Lucas was enjoying the rare sensation of being in another sub-station which actually sported some technology to rival seaQuest and this place was proving to be right up his alley. Every door he peered through seemed to house some instrument or other which caught his fancy and he made mental mutterings of 'cool' every now and again. Kristin had to constantly keep him in check while they moved through the corridors of the MEDS station, pulling on the tails of his shirt or grabbing his arm when he made for some consoles embedded in a wall or an open door leading into a room full of technical candy. She hissed, "Later, Lucas." She had noticed how agitated and irritable Nathan had been since their arrival and she knew that, of all the crew, Lucas was the most likely to push him over edge simply because shouting at a teenager was expected and he couldn't get away with tantrums with the rest of his crew. Fortunately, all he had managed so far were a few glares in the teen's direction as he spoke to Dr. Wagner.
Oblivious to his near misses with the captain, Lucas frowned at the doctor, wishing that he could simply ignore her and hoping that they would find some people his own age just around the next corner. He was disappointed to reach Bridger's temporary quarters without so much as a glimpse of anyone under forty. The station was unusual even by Kristin's standards with twisting corridors which seemed to have few regular features, some covered with panels of switches while others were lined with pipes which ran like blue veins through the ironwork before suddenly submerging into the walls. For safety reasons, it was rare to find a sub-surface structures with so many window panels. The room in which Bridger had assembled his group had one large reinforced viewing area which looked out into the murky depths of the sea. Floodlights provided enough light to see about fifty feet ahead before darkness closed in again. Nathan stood at the head of the table, his hands resting purposefully on the edges.
"Now, I have spoken at length with Dr. Wagner and we have come to an arrangement. NOSO (1) are claiming the MEDS station to be unfit and unsafe for work, disrupting seismic activity. Admiral Noyce assures me it is likely to be nothing more than hot air, but the matter must be dealt with seriously. We've been drafted in to check the place over, every nook and cranny. Leave no stone unturned." He looked sternly at Lucas, "Lucas, you are going to run through the computer system and check for any possible problems, anything which might lend credence to NOSO's claims that this place is unsafe."
Lucas grinned cheekily at Dr. Westphalen who had been trying to keep his paws off the equipment ever since they had arrived. Now that he had a free rein and the captain's permission, there was little she could do to stop him. Bridger sighed and rubbed his forehead, only deepening the creases which had formed there. "Meanwhile, Ford, Krieg, Hitchcock and Chief Crocker, you will carry out your duties aboard the station just as you would back on seaQuest. The UEO has jurisdiction over everything within this facility and it is our duty to survey the entire area, make a thorough routine check. Report back to me at 1600 hours. Kristin, Dr. Wagner hasn't been able to sing your praises enough. I should imagine you'll be given free run of their laboratories." He glanced around the table, waiting for the inevitable question or comment.
True to form, it was Krieg who obliged. "Forgive me for asking, sir, but what will you be doing?" Nathan resented the implications of that question but from the quizzical expressions on everyone else's face, it was clear they had all been asking themselves the same thing. "If you must know, I have been asked to review some schematics for a short range exploration vehicle." He was determined not to be forced to elaborate. He had never been answerable to his crew before and he certainly wasn't going to start now. Not one to back down, Ben quickly fired the next question. "Captain, when we will be leaving?"
"Either when we can give the all clear or if we are required to go top side and get further aid from shore." He sighed, wishing that he didn't have to be the one to sound enthusiastic about this project. "We'll all make the best of it while we're here. I don't want any more complaints. Any other questions?" Lucas looked from one companion to the other, waiting for someone, anyone, to ask what had been on his mind since they had docked. When nobody made a move to say anything, he opened his hands out in a gesture of indifference. "Yeah, actually." Bridger turned to him, his eyes holding a warning note and harnessing a sigh which threatened to escape his lips. He really wasn't in the mood for wise cracks and he was certain his waning patience wouldn't hold out much longer. "Yes, Lucas?"
"I'd just like to know when the UEO become a maintenance crew? Did I miss something?" Nathan looked at Krieg and Hitchcock to assess their reaction. He expected this kind of question from Lucas, who jumped at any opportunity to highlight what nobody wanted to acknowledge and make everyone feel as small as possible. Neither lieutenant met his gaze, their eyes travelling across the floor or at the fascinating ceiling paint work. "We are not here to run a maintenance check." Lucas nodded, mockingly. "Right. There's nothing wrong with this base, no distress signal, yet we turn seaQuest around and head on in just because a bunch of lab coats start squealing. Now I'm told I have to run system checks on the entire place and you're telling me we haven't just been demoted to engineers? That this isn't just an elaborate plan to keep the wheels oiled?" Nathan stared at him but said nothing, "Come on, captain. What aren't you telling us? There's got to be more to this than that, right? Some kind of military cover up which we're here to expose?" His mind racing with all the exciting possibilities, Lucas continued, his blue eyes wide and gleaming with animation. "Because if I've got to sit staring at their environmental database for days on end, I'd like to know if I should be looking for signs of a nuclear warhead hidden somewhere in the files on jellyfish." He took a large gulp of air, giving Nathan a chance to interrupt, his hands raised in mock surrender. "I'm relieved to say that seaQuest is not always involved in something quite so dramatic. Aside from 'squealing lab coats', there may be some validity to NOSO's claims of high risk earthquakes. Drilling into the rock face could be having a dangerous effect on plate movement."
Lucas snorted, "Are you kidding? This place is sitting right on the ridge, they get earthquakes all the time. I mean, the base was completely destroyed less than eighty years ago." Commander Ford had been quietly standing by, an observer in everything which had happened since they had arrived at the base. He had not failed to notice the strange behaviour of Dr. Wagner and was all too familiar with the face of someone who had something to hide. He snapped, "Would you rather be back on seaQuest, Lucas? It can be arranged." Lucas sank back into his chair, silent. In the uncomfortable silence which followed his outburst, Ford began to regret his bitterness. It wasn't Lucas that was the problem, but he wanted to find out what was going on round here instead of sitting around conjuring up reasons why they should leave. Softening his tone, he added, "I think the quicker we get started the better."
Ben Krieg had been waiting for that decision; the less time he spent in his ex-wife's company right now, the better. "Hear, hear." Nathan nodded and began dishing out official orders when there was a knock at the door. "Come in." An alert, male face tentatively peered round the door. "Um, I'm here for a..." He glanced down at a piece of crumpled paper in his hand, "...Lucas Wolenczak." Lucas stood up, reluctantly, and sauntered over to the door. He turned back as if to say something before thinking better of it and stepping outside.
************
Once in the corridor, the man turned to Lucas and looked him up and down. The boy didn't need to be a mind reader to figure out what he was thinking. "I know, I seem pretty young for this, right?" The man, probably in his mid-forties, was short and barrel-chested with round, pebble glasses and a shock of quiffed brown hair set off by a regulation plaid shirt. "Actually, I was just putting the face to the name. Frank Desoze, at your service." Lucas shook the hand offered and began to wonder which was worse, having someone treat him like a young upstart or a kid genius whose every breath was like magic. "Nice to meet you." He shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, waiting for Frank to make a move, but he simply stood there, staring. "Shall we?" Lucas prompted.
"Oh, yeah, right. Um, I'll take you to the main control centre. You can find everything about the centre on the databases there." Moving down the winding corridors, they eventually came to rest at the furthest point from where the seaQuest was docked. Frank pushed open the door and Lucas was confronted with a room full of panels and computer monitors, big screens and electronic consoles. The only signs of human activity were two people wandering between the wires and apparatus, jotting down notes on clipboards before moving on. Frank led Lucas over to a more secluded work station around the corner and gestured to the seat. Sitting down and flexing his fingers, Lucas quickly accessed the mainframe. Frank leaned over him and the teenager could feel the man's eyes boring into his back, scrutinising what the genius boy was going to do next. "Most of this stuff is environmental science bases, you know, all the usual observation results and marine data. It's all way below your expertise." Lucas drew his brow into a frown, examining the information flashing in front of him as his fingers flew across the keyboard with lightning speed. Without looking up, he muttered, "Yeah, well the captain wants me to cover everything, so..."
Frank shrugged and backed off a little, pointing to some of the other screens and equipment round the room, explaining their purpose and wittering on about access codes. Lucas was only half listening, eager to get this job finished so that he could leave, "Great, that's great." Eventually, he reached an impasse in the system; well, he knew he could figure the codes out for himself, but it would save time if Frank just gave them to him. "Could I have those access codes?" Frank moved closer and craned his neck over the work station to try and see what Lucas was doing. "Can't you get in yourself?" Lucas scratched the back of his head, sighing in exasperation. "Yeah, of course, but I don't have time to sit here and work them out." A spark of a smile crossed Frank's face and he wrung his hands in a horribly Scrooge-style movement, "Can't you just do one, for me? I've never seen a hacker at work." Lucas rolled his eyes, "Well, it doesn't look all that much different from standard typing, and I'm not a hacker. I'm head of mammal engineering." The man's gaze did not waver. "Come on, Frank. Give me a break." He was about to protest and insist on getting the base's manuals, but something about the look in Frank's eyes made him relent. "Okay, just one, then I really need the codes. I don't want to be here all day." Frank nodded emphatically,
"Yeah, I promise." Turning his attention back to the blinking screen, Lucas began to frantically type in strings of garbled words and fragments of equations. Within ten minutes the first code was done and the teenager was relieved to be left alone for five seconds while the technician disappeared off to find the manuals.
He wasn't gone long enough and Lucas found himself physically gritting his teeth to prevent himself from saying something he shouldn't. Frank should consider himself lucky that the teen's hands were occupied with typing or he might just deck him. He managed to control his temper for another half hour before he couldn't stand it a moment longer and spent more energy trying to think of ways to get rid of the man than he spent on the programs themselves. "Hey, Frank? Are you hungry?"
