*Many
thanks to Kate for her help, without which my plot would have looked similar to
Swiss cheese (the variety with multiple holes) J.
Redemption
By Sea
Spinner
The jail rose up from the ocean like a dark unnatural sentinel,
warning off all those who might trespass on the rocky peninsula. Captain Lee
Crane of the Seaview was in the
uncompromising position of being one of the newest occupants of the prison.
“Where are the rest of your men?” yelled his interrogator.
For the third time, Lee tested the bonds that tied his
wrists to the arms of the metal chair.
They were so tight he was starting to lose the feeling in his
hands. He desperately hoped Kowalski and
Patterson were alright. As for Admiral
Nelson – he had no idea how he had fared since
their untimely separation from each other.
Since Nelson wasn’t with him now, he felt fairly certain that he’d
managed to elude capture.
His mind returned to his current predicament. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We want out of this accursed prison and you and your
submarine are going to be our tickets,” shouted the man.
Lee thought he had seen a glimpse of hysteria in his eyes,
but he figured he must have imagined it.
“Why do you need the submarine?”
“Our boat left us here, because our new captain saw what it did to one of his crew!”
“It?” The men were obviously unhinged. They looked like they’d seen a ghost.
“The…the thing,” stammered the shorter man.
“Shut up, Jimmy, it’s served its purpose up until now,”
snapped the interrogator. “How many men
came ashore with you, Captain?”
“I don’t remember.”
“If you won’t tell us, you leave us no choice.” His interrogator nodded to two other men. “Barth, Jimmy, take him to the tunnels.”
“Are you sure, Dan,” asked Jimmy, gnawing at his bottom
lip. “Do we have to go down there
again?”
“Tunnels?” asked Lee.
“You’ll see, after that you’ll be so crazed that your mind
won’t know what your mouth’s saying.”
His arms were momentarily untied before being securely bound
behind his back just as quickly. He
wondered what the men had in store for him – something so terrible that he was
certain he hadn’t imagined the terror behind their eyes. He was hustled down a narrow set of enclosed
spiral stairs that seemed to go forever.
The lower they went the darker and wetter the walls became. A rotting smell assailed his nostrils, like
seaweed that had lain on a beach for too long in the summer – at least he hoped
that was what it was. Water trickled
down from gaps in the bricks and Lee figured that they were below sea level.
“Where are you taking me?” he asked.
“Where you’ll never be found unless you tell us what we want
to know,” threatened Dan, stepping out from behind Jimmy.
Lee staggered a little as he was pushed from the last step
along a dark tunnel. It was as if the darkness
absorbed the dim light shed by the flashlights.
Instead of illuminating it, the light was sucked into the tunnel and the
menacing gloom beyond.
Rounding a bend, Lee was disturbed to see two skeletons
hanging from chains at the end of the tunnel. A third set of manacles, cemented into
the wall were, as yet unoccupied. He had
no doubt in his mind that he was to be the third victim of whatever it was
inhabiting the darkest depths of the prison, but he was damned if he would go
down without a fight.
He couldn’t be chained to the wall unless they untied his
hands first, so he watched and waited.
One of his captors lit a torch beside the empty irons and glanced back
at Lee. Before he approached him he
rattled the mould covered skeletons of the previous victims.
“What do you think, Crane?
This how you want to end up?”
“Get on with it,” he snapped, suddenly tired of the
taunting.
Dan grabbed his jaw.
“Are you that impatient to die?”
“Better to die than have to listen to the sound of your
voice all night,” he replied angrily.
Surprisingly, so far he hadn’t been subjected to any
violence, but he had a feeling that wouldn’t last for much longer.
The man’s bearded and unkempt head loomed so close Lee could
feel the heat of his breath on his face, the reek of it almost as bad as the
tunnel. “When I hear your screams
tonight, and know that the flesh is being stripped from your bones, I’ll raise
a glass.”
Lee held back a shiver and tensed himself for a fight as his
wrists were finally released. Before he
had an opportunity one of the men secured him in a headlock as the others
efficiently snapped the metal restraints around his wrists and feet. His neck was then fitted to a ring, also
attached to the wall. The sudden
tightness gave made him choke and he had to make an effort to slow his
breathing down.
“Not so feisty now, are you?” grinned Dan with a cruel glint
in his eyes. “Last chance, where are the
rest of your men and how many of them came with you?”
“Go to hell,” Lee rasped.
“After you, Crane. Be
seeing you. Have fun down here with our
little wraith. We’ll probably be back to
get what’s left of you around dawn, that’s if the high tide doesn’t get you
first.”
The lights gradually dimmed as the men walked back around
the corner, leaving him to his fate.
Save for the one petering flame, he was left in semi-darkness. He’d noticed that some of the irons were
rusted and tried his luck with them, to no avail. For a brief moment he thought he’d felt something
give in the right one but it had only been his imagination – either that or
there were gremlins hiding somewhere around the corner playing tricks on him.
The minutes turned into what seemed like hours and nothing
happened. It had been
Lee had never been superstitious, but right now, he had to
ask himself if the chill he felt was just the cold from the walls or something
supernatural. The men had said there was
a wraith. Maybe they’d just had too much
to drink but somehow he didn’t think so.
The torch gave him enough light to see the beginnings of the
tide change as it found its way into the bowels of the old prison. How many inmates had died this way when the
prison had been occupied? What number
would he be? Just like those prisoners
before him, he was helpless to escape the horrors that might lie before him.
A loud groaning noise made his heart pound until he
remembered that he’d seen timber shoring a few feet back along the tunnel. At least the others were still free and might
still be able to capture the smugglers before it was too late. He knew there wasn’t much chance that the
smugglers would come back. A scurrying
sound caught his attention. He looked
down to see a large number of big rats running quickly towards the steps. The tide must have turned already and they were
leaving to escape the water. Lee let out
a relieved breath once all of them had gone by without giving him a second
thought and he was left alone once more.
Every drip and trickle of water that seeped and oozed from
the ancient walls was like a thunderclap.
Still, he managed to keep his imagination in check, for the most part,
by thinking back to the circumstances that had brought him here.
Twelve
hours earlier
“Lee, come in,” said Nelson, inviting his Captain into his
cabin.
“What is it, Admiral?”
“We’ve been asked to help the British Navy find out how
contraband has been entering the country through
Lee frowned. “That’s
not normally something we’d take on.”
Nelson gave him a weary grin. “You’re right. I’m afraid the request was on a personal
level through the Duchy of Cornwall.”
“The Duchy of
“That’s right,” Nelson said with a sly grin.
Lee knew that look and decided to keep going. “Who is the Duchy of Cornwall, Sir?”
