All right! This story is finally starting to flow again so this chapter was pretty quick to come together. I hate writer's block so thankfully the muse has got off her butt and started to work again. I suspect it had something to do with going back to listening to Pink Floyd while writing. Angst and drama!

Thankyou again to everyone for your kind reviews.

Chapter Nine

Seven months earlier…

Samuel sat and stared at his brother across the table. "I don't understand where this is coming from."

Daniel glared back at him. "No, I don't suppose you would. That would require you taking notice!" He rose from his seat and angrily pushed the chair back towards the desk.

As he turned for the door, Samuel leaped out of his seat and rushed around the desk to stop him. "Hold on, please. We haven't finished here. Come on, come back and sit down. Please."

Daniel made as though he was still going for the door but finally relented and sat back down at the desk. Samuel pulled his chair back around to the other side and sat down beside his brother.

"What's really going on?" He paused before asking the next question, knowing that it could erupt in his face. "Is this because of Sarah?"

Daniel looked away and refused to answer but his brother could see his knuckles had whitened on the arm of the chair.

"Daniel? I know it still hurts. But she made her choice and you couldn't force her to stay."

"I know that, but I also know that she isn't the only one who wanted some changes here."

Samuel leaned back in his seat and sighed. "I know that. The Council has been looking at the suggestions and some are valid but some of them just go against all we stand for."

"What you stand for!"

The venom in the words was surprising and again Samuel found himself staring at his younger brother. "What our family stands for!"

"Well I guess that's where we differ because I don't know what I stand for anymore. Maybe I should have just left and gone after Sarah."

Samuel looked at the lines of grief still etched into his brother's forehead and wondered how he hadn't seen it until now. A broken heart can be covered up for a time, but eventually it begins to bleed more openly. "Maybe you should have … if that's what you wanted."

"Huh! Like I could do that!" Again the bitterness was obvious. "I have the family legacy to uphold. How would it look if one of the Aroro's didn't want to live in Paradise anymore?"

Samuel reached out a hand but his brother pulled away. "This isn't a prison you know. If that's really how you feel then I will help you find a new path."

"I have no idea where Sarah is so what's the point? No, I will stay here and do my job." This time as he pushed his chair out from the desk Samuel didn't rise to stop him. Instead he just watched as his brother stalked out of his office.

Daniel headed for his own quarters and without stopping to think about it any further he reached out for the vidphone. Without resources of his own he needed to find a way to fund his future. As he dialed in the number, he pushed down the thought that he was betraying his own brother and the only home he had ever known.

"Samuel will never change! What's the point of trying to reason with a zealot?"

The vidphone crackled and the line disconnected. "Damn dinosaur! Can't even contact the outside world without problems!" He dialed again and eventually a young woman answered.

"Hello, welcome to Zalco Mineral Exploration. This is Mandy speaking. How can I help you?"

"Put me through to Jaco."

"Certainly, Sir, may I ask who's calling?"

"No."

The secretary frowned slightly before snapping back on her happy face. "One moment, Sir."

It took several minutes before Jaco appeared on the screen and he looked wary when he saw who his caller was. "So, have you made a decision yet?"

Daniel just nodded. "I want out of here and you're gonna pay my way."

Jaco's eyes lit up at the response. "Excellent. I'll be in contact soon about logistics."

"This has to stay under the radar. They'll stop you if they know about it."

"I understand that. Believe me, it's worth our while to do this without any problems. It's worth all our whiles! You won't regret this," he smirked at the screen.

"I do already," Daniel muttered after closing the link.

Nick sat by the bed, just watching as Micah slowly roused from his sleep. As the child became more aware of his surroundings he realised he wasn't in familiar territory. Looking up to see a relative stranger watching was enough to make him climb back under the covers. Nick debated whether or not to try comforting him or if that would only frighten him further.

Julianna had gone to find breakfast for her new roommate and Nick desperately wished she would hurry up and come back. He had no real experience with small children and this one was not behaving normally anyway. As he began to reach out a hand, he could hear muffled sobs from under the blanket. Finally he decided he couldn't sit back and do nothing, so he gently peeled back the blanket.

