Chapter Eight:
The commander sat down in her chair on the main bridge as she continued to read what Jared had downloaded from Celestia’s computer. She wasn’t positive but it appeared that Celestia was using programming technology that was developed by their scientists. But the question was how could she have gotten such knowledge? She pulled up a screen and paged one of her men. The screen lit up immediately.
“Yes Commander?” the man on the other side asked.
“Nathan, I’m sending you some computer information. You have spent time on Earth and know the difference between our technologies. I want you to study this and tell me which scientists this style of programming is taken from.” The commander said.
“At once Commander,” Nathan replied.
“Sandra,” Jared said. The Commander looked up to see Jared entering the bridge. “I took the liberty of acquiring medical scans of the human Jason for the doctor to study, would you like a medical report of Celestia as well?” he asked.
“Yes, have the doctor go herself to obtain the information. Have you finished reading Celestia’s notes?” Sandra asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
Sandra got up and walked over to the main screen showing the Earth from space. “I find it hard to believe that not only does her game know how to identify us, but that her sketches of our uniforms are completely accurate, the energy configuration for a laser gun is accurate and her general story line actually matches some of our planets history.” Sandra paused for a moment and then continued. “I’ve sent her technical specifications over to Nathan for analysis as they too appear to match our technology as well. I want you to continue with the interrogation of both Celestia and Jason. Some where in their memories there must be a clue to how she obtained this information.”
Jared replied, “Yes Commander.”
Sandra turned back to face Jared, “What’s the report regarding the building?” she asked.
“It was completely destroyed, the authorities on their world are convinced it was some type of accident and that both Celestia and Jason were killed in the explosion.” Jared replied. “I’ve also finished the investigation of the other energy signatures that are more advanced on this planet. None of them are a direct threat to our invasion plans. I can forward the report to request the invasion fleet at any time.” The commander walked over to her chair and sat back down.
“I think we should still wait, at least until we finish checking out Celestia and Jason. We need to make sure there isn’t a resistance cell operating on Earth; I think the possibility that her information came from some one from our world is quite high. Celestia may have been being used by the resistance.” The commander said. Jared walked over and stood next to the commander.
“The thought had occurred to me, it would explain why her information is so detailed. I’ll make the interrogations my priority and with your permission I’ll send down several level one scout teams to check into this further.” He said.
Sandra replied, “permission granted to use level one scout teams, increase their report time schedule to twice daily instead of once, even if it’s a nothing new to report update.”
Jared pulled out his hand held device and input the changes into the assignment. “I’ll get started on that immediately Commander,” he said. Jared bowed briefly, turned and left the bridge. Sandra pulled up the data from Celestia’s computer and studied it once more, looking for clues she might have missed the first time.
Nathan pulled up the data the Commander had sent him to analyze. He had barely started going through it when he realized he might be in trouble. He sent a request for further information about the person who had written the program. A few minutes later the information about Celestia and Jason arrived. He was right! Celestia had been one of the candidates chosen by the resistance to help further Earth’s technology so they would be able to resist the invasion!
But she had proven to be an unsuitable candidate, or so they had thought at the time. Her memory was supposed to have been erased! Clearly that wasn’t the case! Nathan read further through the programs she had created and surprisingly she had actually improved on some of the basic programming! Nathan cursed under his breath. If only the invasion had been postponed for another twenty years. At the rate she had been going Earth’s technology was on the brink of a major revolution! Now the real concern was if she remembered him. If she did the resistance was in for major trouble. If they found out about him and he was interrogated it would be a disaster. He was too far up in their chain of command and the information he knew could seriously compromise their operation.
Although he found the thought distasteful he would commit suicide first. Too many lives depended on him. Somehow he had to see if Celestia remembered him. Fortunately he had never met Jason. Nathan continued to write his analysis of Celestia’s program, she was a lot smarter than any of them had realized so he was able to clearly state that although she was using programming developed by his world, she was also doing stuff that was not like anything they had ever done or anyone on Earth either.
Nathan almost hated to tell the truth. The report would guarantee that she would live, but it would also guarantee that she would remain a prisoner for the rest of her life. And he didn’t even want to think about what they would do to her in order to extract as much information from her as possible. Nathan hated to admit it, but she was even more intelligent that he was. He would love to find a way to get her into the hands of the resistance. With further training she might even surpass some of the greatest technological minds of his world.
Nathan made sure he included everything he had observed in his report. He knew that the best way to stay hidden was to never leave any details out of his observations. The worst mistake one could make was to leave out details as sooner or later someone would notice that you were hiding information. It was part of what made him so successful, he made sure to never hide details unless absolutely necessary. That way the few times it was noticed, it was dismissed as a simple mistake. Nathan continued working on the report, as he knew the Commander would want it as soon as possible.
