Finding Jess (First Wave) (15 page)

The room was silent as Banatar
fought an internal battle with his duties to this community and his desperation
as a father to find his daughter. He knew they were right. And Dare would rip
him a new one when she got back if he continued to threaten the safety of the
others by not moving all resources to finding the traitor.

“Reven, can we put two of your best
on your suggestion?” He asked Reven, but also looked to the High Councilor for
approval as well.

At Ivint’s nod, Reven replied. “Of
course, we’ll get on it right away.” Reven programmed orders into his comm and
sent Niklosi and Simya on their new task. Since they had participated in the
separate searches for Dare and Balduen, they were already familiar with their
targets and would be able to gather information quicker.

“What are the suggestions for
catching this son of a bitch?” Banatar asked the room.

At Ivint’s nod, Lagor pulled out
his comm and began to brief the room.

“We modified some of our scanners
to detect the planet’s technology devices and were able to uncover three remote
listening devices. All of them were located here.” Lagor projected the
locations on the wall of the conference room.

“As you can see this conference
room, the one on level two and the dining room were the affected areas. We
neutralized the devices, but left them in their locations so that we could
monitor if someone came back to check on them. So far, we’ve not been able to
catch anyone coming to see why they are no longer working.”

“We set up a tech shield utilizing
the existing grids set up by Risk and his team and amplified the signal. This
would have kept anyone from transmitting anything in or out of the compound
without prior clearance. We’ve been randomly changing the code every twelve
hours, but we’ve had no unauthorized communications intercepted.” Lagor set
down his comm and waited for questions, when there wasn't any Reven began his
briefing.

“Since the Valendran teams took
over base operations on our arrival, we’ve expanded the perimeter and searched
every part of the base with no clues as to who the traitor may be. We’ve
searched the belongings of Julou and his crew and have found nothing. We’ve had
every person under constant observation and still not found any suspicious
behavior.”

“So we’ve gotten nowhere on finding
him?” Banatar asked with disbelief, no one could hide that well.

“I wouldn’t say that. Whoever it is
took a big risk getting the information to someone about Jax’s raid the other
night. We’re going through the data again to see if there is something we
missed the first time. And the devices Lagor and Risk found were high end
technology on this planet. So whoever it is, they are using what’s available
here and nothing from the Relians.” Reven added. He was also surprised at the
lack of information they had on the traitor; which was frustratingly little. He
had expected he would be in custody by now.

“Father, we’re tracing the purchase
of the devices to see if we can find out who originally bought them, so we can
work backward from there. But right now we really have nothing to go on. Other
than it started with the attempt on the High Councilor’s life.” Risk stated the
obvious and echoed the concerns of some of the others on the base. They knew
that they didn’t have a traitor before the Valendrans had arrived with Julou
and his crew.

“I understand that we have brought
the traitor here. The problem is trying to uncover who it is and who they are
working with. I honestly didn’t expect the number of humans working with the
Relians making it more difficult to find the enemy. Do they not realize the
danger they place their world in by doing so?” Ivint shook his head in
disbelief.

“We had thought for a time that the
humans helping them were aberrations. Then we thought that the Relians had been
successful at breeding with the humans, and that was their offspring. But we’ve
studied the ones we’ve captured, and we’ve found there are some who seem to
have been born without a soul.”

“They have no conscience about the
destruction and death they create and seem to be motivated only by greed and
power. Which is why we’ve found so many embedded in the world governments and
religions. The congresswoman from California and the senator from Nevada, to
name just a few here, have been working with the Relians to destroy this
country and the people for years.”

“We’ve barely made a dent in the
operations they have going on here and worldwide, as you can see by the state
of world affairs.” Banatar had been fighting the rapid incursion of the Relians
influence on the planet to almost no avail for over a millennia. He had hopes
that with the Valendran’s here that they’d be able to make more progress
releasing the people from their grasp. But so far they weren't even able to
find one traitor in their midst and his precious Dare.

“If we’ve checked Julou’s crew,
then that would only leave Jess or one of the other girls.” Randor voiced the
one thing no one was saying out loud.

“If you think for one minute, one
of the girls is involved you are dead wrong! We’ve proven our loyalty time and
again, sometimes with our lives. And to name Jess? Have you gone mad? Did any
of you see her when you ‘rescued’ her? We heard all about her condition from
the med techs; she was barely alive, and you think she’s involved?” Jax’s voice
was rising with her anger with every word she spoke. How dare he even suspect
Jess or one of them!

