Three Square Meals Ch. 130

"Shh... everything's going to be okay," the older brunette said soothingly, stroking Jehanna's silky black hair. "John loves you... he'll find a way to make things good with your parents."

***

"Want some dessert, dad?" Calara asked, lifting the lid on the chilled picnic hamper. "We've got your favourite... raspberry cheesecake."

He looked sorely tempted, but reluctantly shook his head. "I'm already full. Lunch was delicious, especially those little crab pastries."

"I'm really glad you enjoyed them," Sakura said, sipping her drink. "Calara said you liked seafood."

"You made all this?" Jack asked, looking at the Asian girl in surprise.

Sakura nodded and gave him a self-conscious smile. "Preparing a meal for you was the least I could do after Maria has been so kind to me."

"Thank you for going to so much effort," he said appreciatively. "I've never been served gourmet food on a beach before. My compliments to the lovely chef."

She blushed, but was elated to receive such warm praise. "You're welcome."

Leaning back on his elbows and closing his eyes, Jack enjoyed the balmy artificial weather and sighed with contentment. "We've got to get a Lagoon just like this for the Fernandez family ship..."

"You have your own ship?" Emily asked, looking impressed.

Mateo laughed and shook his head. "Dad's been talking about it for years. He wants to go sailing around the galaxy when he retires."

"Have you recruited a Chief Medical Officer yet, Commodore Fernandez?" the blonde enquired respectfully. "If not, are you accepting applications?"

"Son, this one's a keeper," Jack replied, returning her smile.

John chuckled at their banter and put his arm around Calara when she leaned into him. She'd been very tactile during lunch, darting affectionate glances his way as she catered to her guests. It was wonderful to see her in such a good mood and he felt closer to the lovely Latina than ever before.

"What's on the agenda for this afternoon, honey?" he asked, stroking her shoulder.

"Relaxing on the beach until our lunch goes down, then I thought I'd show our guests the Dojo," she replied, trying not to sound too eager... but fooling no one.

Mateo held up his hand. "I'll sit this one out. I have no intention of being humiliated by my little sister in front of my girlfriend."

"How about me?" Emily asked, raising an eyebrow. "Aren't I supposed to spar with Calara before I'm deemed worthy of dating you?"

They all laughed as Mateo groaned in protest. "I thought you were done teasing me about that?"

"I wouldn't want to break a family tradition," she said with a playful grin. Glancing at Jack she added, "Could I get an official ruling? I'm not much of a fighter, so will I have to break up with your son when Calara kicks my butt?"

"I'm afraid so," he replied with sympathy.

"Dad!" Mateo objected.

"You could nominate a champion to fight on your behalf," Jack suggested, starting to sound as eager as his daughter.

Emily gave him a hopeful smile. "Would you fight for me?"

He hesitated, carefully appraising Calara. "You might want to pick someone else; Callie won our last match, although I intend to even the score this afternoon."

"I'm looking forward to it!" Calara replied with a grin.

"Hold on!" Mateo interrupted, looking stunned. "You fought dad... and beat him?!"

"He was a bit distracted at the time," Calara reluctantly admitted. "I guess that last one didn't really count."

Still shocked at the thought of his father losing to anyone, Mateo shook his head. "I'm not taking any chances with the future of my relationship at stake. How about John? Do you normally lose against him, Callie?"

She smiled at her fiancé. "Yes, most of the time..."

"Let me stop you right there," John interrupted, firmly shaking his head. "You know how much effort I've put into making a good impression. Do you honestly think I'm going to risk that by getting into a knock-down brawl with my fiancée in front of her father and brother?"

"Fair point, they can be a bit overprotective," Calara conceded, her brown eyes twinkling with amusement. "Who do you suggest instead?"

John looked pointedly at Sakura.

"I'd be honoured to fight as your champion," the Asian girl said solemnly, bowing her head towards Emily.

"Oh, wow... my own Lioness!" the blonde gushed. "Thank you!"

"Fine, but no powers," Calara quickly interjected.

"Alright," Sakura agreed. "Are weapons permitted, Jack?"

He looked intrigued and nodded. "If the challenger so chooses..."

"In that case, I challenge Calara to a duel on Emily's behalf," Sakura declared formally, her lips curling up into a wicked smile. "And I choose to fight with ninjato."

