Three Square Meals Ch. 056

The others watched the pair of them as Rachel handed over the Psi-detector to Dana, then walked over to rejoin everyone. It only took Dana a minute to connect the data store on the futuristic looking ray-gun device to the view-screen, and when she did, the big screen crackled for a moment before coming to life.

The frozen image on the screen showed a zoomed-in view of the assembled engineers, as they listened to Edraele speak. It was taken from a high vantage point, in this case, up on the maintenance gantries one-hundred-metres above everyone, and gave a nice clear picture of all the Maliri involved.

Part of the shot was completely obscured by the thick cable of bright ethereal energy that was snaking out from Rachel, the camerawoman taking the images. It led all the way down to ground level, then disappeared out of shot, heading towards what appeared to be some kind of distorting glare behind Edraele.

"Sorry about the line obscuring the shot," Rachel said with a frown. "I'll un-pause this in a moment, and I move position, so you can see everyone more clearly."

"Wait a moment," John said, raising a hand. "That connection looks significantly stronger than the last time we studied the Psi-detector footage."

Alyssa nodded, smiling at Rachel lovingly and said, "We're much closer now, since we bonded. We can chat telepathically now, rather than just me projecting my voice to her."

Rachel smiled wistfully at the blonde girl, and said, "That was an amazing experience. It felt like I was officially part of the group after that."

Dana put the remote on the coffee table between everyone, then gave Rachel an exuberant hug, and said, "You were part of the group way before that!"

The brunette laughed, and hugged the other girl back giving her a tender kiss before Dana released her and sat down on one of the sofas to the side to get a better view. Jade had turned around to kneel on the sofa to be able to see better, so when Dana patted the seat next to her, she got up immediately, and cuddled up next to her.

Rachel was still standing, and she said, "Now, if there aren't any more interruptions from beautiful redheads, I'll continue."

Dana chuckled, and waved her on, so the tawny haired girl turned back to the viewscreen, and picked up the remote from the coffee table. Rachel looked at the view-screen, and pressed play on the remote, and the frozen image started to move. Sure enough, Rachel had moved around the maintenance gantry, until she was at an angle where the snaking ethereal cable that linked her to Alyssa was no longer blocking the view.

"What's that bright glow coming from my mother?" Irillith asked, as she stared up at the screen in fascination.

"People with strong psychic abilities seem to project a glowing aura. Edraele's a potent psychic, which is why she's surrounded in the bright halo," Rachel explained. She glanced at Alyssa, and added, "But we've seen stronger."

"Pause it a second," John requested, as he leaned in closer to stare at the screen. "The lines coming from all those Maliri engineers are very faint. I can barely make them out."

Jade nodded, confirming his suspicions, and said, "You're right. The intensity from their connection to Edraele is much weaker than any of ours have been. The weakest we've seen up until now was from Rachel, which was before she bonded, but even then it was at least... ten times stronger than the Maliri connections."

They sat there quietly taking this in, glancing at each other as they wondered what it meant. Everyone suspected the same thing, but it was Rachel who spoke up first, "I think we've all come to the same conclusion," she began, looking around at everyone. "It seems like the closer we all become with each other, the more the strength of our psychic links ramp up as well."

"There's such a huge difference though," John marvelled as he glanced up at the screen. "Just the connection from Rachel alone seems more powerful than the eighty Maliri in the image. The Progenitors seem to be all about increasing their power, so I wonder how they boost those connections?"

"I don't think they do," Alyssa said soberly. "After the way Progenitor-John behaved, can you really imagine him getting to know the girls he was linked to? Encouraging them to grow and develop as people, and falling in love with them, just as they fell for him?"

Everyone shook their heads, realising how ridiculous that sounded.

"I was around him for nearly two weeks," Irillith said quietly. "All he wanted to know about was Maliri Noble Houses, their fleet dispositions, and orbital facilities. I don't think he bothered to ask me a single personal thing during the entire time I was with him."

John nodded, and said, "He was cut off from you as a power source by that point, but I don't think that was the reason. It's more likely that he just didn't care. He informed Edraele about how Matriarchs and Thralls are linked with a Progenitor, and she said that Progenitors and their Matriarchs have no name for 'the bond', as it's something they never do."

