Three Square Meals Ch. 126

Her brown-eyed gaze swept to the left as she studied the invasion route.

"Meanwhile, the Enclave sent the bulk of its fleets to conquer completely undefended Kintark territory. If we do nothing to interfere, the Brimorians will sweep through the last vestiges of the Kintark Empire within a month, claiming even more territory than Devereux annexed after the war. The Enclave would end up rivalling the Terran Federation for sheer numbers of systems, conquering hundreds of highly-developed worlds at the cost of only a handful of ships."

"While half the Terran fleets are still too torn up to fight," John noted, shaking his head. "I assume the Brimorians were planning to hit Terran space after mopping up the Kintark? At least until Edraele formed the alliance with Lynette."

"I certainly would have planned for that if I'd been in their position. Once the Enclave took the Kintark homeworld, they'd gain access to Mar'Trinark Shipyard, effectively doubling their fleet-building capacity. Adopting a long-term conquest strategy would have resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Brimorians, as Olympus would never be able to match their enhanced production capabilities. Launching an immediate invasion of Federation Space after subduing the Kintark would be more of a gamble, but the deck would still be heavily stacked in the Enclave's favour..."

Tashana turned to look at John. "Unless the Kintark Empress has beaten the odds and has a winning hand. What do you say, Baen'thelas? Can Tamolith play the Progenitor King and the Maliri Queen?"

"Well the Progenitor King is stuck out here in Arcadia," John muttered, his expression grim. His gaze flicked from the Callopean Shoals to the Kintark Empire, before he let out an exasperated sigh. "I can't believe all this trouble erupted as soon as we left Federation Space. I wonder if the Brimorians knew that we were too far away to intervene."

"I know you don't believe in coincidences, but I think this might genuinely be one... or at least our departure wasn't the catalyst for all these problems," Calara said, leaning back in her chair. "Nature abhors a vacuum and the annihilation of the Kintark forces left their empire critically vulnerable. We were pulled in the opposite direction to deal with the Kirrix invasion, but with hindsight, heading to Arcadia was a big mistake. I should have predicted the Brimorians would take advantage of their weakened neighbours... I'm sorry I let you down."

John squeezed her hand and gave her a wan smile. "It's not your fault, honey. After we chased down the Kirrix who abducted the Menganus IV colonists, we were only a couple of days away from Arcadia. Even if you'd warned me of the risks, I'm not sure I'd have been able to resist the temptation to find out what happened to my parents."

"We might be too far away to help, but what about the Maliri fleets?" Tashana asked, her gaze flicking between John and Calara.

Irillith gave her sister a curious look. "Why are you so keen to help? I never thought you were particularly enamoured with the Kintark."

"I'm not," her twin replied, her violet eyes narrowing. "But the Brimorians have raped and abused the Abandoned on a vast scale. To say that I'm eager to see them pay for what they've done is putting it mildly."

Sakura nodded, her expression bleak. "The Brimorians hide behind a veneer of civility, but I think they must be the most despicable foe we've encountered so far."

"Worse than the Kirrix?" John asked with a sceptical frown.

"The bugs are merciless monsters, but at least they only did those terrible things to survive," she replied, her almond eyes flashing with anger. "The Brimorians raped hundreds-of-thousands of Terran civilians to create a slave race and the Abandoned are probably being murdered in their millions when they get too old to breed or work the kelp farms. And what is the Brimorians' excuse for all this pain and suffering? They were motivated by greed and a thirst for power!"

"So we punish the entire species?" John asked quietly. "I'm not sure that's a path we want to go down."

"The Brimorian populace are complicit in the enslavement of the Abandoned, even if they're just turning a blind eye to it. There's no way you could hide the existence of billions of Abandoned slaves living on Enclave worlds, which means all the Brimorians must know about them... and condone what the Deep Pool has done," the Asian girl replied, crossing her arms beneath her chest. "The Enclave is due an empire-wide reckoning for all the atrocities they've committed."

"Well that will definitely have to wait," Calara said, shaking her head in disapproval.

"But intercepting the Brimorian invasion fleet won't?" John asked, turning to look at her in surprise.

"A surgical strike might be possible..." she mused, looking lost in thought.

"I thought you wanted to hold the Maliri in reserve for the Larathyran fleet recovery operation?" he asked, studying her curiously. "I want to stop the Brimorians, but we've got bigger fish to fry... if you'll excuse the pun."

