Three Square Meals Ch. 087

"My head..." Alyssa mumbled. "Where's John or Rachel? I need them to take away the pain..."

She felt cool, strong hands around her and Tashana said softly, "They're still unconscious. Here, take this. Trust me, it'll help..."

Alyssa felt some kind of pill brush against her lips and she opened her mouth to swallow it, placing her full trust in the Maliri girl. She coughed and felt a cool glass touch her lips a moment later. Tashana carefully poured some water into her mouth so she could gulp it down.

"Just ten seconds or so and they'll kick in," Tashana murmured, gently massaging her temple.

Lying cradled in the Maliri girl's arms, she felt a second set of hands expertly stroking her head. She sighed with relief as the combination of their soothing touch and the medication began to counter the debilitating pain. With the pounding headache fading away, she was still left with a raw, hollow emptiness in her chest. Finally able to think again, she lurched in fright as she recognised the aching feeling of loss inside her.

"John! No..." she cried out, lurching bolt upright.

Jade was kneeling beside her and she stroked her arm soothingly. "He's right here... Don't worry, he's just sleeping."

"Rachel healed him, but she passed out a few minutes later," Dana explained, sitting on the far side of the bed beside the brunette.

Shaking her head, Alyssa whimpered, "You don't understand... he broke our bond!"

***

John yawned and carefully stretched, being careful not to disturb the two girls cuddled up next to him. Their long manes of golden-blonde and tawny-brown hair identified them immediately, and he gently hugged Alyssa and Rachel. As he fully awoke, the events by the lake came flooding back to him and his eyes opened wide with alarm.

"It's okay, everyone's safe," Sakura whispered, shifting on the bed and moving into his line of sight. She sounded deeply worried as she added, "How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine actually," John replied in surprise, glancing down at his right arm, which had been torn open earlier that afternoon. It looked completely healed, the skin unbroken and not showing any scars. He realised he had no idea what the time was, but Sakura was blocking his view of the ship's chronometer. "What time is it now?"

"Six in the morning," Faye replied softly, fluttering into view. The purple sprite looked overjoyed to see he was fully recovered. "You've been asleep for fifteen hours!"

John was shocked at how long he'd been out of it, until he remembered that his wounds had healed while he was unconscious, so his body had probably just needed to rest after the psychic healing. That raised a new question though, because he was cut off from his Matriarchs and without them to draw energy from, he shouldn't have been able to regenerate like that. A glance down at Rachel answered that question and he realised she must have healed him. He craned his head to look left and then right, seeing the rest of the girls asleep in bed.

"How come you're up?" he asked Sakura in confusion. "Did you wake early?"

"No, Alyssa asked us to keep watch and wake her up the moment you stirred. I just took over from Calara about an hour ago," the Asian girl explained, her eyes darting to the blonde lying beside him. "Alyssa's been out of her mind with worry. I've never seen her like this before... she's normally so calm and confident."

John looked down at the teenager's tousled blonde mane, his face shadowed with remorse. "I didn't have any choice, I had to do it."

"Break the bond?" Sakura asked him quietly.

He nodded, carefully retrieving his arm from around Rachel and shifting position slightly so he could roll over to embrace Alyssa. "Wake up, beautiful," he said, leaning in to brush his lips against hers.

Alyssa's cerulean eyes fluttered open and she kissed him frantically, moaning into his mouth as she wrapped her arms around him.

"I need you back, my love," John said, his eyes gazing deep into hers.

"Please!" she gasped between kisses, throwing her mind wide open to him.

He could feel her trembling with relief as they merged their consciousness together once again. Alyssa hadn't broken her bond with him, but he'd intentionally severed both their connections to save her from being drained to a husk by the astral leviathan. He could feel her mind interweaving itself with his and he dismissed all the passive mental barriers he had in place to let her roam at will through his thoughts.

This experience felt very different to the last time they'd bonded with each other. The first time, John had been stuck in a mental prison, so his recollection of events seemed like he was watching things through a darkly-shaded window. Alyssa's mind had also grown exponentially more powerful and he felt bolstered by her presence - like he could achieve anything with this astounding woman at his side.

As their two-way bond was re-established, now even stronger than before, he stroked her hair and gave her a tender kiss. "You're back where you belong."

