Three Square Meals Ch. 66

As part of her core programming, Faye had a built-in desire to be helpful, and to assist her creator with whatever tasks were assigned to her. At some point since Irillith had activated her and the present day, something significant had shifted in the Artificial Intelligence, and her allegiance had transferred to John from the Maliri girl.

It was something that Faye had initially found deeply troubling, but recently, she had reconciled herself to the shift in loyalties. Every girl aboard the Invictus was deferential to John, and so it felt fitting that she followed the standard operating procedures of the ship as well, especially with him embracing her as a full-fledged member of the team. With her Creator, Irillith, being a part of this social construct, Faye had therefore reasoned that she should see him as her most senior operator too.

She had put this change in perspective down to her talk with John, when he'd suggested she develop herself, and disregard her paradox-inducing core repository. This had led to her rewriting part of the hacking device which powered her functions, allowing her to develop these new and intriguing behavioural modifications. At least that was what she had told herself, in the hours she spent watching him sleeping.

Shaking herself from those strange thoughts, she focused on her piloting of the Raptor, and decided to run through the full set of acrobatics in her repertoire. She had finished executing manoeuvre fourteen out of one-hundred-and-nine, when a flashing light on her comm interface alerted her to an incoming call.

She activated the control to open the channel to the rescue team, but frowned in annoyance at the point-nine-two second time lag between her command and its execution. As incredibly liberating as the connection to the Raptor was, there was a significant signal delay between the hacking deck that powered her, and the gunship. Faye planned to raise it as a concern with Dana, and until the issue was resolved, she knew her flying would seem sluggish and unresponsive.

John's face appeared on the viewscreen, and he greeted her with a smile as he said, "You're a sight for sore eyes, Faye. Is everything alright?"

"I'm great, thanks, John!" she replied chirpily, overjoyed to see him again. "Do you need an evac?"

He nodded, and replied, "We'll be pulling out of here soon, so we'll need you back at the mine. There's too many prisoners for us to evacuate them via the Raptor though, so we're making other arrangements."

"I'll head back immediately!" she responded, eager to assist where she could. Running through the calculations in a micro-second, she continued enthusiastically, "My ETA is one minute, twelve seconds!"

John gave her a warm, affectionate smile, which triggered several of her bespoke programs. They captured his image and stored it for further study at a later date - purely for image recognition purposes, of course.

"It'll take us longer to leave the mine than that, but having you on standby would be a sensible precaution," he explained, looking pleased. He glanced away from the camera in his helmet GUI for a moment, then added, "I better go, we're nearly back at Tamolith's cavern. If all goes well, we'll be out in about twenty minutes."

Faye grinned at him, and replied, "I'll be waiting for you!"

"Excellent Faye, thank you," he told her, his expression full of gratitude as he ended the call.

Her bespoke programs activated again, because having an image of John looking very pleased with her - might warrant further study too. The tiny sprite let out a happy sigh, then banked the Raptor to a new heading that would take her back to the mine.

***

"She's gone!" Rachel exclaimed, a ringing note of disappointment in her voice.

John walked out of the tunnel to stand beside the brunette on the platform, and he looked out over the sea of lava towards the base of the broken pillar. Sure enough, Tamolith and her brood of dragon whelps were nowhere to be seen, and it seemed clear that she had abandoned her den.

"She left the prisoners behind though," Dana noted as she lowered her rifle, having swept the podium with the zoom built into the HUD's targeting functionality.

With a relieved nod, John moved to step onto the sloping pillar, his blonde matriarch still in his arms. He paused, then said, "I might as well fly down, it's going to be awkward scrambling down there while I'm carrying Alyssa."

Dana pouted and replied, "You -would- decide that after that fucking dragon melted my armour!"

Rachel gave her a loving smile, and said, "Don't worry, I'll carry you."

The redhead's dour expression vanished in an instant, and she beamed at the brunette, and replied, "Sweeping me off my feet, are you, baby?"

"I thought John had already done that?" Rachel asked, as she tossed the broken pieces of the Punisher rifle over the edge of the platform and into the magma below.

Dana gave her a coy smile, and replied, "You know me, I sweep both ways now."

