Three Square Meals Ch. 055

Now it was Edraele's turn to look puzzled and she said, "I didn't realise your entire crew was psychic. It came as quite a shock to find out Alyssa had powers, but all the Terran girls are too? I thought Psychic potential was unheard of amongst your people?"

John shook his head, and said, "They aren't, at least we don't think so. Dana created a psi-detector that reads people's psychic auras, and none of the Terran girls seem to be psychic. Well, except Alyssa of course."

Alyssa looked at Edraele curiously, and asked, "What made you say that, anyway?"

Edraele paused and replied, "I was going to talk about Telepathy later, but non-psychics can't project a telepathic voice."

"Sorry for the confusion. It doesn't happen straight away," Alyssa explained helpfully. "I just meant that once I've created a bond with the girls, then they can talk to me too. Irillith's new, so she can hear me, but we haven't bonded yet, so she hasn't been able to speak to me telepathically."

Now Edraele looked really confused, and said, "I haven't heard that term before. What do you mean by 'created a bond' with the girls?"

Alyssa smiled and said, "I just made up the name, as I wasn't sure what the proper term for it was. As the girls trust me more, they open themselves up to a stronger telepathic connection. It feels lovely; really intimate and special, and seems to increase the flow of psychic energy between us."

Edraele shook her head, as she said soberly, "Progenitor Matriarchs treat their thralls like cattle to be harvested. They don't do anything like that."

John shared a probing look with Alyssa, and asked, "I wonder if the way I connected the Maliri engineers to Edraele is closer to the normal Progenitor way of doing things? If the Progenitors and their Matriarchs never bother to develop the links with their Thralls, I bet that's why they need to enslave so many women to fuel their powers."

Alyssa nodded excitedly, and said, "We'll have to get Rachel to check with the psi-detector tomorrow, and see what the psychic flows are like." She turned to look at Edraele and asked, "Can you sense all of those Maliri engineers now?"

Edraele nodded, and said, "Yes, and my assassins. As I explained before, I can send any of them a telepathic command now, but they can't communicate back via telepathy, as they aren't psychic."

"So what happened with that amazing kiss earlier?" John asked his Maliri Matriarch. "I was feeling exhausted, then after that, I felt raring to go again."

She smiled at him, and replied, "I took a little bit of psychic energy from each of the Maliri who are linked to me, as well as a sizable portion from my own reserves, and used it to rejuvenate you. It's not as efficient as if you had simply reached out to me for the psychic energy to help fuel whatever powers you were using, but the result is the same."

Alyssa nodded, and said to John, "The girls have been getting inexplicably tired when your wounds have healed overnight. Remember when you got stabbed by that Drakkar? I must have somehow instinctively known how to heal you while I was asleep."

Edraele looked reluctant to contradict Alyssa, but she said confidently, "That's not how it works I'm afraid. A Matriarch healing her Progenitor is an Actively controlled ability, you can't just do it Passively."

"Active and Passive? What do you mean by that?" John asked her, picking up on her emphasis on the words.

Edraele pondered this for a while, trying to think of the best way to describe it. She finally replied, "An 'Active' power means you have to direct the ability with you mind, concentrating on it to accomplish something. Spirit Walking is one example, or using telekinesis is another. A 'Passive' power is something that you just do without any conscious thought." She looked at Alyssa and said, "Your telepathic connections with the girls on your crew are Passive powers. Once you've created that connection, a small part of your mind is dedicated to maintaining the link."

Alyssa looked excited as she said, "The Ashanath talked about the same kind of thing. They said that a person has 'compartments' in their mind, and you just allocate a power to a compartment to maintain it. I have an image in my mind of all the girls I'm linked to, and they're tucked away in their own little compartments."

John was thinking of his own super-strength, and he finally asked, "Does that mean my strength is a Passive power? Once I realised how to harness it, I've stayed extremely strong, and I don't have to think about it to use it."

Edraele smiled at him encouragingly, and replied, "Yes, that's it exactly. Passive powers are very efficient, and don't tend to use much psychic energy to maintain. It's the Active ones that can wear you out quickly."

"So I was probably tired from healing Luna, Almari and Ilyana, rather than from using my strength to haul ship weapons about?" he asked, quite fascinated by how these mysterious powers worked.