“The Prince of Wales.”
“How…never mind,” he finished, expelling a breath of air. If the Admiral wanted to tell him how he knew
the Prince of Wales, he would in his own good time. He knew Nelson had an unusual mixture of
acquaintances, but this one was the icing on the cake.
“It’s a long story, Lee, and if we get time after the
mission, I’ll tell you about it,” he conceded.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Set a course for the south coast of
“
Nelson studied a map and handed a set of co-ordinates to
him. “The contraband is entering through
“
“That’s right. The
island was once used by the Knights Templar as a prison during the
crusades. In the eighteen hundreds, the
French Foreign Legion took it over, but it was still used as a prison.” Nelson took out a cigarette and lit it. “It was only closed down in the last two
years. The atrocities that were
committed there in the last nine hundred years could fill a library.”
“Who owns it now, Admiral?”
“
Lee ran a hand over his dark hair. “So we don’t really know what we’re up
against?”
“Before we leave I’ll brief everyone. We’ll take Kowalski and Patterson as well.”
“Right, Admiral.” Lee
stood up. “I’ll change course.”
“Very well, let me know when we arrive.”
“Aye, Sir.”
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Present
“Patterson, where do you think the Skipper and the Admiral
got to?”
“How should I know, Ski, we’re lost ourselves. There’s not much hope of tracking down the
others,” replied Seaman Patterson.
“This place is creepy.”
“You got that right, like out of a Vincent Price movie.”
Kowalski’s eyes lit up in the torchlight. “Yeah, that movie he was in, what was it…The Raven.”
“That’s right, the one in the castle.”
“The one I thought was the creepiest was Doctor Phibes.”
“Hmm, you’re right, that was
creepy.”
Kowalski figured that it was about six hours from dawn,
almost
“Ski, you alright?”
“Uh, sure, Pat. I was
just thinking about some stuff. Are you
superstitious?”
“Nah, none of that bothers me.”
Ski looked behind them, there was nothing he could see in
the corridor they’d just followed, but he still had the feeling that there was
another presence near them.
“Don’t you feel it?”
Patterson’s eyebrows knotted into a frown. “Feel what?”
“It!” exclaimed
Kowalski, frustrated that his friend didn’t believe him.
“Gee, Ski, maybe you’ve been watching too many of those
creepy old horror movies.”
Kowalski ignored him.
“It’s time we checked in with the Skipper and the Admiral.”
His friend nodded and pulled the two-way radio from his
belt. “Patterson to Captain Crane.”
He waited a moment, then tried again. Once again there was no answer.
“I don’t like this, Pat.”
Patterson glared at him and tried a third time to raise
their Captain and the Admiral.
“Patterson to Captain Crane.”
Minutes ticked by until Patterson put the two-way back on his belt. “They were on level two the last we heard
from them.”
“Pat, contact the boat and then we’ll go look for them.”
While Patterson radioed the Seaview, Kowalski wandered a few yards away, searching the remaining
rooms on the fourth floor of the prison. A shadow caught his eye as he opened a
battered wooden cell door.
“Stop! Who are you?”
The shadow flung itself from the barred window and
disappeared.
“Ski, Ski! What is
it?”
“I saw it but I don’t think you’ll believe me.”
Patterson frowned.
“Let me guess, you saw a ghost.”
“Yeah, why don’t you believe me? It got out through there.” He pointed towards the heavily barred window.
His friend walked over to the window and tried the
bars. “Through these, you say?”
“Uh, yeah,” replied Ski, starting to wonder if he’d seen
anything at all. “I know what I saw.”
Patterson still looked uncertain. “Let’s keep moving. We have to find the others. Something must have happened to them.”
Just as they reached the end of the level, a door slammed
shut behind them. Kowalski and Patterson
both jumped.
“What was that, Ski?”
“I don’t know,” he swallowed nervously. “I guess we’d better check it out, Pat.”
“Maybe it was just a strong breeze.” Pat groaned.
“Either that or we need an exorcist.”
“You still think this is a joke, don’t you?” grumbled Ski.
Patterson followed Kowalski up the corridor, re-checking
every room thoroughly but finding absolutely nothing.
“It must have been our imagination – or the wind, like you
said.”
“Except there were no windows open, did you notice that,
Ski?”
“It’s drafty in here, must have been a draft that caught the
door.”
“One of those heavy oak doors? It’s probably a wraith,” joked Pat, his arms
flapping up and down.
Ski stopped abruptly and faced Patterson. “Will you quit it? Let’s go down to the next floor. Maybe we’ll have more luck there.”
“Sorry, Ski,” replied Pat, taking one more look behind them
before following his friend.
Neither of the men noticed the end door drift slowly and
deliberately open to give the sole occupant a clear view of their departing
forms.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Lee was chilled to the bone. Thanks to the restraints, almost every part of
the back of his body was flush against the freezing stone bricks. To make matters worse, the tide was making
headway into the tunnel. He could feel
the freezing waters lapping at his lower limbs – numbing his feet and ankles.
He strained hard against the manacles once more but only
hurt his wrists and throat. The flaming
torch began to die out. Its final sputtering gave the tunnel a half-light glow. It reminded him of a mystical look, almost like
the outer limits of another world. He quickly
forced that thought from his head and schooled
his mind to ignore the panic that welled upwards like the rising ocean.
The water had now reached his knees. Lee had no sensation below the level of the
water. As it continued its increasingly
rapid progress towards filling up the bottom levels of the prison, he suddenly
felt a drop in air temperature. If he
hadn’t been restrained, he would have jumped as a feather-like touch brushed
down one side of his face. It was so
light that he might have imagined it but for the next thing that happened.
“Why are you here?” whispered a feminine voice.
Lee felt the touch again, this time he could feel the energy
draining from his body.
“Why? Tell me why?”
the voice came again, strangely soothing as the deadly water started lapping at
his chin.
He was about to answer when some of the seawater struck him
in the mouth and flowed down his throat, sparking a coughing fit.
“This is my world. You
have no right to enter.”
“S…smugglers, stop them,” he stammered as his strength finally
left him and he was consumed by the darkness around him, knowing he would never
wake up again.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Admiral Nelson came around with a start. His head pounded as he recalled the ceiling
rafter cracking above him. He’d managed to throw himself out of the way but hit his head on the wall, knocking himself out. Certain that his Captain had been right
outside the room, Nelson looked around gingerly but
couldn’t see any trace of him.
“Lee?” he croaked.
The only reply he heard was the wind as it picked up,
howling around the ancient architecture.
Harry bent his head to read the hands of his watch. Pain made him see double as he struggled to
clear his vision. He must have given
himself a concussion.