"When I woke up and you weren't there..." she murmured, shivering at the memory of that terrible feeling of loss.

He nodded, kissing her again to quieten her. "You understand why I had to do it? I had no choice..."

"That thing was draining us to power the portal," she replied, her heart skipping a beat as she recalled those dreadful events.

"Edraele!" John suddenly blurted out in alarm. "Is she okay?!"

Alyssa gave him a tentative nod, but she looked worried. "You cut your connection to both of us, but I'm still linked to Edraele and her girls. She was still unconscious before I went to sleep, but I explained to her bodyguards and the Young Matriarchs what happened."

"Have they contacted the ship yet?" he asked, glancing back at Sakura.

The Asian girl frowned as she replied, "Luna called us hours ago. She requested that you contact her as soon as you awoke."

"I better call her immediately," John said, turning to look at Faye, who was sitting cross-legged on the high-backed leather chair. "Could you connect us please?"

With a quick blink, she activated the comm interface at the foot of the bed, the holo-screen appearing before him. "I'll put you through right now!"

It took a few minutes for the call to connect and another couple for it to be answered. John stared at the crossed swords insignia of House Valaden in confusion and asked, "Why isn't she answering?"

"Luna's probably putting on armour," Irillith replied, sharing a glance with her sister. "Remember the penalty for revealing the Maliri's true appearance? There's no way she would take that kind of risk with Terran Federation comm routing."

"Ah, of course," John replied, relaxing as her explanation seemed perfectly plausible.

Another minute later the insignia faded away and a golden armoured helmet appeared on the holo-screen, the faceplate opaque and obscuring the occupant from sight. "It's so good to see you!" Luna said, the tension in her voice quite apparent. "We got your message, but Edraele's still not woken up yet!"

John shot Alyssa a look of alarm. "She's not as strong as you... the energy drain must have taken a much bigger toll!"

"That creature might have started tapping her lifeforce," Alyssa replied, her expression bleak.

Irillith and Tashana clasped hands, looking frightened as they glanced at one another.

Turning back to the screen, John asked bluntly, "How severe is Edraele's condition? Is her life in danger? Do we need to head there immediately?"

Luna paused, clearly thinking carefully about her answer. "The physicians have examined her and believe that she's frail, but stable at the moment. They've never seen anything like it and have no idea what caused her collapse. The consensus was to put her into a medically induced coma."

Rachel shook her head and interjected, "They only suggested that because they want to see if she can recover on her own, while they try to find a solution for the best way to treat her. As soon as we see Edraele, we can resolve this, but I don't want to risk any complications. Please put Edraele into cryostasis, that's the safest option until we arrive."

"Of course, Doctor," Luna replied, nodding to her respectfully.

John mulled over his next course of action for a moment, then said firmly, "Luna, I want you to get a fleet ready as soon as you can, then head towards the Terran border. Alyssa will tell you who to bring and the coordinates for the meeting place."

Following his train of thought, Alyssa said, "It'll take them just under five days to reach the rendezvous point I have in mind."

"Okay, how long until you can depart?" he asked the armoured Maliri assassin.

"I believe the fleet Edraele intended to send to the Ashanath will be ready to depart later this evening," Luna replied, sounding hesitant.

John smiled at her, nodding with satisfaction. "That's perfect! You can commandeer that fleet, they're heading in this direction anyway."

"I'm just Edraele's bodyguard... I don't have that kind of authority!" Luna protested, sounding stunned by the suggestion.

John didn't want to trust the rest of this particular conversation to an open comm channel, so he glanced at Alyssa instead. *Tell her that I'm temporarily appointing her as defacto leader of House Valaden. Anyone who objects is free to contact me to discuss it further.*

*Done,* Alyssa replied, a few seconds later.

Luna straightened up and squared her shoulders. "I won't let you down, John."

"I know you won't," he replied, giving her a warm smile. "We'll see you in five days."

Luna gave him a deep respectful bow, then closed the channel.

Blowing out his breath, John turned back to look at the girls with regret. "I'm sorry, ladies. It looks like we'll have to postpone the skiing holiday."

There were murmurs of support all round, everyone fully understanding his concern for the Maliri Matriarch. Irillith and Tashana wore identical looks of concern for their mother.

