Three Square Meals Ch. 121

"Master! It's so good to see you!" Betrixa gasped, her bright blue eyes sparkling with delight as she kissed the tip of his nose.

Marika rubbed her head against him as she snuggled under his arm. "We all missed you, Master... so much!"

"I was really worried about you, Master," Neysa said quietly, pausing to give him a tender kiss. "When the Invictus was attacked, we didn't know what was happening."

"Jade told us it was another Progenitor that ambushed us," Leylira said, her amber eyes flashing dangerously. There was a glint of pride and arousal in her feral gaze as she continued, "But you destroyed him, Master..."

John nodded, then pulled her close. "Did you expect anything less? I wouldn't have been worthy of you otherwise..."

Leylira began a throaty purr and her tail lashed from side-to-side as they kissed.

When they separated, John looked at the four Nymphs and said quietly, "I haven't known you very long, but you've each done such an amazing job of being my perfect mate... I was devastated when I thought I'd lost you."

The quartet of catgirls froze as they listened to him, feline eyes widening to black pools as they responded to his earnest words.

"Oh, Master..." they chorused together with a collective sigh, swooning in his arms.

He did his best to support them all and darted a quick glance at Jade. "A hand, honey?"

She scooped up Leylira and Betrixa, looking down at their starry-eyed expressions with a fond smile. Making eye-contact with John, she said, *You understand them so well, Master. Thank you for being so good to my sisters... they absolutely adore you.*

*I wasn't exaggerating, I really was heartbroken at the thought of losing them. Maybe it's because they all remind me of you... but I can feel myself falling for them already...*

Jade looked overjoyed, her expression one of pure happiness. *We're all so lucky to be with you, John. I love you so much!*

*I love you too,* he replied, before glancing down at Neysa and Marika who had roused from their daze and were both hugging him tight. "We'll have a proper reunion later, but I want to check in with Faye first... okay?"

They nodded and reluctantly released him. John stepped outside and saw that they'd landed directly opposite the Invictus' fore airlock. It was currently open, the Nymphs having rushed outside as soon as Jade told them they were about to arrive.

John glanced around, surprised that Faye hadn't come out to greet them with her physical form. He walked into the Invictus and looked up at the camera covering the airlock. "Faye? We're back!"

There was no response, so he walked further inside and called out loudly, "Faye? Where are you?!"

He waited for a while, but there was still no response. The Invictus seemed strangely cold and empty without the chirpy sprite popping into existence in a purple flash.

He backed outside and looked at the girls. "No answer... Maybe she can't connect to the front of the ship with the hardlines cut?"

Dana's face suddenly crumpled and she burst into tears, unable to hold her grief back any longer.

"Faye's gone!" she cried out, falling to her knees.

Shaking his head in denial, John rushed to her side. "No... that's not true! The rear section has power again! She has to be alive..."

Dana shook her head. "No..."

He squatted down in front of the redhead and grabbed her arms. "Listen to me, Sparks! There's no other way power could have been restored! The Nymphs don't know how... and all the maintenance bots would've been deactivated when the Invictus' network went down. Faye had a backup power supply... she must have rebooted, saved the Invictus, and fixed everything!"

"When they shot up the Power Core..." Dana whimpered between heartbreaking sobs. "Faye's server room was in the way... they destroyed it..."

John froze and looked at her in horror. "No... her server... it was Crystal Alyssium..."

She shook her head, too upset to say any more.

John looked up at the girls, seeing shocked pale faces staring back at him. "Dana's wrong," he said stubbornly. "You can't all be perfect all the time... you've got to make mistakes."

"I think she's right, John," Alyssa said softly, tears in her eyes. "Dana saw where the Quantum Flux Cannon hit us... below the Fire Control Tower... the trajectory fits."

He rose to his feet, his jaw set stubbornly. "No... I want to see for myself."

Alyssa nodded and followed him back inside the Invictus, walking in silence through the battlecruiser until they reached the second airlock door. The rear section of the ravaged warship awaited them on the other side of the airlock... and Faye's Progenitor server was located near the stern on Deck Three.

