Three Square Meals Ch. 124

She hugged him fiercely, overwhelmed with joy to see that he was safe and well. "I was terrified I wouldn't make it in time!"

"I'm okay, darling... thanks to you," he said earnestly, before leaning down to kiss her passionately.

When they parted she broke into a broad grin. "I know you're not that keen on Thai food, but why did you have to take cover in Thai-tanic? That was my favourite restaurant!"

Charles chuckled and gave her a rueful smile. "Sorry about that. I knew the layout, so it was the first place I thought of hiding."

As they gazed into each other's eyes, Lina coughed politely to get their attention. "Thank you for rescuing us, Lynette. Or is it 'Marie' when you look like this?"

Lynette glanced up at her fiancé in surprise. "I wasn't sure you'd tell her, Charles."

He winced and shook his head. "I didn't..."

They both turned to look at the redhead, who was staring at Lynette in fascination, a wry smile on her pretty face.

***

"Shit, they've spotted us!" Faith yelled, staring through the rear window at the black APC racing high above the street. A second armoured vehicle loomed out from behind an office block and made a beeline for the red sedan. "And there's the other one!"

Maria took a right turn, narrowly avoiding a hover-taxi as she crossed the lane of oncoming traffic. They were now hidden behind buildings again, but the two ISD vehicles had driven them away from the forest of tall skyscrapers in the city centre, making it much easier for the APCs to stay on their tail. It didn't take long for Faith to spot the black transport again and she watched as it soared over the four-storey buildings lining the street.

Grimacing, she turned to look through the windscreen. "There! Go in that mall! I can drop you off when we're out of sight, then I'll be a decoy and lead them away!"

One of the APCs opened fire, bullets slamming into the asphalt around the sedan and spraying stone chips into the air. They were at long range, but closing very rapidly.

Maria lurched the battered sedan from side to side, wincing as she heard the repeated clang of bullets striking her car. "They're too close! If you slow down to drop me off, they'll kill you!"

"This is what I signed up for," Faith said quietly, locking eyes with her friend in the mirror. "Please, Maria... your life is much more important than mine."

"That's not true," Maria said, her eyes welling up. "We can both make it!"

Another burst of bullets hammered the car, punching through the ceiling as the APCs swooped down to attack.

Maria cried out in pain as a bullet fragment struck her thigh, blood spurting over her skirt. "I'm hit!" she called back to Faith, gritting her teeth against the pain.

She knew she'd never be able to escape on foot with an injured leg, which abruptly made the decision for her. Maria drove past the mall, dodging around a bus as she drifted across the dual-lane boulevard, desperate to escape from the ISD assassins. Taking a sharp left gave her a moment of respite, as both of the faster APCs overshot the turn.

They'd reached the dockside district of Baybury City, having driven straight across the metropolis, and she frantically scanned the street signs looking for anything she could use to throw off her pursuers. There was a marina ahead and a sign for sightseeing cruises, but the bay had never been used for commercial seagoing traffic, so there weren't any warehouses or loading areas she could hide in. Surprised that her bodyguard didn't have anything to say about driving past the mall, Maria glanced in the mirror. She expected the brunette to be furious... but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Faith? Are you okay?"

Maria turned to look over her shoulder and gasped in horror. There was so much blood. Faith lay sprawled facedown across the back seat, having fallen victim to the burst of bullets that had punched through the roof.

"No! Faith!" Maria cried out in anguish, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Heartbroken for her friend, she sobbed in grief, trying to steer the car through the tears filling her eyes. The sedan was hit by another deadly salvo and Maria screamed as her car lurched violently before slamming into the ground.

***

"Yeah, we got the bitch!" Vihaan yelled triumphantly.

He watched as the red sedan slewed across the road in a blaze of sparks, the right side churning a deep furrow through the asphalt. Both of the right anti-grav cyclics had been destroyed, bringing the hover-vehicle crashing to the ground and dramatically ending the pursuit.

"Loop around and bring us down," he ordered the driver as they flew past the crashed vehicle. "I want confirmation she's dead before we evac."

"Will do, Commander," the operative said with a grin, powering down the engine and pushing the wheel forward as he made the turn.

The commlink chirped and Vihaan answered the call. "Report?"

"Sir, we've got at least a dozen squad cars inbound. Jericho law enforcement comms put them sixty seconds from our position."

Vihaan allowed himself a cruel smile of satisfaction. They were too late to stop him now... his family's honour would be avenged for what Devereux and Blake had done to Arjun Khatri.

"Stay on station, Khasanov. We'll be done in thirty seconds," he replied, moving to the open side door.

"What the fuck?!" Khasanov suddenly yelped, his voice shrill with fear.

"What is it?!" Vihaan demanded, lurching to his feet. "What's happening?"

There was a dirge of high-pitched blasts, loud enough to drown out the ISD operative's terrified scream and send vibrations through the APC. The sky outside flashed amber, the dazzling glare making Vihaan wince and shield his eyes. As the black vehicle continued its turn, he rushed to the doorway to see what had happened to the second APC.

"Oh my god..." he whispered, staring up at the sky in horror.