"She'll be okay," John said, beckoning the twins over and opening his arms for them.

They went to him gladly, both hugging him for support. "I hated her for years," Irillith murmured softly. "But she's so different now... We can't lose her!" Tashana nestled into him, nodding her heartfelt agreement.

"We won't let anything happen to her," John said, his voice soothing. "In five days, she'll be as good as new again."

Alyssa brushed her fingers over his shoulder. "Are we heading straight into Maliri Space, or do you still want to go ahead with the Trankaran detour? If we left for Valaden right now, we could shorten the wait by two days by intercepting Luna's fleet on the way to the border. I know what Edraele's like though; if we change our previous plans, she'll blame herself and think that she's let you down..."

John mulled over their options with a frown. "A big part of me wants to just rush off to the rescue, but it does seem like a wasted opportunity not to combine the rendezvous with an ore transfer." He turned to Rachel and added, "Will Edraele be safe in cryostasis?"

"She'll be perfectly safe once hibernation is induced," Rachel replied, darting an apologetic look at the twins.

Tashana smiled at her and slowly shook her head. "You're just giving your honest professional opinion; we aren't going to be upset with you for that." She smiled bravely as she added, "Edraele's always been such a strong woman, I know she'll be alright."

Irillith looked up at John and let out a heavy sigh. "As much as my heart says we should race off into Maliri Space, I think the more rational plan is to go ahead with the visit to the Trankarans. We can take care of our business with them, then fly into Maliri Space and still make it to the rendezvous point before mother's fleet can arrive."

"Where are we right now?" John asked Faye, who fluttered excitedly when he looked her way. "Are we still in orbit around New Eden?"

"The Invictus is in orbit around Jericho at the moment!" the purple sprite replied, sounding very excited. "My boys worked all night on the Photon Lasers refit! If the rest of the installations go to schedule, we'll have finished the entire upgrade in four hours, seventeen minutes."

"That's amazing! Thank you so much for that," John said, giving Faye an appreciative grin.

Dana laughed and rolled her eyes. "You're just glad you don't have to personally install new heatsinks again!"

"Absolutely!" John agreed, remembering how laborious a job it had been the last time. He was lost in thought for a moment, then smiled as he continued, "Alright how about this for a plan: While Faye finishes upgrading the Invictus, we visit Jericho for a few hours. It won't be nearly the same as a week's break, but we can have a bit of fun in the snow, then drop by to see Calara's mother. As soon as Faye and her maintenance bots complete the refit, we head for Trankaran territory as we previously planned. We can trade tech for ore and enquire about an alliance, then travel to Maliri Space to heal Edraele."

"My mom would love to meet you three," Calara said, smiling at Sakura and the Maliri girls. Her gaze lingered on the stunning blue-skinned sisters for a moment, a question in her eyes.

"I trust Maria," John said to Irillith and Tashana, realising what the Latina was thinking about. "I'm sure your secret will be safe with her if you want to go without armour..."

The sisters glanced at each other then shared a smile, before nodding towards Calara.

"You're going to blow her mind!" the Latina exclaimed, looking delighted. "She was always intrigued about the Maliri!"

John looked around the group. "Before we get wrapped up warm to go planetside, we should discuss yesterday's fight. Do all of you know roughly what happened?"

Sakura glanced at the other girls, then slowly nodded. "You tried to help Rachel say goodbye to her mother in the same way you helped me with my parents. Something attacked you though, opening some kind of portal to the Astral Plane..."

"That pretty much sums it up," John said, a grim expression on his face. "Whatever it is that keeps forcing me into those nightmares, was lurking in wait to ambush me. When I used my psychic abilities to pierce the Astral Plane, it attacked!"

"The thing that came through the portal, it was just like those fucked-up monsters we saw before," Dana muttered, paling at the deeply disturbing memory.

Faye gazed at John, her big luminous eyes filled with confusion. "I hit that creature with dozens of Pulse Cannon bolts... they had absolutely no effect!"

"We have to assume that they're immune to conventional weaponry," Calara said, looking greatly perturbed. "After what happened to Irillith and that wound she received in that shared nightmare, we guessed they might be able to survive in the real world; this just confirms it..."

