Captain Bridger and Commander Ford arrived at the Bridge, with all the urgency of children hearing an ice cream van arrive. To everyone else on the bridge, they looked ridiculous. All eyes were now on them as they caught their breath and realised how this must have looked. Katie broke the ice.
"Uh, Captain, is everything okay?"
"Well, it seems to appear that way, why the hell have we broken port?" Katie and Crocker looked at one another perplexed, as did O'Neill and Ortiz.
"Secretary General Noyce Sir; he gave the order about forty minutes ago." Nathan and Ford exchanged a look.
"Mr Ortiz, replay the message." Insisted the Captain.
"Seaquest, this is Secretary General Noyce, whilst this is unorthodox, I require you to rendevouz at the following coordinates 20.6877 N, 88.5677 W immediately. When there, await my further instructions. Admiral out."
Nathan was quickly doing the math. "That's the Yucatan Peninsula. Who on earth wants us to go there?" He directed his question to Ford.
"The... the admiral sir," Katie sheepishly stuttered out; still confused by the recent turn of events.
"Oh no he doesn't," confirmed Nathan. "As soon as we've enough space, turn this boat around and get us back to dry dock." He turned back to Ford. "Let's find out who sent that message, shall we." He turned his attention back to the Bridge Crew.
"Lieutenant Commander Hitchcock, you have the Bridge. Dot NOT under any circumstances follow anyone's orders save mine. Do you understand?"
"Aye Captain." She returned to her seat and began working out when they'd be in enough open water to turn around.
"Where are we going?" Queried Ford.
"We are going to see how useful having a child on board really is." They wound their way through the corridors and eventually found Lucas' room.
"Jeez, interesting to note that daddy's money only extended to little more than a broom closet."
"Hey, don't knock it, I've everything I want. A bed, place to store stuff, kinda…" it wasn't as though any of his stuff was actually in its rightful place, as he quickly stuffed a few clothes into a draw. "…and access to the internex."
"Hmm," was all Bridger could really say to that.
"Is there something I can do for you, or are you just here to criticise my living arrangements?"
"No, no I'm not. I need you to do something for me. A voice message was sent to us around forty minutes ago…"
"Oh! You mean to dodgy admiral one?" They were both shocked.
"What the hell do you know about that?" Lucas shrugged and turned to his console.
"Nothing, but it wasn't exactly encrypted or sent privately, it would have played on any open comm."
"And you just happen to keep yours permanently on?"
"What can I say; you need to give me more to do." Lucas sassed.
"I will definitely be giving you more to do, even if it means permanently tying you to a broom." Lucas rolled his eyes and turned back to his monitor. Bridger sighed and made a mental note to look at this boy's role when he got the chance.
"Why dodgy?" Bridger settled on as Lucas laughed.
"Oh come on Captain, it didn't even sound legit. I ran it back through one of my programs and it instantly knew it was comprised of six different audio files spliced together."
"Okay, so you are saying that someone compiled this from other recordings of messages the admiral had made. Is it professional?" Lucas scoffed.
"Oh hell no, a pre-schooler could have done a better job." Lucas looked back to the Captain. "Seriously though, you thought that was authentic?" Bridger refused to take the bait.
"Any idea where it came from?"
"I'm working on it. This is where it does get slightly more professional, more your average high…"
"Alright Lucas, I get it. How long till we know?"
"Five minutes to an hour or two tops? It depends how many times they've bounced it around."
"Do you have a Vpal?" Lucas rummaged around his tiny table, spilling more of the contents onto the floor, not that you'd know what should be where in the first place. After finding the desired object, he insisted on waving it in the captain's face; Bridger refused to show his annoyance. "Contact me as soon as you know, understand."
"Aye Cap'an" Lucas mock saluted. Bridger merely turned and gestured for Ford to follow him out.
"Do you know him?" Bridger asked as they strolled… somewhere, Ford had no idea.
"Who, Lucas?"
"Yeah." They stopped mid walk and inconveniently in the middle of a slim corridor as two officers who were walking behind them had to then careen their way around them.
"Not really, no-one has been on this ship longer than a week. From what I gather, he's ultimately a good kid and extremely intelligent. He's already graduated from Stanford and has previously got into trouble for hacking into the world bank." That caused an eyebrow raise from the Captain.
"So why's he been dumped here?"
"All I was told was he lacked discipline and that his father thought this would be good for him."
