SeaQuest Bridge

Nathan waited as the voice on the other end gave him instructions regarding the depth of the water beneath the submarine. SeaQuest needed a specified depth before it could start to move away from the dock. Clemens listened closely as the information was passed onto Nathan. He growled and tossed the headphones at the console.

"Why is it taking so long?" he almost whined, his patience all but gone. Nathan shook his head and removed his head phones as well.

"Do you have any idea how large this submarine is? 1000 ft Clemens! It's not your average sub,"

"So we just sit and wait?" argued the irritated man.

"Exactly. When the dock is fully submerged, they'll let us know. Until then we wait," replied Nathan checking the digital readings carefully. Nathan walked over to where Lucas was sitting and patted the teens arm reassuringly. Clemens growled and repositioned his gun on the boy.

"Don't get too cozy, captain," he warned. Nathan frowned at Clemens bitterly and sighed.

"For crying out loud, I'm just seeing how the kid is doing, Clemens," replied Nathan, with an edge to his voice. The waiting was grating on him just as much. He'd done all he could to waylay the launch. He just had to wait to see if SeaQuest would need to move or if Noyce had figured out his message.

"I'm okay, Captain," assured Lucas, managing a grim smile. For the moment, his head has stopped swimming, and he was grateful Clemens had stopped shoving him around. Nathan patted Lucas again, returning the smile.

"It's a guitar string moment, Lucas," stated Nathan. Lucas frowned in confusion and stared at Nathan.

"The trick is to not tighten the string too tightly." Lucas tried to figure out what the captain was saying by his anecdote. The captain winked at him kindly. Captain Bridger was known to say some cryptic thing to him and make him figure it out before explaining the meaning. Usually it had some valuable lesson in it, but figuring it out often drove Lucas to distraction. Nathan smirked at him and walked towards the main computer monitor.

Lucas leaned his head back and massaged his neck trying to ease some of the aches. His head ached too much to give the comment any more attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of movement in the moonpool. He knew that Darwin wasn't onboard SeaQuest, so his mind was having a difficult time making out what he was seeing. He reached to open the moonpool causing Clemens to grab his arm roughly.

"Ah," screamed Lucas painfully

"What did you do?" he hollered, jumping to his feet and staring at the odd body of water on the bridge. Nathan whirled around seeing the cause of the alarm.

"It's the moonpool, Clemens. It helps us to ascertain the water levels for SeaQuest. The kid just opened it for me," Nathan glanced at Lucas, raising an eye brow. Lucas licked his lips slowly and shrugged his shoulders. Clemens released his arm with a painful yank causing Lucas to grimace.

"I did it without thinking, Captain," explained Lucas rubbing his arm where Clemens had grabbed it. Nathan nodded and returned to the panel. Clemens turned his attention to what Nathan was doing. The screen went black suddenly, and then computer started flashing various codes. Nathan leaned back almost in shock as he read the flashing codes. His face was emotionless as he stared. Clemens stared at Nathan, wondering what the codes meant. He had seen many codes in his life but these ones were foreign.

"What are they?" demanded Clemens. "C'mere, kid," he demanded, grabbing Lucas harshly and forcing him to sit in front of him. Lucas groaned and stared at the moniters. The awareness of the sub being in water became obvious to him.

"We're floating, captain," replied Lucas. The rolling of the sub made it difficult to sit or stand. Lucas reached for the edge to steady himself. The sub was beginning to roll back and forth roughly. Clemens also grabbed the console to steady himself, and glared at Captain Bridger with fear in his eyes.

"What's happening?" he demanded.

"Submarines aren't that stable on top of the water. It's got a round hull which makes it rock on the surface," explained Lucas, staring at the odd codes on the screen. "What are those, captain?" questioned Lucas. Nathan frowned at Lucas sternly, hoping the smart teenager would understand the firm gaze. Lucas looked at him in bewilderment.

"Compensation codes, Lucas. You have seen these hundreds of times," replied Nathan, with concern on his face. Lucas nodded slowly and took it as a cue to remain quiet. He didn't have any idea what the codes were, but he knew they had nothing to do with the compensation.

"What are compensation codes?" snapped Clemens. He was feeling extremely frustrated not knowing what they were talking about. The longer time stretched out, the more annoyed he was becoming.

"Look, Clemens, you're forcing SeaQuest into the water without the proper stabilizing tests. The "Compensation" is critical. After a submarine is in port for maintenance, supplies and spares are loaded, and diesel fuel and water are topped off, and so on. It can be difficult to estimate the exact weight of the submarine. This estimation and adjustment back to neutral buoyancy is called "The Compensation", and it's critical to get it right. If the submarine is too heavy, once the air escapes from the MBTs, the sub will continue to sink toward Crush Depth. If that happens, I will have to "catch and carry the extra weight" with speed and the ship's angle until the extra weight can be pumped off. If the sub is too light, it won't sink at all," explained Nathan, annoyance in his voice as he entered his own codes into the computer and hitting enter. The information seemed to appease Clemens, and he remained quiet watching. Lucas glanced at Captain Bridger in amazement. The captain was doing something, but he wasn't doing anything to do with compensation.

Jonathan swam behind Tim to the moonpool on the bridge, and surfaced quietly. He quickly eyed the situation, taking note of where the captain stood, as well as Lucas and Clemens. He heard the captain explain why the moonpool was on the bridge. Jonathan smirked at the captain's explanation. Bridger was resourceful on his feet. It was no secret why he was the captain of SeaQuest. The man was full of ingenuity. Jonathan glanced at Clemens. There was no way they could do anything with Clemens' gun so closely targeted on Lucas. Jonathan strained to see what the captain was reading on the screens. He vaguely recognized the coding on the screen. He scowled as he tried to remember where he had seen it.

