BREATHE
Carl and Frank together carried the still very limp and unconscious form of Lucas through the cramped space along the long narrow passageway.
William Murphy's escape plan involved the use of an old designed submarine. If he had any chance of trying to win against the SeaQuest, he firstly would need to meet her on the same level and that was under the ocean.
After years and years of supply contacts, it hadn't been too difficult for him to find himself a used, but still fully operational submarine. It had all of the relevant electronic equipment they would need and was even armed to a certain degree with small, but effective torpedos.
"Just put him over there," Murphy said as he briefly glanced up from the maps he had sprawled across a table in the centre of the submarine's main control room. He didn't have the time to waste at the moment on where they put his hostage. He would become more important later on in the scheme of things.
Carl and Frank lay the inert teenager on a long plastic seat that butted up against one of the hulled walls of the submarine. The kid still wore the same wet clothes he had on when they had taken him from the other prison cell.
Although the bluish tinge was now not so apparent to the naked eye, it was still very obvious about how cold the kid was. He was still shivering violently even as they had carried him into the
submarine. Even now in a virtual state of unconsciousness, the teenager was trying to huddle his body against the chill.
Lucas's hands had been freed from the iron shackle from earlier, but were now bound by thick, coarse ropes. Murphy wasn't taking any chances with his prize catch. Sick or not the kid wasn't leaving anytime soon. Lucas's legs were left unbound for the time being.
"What's the plan now Boss?" Frank asked as he and Carl gathered around the small table with Murphy to plot what they intended to do.
"I want you to try and see if you can raise the SeaQuest," Murphy now instructed Frank. "It's time we let Captain Bridger and the others know that we mean business. Besides I want to make sure he gets a good look at our young hostage over there too."
"What are you planning to do with him?" Frank asked, a little nervousness betraying him. When he had signed on this idea with Murphy all he had been promised at the very beginning was a lot of cash. He wasn't in this for the glory of being called a kidnapper or terrorist. He certainly wasn't in this for whatever Murphy's depraved mind had in store for the kid.
Personally Frank saw the kid as more of a burden that a hostage or bargaining chip. He had begun to feel slightly guilty at the torment they were forcing upon the youth when he saw Lucas laying on the cold hard cement floor, dripping wet. He didn't have any feelings either way for the kid, but he didn't like to think that the kid was just going to be killed for the sake of killing him.
"What I am planning to do with him is no concern of your at the moment," Murphy said a little perturbed that he was being questioned by one of his own men. "For now just do what you are told and contact the SeaQuest," he repeated, looking back down at the maps in front of him and ignoring any response.
Frank went towards the front of the submarine in readiness to make contact with the SeaQuest like he was being asked to do. He muttered to himself as he went and looked up just in time to see the same doubts and questions in Carl's eyes. Both of them wanted out but would have to wait until all of this was over. Then both of them would be looking towards south of the border away from prosecution and leaving Murphy in his own little world.
*************************************************************
Back on board the SeaQuest, Bridger and the rescue team had returned to the vessel with the look of disappointment and failure on their faces. They couldn't help but feel that they had let Lucas down.
They had almost made it to him in time only to get there and realise that the youth had been taken away from them again against his will. Now the search became even more desperate as they realised the implications of the boy's strength and health already wanning badly.
Now he was also without his medication and at a risk of becoming even more sicker. If he did have an attack at any time now, Bridger was certain that they could rely on Murphy and his men not to help Lucas at all.
"We will do everything possible to get him back," Commander Ford said to Bridger as he slumped in his chair in the middle of the room. Everyone else was at their posts as well, waiting for the signal for what they could do next to help find Lucas.
"Thanks Jonathan," Bridger replied as he put his hand over his chin and tried to think. It wasn't that he didn't believe the words were genuine. He knew there were quite a number of people in this room right now that were just as upset about Lucas's kidnapping as he was.
The difference was they he was carrying all their worry as well as his own. He was the one who felt the guiltiest. He had promised Lucas he would be there shortly to rescue him but then when they got their his promise had been blown full of holes.
Bridger's train of thought was quickly interrupted by Lieutenant O'Neill's voice at the communications station.
"Captain, I have a someone trying to contact the SeaQuest through an unsecured channel," Tim announced. "Could be Lucas's kidnappers, do you want me to patch them through?"
"Let them come through Mr O'Neill," Bridger replied as he pulled himself up in the chair and tried to regain some sort of composure and the look of somebody who was in command rather than falling apart at the seams inside.
"Captain Bridger," Murphy's voice came over the speaker. "Can't say it is a pleasure seeing you or any of your crew again. I assume you know why I have contacted you. I believe I have something that may belong to you."
Before Bridger could reply to the sarcastic overtones of the introduction, Murphy now had the picture inside his vessel altered so that the SeaQuest crew could view the unconscious teenager on the seat along the wall.
From the outlay that he could see in front of him, Bridger was fairly sure that Murphy and his gang had taken Lucas onto another smaller submarine. That made trying to rescue the boy that much more difficult.
Bridger didn't say anything. He just continued to drink in the sight before him of Lucas. The boy was obviously still alive. From time to time he could see slightly twitches in the boy's body.
If Lucas could hear the conversation between the two parties, he didn't give any indication of being able to. He eyes remained closed and he was still in the same curled up position he had drawn himself up into.
"What do you want Murphy?" Bridger demanded, not wanting to waste any more time than was necessary on the man.
"I like a man who is direct Captain," Murphy said with a grin. "Okay, what I want is for you to allow me aboard your vessel," he said simply.
Commander Ford just about fell over backwards at the man's request. He knew that the man didn't want to come aboard to swap cookie recipes. He looked directly at Captain Bridger, wanting to make sure that there was no real truth to what he was asking to do.
"Is that all?" Bridger said, trying to display the same level of casualness and lack of emotion of Murphy.
"When I get there you will instruct your crew to take me and my men to a destination of our choosing. If you do everything that I ask and co- operate as I know you must, then the boy will remain alive," Murphy now stated.
"And if I refuse?" Bridger asked, already guessing at what such a refusal meant for Lucas.
Murphy grinned slightly at Bridger's question but then proceeded to walk over to where the boy was lying. Murphy now lifted Lucas's head up by a hand full of his blond hair and held a ominous looking serrated edged knife just under the teenager's chin.
"The choice is yours Captain," Murphy said, not needing to elaborated any further. The knife and the frightened boy's expression should be enough to convince he and the rest of the crew about the consequences of not complying.
Lucas had been startled back to some form of consciousness from the painful grasp of his hair. His eyes were open but unfocused and took on a glazed and opaque colour rather than the usual bright blue colour.
"C-Captain," came the hoarse words through the boy's lips as he battled his fear at the knife point he felt to his skin. He looked at the video-screen where he could see Bridger looking back at him. He didn't quite know exactly where he was or how he got there.
"Everything will be alright Lucas," Bridger said as he saw the look of confusion and fear on the boy's pale face. He didn't know if the boy heard the words or not or understood them but he was determined not to let the teenager down a third time.
"That depends on you Captain," Murphy said as he let go of the boy's hair and walked back to the table spread with maps.
In the back ground, Kristen kept her vigil on Lucas. The teenager was at least sitting up now and rubbing at the top of his head where the hair had been yanked. The soothing action was made that much more difficult with his bound hands.
Whilst he rubbed, he couldn't help but cough harshly at the itch in his chest. He cupped his two hands over his mouth as the coughing continued for a few seconds. By the time it eased, his face had taken on some reddish colour in his cheeks. He briefly leaned back against the wall of the submarine, trying to slow and catch his breath. His breathing was sounding very wheezy and harsh.
