but the rest of the men nodded agreement with O'Neill's opinion. Wendy just stared with a blank expression.

"Wendy?" Nathan prodded softly.

She shook her head vigorously. "I don't want to be involved in that decision. I'm not objective."

"None of us are objective."

"So what are you asking me? Do I want to see him dead? Yes, I do. But the fact that I want it so much disturbs me. Make sure he isn't able to do it again and don't tell me how you were able to ensure that because I will sleep better if I can pretend he's rotting away in solitary confinement on some isolated island with no hope of escape."

Major Allen nodded to her and spoke with compassion in his voice. "Doctor, I promise you that your suggestions will be taken into consideration. Does anyone else want to add anything?"

"How about getting us all home?" Lucas asked.

"We can simply send you back within an hour of when after you disappeared. But first we should like to minimize the damage as much as we can. Did any of the crew die?"

"No. We haven't lost anyone."

The major breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. That's one thing we can't fix. I can offer you all medical treatment. Our plastic surgery is surely much more advanced than yours. We can remove all your scars completely. Dr. Smith, do you have a diagnosis for your feet?"

She shook her head. "All my medical equipment is back on seaQuest. I'm sure there are multiple hairline fractures of the metatarsals, but probably no full breaks."

"We will have you seen by the best doctors in the country. Your feet will be good as new when they're done. Normally we'd take you all to Oxford for your rehabilitation, but I suspect you want to stay with your vessels. I've already arranged with the Royal Navy for them to accommodate you on base if you'd rather."

Everyone looked around at each other, obviously impressed.

Lucas broke the silence. "Look, I don't know about anybody else, but wiping the scars off my back is not quite enough to make this all 'go away'. I'm damaged up here…" He pointed to his temple, "much more than back there." He thumbed over his shoulder.

The major leaned forward in his chair and spoke in a soft, caring tone. "If you want to forget this ever happened, Mr. Wolenczak, we can arrange that. We have the technology to wipe all of your memories clean."

Alarm entered the captain's voice. "Do we have a choice?"

"Yes, of course, Captain. No one will be forced to accept any treatment of any kind they don't want. I am merely offering what little I have. We just want to get you all back to your own time with as little disruption to history as possible."

"And the rest of my crew?"

"Of course. Everyone who needs it will get medical treatment."

"Thank you, but actually, I'm a bit more concerned about the seaQuest and the 80 people we left behind."

"The seaQuest?" Allen looked truly shocked. "Left behind, where?"

"Back in the fifteenth century, stranded in the Black Sea, where Beauregard put her. My chief engineer only built the trimaran because he couldn't get seaQuest through the Turkish Straits. The shuttle and the sailboat came to rescue everyone who Beauregard kidnapped off of seaQuest."

Major Allen stood. "The seaQuest herself went through the Mobius Hole?"

Nathan frowned. Wasn't that obvious? "Yes, Major."

He gasped softly and shook his head, muttering under his breath, "Yes, of course. That explains it."

"Explains what?"

His voice returned to normal volume. "How we found you. Beauregard has been kidnapping people all over the world and throughout history. We never could track it until his last snatch. We knew he transported something big, because the power drain was enormous. That's how we isolated his M.H. initiator frequency, so we could tack a homer on it."

Lucas's eyes lit up like they did whenever he got an idea or understood something important. "A homer. You set it up so any new Mobius Hole would force whoever activated the device back here."

"That was the idea, Mr. Wolenczak. We thought it would be Beauregard himself."

"So you can track what time we came from to go get the seaQuest, right?" Lucas asked.

Major Allen was staring off into space with a faraway look in his eyes. He nodded absently and barely breathed, "Oh sure, sure."

Excited chatter broke out around the table, and Nathan exchanged smiles with Lucas first, then his officers. He might have shushed everyone sooner, but Major Allen looked preoccupied and didn't appear to be paying any attention anyway. The excited whispers continued for almost a full minute before Major Allen's voice rang out over the din.

"Captain Bridger, I need to speak to you. Alone."