Many thanks to Diena and Teresa for much needed second tier of beta-ing, and cheers to all who reviewed Ch1. I hope you continue to enjoy…
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Chapter 2: Lucas gets 'The Fear'…
His voice echoed unanswered down the corridor and his breath misted in the cold. He cursed his vulnerability and wished Bridger had let him bring a weapon. He typed the codes into the door mechanism and the western doors slid closed once more.
"You okay there Lucas?" Tim asked, hearing Lucas call out.
"The doors are opening by themselves…". It sounded ridiculous. The last thing he wanted was for Bridger to think he needed his hand being held – that he wasn't up to the job. He almost groaned at the potential humilation of having Bridger turn seaQuest around and send someone down to keep an eye on him because he'd got scared in less than 2 hours.
"Maybe someone's organised a surprise welcome party" Tim joked.
"Yeah? I'll let you know if any nice girls turn up." Lucas hid his anxiety.
He examined the tool kit before pulling flex and bits of hardware out from his backpack. There was nothing of any real practical use against…what? Automatic doors? A broken vase? He laughed nervously to himself and forced himself to relax, breathe deeply and slowly in the warming air. He had to focus, he wasn't afraid and he could do this. Definitely. Yet this job could take a couple of days and he really wanted to leave sooner rather than later.
He pulled out his laptop and some cabling and returned to the logs terminal and patched them together to begin uploading the log data onto his computer for analysis.
"Okay, Tim, here comes the first data batch." Lucas began the arduous task of sifting through it and picking out anything relevant, chatting to Tim over the relay regarding anything that struck him as useful.
Over the following 5 hours they made good progress and the Turbine Hall was starting to feel warm.
Bridger's voice came over the headset "I think that's enough now Lucas. You should eat something and try and go to sleep for a while". The Captain knew that given half a chance, Lucas would continue without a break and tiredness often led to mistakes.
"I'll treat myself to - oh let me see." Lucas poked around at the ready-to-eat rations in his bag "mmm. Cold meatballs - from some unspecified animal substitute - with cold cabbage and lentil stew. Yum."
Bridger laughed. "I'll save you a piece of tonight's re-constituted ham and mushroom 'bake' for your return if you like"
"Oh joy". Lucas grinned, he could hear the inverted commas. "I'll speak to you at 0730 hours tomorrow. Can you keep this channel open just in case though?"
"Sure. Lt. Patterson will be covering the comms station. Night kiddo."
"Yeah, bye Captain."
To any normal person his dinner looked like a tub of vomit. Lucas pulled a face but ate most of it, drinking half a carton of orange juice to try to wash away the taste. He looked at his watch and it was barely past midnight and doubtful that he could sleep for anything close to seven hours, so he decided to run once more through the latter part of the logs.
At nearly 2 in the morning, Lucas yawned and realised the discomfort he was feeling was his bladder about to burst. He even briefly considered pissing into a rubbish bin, but after a pause he sighed and prepared to leave the warmth and light of the Turbine Hall. Lucas pulled on his parka, grabbed the flashlight and looked over the map to locate the nearest bathroom.
It was located in the Western Avenue.
He took a deep breath and ignored the sensation of goose bumps that ran over his body. Come on, what's the problem? he asked himself, unused to the feeling of dread that inexplicably bubbled up.
He walked to the doors, typed the codes and the doors slid open once more. Lucas was struck by the freezing cold of the complex beyond the hall and not wanting to let the warm air escape, he stepped through and typed in the codes to seal the room.
Once shut, Lucas was left in total darkness. He switched on his light and shone it down the avenue which stretched far beyond his beam, and began walking.
What the..?
Barely a few metres from the door, he froze with the unexpected sound and sensation of the floor crunching beneath his feet. He had stepped into an area strewn with shattered clear glass. Lucas stopped and swung his beam around and surveyed the corridor but couldn't locate from where the glass could have fallen, nor could he guess what the large glass object had been. He walked on, trying to remain calm, shining his torch at the door signs to catch the bathrooms and recognised the names of famous marine scientists, working alongside each other but evidently too proud and vain to work together.
Lucas pushed open the doors of the gentlemen's toilets and stood over the urinal relieving himself.
"Aahhhh" He breathed a huge sigh of relief which mushroomed into a cloud around his head. With no water supply he couldn't wash his hands, so he picked up the flashlight and left the bathroom, turning back towards the hall.
He stopped dead in his tracks. One of the rooms had a light on.
~ ~ ~
Lucas pushed away the overwhelming sense of foreboding that burned in his stomach like white hot coals.
Had that light been on before? Maybe.
But he knew with absolute certainty it hadn't. He paused rooted to the spot, his mind racing – he had no weapon and no communication back to seaQuest. He strained to hear any noise but the silence continued to envelope him.
"Anybody there..?" Lucas' voice was almost plaintive, so he tried again louder and with more pretended authority. But there was no response. Breathing fast, he took a faltering step towards the office and the hall.
Faulty lighting grid - it had to be - lights probably come on and off all the time with no one to maintain the systems…
He broke into an awkward run, barely looking into the office before reaching the western flood doors. He tapped in the codes, but in fumbling they didn't work.
"Shit, no…come on" he said in frustration under his breath.
He forced himself to pause and concentrate and run through the codes again. The doors slid open into the Turbine Hall and he almost tumbled through, turning swiftly to enter the codes to close the doors even before they had fully opened.
Stupid stupid.
Lucas sank to the floor.
There's nothing out there. Moron. Lucas berated himself.
He sat for a few minutes until his heart stopped racing and then walked back to the logs desk, cursing his over-strung alertness which would stop him from sleeping. He glanced at his watch – 02.07am.
He put on the communication headset and switched it on.
"Patterson, you there?"
"Morning Lucas, you're up early."
A tsunami of relief washed over him. He wasn't alone.
"How's things at the station?" Patterson enquired.
"Dark. And cold. Very dark and cold". Lucas paused and pondered what he was trying to say – what could Patterson or the seaQuest do, halfway to Azores by now? About as much as a dolphin in a shoe store.
Once more he tried to pull himself together. He was going to prove to Bridger that if he said he could get a job done, then he could be trusted to do it.
"Er, just radioing in, nothing to report as such."
"Okay Lucas, Tim will call you at 0730. Over and out."
Lucas removed the headset and sighed, and sat down to start checking the mainframe circuit breakers.
He continued for barely 20 minutes when he heard the sound of glass crunching underfoot outside the western doors.
He broke out into a clammy sweat. He couldn't tell if it was a person either walking towards or away from the patch of broken glass, so he waited - his breath caught in his throat - for another sound.
None came, but he didn't move a muscle. He sat as still as stone until he wasn't even sure that the noise had been real. Was someone out there? Did they know he was here?
It would be a better to have some company than be here alone, with crazy paranoid ideas spitting in his exhausted brain.
Lucas slowly straightened up, pulled on the parka again, and picked up the flashlight.
He stood before the Western flood doors. His hands trembled and he breathed fast.
Know your enemy.
Ignorance is bliss.
Lucas' hand hovered indecisively over the control panel.
Anything is better than this uncertainty.
Lucas typed in the code and the doors slid open.