The Maliri smiled at him gratefully, and said, "Yes, and reversing their surgery was a wonderful thing for you to do. I can feel their emotions over the link between us, but I don't have the words to describe just how strong their feelings of happiness are." She tilted her head to one side, and said, "You changed twenty engineers today too, undoing the Mael'nerak's tampering. That will have taken energy too, which is why you felt so tired this evening. Please let me help you tomorrow though, okay?"

John smiled at her and nodded, while Alyssa looked at him speculatively, and asked, "If you were using so much psychic energy, I wonder why you didn't borrow some from me and the girls?"

"I'm glad I didn't," John replied, giving her a smile. "You had quite enough on your plate already, what with all that psychic shaping."

Edraele looked at Alyssa, and said gently, "You could have borrowed power from them too, to avoid tiring yourself out. Just concentrate on whoever feels like they're full of energy, and reach out to them. They won't feel a thing unless you start to siphon a lot of energy, then they'll start getting tired. A good rest will have them fully recharged again."

"That's handy to know, thanks," Alyssa said with a grateful nod.

John turned to look at Edraele, and asked, "I seem to be getting stronger as time goes on. Do you know why that is?"

She nodded confidently, and said, "As a person gets more confident and practiced with an ability, they get stronger in its use." She paused and tapped a finger on her chin, and said, "I don't know this for sure, but I have a theory why you might be getting stronger."

"I'm all ears," John joked.

Edraele laughed, and traced her finger down her own delicately pointed ear, as she said, "I am too." She then looked more serious as she said, "My theory is that the more girls you add to your group, and the more Alyssa 'bonds' with them, the stronger you become too. It would explain why you're steadily growing in psychic power, and also why Progenitors recruit legions of followers."

He nodded as he mulled over her theory, eventually saying. "That does make a lot of sense." He looked into her eyes, and then asked, "Is Irillith psychic? She hasn't mentioned any powers to us, so I'd started to assume she just didn't have any."

"She should be, she shares my Eldritch bloodline," Edraele confirmed. "My old personality never encouraged her to develop her abilities though."

Alyssa frowned and asked, "How come? Wouldn't another person with Psychic powers be a useful ally?"

"She considered her a threat, and thought that training her or Tashana was too big a risk," Edraele explained sadly.

John reached over, and stroked the Maliri woman's arm comfortingly, then asked, "Would she have the same kind of powers as you?"

Edraele shook her head, replying, "The kind of psychic abilities that manifest for each person depends on their mind, which is unique to each individual. I favour telekinetic attacks and telepathy, but my mother was gifted with pyrokinesis." She shuddered and said, "She particularly enjoyed slowly burning her enemies to death. My old personality's memories of that are quite horrific."

Alyssa looked up at John and said, "Well you've used your super strength a lot, but Irillith said she saw Progenitor-John make your sword go on fire, as well as use telekinesis."

"I saw him use a lot of shadow manipulation," Edraele said with a shudder.

John sighed, and said, "I don't have a clue how to do any of that. After my total lack of success with telepathy, maybe my mind's just not geared to work that way?"

Edraele smiled at him and replied, "My telekinetic powers developed instinctively, but I'd recommend you both practice together when you have some time. Give anything a try. Who knows? Your mind might have a natural inclination towards it." She paused in case they had any questions, but when there were none forthcoming, she asked, "Should I move on to talking about telepathy?"

Alyssa grinned, and exclaimed, "Yeah! That would be great, thanks! I feel like I've learned loads already."

John raised his right hand in a stop gesture, and said, "I think we've probably learned as much as we can about Progenitor connections for the moment, but I just wanted to say one thing before we switch topics."

They both at him attentively, and Alyssa asked, "Go ahead, what is it?"

He looked them both in the eye, and said, "No matter what happens, and I don't care how dire the circumstances, never burn out one of the girls."

Alyssa shook her head, and in a shocked voice she stammered, "You know I'd never do that."

Edraele leaned down and kissed Alyssa's cheek tenderly, then said, "He knows that. He was telling me, not you." She looked him square in the eyes, and said fervently, "I swear, I will never burn out one of the women I'm linked with."

