Three Square Meals Ch. 126

Gaenna Baelora sat frozen on the sofa, horrified by Edraele's fascination with the vicious torture implement.

"Do you hear that?" the Queen crooned, uncurling the weapon and whipping it out with a well-practiced motion of her wrist.

All Gaenna could hear was the ominous humming from the pain amplifiers. "N-no... I didn't hear anything."

"Exactly," Edraele murmured. "That's why I preferred to gag my victims to stifle their screams. Then they could hear the sound of their flesh being flayed from their bones..."

"Edraele... I-"

"I hear that you also have a fondness for the Neural Lash," Edraele interrupted, flicking out the weapon again, the tip curling with a sharp snap to punctuate her words. "So much so, that you decided to flaunt my edict banning their use. Did I mistakenly give you the impression that the ban was optional?"

Gaenna swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. "It was an internal House disciplinary matter; I didn't think the ban applied..."

Turning chilling-cold purple eyes on the older matriarch, the Queen looked at her curiously. "Have you forgotten who you're speaking to, Gaenna?"

The House Baelora matriarch shuddered with fear. Edraele's reputation for barbaric sadism was only matched by her pyromaniac mother. "N-no, Queen Edraele..."

Edraele tossed aside the buzzing weapon and her eyes began to glow with an eerie purple light. "I think you must have, if you're flagrantly disobeying me in such a manner. You see, I gave up the neural lash years ago, when I discovered I could inflict far worse suffering using only my mind. Imagine being able to leave someone in a state of perpetual agony on a mere whim. There's no respite, no salvation in death... just a new life filled with nothing but pain... until the mind finally snaps, unable to endure such torment."

"Please, Edraele... it was just a simple misunderstanding," Gaenna pleaded, never having felt so scared in all her life.

"Are you sure?" Edraele murmured, walking behind the sofa and trailing a finger across Gaenna's shoulders. "Because we can go back to the old ways if you like?"

Gaenna cringed away from her touch, the gentle caress feeling like a burn on her skin. "I swear to you, I will never touch a Neural Lash again!"

"How amusing... I don't know whether to feel pleased or disappointed," Edraele said quietly, her lips curling up into a humourless smile. "I'd advise you to be very careful in the future, Gaenna. You've proven that you have no respect for a benevolent monarch, so the next time I find myself having this conversation with you... I'll be forced to use a sterner approach. Am I understood?"

"Y-yes, my Queen," Gaenna stammered, desperate to never see this terrifying side to Edraele again.

***

John followed Alyssa out of the grav-tube, leaving the blue anti-gravity field behind as they walked onto the Bridge. Jade was waiting for them, a look of anticipation in her emerald eyes.

"We're following your flight path, Alyssa," the Nymph informed them as they walked up the steps to the Command Podium.

Alyssa put a hand over her mouth as she yawned, then nodded gratefully to their pilot as she sat in the XO chair. "Thanks, Jade. It'll take us a while to pick up speed."

John placed a hand on her shoulder and looked at her with concern. "Are you sure you're not too tired for this?"

"I am, but I did all my calculations earlier when I could still think straight," she replied with a weary smile.

Dana jogged down the ramp to the Engineering Station, her eyes locked on the Sector Map floating in the middle of the Bridge. "Holy shit... will you take a look at that! The range on that scan array is fucking crazy!"

John glanced at the holographic map and did a double-take when he realised just how much further they could see with the long-range sensors. "Is that five times the range of the old ones?"

"Six!" the redhead exclaimed, her sky-blue eyes alight with excitement. "And check out how fast it's analysing sensor contacts!"

He remembered the old days aboard the Invictus before it had been upgraded, when it seemed to take forever to analyse the transponder codes of approaching ships. There were plenty of Terran wrecks in Kirrix Space, remnants of the last ill-fated attempt to purge them from the galaxy, and many of those decades old devices were still functional. He watched as the lifeless hulks were quickly tracked and identified on the map, in a truly huge circumference around the Invictus.

"That really is amazing," he said with an appreciative nod to his Chief Engineer. "Nice work, Sparks. We'll have no trouble tracking down the Kirrix fleet now."

She tipped an imaginary hat in his direction, making him laugh.

"How's the new gyroscope performing?" he asked, slumping into his comfy Command Chair.

Dana turned back to her console and activated a holo-panel, the image of the jet-black Null-Inertia Gyroscope appearing above her station. "I'm seeing nothing but green. Power flow, rotational stress factors, inertia stabilisation field... everything's working perfectly."

