Three Weeks Later, on Bridger's Island

Bridger quietly closed the door behind him as he left for his early morning walk. Lucas was still sleeping and Bridger didn't want to wake him. They had had a very productive session last night. Lucas's ideas on the redesign were nothing short of astounding, and Bridger couldn't wait until they could start implementing them.

The sun was already heating the air and drying the dew from the sparse plant growth near the house. Bridger decided to take a trail deep into the jungle of the island's interior. As he walked briskly along the path, his mind was on the plans for the redesigned seaQuest. That distraction was all he could blame when he stepped on a small limb that rolled under his foot, causing him to lose his balance and fall.

He fell off the path onto a steep incline and skidded down it, coming to a crashing stop in a shallow bowl-shaped indention in the earth filled with small brown mushrooms. As he lay on his back, winded, millions of tiny spores dislodged by his abrupt entry into the clearing flew up in a choking cloud of dust and slowly began to settle back toward the earth.

Bridger coughed as the cloud of spores enveloped him. The mushrooms had an extremely pungent odor and Bridger felt as though he were choking in the overwhelming scent. He rolled over to his knees and struggled to his feet.

Brushing off his clothes, he raised another cloud of spores that threatened to stifle him. He climbed up out of the shallow basin and back onto the main path. As he stood there, breathing heavily, he realized that blood was dripping from his head. Reaching up a hand, he felt a cut along his hairline above his left eyebrow. Putting pressure on it to stop the bleeding, he started back down the path toward the house.

As he headed down the path and neared the house, he felt a little dizzy and staggered slightly. As he did, he became aware of an approaching figure.

"Hey, Captain Bridger!" a concerned voice said. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Lucas ran to Bridger's side, putting a hand under his elbow to help him regain his balance. "Are you all right?" he asked, peering up into Bridger's face.

" I'm fine," Bridger responded. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and took a fall. But I'm okay."

Lucas waved a hand in front of his face. "Phew! No offense, but you stink! What is that smell?"

"Some kind of mushrooms or something that I fell into." Bridger brushed more of the spores from his clothes.

"Hey, you're bleeding!" Lucas exclaimed, as Bridger put his hand down from his forehead. "Come on back to the house and let me take a look at it."

Bridger had to smile at Lucas's mother hen mode as Lucas solicitously helped him along the path and into the house. He sat Bridger down at the kitchen table and ran to the bathroom for a first aid kit. Cleaning the cut, he announced, "I don't think it needs stitches. I'm just going to close it with a couple of butterfly bandages. Are you hurt anywhere else?" His tone betrayed his anxiety as he opened the bandages and applied them to the cut.

"No, I'm fine," Bridger said. But as he stood up, the room tilted crazily and he staggered to the side.

Lucas grabbed his arm. "Whoa! Maybe you better go lie down for a while."

Bridger closed his eyes, waiting for the off-balance feeling to end. "I think you might be right." Opening his eyes, he found the feeling subsiding but still didn't feel completely steady. "Do you mind giving me a hand up the stairs?"

Lucas looked at Bridger with a worried expression on his face. "Sure. Do you need a doctor? Should I get on the radio?"

"No, no, I'm fine," Bridger protested. "I just need to rest."

"Are you sure? Maybe we should get someone here just to take a look."

Bridger pressed his arm. "I'll be fine. Just give me a few hours."

As Lucas helped him into his room and he settled back on his bed, he closed his eyes against another wave of disorientation. Brightly-colored lights swirled behind his closed eyelids and his hearing seemed to fade in and out. He could just make out Lucas saying something about checking on him a little later before all his senses faded to blackness.

Lucas sat at the kitchen table and tried to concentrate on the blueprints spread across it, but his eyes wandered to the clock again for the fifth time in as many minutes. Captain Bridger had been asleep for forty-five minutes now. Lucas had already tiptoed up the stairs four times to check on him. Each time he had found the Captain sleeping peacefully, but Lucas was still worried whether he had done the right thing in not calling for help.