“Damn, this mission was cursed right from the start,” he
muttered to himself.
Steadying himself against the wall, he tried to remember exactly
where Lee had been when Harry entered the room to search it. His Captain had heard
a sound and told Harry he was going to investigate. That was the last he’d seen of Lee.
Harry looked down at his belt. His two-way radio was gone. He found it a few seconds later, smashed on
the rough stone floor when he’d thrown himself down.
Although the door looked a long way off to him, he staggered
towards it, the room swaying with every step he took. If only he hadn’t hit the wall. At least he’d managed to avoid the wooden beam. On second inspection, he’d discovered the beam had been made from heavy oak or something like it.
He’d have been killed if it had connected with him.
He fell heavily against the door frame, his breath coming in
short ragged gasps from the effort.
If Lee was anywhere near here, he would find him. If not…well, he’d figure out what steps to
take once he’d searched the immediate floor.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Chip Morton, the Executive Officer of the Seaview, stood ready and waiting in the
missile room. He zipped up his wetsuit
and donned his scuba tanks along with two other crewmen.
“Mister O’Brien, you have the con until I get back,
hopefully with everyone,” he said with grim humor.
“Yes, Sir. Good
luck.”
“Thanks, Bobby.”
Chip, Hargreaves and O’Connell stepped into the escape
hatch. “We go in quiet. If they’re in trouble I don’t want us to get
caught up in it as well.”
He watched as both men signaled their understanding by
nodding their heads. The chamber began
to fill up and there was no more time for talk.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
The first thing Lee noticed was warmth on his body, not the
energy-sapping cold of the water as it had crept
upwards. He thought he’d been dreaming
as the hand touched his face and the voice spoke to him - thought that he’d
been in the final stages of life.
“You are awake.”
It was the same voice, but this time there was nothing
chilling about it, perhaps because the person behind it had most likely saved
his life. He opened his eyes and looked
stiffly around, aware as he did, that the painful
collar and manacles were still locked around his neck and limbs.
“I could only remove the chains where they attached you to
the wall. Otherwise, I might have
injured you.”
Lee looked up at the
voice. The creature he saw made his
heart pound madly within his chest – it was both beautiful and horrifying at
the same time, if that was even possible – like something straight from hell
that still had an ethereal beauty.
Its body floated lazily above the
floor, wispy dark tendrils surrounded its body, from which a head, arms and
legs extended, much as a human being.
“What…who…?” he asked, not sure what to call the creature.
Her ruby red lips swept
quickly up into a cadaverous smile. “I
am what Halloween-goers like to call a wraith.
I was able to save your life, but I regret I could do no more. I almost killed you by bringing you here - by touching you.”
Her bright red eyes roamed over him longingly.
Lee suddenly became aware that he was lying under a thick
layer of furs, wearing very few clothes.
He felt his face flush with embarrassment, but knew that she’d probably
saved his life by getting him dry and warm.
He decided to get some answers from the wraith.
“Thank you for saving my life. Why did you?
Those bones, the ones beside me in the tunnel, who did they belong
to? Did you kill them?”
A tendril wrapped around Lee’s uncovered chest in a deadly
caress. He gasped as he felt the same
draining sensation as he had in the tunnel just before he’d passed out. As quickly as the tendril had embraced him,
it was gone. He reached instinctively
for the metal around his neck, trying to loosen it.
“You are lucky you are so strong otherwise you would have
died from my touch.” The smile slipped
away and her form became menacing. “I
had no choice. The others left them in
my domain. They trespassed where they
were not welcome and paid the price.”
“What about me?”
“You? I could feel
something different about you, a goodness I have not felt for a very long
time.” Her expression became
wistful. “I thought perhaps you might be
my savior.”
Lee wanted to sleep again, but he forced himself to stay
awake. “There are other good men here
too, who might need your help.”
“I…I don’t know. I
have spent too long here to remember what the taste of redemption feels like,”
she said, looking confused at his suggestion.
“Please, help me,” he asked, trying to sway her decision.
Once again, the tendril surrounded Lee. He felt a different sensation as warmth surged through his body, wrapping him in an
almost utopian cocoon.
“You see, I can make your experience as good or as bad as I
choose, but the end result is still the same – my touch will still kill you.” She hovered above him. “I can sense you have a powerful sense of
duty and honor – and compassion. I will
try to help you.”
Lee tried to shake off the feelings she’d given him, but it
was hard. He wanted to stay where he
was. The wraith floated closer and her lips brushed his, leaving them tingling from
the brief meeting.
“I…I need to help my friends,” he said, struggling to sit up.
“All in good time,” she soothed. “Sleep, you need to regain your strength.”
Lee renewed his efforts to break free of her spell but the wraith was much too strong for him.
“Sshh. I will help
your friends. Do not worry.”
His vision started blurring and Lee felt his traitorous body
and mind finally succumb to her witchery.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Chip and the other two seamen from the Seaview swam quickly towards the underground entrance below the
prison. By now the cave would be
completely underwater with the rising ocean.
Chip had checked the tides before they left the submarine to make sure
their entrance would go unnoticed. He
knew that the others had entered the prison through a more conventional
way. The tunnel system wasn’t on the
schematics, but he had an intimate knowledge of it.
He spotted the tunnel before Hargreaves and O’Connell and
motioned for them to follow him into the tight entrance. It was so close all of the divers would have
to take their tanks off and hold them in front of them to get through. He figured he was lucky not to be
claustrophobic.
Chip led them through, pausing only once when he thought he
was caught on the sides of the narrow channel.
An eerie chill went through his body as he passed two skeletons chained
to the walls. The remnants of another
set of irons were left in the wall beside the remains. He wondered what had happened to the poor
soul who’d occupied that position. Probably rested there for years before
the bolts rusted through and his or her bones were swept out with the outgoing
tide.
Chip took off his tank and flippers before continuing
upwards with Hargreaves and O’Connell a few feet behind.
“Stay close,” he warned them.
“Yes, Sir,” replied Hargreaves.
“Sir, do you think we’ll find them?” asked O’Connell.
Chip wanted to shout of
course we will, but he put on his best XO’s mask and nodded. “The others might have a broken radio. We won’t know until we find them.”
He kept walking upward – it
felt like the staircase had no end. Chip
finally saw a doorway at the top and took out his pistol. A quick test of the handle told him that it
wasn’t locked and he pushed it open a crack to look outside.
Nobody seemed to be around, so he slipped through and took
up point position until the others had followed suit. He wasn’t sure which way to go, there were no
indications to tell him if Lee or the Admiral had been anywhere near here. The prison had certainly seen better days. Mortar was missing from between bricks at
random intervals and rising damp had given the walls a slimy appearance.
