part eight
When Lucas could think clearly, he blinked a few times to clear his vision. He could feel something warm on his forehead and realized that he must be bleeding from where he hit his head. After he stopped seeing double, a woman stepped into his line of vision and spoke crisply to one of the men holding him. Roughly, he grabbed Lucas' hair and forced him to look the woman directly in her eyes.
"Lucas. It's been a while."
Lucas stared at the woman standing in front of him. Even though he had spoken to her over the vidlink a few months ago, the difference in her from the sixteen-year-old girl from his memory and the thirty-year-old woman standing in front of him was startling. Her slim figure and long, blond hair that hung down to her shoulders took his breath away. Contacts had replaced glasses, and her adolescent figure had matured into a woman's body.
"J-Juliana?" His shocked voice was barely a whisper.
She gave him a look that could have been pity before answering. "Don't be so surprised. A lot can happen to change a person in six months."
Lucas was speechless. He opened his mouth several times to try and say something. Finally, he was able to choke out, "Why?"
"Because the people you work for are corrupt! The UEO is this century's version of Nazi Germany, and someone's got to stop them."
"I don't understand. What happened to you?"
"Life happened to me, Lucas. I grew up. I got introduced to the real world." She paused, taking a deep breath before she began her story. She wasn't willing to let him know how much this was killing her. "The day that we talked, Nick was working in the lab downstairs. He had been working on military applications of our HR technology. He was such an idealist-- he believed full-heartedly in the UEO and wanted to do whatever he could to help preserve it against the Macs. He was a fool. As soon as they found out what he was doing, they sent section 7 after him. They said that they didn't want his work to get in the wrong hands, but I knew better. By the time I finished talking to you, they had destroyed everything in the lab and Nick was gone. That was six months ago, and I haven't seen or heard from him since. " Lucas was speechless. He knew in his heart that she was right-- only that it was section 7 that was corrupt, not the entire UEO. He knew that all too well...
"Jules..." She had to turn away then, the pain in his voice bringing tears to her eyes.
"The UEO must pay. They can't get away with destroying their own citizen's lives!"
"Jules, you're right." She spun around, surprised by his words. "What section 7 did was wrong, but believe me. The UEO probably had no clue what went on."
"What are you talking about?"
"Juliana, section 7 is the corrupt agency, not the UEO. The UEO is still a force for good and peace in the world, even with section 7. It's like saying the USA was corrupt because of the actions of the CIA. In time, someone will bring section 7 down. Trust me."
She was silent for a long time. Whether it was to ponder Lucas' words or to gain control of her emotions, only she knew. When she spoke again, her voice was tight and hard. "I can't trust anyone anymore, Lucas. I'm sorry."
Piccolo broke the surface of the water and, taking a few deep breaths to stop from hyperventilating, he looked around. Great. Just great. He was alone in the repair dock. Where were the others? They had left the bridge a good twenty minutes ago. Hauling himself out of the water and onto the metal grating covering the bay, he grabbed a towel that was lying on the floor and headed for a dry-docked shuttle.
Sliding down the side of the sub, he took some more deep breaths to try and calm down. He ran his hands through his wet hair, before hitting the floor in frustration. What the hell was he supposed to do? Why did Lucas want to come here in the first place? It didn't make any sense. Other than the fact that he couldn't think why the terrorists would come down here, he had no idea what possible use being in the repair docks would be in regaining control of the ship.
God, he couldn't do this! He was nobody. He wasn't a genius like Lucas; he couldn't even stay in a stupid rank like Warrant Officer, for heaven's sake! How was he supposed to get the ship out of the hands of these terrorists alone? Alone... he had never felt so alone in his entire life. Not even in prison had he felt so helpless, so...
What was he doing? From some corner of his mind a voice spoke up. He had to try, no matter how impossible the odds seemed. Whoever these people were, there was no way that they could get their hands on the seaQuest. She was too powerful, too prestigious to fall into enemy hands. No, he decided. He would do whatever he could, no matter the consequences to gain control of this ship. Besides, Lucas was counting on him.
Suddenly, Piccolo heard the scraping of a hatch opening, and footsteps cautiously enter the bay. He was immediately on his feet, crouched behind the protective shielding of the shuttle. He slowly peered around the side, trying in vain to see anything in the darkness.
What was that? Over there, by the Stinger- he could have sworn he had seen something move.