“Jax, calm yourself. No one is
accusing you or Jess; he was just stating the obvious. Lagor and Risk is there
a possibility that something could have been implanted in someone? Something
that wouldn’t be detected by normal means and could be easily implanted without
detection? A new Relian technology not currently in our databases?” Ivint asked
the two engineers.

Lagor and Risk looked thoughtful
for a moment before nodding their heads. “Yes Sir, it is possible. We’d have to
look for a range of technologies for something like that and figure out a way
to scan everyone.” Risk offered, nodding at Lagor that it was something they
could do.

“We’ll need to get with Amun and
reconfigure one of his scanners…” Lagor began before Banatar interrupted.

“I think we need to do this with as
few being aware of it as possible. And that’s not an accusation towards anyone,
but if only the people in this room know about it, then I’d feel better.”

“I agree. Get a med scanner from
supply and adjust the manifest so that no one will realize it's missing. I want
no one outside of this room to know what you’re modifying and why. In fact,
from this day forward, I want no one even to speak about our search for the
traitor. If anyone asks you’ve been reassigned and haven’t heard anything more
about it. Is that clear?” Ivint ordered. Like Banatar, he thought the less who
knew of their continued search and future actions, the better it would be.

Ivint waited until he heard their
affirmative replies before continuing. “Can the scanner be ready in a week?”

“I honestly don’t know Sir. We’d
need to open one up and look at it before I could guarantee it.” Lagor said
honestly. He wasn’t familiar enough with the technology on the planet yet to
know what it was going to take to make it work.

“Sir, I have no doubt that we can.
What my friend here keeps forgetting is that the tech on the planet is so antiquated
that we just need to program them to look for artifacts.” Risk cleared his
throat when no one even cracked a smile at his joke and continued.

“What I mean is, I’ve been working
with the tech on this planet since birth, and I’ve been learning yours from
Lagor since he got here. I think between the two of us; we can have it
operational in a week. Sir.”

“What’s happening in a week Ivint?”
Banatar asked him curiously.

“We’re going to have a mating
celebration and set a trap for our traitor.” Ivint said to the surprise of
everyone in the room.

“Who has mated?” Risk asked,
wondering why Jax was fuming. He could feel the anger coming off of her in
waves.

“He's talking about Jess and Amun.
He wants to use her as bait! Bait! After everything she’s been through! What if
something goes wrong? Did you think about that?” Jax wanted to strangle Ivint
with her bare hands; she didn’t give a damn if he was supposed to be their
leader. What the hell was wrong with these people?

“Jax, stand down now and sit back
down.”

It took a second for Banatar’s
harshly spoken words to penetrate the anger clouding her mind. Out of respect
for Banatar, she did as ordered and sat back down. However, she was far from
done fighting this battle.

Ivint studied Jaxson Adronatof with
respect. By all reports, she was the finest warrior among the women. Her battle
tactics, although not conventional, had saved her and her team countless times,
including the other night when they were ambushed.

Every member of the team that
night, his men included had all spoken of how she’d almost lost her leg saving
one of the other girls under heavy fire. Even though she was gravely injured
she maintained command and got herself and her team back safely. She was
fiercely protective and loyal, which was why she was in this meeting. He had no
doubt that she was not the traitor, but he wanted her unique ideas on how to
capture him.

He just needed to find a way to
calm the tiny woman’s suspicions first. He studied the movements of her small
body; the tenseness in her muscles like she was ready to battle at a moment’s
notice; the angry glint in her large black eyes.

“Jax, I have no intention of
allowing Jess or anyone else to be harmed. My thought was to have everyone in
the same room so that we could scan everyone when they walked in. Otherwise,
it’s very difficult to get everyone in the same place at one time and scanning
could take weeks.”

“I think that if Kalai T’Alq was
angry over us taking Cari and her mating to Scaden, then he’s got to be really
furious that not only is Jess still alive and well, but she is Amun’s mate. And
you know that if the traitor caused your ambush, then he has relayed the
information about Jess and the children to them as well.” 

“She’s in more danger every minute
that traitor is still wandering around, then if we go on the offensive to try
to capture him. Don’t you agree?” Ivint had no reason to have to explain
anything to her; he was the High Councilor, and his word was the law to his
people. However, he respected Jax and felt it would be better to help her
understand his motivation and learn to trust him than to hammer her with
orders.

