Out Of The Blue

by Allegra

The seaQuest crew are sent to investigate research on an underwater oceanography station, but a routine check turns out to be more dangerous than they ever imagined.

5. Out Of The Blue - Part 5

OUT OF THE BLUE (PART 5)

By Allegra

See Part One for disclaimers etc.

Hitchcock had been trying to link up with the seaQuest for about five minutes now, with disappointing results.
"This is station 690 to seaQuest. Come in."
Her voice hoarse from using the If I shout louder they might hear me tactic and it was starting to grate on the commander's already fraying nerves. The last thing they needed was to be stranded here, unable to make contact with the mother ship just because of some stupid northern lights or some idiot technician down here. Even Katie was surprised by how irritable she had grown since they had arrived but she was starting to put it down to cabin fever. Nothing else could explain the uncontrollable urge she felt to hit someone or scream at the buffoons she had been surrounded by. On the point of giving up, she was about to throw the receiver unceremoniously against the wall when the static dissolved and reformed into something sounding surprisingly like a human voice. Katie had just opened her mouth to try and make contact again when O'Neill's face swung sharply into focus.
"Commander Hitchcock?"
"O'Neill. I've been trying to get through for ages. What's happening?"
"Ditto. We put it down to the northern lights. Commander Ford wants to speak to you." Flicking a switch, Katie was confronted with the agitated face of her superior. "Commander, what's going on down there?" Hitchcock stifled the urge to give her version of events, but opted for the more diplomatic one. "Well, there has been some mining activity down here, but we have yet to determine whether it is hazardous to anyone living above the base."
"Well, perhaps I can shed some light on that. We have a Dr. Emory Olafsson on board, a MEDS supervisor who was supposed to be carrying out an inspection on some of Dr. Wagner's research. It seems the good doctor has some dubious work ethics."
Katie sighed, miserably. She really hated it here. "Yeah, we're just starting to figure that out ourselves."
"Is the captain there? He's going to want to hear this."

Silence pervaded the room for long minutes after Wagner had left, each crew member convinced that the weasel would still be eavesdropping. Finally, Bridger said, "Well, the man did have a point about us all staying here. Apart from security measures and a bit of UEO shine, all of us are useless except for Kristin and Lucas." Chief Crocker added, "With all due respect, sir, I wouldn't trust these people as far as I could throw them. I just want that on record."
"And it is acknowledged, Chief. I agree, but our sneaking around probably didn't help us much. Now that the situation is out in the open, I think they will be more willing to co-operate." Kristin shook her head, "As a scientist myself, I'd say we have even more reason to be careful now. What they see is not the UEO diffusing a potentially hazardous situation, but someone stepping in to steal their thunder." Bridger nodded, deep in thought.

He knew Kristin was right and that both she and Lucas needed to remain on the station which made him more uncomfortable than he cared to admit. As a seafaring man, he had signed up for exactly this kind of mission, as had all the other members of his crew assembled here. Lucas and Westphalen, on the other hand, had never opted for this duty and it made Nathan feel agitated just thinking about it. He had never been faced with a dilemma like this, where his presence wasn't required and theirs was. Cautiously, he turned to Lucas, "What about our other suspicions?"
Lucas leaned back in his chair, "You mean about the possibility of human consumption of this rock? No, it's impossible. It would take a damn sight longer than three years to come up with a find like that. Wagner might be lying about a lot of things but not that. We're just not capable of that at this point in time." Nathan was in the middle of weighing up the pros and cons involved in where to send his people when Commander Hitchcock returned. "Captain, I have Commander Ford on-line. He needs to talk to you. He has a Dr. Olafsson onboard who claims to have information we might need."
"Put him on." Placing the small vid link screen on the table where everyone could see it, Katie sat back down with her crew. Ford gestured to off screen at the right. "I have Dr. Emory Olafsson with me, sir. He was supposed to be reviewing Dr. Wagner's work at the base but he couldn't make contact. I don't know what you've found down there but Dr. Olafsson has reason to believe that Wagner has an underhand project on the go."

Bridger sat up smartly. Things were starting to look up; at this rate, the good doctor aboard seaQuest would be able to supply all the information and proof they needed to get Wagner shut down and get the crew the hell off this damned station. Skilfully containing his excitement, Nathan waited for Dr. Olafsson to come to the monitor. "Captain Bridger, it's an honour to finally make your acquaintance. This is a very fine boat you've got here."
"Thank you. So, what is this information you have?" The group listened patiently as Olafsson explained the situation again, only pausing for breath every few minutes as his voice gathered momentum. When he had reached a sure conclusion, Bridger thanked the doctor and asked, "Commander Ford, could you get onto a secure line." A moment later, the only people party to the ensuing conversation were the captain's assembled crew and Jonathan. "I think Olafsson has given us everything we need to know. We'll call Wagner back in here, confirm the doctor's suspicions and hopefully shut him down." Lucas sat forward indignantly in his chair, "But sir..."
Nathan raised a hand in protest. "No buts, Lucas. Whatever Wagner has been tampering with can't be good and the sooner this place is allowed to revert to a normal off shore ecosystem the better."
Kristin tentatively pointed out. "I understand your reasoning, Nathan, but no matter what the man's intentions were, what he has created is nevertheless a revolution in biological research."
"What are you asking me to do, Kristin?"
Westphalen glanced around the table at the expectant faces of her comrades, and finally at Lucas, whose expression was telling of how much he wanted to stay here.
"I'm not asking anything of you...except to let Lucas and I remain on the station a while longer, just to examine Dr. Wagner's work a little further."
Bridger waited patiently for someone else to tell her how absurd it was, but he was met with silence. Clearly, he was going to have to deal with all this himself. "Doctor, you know I can't do that. You know the risks here. There is absolutely no chance of me leaving two civilians on this base, not to mention the fact that as soon as the base is shut down, seaQuest will be required to return to port and deliver Wagner to the UEO. There isn't time for you to stay here, I'm sorry."

