Chapter 5

Lucas floated somewhere above the world. It was safe and warm and so exhilarating. The very air was part of him and it would never let him fall. There was no light but that didn't matter, not here. Light and dark weren't important only the flowing through and the life mattered. Without a real start, Lucas recognized that he wasn't alone. There were others floating in this amazing beautiful place with him. They kept trying to talk to him. Telling him not to be afraid. Telling him to come to follow but he only wanted to fly... to see... to feel.

"Lucas." A quiet voice finally cut through the walls of incomprehension and joy. "You must come. This place is not safe." Lucas found that he could see. It wasn't dark any longer. There were dozens of pale blue lights glowing everywhere. He didn't look closely at the others. He only saw the one who had spoken to him, who had pulled him back to some semblance of coherent thought. A man with long flowing white hair and dangerous looking prickly armor floated before him. Floated? Lucas tried to comprehend what was happening. He tried to speak but he couldn't. The air, there was no air. Just thick warm water everywhere. Lucas didn't understand what was happening. He panicked. And he passed another threshold. He could see the blue lights for what they were... pure energy. Energy that he could feel and touch and command. Lucas acted out of fear and desperation. He pulled all the energy he could channel and threw it at the voices around him. The effort left him to drained to fight to exhausted to feel. For the second time that day, Lucas lost consciousness.

Killian stood quietly by as his people herded the unconscious boy into their craft. His second in command Brutus stood by awaiting his leader's verdict. "He doesn't command the same raw channeling potential as Aspen but so few of us do. Not a bad display of fire power anyway. I've seen worse," Killian said.

"What good was this operation if we didn't gain a powerful weapon," the overly muscled soldier asked.

Killian smiled to himself. Brutus could be short sighted. The fool wanted Aspen dead. He wanted to eliminate one of the most potent weapons his race had ever produced. But Killian wasn't wasteful. Aspen wasn't through being his tool yet. When she was, then she became expendable and the boy, he had plans for the boy. "But we gained more than a weapon, my friend. According to my contacts in the UEO, that humanized excuse for intelligent life is a genius. He creates using piddling human technology. Just imagine what he will create when we begin to teach him. If anything, he may be more valuable than Aspen herself."

Brutus frowned but accepted Killian's verdict. "What will keep us from losing him, the same way we lost Aspen? He was raised by humans as well. He might have a few compunctuations about killing them."

"I learn from my mistakes. We pushed Aspen to fast, expected too much. Lucas will be more loyal to me than you when I get through with him," Killian said. His smile was cold and broad. "Our time is at hand. Whether that boy helps or not, he doesn't deserve to be destroyed because he was damaged by the humans. Aspen doesn't deserve to die either. When all is said and done and there is no going back, she will have a place in the society we create." Killian manipulated the glowing sphere of energy in front of him idly. "The only people I hold responsible for their actions in the upcoming war are the traitors to their race like Cannon, who have lived their lives in an ever more polluted rancid ocean and still refuse to fight the humans who destroy our world. The traitors, will die with the humans." Killian closed his fist over the ball of light leaving them in pitch darkness. "I swear it."

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Lucas shifted on the rough surface he rested on. His head was spinning and he couldn't seem to convince his eyes to open. He lay still for several seconds and waited for the heavy tired feeling to lessen. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton and it hurt to think. Reluctantly, Lucas opened his eyes. The room was dark except for a dim bluish light high on the wall. He could barely make out a window with narrow slats on the wall he was facing. What happened? Where was he? Why did he feel like a truck had just run him over? Still unable to marshal the strength to move, Lucas stared at his window and watched the light dance across the room. It felt like the moon-pool, that's the way the light danced. Lucas smiled when he made the connection. But he wasn't on sea deck. As far as he could tell he wasn't even on seaQuest.

Lucas tried to remember what had happened. Slowly it came back to him, a fragment at a time, Dr. Matthews, and the tour, and the crash. Lucas remembered the rebreather not working, and how Dr. Matthews had looked at him, so sad. He made himself sit up on the stone recess he had been reclined on. He shut his eyes and rubbed his hands slowly over his face. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. When he reopened his eyes, he was greeted by a beautiful site. An shimmering golden angel fish was swimming in and out of the openings between the slats at his window. Lucas smiled at its playful antics despite his weariness. Then his heart skipped a beat. That was impossible, and he remembered the water and the white haired man. Lucas opened his mouth in a silent scream that he could not utter. He remembered Aspen rising out of the frigid ocean water. "I don't need the rebreather. Take it, Lucas." What had they done to him? Why? Lucas kicked his way up to the window, frightening the fish away. His weariness was forgotten. He had to get away. The slats were firmly embedded in the stone and Lucas couldn't see much of anything in the inky blackness outside. He turned around and spied the door. He pushed off from the wall and kicked twice. He wrapped his hands around what appeared to be the handle and started pulling and pushing. The locking mechanism wasn't visible but it was very effective. Lucas finally gave up and pushed himself back from the door.

