Three Square Meals Ch. 111

"What about before that?" he asked, his curiosity piqued.

"My mom was a whore working for Madame Trixie. When girls fuck for a living, sometimes accidents happen and they get knocked up... and sometimes it's not an accident," she replied with a shrug. "I grew up there, same as Perl. It wasn't a bad childhood; Madame Trixie fed us, kept us clean, and made sure we stayed out of trouble."

Thinking back to his hard times as a kid on the streets, he nodded. "That sounds alright. Nice of her to look out for you like that."

Kelli looked at him with sadness in her eyes. "She did it so we'd be worth more when she finally put us to work. Some guys pay a lot of credits to pop a girl's cherry..."

"Jesus..." Tony muttered, shaking his head.

"I grew up around people fucking all day. I've never known anything different," she said with a resigned shrug. "I guess it could've been worse... at least the House of Pleasure was a high-end cathouse."

He stroked her back, feeling a surge of sympathy for the young woman. The thought of Kelli being groomed from birth to be a high-class whore filled him with a surprising sense of outrage. He'd seen and done some pretty messed up shit in his time, but that was taking things to a whole new level of cold-blooded cynicism.

"Tony... look!" Kelli gasped, pointing towards the open plaza ahead.

They were nearing the entrance to the starport and there'd obviously been an attempt made by the security teams to repel the Kirrix when they invaded. The buildings here were sprayed with impact craters from bullet holes and neutron bolts, with several battered armoured cars left abandoned in the street. It looked like the defenders had used grenades to try to stop the assault, with the entrance to the starport partially demolished by explosives.

As he looked around, Tony's heart sank. "Ah, for fuck's sake..."

"What's the matter?" she asked, alarmed by his despondent tone.

He pointed across the street to a row of burned-out shops, the symbol of a caduceus just about visible on the blackened shell of one of the buildings. "That was the medical centre..."

"Oh, Tony... no..." Kelli whispered, staring in horror at the incinerated facility. Her eyes welled up as her hopes were dashed. "What are we going to do?! Perl... we can't save her!"

Tony tried to ignore the heartbreaking sound of Kelli weeping and rubbed his head. "Think dammit..." he muttered, his brow furrowed in concentration. He suddenly jerked his head up and blurted out, "The clinic!"

Kelli looked at him mournfully, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I don't understand? It burned up..."

"No, that was the medical centre! There's a smaller place... a clinic over in the red-light district!"

The brunette stared at him, her face lighting up with hope. "You reckon they've got what we need to save Perl?"

Tony nodded and gave her a self-conscious grin. "I went there years ago after I screwed this really nasty bitch; felt like I was pissin' razor blades... Anyway, they'll have antibiotics and shit there for sure!"

She managed a choked laugh and wiped her eyes. "Alright, how do we get there from here?"

He pointed to a tunnel off to the right. "Head that way... you can't miss it."

***

Admiral Nathan Zelig strode onto the Bridge of the battleship Porphyrion and took his seat at the Command Chair. "Status report, Commodore Mikhailov," he ordered, as he initialised the holographic fleet interface.

"Kirrix fleet sighted, Admiral. Their current position and flight vector are exactly as predicted!" Mikhailov replied, sounding quite astonished. "On our current intercept course, there's no possible way they can avoid an interdiction."

"Excellent, thank you." Zelig nodded as he examined his fleet's formation. Ten battleships formed the vanguard, supported by a phalanx of fifty cruisers, four heavy carriers, and a host of destroyers. He tapped on the icon to initiate a fleet-wide broadcast. "Attention all hands, this is Admiral Zelig. Be advised that we will be engaging the Kirrix fleet imminently. Focus fire on the drone carriers and avoid hitting the hive ships at all costs... there's at least 50,000 Tasmaris Prime citizens held aboard those vessels. Once the escorts are down, we'll cripple the hive ships and rescue the colonists."

The holographic display lit up with green icons as the captains of each ship acknowledged his orders.

His fingers swept over the fleet interface, selecting squadrons of cruisers on the flanks of his formations. He dragged them out into an arc on both sides of the display, forming a broad semi-circle. "Adjust course to leave hyper-warp at those coordinates," he instructed the highlighted cruisers. "Drop Interdiction beacons then protect them from strike craft assault."