He studied her again while she
thought about what he’d said. Her beautiful face was so expressive he could see
the distrust flit across it along with a grudging respect. He wasn’t sure why
she seemed so angry at him and his people, but he really wanted to find out.

“Yes, I agree that at this point we
need to go on the offensive to try to catch him. But there are many ways to do
so without using Jess as bait!” Her black eyes flashed with anger as she fairly
spat out the last sentence. Her patience with these Valendrans was wearing
thinner by the second, and she was coming damn close to shooting that idiot
Reven, who kept staring at her.

“I agree, which is precisely why I
wanted you here. I believe it has become glaringly obvious that we are at a
major disadvantage on this planet. We are unfamiliar with the people, the
battle tactics, customs and even the full report of events since our outpost
crew crashed on the planet We are struggling to catch up on what is happening
on the planet and outside the planet right now.”

“I wouldn’t be much of a leader if
I didn’t recognize the same qualities in the people around me. You are not only
familiar with the planet, but your battle tactics are unique and well planned.
Your team trusts and respects you, including my own men who have gone out with
you.”

“I want you and only a handful of
your team to work closely with Reven and his team to develop a plan to catch this
traitor.” Ivint put his hand up to stop her from speaking when she started to
interrupt him.

“Reven and his team will defer to
your judgment and experience and will only interfere if they fully believe your
plan will get people injured unnecessarily. You will have the full command of
this mission and any technology and assistance you need will be at your
disposal.”

“The only thing I request is that
you do not tell anyone outside of this room and your teams what it is that we
do. Not your roommate, not Jess… no one. Agreed?”

Ivint was taking a major chance on
this angry woman, but he was at a point where they had no more options and the
risks to the people on this base were increasing every day that the traitor was
still among them. Reven and Banatar had agreed that Jax would be the perfect
option to head this; he only hoped it was the right decision.

“Agreed. Now let’s get started.
I’ve been thinking about this since you arrived, and we need to try a different
approach.” Jax stood up and walked confidently to the white board, grabbed a
marker and began explaining her idea on how to capture the traitor.

Chapter
Thirteen

Jess sat down heavily onto the
bench of the picnic table across from Maggie and let out a sigh of relief. The
last few days had been much more physically draining than she’d ever expected.
Since that first night with Amun, they hadn’t been able to keep their hands off
of one, another and the additional activity was taking its toll on her new
legs.

She smiled at the memory of how
much of an effort it took to make love against the wall. Even if Amun had born
most of the weight, it had still taken much more muscle strength than she’d
expected to participate. However, it was so worth it! Everything they had done
together the last few days had been more than worth the pain she is in right
now. The deep soreness making her bones ache with every breath couldn’t begin
to penetrate the bubble of happiness she felt.

“Are you ok?” Jess brought herself
out of her thoughts at the feel of Maggie’s hand on her own and her concerned
question.

“Yeah, I’m ok.” Jess lied, unsure
how to talk to Maggie about what had been going on with Amun the last few days.

“I know you’re lying. You look like
you’re in pain. Is it female from your recent activities or elsewhere?” Maggie
cut right to the chase, already in her doctor mode the moment she noticed that
Jess wasn’t walking right.

“Maggie! Shhh… everyone doesn’t
need to hear you!” Jess blushed deeply at Maggie’s question and looked around
to make sure none of the women or children at the playground had heard.

“No one can hear me. Now tell me
what’s wrong.” Maggie insisted pulling out the scanner that Amun had given her.

“Put that thing away or someone
will think I’m hurt!” Jess warned looking around again to make sure no one was
paying attention.

She watched a couple of the other
women, including Sarex  engrossed with chasing the kids around the playground,
and through the tubes while Tarvok stood off to the side throwing frustrated
glances at Maggie. Jess couldn’t help but laugh at his obvious discomfort.

“I see you’re still keeping Tarvok
at arm's distance.”

“Don’t get me started on that man!
Now tell me what’s wrong, so we can get it fixed before Amun finds out.” Maggie
said to distract Jess from talking about that odious jerk. She did not want to
waste her thoughts on him, even though he was all she ever thought about.

Jess was a little surprised at how
observant Maggie was. Knowing Amun he’d stop touching her, stop loving her like
he was in order to help her heal and prevent her from hurting. She didn’t know
how to tell him that every moment they’d spent together in the last few days
had done more to heal her inside than anything else ever could. For the first
time in her life, she had hope for the future, for a future with him and
Lily.   