John looked greatly relieved as he reached over Alyssa, and gently stroked Edraele's azure cheek as he said, "Thank you. I couldn't live with myself knowing I'd snuffed some poor girl's life out like that."

As Edraele nodded her understanding, Alyssa looked up at her, and said mischievously, "I think that's enough doom and gloom, you can tell us about telepathy now."

Edraele laughed, and when she darted a look at John and he nodded, she sat up straight, looking down at them both thoughtfully. After making her mind up where to begin, she said, "I think the first thing to cover is the difference between active psychics, and normal people or 'Mundanes' as my mother used to call them. A normal person has no way to project their telepathic voice, and their ability to withstand telepathic intrusion is instinctive, and primarily just through having a strong willpower.

For telepaths, we can establish a psychic link with another telepath, and chat to them in the same way you would if you had opened a comm channel to someone. They hear what you want to tell them, and you hear what they want to say to you."

Alyssa sat up eagerly, if a little awkwardly with the heavy weight around her midriff, and exclaimed, "That must have been how I was chatting to the Bolon on Geniya Station." She thought about that for a moment, then eventually asked, "How about the way I can hear John's inner voice? How does that work?"

Edraele smiled at her, then looked at John, and said, "Active telepaths build a mind-shield, which is a much more robust defence against unwanted mental intrusion than willpower alone. Your mind-shield is extremely strong, but you let us in to hear whatever you're thinking about at the time." She frowned and said, "I was never conscious around Progenitor-John after I became his Matriarch, so I'm afraid I can't tell you if Progenitors normally let their Matriarchs listen to their thoughts."

John looked doubtful, and said, "From the way everyone has described my alter-ego, I don't imagine he would."

Alyssa nodded, and said, "He wasn't really a sharing kind of a guy. He shut me out of his mind constantly."

John reached out to squeeze her hand supportively, and then looked at Edraele and asked, "So what about reading someone's mind, telepath or otherwise?"

"There's probably different ways of doing it," Edraele began, "But there's only one way I know of. I use astral projection to shift into my spirit form, then break through someone's mental defences. Once you've broken through a mind-shield, or overcome a Mundane's willpower, then you can access their mind. At that point, you can use a person's personality framework to guide you around their memories, and basically find out whatever you want to know."

Alyssa looked worried as she asked, "Is that dangerous for the person whose mind you're looking into?"

Edraele pondered this for a moment, and replied, "If it's a skilled telepath doing it, then no. If the telepath is unskilled, then you can accidentally damage your subject's mind if you aren't careful."

Alyssa was about to say something, but she hesitated for a moment, looking at John. When he nodded, she asked, "What about the way your old personality was wiped out by Progenitor-John? Does that tell us anything useful?"

Edraele nodded, saying, "To completely wipe out a person's personality is a difficult thing to do. Progenitor-John as you call him, must be a strong telepath." She glanced at John, and said, "Which makes me think you probably are too, but your mind might be suppressing that ability for some reason."

With a puzzled frown, John asked, "Why would I do that?"

Edraele laughed, and said, "I'm afraid I don't know the reason for that one. It's your mind, so why don't you, tell me?"

He shrugged at her helplessly not having any answers for her, and sensing what John wanted, both women lay down on the bed beside him. They snuggled in against him on either side, as he hugged them both tightly. They lay like that for a little while just thinking over what they had just discussed, and eventually Alyssa smiled across John's broad chest at Edraele.

"I actually feel a bit more positive about the future since you joined us," she said, sounding relieved. "It feels like we've got a bit of a base we can return to now, rather than just roaming the galaxy."

Edraele gave her a brief smile, but she looked more than a little worried as she replied, "Unfortunately, I have a very long list of well-deserved enemies. I'm more concerned that by allying with me, you might have made yourself a target by association."

John stroked her back soothingly and said, "Don't worry, we can take care of ourselves. Alyssa's right though, I know exactly what she means."

Edraele smiled at him, and said, "You can return here whenever you like, and I'll give you any assistance I can."

"Thanks Edraele," he said to her appreciatively.

Alyssa had been speaking with the girls, who had all getting ready for bed on the Invictus, and she was surprised to find out it was nearly midnight. "We better get up, if we're going to head back to the ship," she prompted John gently.

