A/N—I had a few minutes to edit another section of the story tonight. Tomorrow school starts…My kids are so depressed. *smirk* I still can't read reviews. I don't receive emails either so I can't read any of the reviews. I hope you are enjoying the story. I learned all about launching submarines from a dry dock. It was actually really interesting. I think I should have thought that part of it out better…its more complicated than I knew. (haha)

Anyways…here is chapter 14

Lucas fought to keep his footing as Clemens shoved him out of the Mag-lev into the hallway. The hallway had filled with men holding guns, all trained at Clemens. Lucas's eyes searched the men's faces, pleading with them with his eyes. He didn't want to die. He felt himself mumbling an incoherent language. His words came out in a garbled jumble. Clemens held him tightly around the neck and one shoulder and walked backwards keeping Lucas as a shield. Lucas heard Captain Bridger shouting orders to stand down. The men had all taken various defense stances, some kneeling and some standing; each men was poised in such a way to be ready should an opportunity present itself. Lucas caught sight of Miguel. For several seconds their eyes met. It was hard to decipher the gaze, one of sympathy and deep anguish. Lucas swallowed hard, his mouth dry in fear. His head pounded and he was having a difficult time keeping his balance. It didn't help that Clemens was half dragging him backwards and Lucas couldn't see where he was going. He closed his eyes to rest, feeling an overwhelming urge to shut his eyes. He felt himself drifting in and out of consciousness.

Lucas startled when he heard his name. He snapped his eyes open to see he was on the bridge. Clemens had shoved him into a chair, keeping the gun trained on his head. Every once and awhile Lucas felt the tip of the gun poke the back of his head. The metal felt cold and menacing on his head. He tried hard to blink and clear his head, but everything seemed like it was in a foggy tunnel. The sounds of voices and arguing were muffled. His vision was fuzzy, and it was getting more difficult to swallow. His head was pounding and his mouth felt like cotton. He saw Captain Bridger arguing with someone on a large screen. He heard more shouting and screaming. He felt himself being dragged around and knocked off his feet, once again losing consciousness.

Again, Lucas felt himself being dragged and harshly shoved into a chair. He felt rough angry hands poking and prodding at him. He attempted to pull away only to feel more piercing pain. His eyes opened as he felt his arm being twisted viciously behind him. He cried out in agony. The sharp pain seemed to bring about an alertness. He focussed his vision on Captain Bridger who was at the helm of the boat. Lucas looked around at the controls and the front of the bridge. He was shocked to realise that SeaQuest was being put in water.

Nathan turned his eye to look at Lucas. The teen had seemed to become aware of his surroundings. He inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. For the past several hours, the kid had been in and out of consciousness. Clemens continued to mercilessly shove and jerk the kid around. Nathan felt his temper simmering near a boil point as he watched helplessly. It had taken him hours to get enough personnel to flood the dry dock. For an intelligent man, Clemens was truly an imbecile when it came to the meaning of dry dock. It wasn't a simple manoeuvre to launch a submarine the size of SeaQuest. It took a lot of manpower. Nathan had the knowhow, but it still took an army of personnel to do it. He'd argued and shouted at people. He made unreasonable demands. He was thankful that the maintenance had been finished quickly the past several days. SeaQuest operated in harsh environments; seawater was very corrosive and the submarine operated at depths where it was subjected to extremely high pressures. The sub was a complicated boat with thousands of pumps, motors, generators, turbines, and valves, etc, that had to be kept working properly. Normally, a sub the size of SeaQuest wouldn't even enter dry dock for such a short shore leave, but the boat had been in desperate need of maintenance. Theoretically, the boat should have been doing sea trails first before being deployed.

"How long is this going to take, Bridger," snapped Clemens, growing impatient of waiting. He had made sure the bridge was locked down securely and that no other person could enter. Bridger seemed more than capable to operate the boat even if he was running from control to control.

"It takes time. I'm doing the work of six people," snapped Nathan.

"I-I can help," mumbled Lucas suddenly. Clemens held fast to the teenager and kept his gun close.

