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Chapter 19
Breath of Life

Photo courtesy of Jensen Ackles World

Unlike Alec, who'd had nothing to guide him, Lydecker was able to keep hold of the rope as he dove and swam through the treacherous currents, the X5's weight on the other end sufficient to keep the cable somewhat anchored.

Three minutes later the colonel emerged sputtering from the ocean to wrap an arm around Alec and flip him over into a lifeguard's rescue embrace. The cave mouth was only a few feet away. The older man thought he could make it, although with each gust of wind they were in deadly danger of being crushed to death on the surrounding rocks. Swimming for all he was worth, his ordinary heart nearly pounding out of his chest, Lydecker dragged the unconscious X5 into the cave. Once out of the direct wind the waves calmed and the tide stopped pulling so viciously on his legs. Treading water and touching the ceiling with a cold hand to steady himself Lydecker looked around, wishing for a flashlight or Alec's excellent night vision.

There was a faint glow up ahead. His head bumping on the overhead rock with each stroke, Lydecker swam for all he was worth, dragging Alec by his shirt collar behind him. The water gradually became more shallow, and by the time he was a hundred feet into the passage he was able to stand. A few more sloshing steps forward, and he'd reached the higher level of the cave -- and Max. She was lying on her side gasping with pain, semi-conscious beside the nuclear bomb. A battery operated lantern illuminated the small cavern around them.

There was a minute and a half left before detonation when Lydecker, with an ironic smile on his face, punched in the deactivation code. In spite of all their egotistical brilliance, my kids still need 'daddy' once in awhile.

His primary mission accomplished, the colonel then heaved Alec onto the black volcanic sand and looked from one X5 to the other.

He'd always had special feelings for Max. She was, after all, a creature inspired by the woman he'd loved, his late wife, and was probably the closest thing to a daughter he'd ever have. Seeing 452 writhing in agony, her legs dark with fluid, made him want to rush to her side, do anything to help her.

But 494 wasn't breathing. His skin tinged blue, his lips even moreso, the male X5 had no pulse ... no heartbeat.

Cradling Alec's head and pinching the boy's nostrils closed Lydecker placed his mouth firmly over the X5's and blew two deep breaths of air into water filled lungs. Five chest compressions, two more breaths, and he paused to check for a carotid pulse. Nothing.

"Come on, soldier," Lydecker said harshly, surprised at the tight feeling in his own chest. "Breathe, damn it!" X5s could hold their breaths for upwards of four minutes and go at least 10 minutes without oxygen before brain damage set in. But this was cutting it close.

He tried two more breaths and another series of compressions, then flipped Alec over onto his stomach and began pressing firmly on his back, trying to massage the water out of his lungs. A trickle of seawater came out of the corner of the transgenic's mouth. Encouraged, Lydecker increased the pressure, kneading the ribcage, forcing himself to ignore the fact the kid had half-healed internal injuries. More water, then suddenly Alec began to retch. Holding him by the shoulders, Lydecker steadied the X5 as he vomited what seemed like half the ocean.

"Good boy," he said proudly, patting 494 firmly on the back to help clear the last of the fluid as Alec gasped and coughed on hands and knees. "I knew you wouldn't leave her like this."

And then Donald Lydecker turned to Max.

*****

Alec rubbed the tears and seawater out of his eyes and tried to focus on what was happening around him. His lungs burned like fire, his limbs were shaking, and he was as lightheaded as hell but he figured he'd live. His first thought was the bomb and he scrambled over the sand, throwing himself down beside the case. However, the numbers were comfortingly dark. 'Deck had gotten there before him. Then he raised his head and saw Max.

"What's wrong with her?" he cried out huskily, knocking Lydecker out of the way to be beside her. He took Max's hand in his. "Max? Max, can you hear me?" She moaned loudly, her head lolling back on the sand, and the CO pushed him roughly aside.

"She's in labor," the colonel said harshly. "Get her pants off."

"It's too soon!" Alec yelled. "She's only a little over six months along!"

"Doesn't matter," Lydecker replied grimly, his icy blue eyes capturing Alec's green ones. "The baby's coming whether we want it to or not."

"A doctor--" Alec looked desperately at the water sloshing so high on the cave's beach. Outside the storm still roared like a living thing.

Lydecker chuckled. "What doctor? Yours is MIA and I don't have one in my pocket. Now do what I said and get her pants off."

Alec grabbed hold of Lydecker's shirt front, pulling the smaller man off the ground. "Do you know how to do this?"

"Personally, no," Lydecker answered truthfully. "But I've witnessed many an X5 birth."

Alec let him go and the colonel fell back to sit on the ground. Then he began to tug on Max's black jeans. Lydecker was all he had right now. There was no other way.

"She's bleeding," Alec said, noticing the red fluid on the CO's fingers after he examined Max. He coughed harshly, clearing more seawater from his lungs. "That's not good, is it?" he gasped.

"Hold her head in your lap," Lydecker said, his tone of voice brooking no argument. "And no, it's not good, but it's not necessarily that bad either. She may just be tearing a little bit." He looked up. "Or it could be the placenta's dropped into the birth canal in which case both of them will die."

"And she's too early," Alec said again.

"Maybe, maybe not."

"What do you mean?"

"A human baby probably wouldn't survive if it was born this soon," Lydecker said, a touch of personal conceit in his voice. "But X5s have far greater lung capacity ... bigger hearts ... more stamina. The kid has a chance, especially if we can get her to Wellington and into an incubator."

Alec looked at the angry water and shook his head. "We're not gettin' a baby outta here anytime soon."

"We'll worry about that when the times comes. First, we have to get them through this alive." He pinned Alec down again. "If it comes to her or the child ...?"

"Max," Alec said without hesitation. "But you already knew that."

Lydecker nodded.

*****

Max labored all night, for seven hours. Rarely in his life had Alec felt so helpless ... so useless. All he could do was hold her in his arms and whisper pathetic words of encouragement in her ear while Lydecker massaged her womb. The baby was breech, curled in an impossible position for birth.

By dawn they realized she wasn't going to be able to push the child out herself. And a C-section was impossible under these conditions. Max would bleed to death for sure.

"Alec," Max said weakly in one of her lucid moments. She pawed for his hand and he held her fingers to his mouth, kissing them.

"Right here, Maxie. I'm right here."

"Don't let her die. Please don't let my baby die."

Lydecker nodded at him. "Hold onto her, son," the colonel said. "I've got one more thing to try. But it's gonna hurt her like hell."

Alec's brows drew together. He didn't know what the older man was going to do. Then his eyes widened as he saw Lydecker reach into Max with both hands, pushing his arms up to the elbows just as another contraction began.

Max screamed, her back arching in agony as Alec watched in horror.

"Just a little more," Lydecker grunted, his face red with exertion. "Just a little-- There!" he shouted in triumph even as blood gushed in rivulets down his forearms. But when he withdrew his hands he was holding a baby's head.

"You turned her," Alec breathed, looking from Max's unconscious face to the baby's blue one. But something was wrong. "She's not breathing!"

"The cord's around her neck," Lydecker said angrily, unwrapping the umbilical cord from the baby's throat.

"Shouldn't she be crying?"

Lydecker cradled the child in his arms, listening for a breath that didn't come. And then for the second time in 24 hours he began performing CPR on an X5.