Thanks to K. Presson, Tyger Magick, Sara, Phantom Reader, Teresa, Swasthi,
Sanneta, Frankie McStein, Diena Taylor, Kiddo, and anyone else who was kind
enough to review the previous chapter.
Please see the disclaimers posted within earlier chapters.
Chapter 14.
Lucas looked back at the sleeping crewmembers one last time. He added a few more bits of wood to the fire, and he sighed in relief when none of the crew woke up. The last thing he needed was a full-scale debate over whether or not he should look for the plane on his own.
He quickly scribbled a note onto the back of a page of his thesis that had yet to go for ashes, and leaving the rest of the pages in case the fire needed to be re-lit before he could find help, Lucas left.
***** ***** *****
Miguel was the first of the crew to stir, and he lay on the uncomfortable floor listening to the fire crackle a little way off. The sun was just appearing over the treetops, but it was the thin, watery sunlight that promised more snow before noon.
He made his way over to the fireside, to make the most of the heat, and almost stepped on the note. He read it through several times; before he managed to believe what his eyes insisted was written there.
"Lucas!" Miguel called, hoping, against all the chances that the teen had not gone far and that he would come back, if he just shouted loud enough.
The others awoke with a jump. "What's wrong?" Katie asked. Miguel stopped shouting, and silently handed her the note.
Katie read the note. "What was he thinking?" Ben said as he read over his ex-wife's shoulder. "He must realise that we need to stay here - that there'll be a rescue part on its way. I mean, the pilot must have radioed someone the co-ordinates where we jumped, right?"
Katie nodded then, realising what Lucas must have already worked out - there was no way the pilot had sent anything over the radio - no one knew where hey were or that they had jumped, or even that they had tried to fly around the worse of the storm. The only chance they had of rescue lay in finding the plane. If the authorities happened to fly over this area, they might spot where the plane landed, but it would be next to impossible to spot a small group of people.
"Radioed..?" Katie said quizzically.
Ben looked worried, "The pilot did radio, didn't he?"
Katie pulled her self together and smiled reassuringly "Of course - why wouldn't he?"
As the others read the letter, their calls filled the forest.
Lucas was still only a short distance away, and he could her the calls, but he didn't turn back - sooner or later some one would have to try to find the plane - and the sooner that happened the sooner they could be back safe on seaQuest.
***** ***** *****
Days passed very slowly for the Captain and Kristen as they searched. Day by day the search area widened as more and more ground was flown over and found to hold no trace of crashed planes or missing crew.
Each day the Captain became more and more withdrawn, and Kristen became more and more worried, some days she felt that finding something, even if it was what they were all dreading to find, wound be better than finding nothing at all.
***** ***** *****
Shan and Crocker sat in their room after another fruitless day in the air. Shan seemed to have something on his mind, "Chief?" When Crocker looked up, he continued, "You know the radios you said not to ask about?"
The Chief sighed. "What about them?"
"Are they for the survivors?"
"No, Shan, exactly the opposite in fact."
Shan looked at his friend, not bothering to hide his curiosity at an statement that prompted more questions than it answered, but that seemed to be all the answer he was going to get, so he decide that Crocker would tell him when he was ready, and went to sleep.
***** ***** *****
Lucas walked in as straight a line as is possible when trees keep getting in the way. Mostly he used the time he was on his own to think. He needed something to take his mind off the snow, and the cold, and the hunger. The topic on his mind most often was Captain Bridger. Or to be more precise how the Captain was going to react when he found them, and what Bridger would do if, or rather when, Ben blurted out about his past - he just hoped that the Captain would understand, although it was obvious no one else did.
Still, Lucas knew his father loved him. He remembered when he was little, going to baseball games and museums. Lucas couldn't help but smile when he remembered his father teaching him how to use a computer, and he grinned when he remembered the pride on his fathers face when he mastered all the workings of every available programme before he started school. His father loved him - he wanted him to be a success, that's why he was so hard on him, because he wanted the best for him.
He was so deep in thought that it was several moments before his ears managed to get his attention and tell him that that noise in the distance sounded a lot like an airplane.
Lucas looked up, seeing nothing but trees and a small patch of sky where the branches of the trees did not quite met.
He shouted up at the noise "Here! Down here!" he waved his good arm, knowing that the plane could neither hear nor see him, but still shouting and still waving all the same. "Please! I'm down here! No! Don't go! Come back! I'm down here!"
But the plane carried on flying, not realising that it had left the very person it was looking for was on his knees beneath a tree crying in frustration and hopelessness.
***** ***** *****
"Do you see anything?" Kristen asked as Bridger peered out of the window on his side of the plane.