Chip shuddered, remembering the first time he’d been
here. The thought of being incarcerated
in a place like this forever made him break out in a cold sweat. Even the amenities were very basic, to the
point of having only a bucket in the cells for use as a toilet. The prison no longer held furniture, but the
metal beds still took up precious space in the cells. Nothing much had changed, but it was still
just as imposing and daunting as ever.
All manner of things had been etched into the walls. Poems, insults and pictures alike all held a
place in the bizarre gallery. One of the
images caught his attention. It seemed
out of place in comparison to the other drawings on the wall. He stepped closer and realized it had been
drawn with something other than an implement or pencil. There was no mistaking the flaking, darkness
of well-aged blood. His memory had
almost wiped out the existence of the thing – at least he’d hoped it had.
“What is that, Mister Morton?” asked Hargreaves, pointing to
the flowing black garments, ruby red lips and red eyes.
Chip forced a shrug.
“I’m not sure. Probably nothing,
this place is…would have been enough to make anyone insane.”
Hargreaves wasn’t so sure.
“But it looks like blood, it must have really scared the prisoner, maybe
he drew it as a warning.”
O’Connell began looking around nervously. “You don’t think it’s still here, Sir?”
Chip shook his head.
“I doubt it’s real at all. It was
a French Foreign Legion maximum security prison for the most violent and
dangerous criminals – sometimes political prisoners were held here too. They were only allowed out for a very short
time. It was probably someone’s
imagination working overtime.”
“How do you know all that, Sir?” asked O’Connell, his voice
still trembling slightly.
“I…I think I read it somewhere,” replied Chip, resisting an
urge to touch the two long scars on his back.
“Were they all guilty?” asked Hargreaves.
“No, not all of them,” he replied grimly.
Chip noticed Hargreaves give him an odd look. “Come on, keep
moving,” he ordered, unable to keep a harsh tone from his voice.
He saw the two junior ratings exchange curious glances but
ignored it and continued sweeping the rest of the floor. Finding nothing, they continued onto the next
floor up. Chip felt a rising fear that
he wouldn’t find his friends alive. He
knew that they could all take care of themselves, but he also knew that a
danger greater than anything earthly wandered these corridors.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
“I dunno, Ski, they could be anywhere. Maybe we should start searching the other
wing.”
“We’ve still got one more floor to do here.” He looked up the crumbling staircase. “Up there.”
Pat sighed. “Might as
well get it over with. Let’s go.”
They walked silently up the stone blocks, only stopping to
catch their breath. “Hey Pat, this is
longer than the other ones.”
“And steeper,” grumbled Patterson.
Ski touched some old writing. “I wonder what these symbols mean.”
“Probably graffiti.”
“Shh, did you hear that?”
Patterson stopped for a moment and listened. “No, what was it?”
“Like some sort of howling,” said Ski, frowning.
“Nope, can’t hear a thing.”
“It’s stopped now. It
sounded like it came from up there.”
Kowalski stared into the infinite darkness at the stop of
the flight of stairs. The hairs on the
back of his neck stood on end as he imagined the sound again and the creature
that might have made it. He jumped as
Patterson put a hand on his shoulder.
“Let’s go, Ski. The
quicker we get out of this place the better.”
“Oh, so now you’re starting to get spooked too?”
“Of course not,” he muttered, looking over his shoulder into
the retreating darkness behind them.
“I’m…I…okay, maybe a little. You
happy now?”
At the top they found a passageway with a blind end and no
doors. “This is weird. I don’t like it
Ski nodded and walked slowly down the passage. “Pat, look at this, there might be a secret
lever behind here. Give me a hand,”
whispered Kowalski, touching a loose stone block.
“It’s stuck, we’ll pull on the count of three, alright?”
said Pat. “One, two, three!”
Ski felt the veins bulge on the side of his neck as he
pulled hard at the heavy block. “I think
it’s coming loose, Pat. Keep pulling.”
“Look out, it’s gonna fall.”
They both jumped out of the way as it fell heavily to the
floor and split in two.
Patterson knelt down beside it. “Ski, look at this, another weird symbol.”
Ski nudged the block to get a better look. “It’s an old-fashioned ‘G’. I wonder what it means.”
An incensed shrieking clawed through the darkness where
there was now a square gap.
“Pat, I don’t think the Skipper or the Admiral are in
there.”
“Me neither. Let’s
get outta here,” cried Pat, bolting down the steps behind Kowalski just as a
dark and shadowy specter flew through the wall.
“In here, quick,” Ski grabbed Patterson by the arm and threw
him into a small room before bolting the door.
“Do you really think this will stop it from getting us? It flew though the wall,” stammered
Patterson.
“I don’t know. I saw
the same symbols on the door as the one on the brick. Maybe it stops it from getting out.”
Ski put his ear to the door.
“I can hear it talking to
someone, a woman, I think.”
He jumped back from the door as the howling started again
but died off in the distance. “I think it’s gone.”
“Uh, maybe we should just wait for a minute to make sure.”
“Maybe that’s a good idea.
Then we need to find the Skipper and the Admiral. There’s no telling what that thing can do.”
“Yeah, you’re right.
We should go now.”
Ski nodded. “Let’s
make a break for it and head over to the other wing. Maybe they’re over there.”
Patterson opened the door slowly to see the stain of pink
from the sun’s first glow seeping through the small windows. “Coast’s clear.”
Ski followed him out of the door, all the while hoping that
the creature hadn’t found the others.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Harry leaned heavily against the door jamb of the last
cell. Nothing – not even a small sign
that Lee had ever been there. He stifled
an urge to call out his Captain’s name as he heard something odd. Maybe he was imagining the sound, but the
whispering seemed to echo from everywhere.
He felt his way into the cell and found his way into the far corner as
the sound grew louder. It seemed to come
from the staircase. The sound of metal
clanking against metal came to his ears.
Pulling his gun out he crouched facing the doorway, his back to the wall
– waiting.
“You cannot hide,” a cold voice threatened in a
whisper. “I will find you. You are mine.”
Harry swallowed hard, his mouth dry. Meeting all manner of monsters and aliens
head on he could handle. The unknown and
the unseen were harder for him to deal with.
He’d never been one to sit back and wait, but that was exactly the sort
of position he was in and it irked him no end.
“Show yourself!” He
yelled, hoping to flush out whatever it was into the open.
“Death will come quick enough without wishing for it,” the
whispering intensified.