Frank shook his head, not even noticing the hint let alone taking it and leaving. "No."
"Well, I'm starving. Could you grab me something?" Frank gave him a venomous glare and Lucas was momentarily afraid that he was going to punch him and the phrase, 'If looks could kill...' flitted across his mind. Standing up slowly, the man glanced from the teenager to the monitor, then wagged his finger in Lucas' face. "Don't do anything while I'm gone. I want to see it all."
"Promise." Waiting until Frank was out of earshot, Lucas muttered, "Ctrl-Alt-Delete isn't exactly rocket science." Rubbing a hand over his eyes, which were beginning to feel sore from staring at the screen for so long, he began typing again, glancing over to the manual every now and again.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Lucas felt something inside him snap. "Listen, Frank. To be perfectly...frank, I'd get this done a lot quicker if you'd just..."
"Great welcome for someone you haven't seen in months." Lucas whirled round in his seat when he heard not the gruff tone of Frank but a high, female voice. A girl stood in front of him, a smug smile stretching from ear to ear. "Cleo! My God, what are you doing here? I mean, it's great to see you." He stood up and she hugged him tightly and Lucas had a momentary flash of the time they had danced together after she had been rescued from the Landau Munitions Depot in the Indian Ocean. He inhaled the scent of her coconut shampoo, noticing for the first time how foreign it felt to have someone so close to him. He may have found a surrogate family onboard seaQuest, but physical affection was rare, especially since instinct had taught him always to push people away rather than open up to them. Cleo had been like a kindred spirit among all those adults, someone who had suffered like he had.
She pulled away from him and looked him up and down, "I heard you were here and I came looking."
"How come you're on a MEDS post?" Cleo perched on the edge of the console, her small frame fitting snugly without pressing any buttons. "Well, it's kind of a long story, but basically my time on the depot worked in my favour when it came to career choices. I managed to get a job down here, just basic stuff. I'm not qualified to do much yet, but it's a start, right?" Lucas nodded, unable to wipe the smile off his face. He had hoped to find someone close to his age down here but he certainly hadn't dared hope to find someone he actually knew, even better, liked...a lot. Smoothing his hands over the knees of his trousers, he said, "I can't believe this. It's great."
Cleo laughed, "I know. Isn't it weird how being underwater can be so isolating that you don't even recognise it until something like this happens to shake you up? Up top, we spend our time trying to avoid certain friends but down here I find myself seeking out my enemies just to have someone close to my own age to talk to."
"Yeah, part of me can't wait to get older so I'll be the right age to be friends with everyone else on seaQuest, by which time they'll all be old and retired." Cleo twisted herself round to examine the screen he had been working with and screwed up her nose. "Looks like fun." Lucas raised his eyebrows and ran one hand over his chin, "Yep, sure is, especially with your trusty colleague and my extra shadow working with me - correction, watching me."
"Frank?"
"Yeah, is he always this..." Lucas searched for the appropriate word, "...intense?" Cleo smiled and leaned close to his ear, lowering her voice to a loud whisper. "He's kind of weird, but I swear he has ears on the soles of his feet, so I should warn you..."
"Cleo. Shouldn't you be working somewhere?" Frank's irritated face, already turning an unhealthy shade of crimson, appeared around the bend and he didn't seem the slightest bit concerned about the bitter, jealous tone which permeated his voice. Cleo pulled a quick face at Lucas as Frank put a sandwich and drink carton down beside the console. The girl swung her legs off the table and turned defiantly to the older technician. "Lucas and I are going to lunch together." She widened her eyes at Lucas, prompting him to back her up, "Yeah, that's right," he stammered. Frank's expression fell into a look of clear dejection and the teenager suddenly felt a pang of regret for sounding so callous and felt the need to elaborate and perhaps make him feel better. "We've actually known each other for a while, got a lot of catching up to do." Cleo nodded, catching her friend's hand and backing him away from the work station as Frank watched, his face as mask of passivity. "Oh, well, if you need me..."
Cleo finished the sentence for him, "...we know where to find you, Frank. Thanks." She turned and dragged Lucas out into the hallway, quickly making her way down the corridor and another flight of stairs before swinging open a door and pulling Lucas inside after her.
************
Lucas looked around him, realising that this must be Cleo's bedroom. The walls were pretty bare but there were a couple of battered, old posters adorning the plain white paint work and there were rows of well-worn books, mostly romances. There were no toys or frilly pillows, but the room still had a distinctly feminine feel to it. Perching awkwardly on the edge of the bed, Lucas noticed a mini disk deck beside the bed with the song he had given her on seaQuest at the top of the pile, 'Take Me With You'. Cleo didn't seem disturbed by his scrutiny of her private space but simply allowed him the chance to take everything in before sitting close beside him. "So, I finally got a place to call home."
Lucas smiled, nervously, "Yeah, it's nice, better than seaQuest."
"I don't know about that, but I like it." Cleo looked at him, her eyes wide and clear just as he remembered from the first moment they had met, an open book, eager and accepting. She gestured to the pile of disks, "I've still got your song. I never really got around to buying any more." Lucas was grateful to have a subject totally unrelated to sex or gender and quickly piped up, "Oh, you should have called me. I would have made you a compilation."
"That would be great." Trying to think of something else to say which would fill the awkward silence suddenly descending on the room, Lucas asked again, "So, tell me how you got here. I mean, we're on the tip of nowhere, deep underwater on a research station. Last time I saw you, you were at Pearl Harbour waiting for social services."
Cleo shrugged, "Oh, I stayed with the group for a while but as soon as I turned sixteen I left." Her tone was nonchalant but Lucas sensed the deliberate attempt at casual. "Why?"
"Everything changed. After so long at the depot I guess I didn't really know how to deal with being up on dry land anymore." Her voice suddenly took on a more melancholy tone, "Zach and the others all supported each other but I guess I just...I was always the mother figure to them and suddenly I didn't have a place in their lives anymore. Suddenly they didn't want me...or need me." Lucas could hear the tremor in her voice and she swallowed hard before continuing, "It's just so different up there and there was no one like me, no one who understood." She broke off, abruptly and put one hand up to her face, wiping angrily at the tears which were threatening to spill down her cheeks. Lucas, painfully aware of the tentative kiss which had sealed their last meeting, wasn't sure how things stood between them and he slowly draped his arm around her shoulders. She immediately responded, drawing herself closer to him as he held her and smoothed the fronds of light brown hair away from her face. "Hey, it's okay." Lucas had never been in the comforting position much, always finding himself on the receiving end of some kind of punishment or apology for it. Yet, it felt strangely liberating to have someone to look after. He knew what a hard time Cleo had experienced down on the depot, left with no parents at the age of fifteen to look after four children, excluding Zach, all by herself. Their lives had been so different in lots of ways but so similar in others. During the latter few years of the boy's life, he had been answerable to every single person around him while Cleo had been expected to take the world onto her narrow shoulders. Yet, despite these conflicting experiences, both had learned the bitter lesson that they could only rely on themselves, that anyone else would only let them down or cause further trouble. They had learned the fine art of autarky at a torturously tender age.
Suddenly pulling away and sitting bolt upright, Cleo wiped again at her bleary eyes and sniffed, "I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from."
"It's okay." She sniffed again and Lucas rummaged around on her table top until he found some tissues and handed one to her. "Thanks, Lucas." She pulled her legs up underneath her and leaned back against the wall behind her bed before finally making eye contact with him again. "God, I feel so stupid." Lucas thought she still looked pretty even when she was crying, but didn't think he should voice that particular thought. "Don't."
"You just arrive and I start blubbering like a baby. I don't know what set it off." Lucas pulled himself up alongside her. "It was probably me." Cleo managed a slight chuckle. "No, I'm serious. I mean, I probably triggered memories of the day we pulled you out of that depot." Cleo said nothing but he could hear from her breathing that she was trying to stop herself from crying again. He didn't know what he should say to comfort her and the words which came to mind would only make her more upset anyway. Yet, somehow, he felt that it was important that he say it. "If it's any help, I know what it feels like...up there." He waited for her to turn on him and tell him that he knew nothing about her situation, but she sat quietly. He went on, "I remember when I finished my first tour on seaQuest and I went back to see my parents. It felt so weird. I'd spent fifteen years of my life stuck in the middle of their problems and when my dad shipped me off to the submarine I was miserable, but I was lucky. Bridger made me feel like a person again, like someone cared about me. Maybe that's what made it so hard to go back home again. I couldn't even handle the little things anymore like dinner with my mom. It was as if it was all too much. I was so relieved to get back to seaQuest again." He looked up from fiddling with a paper clip which he had straightened out and found himself staring into Cleo's swimming blue eyes. He laughed, nervously, "I never told anyone that." She held his gaze for a long moment before leaning towards Lucas and planting a soft kiss on his lips. "Thank you." Her self-assurance put the teenager on edge but a greater part of him wanted to be near to her. It was like there was a invisible connection between them, tugging them closer even though they barely knew each other. He managed a smile in response to her kiss just as a buzzing sound jolted them out of their romantic haze.
"Cleo?" Leaning over Lucas, the girl flicked a switch and brought Dr. Wagner's face into sharp focus on the vidlink. "Yep."
"I hope you're not detaining Mr. Wolenczak. Captain Bridger doesn't want to be stuck here any longer than necessary."
"No, I was just showing him a few..." Lucas twisted until he was in view of Wagner and helped her out. "I needed to check a few ports around the station. Cleo was just giving me a hand." Wagner looked at him through piercing, suspicious eyes then glanced back at Cleo as if trying to communicate something to her. Lucas didn't notice the curt nod she gave the doctor and the cold, pursed-lipped expression on her face as she did so. "Fine. Just don't get in the way." The screen went abruptly blank.
