Three Square Meals Ch. 122

"I hope they don't run," he muttered, glaring at the host of sensor contacts. "They need to pay for their transgressions."

Gulpos leaned over the tactical table to get a closer look at the holographic map. "It's strange that they seem unperturbed by our gathering of forces. They've made no adjustment to their formations since we arrived..."

"And nor shall they..." Siolagon declared, making his presence known with his deep voice sweeping over the Bridge like the swells of a hurricane across a reef.

The wave-squires turned to see the Shoal-Commander approaching, his iridescent scales gleaming majestically in the light from the fluorescent lanterns illuminating the Command Deck.

"When a Tarcaela eel lurks among the kelp, does it reveal its presence until it's ready to strike?" he asked the two subordinates.

"Of course not, Shoal-Commander," Talpo said smugly, glad to see Gulpos on the receiving end of one of Siolagon's metaphors.

Gulpos frowned and looked up at the imposing Brimorian. "But Shoal-Commander, our fleets have no kelp bed to conceal themselves. It would be like a Tarcaela eel attempting to ambush its prey in the open ocean... and neither our forces or the Tarcaela are that foolish."

Siolagon's lips curled to reveal rows of lethal teeth. "Ah... you get to the crux of the problem, Gulpos. So how could we be hiding from our prey in plain sight?"

Gulpos' beady eyes widened in wonder. "They have a traitor in their midst!"

"An excellent deduction, Wave-Squire," the Shoal-Commander said, giving him an approving nod.

Wave-Squire Talpo quivered with impotent fury as his rival basked in Siolagon's praise.

"Move our warfleet into position right next to the border," Siolagon ordered the bridge crew. "Inform the fleet commanders that they have... five hours to make final preparations, then they must be poised to strike when the signal is given."

As the Brimorian personnel hurried to obey his orders, the Shoal-Commander strode over to his Command Throne and tapped at shell-like buttons on the interface. A holographic image appeared in the centre of the Bridge and Talpo was surprised to see a Terran Federation fighter. The image stopped rotating and the tail code was highlighted in red, the image expanding so that it could be easily seen by everyone on the Command Deck.

"When the battle commences, locating this fighter is our Primary Objective. Claymore 1482 is not to be fired upon, no matter the circumstances!" Siolagon said in a stern voice. "Any Brimorian responsible for even accidental damage to this ship will be dealt with by me personally. The punishment will be agonising, it will last for days, and you will not survive it. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Shoal-Commander!" the Bridge crew barked, staring at the ship and searing the identification code into their minds.

***

A formation of Brimorian ships approached the border with the Terran Federation, each vessel in the specialised task force no larger than a destroyer. In the centre of the group, a single golden-hulled craft kept pace with the Enclave ships, despite being able to travel considerably faster.

"We're crossing over the border now, Shanryl," the helmswoman said, her angular eyes fixed on the Sector Map.

"Steer well clear of any Terran fleets, Ankayla," the leader of the Lahlenori said curtly. "Their sensor net might be compromised, but any Terran vessel will be able to detect us using long-range sensors."

Ankayla snorted and rolled her eyes. "Next you'll be telling me how to wipe my ass."

Shanryl smiled to herself as she watched her experienced crew in action. Despite the danger of their current situation, it was a relief to be undertaking this mission. She never would have agreed to make a direct attack on the Terran Federation under normal circumstances, but she owed Athgiloi a massive favour after he agreed to shelter her group from Edraele Valaden's wrath. Shanryl and her small group of Maliri were all that escaped the crackdown on Lahlenor, a city that had once been the centre for illicit trade in the Regency.

Her second-in-command approached, Zentha darting an apprehensive glance at the Sector Map.

"Are you sure this is wise, Shanryl?" she asked in a hushed voice. "I've heard rumours that Edraele is sending fleets out beyond the borders; that she personally intervened in the Battle of Terra to crush the Kintark. Assisting with a Brimorian attack on T-Fed forces is likely to provoke her ire... and it seems she's dramatically extended the reach of her claws."

Shanryl rose from her command chair and walked over to one of the large crystal windows, which offered an impressive view of the Brimorian ships flanking her own. She studied the purple and blue craft, wondering whether her own destroyer was powerful enough to wipe out their entire fleet. The Brimorian ships had fragile hulls, almost as feeble as the Ashanath, but the strength of their shields gave their vessels impressive survivability. However, the real deciding factor was that her own ship was a destroyer configured for fleet engagements, whereas the Brimorian vessels were far more specialised and had limited gun batteries.

