Disclaimer: I don't own any of the seaQuest crew sadly but I am having some fun with them. This is my first fanfic so be nice!
Desperate Measures
Chapter One
"Hey, Kiddo. Movie's over. Time to wake up," Bridger smiled as he gently shook the sleeping teenager. Tonight's movie obviously wasn't to Lucas' taste as he had fallen asleep half way into it. Other members of the crew were busy gathering up discarded coffee mugs and empty bowls while the captain tried again to wake Lucas.
Lucas begrudgingly opened one eye and squinted against the brightness of the lights that Ben had just turned on. His right arm ached terribly and his neck was stiff from the awkward way he had slept on it. He would have preferred to just slide back into sleep but it was obvious the captain wasn't going to let that happen. He already got enough of an earful whenever he fell asleep over his computer keyboard in his quarters. There was no way Bridger was going to let him sleep on a chair in the mess hall.
As the last of the credits rolled up the screen Lucas tried to recall what the movie had been about. Something about some villain who wanted to take over the world (don't they all?) and the ever resourceful hero who came in, guns blazing and saved the day.
"Typical Ben selection," thought Lucas with a wry grin at his friend's rather limited taste in entertainment.
"What's so funny?" asked Bridger as he helped Lucas into a sitting position.
"Just thinking that I've seen that movie at least ten times before."
"But it's only just come out and I got one of the first copies. I have special supply channels," protested Ben. "You couldn't possibly have seen it before!"
"I just meant that it seemed an awful lot like most of your other movie choices. At least the movies that I'm allowed to watch," answered Lucas with a sideways glance at Bridger. The captain ignored the comment and instead steered the still groggy teenager towards the door.
"Come on, Lucas. I need my beauty sleep and, well, you just need your sleep." Bridger had an arm around Lucas' shoulder and they walked slowly but comfortably towards the door. "These guys can clean up quite well without our help."
Lucas just yawned and nodded in agreement as he realised just how tired he was. He had been up most of the last few nights trying to iron out the kinks in his new computer program but there was no way he was going to let the captain know that. He was almost bursting at the seams over this program because of the enormous potential in new applications. It just wouldn't do exactly what he wanted it to each time he ran a diagnostic. Hence the late nights and lack of sleep as his agile brain ran the calculations from every conceivable angle. There was no way a computer program was going to beat him.
The movie tonight had been Ben's idea and he couldn't have gotten out of it without letting on about his late nights. Unfortunately it hadn't been interesting enough to keep him awake. He had hoped to just snooze unnoticed but he'd been caught out. Lucas rubbed absently at his sore neck and smiled to himself as he recalled one of the more far-fetched scenes in the movie.
"What are you smiling about?" asked Bridger as they walked along the corridor towards Lucas' quarters.
"Just thinking how the hero seemed so unreal. I mean, what kind of person talks like him?" laughed Lucas. "If I was the hero I'd have a much cooler way of speaking."
"Oh really?" laughed Bridger. "I s'pose you'd be telling the damsel in distress she could "chill" while you "take out the bad dudes" huh?"
"Uh, Captain, "chill" hasn't been in since before I was born!" groaned Lucas, "And what's a "dude"?"
Bridger playfully swatted Lucas behind the head and grinned as he said, "Are you saying I'm out of touch with current trendy terms?"
'Well, uh, maybe, um ….yeah!" laughed Lucas as he ducked another swat. He quickly rattled off a list that only a teenager could decipher and laughed as Bridger pretended to nod with understanding.
Suddenly the captain stopped walking and looked at Lucas. "That last one wasn't a real word!" he said. Lucas just looked back with an air of innocence but a smile played at his lips. Under the captain's close scrutiny he couldn't keep a straight face and burst out laughing.
"No, I'm just messing with you," he agreed.
They had arrived at Lucas' door and the captain smiled at his young charge. "I know you are but now it's time to get some sleep. And no working on that computer program tonight," he warned with a suddenly serious face. "The world can wait at least twenty four hours longer for it. The computers will continue to function you know."
A look of surprise fleetingly ran over Lucas' face but he managed to cover it with a yawn. "I don't know what you mean," he started but one look at his captain stopped the argument dead in its tracks.
"You need to be wide awake and on your game tomorrow. You've got a meeting with Admiral Rogers remember?"
