OUT OF THE BLUE (PART 6)
By Allegra
See Part One for disclaimers etc.
Lucas and Cleo had retreated to the most private corner of the canteen, ignoring Krieg's leering grins in their general direction. Kristin had been trying to keep the lieutenant on a short rein since that morning and it was proving to be a full time job.
"Ben, leave them. Goodness knows they could do with a break from watchful eyes."
Ben dipped his spoon into the unappetizing mush which had been labelled ice cream some time in the last decade and cast her an innocent look, "I can't help it. They're just so..." He made a nonchalant wave with his free hand, trying to conjure up the appropriate words, ending in, "...cute."
Kristin raised her eyebrows in surprise. "I wouldn't let Lucas hear you say that if I were you."
"Oh, come on, Kristin. Don't tell me you don't agree with me. Just look at them."
Kristin followed his gaze to where the two teenagers were huddled, laughing about some joke or other, their hands intertwined in an innocently romantic gesture.
"Well, I don't think I'd adopt your vocabulary but they do look sweet together."
"Somehow I don't think sweet rates much higher than cute on the Lucas-o-meter."
Kristin's grin quickly fell as she saw Dr. Olafsson enter, wandering over to the stack of meals prepared and left on the sideboard. Krieg craned his neck over his shoulder and quickly turned back to his friend.
"Oh, great. Just what I was looking forward to, being the filling in a double science whammy. Excuse me, I think I'd rather be labelling rock samples."
He started from his seat before Kristin pulled him back down. "Don't be ridiculous. I promise not to talk shop. In fact, that's the last thing I want to do."
Krieg shrugged and obliged. "Do I detect a note or urgency in your voice, doctor? Could it be that you don't want to be left alone with the gorgeous, sexy Emory Olafsson?"
Kristin sent a smouldering look in his direction as Olafsson began to make his way over to their table. "Once again your male intuition is completely redundant. I'd get another hobby if I were you."
Krieg adopted his most hurt expression and gasped, "I'm offended. Well, tell me my intuition is wrong about you giving me the most lame ass job on the station. Come on, Kristin, even I know that rock labelling is about as helpful as washing up test tubes."
Kristin didn't have a chance to respond before Dr. Olafsson reached the table and sat down tentatively beside her. "May I sit with you?"
Kristin smiled, graciously, but Ben decided to answer on her behalf. "Sure, take a seat. I'm just finishing up here." He shot his companion a You can thank me later look before ducking out of the room.
Kristin made a mental note to think up a suitable revenge sequence later on and turned back to Olafsson just in time to catch his cold, grey eyes flitting away from where they had been scrutinizing her face. "So, doctor, I expect you'll be glad to get back to Anchorage as soon as we have finished up here."
He took a sip of his water and eyed her over the top of the glass, his gaze disconcertingly penetrating. "Eager to be rid of me, Dr. Westphalen?"
"Of course not. I'm hoping we will all leave together. I, for one, will be greatly looking forward to getting back to the seaQuest."
"Surely the UEO will not leave until they are certain of what Dr. Wagner was up to here. I find it hard to believe that Captain Bridger would turn his back on a station full of so many uncertainties. Who knows what dangers there might be hidden here?"
His voice dropped to a sinister level, a gravely edge entering his tone. Kristin felt unsettled by his strange behaviour, especially considering the seed of doubt which Lucas had planted in her mind barely fifteen minutes ago.
She made a valiant attempt at casual, "No, but I think we are making quick progress and I can't find any evidence of any hazardous materials. As long as we can do a quick clean up job on the immediate area surrounding the base, I'm sure the UEO will simply shut it down for a while."
Her eyes wandered anxiously over to where Lucas and Cleo were sitting and she was met with the concerned gaze of the teen over his girlfriend's shoulder. Cleo was in full animation, telling some story or other, but Lucas' eyes were fixed firmly on his friend and Dr. Olafsson on the other side of the canteen. Whatever passed between them only served to solidify their joint belief that the man had something to hide. It was going to take time but they would find out, no matter what.
Westphalen's darting glance in Wolenczak's direction did not go unnoticed by Olafsson and he found a perverse satisfaction in seeing the fear clearly imprinted in her fretted face. It was somehow very liberating to see their suspicious minds working over time to try and discover his motives and plans, able to play their petty games while all the time knowing that he would kill them before they discovered anything worth their while. They were all going to die at his hands and that knowledge sent his mind reeling in possibilities of what he could do with them. He could torture them one by one, inflict the kind of grotesque pain and suffering most could barely imagine before blowing up their mutilated bodies and no one would be any the wiser. Barely concealing the sly smile spreading across his thin lips, Emory Olafsson sat back in his chair and tucked into his sandwiches with great relish. Power truly was the most effective drug.
Dr. Olafsson returned to his room shortly after lunch, claiming to need some of his own equipment for drawing up graphs. He needed to round the team up, make sure they were safely inside the mine area before he set his plan into action. Unfortunately, this included the two sentry soldiers so kindly provided as an impediment by Commander Ford. Both were big stocky men who paraded around the active section of the station with a regal, snobbish air which Olafsson found disgusting. He would enjoy getting rid of them, although their deaths were simply a means to an end. He pondered this for a moment, wondering how he would get them and where. It was strange the effect a naval rank had on a man's perspective; since they were nothing more than crew men, hired lugs, their worth as people was suddenly called into question. It didn't matter that they had brains, might be hoping to make lieutenant or even captain one day, because right now they were the lowest of the low, the men who were expected to die in the line of duty without a tear shed on their behalf.
Emory lingered on this thought; it was one of the myriad reasons why he had decided never to join the navy. Every man was worth something, every man deserved a chance to live. Now was his chance and anyone who threatened to get in his way had to go. It was the way this world worked. He and Wagner had found that rock all by themselves, they had studied the geology charts and taken samples from deep within the Earth's crust up on Anchorage for years. Finally, they had found what they had been looking for, what they had hardly dared to hope existed after so many setbacks.
