Chapter 1

New Cape Quest, Florida

June 29, 2022

23:00

It was a gorgeous night on the beach, the moon shone on the water turning it into a rippling silver sheet. Lucas Wolenczak was sitting with Seaman Anthony Piccolo at a little seaside restaurant, eating burgers and fries on the open air dining deck adjacent to the main building. The night was lost on him though...Piccolo had just found a new victim.

Lucas wondered why exactly he had agreed to take shore leave with him in the first place. He rolled his eyes and thought if he heard one more lame pick up line come out Anthony Piccolo's mouth his brain might short circuit. Tony had been making his way steadily through every female that looked like they might be of a legal age since they had come into the restaurant.

"Did it hurt?" Tony asked a passing waitress. Lucas buried his head in his hands to hide the exasperation, dark blonde hair falling through his fingers in messy tendrils . The waitress stopped, she must have been new, Tony had tried that line on every woman here at least once every time they came here.

"Did what hurt?" She asked balancing a tray full of empty glasses.

"Here it comes," Lucas muttered under his breath.

"When you fell from Heaven," he told the woman. She cocked one hip out and laughed, shaking her dark head of hair. She turned and walked away without a word.

"Hey, come on. Can't a guy flirt with a pretty girl?" Tony called after her.

"Tony, your problem is you don't know how to really engage a girl's interest," Lucas told him.

"Oh and you do genius?" Tony shot back, his eyebrows fighting for space with his hairline. Lucas gave him an arrogant grin and leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head.

"Yeah I do actually," he bragged.

"Oh and you speak with the voice of experience? This I gotta see. Go ahead," Tony challenged.

Lucas' bravado got the better of him. "Alright," he said, scanning the open air dining deck for a likely target. He found one, a pretty red haired girl , trying to get the battery pack into a new music player. He knew it was new; the packaging was strewn all over the table. He got up, ran his hand through his hair and briefly checked his reflection in the mirror behind the bar. Tony sat at the table and watched, arms crossed over his chest. Lucas walked up behind the girl and peered over her shoulder.

"You know it works better if you turn it around," he suggested. The girl started, she hadn't noticed him come up she was so intent on getting the music player to operate.

"Here let me," he added carefully taking the player and the battery pack from her hands.

"Oh thank you," she said in a shy voice.

He flipped over the battery pack, slid it in with a click and held up the dangling ear phones for her.

"There you go. Try that," he said, flashing his most charming smile at her. She took them and slipped one in her ear, sure enough music was blaring along from it.

"Thanks, I've been fighting with that thing for fifteen minutes," she said "I'm Jennifer. And you are?" She asked flipping her hair back over her shoulders.

"Lucas, Lucas Wolenczak." he grinned at her.

"Nice to meet you Lucas," she told him. Tony was sitting at their table his mouth half open, surely there was no way Lucas could possibly be beating him with the women. Lucas was still making head way with Jennifer.

"My friend and I, we're here on shore leave from the seaQuest," he explained dropping the boat's name for effect. His blue eyes searched her face for any sign of recognition, but there was none. "I was wondering if you might like to..." he started as a very large, very mean looking man walked up behind Jennifer. He crossed his arms and looked perturbed.

"You were wondering if she'd like to what?" he spat. Lucas looked everywhere but at the burly man, trying to come up with a way out.

"I, uh, I was just wondering, uh..." he was floundering for some excuse. The man looked like he could rip off all his appendages and still have energy left to bench press a sea launch.

"Billy, he was just helping with the music player you got me. That's all." Jennifer tried to placate the muscle bound behemoth; the problem was he didn't look like he wanted to be placated. He looked like he wanted to turn Lucas into origami. Tony interceded before Lucas could end up on the wrong end of a right hook.

"He was just wondering if she'd like to try today's special, but ya know what? We're fresh out so we'll just be leaving," he told the man hastily and hauled Lucas off by the arm before the man had a chance to decide to deck him.

"Engage a girl's interest eh?" Tony quipped. Lucas looked defensive.