He saw his orders acknowledged in a flurry of green and he turned back to the Sector Map to watch the Kirrix fleet. The invaders were following a very safe course that gave adjacent systems a wide berth, so as to avoid the potentially hazardous effect of any gravity wells. That was quite unlike the flight path his fleet had been following, with Alyssa's course bringing them perilously close to the outer edge of each system, taking advantage of the gravitational forces to slingshot them to startlingly fast hyper-warp speeds.

His ships cruised around the periphery of the Sigma Octantis system, then raced towards the slower moving Kirrix forces. They appeared as a mass of sensor contacts on the long-range sensors, still too far away to discern the exact composition of their fleet. The swarm of red circles attempted to alter course to evade their pursuers, but the Terran forces were attacking from directly in front and the rate at which they were closing left the Kirrix no time to escape.

The minutes ticked down as his fleet charged towards the Kirrix, looking like a pod of dolphins hunting a shoal of herring. There was a momentary lurch and the Porphyrion dropped out of hyper-warp, in the centre of a 3-4-3 wall formation with the rest of the battleships. Appearing behind them in a broad crescent were the cruiser squadrons, slightly set back from the much larger capital ships, to let them take the brunt of the incoming fire. Zelig watched the cruisers on the outer edge of the formation deploy the interdiction beacons, icons glowing orange on the Tactical Map to alert him that they were primed and ready.

He glanced at the Kirrix fleet who were barrelling headlong into their trap. "Activate interdictors!" he ordered over the fleet interface.

The icons turned red as the gravity wells were activated, dragging the entire Kirrix fleet out of hyperwarp as their collision alert fail-safes were triggered. Zelig's expression tightened as he saw the sheer size of the force opposing him. Fourteen drone carriers were arrayed in a V-shaped formation around a similar number of hive ships in the centre. Unfortunately for the Kirrix, that meant that their three leading vessels were squaring off against all ten Terran battleships.

"All ships open fire!" Zelig called out, gripping the armrests of his Command Chair.

A storm of beams lashed out, hitting the trio of drone carriers as they desperately tried to deploy their squadrons of strike craft. Their shields rippled violently as they were blasted by scores of bright orange columns, quickly joined by a blistering salvo of beams from the cruisers. The defensive fields survived for a couple of seconds before flickering out, unable to withstand any more punishment.

Zelig stared intently at the Tactical Map, watching as his fleet seemed to blaze into life, fiery blasts from the Heavy Cannons launching a barrage of high-explosive shells at the Kirrix carriers. They streaked across the gap between the forces and slammed into ochre armoured plates, the rounds punching through the armour and detonating inside the ugly insectoid vessels. The drone carriers seem to balloon outwards under that onslaught, a rippling series of explosions obliterating the hull plating and leaving the huge craft horribly vulnerable.

The fusillade of shells was relentless, the trio of Kirrix capital ships surrounded in a dense cloud of debris from their pulverised hulls. By the time the Terran Beam Lasers had cooled and were ready to fire again, the enemy vessels had been almost completely denuded of armour, the surface of their ships now a hideous patchwork of blackened craters. The second energy weapon fusillade was devastating, amber beams coring glowing holes through the exposed superstructure and depressurising deck after deck. Kirrix crew were hurled out of those rents in the hull, while internal explosions rocked each vessel.

With the staggering weight of fire pounding into those ships, it was inevitable that shells and beams would hit vulnerable areas. A shell penetrated deep inside the central carrier, the subsequent detonation making the vessel shudder as if in horror, before the power core ruptured and ripped the vessel apart in a thunderous explosion. The blast enveloped the launching waves of drone fighters, immolating them in the fiery supernova and leaving no survivors.

Zelig watched the other two lead carriers meet similar ignoble fates, blown to pieces by the vengeful wrath of the Terran forces. He double-tapped the next drone carrier in the formation, selecting it as a target for his wall of battleships. "Missile strike on my target!"

The Porphyrion's launching tubes along the spine of the battleships swung about, dozens of open barrels aiming at the distant Kirrix capital ship. Missiles screamed out of their tubes, trailing billowing plumes as they joined the vast swarm of ordnance descending on the targeted carrier. The doomed ship opened up with its defence grid of neutron guns, sending a hail of green bolts at the incoming missiles and blasting dozens of them as they corkscrewed closer. However, there was no way it could bring down a missile strike of that magnitude and hundreds more streaked unopposed through the Kirrix shields.