Calara gave him a lopsided smile. "That was pretty bad, but you're excused. If we handle this correctly, by the time the Invictus is repaired and upgraded, we should have the Maliri fleets back in place and ready to accompany us to Larn'kelnar's empire. Even if Dana has fully repaired the impact damage the Invictus sustained in the crash on Arcadia and saved us days of time checking the hull, we're now planning on a diversion to Olympus. It'll be well over a week before we return to Genthalas, at which point I assume you'll want to fully upgrade the ship with as much tech as possible before we jump into Larathyran territory?"

"I hadn't really thought about it, but that would be a wise precaution," he conceded after a moment's pause. "We also won't be able to deploy the Maliri fleet to capture all those Thrall vessels until we find Mael'nerak's Hyper-warp Gate... which means searching the Mists of Loralar for Kythshara before we can go anywhere."

"All of which would take time," Calara said, nodding in agreement. "I can't see us being ready to venture into Larn'kelnar's territory for at least two more weeks."

"Actually, there's one thing we could do to save time," Tashana interrupted, a thoughtful look on her face. "We know we can easily pack twenty-thousand people aboard the Invictus. If we use the wormhole generator to jump to the closest Thrall fleet and take that many Maliri with us, we'd have enough personnel to man all the ships with skeleton crews. In a matter of days, we could capture every vessel Larn'kelnar owned."

"But how would we get those fleets home again?" the Latina asked with a frown.

Tashana winced. "Good point. Sorry, I didn't think that through."

"Actually, that's not such a bad idea," John said, giving the Maliri an encouraging smile. "It'd be a quick way of claiming all those ships before someone else could get their hands on them."

"And Larn'kelnar was able to bring several Drakkar ships with him when he jumped deep into Ashanath Space," Calara murmured, looking lost in thought. "At the very least, we could rapidly acquire dozens of Thrall-class battleships."

"That's assuming Dana can actually build a Wormhole Generator," Alyssa gently reminded them. "There are no guarantees, not without access to the black metal."

John nodded. "You're right. Let's not get sidetracked with 'what ifs'. I think whatever happens, we can agree that we're not going to be ready to capture Larn'kelnar's fleets for a couple of weeks." He turned to look at his tactical officer. "Even if that does give you enough time for a limited campaign against the Brimorians, we can't afford to take even moderate casualties. Do you think you can help stop the invasion without this escalating into a full-scale war?"

Calara made eye-contact with him and her mouth curved up into a wicked smile. "I'll see what I can do."

*It sounds as if the decision has been made to help the Kintark,* Edraele said, with no hint of judgement in her voice. *Tamolith asked us to name our price for assistance against the Brimorians. Do you have any demands you'd like me to relay to the Empress?*

John blinked in surprise, having made the decision purely in terms of neutralising the Enclave's aggressive expansionism. *I hadn't even thought about that.*

The girls looked equally startled as Alyssa relayed the Maliri Queen's question.

Calara's eyes narrowed. "Shutting down Xen'Nuchek mine would be a good start."

"Why not just ban slavery throughout the Kintark Empire?" Sakura suggested, looking delighted at the prospect of ending that injustice.

*Give us a few minutes,* John said to Edraele. *We'll come up with a list...*

***

Deep in the bowels of Olympus Shipyard, far away from prying eyes, Fleet Admiral Devereux nodded to the special forces soldiers standing guard and approached the high-security door. The man accompanying her darted a wary glance at the black Phalanx suits the elite troopers were wearing, then watched Lynette place her hand on the DNA scanner. A band of light swept across and flashed green as it recognised her genetic code, then the reinforced door slid aside with a weighty clunk.

As they entered the detainment area, Colonel Fiske leaned closer to his commanding officer. "I still don't see why I couldn't oversee the investigation, Fleet Admiral. It feels like you suspect me of being involved after excluding everyone from Olympus Security."

"It isn't personal, Colonel... but I can't take the chance that we missed any ISD operatives amongst your men," Lynette replied, acknowledging the next set of special forces guards with a nod. "It's standard practice for Internal Security Division operations to have secondary teams waiting on standby, just in case anything goes wrong in the mission. Whoever planned and executed the attack on Olympus must be desperately trying to cover up their involvement after it failed."