Ben had been watching his young friend with some interest, noticing the way his face had fallen at Bridger's last few words. It meant a lot to Lucas to be able to stay here and Krieg might not be the most sensitive guy in the room, but months of experience told him that his melancholy wasn't entirely related to a certain girl here. He had seen the sheer guilt and self-hatred in his eyes when everyone had been so cold to him earlier over withholding his discovery of the mine, and it didn't take a genius to see that he desperately needed to win back some trust from his friends. It had been a hard slog for him finding a niche amongst a crew who were twice his age and only half as intelligent, especially when some people considered him to have a major attitude problem, but Lucas had managed it. Slowly but surely and more through his heroic actions rather than personality, he had garnered the respect of many people around him. The relationship he shared with Captain Bridger was more important to him than anything else in the world, that much was obvious even to a dunderhead like Ben. It must have been torture having to choose between his loyalty to a surrogate father and the girl he thought he was in love with. What Lucas needed now, more than anything, was someone firmly on his side, someone who would stand up for him.
"With all due respect, captain, I have to go with Kristin on this one. I mean, whatever Wagner started here could never be considered redundant. Put this research with one of the brightest young minds in the world, the possible benefits are endless. To be frank, we'd be fools to pass up the opportunity to find out more about what he was up to."
Jonathan added, "Not to mention the security measures. It wouldn't do the UEO any favours if we shut this place down only to find it the source of some environmental contamination disaster a few years down the line." Crocker was surprised at Krieg's sudden bout of thoughtfulness. Usually he was the first in line for the shuttle out of there and he certainly wasn't one to fight someone else's battle, especially when that person might constitute a reason for him to stay on the station for an indefinite amount of time. Still, the chief had to admit that the point was well made. There was still a great deal which could be of use from the MEDS research base and it would be in the world's interests to make sure it was not lost forever. "Captain, there is minimal risk once Wagner and his team have been removed. The base will be empty and we know the mining was too insignificant to create any structural weaknesses."

Bridger could clearly see that he was outnumbered and while he didn't like the idea of leaving Lucas and Kristin on the base, he had to admit that his personal worries were not reason enough to stand in the way of scientific discovery.
"Very well." He acceded, looking over at the renewed eagerness in the two scientists' faces, then wagged a finger in Lucas' direction. "But don't do anything foolish...and you're not staying here alone. Krieg, you can stay with them, I'm sure they could do with a hand." Ben rolled his eyes in despair. This was not what he had in mind and he was starting to regret ever standing up for that wiry kid. Still, who knows what kind of fun a guy could have on a base like this with no supervision...especially considering the equipment they had.

Nathan tried hard to ignore the smug smile which had begun to spread from ear to ear on his lieutenant because it rarely symbolised anything but the worst kind of mischief a man could devise. The captain momentarily revised his decision to leave Krieg behind, but of all his people, Ben was the least vital to the running of the seaQuest and being a morale officer might have productive effects on Lucas' dwindling optimism. "I'll have a couple of men sent from the boat as a precautionary measure."

Dealing with this matter was not top of Nathan's list of things to do today, resulting from the compromising position it placed him in rather than any shirking of responsibility. Lucas might be growing up, faster than Bridger would like to admit, but he still felt too close to the boy sometimes to be objective. Any other science crew member would have his full blessing to stay here and harness some of Wagner's research, but it was a whole different ball game when it came to Lucas and Bridger was only too aware of how divided his mind was. The risks were minimal, he had to admit, but with the fluctuations in communications and the isolated position of the station, not to mention the unknown factors about this rock, the captain was loath to leave a teenaged boy alone. Having Kristin alongside him didn't make Nathan feel any better either. The two people on his boat for whom he cared the most and they would now be the only ones he was unable to protect. However, although he didn't like to think of himself as intimidated by the thoughts of his crew, quite the opposite, on this occasion he could see their point and understood that it was only his selfishness which stood between them and new gateways in scientific discovery. Losing his son, Robert, and then his wife, had taken its emotional toll on the seaQuest's weathered captain and took all his will power not to gather Lucas and Kristin in his arms and forcibly take them to the docking bay. For now though, all he could hope for was that Ben would perform his duties with every care and ensure that nothing happened to such precious cargo.

Bridger turned to his second in command, "Thank you, Commander Ford. Send a few men for security here along with Dr. Olafsson. If we are to learn anything from this rock, his input will be indispensable. Lieutenant Krieg, Dr. Westphalen and Lucas will remain on the station with the doctor for pick-up in two days." He glanced, questioningly, across at the two scientists. "Will that be enough time?" Kristin exchanged a quizzical look with Lucas, who stammered, "Uh, yeah, I guess that's enough time. I mean we don't really know what we're looking at here." Bridger silenced him with one hand. There were not going to be any grey areas on this trip. He wanted to know exactly when Lucas and Kristin were coming back on board, just in case. "We'll say two days. That should give us enough time to offload Wagner and get back here."
He turned to Hitchcock, "Get Wagner back in here again. We are going to have this thing out once and for all."
"Yes, sir." Katie jumped up and headed for the door. She didn't like Wagner one bit and he had been nothing but a hindrance ever since they arrived at the station, but similarly, she wanted to get off this heap of junk as quickly as possible and the prospect of whipping his hide in order to do it was quite a pleasant thought.

