Battlefield: Control (Book Two)

Chapter Twenty - Alan

"You present a lot of interesting information. I am both pleased and surprised by all of these recent developments," Sir Oriol said.

Alan had been called into his commander's office shortly after he returned to the ship. They hadn't spoken about his recent progress. There wasn't much to share over the past few weeks. Alan had been busy with Sir Tuliy—Jaes,his name is Jaes—organizing the data they'd received from Dale's meeting with the blue tribe, and from following Bean and Sprout around. The more information he had, the more solid his argument would be. Jaes had insisted Alan make the proposal.

"It makes me happy to hear you are pleased Sir," Alan said.

"I see your roommate is rubbing off on you. It's good you are starting to understand good from evil more thoroughly. I'm sorry to hear your betrothed is an active member of the Basatlavan rebellion." And Alan actually believed Sir Oriol meant it. "Saying something now was the right thing to do. Because of your courage, she may be shown mercy when the time comes to put her to justice for her crimes against Earth as well as our own planet."

"Yes." It was the only thing that felt okay for Alan to say. He didn't want to get deep and emotional with Sir Oriol, or let on that he was hurting in any way.

In fact, he hadn't even wanted to tell his superior about Mondae being involved yet, but Jaes seemed to think it was a good idea to get it out of the way sooner rather than later. There were members on the ship who thought Alan was a traitor because of her.

Alan proved his loyalty by confirming her involvement. He should have felt better knowing he did the right thing, but Alan was still upset.

Why can't I let go of the past?

"Now as for your charges..." Sir Oriol said, and he began to pace around the office.

"What about them?" Alan asked, his body stiffening.

"I am concerned they are not being utilized to their full potential."

"They're new. I didn't want to push them too hard too quickly into dangerous work."

"You've had two months with them. Shouldn't they be fully trained by now?"

Alan nodded. "They are fully trained. But they are also youth, and in their culture—"

"I don't need you to lecture me about their culture. I want you to push them harder. They are to be treated as Alturan soldiers, not Earth children. These recon missions have been useful, but too safe. We took on Earth charges so we could have soldiers who know and understand their battlefield."

"Then you should have thought harder before picking youth." Alan shook his head.

"You've grown soft. You didn't disagree when you took on this task."

"I'm not softer, just realistic of my expectations of them."

"That's also a problem then, because you should be expecting more. I've already spoken with Sir Tuliyogljaes and he agrees they have too much potential to only have them do research. Now, if you do not feel comfortable with leading this group through such tasks, then he is more than willing to step up and lead them along with his current group." Sir Oriol stopped walking and faced Alan, his eyes narrowed and dark.

Is he now? Alan's fists clenched and he couldn't believe he was so stupid to believe that Jaes—no, he's not my friend so he's Sir Tuliy again—didn't have some kind of hidden agenda.

"In one week there will be an initiation mission for all of the Basatlavan charges. Your team will do their part in stopping the mission, and from there I will decide what they are worth to our cause, and whose leadership they should be under," Sir Oriol said firmly.