Chapter 3

Nathan Bridger was pacing the bridge of the seaQuest like a big cat locked in a small cage. They had been searching for hours, and not a single sign of Lucas. Darwin had returned with nothing that could help them either. They kept scanning, kept searching, sending Darwin out as they traveled and still not a single thing even hinting at where Lucas might be. Worry was beginning to give him a very sharp edge. The bridge was quiet as a grave yard except for the soft, constant beep of the sonar and the faint sound of typing.

"Damn it. You mean to tell me, that the best boat in the entire fleet, the best crew in the UEO, can't find a damn thing to lead us to Lucas?" he raved. The crew looked like they might all bolt. He knew he couldn't really blame them. They were trying. He was just beyond frustrated at this point. Dr. Smith placed a comforting hand on his arm, trying to calm him.

"Nathan, you aren't helping, you're just making the crew more nervous. We're all worried about Lucas," she said softly, moving to look him in the eye and draw his attention. Bridger leaned against a bulk head heavily.

"I know. I know. I'm just worried. I mean, how can there be no trace of him? Not a fuel trail, no sonar, nothing. It's like he's ceased to exist," he said sadly. Ortiz suddenly made himself heard.

"Captain I've got something. I'm picking up temperature discrepancies. They might not have left a fuel residue trail, but they did heat up the water. I don't know if it's Lucas, but someone's been through here recently," he told him.

"Are there any ships in the vicinity?" Bridger asked hopefully. Ortiz shook his head.

"No Captain, I'm sorry." he said. Bridger nodded. "Very well, follow that trail, set course full speed ahead, rig for silent running. I don't want who ever has him to see us coming," he ordered.

"Aye aye, sir!" confirmed Lt. Henderson, her voice rising in tone, and hope tinged her voice.

Suddenly the bridge was a flurry of activity. Commander Ford was relaying orders and people were scrambling to comply as fast as their fingers would let them. Bridger stood and watched as they began to plot a course, he paused only a moment before he dove back into his thoughts.

"And Mr. Ortiz... good work," was all he said. Ortiz looked back at him and smiled.

"Thank you Captain."

#***#

"Oh my God." Lucas rambled, this was why no one ever found her body. It felt like someone had grabbed hold of his heart, squeezed it tight and pulled. She laid there like she was made of marble or stone, the effigy on a sarcophagus. If it weren't for the constant beep of the life support systems and the shallow but steady rise and fall of her chest he would have thought her dead. Her face was thinner, almost gaunt, her arms, the only thing not under the blanket, were thin and spindly. His mind was playing tricks on him, he could have sworn for one hopeful moment that her eyelids flickered.

"Oh? So you two know each other?" Dr. Sanborn asked, his face still blotched red, but now contorted into a curious expression. "How nice. It will be so wonderful for you to have someone you know here, it will make the transition much easier for you. It will cut our tour a bit short however," he added.

"What? Transition? You bastard! Unhook her! Let her go!" Lucas screamed. He was beyond all reasoning at this point. His hair was a wild mop on his head, strands hanging in his eyes. The Doctor stood up taller, his back board straight, clasping his hands behind him. He dropped all pretense of civility.

"I'm sorry. That's quite impossible. If she is unhooked she'll die," he told him matter of fact. Lucas itched to get his hands around the man's neck so bad he was clinching and unclenched his cuffed fists.

"You son of a bitch. You monster!" Lucas wasn't sure if he should bolt or stand and fight. He was one large ball of raging anger. The doctor didn't even seem to hear him.

"However, you can join her," he commented dryly and nodded curtly to the two guards behind Lucas. Instantly they seized him, wrestling him toward the bed beside Alexandria. Lucas realized exactly what they were about to do and began thrashing around trying to break free, but with his hands bound there was little chance of that. They shoved him flat on the bed, one of the guards finagled the cuffs off him so he could restrain him to the bed. Lucas tried to wrench free, but the guards were larger than he was and he couldn't. No one noticed the soft moan from nearby or the rasping of bed sheets.

"Let go of me! You'll never get away with this!" he raged at them. The doctor grinned as one of the guards tried to force Lucas' wrist into a restraint.

"Oh but I already have," the doctor bragged. Suddenly the life support monitor next to Alexandria's bed went skittering across the floor and she lurched from the bed, falling like a rag doll and taking one of the guards down with her. Lucas scrambled back on the bed in horror and fear. He thought for a brief moment, the struggle had some how knocked Alex off her bed.

