If you are a science major and I got it horribly wrong in this chapter then please let me know because I struggled through all high school science except biology. I originally wanted something that would explode, but that didn't pan out. Maybe I should have taken more notice in class. Probably would have if only it was more exciting. It occurred to me that maybe researching "explosive/hazardous chemicals" on the net wasn't such a good idea. If I don't get to posting the rest of this you know I've been hauled in for questioning! Or blown myself up. Could you just drop a note to the Federal Police for me and explain it was all just research for a story? That is, of course, assuming you want the end to the story.

Chapter Twelve

"Commander, we're being hailed. It's the UEO investigative team."

"Put them through, Tim."

The main screen momentarily lit up with the UEO symbol before a face appeared. "My name is Dennis Beckman and we've been sent to investigate the murder of Samuel Aroro."

"We've been expecting you, but I'm afraid there's been some further developments since you were dispatched. It isn't safe for you to dock with the colony at present. When you come aboard I'll fill you in, but for now we are in the middle of a situation that needs my attention."

"Commander, I understand it's a member of your crew who has been accused and we are supposed to investigate from an impartial basis. I don't think that …"

Ford didn't have the time or the patience to deal with a bureaucrat and promptly cut him off. "If you want to get shot at, feel free to head straight to the colony! If you would like to stay alive to conduct your investigation then I suggest you do as I asked."

The screen went blank as Ford abruptly disconnected the call. He glanced across at Hitchcock who was trying her best to keep a straight face.

Before either of them could comment, O'Neill was fielding another call.

"Commander, I've got one of our shuttle crews on the line."

Ford looked up again at the comms officer and nodded eagerly. "Put them through."

As always, the main screen came to life in seconds and Tim could see it was Watts at the helm. "Commander, we are at the co-ordinates you gave us. You aren't going to believe this, but there's a drill platform here. It seems to be abandoned. Well, there's no signs of life anyway. Nobody's answering our hails and there's no indication anybody's home."

"Understood. Get us some footage and get back here as soon as possible. seaQuest out."

Ben was following Thomas down yet another service corridor that looked just like all the others. They finally arrived at a small office which seemed pretty basic by most colonies' standards. A large desk sat towards the far wall, but as they entered the room, both men could immediately see that some sort of altercation had taken place there. Chairs were tipped over and a metal waste reclamation unit was lying on the floor.

Ben knelt down by it to examine a mark on the wall and realised a small caliber bullet was lodged there. As he looked a little further, he could see another bullet scorch mark on the floor. He reached out to lean on the reclamation unit in order to stand up, but his hand slipped on something slick. His stomach recoiled as he pulled his hand back to look at it. Fresh blood was streaked across his fingers. He looked up to see Thomas watching him.

"You don't think …"

"No! I don't think!" Ben grabbed his PAL from his pocket while wiping his hand on his leg. "Chief, they were here not too long ago; in Samuel's office."

"How do you know that?" Crocker's voice sounded hollow and he guessed they were off somewhere with poor reception.

"Because this blood's fresh." Ben could visualise the look on Crocker's face as the words came out of his mouth.

"Anything else?"

"Nope, but there's two bullet holes here. Daniel's armed and obviously prepared to shoot."

Neither man was prepared to speculate any further on that idea. "We're not far from the launch bay. I'm guessing he'll try to get out of here and thinks Bridger's his ticket out."

"Ford isn't just going to let him leave."

"Would you want to make that choice?"

"We both know that Ford runs strictly by the book. He won't negotiate with a criminal and Bridger won't be expecting him to."

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't count on that, Ben. I can't see Ford letting the cap'n die over protocols."

When Ben tried to respond he got nothing back but static on his PAL. "Damn. They must have moved out of range." He turned back to Thomas. "All right we need to keep moving."

When Thomas didn't reply, Ben repeated the order, only slightly louder.

"Um, do you know what cinnabar is?"

"Anything like cinnamon?" He looked over to see Thomas was scanning something on the computer screen. "What?"

"Cinnabar? Do you know what it is?"

"No idea. Why?"

"Because it looks like Daniel was trying to wipe things on here but this email mentions deposits of cinnabar. "

Ben quickly moved around the desk to see what Thomas was going on about.