Lucas shut his eyes and tried to figure a way out of his watery prison. It was the blue wall light that made him remember the energy. When he'd been afraid he'd lashed out with an unbelievable energy. He tried to find that place inside himself that could see and touch the energy around him, in the water itself. He was still concentrating when the door swung open and Killian entered.

"Hello Lucas," Killian intoned smoothly. "I see you're feeling better."

Lucas's eyes sprang open and he kicked back towards the far wall. He narrowed his eyes and silently challenged the tall man to come any closer.

"My name is Killian. I rescued you," he said gently. Killian was careful not to approach the teen. He couldn't know what was running through his head exactly until Lucas spoke, but the fear in the boy's eyes was enough to keep Killian from pushing him. Trust was a delicate thing. It had to be forged slowly. "Have you tried to speak? You can you know. It's different from speaking in the air, but fundamentally the same principle." Killian placed his hand where his neck met his chest and patted it in explanation. "You know the sounds. You can make them come. You're throat was made for it."

Lucas shook his head. Reluctantly he opened his mouth. At first there was nothing but then instinct took over. "W-w-w hat d-d-id you do t-to me?" Lucas stammered out. He shut his eyes but then with more confidence. "What did you do to me?" There was so much anguish and horror in his voice.

That fear and horror angered Killian in ways Lucas would not understand. The child mourned the loss of a humanity that was not his birthright. He mourned loosing his connection to the destroyers Killian had dedicated his life to eradicating. "I did nothing to you, but force you to awaken to a world, you had forgotten even existed. I brought you home."

Lucas shook his head vehemently. "This is not my home. What are you? Where is this? I want to go back to seaQuest. I want to go home," he enunciated carefully.

Killian just shook his head. "You're right, this isn't a home. It's a cell. We just wanted to make sure you didn't hurt yourself or anyone else when you awoke. But this place, this existence is where you belong. When you ask me what am I, you should ask what are we. You were taken from your home and your life when you were too young to remember it."

"No!" Lucas snapped. "My father is Lawrence Wolenczak and my mother is Cynthia Wolenczak. I didn't come from this place. I'm not like you."

"Then why aren't you dead? Do think I touched you and magically you didn't drown? If you aren't one of us. What are you?" Killian asked without a trace of anger in his voice.

Lucas dug his fingernails into the wall behind him and tried to think of an answer that didn't tear his world to shreds. "How did you find me?" he whispered finally. "How did you know something I didn't know myself?"

"I'd know my son anywhere," Killian whispered.

Lucas's eyes widened and he couldn't speak for several seconds. He didn't look this man in the eye. This man who claimed a role Lawrence Wolenczak had been haphazardly filling for the past fifteen years. Everything was so unreal. He didn't want to believe what this man-thing told him. He didn't want to believe it but he couldn't deny the facts. He couldn't deny the fish swimming around in the room. He couldn't deny the truth. But what was the truth? Aspen's last minute warning echoed in his head. "This may get ugly. Killian isn't above killing children." Lucas shut his eyes, he didn't believe this. He didn't believe him.

Killian nodded solemnly, careful not to let his predatory smile show. The emotions playing on Lucas's face were so transparent. Denial, a step toward acceptance. "The last time I saw you... You were just a toddler really. Playing outside with your mother. I've never been sure what happened, not exactly. But when you and your mother didn't come home I began searching for you. When you are close, as life mates are, you can find each other easily in the largest ocean, but I was afraid. I knew already, something was deadly wrong. I couldn't feel your mother." Killian's face seemed to show real grief. "It took hours of diligent searching but I found her anyway. Her dead eyes still haunt my dreams, and you, my son, were gone. Until a few weeks ago, I presumed you dead as well. You weren't in the ocean. It never occurred to me to search among the humans."

"You caused the shuttle wreck?" Lucas croaked. He just let me go. If he's my father, he just let me go.

"I did. A friend of mine, a contact I have with the UEO, felt that he had found my dead son." Killian shook his head. "I didn't believe him at first. It was so far fetched, but he told me to look for you aboard seaQuest. Occasionally, you would leave the boat and swim with the dolphin. It was hard through the suit and equipment, but the sensing was unmistakable. I would have know you anywhere." Killian took a deep breath as though searching for the words. "The plan to rescue you was hatched not long after. One of my men crashed the shuttle, and he did too good a job of it, I know. He was reprimanded. But I wanted you home, away from the humans in a way that they wouldn't come looking for you. I wanted you free." Killian moved cautiously forward and he offered Lucas his hand. "Please don't fear me or turn away. It has been so very long and so very lonely.

What was the truth? Lucas slowly brought his eyes up to meet this man's. And he couldn't turn away. Lucas's tears disappeared unseen into the sea. Whatever the truth was, this man was dangerous, and he was at his mercy. Lucas shut his eyes, and took Killian's hand.