The doctor was suddenly divided. He didn't look like he knew what to do. Get Alexandria back in the bed or get Lucas secured first? The downed guard was trying to wriggle his way out from under the girl's dead weight as she managed to pull the respirator tube from her mouth. The doctor stood paralyzed with indecision and it cost him dearly. She gasped and managed to speak.

"Lucas run," she wheezed, lying there on the floor boneless. Lucas looked from her to the doctor and back. He needed to get out of there but wanted to help her and so could do neither.

"I said run!" she managed a little more forcefully. The doctor seemed to come out of his daze and made a lunge for Lucas. That jerked him back into reality and Lucas ran. He was half way to the doors before anyone could even realize what was going on in the chaos. The doctor jumped into action.

"Get him! " he screamed to anyone who would listen as he rushed forward to drag Alexandria's joint less form off the fallen guard. Lucas looked back only once, to see her there, dangling from the doctor's arms, limp, her eyes shut as if they had never opened, before he hit the side door button and disappeared down the corridor, Dr. Sanborn's people in hot pursuit.

Lucas pelted down the hallways, trying door after door, looking for a place to hide, a place to call for help. He had no chance unarmed and out numbered. He scrabbled around corners, sometimes sliding around them like he was on wheels. His hand finally fell on a handle that gave under his weight, he barreled through the door and locked it behind him. Looking around wildly he dove for the nearest computer console and began banging away on the keys, intently trying to gain access to their communications system. Thankfully this computer was normal, not like one of the ones in the lab. He'd have had to waste time figuring out the interface if it had been.

"This place is locked up tighter than Fort Knox," he muttered as he worked , eyes darting from the keyboard to the screen to the door and back again. He knew it was only a matter of time before they found him, he had to work quickly. His hands flew over the keys and numbers scrolled over the screen so fast, they became a blur. The computer kept blurping a negative response with every code Lucas tried, but he kept right on going, one of them had to work. Finally the computer beeped. He almost didn't believe he'd heard it, until access granted popped up on the screen.

"Yes!" he hissed. He hit connect and prayed.

#***#

"Captain! I've got a distress signal coming in. And it's got Lucas' ID on it!" O'Neill yelped suddenly from the communications station. Bridger thought he heard him wrong for a split second. Every crew member on the bridge looked at one another in desperate hope.

"On screen," Bridger barked.

"Yes sir!" confirmed O'Neill swiveling back around in his chair and flicking a switch. Lucas' face popped up on the screen and a huge sigh of relief went over the bridge like a wave.

"Lucas where are you? Are you okay?" Bridger queried him. Lucas nodded.

"Yes, Captain I'm fine. I'm at El Orquídea Jardines Resort, in the Puerto Rico Trench. I don't have a lot of time here Captain. It's just a matter of time before they find me. I was kidnapped, by a man named Dr. Ryan Sanborn. Captain, he has people wired into computers," Lucas told him the words coming out in one large rush.

"Lucas, El Orquídea Jardines was destroyed in a sea quake ten years ago. What do you mean people wired into computers?" Bridger asked a little confused.

"Yeah well apparently not, because I'm here. I mean he has living people wired into a computer main frame by their brains. He wants to add me to his collection. There are children involved in this, I think he's breeding them from the people he has wired into the computers. Captain you have to do something, this guy is insane," Lucas pleaded.

"Oh dear God. Alright, we'll do something Lucas. You know we will. For now stay somewhere safe. Can you get away, a shuttle maybe?" Bridger said. Lucas shook his head.

"I don't know Captain, he's got people looking for me I don't think I'd make it to a launch bay without being seen," he confessed.

"We're on our way Lucas. Just hold on," Bridger assured him. There were sounds off the screen of rustling, creaking metal.

"Oh no," Lucas breathed, and disappeared from the the view screen.

"Lucas! Lucas! What's going on?" Bridger asked frantically, but received no answer, the screen went dead.

"Get him back!" Bridger ordered, O'Neill tried to comply but shook his head.

"I can't Captain, we've lost the signal," he said sadly.

"Damn it. Set course for El Orquídea Jardines. Red alert, emergency speed!" Bridger barked.

