When Jack was thrown into the cell, he found Dave already there. Passed out from blood loss.
And missing a thumb.
"Nine fingers," said Jack, as he stripped off his undershirt and started tearing it into strips to bandage up Dave's hand. "Like I was expecting, back when I first met you. Guess this is how you really lost that thumb."
He guessed the historians had gotten it wrong. Or maybe Dave, when he got old and famous, had woven a story around this event which made him sound more like a hero making a choice that'd change his life, and less like a lovesick and nearly dying ex-chevauchéer.
The bleeding was intensive. Every bandage completely blood-soaked the moment Jack laid it on the injury.
Jack wasn't going to fix this on his own.
"Hey!" Jack shouted through the bars of his cell. "This guy's not gonna be great leverage for whatever you want Seo to do, if he bleeds to death!"
He figured, unless the entire history of humanity was scheduled for a massive rewrite — the lizards would listen to him.
Turns out, he was right.
They stormed the cell, keeping Jack covered by a group of heavily armed thugs. As one of the lizards cauterized and stitched up the wound on Dave's hand.
"Laser scalpel should help with that," Jack offered. "I think you've got some bits of one wired into that bio-scan machine."
They ignored Jack.
Just finished up with Dave, and left.
It was a while before Dave recovered enough to actually regain consciousness. And a miracle that the lizards had known enough of what to do so he could recover.
"Where…?" Dave asked.
Then cried out, with pain, clutching his mutilated hand.
"Cut off a thumb, looks like," said Jack. "You're lucky to be alive."
Dave gritted his teeth against the pain, as he struggled to sit up without jostling the hand too much. "Embedded thumb-corder," he muttered. "They must have picked it up, when I sent…"
He snuck a peek at the hand.
Then looked away.
A part of him still clearly not wanting to accept that all this was really happening.
"Seo…" Dave said, instead. "Did… did they tell you… what happened to…?"
Jack shook his head. "Just that she's far away, and we won't see her again." He leaned against the wall of the cell, eyes fixed on Dave's mutilated hand. "Since they kept you alive, I'm guessing they're using our lives as leverage to make sure she does what they want."
Dave struggled to keep the pain off his face, as the hand throbbed, yet again.
"Bastards," Dave spat.
Jack shrugged. "Don't knock being kept alive," he said. "Death's not all it's cracked up to be." He paused. Then, with a little laugh, added, "Hope I'll get to be around, though, when Seo finds out what happened to you. There'll be no stopping her, then."
Dave couldn't help but crack the hints of a grin at this.
"You seen her in a fight, yet?" Jack asked. "She definitely inherited some Slayer from her mom — no doubt about it. These lizard guys will never know what hit them!"
Dave looked up at Jack.
Solemn.
Serious.
"She won't have to fight," Dave told him. "I'm going to rescue her."
Jack looked at Dave's injured hand. Then at Dave himself — pale and weak from blood loss.
"Sure you are," Jack said. "How about you just lie down for a while, get your strength back, and then… if Seo hasn't already burst in here with everything back under her control… we'll start making plans."
"You don't believe me."
Jack didn't have to answer this.
Dave ventured a look down at his hand. Then cringed, at the sight of it — as if just looking at it made all the pain come flooding back. He squeezed his eyes shut.
"They… tried to stop me…" Dave breathed. "Cut off my thumb. But too late. I'd prepared for this…. Made sure… the message… was already recorded and waiting…"
Jack froze. "Message?"
Dave didn't answer.
But he didn't need to.
"They detected your thumb-corder — because you used it to send a message," Jack realized. "Before they cut it off."
And thinking through everything Jack had had to learn about galactic history, passing all those tests for the Time Agency — Jack could guess what the message said.
Looked like the historians hadn't been as far off as he'd thought, before.
"An explorer, you told Seo," said Jack. "You lying bastard."
Dave wavered. Looked like he was about to pass out, again.
Jack rushed over and grabbed him by the shoulders. "So what's your real 'job'?" Jack demanded. "What chevauchée team are you working for? How much have you told them?"
"It's… the truth," Dave muttered. "In a way. Explorer. 'S what I am." He struggled to keep himself conscious. "Proves you two really are time travelers. You… don't know… what 'explorer' means."
"Let me guess," said Jack. "You're an advanced scout for some chevauchée group. You send back details of all this planet's weapons and defenses. Then send them the signal, so they can invade."
"Not… just… one group," Dave replied.
His voice very weak.
Jack stared at him.
"Yeah, definitely… a time… traveler," Dave said. Closed his eyes. "If… you don't know…"
As his head slumped down.
"Dave!" Jack shouted, slapping his cheeks. "Dave! Wake up! What are you talking about? What did you do?"
No answer.
Jack stepped away.
Having the horrible feeling… that Dave had just done something extremely stupid.
And now — they were all in danger.
"We can control the pets," the Grand Marshal insisted.
