Three Square Meals Ch. 126

"Sure," the redhead murmured, looking at him with sympathy.

John left the Observatory and strode across the bridge spanning the Lagoon, trying to distract himself from dwelling on thoughts of the cheerful purple sprite.

"John, wait!" Helene called out from behind him.

He paused and turned to see the aquatic girl jogging after him. "What's up, honey?"

She ran into his arms and gave him a comforting hug. "I wanted to help you this morning, but you left with Jade into the jungle before I could talk to you. I've never seen you get that angry before... and I can see you're still upset."

"Spending time with the Nymphs really helped," he said quietly, cupping her cheek and stroking her soft skin. "Dana just caught me by surprise asking after the robots."

"Let me take away your pain..." she whispered, brushing her lips against his.

John gazed into her lovely blue eyes, then nodded, granting her permission. He lost himself in her tender kiss, feeling her gentle telepathic caress as she made contact with his mind. Helene's empathetic touch was warm and filled with love, suffusing his subconscious with feelings of wellbeing. It was like coming in from a cold winter's day, then sitting in front of a crackling fire with a mug of hot chocolate. As he thought of that metaphor, he pictured Faye sitting on the sofa, snuggling up with him under a blanket. Instead of feeling heartbroken at her loss, he was reminded of all the good times they'd shared, bringing a wistful smile to his face.

Helene slowly pulled away, her baby-blue eyes searching his face for a reaction. "How do you feel now?"

"You've got a real gift, Helene," he said earnestly, giving her a look filled with gratitude. "Thank you."

She blushed at his sincere praise. "You gave me these abilities, John. I can't claim any credit for that."

He paused and studied her curiously. "Dana told me something similar the other day. Do you remember the evening she brought me to you?"

"I do," Helene said with a loving smile. "That night was magical."

John nodded his agreement. "It was, but I'm sure Alyssa told you what Dana and I discussed earlier that evening. She told me that I'd given each of you these psychic abilities and that basically everything you girls accomplished was down to me."

"Alyssa kept all of us informed," Helene said softly, having heard the same from her matriarch.

"Dana was wrong," he stated with certainty.

She frowned, looking at him in confusion. "But... I was just plain and ordinary before I joined you. You were the one who gave me special powers."

"I might have given you psychic abilities, but it's what you do with them that counts." He caressed her temple and continued, "I got the idea for your empathic powers from Nkkrrit, the last survivor of an extinct species called the Vulkat. When we first met her, she was half-mad with grief, mourning the tragic deaths of thousands of her children. Nkkrrit used her abilities to try to terrify us into fleeing from her ship, then made Alyssa feel all of her pain and suffering. You on the other hand, use your new talents to share your love and kindness. The difference is like night and day, and that's all down to the wonderful person you are... a sweet girl who was never just plain and ordinary."

Helene gazed at him in awe. "I've never met anyone who believed in me like you do, John. You make me feel like I can accomplish anything!"

"Anything you set that lovely mind to, honey," he said with a warm smile.

She hugged him fiercely, overcome with emotion.

*Helene comes to cheer you up and you give her a huge boost to her self-esteem,* Alyssa said with an affectionate smile. *I don't think you really get how us helping you is supposed to work.*

*Making you girls feel good about yourselves always cheers me up,* he replied, stroking the teal-hued beauty's back. *Do you think you could keep Helene preoccupied for me until later this evening? I don't want her to see what we're working on and spoil her surprise.*

*Of course, handsome.*

Helene lifted her head and gave John a rueful frown. "I'd love to stay with you, but Alyssa wants to talk to me about something."

"That's alright, honey," he said with an understanding smile. "I'll see you later on, okay?"

She nodded, delighted to see him looking so much happier. They parted with a kiss and John crossed the Lagoon as he headed towards the grav-tube, while Helene returned to the Observatory to rejoin the girls.

Surrounded by the blue anti-gravity field, John rose up to the Command Deck, where he found the Maliri twins sitting at their stations. They both turned to look his way as he stepped out onto the Bridge, greeting him with welcoming smiles.

"Fancy meeting you here," John said with a wry grin, as he walked over to the sisters.