Just as he had decided to check again, he heard the sound of movement overhead. A minute later, Bridger came down the stairs and into the kitchen, rubbing a hand over his hair. He'd changed into a clean pair of khakis and a navy blue t-shirt, but the normally neatly-clad Bridger was disheveled, his shirt untucked and hanging loose, his hair standing on end.

"How are you feeling?"

Bridger sat down heavily at the table next to Lucas. "I'm fine. A few bumps and bruises, but no permanent damage done."

Lucas studied his friend carefully. The cut on his forehead looked clean and the bandages were holding the edges together. Bridger looked tired but his eyes were clear, although his pupils seemed slightly dilated. He seemed to be moving all right.

"So what are you working on?" Bridger yawned and leaned over the blueprints.

"Don't laugh, but I was just working on some modifications to the showering system. If we make some changes to the water storage and filtration systems, here and here, we can increase the pressure and the storage capacity so we can take longer showers with greater force. We might even be able to install some massaging showerheads." Lucas grinned at Bridger, remembering the complaints he had heard the captain himself making about the showers on the old seaQuest.

Bridger frowned. "You're working on the showers when we still haven't finished with the bridge modifications?"

Lucas blinked in surprise. Bridger's tone of voice was clipped and irritated. "I - I'm sorry, Captain," he stammered. "It was just an idea I had - " His voice trailed off.

"I'd suggest you keep your mind on finishing up the bridge. We've still got plenty to work on there." Bridger got up from the table and started toward the refrigerator. "Let's fix some lunch and we'll get back to work."

Lucas stared down at the plans before him. Captain Bridger had never slapped down his ideas before. In fact, he had encouraged Lucas to think about all the ship systems, even telling him that there was no area so unimportant that improvements shouldn't be considered.

But if Bridger wanted to concentrate on the bridge, then that's what Lucas would do. He got up to help with the meal preparation, already focusing his mind on the improvements to the WSKRS that he and Bridger had been bouncing off each other for the last few days.

The simple meal of sandwiches and chips was eaten in mostly silence. Bridger seemed distracted and responded briefly and irritably to any attempts at conversation on Lucas's part.

"Let's get to work." Bridger abruptly snatched Lucas's plate from in front of him, even though Lucas wasn't finished yet. He put his and Lucas's plates in the sink with a clatter, then sat down at the table opposite Lucas, pulling the blueprints back into the center of the table. "We were talking about increasing the range of the WSKRS…"

Lucas yawned, glancing at the clock. 11:00 p.m. Surely Captain Bridger wasn't going to keep going for much longer. They had worked all afternoon and evening, barely taking a break for dinner. Bridger had rapped out orders, keeping Lucas jumping all day. His normally relaxed although disciplined approach to their design sessions was nowhere in evidence.

Lucas yawned again. In a crisis, he could easily go for two days without sleep, but without the adrenaline rush that those situations brought, he was losing his concentration. He hadn't worked this hard in the entire six weeks he had been here.

Except for his irritability and almost feverish concentration, Bridger seemed all right. Lucas had been surreptitiously studying him all day, wondering if this was some strange reaction to his head injury. But his mind was sharp and clear, pointing out modification opportunities and analyzing Lucas's ideas incisively. Maybe he just needed more rest.

"Lucas!" Bridger snapped. "Wake up!"

Lucas jumped. He hadn't even realized that his eyes were closed, but he had in fact been close to nodding off. "Sorry, Captain."

"You might as well go to bed." Bridger sounded disgusted. "You're useless in this condition. But I expect you first thing tomorrow, ready to work."

Lucas felt a flush rising to his face. He could count the times that Captain Bridger had dressed him down on the fingers of one hand and it always made him feel ashamed, even if he believed that he hadn't done anything wrong.

"I'm sorry, Captain. I'll do better tomorrow, I promise."

"I hope so." Bridger was already engrossed in studying the blueprints. "Just get out of here."

"Good night," Lucas said, as he headed for the stairs. There was no reply.