"We're about to put it to the test," Alyssa said, pointing towards the yellow star directly ahead of them.

She zoomed into the system view and displayed the flight path through the star's gravity well. The course was a dog-leg to the left, curving around on the right-hand-side of the enormous supergiant star. John was relieved to see that for this initial test, they were racing around the outer-edge of the system, not travelling too deep inside the gravity well.

"I decided to play it safe for our first test," she explained, never taking her eyes off her calculations.

"Very wise." John fought the urge to let out a sigh of relief, earning himself a smirk from the blonde.

He watched the Invictus rush towards the star, feeling his heart in his mouth as they neared the edge of the system. Travelling at maximum hyper-warp speed, the battlecruiser barrelled into the gravity well, setting off automated warning klaxons on the Bridge.

"Everything's okay!" Alyssa yelled over the din. "They're set to trigger automatically if you get this close to a star!"

John was about to comment, when the Invictus began to vibrate, setting his teeth on edge. "Alyssa?"

"We're not going fast enough to create a bow wave yet," she explained, not looking particularly worried. "We'll have to wait until the next system."

The Invictus charged through the star system, the vibrations increasing as they reached the apex of the curve. Rocketing away from the fiery golden orb, the shaking began to ease as suddenly as it had started.

"It's working!" Dana blurted out, pointing excitedly at the velocity readings. "Holy fuck... 40% faster already!"

John glanced at Alyssa, who grinned back at him.

"Just wait until the next system, handsome," she said, her eyes flicking back to the Sector Map. "Eight minutes... if you still want to go ahead with it?"

"I want to say yes, but I keep picturing the model of the Invictus getting crushed like a tin can," he admitted, frowning as he followed her gaze towards the upcoming star.

"I'd never put you in danger," she said softly. "Do you trust me?"

He nodded and let out his breath. "Okay, go ahead."

Alyssa blew him a kiss, then she went back to reviewing the flight data they'd just gathered. "Sparks, what shape is the hull in? Any buckling?"

Dana turned to look at her console and shook her head. "Hull integrity seems to be intact."

She hesitated, then knelt beside her station and closed her eyes. Psychic energy began to swirl around her arms and she pushed it into the deck plates, where it could spread out to envelop the Invictus' hull in golden waves.

"Hold on, Sparks!" he called out in warning. "We don't have enough energy for psychically repairing the hull!"

"This is just a diagnostic," the redhead muttered, keeping her eyes closed. "Not like before."

"It's okay," Alyssa said, reaching over to clasp his hand. "She's only using a fraction of the energy she used last time."

He nodded his understanding, then watched his Chief Engineer at work.

Dana eventually reopened her eyes and gave them a relieved smile. "We're good... the hull seems to be holding up under the strain."

After she retook her seat, they watched the holographic representation of the Invictus rush towards the next system. The minutes counted down and John realised he was clenching the arm wrests in anticipation. The warning klaxon blared again, only to be cut off into a warbling gurgle a second later.

"That was getting annoying," Alyssa said with a smile, leaning back from her console.

The Invictus ploughed into the next system at breakneck speed, causing the ship to quake violently in response.

"Alyssa?" John yelled over the noisy juddering. "What's happening?"

"There it is!" Dana exclaimed, pointing excitedly at the rippling vortex that was forming on the bow.

"Three... Two... One..." Alyssa whispered, staring at the System Map. "Boom."

The vortex reared up into a curved wave that towered above the prow and abruptly all the noise and shaking went still. John turned his shocked gaze towards the map and saw they were charging around the star, like a sailing ship hurtling around the edge of a whirlpool. The Invictus flickered on the holographic map, leaping forward in skipping jumps.

"The Navigation computer can't handle it," she said with glee, nodding towards the map. "It was never designed to track this kind of speed!"

John turned his attention to his console, and brought up the ship's navigation data. Instead of displaying the FTL velocity of hyper-warp, the reading had glitched, showing nonsensical characters. The Invictus roared out of the system, moving quicker than anything John had ever seen.

"107% faster than a standard Progenitor Tachyon Drive," Alyssa said, sagging back in her chair with a triumphant smile.

"Goddamn..." he muttered, shaking his head in awe.

"Oh yeah!" Dana crowed, a jubilant grin lighting up her face. "Fastest ship in the galaxy!"

***

"I think that's done, Tehlariene," Sarinia warned her, nodding towards the food bubbling in the re-heater.