Micah shrank back from him at first, but slowly began to register the colour of the stranger's hair. Lucas had said they matched. He didn't exactly smile at the memory, but he did stop crying.

Nick looked down at him and smiled encouragingly. The child looked like he was drowning in Julianna's t-shirt as it twisted around his knees, but there wasn't anything else to dress him in the night before. That reminded him that Micah's clothes were hanging over the back of the chair and he reached out to grab them.

"Wanna get dressed?" he asked hopefully as he held out the clothes.

Micah just nodded but made no attempt to move. Instead he just looked around the room.

"Oh, OK, I get it. You wanna little privacy. No problem. I'll be just outside the door if you need me, like for buttons … or um … anything."

Julianna eventually arrived back with a fully loaded tray and wondered why Nick was standing outside her door.

"Well he seemed a little shy," he explained.

"Uh huh. Well I've got food for all of us. I don't know what he likes so I kind of brought a bit of everything."

Nick surveyed the tray, pushing aside fruit, muesli and yoghurt before grabbing a hash-brown.

"Hey! He gets first choice."

"Not on this one he doesn't," he grinned at her.

It seemed to be taking a long time for Micah to get dressed so Julianna handed the tray to Nick and gently knocked on the door. "Do you need a hand in there?"

When she didn't get an answer she slowly pushed open the door and poked her head through. The pile of clothes was lying on the floor and on top of the bed a small lump protruded from under the blanket. The sound of sobbing could be heard again and she quickly rushed over to pull back the blanket.

Micah was curled into a ball with his face in his hands. Julianna reached out and pulled him up into her arms. She thought he might resist, but instead he flung his arms around her neck and buried his face in her shoulder. Not knowing what else to do for him she began to gently rock him as though he were a baby. Finally the sobs eased up and he raised his face to look at her.

"Hey, I thought you might like some breakfast."

Nick had laid the tray on the table and she moved over to allow Micah to look it over. He stared at the food but made no attempt to pick out anything.

"C'mon, you have to eat something. You must be hungry by now."

Micah pressed his face back into her shoulder.

"All right then, how about we get you dressed?"

He didn't argue with that idea so she sat him down on the bed and reached down for the clothes on the floor.

Before she could start the job, her comm began to beep. "Can you get that?"

Nick pressed the vidphone connection on the wall and the UEO symbol appeared briefly before Commander Ford's face replaced it.

"Have you found him?" Nick blurted out before he stopped to think.

"I'm afraid not, but I just wanted to let you know we are sending a shuttle to pick up Micah. And both of you if you want to come."

"Absolutely," Julianna answered before Nick even had a chance to react.

"It should be there in the next half hour. Lieutenant Jansen will be collecting you. Don't go with anybody else and call us here to identify him before you leave. Understood?"

Nick nodded in agreement. "You really think anybody else is going to try and get here?"

Ford looked troubled at the idea. "Yes, they might. This kid possibly witnessed a murder and he's a prime target. We still don't know who we are after yet so anybody is suspect until proven otherwise. Remember, Lieutenant Jansen and nobody else! I'll talk to you soon."

"Fine." Nick punched the button to disconnect and turned back to Julianna. She had managed to get Micah into his clothes and was doing up his buttons. The child still looked pale and Nick decided to bring the food over to the bed. He sat down beside Micah and held out a hash-brown.

"Here, try one of these. They're really good."

Micah just stared at the food, but refused to take it.

"OK, maybe later then," Nick sighed as he dropped the food back onto the tray.

"I have the evidence right here that your footage has been falsified, but if you don't want to see it, then I will hand it over to the UEO investigators when they get here." Bridger began to head for the door and his men quickly followed suit.

As Ben reached out to open the door, Daniel leaped to his feet.

"Wait! Where do you think you are going?"

"Excuse me?" The captain narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying we aren't free to go?"

Pederson looked at his boss and inwardly cringed. "Don't get stupid!"