"I could use his help," acknowledged Nathan, eyeing Lucas carefully. Perhaps, if he could get Lucas absorbed in assisting him, it would help the kid feel less frightened. Nathan wasn't sure how clear-headed the Lucas was, or if he could even stay conscious. Clemens hesitated letting the boy go.

"Once they flood the dock, I'm going to need help to submerge this thing," replied Nathan, concentrating on something being spoken to him over headphones. Clemens grabbed a set of headphones to listen in on the conversation. He wanted to be in the know about what was being said. "Damn it, Clemens, submerging this thing on my own is next to impossible. I need some crew, for crying out loud. Do you expect me to run from station to station doing the job of six men?" Nathan's voice was calm, but firm.

"I expect you to do the job, captain, or watch the kid die a painful death," muttered Clemens. He pulled Lucas to his feet and shoved him towards a chair beside him. He pointed the gun at the back of his head and looked arrogantly at Captain Bridger.

"There, you have your crew." Nathan groaned and gave Lucas a compassionate look. The kid looked horrible but was doing his damndest to stay alert. Nathan couldn't believe the kid's resolve. If they survived this, he doubted the kid would ever fail at anything.

Miguel paced helplessly outside the bridge. He had successfully reached all the senior crew except Dr Westphalen. He had requested that one of the personnel keep attempting to reach her. She would be needed when everything was finished. Miguel just prayed that nothing else worse would befall Lucas or the Captain. Lucas looked bad enough. Miguel had helped the other teens off SeaQuest. Both kids were visibly shook up but had no serious injuries. O'Neill, Hitchcock, Krieg, Crocker, and Ford had quickly made their way to SeaQuest when Miguel contacted them. All of them felt stunned and powerless waiting. Captain Bridger and Lucas were trapped on the bridge, and everyone was blind to what was going on inside. They heard the engines, and crew had been put in place to help launch the boat. Personnel were positioned strategically in order to infiltrate.

Jonathan thought carefully as he waited. He knew SeaQuest as well as Captain Bridger. He also knew how the captain thought. Often they found themselves on the same wavelength and many a time, that awareness saved their lives. Jonathan squinted his eye narrowly at O'Neill, remembering a time when the captain and Tim had swam the aqua tubes to get Darwin from the Bridge moonpool to Sea-deck when he was sick. It wouldn't be easy, but it was feasible. Tim noticed Jonathan staring at him and returned the gaze questionably.

"What are you thinking, Commander," he inquired.

"I have a way in," he stated quietly. All eyes turned to their commander. "The moonpool. Remember when Darwin was sick, Tim?" Tim's eyes lit up at the memory.

"Of course!" he replied with excitement. "It's not a simple route, and it's easy to get twisted around. When Bridger and I were with Darwin, I was panicking. It's not like there are signs telling you where to go. You have to think strategically," explained O'Neill.

"Do you think you can remember how to get us there," urged Jonathan, unsure if Tim could retrace his route down there. The breathers only gave them about 20 minutes of air. Tim hesitated while thinking about the route in his head.

"Yah, I'm sure I can remember." Jonathan smiled and patted the man on the back, appreciatively. He knew that O'Neill was not in his element in the water. He was primarily a linguistic man. He was an asset to the crew in every way, but his strength was not underwater.

"Alright, Ortiz, Hitchcock and Krieg, I want you to come with O'Neill and me. If we can get in, we might be able to overpower him," explained Ford.

"Jonathan, the moonpool on the bridge will be sealed," commented Katie. Jonathan nodded knowingly.

"I know, but it's a chance I'm willing to take. Bridger might be able to open it subtly without drawing attention to it. The rest of you, stay here and be ready to enter." All the heads nodded.