Harry put his hands over his ears – the noise was
overwhelming. Something intangible
brushed against his skin, leaving him breathless. He looked up and saw two red eyes boring into
his head. He snapped on his flashlight
and when he saw what was before him he thought his heart might stop. It was obviously a wraith, but he’d only
known about the female and this one was obviously male. The black apparition began wrapping itself
around him, draining him. He fired his
full clip into the ghoul but it had no effect.
Was this it? Was he going to die
here, in this cold, hostile place far from the Seaview and her crew? It
wasn’t death that scared him, but the thought of it happening away from his
friends, alone.
As the feeling of death enveloped Harry, he found himself
wishing for nothing more than to tell Lee goodbye.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Chip was halfway up the steps before he realized the two
seamen weren’t behind him. He stealthily
re-traced his steps back to the landing.
There was no sign of the men but as he took two steps forward a spine
tingling scream shattered the eerie silence.
He broke into a run heading straight for the last cell. As he burst through the door he watched as
O’Connell slumped against the wall.
Hargreaves was nowhere in sight.
He did a quick sweep of the room. Apart from O’Connell there was nobody in the
cell. He knelt beside him – there was no
pulse and his chest was still.
“Damn,” he muttered.
O’Connell had been a good man. He’d only been on Seaview for six months but he’d already impressed Chip with his
work ethics. The XO closed O’Connell’s
eyelids and stood. Hargreaves had to be
around somewhere. Either it was him that
screamed and he had fled or the creature had him.
He could almost feel the phantom pain in his back, along the
scar lines, taking on a life of its own, mimicking the feel of the whip as it bit
through his skin. The White House had
asked for him specifically. He’d been
sworn to secrecy by the President himself and to be honest, he had never seen
the creatures and even though he’d heard about them he hadn’t believed it –
until now. He hadn’t known at the time
that it was because he was a Freemason, like the President. It was something he’d never discussed with
any of the crew, including Lee. The
whole mission had been top secret and the President had been very specific
about the consequences if he spoke about it to anyone, including Nelson. His silence had almost cost him his life.
When this mission had come up, Chip hadn’t known what was
worse – watching Lee, the Admiral, Kowalski and Patterson go inside the prison
without him, or possibly having to go in to find their remains.
His knowledge might have saved them and might yet. He couldn’t be sure of that, but it still
felt like a dereliction of duty to let them go without all the information, and
also cut him deeply, as if he’d betrayed his friends.
“Chip!” gasped a voice.
Chip snapped his pistol up, his nerves on edge. The beam of his flashlight fell onto a khaki clad
leg, then moved up to find a shock of red hair.
“Admiral!”
Nelson didn’t look good, his face was almost white and he
leaned heavily against the wall. He
staggered and would have fallen if Chip hadn’t caught him.
“How did you get here?” he rasped as Chip eased him to a
sitting position on the ground.
“Kowalski and Patterson radioed in when they couldn’t get in
touch with you and Lee. I brought
O’Connell and Hargreaves.” He dropped
his head. “O’Connell is dead, Hargreaves
is missing. I could have prevented all
of this.”
“No, Chip, you couldn’t,” said Nelson, his breathing easing.
Chip looked up. “Yes,
Sir, I could. I had intimate knowledge
of this facility from a past mission. I
should have shared it with you.”
Nelson shook his head.
“You were sworn to secrecy, Chip.
You didn’t really think I would be that careless, did you?”
The XO was speechless – how could Admiral Nelson have known
about that aspect of his past. He’d had
help from the President to cover his tracks so carefully that nobody could ever
have linked him to a government mission.
“When the President found out we were coming back here, he
briefed me personally on the events that took place here during your mission.” Nelson took a deep breath. “Now, help me up and let’s find the others.”
“But…you left me on the boat,” stammered Chip, giving Nelson
a hand.
Nelson nodded. “I had
to. After what you’d gone through the
first time, I had hoped to prevent you from having to re-live any of it. I couldn’t know how you’d react.”
“Thank you, Sir, but I’m more than capable of dealing with
it,” he replied stiffly, not sure whether he was angry or grateful.
“Oh?” Nelson locked
onto his eyes. “You never saw the
wraith, did you?”
Chip didn’t know what to say. “No, but I heard it screaming when it was
trapped in the room, only for a moment, before I passed out.”
“I just encountered it, and its mate.”
“It has a mate?” asked Chip, horrified.
The Admiral held a hand up.
“Its female mate saved my life.”
He wiped some perspiration from his brow. “Just in time too, I might add.”
“Where’s Lee, Sir?”
Nelson looked worried.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him
for hours. Where have you searched so
far?”
“I finished this wing, but there’s still the psychiatric
section.” Chip was troubled. “I still haven’t found Hargreaves, Admiral.”
“Let’s take a look at the other wing. Perhaps he ended up there.”
“Yes, Sir.” Chip
hesitated.
“What is it, Chip?”
“I’d appreciate it if this was kept between us,
Admiral. Please don’t tell Lee.”
Nelson nodded. “You
couldn’t have known that the two wraiths had been released. Still, since the file is closed under a
Presidential order, I have no option but to keep it between ourselves.”
Chip still wasn’t convinced that Hargreaves was alive, but
he wouldn’t consider the alternative yet, at least not until he had physical
proof. Lee, on the other hand, had a
survival instinct stronger than anyone he’d ever known. So as he pushed on with Nelson, a small part
of him was still hoping for the best.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
When Lee came around again he
was on his own. He dressed as quickly as
his aching body and the cumbersome steel restraints allowed and took stock of
his situation. His
clothes had dried somehow, he looked at his watch. It had been three hours since he’d been taken
by the smugglers. The room he was in
apparently had no doors – that was going to be a problem. He searched around the walls, knowing there
had to be a trigger for a hidden door somewhere. The only thing he found was that three of the
four walls, the ceiling and floor, had strange symbols on them – above each
symbol was a capital ‘G’. The fourth
wall only had a scarred piece of stone where Lee could only assume another
symbol had been.
“Don’t you trust me?” came the waspish voice of the wraith.
Lee spun around, his back to the cold wall for the second
time that night. “Should I?”
She floated closer, her lips parting as she stopped a mere
inch from his face. “You could try,” she
offered. “With trust come other things,
other…opportunities. It would be like no
other experience you have ever even dreamed of…but it would come at a high
cost.”
“I’m not prepared to meet that cost,” said Lee.
“A pity. I think you
would make a worthy companion, especially after eight centuries alone.”
For the first time, Lee felt a touch of the isolation she
must have suffered living in the prison for all those centuries.
“What do the symbols on the walls mean, and why isn’t there
one on this wall?” he asked, curious.
His simple question provoked a violent rage that made him
fear for his life. He backed against the
wall as her flowing limbs seemed to grow larger, almost filling the room. Lee felt the life being drawn from every pore
in his body.