"My healing aura burned away the black ooze that infected your wounds," Rachel said, looking intently at John. "It appears I was right; those creatures are probably only vulnerable to psychic attacks!"

"Or crystal Alyssium," John said, hugging Irillith closer. "I remember the way that ooze reacted to the knife I made from the same metal."

"Do you think we're in any more danger of attacks?" Irillith asked, quailing as she recalled her near-death experience after the astral nightmare.

The room went quiet as John thought long and hard about her question. He eventually sighed and gave her a helpless shrug. "The honest answer is: I don't know for sure. I think in this particular case, I brought this attack down on us by delving too deep into the Astral Plane. I'd like to say that as long as I don't try anything like that again, we'll be perfectly safe, but it seems like a very dangerous assumption to make."

"What kind of precautions can we take to keep us safe?" Jade asked, looking around at the girls with concern.

John shared a glance with Sakura. "I've got a few ideas, but I'd like to hear your thoughts, Security Chief."

Her dark-brown eyes narrowed as she said, "It's going to be difficult to prepare for a foe who could attack us anywhere from within our own ship. I'd suggest having everyone carry a sidearm, but that won't be of much use if these Ethereal monsters are immune to conventional weapons."

"We can fix that easily enough," Dana said with a wicked smile. "If they're vulnerable to a crystal Alyssium knife, then some crystal-tipped ammo would really fuck them up."

"It's probably not necessary to have everyone walking around armed inside the ship, at least not yet," John said tentatively. "But we definitely need more Quantum rifles, pistols, and special ammo where we can get our hands on them in an emergency. The armoury in the Combat Bridge is well stocked with the new guns, but we could do with more for the weapon racks in the Briefing Room, the Firing Range, the Engineering Bay, the walk-in-wardrobe, and the fore-armoury by the airlocks."

"That's no problem, I'll start manufacturing all the parts we'll need," Dana said, tilting her head to one side as she mulled over the numbers. "Another twenty rifles and pistols should cover it. I'll need you or Alyssa to make the crystal Alyssium tips for the ammunition."

"I can do that," Alyssa offered. "I'll also reshape our armour when I've finished the ammo. There's a couple of suits in need of repairs, so I'll fix them while I'm at it."

John nodded, then smiled at Dana. "We definitely need you to reinforce the armour afterwards. You imbuing those suits with psychic runes is bound to help."

"Yep, no problem," the redhead replied, before looking at him with a stern frown. "But only if you work on improving your psychic shields! Those wrist buckler things you made were crap! If you'd made a decent sized shield, you wouldn't have ended up covered in corrosive goo!"

"I am going to say I told you so..." Alyssa said, giving him a sad look of disappointment. "Can you imagine how devastated we'd all be if something terrible happened to you? If you're genuine about not wanting to see us get hurt, you'll train harder next time!"

John looked around at the girls, his heart lurching when he saw their beautiful faces looking distraught. He'd been sure that by changing the bond, they'd managed to remove the debilitating effect on them that talk of his early demise had previously triggered. Glancing back at Alyssa, he caught the hint of an impish smile and realised he was being cleverly manipulated by some masterful acting. He let go of the twins and grabbed the mischievous blonde, the rest of the girls laughing as he started tickling Alyssa.

"It's only because we love you!" she managed to squeak between her giggles.

Eventually having mercy, he let go of the panting blonde, giving her a playful smack on the rump as he did so. "You were right, I'm sorry. I promise to train harder from now on. I put the three of you in danger by letting myself get so badly hurt." Looking around at the group, he continued, "We should all probably work on improving our psychic abilities as much as possible."

Sakura nodded her agreement. "If we get caught without weapons right now, we're far too reliant on our lovely Matriarch to protect us with her telekinesis. When Alyssa was incapacitated, it meant that the rest of you were helpless."

"I just wish I'd been there," Jade said, looking guilty. "I know I'd have been able to help protect you and my natural attacks are psychically charged now."

"They're lethal in melee. I wouldn't have wanted to see you get hurt by them, honey," John said, giving the Nymph a reassuring smile. "It's much better if we can attack them at range."

"I should definitely be able to help there; I've been training with Alyssa to improve my Pyrokinesis," Tashana said, before glancing at her twin. "Perhaps you could practice some offensive abilities with her too, Rill?"