They laughed and got up to give him a kiss, before they returned to their seats. He glanced at their consoles, curious to see what the Maliri were up to. Tashana had several topographical maps open and with the rolling hills covered in jungle, she had to be studying Arcadia's surface. Irillith had been viewing some kind of convoluted code that looked like gobbledygook to John, although he did recognise the characters as being written in ancient Maliri.

"So... Alyssa mentioned that you wanted to talk to me about something? " he asked, looking at each sister in turn. "I assume it's about whatever you've been working on this afternoon?"

Irillith saw his speculative glance at her holo-displays and shook her head with concern. "Ah, no... not me. It was Tashana that wanted to discuss something with you."

He frowned at her hesitant reply, recognising her look of sympathy. Suddenly he knew exactly what the Maliri hacker was working on. "That's Faye, isn't it?"

She sighed and nodded. "Yes it is. I didn't want to mention her and upset you again."

"I'm okay now," he said quietly, reaching out to run his fingers through her silky white mane. "Helene helped and I feel much better."

Irillith closed her violet eyes and enjoyed his gentle caress. When she reopened them, she gave him a grateful smile. "That felt lovely, thank you."

He let his fingers trace down the line of her throat, brushing the blue skin where her collar would be. "I'm sorry about earlier. I really was looking forward to spending time with the two of you."

She caught his hand and then kissed his fingers. "I wasn't in the mood either, John... not after seeing the bots so devastated after hearing about Faye. If it wasn't for Helene, I'd have been in no fit state to do anything this afternoon."

John returned his curious gaze to the code on her holo displays. "Does that actually mean anything to you?"

"That data is Faye's core personality files," Irillith explained, her face showing conflicting emotions. "I've spent the last several hours trying to get a feel for her code."

He squatted down beside her and looked into her eyes. "What's the verdict so far?"

Irillith considered how best to answer him for a long moment. "The data structure is incredibly complex and I have no doubt that Faye was one of Mael'nerak's digital creations, just like Nexus. He had an understanding of AI programming that vastly exceeds my own... and studying Faye's core data has hammered that point home time and time again."

"Is there a chance you can bring her back, or is this an impossible pipe dream?" he asked, studying the Maliri.

"It's hard for me to explain the problems I'm dealing with in terms you could comprehend," she replied, darting a pensive glance at the floating code.

"Rill!" Tashana snapped, looking at her sister disapprovingly.

Irillith winced and gave him a contrite look. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like such a condescending bitch. I wasn't saying you're too stupid to understand, only that the task I'm facing is extremely complex."

"It's fine," he said, squeezing her hand in support. "It's not like I know the first thing about programming."

She nibbled her full lower lip, then said, "Maybe an analogy would help explain what I'm dealing with here..." After another long pause, the Maliri hacker continued, "Imagine you're trying to reassemble a book. You've got all the pages, but the page numbers aren't marked, and the only way the story will make sense, is if you put all the pages back together in the correct sequence."

John nodded, finally getting an idea of the scale of the problem. "That does sound incredibly hard."

Irillith's expression turned grim. "Now imagine there's a million pages in the book. You can read the sentences, although the language is a little stilted and awkward, but the way the paragraphs are constructed is like nothing you've seen before. Then you realise that the person who wrote the book understood the language on a level you can't even imagine. Paragraphs have extra meaning when read vertically through the book, not just sequentially, and if you make any mistakes, the book will be incomprehensible gibberish."

He let out a heavy sigh as he began to understand what a herculean task she was facing.

"My thoughts exactly," she said, giving him a troubled look.

John leaned in to give her a comforting hug. "We always knew this was going to be hard," he whispered in her ear. "But at least you've got something to keep you occupied now that you're going to live forever."

She let out a sardonic laugh and hugged him back. "You're right, I'll get there in the end. After all, it only took Mael'nerak 10,000 years to get this good at building AIs and what's 10 millennia to an immortal?"

"I reckon you can do it in 8... maybe 9 tops," he said sharing a smile with her.

"I'm aiming for 7!" Irillith exclaimed with mock enthusiasm.

"That's the spirit," he said with a chuckle, giving her a kiss before rising to his feet. He glanced at Tashana, who was watching their interaction with a fond smile. "Have you got good news for me too?"

She beckoned him over and gestured towards the holographic maps floating above her console. "I did find something that I thought you might be interested in."

