Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 15:36:35 -0500 (CDT) From: Silvia Casale Subject: Part 2 Sender: owner-tales@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu X-Sender: silvia.casale@pop-3.ukonline.co.uk To: tales Reply-to: tales@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (16) Copyright E.Casale and Sabrina Helayna Ardeloes, 1997, 1998 more... for comments Sorry- got to go off to bed so I'm being decently generous here but not overly so... sorry Georgie... it was a great place to cut Chapter 2 " You got all that Murray?" Krieg asked. " Yeah, yeah, I got it." Murray shuffled the mess of papers on his desk. " And you'll have it ready and there won't be any surprise taxes or anything?" Krieg added suspiciously, checking the list of things they needed one last time to make sure he hadn't missed anything. " Ben, would I do that to you...?" Krieg raised his eye brows. " OK, OK. Oh, there's one other thing." Krieg sighed patiently. " This guy, offered me a great deal on this new piece of software. Meant to be real useful and rare. Didn't you mention that you had a computer whiz over there?" Murray asked persuasively. " Yeah?" " So it's a piece of linguists stuff, very high-tech and accurate, just thought you might be interested," Murray shrugged. " How much?" Krieg got down to the point having been working with Murray for too long to bother getting there gradually. " Another five hundred." Krieg thought for a minute and frowned dubiously. It seemed a reasonable price. " I'll have to bring someone to see if we want it." Murray nodded. " Fine. I'll call the guy now and ask him to bring it down to the warehouse. I'll see you tomorrow then." " Tomorrow," Krieg replied, shutting the link and putting his papers away on the top of an untidy heap, stretching, and then going out of the room. He wandered slowly down the corridor, onto the bridge, and across it to Bridger. " Captain?" he asked, saluting smartly: a sure sign that he wanted something. Bridger turned, not having failed to notice the gleam in the officer's eyes. " Lieutenant, you have our supplies sorted?" Krieg nodded. " Yes, Sir." " And?" " And Murray mentioned a piece of high tech linguistic computer something, thought we might be interested 'cos of Lucas." Bridger thought for a moment. " He said I could bring someone to check it out. Come on Captain, the kid needs some time off this boat like the rest of us- more. It'll do him good." Bridger looked at him and then sighed, still doubtful. " OK, but you make sure he doesn't wander off and you don't leave him anywhere." He knew Ben Krieg all to well. " And no trouble, Krieg. No scams with him along." " Captain!" Krieg replied, making a big act of being shocked and hurt by the suggestion about his intentions. " I will take good care of him," he assured Bridger more seriously. " Thanks," he added, as he hurried off to tell Lucas the good news. He rapped loudly on the door, barging in without waiting for an answer. " Hi, Ben," Lucas said without turning. " How'd you know it was me?" Krieg asked, a little unnerved, as he leaned against a wall. Lucas was a genius, but... " Other people knock," the teenager replied and then swung around. " What deal have you screwed up this time?" Krieg grinned at the explanation." Now is that a nice way to talk to someone who's going to get you off this tub?" Lucas opened his eyes wide and then narrowed them slightly, dubious. " How?" He folded his arms and sat back in his chair. " Murray has some linguistics/ acoustics equipment; I persuaded the Captain to let me take you to check it out." " Persuaded, tricked, or forgot to ask?" Lucas countered swiftly. He wanted to know the fact: if he was going to get in trouble. It didn't mean that he wouldn't take the chance to get off the boat, even if it did mean trouble. " Persuaded- really," Krieg insisted. "Don't you want to go?" Lucas smiled then. " When?" His face lit up eagerly and he sat up, pushing some files into a more ordered heap. " Tomorrow, eight A.M., in the launch bay or I leave without you." Krieg told him sternly, doubting that he would be on time himself. " I'll be there," Lucas assured him, grinning widely. Krieg smiled and turned to go. " Hey, Ben? Thanks." " Sure," he replied as he closed the door and went back to his quarters to sort out the things for the next day. There was a lot of paperwork that he would need to take, as well as filing what he was ordering and the cost with the UEO. The next day, as he was having breakfast, Katie came across to him. He was staring at his orange, which he was rotating slowly, looking at it with a very troubled stare. " Trouble?" she asked, sitting down and smiling mischievously at him. " No, just supplies." " That's what I meant." Katie knew her ex-husband all too well and was especially familiar with how much trouble he could get himself into while on a perfectly routine supply pick up, though some of the things defied belief. "Katie, I don't get in to trouble with everything I do," Krieg replied, putting down his fork while she started on her breakfast, looking slightly hurt. He looked