"The last transmission to the prison island puts him here, 165 nautical miles off the coast of Malta" Meylan said as he put a little ship on the map in the middle of what was the circle of uncertainty. There was another ship representing the Nathan James off to the left, something she thought was endlessly fascinating. All the war games that had to be played.

And she had knowledge of the seeds. It was her belief in the seeds that kept them on this path to begin with. They could have chosen other things to do, other things to try, but she knew. Like she knew when they went up to the arctic to find birds in the permafrost, she knew that this one seed would help save the world. It was absolutely incalculable that it had lived when so many of its neighbors had died off.

So she played war games again.

"And we're sure about this?" She asked.

Meylan nodded. "The coordinates from the satellite are accurate and make sense with Fletcher's last message,"

Sasha looked pained by the mention of Fletcher, but she tried to hide it. "Yes, that means, seventy miles of search area,"

Rachel gasped a little when she heard the number. It seemed like a lot, but also they were used to being in the hundreds of miles of search area. This didn't seem so bad. They could even have those seeds and be off to Norfolk before week's end, she thought. She shouldn't get too excited though.

"Safe to say Vellek's still traveling with the two warships that pursued us in the storm," Tom noted as he looked to Mike.

"Agreed," Mike said, "No way, they'd leave the flagship unprotected,"

"He'd want to have extra security for the seeds. It makes sense," She told him, "But three on one, isn't that going to be difficult?"

Tom chuckled, "Only a little,"

"To state the obvious, this could be a trap," Meylan regarded all the people in the room.

"Fletcher risked his life to make that call," Sasha said in a small voice. She hadn't forgiven the man for what he did, but she did respect him for doing the right thing in the end.

Rachel squeezed Sasha's hand, not tightly, but enough to tell her that she was there. That she didn't just have to stop feeling those feelings, because they were real and she deserved to have them. She deserved to feel like a real person. Sasha looked between her hand and Rachel and smiled a little. They didn't say any words, but the smile said enough.

"But it's also possible they set him up," Melyan countered. And that was his job. He was good at his job, but hearing Fletcher on that call, it was real, and everyone, maybe including Meylan knew it. "Let him get the message out, to lure us to Malta,"

Tom shook his head. "The intel he provided adds up," He said, looking at the map. "Vellek's gonna need an airfield to deliver his poison. Malta's got the closest one."

"Either way, best we operate on the assumption they know we're coming and they're ready for us," Mike said as he looked around the room.

Rachel took a breath and looked at Mike and Tom, "So what does that mean for me? I need to get to those seeds as soon as we're in range of them. We can't waste any more time."

Tom nodded. "I don't want to speak over my place here, but you will probably be in the CIC. We can't risk you out and about. You're too great a political asset. Even you being here on the ship is an extreme risk that the president wasn't sure about."

She nodded. These people had forgotten that she'd use guns before. Hell, she'd been captured before. And there was nothing that Lucia or Giorgio would do that the Russians wouldn't have, but she understood the point that they were making. She had made a life for herself that included being a political asset now, working on the president's campaign, being seen with him so much, hell even being the woman with the cure. She didn't love it, but it was her life.

"Let's talk options," Mike said as he nodded to Tom.

"I suggest we do a high speed run to Malta and tuck into the bay," Meylan said, moving the ship around the map, "When the Greeks make port, we launch a small boat attack, determine which ship is carrying the seeds, and sink the other two,"

"There are still fishing grounds in this area that see a lot of boat traffic," Sasha pointed to a spot between them and Malta. "At EMCON, it shouldn't be hard to blend in, get to Malta undetected,"

Tom didn't like it though. "We'll never beat them to Malta," He said, "And if we did, we don't know what kind of assets they have on the ground backing them up. We need to take them out at Sea."

"A direct confrontation with three warships? We wouldn't survive that battle," Meylan said. And as much as she believed in the Nathan James, Rachel knew that he was right. They had taken on the Russians and a British sub and even those they only did one at a time.

"So we split 'em up, take 'em one at a time,"

Mike looked like a lightbulb popped above his head. "Yeah, we feint. Let 'em know where we are, then disappear."