The Captain shook his head. But a few minutes later the man sitting next to the pilot made a hand signal to the pilot and the plane was steered in a slow low circle, and as it past the same point again the spotter nodded decisively. Down below them, in between broken tree trunks was a plane.
It took a seemingly infinite length of time to go back to the nearest airport and to return to the crash site in a helicopter. There was no chance of landing in a plane, and even the helicopter had to hover while the Captain, Kristen, Shan and Crocker were lowered down.
The captain was the first on the ground, and as soon as he had detached himself from the cable, he rushed towards the plane. One of the wings had been torn off during landing, and several of the side panels on the body of the plane were buckled, lose or simply not there. The whole body of the plane was scorched and sooty, probably from a fire after the crash, the Captain thought.
He called out to his crew, but no one answered. Bridger made his way into the plane and on into the cockpit. If he were in a plane crash and had to leave the plane for some reason - that's where he would have left a message for any rescuers.
There was no message, but there was a corpse. Or at least some chard remains in a pilots uniform, and that worried Nathan Bridger. He couldn't find a logical reason why the survivors didn't give the body a proper burial. It didn't make sense... unless there were no survivors.
He made his way back out into the passenger section of the plane. The fire seemed to have burned more fiercely here. There was nothing but ash and a few bits of distorted metal - Nathan found himself wondering how hot a flame had to burn to reduce a human being to ash.
Kristen came into the plane then. "Is there anyone...?" She began.
Nathan cleared his throat. "The pilot's in the cockpit." Kristen made to go through, but the Captain put a hand on her arm to stop her. "There's nothing you can do for him."
Kristen gently removed his hand and went on regardless. She came back some moments later, more sombre and less hopeful.
"They could have left the crash site." Kristen suggested.
"They would have buried the body." His voice was flat, and emotionless.
"Maybe there was something stopping them, maybe they left because of the fire..."
Shan came in then. "The luggage section was damaged - this was thrown clear of the fire." He said quietly, handing a bag to the Captain.
Bridger looked down at an all to familiar bag. He'd seen Lucas carrying it around a hundred times. It had always looked a bit scruffy, but now it was slightly scorched on one side and was sodden with snow. "They might have left a corpse - but Lucas wouldn't leave his lap top behind." He said resigned to what seemed inevitable.
"Nathan," Kristen began.
But he cut her off. "I'd like to be alone for a few minutes, please."
Shan nodded and Kristen left behind him.
***** ***** *****
It was more than a few minutes later when Crocker came in and sat next to the Captain on the sooty floor.
"What do you want, Crocker?" Bridger asked tiredly.
Wordlessly Crocker handed him a pair of small, slightly old-fashioned radios. Bridger stared at in through misty eyes. It was almost identical to one that rested on a shelf beside his bed. "You have a good memory, old friend." He said through a voice that he couldn't quite keep from shaking.
And Bridger remembered that night too.
***** ***** *****
It had been some months after Robert had been reported missing, and he had been drowning his sorrows in cheap scotch when Crocker had found him. "Do you know what I miss most?" Nathan had slurred. "Just talking to him. I just want to talk to my son."
So Crocker had piled his friend onto a boat and sailed it out into the surf, until they were almost out of sight of land and as near as anyone could guess to where Robert disappeared. Nathan had stared at Crocker in confusion when he'd pulled out a two-way radio. Handing on to Nathan he's told him to throw it over board. Nathan had protested, but in the end he threw it with all its might into the ocean.
"Are you happy now?" he'd asked Crocker.
The Chief had ignored him and just handed him the other radio saying, "Talk to your son." And that's what the Captain had done. He'd talked to that radio, with tears running down his face, as if his son was on the other side of it listening. He told Robert all the things he'd wished he'd had the chance to say while his son was alive - that he loved him - that he was proud of him - that he was sorry. And maybe that, and Carol, was what had saved his sanity.
***** ***** *****
"I still talk to him sometimes." Bridger admitted with a sigh.
"I thought maybe, you'd want to talk to Lucas after we leave..." Crocker said, trailing off.
Bridger nodded. "Thank you."
Crocker left then, and a few minutes later, Nathan followed, carefully leaving one of the radios on the floor where he'd sat.
He knew that there would be a party sent out from the local authorities at some point, to collect the remains of the pilot, write a report on the crash, and tie up any lose ends as best they could. And though they might think it strange, they won't move a small hand held radio, not if the most prestigious Captain in the UEO asked them not to.
***** ***** *****
To Be Continued...
***** ***** *****
That's all for now, thanks again to all those who reviewed the earlier chapters. Please review if you have any comments about this chapter - feedback is always really helpful. Hope people are still enjoying the story - there's not too much left now, if all goes to plan. Next chapter will be up as soon as possible.