Lucas decided that if he was going to get out of this situation, part of it would need to come from him. Bridger and the others were aboard the SeaQuest and although he could see them and knew they would be trying very hard to rescue him. There was very little they could do on the other side of a video-screen.
Lucas shifted his legs slightly as he sat up and instantly regretted it as the ache in them from the cold made them ache even more. He gritted his teeth though and tried not to move around too much in order to give away what he was doing.
Frank and Carl had looked over his way once during the conversation between Murphy and Bridger, but could see the pained expression on the boy's face and hear the harshness of his coughing and breathing. They didn't think the teenager was feeling much like escaping at the moment.
"Try and divert their attention to give Lucas some time to look around where he is," Kristen now whispered to Bridger, carefully so as not to alert Murphy to what was happening aboard his own vessel.
Lucas now looked down the corridor that he had been carried along earlier. Although there didn't seem to be anyway out immediately. When he stopped and looked long enough, right down the far end, past the entry hatchway, there was another hatchway. On the outside of the door, the words ESCAPE POD were written in yellow letters.
Lucas looked back into the room where he was, trying not to get too excited about what he had just seen. He couldn't afford to get too complacent. His body was telling him that he would be flat out travelling more than a few steps while his mind was ticking over and telling him that there was only about 20 metres to possible way out.
A slight almost undetectable nod from Lucas to Kristen told the doctor that he had seen something that might help him. Again she was careful not to get too excited and give away his secret.
Lucas now coughed again as the itch in his chest became more of a burning sensation. He put his hands to his mouth again but as he did so, he made a crude but unusual gesture with his hands. It looked as though he was moving them from side to side.
Kristen wasn't quite sure what to make of it. She could see Lucas was trying to tell them something. She now had Commander Ford look intently at his hands and they both waited for him to repeat the action.
Murphy glanced back towards the teenager as he cough another time, but Lucas had enough nous to know he needed to wait a little longer before trying to signal the crew again.
"What is it that you and your organisation wants?" Bridger now asked Murphy as he tried to buy Lucas a little more time and freedom to concoct his escape plan.
Murphy looked piercingly at Bridger in response to the question to make sure the man wasn't trying to trick him. Bridger's stoic look and lack of emotion helped convince him that the man couldn't do too much to rescue the boy from where he was at the moment. If there was any attempt to come aboard his vessel, Murphy would know about it quickly enough.
Frank and Carl were a little too occupied in keeping their attention on the electronic panels in front of them to notice Lucas moving around or trying to signal the SeaQuest crew.
Tim O'Neill had been looking at the video screen trying to work out what type of submarine Lucas was being held on. "That submarine looks like an old Russian type known as a Foxtrot," the Lieutenant now informed them. "If it is a Russian Foxtrot, then back in the days of World War 2 most of those submarines had escape pods built into them so that the crew could escape before they sank or were blown apart."
"I think Lucas is trying to tell us that he wants a diversion of some sort," Kristen said, a little doubtful that she was getting the full message from the teenager. "His hands are moving side to side like in a rocking motion."
"Commander is there some way we could fire a small projectile at the front of that submarine so that Lucas can make his way towards the other end. He keeps looking towards the end we can't see, but I assume he is thinking of a way out."
"Does Lucas know how to operate such an escape pod if there is one there?" Ben Krieg now voiced as he grew anxious about any escape attempt his young friend might have.
"They are pretty easy to operate Ben," Tim now said, trying to dispel any fears. "The pods are only big enough for three people and they are fairly safe. There should be a lever on the main console once he is inside that allows the pod to break away from the rest of the sub."
Bridger had been discreetly warned of what the rest of the crew and Lucas had in mind. He wasn't happy about the idea and thought of telling them that there would be another chance to get Lucas by safer means.
At the end of the day though, he couldn't be sure that there would even be another chance of a rescue let alone a safer one. They had to get Lucas away from that man now. His health was rapidly becoming worse and if they left it too long, Lucas might not have the strength to make it to any such escape pod.
Lucas began coughing harshly again just to emphasis the fact that he wasn't feeling too great again. He was cold and no matter now much he tried to focus inwardly, his body couldn't make the heat needed to warm him. He rubbed his bound hands together, trying to get some manipulation and circulation back through his fingers.
Bridger had given the signal to Miguel Ortiz to try and get a target lock onto the very front of the smaller submarine. They had to make sure that the hit was accurate enough to put Murphy and his men off long enough for Lucas to escape but be small enough to prevent the whole vessel from blowing up with Lucas in it.
"You know I could just use SeaQuest to blast you out of the water," Bridger now warned Murphy.
"You wouldn't dare Captain," Murphy shot back, safe in the knowledge that as long as the boy was being held aboard, Bridger wouldn't be so foolish as to put his life in danger by trying to bring them down with weapons.
Frank and Carl had overheard the Captain's deadly ultimatum and now grew fearful for their own lives. Murphy didn't give a damn about what happened to all of them. He was willing to sacrifice himself and everyone else just to prove a point and support his stupid cause.
"Target lock on Captain," Miguel now said, loud enough for Murphy and his men to hear also.
"You wouldn't dare....." Murphy hissed once again, making sure that Bridger was able to get a good look as who his hostage was.
Lucas couldn't hide the fact that he was scared right now. He hands were trembling from fear as well as the cold at the moment. Although he knew the crew would do everything they could to prevent something going wrong, there were no guarantees and if the SeaQuest fired of course, then there would be no need to a rescue of any sort.
"Let's just see how much you are willing to risk his life Captain," Murphy hissed. "Frank get set to send us to the bottom," he now ordered.
"To the bottom?" Frank asked as his own fear about what Murphy proposed started to rise. "You can't be serious?"
"I am serious, to the bottom I said," Murphy said through clenched teeth as he looked back towards Bridger. Murphy walked over to in front of Frank and make the necessary adjustments on the dials to make the submarine begin descending.
Frank and Carl were now both on their feet voicing their opposition to what Murphy proposed to do. Murphy's attention was taken away from Bridger temporarily as he tried to convince the two men that it was only a scare tactic for Bridger and they wouldn't get anywhere near that deep before the Captain gave in and let them aboard just to save the kid's life.
"Captain, Russian Foxtrot's have a maximum crush depth of only 800 feet," Tim O'Neill now said with real concern in his voice. If Murphy did indeed take the submarine past that depth then Lucas would be in real trouble whether he got into the escape pod or not. The escape pod itself would only be able to withstand a depth of 100 feet before it too would be crushed.
Bridger waved his hand towards Tim, telling him that he knew what the threat meant to Lucas. He now motioned for Miguel to get ready to strike the rogue submarine before Murphy could get much deeper.
Commander Ford and Kristen both kept their attention on Lucas and motioned for him to get ready to move. They knew Lucas couldn't afford to take too much time once the submarine was struck. Any amount of damage would begin to bring in water and it would only be a matter of time before vessel sunk altogether.
The idea was that the sinking would be slow enough to allow Lucas to get away from his captors long enough to stow away in the escape pod and release it from the rest of the submarine.
Ben Krieg put himself in charge of the rescue party that would be there to assist hauling in the escape pod once it was far enough away from the submarine.
"Captain the foxtrot has dived over 100 feet," Tim now announced to the Captain, a sense of urgency in his voice.
"Fire Mr Ortiz," Bridger ordered as he looked long and hard into the video- screen at Murphy.
Murphy's grin had been wiped from his face as no sooner as Bridger had said fire did he feel the impact on the right hand side of his vessel.
He could scarcely believe that Bridger would be so bold.
"Now Lucas Now," Bridger said out loud to himself as he watched the chaos on board the other submarine take place.
At the initial impact, Lucas held onto one of the metal supports as the submarine rocked to and fro from the blast. Frank and Carl were shouting at one another and Murphy about what to do.