"What does this mean in practical terms though?" Calara asked them curiously. "Does it give us a tactical advantage against that Progenitor who seems to be stirring up trouble all over the place?"

John smiled at her, and said, "Well firstly, it confirms just how special all of you are. In purely psychic energy terms, you're each worth hundreds of Maliri, but I consider you all to be priceless."

Alyssa smiled at him lovingly, and gave him a playful nudge with her shoulder as she said, "You old smoothie. We're all quite fond of you too, you know."

The other girls murmured their agreement, and when everyone had settled down again, Rachel asked, "Everyone ready for me to continue? There's some other really interesting stuff to go."

"Please proceed, Doctor Voss," John said to her formally.

"I shall, Commodore Blake," she replied playfully, then turned towards the view-screen and pressed play once again.

They could see Edraele speaking to the assembled crowd of engineers, although there wasn't any sound accompanying the images. She turned to her side, and a few moments later John strode into the image. He still looked just the same as before, with no aura of any kind, but they had to blink against the blinding glare as a massive, blazingly bright column of energy was flowing from him off the edge of the screen.

"Holy fuck," Dana swore, blinking against the searing glare. "That link is insane. It was never that strong before!"

Rachel quickly fast forwarded for a few seconds, and abruptly the intensity dropped right down. "Sorry about that," she said with an apologetic smile. "It took me a moment to turn down the amplification... I was seeing spots for a few minutes until my eyes recovered."

With the changed settings, they could now look at the screen without having to squint against the glare. The connections from the Maliri engineers all seemed to have vanished, too faint to be detectable with the lower settings. The link from Edraele to John seemed strong though, still visible on the screen, but it paled in comparison to the primary link from him that disappeared out-of-shot.

The image showed John addressing the crowd, and then he turned to walk down the steps of the podium. Rachel panned the camera with him, and he strolled over to rejoin the girls, who were standing back from proceedings.

"Stop!" they all cried at once, staring at the screen in shock, and Rachel grinned at them as she paused the video.

"I knew it was you!" John exclaimed with delight, turning to grin at Alyssa. "The radiant girl from my dreams!"

Sure enough, there centred in the image, a brilliant glowing figure was standing next to John. Even with the modified settings, she was surrounded in a resplendent aura, but they could instantly tell by her elegant poise and bearing that it was Alyssa. The link from John was connected with her, and it had contracted when he walked over to stand next to her. Eldritch power lines snaked out from the radiant figure, linking the rest of the crew to Alyssa.

"It's not just Rachel's connection that's stronger," Jade noted, her sharp eyes quickly spotting the increased intensity of the link between Calara, Dana, and herself to Alyssa. "Even with the modified settings, the energy flowing from the rest of us to Alyssa is much more powerful."

Rachel nodded and said archly, "I have a theory about that if you want to hear it?"

"You know we do, honey. What is it?" he inquired with a chuckle.

She smiled at him, then replied, "When you re-established your connection with Alyssa, you said you modified the link to remove the compulsion to obey you. I suspect that element of absolute control took up a significant bandwidth of our connection, and with that gone, it meant the whole link could be devoted purely to psychic energy. Then, on top of that, Alyssa seems to have established the same kind of link with you. I bet that's completely unheard of amongst Progenitors."

All of a sudden Edraele's voice filled John's thoughts, and she said firmly, *Rachel is correct. A Progenitor keeps his Matriarch under a tight leash, and I don't think they'd ever consider relinquishing their absolute control.*

John nodded, and a sudden thought popped into his head, and he asked, *We still have a regular Progenitor/Matriarch connection, don't we?*

Edraele replied without any hesitation, *Yes, that's correct, my Lord. All the Maliri who are linked to you via me, myself included, will obey your every command.*

*Very interesting, thank you, Edraele,* he replied thoughtfully.

He looked at Rachel again, and saw that she was watching him patiently. "Sorry, about that," he said with a smile. "Edraele was just confirming that you're right, I don't think the Progenitors would ever dream of letting the women linked with them out of their total control."

"No problem," she said to him, smiling back. Glancing up at the screen, she added, "You can see that all of us 'Thralls' have massively boosted links with Alyssa now too. That makes me think that the same bandwidth theory applies to us as well. Now you aren't enforcing our total obedience, we're able to make stronger connections with you, routed through Alyssa."