"Hey, I was doing just fine before he showed up!" he shot.

Tony wasn't really listening. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. It's 23:00. That club I was telling you about is about to open so let's pay the check and get going. Lots of ladies on the dance floor. And I have free passes," he said, dancing very badly to suggest what those ladies might be offering and waving two passes around in the air. Lucas shook his head.

"Uh, Tony. I don't know. The last time I went anywhere with you, on any kind of pass, I ended up kidnapped," he said hesitantly.

"Hey! How was I supposed to know it was a set up? Come on Lucas please? We have to be back at the boat in three hours. I haven't seen any action in months!" Tony begged, putting on his best puppy dog face.

Lucas sighed reluctantly. "Alright, alright. Let me guess, Can I get this?" he said, already reaching for his wallet. Tony clapped him on the shoulder.

"Could you? Ah, that's great!" Tony thanked him and headed for the exit, Lucas just shook his head. Tony always stuck him with the bill when they went anywhere. He wondered again why he had agreed to take shore leave with him. Lucas fiddled with his wallet a minute, picking through it for bills to pay their check. Their waitress turned up just as he was getting out money for a tip.

"I see your friend is in a hurry to get away," she observed sidling in closer to him. "Here let me take that for you," she said, taking the bills from his hand with a flirty smile. Lucas had let his wallet slip unnoticed onto the table, he was so busy trying to decide how to respond. He didn't see her slide her free hand over and take the wallet.

"Thanks for the tip," she said moving a little closer and licking her pink lips. Lucas was suddenly a complete klutz with no idea what to say.

"Come on Lucas!" Tony called impatiently from the beach below the dining deck.

"I'm coming!" Lucas shouted back. "I, uh, have to go," he stuttered and did everything but bolt from the restaurant. He glanced back once on his way out as she waved and mouthed "Bye,". Lucas just grinned nervously and kept going.

"Oh yeah, you're a real ladies man," Tony told him and rolled his eyes as they started down the beach. Lucas chose to ignore him.

"How far do we have to walk?" he asked, changing the subject as they hit pavement.

"Not far, about a block, The place is called Hot Lips," Tony told him.

"Hot Lips? Is this a club or a strip joint Tony?" Lucas asked jokingly as they made their way down the street among the throngs of people, neon lights blazing around them.

"It's a club, the ladies just happen not to wear that many clothes," Tony defended himself. Lucas nodded.

"Uh huh," was all he said.

"I'd like to get one of those lady's hot lips..." Tony remarked, starting off on a tangent. It took him a moment to realize Lucas wasn't behind him. He'd stopped a few paces back. He was looking across the street to a residential apartment building. Four floors up a young woman was standing in one of the windows lighting a candle.

"Hey man, are you coming or what? Stop being a peeping tom. It's ladies night; there will be plenty of women to stare at when we get there. Besides she's not all that hot," Tony complained, wanting to get to the club. Lucas was still watching the window.

"It's not that," he said. "What is today? It's June 29 isn't it?" He asked his eyes never leaving the window, the girl had moved away from it already. He was watching the candle burn in the darkness, somehow managing to outshine the lights and neon glow of the streets below. Tony checked his watch.

"Yeah so?" he said shrugging.

"It's been six years," he breathed softly, shoving his hands in his pockets out of habit.

"Six years since what?" Tony was beginning to get confused.

"Since Alexandria Northman died. She used to do that for her parents," He freed one hand and pointed at the flickering candle. "They were lost at sea during a research expedition. Their bodies were never found. Neither was hers. She died two years after they did on the way from Palo Alto, California to Dublin, Ireland. She was going on vacation; it was a freak accident. The shuttle she was on had a defective navigational system. They plowed right into a sea mount, blew the engine and the shuttle along with it. There were no survivors. She was... a friend," Lucas explained. His face took on a more subdued, quiet facade as he spoke, and his voice deepened. It had been a long time since he'd thought about her, he tried not to. Knowing she'd just ceased to exist had been a little much at fourteen years old. At nineteen it was still too much. Tony squeezed his shoulder.

