Three Square Meals Ch. 121

Slumping in his restraints, John was left with no other option than to wait for either the girls to find some way of freeing him, or for Larn'kelnar to return for his chat. As much as John was desperate to escape captivity, he found himself intrigued to finally speak to his opponent and find out some much-needed answers to a whole host of questions.

***

Sakura padded along the corridor, her heightened senses attuned for the slightest sound or movement. She performed a cursory check for security cameras, searching the walls and ceiling for any protrusions or indentations that might conceal some form of hidden surveillance. Just like on Rahn'hagon's ship, there seemed to be no internal security, a fact that had astounded her at first. Rachel then pointed out that Progenitors were so arrogant, they probably never anticipated anyone would dare to sneak aboard their ship.

That had prompted several jokes from the girls about learning that lesson the hard way, when a certain someone had snuck aboard the Invictus and crashed Jade's birthday party. Sakura smiled at the memory of the girls teasing her. There was no malice in their light-hearted banter. Calara, who had lost an arm in Shinatobe's attack, had previously told her that she looked back on that day as a blessing, because it led to them finding and freeing Sakura. The Asian girl had never felt such a sense of total acceptance before, from friends or family... and she considered the girls to be both.

Frowning at herself for getting distracted, Sakura focused on the intersection ahead. The stakes were incredibly high, with everyone she cared about counting on her to execute this mission flawlessly. She heard the sound of voices and froze, tilting her head slightly to get a better idea where they were coming from. The language was one she was unfamiliar with, but it sounded very similar to the quiet conversations the twins sometimes had in Maliri.

Sakura's white armour was a hindrance, but not an insurmountable one. Stealth was as much about positioning as it was concealment; simply staying out of a target's line of sight was always superior than attempting to fool the eye. Activating the anti-gravity generators in her vambraces and boots, Sakura hovered above the ground and pressed herself against the arched ceiling, hugging the left-hand wall. Seconds later, a pair of thralls appeared from the left tunnel and crossed the intersection. One even glanced down the corridor that Sakura had been standing in only moment earlier, but by that time, the thrall's field of vision was limited to a tunnel eclipsing the upper right corner... where the assassin was hiding.

The minutes ticked by as more thralls walked past in groups of twos or threes, with Sakura lurking like a spider, waiting for the right prey to fall into her clutches. As a group of oblivious thralls passed by, she heard lone footsteps approaching from the corridor directly ahead. The footsteps came to an abrupt halt and the faint rasp of a serrated door opening reached Sakura's ears.

Risking a swift glance around the black arch she was hiding behind, Sakura saw a woman walking through an open door along the corridor opposite. Deactivating the anti-gravity systems in her Paragon suit, the assassin landed like a cat without making a sound, then sprinted across the intersection. She risked darting a look into the room and saw her target studying a holographic display, the thrall standing before impressive-looking machinery.

The door started to close, so Sakura slipped through, deciding to take the chance that the thrall technician was the only person in the room. Unfortunately, she wasn't. There were two other thralls talking together by a console on the far left of the storage room, their melodic voices carrying clearly around the chamber. The technician joined in the conversation, speaking that same lilting language. Grimacing at her poor luck, Sakura made a split-second decision and tapped the same glyph she'd seen Jade use to open the doors.

Without checking to see if the portal had started opening again, she waited for the technician to stop speaking, then scuttled forward and thumped her on the back of her head with a ninjato's pommel. The blow accelerated by Sakura's speed made the thrall's head snap forward, bruising her brain and instantly knocking her unconscious without so much as a startled cry. With her target moving in slow motion, Sakura had enough time to place both swords on the ground and deftly catch the falling woman. She picked up the blades and laid them across the thrall's limp body, then scooped her up, weapons and all.

When one of the thralls manning the consoles spoke to the technician a few moments later, there was no answer. She turned to look and saw the door spiralling shut again, so she shrugged and returned to her work.

Sakura padded down the corridor back towards the intersection, then froze when she heard more voices coming from the left. Instead of backing away, she rushed up to the junction and made a swiping gesture with her fingers, creating an icy handful of hail that she flicked along the corridor. She aimed her frozen flurry along the wall, so that it didn't strike any of the thralls and fortunately she heard no cries of pain.

