Three Square Meals Ch. 120

He glanced at his HUD. "Faye, can you bring the Raptor down please."

"Affirmative!" she chirped, swinging the gunship's nose around as she headed to the nearby clearing.

John walked over to the landing Raptor and sat on the lowered ramp, then moved Jessica to a sitting position while keeping her propped up. He pulled off his Paragon helmet and placed it on the ramp beside him as he looked down at his mother's face. After all this time wondering what she'd be like and how she would react to seeing him, he'd never expected her to run in terror.

"Rahn?" Jessica mumbled as she started to wake. "I had an awful nightmare..."

She looked up into his eyes, her expression turning shocked once again. "You!"

"I'm John... your son," he gently reminded her. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Jessica scrabbled away from him, then froze when she saw they were surrounded by a semi-circle of armoured women... and a naked Nymph. It was obvious she was still frightened and disorientated.

John let out a heavy sigh. "You thought I was 'Rahn' when you woke up. Does that mean Ranagon is my father?"

His mother looked at him curiously for a moment, then her face shadowed with a mixture of grief and worry. "Oh God... Rahn..."

"What happened? We saw the dead thralls..." John said, trying to control the avalanche of emotions he was feeling to calm Jessica down. "Did something happen to him? I'd like to help."

"They came about a week ago! Boarded the ship!" she exclaimed, wringing her hands in anguish. "We were going to escape out the back... but Rahn stopped to slow them down, told me to go ahead... that he'd catch up. I heard fighting... then those awful screams..." She wrapped her arms around herself as she shuddered at the terrible memories. "I wanted to go back... but I couldn't. I hid in the tunnel, then watched... as they dragged Rahn away..."

Jessica began to weep, her body shaking with shuddering sobs. "Oh God... Rahn..."

"Thralls captured him?" John asked, standing beside her and tentatively stroking her arm.

She shook her head, looking up at him through tear-filled eyes. "Rahn was unconscious. Another Progenitor... he took him away in a dropship..."

John shared a look with Alyssa, his expression grim. *She must be talking about Larn'kelnar...*

*Why capture your father though?* the blonde asked, looking bewildered.

"This all happened a week ago?" John asked Jessica, his tone kind and sympathetic.

She nodded, looking utterly bereft. "It's felt like an eternity without him..."

"Has there been any sign of the other Progenitor or his thralls since then?" John asked, watching her intently.

Jessica shook her head. "They just took Rahn and left... they haven't come back." Getting upset again, she whimpered, "I miss him so much... he's even stopped speaking to me. Oh God... what if something happened to Rahn?!" She started to hyperventilate, on the verge of a panic attack.

*She must be talking about telepathy. It sounds like Rahn's been blocked from talking to her...either that or Larn'kelnar killed him,* Alyssa said, her expression filled with sympathy as she looked at the distraught young woman. *I can't even imagine how hard this must be for her.*

John looked into his mother's eyes and said gently, "Everything's going to be okay, Jessica. We'll help you rescue Rahn."

"Really?!" she asked, her face lifting with hope. "You mean it?"

He nodded and gave her a reassuring smile. "I promise." Glancing up at the black ship, he couldn't help wondering if he had any siblings. "Was it just the two of you living here?"

"Just the two of us..." she replied, looking forlorn again. "It's been so awful since he's been gone... I felt so alone."

Dana darted a glance at Alyssa, then nudged her with an elbow.

Alyssa rolled her eyes at the redhead, then turned to John. *Sparks wants to search the ship for tech. Is that okay?*

*Sure,* he agreed distractedly, watching Jessica with concern. Looking at Alyssa he quickly added, *As long as the rest of you go with her... just in case she gets in any trouble.*

*I'm staying with you,* Alyssa insisted. *Dana should be perfectly safe with all the girls keeping an eye on her.*

John glanced at the girls, then nodded his agreement. With Sakura, Jade, the twins, and Rachel accompanying Dana, he felt confident they'd be alright. *Tell them to be careful and to stick together... no splitting up.*

Alyssa conveyed his message and the girls waved goodbye before heading back to the wreck.

"Jessica, I've got a lot of questions I'd like to ask you," John said quietly. "Would you sit and talk with me for a while?"

She nodded, nibbling at her nail. "How long do you think it'll be before we can rescue Rahn?"

