SECOND SON
by Teresa
CHAPTER THREE
Nathan had no idea how long he and his son stayed hugging together on the sidewalk. It just seemed so surreal. He’d been grieving and searching all this time, so much had happened. Now here he was, one small break and he had found his son in a matter of days, alive, well and happy to see him. He had left the navy, lost Carol and rejoined the navy all while his son was assumed dead. He couldn’t conceive that his son was now only fourteen years younger than himself, what must have he been through that Nathan had missed? He had so many questions, finding out if his son was still the Robert he lost long ago was a hurdle that they had to get over before they could even begin to try to explain everything else that just didn’t make sense.
“Dad..” Robert’s voice made his heart leap. He had found him. He had really found him. He had never let him go, he still missed him so much. It was as though an entire section of his life was just a completely different chapter - or an entirely different book and the two parts that didn’t mesh had somehow been shoved together.
“Oh my God, Robert,” Nathan pulled away from his son’s grasp and took his face in his hands. Tears were streaming down both their faces. “My boy,” he whispered unable to express the confusing and overwhelming emotions.
Suddenly something snapped in Robert, “Dad!” he said wide eyed, “It’s not safe for you! You have to get out of here, you’re in danger!”
“In danger from who?” Nathan asked.
“I’m sorry,” Robert pulled from his father’s grasp, “You have to get out of here, far away, somewhere safe. I need to check on my wife,” Robert had freed himself of his father’s grasp and was backing away quickly from the direction he had come in.
“No!” Nathan was determined to stay with his son, “I’ll go with you!”
“No, Da..” Robert started.
“Robert,” Nathan caught a hold of his son again, “I’m not going to lose you again.”
“Alright,” it didn’t take much for Robert to be convinced, he was hesitant about leaving his father anyway, “This is going against every instinct as a soldier, but..”
“This is not about being a soldier,” Nathan corrected firmly and forcefully, “You are my son, it’s my job to protect you.”
“Dad, I’m an adult and I understand the situation better than you.”
“Then explain it too me,” Nathan begged. At this the two became suddenly aware of their public surroundings, both at the same time it seemed. Nathan took charge, parental instincts kicking in, “Come on, you said we need to get to your wife.” Robert didn’t argue but immediately grabbed his father’s arm again and pulled him away with him.
***
Hudson paced the wardroom in front of two of his best officers, who were seated next to each other at the table. “So you’re saying that you have no leads on who practically sabotaged our boat this morning?” Hudson was stressed, but his anger was not directed at either of his officers.
“Well sir, we do know that it wasn’t just anyone,” Communications officer Tim O’Neill replied, “It was most definitely a secret service, the whole method and layout of the bug and the strategy was way to high profile to be a rogue group of any kind.”
“Asecret service, Mr O’Neill? Any idea whose spies may have come aboard especially to kidnapped one of my officers?”
“No, sir,” O’Neill said regretfully, looking down at the table.
Commander Ford had sat silently the whole time, his arms folded, looking at the table as well.
Hudson sighed, “Well do you know what else they got up to while they were here?”
Ford slowly shook his head, “From what we can gather, sir, that’s all they were doing here.”
Hudson looked at his Commander for a long few moments, almost disbelievingly, “You’re telling me that you think a ‘high profile’, secret service mission was set up _just_ to kidnap Ensign Wolenczak?” Ford shrugged in response and continued to stare at the table, obviously distressed himself. Hudson continued to look at both of them, arrogant stance, one eyebrow cocked, “I’m beginning to understand Ensign Wolenczak’s conceited attitude.” Neither of the officers argued. Hudson resumed his normal posture and ran a hand through what was left of his hair, sighing. A dull feeling of nauseating helplessness filled the air. Hudson leaned forward and put his hands on the table for support. “There has to be something we can do,” he said, “People don’t just get abducted from a top security naval vessel, damn it!”