Dana pouted and said mournfully, "I actually miss it. I liked being your good obedient girl."

John grinned at her, and said, "You still can be. The only time it was really important for you to be totally obedient was when we in bed together, so don't go throwing away your 'John's Property' schoolgirl outfit! Rachel and Calara already proved what good girls they are, mind-controlling link be damned!"

They all laughed at that, with Alyssa, Calara and Irillith all hugging him affectionately, taking advantage of their proximity. When everyone settled down again, they all looked up at the screen, curious to see if there was anything else of interest to spot.

Glancing at Irillith, Alyssa said wryly, "For someone who isn't psychic, that's a fairly impressive aura."

Even with the dampening effect on the Psi-detector image, they could all make out a distinctive glowing aura around the Maliri girl. When Edraele walked into shot with several engineers, they could see that the Maliri Matriarch was the stronger, but the difference wasn't that pronounced.

Irillith stared up at the screen in surprise, then said dismissively, "I've never been able to do anything supernatural, that can't be right."

Rachel studied her for a moment, before saying, "You do have triple helix DNA, and you share the 'Eldritch bloodline' with your mother. I'd actually be more surprised if you didn't have psychic potential."

The Maliri girl nodded, her violet eyes widening slightly with apprehension. Alyssa sensed how unsettled Irillith was, and leaned in to give her a supportive hug, while saying, "Don't be worried, we're all here to help you deal with anything."

John nodded, holding her in a comforting embrace, and said, "You've got me to look after you now, I'll make sure you're fine." He gently stroked her slightly swollen tummy for emphasis, and gave her a playful wink.

She let out a relieved laugh, and then smiled at them both, and said, "Thanks, both of you. I must admit, it feels weird relying on other people, but it's also very reassuring."

Jade suddenly spoke up, having spotted something else with her keen eyesight. "Sorry to interrupt, but I just noticed something else."

"No problem," John said encouragingly. "What have you seen?"

"The links with the assassins is faint, but still strong enough to be seen," she replied, pointing up at the screen.

John squinted at the screen and said, "Now you mention it, yeah, I can see them too."

"That's interesting," Alyssa said looking thoughtful. "You were only with them once, weren't you?"

He nodded, and said, "Yes, but they got a much larger 'share' than the engineers. In those group sessions with Jade, she was splitting each load between twenty or more Maliri."

Rachel tapped her chin thoughtfully, and said, "Connection strength could be related to volume ingested." She smiled at him, and added, "It's a shame we don't have a few, very willing Maliri test subjects to experiment with."

Irillith smiled at her, and said eagerly, "I'm happy to volunteer!"

Alyssa gave her a wicked grin, and said, "Don't worry, I intend to keep you fully loaded until this eye problem is sorted out." She glanced at John and added playfully, "As long as you don't object to your Matriarch's suggestion, mighty Progenitor?"

"That won't be a problem," he said with a laugh, and leaned in to kiss Irillith, while resting his strong, protective hand over her rounded tummy. Her violet eyes gazed up at him alluringly when they separated, and with a regretful sigh, he said, "I better get moving if I'm going to get any psychic practice in before dinner this evening."

He helped the Maliri girl to stand, and everyone else rose to their feet too. "I'll head up to the Bridge again, and have another look at those classified commands," Irillith said bravely.

Calara walked over to her, and said, "I'd be happy to have the company, but let me know the moment your eyes give you any trouble."

Irillith nodded, and the two of them walked out of the Officers' Lounge while waving everyone goodbye. Dana and Rachel smiled at each other and started walking out too, while Alyssa and Jade accompanied John.

"Sorry Rachel, I never found out what you were up to," John said to the brunette as they left the room. "I meant to ask when you came back with the Psi-detector, but with all the psychic talk I got a bit distracted."

"Nothing particularly exciting. I'll need to access the Terran Federation Medical Archives before I can start researching something that might really help people," she replied with a smile. "Until we're back in Terran Space, I'm planning to take a look at a DNA sample I got from one of the Maliri engineers, which I took before she swallowed any of your cum. I was going to compare that against Irillith's baseline DNA, and see if it told me anything new about the genetic behaviour modification. I never got a chance to ask Edraele for a DNA sample, unfortunately."

