Three Square Meals Ch. 122

*My apologies... consider me bolstered,* he replied, trying to sound light-hearted but failing badly. After a lengthy pause, he continued, *I just wish I'd listened to you and gone to Genthalas instead of coming here. If I'd done things differently, Faye would still be alive...*

*You can't change the past, John,* she murmured, her voice softening with sympathy. *I know how much you loved Faye, but torturing yourself over the decisions you've made won't bring her back. If you had come to visit me, instead of travelling straight to Arcadia, you wouldn't have met your father... Larn'kelnar would assuredly have killed him before your paths crossed again.*

*Another reason why I should've just gone to see you,* John grunted sourly.

*I know how bitterly disappointed you are with the way Rahn'hagon treated you, but you gleaned a wealth of knowledge from that meeting,* she said, trying a different tack. *If events hadn't unfolded as they have, you'd still be blissfully unaware of the real threat that Xar'aziuth presents. To best protect the girls, you needed to know everything your father told you... no matter how difficult it was for you personally.*

*Yeah, you're right. At least now we know what we're up against.* John sighed as he grudgingly relented. *Thanks for being so supportive... I really wish I was with you right now.*

Edraele's voice had a wistful edge to it as she said, *I miss you so much, John... we all do. How long will it be until you return to me?*

*According to Dana, we'll be stuck on Arcadia for about a week patching up the Invictus, then we've got another weeks' flight time to get from here to Genthalas,* John said, trying not to sound too despondent.

*Two more weeks...* she murmured with longing. *Kali's going to be disappointed; she's already furious with herself for choosing to wait before starting a family with you.*

*Please tell Kali that I'll make it up to her when I get back,* John requested. There was a catch in his voice as he added, *How are the rest of the Young Matriarchs doing?*

*They're all desperately missing you,* she said, her full lips lifting into a soft smile. *Their pregnancies are all proceeding perfectly, but they aren't showing yet. You'll have to wait another couple of months until you start to see their bellies' swell.*

*They shouldn't be going through this alone,* he said, suddenly feeling abashed. *Shit... I'm turning out just like my father. He did the same thing to my mother... getting her pregnant then leaving her to deal with it alone.*

*Don't be ridiculous, you're nothing like Rahn'hagon!* Edraele admonished him. *It's not like you deliberately abandoned my girls... they know that given the choice you would never have left their side. You were drawn away by necessity and you can't hold yourself to blame for the delay in your return, the Invictus was sliced in half!*

*But still...*

*But nothing,* the Maliri Matriarch said firmly, her voice ringing with the authority of over a century of leadership. *It's true that they're missing you and can't wait for your return... but the Young Matriarchs are hardly alone. I see them throughout the day and in the few hours that I'm not in their company, they're usually becoming intimately acquainted with each other. You already know that Nyrelle paired off with Valani, and that Leena has begun a relationship with Tsarra. You have nothing to worry about; they're all in safe... and very loving... hands.*

John didn't immediately reply and Edraele sensed his interest.

*They look so beautiful together, my Lord,* she whispered seductively. *Knowing that they're each carrying your babies has brought an incredible intimacy to their couplings. They seem to grow closer with every tender kiss and every loving caress... I can hardly wait to experience that with Luna. When you return, you'll have to see for yourself; we all intend to give you a very warm welcome home.*

*The next two weeks are going to be torture,* he said with a groan. There was a brief pause, then he continued gratefully, *Thanks for the distraction, Edraele. I really needed a bit of normality to get away from it all, even if it was for just a moment.*

*Any time, my Lord,* the Maliri Queen purred. *After all, what could be more normal than talking about the four expectant mothers of your children falling in love with one another?*

He laughed, the deep baritone chuckles like music to her ears. *Yeah, exactly. You and Luna are going to look gorgeous together too... I can't wait to see that either.* Sounding much brighter, he continued ruefully, *It was great chatting to you, but I better focus now, Edraele. I'm moving the Invictus with Alyssa and I'll need to concentrate. Can I call on you for some energy in a minute?*

*We're fully replenished,* she replied earnestly. *Just tell me whenever you're ready.*

*Thanks, honey. I promise I'll show you my appreciation when I come home.*

Edraele smiled and leaned against the window, pleased to hear his lighter tone. Despite how deeply worried she was about the prospect of impending war, knowing that she'd done her best to alleviate some of John's stress was a soothing balm to her soul.