Hudson remained in his crouched over position, “Well, we’d better hope it was Section Seven….” He cut himself of, realising, “No this is bad no matter what,” He ran his hands over his face, “I’m going to contact McGath, see what he knows. You two are dismissed, resume your normal duties. This discussion isn’t classified, so say what you will.”
The other two nodded. There really wasn’t much to say. Not only had they lost a valuable crewmember and a friend to an unknown fate, their personal and national security had been compromised more than ever before. Tim followed Jonathan out of the room and Hudson was left in his own thoughts, wondering what he was going to do if McGath had absolutely no idea of what could have happened to his young officer - and his boat’s security.
***
General Vishnore paced his office nervously. The room was very dark and small, it looked more like a basement section than anything else, where someone had forgotten, or neglected to turn on the lights. He was stressed. Bridger was becoming a serious concern but any action against him needed to be timed perfectly. The boy had been taken too soon. Vishnore’s unnamed, second in command stood in the centre of the room, to attention, but not exactly in a military type way. His attitude was completely opposite to that of Vishnore’s, as he remained completely calm. It was obvious from the tension in the room that Vishnore did not have as much power over him as he would like. “What happens if something goes wrong, you moron? We can’t risk exposure!” Vishnore spat at his agent.
“We’re not risking exposure,” the young officer in his late twenties whined.
“You took him from the Seaquest. Could you have picked are larger more important vessel?”
The young man pursed his lips in order to mock considering the question for a moment, “Probably not,” he replied calmly.
Vishnore stopped and turned to his agent, ready to flame him for his ‘insubordination’. Before he could speak the officer cut him off, “You warned Bridger if he pursued the situation, the boy would be at risk. Father and son are reunited; we no longer have any leash left to control either of them with. We’re already in trouble. This kid is, at the moment, our only insurance.”
Vishnore looked at him, considering, “How do you plan to pull at Bridger’s strings?”
“That’s the easy part,” the officer smiled.
“You don’t have to actually hurt the kid just make sure Bridger thinks he’s hurt, got it?”
“Why do you always have to be such an essentialist - only what’s necessary. I can judge what’s necessary.”
“Alright, but I’m still not happy with the level of insurance. It might be all we have but we need more. I want Eltherington back. That’s your main priority now. Do have anything you can use against him?”
“No, sir. By the time we got the information, Eltherington had already had escaped with his wife.”
“Well I want him back.”
The officer did not disagree, “You got it,” he saluted sloppily and left the room.
***
Hudson sat unhappily in his chair. McGath sat likewise on screen in his quarters, looking at him. The silence of the two men told the whole story.
“You’re going to have to abandon your current mission and focus on this. If we have no idea who has done this we need to find out very shortly,” McGath ordered.
Hudson nodded, hand over his mouth, “We were going to be docking in North Terrace, to pick up Bridger,” Hudson sighed, “I have no idea how I’m going to tell him.”
“Just say that it’s classified. If I know Bridger his mission is probably on the classified side too, he won’t dig any further.” Hudson lifted his head, the comment sparking another idea.
“Maybe he’ll know something,” Hudson said confidently, “ In my experience when two completely different classified situations pop up at the same time, it genuinely isn’t a coincidence.”
McGath nodded, agreeing, “And they’re usually not completely different.”
The two men looked at each other seriously, relieved that they finally had a break.
“Continue with your current assignment,” McGath ordered.
Hudson nodded. He cut the link and left his cabin to meet with his crew.
***
Lucas’ consciousness slowly filtered through into his foggy mind. The first thing his realised was that he couldn’t open his eyes. He had felt the tap around his mouth and was beginning to feel incredibly claustrophobic. Panicking he went to bring his hands to his eyes but quickly discovered that they were restrained by heavy leather straps. He shifted his body trying to figure out his position. He was lying down on a solid table. His shoulders had already begun to ache and the pain in his back from his previous torture was surprisingly excruciating. He had also discovered that his feet we tied in a similar way to his wrists and his shoes had been removed. He jumped at a quiet voice in the room.
