Three Square Meals Ch. 122

There were thirteen chairs available, just enough for all the girls, so Sakura turned and said, "I'll get another from the storage rooms. I'll be right back."

John shook his head and guided her to his chair at the head of the table. "We can sort that out later, honey. Don't worry, I'll stand for now."

She nodded and sat in his chair, trying not to feel too self-conscious at taking his place.

After patting her on the shoulder, John walked over to one of the windows and stared out at Arcadia's lush jungle. "So much has happened, I'm not sure where to even start..." he murmured, placing his forearm on the glass and leaning his head against it.

"You said there was something urgent to discuss?" Calara reminded him.

"Right..." he agreed, turning back to face the girls. "We have to assume another Progenitor will be arriving at Arcadia imminently. We need to patch up the Invictus asap and get the hell out of here."

Dana gave him a troubled look. "The ship got cut in half! It's going to take me weeks to rig up a haulage system powerful enough to realign the two sections of the hull!"

Alyssa shook her head. "John can move it... he's strong enough."

"What?" the redhead asked in confusion.

"I rolled it earlier... that's how it's upright," he explained quietly. "I was angry... no one would believe me about Faye..." His voice trailed off into a heavy sigh.

Dana gaped at him. "But... it must weigh nearly 100,000 tons..." she whispered in awe.

"I wasn't bench pressing it," he said, managing a smile. "I should be able to drag it into position, although I might need some telekinetic assistance from Alyssa."

"Sure, handsome," she said, nodding her agreement.

"I guess after that we just need to weld the two halves together with Crystal Alyssium, then reconnect all the power couplings?" John asked, looking expectantly at Dana for an answer.

She blinked for a moment, still trying to get her head around the thought of John moving something as immense as the Invictus. "Ah... no," she said reluctantly. "There's more to it than that I'm afraid. We'll need to check the hull integrity and fix any damage to the superstructure, as well as repair all the shattered armour. To make the ship spaceworthy, it'll need to withstand the stress when we're leaving Arcadia's atmosphere, then be resilient enough not to rip itself apart in hyper-warp."

"How long?" he prompted her.

Dana gave him a helpless shrug. "I dunno for sure... a week? Maybe less if we can get the maintenance bots to pitch in?"

John shook his head. "That's way too long. With a Wormhole Generator, a Progenitor ship could be here in the next few hours!"

"Would they really jump straight here though?" Calara asked, her brow furrowing. "If Xar'aziuth is aware that Larn'kelnar has just been killed, why would he send another Progenitor to the exact same spot knowing the danger?"

Tashana nodded, a speculative look in her violet eyes. "Are we sure that Xar'aziuth even knows exactly where Larn'kelnar was when he died? I thought the Shroud obscured this part of the galaxy..."

"They're both excellent points," John conceded, looking at each of the girls in turn. "But we have to assume the worst. Rahn'hagon was convinced we'll be getting company very soon and he knows how they operate. With the Invictus crippled, we're incredibly vulnerable right now and in no position to fight a full-strength Progenitor."

"Even before we got wrecked, the Invictus stood no chance against one of those black ships," Dana said glumly.

John's expression turned grim. "And we're going to do something about that, but not right now."

"Instead of rushing to try to fix the Invictus and escape Arcadia... what if we just hid instead?" Sakura suggested, her tone thoughtful.

"What do you mean?" John asked curiously.

"Shit yeah! That's a great idea!" Dana enthused, her blue eyes sparkling. "We could strip the Stealth Field Generator from Rahn'hagon's ship! If I hook it up to the Invictus, they'd never spot us!"

"Exactly," Sakura said nodding her agreement. "Once we're obscured from their sensors, we could spend as much time as we need to get the Invictus spaceworthy again."

Rachel looked sceptical. "Even if we aren't detectable by their sensors, won't 750 metres of sparkling white ship be easily spotted with a visual scan of the surface? We must stick out like a sore thumb amongst all this jungle."

Sakura turned to look at Dana. "Perhaps you could rig up some large-scale holo-projectors? They wouldn't have to be anything fancy... just copy the ones Mikaboshi used to conceal Yomi-no-kuni."

"Yeah, I could do that no problem!" the redhead enthused, thinking about the holographic field that had hidden the assassin's mountain base.