Bridger felt a surge of adrenaline coursing through his veins. Unaware that he was not alone in his feelings, the captain was already taking a perverse joy in the idea of confronting Wagner with what they knew. He had been trying his hardest to hold them off and it had been clear that the man imagined himself to be some kind of genius in hiding everything from them. Now, it was coming right back at him, and about time, too. "Commander Ford, we'll report back to you when we've located Dr. Wagner."
"Yes, sir." Ford signed off, leaving the group back in a self-imposed isolation on the base. It was surprising how a simple vid link could highlight that fact so clearly.
It was only minutes before Hitchcock returned with an indignant looking Dr. Wagner, who entered the room like an accused criminal being brought into the dock. Bridger ignored the affected bored tone in his face and attempted his most imposing UEO formality expression. "Dr. Wagner, I'm not sure we'll be needing all that information after all. I assume the name Dr. Olafsson rings a bell." Wagner paused as if wracking his brains for some reminder before nodding, "Emory Olafsson. Yes, I remember him. I think he's been funding my work for some time. I can't say I've ever really seen much of the man though."
Bridger eyed him, thoughtfully. "Really? And what kind of work was it that he was funding?"
"Oh, just basic investigations into the adaptation of plant life to the currents in the area. Nothing especially profound."
Wagner seemed oblivious to the sudden sharp intake of breath from Westphalen sitting beside him and to its significance.
"Why?" Nathan was starting to come into his own now. Ever since their arrival, he had been in the dark about what exactly was going on, but now it was falling together like the final pieces of a complicated jigsaw and he was enjoying the end result. "I think I'm the one asking the questions here, doctor. Plant life you say? Well, Mr. Olafsson has contrary beliefs. Now you tell me who is lying here, because he is currently aboard seaQuest with documented proof that you have been implementing illegal and unrestrained experiments in the immediate vicinity of this station. Is this true? Because I seem to remember you telling me not more than an hour ago that all your tests took place in a controlled environment." Wagner's jaw tightened, a small muscle flexing in his cheek and the veins in his neck standing out in stark elevation on his reddening skin. Tapping his finger nervously on the corner of the table, he said nothing for a moment, casting accusing glares around the crew as if they were all to blame for his sudden uncloaking.
Finally he erupted. "I don't know what that man has told you but he has been trying to shut me down for years!"
Bridger felt that the man's physical state had revealed more than anything he might have left to say, and he nodded knowingly. "I see, and I suppose his funding of your research has been out of malice?" Wagner refrained from answering so the captain continued. "What you have done is against the law and, as a scientist, I have to admit that your boldness and stupidity astounds me. You have been genetically altering the rock properties in the water around and beneath this base, fusing organic material into the rock, thus unbalancing all ocean life."
At this Wagner opened his mouth to retort, "I thought you were here to investigate mining facilities?" Bridger sighed. Didn't this man know when to stop?
"Yes, and we have seen the results of your rock project - its electromagnetic properties, its constant mutations...and we want a full explanation from you." At first, it did not appear that Wagner had any plans to explain himself, but the deathly silence which pervaded the room was eventually lifted when he realized how outnumbered he was. "Fine, fine. Look, you've heard everything there is to tell. I've been studying gemmology for some years now and when I heard that this base was rich in tourmaline, I asked to be assigned here. A few years ago, I decided to try and alter the structure of the rock itself, taking small samples at first and modifying them to create organic rocks. At first the tests were pretty much redundant...until about six months ago."
Lucas nodded, half in awe of what this man had managed to create, and half angry at his deception. "And that's what we saw in the mine? The success story."
"Yes. The polychromatite began to mutate as I had hoped, installing an apparent side effect of electromagnetic properties. Unbeknownst to me, excess samples of the rock were dropped into the ocean. Then, one of my colleagues noticed the enhancement in life forms around the refuge chute area. The site was never intended to be used as part of the experiment. Only a small area outside our controlled environment was affected but, unfortunately, that is all Dr. Olafsson chose to notice. So, captain, as a scientist, neither my boldness nor stupidity are at fault." Bridger watched him through narrowed eyes. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. Dropping experimental waste into the sea is hardly the choice of geniuses...or even half wits." He waited for his words to settle and he took great pleasure in watching the venom rising, unrestrained, in Wagner's face. "Dr. Wagner, under UEO law, I am closing this unit down and you will accompany me back to seaQuest where Admiral Noyce will decide how to deal with this matter."
"You bastard! You can't do this! I've worked and long and hard to get here and you are not going to take it all away from me with some stupid spiel about UEO law! The UEO couldn't give a damn about me and my work when it suited them and now you think you can snap your fingers and change all that! I won't let you!" Nathan gestured to Crocker and Krieg who stood up and moved silently to the doctor's side of the table, placing restraining arms on either shoulder. "I don't think you want to make a threat like that, doctor, at this stage. It might adversely affect your case."
Wagner gritted his teeth, angrily, the flames dancing in his eyes with fury. "God damn you all!" Nathan turned to Crocker and quietly added, "Chief, take this man into custody while we wait for Commander Ford's men to arrive."
"Aye, sir." Crocker drew Wagner away from the table and out into the hallway, retrieving a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket as he did so. The scientist might not be brandishing arms or waging war on his people, but the chief wasn't about to take that chance. Ignoring the man's protests, Crocker managed to force Wagner's arms behind his back and marched him to the makeshift brig he had set up earlier that day in optimistic preparation for its guest.

