Chapter thirteen:
Jared maneuvered the shuttlecraft into the hanger bay and landed the craft with his usual skill and preciseness; he began shutting the systems down while the bay doors shut and the bay finished pressurizing. His teams had found abandoned transmitters left by the resistance cell that had been on Earth. Jared had never imagined it would take him an entire month to track down the location of the relay transmitters set up on other planets in this solar system. Who ever had set them up was one of the best resistance operators Jared had ever tracked. Now that the relay transmitters had been destroyed he had sent the order for the one’s on Earth to be destroyed as well.
Jared turned his attention to the report on Jason and Celestia’s testing and further interrogations. Other than the mishap with Jason and the disruptor devices the biological testing, educational testing and probing of their memories was pretty much complete. He had been carefully following each report as it was sent to him even though there had been very little in the way of clues to help him track down information on the resistance cell that had been on Earth. Other than Celestia there was no one on Earth who understood his type of technology. Or at least not on a level that indicated that they too had been educated by the resistance at one time.
If the resistance had put her through enhanced learning they had made sure to erase her memory of them teaching her, the fact that she had built a game that was so accurate probably meant that part of her memory had not been erased as the resistance had thought. The lack of other people on her world who understood his technology indicated to him that the resistance had probably given up on educating the people there. Jared had seen this done before on other worlds as well, not all races were able to absorb enhanced learning. It wasn’t the first time the resistance had tried this particular tactic.
Jared shut the screen down and left the shuttle. He pulled out his hand held device and continued to review the reports. According to Nathan, Celestia had the potential to outshine even some of the greatest minds on Versilan. Nathan also indicated that although Jason clearly lacked Celestia’s skills he was well matched to work as her assistant and still smart enough to actually be useful. Jared smiled at that. It didn’t really matter one way or the other, but he found it more enjoyable when those who interested him were smart.
Jared felt a thrill of excitement, he was glad to be back. Duty always came first, but he was really looking forward to Jason’s reaction when he realized he had returned. According to the doctor Jason had completely recovered. Nathan’s quick reaction in moving Jason had saved him from permanent nerve damage. According to the doctor she had made modifications to the disruptor restraints to account for the humans different nervous system structure, but when the assistant went to put the restraints on them he had taken the wrong ones. It wasn’t until the incident with Jason that anyone realized a mistake had been made. Jared saw in the notes that the assistant had been properly disciplined for his mistake. If Jason had not recovered, well, Jared would have made sure he never made another mistake again.
Sandra turned to look when Jared entered the bridge, “Ah Jared, welcome back.” She said. “I trust you have reviewed all the reports regarding Celestia and Jason?”
“Yes commander, I have. I was just thinking that now that all the testing and memory probing is complete that it would prove informative to finally allow the two of them to see each other.”
Sandra got up and started walking back and forth in front of her chair; “Agreed, I was just thinking along the same lines. I’ve received orders to make use of Celestia’s ability and keeping Jason alive will help insure her cooperation. We could use other techniques, but the doctor has advised me that we would run the risk of damaging her mind.” Sandra paused for a moment and then continued, “Nathan has been quite effective in getting their cooperation. He may be too soft, but he has managed to gain a small measure of their trust.”
Jared frowned a bit, “Nathan is a fool, though I won’t argue that his methods can be effective. I assume you wish for me to make the arrangements regarding Celestia and Jason?”
“Yes, as of now they will be your responsibility again. Once the reality sets in that they will never be returning to Earth, your methods of insuring cooperation will be far more effective than anything Nathan could do.” Sandra sat back down, smiled at Jared and said, “Besides, I told you that you could have Jason when I was finished. And I always keep my word. Think of it as a bonus for all the hard work you have done lately. Nathan did say that Jason would be a good assistant for Celestia, but frankly I see no reason to keep him alive just for that.”
Sandra tilted her head to the left for a moment thinking on how to phrase what she wanted to say; she leaned forward a bit and continued, “I won’t dictate how you choose to amuse yourself, other than I want you to be careful as I do want him to remain alive as an incentive for Celestia’s continued cooperation.”
Jared smiled, “Of course Commander.” He turned to leave the bridge to go to his quarters but stopped at the door and turned back to speak with the Commander again. “I forwarded my recommendations to you about the investigation regarding a resistance cell here on Earth.”
Sandra turned her chair until she was facing him and replied, “Yes, I’ve read through the report and I agree. The probability of a cell still being in operation here is quite slim. Now that you have destroyed their communication’s network I agree with you that it would be wise to stick around for a few weeks and watch for any changes that would indicate they are still here. I’ve received orders from High Command that the invasion here is being postponed for the moment, as there are some disturbing developments on other less developed worlds. They have decided to split the fleet into squads and send them to crush the resistance cells that have been springing up in quite a few places. Our orders are to investigate this area of space further as it looks like they may have actually set up a base on one of the planets in the system just after this one. You have two weeks to finish the investigation here and then we are to move on and investigate the next system.”
Jared bowed and said, “Understood commander, I’ll add a few more teams to the investigation to make sure we are finished by the deadline.”
Jared left the bridge and pulled out his hand-held device. He input the changes to the current investigation and then turned it off and put it back into his pocket. Now that the changes had been issued he could clean up and get some rest. Although their shuttles were quite comfortable, compared to the main ship it was almost primitive. He preferred his spacious quarters on the main ship, as there were so many comforts that there just wasn’t room for on a shuttle. Jared was looking forward to a long hot soak in a real bathtub instead of a quick shower and sleeping on a bed big enough for two was a luxury he greatly missed.
Not to mention the other devices he kept for when he had company. Jared smiled when he thought about what the Commander said regarding keeping Jason alive. He had been too hard on his diversions in the past, but he now found it more useful to keep them alive instead of killing them when he grew bored with them. And he had been pleasantly surprised to realize that after being away for a while the same desire and interest would return. It gave him more pleasure to see people avoid him, as they didn’t know when they would catch his interest again, than killing them ever had.
No the Commander didn’t have to worry about him killing Jason. He was the first alien Jared had ever been attracted to. He was going to take his time with this one. Being gone for a month had been extremely difficult as he constantly found himself thinking about Jason, something that had never happened before with any of his previous captives. Jared smiled to himself; he would never let Jason go, ever.
