A/N: thank you so much fior the reviews! they really help and im trying to take suggestions into consideration when writing... im sorry these chapters are so short but my muse is only firing in short bursts at the moment when my mind gets time to relax; i will try to lengthen the capters from now on but enjoy :)

Chapter 19: Plans

Harvey was nervous; he had mixed news for Pietor and he wasn't entirely sure how the erratic and often violent man would react. He still hadn't told him about the strange monitoring devices and now the time had come, fortunately he had good news to soften the impact.

Swiping his hand over the panel that would signal his presence outside the door Harvey stood trying to remain calm, all the while naively hoping that Pietor was busy or not currently in his room. The door slid open and Harvey's breath hitched even as his feet unconsciously carried him into the room.

"You have news for me." It wasn't really a question, Pietor was well aware that Harvey would not bother him unless he had something useful to say, it was one of the reasons the man was still alive;, that and for some reason Pietor liked the guy. It wouldn't stop him killing him if it became necessary but for the time being he was willing to provide his current right-hand man a little leeway should he need it.

Harvey cleared his throat obviously nervous about the news he had to give his boss. "Yes the new intake is remarkably healthy, apart from several minor cases of an apparently common viral strain and some missing limbs they are all fit and we shouldn't have any problem assimilating them into the power system. Although, if I may suggest, perhaps we should wait some time before attempting to place the infants in, as far as we can tell they provide little power and the changeover has to be completed far more regularly."

"I will take it into consideration" Pietor supplied waiting for the next part of what Harvey had to say; it was obvious he was trying to put something off. "What else Harvey?"

Again Harvey paused before continuing, gathering his thoughts. "Ummm, one of the new intake has some strange devices implanted along his spine..." pre-empting Pietor's outburst he hurriedly continued; "I have already verified that they are not transmitting any data and ordered that the ship be taken out of this solar system. Furthermore, after talking with some of the other members of his group it would appear that their plant only has very rudimentary space travel and the implants are biomonitoring devices. The scientists were keen to see if they could be used to determine the stresses the power chamber place on the body so he was placed into the chamber on the last change over, since then power levels have exceeded anything we have ever encountered before and the scientists assure me the data they are currently collecting will be very useful." He handed over the data collected knowing that while Pietor was not likely to understand much of it he would still insist on having copies.

"This is very good work Harvey." Pietor said scanning the documents trying hard to prevent the man from knowing just how pleased he was. "Make sure to utilise the new intake in the upcoming changeovers, these sort of power levels could come in very useful, I see we are already travelling at a much greater rate than what we have done in the past." Looking up he could see that Harvey was still hovering obviously pleased that his boss had not decided to kill him for not informing him of the implants sooner.

"Is there something else?" he asked, curious now to see just how much the man wanted to say.

"We had to travel for months to find a planet with the gene this time; I think it may be time to start looking at a captive breeding program. It would put some of the females out of operation by way of the power chamber but it would ensure that we have a continued population of gene carriers to supply power."

Thinking over the possible implications Pietor paused. After a minute of thinking through the numbers he nodded; "Start making arrangements but wait for my go ahead, I want to discuss this with some of the scientists just to make sure we will not be putting ourselves at a disadvantage. Oh and Harvey, put together a work party from the useless section of the new intake. We are running low on supplies and we will be stopping at the next suitable planet to restock, we may as well make use of the extra workers, make sure they earn any food you are going to give them."

"Of course I will do it right away" Harvey agreed heading for the door relieved to be getting away from his erratic boss while he was still in a good mood.