After his virus scans were complete, Lucas jogged into the science labs carrying the neural interface and his laptop. Jayde looked up from the samples of lichen she was cutting apart and smiled. "Hey, I was wondering where you ran off to."

He grinned at her, "I thought you may want to see this." He waved the device at her.

"What is it?" She jumped off her stool and inspected the mindweave.

"Neural interface, I can connect with computers mentally and run them faster. I'm planning to hook it up to the vo-corder."

Her jaw dropped, "that's amazing. You'll be able to speak with Darwin without being limited to human terms."

Lucas nodded, "yeah, that's my plan. Wanna watch?" He offered her a flirtatious smile, hoping it go better than the last time.

"Of course!"

They walked to side of the tank, where Lucas set up his laptop. After entering a few commands, he turned the yellow vo-corder on and slipped the interface on. "Do I look like a dork?" He asked in a joking voice, but had a glimpse of worry in his eyes.

"Nah, you look like a scientist."

"Awesome." He concentrated on the vo-corder and after a few minutes, Darwin appeared.

"Lucas... Lucas sound different." The dolphin reported. Lucas laughed and squinted again. "Darwin understands Lucas better now." He dived under the water, splashing them slightly.

Lucas jerked his head as Jayde heard a crackle. "Ow! It shocked me!"

"Maybe you should take it off. It's probably too damp in here anyhow." Jayde said with concern.

"I'll just stand back from the water and tell him..." He glared at the tank and backed off several steps.

"Sorry, Lucas, no splash." Darwin said, looking at him through the bottom half of the tank's window.

Lucas stared into the tank again, but got no response. "Hm, maybe the range is a little limited." He approached his laptop again, keeping an eye on Darwin.

"Why quiet?" Darwin asked.

Lucas punched a button on the vo-corder, "I'm trying fish face, hang on." He leaned over the edge of the tank and tried again, scowling intently.

He turned when Jayde started to giggle. "I'm sorry, that just looks really funny." Her mouth quirked into an apologetic shape and Lucas had a difficult time getting annoyed.

He pulled a cord out of his pocket and plugged the interface into his laptop. "I ran my normal scans on it but maybe there are still a few bugs in it. I'll try..." He twitched and shook his head. "Ow, it shocked me again."

"Um, Lucas... I really think you should take it off." Jayde told him, chewing her lip.

"Yeah, I guess. Maybe it just won't work for this." He sighed and reached up, leaning his back on the tank. As he touched the interface he let out a yelp of pain. Jayde heard a sharp crack and saw a jolt of blue electricity arch across his forehead. Lucas jerked and his whole body went ridged. As Jayde reached for him, he started to convulse and fall backwards into the tank, pulling his laptop with him.

"Lucas!"


On the bridge, O'Neill started punching buttons in frustration, Rylie looked on over his shoulder. "Sir!" He turned to Captain Bridger who was leaning over the back of the sensor console, speaking to Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz. "All of our communications just went down."

"Better call Lucas."

"No sir, everything is down." Tim reported. "PAL's too."

"WSKR's stopped sending data... and my screen just went blank." Ortiz informed him.

"Damn it." Nathan swore. "Some one go get Lucas, does anyone know where he is?"

The bridge crew shook their heads before Tim spoke up. "Probably sea deck sir."

Nathan crossed to the aqua tube tank and picked up the vo-corder. "Darwin, send Lucas to the bridge." There was no response. "Darwin, this is important." He pushed a few buttons before dropping it on the side of the tank in frustration. "It's dead too."

"Sir..." Katie started, "my controls aren't responding as well. We aren't moving."

The whole bridge crew shifted uneasily as they realized the deck had lost it's familiar rumble. "Are we sinking?" Nathan asked, coming to the navigation controls.

"No sir, we're staying level. It looks like there are minor adjustments being made to compensate for the currents, but not from anyone on the bridge." She reported.

"Can we do anything?" He looked around the bridge and only saw every head shake negative. "Ok, we'll have to do this the old fashion way." He started for the clam shell doors, "I'll get Lucas, Katie, find Jonathan and inform anyone you find on the way."