Edraele's face fell, but she tried to cover it immediately, saying, "I really enjoyed spending this evening with you both, thank you for joining me."

Alyssa smiled at her kindly, then glanced up at John and asked, "We can stay here tonight instead if you like? This is going to be Edraele's only chance to sleep next to you for weeks before we can make it back here again."

When John looked down and saw the hopeful look on the Maliri woman's face, he agreed immediately, saying, "That's a lovely idea, as long as Edraele doesn't mind?"

Edraele hugged him tightly, and was absolutely delighted as she said enthusiastically, "That would be awesome, I'd love that so much!" She looked into Alyssa's eyes and said, "Thank you, you're very thoughtful."

Alyssa met Edraele's grateful smile with a warm one of her own, but she sounded suspicious when she spoke telepathically to John, *Edraele's new personality is starting to feel a little familiar.*

He glanced down at her, making eye contact, as he replied defensively, *Hey, give me a break. I've never done this before, and I had to take my inspiration from somewhere.*

Alyssa stifled a laugh, then said, "Irillith's going to come over to give us a status update on everything, as she spoke with all the teams before they called it a night. We better get dressed as she'll be here in a couple of minutes."

They rose from bed, and got dressed quickly, making sure they looked presentable. John paused as he was putting his shirt on, and said, "Hang on, it's Irillith, why do I feel like I'm trying to hide what we've been up to?"

Alyssa looked pointedly at Edraele while raising an eyebrow, and John nodded, saying, "Yeah okay, good point."

They walked into the lounge area in the adjacent room, and had only just sat down when Irillith strolled into the room. John got up from the chair, smiled at her and gave her a welcoming hug which she returned with a wide smile on her face. She greeted Alyssa with a brilliant smile, and then nodded politely to Edraele, looking a little uncomfortable.

Deciding to distract Irillith from Edraele, rather than just send the Maliri Matriarch away, John asked, "So what kind of progress have we made with the Invictus refit after today?"

Irillith looked pleased as she reported, "We made excellent progress, actually. The Raptor has been rearmed and armoured, and is just waiting for the Central Core to be installed. All the Pulse Cannons, and Beam Lasers have been installed in the Invictus topdeck, and the weapons team will split in half and take one flank each tomorrow, working from fore to aft. The Nova Lances are ready, but they need to be installed in the prow. Rachel's team have bored out the Central Core through all the decks in the Invictus, and are ready to install the Central Core as soon as Alyssa shapes it. Finally, Dana has upgraded the Pilot's Station, and Faye's robots have upgraded all the ship's computer systems and subsystems."

"Excellent news," John said with a grin. "How about the girls? Is everyone alright?"

"They miss you, but they said they understand, and you can make it up to them when we depart," Irillith told him, smiling as she recalled Dana's expletive laden version she had edited to remove the profanities.

John smiled at her, then reached out, and tenderly stroked his fingers through her hair. She let out a contented sigh, and he asked, "How about you? Are you okay?"

Her eyes flickered towards Edraele for only a second, but it was long enough to be quite telling. She gazed into his eyes, and said emphatically, "I'm looking forward to tomorrow. The sooner we depart and resolve the problems in the Dragon March, the sooner we can rescue Tashana."

He pulled her into his arms, and said, "I'll do everything I can to help get her to safety. I'm just sorry we can't head after her immediately."

She nodded her understanding, and said, "It's alright, I know you have other commitments and obligations to honour." After letting out a little sigh, she added reluctantly, "I better get back to the Invictus, I want to be well rested to help make sure everything runs smoothly tomorrow."

"You did a great job today," he told her gratefully. "Thanks for all the effort you put in."

She smiled at him, and said, "It was very rewarding actually. I enjoyed it a lot."

They all rose to their feet, and Irillith gave him a loving kiss, Alyssa a quick hug, then nodded courteously to Edraele. She turned on her heel, and started striding away, when Edraele suddenly said to her in a cold, dispassionate voice, "Irillith, I wish to speak to you before you leave."

Irillith froze in place, cold fingers of dread creeping up her spine, as she instantly recognised the all-too-familiar voice her mother normally used with her. She turned fearfully, memories of hundreds of similar, often very painful encounters flashing through her mind.