"But I'm locked out of all our primary systems!" he protested indignantly. "I understand your reasoning for excluding my men, but why am I being locked out as well?"

They took a left turn, heading towards the interrogation chambers.

"I do trust you, Colonel, which is why I invited you to accompany me," Lynette said, stopping by another security door and turning to look him in the eye. "But there's always the possibility that your security ident has been compromised and I'm not going to risk allowing ISD agents to tamper with our systems. For the moment all access has been suspended, even including members of the Admiralty, and will remain that way until we have the answers we're looking for."

He gritted his teeth and nodded grudgingly. "Alright, that's a sensible precaution."

When the next set of doors opened, they saw a grim-faced officer waiting for them inside.

"Good evening, Fleet Admiral," Commander MacCallum said, greeting them both with a curt salute. "Please follow me."

He led them deeper into the complex and they entered a command hub, which displayed holo-vid footage from the cells. Lynette glanced at the images and saw five dejected-looking men lying slumped on narrow stainless-steel beds. Despite their obvious misery, they didn't appear to be bloodied or battered.

"Only five?" Colonel Fiske noted in surprise. "I thought you captured seven insurgents, Commander?"

MacCallum darted a glance at Lynette before answering, awaiting her response. When she inclined her head, he quietly replied, "Two are being interrogated as we speak, Colonel."

"I don't see the video footage," Fiske remarked, looking puzzled as he studied the images.

"We turned off the cameras," MacCallum replied, his expression unchanging.

Fiske frowned. "Evidentiary procedure clearly states that-"

Ignoring the Colonel, the special forces abruptly turned to his commanding officer. "Thank you for your prompt arrival, Fleet Admiral. There's been an interesting new development and I didn't want to discuss this over a comms channel."

"I didn't think you'd break them that quickly," Lynette said with surprise.

MacCallum shook his head. "We didn't. They've had extensive ISD training to resist interrogation techniques; it'll be some time before we wear them down. While my men have been working on the prisoners, I've been investigating the troop transfer orders that allowed the strike teams to access Olympus."

He picked up a holo-reader and turned it so that she could see the docking log. Clearly listed on the document was the name of the officer who had ordered the personnel transfer: Rear Admiral Carmela Moreno.

"Carmela!" Lynette hissed, her eyes blazing with fury. "I never thought that vapid bitch would have the balls to try something like this!"

Colonel Fiske's brow wrinkled in confusion. "Buckingham's Chief of Staff? It was a well-known secret she earned her promotions on her knees. I've read her personnel file... she didn't have the mentality or resources to engineer an assassination plot on this scale."

"Well, we'll just have to see what she has to say for herself." Lynette replied, before giving MacCallum a look of gratitude. "Thank you for keeping this discreet, Commander. I'll issue an order for Rear Admiral Moreno's immediate detention."

***

Dana's eyelashes fluttered open and she stretched languidly on the bed. "Mmm, that feels good..."

"Hello, sleeping beauty," Rachel said, leaning down to give her a tender kiss.

Helene smiled with relief. "We were worried about you, Dana!"

"Why were you worried? I'm fine!" the redhead said, sitting up in bed. She looked at the two girls who were sitting beside her. "But I am feeling a bit peckish. Is it nearly lunchtime?"

Rachel laughed and affectionately brushed her fingers through her girlfriend's lustrous hair. "It's after seven, babes. You've been asleep for nearly ten hours."

"Wow... I was totally out of it!" Dana blurted out, amazed she could have slept that long. "What the hell happened?"

"You don't remember using your psychic powers to repair the ship?" the brunette asked, looking at her with concern.

"Holy shit! That was real?!" the redhead balked, her eyes like saucers. "I thought it was just a crazy dream!"

John sprinted into the Observatory, carrying Alyssa in his arms. Moving in a blur, he skidded to a halt then put Alyssa down next to the bed. "Sparks! You're finally awake!"

"I can't believe I've been snoozing all day," Dana muttered, shaking her head.

He walked over to kneel beside her. "We think you over-exerted yourself by channelling too much power. You didn't seem to be physically harmed though, just exhausted after attempting to repair the Invictus."

"I really fixed the ship, just like that?" she asked, snapping her fingers.

"You tell us," Alyssa said, hugging her friend. "We're not sure what you did."

