Chapter 2
SeaQuest
- "YOU CALLED OFF THE SEARCH!!" Yelled Captain Bridger, "what are you thinking?" He screamed at the vid-link with Lawrence Wolenczak on it.
"It's been four days!!" Answered Lawrence just as angry.
"It's only been four days." Kirsten said at the same time, they both glared at each other.
"You can end your search, if that is what you call, but we will keep ours going." Said Bridger indignantly.
"Fine, it's your waste of time and money," he snarled, "I'll check in within a week." He said more softly, then ended the connection.
"Okay, lets go over what we know." Bridger said while trying to keep his anger in check.
"Again?" Miguel asked.
"Yes, maybe we missed something." Bridger answered hopefully.
"Okay, so Lucas left in the Singer at 0900. He traveled north towards the north ridge, towards the coast as a practice run for the Stinger. Mr. Ortiz and Kreig you set up the obstacle course from him, correct?" Ford asked calmly.
"Yes, sir." Answered Ben.
"Did the obstacle course include any flying or firing of projectiles or any weaponry of any kind?" Ford asked.
"No, of course not, sir, it was all just floating rocks and animals, nothing dangerous." Ben retorted.
"I know Ben, its procedure to ask and something did hit the Stinger that much we know…" Ford was interrupted by the beeping of Bridger's PAL.
"Yes." Bridger asked.
"Sir, there is an incoming call from Admiral Noyce." Answered Ensign Chessik.
"Patch him through to the ward room."
The senior officers looked surprised, they thought they would have to leave but Bridger made no suggestion, he was never the same whenever something happened to Lucas, which was to often to everyone's taste.
Admiral Noyce appeared seconds later on the vid-link. He surveyed the room.
"Any luck, Nat…Captain?"
"No, no luck, what may I ask is the pleasure of your call?" Bridger asked.
"Well," Noyce said conspiratorially, "I could get into a lot of trouble for this, but… this disk shows what happened to the Stinger that day."
"Where did it come from and how come we haven't heard of it early, it could have saved time!" Bridger said angrily.
"Now that is confidential, no one is supposed to know this technology exists it is still in the experimental stages. All I can say it is from a global satellite and it shows the Stinger going down. Now I am sending it to you over a secure channel and as soon as you have it downloaded, I am destroying this copy, I suggest you do the same, when you finish with your copy. Now Nathan it is not pretty," Noyce said forgetting all formalities, "Good luck." With that he disappeared.
"Were getting it, sir," said O'Neill after a few moments of silence, "the download is complete."
"On screen." Nathan ordered.
O'Neill typed a few commands then a showing of U.S.O (United Space Organizations) flashed on screen. First the disk showed the whole Atlantic Ocean, small subs could be seen and big school of fish were also visible.
"There is SeaQuest." Pointed out Ford. Then the disk zoomed in on the SeaQuest like it had heard Ford, a smaller sub was shown leaving. STINGER Lucas Wolenczak flashed across the screen along with a picture.
"Wow, pretty sophisticated." Commented Westphalen.
The satellite showed the Stinger curving through the obstacle course with no problem. When it reached the last ridge, a small unidentified sub rose from the ocean floor, torpedoes were fired and the Stinger was violently thrown around. The escape pod soon jettisoned away. The Stinger sunk beneath a pile of rocks. The escape pod soared to the surface.
Then the satellite changed and started watching the whole ocean again.
"What happened?" Bridger demanded.
"The satellite must of thought there was nothing else to watch, so it zoomed out." Guessed O'Neill.
"It explains a lot though, why we didn't detect the other sub or why we can't find the Stinger…" Explained Ford.
"Wait, I think there is sound too, it has a little static to it though." Tim said as he pushed some more commands then static was heard.
After the static, Lucas could be heard talking to Ben, the conversation was mostly about the obstacle course and how Lucas could do it with his eyes closed. Then Ben was called away and Lucas said he was turning around to come back.
"That is where our communications end." Commented Ford more to himself then the rest of the room.
But it was not the end for the satellite. Within minutes Lucas was sending out a distress signal and frantically trying to raise anyone on the SeaQuest, a loud explosion sounded over his attempts. Lucas cried out. Kirsten visibly winced. Lucas repeated his coordinates and said he was going to the escape pod and then the transmission ended.
"Why didn't we get any of that?" Asked Bridger angrily.
"The other sub must have blocked our communications and his." Ford stated the obvious.
"But a global satellite could pick it up! And we couldn't! I want the coast searched and all local hospitals, everything!" Bridger snapped.
"Wait Captain there is more." O'Neill interrupted, "Once the satellite had zoomed out, it still monitored the communications on the subs below."
The transmission was filled with more static but the crew heard perfectly what was said.
The sub that had shot down the Stinger had contacted someone on shore.
"Sir, we fired at the Stinger but Wolenczak got away, he cannot be found, even by the SeaQuest!" A deep voice said.
"Well his people are probably looking for him and I suggest that you, Captain Triv, that you find him first!" Replied a voice.
"Yes, sir." Answered Triv and the transmission ended.
"You heard me people, search the shoreline! We now have a deadline, a race against time!" Ordered Bridger.
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