"I'm sorry. Was she your girl friend?" He asked gently. Lucas shook his head and looked down at his shoes, flicking a stray pebble off the sidewalk and into the street.

"No, just a friend." he replied after a tense pause. "I was her math tutor actually. She was horrible at it. I can't even remember how many nights we sat up with me trying desperately to get her to understand it," he smiled wanly and chuckled at the memory. There had been times he had wanted to throw the math book at her, she had exasperated him beyond all reason some times. Tony dropped his hand and looked serious for a rare moment.

"Sounds like she was a nice girl. You two must have been pretty close," he said, unsure what to say.

"Yeah she was. We were good friends," Lucas answered him. He fought down the lump in his throat, they had been very good friends. She had been little more than a year older then him and they had connected on a level neither of them could achieve with their classmates. Tony was getting uncomfortable with the depressing direction the conversation was taking, and the somber look on Lucas' face wasn't helping. He perked himself up.

"Hey come on, let's get to that club. Lots of single ladies to cheer you up," he piped. Lucas took one last look back at the window, the candle still burning brightly, as he followed Tony toward their destination.

"Yeah," was all he said as they passed into the bustle of the crowd again.

When they reached the club they were met by a long line of eager patrons all jockeying for position to get in. Tony groaned.

"I hate lines," he muttered looking at the roped off corridor to the entrance. "Makes me feel like a cow in a shoot waiting to get branded." Rather than stand around waiting, he decided to try getting around the line.

"Hey! I got passes!" he yelled to the doorman. The doorman looked up at him briefly from a clipboard.

"Yeah and so does everybody else, just wait your turn!" he yelled back and returned his attention to his clipboard. Tony looked disgruntled and settled into line to wait, Lucas was quiet behind him.

"I guess we wait," Tony complained as he rifled through his wallet for identification. Absently Lucas realized he would have to have some too before they would let him in pass or no pass. He was only half thinking about the club now, the other half of his mind was busy thinking about Alexandria Northman. To be honest the club had lost any allure it might have had. No amount of pretty girls and thrumming music was going to get his mind off her. His hand went to his back pocket automatically. It was then he realized he must have left his wallet at the restaurant. He winced at his own stupidity.

"Tony, I left my wallet back at the restaurant. I'll be right back," he told him and turned back the way they had come.

"Hey, want me to come with you?" Tony asked, looking at the line ahead of them and secretly hoping he said no. The line would only get longer if they had to come back to it.

"No, no. I'll be right back. You just hold our place," Lucas assured him and trotted back toward the restaurant. He was out of hearing range before Tony could say anything in reply.

Lucas kicked himself for leaving his wallet behind; he hoped it would still be there when he got back. He walked quickly, not that he needed to. From the looks of that line they would only be half way to them when he returned. He was walking back more or less on auto pilot. He had walked these streets any number of times before. It seemed anytime the seaQuest docked in New Cape Quest, he ended up on leave with Tony Piccolo.

Tony had a very predictable idea of a good time on leave. Food and women. And it was always the same food, at the same place, and never the same woman, so he paid little attention to where he was going, letting his mind wander. He thought he would buy a candle when they left the club and light it for Alexandria before they headed back to the seaQuest. He hadn't been to her grave since the funeral had been held, despite not having a body they had buried an empty casket. He had been too busy and it had been too disturbing to visit an empty grave. He kept repeating the same thing over and over in his mind. It was the same thing he had thought ever June 29th for the last six years. Why did I never tell her?

He was paying so little attention, that he didn't even notice when pavement gave way to sand again; he didn't notice the three men standing off to one side under a palm tree, cloaked in shadows. He didn't see when one raised a weapon and fired twice, darts catching him in the back. As soon as the darts penetrated he knew he had been shot. He flailed at the darts in his back wildly with one hand, the tranquilizer in them taking effect fast. Realizing he couldn't get to the darts, he fumbled in his pocket for his PAL, managing to hit a button on its console before he sank to the ground in a crumbled heap.