Three Square Meals Ch. 064

"I spoke to a Rear Admiral Moreno when we arrived in the Delta-Draconis system," John said hesitantly. "She didn't catch me in the best of moods."

Caldwell frowned and replied, "Please accept my apologies. I was in a meeting when you arrived, but my XO informed me you two had spoken."

"She didn't seem to like me very much," John noted wryly.

"I'd have that woman transferred off the ship the first chance I got, but the Fleet Admiral..." Caldwell said through gritted teeth, before he stopped himself from continuing. He was guarded when he added, "Let's just say that Moreno has been Buckingham's... 'Chief of Staff', for a long time now."

Alyssa snorted with laughter as she said, *It sounds like Edraele was wrong. Carmela Moreno probably earned her promotions under a desk rather than behind it.*

John tried not to laugh at that, and instead asked Admiral Caldwell, "Where are we heading now, Admiral?"

The bearded man smiled as he replied, "Call me Edwin, please. I think you've more than earned it after your heroics." He glanced at the number indicator on the elevator, showing their current location as they ascended out of the bowels of the fleet carrier. "We'll be there shortly. The senior Admiralty are eager to speak with you."

It took a while to rise up through nearly thirty decks until they reached their destination, reminding John of the scale of this gigantic starship. The elevator chimed, and the doors swished open promptly, leading out onto a corridor on Deck Three. Following Admiral Caldwell out of the lift, John gave Calara a reassuring smile as they walked along behind him.

The corridor was bustling with officers, and it seemed everyone aboard had heard of John's recent exploits. Almost everyone they passed stopped to salute them respectfully, instantly recognising the celebrities in their midst. Calara started to look a bit intimidated by all the attention, as she was finding it difficult to adjust to her new rank and fame. John had been keeping an eye on her, and briefly slipped his hand into hers, giving it a gentle squeeze before letting it go. She turned and smiled at him gratefully, appreciating the supportive gesture.

Caldwell stopped by a set of double doors just a minute later, nodding to the two fully armed guards who stood at attention by the entrance. They opened the door for him, admitting them into a reception area, which was teeming with officious staff.

One of the officers hurried over to them, a Lieutenant Commander judging by the insignia on his chest, and the epaulets on his shoulders. "Please state your business with the Fleet Admiral, and I need to see your security identification," the man demanded curtly.

"I'm Admiral Caldwell, and this is the Lion. Now get out of my way," Caldwell snorted, breezing past the indignant security officer, and heading towards another set of double doors beyond. He opened the doors, and let John and Calara through before following them into the smaller room beyond.

Sitting behind a well-ordered desk was Rear Admiral Carmela Moreno, and her lip curled with distaste when she saw John walk into the room. She opened her mouth to greet him with a scathing rebuke, but Admiral Caldwell striding in behind John quickly silenced her.

"Good to see you again, Carmela," John replied cheerfully.

She quivered with fury, but with Admiral Caldwell there, she was forced to smile politely, and said, "Welcome aboard, John."

"I assume Vincent's still here?" Caldwell asked her abruptly.

She nodded to him, and replied obsequiously, "He said to go on in, Sir. The Admirals are still with him."

"Thanks," he replied, as he walked up to the door. He opened it, then turned and smiled at John, gesturing for him to proceed.

John strolled inside, and was surprised at the size of the huge opulent room. In one corner was a heavy ornate desk, and beside it was a complex suite of view screens and holographic projections which appeared to be displaying local Kintark space. On the other side of the huge office was a glass-fronted meeting room with a long, dark oak table, which had been polished to a rich shine, and was surrounded by seating for thirty people. That left the centre of the room, which was presently occupied by three older men and a woman, who were wearing dress uniform and sitting in comfortable looking wingback chairs.

They all rose to their feet, and one of them, a tall grey-haired man with a moustache said, "Ah, the illustrious John Blake! I've been looking forward to making your acquaintance for some time now."

Admiral Caldwell stepped forward, then turned to look at John, and said, "This is Fleet Admiral Vincent Buckingham." Nodding to each of the others in turn, he continued, "and Admirals Jayanti Mishra, Ricardo Santini, and Carl Weber."

John saluted them, and said, "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. I have some urgent business I need to discuss with you."

"Straight to the point," Admiral Jayanti Mishra said, as a smile lit up her light-brown face. "That makes a refreshing change!"