“When do we start?” a man’s voice asked. Lucas was frustrated at not being able to tell where the voice came from and rolled his head to the left side so his right ear could pick up more of what was being said.
“No, this one’s not here for interrogation,” another deeper voice replied. The man sounded as though he’d be quite large. Lucas shivered at the word ‘interrogation’. But silently thanked God that he didn’t need to go to the bathroom yet. He was sure that if he had he would have wet himself at the thought of sitting like a lab rat, vulnerable, unable to escape, see or speak, ready to be tested. Lucas couldn’t remember being more afraid in his life. He strained his ears for further conversation but there was none.
***
The first job of the Bridger’s had been to reunite Robert and his wife with their own son. Although they hadn’t been separated for as long as Nathan and Robert, tears of relief and joy were shed throughout the long reunion. Nathan and Robert had shared information about the situation that they were in. Robert had refused to give any information on his work and his exact whereabouts for the past umpteen odd years but did confide that he’d been forced to join the group that he was with due to blackmail where his superiors threatened his family. He explained photographs of Nathan and Carol, while she was alive, that he receive and warnings of “accidents” that could be arranged.
As Nathan noticed that darkness was falling, he looked at his watch, “I think I’m going to have to go soon,”
“Where on earth would you be going at a time like this?” Robert’s wife enquired.
“I contacted the Seaquest before I found Robert,” he paused, taking a deep breath - he still couldn’t believe it, he’d found him! “The Seaquest officers are my former crew,” he added, smiling.
“Dad, I’m going with you,” Robert said, “If you think they can help us you’ll need me there.”
Nathan hesitantly looked at his son. He was well into his adult years now, with a family of his own. He really should be ordering him about for his own protection. After all, Robert probably had more training than Nathan. But his parental concerns won and he tried anyway. “You need to stay here to look after..”
“Don’t give me that, you know their safe,” his son cut him off, getting up from the table they had been sitting at, “I’m just going to get ready,” he stated, before leaving the room to get his bag.
Nathan sighed and looked at the table. “Don’t worry,” Robert’s wife put her hand on his arm, “I trust both of you completely, and the people who you decide to trust as well.”
Nathan smiled at her in appreciation.
***
The wardroom was fuller this time. The entire senior crew had gathered to be briefed by Hudson.
“We will be docking in North Terrace as planned. I haven’t spoken to Mr. Bridger yet but I get the feeling that there’s more to the story than he’s letting on.”
“But sir,” Henderson spoke up, “How do you know that Captain Bridger has anything to do with this?”
“There are way too many suspicious circumstances to be all a coincidence, Lieutenant. I have had experience with this type of thing,” Hudson explained calmly.
Hudson looked around at his officers. If the crew disagreed, they didn’t show it. Hudson decided to approach the issue that he’d been avoiding. “I understand that you’re all worried about Ensign Wolenczak, some of you especially so. I’d like to remind you that the better we do our jobs on this particular mission the more we guarantee his safety.”
The crew unenthusiastically nodded in response. Tony was sitting at the table very quiet but he still had his colour, unlike Tim who was showing no other signs of deep concern apart from his pallor.
Hudson stood up and left without dismissing them. He had enough to worry about with the security of the boat, slippery politics, and his own personal concerns for his young officer. He didn’t need concerns on how the crew were dealing with the fact that the most vulnerable member of the crew had been abducted right out from under their noses and they didn’t know where he was and whether or not he was okay, let alone what they could do about it.
***
Lonnie Henderson sat in the mess hall poking her food around her plate. She was feeling quite ill. The guilt for feeling vulnerable herself, as well as being concerned for Lucas plagued her mind. They had been shocked into the realisation that they were not as safe as they always thought they were, surrounded by military, and away from battle. But at the same time, she wondered if she would ever see her friend again. They’d seen many crewmembers killed, especially after Hyperion, but Lucas was barely out of childhood, the fact that he might be hurt or dead punched in the reality that it could happen to anyone. Anyone.