Olafsson snarled inwardly at the sudden and unwelcome intrusion of the UEO in their world. Corporate big-wigs had no right to waltz in here with their empty talk of peace keeping and mutual profit. It was about time someone pulled them down a peg or two, got one over on them while there was still a chance. Instilled with renewed passion, Emory opened the drawer to Wagner's desk, secretly praising himself for managing to secure his old friend's office as a private working space. He fumbled around inside, roughly pulling documents and pencils out right, left and centre. Where was it? Wagner had told him it was here, that he had barely used any...so where was it?
His hand caught onto a corner of plastic on the underside of the drawer and, with a gasp of delight, he pulled out the packet containing the same strange powder Wagner had been using only a day earlier. Hastily, with as much self control as his adrenaline-charged body would allow, he emptied the remaining powder into an empty glass before rummaging around for some kind of drink. He retrieved a bottle of whiskey and eyed it for a moment, wondering if alcohol was such a good idea at a time like this. No one, to his knowledge, had used the rock powder under such circumstances...but there was no time for experiments. He needed to get out there and destroy those people before they destroyed him and took his life's work away in one fell swoop. He poured a liberal amount of whiskey onto the powder and stirred it vigorously with the end of Wagner's fountain pen before knocking the potent liquid back in two huge gulps. He let out a sharp breath as the fiery mixture burned down his throat on a mission to his nervous system. Standing up, Olafsson straightened his tie, smoothed a few stray hairs on his head back into place behind his ear and smartened himself up in the mirror before stepping out into the hallway.
Fortunately for the doctor, Wagner's office was in a more secluded area of the station, which made it quiet and unlikely for any of Bridger's UEO people to be wandering around. Besides, they were all happily holed up in his sacred mine, plucking apart all his hard work with their nasty little theories and good intentions. Olafsson caught sight of one of the guards rounding the corner towards him and the doctor moved to meet him halfway along. The soldier smiled and the doctor returned it with uncharacteristic vigour before reaching up his left hand in one rapid, fluid movement and caught the man's neck in a vice-like grip. Squeezing with moderate might, he watched the soldier's face began to redden, a stifled choke emanating from his gaping mouth as his eyes widened in terror. Olafsson ignored the silent pleads for mercy. He was not a killer and the small part of his brain which had eluded the effects of Wagner's polychromatite drug was still a human being, aware of the torture he was inflicting and sorry for the life he was taking. However, the rest of his body was caught in the snare of chemically induced violence and it dominated every muscle and coursed through his veins with a vengeance. A moment later, the man's body slumped in Olafsson's arm and the doctor quickly dragged the body towards one of the incinerator rooms. This was the best way for them to go, the most humanitarian - fish food for the newly engineered predators of the ocean. As he stuffed the body in, Olafsson caught sight of the soldier's PAL used to communicate with the other UEO man parading the station. Adopting an urgent tone, Olafsson sent out an alert to the second soldier and sat back to wait for his next piece of prey to arrive. One down, one big explosion to go.
Lucas, Krieg, Cleo and Kristin were huddled in the far back corner of the mine as Lucas filled them in on his finds, all the while keeping one eye on the entrance in the hope that Olafsson wouldn't come back any time soon. "I'm not sure that Dr. Olafsson's actually on our side at all. He's been working with Wagner for years and then suddenly, just as the UEO arrive, he appears with useful information and offers to help us. I reckon he and Wagner are playing us for fools here."
Krieg whispered, loudly, "Yeah, but Lucas, he's not doing anything here. How can he be playing with us? He hasn't come up with a single piece of useful information since seaQuest left the area. I'd agree with you if he was bandying stuff around, trying to make us take the bait, but he hasn't. He's done squat!"
Lucas' eyes were piercing and bright, full of fired enthusiasm for his work. "Maybe he's just biding his time. All I know is that no matter what I do to these rock samples, there is nothing here which could have been the result of any kind of experiment."
Cleo looked puzzled, "What do you mean?"
"All the rock samples I've tested here have to be naturally occurring. It would be impossible for their properties to have been fused or linked into the rock within the time frame Wagner and Olafsson are stating." Krieg rolled his eyes around the mine, suddenly concerned about the stability of this place. A few minutes ago, he had been certain they were at the end of the project, but now who knew what might happen next?
Nudging Lucas, he asked, "So, what are you saying? That this rock is naturally occurring?! Look at it, Lucas! It's glowing...it's got to be man made. No terrestrial rock behave like this, even I know that!"
Kristin and Cleo stared at him, wide-eyed, prompting him to protest, "And don't try to tell me it's from outer space because..."
Lucas raised a hand to silence everyone. "No, it's not extra-terrestrial, Ben. All it's properties fit in with other rock species on Earth, it's just a different combination."
He was about to explain further when there was a hollow groan from somewhere on the base, and the group listened in silence with bated breath.
Krieg muttered, "What the hell was that?"
Kristin opened her mouth to answer just as another groan could be heard, followed by the most God almighty cracking sound as small grains of rock sprinkled onto them from overhead. Krieg and Kristin stood up and started backing towards the entrance, the doctor's hand reaching towards Lucas to draw him back.
"Lucas! Cleo!" She hissed, but both teenagers were staring up at the crack slowly forming above their heads. Lucas' face was a mixture of horror and fascination but it quickly turned to alert agility as he pulled Cleo back towards the door with him.
"Come on, we'd better get out of here."
Cleo gripped his hand tightly and they had almost reached the door when another crack formed above their heads near the cave entrance.
Suddenly, Cleo tore herself away from Lucas, "Your notes!"
She raced towards the back of the cave, ignoring the protesting shouts of the others, just as the crack widened and the steady creaking was replaced with a crash as the rock making up the ceiling began to collapse.
"Cleo! Get out! Cleo!"
Lucas took a step towards her but was staid by Ben and Kristin's firm grip. "Get off me!"
How dare they try to stop him when Cleo needed his help.
He yanked himself free of his friends and started after his girlfriend, but a shower of rock assailed him and he choked on the dust. Lucas was barely able to see through the haze again when the rock face gave a final groan and caved in. "Cleo!"