The icy pellets made a skittering sound as they hit the metal decking, so she dared a swift glance down the corridor and smiled when she saw the trio of thralls had all turned to look. Rushing across the intersection, she ran swiftly and silently along the corridor to the door, which began to open as she approached. Diving through and spinning around to the side, she was already out of sight by the time the thralls passed the crossroads.

Sakura carefully placed the unconscious thrall on the deck in front of her friends. "There you go. I got you a chatty one..."

"She doesn't look particularly talkative at the moment," Calara said, raising an eyebrow.

Rachel glanced at Alyssa. "Do you want me to heal her?"

Alyssa shook her head. "We can't risk it. If she starts feeling fear or anxiety, it might tip off Larn'kelnar's matriarch." She turned to Sakura and looked at her questioningly.

The Asian girl gave her a wry smile. "She never knew what hit her... instant knockout."

"Well done," the blonde said with an appreciative nod, before kneeling down beside the unconscious young woman.

Alyssa placed a hand on the black decking as she knelt, then snatched it back, a shiver of revulsion running down her spine. Focusing on the thrall, her cerulean eyes started to glow and she began her assault on the alien woman's mind.

Rachel squatted down beside the thrall and studied her in fascination. "Athletic build, five-foot-nine, angular eyes, beautiful..." She gently brushed aside the woman's dark flowing locks. "Pointed ears too. They're strictly adhering to the Progenitor's standard template."

"They obviously don't share the Maliri's aversion to long hair," Sakura observed, pointing to the wavy tresses.

"That was a cultural development. The Maliri who weren't enthralled were rejecting Mael'nerak's preferences..." Rachel murmured distractedly, examining the almost jet-black mane. "It's also interesting her hair is dark, even though she's a thrall; Mael'nerak's Maliri and now John's both have white hair. I assumed that was a sign of Progenitor influence... but perhaps there's another factor at play."

"Light-green skin," Calara noted, looking at their prisoner's flawless complexion. "Alyssa said that Rahn'hagon's thralls were red and the ones she saw invading the Legacy had yellow skin. I wonder how many different colours there are?"

"I always loved your blue skin, it reminds me of the ocean," Helene murmured to the twins, while gently stroking Tashana's arm. "I'm glad that John is Protector to the Maliri... you're both so beautiful and kind..." Her voice trailed off as she saw the hate-filled glares they were aiming at the thrall.

The Maliri sisters stopped shooting daggers at their prisoner to give Helene a terse nod in gratitude, then quickly returned their attention to the unconscious woman.

Rachel's professional curiosity was piqued as she watched the furious pair. "Your reaction to her can't be linked to skin tone... neither of you have ever behaved this way towards any of us. What do you find so offensive about this thrall?"

"She's one of Larn'kelnar's minions," Irillith snarled, her lip curling with distaste. "We should kill her as soon as possible..."

Tashana's violet eyes blazed with fury, fiery sprites cavorting around her fingertips. "I'll take care of it..." She glanced at Alyssa. "Are you finished interrogating her, Matriarch?"

"Nearly..." the blonde murmured.

"Perhaps it's linked to a thrall species being 'claimed'?" Rachel mused, studying the twins, before returning her attention to the unconscious woman. "In which case, this antipathy will no doubt be reciprocated by Larn'kelnar's thralls towards the Maliri. It would be fascinating to wake her up and see if I'm right."

"Her name's Yalera. She's a Larathyran and Larn'kelnar rules their Empire," Alyssa said, the glow fading from her eyes as she ended her telepathic interrogation. Her melancholy gaze fell on the unconscious thrall. "She was recruited by him 72 years ago, at the tail end of a war of extermination against a civilisation called the Concordiat of Arntriss. She watched as he obliterated the Arntriss homeworld with a Quantum Annihilator..."

"Another thrall species?" Rachel asked in a hushed voice.

Alyssa shook her head. "No, they were insectoids."

"Did you find out what Larn'kelnar's doing here?" Calara asked, looking intently at her lover.

"Yalera doesn't know and they've been here for nearly eight months. All the thralls are wondering why their return to the Larathyran Empire is taking so long... and Ailanthia hasn't given them any kind of explanation."

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Ailanthia?"

"Larn'kelnar's matriarch," Alyssa replied, rising to her feet. She glanced at Dana and nodded. "You were right about the location of their armoury. There's actually two of them, located amidships on opposite sides of the Barracks. We need to get down to Deck Four."