"You mean he's now someone else's problem." Bridger rubbed his hand through his hair in exasperation.
"Possibly, but honestly, he just sounds like someone who hasn't been challenged enough, a lad who probably needs more stimulation."
"I will bear that in mind."
"Lieutenant Commander Hitchcock to the Captain."
"Bridger here."
"Sir, we have bit of a problem. I suggest you return to the Bridge."
"We are on our way."
"What do we have?" The captain swiftly appeared behind Katie's console.
"Sir, we've lost navigation. As far as I can see we have everything else, but navigation isn't responding at all."
"What, that doesn't make any sense."
"You're telling me, and I'm the Chief Engineer. I've never seen anything like this. It's not as though it's been rerouted or hijacked, it's not there, at all."
"Is that possible?"
"Ordinarily I'd say no, but our systems were patched into dry dock when the course was set. It's possible navigation wasn't fully enabled in the first place and we may not have all of the required software on board to regain control, I mean, it may not have been fully installed yet, it was likely in progress when we left."
"Can you at least see if we can enable it?" He was trying not to sound to exasperated.
"I will take a look, but it would depend on what's needed to be done. As it stands, we will be at our rendezvous point in less than three hours." She looked solemnly towards the older man. "Captain, even if I can figure out what is needed by then, we probably don't have it on board."
"Damn." His exasperation was released as his fist met the console. "Get all of your engineers working on a solution lieutenant, I don't care if we have to row back, understand?" Bridger could feel his chest begin to pound, not only did this make no sense, but the more that was being uncovered, the more malice seemed to be behind this little 'escapade'.
"Aye sir." With that she immediately stood, intending to give her team their first in flight assignment.
"What in the hell are we being taken too?" Nathan cursed to himself out of frustration as he left the bridge, leaving behind a busying crew.
Bridger smiled the first genuine smile of content he'd been able to muster since he'd boarded the ship as he watched his pet dolphin round the tube.
"Darwin, I am so glad to see you boy." The dolphin squealed as he nuzzled into his friends touch.
"Bridger scared..?"
"Scared?" That seemed a bit of a drastic overreaction, but the dolphin had a point, at the very least he was worried and his hormones or smell or whatever it was Darwin detected were probably conveying that. He imagined worried would be something a dolphin would have trouble comprehending as their minds wouldn't work that way. "Well, I guess I am a bit scared, but more worried. We are currently being taken somewhere, but I'm not sure by who or for what reason?"
"Darwin swim out?" Bridger chuckled.
"No Darwin but thank you. I want you to stay onboard and safe, you got that?" Darwin nodded and squealed. "Atta boy!" Bridger continued to pet him for a while when the door to the science lab opened. He watched on a Kristen bee-lined for her office. She hadn't noticed he was there. His curiosity peeked as she began rummaging through her desk and placing things in a box that was already atop it. This was ominous. He slowly rose.
"Not planning on leaving already?" Kristen jumped out of her skin, letting out her own little squeal as she finally spotted Nathan, casually leaning against the door frame.
"NATHAN!" She eventually gasped out between breaths. By this time, he'd made his way towards her.
"I'm sorry." He said gently placing his hands to her shoulders to try and ground her. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"Then don't creep up on me." He raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't think I did, you seemed to be in your own world." He turned to try and ascertain what she was doing. In the box he noticed a picture of a young woman, and several other items of a more personal nature.
"Are you leaving?" He turned to face her. She was unable to look him in the eye as she studied her twiddling fingers intensely. He gently lifted her chin up. "Kristen?" She just managed to keep her tears at bay.
"I can't do this." She said talking a shuddering breath as she moved to continue packing the few things she'd only just unpacked in her attempt to start feeling more at home. She stopped to look at him, not wanting to shy away from this. "I… I thought I could. I loved the prospect of real-time, on the go exploration and discovery. I've nothing against the military per say, but this job is just too political. I understood it would in part be so, but I didn't think it would be so bitter within house." She began to pace. "All I've done since I arrived a week ago is try and manage disputes, squabbles. People have been angry, aggressively so in some instances and I just can't do that anymore. I don't care if I have to regress to research assistant or an MD somewhere, I just can't do… this." She gestured around though not to anything in particular. Bridger took a deep breath.