Alyssa smiled at her, and said, "You should check John's jacket and my blue dress, as long as the cleaning bots haven't whisked them away yet. We spent quite a bit of time with Edraele, so you might find one of her white hairs there."

They had arrived at the grav-tube, and Rachel was going to step into the red side to drop down to Deck Seven. She stopped at the last second, and smiled at Alyssa as she said gratefully, "I'll go and check right now, thanks!"

John was going to go with her to his quarters, to retrieve his sword, when Alyssa hooked her arm around his, and said eagerly, "Don't worry about that old thing. Let me forge you a shiny new one!"

Before he could answer, a startled cry from above them had them looking up in alarm. They stepped into the blue side of the grav-tube, and ascended smoothly up to the Command Deck. They found Irillith slumped against Calara, who was trying to support her weight, while carefully lowering her to the ground.

"What happened?" John asked, effortlessly scooping up the comatose Maliri woman in his arms.

"I've no idea!" Calara said, sounding distressed. "We stepped out of the grav-tube, and Irillith cried out, holding her hands over her eyes. She seemed to black out, and just tipped over, but fortunately I managed to catch her before she hurt herself."

Faye was fluttering nearby, having been on watch duty on the Bridge, and she looked worried as she asked, "Is my Creator okay?"

"I'm not sure Faye," John replied, studying Irillith's face with concern. He darted a look at Rachel and asked, "Take her to Medical?"

Rachel hesitated, and looked frustrated as she replied, "I couldn't find anything wrong with her. It wasn't eyestrain, or any kind of trauma, and her eyes looked in perfect health."

"Let's take her to our room," Alyssa suggested. "She'll be more comfortable there, and we can keep an eye on her more easily."

Rachel nodded, and said, "Perhaps she just needs rest. In any case, there's no point taking her to Medical if there's nothing I can do to treat her."

John stepped into the grav-tube, accompanied by the girls, and said, "I'll speak to Edraele, and have her send whatever Maliri medical data they have available to the Invictus."

*What's happened to my daughter?* Edraele asked, her voice throbbing with worry.

***

Aradrea Ghilwen sat at the head of the conference table, darting nervous glances towards the large set of double doors at the other end of the room. When the doors began to open smoothly, she rose from her chair, grimacing at the twinge in her back as she did so. She'd been greatly relieved that the Matriarchs from the other Houses had agreed to her urgent plea for a meeting, and even more so when they agreed to meet on her homeworld, saving her an uncomfortable journey. It rankled that they considered House Ghilwen innocuous enough to be classed as neutral territory, but for the leader of the eighth-ranked House in the Maliri Regency, such slights had to be lived with.

Two regal looking middle-aged Maliri women glided into the room, speaking amiably to one another, as they made cordial conversation. Aradrea Ghilwen immediately recognised the Matriarchs of House Aeberos, and House Naestina, ranked fourth and fifth respectively in the Regency. The two noble Houses had long been allies, and worked closely together to scheme against their rivals. They had successfully brought House Kayden low, devastating the primary Kayden fleet in a surprise pincer attack, then quickly followed up to annex several of their worlds. House Kayden had crashed from rank three to rank fifteen, their power and prestige now a mere shadow of what it had once been. These Matriarchs were duplicitous and conniving women, but they were both hungry for power, which made them exactly who Aradrea needed for her plan.

"Warmest greetings to you, honoured Matriarchs," Aradrea said to them both courteously, giving them a respectful curtsey, and ignoring her creaking knees.

"Cut the insincere pleasantries, Aradrea," Yunaliss Aeberos said dismissively.

Tinefain Naestina looked at the older House Ghilwen Matriarch with contempt, and sneered, "This better not be a waste of my time. I only agreed to this meeting because Yunaliss asked me to come."

Yunaliss gave her friend a wicked smile, and said, "Aradrea believes she's found a way to strike at that thrice-damned Valaden whore, so I thought it prudent to hear her out. If she's wasted our time..." She paused for a moment, and her magenta eyes flashed dangerously before she continued, "Well, House Ghilwen might only be rank -Eight-, but we can always pick on a lower ranked House to annex more worlds."