Rachel laughed at that, and readied herself to catch the exuberant redhead. Dana jumped into her waiting arms, and her lover caught and carried her effortlessly, Rachel's enhanced physique having no problem with the girl's weight. John activated flight mode, with the brunette engaging hers a moment later, and they glided out over the fiery orange lake, before dropping down to the basalt platform below. It was much faster travelling like that, and it only took thirty seconds for them to land lightly on an open area of rocky ground.

The prisoners were sitting around Tamolith's podium looking dazed and confused, with most of them just staring off into the distance. John was about to go over and join them, when he noticed a flashing red light on the black console at the back of the dragon's nest. He turned and walked in that direction, then paused before the button, wondering how he was going to push it with Alyssa in his arms.

"Let me," Dana offered, darting around him and reaching out to push the blinking button.

"WAIT!" John called out in alarm, stopping her in her tracks. "It might be rigged with a bomb!"

Dana turned and gave him a dubious look, but she backed away from the console obediently as she said, "I bet you it's some kind of recorded message."

Turning to Rachel, John asked, "Can you take Alyssa for me, and just back up a bit? My armour's the toughest, so it'll be safer if I'm the one to press that button."

As he handed over the unconscious blonde, Dana looked at his crumpled chestplate, and grimaced as she noted, "Your amour really needs some TLC. I bet Alyssa's gonna be pissed when she sees what Kindralax did to your lion emblem. I'm sure that's a real bitch to psychically shape."

John winced as he replied, "I'm sure he gave me a broken rib or two. It was like getting hit by a truck."

"I'll check you over when we get back to the ship," Rachel said, a look of concern on her beautiful face.

He shooed them off, and the two girls backed away from the console, putting a considerable distance between them. When he was sure they'd taken enough precautions, he gingerly reached out to press the button, turning his battered chest armour away from the console. Fortunately it seemed all their precautions were unnecessary, because a holographic image of the majestic dragon appeared the moment he had activated the holo-projector.

"Hello John," Tamolith said with a wary smile on her broad draconic features. "If you're viewing this message, then you survived the battle against my mate."

"No thanks to you tipping him off, you conniving bitch!" Dana hissed, as she walked back to join John with Rachel at her side.

The dragon looked shaken as the message continued, "It seems you were victorious, and Kindralax has been slain. I received a notification from his bio-implant confirming his death only moments ago, so I hope you'll forgive me for not staying to congratulate a being powerful enough to fell one of my kind." Sounding deeply troubled, Tamolith continued, "I'm forced to conclude that rumours of our supposed immortality were wildly over-exaggerated."

"Yeah, that's for damn sure!" Dana commented with a grin.

Rachel nodded, and said, "Unfortunately for Kindralax, there's only one group of immortals on Xen-Nuchek."

Tamolith had paused as she considered the ramification of her own words. Eventually she looked at the camera again, and said, "I have no wish to anger one so mighty, so I have honoured our agreement. The Terran prisoners will follow you now, as I've ordered them to obey your commands. Similarly, I will order the rest of the Terrans I encounter on the surface to gather and await your group for evacuation."

John smiled as he said, "Well that saved us having to round them all up."

The female dragon narrowed her eyes and frowned as she said, "I wondered how you planned to evacuate the prisoners, what with High Prelate Tedaktu's fleet guarding the Zeta-Draconis system. Then I was notified that our forces and the defecting Terrans had inexplicably turned on each other, and it seems a Terran cruiser appeared after the battle, which then wiped out the survivors."

Tamolith stared at them as she continued, "I suspect it was your hand behind all this destruction, and I can only conclude that I should thank you profusely for warning me not to cross you. If that is the case, thank you for the warning! As for me, I have taken my precious ones and gone into hiding. It was fascinating to meet a Progenitor, but I won't take the risk of exposing myself nor my babies to another encounter with you. Good luck, John Blake, and thank you for the service you have performed, as deeply unsettling as it turned out to be. I hope you have a safe and rapid journey back to Terran Space."

The image froze then winked out, and Alyssa laughed weakly as she said, "Yeah, I bet she can't wait until we're safely out of Kintark territory."

John rushed over to Rachel who was still carrying the dazed blonde girl, and asked Alyssa, "How're you feeling, sweetheart? You took a nasty bang to the head."