John mulled that over for a moment, then frowned. "Hiding won't save us if they decide to blow away the planet with a Quantum Annihilator..."

Dana shook her head and grinned. "That's one thing we don't have to worry about; they're way too big to fit on a Progenitor dreadnought. The one on the moon was 15 km wide!"

"I wonder what they are mounted on then?" John pondered aloud. With a shrug, he gave the girls a relieved smile. "So... we strip what we need from Rahn'hagon's wrecked ship, hook up the stealth device to the Invictus, then cover the crash site in a holo field?"

"That should do the trick," Dana agreed. "I can start the Mass Fabricators running immediately, so we should have the holo-projectors ready in about... four hours?" She glanced up at the camera in the ceiling and added, "Faye, can you ask your boys to help?"

She froze and her sky-blue eyes misted with tears. "Shit, I forgot..."

John walked around the table and hugged Dana as she slumped dejectedly in her chair. "I know, honey. I keep looking for her too."

"I still can't believe she's gone," the redhead whispered, leaning into his chest.

John stroked her auburn hair, "We'll see her again... Irillith's going to make her as good as new, remember?"

Dana nodded and brushed at her eyes. "I know, but that might take years. I really miss her..."

"We all do," he said sadly, giving her a sympathetic squeeze.

The room had gone quiet and John glanced around at everyone's melancholy expressions.

"I'm sorry, girls... but we don't have time to grieve for Faye right now," he said with a rueful frown. "Let's just get this done so the Invictus is safe. We've still got a bunch of other things to discuss, like the battle with Larn'kelnar, all the tech Dana found, and what we're going to do in the future... but that can all wait until later this evening, okay?"

The girls all nodded their agreement, then Dana said, "One last thing, John... We need to rejoin the Invictus so that the stealth field will cover the whole ship, otherwise a sensor scan will pick up the metal in whichever half isn't concealed."

He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, then stood up. "Alright then... me and Alyssa can handle that."

"I'll start the Mass Fabricators running, then head over to your dad's ship to loot it for parts," Dana said, before looking at the girls. "I'm going to need some help lugging all that shit out of there though..."

"I'll help," Jade volunteered. "I should be strong enough to move anything you want."

Sakura straightened in her seat. "I'll take the Valkyrie and go with you."

"Did it take any damage in the crash?" John asked, turning to the Asian girl.

"I haven't had a chance to check yet," she replied. "I'll take a look as soon as we're done here."

Alyssa tapped her fingers on the desk. "We need to think about retrieving the Raptor too at some point."

John looked at her in surprise. "I thought that was destroyed! Didn't it crash into the planet?"

"Larn'kelnar's ship was in low orbit when he ambushed us," the blonde replied. "We hadn't escaped Arcadia's gravity when the Invictus got cut in half, so it got pulled back to the planet, but the Raptor was tractor-beamed up to his ship. It should just be floating around in orbit somewhere."

"Alright... well let's focus on getting the Invictus patched up for now," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We can collect the Raptor when we leave, then repair it on the way back to Genthalas."

"Sure," Alyssa agreed with an amiable shrug. "It's not like we need it right now anyway. We can use the Progenitor shuttle to ferry things around."

John paused and turned to look at Dana. "You've got the schematics for a Wormhole Generator, right? Any chance we can build one here and just... jump back to Maliri Space?"

The redhead gave him a wistful look. "I got the schematics alright and it's amazing... by far the most advanced tech we've found so far. Unfortunately, it's not something I can just throw together and plug into the ship. We'll need to make some modifications to the Invictus' hull to incorporate the gravitational field stabilisers and the wormhole catalyser needs to be constructed from black metal. If I try building it out of Crystal Alyssium, the gravimetric forces involved would rip the generator apart and that would be... really bad."

"We're talking another Niryean Rift?" he asked quietly.

Dana hesitated for a moment and looking surprised, slowly shook her head. "Actually, no. The Invictus would get blown to bits, but the blast wouldn't take out an entire system. Mael'nerak must have done something else to create an explosion that immense."

"Alright... well not to worry about the Wormhole Generator. I thought you might run into the same old problem of needing the black metal, but I wanted to check."

"Sorry," she replied with a helpless shrug. "I'll do some more analysis on the trip back home."

"John... before we end the meeting, there's something important I think we really need to discuss," Irillith said, her expression pensive.