Cleo got up from the bed, "Come on. I'll show you round the rest of the station."
************
Nathan had been sitting in the conference room since they had arrived at the station, glancing unenthusiastically over the vehicle blueprints given to him by Dr. Wagner. The plans were hardly the stuff of rocket science and the task was starting to make the papers back on seaQuest look like a classic Tom Clancy novel. Shoving the dull articles away from him, Bridger decided to see what everyone else was up to, starting with Kristin. From the expression on her face when they had parted ways, she was probably having the time of her life and making plenty of friends while she was at it. In fact, the captain had already started to feel a little left out on this trip. Both Dr. Westphalen and Lucas were considered great assets and had been treated like demi-gods since their arrival while the other crew members had each other to depend on while they went about their work. Once again, Nathan was forced to remember that he had personally assigned a large part of his pay packet to the anti-social, solitary aspects of the job, followed closely by the whole responsible-for-peace-keeping-the-world's-oceans bit. He may have spent a considerable amount of time alone on his island but adjusting to life among other people again had brought with it certain pangs for company which sometimes only served to remind him of how lonely he often felt.
Ducking out of the room like an errant school boy, Nathan headed towards the laboratories. Kristin looked up from her work just as he passed the window and she waved him in, her unbridled energy clear even from where the captain was standing.
"Nathan, I'm so glad you're here. I was starting to think I'd have to celebrate this find all by myself." She steered him by the shoulders towards the microscope she had been peering into. "Look." Nathan squinted through one eye and focused on some rather watery, round, greenish cells. "What am I looking at?"
"A brand new life form. This species has never been recorded anywhere in the world before." Nathan looked up at the doctor, trying his hardest to muster up some interest in this project. He was beginning to understand how Lucas felt on a daily basis, being lectured on the amazing properties of sea sponges and fish eggs. "They look pretty ordinary to me. What do they do?" Kristin's shoulders sagged with the realization that Nathan was far from being interested in her discovery. She repeated the question, blankly. "What do they do? What do you mean? They're algae specimens. They're algae! You do know what that is, don't you, Nathan?"
He ignored the condescending tone and way Kristin had drawn in her cheeks sourly, the trademark of displaying how serious she was about something. "Yes, yes, I know what it is but...I just wondered whether it did anything, you know, special?" He could barely believe how ridiculous he sounded, even to himself. With one stern look from her, he had been demoted from captain to deck hand status.
Brushing him aside, Kristin made a 'tut-tutting' sound with her tongue and peered through the microscope again. "What is it with you men? First Lucas, now you. Everything has to do something. You're never content for things to just exist or evolve." Nathan suddenly felt himself grow defensive, "That's not true."
"Oh, really? Look at the seaQuest. You and Lucas spend nearly as much time planning improvements on something which already defies nature as you do running what's there already. Men are never satisfied with their lot. There always has to be something bigger and better to move on to."
"Only with some things. I was content with my life, the simple pleasures, until my wife died. Family is what makes a man stable. If he truly loves his family, that is enough. Improvement is simply a bonus and that's why Lucas is the way he is. Just wait until he gets himself a girlfriend, then we'll see how much work he gets done." Kristin laughed and shook her head in mock exasperation.
"Oh, Nathan. Sometimes I think a girlfriend is exactly what that boy needs. It must be very frustrating to be the only person under twenty-one on seaQuest, not to mention lonely."
"Perhaps, but then perhaps a friend would do, then we could still get something done." Kristin jumped to the boy's defence. "Give him a chance. Don't forget, right now he is working on those computer systems for you and he hasn't complained once." Nathan widened his eyebrows; surely she hadn't forgotten the comments he had made since their arrival. If that was a sign of enjoyment then the captain truly had been out of the loop for a long time.
************
Lucas wrapped his arms around Cleo's waist as she pulled him even closer to her against the table housing the computer, their movements only breaking the kiss for a moment. Coming up for air, Cleo whispered, "Maybe we should go somewhere more private. People are always traipsing around this area. Someone might see us." Lucas brushed a strand of light brown hair away from her face, feeling an inexplicable need to touch her all the time. As if on cue, a man in a lab coat marched past where they were sitting, casting a disapproving frown in their direction before moving on.
Lucas helped Cleo off his knee where she had been half perched and ran one slender hand through his hair. "I'd better get this system checked out first. The captain will kill me if I come back after a day without any progress. He's already pretty pissed about this trip." A wicked thought went through his mind and he grinned. "Although, if I get through this, I could stall him for a few more days, say something about a contaminated area or something." Cleo smiled, her eyes shining with delight. "Great. I'll let you get on with it and come back later." Planting a kiss firmly on his lips, she sauntered towards the door, turning to blow him another before disappearing into the corridor.
Lucas was annoyed that he had to run a stupid systems check which any program could do for him when he could be spending time with his new girlfriend, but it was easier to work without her looking over his shoulder. When she did that, all he could sense was the smell of clean washing and the proximity of her hand from his or her breath against his neck. Focusing as much as his addled brain would allow, the teenager began running through the systems, barely glancing at the books beside him which he should have been taking into account at the same time. He had done enough of these checks while on seaQuest to know any mother system inside and back to front. It didn't even take a genius mind like his to do it. In fact, if Lucas wasn't so caught up in the snare of love, he would probably be sulking with the sort of vehemence he usually reserved for the times when Bridger refused to let him have shore leave or some new equipment when he wanted it.
He ploughed through the monotonous clearance codes and level security for the entire station and was just about falling asleep when something caught his attention. Below the catalogues of in-going and out-going samples, produce and finance was one particularly dubious heading marked 'Project Classified'. Leaning forward and drawing his brow into a frown of concentration, Lucas typed various code combinations in an effort to access the file. When he found that nothing had worked, he began leafing through the manuals stacked beside his chair, thumbing through all the ground level basics, but still he found nothing useful. Well, at least this is a challenge, he thought.
After half an hour of examining the intricacies of seaweed farming and seasonal redfish catches which the teenager assured himself was just a cover-up attempt, Lucas found what he had been looking for. Wasn't this exactly what Bridger had been going on about that morning? Under the pile of typical environmentalist occupations, he had uncovered the data on mining into the landmass adjacent to the station. Flicking through the files, he was surprised to find that there still didn't seem to be any sign of illegal behaviour or digging into dangerous areas of the cliff face. However, Lucas had been unfortunate enough to have plenty of experience in covert operations. Whoever had set up this secure area had been so thorough that they had only proven there was something to hide there. Delving further into the level six clearance documents, Lucas tried to tag something, anything, which would prove him right. He found indexes about different gemmology, rock types; their optical properties and durability but his interest in bits of rock was limited and Lucas couldn't see anything which should strike him as strange.
He was so deeply involved in his studies that he almost jumped out of his skin when two arms wrapped themselves around his neck and Cleo rested her chin on his shoulder. "Hey. How's it going?" Lucas rubbed her hand lightly and blinked away the semi-paralysis which had set in his eyes. "Um, fine. Actually I'm glad you're here, maybe you can help me out."
"How?" Lucas pointed to the screen and the endless list of minerals, scrolling down the page. "What's all this? Why is it such high security? It all looks pretty basic to me." Cleo stiffened slightly and stepped back. "Oh, you know, just the mining stuff." Lucas spun round in his chair to face her.
"Yeah, but nobody showed me any of those places. Where do you mine from?"
"There's an entrance to that area through the back of the station."
"Why haven't I seen it?"
Cleo shrugged, avoiding eye contact with him. "I guess nobody thought it was important. I mean, it's just a hole in the rock where the scientists have been digging study samples." Lucas nodded, watching her carefully and noted the sudden change in her behaviour as she withdrew from him. He indicated to the computer, "There's nothing here which would be dangerous, no radioactive materials or anything."
"Exactly."
Lucas scrutinised her for a moment longer and she felt herself recoiling under that liquid blue gaze. He gently asked, "So why are you so nervous all of a sudden?" Cleo's eyes suddenly snapped onto his and he could see that they were welling up with tears. He stood up and moved over to her but she resisted his touch. "Cleo, what is it?"
"Nothing." Her voice sounded shaky.
"Then will you take me to the mine entrance?" Lucas tried to sound kind but 'nothing' wouldn't upset her this much and it was part of his job to find out what was going on. Besides, the UEO had been sent in with specific instructions to investigate the rock side of the station for any possible contributors to the alterations in seismic activity. He half expected her to refuse but Cleo simply nodded and made for the door with Lucas in tow.
************
Cleo led Lucas to the rear of the station where a single door, grimy with earth and dust separated them from the mining quarter of the construct. She typed in a code quickly, her fingers flitting over the buttons so fast that Lucas didn't even see what the numbers were. Leaning hard against the stiff frame, she twisted the wheel that sealed the chamber and it slowly swung open heavily on its hinges.
Lucas was expecting to see something pretty advanced to require such security measures - some hi-tech equipment, top of the line computers or hazardous substances. Instead, he was both relieved and disappointed to be confronted with an empty cavern. To his untrained eye, it perfectly resembled any old beach cave with dark grey rocks jutting from the makeshift walls and marred only by the recent scars of hasty excavation.