Commander Ford had the men prepared and the launch all ready to go within five minutes and he was relieved to find Dr. Olafsson more than co-operative when the time drew to leave. From the irritable tone in his captain's voice when they had spoken and the grim exterior of the station, the MEDS base didn't appear to be the most popular haunt. He had been expecting at least a small amount of protest from someone who couldn't be ordered around by the UEO. However, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth and Jonathan quickly instructed O'Neill, whose communications shift had just finished, to go with the group. He worried about leaving the doctor in the hands of his inferiors and wanted someone trustworthy and high ranking to accompany their guest to the base. O'Neill had looked about as grateful as he had been when he had been assigned as tea boy earlier that day, but Ford felt he had little choice. It was part of his job to glad hand such passengers and, unable to leave the boat himself, he was forced to delegate. He had to be grateful though, because no matter how hard done by Tim O'Neill was, he always played the part he had been assigned fairly graciously and Dr. Olafsson barely noticed the few sarcastic comments made on the short journey to the MEDS station where Captain Bridger was ready to meet them.

"Dr. Olafsson, it's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for your help, you've certainly saved us a lot of extra work." Olafsson returned Nathan's hand shake with surprising vigour, his eyes scanning the other assembled crew members, warily. "I am happy to be of assistance, but I am sorry for the circumstances. Dr. Wagner was a fine scientist and I wish I did not have to be the driving hand in his dismissal."
Bridger nodded, admiring the man's attitude to this situation.
"His position is still unclear. I doubt this incident will affect his career for the worse."
He gently placed one hand on his guest's back and guided him to where the crew were standing, beckoning Lucas and Kristin forward.
"These are my two best scientists, Dr. Westphalen and Lucas Wolenczak. They will be remaining on the station to undertake further research along with Lieutenant Krieg."
Olafsson looked his comrades up and down, his face a mask of indifference. "I see the Wolenczak legacy has been passed down the generations. Your father is a fine man."
Lucas wished those hadn't been the first words uttered, principally because his own feelings for his father were confused at the best of times and it was always difficult to find the right words to say how he felt. It was the single topic he was unable to respond to with a simple nicety or white lie. People never mentioned it because they wanted an in depth analysis of the boy's relationship with Lawrence Wolenczak but Lucas felt like a fraud if he lauded his own father when there was so much distance between them in other ways. He settled for a grateful smile as Olafsson moved away down the corridor with Bridger, prompting the others to follow.

By early next morning, Dr. Olafsson had been shown round all the necessary facilities and was housed in comfortable rooms for the duration of his stay. Now, the team had regrouped in the docking bay, ready for departure back to seaQuest. Cleo had come to see them off or go with them. She had no idea what was going on until she had heard an announcement over the intercom system requesting all MEDS staff to report to the launch bay. That had been half an hour ago and she had watched all her companions being told to pack their stuff and get onboard the waiting shuttle to Anchorage because the station was being officially closed down. Part of her had already excluded herself from this instruction because, with every breath she took, Cleo prayed that Lucas would come to her and tell her it was okay, that she didn't have to leave or that she'd be going with him.

Lucas had found her as she was packing some of her things, her heart pounding in her chest with fear of what lay ahead. He pushed the door open quietly, his knock barely audible in the muffled sounds of the underwater base. "Cleo, what are you doing?" She didn't look up but continued stuffing clothes and books into a duffel bag. "Didn't you hear the announcement? I'm packing." Lucas sat down on the bed and staid her hand which was poised with a T-shirt ready to be packed. "No, you don't have to do that. I'm staying."
"What do you mean? You can't."
Lucas grinned when he saw the slight glow which returned to her cheeks. "Captain Bridger wants me to stay behind and take a closer look at the mine."
Cleo laughed, "That's great!"
"Come with me to see them off. I'm sure I can convince the captain that your help would be invaluable here." He placed deliberate emphasis on 'invaluable' and moved to kiss her hand like a knight courting his lady, a playful gleam in his eye. He drew her towards the door and kissing her again on the lips, they headed for the launch bay.

Wagner had already been put aboard in order to avoid any kind of uncomfortable and unnecessary confrontations between the two former colleagues. Bridger waited for everyone else to follow suit before he turned to the crew members who would be left behind, hoping to offer a bit of morale and perhaps some guidance in the younger departments. He approached Kristin, knowing that she would give him some much needed reassurance in this matter.
"Kristin, we'll be back in two days to pick you up."
She patted his arm when she saw Nathan's darting glance in the direction of the door, muttering, "Where is he?" She understood only too well how difficult it was for him to just leave the boy here and the fact that Lucas hadn't even shown up was a source of great concern.
"He'll be here, Nathan. You're only going for two days, there's no need for a big farewell, especially when you're a teenager. This would rate quite highly on the mush-o-meter."
Nathan smiled and nodded. "Perhaps you're right. I just...I haven't had much time for him lately and then there was the whole Cleo thing. I just hope I haven't ostracized him."
"Of course not. He'll be fine, you'll see. Just you wait until you come back. He'll be back to the same old obnoxious teenager we all love and cherish." No sooner had the words left her mouth than Lucas burst through the door with Cleo in tow. Bridger tried to stifle the words which threatened to spill from his mouth, including lectures on punctuality. "Lucas, what's this?" He looked past the boy at Cleo who shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. Lucas' humbled expression suddenly fired into determination and Nathan silently cursed himself for trying the forceful route first.
"I want Cleo to stay with us here. We need her help...and she doesn't want to leave."
Bridger looked at the pair with a mixture of fondness and exasperation before taking Cleo by the shoulders and calmly saying, "Listen to me, Cleo. You can't stay here indefinitely. You will have to leave."
Cleo nodded, "I know." Nathan could tell that she understood. There was nothing else he could say which would have any further impact on her and the frightened expression in her eyes was more than enough convincing.
"Fine, you can stay..." He saw Lucas' face brighten and raised his eyebrows warningly, "...but I want this work done and I want you both ready to leave as soon as seaQuest gets back here. Understood?" Lucas and Cleo exchanged amused glances which Bridger chose to ignore. There was no point in trying to discipline them, they were riding the crest of a wave and the old captain just didn't know how to surf. Perhaps he would have more luck with Kristin.
"Keep an eye on those two, will you?" Then, his gaze wandered to Ben, who was still standing near the launch, examining paint work. "And that one." He gestured with one thumb in the morale officer's direction, and Kristin laughed. "Don't fret, Nathan. Go!" He turned back one final time to say something to Lucas but the boy was gone already. Chiding his foolishness in letting Cleo stay, he could only be grateful for Kristin who might actually get some work done while they were away. He boarded the shuttle and closed the hatch behind him. Whatever occurred on the MEDS station now was out of his hands and he might as well just try to forget about...Did Lucas still have that condom?