Lucas now gingerly got up on his feet and used whatever was along the way to help him keep upright as he tried to make his way along the narrow corridor back towards the escape pod.
Frank and Carl were still arguing and shouting as water began sloshing around their feet. Murphy for some reason had looked back to where the kid should have been just in time to see the kid stumbling towards the rear end of the submarine.
It was only then that it dawned on Murphy that he had been had. He roared with anger and was determined not to let the teenager get away: "He's getting away you idiots," he shouted as he started down the corridor after the fleeing Lucas.
Lucas didn't remember much of his journey down the corridor. His body was protesting as his every movement as he pushed him to make the distance to the escape pod. He had put his hand on the sealing hatch door when he heard the shout from Murphy that he was escaping.
He fumbled with the hatch until he managed to pry it open. His heart was almost bursting out of his chest at the thought that his escape attempt would be foiled and he would soon drown with the rest of them aboard the submarine.
Back up the front of the submarine, Frank and Carl had totally given up on going after the teenager. They were now only interested in self-preservation as they tried in vain to stop the hole in the side of the submarine from getting too much bigger and engulfing them in sea water. The steel hull of the vessel could be heard to grunt and groan as the force of the water were beginning to take their toll on her outer structure.
The video-link between the rogue submarine and the SeaQuest was now lost and Bridger and his crew could do nothing but watch from the main screen to see what was going to happen to Lucas.
Ben was already in his sea-crab and on his way outside in the ocean to rescue the escape pod once it broke away.
None of them were aware of the knife attack that had occurred or the injury that Lucas had sustained.
Murphy got far enough along the corridor to see the back of the retreating teenager. Just as Lucas tried to step through to the safety of the pod, Murphy brought out the serrated knife he had held to Lucas's neck earlier. He stabbed aimlessly towards the teenager, with no real target area in mind and was rewarded with an agonizing scream of pain as the knife met with flesh.
Lucas was desperate to get into the escape pod before Murphy could manage to drag him back away. His strength was quickly waning and he knew he wouldn't have any in reserve to fight of the man if he managed to grab a hold of him. He hadn't planned on the man still wielding a knife at him and could scarcely breathe due to the pain as he knife was driven into his soft calf muscle.
Lucas legs immediately gave way and he found himself falling onto the floor of the escape pod. Adrenaline and a need to escape were the only things on his mind at the moment and it was this that made him drag himself across the grid floor and turn the hatch to seal himself in.
Because the hatch was sealed from the inside, Murphy was unable to unlock it, although he certainly tried. The more he turned the angrier he became when it would give to let him get to the teenager.
The screams of Frank and Carl further in front of the submarine, told Murphy that he had to give up on getting his hostage back for the time being and focus on getting his own hide out before the submarine sank or broke up.
Murphy quickly donned on a wet suit and air tanks. It was almost beyond the range of any human survival at this depth, but he had to get away. He didn't even give the other men a second thought.
Lucas's mind was not totally working as it should now as fatigue and pain took over. He could feel something warm and sticky running down his leg, but he didn't have the strength to look down and see what it was. He had to release the pod from the submarine yet.
Lucas pulled himself away from the hatchway door towards the panelling for the pod. He knew that he didn't have much strength left and the pain was overwhelming his senses. The only control he could make out at the moment was a long red lever in the middle that would release the submarine. He pulled it and the pod began moving.
Lucas now pulled the radio control on the floor near him, still unable to stand or even pull himself into a sitting position. The control's image wavered in front of him as the shock, cold and blood loss threatened to take consciousness away from him any second.
"M-MAY M-MAYDAY....this is........" he tried to say through the mouth piece.
"Lucas is that you?" Tim O'Neill said on the other end as he picked up the very weak signal coming from the escape pod. The words were barely above a whispered and Tim was having trouble hearing Lucas at all.
Bridger snatched the receiver out of Tim's hand as he walked up to the communications station.
"Lucas are you there? Lucas?" Bridger said with worry clearly in his voice.
"M-MAY D.....M-MAY D......this is LUC..." was all he managed to get out the second time as his strength gave out and he passed out on the floor, radio mouth piece still clasped in his hand. The long gash on his leg continued to bleed and everything inside the escape pod was eerily quiet except for the desperate voices trying to read Lucas from the SeaQuest.
"We have to get to him fast," Kristen now said as she was too afraid to speak out loud what might have become of the sick teenager.
"Ben can you see him yet? How far away is the pod from the submarine?" Bridger now asked Krieg in the sea-crab.
"I can see him now Captain, almost there. I will secure the tow line to the pod and bring it in," Ben said as he tried to focus on the task at hand. It was hard to keep his mind off the face that Lucas was no longer answering the crew's attempts to rouse him over the radio.
Just as Ben finished his sentence on the radio to the SeaQuest, an almighty blast shook them all as the Russian submarine now exploded and broke up into large pieces. The pressure had built up to fatal levels and the hull could no longer hold together at the forces trying to drive it apart.
Frank and Carl had still been trying to get out when they were caught in the blast. Murphy was no where to be seen. The force of the blast threw the pod around a little in the vacuum created. The teenager inside was unaware of the rough tossing he was being subjected to.
"Captain the sub just blew to Kingdom come," Krieg said to the SeaQuest.
"I see it thanks Lieutenant," Bridger said as he kept his eyes on the escape pod. They were still trying without luck to contact Lucas inside. The blast had happened a little too close for comfort and there was no telling what had happened to the teenager as he was tossed around inside. Bridger had to hope that the blast had not affected the pod too much.
'I can't see him sitting inside the pod Captain," Ben said, his voice betraying his emotions as he told the crew to get ready to bring the pod into the SeaQuest.
Bridger, Kristen and most of the senior crew now abandoned their posts to head to the launch bay, as Krieg informed them he would be shortly. Ford and a few of the others were already in the launch bay ready to pull the escape pod up to the surface and help get Lucas out.
"Can you see him yet?" Kristen asked anxiously as she tried to peer through one of the small port hold sized windows of the pod as it was brought to the surface.
The windows didn't allow to see much of anything inside. The pod itself was extremely awkward to move and heavy. It took almost ten minutes to get it into a position out of the water to where they could begin to attempt opening the main hatchway door.
"Quickly get it open Nathan, I can see him lying on the floor inside," Kristen said as she peered through one of the side windows. She could see Lucas laying roughly were he had fallen after the blast. The lack of movement scared her to death.
The hatchway door wasn't too difficult to open and Bridger made himself the first to enter the escape pod. He quickly spied who he was looking for and knelt beside the unconscious teenager on the floor. He put his hand on the still bleeding wound on his leg and wondered how on earth the teenager had gotten injured that way.
"Kristen you better come in here, we are going to need you badly," Bridger now said but Kristen was already on her way in. Commander Ford tried to keep as many other crew members out of the way as possible. He knew they were all worried about Lucas as he was too, but they had to let Bridger and Kristen give the teenager the medical attention he needed.
Ben Krieg had been tied up getting himself out of his sea-crab as quickly as possible but soon stood beside his crew mates, waiting for news of Lucas's condition.
"This gash is bad and will need stitches," Kristen said to Nathan, giving her diagnosis as she went. "Here hold this towel over the wound to stop the bleeding while I take a look at the rest of him."
"Ben get some blankets in here quickly please," Kristen now ordered as she noted the coldness of the boy's pale skin. Some of the coldness would be due to the water and some of it would be due to the blood loss and shock.
Ben now passed two thick warm blankets from the supply store into the escape pod. He wanted to ask how Lucas was but knew that Kristen and Bridger would let them know as soon as they had taken care of the youth.
"Lets prepare to get him off this hard floor and take him to Med Bay so I can attend to his leg," Kristen now said as she gathered her medical bag and stepped out of the pod.