In a blind panic, all the boy knew was that he had to get to her, had to protect her from this. Covering the distance between them, he caught sight of her frightened face, still clutching his notes to her chest as a huge chunk of rock buried her in a pile of dust and debris.
"No! Cleo! Hang o...!"
Lucas' words were choked up in the noise and dust, his throat burning as he spluttered and coughed and his breath came in ragged gasps as his body tried to find pockets of oxygen somewhere in the circulating dust and toxins. He could dimly hear the warning shouts of Kristin and Krieg but, as he turned back, Lucas was confronted with a wall of rock separating them, locking him into the back section of the cave with Cleo. His hands fumbled over the rocks littering the floor, cutting his skin on the sharp edges but his mind was oblivious to anything except finding his girlfriend. In his grim determination, it barely registered on him that there was danger as some more sections of rock gave way above his head and collapsed, pinning him to the ground. Then, there was nothing.
Kristin had been flung to the ground as the stones tumbled haphazardly all around her but somehow avoided her body entirely. Krieg bent over her, his body shielding her from the majority of debris but there was little they could do beyond waiting it out until the collapse came to a halt. After what felt like an age, all rumbling and cracking ceased and the cave settled into silence except for the occasional disruption as a few more small stones dislodged themselves or a pile of dust shifted in the small space. Krieg slowly straightened up, fumbling in his jump suit pocket for a torch as he helped Kristin up with his free hand.
"Are you okay?"
Kristin wiped at the dust on her clothes and took a deep breath, trying to calm her jumping nerves. "I think so."
Ben managed to find his torch and switched it on, sending a feeble ray of yellow light arching around the small space left to move around in. "My God."
The swirling dust and flying rocks had obliterated almost everything from view before and the pair had been given no option but to stay in one place and wait it out. Now, they could clearly see the result of the cliff's sudden slide. They were boxed in by layers of rock, the entrance was barred by enormous boulders which would take thirty men to lift them but, more importantly, they were separated from Lucas and Cleo by a wall of rock which had once been part of the ceiling of the mine.
As Ben shone the torch dimly over the barrier, they both searched for some kind of hole, anything which gave them a glimpse through into the other side of the chamber.
"Lucas!" Kristin called, waiting anxiously for some kind of response, something which would prove to her that he was all right. There was no answer and she called again with Ben joining in. Still no answer. Krieg tried to suppress his rising panic; he didn't want to think about what they might find on the other side.
"Maybe they can't hear us. Who knows how thick this is?"
He pushed against one of the closest rocks as if to illustrate his point. Kristin stood back, her eyes filled with fear and determination as they wildly surveyed the offending barrier between her and Lucas. Suddenly, she stabbed a finger towards the left edge of rock.
"I think this looks like the weakest point. Let's start digging."
Ben looked at her in surprise and didn't move an inch to help her as the doctor began pulling some of the smaller rocks away. She looked up, indignantly, "Well, come on, Ben! Help me!"
"Kristin, there could be another hundred boulders the size of Everest on the other side of this rock. Who knows where the weakest point is?"
Her voice betrayed her exasperation and worry as she snapped, "Does it really matter? Lucas is trapped behind there and we've got to start somewhere. I'm not waiting here until we've made some technical assessment. I want him out of there now!"
Ben knew better than to argue and, besides, he knew she was right. It wouldn't be long before one of the soldiers parading round the station came running, in fact they were probably already on the emergency radio. Right now, all they could do was try to save the two teenagers trapped alive in that tomb. Scrambling over to where Kristin was madly pulling away small rocks, Ben squeezed in alongside her and reached for a larger boulder. "Here, give me a hand."
On the other side of the rock face, Lucas was somewhere between painful consciousness and blissful darkness and as his mind swam groggily in this semi-waking state, he was vaguely aware that this was not just any old sleep. Something was different, something had happened but his addled brain couldn't seem to make head or tails of it all. Then, it dimly registered on him that there was something heavy pressing down on him, something leaden against his leg and the boy knew that he had no other option than to try and find out what it was.
Slowly, he forced his eyes open, squinting into the darkness then squeezing them closed as flakes of dust swirled down onto his face. He tried to turn his head to one side in order to get out of the way of this unwelcome dirt storm but he was rewarded with a sharp pain running from temple to temple. He let out a feeble groan, and then the memories started to come flooding back. He remembered the ground shaking beneath his feet, the ceiling caving in, but his heart suddenly skipped a beat as he backtracked moments earlier to Cleo running back into the cave for his notes. Lucas felt his stomach turn as the horror of what had happened came sharply into focus in his brain. In the swirling dust, just before the ceiling had collapsed around him, he had seen Cleo fall, pinned beneath heavy rocks. He breathed in deeply, coughing weakly as dust burned down his throat, swallowing his voice into a hoarse whisper, "Cleo! Cleo!"
There was no reply. The teenager was lying awkwardly on his stomach but he gingerly lifted his head, wincing at the pain which resounded through his skull and down his neck. He had to find her. She might be badly injured and unable to call out...or worse. He couldn't think that, but then again...he didn't think he could get up even if he tried. His head was killing him and Lucas knew he wasn't in very good shape himself. It was only when he tentatively tried to move his leg that he let out a cry of pain and lay back down. His leg was crushed beneath one of the rocks and, when he tried to move his arm, another bolt of pain ran like liquid fire up and down the length of it. Shit, he thought. He wished he could do something, anything, but the darkness surrounded him completely and Lucas had no idea where he was in relation to the entrance of the cave, where the others were, how badly he was hurt or even if he was blind. He croaked, "Kristin? Ben?" There was no answer. He could only hope they had got out in time, but his mind just couldn't hold onto consciousness any longer. With Cleo's image still firmly imprinted on his brain, Lucas found he could struggle no longer and drifted back into the comforting arms of oblivion.
Kristin stopped, placing her hand over Ben's to prevent him moving anything else.
"Did you hear that?"
Her whole body was tense and alert, straining her ears through the echoing cave to try and catch hold of whatever had made the noise. "Lucas?" She called again in vain and was answered with only silence. Ben shook his head solemnly and went back to moving rocks. "Come on, let's get as much of this stuff shifted as possible."
