Chapter Two
Lucas sat in the brown leather chair and tried not to squirm. He had been ushered into the admiral's office almost 15 minutes earlier and told that the admiral would be right in but so far there was no sign of him. What he didn't know was that in another room three men stood watching a vidscreen that showed the blonde teenager fidgeting in the overstuffed chair. "I think that's long enough to keep our young friend waiting, don't you gentlemen?" asked Admiral Rogers. The other two just nodded in agreement. After all, disagreeing with this man wasn't a good career move.
Admiral Rogers strode into his office with the air of someone who is used to being obeyed at once. He smiled at Lucas but there was no warmth in the expression. Lucas stood to attention as the man entered but the Admiral waved him back to his seat.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. I just had a few things to finish up. Now I trust you had a good trip in this morning? Would you care for any refreshments? Coffee perhaps? We have some of the real stuff here, not that freeze dried rubbish you get on seaQuest." As Lucas listened to the man prattle on he couldn't help but think how insincere he sounded. Oh yeah, the words were right but the tone wasn't. Captain Bridger had been right to warn him to really listen to what this man had to say. Something was coming and this was just the warm up.
Before he knew it someone was coming through the door with two cups of steaming coffee. They really did smell good. There was no beating the real deal when it came to coffee. Maybe he could pick up some fresh beans before heading back out to seaQuest later today. He knew how much Captain Bridger loved his coffee. It was one of many things they had in common. He smiled at the thought of how many times they had talked over a cup of coffee but suddenly remembered where he was and turned on his serious face. He didn't want to reflect badly on the seaQuest or Captain Bridger by behaving like a kid. After all he'd been told he was a valued member of the crew and needed to behave as such.
He reeled in his thoughts and focused his full attention on the Admiral. The man had already started speaking and Lucas had missed it! "Damn!" he thought. "Pay attention".
"So you see, Lucas, the UEO is very interested in your new computer program. We have some friends who would be very appreciative of what it can do. " The admiral smiled at him but Lucas had the feeling he was looking at a wolf rather than a friend.
"Well, Sir, it isn't exactly working to specs yet. I'm still trying to iron out a few bugs," Lucas said rather tentatively. The man was after something and he was playing his cards close to his chest. Again Bridger's warning rang in Lucas' ears. Listen carefully!
"So when do you think it will be sorted out?" asked the admiral, leaning forward in his chair.
"Well, to be honest, I don't know. It's at least a few weeks away by the time I run full diagnostics."
"A few weeks!" The admiral almost jumped up but suddenly reigned in his anger and smiled at Lucas. As he settled back into the chair, he reminded Lucas of a snake, coiled and ready to strike. He was just eyeing up his prey first. Lucas involuntarily leaned back into his chair and tried to get as far back from this man as he could. He suddenly felt very vulnerable sitting here alone and wished he was back on the seaQuest where he belonged.
"And then I was planning to put it out on the market and see who's interested. There are lot's of possible applications you see and…"
"This isn't something you can put out on the open market! This belongs to the UEO young man. Don't forget who feeds you, boy!" spluttered the admiral. All thoughts of friendly chats over cups of coffee had just completely evaporated.
Lucas saw red at being addressed as "boy" and spoke out before really thinking what he was saying. "The UEO may "feed me" as you put it but it doesn't own my spare time or my intellectual property!" He glared at the admiral. "I have every right to put my own program on the market. If the UEO is so interested then maybe you can put in a decent bid!"
Suddenly remembering who he was addressing the bluster seemed to leave him and now he looked up nervously at the man sitting across from him. The admiral slowly rose from his seat, deliberately walked around the desk and sat on the edge of it, right in front of Lucas.
"I had hoped you would have the sense to be co-operative about this but I see that hanging around Bridger too long has rubbed off on you. He never did know when to be agreeable either." The admiral interlocked his fingers, stretched and cracked his knuckles. Lucas jumped slightly at the noise but tried to keep calm. This man was suddenly making him very nervous.
"You are going to give me that computer program because you see, I have made promises to other people and it just wouldn't do if I didn't deliver on them. I have a lot riding on this because once we combine your program and a few strategic UEO codes, well let's just say some of us are going to see a shift in the balance of power." The admiral smiled at Lucas with that awful smile again and he felt his skin crawl.
"That isn't what my program is about…" started Lucas but he stopped as the admiral glared at him.
"Maybe not to you but there are a lot more applications than you planned. Now you can either be on board with this in which case I can make life very comfortable for you or…" the admiral paused and stared at the teenager. Lucas licked his dry lips and tried not to let his imagination run away with that "or".
"Or what?" he finally asked.
"I want you to take a look at something, Lucas." As he spoke a vidscreen came to life over by the wall. At first Lucas didn't know what he was looking at but then he suddenly realised he was watching the bridge crew of the seaQuest. There was the captain and Commander Ford talking together over the WSKR array. No sound came from the vidlink but a display in the corner showed that this was a real-time feed. Someone was walking around the bridge with a vidcam and nobody had noticed! Whoever it was must be a crewmember or they would have been stopped. The camera must have been well concealed.
As he watched in horrible fascination, Lucas saw that the captain had a cup of coffee that he put down while he checked the displays with the commander. The person who was recording all this walked over to the cup and discreetly dropped a white tablet into it. Again, nobody noticed!
Lucas jumped to his feet as he watched the captain return to pick up his coffee and take a drink from it. "No! It's drugged!" he shouted but of course nobody could hear him. He watched in fear that Bridger was going to keel over but nothing happened. He just kept on drinking his coffee while discussing something with his XO. The screen went blank and Lucas looked back at the admiral with a look of confusion on his face.
"What the hell was that about?" he demanded, fear making him yell the words out.
"Just a little … demonstration. To show you that I have eyes and ears in many places. Even on seaQuest," smirked Rogers. "You wanted to know what would happen if you didn't co-operate. Well next time that won't be a sugar pill. Next time your dear old captain will be dead before he hits the floor. And then maybe we'll try Commander Ford just for good measure. Or maybe your good buddy Lieutenant Krieg? What you need to realise boy is that I own you. You could have made this easy but you didn't. In one way that really annoys me but in another I get to have some fun! As long as you are alive you will do as I say unless you want poor Captain Bridger to pay the penalty for your insubordination. Do you understand me, boy? I want that program and I want it by Tuesday. Now run along back to your little boat and get it working properly. Your captain is running out of time."
Lucas had blanched at the man's truly unbelievable words and for a moment he sat in the chair unable to move. This couldn't be happening! But it was. Realisation dawned that someone on seaQuest was quite prepared to poison the captain if Lucas didn't comply with this madman! And he had no idea who that someone was except that they had access to the bridge. That narrowed it somewhat but Lucas just couldn't bring himself to believe that anybody on the bridge crew could be capable of this. This whole thing seemed like a bad dream but he'd just seen the proof. He shook himself out of his daze and looked up into the face of the man who still sat on the edge of the desk. A smile was on his lips but a look of hard steel was in his eyes. This was no dream. It was the beginning of a nightmare.
After Lucas left the room the two men from the other room joined the admiral.
"That went better than expected don't you think?" said Rogers. The other two just nodded in agreement because that was the safest thing to do around this man. "Send the footage onto our contact and tell them we will have the program by Tuesday. Young Mr Wolenczak isn't going to be saying "no"."
