Thanks go to Swasthi, Frankie McStein, Sara, Teresa,
Silver_Eagle:Jessie_West, K. Presson, Treachery89, Christine, Kiddo,
DavinaGenevive, Tyger Magick, and everyone else who read the previous
chapter.
Sorry for the delay, I'm hoping to finish this story by the end of the month, so the next few instalments should be up reasonably quickly.
Please see previous chapter of all-purpose disclaimer.
Chapter 10.
"The Captain's acting very strange." Shan said as he checked the items in the bag for the third time in as many minutes.
Chief Crocker looked across the airport terminal at Captain Bridger as her paced along in front of the row of chairs where Dr. Westphalen sat.
"What do you expect, Shan, he's lost one son, he's not ready to lose another one."
"He acts like Lucas is already dead." Shan observed.
"When Robert disappeared, the Captain was so sure we were going to find him, that it was all some big misunderstanding. He convinced himself Robert was still alive, but then, after a while you could see the doubt bubbling under the surface. When it finally boiled over, and he had to realise that Robert could dead it almost broke him. If it hadn't been for Carol...Anyway, maybe he thinks it's better to be pessimistic and have a pleasant surprise rather than be optimistic and disappointed."
For a few moments they sorted through the baggage in silence. Finally Shan asked, "Do you think they're still alive, Chief?"
"Stranger things have happened, Shan, stranger things have happened." Shan nodded, none of the crew were willing to say out loud what they all believed in silence.
***** ***** *****
Ben Krieg listen as Lucas told him a, what the Lieutenant was sure would turn out to be, a carefully edited version of his past.
Krieg didn't interrupt when Lucas hedged around his relationship with his father, he didn't even argue when Lucas repeatedly said that while there weren't any problems in the family, if there had been any problems, than they would have been all his own fault.
"The first speech I gave was a disaster," Lucas continued in a careful, measured voice. "I could understand the theories, I'd written all the programmes which proved the theories, and I had my whole speech planned out. I'd been on the stage for about half an hour when I pressed the button to start the programme on the big screen behind me..." Lucas trailed off into silence.
"What happened?" Ben prompted.
"Nothing." Said Lucas.
"Nothing?"
"Nothing what so ever, I was standing there in front of the greatest minds in the scientific community and when I pressed the button, nothing happened."
"What did you do?"
"I sorted the problem out, there was a lose connection between the big screen and some of the hardware that the lecture theatre had installed, it only took a few minutes to re-wire it. I finished off the speech, but the damage was done. I'd made a complete embarrassment out of my self."
"How old were you?"
"Seven - old enough to know that I should have check all the equipment I was using." And Ben noticed that there was a subtle change of voice when Lucas spoke about parts of his past, almost as the teenager was quoting form someone.
***** ***** *****
"My grandmother was very religious," Miguel confessed. "An Old Testament kind of Christian."
"An eye for an eye?"
"That was only the start of it - you know when you see films about the French revolution, and there's little old ladies sitting in the front row every time they chopped some one's head off? Well, that would have been my grandmother. Only she'd have had a rosary instead of knitting and it would be religious rather than political executions."
"Sounds like an... Interesting lady." Tim said.
"She always said nothing improves a person's faith more than watching someone else's head being cut off, or some one else flogged, or whatever."
"Oh..." Tim said, not knowing what else to say to a statement like that.
"She used to tell me that's what would happen to me if I didn't say my prayers and do what I was told."
"Um... did she ever... um..."
"Lay a hand on me?" Miguel finished the sentence off. "No, but there again I always said my prayers and did what I was told - until I was eighteen at least."
"What happen when you were eighteen?" Tim was almost afraid to ask the question, but somehow his mouth framed the words anyway.
Miguel smiled into the night. "I joined up. I haven't prayed since." The last phrase was said almost defiantly, as if he expected his friend to tell him he was wrong.
Instead Tim said quietly "I remember a priest saying to me a long time ago - you should never judge a god by his believers. I think he was right, you start out with commandments about not killing people, and a couple of hundred years later Christians are crusading around the world trying to wipe out anyone who didn't want to convert."
"Do you think the priest was right?"