"I'm sure I heard someone moan." Krieg glanced at his watch and tried to hide his concern when Kristin looked in his direction. "What's the matter?" He tried to shrug any concern off, the last thing the doctor needed was another reason to be worried. However, Ben couldn't help the suspicion he had been feeling since the cave-in. While Kristin had been frantic about finding Lucas, a panic which the lieutenant shared, his mind had also been trying to work over the uncanny coincidences involved here. The day they find something resembling proof or at least firm belief that Dr. Olafsson and Wagner were in on this together and didn't want the UEO involved, suddenly there is a structural collapse trapping them all...except Olafsson. If this were true, then it was premeditated and that in itself made it a certainty that the doctor would have considered the two soldiers brought from seaQuest as a threat, too. If he was capable of creating such an effective implosion of rock, then Ben certainly wouldn't put a couple of murders past him either. Even if they got to Lucas and Cleo and managed to pull them out, the chances of them being freed by Olafsson were slim. There was still another day before Captain Bridger returned with the seaQuest and if either of the teenagers were injured, with no medical supplies at all nor any water, the risks to their health were high.
"Ben, can you give me a hand with this?"
Krieg moved to where Kristin was struggling and heaved with all his might. The rock dislodged itself with sudden momentum, catching the lieutenant's foot as it rolled to the bottom of the pile they had been making, "Ouch! Jeez, Kristin!"
He was busy muttering under his breath when the doctor whacked him on the shoulder, "Give me the torch!" She snatched it eagerly from him and waved it at the rock face. Sure enough, there was now a hole about seven inches in diameter shedding light directly into the other pocket of room at the back of the cave. She craned her neck through the hole, waving the torch around the small chamber, "Lucas? Cleo?"
There was still no answer, but she took a small comfort in the knowledge that there was still a great deal obscuring her vision on the other side to be cleared. Between the two adults, within ten minutes, they had moved away a few of the other, insignificant rocks, making sure that the hole remained secure. "We've got to get in there!"
Kristin said, urgently. Ben looked around their side of the cave in an effort to find something which might act as a lever or wedge to stick in the hole while they moved some of the smaller rocks around it. He hated to feel so helpless and now that a small hole had been made, the reality that Lucas and Cleo were both trapped in there came hurling home. The silence which met their calls was becoming increasingly alarming and yet there was very little they could do.
"Damn it! Damn this place!"
Ben kicked the dirt with his foot, angrily, picking up a handful of small stones and hurling them against the opposite wall with enormous force. He was breathing heavily, angry snorts of frustration, and Kristin paused in her work. She was petrified of what might have happened to Lucas, she pictured him lying buried beneath huge hunks of rock, taking his last breaths without a soul to comfort him, without any hope of survival, but the doctor side of her knew that it was important to look after Ben, too. He wasn't used to being under so much stress, perhaps because he wasn't an easy man to get close to. There were always snide comments or jokes to mask his true feelings, an expression prepared for every occasion, but Lucas had succeeded in penetrating that shell. The teenager had befriended Ben in a way which both amused and puzzled the rest of the crew around them. The friendship they shared went beyond just practical jokes or stupid stunts; it was a mutual support system, finely tuned to their needs. They both accepted the masks offered by one another, knowing that what lay beneath would surface when its owner was ready. Their rules were borne out of the understanding that no questions would be asked and no expectations enforced. Regardless of how annoyed Lucas got with his friend over his constant teasing or how angry Ben got over missing porn disks, the pair would support one another through anything without condition. Now, Ben was faced with losing that friend and, although Kristin knew that he would eventually get over it, that he would go on living just as they all would, Lucas' possible death was already having a profound and negative effect on the lieutenant. Westphalen moved over to him and placed firm, reassuring hands on his arms, "Ben, listen to me. Lucas needs us. He is trapped in there, so is Cleo, and they need us firing on all cylinders if we are going to help them."
Ben nodded, firmly, but she could see his heart wasn't in it. "I know, I know."
"Now," She produced a metal rod, "I found this table leg which I need you to help me lever up that rock with. I think we can make a secure opening at ground level without the whole wall collapsing on top of us."
"Right." Krieg took the table leg and followed Kristin's instructions to the letter, his renewed enthusiasm and determination for the project shining through, much to the doctor's relief.
After another half hour, the hole was nearly large enough for Westphalen to fit through, snugly. With a final check to make sure it wouldn't collapse, she started to climb through.
"Shine the torch through the other hole and I'll look for Lucas and Cleo."
Her heart was skipping erratically as she finally pulled her legs through the hole and found herself in the muffled silence of the back cave. Entering Krieg's torch beam, she instructed him to shine it in various spots until it came to rest on something which looked like material.
"Over here."
Ben's beam found her as she knelt down and pulled away some of the stones, drawing back suddenly in shock. Krieg's urgent voice came through the hole, "What is it? Kristin?"
Kristin leaned over the still body and placed a hand against the tender neck, feeling for a pulse. Slowly, she withdrew. "It's Cleo. She's dead."
Her voice was low and quiet as she glanced back over her shoulder at Ben, the features of his face crude caricatures, nothing more than shadowed indentations in his flesh, but she didn't need to see any more to know what that face portrayed. Her hands lingered over Cleo's, the soft, pale skin of her skin so youthful and still painted with a faint smile. This had been the same girl who had suffered for three years on a depot, mothering four other children, the same dear child whose face had only lit up with the prospect of finding a life with Lucas. She was his future and yet here she was, lifeless and crushed before her life had even begun. Kristin could hardly hold back the tears which prickled behind her eyes, tingling at her nose and sending shivers of grief down her spine. That God could steal someone so young, show them a bright future only to tear it away was like bitter poison in the doctor's veins as her fingers lingered over the still warm flesh. There was nothing she could do for Cleo now but Lucas needed her. He might still be alive under this rubble, he had to be alive.