Tom took it from there, "When they send a ship to investigate, we take it out, three on one, becomes two on one"

"While the Nathan James engages the other screening ship, Vulture team boards the flagship, retrieves the package," Sasha said, as she squeezed Rachel's hand. That had the makings of a good plan.

"So that's the plan then,"

Meylan nodded. "We'll need eyes on those ships. I'll get the helo in the air,"

Tex stood with Ravit outside the door. "What's the plan? I saw Meylan walk out of there before everyone else, what are we doing?" He asked.

Rachel moved away from the wardroom with Tex and Ravit, so that the others could get out and start what they were doing. They had to get everything ready and all she was going to be doing was getting to CIC before too long. But that didn't matter now. Tex had asked her a question and she answered it. "Meylan's getting the helo ready. Kathleen, Sunshine, and Razor are going out to scout where the ships are," She moved to the side so that traffic could flow on the other side. "The plan is very war games, but they always are,"

Tex nodded. "I should go check with Sasha, see if I'm needed,"

Rachel hated that idea. But he'd been on the search for those seeds since before she got on the ship and it wasn't going to make a lot of sense if he just sat back. That wasn't the type of guy that he was.

He left Rachel and Ravit, Sasha wanted him helping with making sure that stuff was ready with Danny and Burk.

"Another day, another mission," Danny said as he lifted some equipment out.

Burke shook his head. "Same day, another mission,"

It was like that. This mission had been grueling from the start. But now especially, they were working overtime to get those seeds back to America where they could be used to feed the world and without mind control.

"Hey, saving the world is a full time job," Miller replied to both of them.

Tex flicked his hat and smiled. "Ain't that the truth. Who knows when we get a day from doing this?" He asked.

He had stayed in TexArkana for awhile, to try and get away from the war, but it just ended coming to his door in the end. Both he and Rachel had had bad accidents that tried to keep them from war, but they kept coming back to it. At least his whole family was under one sailing roof this time. He didn't have to worry about where Kathleen was. He could visit her freely and he did.

Sasha and Tom came in, talking about some stuff, but they were quiet enough. They didn't need everyone in on their conversation and while Tex was interested, he didn't care. He was on Vulture team and they were supposed to be ready to move at any moment.

They got the LAMs on the table and made sure that they were ready for what they needed when the time came. If they were going to get on that ship and cripple it, without destroying it, they would need them to do their job when the time came. That was someone else's job though, because Tex wasn't really trusted with high tech explosives just being a civilian contractor on this ship.

While Tex stood there in the helo bay, he noticed Ray and Kathleen. He had noticed their budding romance for awhile, not that Kathleen admitted to it. She was friends with Ray and she wanted to keep in good compliance with the regs, something that her father knew nothing about, because his work was always civilian contract work. Along with Rachel's. They weren't military people. They were in the saving the world business, but they weren't in the war business. At least that's what they told themselves to keep themselves sane.

"Air crew, listen up," Sunshine said, "Get those hellfires secured, Razor. It's time to start the motors and spin the rotors,"

It was at that time that Kat asked Ray to "Wish me luck,"

Which Ray refused. "You don't need it,"

"Hey Nolan," Miller said, and for a second, Tex thought about turning around and looking at him, but everyone called him Tex, no one called him by his last name. That was just Kat, "You know, if you're still looking for a call sign I got one for you-" He said, as he looked Kat with a smile and patted Diaz on the butt, "Cupid, because you just shot your arrow right through Diaz's heart," And he made a little bow gesture as he walked off.

He had to admit that it was a little funny. Everyone laughed a little. Except Ray and Kathleen, who both turned red. But it was over in a second. And soon Kathleen was jumping into the helo with Razor and Sunshine and they were off.

Tex stayed with the guys. It would only be harder to leave Rachel if he got a chance to see her again. Besides, she was going to be in the Combat Center, she would be fine. There would be many people around her and she would be taken good care of.