Plus, I've just posted a story on FictionPress.com, under the same pen name, so if anyone wants to read it, I'd really love some feed back on that too. (Ok, I don't do subtlety, so I thought honesty would be worth a shot :o))
Cadi.
Please see the disclaimers posted within earlier chapters.
Chapter 14.
Lucas looked back at the sleeping crewmembers one last time. He added a few more bits of wood to the fire, and he sighed in relief when none of the crew woke up. The last thing he needed was a full-scale debate over whether or not he should look for the plane on his own.
He quickly scribbled a note onto the back of a page of his thesis that had yet to go for ashes, and leaving the rest of the pages in case the fire needed to be re-lit before he could find help, Lucas left.
***** ***** *****
Miguel was the first of the crew to stir, and he lay on the uncomfortable floor listening to the fire crackle a little way off. The sun was just appearing over the treetops, but it was the thin, watery sunlight that promised more snow before noon.
He made his way over to the fireside, to make the most of the heat, and almost stepped on the note. He read it through several times; before he managed to believe what his eyes insisted was written there.
"Lucas!" Miguel called, hoping, against all the chances that the teen had not gone far and that he would come back, if he just shouted loud enough.
The others awoke with a jump. "What's wrong?" Katie asked. Miguel stopped shouting, and silently handed her the note.
Katie read the note. "What was he thinking?" Ben said as he read over his ex-wife's shoulder. "He must realise that we need to stay here - that there'll be a rescue part on its way. I mean, the pilot must have radioed someone the co-ordinates where we jumped, right?"
Katie nodded then, realising what Lucas must have already worked out - there was no way the pilot had sent anything over the radio - no one knew where hey were or that they had jumped, or even that they had tried to fly around the worse of the storm. The only chance they had of rescue lay in finding the plane. If the authorities happened to fly over this area, they might spot where the plane landed, but it would be next to impossible to spot a small group of people.
"Radioed..?" Katie said quizzically.
Ben looked worried, "The pilot did radio, didn't he?"
Katie pulled her self together and smiled reassuringly "Of course - why wouldn't he?"
As the others read the letter, their calls filled the forest.
Lucas was still only a short distance away, and he could her the calls, but he didn't turn back - sooner or later some one would have to try to find the plane - and the sooner that happened the sooner they could be back safe on seaQuest.
***** ***** *****
Days passed very slowly for the Captain and Kristen as they searched. Day by day the search area widened as more and more ground was flown over and found to hold no trace of crashed planes or missing crew.
Each day the Captain became more and more withdrawn, and Kristen became more and more worried, some days she felt that finding something, even if it was what they were all dreading to find, wound be better than finding nothing at all.
***** ***** *****
Shan and Crocker sat in their room after another fruitless day in the air. Shan seemed to have something on his mind, "Chief?" When Crocker looked up, he continued, "You know the radios you said not to ask about?"
The Chief sighed. "What about them?"
"Are they for the survivors?"
"No, Shan, exactly the opposite in fact."
Shan looked at his friend, not bothering to hide his curiosity at an statement that prompted more questions than it answered, but that seemed to be all the answer he was going to get, so he decide that Crocker would tell him when he was ready, and went to sleep.
***** ***** *****
Lucas walked in as straight a line as is possible when trees keep getting in the way. Mostly he used the time he was on his own to think. He needed something to take his mind off the snow, and the cold, and the hunger. The topic on his mind most often was Captain Bridger. Or to be more precise how the Captain was going to react when he found them, and what Bridger would do if, or rather when, Ben blurted out about his past - he just hoped that the Captain would understand, although it was obvious no one else did.
Still, Lucas knew his father loved him. He remembered when he was little, going to baseball games and museums. Lucas couldn't help but smile when he remembered his father teaching him how to use a computer, and he grinned when he remembered the pride on his fathers face when he mastered all the workings of every available programme before he started school. His father loved him - he wanted him to be a success, that's why he was so hard on him, because he wanted the best for him.
He was so deep in thought that it was several moments before his ears managed to get his attention and tell him that that noise in the distance sounded a lot like an airplane.
Lucas looked up, seeing nothing but trees and a small patch of sky where the branches of the trees did not quite met.
He shouted up at the noise "Here! Down here!" he waved his good arm, knowing that the plane could neither hear nor see him, but still shouting and still waving all the same. "Please! I'm down here! No! Don't go! Come back! I'm down here!"
But the plane carried on flying, not realising that it had left the very person it was looking for was on his knees beneath a tree crying in frustration and hopelessness.
***** ***** *****
"Do you see anything?" Kristen asked as Bridger peered out of the window on his side of the plane.
The Captain shook his head. But a few minutes later the man sitting next to the pilot made a hand signal to the pilot and the plane was steered in a slow low circle, and as it past the same point again the spotter nodded decisively. Down below them, in between broken tree trunks was a plane.