"This is it?" He stepped into the centre of the cavern and Cleo followed suit, her eyes never leaving Lucas' face. "Why was this such a big secret?" She shrugged, refusing to answer. Lucas was bemused by her silence and it set off the warning lights in his brain. Something about this wasn't quite right and she was acting way too edgy for it to be nothing. Cleo had always been fairly forthcoming with how she felt and this sudden hesitation put him on edge. Moving back towards the light which trickled through the open door and drew their shadows up the walls and ceiling, Lucas rested a hand reassuringly on his girlfriend's shoulder. "Cleo, what's the matter? You've been acting weird ever since I found out about this place." He laughed and gestured to the rough hewn walls, "I mean, it's just a cave. I don't see what the big deal is." At this, Cleo swallowed dryly and looked at him. Should she tell him the truth? Lucas had been such a good friend to her when she had been rescued and brought to seaQuest. How could she hide anything from him? Then again, this was just work. It had nothing to do with her relationship with him and the mining wasn't exactly doing any harm to anyone...was it? Cleo had told herself that there was nothing wrong here countless times but every time she was left with a strange sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She may not know the science and it was nothing more than a gut instinct, but the secrecy which surrounded the project made her uneasy and she longed for someone to confide in.
If she told Lucas, she would inevitably lose her job for giving out confidential information. Lucas' sympathetic, blue eyes watched her in the gloom of the doorway and a small smile of reassurance played across his lips. Just that tiny movement sent waves of warmth through Cleo, proving to her that there was someone here who could make her feel cared for, who made her feel safe. So what if she lost her job; maybe Lucas could persuade Captain Bridger to let her stay on seaQuest with them. Hardly daring to hope, she took a deep breath and decided to tell him everything about the project. "This isn't where the real mining starts." Lucas felt a wave of relief that Cleo was finally opening up again but the grip she tightened on his hand gave him cause for concern. Her expression had risen from solemn passivity to wild intensity and she pointed to something yellow hanging on the wall inside the door. "Grab that torch and follow me." Lucas obliged and switched the torch on, spreading its beam around the interior of the cave. He was surprised to see that there was actually another door in the rear with another password keypad beside it. Cleo punched in another number and Lucas made a mental note of the digits, unsure of whether he might need them again.
Expecting to see another cave, he almost dropped the torch when he entered. This cave was nothing like the previous one; from about waist level upwards was the same black rock but the bottom half of the room was made of a strange stone matter which seemed to undulate with different colours. It could have been a trick of the torch light, but sometimes the rocks looked blue then pink, slowly moving into a burgundy colour before brown, black and back to blue where it rested. Lucas breathed, "Wow!" Cleo flicked a switch and the room was bathed in a soft white light which only served to reflect the blue colour even more vividly. He knelt down beside one wall and ran his hand over the rock face, savouring its coolness under his fingers. "What is this stuff?" Cleo never felt comfortable in this room and always tried to swap her shifts with someone else. That was always easy because the few others involved in the project seemed to love the stuff, secreting samples into pockets and bags for all kinds of mysterious purposes, only some of them legal. Despite this, she did feel more at ease now that Lucas was with her and, no matter what her reservations, it was mesmerisingly beautiful in here. "I don't really know, some kind of tourmaline extract, I think."
"Tourmaline? That makes sense." Cleo moved over to him, sitting beside him on the floor as they watched the changing colours in front of them. She linked an arm through his and said, "It's beautiful, isn't it? Like our very own northern lights hundreds of feet below sea level." Now that the initial panic and curiosity of finding out what was going on back here had been diffused, Lucas just wanted to forget about the computer programs. Everything was running fine and there was clearly nothing to be worried about here. Tourmaline mining was legitimate and they had barely chipped into the cliff face so there was no risk of unbalancing natural tectonic shifts. Whoever came up with that one had clearly been hunting for something to hit these people with for a long time and it had been a long shot.
Cupping her face in his hands, he drew Cleo closer to him and leaned in to kiss her. She responded, running her hands through his blonde hair before he pulled away. They made out for a while, neither one knew how long, and then settled back against the rock together, still in awe of the organic beauty all around them. Eventually, Lucas broke the silence. "Why were you so worried about bringing me here?"
"I don't know. I guess I just always feel a bit...afraid."
"Why?" Cleo sat up straight and looked at Lucas, her face grim and serious.
"Because we haven't just been mining it, Lucas."
"What do you mean?" She pointed to the equipment in the centre of the room, consisting of reflectance meters, thermal conductance testers and other contraptions Lucas couldn't put a name to. "Look around you. Do you see any vehicles for transporting the rock?" He had to admit that there was no trace of mining here at all. It was as if the rock had just disappeared and there was no record on the database of it being transported anywhere. "They don't take it anywhere, they use it." Lucas was confused. None of this made any sense; what possible use could a gem like tourmaline have in a research sub-station? "What for?"
"All kinds of things, but I only see a few, like the power to light this room." She pointed to the switch on the wall. "It isn't wired to anything. It runs off the rock." Cleo seemed unnerved simply by explaining this to someone else and Lucas tried to reassure her. "That's possible. I mean, just as some rocks have magnetic properties, this one might have some kind of short-term electromagnetic aspect. So, what else do they use it for?"
"Sometimes they process it into powder and test it on life forms collected from the sea bed. They seem to thrive on it." Lucas jumped up, suddenly aware of the potential gold mine they were sitting on here. It would mean a fond farewell to batteries in favour of never ending supplies of this tourmaline derivative. Similarly, if this were organic, as some gems were, then there was no end to the possible uses for it. "Yeah, of course!" he exclaimed.
"What?"
"Well, there are organic and inorganic gems. The organic ones have a mineral content, too, like pearls, coral, ivory, even bone. If marine life is somehow consuming them...well, that would be an amazing breakthrough. Imagine if we could tap rocks as a source of nutrients. My God, it's no wonder the station kept this under wraps. I mean, this isn't your average tourmaline gem. It might be part of the same mineral family but there is no history of being able to use rocks for anything like food before, let alone generating light like this." He paused, surveying the room. "On the other hand though, organic gems are non-crystalline." Cleo was already completely lost. She felt a bit daunted by the sudden onslaught of scientific facts Lucas was throwing her way. "What does that mean?" Lucas was blissfully unaware of her inability to follow his train of thought. "The atoms and molecules in non-crystalline gems are positioned randomly throughout the material and don't have a specific pattern so they never occur in a particular shape. Tourmaline does. It always takes on a trigonal prism shape regardless of how many times it is cleaved."
"So?"
"So..." Lucas picked up a couple of small pieces of chiselled rock from the floor near where some mining equipment had been left and rolled it round in his hand, "...these pieces are randomly spliced." His eyes gleamed with a kind of mania Cleo had never seen before. "This rock might be a completely new species, a hybrid of both organic and inorganic." He chuckled, "And to think Dr. Westphalen was going on about having a new algae sample." Lucas bent over and offered Cleo his hand to pull her up.
"Where are we going?"
"To tell her. She'll flip..." At this, Cleo's eyes widened and she pulled back on his arm, shaking her head emphatically. "No, no, Lucas we can't!" Oblivious to the genuine urgency her voice betrayed, Lucas lunged for the door again, only to be tugged back. Taking in the anguished expression her face, he realized how upset Cleo was by this decision. "Why not?"
"No one's supposed to know about it...especially not you." Lucas glanced towards the doorway, only a few steps and he would be out in the corridor and feet away from his own crew. It would be so easy to obey what his body was telling him to do, to shrug Cleo off and seek out Dr. Westphalen or the captain, but his heart staid him. Taking the girl's hands in his own, he faced her. "Listen, Cleo. This is a research station. They're supposed to be discovering new stuff - it's their job. You won't get into trouble if the UEO know."
Cleo stared at him through swimming blue eyes, silently pleading for him to believe her. "Lucas, I'd lose my job...everything I've worked so hard for."
He paused, digesting what she was saying in light of everything which had happened since his arrival. How could he keep this find a secret? It was an advancement which could affect the whole world. It was the discovery of an entirely new and inexhaustible fuel source, untapped since its formation millions of years ago and that was something no crew of scientists could keep to themselves for long. Then again, how could he betray Cleo after everything she had told him, the problems she had struggled with on land, problems he claimed to understand? Despite the tears she had shed back in her room, he had noticed how confident and happy she had been showing him around. With one move, he could jeopardize everything. For the first time in his life, Lucas was torn between his love of science and the love he felt for his girlfriend. He had only really known her for such a short time but it felt different, it felt right to be together. Even if they broke up tomorrow, he wasn't sure his conscience could cope with the knowledge that he was responsible for her inevitable unhappiness. "Listen, Cleo, MEDS won't be able to keep this a secret much longer anyway. Someone is going to find out and it will only make matters worse for them." She turned away, unconvinced. "They don't own this rock face so they can't make profit off it. Turning this mining discovery over to the government is going to happen sooner or later, it's just a question of how stupid Wagner is. Only personal greed drives people to keep this kind of thing to themselves." He pulled her round by the shoulders, forcing her gaze to meet with his. "Come on, Cleo. Surely you can see that it's the right thing to do. I'll tell them that I forced you to bring me here. I mean, it's the truth, isn't it?"
Cleo didn't know what to say. She had not dared to hope that Lucas would leave it be and she had been right to do so. He was a technician, a computer expert, a scientist and, first and foremost, a genius. What possible hold could a girl have over the voracious appetite built into him? She had been a fool to expect him to roll over and forget about any UEO ethics just because she had kissed him. It was time that she resigned herself to the hard truth that Lucas was too good a man for her. Here she was, expecting him to lie or, at the very least, withhold information for her, when one of the traits she had loved most about him was his honesty and inherently good nature. Yet, there was a part of her which knew that corrupting Lucas was not the only thing preying on her mind. A much bigger part of her was already panicking at the prospect of being sent back to the temporary 'home' she had left when the seaQuest had dropped her off at Pearl Harbour. It made her heart skip a beat just thinking about it and Cleo could feel a sickening recoiling sensation in her stomach making her feel momentarily dizzy. If it was having this effect already, what chance did she stand when the launch took her to the surface with her last pay cheque in hand?