Rachel took her place in the combat center, standing near the desk that they usually had meetings at whenever there was a debrief. It was the most out of the way place that she could see in the room. And that was part of the deal. She wasn't supposed to get in the way of the people actually doing a job in here. Her role was advisory. She was here simply to make sure that they got the seeds. When they did, she had a lab, Fletcher's lab, that would help her be able to work on using them to feed the world. A task herculean in size.

"Picking up something, Bearing 317, sounds like prop noise,"

"Warship?" Slattery asked.

"Hard to tell from this distance, sir. Loud. Could be multiple. Heading North."

"Toward Malta," Kara explained.

So this was it. This was what they needed. They were going to find the ships and then the seeds and then they could be on their way back to Norfolk, making some seeds work for them while they were on the way back. She hadn't expected that it would be that easy, but hey, maybe it was a miracle.

She'd had to step back her beliefs that miracles never happened, on account of what happened to her. And Tex. And with the virus. Maybe, this was just another one of those miracles. They got lucky in the middle of the ocean. It wouldn't have been the first time luck was on their side.

"It's Vellek. Has to be." Sasha said as she stared, focused in the distance.

Rachel raised a finger. "That means we have them in our sights. We should be able to see them, right?" She asked.

Tom shook his head. "We're a long way out to be picking up prop noise from a strike group that should be staying quiet."

"Could be from damage they incurred when they chased us into the storm," Meylan countered. It was a tough crowd. And Rachel didn't exactly have a place at the table. She was just here to make sure that they got the seeds. This was the safest place for her to be. But not the easiest.

"Still…awfully loud," Tom couldn't concede to Meylan. There was something about it that didn't feel right about it to him. It was written all over his face.

"Do you think it's a ploy to draw us out?" Mike asked.

That could certainly be the case. That miracle that she thought this might be, like many miracles, it might just be tricks.

And Tom said as much, "I do." He nodded.

Meylan, just like Tom though, couldn't concede the point. "I think that's giving them too much credit," He said.

Slattery took a breath. "We'll know more once we get eyes on those ships," He told both of them. "Captain Meylan, notify the bridge, and get Sunshine that bearing."

"Roger that," Meylan was off to his duty.

Slattery looked back to the group at hand: Rachel, Tom, and Sasha. "Sooner or later, we got to play our hand. Now's as good a time as any," He said, looking nonplussed by the whole situation. He was used to Tom and Meylan being on opposite sides. But he usually took Tom's side. And there was a reason for that. Tom usually had a plan to go with it.

And they had a plan. Which included the helo. That Kat was on. And that terrified Rachel to her core. Kathleen was so young and not used to the intricacies they faced. She'd had to go through the death of her mother, but she wasn't used to death. Even after all was said and done. Rachel reminded herself though that Kathleen wasn't a baby and she would be okay. She'd make it back to them, just like she always did.

"Confirming secure point to point transmission. Limit all further communication to hawklink in order to maintain EMCON condition alpha."

"We copy, mother,"

Everything was going according to plan for now. That was good. The less she worried about the plan going wrong, meant if it did, maybe she could help. And if not, well then she wouldn't be totally wound up about it.

"Passive Radar Feed coming in from the helo. System is triangulating now." Kara told everyone.

She stood behind Mike and tried to be out of the way. The whole screen populated with little dots. Rachel was surprised by how many people were out there. They could be anywhere in that.

Mike thought the same thing. "Waters are busy today. Can we get some IDs?" He asked.

"Fishermen," Tom said. Everyone looked at him. "I've worked these waters," He explained. And well, that was that. He was a Greek fisherman. Just one more life experience for Tom Chandler, a jack of many trades.

There was a lull for a few minutes while they waited on the helo to report back. It was excruciating. And Tex was with the other guys, Vulture team getting things ready for when they actually found these guys. It racked her nerves and nothing seemed to be helping. Her family was split six ways to Sunday and all she could do was hope that everything would be okay.

"Nathan James," The helo radioed in. "We got a possible target. Moving in for visual confirmation,"

"We copy, Sunshine. Standing by." Kara dispatched.

