Ben refused to look at Kristin for the rest of the trip, he was still pretending he was alone as they docked. Kristin stood and decided that was probably the safest action. "Jayde we're here, you'll be with me."
"What about Ben?" She asked, packing up the screen and hard drive.
"Mr. Krieg is grounded." Jayde blinked at her, but didn't comment. "He will be staying here with Lucas." She raised her voice, "hopefully thinking about the choices he's made." Jayde muffled a giggle and followed her out of the shuttle.
They were met by two official looking men. "Dr. Westphalen?"
"Yes, that's me, and this is Jayde Tasker. We are meeting with Nick and Julianna." One of the men looked at a tablet computer, shaking his head.
"Wolfman and Red Menace," Jayde explained.
"Oh, yes. This way." The guard waved them along the hallway.
Kristin noted the atmosphere with some trepidation. Nathan hadn't mentioned armed guards or locked doors when he was last at the node. She cleared her throat, "two of our crew members are waiting in the shuttle for us. One is injured and we hoped Julianna and Nick would come back to visit them with us."
He nodded, "Wolfman already explained. We must ask you not to leave with them though. They are here with their parent's permission and we don't want to break that trust."
"We wouldn't dream of putting you in that kind of situation... I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name." Kristin assured him.
"I didn't tell you my name." He pointed to a door, "this is your room. They will be with you shortly."
The man walked away briskly, Kristin opened the door and ushered Jayde inside. "Well, he was friendly." She said dryly, shutting the door. The room held two double beds and two desks, there was one closet between the beds. Nothing else. "And this is rather spartan."
"We won't be here long." Jayde opened the bag and pulled out the contents. "Lucas is sure they can figure out what to do." She turned the vid-screen on and set it on a desk. "We're here."
Ok, where are they?
"The guard said they'd be here soon." Kristin told him.
Guard? Since when are there guards there?
"That's what I was wondering. I think there is something going on here, Lucas. It doesn't seems right." There was soft knock on the door and Kristin turned to open it after ensuring the screen went blank.
The two teens stood there, grinning at her. "Hey! Where's Frankie?" The male asked.
"Um, Nick? Julianna? Please come in."
They did so and sat on the bed, Julianna eyed Jayde for a moment. "So?"
Kristin brought her hands together after shutting the door. "We need your help. There was an accident on the ship and..." She struggled to explain.
"Lucas' mind was sucked into the ship's computer and now he's here." Jadyde interrupted, pointing to the hard drive. "We don't know how to get him back into his body."
The jaws of the two teens dropped in unison. "No way... that's freaking awesome!" Nick exclaimed.
Julianna blinked several times before sitting at the desk, "Lucas? Are... are you really in there?"
Hey... how are you?
She laughed, "I'm good, so how did this happen?"
Via the vid-screen, Lucas launched into a long winded and technical description of the events. Kristin and Jayde were lost quickly and sat on the bed together. The doctor grasped the teen's hands. "They'll figure this out, Jayde. We are going to get him back."
Jayde nodded, "I hope so."
Julianna stood, "it should be easy. We just need to see the interface. He said he's still wearing it?"
"Yes, but I'm not bringing him in here. You will have to see him on the shuttle." Kristin said firmly.
"I'm ok with that." Nick started for the door. "I'll grab some tools and parts and meet you there."
"Nick, wait please." Kristin held her hand out. "You both understand the importance for secrecy, right?"
Nick grinned, "Frankie did the ultimate hack, I would never rat that out." Julianna nodded her agreement as Nick left the room.
"Ready to go back in the bag, Lucas?" Jayde asked.
Not really, I feel like a bad ventriloquist act in there. But I don't have much of a choice.
Jayde stuffed the hard drive and screen in the bag and followed Julianna out. "So," the dark haired girl started. "Are you and Lucas... together?"
"Um... I'm not really sure. We just met and with everything that happened..." She trailed off and shrugged.
"Are you interested?"
"Yeah, I am... if I'm not stepping on your toes. I know you were kind of dating."
She shook her head, "no, I think we're done. You have the all clear." Julianna smiled briefly and Jayde smiled back. "Now, let's see about getting his beautiful mind and adorable body in the same place." The girls giggled together as they walked behind Kristin back to the shuttle.
Kristin knocked on the door sharply, Ben opened it, grimacing when he saw her. "Are you going to yell at me again?"
"Not right now."
He considered briefly before letting them in. "I'm pretty sure I did the right thing."
"Ben." Her use of his name was a command, and he bowed his head in surrender.