Lucas squeezed her hand to bring her back to reality and then offered, "Look, let's think about this for a while. We've got hours before I'm supposed to report back to the captain. Maybe I've been a bit hasty." Cleo forced a smile even though her heart wasn't in it like a man on death row, she'd take every spare second offered her.
(1) National Oceanography & Seismology Organization
************
Oblivious to his near misses with the captain, Lucas frowned at the doctor, wishing that he could simply ignore her and hoping that they would find some people his own age just around the next corner. He was disappointed to reach Bridger's temporary quarters without so much as a glimpse of anyone under forty. The station was unusual even by Kristin's standards with twisting corridors which seemed to have few regular features, some covered with panels of switches while others were lined with pipes which ran like blue veins through the ironwork before suddenly submerging into the walls. For safety reasons, it was rare to find a sub-surface structures with so many window panels. The room in which Bridger had assembled his group had one large reinforced viewing area which looked out into the murky depths of the sea. Floodlights provided enough light to see about fifty feet ahead before darkness closed in again. Nathan stood at the head of the table, his hands resting purposefully on the edges.
"Now, I have spoken at length with Dr. Wagner and we have come to an arrangement. NOSO (1) are claiming the MEDS station to be unfit and unsafe for work, disrupting seismic activity. Admiral Noyce assures me it is likely to be nothing more than hot air, but the matter must be dealt with seriously. We've been drafted in to check the place over, every nook and cranny. Leave no stone unturned." He looked sternly at Lucas, "Lucas, you are going to run through the computer system and check for any possible problems, anything which might lend credence to NOSO's claims that this place is unsafe."
Lucas grinned cheekily at Dr. Westphalen who had been trying to keep his paws off the equipment ever since they had arrived. Now that he had a free rein and the captain's permission, there was little she could do to stop him. Bridger sighed and rubbed his forehead, only deepening the creases which had formed there. "Meanwhile, Ford, Krieg, Hitchcock and Chief Crocker, you will carry out your duties aboard the station just as you would back on seaQuest. The UEO has jurisdiction over everything within this facility and it is our duty to survey the entire area, make a thorough routine check. Report back to me at 1600 hours. Kristin, Dr. Wagner hasn't been able to sing your praises enough. I should imagine you'll be given free run of their laboratories." He glanced around the table, waiting for the inevitable question or comment.
True to form, it was Krieg who obliged. "Forgive me for asking, sir, but what will you be doing?" Nathan resented the implications of that question but from the quizzical expressions on everyone else's face, it was clear they had all been asking themselves the same thing. "If you must know, I have been asked to review some schematics for a short range exploration vehicle." He was determined not to be forced to elaborate. He had never been answerable to his crew before and he certainly wasn't going to start now. Not one to back down, Ben quickly fired the next question. "Captain, when we will be leaving?"
"Either when we can give the all clear or if we are required to go top side and get further aid from shore." He sighed, wishing that he didn't have to be the one to sound enthusiastic about this project. "We'll all make the best of it while we're here. I don't want any more complaints. Any other questions?" Lucas looked from one companion to the other, waiting for someone, anyone, to ask what had been on his mind since they had docked. When nobody made a move to say anything, he opened his hands out in a gesture of indifference. "Yeah, actually." Bridger turned to him, his eyes holding a warning note and harnessing a sigh which threatened to escape his lips. He really wasn't in the mood for wise cracks and he was certain his waning patience wouldn't hold out much longer. "Yes, Lucas?"
"I'd just like to know when the UEO become a maintenance crew? Did I miss something?" Nathan looked at Krieg and Hitchcock to assess their reaction. He expected this kind of question from Lucas, who jumped at any opportunity to highlight what nobody wanted to acknowledge and make everyone feel as small as possible. Neither lieutenant met his gaze, their eyes travelling across the floor or at the fascinating ceiling paint work. "We are not here to run a maintenance check." Lucas nodded, mockingly. "Right. There's nothing wrong with this base, no distress signal, yet we turn seaQuest around and head on in just because a bunch of lab coats start squealing. Now I'm told I have to run system checks on the entire place and you're telling me we haven't just been demoted to engineers? That this isn't just an elaborate plan to keep the wheels oiled?" Nathan stared at him but said nothing, "Come on, captain. What aren't you telling us? There's got to be more to this than that, right? Some kind of military cover up which we're here to expose?" His mind racing with all the exciting possibilities, Lucas continued, his blue eyes wide and gleaming with animation. "Because if I've got to sit staring at their environmental database for days on end, I'd like to know if I should be looking for signs of a nuclear warhead hidden somewhere in the files on jellyfish." He took a large gulp of air, giving Nathan a chance to interrupt, his hands raised in mock surrender. "I'm relieved to say that seaQuest is not always involved in something quite so dramatic. Aside from 'squealing lab coats', there may be some validity to NOSO's claims of high risk earthquakes. Drilling into the rock face could be having a dangerous effect on plate movement."
Lucas snorted, "Are you kidding? This place is sitting right on the ridge, they get earthquakes all the time. I mean, the base was completely destroyed less than eighty years ago." Commander Ford had been quietly standing by, an observer in everything which had happened since they had arrived at the base. He had not failed to notice the strange behaviour of Dr. Wagner and was all too familiar with the face of someone who had something to hide. He snapped, "Would you rather be back on seaQuest, Lucas? It can be arranged." Lucas sank back into his chair, silent. In the uncomfortable silence which followed his outburst, Ford began to regret his bitterness. It wasn't Lucas that was the problem, but he wanted to find out what was going on round here instead of sitting around conjuring up reasons why they should leave. Softening his tone, he added, "I think the quicker we get started the better."
Ben Krieg had been waiting for that decision; the less time he spent in his ex-wife's company right now, the better. "Hear, hear." Nathan nodded and began dishing out official orders when there was a knock at the door. "Come in." An alert, male face tentatively peered round the door. "Um, I'm here for a..." He glanced down at a piece of crumpled paper in his hand, "...Lucas Wolenczak." Lucas stood up, reluctantly, and sauntered over to the door. He turned back as if to say something before thinking better of it and stepping outside.
************
Once in the corridor, the man turned to Lucas and looked him up and down. The boy didn't need to be a mind reader to figure out what he was thinking. "I know, I seem pretty young for this, right?" The man, probably in his mid-forties, was short and barrel-chested with round, pebble glasses and a shock of quiffed brown hair set off by a regulation plaid shirt. "Actually, I was just putting the face to the name. Frank Desoze, at your service." Lucas shook the hand offered and began to wonder which was worse, having someone treat him like a young upstart or a kid genius whose every breath was like magic. "Nice to meet you." He shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, waiting for Frank to make a move, but he simply stood there, staring. "Shall we?" Lucas prompted.
"Oh, yeah, right. Um, I'll take you to the main control centre. You can find everything about the centre on the databases there." Moving down the winding corridors, they eventually came to rest at the furthest point from where the seaQuest was docked. Frank pushed open the door and Lucas was confronted with a room full of panels and computer monitors, big screens and electronic consoles. The only signs of human activity were two people wandering between the wires and apparatus, jotting down notes on clipboards before moving on. Frank led Lucas over to a more secluded work station around the corner and gestured to the seat. Sitting down and flexing his fingers, Lucas quickly accessed the mainframe. Frank leaned over him and the teenager could feel the man's eyes boring into his back, scrutinising what the genius boy was going to do next. "Most of this stuff is environmental science bases, you know, all the usual observation results and marine data. It's all way below your expertise." Lucas drew his brow into a frown, examining the information flashing in front of him as his fingers flew across the keyboard with lightning speed. Without looking up, he muttered, "Yeah, well the captain wants me to cover everything, so..."
Frank shrugged and backed off a little, pointing to some of the other screens and equipment round the room, explaining their purpose and wittering on about access codes. Lucas was only half listening, eager to get this job finished so that he could leave, "Great, that's great." Eventually, he reached an impasse in the system; well, he knew he could figure the codes out for himself, but it would save time if Frank just gave them to him. "Could I have those access codes?" Frank moved closer and craned his neck over the work station to try and see what Lucas was doing. "Can't you get in yourself?" Lucas scratched the back of his head, sighing in exasperation. "Yeah, of course, but I don't have time to sit here and work them out." A spark of a smile crossed Frank's face and he wrung his hands in a horribly Scrooge-style movement, "Can't you just do one, for me? I've never seen a hacker at work." Lucas rolled his eyes, "Well, it doesn't look all that much different from standard typing, and I'm not a hacker. I'm head of mammal engineering." The man's gaze did not waver. "Come on, Frank. Give me a break." He was about to protest and insist on getting the base's manuals, but something about the look in Frank's eyes made him relent. "Okay, just one, then I really need the codes. I don't want to be here all day." Frank nodded emphatically,
"Yeah, I promise." Turning his attention back to the blinking screen, Lucas began to frantically type in strings of garbled words and fragments of equations. Within ten minutes the first code was done and the teenager was relieved to be left alone for five seconds while the technician disappeared off to find the manuals.
He wasn't gone long enough and Lucas found himself physically gritting his teeth to prevent himself from saying something he shouldn't. Frank should consider himself lucky that the teen's hands were occupied with typing or he might just deck him. He managed to control his temper for another half hour before he couldn't stand it a moment longer and spent more energy trying to think of ways to get rid of the man than he spent on the programs themselves. "Hey, Frank? Are you hungry?"
Frank shook his head, not even noticing the hint let alone taking it and leaving. "No."