"With murders like Madgel's happening at random, all across the globe?" Seo shook her head. "No, this is a fundamental, systematic problem. After all, you're turning the humans into emotional sponges. But that means — any stray emotion from any unlobotomized human, on this planet, and your control over your pets can vanish in an instant."
"We're… working on that," said the Grand Marshal.
"No wonder you Weather Patrollers don't have time to deal with the emotional problems of your own people, anymore!" she said. "You're overwhelmed by trying to contain a problem in the pets that you, yourselves, started!"
"Vedhor isn't the only facility of its kind," the Grand Marshal told her. "We are experimenting. We will find a solution."
"Oh, because your experiments have already worked so well!" Seo said. "You can't catch them all, Grand Marshal! Every so often, you're going to get one or two humans who escape and run away before you can perform surgery. And they don't have the psychic discipline to stop their emotions bleeding through into everyone else."
"We've stepped up our Stray-Removal operations," said the Marshal. "With the right level of technology, we'll be able to scan for the correct heat signatures. We'll get all the mammals."
Seo gave an exasperated sigh. "And I keep telling you, you never will!" she insisted. "What about crooked stray-catchers, who take bribes from vets who want to experiment? Or kind-hearted people, like Madgella? She kept me as a pet, knowing I'd never been to Vedhor. And she had no intention of ever sending me."
The Grand Marshal said nothing.
"There's always the chance that one of your lot decides to take in a stray, for whatever reason, that hasn't had its ability to independently emote surgically removed," Seo told him. "And so long as there's one human mind on this planet that's capable of independent emotions — you don't have full control."
"We'll find a way," the Marshal replied. "Eventually."
"And in the meantime?" Seo asked. The sides of her lips twitching into a half-smile. "You can't keep covering it up forever. One of these days, the public's going to make the same connections I just did."
The Marshal began pacing the room, yet again. "You are forgetting — our planet is no stranger to aliens," the Marshal told her. "We hardly could be, given the mammals amongst us. And we all know there are alien races in the universe that must have… astounding psychic powers."
He turned his head to look at her.
"Astounding enough to manipulate pets into murder," the Marshal added.
Ah.
So that's why they wanted Seo as their scapegoat.
"Dave and Jack are human," Seo muttered to herself. "Of course! Blame them for the murder, and people might guess your secret! But my physiology…"
The Marshal said nothing.
Didn't have to.
"So that's it?" said Seo. "That's your answer? Blame aliens, until you can come up with a better way to cut up these humans' brains?"
"In part," the Marshal replied.
"Because I'll tell you right now — you're not going to solve this problem with surgery," Seo continued. "That'll just make things worse! No, the only way you'll get out of this pickle is to shut down all your little internment camps, treat the humans like intelligent beings, and teach them how to control their emotional…"
She stopped.
Frowned.
"What do you mean, 'in part'?" Seo asked.
"Aliens make useful scapegoats, yes," said the Grand Marshal. "But better intelligence."
"Intelli…?!" Seo started, but stopped herself. As she remembered — they had a recording of everything she'd said at Vedhor. Everything. "So that's why I'm so much more important than the others."
"I said we'd get our answers whether you chose to cooperate or not," the Marshal reminded her. "Physiological scanning revealed that your two friends are adaptations of the mammals on this planet." His tail swished. "It's not just your dissection that could give us vital information."
Seo glared at the Marshal. "Don't you dare…"
"Commander Yxpress was fully prepared to gun your lover down and slice him open," said the Grand Marshal. "But after reading the report of your actions at Vedhor, I thought… there was a better way." He took another step towards her. "You're a clever mammal. You seem to know where the pets came from, and how they function. While it took us years to determine that emotional leakage was the source of our problems — you figured it out in a matter of moments, and took advantage in order to escape from Vedhor."
"And you want me to use everything I know about them, to help you oppress them?" She gave a bitter laugh. "Guess again."
The Marshal's tail swished against the ground.
"Of course, Commander Yxpress would be more than happy to learn he was right all along," said the Grand Marshal, "and begin dissecting your…"
"All right!" Seo shouted. She slumped in her bonds, head dropping back. "All right," she muttered. "You made your point."
She was quiet for a long few moments.
Then, a little wearily, "What do you want to know?"
The Grand Marshal hit an intercom button, and called in some associates. They entered, three armed guards all pointing their guns straight at Seo. As a fourth undid her restraints.
"Let me introduce you to the scientific team working on this problem," the Grand Marshal said, as Seo sat up and massaged her wrists. He walked past her, towards the doors. "I'm sure they'll be very excited to meet you."
Seo slipped off the operating table.
"Just as happy as they'd be to dissect me, if I make one wrong move," she muttered. "I get the picture."
Then looked up, as another lizard burst into the room, and whispered something to the Grand Marshal. The Grand Marshal looked between the messenger, and Seo. Then muttered something to the messenger, and sent him away.
"Take her to the labs," the Grand Marshal instructed his men. "I have to deal with this."
Seo had to work very hard to keep the smile off her face.
Perfect distraction.