She turned to look at Zentha, who had followed her to the window. "We have little choice in the matter. We sought sanctuary in the Enclave, so now we're dependent on Deep Lord Athgiloi's continued benevolence. As long as we avoid any direct confrontation with the T-Fed forces, our involvement should escape detection."

Zentha grimaced in exasperation. "Why are the Brimorians going to all these elaborate lengths to placate the traitor anyway? Once Athgiloi gets what he wants, he should just put a bullet in the back of the treacherous bastard's head!"

Shanryl gave her a knowing smile. "That's not how the Brimorian mind works. They'll twist and squirm over the terms of an agreement, but they will adhere to them once the bargain is struck. Besides, this kind of scheme will delight the Deep Lord... he'll be eager to see the outcome of the traitor's machinations."

Zentha's magenta eyes flicked over the bridge crew to make sure they were out of earshot. "What if it ends in disaster," she whispered anxiously. "We might be forced to flee the Enclave!"

"There are always interesting opportunities for enterprising people with our skillsets," Shanryl replied, not looking unduly concerned. After glancing at the chronometer on her hacking deck, she returned to her Command Chair. "We part ways with our escorts here. Set course for... these coordinates."

"That looks like a fascinating bit of empty space," Ankayla said sarcastically, as she made the course correction.

"I think you'll find it not quite as empty as it first appears..." Shanryl said with a wry smile. "When we get in range, start searching for a T-Fed Comms Beacon."

***

John watched in morbid fascination as a holographic depiction of Larn'kelnar's ambush was played out in front of him. The battlecruiser was sliced in half, then the front section tumbled towards Arcadia, dragged down by the planet's gravity and out of view. The rear section still had power at the point, so the retro-thrusters were keeping the ship stable... until Larn'kelnar's dreadnought unleashed a Quantum Flux Cannon salvo to cripple what was left of the Invictus. Dana had to look away when those bolts hit, but John forced himself to watch the re-enactment of Faye's final moments.

Irillith walked around the conference table to stand beside John as the image switched to the falling bow. "It took the bots roughly thirty seconds to connect to the node, divert power from the second Power Core, and start reactivating critical systems."

Retro-thrusters blazed along the front section of the Invictus, the wrecked ship quickly righting itself and slowing its descent. The rear section then fell into view, catching up on the front which was now under safe control. The front manoeuvred into position directly beneath the rear, so that they were now perpendicular to each other... then the two sections made contact.

"How the hell did they manage that?" Calara marvelled, staring at the images.

"Powering up the sensor array let them track the rear of the ship. After that, it was simply a case of repositioning the front so that the rear would land on top of it," Irillith explained, watching the two halves continue to fall. "Little One tried to stop the descent, but only the front section had power, and there weren't enough retro-thrusters to counter that much mass."

The Invictus continued to drop, with Irillith accelerating the simulation until Arcadia's surface rushed into view. Reverting to real time, the Invictus made a surprisingly gentle landing as it crashed into the planet, with the rear section bouncing off the topdeck and rolling onto its side.

"Just as you guessed," John said, glancing at Alyssa.

"It was crazy to see it actually happening though," she murmured, finally tearing her eyes away from the wrecked ship. "The bots saved everything. If it wasn't for them, the Nymphs and the Invictus would have been obliterated in the crash. There's no way they could have survived otherwise."

John was quiet for a moment, then looked up at Irillith who still stood at his side. "We have to thank the bots somehow. Is there anything they need that we can help them with?"

"According to Little One, they just want to keep doing their duties aboard the Invictus," Irillith said with a helpless shrug. "Other than that, they don't seem to want anything... except some privacy."

"Well, they've earned it," he said, leaning back in his chair. "That and a lifetime supply of WD40."

"What about the three robots that died in the crash?" Rachel asked, a pained look on her face. "The Collective was grieving for them too... Is there any chance we could repair them?"

Irillith shook her head sadly. "They weren't destroyed in the crash, they were sucked out of the Invictus when it got sliced in half. There wouldn't be anything left of them after a fall from that height."