"Ben can you help Nathan carry Lucas to Med Bay please?" she asked.
Ben didn't need a second invitation to assist and soon Lucas could be seen being carried between Ben and the Captain out of the pod towards Med Bay. A shocked gasp came from the rest of the crew as the teenager emerged and they all saw the blood-soaked towel around his lower leg.
Commander Ford took over control of the clean up from the Russian submarine. They would have to secure the escape pod somehow and take it back to Head Quarters to be examined. They too had to make sweeps of the surrounding ocean to check that there was no survivors.
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Bridger stood beside the bed that Lucas lay on, watching Kristen's every move as she went.
He watched as she firstly stripped the cold, still damp clothes off Lucas and replaced them with warm dry ones. She then tried to give him a thorough going over to gauge how unconscious he was before setting to stitch the gash in his leg.
She only gave him a small amount of pain relief, certain that the cold and blood loss were enough to keep him under long enough not to feel her administrations.
"Hold this please Nathan," she said politely as she saw the almost expressionless look on his face as he leaned against the wall. Bridger moved to where she asked and did everything she asked without a single word.
About forty minutes after he had been taken to Med Bay, Lucas was now sleeping soundly in the bed with a mountain of blankets piled on him to try and warm his body. Kristen was concerned that the cold would take it's toll on Lucas's already weakened body.
"Now, how are you holding up?" she asked after tucking in the last corner of blanket around the sleeping teenager and then draping a re-assuring arm around the Captain.
Bridger's gaze was still focused on Lucas and his mind was playing back the memories from the submarine and prison cell. Even now Lucas was safe in bed before him, it was difficult not to worry about him.
"Shouldn't you be worry more about him," Bridger said in reply, knowing that Kristen had already been scared out of her mind about the teenager and shed more than a few silent tears when they had found him collapsed on the floor of the escape pod.
"Yes, but at the moment he is being taken well care of which is more than I can say for you," she replied. Bridger's eyes were tired from the lack of sleep and he had remained unshaven for two days now. He looked like he should be crawling in beside Lucas for a nice long sleep.
"To be honest I don't know how I feel right at the moment Kristen," he said. "Is he going to be alright? he found himself asking out of habit.
"Given time yes, the injuries will heal," she answered. "The main thing is to keep him warm at the moment. He has still be coughing off and on but thankfully he didn't have another attack just yet. His chest is slightly congested but hopefully I can clear that up with his regular Ventolin doses. We are lucky he had those antibiotics in the hospital or he might be much worse off right now.
"How long do you think he will have this asthma for?" Bridger asked.
"I don't know Nathan. I can't give you or Lucas a time when he might be free of it. But hopefully we are on the road to a full recovery. He just needs to keep taking it easy and looking after himself a little better for a while," Kristen said.
"How long before he can walk on that leg?" Bridger enquired.
"Only a few days and most of the soreness should be gone. Thankfully the gash wasn't that deep. I don't know how he got it. Maybe he can tell us when he wakes up and is feeling a little better. Most of the damage was to the muscle so we just have to wait until his body repairs it. Thankfully there was no blood vessel damage or to the bone itself."
***************************************************************
It was well into the next day before Lucas showed any signs of waking up. Ben Krieg was currently sitting beside the teenager's bed in Med Bay. Kristen had insisted he stay there instead of his own bed or Bridger's quarters. She wanted to keep a good eye on him for any signs of pneumonia from the cold or any complications from the stitches in his leg.
"Ben," came the quiet voice as the teenager turned towards his friend dozing a chair.
"Lucas, you're awake," Krieg shouted in delight and ran off towards Kristen's office before the teenager could say anything further.
Ben soon came back with Kristen and Bridger in tow and stood beaming the teenager as Kristen took care to check all of his injuries.
"Ben could you wait outside now please," Kristen asked the Lieutenant. "I will let you have more time with Lucas later on. Right now I want to check him over while he is awake and get some food and drink into him. I am sure he is just as anxious to spend time with you too soon enough."
"Sure doc, I'll grab the food if you like," Ben said not put off by being asked to leave. He knew that Lucas would want to spend time with Bridger and Kristen first anyway. He was just happy that the kid was back safe where he belonged and where he would remain safe.
"At least someone is happy to see me," Lucas now said, his voice still not at full strength. After he had finished the sentence, the teenager took a moment to take some long breaths and get some strength back into his body. He didn't feel as though he could do very much at all at the moment.
"Make that double for me pal," Bridger replied as he took Lucas's hand in his own, grateful that the teenager was looking a look better today than he had yesterday. His face no longer had the washed out appearance it had held when they found him in the pod.
"How are you feeling Lucas?" Kristen asked. "And I want a genuine answer young man."
"I can barely keep my eyes open at the moment Kristen and my leg is killing me," Lucas replied honestly. He couldn't have hidden the truth at the moment even if he wanted to.
"Good, that's exactly how I expect you will feel at least for the rest of today and probably tomorrow," Kristen said.
"I am sorry to cause you all this much trouble again," he said as he felt guilty that he was going to have to rely on others to take care of him so much for a couple of days. He liked the fussing a little even if he said he didn't.
"You are not causing any trouble Lucas," Kristen said in a gentle voice. "You have been through quite a lot and I am sure that there will be plenty to talk about. But right now I just want you to concentrate on getting better. You know you can talk to us about anything in a couple of days when your body has had a rest."
"Thanks," Lucas said, a little embarrassed and for lack of finding something else to say.
"What happened to your leg Lucas?" Bridger said, not wanting to get the kid reliving the nightmare too much too soon.
"Murphy stabbed me just before I could get into the escape pod. For a minute there I really thought he was going to keep be aboard that sub," Lucas said as he tried to hide the fear that he had felt.
"I don't know how you did it Lucas, but you managed to get away from him and the sub and I can't tell you how relieved I am to have you safe again," Bridger replied.
Bridger wanted to stay with the teenager a lot longer to which Kristen had no objection. She doubted there would be too much conversation between them anyway as she saw the teenager starting to drift back to sleep again. She knew that Bridger needed him just as much as Lucas needed Bridger.
Bridger and Kristen both went to a knock at the door, thinking the teenager had fallen asleep sufficiently. Unfortunately though the knock at the door had awoken Lucas just enough for him to understand the conversation he could here.
"Did they find the bodies," Lucas heard Bridger ask Commander Ford. Commander Ford had come to give the Captain the latest update on retrieving the wreckage of the submarine and the bodies of the kidnappers. The U.E.O. had employed another team to complete the task but was keeping the SeaQuest informed of all the progress.
"They found two bodies, we think they belonged to the other two men. No sign of Murphy anywhere," Ford said with no more having needed to be said.
Kristen looked at Bridger and Bridger and Kristen. They now both looked back towards Lucas laying on the bed to see two blue eyes looking back at them, no words being spoken but the effect of what they had just heard all too apparent.
THE END...........FOR NOW (HEHEHEH!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
FINALLY FINISHED - Please don't burn me about the submarine information - everything I wrote was just made up including the depths of crush for humans and submarines.
Murphy is still out there somewhere as you can see - I killed off the other two. Don't know quite where I will bring him back yet - I have two sidekicks from OWN MY OWN (Danny and Biff) in jail yet that need a new leader - maybe I can team them up together later ??????????????????
This ending probably doesn't suit everybody but I hope you enjoyed reading the story overall. I appreciate everybody that reviews my stories and hope you keep them coming.
Not sure which story to continue next - got lots in my head and some really good scenes that are just going to have you screaming at me - the suspense will kill you all in the end.
Got four stories in my head were Lucas gets shot - two of them will be the best - one where the crew see it happen and he definitely looks dead - the other they hear the shot and assume he's dead. That's all the hints for now - hope you all keep reading.
