Character: Jason Bates

Jason Bates is Brett Bates’ older brother and Dianne Bates’ son. He’s one of the young inhabitants of ORCA, an ultra-modern underwater research colony close to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, some miles off the coast. After the divorce from her husband Paul, Dianne gets a contract to work on ORCA for the upcoming six months. So Jason and his brother are forced to accompany their scientist mother who wants to continue her whale studies there. In the beginning Jason feels totally lost in his forced, new underwater home ORCA, but with the time he seems to get used to it. Some weeks after his arrival on ORCA, Jason encounters with Neri [OCEAN GIRL] for the first time. In the course of time he becomes Neri’s closest friend. Jason supports her all along: Is it freeing Jali from the claws of UBRI, the search for Neri’s long-lost sister Mera, to compose the almighty “Synchronium” or to stand by her side when she has to reunite the people of the Ocean Planet with the people of Earth. In his efforts to help Neri on her quest, Jason leads his ORCA friends through dangerous situations and exiting adventures. At the age of 16, Jason joins ORCAs cadet school and later gets the status of an ORCA Officer. During the time they know each other Jason’s relationship to Neri becomes stronger and deeper. During the years Jason seemed to realize that Neri is more for him than just a friend, as well as Jason seems to become more for Neri, too. There are lots of highly emotional moments between them during the years, but Jason never really told Neri what he feels for her. Until the day he has to return her dead body to the underwater pyramid of the ancients, to bring her home, to thank her for the years he had the luck to know her, to see her smile and for a last farewell.. “I love you, Neri. Always.” And to the end it finally happens what was obvious since the day they first met.