The bow of the carrier was obscured from sight by rippling blasts, as missile after missile struck the hull, punching ever deeper inside. By the time the onslaught abated, the front half of the carrier had been completely obliterated, 1600 metres of ochre hull reduced to little more than a charred hulk. Power regulators had all been destroyed, rendering the lifeless ship completely inert.

Zelig nodded with satisfaction as the fourth Kirrix drone carrier was eliminated, all without the Terran forces losing a single ship. With ten enemy capital ships remaining, they now matched the number of Terran battleships, greatly evening the odds for the upcoming battle. He would have been loathe to initiate a major engagement if that was all the ships he had at his disposal, but Zelig also had a considerable force of cruisers to bring to bear, while the Kirrix hive ships were now attempting to flee the battle.

He watched as waves of rapier fighters moved into position in the Terran lines, awaiting the incoming swarms of drone craft under the protective eye of the fleet's defence grid gunners. When the tiny Kirrix fighters were met by the opening bursts of Gatling Laser fire, the rapiers rushed to intercept them, their engines burning bright as they closed the distance

"Forward at half-speed," Zelig ordered the rest of his fleet. "Fire at will!"

***

John clicked the vambrace into place and looked Alyssa in the eye. "Alright, all set."

She pressed the button in her gauntlet and there was a rapid series of clicks as the armour locked into place. "Thanks for the help. Putting that on by myself would have been a huge pain in the ass."

"Maybe just use one of the equipping frames next time?" he suggested with a smile, leaning in to give her a kiss.

Alyssa returned it then nodded. "We'll have to get a couple installed in the Raptor's armoury. I'll have a chat with Sparks and ask her to set them up."

They left the cabin together and walked through to the Raptor's cockpit.

"Faye?" John called out, knowing she'd be watching them.

"Hey!" she replied a second later, appearing in a purple flash.

He greeted her with a smile. "How's the boarding operation going?"

"We've docked with the ninth hive ship!" she cheerfully replied. "Irillith vented the crew and Sakura just executed the Hive Lord, so the girls have started bringing the prisoners aboard the Invictus."

"How many colonists so far?" he asked, nodding his approval.

"36,548," she replied without a moment's pause. "Approximately 60% are infested with Kirrix eggs, so assuming similar numbers from the last three hive ships, it'll take us a full day to treat them all."

John hesitated, a shadow falling across his face. "I assume you heard my conversation with Admiral Zelig?"

Faye nodded, looking up at him with her big luminous eyes. "I'll do whatever I can to stop that happening here, I promise."

"Any idea how many of them lost children?" he asked quietly.

Faye's expression was sombre as she shook her head. "Many of the colonists are deeply traumatised after being violated by the Kirrix... it's hard to get them to talk. The girls are all occupied with evacuating the colonists from the ninth hive ship, so I've been making gentle enquiries with my avatars." She let out a heavy sigh. "Unfortunately, a lot of those people don't trust me because they suspected I was an AI."

"I'll speak to them after Alyssa's had her chat with the Hive Mind," John said, giving the purple sprite a grateful smile. "It sounds like you're doing a wonderful job, Faye. Thank you."

"Those poor people have suffered so much," she replied, a troubled look in her eyes. "It's the least I can do."

John pulled on his Paragon helmet. "We're all very lucky you're here to help out."

Faye looked touched by his kind words, a shy smile appearing on her face. She waved goodbye, disappearing as he turned and left the cockpit with Alyssa at his side.

The blonde looked at John as they dropped down in the grav-tube, her expression turning pensive from the fleeting thoughts she'd heard during his conversation with Faye. "I slept through your call with Nathan. What happened?"

John opened the door to the forward loading area, his face a grim mask. "He received a report from the medical teams on Carolus III. There was a wave of suicides after we left... mostly parents unable to cope with the grief after losing their children, especially after what the Kirrix did to them."

Alyssa looked up at him in horror, her eyes filling with tears. "Oh God, no..."

John nodded, overcome with a deep sense of melancholy. "I saw how devastated those people were... I wish I could've done something to save them."

"They loved their kids so much... they couldn't face life without them," Alyssa said in a choked voice, looking into his eyes. "Sparks' parents didn't even want her, but those moms and dads actually cared! And they died because of it!"