"My mothers family emigrated to America from Northern Ireland. I remember one of my uncles saying that the road he used to walk along to school was in a protestant area; some of the residents didn't think it was right for them to walk that route. It started off with throwing stones, things like that. Then some one decided stones weren't enough and sent a nail bomb flying into a group of school kids. My uncle was one of the lucky ones - he only lost a leg. It only takes one lunatic to give a religion a bad name."
Each man stared out into the darkness, there seemed to be nothing more to say.
***** ***** *****
"Purple? You painted it purple?"
"Yep," Ford confirmed. "It took us all night, but we finally got it done. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw it and it was... purple."
They both laughed, Katie was certainly seeing a new side to seaQuests XO.
"What else did you do?"
Ford thought for a moment "Well there was the collage run."
"That doesn't sound too rebellious." Katie pointed out.
"It started a whole new tradition," Ford continued. "Every year a dozen boys from the school do the collage run at midnight on the 27th of May, in the nude."
"In the nude?"
"Yep - we'd had way to much to drink that night." Ford chuckled.
"Did you get caught?"
"Everyone but me and Jackson did."
"Let me guess, you two were the fastest runners?" Katie asked.
"No, well, you see, we decided that if we were going to do the collage run, then we had to do it properly, and, you know when you do races, you pin a number on to your shirt. Since we weren't wearing shirts, someone came up with the wonderful idea that we should write the numbers on our chests. And someone had a permanent marker, so since we were all pretty drunk, that's what we used."
"And...?" Katie prompted.
"Well, the collage security guard reported that he had seen some of the students running around with numbers written on them. All the master had to do was find out which boys had numbers written on their chests and they'd caught the culprits."
"So, how come you and Jackson didn't get caught?"
Even in the darkness Katie could guess Ford was grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat. "Me and Jackson had to use tip-ex instead of permanent marker - Jackson was black too, and as it turned out tip-ex comes of much easier than permanent marker."
***** ***** *****
"Nathan you're going to wear a track in the floor." Kristen sighed, as Captain Bridger turned to repeat his path once more.
"How can you sit still at a time like this?" Nathan asked her.
"The first critical patient I had, I paced up and down across the floor of the hospital waiting room until he was out of intensive care. And the second patient, and the third, then when my forth patient was in intensive care I fell asleep. And do you know what Nathan, that patient survived too. It didn't matter weather I paced or not, so I stopped pacing."
Nathan sighed and sat down next to the doctor. "I don't think I can cope with losing another son." He whispered.
"If you had to pick six people who could cope with anything, Nathan, who would you have picked? Ford, may be an idiot when it comes to dealing with scientists - but in a survival situation I'd trust him with my life - and I'd trust him with Lucas, and Tim, and all the others too."
Nathan said nothing, so Kristen continued. "Have you ever know Katie to fail at something she really set her mind to? Have you Nathan? Because I haven't. And what about Ben, he may act a fool, but he's adopted Lucas, like the little brother he never had - if anyone can work a scam to get them out of there, it's Ben."
Still Nathan sat in silence. "Tim's probably learned three new Russian dialects just by asking directions to the nearest town, and Miguel will have be trying them out on the local girls, probably very successfully from what I've been told by my nurses."
"Lucas is just a child." Nathan said, finally looking up into Kristen's eyes.
"He may be a child, but he's not just a child. How many adults would cope as well as he does on seaQuest? How many adults have an IQ off the scale? How many adults would you trust more than Lucas? Nathan, he's probably typing away on that infernal lap top of his as we speak!"
Nathan nodded, "You're probably right."
***** ***** *****
"Why should a seven year old know to check for something like that?"
"Because he was stupid enough to have a higher IQ than his father. Because he didn't have enough sense to pretend to be normal. And because if I wasn't supposed to know, then why did my father... why did my father... why did my father say that I should have known?" Lucas stormed.
"Lucas-" Ben began.
"No, Ben, leave it, I'm tired and I'm going to get some sleep."
"Lucas?" Ben tried again, but the teenager turned on his side and ignored his friend.
Lucas pretended to sleep until he saw the dawn light penetrating the forest, he knew Ben was asleep; he'd been listening to his friend snore for the few hours. Sighing, he sat up, if they wanted to find Tim and Miguel toady, they'd have to make an early start.
***** ***** *****
To Be Continued...