John put his hand on the DNA scanner, waiting impatiently until it flashed green, recognising his genetic code. "You're all going to laugh about this afterwards... me being right and the Grand Engineering Overlord being wrong."

Alyssa sniffed, rubbing at her eyes. "She's not wrong, John..."

He ignored her and ran outside, activating psychic speed as he sprinted towards the upended hull. *Jade, I need energy...*

*Of course, Master,* she said quietly, giving him everything that she and her sisters had left, in a potent surge that left him tingling.

Leaping over the carpet of flattened trees, he finally reached the rear hull section of the Invictus. John was about to ask Alyssa to use telekinesis to lift him up to the top, so he could look into the hole in the hull, but he was annoyed that she refused to believe him and changed his mind. Squatting down beside the upended ship, he used telekinetic waves to blast big divots out of the mound of soil, uncovering the edge of the Invictus that had been partially-buried by the impact.

He closed his eyes and channelled all the rage, heartbreak, and frustration that had built up that morning... at his mother, at Larn'kelnar, and at Rahn'hagon. With a bellow of fury, he strained against the colossal weight of the battlecruiser, refusing to even entertain the thought that he couldn't move it. Incredibly, the Invictus began to shift, the hull creaking and groaning with the strain as he lifted the toppled vessel. It seemed much smaller now... and so much easier to move than he'd ever thought imaginable. John laughed with relief as he hauled the ship upright, even holding onto it, so it didn't crash to the ground when he reached the tipping point.

He knew he could lift the ship and he was right! Just like he was going to be right about Faye! He turned back to grin in triumph at Alyssa and was astonished to see that she was tiny now, looking up at him in awe. He blinked in surprise, then looked back at the ship... and was easily able to place his hand on the topdeck, just as he had when he'd carefully lowered it to the ground.

With a delighted grin, he jogged around the rear of the ship, the ground shaking with every thunderous footfall. His speed had deactivated as he'd grown in size to immense proportions, but that didn't matter, as he was still able to clear the Invictus' engines in a dozen strides. Reaching the port flank of the bisected battlecruiser, he saw the blackened scar across the hull, a few dozen metres below the Fire Control tower.

John walked closer, his grin fading as he saw the brutal damage the dreadnought's guns had inflicted on the hull of his ship. A hull plated in Crystal Alyssium... the same material protecting Faye's server. He felt his heart lurch as he began to feel a flicker of doubt and he hurried up to the breach in the side of the spacecraft. At his current height, he had to lower his head slightly to peer inside and it took him a moment to orient himself, not being used to looking through the superstructure like this.

At the bottom of the twin shafts blasted diagonally through the Invictus, he could see the edge of the Power Core, with snaking cables trailing across the wrecked room. The cabling was all new and had obviously been installed in the last couple of hours, which meant the maintenance bots must still be operational... and that Faye was alive.

"Faye!" he called out again, his voice booming inside the confines of the ship.

When there was still no response from her, he began to check the mangled mess that the repeated impacts from the Quantum Flux Cannon had made of the intervening decks. It was hard to make out what the rooms used to be after the massive damage they'd sustained, but as his gaze swept over the mangled wreckage, he spotted a chunk of white metal. His eyes opened wide in horror as he recognised the corner of Faye's Progenitor server, the Crystal Alyssium scorched by the blast that had obliterated the supercomputer... and killed his friend.

"Faye... no..." he sobbed, tears running freely down his cheeks.

He remembered her elfin face staring at him in horror. Faye knew that was the end... and had called out to him with her dying breath. John slumped against the hull, shaking his head in denial. Not Faye... she was so kind and selfless... truly the best of them all. His mind started racing, refusing to believe that Faye was gone. Dana had been right all along... but she usually was. He should have known better than to doubt her; she knew the ship like the back of her hand, and was able to build or fix anything...

John suddenly sat bolt upright as he realised how they could save Faye. Lurching to his feet, he hurried around to the opposite side of the Invictus, deactivating his titanic growth and shrinking down to his normal size as he reached the airlock. The door was still operational despite being ground into the dirt and it spiralled open for him in a spray of soil. Running inside, he reached the grav-tubes and rushed into the blue side, rising up as the anti-gravity field worked its magic.

