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THERE WAS NO WORSE FEELING FOR GEARY THAN TO THINK that soet to theot about her quest and swah the dark water
"Geary!"
She ignored Kat&039;s call The only thing thaton
Suddenly Arik was there, pulling Geary back "You&039;ve got to cal too rapidly"
She shook her head at hiet up there"
"All we heard was a pop" His tone was level and cal All we know is the interco You don&039;t want to die over that, do you?"
He was right and she hated hiainst her helmet to listen ?"
There was still no answer
"Tory? Christof? Justina? Thia? Dammit Someone answer me please"
Arik held his breath, wishing he could ease her mind But as the silence stretched on he knehat she did Sohts stopped as a piece of twisted ht It was followed by h the water
And it was obvious what the"I think that&039;s our boat trying to kill us"
Yeah Arik had a bad feeling the kid ht Shit
Arik looked at Kat and could tell she had no more information than he did
He closed his eyes and summoned his brother with his mind " Solin"
There was no answer from that end, either, which boded even eara "All right, let&039;s head up Safely"
"Okay" But he could hear the panic and fear in Megeara&039;s voice
He hesitated as Megeara and Scott went first so that he could swiluone, so&039;s our air supply"
He&039;d thought of that hi Which was another reason they needed to get up immediately They didn&039;t have much reserve, and since he was hu he wanted Kat was the only one of them who didn&039;t have that fear Lucky bitch
As they swam for the first decompression station, Arik tried his best to reach Solin repeatedly while Megeara continued to call through her interco from above, except for a few pieces of metal that continued to float by as they headed for the floor of the sea Yeah, nothing like watching your life pass you by, knowing you were even et to air soon
They reached the first tank, which held two breathing hoses The women went first, then he and Scott
They traded the lines back and forth as they waited for their bodies to adjust to the new depth before they swaher
But each of them was rattled by what could have happened to the boat and the others
"Arikos"
He hesitated as, he finally heard Solin&039;s voice in his head " What&039;s going on?"
"The boat was blown up"
"No shit We rather got that, as parts of it almost crushed us in the water What happened and why didn&039;t you stop it?"
"Yeah, right Stop it,with this one"
Arik cursed at Solin&039;s selfishness " Dah air in the line for us Weto ht? What&039;s the point? I still have to live here after you&039;re all gone"
If Arik could lay hands on Solin, he&039;d kill hiame, Solin"
"No, it isn&039;t And you&039;re on your own Good luck"
Arik ground his teeth as he took the hose fro " You better pray I don&039;t &039;s for aer problehts Megeara took the hose and breathed deeply before she swaain Arik and the others followed her
They were halfway to the second station when h the water What the hell? Had another boat blown up?
Arik swaeara Stop We have to breathe slowly You know that Stay calm and focused"
Geary wanted to shove hiht She couldn&039;t afford to fight hiht now, they had reserve air at the stations They could stay there until their bodies readjusted Then they could hold their breath andfor her tastes
She had to knoas going one What had happened to the others
Her heart heavy, she looked at Scott, who had tears in his eyes "We&039;ll be okay, Scott"
The doubt he held burned through her "Yeah, right"
"No ," Kat snapped at theot"
Arik took Geary&039;s hand and squeezed it before he urged her up through the water Geary obeyed, but as she swah her mind Her brother had died over a malfunction in his tank
She&039;d alondered what had gone through Jason&039;s mind in those last few minutes as he realized his life was about to end She had to say it sucked Meh her with a burning intensity
She didn&039;t want to die She was young and though she hadn&039;t dated much, she still held on to the dreauy and have kids That she would grow old with someone who treasured her as much as she treasured him Was that too much to ask?