at the eggs beside her English muffin very nervously. " Oh? Well, they always said you learn something new everyday." She grinned over a cup of coffee, wincing at the taste. He frowned at her, disgruntled, and got up. " Yeah, well this time I have no ulterior motives," he said gruffly and left. Everyone expected him to be doing something underhand and for once it smarted. It hurt especially that Katie would think that of all people, that was really why he was annoyed. They had no right to think that. Krieg ignored the fact that it had been true for every other time that he had had other motives, and hurried down to the launch bay. " I'll be back later," Lucas called, wandering into the labs, his hands dug deep into the pockets of his very loose jeans. Kristen looked up. " Oh, and where are you off to?" She asked, taking off her protective goggles and putting them on the bench. " A supply base with Krieg, to get the supplies and look over some computer stuff- Captain Bridger said I could go." Kristen folded her arms. " He did, really. We can work with Darwin tomorrow, can't we?" Kristen smiled finally. " Oh, all right," she sighed and he grinned at her, hurrying out and down to launch bay, arriving just before Krieg, stopping to chat with the crew member in the bay while he waited. " Hey, something wrong?" he asked, noting Krieg's glum face as he walked in, looking sulky and annoyed. Krieg tried not to think about breakfast. He sighed and then smiled. " No, just eager to get of this boat." " Then let's go!" Lucas said, helping him load up so they could be off as soon as possible and then sat, grinning broadly, in the co-pilot's seat and craning round impatiently, looking for Krieg. " Ben, are you coming?" " Hold your horses," Krieg said, dropping into the pilot's seat. " Strap in." Lucas sighed but obeyed reluctantly, as Krieg flipped on the controls and then the comms link. " Launch MR-5 ready for launch." " Go ahead MR-5, you are cleared for launch- and don't forget that thing you promised me," Ortiz added. Krieg grinned. " No problem, Miguel. See you all later. Out." He turned back to Lucas grinning mischievously. " OK, we're off." They pulled out of the port and started moving away, towards the coast where Murray's operation was. " So you remember the rules. You don't wander off and you do what I say right? Right?" Krieg repeated firmly, looking over at Lucas to emphasise the seriousness of this rule. "Yeah, yeah," the teenager replied, slumping in his seat and squirming to get comfortable while busy studying the undersea life outside the main screen. A shoal of silver fish streaked away from the launch. " Yeah, but you better do it or Bridger and Dr Westphalen will skin me alive and you also won't get off this boat for a while." " OK," Lucas replied quickly at that threat and then grinned. " Thanks, Ben. I was really starting to feel..." " Cooped up? caged? trapped?... Tell me about it." " You get out a lot more than we do," Lucas said enviously. " Yeah, trading ports and harbour fronts, real fun, kid." " At least it's fresh air and light." " Can't argue with that," Krieg admitted. " So what exactly is this stuff we're going to look at- the computer stuff?" " It sounds like a very highly calibrated acoustic instrument." Krieg rolled his eyes and Lucas simplified the sentence for him. " It'll help with the vocorder program. I'll be able to hear Darwin's clicks and whistles more clearly, if it's good. How did you get on to it? Is this illegal or stolen or something?" Krieg ignored the last comments. " Murray just mentioned it- he knew about you, so he just connected it with what's in his stock, I guess. You know, first one deal, then another. Anyway, it pays off." Krieg frowned and then opened a link, as Lucas grinned at this rather red-faced admission. He cleared his throat. " This is launch MR-5, from the seaQuest. Murray it's Krieg, and I brought someone along to look over the computer." " Yeah, come on in," a disembodied voice replied, crackling slightly. Krieg was silent, concentrating as he docked the launch carefully. He'd crashed too many things lately to do it again quite yet. Especially since he was up for his officer's review soon and had been working hard. When they were docked, Lucas jumped up, quickly undoing the belt and hurrying to the hatches. " Wait!" Krieg commanded, following him and giving him a case to carry before he opened the hatches, stepped down and led the way across the concrete dock fronts and into a open warehouse, with stacks of crates, containers and boxes along the side. Men were unloading trucks at one end and the place was busy with the noise of machinery. Murray started towards them from the other side, giving them a quick wave. Krieg handed him the case that Lucas was carrying and Murray beckoned forward a group of men, handing Krieg some papers to sign. Lucas watched with interest as Krieg checked off the boxes, as the men carried them back to and stored them in the launch, while Murray checked the money, nodding. " Nice doing business again with you, Ben. Gotta run today. New delivery," he said hurriedly. " Sorry