Three Square Meals Ch. 068

With that he nodded towards Rachel, and she ended the comm channel to the ships in the system. John slumped back in his chair, and blew out his breath with relief.

"Now that, was fucking awesome!" Dana said breathlessly.

Calara smiled at him as she said in admiration, "That was one hell of a bluff. I can't believe you pulled that off."

"A quad of steel," Alyssa laughed, shaking her head.

Rachel threw a glance at Alyssa as she thought to her, *Everyone heard it all.* Looking up to John next, she continued, "That was an awe-inspiring performance. You should have been an actor, I've got goosebumps!"

John grinned back at them and said, "Alright, celebrations later. It's time to deal with Lynton." After checking on Irillith with a quick glance, he turned to look at Alyssa, and added, "How's Irillith doing? Has she got full command of the ship?"

Alyssa nodded and replied, "She's taken over all primary systems."

"Alright, let's put the Thor's Hammer to good use against the Kintark," he said, glancing at the Tactical Map.

He could see Commodore Sasaki's ship, the battleship Artemis, was now spear-heading the Terran force's assault against the incoming Kintark. The colossal engines on the captured dreadnought began to power up, as Irillith brought it to bear against their green-armoured foes.

"Hail the Thor please, Rachel," he requested, as he stared at the enormous vessel.

***

Knowing that timing was critical, Irillith had surged through the portal into the digital network of Lynton's dreadnought, the Thor's Hammer. She'd been wary at first, in case there were some kind of Progenitor programs lying in wait for her, but as she'd sliced through the firewalls and penetrated deeper into the Cyber Realm, she'd met only conventional Terran defensive programs. She could only conclude that Lynton hadn't been provided with advanced Progenitor cyber defences because either her Progenitor didn't think they were necessary, or the slightly more implausible reason, that he didn't have such security capabilities. Whatever the case, she'd been free to roam pretty much at will through the dreadnought's cyber-net.

Such a huge ship had a correspondingly large network, but she'd been increasing in hacking proficiency with these digital infiltrations, and had known exactly what to do. Soaring up above the various nodes that made up the Thor's systems, she quickly identified the most critical systems, then swooped down to usurp control of them from the Terran crew. Weapons, shields, engines; they all fell to her rapid assault, the primitive protections woefully inadequate against any Maliri hacker, let alone someone with her capabilities.

With the accelerated time dilation of her Spirit Form in the cyber realm, she had hijacked the core systems in a little over ten seconds. The next step was to lock out the crew's access to the digital network, and take full control of the Bridge. She managed it just in time to cut off Lynton from disrupting John's confrontation with the traitor Captains, and she laughed when she saw the stunned reactions from the Thor's Bridge crew.

Irillith had to pause a moment, as she prepared herself to speak to the Thor's crew. The frightening persona she needed to adopt would have come so naturally to her before, but it felt strange and awkward now, no longer fitting with her new personality. Activating every monitor on the ship, she placed her image on the screen, and glared balefully at the Terran traitors.

"This ship has been impounded by the Lion of the Federation, and you have all been taken into custody," she announced, her solemn voice echoing down the long corridors of the three-kilometre ship. Frightened personnel stared at her beautiful blue face in shock, as she continued, "I have taken full control of the ship. Do not test my patience with any form of insurrection, as I have no qualms about shutting down life support on every deck, should you attempt to resist."

Satisfied with the suitably petrified expressions of the crewmembers who were now paralysed with fear, she was about to focus her attention on the Bridge, when Alyssa spoke to her via telepathy.

*Hey, Irillith,* Alyssa said to her, warm emotions pouring over their bond. *Is everything going okay?*

*It went flawlessly. I have full control over all of the Thor's primary systems,* Irillith replied, as she revelled in Alyssa's tender telepathic caress.

Alyssa sent her a loving smile as she purred, *Stunningly beautiful, a personality to match, and so very talented. We're all very lucky to have you in our little family.*

Irillith sighed happily, and said, *Thanks Alyssa, I love my new life with all of you.*

Her blonde Matriarch flooded her consciousness with an affectionate mental swirl that left Irillith's mind tingling, and Alyssa said, *We'll have lots of fun later to celebrate, but for now, can you use the Thor against the incoming Kintark fleet?*

*Of course. Moving to engage,* Irillith replied, powering up the dreadnought's engines.