"We'll try to get him back to you as fast as we can," he replied, giving her an encouraging smile. "Why don't we talk inside? We'll be a bit more comfortable there."

Jessica followed him up the ramp, with Alyssa accompanying her. They entered the Raptor, then John walked through to the armoury where he stored his weapons and removed his armour. He ran his fingers through his hair, then waited as Alyssa used the equipping frame to take off her Paragon suit. His mother didn't seem fazed by the grav-tubes and accompanied John into the cockpit where she sat in one of the chairs at the back.

John sat opposite, with Alyssa sitting beside him. He looked at Jessica and smiled as he shook his head. "There's so many things I want to ask you..." Taking a deep breath, he continued, "First of all, I'd like you to meet Alyssa. She's my... fiancée."

Jessica didn't react to John announcing his engagement, she simply studied the blonde curiously. "You're his matriarch, aren't you?"

Alyssa nodded. "Are you Ranagon's matriarch?"

"His name's Rahn'hagon," Jessica replied with an adoring smile, emphasising the slight differences in pronunciation. She looked starry-eyed as she gushed, "He's amazing... I've never met anyone so wonderful!"

Just as quickly, Jessica remembered what had happened to him and her face fell in despair.

"I'm so sorry he was captured," Alyssa said softly, rising from her chair to sit beside Jessica. "I thought I'd lost John a while ago, so I know exactly what you're going through."

"I never thought I could miss anyone so badly," Jessica whispered, a haunted look in her eyes. "If anything's happened to him..." She sounded frantic at that thought, growing much more agitated.

"Shh... it's going to be okay," Alyssa murmured, giving her a supportive sideways hug. "Can I get you anything to drink to help settle you down? Some tea maybe?"

Jessica hesitated, then smiled gratefully. "That would be nice, thanks."

Alyssa stood up and glanced at John. *Anything for you, handsome?*

He shook his head, unable to take his eyes off Jessica. John could still barely believe that he'd finally found his mother after all this time. As incredible as it was that she was still alive and he actually had a chance to talk to her, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was definitely something wrong. Jessica hadn't even acknowledged that he was her son, let alone registered any reaction to meeting him for the first time.

***

"How wonderful for John that we actually managed to find Jessica," Tashana said with a warm smile. "I'm so happy for him!"

"He deserves some good luck after everything he's done for us," Sakura agreed, leading them down the corridor.

Dana nodded emphatically, then her expression turned wistful. "Being able to finally meet his mom... what I wouldn't give for that."

Sakura stopped by a door and went to touch one of the runes on the control panel, but stopped before glancing at Jade for confirmation. The huge tiger bobbed her head and the Asian girl tapped the glowing glyph, the door opening with a grating squeal.

Dana poked her head inside, then glanced around, her gaze sweeping over the enormous black cylinders which she knew were fuel storage tanks. "Nah, nothing cool here. Let's try the next one."

They continued along the corridor, heading towards the rear of the Progenitor dreadnought.

"Jessica must be really suffering at the moment," Irillith said, a look of sympathy on her beautiful azure face. "I remember how distraught all of you were when John's guide took over and he left the ship."

Dana shuddered. "Ugh... don't remind me. That sucked ass!"

"John will be able to calm her down," Tashana said, absent-mindedly twirling one of her Tachyon pistols around a finger. "Being reunited with her son must be a very welcome distraction."

Dana glanced at Rachel and saw she was still lost in thought. "You're very quiet," she said, poking her girlfriend in the shoulder. "I would've thought you'd be delighted. You've put loads of effort into trying to perk John up; you should be dancing around with joy now that he's finally getting a chance to chat with his mom after 40 years. This is just what he always wanted!"

Rachel hesitated, then said quietly, "I hope so..."

The redhead frowned, surprised by her less than enthusiastic response.

"Dana!" Sakura called out, grinning at her from further along the corridor. "There's something in here that looks a bit like one of the components the Vulkat found. I think you called it a Null-Inertia Gyroscope?"

"Holy shit!" Dana exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with delight as she rushed to take a look for herself.

***

John watched the brunette sip her tea, the troubled young woman visibly relaxing as the hot drink soothed her nerves. "I'm not actually sure what to call you," he admitted with a lop-sided smile. "I know you're my mother, but you don't look a day over twenty. Is just sticking with Jessica alright for now?"

She nodded distractedly. "That's fine..."