Calara groaned, her shoulders slumping. "How did I know you were going to say that? Fine, I'll use a naginata."

"Alright! Exhibition match!" Mateo exclaimed, now looking as eager as his father.

Helene had listened to the entire exchange in confusion. "Why are you all so excited to see them fight each other?"

"I don't get it either," Emily said with a shrug, smiling at the aquatic girl.

"It should be fascinating to watch, Helene. They're both highly-skilled fighters," John explained, before kissing Calara on the cheek. "I'll see you in the Dojo, honey."

She looked up at him in surprise when he rose to his feet. "You're leaving?"

"I need to check in with the twins. Irillith said she'd give me a progress update on identifying the men who planned the assault on Olympus... and the assassination attempt on Maria."

"You're tracking them down?!" Jack asked, his face a riot of emotions.

"We are," John replied, locking eyes with his future father-in-law. "There are consequences for attacking our family."

Jack's expression shifted from anger at the perpetrators, to surprise at John's vehemence, before settling on grim satisfaction. "Happy hunting."

John nodded, then leaned over to kiss Sakura on top of her head. "Thanks for lunch, that was wonderful."

"I'm so glad you enjoyed it," she replied, looking almost as happy as Calara.

Waving goodbye to everyone, John strode up the curving steps that led to the bridge over the lagoon, then took a shortcut into the express grav-tubes. The blue particle field rushed him up to his old bedroom on Deck Two, where he stripped off and entered the bathroom to wash away the sand from the beach. Turning on the hot water, he let the streams splash over him, savouring the soothing warmth.

"Do you need a shower companion?" Alyssa purred, slipping into the cubicle behind him.

"Well, this is a pleasant surprise," he replied, pulling her into his arms. "But aren't you supposed to be steering the Invictus?"

She giggled and shook her head. "I had to slow down... and it's all Calara's fault!"

"Ah, she's turned you into a love drunk again?" he asked, soaping her down.

"I'm just a bit tipsy... but I wasn't taking any chances, not when we're zooming around stars!" Alyssa leaned into him and let out a blissful sigh. "Calara's been loving having her family aboard... I didn't realise just how much she's been worrying about disappointing her dad."

"She's a good girl," he said affectionately. "Calara deserved this."

"Sakura too," Alyssa murmured, relaxing as he massaged her shoulders. "She was really missing her parents and this has been a godsend. Maria told Jack all about 'adopting' Sakura; he's been making an extra effort with her."

"Yeah, I saw," John said with a fond smile. He hesitated for a moment, then continued, "I want to spend some time alone with Sakura this afternoon."

"Thanks for the warning," she said with a grin. "I'll brace myself."

"I'll be training her," he quietly clarified. "Getting her ready to face my guide."

Her face fell, the beaming smile replaced by a look of anguish. "John..."

"I have to protect you and the girls," he insisted, gazing into her eyes. "Sakura's the only one capable of taking him out if I lose. Could you do it?"

She bit her lip, then looked down, unable to meet his gaze.

"I know, beautiful... I know," he said, holding her tight.

***

Irillith soared through Cyberspace, riding the data stream that connected a long chain of Comms Beacons across Terran Federation territory. She was still aware of her physical form back on the Bridge of the Invictus, but her senses were dulled there, the Maliri's subconscious fully submerged in the digital realm. Travelling deeper into the Core Worlds, she watched the branching nodes arc away to planetary data clusters, the network of platforms ablaze with neon colours.

Her digital presence whipped past fleets of ships, their secure gateway portals like a scattered corridor of sealed doors, just waiting for someone with the right key. Trying to remotely hack those ships would have been like trying to thread a passing needle at a thousand miles an hour, but Irillith knew better than to even attempt it so far away from the Invictus. Fortunately, her current target was stationary, and she zipped through the interconnected pathways that led all the way back to the Federation capital.

Terra blazed like a fiery beacon in the Cyber-realm, the densely populated planet awash with billions of data feeds. Even to someone so intimately familiar with the digital realm as Irillith, it was an impressive sight; the sheer number of devices used by the burgeoning population made the birthplace of humanity shine far brighter than any world in the Maliri Protectorate. Despite the staggering interplay of data surrounding the planet, the Maliri hacker was more than capable of finding exactly what she was looking for.