"All stations rig for emergency speed!" shouted Commander Ford. Meanwhile Lt. O'Neill was announcing the alarm over the boat's communication system. The lights switched to red and an alarm began blaring.

"Diverting all power to impellers. Opening secondary intakes," Lt. Henderson called. People were making mad dashes for their stations. Henderson was going through buttons and switches like it was a contest.

"Turbo heaters engaged. Control surfaces modified!" She confirmed.

"We're rigged for emergency speed Captain," Commander Ford announced.

"Then get us the hell out of here Commander!" Bridger barked.

The seaQuest shot out on course. She was fast, Bridger just hoped she was fast enough.

#***#

When he had heard the door behind him scrape open Lucas had dove for cover out of instinct. Not that it would help, there was no where in the room to hide. Dr. Sanborn's head had emerged through the space backed by several guards, armed with plasma rifles. Lucas couldn't run and he couldn't fight. He was cornered. The Doctor looked at him, and the view screen, then back again. He looked heart broken. Lucas was confused, wasn't he going to kill him, or drag him off to be jacked into the computer system along with the others?

"You have no idea what you've done. You have no idea! I'll have to destroy it all! I won't let them stop me!" he raved. His eyes had taken on a crazed look. He ran his hands over his face a moment looking everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "No matter, I have other locations. You won't stop me!" he raged on and before Lucas had a chance to say or do anything, he had whirled around and disappeared through the door again, the guards in tow behind him.

Lucas sagged back against the wall. He had been really worried there for a minute. He didn't know or care why the man had turned tail and run. Gathering his wits , he tried to reestablish communication with the seaQuest, before he could, an alarm began wailing and a computerized voice came blaring over the communications system.

"Warning, self destruct in thirty minutes. Please evacuate immediately," it droned. Lucas ran for the door, he had to find a way out of here before the whole thing blew. He careened out into the hallways, pushed and shoved out of the way by running personnel desperate to get out of here themselves. Lucas looked around frantically trying to decide what to do.

He could follow the fleeing employees, they had to be heading for the launch bays. Someone rushed passed him with one of the children from the nursery in their arms, the child was crying aloud its fear. He started to follow them, try to steal a shuttle, then stopped, he couldn't just leave Alex and all those people in there. He had to try and get them out. Thirty minutes wasn't near enough time to get them disconnected, if they were even going to bother. He turned and ran for the huge operations room he had escaped from only a short while ago.

He slammed the side door button hard and pelted back into the room, with the computer voice still jabbering its warning to evacuate, he dashed behind the curtained off area and looked the computer consoles over. Five of the beds still beeped and whirred away with their occupants, but one had gone dark and silent. Lucas rushed over to discern what was going on. It didn't take him long to figure it out.

They were systematically shutting down. He tried desperately to get the unit to come back on line, fumbling with the unfamiliar interface, but it was dead, and by the bio readings so was the bed's occupant. Lucas gripped his pounding head, thinking. He had to do something. They were all going to die if he didn't at least try to get them out. The doctor's words rung in his thoughts. If she is unhooked she will die. Lucas didn't care he had to try and save her and them.

He rounded the next bed and began trying to disconnect the occupant from the system, he realized he wasn't working fast enough to beat the system shut down, it was working faster than he could, one by one the lights on the bed's units where going dark. He knew he couldn't save the occupant, there was no way. He abandoned him and moved to the next, trying to get ahead of the shut down while it killed off the other person. But Lucas still wasn't fast enough, Dr. Sanborn had obviously never meant for anyone to survive the shut down. Lucas hit the console in anger and frustration so hard his hand throbbed. He couldn't beat the system this way, maybe if he worked from last to first he might have a chance. It was Alex in the last bed, he prayed he could get more than just her out.

He skidded around her bed and began trying to gain access through the console that controlled her support units. The system refused to respond, Lucas was going to have to do some complex work here if he was going to get through the system's safe guards. He threw himself into it, drowning out the blare of the evacuation order.

#***#

The seaQuest drifted to a stop on the El Orquídea Jardines outskirts.

"WSKRS view," Bridger ordered. He didn't have to wait long, Ortiz had it punched up in short order. What he saw made him stop dead. Shuttles were streaming away from the compound like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

"What's going on?" he demanded of anyone who'd answer. O'Neill shook his head.