*That was perfect, Edraele... thank you,* Alyssa said, her grateful telepathic voice swirling through her fellow matriarch's mind.

*I'm glad I could help,* the Maliri replied, trying to keep her deep-seated anxiety to herself.

The last thing she wanted to do was put the blonde under any more stress. A conversation about the ramifications of a Progenitor war was not something Alyssa needed at that point, not with how worried she already was about John.

"Edraele? Are you alright?" Luna asked quietly from the doorway.

The Maliri Queen turned and smiled at the assassin. "I'm sorry, my love. I didn't hear you come in."

Luna padded silently across the study, her silk robe billowing around her toned thighs. "I could tell," she said, embracing her lover. "I just called you three times before you responded. You were speaking to John, weren't you?"

Edraele nodded and pulled back to look into the assassin's yellow eyes. The colour was very rare amongst the Maliri, adding to the assassin's mystique as she'd terrorised House Valaden's enemies for the last several decades. Now looking into those eyes, Edraele was reminded of the sun, the bright orbs filled with gentle warmth.

"We were just talking about you, actually..."

"You were?" Luna asked in surprise. "Did you or Baen'thelas have a task for me?"

"No, nothing like that," Edraele murmured, carefully untying the younger woman's robe. She slipped her hand inside and caressed the assassin's taut stomach, her fingers tracing the precise definition of those strong muscles. "We were just saying how much we're looking forward to seeing your belly swell up with John's baby."

Luna blushed furiously, then a look of longing appeared in her startled gaze. "Really?"

Edraele nodded. "We were discussing the Young Matriarchs, so naturally the subject of John breeding his favourite Maliri came up. He feels a certain amount of guilt at being intimate with so many women, fearing that he's unable to devote enough time to each of us. You and I becoming lovers alleviated that concern." Her caressing fingers dipped a little lower. "I'm sure he'll want you to share each pregnancy with me... does the prospect of multiple pregnancies frighten or excite you?"

Those bewitching yellow eyes were hooded with lust as Edraele stroked her. "Excite..." she moaned, leaning into her lover.

"Mmmhmm," Edraele hummed, her fingers getting slick with Luna's wetness. "So I see..."

"Wait, Edraele!" Luna suddenly blurted out between panted breaths. She leaned back to look the Matriarch in the eye. "Not like this... You're distressed and I don't want to just be a distraction. What has you so unsettled?"

Edraele paused and gave the assassin a guilty look. "I'm sorry, my love... I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm not upset, just concerned," Luna said, wrapping her up in a comforting embrace. "Now... what's wrong?"

The Maliri Queen's composure cracked in the face of her lover's heartfelt sympathy. Her shoulders began to tremble and she slumped in Luna's arms, letting the wineglass tumble from her fingers to shatter on the floor. The shocked assassin held Edraele close as she wept, dreading to think what could have reduced the unshakeable matriarch to such a state.

***

The doors to the Launch Bay slid apart and Sakura gazed across the darkened room at her Valkyrie. After being thrown violently about when the Invictus dropped towards Arcadia, the mech now lay sprawled across the deck, both weapons ripped from its white fists. The ammo feed to the underslung Quantum cannon had been torn in half and shells were spilled haphazardly across the floor, leaving a deadly trail towards the discarded gun. Likewise, the Valkyrie's sword had been driven into a bulkhead, the massive Crystal Alyssium blade gleaming as it reflected the light.

Sakura walked quietly across the hangar and stood beside the mech's head. "They knocked you down, but you're not done yet..." she said softly, patting the armoured hull.

She activated flight mode in her Paragon suit and Sakura lifted from the floor and up to the entry hatch. Placing her hand on the DNA reader, the device scanned her genetic code through the gauntlet, then flashed green as access authorisation was granted. The door opened and she slipped inside, moving with confidence as she powered up the console.

Sakura picked up the four sensors and clipped them onto her armoured limbs, then activated the Valkyrie's anti-grav-field. The control field embraced her in its steady grip and she let herself float into position so that her body mirrored that of the fallen mech. Now that synchronisation had been achieved, machine and pilot were in perfect alignment, and the Valkyrie began to mimic Sakura's movements.