Krieg's light followed her footsteps as she moved around the small chamber, scrambling over boulders until she stopped short near the wall barring the two sections of cave. Her hand came to rest on something soft. "I've found him. You'll have to bring the light in, I can't see a thing." She heard Ben scuffling and the light disappeared for a moment before reappearing through the hole which Kristin had crawled through. Within a second, he was by her side, and he drew back in shock with what he saw. Lucas was lying on his stomach, one arm twisted painfully beneath him, while his right upper leg was completely hidden by an enormous, jagged piece of rock. His face was turned a little towards them, eyes closed, but Kristin could see a pool of congealing blood beneath his cheek. She quickly recollected herself and checked for a pulse, finally letting out a pent up breath when she found a faint throbbing. Ben sighed, "We've got to get him out of here."
Kristin looked sceptically at the rock pinning the boy to the ground. It was too heavy for either of them to left and the possible further damage they might do to him if they tried wasn't worth contemplating. They could only hope to make Lucas as comfortable as was humanly possible and pray that help arrived soon.
The seaQuest made her way smoothly through the dark waters of the deep sea, heading steadily back to Anchorage. They had expected to be there within ten hours but Nathan Bridger was already champing at the bit to be back there, a concept he would have thought impossible only days earlier. Leaving Kristin and Lucas, two people he cared most about, had been hard and not just because he was afraid for their safety. Part of him had selfish motivations, the desire to have them with him for conversation and for his own peace of mind. Even during the short time that they had been parted, Nathan missed their company. He missed spending the evening with Kristin over a few glasses of wine and he even missed looking in on Lucas to find out what mischief the teenager had got himself into this time. It was ridiculous really because there were times when the captain was very busy and wouldn't see either of them for a couple of days. Yet, it was suddenly insufferable to be without them and Nathan found himself glancing at the clock every half hour or so as if expecting them to suddenly find a portal which would land them at Anchorage within the hour.
"Captain, they're fine." Nathan turned away from the moon pool to see Tim O'Neill standing before him. The lieutenant stepped forward to pet Darwin who was swimming gently around in the water. Bridger forced a smile, "I know. I suppose, if I'm honest with myself, I'm just used to being in control." Tim nodded, mutely. No one dared voice the truth - that Wagner had got to even the best of them and not a single person among his friends would feel comfortable until Kristin, Krieg and Lucas were safely away from the MEDS station. Darwin swam past and emitted a sharp whistle which was instantly interpreted by Lucas' vocorder, "Lucas gone?"
Bridger leaned a hand down to him and cupped his smooth beak, "No, he'll be back soon, Darwin."
"Bridger sad?" Nathan managed a short smile, uncertain whether he could convince the dolphin.
"Not sad, anxious."
Darwin splashed the water with his beak, "What is anxious?"
"Anxious is a bit like worry, like when one of your own leaves the pod and you want them back." He turned away from Darwin, not feeling up to answering any more questions. The number of times the dolphin would ask if someone was sad or not, Nathan had to wonder if the creature was sincere or if it wasn't just as habitual as a greeting. Although, the captain had to admit that he was the worst culprit when it came to seeking out Darwin just to pour his heart out and get things off his chest. In fact, Lucas was the only person on board who spent as much time playing with 'fish face' as he did using him as agony aunt. Once again, Bridger had just highlighted another reason why he wanted the boy back right now. It was unsettling leaving him at the MEDS station. It wasn't like dropping him off for a convention or a weekend with his friends, it was still work and dangerous work at that. Nathan sighed, "I design the best damned boat in the water and it still doesn't go fast enough." Tim pulled a sympathetic face, "We'll be there in seven hours, Captain."
Lucas had not awoken since Kristin had found him and she was only too aware of how anxious Ben had been getting. The doctor carefully extricated the teenager's arm from beneath his body, feeling along each joint for signs of further injury or broken bones. She was relieved that there was only minimal swelling which just left his head and leg as the areas of concern. Then, in an effort to get Ben moving and his mind occupied, no matter how morbid the task, she asked him to cover up Cleo's body. If Lucas did wake up any time soon, it would hardly be helpful for him to see his girlfriend lying dead across the other side of the room. Ben had done as he was bid without complaint, but as he leaned down over the still body, eyes half open in a stiff mockery of life, the lieutenant felt his emotions welling uncontrollably. This could so easily have been Lucas, it still could. Only a few short hours ago, Cleo had been alive and well, joking and sorting out their lunches. He couldn't get his head around the fact that she was now gone, she was never coming back, never opening those eyes again. Suddenly, life felt so fragile.
Krieg's mind began to wander over all the 'might haves' and 'what ifs', unable to let his brain rest on any one thought for longer than a moment. He cast his mind back over the potentially life threatening situations he had found himself in - the Bermuda Triangle, even when Lucas had been thrown from the stinger. How was it possible that he, a fully grown man, had survived countless horrors and this poor girl had been killed without warning, without the prospect of growing up or enjoying her life? A gut-wrenching emptiness filled him as Ben covered her face...but Lucas was alive, badly wounded, but alive, and he needed to be strong for the kid. Cleo was gone. There would be time to grieve later, now he had to focus on doing everything he could to save Lucas from following her to the grave.
Moving back over to where Kristin was tending to the boy, he asked, "How's he doing?"
Kristin looked up, miserably. "His breathing is slow and shallow and I can't move him to see his leg or head properly."
They looked down at the inert figure, so small and fragile beneath the masses of rock crushing his body. Kristin smoothed the blonde hair away from the boy's face, her fingers lingering over his ivory cheek, worryingly hot beneath her touch. She placed a hand on his tender throat and sighed, "His pulse is sluggish and erratic."
Ben's eyes shone with concern, "Yeah, but he's not dying, right? I mean, he'll be okay."
The lieutenant knew that he didn't want to see Westphalen's reaction to his question. He only had to look at the frail figure half obscured under the wreckage to know that the kid was far from being okay. Kristin cupped Lucas' face gently in her hands, trying to get a closer look at the damage to the left side of his face without damaging any vertebrae. Krieg was relieved to hear her doctor tone of voice as she said, "It's the blood loss and we need to reach his leg to staunch the flow. Goodness knows what other injuries the boulder might have caused." She looked up at her companion in time to catch his despairing expression and rubbed his back, hoping to provide a little mutual comfort to help them through the long hours ahead. Desperate to find some way to hold the kid in this world, Ben gently picked up the slender hand resting beside the boy's face and rubbed it between his own.