Lucas frowned at the mention of the meeting. He had been invited, or summonsed was a better description, to UEO headquarters for a meeting with a man he had never met and no reason had been given as to why. He knew the UEO could be secretive but something just didn't sit well with him about this. A feeling of unease had been growing in the pit of his stomach for the past three days as they had gotten closer to port. He had just tried to shrug it off but now it was back as the captain reminded him of the meeting. The fact that Captain Bridger didn't like Admiral Rogers didn't help. There was some bad blood between them that the captain refused to discuss but that wasn't it.
As Lucas crawled into bed he couldn't shake the feeling that something was really wrong and nothing good was going to come from this meeting tomorrow. As he fell asleep he remembered the look on Bridger's face when the admiral had called through on the vidlink. He hadn't quite been quick enough to hide his distaste when Tim O'Neill had announced the man's name.
Lucas awoke with only a vague memory of the dream he had been having. He was still in that no-man's land where you know you are awake but aren't quite with it yet. An unsettling feeling caused him to shiver slightly and then he remembered what it was that he'd been dreaming about. Captain Bridger had been arguing with Admiral Rogers and their voices were getting louder and angrier by the minute. Since it was a dream the voices were vague and distorted so Lucas couldn't quite make out the words. The passion behind them was unmistakable though.
Lucas remembered the look on the captain's face when he heard Admiral Rogers' name announced the other day. He had quickly covered it with his captain's face but Lucas had seen it nonetheless. He was tuned in to Bridger well enough to recognise that the captain didn't trust the admiral.
"What could have happened between them?" Lucas wondered. "It's not like the captain to hold onto a grudge but he really doesn't like this guy."
Lucas shrugged off the thought as he climbed out of bed and tried to find something reasonable to wear to his meeting. As a teenager he didn't have a whole lot of suitable choices but then he figured the powers-that-be at the UEO weren't really calling him in to have a chat about his fashion sense. With a quick flick through the clothes that were actually hanging up he settled on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a blue jacket. It'd have to do because he had missed the laundry run again and there wasn't much else to choose from. As he was looking around the room for a hairbush there was a quick knock on the door.
"Come in," he called and went back to his search. Captain Bridger stepped into room and smiled broadly at the teenager standing in front of him. For all his genius and teenage attitude, Lucas was still just a kid. The sight of a pile of discarded clothes on the floor reminded him of just how sloppy Robert had been at that age. His idea of military discipline didn't seem to have extended to his son's bedroom. Lucas seemed, if anything, to live in an even bigger state of disarray but maybe that had something to with the size of his quarters.
"Then again, maybe not," smiled Bridger to himself.
"Come on, Kiddo. You need to get moving if you're going to make your meeting on time. You still have time for a quick breakfast but you'll have to get going." Bridger watched the teenager for any sign of how he felt about this meeting but got nothing. Sometimes Lucas could be an open book but at other times he could clam up and not reveal anything about what he was thinking. As Bridger walked with him down to the mess hall he tried again to assess what Lucas was feeling but got nothing but a non-committal shrug of the shoulders.
For his part, Bridger was more than worried about the upcoming meeting. He didn't trust Rogers as far as he could throw him and now the man was taking an interest in Lucas. Bridger felt a fatherly protectiveness rising in his chest at the thought of allowing the man anywhere near Lucas but he knew he couldn't defy a UEO directive without drawing attention to things that were better left buried.
"Lucas …" the captain started but then didn't seem to know how to go on. "Lucas, please promise me that you will listen very carefully to whatever Admiral Rogers has to say today."
"Uh yeah, sure," Lucas replied with a questioning look at his captain. "What was he hinting at?" Lucas wondered.
Later, as he stood at the cargo bay doors, watching Lucas board a shuttle with several other crewmembers, Bridger again felt the anxiety rising in his chest. Logically he knew Lucas was safe going into UEO Headquarters. After all it was one of the most secure places on Earth but he couldn't help but wonder what Rogers wanted with the boy. The man had a way of getting things done that was far from conventional and more than one junior officer had come off second best from an encounter with him. He surrounded himself with people who were prepared to look the other way when necessary. Lucas could rub people the wrong way if he got into one of his smart alec moods and Rogers was not someone you wanted to rub the wrong way.
