CAIN AND ABEL
This is the sequel to 'Second Son'. I do not own any of the original SeaQuest characters.
The story is set shortly after the last one ended. It can stand alone, but there are a few concepts and characters that may confuse you if you don't read the last one.
Also, I haven’t seen ‘Good Soldiers’ so I have interpreted what happened in that episode from synopsis and other people’s fanfiction. I don’t think I’ve stolen anything though.
This story also contains violence, torture and some swearing. Some parts may make some people feel uncomfortable.
***
The young man sprinted through the halls of the factory in a blind panic. He dogged and twisted around corners randomly, not really thinking about exactly where he was going, trying to get away from his pursuers. As he ran through a room that was not as dark as the others, his Macronesian combat uniform could be seen more clearly. The only difference between this young man and the typical Macronesian soldier was that he was unarmed and being pursued.
A group of grey clad soldiers crouched behind a set of boxes. One spoke seriously into a hand held microphone, “Delta four, is the sub ready?”
“Affirmative powered up and ready to go,” another officer replied as he sat in the pilot’s seat of a launch right outside the underwater facility, “Have you got our kid yet?”
“He’s headed our way, sir, we’re onto him,” The soldier turned to his comrades and signaled to them. The soldiers’ at the back jumped up quickly and sprinted out in a line, blocking off any way past them. The Macronesian unwittingly came sprinting out toward them, but he didn’t see them until it was too late. The young man grinded to a holt and immediately put his hands up, getting ready to run backwards at the same time. Two of the soldiers rushed over to restrain him.
Section Seven agent, Commander Dallas stood up slowly as he watched the success of his team and brought his communicator to his face, “We got him restrained. Stand by.”
***
Nathan Bridger wrapped the towel around his neck as he walked bare foot into his living room. He looked as if he had just been swimming and had thrown his clothes over the top of his wet body.
He walked over the vidlink and pushed a few numbers. A tone could be heard but no one seemed to be picking up. The lines on his face seemed to deepen the longer the tone continued unanswered. There was a sudden clicking noise and a very young voice answered the phone, “Hello? Who is speaking please?”
Nathan smiled broadly at Michael’s voice, “Michael, its Grandpa!”
“Grampa!” the excited voice answered, “When are you coming over?”
“I don’t know, kiddo, whenever I can. Is your Mom or Dad there?”
“Mommy is,” Michael answered in his excited voice, “Mommy! Grampa’s on the phone!” Michael could be heard yelling as he turned his head away from the phone. Nathan heard his mother’s muffled voice in the background, “She’s coming,” Michael spoke officially into the phone.
Nathan smiled again, “Thank you, Mike.”
“Hi, Nathan,” Anna Bridger said as she picked up the phone.
“Anna, how are you?” Nathan asked.
“We’re well here. Actually, Robert’s been away for a while he won’t be back for at least a few days but it depends on how things are at work.”
“How are things at his work?” Nathan asked.
“Uh…” Anna didn’t really know how to answer the question; her husband never really spoke about it. It wasn’t something she was supposed to know about, “Okay, I guess. I generally know if there is something wrong.”
“Oh,” Nathan said uncomfortable. He hadn’t actually been asking if there was anything wrong, “Okay, well I haven’t seen any of you in a while, I would love to catch up.”
“Oh sure!” Anna replied, “Come around next week, we’d love to have you. Bobby will be home for a few days, you can stay for a week or longer if you like.”
Nathan felt a little sad by the news that his son was away so much and that he wasn’t going to be able to see them as much as he wanted, “Sure, sounds great,” Nathan said, then as an afterthought, “Maybe you should bring Michael around here to stay sometime, or I could pick him up. I’d love to have him.”
“Oh that would be wonderful!” Anna said a little bit relieved, she had a job of her own and Mike hadn’t started school yet.
“Okay, how about tomorrow,” Nathan suggested.
“Um,” Anna didn’t sound as enthusiastic now, “Well, I don’t have to work for a few days, and I was going to spend some time with him..”
“Oh that’s okay, let me know when it’s convenient,” Nathan responded. He pushed down on the button that severed the link slowly. He’d been alone on the island for a long time after he had lost Carol and left the service. But now that he had found that he still had family left he had hoped it would work out better.
He sighed, concerned about Robert, “Take Care, Son.”
***
“Affirmative powered up and ready to go. Have you got our kid yet?” A recording replayed the conversation between the section seven agents.
“He’s headed our way, sir, we’re onto him.” The tape stopped and the man who had recorded the information turned to face three older men.
“We didn’t pick up much more of the conversation,” Bobby Bridger informed his Commanders, “But we did manage to find out that their pursuant was caught and from what we can gather, they plan to keep him with the others.”
“So, are Section Seven targeting specific individuals from Macronesia?” Sympson, a man in his early 60s asked. Sympson looked to be genuinely well meaning and there was a kindness in his face that seemed to draw people to him. In particular Robert Bridger.
“Definitely, they’ve been picking them out from a crowd.” Bridger informed them.