"Oh, thank you!" the youngest sister gasped, darting forward to turn off the device before her dinner burned.

Rosanae sneered at her younger sibling and was about to make a snide comment until she caught Sarinia's warning glance. "That looks delicious..." she muttered between clenched teeth.

"Where could mother be?" Myrdina asked nervously, glancing at the chronometer. "Dinner is supposed to start in two minutes!"

"Are you sure we shouldn't keep waiting for her?" Lieralia asked, looking equally anxious. "Will she be upset that we started preparing our food without her?"

"I sincerely doubt she'd want us loitering around her quarters all evening," Sarinia said as she carried a stack of plates over to the table. "We'll get everything ready, then we can start as soon as she arrives."

Her four sisters nodded their reluctant agreement.

Myrdina glanced furtively towards the door to check if there was any sign of her mother or her bodyguards. "So, what else did you find out, Sarinia?"

"Well, I discovered the reason that mother has set up residence here," Sarinia replied, placing the plates on the table.

"What is it?" Rosanae asked in a hushed whisper.

"The leaders of all the ruling Houses have been meeting for a 'Council of Matriarchs', held right here at Genthalas. The Council has been temporarily suspended, allowing the matriarchs time to return to their respective homeworlds and resolve any outstanding House business. They will reconvene when Baen'thelas returns in two weeks time."

Myrdina looked at her eldest sister sceptically. "Kali had to be lying to you; there's no way all nineteen matriarchs could sit around a table without clawing each other's eyes out. I find this harder to believe than the Mael'nerak being real!"

Sarinia shook her head. "I would have been able to tell if Kali were lying. She's not deceitful enough to be able to trick me into believing something so preposterous. I am quite certain she was telling me the truth."

"So why is mother still here?" Rosanae asked in confusion.

"She's been brokering a trade deal with Edraele Valaden," Sarinia quietly replied. "One that she is determined to see concluded."

"Oh, that explains the Vrysandral Spice!" Lieralia blurted out, leaping to the obvious conclusion. "What's she been offered for it?"

Sarinia held up her hand. "Before I answer that, let me ask all of you a question: what do you remember about the Mael'nerak legend?"

The sisters exchanged perplexed looks, until Tehlariene tentatively replied, "I can still remember it... I think."

Rosanae's lip curled with disgust. "Of course she wou-"

Myrdina elbowed her in the ribs, "Be silent and let her talk."

"Go ahead, Tehlariene," Sarinia said gently, putting down the last plate on the table. "Tell us what you can remember."

Their youngest sister launched into the story, receiving rapt attention from her siblings. Tales of a tyrannical warlord abducting any women who had misbehaved suddenly sounded far more frightening when they knew that Mael'nerak actually existed in the distant past. Sarinia watched her sisters, who were thoroughly spellbound by the story. Despite her attention being elsewhere, she still felt a shiver run down her spine when she heard Tehlariene say that any girls that had been bad were punished. Perhaps they had justifiable reasons for their misdeeds?

As Tehlariene finished her tale, Myrdina shuddered involuntarily. "And you're saying Baen'thelas is the same as the Mael'nerak?" she asked in a tremulous voice.

"Actually, Kali told me that that he's kind rather than cruel," Sarinia replied. "She also said that-"

Her voice trailed off abruptly as the doors slid open and Gaenna Baelora marched into the quarters, her face purple with fury. She opened her mouth to unleash her rage on her daughters, but her bodyguards following her inside made her choke on her words. She had no wish to reveal to her underlings the humiliation she had been forced to endure.

Turning to the bodyguards she snapped, "Leave us!"

"Yes, Matriarch," they obediently replied, bowing to her and leaving the suite.

As soon as the doors had closed behind them, Gaenna whirled on her daughters and hissed, "Which of you craven little bitches was it?!"

The five sisters gaped at their mother, stunned by her accusation. Sarinia knew full well what had Gaenna so irate, but over a century spent tiptoeing around her volatile mother had taught her to be a magnificent actress.

"Don't play innocent with me!" their matriarch shrieked, stalking across the room towards them. "I've just spent the last two hours being threatened and humiliated by Edraele Valaden! Do you have any idea what you've done? What you might have cost me?!"

Her daughters darted shocked, uncomprehending glances at one another.

"I know it was one of you!" Gaenna sneered, glaring at each of them turn. "Well? Speak up!"