"Yes, sir."

Nathan paused at the doors and punched the controls, when nothing happened, he swore again. "Well... so who wants to jump in the aqua tube?"

Tim surprised him by standing. "I will sir, Rylie can keep an eye on the console and I'm thin enough that I won't get hung up in the narrow areas." Nathan nodded once and pulled the emergency miniature air tank from it's stand on the wall.

"This only has three minutes of continuous air, if you ration it, you should be ok." Tim said nothing in reply and knelt to untie his boots, after pulling them off and sliding his glasses into a pocket he took the air tank with a nod. "Be careful, we don't know if this just a computer issue or... something worse. If you can, arm yourself."

"Y.. yes, sir." He set his jaw to fight the nervousness he was feeling. Tim flipped a leg over the edge of the tank and gave one last look to the bridge before pushing off.

"Alright everyone else. I want to know what control we do have. Rylie, stay on the radio. If you hear anything, I want to know right away. Call out every few minutes. Ortiz, the same goes for you."

There was a chorus of 'yes, sir' and everyone started to work at their stations. No one noticed the faintly white cloud of gas exiting the air ducts above them. Nathan was standing behind his chair watching everyone when he felt it. He swayed backwards and had to hold onto the seat to keep from collapsing. "Everyone get down low! Breath through your shirts!" He ordered, dropping to his knees himself.

The crew watched the cloud descend on them for several minutes, but there was nothing they could do. There were a few coughs and gasps for air, and then an eerie silence as they fell into unconsciousness.


Tim swam through the tubes, taking small breaths from the tank. He didn't have a swimmer's body by any means, but he had spent enough time playing in the moon pool with Lucas and Darwin that he was a proficient swimmer. He thought it was odd that he didn't run into Darwin on his way but pushed the thought from his mind, the dolphin was undoubtedly with Lucas at the end of the tubes. He saw a few people notice him as he swam, but didn't have the time or a method of communicating with them. He came through the tube that crossed Lucas' quarters and was relieved the teen was not his room, and that he was close to the end of his trip. The air ran out as he entered the moon pool. He dropped it and broke through the surface. The first thing he noticed was Darwin at the edge of the tank watching something in the room, the second thing he saw was Lucas laying on the floor with Jayde bending over him.

"Come one, wake up. You're breathing, just wake up!" She urged.

"What happened?" Tim asked, swimming to the edge.

She jumped slightly when she heard his voice. "The interface, it shocked him and he fell in the water. Darwin helped me get him out, and I was able to get him breathing again. But I... I can't get the door open or get a response on the PAL." Her lip quivered. "I don't know what to do."

"Everything is down. I came to get him to see what was happening." Tim crawled out of the tank and knelt beside Lucas. "Did he hit his head?"

"No, I don't think so. But he was already being electrocuted when he fell in the water..." She pointed to his computer at the bottom of the tank. "And there was extra juice in there with him."

Tim winced at the burn marks around the nodes of the mindweave. "Can you pull that off?"

"I'm afraid to. I don't know if it will hurt him more. It kind of melted into his skin." She swallowed against the nausea she was feeling. "What... what's happening?"

Tim sighed, "we don't know, all the systems went offline at once."

"Does this happen often?"

"No, and when it does... it isn't a good sign. We need to arm ourselves." He stood and looked around the room for something he could use. Tim found a tranquilizer gun they kept in case a shark ever got in to the tubes when Darwin was out fishing. "This will have to do." He checked the dart to ensure it was loaded.

Jayde rose from the floor and took the small pairing knife she was using for the samples. "This is all I have." She slid it in her back pocket. "How are we going to get out of here?"

"I don't know, but we have to figure something out."


"Sir, the bridge crew is out of the equation and I have control of the ship's computers."

"And the kid?"

"The code was sent through to activate the overload program a few minutes ago. I can't see where he is, but I know he was wearing it when at the time."

"As soon as you open the doors, and have everyone secured, make sure."

"Yes, sir."

"The other men will be there in one hour. Don't screw this up Bentley."

"No, sir."