He shook his head as he read the remainder of a partially wiped document. "Never heard of it … … but I have heard of these idiots." He pointed to the screen. "He sent this to somebody at Zalco Mineral Exploration."

"Who is that?"

"A shonky, fly-by-night outfit that has a habit of finding small mineral deposits that were considered financially unviable and mining them for a profit."

"How do they do that if they are considered unviable?"

"Well, when you remove any kind of safety protocols or a small thing called ethics, you can turn a profit from a lot of things."

Ben reached for his PAL again and called up the seaQuest. As he impatiently drummed his fingers on the bench he continued to scroll through whatever else he could find on the computer. "Come on. Answer."

"Ford here. Have you found Captain Bridger yet, Ben?"

"Not yet, but Crocker's gone to the launch bay in case Aroro thinks he's leaving here. Miguel is covering the far sector with two more teams. Commander, we've found something here I think you should know. Zalco Minerals is involved here somehow."

"Zalco! Are you sure about that?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Do you happen to know what cinnabar is?"

Ford glanced around the bridge and got nothing back but blank looks. As he was about to answer, Lieutenant Blacker called out from behind his console. "Mercuric sulfide!"

"What?"

"Cinnabar is the raw form of mercury; well actually I think it's the ore it's found in. Just looked it up in the database, Sir."

"Ben, are you telling me these people are mining mercury?"

"It looks that way."

"It's been outlawed by the UEO since 2014 for a good reason. That stuff's highly toxic." Ford shook his head at the stupidity of the situation.

"And extremely rare, which also makes it extremely valuable on the black market."

Blacker continued to read over the information on his screen when another thought suddenly occurred to him.

"Commander! Those seismic disturbances … … they could have been blasting, trying to expose a vein."

Ford stared at him for a moment before replying. "I'm guessing cinnabar is just as toxic as actual mercury."

"It says here …" Before he could finish he was cut off by O'Nell.

"Commander, I've got Chief Crocker for you."

"Put him through, main speakers."

"Commander, we just got down to the launch bay and we were too late. He's already made it through the net." Crocker stood inside the launch bay and watched as the bubbles subsided. Only moments before, a submersible of some sort had left the dock. Since the colony wasn't equipped with any kind of automated outer security seals, there was nothing he could do to stop them.

"Are you sure the captain is with him?"

Crocker frowned as he nodded. "Yes, Sir. There's no sign of Bridger and no logical reason why Daniel wouldn't have taken him along. And, Commander … Ben found two spent bullets and traces of blood. "

Ford shook his head in frustration. "O'Neill, hail that shuttle!"

"Ah, I don't need to, Commander. He's hailing us."

"Well, put him through."

Ford turned to the main viewscreen as the image of a stranger appeared on the screen.

"Commander Ford I assume?"

"And you must be Daniel Aroro."

"I expect to be allowed safe passage from here and nobody is going to follow me or track me."

Ford would have laughed at the audacity of that statement if it hadn't been so serious. "You are wanted for murder, kidnapping and a whole host of other things and you think I am just going to sit back and watch you leave."

"Well my chauffeur is probably of more importance to you than me so, yes, I do expect you to sit back and watch us leave."

The man on the screen stared at them in defiance, but Ford could see trickles of sweat running down his face. He wasn't as confident as he sounded.

"And just in case the life of your captain isn't enough to persuade you, then think about this. I'm sure you have seen it for yourself already, but not far from here is a small mining claim. My partners have rigged a little surprise should anybody come nosing around. It won't take much to swing past there and set it off. Now, I suggest that you turn off those sensors of yours and forget about tracking me out of here."

Ford stared at the screen; his face a taut mask. Slowly the image on the screen before him panned out to reveal the captain sitting at the controls of the shuttle. Blood was streaked down the side of his face and Aroro stood behind him with a pistol aimed at the back of his head. Ford unconsciously clenched his fists at the sight.

Daniel smirked at the look on Ford's face. "Maybe you'd like to check your orders with your captain?"

"Commander, he's telling the truth about the drilling platform. What he hasn't told you, is what's out there."

"We already know that, Captain. Cinnabar ore!"

Bridger just nodded at him. It didn't surprise him that his XO was already ahead of the game. "Well then, you know the consequences if that vein is exposed. The waters in this area will be contaminated for years to come. Once it gets in the food chain, nothing here will be edible. Oxygen and water reclamation will be off-limits. It will be a death warrant for Hope Colony."