John paused for a moment as he tried to remember exactly what Dana had done. "It wasn't instantaneous. You sent golden pulses out through the ship for a couple of minutes, then you said you'd 'fixed her up as good as new' and collapsed in my arms. Whatever you did left the Crystal Alyssium plating shining like a beacon for a couple of hours afterwards."

Alyssa released Dana and sat back to study her curiously. "Can you tell us what happened?"

The redhead gave them a helpless shrug. "Don't ask me, I've got no idea."

"Oh... you seemed so certain earlier," John said, deflating a little. "We assumed you'd repaired the Invictus, so we've been re-plating her for the last four hours."

Groaning, the blonde rubbed at her temples. "Ah, crap! Don't tell me we're going to have to strip all that armour and start again..."

Dana laughed and patted Alyssa on the back. "Hey, relax! I just meant that I didn't know why the ship started glowing. If I wasn't dreaming and I really did what you said, then the Invictus is fixed and we should be good to go."

"You actually managed to repair everything?" John asked, gazing at her with wonder in his eyes. "750 metres of reinforced hull patched up in just a couple of minutes?"

His Chief Engineer blushed at his look of awe. "I think so... although it's really not as impressive as you're making out. The hull was buckled and fractured in a bunch of different places, so I just unbent the damaged beams and realigned the atomic structure in the titanium alloy to mend the superstructure. It's not like I was filling in big holes blasted out of the ship or anything like that... it was more like beating out a few dents in the bodywork after a doozy of a fender-bender."

Alyssa laughed and rolled her eyes. "Sparks... the Invictus was cut in half and crash landed from orbit. Only you could think repairing that wasn't a big deal."

"How did you fix the ship exactly?" John asked, studying her in fascination.

"I've done the same kind of thing before, just on a much smaller scale," Dana replied, doing her best to explain her abilities. "Basically, I was able to look into the metal and see where all the faults were. The difference was that I was super-charged after you filled me up... and it felt like a doorway in my mind opened. Suddenly I could... feel... the entire ship, almost as if it was alive. All the bits that were fucked up were sore... like the Invictus was in pain. I just kinda mended everything that didn't feel right."

Rachel blinked in surprise. "That's actually a very similar process to how I heal crowds of people with my rejuvenation aura."

"Maybe you're rubbing off on me," the redhead said with a smirk, bumping shoulders with her girlfriend.

"Well we've certainly done a lot of rubbing together," Rachel said, flashing a saucy grin back.

John smiled at their banter, then leaned down to give Dana a kiss. "I'm really glad you're okay."

Before she could reply, her stomach rumbled impatiently. "I don't suppose there's any chance of giving me a full tummy?" Dana asked, trying to look as irresistible as possible and gazing up at him with big eyes.

"Sorry, Sparks. I already have plans for tonight," he said, darting a furtive glance at Helene.

"Oh right! I totally forgot," she said with a knowing grin. "That reminds me; did you manage to pick up some corundum?"

"I took the shuttle up with the twins earlier and we mined a big chunk of it."

"Awesome! We can make a start on that... project... if you want?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows playfully.

"Hold on a second," Alyssa interrupted, raising her hands. "Before you get too carried away, what's the state of the Invictus? Are we in a fit state to leave Arcadia?"

Dana tapped a finger on her chin thoughtfully. "Give me ten minutes to check the superstructure. It's probably a good idea to make sure, rather than take off and rip the ship in half."

"That might be wise..." the blonde agreed, with a wry smile.

John rose to his feet. "I'll go and make you something nice for dinner. Head up to the Officers' Lounge when you're done."

Alyssa reached out to clasp his hand. "Actually, the twins wanted to speak to you up on the Bridge. Calara's offered to make some dinner for Sparks."

"Thanks, beautiful," he said appreciatively. "I'll go see them now."

He turned to leave, when Dana blurted out, "Hey, John! Did you manage to rescue the maintenance bots? Were they all okay?"

"We tracked them down. All three of them survived," he replied, his happy expression turning to sadness.

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking at him with concern.

"They didn't know about Faye. I had to break the news to each of them..."

Her face fell, knowing how hard that must have been. "Shit... I'm sorry, John. That must've really sucked."

"It wasn't much fun," he agreed, resisting the grief that was like a dull ache in his heart. "Anyway, I better go talk to the twins. If I finish before you do, I'll meet you in the Lounge."