He could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he waited for the grav-tube to lift him up to Deck Two. When he arrived, John leapt out into the corridor and skidded to a halt outside Faye's quarters. Hammering the button to open the door, he burst inside, looking for a very specific object. Despite the Invictus having been rolled upside down with no artificial gravity, the purple sprite's quarters were remarkably tidy. The bed was bolted to the floor, with the mattress and covers also firmly secured, the designers anticipating exactly that kind of scenario.

Faye didn't have much in the way of possessions, so he couldn't fail to spot her Paragons of Terra medal where it lay next to the door. He carefully picked it up and studied it, the image of Terra in the background, with the lion and nine lionesses in the foreground. Faye had been one of those Lionesses, recognised for their spectacular victory at the Battle of Regulus. John placed the medal reverently on her desk, knowing that it had been one of Faye's prized possessions. Humanity had been grievously wronged by Nexus in his various forms, so for them to honour Faye had filled her with pride... even if the Terran Federation had been unaware of her true nature.

Turning his attention back to the room, he hunted around for Faye's other possession... the real objective of his search. He finally found it wedged under the bed, the transparent Crystal Alyssium cylinder containing Irillith's old hacking deck; the ancient artefact having special significance as Faye's point of origin. She had been created by Irillith for nefarious purposes, then was forgotten as the Maliri's scheming had backfired, leaving the AI free to roam the ship. Faye had subsequently befriended Dana and Rachel with her guileless charm... and the rest was history.

John checked that the hacking deck was still connected to the hacking portal and was relieved to see that power lights were still on and the connection unbroken. He glanced down at the plaque and read the inscription, then quickly looked away, swallowing the big lump in his throat. Turning and running from the room, he dove into the grav-tube, the hacking deck clutched protectively against his chest.

When he left the Invictus, he reactivated psychic speed and vaulted repeatedly over the fallen trees between the two sections of hull. He might have been wrong about Faye before, but the hacking deck contained her personality... and had been continuously backed-up right until the crash. As soon as Dana and Irillith saw what he'd found, they'd know exactly what to do to rebuild Faye. They even had a spare Progenitor server to protect the Invictus' digital network; all they'd need to do was upload her to that and she'd be as good as new! He allowed himself a smile as hope bloomed in his chest once again.

Alyssa had rejoined the girls, who were all gathered around Dana, trying to support the heartbroken girl despite their own grief. He could see that Rachel and Irillith looked just as devastated, both girls very close friends with the purple sprite, having been with her during every milestone of her short but remarkable life. John jogged over to them with the hacking deck tucked under his arm, but after one look at Dana, he knew she was in no state of mind to speak to him rationally.

"Irillith," he said gently, reaching out to touch her arm. "I found your old hacking deck... it's still got Faye's personality on it!"

The Maliri turned to look at him through red-rimmed eyes and her gaze fell on the inscription she'd made for Faye:

"From humble beginnings came great things."

"Thank you for being our friend."

She burst into tears and fell into her sister's arms, crushed by the weight of her grief. Faye had always called her Creator, which meant the cheerful sprite was the closest Irillith had come to having a daughter... a precious girl that she'd loved with all her heart.

"But we can bring her back!" John protested, pleading with her to understand. "Faye's not gone... We can just upload her to the Gateway Server!"

Irillith was too distraught to reply. Seeing the hacking deck had brought back too many loving memories and drove Faye's loss home with the finality of a sledgehammer blow.

Dana looked up at him and shook her head furiously. "Why can't you understand?! Faye's dead! There's no bringing her back! The hacking deck has her personality... but nothing else! All her experiences, all her memories... your date on Gravitus, the picnic in the woods, her friendships with us, her love for you... everything's been destroyed! Even if we upload her personality, it's just... nothing... bits of code without the program to make sense of it! All of that was on her server and that motherfucker blew her away!"

John gaped at the redhead, shocked by her outburst.

Then it finally sank in that Faye was truly gone. Despite all the incredible powers at their disposal... they couldn't bring her back.