"I am so sorry Kris. I am so sorry that this has been your initial experience on this vessel. What you have described is meant to be the epitome of everything this ship stands against. Yes, it's meant to be for exploration, research and in the worst case, serve as military aid or back up, but primarily it is meant to serve as a peacemaker." Dr Westphalen scoffed.
"Well, I can tell you now that very little peace-making has been taking place." She folded her arms across her waist and leant back on the desk. Bridger nodded, considering her words.
"Perhaps not, up until today, but now we know why Commander Ford has done what he has done. Honestly, I've spent a bit of time with him now and this has clearly been deeply affecting him too. He hated those orders."
"That's just it though, they were orders, sanctioned by the military. I don't think I've got it in me to play those types of games." He puffed out and ran his fingers though his hair.
"Look, I know it's been a rough start, but I am here now and this is my ship and my small confession to you is – I don't always play by the rules. Listen, will you just give it a chance now that I'm here, see how it goes? I promise that unless there's an extremely important, and I'm talking life threatening or one of the highest level of secrecy reason, I will be as transparent with you as possible. I want us to work together as a team. What you said earlier, you were correct and that is my vision for this ship too." She contemplated this for a few moments. Her eyes bore so deep he felt his soul ignite, though he had no idea why.
"Fine… fine." She walked up to him with an expression he'd seen before, when she was dressing his commander down. "But I will hold you to that Captain." He couldn't help but let out a small giggle.
"I expect nothing less of my chief scientist, Dr."
"Hmm, where are we going anyway? I thought the ship wouldn't be ready for at least another day half the crew aren't even aboard?"
"Ahh, well, that is something else entirely." Her curiosity peeked as she gave him the side eye.
"Oh?"
"Yes, it appears we have been hijacked. Sort of?"
"Hijacked? What do you mean by 'sort of' hijacked?"
"That's just it, we don't know. Navigation has been set, but according to Hitchcock it hasn't been fully enabled yet and we don't have the required software on board to complete the install, or update or whatever computer nonsense needs to happen nowadays." Kristen couldn't help but allow a small giggle to escape herself. She could already tell she had a lot in common with this man. She quickly pulled herself together though.
"Oh, well that's bizarre, which company was responsible for the install?" Nathan couldn't believe that oversight as he slapped his hand to his forehead.
"I can't believe we didn't think of that." He looked to Kristen. "Come with me."
Kristen knew the Captain's quarters would be the most luxurious of all, but she didn't expect an interactive, holographic interface that attempted to act as an artificial conscience to be present. Nathan was positively gushing over it, however. Apparently, it had been his brainchild but he was told that under no certain terms was it allowed to be installed. Lucas had other plans though, and in yet another attempt to occupy himself, he'd installed it. Her attention was stolen as she realised Bridger was talking to the image of an ageing man.
"Tell me, who is responsible for the most recent install of the SeaQuest's Navigation system?"
"A small, upcoming company named Extech Logistics, were most recently commissioned to update several aspects of the SeaQuests Navigation and propulsion system." Kristen walked up and stood next to the Captain as he let out a little hmm.
"Have they completed their work?" Kristen asked.
"No. Logs confirm that the helm had been disconnected from Betanox. It's matrix has been reconfigured to accept the new programming, but less than two per cent of the required updates have been installed."
"So what does that mean?" Surmised Kristen, "are we are on a one way ticket to the Yucatan Peninsula?"
"Only Lieutenant Hitchcock can confirm that. It still doesn't explain what a small company would have to gain from this though?"
"He said they were small, but up and coming perhaps they were offered a great deal of capital for this small act of sabotage?"
"Maybe, but then surely their deal with the UEO, the exposure of such a deal and the prospects of future contracts would be worth far more than a one off deal that could ruin their reputation?"
"Yes, that makes sense; if not the company, then what about a person?" Nathan nodded his head in thought before turning back to the hologram.
"Can you send a list of all Extech employees through to my console." Both of the officers wandered over to await the list, fortunately the file only consisted of a few dozen employees. They slowly scrolled finding nothing of note until Nathan heard a small gasp come from Kristen. Her hand slowly ghosted over a name. Peter Nelson. Looking up with the intention to ask, Bridger was caught off guard by the look of horror that overtook her, as though she'd seen a malevolent ghost.
"Kristen… Kristen, who is he?" He could see her hand starting to shake so he led her to sit on the edge of his bed.
"Kristen?"
"He… he's my ex-husband."