“What are you doing!” he gasped.
Her red eyes glared venomously at him. “You want to know about the marks?”
Lee couldn’t speak. Choking
sounds came from his throat as he tried to say no. She abruptly stepped back and appeared to
grow much smaller and older.
“Please, forgive me.
I have been alone for such a long time.
The only people I have seen for many centuries have not been like you.”
“I…” Lee took a deep
breath. “I’m sorry. I had no idea asking about those would upset
you so much.”
“It was the Knights Templar.” She turned away from him, her arm sweeping
around the secret room. “I knew of herbs
and healing. My mother taught me some
simple spells. I had been a nurse, one
of the only ones able to look after wounded Knights. My secret love was a knight. I had nursed him back to health on the
battlefield once already. During the
Battle of Montgisard* he was mortally wounded.”
The wraith faced Lee again.
He could see the pain on her face even though centuries had passed.
“What happened?”
“I made the mistake of using a spell to give both of us
immortality. Though I had cast the
spell, Hugh was also punished. I was
forced to this prison after we became wraiths as punishment for the spell. The only way I could be imprisoned for
eternity was if holy symbols were used.
I do not know what happened to Hugh.”
“The ‘G’, what does it stand for?” asked Lee, risking her
rage.
“My love would never tell me, only that it symbolized
everything good.”
“How was the symbol removed from that wall?” he pointed to
where the symbol had obviously been erased.
“When the prison closed two years ago, a young guard took
pity on me. He gave me my release from
the cell. It seems his family had worked
in the prison for many years and knew the story. I regret to say I killed him for his
kindness.” Her chalky face pleaded with
him for understanding. “You must
understand, my imprisonment had left me with an anger I could not contain. My mind was not my own.”
Lee shook his head carefully. The skin underneath the metal collar was
hurting him more with each passing moment.
He longed to get it off. “I’m
sorry, I can’t stay with you.”
“You would deny me your company, as I have been denied the
company of others for so many years?”
“Yes, to save my friends.”
“Even at the possible cost of your life?”
“Yes.”
She smiled at him.
“You have passed the test. The
honor of being the first man in eight centuries to do so is yours.”
“Test?”
She knelt before him.
“You are truly good and would sacrifice yourself to save others.” The wraith suddenly became sad. “It is a rare quality.”
“How can I get out of here?”
Her hand reached out as if to touch him but stopped
short. “Follow me, I will show you the
secret passage.”
Lee watched carefully as she pulled a well-hidden lever then
handed him a burning torch. A small
passage door opened in one of the walls with a symbol. As he stepped through he turned around,
expecting the wraith to follow him.
“I cannot leave through this doorway. I will see you on the other side.”
He hesitated, but sensing that she was true to her word, he
moved slowly down the dark passage. It
was so small that he had to bend at the waist to avoid hitting his head. The lever in the room must have activated the
exit door and he quickly found his way into a section of the jail he hadn’t
seen. It was obviously a lot older than
the area he’d been held by the smugglers.
Parts of the walls had fallen and each room held chains leading from a
central point. He shuddered at the
thought of being incarcerated in such a place.
In times of old Lee knew that violent criminals were more often than not
treated brutally by their jailers. Daily punishments were an ugly reality.
The wraith materialized before him and pointed her arm down
the corridor. “That way.”
“Why are you really helping me?”
The wraith stopped – her back still towards him. She bowed her head for a moment, and when she
spoke, Lee could barely hear her words.
“I told you I haven’t tasted redemption for many
centuries. Once a year I have a chance
to redeem myself, to leave this netherworld existence. That moment is tonight, at
Lee took a chance and put his hand on her shoulder. Even though he felt his strength draining he left
it there. “As far as I’m concerned,
you’ve already earned that redemption.”
She pulled away and faced him. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. “I was right to save you. Thank you.”
“I don’t even know your name.”
“It is Agnes Sawyer.
I…”
Lee watched on, astonished as a blinding light came from
above. “What is it?”
The wraith stared up at the light, seemingly entranced. “I have my chance, thanks to you.”
He waited, but the wraith stopped short of going through the
light. Looking at his watch, he realized
it was now a few seconds after
“You have to go, or you’ll be kept here for another year,”
he urged.
The light began to dwindle until it was gone. “I cannot leave until you and your friends
are safe. I will not have earned my
passage until that moment.”
“You’ve made a great sacrifice.”
She looked down at him from her position halfway between him
and the remaining light. “No more than
you did when you touched me of your own volition, knowing that I might take
your life.”
“That was different.”
“No.” She floated
back down to the floor until she was able to look him directly in the
eyes. “I have made my choice,” she said
sternly.
Lee almost felt like a child being scolded. He supposed in the scheme of things he was an
infant compared to the six hundred year old wraith.
“You obviously know this prison much better than me. How do we get to the newer wings?”
“Up there,” she pointed to a crumbling staircase. “Take those steps up three levels. I will meet you at the top.”
Lee followed the wraith’s directions and had reached the
second level when a noise caught his attention.
It wasn’t a loud noise, but something about it rang alarm bells in his
head. He stepped silently from the
landing and into the corridor.
Unlike the two levels below, this one had received a new
coat of paint and tiles covered the hallway floor instead of the sandstone
blocks. It looked like he’d found
exactly what they had been supposed to find on their mission – the smuggling operation.
He crept closer, carefully avoiding any doorways until he’d
had an opportunity to make sure the rooms were deserted. Some of the rooms were empty and contained
instruments used to inflict punishment on criminals during their stay. A few were stockpiled high with boxes, the
names on the side revealed that the contents were something completely
unexpected. Limpet mines!
Lee found one of the boxes had a loose lid. He pushed it up and discovered that the mines
were vintage WWII. He had no doubt they
were unstable. A noise in the passage
alerted him to someone else’s presence.
He quickly went to the entrance and hid behind the thick wooden door.
“Crane’s body will just be bones by now. I still reckon we should have roughed him up
a bit, Dan. Bartho would have broken him
in no time flat,” came a voice Lee knew belonged to Jimmy.
“Shut up, he wouldn’t have talked. I saw that right away. He would have died before we got anything out
of him. Come to think of it I guess he
did.” Dan laughed harshly at his own
joke. “It would have been a much worse
death at the hands of our tame little wraith.
Go find Bartho so we can get this stuff out of here.”
Lee heard the sound of retreating footsteps and waited for Dan
to walk through the door. He didn’t have
long to wait. Edging out a little from
where the door joined the wall, one of his steel manacles scraped along the
wood. Before he had a chance to react,
the door was thrown backwards, knocking him hard against the wall. Lee recovered in time to see the door flung
closed and the leader, Dan, stand in front of him, menacing him with a pistol.