Irillith tapped into the closest data stream and started building her query. She added the search parameters that she'd spent the morning collating, then smirked at the warning icon notifying her that access to the planetary surveillance grid was highly-restricted. Lynette had already provided the required security clearance, but hacking through the laughable defences was a matter of principle.

Circumventing the amateurish gateway security with ease, Irillith slipped into the Federation network and sent out scores of data probes, accessing camera footage recorded in every city on the planet. The sophisticated programs began scouring the archives, looking for all the incriminating evidence she needed to find the masterminds behind the attacks on Olympus and Maria.

She felt a hand caress her bare shoulder, the intimate touch sending a thrill through her body that resonated even in the Cyber-realm.

"Hey, honey," John said, his deep voice echoing across the cosmos to reach her. "How's the search for the traitors going?"

Concentrating hard to control her body while keeping herself immersed in the digital equivalent of the Astral Plane, she replied, "I'm trying to determine exactly who's involved. Give me a few moments and I should be able to get you some answers."

Opening a data-view, she scanned through the information being returned by her probes, nodding in satisfaction as they started flagging suspicious activity. Closing her eyes, Irillith travelled back across the immense distance to be reunited with her body, moving at incredible speed. She blinked as she snapped back into her mind, quickly adjusting to her surroundings now that she was on the Invictus' Bridge once more.

"Welcome back," John said, gently stroking her head.

Irillith leaned into his hand, enjoying the feel of his fingers brushing through her long hair. "Thanks for coming. I should be able to tell you who were the ringleaders very soon."

"That was fast," Tashana said, walking over to join them. "I knew you'd be able to find out who did it, but you seem very confident you've got the right men."

Her sister reached out to the console, slender blue fingers dancing across the icons. "There's a chance I'm wrong, but I doubt it."

Smiling at her confidence, John glanced at the bank of holo-screens. "What made you so sure?"

Irillith had anticipated his question and the floating holographic panels were soon awash with security files. "As you know, Rear Admiral Carmela Moreno was killed by a car bomb a few days ago. She authorised the ISD troop transfers to Olympus, so she was obviously involved, but Lynette strongly suspected that Carmela was just a patsy... an unwitting scapegoat."

"Yeah, I met her a couple of months ago," John said, leaning against the IntOps station. "She was petty and vindictive, but didn't seem smart enough to plan an attack on this scale. I got the impression that Buckingham promoted her far beyond her competency level."

"She earned her promotions bent over his desk," Irillith said with a shrug. "Buckingham's death meant that Carmela's career in the military was about to come to a rapid end, so she had plenty of motive to want to seek revenge against Lynette and yourself. However, she lacked the contacts or resources to instigate a coup on this scale."

"So who was she working for?" John asked, listening in fascination.

"Whoever it was took particular care to avoid communicating with her via the Comms Network... apart from one call minutes before her death. I traced the source to an ident-scrubbed portable communicator, the call routing from Fenris Station in the Wolf 359 system."

"But you reversed the wipe and found out who the phone really belonged to?" Tashana speculated, amazed that was even possible.

Irillith shook her head. "I'd only be able to do that by connecting to the device itself and I'm sure it was disposed of days ago." Leaning over to tap another icon, she continued, "Instead, I just accessed the security cam footage aboard Fenris on the day Carmela was murdered and searched for any facial recognition matches from our primary list of suspects. I found one."

John studied the new picture that flashed into existence, showing a pensive-looking corpulent man rubbing nervously at his mouth as he strode through the arrival gate. "Who the hell is that?"

"Ex-Admiral Benedito Almada," Irillith replied, tapping another icon to bring up his personnel file. "He was one of a dozen admirals that resigned from the Admiralty the day after your confrontation with High Command on Olympus."

"I'm sure Alyssa's little demonstration of how easy it was for her to sniff out bad guys had nothing to do with it..." John remarked, turning to make eye contact with the blonde, who was watching proceedings from the Command Podium.

"I wonder what that slimy piece of shit was hiding?" Alyssa muttered, her lip curling with distaste.

"There was nothing in his official personnel file, but I did some digging..." Irillith said, her expression turning bleak. "It seems Buckingham kept his own records, listing the misdeeds of all the serving Admirals to keep them in line. Almada developed quite the taste for abusing young girls; dozens have been paid off or threatened into silence over the years."