She manoeuvred the Thor to support the masses of Terran cruisers and battleships which were assembling into formations, in preparation to engage the Kintark. Once bitter foes, traitor and loyalist alike were now staunch allies against the approaching alien fleet.

*Good girl,* Alyssa said to her, then added, *By the way, John wants to speak to Lynton.*

Viewing Admiral Lynton and her officers through one of the dozen cameras on the Bridge, Irillith watched as Gabrielle lurched out of her chair, and ran for the door, attempting to flee for her life. Irillith started searching for the appropriate secondary sub-systems, focusing her search on internal security. It didn't take long for her to hack the corresponding mainframe, giving her full control of the emergency blast doors that lined the corridors of the dreadnought.

She activated security door two-zero-nine, which slammed down in front of the frightened woman, bringing her up short. As Lynton turned to run back the way she'd come, door two-zero-eight sealed behind her, imprisoning her in the corridor. Irillith noticed the Thor was being hailed by the Invictus, so she answered the call, and saw her companions on the Bridge looking at her expectantly.

"Excellent work taking the Thor, Irillith. You saved thousands of lives from being squandered in a pointless battle. Thank you," John said to her, and his proud smile filled her with delight.

"You're welcome," she replied, flashing him a sparkling smile. Glancing at the monitor focused on Gabrielle's scared face, she added, "Lynton tried to run, but I've locked her down between security doors."

Nodding thoughtfully, John said, "It's alright, let her go. Funnel her towards a shuttle bay, and we'll capture her with our tractor beam when she launches from the Thor. We can bring her aboard the Invictus for interrogation and start getting some answers. I don't want to wait until Jade's back with the Raptor before I can speak to her in person."

"Letting her go," Irillith replied, and began sealing doors along a route to the appropriate Hangar Bay, while simultaneously opening security door two-zero-nine.

She watched as Gabrielle Lynton rushed through the door, sprinting down the corridor as she tried to escape.

***

Jade pulled the Raptor around, retrothrusters flaring as the gunship turned in a tight circle, lining herself up with a group of three Kintark bombers. Their neat formations had scattered when she obliterated the first wing with her Beam Lasers, the Kintark spreading out to attack the Terran capital ships from multiple attack vectors. It had made hunting them down more irritating and time consuming, but there was a positive side to it too. Splitting them up made them much more vulnerable to the Terran fighters, as their pilots no longer had to work so hard to avoid shots from the rear-mounted Heavy Plasma Guns.

She glanced at the three bombers in front of her, the optical-target-acquisition HUD locking on and tracking them. Cranking the throttle up to full, she raced towards the desperate Kintark ships, easily avoiding their feeble plasma fire with a lazy roll. The targeting reticle flashed red as soon as she got into range, and pressing the trigger on her flightstick, the six turret-mounted Pulse Cannons opened up. Her targeting computer had allocated two turrets per target, and Jade had a faint smile on her face as the storm of laser bolts scythed into the hapless bombers, ripping them to pieces in a lethal blue hail.

There were a few bombers left, but a glance at her Tactical Map showed that Terran fighters were closing in on the remaining wings. She could certainly have got to one of them faster, but it would be greedy to hog all the kills for herself, and she reminded herself that she'd already barged in on their hunt. That meant her part in this battle was over with, and she let out a mournful sigh. After her traumatic near-death experience the last time she'd gone up against the Kintark, this fight against the strike craft had felt a bit anticlimactic.

The Raptor was so much more powerful than the last time she'd flown it, with massive upgrades in all areas. Firing in three-round bursts, the Pulse Cannons were huge overkill against these strike craft, melting big glowing holes through shimmering-green armour plating with ease. They were hitting about five times harder than the old Gatling Lasers, and they also had a huge range advantage, being deadly at medium range rather than short. By contrast, the Kintark Heavy Plasma Guns were barely effective at medium range, and a quick glance at her shield status showed they were still at ninety-five percent strength.

She'd been expecting to find the whole experience cathartic, but in all honestly, she'd started to get a bit bored.