"Three warshiips, guns pointed outward," Kathleen's voice over the radio. "Starboard ship has a big wake. Port ship, no wake at all. Center ship, approximately fifteen knots."

"Dropping down,"

She was so proud that Kathleen was doing her part. She was a big part of why they could do this at all. Someone who was less trained to keep a steady eye, might not have been able to give them that information with the accuracy and speed that she did.

Meylan went to the map and the rest of the team followed. She stayed and looked at all the little dots on Kara's screen for a second and thought that this was a place full of life, before going over to do the same thing as the others, look at the map. The war games were back.

"Based on the wake of those ships, they're doing this-" Meylan played with the pieces on the table, "Patrolling their quadrants, protecting the center ship,"

Sasha nodded. "Classic NATO formation when traveling with a high value asset."

"The seeds," Meylan smiled, as he pointed to one of the tiny ships on the map, "are on that middle ship,"

"Checks out," Mike said, looking impressed at what they had already done.

"We need to move forward as planned." Meylan told him. "Call back our helo, light up the radar, and draw that first ship out,"

Tom didn't seem so certain about all of this though. Something about it was worrying him. "Tom?" Rachel asked.

He shook his head. "I still think it's a setup. It's too perfect. Exactly what we'd expect,"

Meylan was starting to get irritated with Tom. Rachel could relate to that irritation, but she didn't have to be on anyone's side this time. Tom was not giving her the hard time about just do it. He was being a ruthless war specialist. The reason that he was here to begin with.

"So the fact that nothing's suspicious, makes it suspicious?" Meylan asked.

Tom nodded. "They made a lot of noise to draw us here. I'm going with my gut here, Mike," He said as he looked up, "We light up, it won't be one ship coming for us, it'll be all three."

"You're suggesting that they'll engage us with the seeds on one of those ships?" Meylan asked.

Tom shook his head. "I'm suggesting that the seeds aren't on any of those ships,"

Sasha, who had been quiet in the gaming strategies meeting, up until now asked, "How do we prove it?" A question that was after her own heart.

"Kennedy Maneuver." Mike said.

"Kennedy Maneuver," Tom agreed, with a big smile on his face.

Meylan was confused though, "As in John F?"

Tom shook his head, "As in Chris Kennedy, Call sign Talent. Warfare Tactics instructor,"

"I remember her," Sasha added.

"Heard she is still alive," Mike said, proudly.

Tom looked over to him, "She survived? No way."

"Yeah, on a sub,"

Meylan cut the whole thing short when he started speaking. "That's great." He said. "You guys wanna…tell me about her maneuver?" It was cute, but Meylan was probably right to call them off all of that. It was cutting into what they were actually doing. Which was figuring out if there were seeds on that ship at all.

Sasha was all in on it too. Hearing the story of a badass female warfare tactics instructor in her prime, coming up with a maneuver that helped pick out whether they were going to be looking at her seeds or if they were looking at nothing, it was something that Rachel and Sasha had in common as a source of interest. While she may not be a key player in these war games, she was here to see to the seeds, it didn't make it any less interesting.

Still, she did mostly like it when they weren't playing war games and this was just all hypothetical. But there they were, in a non-hypothetical space. And it would have to do with the helo again. Rachel's stomach churned once again. But she knew it would be okay. They would be okay. They had people looking after them. The Nathan James always took care of her crew.

And it didn't take very long.

"Helo's been spotted. Greek ships just activated tactical radar,"

"Sunshine, ready a hellfire, aim two degrees off the port bow of the center ship,"

"Roger, Mother. We're going in fangs out,"

"Sunshine's clear," Kara said after a far too long beat. Rachel's heart went back down in her chest. She feared the worst when she hadn't heard anything.

It was back to the table and the map though. "The high value ship should have fallen back, let the other two ships protect it." Tom said as he slid one of the plastic ships on the map down towards himself. "Instead it broke formation to engage the helo."

