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by Alyse(alyse@unconsciousmind.co.uk)
and Teri (teri@unconsciousmind.co.uk)
Prologues
~*~
Summary: The Bridge is the first story in the Warchild series, based upon the characters in the TV Show, Space: Above and Beyond. When McQueen and Commodore Ross decide that Cooper Hawkes needs a teacher if he's ever to move through the ranks, they couldn't have anticipated the intrigue into which the young man would be plunged, the strange and often deadly characters he would meet on the way or the fact that he'd fall in love.
Rating: NC17, m/f interaction, Cooper Hawkes/f
~*~
First Prologue
Diane Hayden sat in a calm manner at her desk, her fingertips roaming over the envelope in her hand, searching in vain for the Braille coding that would let her "see" what was before her. The people who worked with the Secretary General on a daily basis wouldn't have noticed anything out of the ordinary in this scene, but the woman sitting across the desk, June Maddox, had been Diane's closest friend since childhood and she recognized her facade of calm as sheer, cold rage. Her years as Diane's personal aide had only improved her ability to read her moods.
"Are you going to let me see what the slime sent you this time, Diane, or are you going to sit there and simmer all day?"
The Secretary General clenched her hands into fists before wordlessly passing the manila envelope to June. Her expression never changed in the slightest. June paused to look at the outside of the piece of mail but didn't expect to see any markings. They all came like this. Diane's other income daily mail was scrupulously checked before it was given to her. These envelopes demanding payment simply appeared on her desk.
June opened one end and spread it so that she could peep inside. Reaching in she pulled out the customary demand note and laid it on the desk. Today it seemed the blackmailer had added visual aids. June slowly pulled out an 8 x 10 photocard and turned it over to see the image on the front.
"Richard?" she gasped as she saw the picture. June felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach. She could barely catch her breath. Diane, already tense, made her way around the desk to sit beside the one person in the world that she trusted.
"What is it? Tell me, June. What about Richard?" Though it had been over twenty years since the women had spoken of him, Diane knew exactly to whom June referred. "June?" Diane took her friends arm and shook her to get her attention. June was the only person she knew who would dare ignore her.
June took a moment to compose herself before turning to the woman at her side. "He sent a photo this time, Diane."
"A photo of Richard?" Diane's voice echoed her confusion.
"No, it's a photo of a young man in a Marine dress uniform who looks exactly like Richard… well, except for the hair. Seeing that face was a blast from the past. I just blanked out for a moment. I'm really puzzled now, Diane. What does a picture of some Marine kid have to do with blackmail? Diane?" June turned to see her friend staring sightlessly into space and the look on her face had nothing to do with rage. It was an emotion June rarely ever saw in her friend; it was fear. "Diane, you're scaring me. Talk to me here."
"D…Describe him to me, the person in the picture." She requested woodenly.
"Well, he's tall and trim, well built, about…I don't know early 20's maybe…and handsome as sin, again like Richard. His hair is a little redder, kind of chestnut I suppose. I can't see his eye color. He's got a medal around his neck. That's about it. Diane, this is like looking at a ghost. What does it mean?"
"It means several things. First, I'll bet our little billing is quite a bit larger this time." June opened the paper on the desk and her gasp was Diane's answer. "It also means that Richard told the truth when he said he loved the color of my hair, lied when he said he wanted my features on the thing, and was gender centric enough to choose the Y-chromosome for his precious experiment. But of course you want to know what it means in terms of the blackmail right? "
Diane continued speaking without giving June time to respond. "This means that the blackmailer truly does have access to all of the records of the IVA. I kept hoping, praying, that he just hit it lucky with that one female InVitro, that he was bluffing about knowing the location of each ovum I sold to that damn facility. What you are holding in your hands is the worst thing that could have ever happened to me."
"Somehow this monster has stumbled across Richard's notes. He was the only one who knew about the existence of this…thing." As she spoke, Diane waved her hand in the general direction of the picture June still held. "I had hoped the notes were destroyed at Richard's death. IVA claimed they hadn't been located. They took his other research documents and of course the experiment."
