I do not claim to own the seaQuest or the characters in this story. This is written for entertainment only. I am making no money from writing this. No breach of copyright is intended.

Thank you to db, Kiddo, the Dominatrix, Jupiter 2, Jules, Tippy, Wanda and every one else who has read and reviewed the first few chapters.

Chapter 5.

"Well, what do you know, I looks like what you said right," Krieg let out the breath he hadn't known he was holding. "I'll put a rush on the order, it should be there soon." The man on the vid-phone continued.

"Thanks." Ben replied switching off the screen.

He looked down at the list of things he had been given to do. He'd ordered the food for the new diet, and he'd managed to get hold of near enough all the other things. Ben couldn't help thinking about what the baby would be like. He sat there and day dreamed the rest of the day way.

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A few hours later Lucas was crawling under the Stinger, trying to finish off the wiring, when he heard Katie Hitchcock saying she was going to take a brake. He didn't think I would be a good idea to tag along, so, after thinking for a moment, he reached for the voc-order, and called Darwin. Moments later the Dolphin was in the aqua-tube nodding happily at his friend.

"Lucas, Play!"

"No Darwin, I can't play right now, I need you to follow Katie."

"Why Lucas want Darwin to follow Katie?"

"We need to make sure that Katie is safe. I want you to keep an eye on her."

"Katie Darwin's friend, Darwin follow Katie, make Katie safe."

"Thanks fish - face." Lucas said as he watched the dolphin swim happily away.

Lucas felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders, he was used to tuning out the whole world when he was working, trying to keep half his mind on what Katie was doing was driving him crazy. But, all the men had agreed that it was not safe to let Katie work unsupervised; she had a habit of being stubbornly independent, and none of them thought it would be a good idea to let Katie do anything too strenuous in her condition.

Just has he was starting to get back to work, Lucas heard the hatch opening. He looked up from where he lay under the stinger, and tried not to groan out loud. Standing above him was the Captain, and he was wearing his "We need to Talk" expression.

"Hello Captain."

"You know Kiddo, it's been a while since we had a nice long chat."

"That because every time we met, you're either trying to get me to eat, or sleep."

"Now you mention it, when was the last time you...?" The Captain paused, "No, you're not changing the subject that easily. Is there any thing you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, we've almost finished aligning the sensors on the Stinger -"

"I've read the updates Commander Hitchcock has handed in. Want to try another subject."

Lucas thought for a moment and then brightened up. "Your right Captain, we haven't caught up in a while. How are things with you, Captain? How are the meeting about the science budget going?"

"Those idiots on the board, they have no idea how important the work we are trying to do is! Do you know what they asked me...?" About five minutes later Captain Bridger paused for breath, and almost smacked his forehead in frustration. Lucas always managed to change the subject. He decided to change tactics.

"How did things go last time you visited Node 3?"

"Fine," Lucas replied, trying desperately to remember if he and Wolf-man had hacked into anything that the Captain might have found out about.

"Lucas, if the whole place had fallen down around your ears, when asked about it you would have said fine. I'd like a less automatic answer, please."

"Me and Wolf-man didn't hack into anything major." Lucas said defensively, pushing his shaggy blond hair out of his eyes. Well, he rationalised to himself, it wasn't really a major government.

"What about you and Juliana?" The Captain asked, while he watched the teenagers face intently.

"Juliana?" Lucas said. He wished he could stop blushing every time some one mentioned her name. "Me and Juliana didn't hack into anything either."

"It's not really hacking I wanted to speak to you about, although it sounds like we need to go over what you may consider to be appropriate use of your talents again soon."

"Yes, Captain." Lucas answered, resigned to another lecture about secure data bases being secured for a reason.

"In the mean time, how are things between you and Juliana?"

"What!?"

"It's a reasonable question, Lucas." The Captain replied, trying not to smile too much at the panicked look on Lucas's face.

"It's none of your business!"

"But it is, while you're on seaQuest, I'm your legal guardian, that makes every thing you do my business. I'm not asking anything your parents wouldn't ask if they were here." Bridger reasoned.

Lucas privately thought that his parents would do no such thing, if they noticed his relationship with Juliana, which was highly unlikely since thy never paid any attention to him unless he was in some sort of trouble, then they would be too busy telling him not to waste his time with girls, that he should be concentrating on studying, or on keeping up the appearance that his parents were perfect

When Lucas didn't answer, Bridger continued. "I want you to know that if there is anything you want to discuss with me, or if there are any questions you want to ask me-"

"What!?"

"Well, Lucas, your sixteen, at your age, it's quite normal for boys to have questions about-"

"That's right Captain, I'm sixteen, not six!" Lucas exclaimed pacing around the room. "Believe me, any questions I may have had, were answered a long time ago! And why are you suddenly so concerned about my sex life anyway?"

Bridger wasn't sure if he was right in thinking that Lucas he just admitted that he was having a sexual relationship with Juliana or not, but he filed the comment away for later attention. The Captain knew he couldn't tell the teen that he'd checked what was on his computer, so he took a leaf out of Lucas's own book, and answered the question truthfully, if not entirely honestly.

"Doctor Westphalen thought that it would be a good idea if we had a talk."

"You've been talking about this with Doctor Westphalen!" This was going from bad to worse.

"We're both worried about you Lucas, sixteen is a very difficult age, especially when you don't met people your own age very often, and Juliana is your first girlfriend."

"Captain, I'm not a complete idiot. I'm not going to do anything I'm not ready for."

"Captain we have a call from the Secretary General."

Bridger reached for his pal, and told the coms officer he was on his way. "We'll finish this conversation later on, kiddo." He said as he closed the hatch behind him.

To be continued...

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As per usual, any comments you feel inclined to take the time to make will be greatly appreciated. Sorry this Chapter's a bit shorter than the others; it just worked out that way. In theory I plan to get Chapter 6 on line by the end of the week, but that is just a theory.