"Of course that isn't what I'm saying, but …"

Bridger cut him off before he could finish. "Good, because unlawfully holding any UEO citizen against their will is called kidnapping."

While it sounded as though he was talking about the immediate crewmembers it was crystal clear he included Lucas in that.

"As your young techie kidnapped my nephew?"

Bridger was half way through the door when he stopped abruptly. He slowly turned back to face Daniel. "Just as there is no evidence that Lucas murdered your brother, there is no evidence that he kidnapped your nephew. Now, I am going back to our shuttle to get the evidence we have to show you. If you are interested in finding the truth, I suggest you let me do that without hindrance."

Daniel looked like he was going to burst, but he managed to keep his temper in check.

Seeing there was no further objection, Bridger and his crew began to head back towards the shuttle. As Miguel started to fall into line behind Crocker, one of the men standing guard stepped forward slightly and discreetly shoved something into his hand. A brief look of surprise crossed his face before he fell into step again.

Walking along behind him, Ben was itching to ask what had just happened, but managed to keep quiet until they had re-entered the shuttle.

Katie looked over at Ensign Harper and asked for the next set of co-ordinates. As they fed through to her console she could barely contain a sigh. Search and rescues were always tense but this one was different. She couldn't shake the feeling they were looking in the wrong place and Lucas didn't have an unlimited timeframe for them to find him.

Jonathan was right that Lucas may have been trying to find the seaQuest, but she was still wracking her brain about why he would have left Node 3 to start with. Micah was safe and he could have just waited there and contacted the seaQuest.

"So why the hell didn't you?"

"Ma'am?" Harper pulled his headset down and turned towards her.

"Sorry. Just trying to figure out Lucas' logic in all this. I mean, he doesn't usually do anything without a plan, so what was he thinking when he left the Node?"

"Sorry, Commander, no idea."

Katie just shook her head. "Me either!" Even as her eyes scanned the monitors and the view ahead she couldn't shake the thought that something made him leave. So what was it?

Darwin had been following his own search pattern for quite some time. While he was visible on the WSKRs for a long time, he had moved well beyond their range now. No human would have been able to detect a pattern at all, but the cetacean was following that indefinable thing called instincts.

Without the benefit of human, long range scanners, he could still detect things that they couldn't. Scientists were still discovering things about how dolphins tracked their prey and how they recognised pod members from long distances. While Darwin couldn't have answered any of their questions, he was still putting those abilities to good use.

So it was no surprise to him then when he found a small submersible wedged into a rock face. What did surprise him was that Lucas refused to acknowledge him through the window.

Ben pulled the docking hatch closed behind him and grabbed Miguel's shoulder. "What have you got there?"

Bridger turned back as Miguel pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. "It says, 'Daniel is lying and we don't know why'."

"Where did you get that?" he demanded to know.

"One of the goons shoved it into my hand just now."

"So it seems there's a chink in the armour. We need to speak with him away from Aroro and that other one, Pederson."

"I'll see what I can do." Miguel nodded.

"Actually, I'm going to need you to help explain this footage to them. Krieg, see if you can get him aside somehow."

"Aye, Sir." Ben nodded enthusiastically. They were finally looking to be doing something helpful instead of standing around and wasting time.

Bridger's PAL began to beep and he quickly pulled it from his back pocket.

"Commander?"

"Captain, Darwin has just come back. He says he's seen Lucas!" The excitement in his voice was obvious to all in the shuttle.

"Is he all right? Where is he?"

"He just said Lucas is stuck. Captain, it will take longer to get the search crews back here and follow Darwin back out. A shuttle may not be enough to help him and it will be much quicker if … "

"If you take the seaQuest," Bridger cut him off. "We'll be fine here, Jonathan. Go, bring him home."

"Aye, Sir. We'll be back as soon as possible."

"Well what are you waiting for? Get going!" Bridger flipped the PAL closed and turned to see three grinning faces.

On the bridge of the seaQuest Ford issued an order he never thought he would hear himself saying. "Follow that dolphin."

A/N I couldn't resist - I just had this mental picture of Ford chasing Darwin. Yes, I know I'm weird.