“How the hell did you get free?” he gasped.
“Maybe you should ask her,” replied Lee, nodding to the left
of the man.
“That trick’s as old as the sun.”
“And so am I,” hissed the wraith.
Lee watched as the man’s complexion paled. He turned around, his horror-stricken face etched
in Lee’s mind.
“No, please, don’t kill me,” Dan pleaded. “I…I helped you, you were all alone. I brought you new victims.”
The wraith’s tendrils began to swirl, wrapping themselves
around the smuggler until he was cocooned.
“You do not deserve to live.”
“Wait!” cried Lee.
“You’ve earned your right to leave this place, to find peace. Don’t lose it again because of this man. Fight it, remember who you were.”
He was about to reason with her again when he felt a gun in
his back and a rough voice at his ear.
“Don’t move,” Jimmy said, having re-entered the room behind him. The brute Bartho loomed at his side, every
bit as intimidating as Lee remembered.
“Hey, Bartho,” Jimmy told his cohort.
“This is getting old. Shoot the
wraith.”
Lee lunged for Bartho but was roughly pushed back to his
knees, the gun still held at his back.
He watched helplessly as Bartho shot five rounds into Agnes. The only effect it had was to make her angry.
“Hey, you let him go or the Captain pays for what you do to
my buddy,” yelled Jimmy.
Agnes looked at Lee, her eyes molten pits of lava, tendrils still
clutching at the other man, taking his life.
“I am sorry. I cannot do what you
ask.”
Bartho pushed Jimmy out of the way and clipped Lee over the
head with the pistol, just enough to get her attention again. “I’m in charge here now. You do as you’re told, be a good wraith, just
like you have for the last two years.”
Lee slumped forward on his hands as blood dripped down from
his temple. “No, don’t, please…Agnes.”
She stared into his eyes.
“I have another year to make good what I have done this night.”
“What are you talking about, wraith?” yelled Bartho.
“This!” she hissed, as more tendrils whipped out to capture Bartho
and Jimmy.
Lee heard a strangled gasp as all three men writhed and screamed
as their energy was drained. This was
what might have happened to him – what had caused the wraith to change her mind
and help him was still very much a mystery to him.
“Get out, I do not want you to see this,” she gasped, her
eyes pulsing with energy.
He stood up, holding a hand to one side of his head. “Agnes, before, when the light came, please, remember
how you felt.”
For a moment, Lee thought she hadn’t heard him, then her shadowy tendrils un-swirled from the
men and dropped them onto the floor. He knelt
beside them and was relieved to find that they were all still breathing. At least the wraith still had her redemption,
maybe even more so.
“Thank you, Captain.
It is Captain, isn’t it? That’s
what I heard one of them call you?”
“Yes, Captain Lee Crane.”
She cast one more despising look at the three men and
floated back to the ground. “What do you
wish me to do with them?”
Lee grinned. “I’ve
got that covered.”
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
“You can’t leave us here,” screamed Bartho.
Two of the three were manacled to the same wall as he had
been. The third he’d had to improvise
and had tied him hand and foot on the ground with his shirt.
Lee looked at his watch.
“There’s still eight hours to high tide, I think that’ll give me enough
time to figure out what to do with you.”
He’d seen the three scuba tanks on the steps and knew a
rescue party had come, but where were they – and where were the Admiral, Ski
and
“I need to find my friends now.”
Agnes floated up the stairs ahead of him. It was so surreal, he barely believed what
was happening.
“Does one of your friends have red hair?”
“Yes, is he alive?”
Agnes inclined her head to one side. “He is, but there is another problem.”
Lee groaned. “Another problem?”
“My mate, my love…I had thought him imprisoned in another
place, but it seems he has been here all these centuries, unbeknownst to me.” She continued up the steps. “Hugh attacked your friend.”
Lee slipped on a piece of wet moss and almost fell back down
the stairs before regaining his balance.
“You said he was alright. Where
is he? I need to find him.”
“He was in the solitary confinement section, two floors
up.” Agnes moved away from him.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to find Hugh, to stop him from harming your
friends.”
“Can he hurt you?” asked Lee, concerned.
“I don’t believe he would, then again, I killed so many
people after I was set free that I
cannot be sure.”
Lee stepped onto the landing beside her. “If there’s any danger to yourself, I don’t
want you taking a chance. There must be
another way of defeating him?”
“There may be, but I cannot say for sure.”
“Captain, I must try to reason with him, to fix the choice I
made so long ago.” She started moving
again. “If something happens, do not get
between us. It will be lethal to you.”
He followed her to where she’d last seen the Admiral, but
they couldn’t find him. About to suggest
that they try another part of the prison, Lee stopped short as he saw Agnes
stiffen.
“What is it?”
“My love,” she gasped.
“He is hunting for your men.”
“How do you know?”
“It seems we are linked.
I have never felt this before.”
“Where is he?” asked Lee, impatient to find them before the
wraith.
“There!” She pointed
through the window towards an isolated section of the prison, accessed by a
stone bridge.
“Is that the only way to get there?”
“I’m afraid so.” Her
body swept towards the doorway. “I am
faster than you. I wish to save your
friends, Captain.”
“Let me go first,” he protested.
She brushed against him so lightly he barely felt the
contact. “No, this is something I must
do.”
“But…” Before the words
could come out of his mouth Agnes was gone.
Lee took off at a run, ignoring the torturous chafing of the
metal restraints. He couldn’t let her
face the wraith alone, no matter what Agnes thought she had done wrong in the
past.
He slowed as he came to the end of the bridge and slipped
through the door, breathing heavily. The
last ten hours was catching up to him and he felt it in every fiber of his
body, but he wouldn’t stop until Nelson, Chip and the others were safe –
including Agnes.
The asylum wing of the prison was even eerier than the main
prison. As he searched through each
floor, old straight-jackets, restraints and shock therapy tools remained.
A sudden howling noise reached him, and he walked cautiously
down the passage until he found the source.
Agnes had found Hugh and the two were in a stand-off on an open expanse
of terrace that extended over the cliff.
“Hugh, you must not hurt these men! They are good people.”
The male wraith was bigger than Agnes, his face twisted into
a savage mask that sent ice surging through Lee’s veins.
“They all deserve to die.
You are wrong. There are no good
people left. They all died on the
battlefield.”
Agnes floated closer.
“Please, Hugh, you must believe me.”
“You lie,” he growled.
“Nobody deserves my compassion.”
“Their Captain, he is a good man. I sensed such good within him, such
compassion and strength – just as I did with you many centuries ago,” she
pleaded.