There it was again! This time he could distinctly see three figures moving swiftly to where he was hiding.
Okay, Piccolo, time to make talk into action, he told himself. Slowly he reached for his towel and wadded it up into a little ball. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he threw it as hard as he could across the shuttle to his left. A crashing sound reverberated throughout the room as the force of the towel toppled a supply cart filled with machinery parts. At the same time, he dove to the right and rolled behind a stack of crates.
He tried to slow his breathing as the figures ran over towards the direction that Tony had thrown the towel, but he was sure that they could hear him. One of the men stopped, and turned around, staring at Tony's hiding place as if he could see right through the crates. Piccolo held his breath and crouched lower, tensing, waiting to move until the man had walked past the crates and was continuing on to the other side. Then he kicked out his legs, catching the man completely off-guard and sending him flying to the floor.
As soon as Piccolo saw the gun go flying, he dived towards it, grabbing it before it fell over the side of the grating and sank into the water. In the next instant he was up, gun cocked and aimed at the man lying on the floor, dazed.
"Ensign Thomas?" Tony gasped at the figure lying on the floor in front of him, relieved.
"Piccolo? Thank god." Tony laughed nervously, relieved at the sudden twist. Grasping his hand, he helped Thomas to his feet and passed him back his gun as they grinned at each other.
"I thought--"
"We thought--" They laughed again as they were joined by the other two and together they headed towards the shuttle that Piccolo had previously been hiding behind.
"What took you so long to get here?" Piccolo asked, after they had sat down.
"We stopped off at the armory to get these." Ensign Rusell held up a gun and two laser pistols, passing one of them to Tony. "They're fully charged and set to kill."
Tony looked up from inspecting the laser pistol. Even after all this time as a military officer, the weapon still felt alien in his hands. He had seen too many of his friends gunned down by weapons such as these. "Did you get there and back without meeting any of our new friends?"
"No such luck," Russell answered. "When we were exiting from the armory, one of the terrorists was walking down the hallway, looking in each of the rooms, I guess, for us." He laughed. "He'll be stuck in that room for some time."
"Have you come up with a plan?"
"A plan? We thought that Lucas would've had one by now. Where is he, anyway? Did he send you away for being annoying?"
He glared at Russell, then became serious before speaking. "Lucas was... they... they took the bridge." The three looked at him in shock, then all seemed to find somewhere else to fix their gaze. "I was able to get out in time, but Lucas wasn't so lucky."
"Then we're lost," Russell finally spoke after a long pause. "They have the bridge, they have a hostage... this is going to be impossible."
"It's not all that bad," Tony said, reassuringly. "Lucas was able to write an encryption code program right before the bridge was breached. They now need a new set of codes to get into the system. After one failed attempt to crack the code, the system freezes for good."
"So unless they get the codes from Lucas, the ship is useless to them."
"Yeah. Pretty ingenious, huh?"
The three officers looked at each other. Russell spoke up first. "Piccolo, if they know that Lucas is the one with the codes, they're going to try and get them from him. How long do you expect Lucas to last under interrogation? How long can any of us ask him to last?"
Piccolo shot Thomas a confused expression at his statement. They didn't think that Luke would... naw, he knew Lucas. The kid was young, granted, but he had seen the seaQuest destroyed once, and would never let anything happen to her again. Never in a million years.
"No. Lucas would never tell."
"Tony," Thomas spoke then. "I have the greatest respect and love for Lucas. We all do; but he's a science officer. You can't expect him to last long under interrogation."
"At least this buys us some time to get our act together." Russell ended up the argument then and tried desperately to get a plan together.
"What are you talking about?" Tony interrupted. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "It does more than just give us some time. It means that we're not going anywhere. The boat is useless to them now. I know Lucas, and he may be young, and he may not be militarily trained, but he doesn't have to be; he's as loyal as they come. And if you haven't noticed by now, it's the loyal ones who come out on top."
Thomas looked doubtfully at Tony. "Sure, Piccolo. Whatever you say, but I'm not trusting my life to the loyalty and passion of a twenty-year-old kid."
Piccolo was starting to really dislike these people. Yet at the same time, he was starting to think that maybe they had a point... No, Tony, he told himself. You can't let yourself believe that. Luke is going to be fine; he's a survivor. He attracts trouble like I attract women, and yet he always survives... right?