Irillith cleared her throat. "What are we doing about the thrall?"

"We'll offer them the same mercy they showed us..." Alyssa replied, her eyes going cold.

Jade shimmered beside them, her form obscured in a green aura. "Wait!"

When the shimmering faded away, her body was a much lighter skin-tone, mimicking Yalera perfectly. The Nymph crouched down beside the incapacitated woman and stripped off the thrall technician's jumpsuit before pulling it on herself. "What do you think?" she asked, standing to attention before them. "Technician Yalera reporting for duty, my Lord."

"You look exactly like her," Rachel said, before studying the twins, who showed no adverse reaction to Jade's new appearance. "Interesting..."

Alyssa glanced at Sakura, who dropped to a knee and plunged a ninjato into the Larathyran thrall's heart, instantly killing her. Turning to Tashana the blonde said, "Dispose of the body please. We can't risk it being found."

The Maliri nodded, immolating the corpse in a blazing inferno and leaving nothing but a blackened scar on the decking.

Helene watched wide-eyed, stunned by the swift and merciless execution.

Alyssa moved to stand in front of the aquatic girl and met her shocked gaze with one of sympathy. "I'm sorry, Helene. I know John wanted to protect you from the grim realities of war, but we've got no choice here... this is going to get brutal. We couldn't take that thrall with us as a prisoner and if she was found unconscious, the alarm would've been raised. John's life, ours, all our friends, and the lives of billions of innocent people are hanging in the balance. We never wanted this fight with Larn'kelnar, but now he's started it, we're going to stop at nothing to finish it. Do you understand?"

She let out a sad sigh. "I do..."

***

Ailanthia stretched contentedly on the bed, her hand rubbing her swollen belly. "Mmm... that tasted like victory, my Lord."

Larn'kelnar laughed and rolled onto his side, placing his hand on hers. "How appropriate... after all, there's nothing even approximating a threat to me now."

"Blake was a threat?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and smirking.

"Hardly," he agreed, giving her a final kiss before rising from bed.

"Which of our guests do you plan on interrogating next?" Ailanthia asked, lounging on the silken sheets.

"Rahn'hagon is a stubborn old fool, but I'll break him eventually..." Larn'kelnar muttered, his jaw clenching in irritation. His mood lightened as he started getting dressed. "For now, I'd like to have a little chat with Blake... assuming he's woken from his nap."

His matriarch grinned, then cradled her rounded stomach. "If it's alright with you, my Lord, I might rest a while."

He leaned down to kiss her curved abdomen, then pulled up the covers. "Of course, my dear. You are sleeping for two now..."

Ailanthia let out a blissful sigh, then waved him goodbye with a loving smile.

***

Sakura led her friends down the corridor, her nerves on edge as she tried to stealthily infiltrate the group through the dreadnought. Despite the girls' best efforts to be quiet, every scuffed footstep sounded deafeningly loud to the tense assassin. However, with a combination of luck and ice pellet distractions, they'd managed to weave their way along a maze of corridors without being caught.

So far...

They crossed an intersection and Sakura froze, seeing the elevator doors they were heading for begin to open. "Go back!"

Dana pointed along the corridor to the right and hissed, "We can get down to Deck Four over that way!"

They hurried down the corridor and as they passed a black door on their left, the serrated join started to split apart. Alyssa's eyes widened in alarm and she snapped her fingers, jamming the door half-way open with several telekinetic hands, which prevented the quartered sections from peeling back into the frame. There was a startled exclamation from inside the room as the door juddered, but refused to open more than a few inches.

The girls jogged along after Dana, who stopped to tap a section of wall, making the surface crack open with a hiss. It slid aside, revealing a ladder in a maintenance tube. "Quick, in here!"

Sakura stepped into the tube and dropped out of sight, activating the Paragon suit's anti-grav generators once she was out of the way. Calara grasped the rungs and started rapidly descending, with the rest of the girls following after her. Once everyone was safely inside, Alyssa released her telekinetic hold on the door opposite and floated down the tube after Jessica, being careful not to touch the black walls. That just left Dana to tap a glyph on the wall and follow Alyssa down the ladder as the wall panel closed behind them.

By the time the black door slid open and the irritated thrall finally left the room, there was no trace of the intruders.