I can't stay to chat." " The computer stuff?" Krieg prompted, handing him back the signed papers, putting his hands back into his pockets. " Oh, yeah, right," Murray remembered, taking the clipboard. " Two ports down towards the city. The chap with the equipment got stuck waiting for a delivery, but he said you could go and see it there, not like it's far." " OK, thanks," Krieg replied, leading Lucas back towards the docks, glancing at his watch. " Why not. I thought it would be here, but... it isn't exactly the most organised field of work in the world. You weren't planning on getting back for anything were you?" he asked sarcastically, ginning at the boy next to him. " You kidding?" Lucas asked, grinning back. " Dumb question, huh?" Krieg said, as they closed the hatches again and pulled the launch away from the docks, counting the ports as they moved slowly along parallel to the waterfront. " OK," Krieg muttered, as he brought the launch in to dock with the second port down. " Damn, forgot to ask for a name! Never mind, we'll find this person anyway," he said, opening the hatches, while an impatient Lucas waited behind him. They walked up the steps, onto the docks and then wandered across the open concrete area, looking around and finally going into the warehouse. Lucas looked up at the ceiling and around at the crowded room with interest, walking backwards to look up into the high roof beams, criss-crossing over head. " Come on." Krieg said, pulling him on and they crossed into a corridor system. Loud music came from one end and typing from the other. Krieg sighed, not sure which way to head. " Look, stay right here- right here- and stop anyone if they come by, OK? See if they know who we should talk to and where this stuff is. I'll be right back. I'm just going to check this end, but I don't want to miss someone coming from the other." Lucas nodded, leaning back against a wall to wait, scuffing his shoes across the dusty floor, watching the tiny specks of dust rise in the light from a door way, spiraling and circling happily. There was no warning. He heard footsteps and turned to see who was there, as someone hit him hard, across the face, throwing him back against the wall. The man dragged him to his feet again, pinning his arms above his head, against the wall. He panicked for a moment with shock and fear, and then gave a shout, trying to warn Krieg. A hand clapped over his mouth. This wasn't just an unfriendly supplier, this man had attacked him with no reason and he could tell, from the expression in the man's calm eyes, that he was enjoying every minute of his fear. Copyright E.Casale and Sabrina Helayna Ardeloes, 1997, 1998 Alexia ( Keeper of neurotics, psychotics, dementias, phobias, obsessions, disorders, various -pathic tendancies, general insanity, and Wielder of sharp, pointed objects) SpiritShadow Sabrina Familiar 'Armalade--Meg Greenbelt Shinbudo Innochi Karate And rabid feminist and an Italian: be warned, be worried, be afraid. 'Bring me the Big Knife!' 'Trash bags! I want some trash bags!' 'You could say we broke up because of artistic differences; he saw hiself as alive, and I saw him dead!' 'A compromise: you give it to me and I take it.' 'I do not need to learn patience; I've perfected impatience, that should be enough.' 'Here, put a pillow in your lap; it'll muffle the voices.' 'Don't throw stones and your mother, throw bricks at your father instead.' Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 03:15:57 -0500 (CDT) From: Silvia Casale Subject: Part 2C Sender: owner-tales@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu X-Sender: silvia.casale@pop-3.ukonline.co.uk To: tales Reply-to: tales@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (16) Copyright E.Casale and Sabrina Helayna Ardeloes, 1997, 1998 Don't neeed to remind you how it works do I? The link dropped as a shot ran out. They all stood motionless, completely tensed, then Kristen turned back, against Ford as he tightened his arms around her, as much to comfort himself as her. " Get them back!" Bridger shouted to O'Neil. Tim typed quickly. " I... I can't, Sir. The link is down." He turned and looked back at Bridger, his face the stony mask that they were all wearing, too shocked to move or react, too scared to try to figure out what it was that they had heard. Katie looked blankly at her station. She didn't seem to be able to move. Her whole body seemed to have frozen into ice, she shivered, leaning forward on her console, blinking. " He's playing with us.. he wouldn't..." She trailed off. They all knew he would. He didn't need two hostages to get what he wanted. " He couldn't..." Crocker looked around. " He could," he negated firmly. Katie looked up at him with bright eyes. Crocker sighed heavily, his face set and angry, his tone determined." Captain, shall I take a launch after MR-5?" Bridger nodded, after a moment's pause. " Ortiz, with Chief Crocker," he ordered after a moment. " Be careful." It echoed around the silent room hollowly. The two left the silent bridge, their footsteps the only noise. " Let's talk about this is the wardroom," Bridger