"Which means that ain't no high value ship," Meylan said, "My compliments to Commander Kennedy,"

Which lead to Sasha, "But where are the seeds?" She asked. A good question. A reasonable question. Because they were operating just a few minutes ago with the idea that there would be some seeds on one of those ships, but the one it was supposed to be on, wasn't it. "Is it possible they could already be in Malta?" If the answer was yes, they would already be on the losing side of this game.

"No way he made it there so fast," Tom replied. "Vellek's still at sea,"

"So there's a fourth ship," Mike said. It was the only possible answer if they took Tom at his word. And it looked like they were.

"Smart move would be to keep the other three ships between it and the Nathan James." Meylan said. She had to agree. If they were trying to protect it, it would make the most sense to try and keep three big ships in front of it.

Tom took a second and thought about it. "If they assumed we close from the east, we'll find Vellek's ship somewhere" He drew a circle on the map in red pencil, "Here. Out of sight, but still in missile range of those ships,"

And now they had an idea of where to find the seeds again. Rachel smiled as she looked at the map.

Mike sent Kara up to the bridge to command the ship. An honor, Rachel thought, she would have loved to see Kara in command, but she had to be here. She needed to see exactly when they had those seeds and this was the best place to be for that. She gave Kara a little shoulder squeeze when she was on her way out to show how proud she was and Kara gave her a smile back.

"Pretty soon we're gonna have three ships on our asses," Mike said as he looked around. Those were not good odds and he knew it and he had no good ideas about what to do to deal with it. "Start pitching," He said to the others.

"They gotta figure we're headed west for the seed ship," Meylan explained. "And they know we won't find it without firing up our radar, at least in short bursts. So…maybe that's exactly what we should do,"

Tom was interested in what he had going. "What do you have in mind?" He asked.

"The Meylan Maneuver."

After a discussion of what the Meylan Maneuver was in the CIC, Meylan and Sasha went down to the helo bay and pulled the gang together. This was now the time for Tex to start listening to what was actually going on. He was here to get those seeds. And Rachel was pretty clear about how important they were to the world's longevity.

"Green, Taylor, Kandie," Meylan started, "Your objective is to pull all three warships out of weapons range of the fourth," He started drawing on the map and Sasha drew with him. They mapped out exactly where the three needed to draw the ships to. "

That means here," Sasha said as she tapped on the map, "anything more than thirty miles away from where we believe the target ship to be located."

"Assets in the area?" Danny asked.

"Fishing boats. Some in use, others abandoned." Sasha replied.

"Any vessel over 60 feet is going to have the same radar signature as Nathan James," Meylan explained. "Find one, make the Greeks believe it's us."

"Draw them towards you, but then get the hell out of there," Sasha was firm with this. They didn't want anyone getting their lives kicked in today.

"You can reach us by encrypted radio," Meylan offered, "But we won't be able to respond without compromising our position, so you're on your own," It was not exactly the we're a family type of speech now was it? But then again, it had to be what it was, and that was honest.

"Miller, Burk, Tex, while Green is keeping the three screening ships busy, Nathan James is gonna find that flagship. And when they do, we need to be ready to board that vessel."

"Yes, ma'am,"

"Roger that,"

She looked at Tex, who smiled. "I'm ready for anything, you know that hun,"

Sasha nodded and looked toward Meylan, "Anything else to add?"

He shook his head. "That's it," He said and then they walked back to the CIC.

Everyone else went to their positions, getting ready to go out on the water. Or getting ready to be pirates who boarded a ship. Tex thought it was a mighty honor that they gave him pirate duty. He sort of already felt like one.

Danny, Azima, and Wolf cruised out on the RHIB. They had the encrypted radio, but they hadn't said anything yet. All Rachel could hope for was that this plan would work. It seemed like a good plan, but as they said around here, no plan survives contact with the enemy. And the enemy had the seeds that would lift the whole planet out of starvation.

Rachel paced while the men of the group looked at the hawklink radar.

"All three ships altering course," Meylan said proudly.

