Thankyou to everyone for your reviews. I'm on holidays at the moment so hopefully I will finish this quickly before I lose my train of thought. Hope you're enjoying it cos I'm having fun writing it.

Chapter Three

Lucas walked out of UEO Headquarters in a daze. He wandered down the stairs and started to walk across the road without looking. The screech of brakes and a string of profanities brought him back to reality with a thud. An irate taxi driver was speeding off down the road, shaking his fist out the window. Lucas ran the rest of the way across the road and stopped on the opposite side, visibly shaking. His head was in a spin and he had to sit down on a park bench before he fell over.

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" he thought. "You're not much use to the captain if you're dead!"

As Lucas sat on the bench with his head in his hands, his mind ran through the possibilities. There was no way he could let Admiral Rogers get his hands on the program and do whatever he was planning with it. Obviously there were people involved here who were only interested in their own agenda. He couldn't go back to the seaQuest and tell anybody what had happened. He had no idea who was wandering around the bridge with that vidcam so he couldn't warn the captain. If he gave the game away that person could get to the captain before he could do anything about it. The idea of the captain dying because of his stupidity just didn't bear thinking about.

He had been on the submarine for nearly a year now and what had begun as a testy relationship had developed into something very important to Lucas. Up to this point he hadn't really stopped to define his relationship with Nathan Bridger but now he was forced to realise just how deeply he cared about the older man. His own father had never been around much for Lucas and since he had been on seaQuest the captain seemed to have filled a void in his life. At first it had annoyed him that the man seemed so interested in what he was eating and how much sleep he was getting but that was just because his own father hadn't really bothered with trivial things like that. He'd been far more interested in Lucas' latest scientific developments and the mundane things in life just didn't come into it. Things like birthdays. Lucas had been shocked beyond belief when his friend, Ben had organised a surprise birthday party for him last year. Nobody had ever done that before and he was totally stunned when the captain had turned up with a gift. It was the first time Lucas really knew that the captain was genuine in his interest. This wasn't just some UEO order he had to follow to look after a challenging teenager and keep him out of trouble.

Lucas thought about contacting Wolfman and asking for his help but even that seemed risky. He didn't know if anything had been bugged and he couldn't tip off the crewman with the poison. No, there was no way Lucas could go back and tell anybody his desperate secret. He had to find a way to expose the admiral and work out who the traitorous crewmember was. And he was running on a tight deadline. The admiral wanted the program before Tuesday so that only left him three days to come up with a workable plan.

An odd thought kept nagging at his mind while he chewed over his options but it just wouldn't make itself clear. As he thought back over the conversation with Admiral Rogers it suddenly leapt out at him. Of course! Rogers had said he owned Lucas as long as he was alive. Well, what if he was dead? The near miss with the taxi had him thinking. The admiral couldn't blackmail a dead person and there was no way he could get access to Lucas' program without drawing suspicion. Bridger didn't trust him and Rogers knew that. The crewmember would have nothing to gain by attacking the captain so he would be safe. It would buy Lucas lots of time to figure out how to expose them. Yes, this could actually work. Now all he had to do was work out how he was going to "die".


The trip back to the submarine seemed to take forever. He had spent the afternoon wandering around trying to think while he waited for the shuttle pickup. Now Lucas sat with his laptop open in the hope it would stop other crewmembers trying to talk to him. Ensign Daniels had tried to strike up a conversation but after a few curt answers from Lucas she had given up. It was obvious he was distracted and she just put it down to his reputation for getting completely absorbed in something to the exclusion of all else.

In actual fact, Lucas was frantically trying to think about how he could fake his own death and make it believable. If he was caught out then Bridger's life was in serious danger. It had to be something that wouldn't leave a body since he didn't have a spare one but it had to leave no room for doubt. If he were on land it would be hard enough but on a sub hehad even less options. He closed his eyes and sat back into the seat trying desperately to come up with an answer.

Images flashed through his mind of the captain and he was stunned to realise how close to crying he was. He had thought they had become good friends and earlier today he had realised it was more than that. Now he finally understood just how much more.

Nathan Bridger had given him so much. He had freely given Lucas his time and attention. The crew respected Lucas as an equal member of the crew because the captain had first given him that respect. He had given him the room and plenty of opportunities to spread his wings and become his own person. The boundaries were firmly in place and though Lucas had resented them sometimes he now knew they were there because the captain cared enough to put them there. When Lucas had childishly pushed them the captain had stood his ground and accepted the resultant sulk or dummy spit. Where his own father couldn't be bothered with all that stuff, Nathan Bridger had shown patience in abundance. Lucas knew the captain cared about him but it finally hit him that he actually loved the captain in return. Today's threat had made him see it for the first time. He had always been reluctant to get too close to people but somehow this man had grown on him to the point where Lucas was actually prepared to put his own life at risk in order to protect him.