JULES
Carl and Frank together carried the still very limp and unconscious form of Lucas through the cramped space along the long narrow passageway.
William Murphy's escape plan involved the use of an old designed submarine. If he had any chance of trying to win against the SeaQuest, he firstly would need to meet her on the same level and that was under the ocean.
After years and years of supply contacts, it hadn't been too difficult for him to find himself a used, but still fully operational submarine. It had all of the relevant electronic equipment they would need and was even armed to a certain degree with small, but effective torpedos.
"Just put him over there," Murphy said as he briefly glanced up from the maps he had sprawled across a table in the centre of the submarine's main control room. He didn't have the time to waste at the moment on where they put his hostage. He would become more important later on in the scheme of things.
Carl and Frank lay the inert teenager on a long plastic seat that butted up against one of the hulled walls of the submarine. The kid still wore the same wet clothes he had on when they had taken him from the other prison cell.
Although the bluish tinge was now not so apparent to the naked eye, it was still very obvious about how cold the kid was. He was still shivering violently even as they had carried him into the
submarine. Even now in a virtual state of unconsciousness, the teenager was trying to huddle his body against the chill.
Lucas's hands had been freed from the iron shackle from earlier, but were now bound by thick, coarse ropes. Murphy wasn't taking any chances with his prize catch. Sick or not the kid wasn't leaving anytime soon. Lucas's legs were left unbound for the time being.
"What's the plan now Boss?" Frank asked as he and Carl gathered around the small table with Murphy to plot what they intended to do.
"I want you to try and see if you can raise the SeaQuest," Murphy now instructed Frank. "It's time we let Captain Bridger and the others know that we mean business. Besides I want to make sure he gets a good look at our young hostage over there too."
"What are you planning to do with him?" Frank asked, a little nervousness betraying him. When he had signed on this idea with Murphy all he had been promised at the very beginning was a lot of cash. He wasn't in this for the glory of being called a kidnapper or terrorist. He certainly wasn't in this for whatever Murphy's depraved mind had in store for the kid.
Personally Frank saw the kid as more of a burden that a hostage or bargaining chip. He had begun to feel slightly guilty at the torment they were forcing upon the youth when he saw Lucas laying on the cold hard cement floor, dripping wet. He didn't have any feelings either way for the kid, but he didn't like to think that the kid was just going to be killed for the sake of killing him.
"What I am planning to do with him is no concern of your at the moment," Murphy said a little perturbed that he was being questioned by one of his own men. "For now just do what you are told and contact the SeaQuest," he repeated, looking back down at the maps in front of him and ignoring any response.
Frank went towards the front of the submarine in readiness to make contact with the SeaQuest like he was being asked to do. He muttered to himself as he went and looked up just in time to see the same doubts and questions in Carl's eyes. Both of them wanted out but would have to wait until all of this was over. Then both of them would be looking towards south of the border away from prosecution and leaving Murphy in his own little world.
*************************************************************
Back on board the SeaQuest, Bridger and the rescue team had returned to the vessel with the look of disappointment and failure on their faces. They couldn't help but feel that they had let Lucas down.
They had almost made it to him in time only to get there and realise that the youth had been taken away from them again against his will. Now the search became even more desperate as they realised the implications of the boy's strength and health already wanning badly.
Now he was also without his medication and at a risk of becoming even more sicker. If he did have an attack at any time now, Bridger was certain that they could rely on Murphy and his men not to help Lucas at all.
"We will do everything possible to get him back," Commander Ford said to Bridger as he slumped in his chair in the middle of the room. Everyone else was at their posts as well, waiting for the signal for what they could do next to help find Lucas.
"Thanks Jonathan," Bridger replied as he put his hand over his chin and tried to think. It wasn't that he didn't believe the words were genuine. He knew there were quite a number of people in this room right now that were just as upset about Lucas's kidnapping as he was.
The difference was they he was carrying all their worry as well as his own. He was the one who felt the guiltiest. He had promised Lucas he would be there shortly to rescue him but then when they got their his promise had been blown full of holes.
Bridger's train of thought was quickly interrupted by Lieutenant O'Neill's voice at the communications station.
"Captain, I have a someone trying to contact the SeaQuest through an unsecured channel," Tim announced. "Could be Lucas's kidnappers, do you want me to patch them through?"
"Let them come through Mr O'Neill," Bridger replied as he pulled himself up in the chair and tried to regain some sort of composure and the look of somebody who was in command rather than falling apart at the seams inside.
"Captain Bridger," Murphy's voice came over the speaker. "Can't say it is a pleasure seeing you or any of your crew again. I assume you know why I have contacted you. I believe I have something that may belong to you."
Before Bridger could reply to the sarcastic overtones of the introduction, Murphy now had the picture inside his vessel altered so that the SeaQuest crew could view the unconscious teenager on the seat along the wall.
From the outlay that he could see in front of him, Bridger was fairly sure that Murphy and his gang had taken Lucas onto another smaller submarine. That made trying to rescue the boy that much more difficult.
Bridger didn't say anything. He just continued to drink in the sight before him of Lucas. The boy was obviously still alive. From time to time he could see slightly twitches in the boy's body.
If Lucas could hear the conversation between the two parties, he didn't give any indication of being able to. He eyes remained closed and he was still in the same curled up position he had drawn himself up into.
"What do you want Murphy?" Bridger demanded, not wanting to waste any more time than was necessary on the man.
"I like a man who is direct Captain," Murphy said with a grin. "Okay, what I want is for you to allow me aboard your vessel," he said simply.
Commander Ford just about fell over backwards at the man's request. He knew that the man didn't want to come aboard to swap cookie recipes. He looked directly at Captain Bridger, wanting to make sure that there was no real truth to what he was asking to do.
"Is that all?" Bridger said, trying to display the same level of casualness and lack of emotion of Murphy.
"When I get there you will instruct your crew to take me and my men to a destination of our choosing. If you do everything that I ask and co- operate as I know you must, then the boy will remain alive," Murphy now stated.
"And if I refuse?" Bridger asked, already guessing at what such a refusal meant for Lucas.
Murphy grinned slightly at Bridger's question but then proceeded to walk over to where the boy was lying. Murphy now lifted Lucas's head up by a hand full of his blond hair and held a ominous looking serrated edged knife just under the teenager's chin.
"The choice is yours Captain," Murphy said, not needing to elaborated any further. The knife and the frightened boy's expression should be enough to convince he and the rest of the crew about the consequences of not complying.
Lucas had been startled back to some form of consciousness from the painful grasp of his hair. His eyes were open but unfocused and took on a glazed and opaque colour rather than the usual bright blue colour.
"C-Captain," came the hoarse words through the boy's lips as he battled his fear at the knife point he felt to his skin. He looked at the video-screen where he could see Bridger looking back at him. He didn't quite know exactly where he was or how he got there.
"Everything will be alright Lucas," Bridger said as he saw the look of confusion and fear on the boy's pale face. He didn't know if the boy heard the words or not or understood them but he was determined not to let the teenager down a third time.
"That depends on you Captain," Murphy said as he let go of the boy's hair and walked back to the table spread with maps.
In the back ground, Kristen kept her vigil on Lucas. The teenager was at least sitting up now and rubbing at the top of his head where the hair had been yanked. The soothing action was made that much more difficult with his bound hands.
Whilst he rubbed, he couldn't help but cough harshly at the itch in his chest. He cupped his two hands over his mouth as the coughing continued for a few seconds. By the time it eased, his face had taken on some reddish colour in his cheeks. He briefly leaned back against the wall of the submarine, trying to slow and catch his breath. His breathing was sounding very wheezy and harsh.
Lucas decided that if he was going to get out of this situation, part of it would need to come from him. Bridger and the others were aboard the SeaQuest and although he could see them and knew they would be trying very hard to rescue him. There was very little they could do on the other side of a video-screen.