“My legs are hurting really bad. I
think it’s just the extra… activity. But it’s getting hard to walk with the
pain.” Jess whispered so quietly that Maggie almost didn’t hear her.

“Honey, I’m surprised you can walk
at all. Oh damn, I said that out loud didn’t I? I’m sorry. With the heat coming
off you two for the last three days, there isn’t a person here that doesn’t
know how much your relationship with Amun has changed. And you shouldn’t be
embarrassed either; everyone is truly happy for you Jess. You deserve this, and
he’s a good man; we couldn’t have picked a better one for you.”

Maggie smiled at Jess as the
younger woman blushed in varying shades of red. While she was distracted with
her embarrassment, Maggie went ahead and quickly scanned her body to find the
problem with her legs.

“You have some deep bruising, which
is what I’m sure you were thinking it was.” Maggie went ahead and programmed
the correct medications into the medibands Amun insisted Jess keep around her
wrists until her organs were fully assimilated, and rejection was no longer a
danger.

“Thank you Maggie, I feel better
already.” Jess said with a relieved sigh as her muscles relaxed and began
repairing themselves rapidly. She smiled as she thought that now Amun would
never have to know that she’d ever been in pain at all.

“So other than your legs, are you
doing ok?” Maggie asked with genuine concern. With everything Jess had been
through, she, and Cari was more than a little worried about how well she’d be
able to handle intimacy.

“I’m doing wonderful and I couldn’t
be happier. It all seems so unreal though, like it’s all a dream, and I get
afraid sometimes that I’ll wake up and be back there in that camp again. I know
it’s stupid to think that.” Jess was a little embarrassed and tried to hide the
fact that she hadn’t intended to say so much.

“Honey, I would be surprised if you
didn’t have thoughts like that. Anyone would that had been through what you
have. You have to give yourself some time to adjust and heal and not just on
the outside; it’s only been a few months. Every time you have those thoughts,
try to think about Amun and Lily, and how much they love you.”

Since Maggie and Tarvok were
helping them choose the adoptive parents for the children Jess and Amun had
gone to them first to ask about adopting Lily. Luckily, they’d been able to put
their personal animosity towards each other aside long enough to agree that
Lily would be best placed with Jess and Amun. Maggie sent another scathing
glare at the infuriating man before reaching out to give Jess’ hand a
reassuring squeeze.

“I know I’m being stupid. I
shouldn’t have said anything.” Jess hated the way she sounded so weak and
pathetic for complaining.

He leaned down and gave her a
gentle kiss, then took out his own scanner and began redoing the scans to
assure himself that she was alright.

“Don’t bother blaming Tarvok. I had
all scanners programmed to let me know the moment Jess’s cell signature came
up, so I’d know where and how she was injured. He never said a word to me
Maggie.” Amun knew by the angry look she’d thrown at Tarvok that she’d blame
him for telling Amun that Jess was hurt. She was already giving the poor man a
hard enough time from what he could see, and he wasn’t going to let her use
this as an excuse to build more walls between them.

“Amun, I’m fine. I feel much better
already. There’s no need for you to worry so much. Did you get a chance to talk
to the High Councilor?” Jess hoped that Amun had talked to Ivint before running
down here to her; the man was always in meetings of some kind and was rarely
seen.

“We don’t need a party…” Jess
really didn’t want so much attention. She still had a hard time being in a
crowd of people; even the other women overwhelmed her sometimes. In her mind,
she knew that they cared for her very much, but she couldn’t help but feel a
deep embarrassment that they all knew what had happened to her. And being
around so many people made her feel too crowded, the constant touching and
hugs… Maggie was right she still needed to heal. On the inside. Maybe a party
is what she needed to face some of her fears head on.

“We’re having a party? Really?
When? What for?” Jess smiled; she should have expected Lily to hear the word
party.

“Amun and Jess are getting…
married. So we’re going to celebrate that.” Maggie told the little girl as she
scooped her up into her lap for a cuddle.

“Really?” Lily asked Amun and Jess;
her expression giving them no clue about how she felt about the news.

“Yes it’s true. We will be getting
married at the end of the week. What do you think about that?” Amun hugged Jess
to him as he waited anxiously for Lily’s response. It was important to, he and
Jess that Lily accepted them as a couple since they hoped to adopt her now that
Ivint and Banatar have given their blessing.

“I think it’s about time!” Lily
jumped up and gave a quick hug to Jess and Amun before running back to the
playground screaming, “Amun and Jess are getting married, and we’re going to
have a party!!!"