***** ***** *****
If you have any comments or requests, please let me know in a review - the next chapter will be posted up as soon as I decide what will be happening in it. Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed.
Cadi.
Sorry for the delay, I'm hoping to finish this story by the end of the month, so the next few instalments should be up reasonably quickly.
Please see previous chapter of all-purpose disclaimer.
Chapter 10.
"The Captain's acting very strange." Shan said as he checked the items in the bag for the third time in as many minutes.
Chief Crocker looked across the airport terminal at Captain Bridger as her paced along in front of the row of chairs where Dr. Westphalen sat.
"What do you expect, Shan, he's lost one son, he's not ready to lose another one."
"He acts like Lucas is already dead." Shan observed.
"When Robert disappeared, the Captain was so sure we were going to find him, that it was all some big misunderstanding. He convinced himself Robert was still alive, but then, after a while you could see the doubt bubbling under the surface. When it finally boiled over, and he had to realise that Robert could dead it almost broke him. If it hadn't been for Carol...Anyway, maybe he thinks it's better to be pessimistic and have a pleasant surprise rather than be optimistic and disappointed."
For a few moments they sorted through the baggage in silence. Finally Shan asked, "Do you think they're still alive, Chief?"
"Stranger things have happened, Shan, stranger things have happened." Shan nodded, none of the crew were willing to say out loud what they all believed in silence.
***** ***** *****
Ben Krieg listen as Lucas told him a, what the Lieutenant was sure would turn out to be, a carefully edited version of his past.
Krieg didn't interrupt when Lucas hedged around his relationship with his father, he didn't even argue when Lucas repeatedly said that while there weren't any problems in the family, if there had been any problems, than they would have been all his own fault.
"The first speech I gave was a disaster," Lucas continued in a careful, measured voice. "I could understand the theories, I'd written all the programmes which proved the theories, and I had my whole speech planned out. I'd been on the stage for about half an hour when I pressed the button to start the programme on the big screen behind me..." Lucas trailed off into silence.
"What happened?" Ben prompted.
"Nothing." Said Lucas.
"Nothing?"
"Nothing what so ever, I was standing there in front of the greatest minds in the scientific community and when I pressed the button, nothing happened."
"What did you do?"
"I sorted the problem out, there was a lose connection between the big screen and some of the hardware that the lecture theatre had installed, it only took a few minutes to re-wire it. I finished off the speech, but the damage was done. I'd made a complete embarrassment out of my self."
"How old were you?"
"Seven - old enough to know that I should have check all the equipment I was using." And Ben noticed that there was a subtle change of voice when Lucas spoke about parts of his past, almost as the teenager was quoting form someone.
***** ***** *****
"My grandmother was very religious," Miguel confessed. "An Old Testament kind of Christian."
"An eye for an eye?"
"That was only the start of it - you know when you see films about the French revolution, and there's little old ladies sitting in the front row every time they chopped some one's head off? Well, that would have been my grandmother. Only she'd have had a rosary instead of knitting and it would be religious rather than political executions."
"Sounds like an... Interesting lady." Tim said.
"She always said nothing improves a person's faith more than watching someone else's head being cut off, or some one else flogged, or whatever."
"Oh..." Tim said, not knowing what else to say to a statement like that.
"She used to tell me that's what would happen to me if I didn't say my prayers and do what I was told."
"Um... did she ever... um..."
"Lay a hand on me?" Miguel finished the sentence off. "No, but there again I always said my prayers and did what I was told - until I was eighteen at least."
"What happen when you were eighteen?" Tim was almost afraid to ask the question, but somehow his mouth framed the words anyway.
Miguel smiled into the night. "I joined up. I haven't prayed since." The last phrase was said almost defiantly, as if he expected his friend to tell him he was wrong.
Instead Tim said quietly "I remember a priest saying to me a long time ago - you should never judge a god by his believers. I think he was right, you start out with commandments about not killing people, and a couple of hundred years later Christians are crusading around the world trying to wipe out anyone who didn't want to convert."
"Do you think the priest was right?"
"My mothers family emigrated to America from Northern Ireland. I remember one of my uncles saying that the road he used to walk along to school was in a protestant area; some of the residents didn't think it was right for them to walk that route. It started off with throwing stones, things like that. Then some one decided stones weren't enough and sent a nail bomb flying into a group of school kids. My uncle was one of the lucky ones - he only lost a leg. It only takes one lunatic to give a religion a bad name."