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Killian watched from a distance as one of his soldiers, Lalia, showed Lucas the finer points of energy manipulation. Brutus coughed and shifted his position. "Did he accept you?"

Killian smiled without redirecting his gaze. "How could he not? Admiral Higgins was right. The boy was desperate for a father. For some tangible family. I think I'll fit the bill quite well. Oh he doesn't trust me by any means. But that will come."

"Unless he finds out the truth," Brutus said with a chuckle. "Then, average channeling capabilities or not, I think he might try killing you."

"He might. But whose going to tell him?"

"Maybe his sister, Aspen," Brutus said. "Academically you have to consider her. She knows the whole truth. She knows you murdered her parents and precipitated her and her brothers disappearance."

"On the same note, she has to be taken with a grain of salt. Not only does she not know that Lucas is her brother. She thinks he is dead," Killian said with supreme confidence. "Aspen is no threat, for now."

Brutus nodded but internalized his doubts. Aspen made him nervous. She was the most powerful chaneler of pure energy ever recorded. She, Cannon, and a human had foiled Killian's first plan to begin his holy war. Brutus couldn't help feeling that it was very likely that she would try again. And Killian cared for her. A dangerous thing when dealing with an enemy. But Brutus would watch Killian's back. And if it became necessary, he could take Aspen out. Only if it became necessary.

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Lucas tried to follow Lalia's instructions. Find the energy plain. Let your mind serve as a valve and your body a channel. Let it flow gradually, until the energy spins like a tiny hurricane of light and heat. After all that coaching, all Lucas had managed to do was give himself a headache.

"I don't think this is one of my natural abilities. I mean quite frankly, I don't have much interest in making shiny pretty balls of light." Lucas didn't want to admit it but all he wanted to do was find a place to curl up and sleep. If he could sleep some of the weariness away, then maybe he could think, maybe he could decide what he needed to do.

Lalia pulled her shoulder-length brown hair away from her face and smiled. "Killain has a lot of enemies, both of our own kind and among the humans. Not to mention, the ocean can be a dangerous place when you're not surrounded by very thick steel walls. This is for your protection. Unless you want a body guard following your every move, I'd give this my total attention."

"Right, like Killian is going to let me spend more than two seconds alone. He doesn't trust me any more than I trust him," Lucas said quietly. He let his shoulders droop, revealing his weariness.

"But he's your father? Doesn't that mean anything?" Lalia let a frown crease her brow.

"I don't need another father. I haven't needed the one I have for a long time," Lucas said. The bitter undercurrent to his voice was acid, and completely unconscious.

"You're wrong. What you want and what you need can be independent of one another. And you need family. I don't care how old or smart you think you are. We need our family. And Killian needs you."

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Killian watched Lalia and Lucas silently from his concealed perch. He couldn't hear them but Lalia would report later about their conversation. It was important for Lucas to hear Killian's story confirmed by as many outside sources as possible. The next few days would be vital, if the charade were to succeed. The most important thing, don't give him enough time to get his bearings. A bright blue flash erupted from below. Finally, the child had channeled consciously. No, he'd never be a direct weapon on the same level as his sister. But there really was more to war than raw power. "It's time for your education to begin, Lucas."

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"Okay, now we work on control," Lalia gasped. The energy had nearly singed her eyebrows but was now spinning in a lopsided orbit a few feet away.

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking about it and it just happened so fast," Lucas said a little shakily.

"Don't worry about it. No harm, no foul," Lalia said. The sphere of energy pulled itself together and began rotating more normally.

"I think I can handle this," Lucas said. He smiled. He couldn't help himself. It felt good to succeed at something in the chaotic mess his life had decided to become.

Lalia stiffened a little and her smile disappeared. "Killian sir," she said. "We've made progress."

"I see that," Killian commented. He was smiling, normally a chilling sight, but he was a good actor. Lalia almost forgot herself and returned the pleasant gesture. Almost. Lucas jumped and lost control of the glowing orb. It lost shape and dispersed in a glowing shower.

"Sorry," Lucas gasped. The tiny sparks burned where they struck skin but left no mark.

"I think you've had enough for one day. Looks like you're going to collapse where you stand," Killian said. He motioned Lucas to follow and swam toward a large reef. Lalia nodded at him and shooed him along.

Lucas hesitated to follow Killian. He could make a break for it. He might get lucky. But did he want to escape? Lucas clenched his fist and grimaced. Of course he wanted to escape. Everyone had to be worried sick. They might even think he was dead. That was what Killian had planned, but Lucas didn't want to believe that. It was more comforting to believe that seaQuest was looking for him. That his friends hadn't given up on him. But Killian was... no Lawrence Wolenczak was his father... wasn't he? Did the biology really matter? Neither of the men who ever claimed the role of his father, had ever really been there... but Killian was trying... Lucas turned and swam after Killian. He never saw the silent sentries just out of sight in the inky blackness, waiting for him to stray, to run. With every stroke he took a step away from the world he knew and a step toward Killian and the abyss.

Chapter 6