"Well, I'm starving. Could you grab me something?" Frank gave him a venomous glare and Lucas was momentarily afraid that he was going to punch him and the phrase, 'If looks could kill...' flitted across his mind. Standing up slowly, the man glanced from the teenager to the monitor, then wagged his finger in Lucas' face. "Don't do anything while I'm gone. I want to see it all."
"Promise." Waiting until Frank was out of earshot, Lucas muttered, "Ctrl-Alt-Delete isn't exactly rocket science." Rubbing a hand over his eyes, which were beginning to feel sore from staring at the screen for so long, he began typing again, glancing over to the manual every now and again.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Lucas felt something inside him snap. "Listen, Frank. To be perfectly...frank, I'd get this done a lot quicker if you'd just..."
"Great welcome for someone you haven't seen in months." Lucas whirled round in his seat when he heard not the gruff tone of Frank but a high, female voice. A girl stood in front of him, a smug smile stretching from ear to ear. "Cleo! My God, what are you doing here? I mean, it's great to see you." He stood up and she hugged him tightly and Lucas had a momentary flash of the time they had danced together after she had been rescued from the Landau Munitions Depot in the Indian Ocean. He inhaled the scent of her coconut shampoo, noticing for the first time how foreign it felt to have someone so close to him. He may have found a surrogate family onboard seaQuest, but physical affection was rare, especially since instinct had taught him always to push people away rather than open up to them. Cleo had been like a kindred spirit among all those adults, someone who had suffered like he had.
She pulled away from him and looked him up and down, "I heard you were here and I came looking."
"How come you're on a MEDS post?" Cleo perched on the edge of the console, her small frame fitting snugly without pressing any buttons. "Well, it's kind of a long story, but basically my time on the depot worked in my favour when it came to career choices. I managed to get a job down here, just basic stuff. I'm not qualified to do much yet, but it's a start, right?" Lucas nodded, unable to wipe the smile off his face. He had hoped to find someone close to his age down here but he certainly hadn't dared hope to find someone he actually knew, even better, liked...a lot. Smoothing his hands over the knees of his trousers, he said, "I can't believe this. It's great."
Cleo laughed, "I know. Isn't it weird how being underwater can be so isolating that you don't even recognise it until something like this happens to shake you up? Up top, we spend our time trying to avoid certain friends but down here I find myself seeking out my enemies just to have someone close to my own age to talk to."
"Yeah, part of me can't wait to get older so I'll be the right age to be friends with everyone else on seaQuest, by which time they'll all be old and retired." Cleo twisted herself round to examine the screen he had been working with and screwed up her nose. "Looks like fun." Lucas raised his eyebrows and ran one hand over his chin, "Yep, sure is, especially with your trusty colleague and my extra shadow working with me - correction, watching me."
"Frank?"
"Yeah, is he always this..." Lucas searched for the appropriate word, "...intense?" Cleo smiled and leaned close to his ear, lowering her voice to a loud whisper. "He's kind of weird, but I swear he has ears on the soles of his feet, so I should warn you..."
"Cleo. Shouldn't you be working somewhere?" Frank's irritated face, already turning an unhealthy shade of crimson, appeared around the bend and he didn't seem the slightest bit concerned about the bitter, jealous tone which permeated his voice. Cleo pulled a quick face at Lucas as Frank put a sandwich and drink carton down beside the console. The girl swung her legs off the table and turned defiantly to the older technician. "Lucas and I are going to lunch together." She widened her eyes at Lucas, prompting him to back her up, "Yeah, that's right," he stammered. Frank's expression fell into a look of clear dejection and the teenager suddenly felt a pang of regret for sounding so callous and felt the need to elaborate and perhaps make him feel better. "We've actually known each other for a while, got a lot of catching up to do." Cleo nodded, catching her friend's hand and backing him away from the work station as Frank watched, his face as mask of passivity. "Oh, well, if you need me..."
Cleo finished the sentence for him, "...we know where to find you, Frank. Thanks." She turned and dragged Lucas out into the hallway, quickly making her way down the corridor and another flight of stairs before swinging open a door and pulling Lucas inside after her.
************
Lucas looked around him, realising that this must be Cleo's bedroom. The walls were pretty bare but there were a couple of battered, old posters adorning the plain white paint work and there were rows of well-worn books, mostly romances. There were no toys or frilly pillows, but the room still had a distinctly feminine feel to it. Perching awkwardly on the edge of the bed, Lucas noticed a mini disk deck beside the bed with the song he had given her on seaQuest at the top of the pile, 'Take Me With You'. Cleo didn't seem disturbed by his scrutiny of her private space but simply allowed him the chance to take everything in before sitting close beside him. "So, I finally got a place to call home."
Lucas smiled, nervously, "Yeah, it's nice, better than seaQuest."
"I don't know about that, but I like it." Cleo looked at him, her eyes wide and clear just as he remembered from the first moment they had met, an open book, eager and accepting. She gestured to the pile of disks, "I've still got your song. I never really got around to buying any more." Lucas was grateful to have a subject totally unrelated to sex or gender and quickly piped up, "Oh, you should have called me. I would have made you a compilation."
"That would be great." Trying to think of something else to say which would fill the awkward silence suddenly descending on the room, Lucas asked again, "So, tell me how you got here. I mean, we're on the tip of nowhere, deep underwater on a research station. Last time I saw you, you were at Pearl Harbour waiting for social services."
Cleo shrugged, "Oh, I stayed with the group for a while but as soon as I turned sixteen I left." Her tone was nonchalant but Lucas sensed the deliberate attempt at casual. "Why?"
"Everything changed. After so long at the depot I guess I didn't really know how to deal with being up on dry land anymore." Her voice suddenly took on a more melancholy tone, "Zach and the others all supported each other but I guess I just...I was always the mother figure to them and suddenly I didn't have a place in their lives anymore. Suddenly they didn't want me...or need me." Lucas could hear the tremor in her voice and she swallowed hard before continuing, "It's just so different up there and there was no one like me, no one who understood." She broke off, abruptly and put one hand up to her face, wiping angrily at the tears which were threatening to spill down her cheeks. Lucas, painfully aware of the tentative kiss which had sealed their last meeting, wasn't sure how things stood between them and he slowly draped his arm around her shoulders. She immediately responded, drawing herself closer to him as he held her and smoothed the fronds of light brown hair away from her face. "Hey, it's okay." Lucas had never been in the comforting position much, always finding himself on the receiving end of some kind of punishment or apology for it. Yet, it felt strangely liberating to have someone to look after. He knew what a hard time Cleo had experienced down on the depot, left with no parents at the age of fifteen to look after four children, excluding Zach, all by herself. Their lives had been so different in lots of ways but so similar in others. During the latter few years of the boy's life, he had been answerable to every single person around him while Cleo had been expected to take the world onto her narrow shoulders. Yet, despite these conflicting experiences, both had learned the bitter lesson that they could only rely on themselves, that anyone else would only let them down or cause further trouble. They had learned the fine art of autarky at a torturously tender age.
Suddenly pulling away and sitting bolt upright, Cleo wiped again at her bleary eyes and sniffed, "I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from."
"It's okay." She sniffed again and Lucas rummaged around on her table top until he found some tissues and handed one to her. "Thanks, Lucas." She pulled her legs up underneath her and leaned back against the wall behind her bed before finally making eye contact with him again. "God, I feel so stupid." Lucas thought she still looked pretty even when she was crying, but didn't think he should voice that particular thought. "Don't."
"You just arrive and I start blubbering like a baby. I don't know what set it off." Lucas pulled himself up alongside her. "It was probably me." Cleo managed a slight chuckle. "No, I'm serious. I mean, I probably triggered memories of the day we pulled you out of that depot." Cleo said nothing but he could hear from her breathing that she was trying to stop herself from crying again. He didn't know what he should say to comfort her and the words which came to mind would only make her more upset anyway. Yet, somehow, he felt that it was important that he say it. "If it's any help, I know what it feels like...up there." He waited for her to turn on him and tell him that he knew nothing about her situation, but she sat quietly. He went on, "I remember when I finished my first tour on seaQuest and I went back to see my parents. It felt so weird. I'd spent fifteen years of my life stuck in the middle of their problems and when my dad shipped me off to the submarine I was miserable, but I was lucky. Bridger made me feel like a person again, like someone cared about me. Maybe that's what made it so hard to go back home again. I couldn't even handle the little things anymore like dinner with my mom. It was as if it was all too much. I was so relieved to get back to seaQuest again." He looked up from fiddling with a paper clip which he had straightened out and found himself staring into Cleo's swimming blue eyes. He laughed, nervously, "I never told anyone that." She held his gaze for a long moment before leaning towards Lucas and planting a soft kiss on his lips. "Thank you." Her self-assurance put the teenager on edge but a greater part of him wanted to be near to her. It was like there was a invisible connection between them, tugging them closer even though they barely knew each other. He managed a smile in response to her kiss just as a buzzing sound jolted them out of their romantic haze.
"Cleo?" Leaning over Lucas, the girl flicked a switch and brought Dr. Wagner's face into sharp focus on the vidlink. "Yep."
"I hope you're not detaining Mr. Wolenczak. Captain Bridger doesn't want to be stuck here any longer than necessary."
"No, I was just showing him a few..." Lucas twisted until he was in view of Wagner and helped her out. "I needed to check a few ports around the station. Cleo was just giving me a hand." Wagner looked at him through piercing, suspicious eyes then glanced back at Cleo as if trying to communicate something to her. Lucas didn't notice the curt nod she gave the doctor and the cold, pursed-lipped expression on her face as she did so. "Fine. Just don't get in the way." The screen went abruptly blank.
Cleo got up from the bed, "Come on. I'll show you round the rest of the station."