The younger daughters stood in terrified silence, but Sarinia knew that as the eldest, it would fall to her to say something. "I don't understand, mother... Why would you put up with any humiliation from Edraele?"

Gaenna stared unblinking at Sarinia, her face twisted into a sceptical scowl. "Oh, 'I don't understand'... is it? Of course you have no idea what I'm talking about?"

Sarinia's golden eyes widened in alarm. "I-I don't! I've never even met Edraele Valaden, let alone spoken to her!"

Her mother prowled around the table, glowering at each of the others in turn. She stopped by Tehlariene and narrowed her eyes. "You've always been weak and pathetic. It was you that went crying to her, wasn't it?!"

Plainly terrified, her youngest daughter shook her head frantically. "No, never!"

"I will find out who it was, mark my words," Gaenna snarled, continuing around the table.

She grabbed a bottle of wine from the nearby rack and ripped off the seal. Taking a seat at the head of the table, she poured some into her glass and gulped it down. Refilling the glass in silence, she did the same again.

"I've had no time to prepare anything," she snapped, turning her furious eyes on Sarinia. "The others can't cook to save their lives. Serve me some of yours..."

"Yes, mother," Sarinia said quietly, using serving tongs to place samples of each of the dishes she'd prepared on her mother's plate.

Narrowing her eyes suspiciously, she locked eyes with Rosanae. "Eat some of each."

Rosanae shot a worried glance at her eldest sister.

"The food is safe, Rosanae," Sarinia said, making eye-contact with her. "I promise."

With a shaking hand, the Maliri noblewoman got a fork and tried little bites from each dish. Despite the pleasant taste, she wasn't able to enjoy the food. With the fraught atmosphere around the dining table, she expected to keel over dead at any moment. There was deathly silence as the House Baelora family members stared at Rosanae with trepidation, but a minute later she showed no signs of ill-effects from the food. Slow-acting poisons were far from uncommon, so everyone still remained tense.

Sarinia sighed and served herself, then sat down and made a point of trying small portions of each dish. "This is ridiculous... why would I poison my own food? Nobody else was supposed to be sharing it," she said in exasperation.

Rosanae sagged with relief and returned to her seat. After a grudging nod from their mother, the rest of the daughters served themselves from the dishes they'd each prepared earlier. Gaenna took a swill of wine, then stabbed a piece of succulent Trabella and chewed it angrily.

"Does anyone else want to try my dinner?" Sarinia asked with a faint smile. "If I'd known I was catering for everyone, I would have made larger portions..."

Her sisters laughed nervously and even Gaenna couldn't help chuckling at that.

With the tension eased, they all began to eat, the daughters darting nervous glances at their mother. Gaenna ate in silence, her beady eyes flicking from one to the other as she looked for any sign of who might have betrayed her to the Queen. Myrdina coughed and took a drink of wine, quickly followed by Lieralia, who cleared her throat noisily before coughing again.

What started as a scratchy tickle turned into a tortured hacking, and Rosanae whimpered in horror as she began to cough as well. Tehlariene brought both hands to her throat as she desperately fought to breathe, her eyes bulging in terror. She knocked her plate and drink with her as she toppled off her chair, the glass shattering when it hit the floor.

Gaenna's mouth fell open in shock as she stared at her daughters, each of them foaming at the lips, their faces turning purple as they began to convulse. She whipped her head around to look at Sarinia, who sat calmly to her right, idly toying with a fork as she sipped from her wine glass.

"Contact poison on their plates," her eldest daughter said conversationally. "It was easy to apply it while they were distracted by talk of Mael'nerak and Baen'thelas..."

The matriarch's horrified gaze dropped to her own plate.

"No mother, poison would be far too quick an end for you..." Sarinia said, her golden eyes glinting with malevolent glee.

Gasping with fear, Gaenna reached for the concealed laser pistol in her belt. Although Maliri responded rapidly to an infusion of John's cum, Gaenna Baelora had not ingested nearly enough to restore reflexes that had slowed with age. Sarinia was still in the prime of her life and she lashed out with her fork, stabbing her mother's hand to the table and making Gaenna scream with pain.

Reaching for the pistol herself, Sarinia drew the sleek, deadly weapon from its holster. Gaenna tried to scrabble for it with her left hand, smashing her glass as they grappled. Sarinia whirled around and viciously slapped her mother, the blow powerful enough to knock her from her chair, a tortured yelp forced from Gaenna's lips as her impaled hand tore free from the table.