Lucas wasn't quite sure what was going on. He felt strange, kind of numb and there was a dim nagging in the back of his mind which was growing louder and more incessant, a reminder of something he should be doing, a responsibility he had to deal with. But he didn't know where he was and he didn't know how to find out. It was all too much hard work and he felt too weak to focus on it. He was about to let himself sink back into the fog of unconsciousness when Lucas realized there was someone nearby. Someone was holding him here, a hand on his, another on his face. Suddenly, a new emotion flooded his hazed mind, fear that they might go away before he could reach them. He felt alone and struggled weakly against the debilitating fog, reaching up towards throbbing pain.
"Lucas?"
Kristin smoothed the boy's hair for the thousandth time, watching in frozen silence as Lucas swallowed weakly and she could see his eyes moving slovenly beneath closed lids. Krieg leaned forward in eager anticipation, squeezing his hand again in a hope to bring him back to them. "Lucas?" Kristin urgently whispered again.
Weakly, the boy's hand responded in Krieg's, his fingers twitching slowly to life. His breathing quickened a little as he opened glazed blue eyes, looking blankly into the gloom surrounding him. The light was so dim and Lucas couldn't tell if it was his failing sight or just the room he was in. A disembodied voice queried, urgently, "Lucas, can you hear me?"
The boy opened his mouth to respond, trying to form the questions which were piecing themselves together in the depths, but his voice failed him. "Mmm..." He could hear a comforting, soothing voice but his brain just couldn't send the messages round his body quickly enough and his throat felt like someone had poured acid down it. He knew he recognized the people beside him but his brain stumbled falteringly over names and context.
Kristin ran a hand down the boy's soft cheek, murmuring words of encouragement in a hope that Lucas might open his eyes fully and focus on her. "Sweetheart, open your eyes for me. That's it." He responded sluggishly to her pleads, his brow creasing into a frown as he tried to solidify the blurry figures beside him. His face hurt like hell, his cheek pressed painfully into the cave floor. With difficulty, he eventually made out Ben's face and then Kristin's, their images opening the mental floodgates on everything which had happened. He extricated his hand from Krieg's, feebly attempting to push himself up, unaware of his leg prohibiting any movement. "Cleo?" His vocal chords refused to oblige and neither would his body which responded to his urgency with all the vigour of someone slicing every nerve with a machete. His arms could not support him and Lucas drew in a sharp breath as Kristin eased him back down. He did not protest, weakened by blood loss and pain, it was all the boy could do to hear what the doctor was saying over the throbbing in his head. "Lucas, listen to me. You have to stay still."
Lucas' breath came in ragged gasps, "It hurts."
Ben was so relieved that Kristin was there to soothe the teenager; he might be morale officer but the lieutenant hadn't a clue about what might comfort someone whose leg was completely buried beneath layers of heavy rock with possibly hours of agony ahead of him. Kristin cast a fleeting glance in his direction, the only indication of her true fears, as her voice maintained its maternal, comforting tone. "I know it does but we don't have anything to give you right now." She could tell from the boy's face that he was trying hard to control the searing agony attacking his nervous system and his blue eyes pleaded for mercy from the pain. Kristin couldn't dull the discomfort but hopefully she could assure him that help would be here soon. "Sweetheart, your leg is trapped, but seaQuest will be here soon and we'll get you fixed up in no time."
She was growing increasingly concerned by the boy's laboured breathing and it was obvious that he was becoming agitated. Lifting his head again, Lucas mumbled, "Cleo. I need to find Cleo."
Kristin tried to ease him back down again but he grabbed her hand with inordinate strength, imploring her again. His skin was sweaty and clammy beneath the doctor's and she gently squeezed it. "Lucas, listen to me."
He was urgently scanning the darkness around them, struggling against the rock pinning him in one place, fighting nausea and pain at the same time. Kristin turned his face to look at her, forcing him to listen carefully. "Lucas, listen!"
He slowly gave in to her and she gently withdrew her hand, "The more you move, the more damage you'll do to yourself. You must lie still until help arrives."
"Cleo..." Kristin had been so caught up in the events of the past few hours that she had barely considered what she would have to tell Lucas about his girlfriend. In such a weakened state, it was common for patients to enter a state of depression, and telling him the truth was the not the best option at this point. He needed to concentrate on getting himself well and out from under the rubble, not grieving and wishing himself dead in her place. However, Westphalen had an inherent sense of the right thing to do and she caught Ben's desperate stare in her direction.
"Cleo suffered a blow to the head."
Lucas paused for a moment, stunned, before his face fell into a mask of fear, "Can I see her?"
It was a heartbreaking sight to see this broken child enduring so much while the onlookers were helpless to do anything to alleviate his suffering. "No, I don't want to move her."
Hoping to take his mind off the subject, Kristin peeled away the outer jacket she had been fortunate enough to be wearing and laid it gently under the boy's head, being careful just to provide comfort and not force his neck into an awkward position. Lucas moaned weakly as a new wave of nausea flooded through his head. He appreciated that the doctor was only trying to help but he had just started taking her advice about not moving and the new pillow was hardly an improvement. He felt as if someone had smashed a baseball bat repeatedly into the side of his skull and the throbbing pain constantly bored into him, refusing to let him rest. He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on Westphalen's hands tentatively assessing the wounds she could see and occasionally stroking his hair away from his face in a casual attempt at checking his temperature. On any other occasion, Lucas might have tried to play the tough guy and ward off any kind of attention, but he decided this situation warranted special treatment. Besides, it took too much vital energy to protest and somehow, somewhere in all this, his concern for Cleo fell away. It wasn't because he didn't care but he just felt so dozy and nothing seemed to worry him at all, not even what was happening to his leg which he could barely feel beneath the huge weight on it. Dimly, in a detached part of his brain, he wondered if perhaps his leg wasn't there at all anymore.