“Hey, how you doin’,” the new Lieutenant Zach Biggs was grinning broadly as he interrupted her thoughts. She looked up and smiled.
“Yeah, sit down,” she said in a scratchy voice.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, concerned and trying to look at her face as he sat down.
“It’s Lucas,” she said looking at his face to see if Zach remembered him.
“The kid, right?” Zach replied.
She nodded, “He was abducted yesterday. From the Seaquest,”
“Your kidding,” he said, “Is he okay?”
She paused, “We don’t know,” she whispered, lowering her head.
Zach looked at her for a few moments, a small amount of sympathy written on his face. It was obvious, however that he barely knew Lucas. It felt to him just like any other bad news.
“Hey,” he said gently, putting his hand on hers, “Don’t worry about it, people go missing a lot, they come back, don’t they,” he smiled at her.
Still looking at her plate, Lonnie smiled too. He was right. But it didn’t make it feel any better. She looked up at him and he smiled again, still with his hand on her arm. She knew that smile.
“Look,” she said, unsure how to explain that this was really not the time for him to flirt with her, “I’m with Jonathan right now.” He removed his hand from hers, not looking too surprised.
“Sure,” he said still looking into her eyes, “But if you need a friend.”
She nodded, “Yeah, thanks,” she was relieved to watch him get up and leave without looking back. She sighed. It was times like these that having a reputation for flirting with everything with a penis had its consequences.
***
Commander Ford and Captain Hudson stood silently as they waited at the docking doors for Nathan Bridger to appear. They had been informed that Nathan had been reunited with his son; Robert the day before and Robert would be coming aboard with him. Nathan had explained that they had a ‘situation’ which more than confirmed Hudson’s suspicions. Commander Ford tried to concentrate on his excitement and curiosity about his former Captain’s son to keep his mind of Lucas.
The doors opened and out stepped Nathan Bridger, looking the same as he did the last time Jonathan and Hudson had seen him.
Jonathan stepped forward to greet him with a large smile, “Nathan, great to see you,” the two men shook hands. Nathan and Hudson exchanged pleasant nods of greetings.
“Hello, Oliver,” Nathan greeted.
“Nathan.”
Behind Nathan another man stepped out. Taller than Nathan, with his black hair showing a few slithers of grey, the similarity in his eyes and nose showed that he was unmistakably related to Nathan Bridger. Nathan turned to his son, “Gentlemen,” he announced, “this is my son, Robert.” Jonathan stepped forward to take Roberts hand.
“It’s great to meet you. You have no idea how much we’ve already heard about you,” Jonathan said. Robert smiled back, already comfortable with Jonathan’s presence. He looked at his father to confirm that what Jonathan said was true. Nathan just smiled. Hudson stepped forward to greet the younger man.
“I’m afraid I can’t say the same myself. I’ve only just recently had the pleasure of meeting your father,” Hudson stated.
“That’s fine. I’m sure it won’t take too long for us to get to know each other,” Robert replied pleasantly.
“Well,” Hudson said once they had all been acquainted, “I think that you should brief us in the ward room.”
“All right, Oliver,” Nathan replied. He turned to his son to ensure that he was following then moved forward behind Jonathan.
“It’s great to meet your crew,” Robert said to his father as they tagged behind the two Seaquest officers. He motioned to Jonathan, “He’s a great guy.”
Nathan smiled, “Wait until you meet Lucas,” he said. Roberts facial expressions explained that he had already been told about Lucas quite a bit, “Yeah, I’m sure,” he replied.
Once the four men were seated in the briefing room Hudson began, “Nathan, we need you to explain what’s going on.” Nathan looked at Hudson’s face, which told him something was wrong.
“Why? What’s happened?” Commander Ford and Oliver Hudson both opened their mouths to speak at the same time. Ford quickly closed it and turned to Hudson, nodding for him to continue.
“Nathan we’ve had a serious breach of security. One of our crewmembers was abducted from the boat two days ago, taken right from under our noses. The systems didn’t pick it up until an hour after an unauthorised shuttle had left.” Nathan wanted the whole story.