"Diane, I still don't understand. You told me about the eggs you sold as a college student and I've got private sources on that case and as soon as we track this guy down, he's toast. We sent one of your little "blunders" to a mining colony, where thanks to the Chig attack on that cargo vessel, we have a confirmed kill. So now he's found another "blunder" . We knew there five. What does this have to do with Richard and some kind of experiment?"
Diane had to work to formulate the words through the rushing sound in her ears. All the work, clawing her way to the top, climbing over obstacles and bodies to get where she was today, in jeopardy because of a college romance twenty-six years old. Even June didn't know how stupid she had been that summer, how in love. Diane reached out and happened upon June's hand, gripping it tightly with her own ice-cold fingers.
"Right before Richard and I had that last fight, he talked me into signing a donor consent form that gave him full custody of the last ovum. He said he needed it for his research because the nature of his work demanded that he know the background of the participants. He was obsessed with creating a mentally superior InVitro. He even fantasized about creating a psychic race; he thought my blindness might positively affect the other senses of the experiment, though it wasn't to be blind . Richard talked constantly about it all but I didn't pay much attention. With the political power his father wielded IVA was powerless to stop him. Richard used my egg and his sperm and created his own tank in our image. He planned to raise it and study it. Perhaps enhance it's brain for precognitive performance. Then he died right after he stirred up the brew. IVA confiscated the experiment and I haven't heard another word until today."
June could only stare. "Diane, how could you have done something so foolish?" She asked softly. "We had plans even then for our political careers. You know how careful we were to cover any semblance of moral wrongdoing to appease those journalistic vultures. That's why we fought over you're seeing Richard to start with. Now you're telling me that this man knows of the existence of a child you allowed to be made into a human guinea pig? My God, Diane, that's cold even for you. And you signed papers. Wonderful." June's voice trailed off as the magnitude of the political scandal this could cause washed over her.
Diane turned to June angrily. "Don't ever refer to that piece of genetic garbage as a child in my presence again! That thing is an aberration of nature. They all are."
"That 'aberration' is your son, Diane. Yours and Richard's. Don't visit the sins of the father on the son." June's voice was cold and quiet. "Don't get me started on the InVitro rights issue. You can just thank your sweet stars that you had the sense to listen to me when I saw the turn the InVitro rights movement was making. Left up to you we'd be having monthly tank executions on the front lawn."
"Don't lecture me, June. Just do what you get paid for. Find it…then kill it."
Diane Hayden rose gracefully to her feet and left the office. She was almost late for the InVitro rights rally she hosted that afternoon.
~*~
Second Prologue
"You've read the file that I gave you?"
"Yes sir."
"You know, then, why I asked you to come here today?"
"I presume that you want me to do something about the situation?"
"Yes. I don't want a repeat of the Blood Alley incident. That could have been avoided if we'd known what she was up to ahead of time."
"I'll see that it's dealt with, sir."
"I know you will, Lucas. Have you decided how you're going to handle it?"
"Quietly."
The elder of the two men, older by many years, smiled at that last comment, the tension in his face making it more of a smirk. He reached over, and picked up the photograph sitting in pride of place on the desk and examined it for a moment, his face saddening.
"He may be the last one Lucas, the last part of my son. I let my damn pride get in the way before. I won't let that happen again." He shot a keen look at the younger man standing stiffly on the other side of the desk.
"Can I trust you and your partner to take care of the details, Lucas?"
"Yes, sir."
"All of them?" He placed an emphasis on the word 'all'. The younger man met his gaze briefly, his face expressionless. His voice was equally expressionless when he finally replied.
"Yes, sir. My partner and I have our own reasons for wanting this. We've already taken steps."
The older man nodded sharply, returning his eyes to the photograph.
"Thank you Lucas. I'll leave it in your capable hands." He didn't raise his gaze even when he heard the door close softly. His next words were directed at the picture he held.
"I won't let it happen again, Richard."