The progress in the mine went slowly but steadily after seaQuest had left the area. Despite the fact that there were few points on the station which gave a view of the whale they had come to call home, it still felt much more isolated without the boat's presence alongside. Lucas and Cleo worked silently, occasionally casting longing looks in one another's directions, looks which Kristin pretended not to notice. She couldn't help the smirk of amusement which plastered her face with the memory of youthful love; it had been so long since her own daughter had been through anything similar. Despite Nathan's fears about what might happen when Cleo was forced to leave the base, no one could deny that he had found a wonderful girl in Cleo Walker and a good influence, too.

Dr. Olafsson worked alongside Westphalen, showing her his charts and other paraphernalia which he had gathered since the beginning of the project.
"This is very impressive paperwork, doctor," Kristin commented as she flicked through his latest offering. "I include myself among the many scientists who are notorious for scribbling illegible notes which no one else can decipher. It is a rare pleasure to see penmanship like this."
The doctor appeared to blush with her kind words, an effect Kristin had not bargained for. She liked the man but she also hoped he would not take a general word about his files as some kind of invitation to anything more.
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you know what Wagner was doing if you weren't down here?" Olafsson pushed his glasses up his nose, wrinkling his forehead as he did so, making himself look even more like some kind of burrowing, underground animal.
"Oh, he tried to enlist my help on it when I told him 'no'. I knew him well enough to see he'd be headstrong and capable enough to ignore me. I don't think he ever believed that I would disagree with him or draw a line...but I care deeply for the environment."
He chuckled without humour. "Why else would I enter this particular line of work?!"
Kristin returned the smile while scrutinizing his face further. His skin had the kind of smooth texture which always looked pasty and ill and which was disconcerting in its expressionless tone. There were no lines to denote whether he was a man who smiled or frowned a great deal and this somehow made his face seem untrustworthy. It was like a perfectly formed mask, finely worked to obscure any of the man's true emotions...except perhaps for response to flattery.

Working long into the night, Kristin eventually felt it was her duty to call everything to a halt so they could sleep and start afresh the next day. From the amount of ground they had covered in the hours since seaQuest's departure, two days would be plenty of time to come to a concrete conclusion as to what exactly Wagner had done. Ben Krieg had been playing the clown for hours, trying to distract Lucas and get some sneaky hacking tips for a new pornography site before finally giving up. The sudden blossoming of romance had made Lucas a dull playmate and very lack lustre in the antics department. In a last ditch effort to do something fun, he had even approached Kristin only to be firmly put in his place with a few choice words. Having broken a test tube and spilled de-ionised water all over Lucas' results, Dr. Westphalen assigned Ben the task of trying to retrieve Wagner's records of his work from his study.

