Chapter 11:
Captain Benjamin Krieg paced back and forth in the small office occasionally glaring at the two way mirror on the far side of the room. There they were, the crew of the Seaquest. Lt. j.g. Tim O'neill, Sensory Chef Miguel Ortiz, Cmdr. Jonathon Ford, Captain Nathan Bridger, his friends, to some extent his family. He had taken their loss hard. He had worked through his grief, his regrets and he had moved on. He should be happy to have them back but, his mind was too clouded with questions. Where had they been? What the hell happened to them? It didn't help matters that the entire group seemed frozen in time. They all looked exactly as he remembered. Ben couldn't explain his anger but he felt justified in it. Did they even know what they had left behind when they just disappeared from the face of the earth?
The captain was pulled from his thoughts by the voice of Nathan Bridger. The silver haired man stood before him talking in to the mirror.
"I can just about guess, this is a two way mirror, if you don't mind we'd like to have something to drink. The last I checked we weren't prisoners."
Ben scoffed, "Great now I get to play waitress," he told himself as he picked up a bucket of drinks from the table, took a deep breath, and opened the door of the room.
Cmdr. Ford was the first to make the connection as Ben set the drinks on the table and glared at the group.
"Ben? Ben Krieg? Is that really you?"
Ben froze momentarily trying to come to terms with how to answer the question. Letting his defenses kick in he resigned himself to a jovial replay accompanied by a nervous smile, "That's what my boxers say. How are you Jonathon?"
"It's good to see you Ben," The commander stood shaking the hand of the now superior officer.
Ben saw the sincerity in the man's eyes he decided he could settle in his mind at least that these people where who they said they are simply enough, "Hey Tim," he asked with a smile, "What did Lucas and I do to your Bible during the first tour?"
The communications officer looked surprised to even be spoken to. He smiled at the memory and sighed, "You said Lucas did that on his own Ben?"
Ben just smiled and waited for his answer.
"You took a highlighter and highlighted individual letters spelling out dirty words," Tim said laughing, "You know I didn't find it very funny at the time but, I still have that Bible."
Ben let a single tear fall before regaining his composure, "Welcome back guys. We've missed you."
Captain Nathan Bridger stood from the table and walked over to his former supply and morale officer. He held his hand out to Krieg and was shocked to see the man stiffen before speaking.
"I'm sorry sir, I can accept it's you and I can welcome these guys back with open arms but, I have a lot of questions for you before I can shake your hand."
Nathan looked shocked and the entire group tried to hide the shock on their faces. Bridger read something in the other man's voice that he couldn't put his finger on. There was anger there but, why?
"Very well, then Captain, Maybe you and I can sit down and I'll see if I can answer your questions. I'm afraid I have some questions of my own for you. If we can come to some kind of agreement?"
"Fine, we can talk but, I won't tell you anything about Lucas until you explain to me what happened," the tone of his voice was final. Nathan just nodded. Suddenly the door was opened and in walked Bill Noyce followed by a familiar figure Nathan knew all too well, Kristin.
Benjamin Krieg side stepped out of the way as the Doctor approached Nathan. Kristin stared at the man before her, emotions swirled and tears filled are eyes as she begun to speak.
"Is that really you?"
Nathan smiled a single tear falling from his eyes as he answered, "Yes, Kris it's me."
"Are you alright?" She asked regaining her composure.
"I'm a little confused but, physically, I'm fine."
Suddenly every jaw in the room dropped as Dr. Kristin Westphalen, drew back and firmly slapped Captain Nathan Bridger across the face, "How dare you? Where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea what I've been through without you? Do you even know what you've done?"
Instinctively, Cmdr. Jonathon Ford sprung in to action to protect his captain only to be stopped by Captain Ben Krieg, "No offense Jonathon, but I'd like to hear him answer that too. You have no idea what the last 10 years have been. Sit down."
Seeing a look in Ben's eyes he'd never seen before the Commander relented and took a seat next to a stunned looking Anthony Piccalo as Miguel and Tim gave each other confused glares.
Bill Noyce shook his head as he tried to diffuse the situation, "Alright, now that we know everybody remembers one another let's calmly try to work through some of this. "
"No," Kristin replied regaining her composure once again, "I'm here to do the examinations and that's what I'm going to do. I'd like permission to speak with Nathan later privately in my office. I'm too angery to speak now. I don't intend to make things any worse."
"Alright if that's okay with you of course," Noyce said towards Captain Bridger.
"That'll be fine,' Nathan replied still rubbing the welt on the side of his face as Ben interrupted.
"I should be there too."
"No,"Kristin admonished lightly, " I appreciate you wanting to protect me but, I'll be fine besides, Lucas is supposed to call the house this afternoon to tell you which boxes you can have, you wouldn't want to worry him hmm?"
Ben sighed accepting his defeat. The doctor knew exactly what to say to make him comply with her plans. She was right. Lucas was smart enough to know something was going on and he wasn't far enough that he couldn't get back suddenly if he thought something was wrong. Miami was only a 30 minuet flight from Orlando after all. And Lucas and Abbey returning early from their honey moon could be disastrous. Ben knew his young friend would never forgive him for this betrayal if he found Ben knew almost all along that the crew of the Seaquest was alive. He was only trying to protect his friend but he knew that wasn't something Lucas welcomed wither he needed it or not.
"Fine." He responded curtly.
"Thank you," Kristin forced a smile as she turned to the group, "Alright, who's first?"
Nathan Bridger watched as Kristin walked away from him with Lonnie Henderson. He ached to know what was wrong. He couldn't think of anything he had done to cause such a reaction and why was everyone so dead set on keeping Lucas from him? He turned around with a sigh realizing Ben Krieg had returned to glare at him. Something was wrong, very wrong, he just couldn't put his finger on exactly what. Maybe he thought if he could just find a way to talk to Lucas, he could find out what was going on.
