Chapter Six
Jonathan Ford sat in the command chair and let his eyes scan the bridge. Everywhere he looked he saw grief. Most of the crew moved around the bridge in silence. The only noise came from instruments and occasional brief comments as people spoke only as they had to. Krieg and Watts had just returned in the shuttle with the remains of the Stinger. Hitchcock had guided them from the bridge and helped pick up the shattered pieces from the ocean floor. As expected, there had been no body to retrieve. Tears had streamed down her face in a most unprofessional un-Katielike manner. She angrily wiped them away and turned to her commanding officer.
"Permission to go down to the shuttle bay, Sir?" she asked without looking him in the face. If she could avoid eye contact maybe she could hold it together a bit longer.
"Permission granted, and Katie … this was not your fault." Ford turned her to face him as he seemed to have read her mind. Of course it was her fault! She was the person in charge of developing the Gazelle, oh hell, the Stinger. Lucas could call it anything he wanted if he would just come back through those doors and argue with her one more time!
She turned and walked off the bridge without a word. Ford looked after her and realised nobody was going to make it through this without significant scars. Lucas had a way of growing on you and everyone here enjoyed having him around. What worried the commander the most was what long-term effect this would have on the captain. Bridger had experienced more grief in his lifetime than anyone should have to take. Would this be the last straw that would break his spirit? Doctor Westphalen had gone with him to his quarters and Jonathan had promised to come down as soon as the shuttle returned.
"Mr O'Neill, you have the bridge."
Ford looked up at the Communications Officer and nodded before turning and walking off the bridge. He walked towards the cargo bay, wanting to hurry there but not wanting to be anywhere near it at the same time. He had lost subordinates before but this was so different. None of them had been so young for a start. No death was easy to take but this just seemed so senseless. A brilliant young life, an amazing kid, a caring friend was just…gone! As he rounded the corner towards the cargo bay the commander heard the sound of sobbing. He stopped in the doorway when he saw Commander Hitchcock sitting on the floor, leaning on her ex-husband and crying her heart out. Ben had his arms around her and when he looked up at his commanding officer there were tears on his face as well. Watts was over by the shuttle doors looking over the pieces of wreckage they had managed to retrieve. His face was like stone as he tried to do his job while holding the anger and grief in check.
Ford looked at his people and decided none of them needed to be worrying about this right now. Finding answers could wait until tomorrow. He got no argument from any of them when he dismissed them and ordered Krieg to lock the doors behind them. This was now an official investigation and all of this was evidence.
Lucas was following an especially convoluted pathway into the admiral's computer when he finally found something that caught his interest. A vidcam recording with yesterday's date was hidden away in an obscure little file. As he carefully hacked into it, checking there were no nasty surprises attached to it, Lucas whistled under his breath.
"Gotcha!" he grinned. For the first time he began to feel that maybe he had a chance here. Playing before him on the screen was a recording of his meeting with the admiral. Someone had been watching their little "chat".
"He must have been recording this to send it on to whoever he is working with," thought Lucas. "Well it's gonna be his undoing!"
Lucas quickly backed up the recording onto his laptop and then backed out of the admiral's system, making sure he covered his tracks very carefully. Now he just needed to find out who the onboard traitor was and he could reveal the truth. Checking back into the computer log he scanned over the ship-to-shore communications. It was going to take some time to read through them all so he decided to focus on how to narrow them down. There were obvious people he could delete from the search but he had no way of knowing if the traitor had accessed anybody else's personnel codes to send messages. Nobody was above suspicion in that case. This was going to be a long night.
The hunger pangs were really starting to bite now and Lucas' mouth felt dry beyond belief. His head was beginning to ache as his body got more dehydrated. He had to get something to drink. Debating whether to try and get his ration packs or risk going somewhere else, Lucas decided the ration packs were his best option. He set off to crawl back through the labyrinth of engineering ducts back towards his room. As he came around the last corner he slowed down and waited to see if he could hear anything. Was Bridger still in his quarters? After waiting for what seemed like an eternity he finally decided it was safe to keep going. He slowly and silently inched forward towards the precious ration packs. His tongue felt like it was made of tissues. The pounding in his head was getting worse. Crawling along like this certainly wasn't helping.
Suddenly a loud moan made him stop dead. He froze where he was and waited for whatever was coming next. Another moan drifted up through the air vent. Curiosity got the better of him and Lucas edged closer to the vent. As he looked down through the vent Lucas was dismayed to see the captain asleep on his bunk, obviously in the throes of a nightmare. No guessing what the nightmare was about! Lucas felt his stomach twist into a knot knowing he was the cause of this. He felt tears prick at his eyes as he watched his friend, knowing there was nothing he could do to stop this.
He grabbed the ration packs and headed back to his laptop as quickly and quietly as he could. Once he was far enough away he ripped open one pack and downed a juice. Warm dehydrated/rehydrated orange juice. Yum! He didn't care though; it was liquid. He checked what else was in the pack and decided the chocolate bar was the most appealing looking thing in there. It would be enough to keep him going a bit longer.
In the mess hall a small group of officers sat sipping cups of coffee that had no taste. It's amazing how the senses can shut down when the mind is in pain. Nobody really had anything to say but none of them wanted to be alone either. Commander Ford wandered into the mess, knowing that he would find someone here. He had finally relinquished the bridge to the night crew and even though he was exhausted he had no wish to head to his quarters. He had been down to the captain's quarters only to find he wasn't there. After seeking out Doctor Westphalen in Medbay she had said the captain was in Lucas' quarters and he wanted to be left alone. Ford was too tired to do anything else tonight and he decided to deal with the captain in the morning. They needed to contact the UEO and Lucas' family but that was the captain's responsibility. Tomorrow.
Lucas sat with his back against the wall and his laptop balanced on his knees. His hunger had gotten the better of him and he had pulled another item out of the ration pack. Whoever designed these things had obviously never had to eat them. He had spent the last five hours trawling through the comm channel trying to find something that would pinpoint his target. His eyes were starting to droop from lack of sleep and he wished he could just dial up a coffee.
Suddenly something caught his interest and he was wide awake. Yes! There it was. An outgoing message to one Admiral J Rogers! It was encrypted as all outgoing messages were but that wasn't going to stop him. As Lucas ran it through a filter he watched the gibberish evolve into English. About two hours after his "accident" someone had notified the admiral. His jaw fell open as he read the ID at the end of the message; Petty Officer Anderson. This guy had been on board for over nine months if Lucas remembered correctly. He had only been working on his program for the last three months. Had the admiral planted him here as a spy and just decided the program was a good target or had Anderson been bribed along the way? Lucas needed to be sure he had the right person and not the fall guy for the real traitor. He started another search to find the connection between Anderson and Rogers. It didn't take long before he had his answers. Anderson had been transferred to seaQuest directly from the admiral's office. There was no denying this was the right guy. Now he just needed to work out what he was going to do with the information he had. He looked at his watch; it was nearly time for the morning shift change.