"The maintenance bots?" John asked, raising an eyebrow.

She looked startled by his perceptiveness, then nodded. "Yes... and more specifically, what Faye's done to them."

"It seems pretty obvious to me that she's been experimenting with Artificial Intelligence," he said, leaning against the back of Sakura's chair. "I've been seeing quirky little affectations from the bots for months... so this has been going on a long time."

"I've noticed that too," Dana said, looking forlorn. "At the time, I thought the bots giving me high-fives was just something fun that Faye had added in to their programming... but now... I'm pretty sure they were genuinely celebrating with me."

Irillith leaned back in her chair and darting an anxious glance at John. "What do you want to do about the robots? It seems as though we're dealing with a nascent AI collective."

He shrugged. "I guess we find out what we can and try to make friends with them?"

The Maliri looked at him in surprise. "You're not concerned? Considering Terran history with rogue AI, I thought you'd be considerably more cautious."

John sighed and shook his head. "Faye built them. I refuse to believe that something she created would put any of us in danger. She loved us... and keeping us safe was something she took incredibly seriously. I just wish Faye had trusted me enough to tell me what she was doing."

"Don't blame yourself for that; Faye didn't tell any of us either," Irillith gently reminded him. "She must have known that Dana or I would have been supportive of her work, but she chose to keep it from us too."

"Without her memory files, we'll never know what she was planning," he said with resignation. "As I say, I'm sure the robots are benign. They've been nothing but helpful in the past, so I think they've earned a considerable amount of trust."

"Master?" Neysa said quietly, drawing his attention.

"Yes, honey?" he replied, surprised at the Nymph's interruption.

"This one is certain you are correct," she said earnestly.

He gave the jaguar-patterned catgirl an indulgent smile. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

Her hazel eyes locked with his. "You misunderstand, Master; I wasn't being blindly-supportive. The robots saved the Invictus..."

John was startled by her newfound self-awareness, then stunned as her words sank in. "Wait... what?!" he blurted out in shock.

"My sister is correct, Master," Marika said with a broad smile. "We were napping together in the Observatory and I was having a lovely dream about kittens, then we were suddenly thrown into the air! The little robot that invited us to Faye's memorial was there too... and it fixed things."

Leylira nodded in confirmation. "One of the big floating robots arrived and tore a panel off the wall, then the smaller one connected to the network and told us it was trying to save the Invictus."

"Neysa said we should go jump in the Lagoon!" Betrixa interjected, her eyes sparkling. "It's a good job we did... the ship smashed into the planet a minute later!"

"This one can't take credit for that, Master," Neysa admitted with a self-conscious smile. "The cleaning robot warned us that we were about to crash land."

"So Faye really did save them all..." John said quietly.

Alyssa rose from her chair and slipped her arm around John. "You were right..."

Dana exchanged a shocked look with Irillith. "The bots must be way more advanced than I thought."

The Maliri nodded, her lips pursed speculatively. "I'll speak to the collective and see if I can discover exactly what happened."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Helene asked, nervously twisting a tendril of her long green hair around a finger.

Alyssa gave her a warm smile. "Actually, there is something I could use your help with. I'll talk to you about it while John and I are sticking the ship back together."

The aquatic girl looked delighted. "I'm yours however you need me."

"I'd like to help too!" Betrixa blurted out, bouncing with excitement.

"We all would," Neysa chimed in with a hopeful smile.

"Don't worry," Dana said as she got up from her chair. "I've got tons of jobs for everyone. We've got a shitload of work ahead of us for the next few days."

"I'll be happy to coordinate the refit again," Rachel volunteered. "Once I've discussed the full scope of the repairs with Dana, I'll draw up a plan that covers all the outstanding tasks. I want to make sure we prioritise the work in the most efficient manner possible."

"Thanks, honey. I'm sure that'll save us a lot of time," John said, giving her an appreciative smile. He put his arm around Alyssa and asked her, "Ready to flex your telekinetic muscles, beautiful?"

She waved her hand and a glowing arm flexed its bicep. "All charged up and ready for action..."

John turned to look at the rest of the girls. "Alright, let's do this. We'll reconvene here at... 11:00 pm tonight." He glanced at Dana. "Will that give you enough time to finish everything?"

"Should do... I'll let you know if there's any problems," the redhead agreed.