Lucas shifted his legs slightly as he sat up and instantly regretted it as the ache in them from the cold made them ache even more. He gritted his teeth though and tried not to move around too much in order to give away what he was doing.
Frank and Carl had looked over his way once during the conversation between Murphy and Bridger, but could see the pained expression on the boy's face and hear the harshness of his coughing and breathing. They didn't think the teenager was feeling much like escaping at the moment.
"Try and divert their attention to give Lucas some time to look around where he is," Kristen now whispered to Bridger, carefully so as not to alert Murphy to what was happening aboard his own vessel.
Lucas now looked down the corridor that he had been carried along earlier. Although there didn't seem to be anyway out immediately. When he stopped and looked long enough, right down the far end, past the entry hatchway, there was another hatchway. On the outside of the door, the words ESCAPE POD were written in yellow letters.
Lucas looked back into the room where he was, trying not to get too excited about what he had just seen. He couldn't afford to get too complacent. His body was telling him that he would be flat out travelling more than a few steps while his mind was ticking over and telling him that there was only about 20 metres to possible way out.
A slight almost undetectable nod from Lucas to Kristen told the doctor that he had seen something that might help him. Again she was careful not to get too excited and give away his secret.
Lucas now coughed again as the itch in his chest became more of a burning sensation. He put his hands to his mouth again but as he did so, he made a crude but unusual gesture with his hands. It looked as though he was moving them from side to side.
Kristen wasn't quite sure what to make of it. She could see Lucas was trying to tell them something. She now had Commander Ford look intently at his hands and they both waited for him to repeat the action.
Murphy glanced back towards the teenager as he cough another time, but Lucas had enough nous to know he needed to wait a little longer before trying to signal the crew again.
"What is it that you and your organisation wants?" Bridger now asked Murphy as he tried to buy Lucas a little more time and freedom to concoct his escape plan.
Murphy looked piercingly at Bridger in response to the question to make sure the man wasn't trying to trick him. Bridger's stoic look and lack of emotion helped convince him that the man couldn't do too much to rescue the boy from where he was at the moment. If there was any attempt to come aboard his vessel, Murphy would know about it quickly enough.
Frank and Carl were a little too occupied in keeping their attention on the electronic panels in front of them to notice Lucas moving around or trying to signal the SeaQuest crew.
Tim O'Neill had been looking at the video screen trying to work out what type of submarine Lucas was being held on. "That submarine looks like an old Russian type known as a Foxtrot," the Lieutenant now informed them. "If it is a Russian Foxtrot, then back in the days of World War 2 most of those submarines had escape pods built into them so that the crew could escape before they sank or were blown apart."
"I think Lucas is trying to tell us that he wants a diversion of some sort," Kristen said, a little doubtful that she was getting the full message from the teenager. "His hands are moving side to side like in a rocking motion."
"Commander is there some way we could fire a small projectile at the front of that submarine so that Lucas can make his way towards the other end. He keeps looking towards the end we can't see, but I assume he is thinking of a way out."
"Does Lucas know how to operate such an escape pod if there is one there?" Ben Krieg now voiced as he grew anxious about any escape attempt his young friend might have.
"They are pretty easy to operate Ben," Tim now said, trying to dispel any fears. "The pods are only big enough for three people and they are fairly safe. There should be a lever on the main console once he is inside that allows the pod to break away from the rest of the sub."
Bridger had been discreetly warned of what the rest of the crew and Lucas had in mind. He wasn't happy about the idea and thought of telling them that there would be another chance to get Lucas by safer means.
At the end of the day though, he couldn't be sure that there would even be another chance of a rescue let alone a safer one. They had to get Lucas away from that man now. His health was rapidly becoming worse and if they left it too long, Lucas might not have the strength to make it to any such escape pod.
Lucas began coughing harshly again just to emphasis the fact that he wasn't feeling too great again. He was cold and no matter now much he tried to focus inwardly, his body couldn't make the heat needed to warm him. He rubbed his bound hands together, trying to get some manipulation and circulation back through his fingers.
Bridger had given the signal to Miguel Ortiz to try and get a target lock onto the very front of the smaller submarine. They had to make sure that the hit was accurate enough to put Murphy and his men off long enough for Lucas to escape but be small enough to prevent the whole vessel from blowing up with Lucas in it.
"You know I could just use SeaQuest to blast you out of the water," Bridger now warned Murphy.
"You wouldn't dare Captain," Murphy shot back, safe in the knowledge that as long as the boy was being held aboard, Bridger wouldn't be so foolish as to put his life in danger by trying to bring them down with weapons.
Frank and Carl had overheard the Captain's deadly ultimatum and now grew fearful for their own lives. Murphy didn't give a damn about what happened to all of them. He was willing to sacrifice himself and everyone else just to prove a point and support his stupid cause.
"Target lock on Captain," Miguel now said, loud enough for Murphy and his men to hear also.
"You wouldn't dare....." Murphy hissed once again, making sure that Bridger was able to get a good look as who his hostage was.
Lucas couldn't hide the fact that he was scared right now. He hands were trembling from fear as well as the cold at the moment. Although he knew the crew would do everything they could to prevent something going wrong, there were no guarantees and if the SeaQuest fired of course, then there would be no need to a rescue of any sort.
"Let's just see how much you are willing to risk his life Captain," Murphy hissed. "Frank get set to send us to the bottom," he now ordered.
"To the bottom?" Frank asked as his own fear about what Murphy proposed started to rise. "You can't be serious?"
"I am serious, to the bottom I said," Murphy said through clenched teeth as he looked back towards Bridger. Murphy walked over to in front of Frank and make the necessary adjustments on the dials to make the submarine begin descending.
Frank and Carl were now both on their feet voicing their opposition to what Murphy proposed to do. Murphy's attention was taken away from Bridger temporarily as he tried to convince the two men that it was only a scare tactic for Bridger and they wouldn't get anywhere near that deep before the Captain gave in and let them aboard just to save the kid's life.
"Captain, Russian Foxtrot's have a maximum crush depth of only 800 feet," Tim O'Neill now said with real concern in his voice. If Murphy did indeed take the submarine past that depth then Lucas would be in real trouble whether he got into the escape pod or not. The escape pod itself would only be able to withstand a depth of 100 feet before it too would be crushed.
Bridger waved his hand towards Tim, telling him that he knew what the threat meant to Lucas. He now motioned for Miguel to get ready to strike the rogue submarine before Murphy could get much deeper.
Commander Ford and Kristen both kept their attention on Lucas and motioned for him to get ready to move. They knew Lucas couldn't afford to take too much time once the submarine was struck. Any amount of damage would begin to bring in water and it would only be a matter of time before vessel sunk altogether.
The idea was that the sinking would be slow enough to allow Lucas to get away from his captors long enough to stow away in the escape pod and release it from the rest of the submarine.
Ben Krieg put himself in charge of the rescue party that would be there to assist hauling in the escape pod once it was far enough away from the submarine.
"Captain the foxtrot has dived over 100 feet," Tim now announced to the Captain, a sense of urgency in his voice.
"Fire Mr Ortiz," Bridger ordered as he looked long and hard into the video- screen at Murphy.
Murphy's grin had been wiped from his face as no sooner as Bridger had said fire did he feel the impact on the right hand side of his vessel.
He could scarcely believe that Bridger would be so bold.
"Now Lucas Now," Bridger said out loud to himself as he watched the chaos on board the other submarine take place.
At the initial impact, Lucas held onto one of the metal supports as the submarine rocked to and fro from the blast. Frank and Carl were shouting at one another and Murphy about what to do.