Looming above them was a Terran Federation battle cruiser. The warship's vast titanium hull blotted out the sun, casting a dark shadow over the burning wreckage of the APC it had just obliterated. Gatling Laser batteries along its flanks pivoted in Vihaan's direction and the ISD commander could see the weapon barrels glinting as they reflected the bright sunlight.

Vihaan Khatri had always wondered what his last words would be. He hoped that he'd die at a ripe old age, surrounded by a weeping widow and a host of grieving children as he imparted some poignant words of wisdom to his family. Instead, he whimpered and soiled himself.

The APC was eviscerated in a storm of orange laser bolts, raining glowing chunks of perforated metal down onto the asphalt below.

***

Jehanna stood in the hallway outside the Voss offices and waved to the medics sprinting down the corridor.

"Thank God you're here!" she gasped, rushing to meet them.

The lead medic skidded to a halt, his eyes widening when he saw the slaughter in the reception area. "Which one is our patient?"

"Not them, they're all dead," Jehanna explained, before beckoning the medical team to follow. "Through here, in a panic room. She's hurt really badly."

The grim-faced medics hurried after her as she led them to the hidden room in Henry Voss' office. The doctors rushed to her side as they unpacked their medical equipment, exchanging a glance when they saw the extent of Abigail's injuries.

"Please... you've got to save her," Henry whispered, cradling his fiancée's head in his lap.

"Just move back a little, Sir," the lead medic said with a bleak smile. "We need some room to work."

Henry nodded and folded up his jacket to place under her head, then crawled back a few metres. Jehanna walked around the medical team and crouched beside Henry, putting her arm around his shoulders to give him a comforting hug. She watched the medics work, feeling a sense of dread.

"Ma'am, can you hear us?" the lead medic said, attaching a medi-scanner to Abigail's blood-soaked chest.

"Patient unresponsive," the other medic said, his brow furrowing with concentration as he checked the readings. "Breathing shallow, massive blood loss... BP critical. Severe trauma to right lung, spleen, kidney..."

The lead medic glanced at the door. "Where's that crash cart?!"

"Here, Doctor!" the secondary team replied, pulling the grav trolley into the panic room.

"We need to evac her immediately. Give her TF-Methohexital and prep the patient for surgery en route..."

*Abigail's hurt too badly for them to save,* Alyssa said firmly. *Lynette's going to speak to them.*

Jehanna straightened and said, "Doctor, I need you to listen to someone."

He looked up at her and frowned. "We don't have time for this, she's about to go into cardiac arrest!"

There was a chime from the desk behind Jehanna and she straightened, then tapped the button on the console to accept the incoming call.

"This is Fleet Admiral Lynette Devereux," a clear authoritative voice declared, drawing everyone's attention. "I want you to infuse your patient with cryo-vitrification solution and prepare her for cryostasis."

The lead medic looked appalled. "If we do that, she'll never survive reanimation! Her only chance is immediate surgery!"

"I'm not making a request, Doctor. I'm ordering you to put Abigail into cryostasis."

"But-"

"She just needs to survive until the Angel of Terra returns to Olympus," Lynette said quietly. "Keep her brain alive and prep her for cryo. Do it now, Doctor."

The medic looked shocked for a moment, then turned to his colleagues and said sharply, "You heard the Fleet Admiral. Start cryo-prep and have her taken directly to the stasis tubes in Med-Centre 4."

"What's happening?" Henry Voss asked, his anxious gaze flicking between the lead medic, Jehanna, and the console behind him.

"We're going to freeze Abigail and put her into suspended animation," Lynette said gently. "John will get here as soon as he can... then Rachel will heal her."

"Abi..." he whispered, staring at her deathly-pale face.

The medical team carefully lifted the unconscious young woman onto the hovering trolley, while one of the doctors loaded a hypo-injector with a viscous blue liquid. He placed it against Abigail's arm, then glanced at the lead medic for confirmation.

"Go ahead," the senior doctor said curtly. The medic's conflicted expression reflected his internal fight between relying on years of medical training and putting faith in inexplicable medical miracles.

"She's going to be okay," Jehanna said, hugging Henry. "Don't worry, Rachel will save her."

***

Commander Vivian Grayson wrung her hands together, watching anxiously as the bullet-riddled sedan was pulled inside the shuttle bay by a tractor beam.

"We picked up lifesigns, Viv," Captain Trevelyan reminded the nervous communications officer.

"I know... but she could be badly hurt!" the blonde replied, her eyes widening when she saw the state of the wreck. "Please be okay, Maria..."

The mangled red hover-car was carefully lowered to the titanium deck, making a metallic clunk as it settled on its twisted undercarriage. A medical team was waiting on standby and they sprinted across the hangar to the battered vehicle.

The driver's door opened and a haggard brunette lurched out. "Help her! She's in the back!"

Four of the five medics rushed to the rear of the car, pulling open the door to tend to their patient.

The fifth jogged over to the Latina, his expression filled with concern as he stared at the blood soaking her skirt. "You're hurt too, Ma'am."

"I'll live," she said stoically, turning her worried gaze to the medical team working on Faith.

"Maria!" Vivian gasped, reaching her friend a moment before the doctor. "Thank God you're alright!"