They filed onto the shuttle as Nick came running up. He was carrying a bag in one hand and pulled the door shut with the other. As the door swung shut, Julianna spun to Ben, "you need to get us out of here now. We are being held against our will."
"What?! What are you talking about?" He asked in shock.
"I believe her Ben, there is something going on there." Kristin affirmed, "we need to get these children out of here."
Ben sat heavily in the pilot's seat and engaged the engines. "If I'm about to be party to a kidnapping, I'm blaming you."
"Ben, just get a move on!" Nick yelled.
He shut his mouth and obeyed. The radio called out as he pulled from the dock. "Attention shuttle, you are leaving our premises with minors, return immediately."
Julianna sat next to him and turned it off. "What is happening?" Kristin asked them.
Nick took a deep breath. "After Mycroft left, some new people came to the node, they started making changes. We were more organized, almost militarized, which was ok, but then they wanted us to spy on the UEO. A few kids... argued and they were beaten in front of us. If the beatings didn't work, they starved us. They told us we would die if we told anyone. It's been like that for months."
"Why did they let us in?" Kristin demanded, more out of anger of what the teens had suffered than them putting other in danger.
"I'm sorry, that was me." Julianna said softly. "They weren't going to let you, but I told them what Lucas did with the World Bank and they wanted him." She blinked away tears, "we... we didn't know any other way."
Kristin put an arm around the girl. "We understand, we won't let them hurt you. As soon as we get back to SeaQuest, we will send help for the others."
Julianna hid her face in the doctor's shoulder, "thank you." She whispered.
"No one is following us." Reported Ben, "I think we're good."
"They won't," Nick told him, "before we left, I overloaded the docking controls, they won't be able to leave until it's fixed."
Jayde sat and pulled out the vid-screen. "We have a four hour trip ahead, want to get started?" She asked anxiously.
What's going on? Is everyone ok? Lucas demanded as soon as the screen was visible.
"Sorry, I forgot you can hear everything when I don't turn it off." Jayde said while blushing. She knew that he had probably heard everything her and Julianna said.
Don't be, I liked what I heard... until we were back in the shuttle... Wolfman, are you ok?
"Yeah, Frankie, we're fine, now." For the first time, he approached Lucas' body. "You look like hell though."
Gee, thanks. I'll brush my hair next time I'm electrocuted.
"This shouldn't be hard to fix, a few fried wires, and circuit connectors. It might take some time though." He explained after carefully checking the device.
Julianna joined him, "we probably shouldn't do it on the shuttle though, if we hit a thermal or something we could make it worse." She turned to Jayde. "I'm sorry, I know how eager you are to get him back, but it's too risky." Jayde nodded morosely.
"Shuttle Omega calling SeaQuest, do you read?" Hours later, Ben called out on the radio.
"We have you Ben, back so soon?"
"Hey Rylie, it didn't really go as planned, is it possible to get a secure call to Captain Bridger?"
"Putting you through now."
"Ben, what happened?" Nathan's urgent voice came in.
"Everyone is ok, sir. But we picked Lucas' friends. They were being held against their will. We're only a few minutes away."
"I'll meet you in the docking bay."
"Yes, sir."
Julianna lounged on the bed in Lucas' quarters, Jayde and Nick sat next to her. "I can't believe it's over. Everyone will be rescued and we're all safe. It's almost unbelievable." She sat up and looked at the vid-screen. "Um, Lucas?"
Yeah?
"I'm sorry but can we work on getting you out tomorrow? I..."
Not a problem. He cut her off. Go get some sleep.
Nick stretched, "thanks man. We'll be back bright and early."
The walked to the door and left, Jayde was about to follow, but slowed. "Lucas?"
Want to talk?
"Um, yeah. Do you mind?"
No, I can't go into the systems until the UEO is finished with their scans, so I'm stuck in the hard drive right now.
She shut the door with a smile, "thanks. I um, I wanted to explain some stuff to you."
Should I be worried?
"No, it's about what you asked on the way to Node3, my um... kicking ass."
Oh... ok. Go ahead.
The lights came on in Lucas' quarters. Hey, what are you doing back here? I thought you were going to sleep.
"Oh, I didn't know you would be awake."
I can't sleep like this.
"That sucks."
You have no idea. Did you need something?
"I'm sorry Lucas."
For what? What are you doing?
A hand wrapped around the wire connecting the hard drive to the portable vid-screen. "This." The wire was ripped loose and the hard drive was stuffed in a bag.