Bridger’s partner, Allen spoke up from where he sat at the table across from the older men, “It’s also quite obvious that Macronesia regards the individuals as important too. We’ve been able to find records of extra government benefits for these people such as sick pay and annual leave that no one else in the population receives. Also… they seem to get away with a bit more that people tend to get away with under dictatorships.”
“Like what,” one of the older men wanted to know.
“Well, the young man they’ve just captured,” Allen indicated to Robert to turn on the screen, “Micah Kensington. He’s 23 or 24; we don’t have an exact age. He doesn’t seem to have an attitude problem, but according to section seven records, he’s been getting away with expressing his anti-Macronesian opinions whenever he likes. It seems it’s just been ignored.”
Robert gave Allen a snide look, showing their rivalry for superiority, “It’s not the Soviet Union, you know. Anti-authority is something very normal for Australians. You can’t stamp that out in less than a decade. Bourne probably doesn’t want to waste valuable torture resources on someone who he doesn’t see as a threat.”
“Valuable torture resources?” Allen teased Robert’s choice of tongue-in-cheek.
“Still, Eltherington,” Sympson addressed Bobby with his undercover name, “How do you explain the special treatment and the Section Seven’s specific capture of them?”
“Well,” Robert looked a bit uncomfortable with the information, “We think…. That Section Seven thinks, that these people are a part of some kind of Macronesian GELF army.”
There were a few scoffs from the room and Robert tried to ignore them. Allen, on the other hand, sought to address them, “Look, we’re not saying that’s what we think. But Section Seven have been taking blood and gene samples of these people. We’re concerned they may be using them for experimentation similar to what was done back earlier in the century.”
The room was silent for a short while, “Then why aren’t we setting up a mission to get them out,” Sympson asked.
“Well, first of all, we’re not entirely sure where they are being held,” Robert began.
“And second of all, we want to find out what Section Seven knows about them first so we can steal that information as well.” Allen finished.
“No, that’s not what we’re doing!” Robert argued.
“Macronesia is less than a decade old,” Sympson was obviously used to ignoring to two bicker, “It’s not possible that they could already have a fully functional genetically engineered army. These people we are holding are all well into their twenties and thirties.”
“Maybe they worked out how to speed up the ageing process,” one of the other men suggested.
“That’s a little far fetched don’t you think?” the other chimed in, “And besides, if they were going to speed up the aging process how would they slow it down once the subjects reached their prime? There’s no point in going to all that trouble to create an army when it’s not going to last.”
“It’s possible that the Macronesian’s are in the process,” the other suggested, “They could be experimenting on real people so that they reproduce more advance human beings.”
“Or it is possible that the Australian government had already started something similar to the GELF projects back in the 1990s,” Allen said.
Robert disagreed, “No, the Americans and the British would have known about anything ASIO was doing.”
“Are you sure?” The older man challenged, “And even if you are, how do you know that the people who were aware of anything would have passed the information onto us?”
“Are you suggesting that the group of people who became Macronesia knew something about the Australasian region that the UEO didn’t know? Come on! That’s ridiculus!” Allen argued angrily. The argument became heated as each person at the table began to argue why another argument was stupid.
“All this speculation is well and good!” Sympson’s voice of reason cut through the angry voices, “But what we really need to know is why Section Seven is holding them.”
“Leverage against Macronesia,” a less experienced agent interrupted.
“Leverage to make them do what?” Bridger asked still standing at the head of the table.
“What we need to talk about,” Sympson raised his voice again, “is how we’re going to find the answers to our questions. No one knows anything, lets not pretend that we do and waste time arguing about it.” The table remained silent as the men absorbed what he was saying.
“We’re going to send out a group to go into Macronesian bases and colonies that look as though they have been or will be targeted. They are to pose as undercover section seven agents. We want Macronesia believing they are Macronesian, and Section Seven believing they are Section Seven. Any ideas on appropriate agents?”
The Party Operation board began to discuss methods of infiltration.
***
After his ordeal on the Seaquest with Biggs, Lucas slowly recovered from his injuries. He needed much more sleep than usual but the pain was reducing by the day. Lucas was fast asleep when Tony crashed excitedly into their room, waking him suddenly.
“Lucas!” Tony called, “Wake up!”
Lucas rolled over slowly, opening his eyes groggily. Tony calmed down a bit and cocked his head, looking at him carefully.
“Sorry,” Tony said sheepishly, “I’ll come back when you’re more awake.”
“No, I’m fine,” Lucas croaked, his voice cracking. He sat up slowly and scrunched his face at the effort and pain it caused him.
“Lay back down,” Tony said, his childish bounce returning, “You don’t need to be sitting up to hear the news I’m going to tell you.”
Lucas got into a sitting position anyway, looking at Tony with curiosity. Tony smiled, “In fact,” he beamed, “It may be more appropriate for you to be kneeling.”
Lucas gave Tony a withering look, then his face cracked into a smile he couldn’t stop, “No way,” he said, “You didn’t.”
Tony held up a piece of laminated paper, “Read it and weep, Junior. You are looking at the new and improved Lieutenant Piccolo.”
Lucas broke out into laughter, “Congratulations, Tony.”