“Who?”
The was a pause before Jonathan answered, beating Hudson, “Lucas.” Nathan stared at them.
“Lucas was abducted,” he confirmed, his voice raised in stress. Hudson nodded.
“McGath and I thought you might have some information that could help us find him - and who took him.” Nathan was only barely listening. His heart was in his throat and he felt himself shaking slightly. No, this couldn’t be happening, not when he had just found his son. Why was he destined to be put through grief?
“Do, do you know if he’s okay…?” he asked with difficulty, shaking his head. Hudson shook his head too.
“No, we have no idea what happened to him,” Nathan shut his eyes. He just felt like he had been punched in the stomach.
“Nathan, are you okay?” Jonathan asked with concern.
“No I’m not,” Nathan said, “But we do need to talk about this.”
Hudson leaned forward, “So you do have some information?”
Robert answered for his father, aware of the shock he was in, “Yeah. My father just tracked me down somehow. That kind of broke the curse. I wasn’t able to track him down because the people who I was working for - am working for, erased my identity and threatened my family if I ever left tried to leave.”
Jonathan frowned, “So why did you have another family after he left? Isn’t that just giving them more ammunition?”
“No,” he responded, unthreatened by the question despite its nature, “Once I found out both my parents were dead, I couldn’t really see any point in trying to return to my normal life. It had been too many years any way. So I thought that I might as well start a new one.”
“Who are these people?” Hudson asked. Robert looked at him and shook his head, indicating that he wasn’t going to say.
“NO?” Hudson demanded in shock.
“No,” Robert stated in determination.
“So, Nathan,” Jonathan addressed his ex-superior, continuing whilst ignoring the staring match between Robert and Hudson, “How did you find Robert so quickly?”
“I got some leads from a Section Seven contact,” Nathan said, regretfully, having now recovered sufficiently to conduct a conversation.
“So this is Section Seven affiliated,” Hudson said.
“No,” Nathan and Robert corrected in unison.
“The information enabled me to trace him through a part of the media which had pick up on some of his activities,” Nathan explained.
“But it does involve classified operations,” Hudson said. Robert shrugged in response to the semi-rhetorical question.
The conversation continued on more pleasantly and Nathan was able to explain exactly how he tracked down Robert. Robert gave all the information that he felt comfortable giving, which was nothing solid.
“This isn’t really helping us,” Hudson mumbled disappointed.
“Well, actually,” said Nathan, shifting in his chair, “I was approached by a man named Vishnore…”
“Vishnore?” Robert had paled slightly, slowly turning to his father.
Nathan looked at his son, “Who is he?” he demanded.
Robert hesitated, “He’s…my commanding officer,” he said slowly, obviously being careful about what he said as he said it, “The one who issued the threats about you and mum.”
Nathan looked at him, less shocked than would be expected, “Well, it seems that threatening people seems to be this man’s job.”
“Why, what do mean?” Jonathan asked flatly, before Nathan could continue. Nathan looked at Hudson and Ford before taking out a photo of Lucas and slid it across the table.
“He gave me this and told me that it wasn’t an empty threat.”
Ford picked up the photo and looked at. Hudson gave it a glance and turned his attention back to Nathan. Hudson had now only just completely understood Bridger’s relationship with this boy.
“How could he know you so well,” the question was directed at Nathan but it was meant for Robert.
“He’d been monitored extensively for my benefit,” Robert replied.
“Is there anyway we can contact this Vishnore?” Hudson asked, just as Jonathan put down the photograph.
“Well, yes there is,” Robert replied, “I work with him. But I need to return to base quickly so that I’m not missed.”
“What about Anna and Michael?” Nathan asked his son.
“I’ll have a team sent out to ensure the protection of your wife and son, even though I’m sure their already safe,” Hudson offered.
“Thankyou, I’d appreciate that,” Robert replied.