Within moments, they were
surrounded by children and adults alike with questions being thrown at them so
fast they couldn’t keep up with them. At the sound of Tarvok’s sharp whistle
everyone in the room immediately quieted and looked at him curiously, while
Maggie gave him her best glare.

“How about everyone ask your
questions one at a time so that they can answer?” He suggested and immediately
Lily raised her hand.

The moment Tarvok nodded at her to ask
her question Lily said quickly, “When are you getting married? Can I have a new
dress for it?” The other little girls immediately started asking for new
dresses too. Amun held up his hand while Tarvok whistled to calm everyone down
again.

“We’re getting married this
Saturday in the dining hall. The party will begin right after that. Yes,
everyone can have a new dress. Maggie, Jess, Tarvok and I will make sure you
are all dressed and ready and will take you to the dining hall with us.” Amun
stated thinking that would have answered all of their questions. He was so
wrong.

“But its bad luck to see the bride
on her wedding day.”

“Who will help Jess get ready?”

“Can I be a flower girl?”

“Can we stay up late?”

“Can we have pizza?”

Amun and Tarvok exchanged frustrated
looks while Jess, Maggie and the other women just laughed at the children.

“How about we talk to the kids
while you, and Tarvok take Justin for a walk?” Sarex suggested to the relief of
Justin and the men.

“Let’s go little man!” Tarvok
grabbed Justin’s outstretched hand and pulled him up and out of the crowd of
children and into his arms. He didn’t miss Maggie’s heated looks at his body as
he did it either. He was barely able to keep the smile from his face until he
turned his back to leave the room. He turned back around before he reached the
door and caught her staring at his backside as he walked away.

The smile broke out on his face
again before he could stop it, and he laughed as Maggie turned a deep red and
turned her face away.

“You do realize that you are only
encouraging her to dislike you and keep you away?” Amun asked him, shaking his
head at his friend’s actions.

“Risk told me that on this world,
the women play a courtship game called ‘hard to get’. They pretend like they
don’t like you so that they can make you act like an idiot to win their hearts.
He said the only way to avoid that is to reverse it on them. The longer you
irritate them and pretend like you don’t care that they pretend not to like
you, the more they want you.” Tarvok said confidently as he led the way to the
dining hall.

“What? That makes no sense at all.
You realize that I never had to do anything like that to win Jess? And I can
assure you that Scaden didn’t have that problem with Cari either. What makes
you think that she’s playing this game?” Amun asked, stunned that a man so
smart would actually believe something that ridiculous.

“Because she’s still angry that I
didn’t tell her that I thought she was my mate right away. And we both know
that is nothing to be mad about, so she must be playing this courting game.”

Amun thought he had a really good
point; protecting your mate was a warrior’s duty, she couldn’t be angry over
his duty. He shook his head at what a stupid game she must be playing and knew
that this wasn’t going to go smoothly at all for either of them.

*****

“We need to plan a proper ceremony.
We can’t have all of our traditions being brushed aside for the Valendran ones.
Some of us have always dreamed of wearing a white gown and walking down the
aisle.” Maggie protested when the odious jerk finally left the room. She hated
that he’d caught her staring at him as he left; all it did was expand his
already over large ego.

“The man being in awe of your
beauty as, he sees you for the first time in your gown, with your hair and
make-up perfectly done is too priceless to skip honey.” Sarex said with a sigh,
as if she’d also thought about it before.

“I never really thought about it so
it doesn’t bother me at all.” Jess told the two women honestly. Other than old
fairy tales, her mother used to tell her when she was little, Jess had never
really heard about marriage before she was rescued and certainly never
considered it ever happening to her until Amun had asked her officially to join
with him. He didn’t want them to be like Scaden and Cari, who still hadn’t
found the time to be formally joined in the Valendran tradition, which he had
discovered was much like the earth traditions.

The only reason she cared about the
ceremony at all was because it was necessary to ensure she and Amun could adopt
Lily, and because it meant a lot to Amun. She knew she loved Amun, and he loved
her, which was enough for her. She didn’t even know what their ceremony
entailed.

“You mean you’re going to ruin this
for us girls and not let us dress you up and surprise Amun?” Maggie teased.

“Of course not, but we’re really
limited on our options aren’t we?” Jess said with a shrug hoping that would
discourage them while Maggie and Sarex shared a smile over Jess’s head. 

“You’ll be amazed at what we can
pull off.” Sarex told her confidently as she typed something in on her comm.