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "I've got so many questions I want to ask you... First of all, would you mind telling me how this all started? I know you worked as a Xeno-biologist and were assigned to a deep space survey ship call the 'Cora'..."

Jessica leaned back in the chair and smiled. "That all seems like so long ago now." Making eye contact with John she continued, "Yes, I joined the Cora's crew and we set sail from Olympus on... 14th November 2737. Captain Ebner had an engineer and navigator working for him... I forget their names now. Then the rest of us were scientists, split between Xeno-botanists, Geologists, and then there was Dr. Franks and myself who were the Xeno-biologists. Randall was a bit overbearing, but I had a lot of autonomy in my research and just tried to ignore him."

She gazed into the distance, remembering the events that had transpired four decades earlier. "The scientists stayed in cryo until we reached the T-Fed border, then the flight crew woke us when they located the first unsurveyed habitable planet. We investigated several potentially colonisable worlds, one of which actually contained ancient ruins from a long-dead civilisation. After a few months of exploration and studying samples from those worlds, we finally found Arcadia..."

Glancing out the cockpit canopy at the lush jungle, she smiled at the memories. "It was like finding the Garden of Eden. Everyone was thrilled; we knew the bonuses for surveying a Gaia-class world would be huge. We followed protocol, making sure the environment was safe before disembarking, and Arcadia passed all our tests with flying colours. After that, we split up, exploring the local ecosystems to search for interesting flora and fauna."

"Then you discovered Rahn'hagon's ship..." John said quietly, still reeling from the thought that the Progenitor who had caused the deaths of billions of Maliri and Trankarans was his father.

"I had no intention of going anywhere near it," Jessica admitted with a wry smile. "I was just about to call the Cora and tell them what I'd discovered when Rahn found me..." Her expression turned dreamy, a look of wonder in her eyes. "He was the most perfect man I'd ever seen... I never used to believe in love at first sight, but that all changed in an instant!"

John and Alyssa shared a troubled glance. Jessica was a Terran, so she wasn't susceptible to the genetic attraction that all women from thrall races felt towards a Progenitor. Unless she actually had fallen head-over-heels in love with Rahn'hagon at first sight, the influence of psychic powers seemed a far more likely prospect.

"What happened then?" John asked, watching his mother with concern.

Jessica blushed furiously and looked down as she had another sip of tea. From the oblique angle Alyssa was sitting at, she saw that Jessica was trying to conceal a coy smile.

John coughed and said awkwardly, "Okay... so then you went missing for three months until the crew found you..."

She rolled her eyes. "It took them long enough! In the end, Rahn got tired of waiting and sent me out to be 'discovered'..."

"Wait... you wanted to be rescued?!" he blurted out, looking at her in confusion. "But Captain Ebner's logs said that you fought with the crew and had to be sedated. They panicked when they found out you were pregnant and you started begging to be returned to your 'Master'..."

Jessica nodded and gave him a wry smile. "I had to convince them that there was a potentially dangerous, highly advanced alien on Arcadia... which there was. We needed them to be scared, so that they'd abandon their mission and head straight back to Terra. The Cora's deep-space survey charter was scheduled to last for another three years... which was far too long and didn't fit in with Rahn's plan."

Leaning forward in his seat, John asked intently, "And what was his plan exactly?"

Her face fell, Jessica clearly tortured by the memory. "He wanted me to return to Terra and leave my newborn son there..."

Alyssa's heart went out to the anguished young woman. "That must have been incredibly hard," she said, rubbing the brunette's back to comfort her.

Jessica nodded, looking at Alyssa and saying earnestly, "I don't know how I survived it! I was separated from Rahn for nearly a year! If I hadn't had his voice to keep my company, I'm sure I would have gone mad..."

The blonde grimaced and darted an anxious glance at John. He'd been on the edge of his seat, looking at his mother with sympathy... but now he'd pulled back, the expression on his face reflecting how deeply she'd just hurt him. It was obvious that Jessica abandoning her son didn't even register as a concern for her, completely eclipsed as it was by her all-consuming obsession with Rahn'hagon.

Oblivious to the ragged emotional wound she'd just inflicted on her son, Jessica continued on blithely, "So after the baby was born, I escaped from the maternity ward and returned to Olympus. The crew were still cataloguing and unloading their specimens, so I snuck aboard the Cora and Rahn told me how to sabotage the Power Core. I shut down all the power regulators, then set the autopilot to activate two hours later and ramp the engines up to maximum thrust. After that, it was easy to steal a ship from the drydock. I'd found a corvette awaiting a weapons upgrade and all the crew were on shore leave, so I stole the ship and returned to Arcadia."