“NO!” he hissed. “He
fooled you, as our friends did after you brought me back to life. They imprisoned us here for centuries,
isolated, alone,”
“You’re wrong!” she shrieked.
Hugh’s tendrils began to wrap around Agnes and Lee saw pain
in her eyes. “If you will not help me,
you can die too.”
Lee surged forward, throwing himself between the two
wraiths. “Stop, you mustn’t hurt her. She loves you.”
He felt himself caught between the two entities, felt the energy
leave his body like blood from an arterial bleed. His vision started to fade as blackness
enveloped him.
“Hugh, you must stop,” cried Agnes. “He is sacrificing himself to save us. Can you not see that?”
The feeling of death settled upon Lee like mildew, freezing
his limbs and slowing his heart. His
ears became deaf and his voice mute.
“Do you not remember what it felt like to save a life, to
fight for a good cause?” she sobbed.
“Lee!” cried a third voice.
“Hugh, please!”
Agnes’ voice broke.
For the second time in twelve hours he believed that death
was close. Then the darkness was gone,
and he felt the sun on his face, warm and inviting. With that last feeling he passed out, not
knowing if it was the end.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Chip sat beside his friend and Captain in sickbay. He looked at his watch for the tenth
time. It had been sixteen hours since
Lee had tried to save the female wraith and been caught between the two of
them. Since then his vitals had improved
significantly, but he hadn’t regained consciousness. The three smugglers had been locked in the
brig after Chip had found them while retrieving the scuba gear. It had all ended well, but Chip still had to
get over his lingering deep-seated guilt.
“Chip, why don’t you get some sleep?” suggested Jamie. “He’ll wake up when he’s good and ready.”
“I’m okay, Jamie. You
get some coffee. I’ll look out for Lee
while you’re gone.”
Doctor Will Jamieson looked at his patient, then at the
XO. “If he wakes up, make sure you call
me.”
Chip nodded. “I doubt
he will, but if he does you’ll be the second person to know,” he grinned.
He watched as the doctor left sickbay then turned his
attention back to Lee. His face was
still pale, but there was more color in it than when he and the Admiral had
found him. There were bandages around
his ankles, wrists and neck where the manacles had abraded the skin. Apart from that, he was in good health and
there was no reason for him to remain unconscious.
“Hey, buddy, it’s
about time you woke up. I can’t sit here
for much longer without the Admiral fixing to make sickbay off limits.”
To his surprise, he saw Lee’s eyelids flutter.
“Chip,” said Lee, his voice hoarse.
Chip put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Welcome back to the land of the living. How do you feel?”
“Terrible,” replied Lee.
“I have to let Jamie know you’re awake.” He made to stand up but found Lee’s iron grip
on his hand.
“Wait! What about the
rest – Kowalski and Patterson and the smugglers.”
Chip frowned. “Kowalski
and Patterson turned up just as the wraiths left, turns out they accidentally
let Hugh out of his containment. I found
the smugglers later when I retrieved the scuba gear. They were transferred to a British Navy ship
for what I can only guess will be a long incarceration. Hargreaves and O’Connell,” he took a deep
breath. “Both of them were killed by the
male wraith.”
Lee shook his head sadly.
“They were both good men. What
happened to Agnes and her mate?”
Chip sat back down on the chair. “Agnes left you a message.” He watched as Lee assimilated the
information. “She said thank you, and wished
you a long and happy life and that your actions made Hugh stop and realize that
there are still people who deserve to live.”
“And…?”
“The Admiral and I both saw a white light above the
wraiths. The male wraith went into it
first, then Agnes told me what she wanted you to know. She followed him into the light.”
Lee lay back on the bed, his hands behind his head. “I’m glad, but I thought it could only happen
at
“Is that all you have to say?”
Lee shook his head.
“What else is there?”
Chip stared at Lee.
What he’d been through was above and beyond the call of duty. It had almost killed him. What was worse, Chip still felt guilty – even
though he’d been in the prison before and almost lost his own life on a
Presidential mission, he still felt that he could have spared Lee the pain he’d
undergone.
“You almost died, Lee.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to say and it was all my fault.
Lee struggled to sit up.
“Chip, before they were wraiths they were just two human beings who fell
in love with each other. They’d already
paid their price. It was time for them
to…I don’t know… to do what wraiths do when they deserve redemption.”
“Yes, but…”
“Chip! How long has
the Skipper been awake?” snapped Jamie, walking back into sick bay.
“Uh, not long, Jamie,” replied Chip guiltily.
“In fact, Chip was about to get you, Jamie,” Lee came to the
rescue.
The doctor’s wrath turned to his patient. “Well now that he’s been reassured you’re
alright, he can return to his duties.” Jamie gave Chip a glare that had him climbing
out of his chair and heading for the door.
He managed to muster a grin at Lee. “I’ll be back after my watch.”
“No hurry, I guess I’m not going anywhere,” mumbled Lee.
“You’ve got that right, Skipper,” Jamie said crisply as soon
as Chip had gone. “How do you feel?”
“I’m a little tired and sore, but all things considered, I
feel pretty good.”
Jamie took some vitals.
“You were in bad shape when I got to you. It was touch and go for a while.”
“Thanks, Jamie.”
“I’ll have some lunch brought down for you. If you manage to eat all of it, I might be persuaded to let you go to your cabin.”
Lee grimaced. “I
guess I don’t have any choice.”
Jamie patted him on the shoulder. “Nope, you don’t – not if you want out of
here.”
He was caught in Jamie’s clutches and there was no way he
could escape without doing at least a little of what the doctor ordered.
“Jamie, Chip wasn’t hurt, was he?”
Jamie frowned. “No,
why?”
“He was acting strange, like he was holding something back
from me.”
“Everyone had a full physical after they came back and his
was fine.”
Lee wanted to pursue this with Jamie, but the Admiral walked
into sick bay and sat in his usual chair beside his bunk. “Lee, Chip told me you were awake. How do you feel?”
“Much better, Admiral.
How are you?”
“Oh, I’ll live. I had
a concussion, that’s about all.”
“Not to mention six stitches and a run-in with the male
wraith,” added Jamie.
“Admiral, did Chip seem… upset?”
Nelson shook his head.
“No, why do you ask, Lee?”
“I…nothing, I guess I’m still tired.”
Nelson pushed himself to his feet. “It’s finished now, Lee, and we have a new
mission. I’ll brief you once you’ve had
something to eat and freshened up.”
“Alright, Admiral.”
Lee watched as Nelson left sickbay. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but his
instinct told him something wasn’t quite right.
Maybe he’d do a bit of digging after they got back to
The End
for now.
*Wikipedia