There was so ht again It wasn&039;t fair-to cooal and die before she could finish her quest
But the worst thought was that Tory and Thia ht be dead Justina, Teddy, Christof, and all the others
And it would be her fault All her fault God, how had her father lived with the guilt? No wonder he&039;d beco of him that she&039;d never had before She&039;d spent sohim that she hadn&039;t even considered the bla he&039;d endangered his fa because of his actions
I aot out of this and if the others were okay, it was over She would never jeopardize other people again This was just a stupid dream that wasn&039;t worth another drop of blood Another life Atlantis didn&039;t want to be found
She was through
Suddenly Geary realized that the water was getting lighter Looking up, she could see the sunlight refracting in the waves over her head
Not much farther Her joy was te for her Of what&039;d happened to the rest of their crew Horrific i facedown in the water Or disfigured of the out to her for help
Please, please, please be okay
Her throat was getting tighter as she neared the top The pain of having no air in her lungs was oppressive and painful Her lungs burned like fire as even ic to die this close to their destination Just a few feether helmet as she kicked up Her li from the strain She wanted to take a breath so badly but knew that she couldn&039;t
Please
By the time she reached the top, she had the helulped air
She was shaking and cold as water rushed into her suit But it was so good to be breathing freely again that she didn&039;t even care
She turned a circle in the water trying to get her bearings The first thing she saas the s remains of their boat-not that there wasfor it, only to have someone pull at her She turned to find Arik there
"They&039;re dead," she sobbed, pulling away froo find theh her and as she opened her mouth to tell him not to patronize her He pointed in the opposite direction of the boat
She looked to find the small life raft that held Tory, Justina, Solin, Althea, Thia, Christof and Brian Relief tore through her with such ferocity that she sank back under the waves
Arik caught her against hi and crying as she wrapped herself around hi like this It was like her emotions were completely beyond her control She smiled at him before she left and headed for the others
Baffled, he treaded water while Kat and Scott popped up beside hiods," Kat sat after she&039;d tossed her helmet aside
"What the hell happened to the boat?" Scott asked
Kat gave him a "duh" stare "It appears to have blown up"
"Yeah, but why?"
She gave Arik a harsh stare "That&039;s an interesting question, isn&039;t it?"
"Yes, it is"
Scott i back
"Do you think Zebulon had a hand in this?" he asked her
Kat shook her head "Not his style He&039;d have si behind No, this was a thoughtless act"
"Human then?"
"I don&039;t know, but I will find out"
Arik frowned There was an odd note in her voice and he had a sneaking suspicion that she knew exactly as behind this and didn&039;t want to betray them, him or her
Arik would have blamed this on the Dolophoni, but it wasn&039;t their style, either Their fight ith hiht hi the ones on the surface Not to mention, the Dolophoni wouldn&039;t have been this sloppy No, had they been here, he would have known it For thatfro out of the trees Lucky them
LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY, GEARY PULLED HERSELF ONTO the raft and grabbed both Tory and Thia in a giant hug
"Hey! You&039;re getting nored Thia as she held her close "Thank God you guys are all right"
Tory kissed her cheek "And so&039;s Kichka" She held up theat them "I scooped her up on the way out"
Geary kissed the top of her cat&039;s furry head before she took Kichka from Tory and looked around at the others Everyone was there and accounted for "What happened?"
Tory indicated Solin with her thuas leak If not for him, we&039;d all be dead now"
Geary scowled at the explanation "Gas leak? How? Christof and I are always ed "I don&039;t know"
They both looked at Solin, who seeh his hair was tousled and there were black stains on his i that so was about to, pardon the pun, blow"
"Uh-huh," Geary said, stroking her cat "You have these psychic mo grin "You have no idea"
There was such a strange note in his voice that it actually sent a chill down her spine
Teddy passed a slad all of you made it back in one piece"
Geary thanked him as Arik, Kat, and Scott joined them on the raft She didn&039;t miss the hostile look Arik passed to Solin before he came to sit beside her
"You better?" he asked
She nodded
"Good" Arik reached to pet Kichka on the head Kichka hissed and spat at him before she reached out with one paw to pop his hand
Arik jerked his hand away from her claws
Geary was stunned In all the time she&039;d had her cat, Kichka had never behaved in such a manner
Arik scowled before he moved out of the cat&039;s reach
"Kichka," Tory adirl?"
It was Solin who answered "She&039;s probably just upset over what&039;s happened It&039;s been a crazy,on here and Geary wanted to knohat it was
Geary turned her head to look at the remnants of the boat as help came It&039;d been a close call Too close Today they had all been lucky
But tomorrow
She didn&039;t want to think about that God, what if Solin hadn&039;t smelled the leak? What if the others hadn&039;t listened to hi by, it would have been her friends and faht sobered her
"We have backups of all the data," Tory said, taking Kichka fro"
"No," Geary said, her tone firh with this"
Everyone on the raft with the exception of Solin and Kat gaped at her
"What are you talking about?"