Mike nodded. "They took the bait,"

Meanwhile, on comms, Sasha called out, "Sunshine, this is mother, requesting a sitrep. Any sign of Vellek's ship?" The comms were quiet. They did not have them broadcasting out into the room. "Copy. Alpha one, zero contact," She said as she wrote on the map. "Keep us updated,"

After a couple of minutes, from one of the many people in the CIC, there was a panicked, "sir," They all went to look at what was happening, except for Sasha, who was held up by having earphones on. The gentlemen went on, "All three contacts are converging."

"Those ships must be within a couple hundred yards of each other," Tom said as he looked at the screen.

"Keep an eye on 'em,"

"Aye, sir,"

They just kept biding their time until they found that silly ship. It felt like she was going crazy, playing these wargames. But then there was Danny's voice over the broadcast. He had the encrypted radio. She remembered something about that. She wished Tex were here. He was better at playing these games then she was, but then again, he had to be the one actually playing them when they got there.

"Nathan James, Vulture team, be advised, solo enemy warship heading east. No other contacts in the area,"

Even her ears perked up hearing this. That wasn't good. Everyone knew they were looking for three warships to be coming towards the east so they could go west without having to worry about those ships defending that seed ship.

"The other two ships dropped to EMCOM when the emitters merged,"

"Which allowed them to peel off undetected."

No plan survives contact with the enemy as she had heard many times around here. "They're hunting us again," Sasha said,

"Only this time we won't see 'em coming," Meylan added.

"Bridge, Captain," Mike said into the phone, "Get watch standers to all radar stations, lookouts to the rails,"

"Nathan James, Vulture team. We're gonna hang out for a bit, make your lives a bit easier. Give you one less warship to worry about," Danny's voice over the radio came again. With Kara on the bridge, she didn't want to know what that meant. Probably something dumb. Some cockeyed plan that was bound to make them heroes if it worked, but also if it didn't, well they didn't think about things like that.

The minutes were quiet. They were always quiet until, "I'm picking up explosions in the water, sir," Explosions were a good thing. She had to remind herself of that. At that velocity, explosions were a good thing. "Metal shearing. And I have secondaries."

While it seemed like everything was good for a minute, with the sweet came the sour. A missile launched and a female voice came right after Danny's telling them that no one had survived that attack. She was talking about fair fights and coming out of hiding. As if it would be a fair fight. They still had three ships, two actively engaged in the wargames.

But they weren't going to put all of those civilians in harm's way. They couldn't do that. She was right about one thing, no one hated putting civilians in harm's way more than the US Navy. And then she was just goading Tom. Clearly, some sort of relationship had been there, but it wasn't important.

What was important was that they had to get out in front of this before she started killing more people at random. Rachel felt absolutely crestfallen. There was nothing she could to help. She was here to hear the news, that was it. She had no skill in this sort of arena. Sasha squeezed her hand once and gave her the opportunity to look over the map that they were making with Sunshine. Many of the grids had already been marked as having no active sighting. She squeezed Sasha's hand back and smiled. At least there were a handful of people on this ship that she could count on to not totally discount her out.

"Sunshine still doesn't have a visual on Vellek," Sasha told the rest of the group.

"But we have coordinates on Lucia," Meylan started. "We should break EMCON, take her out," Which sounded like a fine plan, but it had more than a couple of downsides. One being that they still had that other ship out there that was still at EMCON and would know exactly where they were. That was just the logic swirling in her brain.

Which Mike pointed out too. Meylan wasn't going down without a fight though. Because it seemed like their only option was to get out there and fight. And when he put it in perspective, it did seem like they were in an untenable situation.

"Mother this is sunshine, we've spotted smoke, it's Vellek's ship," In the three minutes that they had to move against Lucia they'd found the seed ship. That was good. They could maybe get this done without much bloodshed.

"Roger Sunshine, track him, but keep your distance," Sasha said as she looked out to the guys. It was a miracle of a sign. So many miracles hadn't come to them today, but now they had Vellek's ship in their sights. "We'll back you up as soon as we can,"

"Lucia won't take us on unless that third ship is close by," Tom said as he looked at the hawklink radar again. "My guess is it's hiding among those fishing boats."

"There's three vessels in range," Meylan said as he also looked at the hawklink. It was hard to tell what they were all thinking, but there was a plan brewing. She could see it on the faces of the battle ready men. This was not a fight that they weren't going to play into. They were ready for it.