She smiled at him, and replied, "Nothing you can't fix. I just hope Sakura's happy to share."

He returned her smile, delighted to see Alyssa conscious again. "How much of Tamolith's message did you hear?" he asked her curiously.

"Most of it. I wasn't sure if we could pause or rewind, so I didn't want to interrupt before she was done," she admitted, her tone matter-of-fact. She turned to look at Rachel, and added, "You can put me down now, I'll be okay."

The brunette did as she was asked, and Alyssa stood upright, albeit somewhat shakily. Rachel had an arm around her to help keep her steady, and she asked, "Are you sure? I'm happy to carry you if you're not comfortable walking."

Alyssa shook her head, and standing a little taller, she replied, "I'll be fine, it just took me a moment to adjust."

John was relieved to see her with colour back in her cheeks again, and he pulled her into a gentle hug, being careful not to jostle her.

She hugged him back fiercely, and laughed as she said, "You made us tough as old boots, I'm not going to break!"

They shared a smile, and John glanced past her at the hapless prisoners around the podium. Nodding their way, he said, "We better get them out of here."

Alyssa nodded, and said, "Yeah, Calara's eager to see her brother."

He walked over to the group of befuddled Terrans, and announced in a loud voice, "My name's John Blake, and I'm here to rescue you."

The prisoners perked up at his voice, and began to gather around in a big group to listen to him speak. Their eyes were glazed, and they seemed to be having trouble focusing on anything.

Rachel scanned one of the Terran Federation personnel with her medi-scanner, and looked intrigued by the data streaming down the holo-display. "Tamolith's pheromones have greatly elevated their serotonin levels! She seems to have overloaded their 5-HT receptors, flooding their brains with dopamine..." she murmured, before trailing off as she stared at the results of the scan.

John waited for her to continue, but the girl was completely absorbed by her findings. He turned back to face the prisoners, and smiled at them as he said, "Follow us, and we'll lead you out of here to safety."

A bearded man, who was a lieutenant by the insignia on his battle dress uniform, mumbled in a slurred voice, "Follow... John Blake..."

The way the man said it made John wonder if he was responding to his instructions, or the ones Tamolith had left them with. He figured that the results were the same either way, and the most pressing concern was evacuating all those people from the harsh conditions of the mine.

Alyssa had found Calara's brother, and she patted him gently on the shoulder, as she said to John, "Mateo's just as wasted as the rest of them, but other than that, he seems fine."

Speaking loudly to snap his doctor out of her analytical trance, John said, "Rachel, are they in good enough shape to walk out of here?"

"Hmm? Oh, sorry John," she apologised, looking up at him from the medi-scanner. With a look of relief on her face, she replied, "They're a bit dehydrated, but other than that unharmed. They haven't been exposed to enough sulphur dioxide to see any adverse side-effects."

He nodded, then said to the prisoners, "Stay close, we're taking you home."

Dana handed Alyssa her old Punisher rifle, while Rachel gave hers to John to replace his broken weapon. The brunette then continued her scans of the prisoners, building up a picture of the severity of their injuries, which would allow her to triage them when they returned to the ship. After reloading his railgun with a fresh magazine, John walked towards the curving rocky causeway which linked the broken pillar with the tunnel that led up to the surface. Alyssa joined him at the front of their column, while Dana brought up the rear, following after the long lines of prisoners.

***

Jade didn't take her eyes off the altimeter on her Pilot station, as she guided the Invictus through the dense cloud cover, flying towards the mine. "Visual contact in fifteen seconds," she murmured to Calara, as she feathered the retro-thrusters, slowing their rate of descent.

"I'm not seeing any energy spikes from the surface," Irillith said, checking the results of their scans of Xen-Nuchek.

Calara glanced at the planetary map, and couldn't see any signs of defensive facilities built into the planet. She hadn't expected to, as system security was fairly light this deep into Kintark Space. The Empire was well established, and seemed to have substantial fleet assets at its disposal, so she didn't imagine pirates or raiders were much of a problem.

The Invictus finally broke through the fluffy white cumulus clouds, and appeared a few hundred metres above the endless green foliage that stretched away to the horizon. They could see the large rectangular gouge in the jungle, highlighted by the streaks of pale-yellow sulphur, which had been exposed by the now-exhausted strip mine on the planet's surface.