***

John waited in the dimly-lit prison, trying to distract himself from his heartbreaking sense of loss, whenever he thought about Faye or the Nymphs. Unfortunately, that meant his troubled mind just started reliving the meeting with his mother that morning. As much as it hurt knowing that Jessica couldn't care less about abandoning him, to see her complete lack of remorse about the way she'd just left her parents without saying a word, was as heartbreaking as it was infuriating. His mother had never returned to the Blake family home, but John had grown up there and it was like her ghost haunted the house after her mysterious disappearance.

There were the obvious signs she was missed, like the numerous photographs placed around the home, and the candle his grandmother lit on Jessica's birthday. Then there were the not so obvious ones... like the faded markings on the kitchen wall, where Don and Eva had measured their daughter's height as she grew from a toddler. Neither of his grandparents could bring themselves to paint over those treasured memories and John had lost count of the times he'd seen the profound sadness in their eyes that those marks had triggered.

He knew that Jessica wasn't really to blame. Rahn'hagon's influence over her was so complete, he had eclipsed all aspects of her previous life. However, John couldn't help wishing that she'd been strong enough to fight the enthrallment, or even disobey him and make a break for freedom when she'd returned to Terra... anything to have saved her parents nearly 40 years of sorrow.

He knew it was irrational, but John couldn't help wondering if he bore some of the blame himself for not ending his grandparents' torment. If he'd embraced his Progenitor destiny years earlier, he might have been able to visit Arcadia while his grandparents were still alive. Even if Jessica refused to return to Terra, he could have still told his grandparents what had happened to their daughter and given them some closure before they passed away.

With those maudlin thoughts rolling through his mind, it actually came as a relief when the door slid open, admitting his captor.

"Ah... Admiral John Blake, Lion of the Federation has finally awoken from his slumbers," Larn'kelnar said with a mocking smile. "What a mouthful... For the sake of brevity, I'll just call you John."

John studied the other Progenitor, finally meeting him for the first time. He could see the similarities to Mael'nerak straight away, with his aquiline nose, penetrating eyes, and muscular build. Larn'kelnar was clean shaven and his hair kept short, making his pointed ears as apparent as his youthful features. If John had to hazard a guess, he would have estimated his age at 25, but he knew that would have probably been off by at least several millennia.

Although he owed the man a huge debt of pain for what he'd so callously done to Faye and the Nymphs, John managed to control his temper. Restrained as he was, raging against Larn'kelnar would have been pointless, and this was an opportunity to actually learn something about this mysterious opponent who'd had him dancing to his tune for the last six months.

"And you must be Larn'kelnar..." John replied, meeting the other man's curious gaze.

"That would be me," his nemesis said with a slight bow, strolling across the room. He raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Would you be offended if I removed your helmet? I can't really get a good look at you while you're hiding under there..."

Taken aback by the man's politeness, John shrugged. "Go ahead."

Larn'kelnar gestured towards him and to John's surprise, his Paragon helmet lifted clear.

"You're so... old..." Larn'kelnar muttered, staring at him in fascination.

The white helmet floated over to join John's runesword on the table.

"How are you doing that?!" John blurted out, shocked that Larn'kelnar could use telekinesis within the psychic dampening field.

Shaking his head in amusement, the other Progenitor smiled. "It's simply a matter of possessing sufficient psychic strength to overcome an Eldritch Inhibitor." He placed a hand on his chest. "I am strong..." Then he gestured towards John. "And you are weak."

The smug condescending attitude was really starting to grate on John's already frayed temper, but he tried not to let it show. "I think that's a given, considering you just destroyed my ship and I'm stuck as your prisoner."

Larn'kelnar nodded, taking a sip from his goblet. His eyes began to glow with a dark grey light, fixing John with an unblinking stare.

Despite no longer having access to his psychic powers, John could sense Larn'kelnar making tentative contact with his mind. He braced himself for the inevitable mental assault and his Progenitor adversary didn't disappoint. With the titanic power behind Larn'kelnar's telepathic blow, John felt like he'd been hit by a metaphysical truck. It was all he could do to hunker down and shore up his mental defences as the mind-shattering blows struck again and again. Just as quickly as the telepathic offensive started, it ended abruptly and when John opened his eyes again, he saw Larn'kelnar frowning in irritation.