Ben watched in anxious silence as Lucas' tired eyes drifted closed before Dr. Westphalen adopted a sharper tone of voice and forced him to keep them open. God knew how much damage lay beyond their reach under the rock but it was a full time occupation simply keeping the boy from falling into a sleep he might never wake up from.
Krieg had been especially grateful to Kristin for being so quick to realize that the lieutenant needed something to occupy his time and had made him run a few errands back into the other half of the cave to see if any of the distilled water containers were still intact. Much to everyone's relief, the containers had been stored under one of the metal tables and a couple of the plastic bottles had managed to avoid the brunt of the collapse. Lucas had taken the water eagerly, surprised at how much he actually wanted some in spite of the awkward position he was trapped in. After a few sips while being supported by Kristin, he was eased back onto the makeshift pillow. Gasping for oxygen which seemed all too scarce in the confined space, he asked, "What about Cleo?" The two adults had been much too quiet about the condition of his girlfriend for the boy's liking and he was starting to imagine that she was dead and they didn't want to tell him. It wasn't a thought he liked to entertain, but it was logical. They didn't seem nearly as concerned about her as they were about him, so either he was in a lot worse state or she was beyond saving. Ben slinked away from where the boy was lying as the doctor tried to soothe the agitated teenager.
"It's all right. Krieg's looking after her. Just you concentrate on yourself, okay?" She could tell that none of this was going in, that Lucas was too worried to listen to a word she said, but it was the best she could do.
Lucas lay in silence for a while, watching Kristin wash out some of the cuts and scrapes with frightening detachment. He barely registered the bitter pain when she pulled at an open wound or dabbed a little too hard. Everything was too much effort and, in the gloom of the miserable, yellow torchlight, the teenager was beginning to feel scared. Since he had first awoken, his senses had undulated between sluggish disinterest and alert assessment of the situation. Just as Westphalen finished up on the cuts and scratches, Lucas was reaching the second variety of coherent thought. "Doctor?"
His voice was still hoarse from the cave dust which had been showering down on him but Kristin was by his side in a moment. "Yes, sweetie?"
Suddenly, the boy didn't know what to say. He felt ashamed of himself for not being able to just lie still and be quiet. It only took a split second for the doctor to tell what the problem was and she took Lucas' hand in her own, "Don't worry about a thing. SeaQuest will be here in a few hours and they'll have you out of here in no time. It will be all right, I promise." The teenager forced a faint smile to his lips but, if he was perfectly honest, for once her words had not inspired much hope. He still felt miserable and afraid and he couldn't understand why the two soldiers Ford had sent had not figured out what was happening yet. There must be something wrong and in the paranoia of his confused and frightened mind, Lucas wondered if this darkness might be the last thing he saw.
Dr. Olafsson had been surprised at his own reaction to the explosion. At the very least, he had imagined he would feel slight nausea at being single-handedly responsible for killing six people, two of them little more than children. He marvelled at the fact that it did not seem to matter how old you were, there were all sorts of things one still had to learn about oneself. Of course, not everyone had the opportunity to kill someone - or at least to act on the impulse. Now, however, he had to pull himself together and plan his next move. It was vital that he inform seaQuest but not quickly enough for them to save their people. The cave-in had sounded very effective and Olafsson was certain that the entire inner area would be completely destroyed with barely an air pocket to breathe in for more than twenty minutes if the person had not already been crushed to death. Glancing at his watch, he decided that it had been long enough since the collapse for him to alert seaQuest. Wherever they were in the vast ocean, it was bound to take them a significant amount of time to get back to the station, regardless of how fast the boat went. He could always claim that communications were out again, thus alleviating him of any further responsibility for the accident. Bridger had known that vid links and such functioned randomly and he had also known that the rock was unstable because of what Wagner had supposedly done to it. There were a hundred different escape clauses which Olafsson could use to extricate himself from the web of UEO law, so now all he had to do was play the innocent bystander.
Within ten minutes, he had seaQuest on line and had perfected his most agitated and frightened manner as Bridger listened.
"It simply collapsed...I can't explain what happened, but your people are still in there. I don't know how much longer they can survive."
Bridger waited impatiently for the doctor to calm down before asking, "And where were you while all this was happening?"
"I had been working in Dr. Wagner's office for much of the day, hoping to recover some of the material he had destroyed. I heard the noise and came running immediately." Nathan was trying his hardest to keep his head as captain when all his heart was being torn in two by horrific flashes of Lucas and Kristin dying in a premature tomb of this damned rock. "Commander Ford, what's our ETA?" The commander was looking almost as harassed as the captain but was maintaining a level head as he glanced at the monitors. "Two hours, sir."
Nathan turned back to Olafsson, "We'll be there in one." Switching off the link, he turned to Ford and patted him on the shoulder. "Full speed. I want us there on the double."
"Yes, sir."
"And alert the med team. Tell them the situation, possible multiple casualties, full trauma team." He tailed off momentarily, imagining the scene as his loved ones were pulled one by one from the wreckage. "Sir?"
"Hmm?" Bridger shrugged off the unwelcome flash and tried to plunge himself back into his duties, but he knew it would be impossible. Commander Ford tactfully offered, "Captain, I've got everything under control here if you'd like to have some time alone." He spoke quietly, ensuring that the rest of the bridge crew didn't hear. Nathan smiled wearily, grateful to be able to delegate to Ford in this situation because his knees were starting to feel like jelly and the bridge suddenly seemed much too cramped. He needed some space, both physically and mentally, and he headed directly to his quarters, offering a warning glare if anyone looked about to approach him. Now was not the time. His family needed him. Part of him was already chiding himself over the dangers he had chosen to overlook when seaQuest left the base. He had been hesitant to leave his people there for the exact reason that he was now racing against the clock, desperate to save Lucas and Kristin's lives before it was too late.