It took a seemingly infinite length of time to go back to the nearest airport and to return to the crash site in a helicopter. There was no chance of landing in a plane, and even the helicopter had to hover while the Captain, Kristen, Shan and Crocker were lowered down.
The captain was the first on the ground, and as soon as he had detached himself from the cable, he rushed towards the plane. One of the wings had been torn off during landing, and several of the side panels on the body of the plane were buckled, lose or simply not there. The whole body of the plane was scorched and sooty, probably from a fire after the crash, the Captain thought.
He called out to his crew, but no one answered. Bridger made his way into the plane and on into the cockpit. If he were in a plane crash and had to leave the plane for some reason - that's where he would have left a message for any rescuers.
There was no message, but there was a corpse. Or at least some chard remains in a pilots uniform, and that worried Nathan Bridger. He couldn't find a logical reason why the survivors didn't give the body a proper burial. It didn't make sense... unless there were no survivors.
He made his way back out into the passenger section of the plane. The fire seemed to have burned more fiercely here. There was nothing but ash and a few bits of distorted metal - Nathan found himself wondering how hot a flame had to burn to reduce a human being to ash.
Kristen came into the plane then. "Is there anyone...?" She began.
Nathan cleared his throat. "The pilot's in the cockpit." Kristen made to go through, but the Captain put a hand on her arm to stop her. "There's nothing you can do for him."
Kristen gently removed his hand and went on regardless. She came back some moments later, more sombre and less hopeful.
"They could have left the crash site." Kristen suggested.
"They would have buried the body." His voice was flat, and emotionless.
"Maybe there was something stopping them, maybe they left because of the fire..."
Shan came in then. "The luggage section was damaged - this was thrown clear of the fire." He said quietly, handing a bag to the Captain.
Bridger looked down at an all to familiar bag. He'd seen Lucas carrying it around a hundred times. It had always looked a bit scruffy, but now it was slightly scorched on one side and was sodden with snow. "They might have left a corpse - but Lucas wouldn't leave his lap top behind." He said resigned to what seemed inevitable.
"Nathan," Kristen began.
But he cut her off. "I'd like to be alone for a few minutes, please."
Shan nodded and Kristen left behind him.
***** ***** *****
It was more than a few minutes later when Crocker came in and sat next to the Captain on the sooty floor.
"What do you want, Crocker?" Bridger asked tiredly.
Wordlessly Crocker handed him a pair of small, slightly old-fashioned radios. Bridger stared at in through misty eyes. It was almost identical to one that rested on a shelf beside his bed. "You have a good memory, old friend." He said through a voice that he couldn't quite keep from shaking.
And Bridger remembered that night too.
***** ***** *****
It had been some months after Robert had been reported missing, and he had been drowning his sorrows in cheap scotch when Crocker had found him. "Do you know what I miss most?" Nathan had slurred. "Just talking to him. I just want to talk to my son."
So Crocker had piled his friend onto a boat and sailed it out into the surf, until they were almost out of sight of land and as near as anyone could guess to where Robert disappeared. Nathan had stared at Crocker in confusion when he'd pulled out a two-way radio. Handing on to Nathan he's told him to throw it over board. Nathan had protested, but in the end he threw it with all its might into the ocean.
"Are you happy now?" he'd asked Crocker.
The Chief had ignored him and just handed him the other radio saying, "Talk to your son." And that's what the Captain had done. He'd talked to that radio, with tears running down his face, as if his son was on the other side of it listening. He told Robert all the things he'd wished he'd had the chance to say while his son was alive - that he loved him - that he was proud of him - that he was sorry. And maybe that, and Carol, was what had saved his sanity.
***** ***** *****
"I still talk to him sometimes." Bridger admitted with a sigh.
"I thought maybe, you'd want to talk to Lucas after we leave..." Crocker said, trailing off.
Bridger nodded. "Thank you."
Crocker left then, and a few minutes later, Nathan followed, carefully leaving one of the radios on the floor where he'd sat.
He knew that there would be a party sent out from the local authorities at some point, to collect the remains of the pilot, write a report on the crash, and tie up any lose ends as best they could. And though they might think it strange, they won't move a small hand held radio, not if the most prestigious Captain in the UEO asked them not to.
***** ***** *****
To Be Continued...
***** ***** *****
That's all for now, thanks again to all those who reviewed the earlier chapters. Please review if you have any comments about this chapter - feedback is always really helpful. Hope people are still enjoying the story - there's not too much left now, if all goes to plan. Next chapter will be up as soon as possible.
Plus, I've just posted a story on FictionPress.com, under the same pen name, so if anyone wants to read it, I'd really love some feed back on that too. (Ok, I don't do subtlety, so I thought honesty would be worth a shot :o))
Cadi.