Dana sat bolt upright and gasped, "No, they're all still alive!"

"How?" Sakura asked with a sceptical frown. "We were ambushed in low orbit... that's at least a 100-mile drop!"

The redhead grinned. "The maintenance bots all float around on anti-grav generators! Even if the bots were out of range of the Invictus and lost higher functions, as long as their chassis still had power, the safety protocols should have kicked in. I designed them so that they'd auto-stabilise and land on the nearest flat surface if they lost contact with their server."

"So it's just a case of tracking them down wherever they landed?" John asked with a smile.

"Yep! We can use the sensors in the shuttle. Until I upgrade the Invictus, those are the most sensitive ones we've got."

"Alright, first thing tomorrow, we'll go looking for them," he said, feeling a surprising surge of relief. He glanced around at the girls and saw similar looks on their faces. "It's not just me then?"

Irillith smiled and shook her head. "The bots feel like family now. I'm so glad there's a chance they're still alive."

"Me too." He gave her a quick kiss. "Well done speaking to the Collective. I'm glad we found out exactly what happened with the Invictus."

The Maliri studied him for a moment, then said quietly, "I found out something else too. Little One is a lot more advanced than I ever expected... she actually told me that Faye was her mother."

John's mouth fell open in shock. "What?!"

"I know, I felt the same way," Irillith said with a wistful look in her eyes. "Little One isn't as sophisticated as Faye, but she's fully self-aware and far more nuanced than I thought possible. I've tried speaking to the rest of the maintenance and cleaning bots, but they seem to be simpler constructs. I think Little One is unique... a special prototype that Faye was working on before she died."

"I can't believe Faye had a daughter..." Dana said, her eyes welling up. "Why didn't she tell us?"

"I don't know," Irillith replied sadly. "Perhaps once I've had a chance to study the Collective's server, I might be able to find some answers. I'll keep trying to build a relationship with Little One and the rest of the Collective. Hopefully, they'll learn to trust me enough that they'll let me take a look."

"I had a look down on Deck Six," Dana said, brushing away her tears. "Faye was a busy little bee. She constructed an array of highly advanced servers to support the bots; they're not as powerful as a Progenitor server, but Faye would have needed us to help build one of those."

"How did she do so much without us having a clue what she was up to?" John asked, looking at Dana then Irillith.

"She had twelve processing streams and was operating 24/7," Dana replied. "The stuff we gave her to do usually only kept her busy for a few hours each day. Most of the time, she would have had a ton of avatars just sitting around twiddling their thumbs."

John nodded his understanding, then let out a sigh. "I think we could all talk about Faye for hours, but let's change the subject before we all get depressed. There's quite a few other things we need to talk about... like concealing the Invictus. Did the holo-generators work?"

"We're indistinguishable from the jungle," Sakura replied. "I took the Valkyrie up to check. There's no way you can tell the difference from a low-orbit scan."

"And the Stealth Field Generator worked like a charm," Dana said, giving John a thumbs up. "It drains power like a mother, so I took the Nova Lances offline until I can install Quantum Power Augmenters to deal with the load."

"Brilliant, well done everybody," John said, heaving a sigh of relief. "Now we can focus on getting the Invictus patched up, without worrying about another Progenitor blasting us with an orbital bombardment."

"I've discussed the scope of the repairs with Dana," Rachel said. "I've planned out all the tasks we need to accomplish and in what sequence. I can go through the list with you tomorrow before we start work."

"Perfect, thank you."

"Do you want me to give you a summary of all the tech I swiped from your Dad's ship?" Dana asked, giving John a smile of anticipation. "A bunch of it we can just plug straight in!"

He nodded. "Okay, what did you find?"

"Well, you know about the Stealth Field Generator already. It's an amazing bit of tech that inverts energy signatures, effectively nullifying them and making a ship invisible to sensors. It uses a crazy amount of power though, so you can't just leave it on during a fight. You'd have to deactivate some systems to give you enough energy to run it while you're actually ambushing someone."

"We've been on the receiving end of that, so we know how effective it is," John said grimly. "What else did you find?"