Nathan slammed his fist against his desk. How could he be so foolish?! The whole reason that he was perfect material to man the seaQuest (apart from the fact that it was his design) was because a captain had to be able to assess situations by all the factors. He had to make educated decisions which affected over two hundred other people aboard. Nathan's mistake had been allowing his unprofessional relationship with Kristin and Lucas to get in the way of his better judgement. He had treated them both like eager children in a sweet shop, giving in to their whims even when he recognized the potential dangers. In his desire to please, Bridger had managed to endanger their lives with hazardous consequences.
There was nothing he could do but wait until they reached the station, sitting it out while his mind raced over his mismanagement of the situation and the horrors they might find when they got there. He had already lost one son - he was not going to lose another.
It was with a leaden, numbed heart, incapacitated with grief, that Nathan endured the final hours which would bring him back to the hellish MEDS station. The assignment had been ominous from the very beginning and the captain was already composing his hate mail to Admiral Bill Noyce. He was in the middle of berating himself for the tenth time in so many minutes when his PAL bleeped noisily and Commander Ford's voice came clearly over the tinny speaker, "Captain, we're about to dock."
Within seconds, Bridger found himself standing in the launch bay, chivvying along the trauma team and crew men who had been sent to move any boulders and try to extricate the victims. He felt his heart lurching in his chest as they boarded, his mind half paralysed against any expectations of what they might find once they docked. Ford and Hitchcock had been sensitive to his emotions and had taken most of the preparations and orders in hand with barely a questioning look in his direction, aware of his shocked state. It was common knowledge that Bridger had sort of adopted Lucas as a surrogate son since the beginning of the first tour and Kristin had grown closer to the captain, making this a double blow for the man.
Hitchcock helped organize everyone into strategic groups and, as soon as they were docked, each one moved out with fluid structure, herding themselves through the corridors of the station towards the rear mine. Olafsson emerged from the doorway, his face streaked with dirt and sweat from where he had been trying in vain to move some of the lighter rocks from the entrance. "Thank God! I think someone might still be alive in there." Bridger charged to the front, followed closely by Hitchcock, pushing their way to the entrance. Suddenly, Nathan found himself capable of rational , unsentimental thought again. He knew what had to be done, understood the procedures and heard a voice strangely similar to his own barking orders right, left and centre. The excavation team moved in, starting up the digging equipment while the medical team stood by, sorting out their supplies into a portable hospital, double checking blood types for the patients and trying to create some kind of order despite the chaos which would inevitably ensue.
On the other side of the rock barrier, Ben had been busily sifting through the lab equipment buried in the chamber closest to the entrance in the hope of finding something, anything which might be of use to Kristin with Lucas. The boy had been deteriorating in gradual degrees over the past few hours, his voice losing its desperate edge, which had been a good sign at first. However, it had not been long before it gave way to fear and then despondency until Krieg had left Lucas in a state of complete dejection. Kristin had been trying her hardest to keep him amused but the pain which the boy had been almost unaware of before was mounting and it was all he could do to concentrate on anything other than trying to hold the agony at bay and keep from crying out.
Rummaging through the wreckage, Ben paused suddenly, certain that he could hear something coming from the other side of the rubble across the cave entrance. He moved closer, his breath caught in his throat, afraid that the simple act of respiration would inhibit his hearing. Placing his ear against what appeared to be a thinner part of the wall, Krieg listened carefully. There was a kind of rustling sound, like someone moving rocks on the other side, but it could just be more debris falling into place somewhere deep within the barrier. He pulled away, his heart sinking. The sound which followed suddenly brought him to a halt again, elation filling every cell of his body. There was a God after all! Without a doubt, that was the sound of an electric drill. The kid was going to get out of there in one piece, he wasn't going to die!
Scurrying back to the back area of the cave, Ben pulled himself through the narrow hole which he and Kristin had made and was by the doctor's side in an instant. "They're here. I can hear them drilling on the other side of the entrance." Kristin looked up at him, her face a visage of weariness and fear. The hope which lit her eyes was only half conceived and Ben knew that until Lucas was safely in the arms of a medical team, she could not rest easy. She murmured, "Thank God."
Ben still couldn't resist the small smile which tugged at his lips. They were going home...and Lucas would be okay. "How's he doing?"
Glancing down at the ailing boy, she drew Ben aside into the darkness, away from the torchlight. Whether Lucas was aware of her presence anymore or not, and whether he could hear her, she couldn't be sure, but it wouldn't do him any good to know how worried she was.
"His pulse has dropped significantly and his responses are becoming increasingly sluggish." Ben placed a reassuring arm on her shoulder, "He'll be out of here in no time. He doesn't have to hang on much longer."
"Ben, who knows how long it will take them to make a hole big enough to get the equipment through needed to move that damned rock trapping Lucas! It could be hours. I don't know how much longer I can keep him holding on."
Ben had been convinced that as soon as seaQuest docked, everything would be okay. He hadn't anticipated that Lucas might not make it that far. He felt anger coiling in his chest. It was wrong that the boy should be so close to being saved only to have his life extinguished without a chance of redemption. Stubbornly, he retorted, "Well, we'll just have to try harder. Keep him awake!"
Kristin hissed, "Don't you think I'm doing everything I can? Ben, his body is shutting down. He has suffered a severe blow to the head and has open wounds which have been left unattended for hours. I don't know how much longer he can wait. The pain must be excruciating." Ben sighed and rubbed one hand across his forehead in a feeble gesture of despair.
He looked over at where Lucas was lying, his thin frame and gaunt face starkly outlined by the failing, yellow beam of the torch. The lieutenant could barely see the rise and fall of his chest and, with his eyes closed, Lucas looked more dead than alive. Deep shadows leeched the colour from under his eyes and the gash on his forehead was already swelling and blooming into a deep bruise as the blood congealed. It was a sight the lieutenant had hoped never to see on a grown man, let alone a mere child who had no business being left on such a hazardous station in the first place. "I'll try and help them from our side, see if I can make contact and let them know what's going on." Kristin nodded and watched, grimly, as Krieg picked his way over the obstacles towards the small hole. She didn't fancy his chances of making much progress, but right now that was all Lucas had to rely on.