Admiral Weber frowned in her direction, and crossed his arms across his chest defensively. He looked like he was about to say something, but he clenched his jaw instead, remaining silent.

"Come, join us, John," the Fleet Admiral said, waving his hand to the vacant chairs around the table. There was a decanter of bronze-coloured drink on the table, and John could see several half-filled glasses where the Admirals had left them. Buckingham noticed what had drawn his eye, and he grinned as he added, "We're just toasting our glorious victory over the Kintark. Care for a drink?"

Admiral Caldwell walked over to the chairs, taking one directly opposite the Fleet Admiral, and the rest of the senior officers sat down as well. Admiral Santini pulled out a fat cigar, lit it and toasted it, and when it began to smoulder, he took a few well-practiced short puffs to draw up the flame. Terran Federation ships were strictly non-smoking, so it was a shock to both John and Calara to see the Admiral flagrantly breaking this fundamental regulation.

They walked over to sit in vacant chairs, and John replied, "Thank you, Fleet Admiral."

Fleet Admiral Buckingham frowned as he replied, "Normally I'm a stickler for protocol, but we're all Admirals here, so there's no need for ranks. First names make everything a lot easier, especially when discussions get... heated." His eyes flickered over to Santini as he said it, and when he made eye contact with John again, he smiled.

Admiral Caldwell poured John a glass of whiskey, and slid it across the table towards him. He looked at Calara, and raised the decanter as he asked, "Calara, would you like something to drink?"

"I'm fine, thank you... Admiral," she replied quietly, pausing for a moment before erring on the side of caution. The thought of addressing a member of the Admiralty by his first name felt incredibly awkward, and as a junior officer, she didn't think the Fleet Admiral's invitation applied to her.

Vincent Buckingham raised his glass, and he grinned as he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, here's to crushing the Kintark! To victory!"

The other Admirals raised their glasses, and echoed, "To victory!" before taking a drink.

John did the same reflexively, but his attention was on the officers sitting around the table. Admirals Ricardo Santini, and Carl Weber joined the Fleet Admiral's toast energetically, but Jayanti Mishra and Edwin Caldwell seemed more tempered in their enthusiasm. He was roused from his observations by the dark-skinned officer sitting to the Fleet Admiral's left.

She leaned forward, placing the drink back on the table, and said to him, "We heard from Lynette what happened back on Terra. It seems we owe you a huge debt."

The Fleet Admiral nodded vigorously, and said, "You did a marvellous thing, John! A huge fleet of rogue AI ships threatening Terra, and you cut straight through them to take out their command ship. Disabling their fleet, and saving Terra in one fell stroke; absolutely magnificent!"

Caldwell nodded his appreciation, smiling as he said, "You saved the heart of the Terran Federation. You've already eclipsed my career, and you're still a young man."

Carl Weber looked doubtful, and he grumbled, "Lynette's prone to exaggeration. Excuse me if I wait for the detailed analysis before I start singing the 'Lion's' praises."

"Don't be churlish, Carl," Buckingham admonished the dour man. "You must have seen the footage yourself. There were already videos all over the Holonet for hours, before Lynette authorised the TFNN broadcast."

Carl Weber grimaced, and chose not to comment further.

Ricardo Santini had a hungry gleam in his eye as he said, "It's remarkable what you've accomplished in that decommissioned assault cruiser. I suspect that there's much more than meets the eye with that relic of a ship..."

John studied the man for a moment, then replied cautiously, "When I retired, I bought a few upgrades for the Invictus from a number of alien sources. I've been quite pleased with the results."

"Is your retirement why you chose to abandon your regulation Terran Federation uniform?" Carl Weber glowered, looking at John's white Lion uniform with distaste. "Or was this meant as some kind of insult?"

Jayanti Mishra rolled her eyes, and interjected, "Don't bother answering that, John. Carl's being ridiculous."

Fleet Admiral Buckingham grinned as he said, "I think you've done a fantastic job embracing this 'Lion of the Federation' persona. The title Lynette concocted for you was absolutely inspired." He glanced at Admiral Caldwell, and added, "Morale's been through the roof, right Edwin?"

Edwin Caldwell nodded, and replied, "The men love an honest-to-God hero, Vincent."

Jayanti Mishra smiled, as she said, "The women too of course. It's not just the personnel though, we've seen substantial improvements to public approval ratings of High Command."