Lucas now gingerly got up on his feet and used whatever was along the way to help him keep upright as he tried to make his way along the narrow corridor back towards the escape pod.
Frank and Carl were still arguing and shouting as water began sloshing around their feet. Murphy for some reason had looked back to where the kid should have been just in time to see the kid stumbling towards the rear end of the submarine.
It was only then that it dawned on Murphy that he had been had. He roared with anger and was determined not to let the teenager get away: "He's getting away you idiots," he shouted as he started down the corridor after the fleeing Lucas.
Lucas didn't remember much of his journey down the corridor. His body was protesting as his every movement as he pushed him to make the distance to the escape pod. He had put his hand on the sealing hatch door when he heard the shout from Murphy that he was escaping.
He fumbled with the hatch until he managed to pry it open. His heart was almost bursting out of his chest at the thought that his escape attempt would be foiled and he would soon drown with the rest of them aboard the submarine.
Back up the front of the submarine, Frank and Carl had totally given up on going after the teenager. They were now only interested in self-preservation as they tried in vain to stop the hole in the side of the submarine from getting too much bigger and engulfing them in sea water. The steel hull of the vessel could be heard to grunt and groan as the force of the water were beginning to take their toll on her outer structure.
The video-link between the rogue submarine and the SeaQuest was now lost and Bridger and his crew could do nothing but watch from the main screen to see what was going to happen to Lucas.
Ben was already in his sea-crab and on his way outside in the ocean to rescue the escape pod once it broke away.
None of them were aware of the knife attack that had occurred or the injury that Lucas had sustained.
Murphy got far enough along the corridor to see the back of the retreating teenager. Just as Lucas tried to step through to the safety of the pod, Murphy brought out the serrated knife he had held to Lucas's neck earlier. He stabbed aimlessly towards the teenager, with no real target area in mind and was rewarded with an agonizing scream of pain as the knife met with flesh.
Lucas was desperate to get into the escape pod before Murphy could manage to drag him back away. His strength was quickly waning and he knew he wouldn't have any in reserve to fight of the man if he managed to grab a hold of him. He hadn't planned on the man still wielding a knife at him and could scarcely breathe due to the pain as he knife was driven into his soft calf muscle.
Lucas legs immediately gave way and he found himself falling onto the floor of the escape pod. Adrenaline and a need to escape were the only things on his mind at the moment and it was this that made him drag himself across the grid floor and turn the hatch to seal himself in.
Because the hatch was sealed from the inside, Murphy was unable to unlock it, although he certainly tried. The more he turned the angrier he became when it would give to let him get to the teenager.
The screams of Frank and Carl further in front of the submarine, told Murphy that he had to give up on getting his hostage back for the time being and focus on getting his own hide out before the submarine sank or broke up.
Murphy quickly donned on a wet suit and air tanks. It was almost beyond the range of any human survival at this depth, but he had to get away. He didn't even give the other men a second thought.
Lucas's mind was not totally working as it should now as fatigue and pain took over. He could feel something warm and sticky running down his leg, but he didn't have the strength to look down and see what it was. He had to release the pod from the submarine yet.
Lucas pulled himself away from the hatchway door towards the panelling for the pod. He knew that he didn't have much strength left and the pain was overwhelming his senses. The only control he could make out at the moment was a long red lever in the middle that would release the submarine. He pulled it and the pod began moving.
Lucas now pulled the radio control on the floor near him, still unable to stand or even pull himself into a sitting position. The control's image wavered in front of him as the shock, cold and blood loss threatened to take consciousness away from him any second.
"M-MAY M-MAYDAY....this is........" he tried to say through the mouth piece.
"Lucas is that you?" Tim O'Neill said on the other end as he picked up the very weak signal coming from the escape pod. The words were barely above a whispered and Tim was having trouble hearing Lucas at all.
Bridger snatched the receiver out of Tim's hand as he walked up to the communications station.
"Lucas are you there? Lucas?" Bridger said with worry clearly in his voice.
"M-MAY D.....M-MAY D......this is LUC..." was all he managed to get out the second time as his strength gave out and he passed out on the floor, radio mouth piece still clasped in his hand. The long gash on his leg continued to bleed and everything inside the escape pod was eerily quiet except for the desperate voices trying to read Lucas from the SeaQuest.
"We have to get to him fast," Kristen now said as she was too afraid to speak out loud what might have become of the sick teenager.
"Ben can you see him yet? How far away is the pod from the submarine?" Bridger now asked Krieg in the sea-crab.
"I can see him now Captain, almost there. I will secure the tow line to the pod and bring it in," Ben said as he tried to focus on the task at hand. It was hard to keep his mind off the face that Lucas was no longer answering the crew's attempts to rouse him over the radio.
Just as Ben finished his sentence on the radio to the SeaQuest, an almighty blast shook them all as the Russian submarine now exploded and broke up into large pieces. The pressure had built up to fatal levels and the hull could no longer hold together at the forces trying to drive it apart.
Frank and Carl had still been trying to get out when they were caught in the blast. Murphy was no where to be seen. The force of the blast threw the pod around a little in the vacuum created. The teenager inside was unaware of the rough tossing he was being subjected to.
"Captain the sub just blew to Kingdom come," Krieg said to the SeaQuest.
"I see it thanks Lieutenant," Bridger said as he kept his eyes on the escape pod. They were still trying without luck to contact Lucas inside. The blast had happened a little too close for comfort and there was no telling what had happened to the teenager as he was tossed around inside. Bridger had to hope that the blast had not affected the pod too much.
'I can't see him sitting inside the pod Captain," Ben said, his voice betraying his emotions as he told the crew to get ready to bring the pod into the SeaQuest.
Bridger, Kristen and most of the senior crew now abandoned their posts to head to the launch bay, as Krieg informed them he would be shortly. Ford and a few of the others were already in the launch bay ready to pull the escape pod up to the surface and help get Lucas out.
"Can you see him yet?" Kristen asked anxiously as she tried to peer through one of the small port hold sized windows of the pod as it was brought to the surface.
The windows didn't allow to see much of anything inside. The pod itself was extremely awkward to move and heavy. It took almost ten minutes to get it into a position out of the water to where they could begin to attempt opening the main hatchway door.
"Quickly get it open Nathan, I can see him lying on the floor inside," Kristen said as she peered through one of the side windows. She could see Lucas laying roughly were he had fallen after the blast. The lack of movement scared her to death.
The hatchway door wasn't too difficult to open and Bridger made himself the first to enter the escape pod. He quickly spied who he was looking for and knelt beside the unconscious teenager on the floor. He put his hand on the still bleeding wound on his leg and wondered how on earth the teenager had gotten injured that way.
"Kristen you better come in here, we are going to need you badly," Bridger now said but Kristen was already on her way in. Commander Ford tried to keep as many other crew members out of the way as possible. He knew they were all worried about Lucas as he was too, but they had to let Bridger and Kristen give the teenager the medical attention he needed.
Ben Krieg had been tied up getting himself out of his sea-crab as quickly as possible but soon stood beside his crew mates, waiting for news of Lucas's condition.
"This gash is bad and will need stitches," Kristen said to Nathan, giving her diagnosis as she went. "Here hold this towel over the wound to stop the bleeding while I take a look at the rest of him."
"Ben get some blankets in here quickly please," Kristen now ordered as she noted the coldness of the boy's pale skin. Some of the coldness would be due to the water and some of it would be due to the blood loss and shock.
Ben now passed two thick warm blankets from the supply store into the escape pod. He wanted to ask how Lucas was but knew that Kristen and Bridger would let them know as soon as they had taken care of the youth.
"Lets prepare to get him off this hard floor and take him to Med Bay so I can attend to his leg," Kristen now said as she gathered her medical bag and stepped out of the pod.