They couldn't be hullteched. And they couldn't be fired upon before they knew who was who. And then Tom had the brilliant idea of sending torpedoes into the water. Something she would have thought as crazy to do, but that's exactly what they were doing. It would keep fishing boats safe, but take out warships.

Warships with several dozen people on them. People who ultimately weren't involved in Vellek's scheme. They just had jobs to do. She thought about them. There was no use for empathy in this fight, but she did have empathy for them. They were not the Velleks who wanted to make the world in their own image. They were just people trying to make a living in the world. That wasn't so bad.

All of this in less than five minutes. Three minutes from when they made plans. But it was all for naught. Sasha couldn't hear the last transmission of Sunshine's. And then her face went cold. She looked quickly from Rachel to the others and back to her map, trying to desperately get something out of the hawklink.

She shook her head. "We just lost hawklink,"

Rachel covered her mouth. She hated the thought of that, because she knew what it meant. It meant that the helo was in the worst shape it could be in. It was not in any shape at all. Kathleen was on that helicopter. Kathleen. Her darling, baby girl. She tried not to cry, but tears spilled down her face, silently, so as not to distract anyone in here. She was big enough to remember not to do that.

There were several big salvos coming from both ships. This was the wargame they were set out to fight. With one ship left beside the seed ship, there was not very much to do besides fight. But they were getting out of this. And then they would find Kathleen, Sunshine, and Razor. They would find them. Everything would be alright. They were alright. Kathleen was going to be fine.

"Lucia's ship is smoking and sinking,"

Tom looked over to the girls holding hands. "And our helo?"

Sasha shook her head. There was nothing coming through. And all she could do was hold Rachel's hand through it all. It wasn't much, but it was something.

Tex, Burke, Diaz, and Miller were on the water looking for anything from the helicopter. Tex tried not to freak out until they were in the vicinity of where the helicopter went down, but it was hard. It was his baby girl that they were looking for. Other people too. But the one that he cared about was his girl. His baby girl could be out there in the water. And he was not handling it well. He understood why rarely you got to be with your family on these things. If something bad happened, well it was not the way you wanted to hear about it.

Diaz drove the RHIB, doing his level best to keep it nice and steady so they could look out and search for any parts of the helicopter and any of the people that might have been on it. It wasn't looking real good to be honest. Tex practically couldn't see with all the red in his eyes. But he kept his eyes out to the water.

Several minutes went by and still nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Miller was the one to look out. He moved his binoculars down and then up again. This perked up the whole crew on the RHIB. And then Miller said what it was. "Eagle in the water, ten o'clock," And Diaz did as he was told and moved toward ten o'clock.

The swimmers went out and got her. It wasn't Razor. And it wasn't Sunshine. It was Kathleen. She had blood coming from her nose. And she didn't seem to be conscious for the moment, but it was Kathleen.

He let the tears come as they lifted her into the boat and then the doctor checked her out, clicking his pen light checking her pupils, equal and reactive. "You're gonna be fine, Nolan. You're gonna be fine," He said to her. And he had to remember the same thing.

But once the doctor gave her the okay, he held her in his arms. "You did so good today, kid. You did," He said in a calming voice. It was all that he needed, his babygirl back in his arms. He couldn't imagine doing this forever. But this is what she wanted to do. And by god, he wasn't going to get in her way, but he was going to feel it every time she had a story about a splash down. He just knew it.

"This is cobra, we got Nolan," Burke said into the radio. "Sunshine and Razor?" He asked Kat.

She shook her head. It was a sad day, but he had his baby back. He must have looked like a wreck himself, but he didn't care. He was on Cobra team and they weren't taking him off of it when the mission was looking for his daughter.

"Sunshine and Razor are KIA. There's no sign of Vellek's ship,"

Rachel fumed. They had their daughter. Their precious daughter. Which she would give up entire worlds for, that she knew to be true, but the seeds. This world in particular. It did no good to give up this world with her daughter still living on it.