"I don't know Captain, no one is broadcasting anything," he said, it was Henderson that found the answer.

"Captain, they've initiated a self destruct sequence, that whole place is going to blow in fifteen minutes," she told him.

"Is Lucas still down there? Is anybody?" Bridger asked.

"I'm getting readings of two life signs left on the resort Captain, either everybody else is dead or they already evacuated," Ortiz relayed.

"One of them is Lucas! I can feel it," Dr. Smith declared loudly.

"O'Neill hail him. Commander get over there and get Lucas out of there! Doctor you might want to get down to the medical bay we may be needing it." Commander Ford grabbed Brody and several of his men and dashed for the launch bays at a dead run. Dr. Smith turned and fled the bridge for the medical bay without a word.

O'Neill began hailing attempts immediately. " El Orquídea Jardines this is the seaQuest. Please respond." No answer. He tried again. " El Orquídea Jardines this is the UEO vessel seaQuest please respond. Lucas come on." This time he got an answer, Lucas' bowed head popped up on the screen, moving back and forth frantically.

"Captain I sort of have a problem here," Lucas greeted him without looking up.

"Lucas! Get out of there! Ford is on his way over with a team to get you. That place is about to self destruct!" Bridger told him. Lucas shook his head but didn't look up from what ever he was working on.

"I can't Captain, he set the systems that control the people jacked into this computer system to shut down. It's killing them Captain," Lucas told him.

"Lucas, you have to get to a launch bay, You can't save them!" Bridger tried to reason with him. Lucas shook his head again.

"Sorry Captain you don't understand. I know one of them. She's the only one left alive Captain, there's more than one location, more people he's done this to, she's the only one who can tell us where Dr. Sanborn might have gone," he explained.

"What do you mean you know her? Lucas, I'm giving you an order, get out of there now." Bridger snapped.

"I mean I know her. She was a friend in college. I'm a civilian Captain, I don't have to obey orders!" Lucas shot back still working. Bridger looked incredulous.

"On my boat you do!" he said back. Lucas suddenly let out a whoop as something did what he wanted. He looked up at the screen briefly before disconnecting the communication.

"Sorry Captain, not this time," he told him and the screen went black.

Bridger could do nothing but gape at the blank screen in shock.

#***#

Lucas shook his head. You're just going to have to understand Captain, like it or not, he thought. He had managed to isolate the life support systems from the shut down process, now he could focus on getting her CPU and battery pack unlinked from the mainframe. He knew he was racing against time and Commander Ford would be here any second. The computer blared a ten minute warning. Lucas' heart was racing, his hands flying over the virtual interface.

"Come on,come on." he pleaded with the computer. He heard the doors open behind him, he knew it had to be Commander Ford even if he couldn't see him. He kept working he had no time to loose.

"Lucas?" Commander Ford called as he rounded the curtain. He looked on the scene with horror. Brody looked like he was going to be sick behind him.

"Lucas we have to go, this place is about to blow," Commander Ford tried to reason with him. Lucas ignored him.

"Lucas listen to me. You have to stop this , we're all going to die here. You have to come on. There's no time," Brody interjected. Commander Ford had stepped forward and firmly gripped Lucas' arm. Lucas looked up at him, his face full of pleading.

"Lucas, I will make you leave by force if I have to." he warned him.

"Commander please. I've almost got her. Please I have to." he begged. Commander Ford rolled his eyes in exasperation, but he nodded. "You've got three minutes."

"Thank you!" Lucas said and went back to frantically over riding the computer's mainframe. Brody didn't say anything but looked decidedly uncomfortable standing there. So did the rest of the men on the team. Lucas was so engrossed, when the computer released its hold on the CPU and battery pack he couldn't believe it. He stepped back and looked at it, almost in confusion. He realized it had worked.

"Yes!" he shouted and dove under the bed pulling wires out of their ports from the mainframe. "Somebody unhook the life support system!" he shouted. It was Commander Ford who stepped forward and began unhooking it, while Lucas unhooked first the battery pack and then the CPU from the network, setting the cases on Alex's abdomen. The Commander looked at him.

"Are you done?" he asked. "Yes," Lucas replied. "Then let's get the hell out of here," the Commander said as they pushed the bed along in front of them racing for the launch bay. The warning system blared again.

"Five minutes until self destruct."