The 30-metre-tall mech slowly picked itself up off the floor, first lifting its torso, then putting an enormous boot on the titanium deck with a ringing metallic thud. One of the Valkyrie's hands reached out to balance itself and with astonishing grace it rose to its feet, standing tall and proud once more. The mech reached for the gleaming sword and tugged it from the wall with a grating squeal, then twirled the blade around with practiced ease before propping it up against the maintenance gantry.

Turning towards the bay doors, Sakura could see they were buckled, having taken a battering in the crash. Striding forward, she checked the Valkyrie's systems for any sign of impairment, but was relieved to see that everything was operating as it should. The doors juddered when she attempted to open the Launch Bay remotely, but they refused to budge, so she lowered her shoulder and charged into the stubborn portal. It slammed open with a booming crash, freeing the Valkyrie from the stifling confines of the Invictus' bow.

Sakura wedged the door shut behind her, then powered up the mech's retro-thrusters. The Valkyrie slowly lifted off the ground, and she left it hovering in place as she did a final check on its flight systems. Everything was fully operational, so she cut loose with the main engines and soared skyward, uprooting and toppling over trees in the blast. Sakura grinned with delight, elated that the Valkyrie had survived the crash and was ready for action once again.

***

Rahn'hagon strode through the Bridge of the sinister black dreadnought, stepping over the lacerated corpses that were strewn over the deck without giving them a second look. Stopping by the Engineering Station, he pushed the decapitated Larathyran thrall from her chair, her armoured body making a noisy clatter as she toppled over onto the floor. Taking her seat, his hands swept over the console, pressing runes to focus the Quantum Omni-Phase Scan Array on the planet below.

A sensor sweep for ferrous metals quickly located his target and he stared at the sundered Terran battlecruiser, feeling a swirl of conflicting emotions. From seeing the Invictus, it was obvious that his son's guide had been telling the truth... at least in part. The ship was a quarter the size of a Progenitor dreadnought and obviously pitifully weak to have been bisected by a single shot from Larn'kelnar's ship. The fact that John was using such a primitive vessel as his flagship proved that he couldn't have acquired a Soul Forge, which meant that the Maliri were also woefully ill-equipped to deal with a Progenitor onslaught.

Yet, there was something about that sparkling white metal... the very same that John had used to create his battlegear. His runesword had been forged from that material and Rahn'hagon was under no illusions as to the deadly potency of that weapon. A flicker of movement caught his eye and he stared intently at the screen, zooming in the view further until he saw a pair of white-armoured figures standing beside the ship. Even at this distance he recognised John and Alyssa, his son talking at length with that fascinating Terran female.

Rahn'hagon blinked in surprise as his son started to grow, enlarging to immense proportions until he eclipsed the zoomed-in sensor view. Pulling the focus back allowed him to get a good look at John again and he was staggered to see that he was tall enough to stand eye-level with the battlecruiser's topdeck. A quick glance at the active scan results for the Invictus showed that it was 100 metres tall, from the keel to the tip of the Fire Control Tower, which would make John just over 75 metres...

He shook his head, marvelling at the contradiction of extremes his son represented. On one-hand, he seemed to have woefully neglected the material assets that should have been his birthright, reinforcing the impression that he was weak and unworthy. Yet on the other hand, John towered over the jungle, striding like a titan around the battlecruiser, his vast stature reflecting the raw power coursing through his veins. Shocking weakness and overwhelming strength... the dichotomy left Rahn'hagon perturbed and elated in equal measure.

John had moved to the melted rear of the front section of the ship, where he leaned in, bracing himself against the vessel. Rahn'hagon watched with wide eyes as John's face contorted with the effort, his son letting out a roar that must have shaken the nearby jungle. The bow began to move, over 500 metres of crashed spacecraft grinding over the ground and flattening trees as it was shoved forward.

"That's impossible!" Rahn'hagon balked, half-rising from his chair. "You can't be that strong!"

Nevertheless, as John strained and pushed the massive ship, the front section of the Invictus continued to plough a furrow through the dirt. Rahn'hagon shook his head in disbelief, gaping in awe at his son. John turned and seemed to be talking to someone, and as Rahn'hagon followed the direction his son was looking, he spotted a dazzling flash of white light. Sitting down again, he hurried to refocus the scan array, but this time centring it on Alyssa.