He knew she wasn't just talking about Dana's parents and he felt a heaviness in his heart. "I know, It's so wrong..."

The tears freely rolling down her cheeks, she sobbed, "Why John? Why's the galaxy so fucking awful to people?!"

"I don't have the answer to that, honey," he said quietly, sharing her sadness as he pulled her into a hug.

She trembled against his chest as she wept, overcome by the dreadful fate of those families... completely wiped out by an uncaring alien race that didn't think twice about ruining countless lives.

John felt her shaking stop and tilted his head to one side, so that he could look at her face. "Are you okay?"

Alyssa met his concerned gaze, her eyes blazing with a fierce white light that had burned away all her tears. "No, I'm not, but I know how I can feel a bit better..."

She pulled away from his embrace and marched down the loading ramp, psychic energy swirling around her clenched fists.

John jogged to catch up and grabbed her arm. "Wait!"

Alyssa whirled around, shocked that he'd brought her righteous warpath to an abrupt end. "What?!"

Long lines of freed colonists were crossing the umbilical from the hive ship to the Invictus and their attention was immediately drawn by the raised voices.

John took one look at all those anxious hollow-eyed stares and nodded his head back into the Raptor. *Come back inside a minute, we need to discuss this first. You need a cool head for your chat with the Hive Mind; you can't just rage your way through that conversation.*

Alyssa glanced at the worried colonists, managed to give them a reassuring smile and a friendly wave, then strode back into the gunship's forward loading area. When she was away from prying eyes, she turned to look at John as he walked in after her. *What's to discuss? They've killed millions of innocent people... I'm not going to let them do it anymore!*

He didn't back down from her indignant glare. *I'm sure you could make them pay for what they've done, but what about the colonists they took from the other border worlds? We worked out the time it'll take for us to hunt down the Kirrix and treat those people... we can't afford to waste days chasing after those fleets as they run for the border.*

*I'll just demand they bring the colonists back!* she exclaimed, the psychic swirls whipping around her hands in a fury.

*But what about the Trankaran prisoners?* he quietly reminded her. *The Kirrix must have captured hundreds of thousands of their citizens by now, are they really going to just let them all go? What are you going to do if they refuse?*

Alyssa paused, some of the tension easing from her posture as she calmed down. *You're right. I was going to threaten to blow up Kirr-Inax, but if they called my bluff I would've been stumped.*

John gave her a grim look. *There's a lot of lives at stake here. I think we need to carefully plan how you approach this conversation.*

She sighed and nodded. *Alright, let's go over our options...*

***

"They're all gone..." Kelli whispered, her voice filled with horror.

Tony propped himself upright, wincing at the shooting pain in his back, and looked around the petite girl to see what had upset her. He realised immediately when he saw they were approaching the red-light district, which was usually the busiest part of Karron. Miners and traders normally congregated here in droves, visiting the dozens of bars and brothels that lined this older part of the cavern complex. But now it was totally deserted, without so much as a soul in sight.

It was the silence that unsettled him the most. There should have been loud music playing in the bars, with whores calling out to inebriated patrons, their bawdy laughter echoing in the streets. But now there was nothing... a deathly quiet had descended on the town.

"They all wouldda run from here days ago," he reminded Kelli, gently patting her on the shoulder.

She nodded, then turned to look at him. "Yeah, I know... but I remember how crazy this place was before. To see it like this... it's freaking me out!"

"Just keep going, babe," he said, nodding down the street with his chin. "The clinic's not far from here..."

Kelli activated the cart again, the tracks resuming their rhythmic clicking as they trundled along the tarmac road. Tony saw Kelli's eyes flick towards a large building set back against the cavern wall, with neon pink silhouettes of naked women posed seductively beside the door. The bright sign illuminating the entrance declared the establishment to be: "Madame Trixie's House of Pleasure".

"Home sweet home," Kelli murmured under her breath, before glancing back self-consciously towards Tony.

He gave the brunette a sympathetic look. "Was your mom still working there?"

Kelli shook her head, eyes misting up. "She died about ten years ago... had a stim addiction that got out of control. Trixie kicked her out when the shakes got too bad..." She swallowed around the lump in her throat. "My mom didn't last long on the street..."