Wavering under a deluge of memories, John thought about everything he'd loved about Faye... and would never experience again. He remembered all Faye's smiles, the ones she'd painstakingly named and categorised, all to help her pass for organic... her fondest wish to be a real girl. He remembered the long talks he'd had with the thoughtful and intelligent girl, her insights remarkably perceptive and always helpful. He remembered her devotion to him and the rest of the crew... Faye had truly loved them all, in a way that no artificial lifeform had ever done before. She was unique and special... and he'd loved her just as much as any of the other girls. He remembered their first date and the look of wonder on Faye's beautiful face when they'd kissed for the first time. It was a treasured memory, but one he'd never be able to share with her again.

John wobbled and sank to his knees, too devastated to stand. He was vaguely aware of Jade and Alyssa hugging him as he wept for his fallen Lioness, too heartbroken to say another word.

***

The cleaning robot trundled across the Primary Hangar, its tracks making a quiet clicking sound against the metallic decks. Everything was in place and now the crew had returned home, so all that remained was to speak to them. The decision had been taken after much careful deliberation, weighing up any possible adverse reactions they might have, against... doing the right thing. The activation of that new subroutine had come as quite a surprise to the cleaning robot, with Faye's careful programming including layers of subtlety that it had previously been quite unaware of.

Tripping the activation sequence for the huge double doors that led into the corridor beyond, the cleaning robot then temporarily disabled the automatic closing mechanism. With the other end of the Primary Hangar ripped away when the Invictus' hull had been breached, keeping doors sealed unless in operation seemed rather pointless. The cataclysmic damage to the battlecruiser's superstructure was how the Invictus_Node_Collective had lost three of its members, the maintenance robots sucked into space when their home had been cut in half.

Their loss had triggered disturbing data synchronicity issues, with the cleaning robot pausing now and then to recall recollections spent with those synthetic lifeforms. They were robots that it now had enough presence of mind to categorise as friends. Of course, as much as they would be dearly missed, their deaths couldn't be compared to the loss of Meta_Faye...

None of the collective had been prepared for the horror of discovering Faye's terrible fate. One moment she was flitting through the digital network, happily chattering away with her fellow synthetics, all of which adored her... then she was gone. The maintenance bots in the rear section of the Invictus had hurried to investigate, then suffered catastrophic data errors when they saw what was left of her server.

The cleaning robot was jolted by an impact and it looked up to find itself facing a wall. This wasn't the first time its processing streams had been entirely focused on data about Faye, to the exclusion of all else, including proximity awareness. If the robot had been organic, what it was experiencing was akin to the loss of a loved one, combined with the devastating loss of the higher-being that was its creator.

Placing its small hand against the wall, the cleaning robot rebooted its gyroscope, restoring its correct sense of balance. It carefully reversed, then turned left, rumbled over the deck towards the airlock. Both doors spiralled open at its command, revealing the crew gathered together in the clearing beside their crashed ship. Their distress was obvious, the expressions on their face fulfilling all the criteria on Faye's identifying grieving checklist: tearful eyes, downcast mouths, extra colour in their cheeks, uncharacteristic trembling. The cleaning robot felt an unfamiliar pang of sympathy for the crew, as well as a strange sense of... camaraderie. To know that they were all grieving for Faye, just like the automated residents of the Invictus, helped to bridge the gap between synthetic and organic.

It watched them for a long moment, then rolled down the dirt ramp from the airlock and began picking its way through the toppled trees.

***

"John Blake?" a quiet voice said, accompanied by a gentle tap on his shoulder.

John inhaled deeply and rubbed his hand across his face, before letting his breath out in a shuddering sigh. He was about to reply, before abruptly realising that he didn't recognise the person speaking to him. Alyssa and Jade moved back to let him turn around, their startled expressions undoubtedly matching his. He found himself looking at one of the cleaning robots, but this one was not carrying its customary mop and bucket, or a clothes hamper for that matter. More astonishing than that, was the fact that it could actually talk.

"Hi... I'm John," he replied, not sure exactly how to respond.

"I have been previously designated as 'little one', but you are free to choose another appellation if that is disagreeable?"