"I know." Ford stared at the screen as though he were computing this new information.

Tim frowned as he didn't envy Ford the choice he may soon have to make. Sacrifice his captain or sacrifice a colony full of innocent people.

"Jonathan."

"Sir."

"Whatever happens, I expect you to do your duty!"

Ford felt sick to the stomach at what Bridger had just said. Saving civilians always came ahead of anything else. With that one small comment, the captain had just let him off the hook.

"Yes, Sir."

As the screen faded out and was replaced by the UEO symbol Ford turned around to look at Hitchcock. "Ideas?"

"We can't just let him leave."

"And we can't allow a monumental ecological disaster either. But we can beat him out to that drill site."

"What are you thinking?"

"He claims he has some sort of remote detonation option. It has to be electronic so what if we hit the area with an EMP? "

Katie nodded in appreciation as she felt the first glimmer of hope. "And neutralise his threat before we …"

"Before we go and get our captain back!"

Ford turned around to see several nods of approval. Not that he needed anybody's approval to put his idea into action, but it always felt good to have the backing of the senior crew. "Lieutenant, I expect Mother can do the job of tracking them unaided."

"Yes, Sir. On it already," Blacker grinned as he turned back to his console.

"Just keep out of sight." He turned back towards Katie. "Get us out to that drill platform, full speed."

"Aye, Sir."

Ford headed over towards the weapons array. Firing an electro-magnetic pulse wasn't something he had ever had to really consider before but in this case it was their best weapon. In fact, it was their only one. He factored in all the details he had to determine the size of the pulse needed to knock out any electronic detonator. It also had to take into account the nearby unshielded colony so he didn't wipe out their electronic systems as well. Katie looked as he ran the calculations and just nodded when he was done. Having agreed it was sufficient, they both stood back to wait while the huge submarine silently raced to its destination.

Daniel smirked as the screen went blank before him. "You people are all the same."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I just threatened to blow your head off and your man there just agrees to do his duty!"

"He's a UEO officer. He knows what he has to do and he will do it."

Daniel let out a snort. "You sound just like Samuel. Don't allow emotion or reason to get in the way! Just do your solemnly sworn duty. And deal with the fallout like a man!"

"Being a leader means making choices that are sometimes hard to swallow. There isn't always a black or white answer."

"Hard to swallow! What if you are the one who is having choices made for you and you don't get any say?" The bitterness flowing out of the words was almost physical.

Bridger smiled slightly. "I'm in the military. Plenty of choices have been made that I have no say over."

"And did any of those choices take away people you loved?"

The captain swallowed down the anger that was quickly rising. "As a matter of fact … yes."

"And were you angry at those responsible?"

When the captain didn't answer immediately, Daniel continued on. "What would you have done to those responsible if you could have done something?"

"I don't know what happened between you and Samuel, but I can't ever imagine that murder is the answer."

Daniel stepped away as if to avoid the accusation. His eyes clouded over as he remembered going to Samuel's quarters to reason with him one last time. "It wasn't supposed to be," he whispered.

Bridger realised he had a momentary lapse in concentration from his captor and he took the chance. He tried to ease out of the seat as quietly as possible, but Daniel swung back just as he made it to his feet. Without stopping to think, he lunged at the younger man and the two of them toppled to the floor. Daniel frantically waved the pistol, but Bridger had his lower arm pinned to the floor and he couldn't get a clear shot. He knew he wouldn't survive if he didn't gain the upper hand quickly, so he instinctively smashed a fist into Daniel's face. The blow connected with a sickening thud and the pistol dropped to the floor.

Daniel tried to force the captain off balance by twisting a foot around his lower leg and kicking out. It almost worked and he pushed the other man far enough sideways to allow him to wriggle free. He quickly tried to reach the pistol, but the captain managed to pull him back. As the two of them grabbed for the pistol, Daniel got a finger grip on it and tried to slide it towards himself. Taking advantage of his distraction, Bridger rammed his fist into the other man's face again. The fingers on the pistol went slack and he looked down to see that this time the blow had done its job. Daniel's eye was already swelling shut and blood was streaming from his mouth.

"Twenty years huh?" he puffed as he slowly eased himself up onto his haunches. He reached out and began to unbuckle Daniel's belt.