Pier Harbour, Hawaii

Bill paced back and forth in his office at UEO headquarters. He had just finished speaking with Nathan on SeaQuest. Nathanhad been incredibly cryptic with him. He knew his friend was under immense pressure. Submerging SeaQuest on his own was going to be next to impossible, even if Lucas could manage to keep conscious. The youngster looked more than a little worse for wear. It was obvious that Clemens had been very forceful with the kid. Bill kept wracking his brain for clues in the code Nathan had sent him. It wasn't just a help signal. There was more to it, and Bill was frustrated with himself for not remembering. Nathan and he had known one another for what seemed like an eternity. They had played sports together, drank together and met their wives together. They had stood up at each other's weddings. Christened each other's kids. Hell, the two of them were just as close as brothers.

"Damn it, Noyce, think," he scolded himself and sat down at his desk. He drummed his fingers across the desk in irritation. Suddenly, he felt his age. Maybe 60 was too old, he berated himself. He couldn't even remember a simple code from 30-some years ago.

Bill's mind wandered back to the days when they had been in the academy. Nathan had been a hard-headed youth. Bill smirked at the thought. Nathan hadn't really changed. He'd just matured and became more stubborn. Nathan had once sat in class and argued with a teacher for over an hour. The instructor had not backed down and Nathan hadn't either. In the end, Nathan had ended punished for his defiance. Bill chuckled to himself at the memory. No one was able to dissuade Nathan when he had his mind set on something. If his memory served him right, Nathan had insisted that there should always be security measures on top of security measures built into every vessel. Maybe even some measures that no one else onboard knew about except the captain, the commanding officer and one other person off ship. Bill felt his mouth form an "O" as his memory recalled the coding that Nathan had created. Nathan had encoded SeaQuest.

"Son of gun," he mumbled as the memories flooded back. "Nathan Hale Bridger, you old dog you, you were right." Bill quickly grabbed the receiver from his desk to make a call.

SeaQuest

Sea-deck on C-deck

Jonathan followed Tim into the moonpool. Both men put the breathers into their months and went under. Krieg, Hitchcock and Ortiz quickly followed suit. They had twenty minutes to find the moonpool on the Bridge. If they hadn't found a logical route in ten minutes, Jonathan had ordered Hitchcock and Krieg to head back and grab more breathers. Accessing the bridge like this might be the only way for them to get in and take Clemens by surprise. They had no idea how long it would take SeaQuest to submerge with just Bridger manning the controls. The captain was good, but he was still only one man. SeaQuest needed a crew to launch her.

Jonathan followed Tim through the aqua ducts for several minutes. Tim had been right. It was very confusing in the tubes. There were no signs pointing which direction they were heading. Jonathan wondered how Darwin did it each day as he merrily swam through the tubes each day. Darwin seemed to instinctively know where he was going all the time. Jonathan followed Tim around a corner and they both came up out of the water, pulling out the breathers. They were quickly followed by Katie and Ben. They stood staring at each other attempting to gain their bearings.

"Any idea where we are?" asked Jonathan glancing around in confusion. They couldn't see anything and the ducts were dark.

"I can't be positive. This happened with Captain Bridger and me when were taking Darwin to Sea-Deck. There are so many dark ducts, but if you look to your left, you can see light. That light is the ducts that follow the corridors. Once we get to them, it should lead us directly to the bridge," responded Tim with confidence.

"Are you sure?" asked Miguel. He was feeling completely lost in the dark passageways of the ducts. Tim nodded.

"Remind me to complain to Captain Bridger about his poor design of the aqua ducts," mumbled Ben as he returned the breather to his mouth. Katie smirked at Ben. Leave it to Ben to crack a joke under any circumstance. As much as he annoyed her, she appreciated the levity.

Tim returned the breather to his mouth and submerged again, leading the crew to where he speculated the bridge moonpool would be. He was silently praying that he wouldn't get lost. He had nearly lost his wits the last time, and Captain Bridger had kept him calm. He had to keep himself together and get everyone to the bridge. The duct was pitch black and he hoped the others could follow him blindly. They had about ten more minutes of air and they'd be trapped in the aqua ducts. Suddenly Tim saw light ahead and swam as fast as he could to reach it. He looked out the window and recognised the corridor straight away. He turned and waved at the crew behind him. He knew exactly where the bridge was now.