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Nathan had been sitting in the conference room since they had arrived at the station, glancing unenthusiastically over the vehicle blueprints given to him by Dr. Wagner. The plans were hardly the stuff of rocket science and the task was starting to make the papers back on seaQuest look like a classic Tom Clancy novel. Shoving the dull articles away from him, Bridger decided to see what everyone else was up to, starting with Kristin. From the expression on her face when they had parted ways, she was probably having the time of her life and making plenty of friends while she was at it. In fact, the captain had already started to feel a little left out on this trip. Both Dr. Westphalen and Lucas were considered great assets and had been treated like demi-gods since their arrival while the other crew members had each other to depend on while they went about their work. Once again, Nathan was forced to remember that he had personally assigned a large part of his pay packet to the anti-social, solitary aspects of the job, followed closely by the whole responsible-for-peace-keeping-the-world's-oceans bit. He may have spent a considerable amount of time alone on his island but adjusting to life among other people again had brought with it certain pangs for company which sometimes only served to remind him of how lonely he often felt.
Ducking out of the room like an errant school boy, Nathan headed towards the laboratories. Kristin looked up from her work just as he passed the window and she waved him in, her unbridled energy clear even from where the captain was standing.
"Nathan, I'm so glad you're here. I was starting to think I'd have to celebrate this find all by myself." She steered him by the shoulders towards the microscope she had been peering into. "Look." Nathan squinted through one eye and focused on some rather watery, round, greenish cells. "What am I looking at?"
"A brand new life form. This species has never been recorded anywhere in the world before." Nathan looked up at the doctor, trying his hardest to muster up some interest in this project. He was beginning to understand how Lucas felt on a daily basis, being lectured on the amazing properties of sea sponges and fish eggs. "They look pretty ordinary to me. What do they do?" Kristin's shoulders sagged with the realization that Nathan was far from being interested in her discovery. She repeated the question, blankly. "What do they do? What do you mean? They're algae specimens. They're algae! You do know what that is, don't you, Nathan?"
He ignored the condescending tone and way Kristin had drawn in her cheeks sourly, the trademark of displaying how serious she was about something. "Yes, yes, I know what it is but...I just wondered whether it did anything, you know, special?" He could barely believe how ridiculous he sounded, even to himself. With one stern look from her, he had been demoted from captain to deck hand status.
Brushing him aside, Kristin made a 'tut-tutting' sound with her tongue and peered through the microscope again. "What is it with you men? First Lucas, now you. Everything has to do something. You're never content for things to just exist or evolve." Nathan suddenly felt himself grow defensive, "That's not true."
"Oh, really? Look at the seaQuest. You and Lucas spend nearly as much time planning improvements on something which already defies nature as you do running what's there already. Men are never satisfied with their lot. There always has to be something bigger and better to move on to."
"Only with some things. I was content with my life, the simple pleasures, until my wife died. Family is what makes a man stable. If he truly loves his family, that is enough. Improvement is simply a bonus and that's why Lucas is the way he is. Just wait until he gets himself a girlfriend, then we'll see how much work he gets done." Kristin laughed and shook her head in mock exasperation.
"Oh, Nathan. Sometimes I think a girlfriend is exactly what that boy needs. It must be very frustrating to be the only person under twenty-one on seaQuest, not to mention lonely."
"Perhaps, but then perhaps a friend would do, then we could still get something done." Kristin jumped to the boy's defence. "Give him a chance. Don't forget, right now he is working on those computer systems for you and he hasn't complained once." Nathan widened his eyebrows; surely she hadn't forgotten the comments he had made since their arrival. If that was a sign of enjoyment then the captain truly had been out of the loop for a long time.
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Lucas wrapped his arms around Cleo's waist as she pulled him even closer to her against the table housing the computer, their movements only breaking the kiss for a moment. Coming up for air, Cleo whispered, "Maybe we should go somewhere more private. People are always traipsing around this area. Someone might see us." Lucas brushed a strand of light brown hair away from her face, feeling an inexplicable need to touch her all the time. As if on cue, a man in a lab coat marched past where they were sitting, casting a disapproving frown in their direction before moving on.
Lucas helped Cleo off his knee where she had been half perched and ran one slender hand through his hair. "I'd better get this system checked out first. The captain will kill me if I come back after a day without any progress. He's already pretty pissed about this trip." A wicked thought went through his mind and he grinned. "Although, if I get through this, I could stall him for a few more days, say something about a contaminated area or something." Cleo smiled, her eyes shining with delight. "Great. I'll let you get on with it and come back later." Planting a kiss firmly on his lips, she sauntered towards the door, turning to blow him another before disappearing into the corridor.
Lucas was annoyed that he had to run a stupid systems check which any program could do for him when he could be spending time with his new girlfriend, but it was easier to work without her looking over his shoulder. When she did that, all he could sense was the smell of clean washing and the proximity of her hand from his or her breath against his neck. Focusing as much as his addled brain would allow, the teenager began running through the systems, barely glancing at the books beside him which he should have been taking into account at the same time. He had done enough of these checks while on seaQuest to know any mother system inside and back to front. It didn't even take a genius mind like his to do it. In fact, if Lucas wasn't so caught up in the snare of love, he would probably be sulking with the sort of vehemence he usually reserved for the times when Bridger refused to let him have shore leave or some new equipment when he wanted it.
He ploughed through the monotonous clearance codes and level security for the entire station and was just about falling asleep when something caught his attention. Below the catalogues of in-going and out-going samples, produce and finance was one particularly dubious heading marked 'Project Classified'. Leaning forward and drawing his brow into a frown of concentration, Lucas typed various code combinations in an effort to access the file. When he found that nothing had worked, he began leafing through the manuals stacked beside his chair, thumbing through all the ground level basics, but still he found nothing useful. Well, at least this is a challenge, he thought.
After half an hour of examining the intricacies of seaweed farming and seasonal redfish catches which the teenager assured himself was just a cover-up attempt, Lucas found what he had been looking for. Wasn't this exactly what Bridger had been going on about that morning? Under the pile of typical environmentalist occupations, he had uncovered the data on mining into the landmass adjacent to the station. Flicking through the files, he was surprised to find that there still didn't seem to be any sign of illegal behaviour or digging into dangerous areas of the cliff face. However, Lucas had been unfortunate enough to have plenty of experience in covert operations. Whoever had set up this secure area had been so thorough that they had only proven there was something to hide there. Delving further into the level six clearance documents, Lucas tried to tag something, anything, which would prove him right. He found indexes about different gemmology, rock types; their optical properties and durability but his interest in bits of rock was limited and Lucas couldn't see anything which should strike him as strange.
He was so deeply involved in his studies that he almost jumped out of his skin when two arms wrapped themselves around his neck and Cleo rested her chin on his shoulder. "Hey. How's it going?" Lucas rubbed her hand lightly and blinked away the semi-paralysis which had set in his eyes. "Um, fine. Actually I'm glad you're here, maybe you can help me out."
"How?" Lucas pointed to the screen and the endless list of minerals, scrolling down the page. "What's all this? Why is it such high security? It all looks pretty basic to me." Cleo stiffened slightly and stepped back. "Oh, you know, just the mining stuff." Lucas spun round in his chair to face her.
"Yeah, but nobody showed me any of those places. Where do you mine from?"
"There's an entrance to that area through the back of the station."
"Why haven't I seen it?"
Cleo shrugged, avoiding eye contact with him. "I guess nobody thought it was important. I mean, it's just a hole in the rock where the scientists have been digging study samples." Lucas nodded, watching her carefully and noted the sudden change in her behaviour as she withdrew from him. He indicated to the computer, "There's nothing here which would be dangerous, no radioactive materials or anything."
"Exactly."
Lucas scrutinised her for a moment longer and she felt herself recoiling under that liquid blue gaze. He gently asked, "So why are you so nervous all of a sudden?" Cleo's eyes suddenly snapped onto his and he could see that they were welling up with tears. He stood up and moved over to her but she resisted his touch. "Cleo, what is it?"
"Nothing." Her voice sounded shaky.
"Then will you take me to the mine entrance?" Lucas tried to sound kind but 'nothing' wouldn't upset her this much and it was part of his job to find out what was going on. Besides, the UEO had been sent in with specific instructions to investigate the rock side of the station for any possible contributors to the alterations in seismic activity. He half expected her to refuse but Cleo simply nodded and made for the door with Lucas in tow.
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Cleo led Lucas to the rear of the station where a single door, grimy with earth and dust separated them from the mining quarter of the construct. She typed in a code quickly, her fingers flitting over the buttons so fast that Lucas didn't even see what the numbers were. Leaning hard against the stiff frame, she twisted the wheel that sealed the chamber and it slowly swung open heavily on its hinges.
Lucas was expecting to see something pretty advanced to require such security measures - some hi-tech equipment, top of the line computers or hazardous substances. Instead, he was both relieved and disappointed to be confronted with an empty cavern. To his untrained eye, it perfectly resembled any old beach cave with dark grey rocks jutting from the makeshift walls and marred only by the recent scars of hasty excavation.
"This is it?" He stepped into the centre of the cavern and Cleo followed suit, her eyes never leaving Lucas' face. "Why was this such a big secret?" She shrugged, refusing to answer. Lucas was bemused by her silence and it set off the warning lights in his brain. Something about this wasn't quite right and she was acting way too edgy for it to be nothing. Cleo had always been fairly forthcoming with how she felt and this sudden hesitation put him on edge. Moving back towards the light which trickled through the open door and drew their shadows up the walls and ceiling, Lucas rested a hand reassuringly on his girlfriend's shoulder. "Cleo, what's the matter? You've been acting weird ever since I found out about this place." He laughed and gestured to the rough hewn walls, "I mean, it's just a cave. I don't see what the big deal is." At this, Cleo swallowed dryly and looked at him. Should she tell him the truth? Lucas had been such a good friend to her when she had been rescued and brought to seaQuest. How could she hide anything from him? Then again, this was just work. It had nothing to do with her relationship with him and the mining wasn't exactly doing any harm to anyone...was it? Cleo had told herself that there was nothing wrong here countless times but every time she was left with a strange sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She may not know the science and it was nothing more than a gut instinct, but the secrecy which surrounded the project made her uneasy and she longed for someone to confide in.