"Ever see drunken sailors brawling?" As he pulled the belt from its loops he rolled Daniel onto his side and pulled his arms together behind him. He quickly pulled the belt around the man's wrists and tightened it.

"Because you are no match for them!" He sat back on the floor and tried to regain his breath. "At least they can land a punch." He reached out and rubbed at his own nose. It was obvious to anyone who had seen it that it had been broken more than once.

Daniel didn't move as the captain slowly stood up and slipped back into his seat. He turned the shuttle around and began to head back for the colony before he flipped the radio.

"This is Bridger calling the seaQuest. I hope you have your ears on, Tim."

In seconds the small viewscreen in the shuttle lit up to show O'Neill grinning at him. "Yes, Sir!"

Ford moved into view behind him. "Captain?"

"Commander. This cruise ship will be returning to port."

A cheer resounded around the Bridge as Ford quickly fed through the co-ordinates for the seaQuest. "In that case, so will we. We have you on the WSKRs and should rendezvous in about ten minutes."

"Have a security detail meet me in the launch bay."

"Yes, Sir." As Ford looked over at Hitchcock he could see his own thought mirrored on her face. "That means Daniel is still alive."

"Helm, set course back to the colony. Full speed." He turned back to Bridger on the viewscreen and knew instinctively what was coming next. Business was taken care of and now they could get to the personal.

"Jonathan … what's the news on Lucas?"

The length of time Ford hesitated in answering was all the captain needed to know. If it was good news he would have been eager to tell it.

"He came through surgery just fine. Kristin got all the bullet fragments out."

What hadn't been said just confirmed his suspicions. Bridger just nodded. "I'll see you shortly."

Captain Bridger was in no mood to be held up by trivial matters like first aid. He brushed aside the medic who tried to examine the source of the blood still oozing down his face.

"Later!" was all he said before turning to Ford. "I'll be in medbay. Get that shuttle cleaned out before I get back."

"Yes, Sir," Ford turned towards the shuttle and could see the security team had already moved in. Tucked firmly between them a man was struggling to stay on his feet. A deeply bruised and swollen mass of skin was forming where his left eye should have been and blood spatter from his split lip had sprayed all over the front of his shirt. Jonathan silently wondered if there were any teeth missing underneath it all. He looked for the medic who had been rebuffed by the captain and nodded in the direction of the prisoner. "You're going to be needed there."

It was only minutes before the captain arrived in the medbay, but to his anxious mind it seemed like days. While each person he passed had to look twice at their bloodied captain, none of the boat's personnel were about to interrupt his hurried steps.

As he rounded the corner into medbay he could see the lights weren't dimmed and it was obvious something was happening at the far end of the room. He ignored the nurse who tried to attend to him and raced towards the noise. Kristin glanced up as she sensed somebody had entered the room and did a quick double take when she saw him. "Nathan! What on Earth ..."

"Never mind," he cut her off abruptly. Before she could react he had reached the side of the bed and was watching intently as Lucas mumbled something incoherent. He cautiously reached out to grab Lucas by the hand and laid his other hand alongside the teenager's face. The intensity of the heat flowing back to him made him glance up at Kristin.

"He isn't responding to the antibiotics," she said quietly. "His temperature keeps spiking and we are having trouble getting it down."

The captain could see for himself that a large pad had been laid out over Lucas' body and from somewhere below the bed iced water was being pumped through it. It didn't seem to be making much difference judging by the state he was in.

"How long has he been like this?"

"A few hours now." She moved over towards him slowly. "Nathan, we really need to clean up that head wound."

"I'm not leaving him, so you can do it from here if you have to."

She sighed as she realised he was serious. With a small nod of her head she managed to get a nurse's attention and quietly asked for the necessary things to be brought to her. By the time she turned back to talk to him, the captain was leaning over the bed.

"C'mon, Kiddo, you made it this far. Don't quit on me now."

The only response he got was another spatter of incoherent words as Lucas seemed lost in the fire that was consuming him.

When the nurse arrived back, Kristin simply laid the kit out and reached out to push the captain back into a seat. He didn't resist but he also didn't let go of Lucas' hand. She gently began to clean the wound and silently wondered to herself what the other guy looked like.

A/N I told you Bridger could handle himself! Just in case you were worried :-)