A bright flash drew her attention to the cockpit canopy, and she looked out through the starboard window, curious to see what had caused it. She saw a series of explosions rippling across the flank of a Terran battleship, which her Tactical View helpfully tagged as the Astraeus. It had been hit by a wave of plasma missiles, and three Kintark cruisers were following up with Plasma Cannon salvos aimed at the stricken capital ship. She knew it wouldn't last long against that kind of sustained bombardment.

Her sharp eyes caught lots of movement far to her starboard side, and she watched waves of Terran bombers pouring from carriers and assembling into attack formations. They began heading towards the Kintark battle lines, ready to brave the protective screen of Kintark destroyers before they could launch their powerful ship-killing torpedoes at more valuable targets.

Suddenly in a flash of inspiration, Jade realised she just needed some bigger game to hunt to put the thrill back in the fight! The Kintark strike craft threat had been eliminated, but there was plenty more good she could do. She knew John would vehemently disapprove, but technically she wasn't in any danger yet, so it wasn't like she was breaking her promise to him. She turned the nose of the Raptor towards the Kintark destroyers, feeling a rush of excitement once more.

***

Gabrielle dashed into the deserted Hangar Bay, her heart pounding in her chest. She thought she was doomed when she'd been trapped in that corridor by the sinister AI that had swept through her ship, snatching control of the vessel from out of her very hands. She could only assume that it had malfunctioned somehow in letting her escape like that; either that or her Master had intervened to save her. Either way she wasn't about to question her stroke of amazing good luck, and she sprinted for one of the shuttles sitting unattended in the centre of a glowing landing pad.

Pressing her hand to the DNA reader by the side of the door, she tapped her foot impatiently while waiting for the security device to scan her hand.

"Come on, damnit!" she swore, glancing over her shoulder fearfully.

The green light swept across her palm, then flashed red. "Unauthorised access," the computer announced, in a dispassionate voice.

She stared at the DNA reader incredulously, and snapped, "Fucking piece of shit! Come on!"

Slapping her hand down on it again, it stuttered, "UnAu... thoR... isSeDD...." and with a strange synthetic squeal, it was cut off mid sentence. The light on the panel glowed violet and the airlock door swung open.

Looking at it in confusion, she wondered what had just happened, but she didn't have time to waste worrying about it. Rushing into the shuttle she tapped a series of buttons that powered it up, and closed the airlock behind her, then she hit the one to open the enormous hangar door. Slumping down into the Pilot's chair, she grabbed the flightstick, and powered up the retro-thrusters. The shuttle lifted off, and swayed unevenly in her trembling grip, as she swung the nose around to the slowly opening hangar door.

Too impatient to wait for the door to open fully, she ramped up the main thrusters, and the shuttle lurched towards the widening portal. In her panicked state, she clipped the door as she rushed through, the top of her tiny vessel scraping Titanium with a grating shriek. Flinching against the sound and the vibration from the impact, she suddenly felt a surge of relief as she was out into space, free from the claustrophobic interior of the compromised dreadnought.

Pulling back on the stick, and lifting the nose of the shuttle, she pointed her craft towards the empty black void where she knew her Master's ship was lurking. She'd done everything he'd asked: stirring up trouble in the Dragon March, luring loyal officers into treason, and escalating tensions as much as possible to push the Terrans and Kintark into war. As the conflict had intensified, she'd played both sides off against each other, doing her best to inflict as much damage to all concerned.

She knew in her heart that he'd be pleased with her, and would fulfil the glorious promises he'd made.

The viewscreen crackled to life in front of her, and John Blake's image suddenly appeared without her connecting the call. She gaped at him in a mixture of shock and fear, as he said, "You've got nowhere to run to, Gabrielle. We need to have a little chat."

Up ahead, the impenetrable darkness blotting out a portion of the sea of stars, seemed to slide across the night sky as her Master's ship shifted position.

Filled with a sudden surge of confidence, she laughed manically and replied, "I'm sure that would be lovely, but I'm afraid I won't be sticking around. Goodbye, John!"

She saw a flicker of purple light amongst the darkness, highlighting the contours of her Master's ship as it drew closer.

"Master, I've missed you so much..." she thought, her heart aching to be reunited with him.

*You've earned your reward, Gabrielle,* Ailanthia murmured, the Matriarch's voice echoing through her mind.

Gabrielle gazed up at the silhouette of her Master's ship, joy filling every fibre of her being.