“Alright, I’ll get right on it,” Hudson said standing, “You better get going,” he said to Robert. The man nodded. Before he left Robert placed a hand on Nathan’s shoulder as an offer of support. Nathan took a hold of his arm and looked up at him, nodding in appreciation. Robert let go and left the room.
“Nathan, are you okay?” Jonathan asked one more time.
Nathan shook his head, “I don’t know, Jonathan,” he said with a sigh.
***
“Alright, you’re ready to go,” O’Neill announced through his headset on the bridge.
“Thankyou, Seaquest,” Robert replied in the shuttle through his own headset, as the shuttle left the docking bay.
“Do they know where Lucas is?” Piccolo asked Tim as he removed his headset and turned to his computer.
“They’ve got a pretty good idea, Tony,” Tim replied.
“Do you think he’s okay?” Tony asked, missing his usual confident attitude.
Tim looked up at him, “He’s a hostage, Tony. It’s more than likely that he’s alive and relatively healthy. Tony looked relieved. He looked up at Lonie who looked at him with her own relief in her eyes.
“I told you, it’d be okay,” Biggs said quietly next to her. She turned and smiled at him.
“Sir!” A junior officer cried out to Commander Ford, “Bridger’s shuttle is in distress.”
Nathan, who had just arrived onto the bridge walked over to the Captain’s chair with a look of horror on his face.
“What’s wrong?” Hudson demanded.
“He had another tailing him, sir,” she replied.
“On screen,” Hudson ordered. But it was too late. The screen emerged just in time to see Robert’s shuttle being apprehended by the unidentified shuttle chasing him and watch it disappear.
“You’ve got to track it!” Bridger cried.
“I’m sorry, sir,” she said, less excitement in her voice, “we lost him.” The bridge fell silent as everyone realised they’d been done over again. Hudson allowed Nathan to sit in his command chair, which he fell into heavily. Now he’d lost both his sons……
“Sir, we’re getting an incoming transmission,” Tim announced. Nathan sat up, his heart beating faster. Hudson walked around to stand next to him and Ford followed behind.
“Put it on screen,” Hudson ordered. The screen was filled with the long face of a man in an unmarked uniform. His face held no reason to be unattractive without any blemishes but he was ugly all the same.
“Vishnore,” Nathan stated, a greeting and introduction to his comrades at the same time.
“What have you done with my son?” Bridger demanded.
“A great deal of things Mr. Bridger,” Vishnore replied cheerfully.
“I want him back,” Nathan said.
“Which one?” Vishnore asked. At the look on Bridger’s face he laughed merrily. The crew looked angry, now that they knew what had happened to their friend. The men could be seen tightening their jaws. All with the exception of Dagwood who look worried, he understood more than anyone realised. “If you like, I will release one,” Vishnore offered.
“How do we even know that have Ensign Wolenczak?” Hudson challenged. Vishnore pondered the question and then turned around and nodded his head. A few moments later the large man who had escorted Lucas to the questioning room where he was assaulted before his restraint brought the teenager forward, holding him by the left arm and the scruff of the neck. Lucas still had the duct tape around his mouth and eyes, so they couldn’t see how he was emotionally. But he looked extremely pale and dried tears were visible where they had marked his face. The worst thing was that Lucas didn’t struggle; he stood stiffly and obediently as he was roughly pulled away.
Nathan heard himself and a few others gasp quietly at the sight of their friend. “I will release _one_,” Vishnore repeated.
“Which one?” Nathan asked fearfully.
“Which ever one you like Mr. Bridger,” He smiled; “I’ll call you later,” with that he cut the link.
Nathan stared at the screen in a sort of numb shock. Hudson looked at him and then looked down, unsure of what to say. Jonathan knew that everyone in that room wanted him to chose Lucas but they couldn’t bring themselves to ask him to leave his son behind. Nathan stood up and left the bridge. No one followed him. The bridge crew slowly went back to work. Nathan was lost in his own thoughts. This was going to be the most difficult decision he had ever had to make.