The blonde had removed her helmet, her golden mane billowing with the turbulence from the white streams of psychic energy swirling around her arms. As Rahn'hagon watched in wonder, she gritted her teeth and raised both hands, a blazing aura of power surrounding her gauntleted fists. He froze as he realised what she was doing and rushed to change the view to the Invictus once more. The battlecruiser was rising from the ground, dirt tumbling from the hull as it cleared the trench. It moved again, but quickly this time, toppling trees as John shoved it sideways. Rahn'hagon watched spellbound as his son realigned the two halves, whereupon Alyssa finally released her telekinetic grip and let the bow settle on the ground.

Badly shaken by what he'd seen, Rahn'hagon focused the camera on the blonde, who wavered unsteadily and then collapsed. Even at the height of his own power, he knew that such a phenomenal feat of telekinetic mastery would have been beyond him, so it was hardly surprising that she had exhausted herself. John raced into view, catching Alyssa as she fell and scooping her up in his arms, having shrunk to normal height once more. She looked up at his son with such love in her eyes that it made Rahn'hagon's heart lurch in his chest. Jessica used to gaze at him with similar adoration, but now her reverence seemed to have morphed into hate.

Rising from his chair, he walked across the Bridge, deeply unsettled as he tried to make sense of what he'd seen. Pausing at the shattered hole in the reinforced doorway, he studied the crystallised metal, feeling the psychic reverberations from the glacial cold unleashed there. Even hours later he could sense a residual chill in the air emanating from the super-cooled surface and he marvelled at the frigid temperatures necessary to have sundered a door made from black metal.

"John's girls... they all have psychic abilities," he murmured, echoing Jessica's words. "And this one has mastery of Cryokinesis..."

*Jess... where else did John's girls utilise psychic powers?* he asked his matriarch without thinking, then winced as he waited for her response.

*In the Barracks... and they fought Larn'kelnar in the Interrogation Chamber where John was held,* she replied, a strange melancholy note to her voice.

Rahn'hagon hesitated for a moment. *Thank you...*

He wasn't sure if he was thanking her for the information or for not having to bear the brunt of another angry retort. Alone except for his pensive thoughts, Rahn'hagon crossed the ship, this time paying closer attention to the bloody massacres where scores of Larathyrans had been eviscerated. He imagined the fight playing out, blades flashing as the thralls were slaughtered, the stabs and slashes coming too quickly for them to react.

Rahn'hagon crouched down beside a decapitated corpse and glancing back at the sprawl of neatly executed bodies. Half of the group had attempted to flee, but were cut down before they'd gone more than a dozen paces. He estimated that the entire battle must have unfolded in less than ten seconds.

"Psychic Alacrity..." he muttered under his breath, feeling a shiver run down his spine at the thought of a thrall possessing such power.

Setting off again, he hurried along silent corridors, then descended in the elevator as he made his way to the Barracks. The door was still open, the auto-closing mechanism having sustained terminal damage. When he walked through into the immolated room beyond, it was painfully obvious what had damaged the door. The hair on the back of his arms stood up as Rahn'hagon sensed the incredible potency of the power brought to bear here.

"A thrall couldn't have done this..." he whispered in disbelief, stunned at the ferocity of the residual psychic emanations pervading the room.

Approaching one of the walls, he could feel the simmering warmth radiating from its melted surface, the heat embedded deep in the black metal. The subtle fingerprints left by the instigator of this carnage felt very different to those on the Bridge. Where the mind behind the Cryokinesis had been cold and unrelenting, whoever had unleashed this inferno was passionate and full of rage. It was more obvious to him than ever that different thralls had been responsible for each incident.

As his shocked gaze swept over the infernal hellscape, he glimpsed another disturbing sight through a door into the Armoury. Striding over, Rahn'hagon walked through the door then froze, an unnerving sense of wrongness bringing him up short. The contents of the room were eerily distorted, as though they'd been dragged to a point at the rear, where he found a dense sphere composed of crumpled thrall weapons. He approached slowly, staring wide-eyed at the point above the metallic orb where the fabric of spacetime had been ruptured.