"Why did you kill the Cora's crew?" John asked, his voice subdued. "You murdered sixteen people in cold-blood."

Jessica shrugged nonchalantly. "They were a loose end and had to be eliminated. Rahn didn't want any eyewitnesses left behind to talk about what they'd seen on Arcadia. With the Cora gone, all the ship's logs and navigation telemetry would have been destroyed." She paused and looked at him in confusion. "How did you find me, anyway?"

Alyssa saw that John was struggling, so she quietly interjected, "When the Cora docked at Olympus, all the data from the Cora was uploaded to the T-Fed archives. It was locked behind high-level security access, but we eventually discovered a lot of what happened from the logs."

"Ah, I never knew about the upload," Jessica said with a rueful frown. "That's unfortunate."

Trying to control the whirlwind of emotions he was feeling, John asked, "So why did Rahn get you pregnant then order you to leave me on Terra? There must have been some reason behind it all?"

"I've got no idea," the brunette said, with a frown. "It must have been important, because being separated from him for that long was torture."

John watched her for a long moment, his jaw clenched in barely suppressed anger. "Isn't there anything you want to ask me?"

She nodded, looking at him with concern. "How soon will it be until we can rescue Rahn?"

His eyes narrowed. "What about Don and Eva? You know... your parents? Aren't you the least bit curious about them?"

Jessica looked at him in surprise. "Oh, right. Are they okay?"

"Not really... they never got over not knowing what happened to you."

She waved her hand at him dismissively. "It's been 40 years; I doubt they even remember me now."

John bristled at her blasé attitude, finally pushed to the limit. "They're dead, you self-centred bitch! They went to their graves grieving for their lost daughter! I don't think there's a day went by that they weren't hoping for news that you were safe and well. But you... you don't give a shit about anybody, except Rahn fucking hagon!"

Jessica shrank back in her seat, shocked and frightened by his outburst.

Throwing his hands up in exasperation, John stormed out of the cockpit, no longer able to stomach the sight of his mother.

***

"Oh, fuck yeah!" Dana crowed, grinning in delight as she clutched at her head.

The girls gathered around, staring in fascination at the hourglass-shaped component surrounded by dimly-glowing coils.

"Is this even more exciting than the Progenitor version of a Solid-Phase Shield Matrix?" Sakura asked with a smile, remembering the redhead's reaction to that priceless piece of technology.

Dana laughed and nodded, her expression one of glee. "This bad boy is a Stealth Field Induction Device!" she chortled, doing a victory dance. "With one of those installed, we could unload on the bad guys and they wouldn't have a clue where it was coming from! We'll be just as hard to spot as Larn'kelnar's black ship!"

Sakura whistled appreciatively under her breath and the twins exchanged startled glances.

Jade had been pacing back and forth, but she stopped, her body obscured by a green haze as she shifted form into her normal statuesque figure. "Will this take much longer?" she asked impatiently.

Dana looked at her in surprise. "Why are you in such a rush? The tech we've found here is totally awesome. When I build us copies of all this stuff, the Invictus is going to be invincible!"

The Nymph frowned, her expression pensive. "I'm worried about John. The meeting with his mother didn't really go as expected..."

"What happened?" Sakura asked, looking at her with concern. "Alyssa didn't mention anything..."

Jade let out a heavy sigh, feeling nothing but sadness for her master. "Do you remember how wonderful you felt after seeing your parents again?"

Sakura nodded and couldn't help smiling. "I felt loved and cherished... I knew they always thought of me as a special part of their life."

"John's feeling the opposite of that," Jade said bleakly.

"Shit..." Dana muttered, her face falling. She whirled on Rachel, eyes narrowing. "That's what that weird comment was about earlier! You knew something like this might happen!"

The brunette hesitated, then slowly nodded. "Do you have much more of the ship to investigate? I'd like to get back as well... I think John's going to need our support."

The redhead deflated and gave her a helpless shrug. "It all depends on how much more of the wreck is buried underground. If the front half got blown to bits, we could be done in maybe... half-an-hour? If most of the ship's still intact, it could take at least another three hours to go room-to-room."