***

The Invictus had moved in to flank the Thor, staying out of sight on the opposite side of the dreadnought's enormous hull, to avoid spooking Lynton as she fled from the hangar. Then they had swept after the fleeing shuttle in pursuit, Gabrielle inexplicably piloting it out towards deep space, when it wasn't equipped with an FTL drive.

Turning to Dana, John said, "Get ready with the tractor beam, Sparks. Let's bring her in."

"Yep, no problem," she replied confidently. "We'll be in range in about ten seconds."

Suddenly a pulsating purple beam appeared from out of nowhere, and slashed across space to strike Lynton's shuttle, obliterating it from sight. Her image on the viewscreen flickered out, her expression frozen in a look of rapture before she was slain.

"What the hell?!" John blurted out, gaping at the tiny scattering of debris that was all that remained of the Terran shuttle.

"Holy fuck!" Dana cursed, pointing a shaking finger at the tactical map. "John, look! It's the black ship!"

Dana had tracked the path of the purple beam back to its source, and found only featureless darkness. The stars were blotted out by its presence, only the lack of twinkling lights giving any indication that there was something there, concealed from plain sight. This was a phenomenon she'd only witnessed once before, and that was months ago in Ashanath Space.

"It's the Progenitor!" Alyssa gasped in a hushed voice, turning to look at John with wide eyes. "What do you want to do?"

Her question became a moot one a second later, as a swirling circle of ghostly pale light began to form in front of the black ship. It quickly expanded to a width large enough to encompass the mysterious vessel, rotating at a sluggish pace around the prow. As before, the wormhole crept along the black hull, while spiralling slowly as it went. The eerie radiance from that gateway lit up the terrifying angular shape of the massive ship, highlighting its unique and sinister design. In its wake, the ghastly portal seemed to swallow up the Progenitor vessel, transporting it instantaneously to some unknown destination.

John felt chills run down his spine as he'd stared at the menacing black ship, until the shocked silence on the Bridge was disturbed by Dana, who let out a low groan. She was hunched over, clutching at her head, while massaging her temples with both hands.

He rose from his chair, ready to hurry to her side and he exclaimed, "Sparks! Are you alright?!"

She waved him away with her right hand, and drawled distractedly, "S'alright, I'm not in any pain. Just the same feeling as before... like something's on the tip of my tongue."

Everyone on the Bridge shot meaningful looks at each other, knowing just what that might mean.

Alyssa smirked then, and said, "I think there'll be something on your tongue alright, as soon as we're done with all this."

Dana laughed, straightening now as the odd sensation passed, but she shot John a hungry look nevertheless.

John sat back in his chair, breathing a sigh of relief that Dana was okay, but he couldn't help worrying about something else entirely. The Progenitor had witnessed the entire battle. He'd watched from the shadows as they'd played every card they had, revealing the full extent of the capabilities the Invictus possessed.

*Yeah, that's not good,* Alyssa thought to him, twisting in her seat to look him in the eye.

He gave her a brief nod, then squared his shoulders and replied, *We can't do anything about it now. We've got other things to worry about for the moment.*

He turned to study the Tactical Map, and saw that the leading edge of the nearby Terran forces had closed until they were within long range of the Kintark. They were assembling into haphazard battle lines, the loyalist and reformed traitor forces lacking coordination. John snapped a hurried glance at Calara as a thought came to him, studying her look of stern disapproval as she stared at the chaotic rabble arrayed before her.

"Commander, I want you to assume strategic command of that battlegroup and coordinate the fleet engagement with the Kintark," he ordered her decisively.

Calara looked up at him in shock, her expression one of amazement that he'd even consider putting her in a position of such critical importance. She quickly recovered though, and leapt from her chair as she said, "Will do, Admiral, but I can't do it from here. I'll use the Tactical Simulator room on Deck Three and direct operations from there!"

The Latina had started running up the ramp towards the grav-tube, but she paused for a moment, and asked, "What about the Invictus' guns?"

Pointed at the digital construct sitting on the Tactical Console, John said, "Faye can handle the Beam Lasers and Pulse Cannons. Alyssa can control the Mass Drivers." He brought up the security interface from his console, and after a few swipes across the controls, he continued, "I've granted you weapons privileges on the Beam Lasers, Faye. Are you feeling up to it?"