Chapter 5

Lucas had done as he was told, he had blindly eaten the first food he came by in the galley and gone back to his quarters. He had slept like the dead. Even Piccolo coming in from his shift didn't wake him, and Tony couldn't have been quiet about it if he had tried. It just wasn't in his DNA.

By the time Lucas woke Tony had already left again for his next shift. He figured he must have been asleep for the better part of a day. Tony had apparently left him a welcome home present. When he had shaken off most of the grogginess, he found a tray heaped full of sausage, eggs and waffles. He almost passed it up in favor of rushing to the medical bay, then decided he had better eat something resembling a meal or Dr. Smith would just make him eat when he got there. He was well known for his habit of forgetting to eat once he sat in front of a computer screen, and that was under normal circumstances.

Once he had eaten some of the meal, he thought he might as well take a shower or Dr. Smith would have his hide about that too. Besides it would get his blood flowing and keep him working at his best if he was fed, rested and clean. He grabbed a set of clothes and headed for the showers. He rushed through it, dressed and made his way to the medical bay.

When he got there he found Dr. Smith already at work, neural scans, reports, brain schematics, and flow charts pulled up on multiple screens. He thought she was so absorbed in them she hadn't noticed him coming in.

"Hello, Lucas. Ready to get started?" she asked without looking up, she had felt him coming before he had even entered the medical bay.

"Uh, yeah sure. But could I have a few minutes with her first?" he asked. Wendy looked up from her work and smiled kindly at him.

"Of course. I need to finish looking this over anyway. I think I may have some information for you to get started with," she encouraged him. She noticed how he dropped his eyes nervously, fidgeting. "Go on," she urged him and shooed him affectionately.

"Doctor? Could you not listen?" he asked. He wasn't all that comfortable with anyone being that able to know what he was thinking when ever they liked. Wendy looked offended.

"Lucas, you know I don't read someone's thoughts without asking first!" she said exasperated.

"I know that. I just mean, can you not feel the emotions too?" he asked looking up at her through his lashes.

Wendy chuckled knowingly. So that's how it was. "I don't control that. But I solemnly swear to try not to notice. How's that?" she asked.

"Yeah sure," he said shyly after a nervous pause he added "Thanks," and shuffled off to the patient area. Wendy just smiled to her self and went back to work.

Lucas pulled a chair up to Alexandria's bedside and took one of her hands in his. She was still cold, but at least she didn't feel like she was packed in ice anymore. A little bit of color had returned to her face, but she laid there as if in state. Not so much as the flutter of an eyelid when he had taken her hand.

"Hi, Alex. I don't know if you can hear me but I'm going to get you out of this I promise. I'll find a way. I thought you were dead for so long. I've missed you," he stopped and watched her face for any sign of response but she stayed still as a stone. He fought with his emotions and choked on them. This was far different than he had thought it would be. He brushed a stray strand of hair from her forehead before he continued.

"Dr. Smith says that this chip that Dr. Sanborn put in your head has some sort of self destruct on it and that they can't remove it without killing you. So I'm going to find a way to disable it. She says even though you are in a coma that your neural functions are normal. I don't want to loose you again. Please still be in there and I hope you know I'm here. I think you do. You saved my neck back there. I don't know how or why but you did. Wendy says that sometimes things like that happen, don't give up on me yet, just hang in there," he urged her.

He sat with her in silence for a while more, watching her shallow breathing, hearing the steady beeping of the heart monitor, the click and whirr of the breathing machine. The life support system didn't bother him all that much, well it did, but it was what was keeping her alive. It was the bundle of wires running in and out of her head that made his skin crawl. They weren't bundled in one spot either, they ran out of her scalp in various places like a technological Medusa. Her hair only added to the effect, contrasting to the red, green and blue of the wires. How could anyone do this to another human being? Was she in pain? If she was aware of what went on around her, was she afraid? There was so much he wished he could ask her.

Squeezing her hand one final time him got up and went back to Dr. Smith's office. The sooner he got started the sooner he'd know the answers to those questions. If he succeed. Lucas would never admit it to anyone, but he was scared. If he didn't get this right on the first try he would lose her for a second time. She would die and he didn't know if he could forgive himself if she did. He had always been confident in his abilities before now, but he had never encountered something like this. Captain Bridger had been right, if he failed he would blame himself, but there was no other choice. Besides if he didn't try he would blame himself for that too. It was a catch twenty two. At least if he tried there was a chance, if he didn't there was none. He and Dr. Smith were the last hope she and the remaining victims of Dr. Sanborn had.

#***#

"So you ready now? You can take longer if you need to," Wendy said watching Lucas come trudging back into the office. She had kept her word and deliberately blocked him off, but despite it the wave of apprehension and confused emotion coming off him would have been obvious to anyone, psychic or not. He shook his head.

"No I've taken long enough. She's been trapped like that for six years. I'm ready," he said but his voice didn't hold the tinge of self confidence it usually did.

"Are you sure? You don't sound like you are," Wendy probed.

"Yes, I'm sure," he countered, his voice had a hard edge to it, she knew not to press him any further and kept her thoughts to her self.

"Alright. Come look at this then," she said as Lucas rounded the desk and leaned in, looking at the screens. "I've been looking over some very in depth neural scans of her brain. I can't touch the chip but that doesn't mean I can't find out how it's connected to her brain. It looks like the chip is wired into to every major function, even the most basic ones. I don't think this guy ever wanted it taken out. I suspect he did it this way to enable him to control each part individually. I think you need to know where and how it's wired to her brain in order to have all the information to start working, so you are about to get a crash course in applied neurotechnology. The medical and technological communities would have a field day researching this if they ever found out about it. This took some very extensive surgery. Surgery she would have to have been awake for, I can't imagine what that must have been like," she said allowing her self to muse aloud, she really couldn't imagine lying there awake and having someone run wires through your brain like that. Lucas turned green and swallowed hard.

"She was awake when he did this to her?" he asked. A new wave of revulsion washed over him.

"Yes, she'd have to be, or he wouldn't know if he'd gotten it in the right place without damaging anything. Taking it out she wouldn't have to be, you'd just follow the path in back out again," she admitted, Lucas was wavering between looking like he was going to be sick, burst into tears or tear the room apart.

"Is she in pain?" he asked, his voice was deep and tense, as if he were barely controlling himself. Wendy knew that was exactly what it was, it felt like she was being hit by huge waves over and over.

"No, even during the surgery she wouldn't have been. The brain has no pain receptors in it, so it doesn't feel pain. A drug induced coma is done by using high amounts of barbiturates so she shouldn't be in any pain and nothing in her scans or that I can feel from her indicates that she is," she tried to comfort him, and it seemed to at least quell him a little. He had taken to pacing the small space, his hands buried in his hair thinking.

"Alright, gimme whatever you need to give me," he said, the old self confident tinge wasn't there but a fierce determination was. She smiled wanly and handed him a thick book and a stack of reports and scans.

"That's everything I have. If you need any help let me know. I'm not really going to be much use until I can get in there to take the chip out," she told him. He nodded silently, took the offered materials, and stole a pad of paper and a pencil on the way out the door.