He returned from this endeavour just as the group were packing up for the evening, a plastic bag in his hand which he plonked unceremoniously on the table in front of Kristin. "Whatever our guy was up to, he didn't want us making anything of it. This is all I could find."
Olafsson peered into the bag and pulled out a few charred scraps of paper to show the interested crowd. He stated, "I am not surprised. He has always been a thorough man."
Lucas moved over to the table and inspected the bag's contents for himself, a frown creasing his forehead. "Why would he do that? I mean, if you had created something as progressive as an electromagnetic, semi-organic rock, why would you destroy all your work?"
Kristin looked sadly at the remains of what might have been the key to everything they were working hard to discover in this damned cave.
"I suppose because he didn't want anybody else taking the credit. If he can't be master of it himself, no one will."
Cleo sidled up alongside Lucas and queried, "But even if he was arrested, couldn't Dr. Wagner still be credited as the polychromatite's creator?"
Kristin shrugged and sighed, "I'm not sure, possibly...but it is also quite possible that the finds would be subsumed into the UEO's science departments and eventually their name would be attached to the project instead." At this, Dr. Olafsson grunted loudly, prompting everyone to look in his direction.
"Eric Wagner was never the sharpest pencil in the box."
Krieg raised his eyebrows, sceptically. "Well, he managed to create all this." He waved a hand nonchalantly around the cave which, despite the overhead rigged lighting, still glowed with the ethereal colours of the living cliff face.
Olafsson cast a distasteful glare at the offending structure. "Hmm, perhaps I was a little harsh. What I meant to say is that he had no head for business. He was so caught up in the bubble of his own mind that he failed to see the bigger picture. His image of accomplishment was anonymous funding which he was never answerable to followed by a massive unveiling and mountains of untaxed cash poured into his bank account."
Kristin noted, glumly, "Scientists are idealists...but there are limits to the value of idealism."
Lucas said nothing. Although he knew the words were not directed at him, they had resonance for his exact position. After all, wasn't idealism exactly what was driving him with Cleo? He was wrapped up in some fantastical idea of what they could do and how they could be if they just had the opportunity, but if he gave it any amount of thought, the reality was never going to be as pretty. The mental pictures he had created of going to the cinema or going on holiday together, even just driving down the freeway with the wind in his hair was a distorted image of how he knew it would really be. It was like when you got a picture of what someone's house looked like - a bungalow with a red roof, and it didn't matter how many times this friend talked about having to run up and down stairs or birds nesting in the thatched roof, you couldn't shake the picture you already had of a bungalow. Well, that was kind of how it was with Cleo. Okay, so going to the cinema was a pretty normal, average occupation for two young people, but the unfortunate thing was that Lucas' image involved a soundtrack to their life, their song playing as they kissed, the sun setting like gold as they sailed along the highway in his red Porsche. Nothing he could say or do would alter that image but the harsh reality harboured in the other side of his brain was telling him that such a moment didn't exist.
Trying to shove these unwelcome thoughts aside, Lucas tossed a piece of paper back into the bag. "Yeah, well, whichever way you look at it, we've got a lot of work to do."
Kristin suddenly noticed the dark rings circling his unusually dull eyes and the sallow pallor to his complexion. They were all incredibly tired, working on adrenaline for over a day, but now everyone was flagging and Lucas seemed to be bearing the brunt of it. He had been contesting with his friends' disapproving looks, trying to reassure Cleo, discover what this rock was for, not to mention beating himself up over the whole incident in the first place.
"Let's call it a day for now, shall we? Get a good night's rest and pick up again tomorrow."
Dr. Olafsson made no protests and bade goodnight with surprising politeness. Krieg tapped Lucas lightly on the shoulder, "Hey kid, don't use up all your energy, if you know what I mean."
His eyes twinkled in the direction of Cleo, who was already yawning. Lucas rolled his eyes, "I don't think anyone's going to be doing much of anything tonight, Ben. There's no danger of that."

When the two were alone, Cleo and Lucas were suddenly plunged into an uncomfortable silence. This wasn't exactly how this whole scenario had been planned, it was fraught with a lot more tension than either had hoped for. It felt like aeons since they had met, even though it had only been a couple of days. Cleo looked around the room, scattered with the debris of many long hours of work.
"Who would have thought it would turn out this way?"
Lucas had been looking forward to spending some time with Cleo all day but now the only thing he could think about was sleep. He was having trouble even keeping his eyes open and he yawned, "It'll all be over soon."
He looked over at her expectant face but he just couldn't muster up the energy to do or say anything much. The only comfort was seeing that Cleo didn't look much better so hopefully she wouldn't notice how lack lustre he had become. She crossed over to him and leaned down to where he was sitting at the work bench, cupping the back of his neck in her hand. Holding his tired gaze for a moment, she kissed him gently on the lips.
"You're the only thing that makes sense to me right now, who makes me feel normal."
Without waiting for a response, she headed towards the door, "Goodnight, Lucas."
Despite his lethargy, Lucas was surprised by his own reaction to that final gesture.
Seeing her leave forced something deep inside him to click like the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle. It was like a kind of resignation, a deep-seated knowledge that whatever passed between them here or how intense it all felt, was doomed never to leave this place. It wasn't that he didn't love Cleo, but it was more like those couples who survive some terrible ordeal and then end up characterized in a TV movie. More often than not, the end of the film would zoom in on a nice close-up of the happy pair, rescued from the frozen mountain top with nothing more than some simulated frostbite. Then, just before the credits roll, came the caption explaining where their true life counterparts are now. No matter how content they were before or how much in love they still might be, they always broke up. It was as if living through something so extreme together made them unable to move past it with one another. True, Lucas had never suffered through the same horrors which Cleo must have experienced when she was stranded on the depot, but the fact that he was now supporting her through it condemned their relationship. However much Cleo needed him right now, when this was all over, when they had seen the world and put some light back into her eyes, the fire in their hearts would be quelled. They would love each other forever but nothing more could come of it. Lucas could feel it already. The emptiness of this cave with all its signs of recent human activity and the promise of success calmed him and it had calmed Cleo. In the place of all the turmoil was a kind of renewed contentment which, if they had been less sleep deprived, would have blossomed into passion. That would last until they had travelled around the globe, explored everything they had longed to see and their curiosity had been sated. Then, what would be left? Lucas couldn't imagine it...perhaps because there was nothing there to be imagined.
Trudging tiredly back to his room, he flung himself down on the bed, not bothering to get changed or even take off his shoes. Within seconds, he was fast asleep.