***

Edraele stirred in her bed, her long eyelashes fluttering as she woke. She felt soft warm breasts pressed against her from both sides, and she smiled fondly at Luna and Kali as they slept, the two beautiful Maliri blissfully unaware of her attention. It took Edraele a moment to collect her thoughts, then she tensed as she remembered the days' shocking events.

*John... are you alright?!* she asked pensively. *Is everyone okay?*

*Welcome back, Edraele,* he replied, his tone as caring as usual. *I hope you're feeling better after your rest?*

The Maliri Queen felt a flicker of anxiety as she listened to him. Despite the familiar warmth in the way John addressed her, there was no mistaking the undercurrent of profound sadness to his thoughts.

*I'm fine, John,* she said to reassure him. Her voice softened as she continued, *But I can tell you're upset... please tell me what's wrong?*

John let out a heavy sigh, then he told her everything that had happened since she'd fallen into an exhausted sleep.

There were tears in Edraele's eyes by the time he'd finished. *I'm so sorry about Faye... and everything that happened with your parents. Why didn't you wake me? I would have done anything I could to help you.*

*I know, honey,* he replied, sounding deeply troubled. *But today has been relentless and I knew you were exhausted. I just didn't want to burden you with all my problems.*

Edraele felt a sharp pang of remorse that he hadn't felt like he could look to her for support. *Helping you is never a burden, John. Please don't ever feel that you have to try and protect me like that; I hope you know that I'm always here for you if you need me?*

*I do... and I'm eternally grateful you feel that way,* he said sincerely. *I just didn't want to disturb you.*

The House Valaden matriarch carefully extricated herself from her delectable bedmates' clinging embrace. She picked up a white silken robe and slipped it over her lush nude body, the deliciously soft material moulding itself to the contours of her spectacular figure.

John was silent as she left the bedroom, lost in his own thoughts until he eventually said, *I must admit... I think part of me was glad you were asleep. Until I told you about everything we're up against, it didn't actually feel like it was real. But now you know what's coming... what we've got to face...*

Edraele crossed the lounge and entered her plush study. She picked up a long-stemmed glass from the table, then poured a large serving of House Holaris wine from the decanter. Tilting her head back, her throat bobbed as she gulped it down, feeling the heady burn of the alcohol as she emptied the glass. After pouring herself another large drink, the Maliri Queen glided over to the large crystal windows and stared out at the gleaming golden spires of Genthalas Shipyard.

*How many?* she asked quietly.

*I didn't have time to for an exact count. There were dozens...*

Edraele burst out laughing, a hysterical edge to what should have been a joyful sound. The wine sloshed out of her glass and over her hand, but the Maliri was heedless to the mess. She stared at the golden-hulled warships arrayed outside the shipyard, mentally totting up the thousands of crewwomen manning each vessel, the count soon reaching terrifying numbers... all potential casualties in a brutal Progenitor war.

*I'm going to do everything I can to keep the Maliri out of it,* John said adamantly. His voice faltered as he realised how ridiculous that sounded. *I'm sorry, Edraele...*

She let out a shuddering sigh, being careful to keep her tumultuous emotions to herself. *You have nothing to apologise for, John. I'll do whatever's necessary to support you; all the Maliri will.*

There was another lengthy pause before he spoke again. *Am I just deluding myself?* he asked, sounding wracked with doubt. *Am I leading us down a path to disaster?*

Edraele put aside her own feelings of hopelessness and despair when she heard how troubled he was. *Do you remember a couple of weeks ago, when we talked about the pending fight with Larn'kelnar? You asked me to lie to you about our chances of defeating another Progenitor...*

*You told me we'd win a miraculous victory without losing a single ship or soldier,* he replied with a surge of affection for his Maliri matriarch. *That Larn'kelnar would run away rather than face me...*

*I was attempting to stop you from becoming dispirited when I spun that fantasy... but most of it came true,* she gently reminded him. *You have a talent for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat... and none of us can predict how events are going to unfold.*

*Edraele... we were both deeply apprehensive about our chances of survival when it was just Larn'kelnar we were facing,* John reminded her. *Now the situation is orders of magnitude worse... there's only so far we can get with positive thinking.*

*Are you deliberately trying to undermine my best attempts to bolster your spirits?* she gently chastised him, even though she agreed with every word he said.