"Ben can you help Nathan carry Lucas to Med Bay please?" she asked.
Ben didn't need a second invitation to assist and soon Lucas could be seen being carried between Ben and the Captain out of the pod towards Med Bay. A shocked gasp came from the rest of the crew as the teenager emerged and they all saw the blood-soaked towel around his lower leg.
Commander Ford took over control of the clean up from the Russian submarine. They would have to secure the escape pod somehow and take it back to Head Quarters to be examined. They too had to make sweeps of the surrounding ocean to check that there was no survivors.
***********************************************************
Bridger stood beside the bed that Lucas lay on, watching Kristen's every move as she went.
He watched as she firstly stripped the cold, still damp clothes off Lucas and replaced them with warm dry ones. She then tried to give him a thorough going over to gauge how unconscious he was before setting to stitch the gash in his leg.
She only gave him a small amount of pain relief, certain that the cold and blood loss were enough to keep him under long enough not to feel her administrations.
"Hold this please Nathan," she said politely as she saw the almost expressionless look on his face as he leaned against the wall. Bridger moved to where she asked and did everything she asked without a single word.
About forty minutes after he had been taken to Med Bay, Lucas was now sleeping soundly in the bed with a mountain of blankets piled on him to try and warm his body. Kristen was concerned that the cold would take it's toll on Lucas's already weakened body.
"Now, how are you holding up?" she asked after tucking in the last corner of blanket around the sleeping teenager and then draping a re-assuring arm around the Captain.
Bridger's gaze was still focused on Lucas and his mind was playing back the memories from the submarine and prison cell. Even now Lucas was safe in bed before him, it was difficult not to worry about him.
"Shouldn't you be worry more about him," Bridger said in reply, knowing that Kristen had already been scared out of her mind about the teenager and shed more than a few silent tears when they had found him collapsed on the floor of the escape pod.
"Yes, but at the moment he is being taken well care of which is more than I can say for you," she replied. Bridger's eyes were tired from the lack of sleep and he had remained unshaven for two days now. He looked like he should be crawling in beside Lucas for a nice long sleep.
"To be honest I don't know how I feel right at the moment Kristen," he said. "Is he going to be alright? he found himself asking out of habit.
"Given time yes, the injuries will heal," she answered. "The main thing is to keep him warm at the moment. He has still be coughing off and on but thankfully he didn't have another attack just yet. His chest is slightly congested but hopefully I can clear that up with his regular Ventolin doses. We are lucky he had those antibiotics in the hospital or he might be much worse off right now.
"How long do you think he will have this asthma for?" Bridger asked.
"I don't know Nathan. I can't give you or Lucas a time when he might be free of it. But hopefully we are on the road to a full recovery. He just needs to keep taking it easy and looking after himself a little better for a while," Kristen said.
"How long before he can walk on that leg?" Bridger enquired.
"Only a few days and most of the soreness should be gone. Thankfully the gash wasn't that deep. I don't know how he got it. Maybe he can tell us when he wakes up and is feeling a little better. Most of the damage was to the muscle so we just have to wait until his body repairs it. Thankfully there was no blood vessel damage or to the bone itself."
***************************************************************
It was well into the next day before Lucas showed any signs of waking up. Ben Krieg was currently sitting beside the teenager's bed in Med Bay. Kristen had insisted he stay there instead of his own bed or Bridger's quarters. She wanted to keep a good eye on him for any signs of pneumonia from the cold or any complications from the stitches in his leg.
"Ben," came the quiet voice as the teenager turned towards his friend dozing a chair.
"Lucas, you're awake," Krieg shouted in delight and ran off towards Kristen's office before the teenager could say anything further.
Ben soon came back with Kristen and Bridger in tow and stood beaming the teenager as Kristen took care to check all of his injuries.
"Ben could you wait outside now please," Kristen asked the Lieutenant. "I will let you have more time with Lucas later on. Right now I want to check him over while he is awake and get some food and drink into him. I am sure he is just as anxious to spend time with you too soon enough."
"Sure doc, I'll grab the food if you like," Ben said not put off by being asked to leave. He knew that Lucas would want to spend time with Bridger and Kristen first anyway. He was just happy that the kid was back safe where he belonged and where he would remain safe.
"At least someone is happy to see me," Lucas now said, his voice still not at full strength. After he had finished the sentence, the teenager took a moment to take some long breaths and get some strength back into his body. He didn't feel as though he could do very much at all at the moment.
"Make that double for me pal," Bridger replied as he took Lucas's hand in his own, grateful that the teenager was looking a look better today than he had yesterday. His face no longer had the washed out appearance it had held when they found him in the pod.
"How are you feeling Lucas?" Kristen asked. "And I want a genuine answer young man."
"I can barely keep my eyes open at the moment Kristen and my leg is killing me," Lucas replied honestly. He couldn't have hidden the truth at the moment even if he wanted to.
"Good, that's exactly how I expect you will feel at least for the rest of today and probably tomorrow," Kristen said.
"I am sorry to cause you all this much trouble again," he said as he felt guilty that he was going to have to rely on others to take care of him so much for a couple of days. He liked the fussing a little even if he said he didn't.
"You are not causing any trouble Lucas," Kristen said in a gentle voice. "You have been through quite a lot and I am sure that there will be plenty to talk about. But right now I just want you to concentrate on getting better. You know you can talk to us about anything in a couple of days when your body has had a rest."
"Thanks," Lucas said, a little embarrassed and for lack of finding something else to say.
"What happened to your leg Lucas?" Bridger said, not wanting to get the kid reliving the nightmare too much too soon.
"Murphy stabbed me just before I could get into the escape pod. For a minute there I really thought he was going to keep be aboard that sub," Lucas said as he tried to hide the fear that he had felt.
"I don't know how you did it Lucas, but you managed to get away from him and the sub and I can't tell you how relieved I am to have you safe again," Bridger replied.
Bridger wanted to stay with the teenager a lot longer to which Kristen had no objection. She doubted there would be too much conversation between them anyway as she saw the teenager starting to drift back to sleep again. She knew that Bridger needed him just as much as Lucas needed Bridger.
Bridger and Kristen both went to a knock at the door, thinking the teenager had fallen asleep sufficiently. Unfortunately though the knock at the door had awoken Lucas just enough for him to understand the conversation he could here.
"Did they find the bodies," Lucas heard Bridger ask Commander Ford. Commander Ford had come to give the Captain the latest update on retrieving the wreckage of the submarine and the bodies of the kidnappers. The U.E.O. had employed another team to complete the task but was keeping the SeaQuest informed of all the progress.
"They found two bodies, we think they belonged to the other two men. No sign of Murphy anywhere," Ford said with no more having needed to be said.
Kristen looked at Bridger and Bridger and Kristen. They now both looked back towards Lucas laying on the bed to see two blue eyes looking back at them, no words being spoken but the effect of what they had just heard all too apparent.
THE END...........FOR NOW (HEHEHEH!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
FINALLY FINISHED - Please don't burn me about the submarine information - everything I wrote was just made up including the depths of crush for humans and submarines.
Murphy is still out there somewhere as you can see - I killed off the other two. Don't know quite where I will bring him back yet - I have two sidekicks from OWN MY OWN (Danny and Biff) in jail yet that need a new leader - maybe I can team them up together later ??????????????????
This ending probably doesn't suit everybody but I hope you enjoyed reading the story overall. I appreciate everybody that reviews my stories and hope you keep them coming.
Not sure which story to continue next - got lots in my head and some really good scenes that are just going to have you screaming at me - the suspense will kill you all in the end.
Got four stories in my head were Lucas gets shot - two of them will be the best - one where the crew see it happen and he definitely looks dead - the other they hear the shot and assume he's dead. That's all the hints for now - hope you all keep reading.
JULES