Lucas was woken from his thoughts by the sound of the engines powering down. They were docking with the seaQuest and he didn't have his story in place yet. He didn't want to meet the captain and give anything away so when the shuttle doors opened he hung back, scanning the bay to see who was there. Fortunately the captain was nowhere in sight but Ben Krieg was over to one side reading something off a manifest to a young ensign. Lucas ducked behind the person in front of him and walked as quickly as he could out through the shuttle doors and on into the docking bay. Without turning to look back he took off out the large doors at the end. Lucas heard Ben calling his name but pretended not to hear and ran as fast as he could to his quarters. He ignored the looks of surprise or annoyance he got from people he nearly collided with in the narrow corridors. He just had one goal in mind and that was to get there without having to stop and actually talk to anyone.

One down, now he just needed to avoid Bridger and he'd be OK. Lucas hoped the bridge was busy and in need of the captain because he needed all the time he could get to think out his plan. He was out of luck though because not ten minutes later there was a knock at the door. Lucas reluctantly got up and opened the hatch to find Captain Bridger standing there with a concerned look.

"Welcome back! Ben told me you took off from the shuttle pretty fast and I just wanted to check you were OK." Bridger looked at him with obvious worry on his face. "You don't look so good, Lucas. Are you feeling all right?"

Lucas didn't look all right at all. He took advantage of that and made up something on the spot that he hoped would get rid of the captain and leave him in peace for the night.

"I've got a migraine coming on and I just wanted to get back here and crawl into bed. Sorry I didn't stop to see Ben but it was so noisy in the docking bay and I just wanted to get out of there."

The captain looked at the young man with a flash of sympathy. He'd had migraines before and knew how quickly they could come on and how severe they could be if not dealt with quickly.

"Would you like me to get Kristin down here to check you out?"

"No thanks, Captain. I'll be fine. I already took something and I just need to get into bed and sleep it off. I'll be OK in the morning. Promise." Lucas looked hopefully at the captain. He really didn't want to have the doctor down here poking and prodding him. He needed to be left alone to get his plan into gear.

Bridger looked doubtful but agreed that a good sleep would certainly help. Lucas began to pull out pyjamas from his locker before heading into the bathroom. When he came out he looked like he was ready to fall into bed so Bridger headed over to the door to leave. He turned around and looked at the young man before cautiously saying, "How was the meeting today?"

Lucas had his back to the captain and tried to compose his face before slowly turning around. "He wanted to offer me a job but I turned him down. Can't see myself with a UEO deskjob," he grinned. "I'll fill you in on it tomorrow." He climbed into bed and Bridger reluctantly turned out the light.

"Glad you decided to stay with us. Sleep well, Kiddo. I'll catch up with you in the morning." Bridger turned and left Lucas' room; sure that he was missing something important. He hadn't gotten to where he was without learning to rely on his gut instinct and right now it was telling him something was very, very wrong. Since Admiral Rogers was involved that was hardly surprising.

As he walked down the corridor towards his own quarters Bridger saw Lieutenant Krieg hurrying towards him.

"I was just going to check in on Lucas. Is he OK, Sir? He took off out of the shuttle bay like his tail was on fire." Ben looked at the captain with his concern for Lucas written all over his face. He knew his friend had been called into HQ and wanted to know what was going on.

"He's got a migraine and just wanted to get into bed to sleep it off," said Bridger, not quite believing the words coming out of his own mouth.

"Did things go all right with the admiral, Sir? I know Lucas was worried about what he wanted."

"Apparently he offered Lucas a job but he turned him down."

"I always knew that kid was smart!" laughed Ben.

Bridger smiled in return but it was hollow. The lieutenant noted it but decided now was not the time to press it. He would speak to his young friend in the morning and find out what was going on.

"Well I'd best be getting back to the supply list, Sir. Let me know if Lucas needs anything else."

"I will do, Lieutenant. And….thankyou. For keeping an eye on him." Bridger turned and headed for his quarters before anything else could be said.

Ben just nodded thoughtfully before turning towards the cargo bay. "I always do but something tells me I really need to now."