"What am I looking at?" he asked, studying the shallow basin in the ground near the edge of a lake.

"A thrall settlement," she replied, her violet eyes gleaming. "Arcadia was settled by the Maliri before it was abandoned!"

"Oh wow, that is interesting!" he enthused, squatting beside her. "We can stay for a little while longer if you want to dig for relics."

Tashana looked at him in surprise. "I didn't think you'd want to delay our departure for any reason."

"I don't really, but finding out more about the history of the Maliri is important to you. Besides, excavating the site could tell us more about Mael'nerak's legacy... and who knows what treasures we could find in an abandoned thrall settlement."

He didn't need to say it, but Tashana knew he was referring to the hacking deck she'd discovered in the thrall facility in the Epsilon Aquarii system. A device that had ultimately led to Faye's creation.

"Thank you for being so supportive," she said softly, her face lighting up with a grateful smile. Her eyes flicked back to the map and she continued ruefully, "Unfortunately, when the Maliri abandoned Arcadia, it looks like they obliterated the settlement with an orbital barrage. That large depression in the ground is actually a series of blast craters... I doubt there's anything left of value."

"Damn, that's a real shame," he said, stroking her arm. "We'll definitely make some time to thoroughly investigate the other thrall facility when we return to Maliri Space."

Tashana nodded enthusiastically, thrilled at the prospect of excavating the site with everyone's support. "There was much more to that place, I just know it! Most of the complex was buried and it was slow going unearthing it on my own. I was intending to return there to see what else I could find... but that wasn't to be."

Her voice trailed off and John knew the reason why. Tashana's plans for further research had been abruptly halted by her banishment to the Unclaimed Wastes. She darted a glance at Irillith, who looked at her sister with regret and shame.

Straightening up, he beckoned Irillith over and pulled Tashana into his arms. "Come here you two. Group hug."

They smiled as they joined him in the embrace.

"We'll have some fun together soon, okay?" he said to the twins as he held them close. "Then afterwards we can discuss Tashana's findings in more detail. I'm looking forward to the three of us working together to unlock more of Mael'nerak's secrets."

The Maliri sisters snuggled into him, enjoying the sense of shared intimacy between them. They were still standing together when Alyssa and Dana stepped out of the grav-tube onto the Bridge.

"You three look very cosy," Dana said, grinning as she hurried over to join them.

"Can we get in on that too?" Alyssa asked with a flirtatious smile.

"The more the merrier," John replied, greeting the blonde and redhead with kisses as they were included in the group hug. "So what's the verdict on the Invictus?"

"I did a sweep of the hull... and all the damage is fixed!" Dana exclaimed, her sky-blue eyes shining with pride. "The Invictus is spaceworthy again!"

"Amazing... well done, honey," he said, his voice filled with admiration. "What about the rest of the ship's systems?"

She deflated a little. "We haven't had a chance to replace the Hyper-Pulse generator on the bow so comms are down, and there's a big question mark over all the gun batteries. The bots and the girls have managed to check the auxiliary systems and they all seem to be fine."

"Can we check the guns mid-flight?"

Dana considered that for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, we could. It would mean crawling through maintenance tunnels to access all the guns in their retracted states. It'll be a major ballache, but it is possible."

"Alright, let's get out of here then," John said decisively. "I've had about as much as I can stand of Arcadia. We need to get to back to the border as quickly as possible."

The girls nodded their agreement and broke up the five-way hug. Alyssa bounded up the illuminated steps to the Command Podium and slid into her XO chair, her hands soon flitting over her console.

"Sparks, can you tractor beam the Progenitor Shuttle into the Primary Hangar? We'll keep the Secondary Hangar for the Raptor."

"Wait! What about Faye's body?" John asked, remembering the bier the bots had constructed for her remote chassis.

Alyssa tapped into the camera footage and displayed the video stream on the main holo-screen. The Primary Hangar was now empty, with no trace of the temporary shrine the Invictus_Node_collective had made for their beloved creator.

Feeling a renewed pang of loss for his friend, John said quietly, "I wanted to talk to Little One anyway. I'll speak to her about it."