Kristin was just finishing up a rather unappetizing breakfast of powdered eggs and a product she was assured was actually genuine toasted bread. The food on the station made seaQuest's menu look like a gourmet meal at The Ritz; however, she was not wont to complain and they would only be staying for two more days. Ben stumbled into the canteen as the doctor swallowed her last mouthful of toast, looking much the worse for wear. He grabbed a plate of food from the selection which Cleo had put out for them all and sat down heavily beside Kristin. "You look like you could use another day in bed," she pointed out.
Krieg gave her a withering look, "Really? Well, perhaps that has something to do with the brass band sleeping habits of our friend, Dr. Olafsson. I swear, you'd never know these walls were solid steel." Kristin stifled a grin. Ben wasn't exactly renowned for his own mouse-like sleeping either; perhaps this was exactly what he needed to finally do something about it. It was strange to think that someone who had graduated top in his class at the academy still hadn't worked out why he had been assigned so many different room mates over the numerous months at sea. No one could stand to sleep in the same room as him for long before their sanity gave way and they were forced to go and complain. Still, Ben was clearly suffering now, so Kristin thought it best not to say anything which might aggravate the situation.
"Speaking of which, where is the doctor? I was hoping to discuss a few points over breakfast."
Ben pulled a face as he shovelled a mouthful of some unidentified consumable into his mouth. "God knows, but he certainly got up early. I was awake the whole night waiting for it."
At that moment, Cleo approached the table and poured the pair a cup of coffee each. "I heard him in the cave this morning, I suppose he just wanted to get started early. Where's Lucas?"
Kristin savoured the sip of coffee, allowing it to neutralize the unhealthy feeling of all that reconstituted powder stuff making its way steadily to block up her digestive system.
"I haven't seen him yet this morning. I'll go and find him."
She got to her feet, muttering, "I hope Olafsson doesn't fiddle with my results. I left everything exactly how I wanted it last night." Striding towards the door with a determined expression on her face, Kristin decided to check on her work before looking in on Lucas.

The cave seemed to be deserted when Kristin stepped inside and switched on the spotlights. The glow of the rock altered so frequently, one never knew when you might be plunged into darkness while it took on some new dimension or characteristic. "Dr. Olafsson?" She called into the gloom at the dark rock face near the back of the mine. A scuttle and sudden shifting movement out of the corner of her eye alerted Kristin to the doctor who was hunched over a cathodulominescence meter. He looked up at her with startled eyes, "Dr. Westphalen?! You surprised me. I was absorbed in...my work."
He gestured to the meter, jotted down a reading and flicked the switch off. "Are you starting work?" Kristin peered over to her work station and was heartened to find that nothing had been moved, and smiled at Olafsson, graciously. "In a little while, yes. I'm just going to chase up our resident genius." Olafsson removed his glasses with a kind of feline grace and rubbed absently at his eyes. "Ah, yes, young Mr. Wolenczak. I hope he doesn't mind, but I took a look at his discoveries earlier. I am very grateful to have him here. He will save us much time, I think."
Kristin laughed, her voice echoing around the cavernous mine. "Perhaps, when his mind isn't occupied elsewhere."
"Of course, young Miss Walker. Romance is a beautiful thing, is it not, Dr. Westphalen?"
Kristin wasn't entirely sure how to react to that statement. It had been a long time since anyone had attempted seduction of any kind in her presence. Most of her potential boyfriends were as straightforward as she was and it was unsettling to be suddenly confronted with a man who was as practised in the art of love as a rose seller on the Grand Canal in Venice.
"I'll, uh,...just go and find Lucas." She made for the door, stumbling over a few boxes on the way and exiting into the well-lit, public hallway with a sharp breath of relief.

"Lucas?"
Kristin banged once on the teenager's door, lightly, hoping she wasn't actually waking him up, more hurrying him along. There was no answer and she knocked again. When she had waited a sufficient amount of time, Westphalen pushed open the door to see the boy curled up with his back towards the wall and one hand flung out towards the small desk. She approached him quietly, suddenly losing all will to shake him awake or be noisy. Seeing Lucas lying there so peacefully made her aware of how much the incidents of the past few days must have taken their toll on him. Nathan had mentioned only in passing that the boy's father had called him and the events which had taken place since the UEO's arrival on the MEDS station had shaken him up quite badly. It was somewhat disconcerting how easily Lucas seemed to be able to cover up his feelings these days or at least suppress them to a frightening extent. He was so sensitive but, when he chose to, he could be a wall of passivity. Kristin felt a wash of maternal instincts mount in a wave over her as she gently knelt down beside the bed and smoothed Lucas' hair away from face. His even breathing quickened a little and he shifted comfortably on the bed, still nowhere near to wakening.
"Lucas," Kristin whispered, not wanting to startle him. "Wakey, wakey."
A second later, his eyes snapped open, gazing intently up at her for a second as he assessed what was going on. He rubbed one hand over his eyes and sat up quickly. "What's the matter? Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong. It's after nine o'clock and we've still got a lot of work to get through." Lucas stared at her with bleary eyes, prompting her to add, "Don't worry. You'll have plenty of time to rest when we get back to seaQuest. I'll make sure of it." Lucas was going to protest that he wasn't really tired at all but even he couldn't stretch a fib that far and, besides, Kristin was almost out of the door by the time his voice was up to vocalizing anything anyway.

He dressed hurriedly, grabbing a breakfast bar from the canteen on his way down to the mine where the others were already assembled. Ben had finally found something worthwhile to do with his time, colour coding various rock samples as Kristin handed them to him. Hopefully, he wouldn't be able to muck that up, although Lucas couldn't help smiling when he noticed how Dr. Westphalen watched the lieutenant from under a hooded brow. She never could delegate to people outside of her profession; she suffered from a suspicious mind in that department, something Lucas could easily relate to. He never quite trusted anything to be done right unless he had done it himself, plus having Ben as your worker was hardly much to inspire confidence.