said quietly, beckoning over the staff he needed. They sat around the table, silent, all their faces drawn and fearful. The vidlink connected finally and the screen opened on a busy and frustrated man, running his hands over his nearly bald head. " Nathan?" Noyce asked. " Bill, Rubin Zeller has escaped from prison," Bridger said quickly. There was nothing else to say and they didn't have time to waste. " Impossible..." " I just spoke to him. He has two of my people," Bridger interrupted quickly, leaning forward on the table towards the vidlink. Noyce got up from where he was working in the garage at his home, his hands covered with grease and oil, the rag he was holding blackened and dirty and crossed over to a vidlink, talking into it. " Are you sure?" Bridger sighed. " We're sure. You'd better check who else escaped. There's more than one- he keeps saying ' we', but we don't know who the other person is. He says that you haven't realised because the records have been altered to show a transfer. Someone got through all your security, Bill, and no one knew." " Records won't..." " Apparently they will," Bridger corrected and the two stared at each other for a minute, Bridger stubborn waiting for the other man to agree. " I'll get it sorted. Stay there. It will only take a few minutes." Noyce cut the link and went off to contact the prison. Bridger sat down slowly and heavily, looking around at his staff. " It's up ahead," Ortiz said, as Crocker piloted the launch. They were moving fast through the waters, a team of Crocker's best security people in the back, all tense and silent, a sign of how nervous they all were. The water was deep and dark outside the craft and Ortiz found himself feeling very vulnerable in he small craft. The seabed moved below very fast, rising into ridges and falling into deep trenches where you could see nothing. The sand shifted in some places with the movements of fish, rising and obscuring the rocks, far below. MR-5 hadn't changed directions or responded to any of their attempts at communicating, but was continuing along the same course at a medium speed. Ortiz coughed and the sound disturbed the silence almost disrespectfully. he glanced over at Crocker's set face and the anxiety in his eyes and then looked ahead. he shifted in his seat a few times, glancing over at Crocker again, before he finally spoke. " You think..." " I don't think we'll find anything," Crocker replied quickly, the worry in his voice negating the firm tone. Ortiz nodded. They both couldn't believe what was happening. Crocker knew more of Zeller; he knew just how low, how evil he was. He shouldn't have been just imprisoned; he should have been executed. He was far too dangerous, too vile to be alive, a danger to everyone, until he died. It was obvious and yet the UEO in all it's humanity didn't believe that, so Zeller escaped to kidnap one of their officers and a child under their protection- supposed to be under their protection. This shouldn't have happened. What was the point in preserving a life like that? He hadn't forgotten seaQuest's last meeting with Zeller, and he almost shivered in his seat, raising his chin. Ortiz was sitting completely tense beside him, practically terrified of what they would find on the launch. He needed to be calm. He was in charge here. He squared his shoulders back and brought the launch in to dock with the MR-5. They looked across at each other and swallowed, as Crocker opened the hatches slowly, the security team waiting with guns ready. Krieg was annoying, untrustworthy, got them into trouble, but he was a friend and he was someone who did keep all their morale high, simply by being the character and trouble that he was. He was a diversion and a change. They weren't gong to lose one of their crew. This tour wasn't like that; they were immune, invincible. They were safe, a team... The hatch unsealed and they looked in, their breaths caught in their throat. The comms link chirped and Bridger turned it on. " Captain?" It was Crocker, " we have the launch... They're not here... it's empty but there's no sign of violence, just some damage to the comms system..." The bridge crew looked around at each other not sure whether to be relieved or more worried." Bring it in, Chief. There's nothing more you can do out there," Bridger said wearily, cutting the link and then looking around the table. Tim stared at the smooth surface. They had just heard someone killed, possibly. But Krieg... he couldn't imagine that, but he had heard the terror in his friend's voice. He swallowed the rising nausea. Krieg was too busy getting into trouble, too vibrant a character to imagine as dead. He tried not want to think about blood, spilling across a floor somewhere. He closed his eyes, praying; he couldn't be dead! It wasn't possible. It was too horrible. And they had just been there listening while he died on the other end. Please God let it be a trick. Katie stared at the wall. She didn't believe it. She couldn't and wouldn't believe it. No matter how much they fought, she did care about him, did love him, maybe not as a husband, but