He ascended the steps to join Alyssa, taking his own seat in the Command Chair. As he sat down, Calara, Sakura, and Rachel left the grav-tube, having been warned by their matriarch of the Invictus' imminent take-off. They fanned out to take their places, sitting at their stations and watching the preparations for departure.

Dana worked quickly and efficiently to retrieve the Progenitor Shuttle, then Alyssa increased power to the retro-thrusters. She kept her eyes locked onto Dana, who was monitoring the ship for any sign of impending disaster, until the redhead finally gave her a thumbs up. Just as the Invictus had done hundreds of times before, the battlecruiser lifted off from the planet's surface, as smooth and responsive as if she'd just left Olympus Shipyard on her maiden voyage.

John watched them climb skyward, the jungle paradise falling away below them. The Invictus swept through billowing banks of cumulus clouds as they ascended, leaving swirling eddies in their wake. It didn't take long for the battlecruiser to reach low orbit, and John couldn't help shuddering as he remembered what had happened the last time they'd tried to leave the planet.

"There it is!" Dana called out, pointing to the holographic depiction of Arcadia.

The Raptor was highlighted with a green icon, the wrecked gunship floating forlornly in space where it had been thrown out of Larn'kelnar's dreadnought. Alyssa turned the Invictus to head in that direction, then hit a button to open the doors for the Secondary Hangar.

"I'll bring us right alongside, you tractor beam her in," the blonde said to Dana, looking up from the navigation controls to glance at the gunship.

"They really shot the crap out of the cockpit..." the redhead murmured, staring wide-eyed at the damage the Raptor had sustained.

John paid scant attention to the recovery effort, his focus still on Arcadia. He'd spent 40 years desperately wishing he could visit this planet to search for his missing parents, but he'd found nothing but pain, sorrow, and disappointment. Filled with regret, he stayed silent through their departure, his thoughts on the sweet girl that the trip to Arcadia had taken from them.

***

The attractive middle-aged Latina paced nervously in her hotel room, darting the occasional glance at the holo-screen for any new updates. TFNN had been featuring harrowing interviews with civilians caught up in the attacks on Olympus Shipyard, discussing the aftermath of the explosion that had killed thousands of marines. Even worse was the shocking footage of the devastation caused by that blast... an atrocity that she was highly-complicit in facilitating.

Rear Admiral Carmela Moreno shook her head in denial as the latest report showed thousands of body bags lined up in a makeshift morgue on Olympus. This was never the plan! Admiral Benedito Almada had told her that they were planning a swift and efficient coup, which would eliminate Fleet Admiral Devereux for conspiring with an alien to bring down Buckingham. He'd never said anything about blowing up thousands of marines while they were having their lunch!

She shuddered at the sight of all those corpses, then the camera footage switched locations to Terra, focusing on weeping widows consoling each other. Wracked with guilt, she turned away, unable to stomach watching any more. Carmela was tempted to turn off the news, but she was desperate to find out any information the authorities might have on the conspirators behind the explosion. When she'd seen Devereux on TFNN that morning, she knew the coup had failed, which meant she would have to flee from Terra and the inevitable witch hunt for the guilty parties.

Shaking her head bitterly, Carmela couldn't believe it had come to this. Only a month ago, she'd felt like one of life's big winners. A Rear Admiral in the T-Fed military and sleeping with the most powerful man in the Federation... she had been a woman of influence and authority. Then Blake had come along and ruined everything! She was sure he was secretly behind the Kintark invasion, probably scheming with that terrifying dragon that had ripped her poor Vincent in half...

Since Buckingham's death, her life had systematically fallen apart, shocking her with the rapidity of her fall from grace. Her position as Chief of Staff had been revoked the day Devereux had become Fleet Admiral, leaving Carmela cast adrift in a sea of military bureaucracy as she scrambled to find some other role to fill. She had always thought of herself as a highly-respected officer, but the total lack of interest in all her applications to over a hundred different postings had crushed her self-esteem.

When Almada had approached her, his plan seemed like the perfect way of getting some revenge and bringing her flailing career back on track. Now she could only wonder how the hell she'd let him talk her into getting involved. If she'd thought her life was in trouble before, that was nothing compared to the hell she was facing as a fugitive from justice. It was all so unfair... all she'd done was use her rank to authorise a few troop transfer requests to Olympus, it wasn't as if she was the mastermind behind the explosions!