"I'll drink to that!" Fleet Admiral Buckingham exclaimed, taking a swig of drink from his cut-crystal glass.

John smiled magnanimously, and said, "I'm glad I've been able to help."

*John!* Alyssa reached out to him urgently.

*I'm here, what's wrong?* he replied.

She spoke quickly as she said via telepathy, *Irillith just woke up from her spirit-walk. She said there were no outgoing messages from Lynton on her dreadnought this morning, but that seemed suspicious, because the Dragon March Commander should be issuing fleet orders. She started checking all outgoing messages from the entire fleet, and It turns out Lynton took a shuttle over to the Battleship Artemis!*

*Commodore Sasaki's ship?* John asked in confusion.

*A comm broadcast was sent from the Artemis to Norwood's dreadnought an hour after we left the system. The signal was sent with Lynton's security clearance. She tipped him off!* she exclaimed.

*What did the message say?* he asked, his eyes narrowing in anger.

Alyssa sounded exasperated as she replied, *It was encrypted with some extremely complex form of encryption software. Irillith's working with Faye to try and break it.*

*Alright, let Irillith know what a great job I think she's doing,* he said, his voice filled with gratitude. *Let me know as soon as you find out anything else.*

*Will do!* she agreed eagerly.

John watched the assembled Admirals for a long moment, and then took a big breath before he said, "I have urgent business with you all. I need to talk to you about Admiral Norwood."

The jubilant mood in the room abruptly changed, expressions darkening rapidly.

"That thrice-damned traitor!" Santini snarled in anger.

Fleet Admiral Buckingham looked furious as he snapped, "I promoted him to Admiral myself! I can't believe that bastard would betray his own people like that!"

Admiral Caldwell was more measured in his response, and his eyes were sharp as he leaned forward, asking, "What did you want to speak to us about?"

John met his searching gaze, and replied, "I headed out to the Dragon March to warn you about Norwood, but I'm worried he wasn't acting alone. There's another member of the Admiralty involved."

The room erupted at this, with the Admirals reacting in a mix of astonishment and anger, all of them speaking out at the same time.

"I had nothing to do with that treacherous dog!" Ricardo Santini roared. "How dare you accuse me of being a traitor?!"

Carl Weber glared at John and snapped, "You knew beforehand?!"

Jayanti Mishra looked around the table at her fellow Admirals, a worried expression on her face as she murmured, "More traitors?!"

Vincent Buckingham was outraged and he declared, "Who is it?! By God, I'll see them hanged before the day is out."

Edwin Caldwell's eyes had narrowed, and he looked tense as he asked, "What did you find out, John?"

John didn't know who to reply to first under this barrage of frenzied questions, so he simply stood up, looming over them. They abruptly went quiet as they looked up at this intimidating presence in their midst, and waited silently to hear what he had to say next.

He looked at Santini first, and replied calmly, "I'm not accusing you of anything, Ricardo." He glanced down at Calara, before looking at the assembled Admirals, and continued, "Commander Fernandez suspected something wasn't right in the Dragon March campaign, so she started investigating the recent Kintark victories. She analysed the fleet commands that had been issued by the three admirals fighting in the Dragon March conflict, which was when she began to suspect Norwood.

We saw the huge number of battle-damaged ships returning from the front to Olympus Shipyard, which only confirmed her suspicions. No campaign should be that unlucky. I ordered my Cyber-Intelligence Officer to do some further digging, and we confirmed that Norwood was directly responsible for nearly a dozen catastrophic engagements with the Kintark."

Admiral Weber blurted out, "Not informing us of these suspicions was a gross dereliction of duty, you should be court mart-."

"I'm retired, I don't give a fuck about court martials," John snapped, tired of the man's provocations, and leaving the Admiral open-mouthed in shock. "I could hardly broadcast this over the comm network. How was I to know who else was involved? The last thing I wanted to do was tip the traitors off. Besides, you were all in the Dragon March, which was in a comms lockdown in preparation for the invasion."

"Who else do you suspect, John?" Edwin Caldwell probed quietly.

John looked down at the senior officers who were all watching him with breathless anticipation, and replied sombrely, "Gabrielle Lynton."

There was another loud chorus of angry exchanges, while Admiral Caldwell sat back and digested this shocking accusation.

"Preposterous," Santini snorted in disbelief. "I've known Gabrielle for years, there's no way she's in league with Norwood."