"The boat is in water, Commander," whispered Miguel surfacing, feeling the rocking of the sub. When the boat was first released from dry dock, it tended to rock perilously. Sometimes, it made it difficult to stand depending on how fast the dock was submerged. Jonathan nodded his agreement. He could feel the movement of the boat as well. It was disconcerting to know SeaQuest was about to be launched.

"Ortiz, Krieg, do you think you can find your way back?" inquired Jonathan looking at both men. They nodded confidently. "Good, get me some more breathers. As many as you can carry. Take what's left of ours and share them. You are going to have to move fast or you'll run out of air. I figure you have about 10 minutes left on all of them. Get air where you can in the aqua tubes," he ordered. Both men nodded and disappeared under the water. Katie looked at Jonathan curiously.

"What are you thinking?" she asked.

"Those codes. I think they're a form of Morse code."

"Morse code?" Katie furrowed her brow inquisitively. With the advanced technology that the navy had, Morse code was an ancient form of communication. And outside of Morse code, which she was vaguely familiar with, she didn't know of any other form of coding. Tim's eyes grew large.

"The captain is communicating with someone and telling them exactly what's happening on the bridge," finished Tim in awe.

"I think so. He hasn't seen us yet," began Jonathan.

"So what are you thinking, Jonathan?" asked Katie trying to grip the side of the moonpool carefully to keep from going back under. The water wasn't freezing. but it was cold enough to make her shiver involuntarily.

"I want to get Lucas out. If we can manage that, we can take Clemens down," affirmed Jonathan "As soon as Krieg and Ortiz get back, we need to work on getting him off the bridge." Katie clear blue eyes rested on Lucas. The teen looked so much younger than his 15 years as Clemens towered over him. Somehow, they had to figure a way to get the kid out.

UEO headquarters, Pearl Harbour

Bill Noyce, surrounded by UEO leaders, sat in front of the computer inputting commands. He had figured out Nathans code and the two friends were communicating rather quickly. Nathan had informed Noyce about Clemens: who he was and what he wanted. The guy was a basic hacker. Noyce had researched the man and quickly discovered how dangerous he was. He always managed to slip into hiding, and no one saw him for years. How he was ever placed on at the Node Communication Installation was beyond Noyce's comprehension. The guy was obviously unstable. All those kids under Clemens tutelage made him shudder. Who really knew how much damage the man had done?

Bill was relaying messages to the UEO security in Port Everglades. The sub's dry dock was being submerged, but Nathan had come up with a plan. Once the dry dock was fully submerged, they were going to attempt to move it. The force of the movement would upset SeaQuest enough to violently rock it. Nathan was hoping that that would give him the edge he needed to overtake Clemens. He was hesitant to make any moves because Clemens had not changed the aim of his gun. He kept it trained on Lucas without fail. Bill was awaiting Nathan's final command once the dry dock was completely submerged.

SeaQuest

Bridge

Ortiz swam back with a bag full of breathers. He surfaced alone silently with a smile.

"Where's Krieg?" queried Jonathan with concern.

"We ran out of air in the last Aqua duct so he stayed behind. I stopped and gave him a breather on my return and he went back. He didn't look too good, Commander," answered Ortiz. Jonathan nodded. He hoped the man made it back okay as he would have been very lightheaded from low oxygen in the ducts. Jonathan turned to Tim in uncertainty. Tim smiled bravely and nodded. He grabbed and breather and disappeared into the water. Jonathan smiled. SeaQuest crew was by far the best in the fleet. Each man backed the other without a second thought.

"Okay, now we wait." Jonathan, Katie, and Miguel hovered in the water waiting for the right opportunity to make a move.

The submarine continued to rock as the dock lowered to its lowest point. The final jolt came when the dock landed at the bottom and slowly the rocking began to slow and finally stopped. Nathan heard Clemens give a sigh of relief. Nathan inputted some more codes while Lucas watched. He gazed at Clemens and around the room still trying to ascertain what the captain was doing. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a hand waving at him. It disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Lucas swallowed and looked again, straining his eyes. He waited to see if he would see it again. Sure enough, the hand came up again followed by Commander Ford. Lucas' eyes grew wide and he bit his lip to kept from gasping outloud.

"Captain, do you want a depth on the moonpool?" asked Lucas, staring intently at Nathan. He crossed his fingers that the captain wouldn't brush his attempt aside out of his protective nature. He needed to get to the moonpool to see what Commander Ford had planned. Nathan turned to Lucas with a look of confusion.

"Uh, not now, kid," he stated firmly. Lucas sighed loudly. He was debating how to handle the situation without alerting Clemens that something was awry.

"Captain, you know that once the dock has submerged, you need that calculation for submergence." Lucas frowned at Nathan almost belligerently. Nathan scowled at him, not understanding the insistence to get to moonpool. Clemens looked uneasily at both of them. He wasn't sure how to take the disagreement between them.

"Get the measurement now!" snapped Clemens at Lucas. Nathan glowered at him. Lucas nodded his understanding and stood up hastily. The sudden movement almost knocked him off his feet. His head was still making him feel of balance and unsteady. He made his way to the moonpool swiftly and appeared to be leaning over the edge to get a measurement. Clemens stared after him training his gun on Nathan. "NO funny business. Lucas," warned Clemens brusquely.