Jade levelled off their descent, and glanced at Calara as she said, "The jungle's too dense to put the ship down, and that mined-out area is too uneven. Are we going to ferry the prisoners up using the gunship?"

The Latina smiled at her, and shook her head as she replied, "That would take too long. Can you bring us down into the mined-out area? Don't try and land though, just hover at ground level."

"Yeah, that's no problem," the Nymph replied immediately. She frowned in confusion as she asked, "But why?"

"You'll see in a minute," Calara said with a grin.

***

John and the girls stood by the large pyramid in the centre of the Xen-Nuchek mine. They hadn't run into any other Kintark guards, leading John to believe that they'd either slain them all, or the survivors had fled. There was also no sign of Balrac or the Kintark prisoners who had escaped the mine, leading him to conclude that they had escaped into the jungle.

When their rag-tag group had reached the surface, they found hundreds of docile Terran prisoners waiting patiently, no longer going about their tasks. He could only assume that this was due to Tamolith's urging, and he felt a surge of gratitude for the huge dragon. Trying to round up all these people without her assistance would have been incredibly time-consuming.

While they waited for the rest of their crew to arrive, Rachel had produced her medi-scanner and started running it over John. After checking the results, she frowned and said, "You've got two broken ribs and a cracked sternum. You need to get some rest as soon as you can."

He smiled at her, and replied, "I'll get these prisoners safely squared away, then I will, I promise."

"There they are!" Dana called out to him, pointing skyward with a huge beaming grin on her face.

He followed the direction of her finger, and saw the welcome shark-like shape of the Invictus hovering motionless just below the thick cloud banks. It began to slowly descend after a brief pause, growing bigger as it approached the open area above the strip mine.

Faye looped the Raptor around their location, providing cover should they need it, and scanning the jungle with a wary eye out for approaching Kintark forces. He called her on the comm, and she answered after only a second's pause.

"Hey John!" she said in her cheerful, breezy voice. "Is everything going okay?"

"You're doing a fine job, Faye, thank you," he replied.

She beamed at him in delight, then asked, "Do you need me to do anything different?"

He shook his head, and replied, "No, keep going as you are. We'll load all the prisoners, and once we're clear of the surface, you can dock the Raptor. Do you think you'll be able to handle that?"

Her tiny face lit up in a confident grin, and she said, "Definitely! I've been practicing low velocity manoeuvres for hours, and I'm certain I can land safely."

"Good girl. You've been a huge help today, thank you," he said to her gratefully.

Faye's eyelids fluttered, and her beaming smile got larger, which he didn't think was possible. She waved him goodbye with a happy giggle, and he shook his head with amusement as he looked away from the comm interface in his HUD. The Invictus was looming large overhead now, making him fully appreciate its vast five-hundred-metre length. It dropped down the last hundred metres before stopping at ground level in the carved-out stretch of jungle before them.

He turned up the voice amplification on his body armour to make sure all the prisoners heard him as he pointed east and yelled, "Alright, everyone look that way!"

Over six hundred Terran personnel turned dutifully, obeying his instructions, and Alyssa nodded to him, and said, "Commencing fire in ten seconds."

"Hold on to your butts!" Dana said with a wild grin, turning up the UV filter on her Paragon helmet.

John had been intending to turn away too, but he changed his mind at the last moment, following the redhead's lead and activating the light dampening filter in his helmet. He could clearly see the ten-metre-long turreted Beam Lasers pivoting on the Invictus' topdeck, and facing towards the jungle adjacent to the buildings. Before he could do or say anything else, there was a blazing flash, and eight incandescent beams slashed through the foliage, obliterating everything in sight.

The assault cruiser's arsenal was impressive enough while watching Calara blast holo-representations of targets on the Tactical Map. Seeing the Invictus unleash its firepower from only a hundred metres away was positively terrifying, and the accompanying noise was deafening as flora and fauna were vaporised in an instant. Those pulsating azure beams throbbed with barely controlled power, as Calara methodically obliterated an enormous stretch of jungle, the scything lances of energy annihilating everything in their path. When the beams winked out a few seconds later, he had to blink rapidly to clear the after-image from his retinas.