Thanks to Sara, Kiddo, the Dominatrix, Shi-Nom and any one else who reviewed chapter 10.

I don't own anyone, I'm just borrowing them for a while, and I promise to return them in fairly good condition after I'm done. I'm not making any money, via fan fiction or anything else for that matter. And I'm not intentionally infringing any copyrights.

Chapter 11.

Lucas sat opposite the Captain and the Doctor, and wondered why they had called him in to speak to them, when all they had done for the last five minutes was sit in silence. He was beginning to get worried, when Bridger finally spoke.

"Now that your here, I'm not sure where to start." The Captain paced restlessly back and forth across his quarters.

"Is there anything, any thing at all, that you want to tell us, Lucas?" asked Kristen, moving to sit besides the teen.

"Nothing." He replied trying desperately to work out what it was they were getting at - if they knew about Ben's baby, or if he had done something wrong.

Nathan Bridger sighed. "Lucas we know about the baby." He blurted out.

"Oh," Lucas's colour drained slightly, but, not knowing how much they knew, he was mindful of his promise to keep the whole thing a secret. "When did you find out?"

"Not for certain until a few days ago, but we suspected as much for a while." Kristen explained, wondering how the teen could be so calm. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I knew that you would work it out sooner or later, but I promised to keep it a secret."

"I know you thought that you were doing the right thing, but you have to start to learn to be more responsible, especially the way things are now."

Lucas nodded, assuming that there was going to be another lecture along the lines of - just because your a teenager, you are still a member of this crew, and as such have a duty to behave responsibly. When the speech didn't happen, he looked up into the Captains eyes.

"And it's about responsibility we want to speak to you now."

Lucas nodded resigned to the lecture, but Bridger continued.

"When we were with the Secretary General today, we discovered something else."

"What?" Lucas could feel his mouth going dry, and tried to swallow, he didn't like this sudden change of subject. He didn't like not knowing what was going on.

"Do you remember Admiral Trent?" Again there was another nod.

"A few weeks ago he had a heart attack..."

Lucas's colour turned another shade lighter.

"But his codes were used when he was still in hospital... Do you know anything about that Lucas?"

Lucas sighed and nodded.

"I may have seemed funny at the time, but this was a joke too far, Lucas." The Captain had not entirely convinced himself that his young friend really was to blame, until that moment, now he completely failed to hide his disappointment.

"Yes, Sir." Lucas said, it was always a good answer when you weren't sure what the Captain was talking about, but he kept his eyes on his shoes, realising that neither Bridger nor Westphalen knew as much as he thought they had, and afraid they would see the truth in his eyes.

"We know that you wanted to get some kind of revenge on Krieg, but this was not the way to go about it. Was anyone else involved in the trick?"

Lucas said nothing for a moment, trying to work out what they thought was going on. When he spoke he decided that a neutral statement was probably safest. "Hackers aren't known for working in teams, sir."

"How did you get around the security measures? You needed a senior crewmember to sign a change in procedures this major, and the supply officer too."

"It's not difficult to work around security measures when you know every ones pass codes." And he was telling the truth, it was easy, in fact it would probably have been quicker to do it that way than it had been for him to find Ford and Krieg and get them to input the codes themselves.

"You know every ones codes?" Kristen asked shocked.

"XQ29641B." He said, still not looking up.

Kristen gasped as she recognised her own access code, the one that gave access not only to her files, but the confidential medical files of the whole crew.

"Lucas, this is a very serious matter, and given the circumstances, I think it is best if you learn your lesson now, before you have other matters to deal with, and before the crew are put in danger."

"I didn't endanger the crew!" Lucas said looking the Captain straight in the eye and holding his gaze, obviously angry that the Captain would accuse him of doing such.

"But who knows what the next joke will do?"

"It wasn't a joke-"

"Then what was it?"

Lucas said nothing.

"Do you have anything to say in defence of your actions?" Bridger said.

Lucas thought for a moment about telling them about the special diet for Katie, but didn't know how he could without getting his friends into trouble, so he shook his head. The Captain nodded to him self, feeling disappointed again, that Lucas was not telling them the whole truth.

Bridger looked at the Doctor, who shook her head, but he continued regardless.

"So, since you have nothing to say in your own defence, as of this moment your grounded, and all your privileges are revoked."

Lucas cursed silently that the Captain had found him before his date with Juliana, but he held his tongue, consoling himself with the fact he would be able to send her a message and apologise for his absence once he got back to Mammal Engineering.

"Yes, sir." He got up to leave. "I'm sorry I let you down."

The Captain nodded, accepting the apology with better grace than he was feeling. "Where do you think you are going now?" he questioned.

"To my room, I'm grounded remember."

"No Lucas, it's more serious this time, you're not to have access to any computers attached to the mainframe."

"But, every room on board has a computer connected to the main frame..." Lucas began, really worried, not for the first time, that he was going to be sent off seaQuest, back to his parents.

"Not every room Lucas..." The Captain replied.

Lucas looked from the Captain to the Doctor confused.

"He means the brig, Lucas." Kristen explained, her tone making it quite clear that she did not approve of the Captain decision.

"You're putting me in the brig, Captain?"

"Lucas, we can't let you access the mainframe unless we can trust you, and since your obviously not telling us the whole truth at the moment, you will be confined to the brig until you do."

Lucas hated leaving things as they were between him and the Captain, but was not willing to break his friends trust, so he left without another word, and headed toward the brig, fighting to hold his emotions in check.

***** ***** *****

"Hi, Lucas." Said Tim as the teen stormed past him in the corridor. "Where you off to?" he continued, expecting his friend to tell him about a new restaurant, or club that they were all going to that night.

"The brig." Was all the answer he received.

Tim followed the teen, through the ship, and arrived in time to see Lucas slam the door of the brig behind him, automatically locking himself in.

"Lucas," Tim asked worried, "what are you doing in there?"

"Go ask the Captain." Came the reply, and with that Lucas lay on the narrow bunk, and turned his back on the door.

Tim hesitated with his hand on the door, wondering weather or not to go in. Instead he reached for his pal, and hailed the Captain. He asked the Captain if he knew why Lucas in the brig, and from the Captain's answer Tim managed to peace together most of what was going on.

After he had ended the transmit ion, Tim looked through the viewing panel in the door once again, it was when he saw Lucas's shoulders shaking that he decided that he had to call the others back to the seaQuest, and that the Captain had to learn the truth right away.

Again he reached for his pal.

***** ***** *****

"Don't you think you were just a little bit hard on him?" Kristen asked Bridger.

"Probably," he admitted sinking slowly into the chair.

"At least we know for sure about the baby." She said trying to find a bright side.

"He didn't seem at all worried about it, don't you think that's strange?"

"Teenagers are like that... nothing bothers them."

"Well, I thought it was strange." She looked over towards Nathan when she heard the vid-phone dialling.

"Who are you calling?"

"Juliana's parents." The Captain responded grimly. "They deserve to know too."

***** ***** *****

To be continued...

That's it for the moment; Chapter 12 will be posted up here soon. All reviews, comments, and major credit cards are welcomed on the review page - just press the button at the bottom of the screen :o)