a close, dear friend. In fact, their fights sometimes were the only things that kept her sane, something non-military, emotional, free... And he was such fun, lived things up so much, made her laugh. Not many people made her laugh like he did. He was just a fact in her life, friend or lover, he was there, and she couldn't believe that he was dead. She didn't know what it meant. He was too real, too alive. She closed her eyes over tears, thinking about past times, thinking about their last conversation. She sniffed quietly. He had actually been hurt by what she had said and... She straightened up. She could believe Zeller was capable of something this horrible, it must be a trick. It was a trick. He was alive and they needed to focus on that. The comms link chirped again and Bridger turned it on as they all started at the sudden noise. Noyce sighed as he looked out. " Zeller is gone... as is Frank Cobb..." The room dissolved into uproar. Noyce shouted over their raised voices and they stopped to listen to what he had to say, though they remained glowering at the Admiral. " They were both in the same prison and escaped at the same time. It seems that someone broke into our computer systems and set up them to divert the guards and then open the doors that Cobb and Zeller would need to exit by. They both received their first letter two days before. It must have been about the escape. We have no idea where they are or who helped them- or why they are working together. Captain, you have authority to use any means necessary to capture them again, or if that is not possible..." He trailed off. " I think you understand my meaning, Captain," he said and closed the link. Bridger looked around. Ford was staring at his clasped hands. He remembered the day he had spent with Cobb all to clearly. His hands clenched: what he wanted to do to that man! And he had two of their people- him and Zeller. It was an impossible combination of evil. He closed his eyes. He had to focus; he couldn't let him own anger and pain get in the way. He was worried by what he was feeling though: guilt. He had never liked Krieg, didn't agree with his attitude, his methods or his morals, but he didn't deserve to be murdered, and he had heard it... He swallowed on the cold, sick feeling in his stomach. He was too much of a joker, immature and troublesome to be killed. Somehow it was worse than if it was one of the more military people. Largely it was the fact that he had always disliked Krieg and tried to make things hard or him if he could, never hiding his dislike, that made him feel so bad. But there wasn't time for that now. " What do we do now?" he asked, interrupting the quiet. Bridger sighed. " We wait. We have no idea where they are; the launch was sixty miles from where they were supposed to be when Crocker got to it, and they've been gone for over two hours. They could be almost anywhere by now. All we know is that the signal was re-routed through the launch, but too badly scrambled to find the original source. Right now we have nothing to go on. What we heard, doesn't mean anything. Zeller likes playing games, he likes bluffing. We have to go on the assumption that they are alive." " Which is why he won't bluff this time." They all looked around at Kristen. " He knows we'll be thinking that he'll bluff, be expecting it. He wants to do what we don't expect... The irony will be that this time he did what he said," Kristen said very quietly, but with certainty. She sighed, leaning forward and still not looking up. " We don't know if anyone's dead or hurt, but there's something you haven't thought about yet, because it's... too horrible, too incomprehensible. But that's the way he would think- of the most horrible thing he could do, something none of us would even imagine..." She looked down, blinking. " Kristen?" Bridger asked, putting a hand on her arm. " What do you mean?" She sighed again and then looked up at him with bright eyes. " There were two people there, Nathan. Two people." They had all assumed instinctively that it would be Krieg who was hurt, if either was. No one, not even Zeller would shoot a boy... He was the best hostage, but also the most vulnerable. Bridger's hand dropped from her arm as his face froze and pain flashed through his eyes. Zeller could and would. Copyright E.Casale and Sabrina Helayna Ardeloes, 1997, 1998 Alexia ( Keeper of neurotics, psychotics, dementias, phobias, obsessions, disorders, various -pathic tendancies, general insanity, and Wielder of sharp, pointed objects) SpiritShadow Sabrina Familiar 'Armalade--Meg Greenbelt Shinbudo Innochi Karate And rabid feminist and an Italian: be warned, be worried, be afraid. 'Bring me the Big Knife!' 'Trash bags! I want some trash bags!' 'You could say we broke up because of artistic differences; he saw hiself as alive, and I saw him dead!' 'A compromise: you give it to me and I take it.' 'I do not need to learn patience; I've perfected impatience, that should be enough.' 'Here, put a pillow in your lap; it'll muffle the voices.' 'Don't throw stones and your mother, throw bricks at your father instead.'