John's fist clenched, showing the whites of his knuckles. "We need to find that bastard. Right now."

Irillith eyed the picture, her expression speculative. "There's no passenger record of Almada leaving Fenris Station and my facial recognition algorithms haven't spotted him returning to the docking bays."

"You think he's still there?" he asked in surprise.

Considering it for a moment, the Maliri hacker shook her head. "I suspect he left days ago, but obviously planned the departure well in advance to avoid surveillance. He might even have predicted that we'd trace the call to Fenris and set this up as a diversion. I'll keep looking."

He nodded and glanced at the adjacent holo-panel, which showed a map of Terra dotted with red markers, more flashing into existence by the second. "What are you tracking there?"

"The movements of every admiral that recently resigned from the Admiralty. They all had residences on Terra, so I thought it would be interesting to highlight any occasion when they were within 100 metres of each other. With the lack of incoming calls to Carmela Moreno, I suspect our plotters also avoided using the comms network to stay in contact with each other and met in person instead."

Irillith zoomed in on the largest cluster of markers, then focused on a convergence of retired officers at a location tagged as Riverfront Park. "That's Almada," she said, watching camera footage taken from a car park, centred on the fat man hauling himself out of a hover-sedan.

"Who are the other two?" John asked, gesturing towards the additional pair of icons.

The Maliri hacker focused on the arrival of two more vehicles owned by disgraced admirals. "Oliver Petran and Arjun Khatri," she replied, opening the personnel files for them both. "Khatri... now where have I seen that name before?"

She opened another data file, adding to the sprawl of evidence open above her console. John realised he was looking at a report of the assassination attempt on Jericho and a list of ISD personnel involved in the operation, the names having been extracted from the survivors.

John spotted the distinctive surname at the top of the list and read the entry aloud. "Major Vihaan Khatri: body retrieved from wreck of ISD APC at Baybury City -- DNA ident confirmed."

"He was Arjun Khatri's nephew," Irillith murmured, reading through the Major's personnel record.

"Any chance it's a coincidence?" Tashana asked, sounding deeply sceptical.

John snorted and shared a glance with the Maliri sisters.

"We know how you feel about those," Irillith said with a wry smile. "Well, there you go... It looks like we've found the conspirators."

"Petran and Khatri are only guilty by association at the moment," John said, his eyes narrowing. "Can you track down their current location? I'm curious to know if they've bolted as well."

Irillith immersed herself in the Cyber-realm and launched a fresh set of data probes to find the suspects. It didn't take long for her to hack through the security systems at their residences on Terra and discover that neither of the former admirals had returned home for several days. She delved through comms logs, looking for more clues, her violet eyes flashing from side-to-side as she sifted through private correspondence.

"Petran fled Terra and has gone incommunicado. His estranged wife has been trying to track him down; he cleared out all their accounts before he left," she explained, blinking rapidly as she emerged from her digital spirit walk. "Petran was very wealthy. It looks like he bankrolled the operation."

John nodded his understanding. "What about Khatri?"

"According to his comms logs, he's gone home... to the family estate on Mazaya. It's a planet in the Ross 248 system."

"He's got some balls trying to brazen this out," John muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. "He must know it's only a matter of time before we made the connection with his nephew."

Alyssa walked down the illuminated steps from the Command Podium, then glided down the ramp to join them. "That's only ten light years from Terra; why don't we make a house call? We could have a little chat over coffee... ask him nicely if he knows anything."

Tashana winced at her ominous tone. "I almost feel sorry for him."

"If he's guilty, he'll be feeling pretty sorry too," Alyssa said, her smile of anticipation lacking any humour.

John drummed his fingers on Irillith's station, his expression conflicted. "How long will it take? Don't forget that we could always hand this over to Lynette and let her send in the troops to arrest him. I really want to take down these assholes, but we need to get back to Genthalas as soon as possible to stop the mess with the matriarchs from escalating. We can't risk getting distracted by diversions."

"It depends on what kind of reception we get and how hard it is to find him," the blonde replied with a shrug. "If we have to fight our way in and hunt Khatri down... maybe an hour, two at the most? I think it's well worth the time; If he was involved and we can get our hands on him, I'll be able to identify everyone he was working with."