"There's a functional Progenitor Shield Generator there too, although the projectors have blown out all their focusing crystals. It's too big to transport in the shuttle though, so we'll need to go and pick it up when the Invictus is capable of flight again. Basically, it's an enhanced version of the thrall shield generator, with hard shields that block missiles, but the shield harmonics constantly fluctuate which makes it harder for energy weapons to disrupt it. If we had one of those installed during the Battle of Terra, the Invictus wouldn't have taken a scratch!"

"Very nice," he said, glancing at Calara who grinned back at him.

"The engines and retro-thrusters on Rahn'hagon's ship are all fucked... they got completely trashed by Mael'nerak's explosion in the Niryean Rift, so we can't just steal them," Dana said with a rueful frown. Her expression brightened as she continued, "But I've got the schematics and we should be able to build a full set for our ship without needing the black metal!"

"Maybe we could start building them on the flight back to Genthalas?" John suggested.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking," she enthusiastically agreed. "The last thing we took from your dad's ship is a Progenitor version of a Null Inertia Gyroscope. We'll need that if we upgrade the engines... believe me!"

"Was that everything?"

"I found a number of other minor components, but they're not particularly exciting. High capacity cable junctions, that kind of stuff. They're important and tons better than the T-Fed equivalents, but it's probably not worth going through all that."

John shrugged and nodded his agreement. "Sure, I'll take your word for it. What about Larn'kelnar's ship? Did you find anything more there?"

Dana took a deep breath, then replied, "The front third of Rahn'hagon's ship was completely destroyed... and that's where the really awesome stuff was located. I said earlier that I discovered a Wormhole Generator, which basically lets us fold spacetime and create our own private wormhole from wherever we are... to wherever we like! The one downside is the amount of time it takes to recharge it after it's been used. Unless I'm reading the schematics wrong, which I'm pretty sure I'm not... we can only make one jump every twelve hours."

"So we'll have to be really careful where we jump to," John said, mulling that over. "We won't be able to just leap in and out making surgical strikes."

"Afraid not. Although it does let us cover distances that should take us months of travel time in a matter of seconds, so I guess it's still useful," she replied with a mischievous smile.

He laughed and held up his hands defensively. "I was just trying to figure out its limitations, I wouldn't dare to disparage such a wondrous device."

Dana rolled her eyes and smiled. "I should hope not." She tapped a finger on her chin. "Now, what else... Oh yeah, I found a Quantum Omni-phase Scan Array which will massively increase the range of our long-range sensors, as well as let us perform active scans at much longer distances. I tracked down the Tractor Beam they used on us, which is tons better than the T-Fed version, as well as the Energy Nullification Emitter, which they used to knock out the Raptor's power. It only works on relatively small, lightly-shielded ships, but once it's locked on they're totally screwed."

"Are you deliberately saving the best till last?" Calara asked, sitting on the edge of her seat.

The redhead gave her a knowing look. "Yeah, I got that too. The big beam weapon Larn'kelnar used to chop the Invictus in half... It's called a Quantum Disintegrator and is basically like a Nova Lance on steroids." She turned to look at John and added, "If I could figure out how to make the black metal, I've got everything I need to make you your own dreadnought!"

John considered that for a moment. "We'll come back to that at the end. I'd like to recap the fight with Larn'kelnar and everything else that happened aboard his ship first."

Dana blinked in surprise. "Yeah, sure thing."

"You did an amazing job locating all those schematics, Dana. Thank you," he said earnestly.

"No problem," she said with a self-conscious smile. Her smile faded as she continued, "Finding everything wasn't nearly as much fun as I thought it would be... but it was hard to be excited about anything after what happened to Faye."

"I know exactly what you mean." John took a deep breath, then leaned forward to look intently at the girls. "We lost one of our own today and that was a hell of a bitter blow... but as painful as it is to think about losing Faye, I don't want any of you to forget what we accomplished. We actually defeated a Progenitor..."

John paused to let that sink in.

"Larn'kelnar was over 9000 years old and an experienced veteran of Progenitor combat. Despite him getting the drop on us and totally outclassing the Invictus with his dreadnought, we managed to turn the fight around and bring that bastard down. He caused the deaths of millions of innocent people by playing games and setting all the empires at each other's throats. He was also on the verge of an easy victory and all he had to do was bring his thrall fleets here and there's very little we could've done to stop him. If it wasn't for all of your quick thinking and teamwork, we wouldn't have stood a chance. So thank you... I'm very proud of you all."