If she told Lucas, she would inevitably lose her job for giving out confidential information. Lucas' sympathetic, blue eyes watched her in the gloom of the doorway and a small smile of reassurance played across his lips. Just that tiny movement sent waves of warmth through Cleo, proving to her that there was someone here who could make her feel cared for, who made her feel safe. So what if she lost her job; maybe Lucas could persuade Captain Bridger to let her stay on seaQuest with them. Hardly daring to hope, she took a deep breath and decided to tell him everything about the project. "This isn't where the real mining starts." Lucas felt a wave of relief that Cleo was finally opening up again but the grip she tightened on his hand gave him cause for concern. Her expression had risen from solemn passivity to wild intensity and she pointed to something yellow hanging on the wall inside the door. "Grab that torch and follow me." Lucas obliged and switched the torch on, spreading its beam around the interior of the cave. He was surprised to see that there was actually another door in the rear with another password keypad beside it. Cleo punched in another number and Lucas made a mental note of the digits, unsure of whether he might need them again.
Expecting to see another cave, he almost dropped the torch when he entered. This cave was nothing like the previous one; from about waist level upwards was the same black rock but the bottom half of the room was made of a strange stone matter which seemed to undulate with different colours. It could have been a trick of the torch light, but sometimes the rocks looked blue then pink, slowly moving into a burgundy colour before brown, black and back to blue where it rested. Lucas breathed, "Wow!" Cleo flicked a switch and the room was bathed in a soft white light which only served to reflect the blue colour even more vividly. He knelt down beside one wall and ran his hand over the rock face, savouring its coolness under his fingers. "What is this stuff?" Cleo never felt comfortable in this room and always tried to swap her shifts with someone else. That was always easy because the few others involved in the project seemed to love the stuff, secreting samples into pockets and bags for all kinds of mysterious purposes, only some of them legal. Despite this, she did feel more at ease now that Lucas was with her and, no matter what her reservations, it was mesmerisingly beautiful in here. "I don't really know, some kind of tourmaline extract, I think."
"Tourmaline? That makes sense." Cleo moved over to him, sitting beside him on the floor as they watched the changing colours in front of them. She linked an arm through his and said, "It's beautiful, isn't it? Like our very own northern lights hundreds of feet below sea level." Now that the initial panic and curiosity of finding out what was going on back here had been diffused, Lucas just wanted to forget about the computer programs. Everything was running fine and there was clearly nothing to be worried about here. Tourmaline mining was legitimate and they had barely chipped into the cliff face so there was no risk of unbalancing natural tectonic shifts. Whoever came up with that one had clearly been hunting for something to hit these people with for a long time and it had been a long shot.
Cupping her face in his hands, he drew Cleo closer to him and leaned in to kiss her. She responded, running her hands through his blonde hair before he pulled away. They made out for a while, neither one knew how long, and then settled back against the rock together, still in awe of the organic beauty all around them. Eventually, Lucas broke the silence. "Why were you so worried about bringing me here?"
"I don't know. I guess I just always feel a bit...afraid."
"Why?" Cleo sat up straight and looked at Lucas, her face grim and serious.
"Because we haven't just been mining it, Lucas."
"What do you mean?" She pointed to the equipment in the centre of the room, consisting of reflectance meters, thermal conductance testers and other contraptions Lucas couldn't put a name to. "Look around you. Do you see any vehicles for transporting the rock?" He had to admit that there was no trace of mining here at all. It was as if the rock had just disappeared and there was no record on the database of it being transported anywhere. "They don't take it anywhere, they use it." Lucas was confused. None of this made any sense; what possible use could a gem like tourmaline have in a research sub-station? "What for?"
"All kinds of things, but I only see a few, like the power to light this room." She pointed to the switch on the wall. "It isn't wired to anything. It runs off the rock." Cleo seemed unnerved simply by explaining this to someone else and Lucas tried to reassure her. "That's possible. I mean, just as some rocks have magnetic properties, this one might have some kind of short-term electromagnetic aspect. So, what else do they use it for?"
"Sometimes they process it into powder and test it on life forms collected from the sea bed. They seem to thrive on it." Lucas jumped up, suddenly aware of the potential gold mine they were sitting on here. It would mean a fond farewell to batteries in favour of never ending supplies of this tourmaline derivative. Similarly, if this were organic, as some gems were, then there was no end to the possible uses for it. "Yeah, of course!" he exclaimed.
"What?"
"Well, there are organic and inorganic gems. The organic ones have a mineral content, too, like pearls, coral, ivory, even bone. If marine life is somehow consuming them...well, that would be an amazing breakthrough. Imagine if we could tap rocks as a source of nutrients. My God, it's no wonder the station kept this under wraps. I mean, this isn't your average tourmaline gem. It might be part of the same mineral family but there is no history of being able to use rocks for anything like food before, let alone generating light like this." He paused, surveying the room. "On the other hand though, organic gems are non-crystalline." Cleo was already completely lost. She felt a bit daunted by the sudden onslaught of scientific facts Lucas was throwing her way. "What does that mean?" Lucas was blissfully unaware of her inability to follow his train of thought. "The atoms and molecules in non-crystalline gems are positioned randomly throughout the material and don't have a specific pattern so they never occur in a particular shape. Tourmaline does. It always takes on a trigonal prism shape regardless of how many times it is cleaved."
"So?"
"So..." Lucas picked up a couple of small pieces of chiselled rock from the floor near where some mining equipment had been left and rolled it round in his hand, "...these pieces are randomly spliced." His eyes gleamed with a kind of mania Cleo had never seen before. "This rock might be a completely new species, a hybrid of both organic and inorganic." He chuckled, "And to think Dr. Westphalen was going on about having a new algae sample." Lucas bent over and offered Cleo his hand to pull her up.
"Where are we going?"
"To tell her. She'll flip..." At this, Cleo's eyes widened and she pulled back on his arm, shaking her head emphatically. "No, no, Lucas we can't!" Oblivious to the genuine urgency her voice betrayed, Lucas lunged for the door again, only to be tugged back. Taking in the anguished expression her face, he realized how upset Cleo was by this decision. "Why not?"
"No one's supposed to know about it...especially not you." Lucas glanced towards the doorway, only a few steps and he would be out in the corridor and feet away from his own crew. It would be so easy to obey what his body was telling him to do, to shrug Cleo off and seek out Dr. Westphalen or the captain, but his heart staid him. Taking the girl's hands in his own, he faced her. "Listen, Cleo. This is a research station. They're supposed to be discovering new stuff - it's their job. You won't get into trouble if the UEO know."
Cleo stared at him through swimming blue eyes, silently pleading for him to believe her. "Lucas, I'd lose my job...everything I've worked so hard for."
He paused, digesting what she was saying in light of everything which had happened since his arrival. How could he keep this find a secret? It was an advancement which could affect the whole world. It was the discovery of an entirely new and inexhaustible fuel source, untapped since its formation millions of years ago and that was something no crew of scientists could keep to themselves for long. Then again, how could he betray Cleo after everything she had told him, the problems she had struggled with on land, problems he claimed to understand? Despite the tears she had shed back in her room, he had noticed how confident and happy she had been showing him around. With one move, he could jeopardize everything. For the first time in his life, Lucas was torn between his love of science and the love he felt for his girlfriend. He had only really known her for such a short time but it felt different, it felt right to be together. Even if they broke up tomorrow, he wasn't sure his conscience could cope with the knowledge that he was responsible for her inevitable unhappiness. "Listen, Cleo, MEDS won't be able to keep this a secret much longer anyway. Someone is going to find out and it will only make matters worse for them." She turned away, unconvinced. "They don't own this rock face so they can't make profit off it. Turning this mining discovery over to the government is going to happen sooner or later, it's just a question of how stupid Wagner is. Only personal greed drives people to keep this kind of thing to themselves." He pulled her round by the shoulders, forcing her gaze to meet with his. "Come on, Cleo. Surely you can see that it's the right thing to do. I'll tell them that I forced you to bring me here. I mean, it's the truth, isn't it?"
Cleo didn't know what to say. She had not dared to hope that Lucas would leave it be and she had been right to do so. He was a technician, a computer expert, a scientist and, first and foremost, a genius. What possible hold could a girl have over the voracious appetite built into him? She had been a fool to expect him to roll over and forget about any UEO ethics just because she had kissed him. It was time that she resigned herself to the hard truth that Lucas was too good a man for her. Here she was, expecting him to lie or, at the very least, withhold information for her, when one of the traits she had loved most about him was his honesty and inherently good nature. Yet, there was a part of her which knew that corrupting Lucas was not the only thing preying on her mind. A much bigger part of her was already panicking at the prospect of being sent back to the temporary 'home' she had left when the seaQuest had dropped her off at Pearl Harbour. It made her heart skip a beat just thinking about it and Cleo could feel a sickening recoiling sensation in her stomach making her feel momentarily dizzy. If it was having this effect already, what chance did she stand when the launch took her to the surface with her last pay cheque in hand?
Lucas squeezed her hand to bring her back to reality and then offered, "Look, let's think about this for a while. We've got hours before I'm supposed to report back to the captain. Maybe I've been a bit hasty." Cleo forced a smile even though her heart wasn't in it like a man on death row, she'd take every spare second offered her.
(1) National Oceanography & Seismology Organization
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