The two women embraced in a fierce hug, holding each other as tight as possible.

Vivian pulled back so that the medic could tend to the brunette's injuries. "You don't need to play the brave hero, Fern," she said fondly, with a broad smile of relief. "Let him look at your leg."

Maria sighed, then nodded wearily. "Okay..."

The medic knelt beside her, running a medi-scanner over the gunshot wound.

"I'm sorry we took so long to reach you," Vivian apologised, stroking her friend's arm. "When your call got cut off, we headed straight to your home, but by the time we arrived, you'd already left. Jericho police were receiving all sorts of conflicting reports and we only tracked you down when you gate-crashed that mayor's rally."

Maria gave her a grateful smile. "You have nothing to apologise for, Grayce. I was incredibly lucky that you were transferred to the Epiphron and it was in orbit to pick up supplies."

Vivian laughed and shook her head. "Oh, Fern... luck had nothing to do with it."

"What do you mean?" Maria asked in confusion.

Captain Trevelyan joined them and saluted the bewildered brunette. "We're here to protect you, Ma'am. The Epiphron has been permanently assigned to planetary guard over Jericho." He smiled and added, "We know who was really responsible for getting word to the Lion and saving Terra, Mrs. Fernandez."

***

Alyssa's face lit up with joy and she threw her arms around Calara. "Your mom's okay!"

John embraced them both, stroking the trembling Latina as she sobbed with relief. "What did Lynette say?" he asked, trying to keep his fury in check.

The blonde paused to give her girlfriend a tender kiss. "She's alright, baby... don't get upset. Your mom was hit in the leg by a ricochet, but it's nothing serious. The doctors aboard the Epiphron can fix her up, no problem. By the time we see Maria, the only thing Rachel will need to heal is a scar."

"I've never been so scared," Calara whispered, hugging them both. "The thought of my mom fleeing for her life... God, she could have been killed!"

"Don't worry, gorgeous," Alyssa said soothingly, stroking her hair. She flicked a glance up at John, her eyes blazing with ferocious intensity. "The people who did this are going to pay. When we're done, nobody will dream of fucking with your family ever again..."

"Does Lynette know who did it?" John asked, leaning down to kiss Calara on top of her head.

"They were ISD troops," his matriarch replied, gritting her teeth. "She doesn't think the whole division is involved, but she's ordered everyone arrested until we can verify who was responsible."

"Lynette, Jehanna, Charles, Henry... Maria," John snarled, his eyes blazing with a blue light. "I warned everyone what would happen if they threatened my friends."

Alyssa nodded, her expression bleak. "I know... some people are too stupid to live. We'll help them out with that."

John let out his breath in a heavy sigh. "How's Henry's fiancée doing?"

"They managed to keep Abigail alive and get her into cryostasis. As soon as we get back to Olympus, Rachel will have her as good as new."

"Getting shot's no picnic," John reminded her with a grim frown. "Even if she's alright physically, Abigail might not get over this anytime soon."

"I know," Alyssa said, giving him a reassuring smile. "But we have Helene to help out too."

"Oh yeah, of course," he said, nodding his agreement. "Any news on other casualties?"

"Lynette just got confirmation that they shot Admiral Schmidt, but she's still waiting for a number on the marines killed at Olympus. No news on Maria's protection team, but I'll let you know straight away."

John lay back on the bed, pulling the blonde and brunette with him. "If I hadn't given away Larn'kelnar's dreadnought to my father, we could've got there in time to stop all this. I'm such a fool..."

Calara propped herself up so she could look him in the eyes. "You can't blame yourself for this one, John. A progenitor dreadnought wouldn't have made any difference."

"What about the Wormhole Generator?" he reminded her, shaking his head. "We could have just jumped back to the Core Worlds and wiped out those ISD hit teams in minutes!"

"She's right, handsome," Alyssa said, gently kissing his cheek. "It's got a 12-hour charge time, remember?"

John frowned and didn't look convinced.

"We only found out about the Brimorian attack this morning, but that was hours after the battle was over," Calara explained. "As soon as Lynette told us about the imminent threat of an Enclave invasion, we would have jumped straight to the Callopean Shoals. The Brimorian fleets would all be destroyed, but we'd still be too late to save Admiral Morgan and his border force."

"And it's only 12:30," Alyssa interjected, after a quick glance at the chronometer hanging in Calara's quarters. "So we'd still be stuck on the Brimorian border waiting for the Wormhole Generator to recharge. There's nothing we could've done to stop any of this once it started."

"Damn, you're right," he conceded, looking surprised. "I'd started thinking we'd be able to just jump around all over the place and prevent this kind of shit... but it's not that simple."

Calara nodded, then lay down again, snuggling into him. "That's one good thing to come out of all this. At least now we know we're going to have to plan our wormhole jumps very carefully..."

He stroked her back and let out a frustrated sigh. "I hate feeling so helpless out here. Do you think the Brimorian attack and the assassination attempts are connected?"

"I don't know," Calara replied, shaking her head. "But it's a hell of a coincidence..."

"And we know how you feel about those," Alyssa agreed, tilting her head up to meet John's pensive gaze.