Lucas shuffled over to his work area, sighing as he perused last night's efforts at coherent thought. He was going to have to redo half of his work because he barely remembered carrying out the tests he had painstakingly noted down and he couldn't make head nor tail of the Post-It note he had scrawled and left on a half-filled test tube. He was just starting to reorganize his notes, scrunching the paper into balls and throwing them to one side, when Cleo came over, beaming. "Good morning, sleepy head." He smiled and quickly scanned the room to make sure no one was watching them before leaning over and kissing her. "Morning."
"Whatcha doing today?" Lucas waved a hand in a grandiose gesture over the disarray of equipment at the table. "I can't believe the rubbish I wrote last night. I have no idea what half of this stuff means and I wrote it! So, today I'm going to try and remember what my split personality got up to while the rest of me was sleeping on the job."
Cleo laughed, "Need any help?"
Lucas looked at her carefully, his eyes tracing over the sweet and gentle contours of her face. God, she was beautiful. "I wish I could say yes, but I think this is a one man job and I don't think Dr. Westphalen would approve of us working together so closely."
Cleo looked over at the doctor just in time to see her cast an interested gaze in their general direction before quickly averting it again. "Mmm, just in case we start getting ideas about wild orgies or something."
Lucas looked at her, startled, but it rapidly turned to amusement when he saw a bright flush of colour rush to her cheeks in embarrassment. She cleared her throat and stood up straighter, "Well, I'll leave you to it then." Lucas caught her hand just before Cleo could turn away, his face suddenly more serious. "We'll have some more time together later. I just think..."
Cleo extricated her hand from his and squeezed it, affectionately. "I know, don't worry about it. We'll have all the time in the world." Kissing his fingers lightly, she fixed him with a last playful look before retreating to where Kristin was working as Lucas tried to get back to work. Just having her nearby but unable to do anything was driving him to distraction. His only comfort was that the quicker he completed his work here, the quicker they could all leave and he could get back to a more normal existence, just with an added bonus.

The work progressed steadily until lunch time but Lucas was finding himself increasingly confused by the results of his tests. At first he had kept quiet about it, assuming it was because he hadn't been concentrating properly the previous day which was now ruining the work. Then, as the morning progressed, the teenager began to wonder if there wasn't more to this than just his own fatigue. No matter which way he looked at it, none of the tests were conclusive with any amount of human tampering. Eventually, he opted for getting a second opinion and called Kristin over to take a look. "Dr. Westphalen, I've gone over the DNA structure of this rock a load of times and it still doesn't make any sense. Look at this." He motioned her over to the microscope and she peered in.
"What am I looking at? It all looks like tourmaline to me, with all the same characteristics."
"That's exactly my point. I've studied this from every conceivable angle and yet there is still no sign that this rock has been altered by any human hand. The properties in this rock could only be achieved by immense heat over a period of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years."
Kristin looked up at Lucas, her tone bordering on scepticism. "What are you saying?"
Lucas glanced over at Dr. Olafsson who was eyeing them both with an air of inherent suspicion, and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial level. "Well, what if Dr. Wagner didn't actually do anything at all to this rock? What if it was simply naturally occurring after all?"
Kristin looked around the cave as if suddenly seeing it again in an entirely new light, her gaze finally coming to rest on Olafsson. She paused, digesting the full implications of this new angle. "I don't understand, why would Wagner do that?"
Lucas shrugged, "If he only discovered the rock, the Canadian authorities would lay claim to the cliff face. If Wagner declared it his invention, the patent would be his to make profit off the consumer public. He slaps this polychromatite name on it and lets people's ignorance about science do the rest for him."
Kristin hissed, "But what about his notes? And Dr. Olafsson?" Lucas followed her gaze back to the doctor on the other side of the room who was now ambling over to them. Lucas whispered in Westphalen's ear, "But we never saw his notes. He destroyed them. As for Olafsson..." He widened his blue eyes in a warning gesture, just able to catch Kristin's worried response before the doctor reached their side.
"Have you made any breakthroughs? Anything you'd like to share?"
The tone of his voice was casual and jovial but Lucas knew better than to succumb to that charm. If what he believed was true, that Wagner had made all of this up to suit his own materialistic ends, then Olafsson had to be involved. He was covering for him which instantly placed him at the forefront of the group's suspicions. The teenager knew that Kristin wasn't entirely convinced by his half cocked accusation and he could only hope that she didn't dismiss it enough to let something slip to Olafsson. It may be a long shot, especially considering Lucas' problems in focusing lately, but it was worth remembering and certainly worth keeping from Olafsson until they knew something for sure.
Westphalen rubbed her neck as she often did when she was nervous or didn't want to impart some bad news and shook her head, dismissively. "Oh, just going over a few test results. Lucas had some calculation problems. Nothing we can't handle." She clapped her hands together and pushed the teen towards the door, "Now, who's for some lunch?"
Dr. Olafsson watched the group file out with bitter malice already filling his veins. He had studied Dr. Westphalen carefully since his arrival and he felt as if he had got the measure of her behaviour. She was acting strangely and even the boy had looked tense. They had found something in the rock to be suspicious of and it didn't take a Wolenczak to figure out that it wouldn't be long before the whole farce was uncovered and he could kiss goodbye to his retirement package in Hawaii. Olafsson's eyes wandered over to the corner of the cave by the door where he had planted some explosives earlier that day. Nobody had seen him, except Westphalen, and she had been too preoccupied with her precious work to notice what he was doing. He could just blow them away with the press of one button and both he and Wagner could get on with the original plan from before the UEO decided to interfere.

He moved over to where the detonator was hidden and ran a sweaty finger over the red button. It only took a second's pressure to set it all off. But wouldn't it be suspicious if Westphalen and the Wolenczak boy survived the bomb and it became clear that it had occurred just after their discovery? No, of course not, because they would not survive. There would be no holes in this plan. They all had to go, the lot of them. It wouldn't be difficult, it just took a moment's courage and a lifetime's acting practice to pull this thing off.

He headed to the canteen, preparing to enjoy a seemingly normal afternoon with the seaQuest crew. He would join in their jokes and make small talk with them because, within a few short hours, they would all be dead.