Each man stared out into the darkness, there seemed to be nothing more to say.
***** ***** *****
"Purple? You painted it purple?"
"Yep," Ford confirmed. "It took us all night, but we finally got it done. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw it and it was... purple."
They both laughed, Katie was certainly seeing a new side to seaQuests XO.
"What else did you do?"
Ford thought for a moment "Well there was the collage run."
"That doesn't sound too rebellious." Katie pointed out.
"It started a whole new tradition," Ford continued. "Every year a dozen boys from the school do the collage run at midnight on the 27th of May, in the nude."
"In the nude?"
"Yep - we'd had way to much to drink that night." Ford chuckled.
"Did you get caught?"
"Everyone but me and Jackson did."
"Let me guess, you two were the fastest runners?" Katie asked.
"No, well, you see, we decided that if we were going to do the collage run, then we had to do it properly, and, you know when you do races, you pin a number on to your shirt. Since we weren't wearing shirts, someone came up with the wonderful idea that we should write the numbers on our chests. And someone had a permanent marker, so since we were all pretty drunk, that's what we used."
"And...?" Katie prompted.
"Well, the collage security guard reported that he had seen some of the students running around with numbers written on them. All the master had to do was find out which boys had numbers written on their chests and they'd caught the culprits."
"So, how come you and Jackson didn't get caught?"
Even in the darkness Katie could guess Ford was grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat. "Me and Jackson had to use tip-ex instead of permanent marker - Jackson was black too, and as it turned out tip-ex comes of much easier than permanent marker."
***** ***** *****
"Nathan you're going to wear a track in the floor." Kristen sighed, as Captain Bridger turned to repeat his path once more.
"How can you sit still at a time like this?" Nathan asked her.
"The first critical patient I had, I paced up and down across the floor of the hospital waiting room until he was out of intensive care. And the second patient, and the third, then when my forth patient was in intensive care I fell asleep. And do you know what Nathan, that patient survived too. It didn't matter weather I paced or not, so I stopped pacing."
Nathan sighed and sat down next to the doctor. "I don't think I can cope with losing another son." He whispered.
"If you had to pick six people who could cope with anything, Nathan, who would you have picked? Ford, may be an idiot when it comes to dealing with scientists - but in a survival situation I'd trust him with my life - and I'd trust him with Lucas, and Tim, and all the others too."
Nathan said nothing, so Kristen continued. "Have you ever know Katie to fail at something she really set her mind to? Have you Nathan? Because I haven't. And what about Ben, he may act a fool, but he's adopted Lucas, like the little brother he never had - if anyone can work a scam to get them out of there, it's Ben."
Still Nathan sat in silence. "Tim's probably learned three new Russian dialects just by asking directions to the nearest town, and Miguel will have be trying them out on the local girls, probably very successfully from what I've been told by my nurses."
"Lucas is just a child." Nathan said, finally looking up into Kristen's eyes.
"He may be a child, but he's not just a child. How many adults would cope as well as he does on seaQuest? How many adults have an IQ off the scale? How many adults would you trust more than Lucas? Nathan, he's probably typing away on that infernal lap top of his as we speak!"
Nathan nodded, "You're probably right."
***** ***** *****
"Why should a seven year old know to check for something like that?"
"Because he was stupid enough to have a higher IQ than his father. Because he didn't have enough sense to pretend to be normal. And because if I wasn't supposed to know, then why did my father... why did my father... why did my father say that I should have known?" Lucas stormed.
"Lucas-" Ben began.
"No, Ben, leave it, I'm tired and I'm going to get some sleep."
"Lucas?" Ben tried again, but the teenager turned on his side and ignored his friend.
Lucas pretended to sleep until he saw the dawn light penetrating the forest, he knew Ben was asleep; he'd been listening to his friend snore for the few hours. Sighing, he sat up, if they wanted to find Tim and Miguel toady, they'd have to make an early start.
***** ***** *****
To Be Continued...
***** ***** *****
If you have any comments or requests, please let me know in a review - the next chapter will be posted up as soon as I decide what will be happening in it. Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed.
Cadi.