"Excuse me if I don't trust your character judgement, Ricardo," Jayanti Mishra said dismissively. "You would have said the same thing about Leonard yesterday, and now look what he's done!"

"Norwood fooled all of us!" Santini blurted out defensively. "You can't blame me for that!"

Fleet Admiral Vincent Buckingham had stayed quiet, but his face was deadly serious as he stared at John. "Why do you suspect Admiral Lynton?" he asked, ignoring the other Officers. For a moment his demeanour had changed significantly, and John couldn't help but wonder if his previous, more flamboyant behaviour was some kind of ruse.

John met his gaze, and replied, "When we arrived at the Dragon March, I requested your location, and told her I was following orders from Admiral Devereux. Lynton claimed she couldn't divulge your location without first getting clearance from your staff officer, and while we were waiting for approval, she sent us on a mission to clear the Kintark resupply station from the Mar'Katrach nebula."

Caldwell frowned, and said solemnly, "She didn't need clearance for that. At her rank, she's fully authorised to send reinforcements directly to our position. What else did you find out?"

"Wait a minute!" Santini interrupted, sounding intrigued. "She sent you into the nebula alone? How did you get past the border forces, and how could you even navigate in the nebula? For that matter, if it's a resupply station, it'd be teeming with Kintark forces! Just how much firepower have you got on that ship?!"

"He's obviously not going to tell you," Jayanti Mishra said, clearly exasperated. Turning to John, she said, "Go on, please. What other evidence have you got against Gabrielle Lynton?"

John secretly breathed a sigh of relief at their attention being drawn from Admiral Santini's questions, as they were ones he definitely didn't want to provide answers for. He looked at the older, dark-skinned woman and replied, "I believe Gabrielle wanted to delay me from reaching you so that she could tip off Norwood."

"This is all circumstantial," Carl Weber protested with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Where's the actual proof?"

John glanced at him, and replied, "As soon as I jumped out of the system, Gabrielle took a shuttle to the battleship Artemis. She used their comms array to broadcast to the 'Vengeance of Hera'."

"That's Norwood's ship!" Santini gasped, looked stunned. "What time was this?!"

John looked around at his audience, and stated, "Approximately ten hours ago."

They all exchanged worried glances, and he could tell the mood had shifted, even including Santini and Weber, who were initially dismissive of his claim.

Jayanti's voice was grim as she said, "Norwood's band of traitors attacked the loyalist forces two hours after that."

"How could you know that?" Carl Weber asked him, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "There's no way you should be able to access the Artemis' comms records."

John gave him a level look, and said, "The security of the Terran Federation was at stake, and I have my sources."

Admiral Weber clenched his teeth, and said, "That answer's not good enou-."

"Be quiet, Carl," Fleet Admiral Buckingham said in a chilling voice. He stared at John, and asked, "Is there anything else?"

After hesitating a moment, John said, "This might sound strange, but has Gabrielle Lynton radically changed her appearance recently?"

At this, even Carl Weber stopped his grumbling, and they all looked equally astonished as they stared at him.

"She told me she'd recently had a big inheritance, and spent a fortune on a designer bodysculpt job a few months ago," The Fleet Admiral said cautiously. "I thought it was a waste of money, but the results were truly remarkable. How did you know that?"

John looked down at Calara, and asked, "Have you got that picture you found of her?"

Calara nodded, pressed a couple of buttons on the Holo-reader, then showed it to the five naval officers. "This was taken at Gabrielle's last medical," she explained.

Ricardo Santini shook his head as he blurted out, "She looks nothing like that now."

"What does she look like?" John asked him intently.

Ricardo glanced at Jayanti, then shrugged, and replied, "She looks stunning. Gabrielle's lost about forty pounds and looks at least twenty years younger. I didn't recognise her when she came back from her vacation."

John shared a meaningful glance with Calara, both of them nodding as his suspicions were confirmed. He turned back to Ricardo Santini and asked, "Vacation? When did this happen?"

Santini frowned as he thought back, and then replied, "It was several months ago, about the time diplomatic relations with the Kintark broke down. Gabrielle was supposed to deploy to the Dragon March, but she claimed she had something personal to attend to. She extended her vacation for another week, delaying her deployment, and I remember being pissed-off because I had to cover for her. When she finally joined me and Norwood, I was expecting her to be a dumpy old broad, and she turned out to be a stone cold fox."