Three Square Meals Ch. 093

The four fire sprites started hurling firebolts at Alyssa now, the Terran girl's white shield peppered by dozens of impacts. Alyssa shifted to the defensive, concentrating on making more telekinetic barriers to protect herself from the flanking attacks. She spotted Tashana winding up a huge fireball and she grinned as she made a sweeping gesture with her right arm, creating a score of glowing force-darts.

Tashana just managed to unleash the massive fireball in time, before the storm of darts plunged into her shield. She gaped in shock as those force projectiles pierced her barrier, managing to find fault-lines between the hexes and ripping through them. Robbed of their momentum, the darts spun lazily past her protective barrier, but still struck Tashana hard enough to make her wince.

She glared at the blonde and made a savage upwards motion with both hands, raising a column of fire from below, just as the fireball smashed into her shield. Alyssa reacted with split-seconds to spare, pulling her barriers inwards to form a close-fitting hexagonal bubble around her body. She strode out of that terrible inferno, her white shield blackened and pitted by the intensity of the attacks.

"Not bad," Alyssa said with a smirk, ignoring the fire bolts from the flame sprites as her hands made a series of flourishes in the air. "Let's give you a few more toys to play with..."

Another sledgehammer appeared just like the last, but this time it was joined by an identical companion. The two huge mallets crashed down, battering Tashana's shields, while the sword tried to sweep past and find an opening. Tashana gasped as a glowing scythe hacked through the first of her elementals, making it explode in a blast of spitting fire as the form containing the flames was eviscerated.

Stumbling backwards, Tashana could see both her shields cracking under the strain from the mighty blows. The gleaming white sword pirouetted around her second shield and she barely managed to get a third shield up in time to stop it from slashing at her legs. Her eyes widened as she saw Alyssa casually form another hail of darts with her left hand and an energy lance with her right.

The inner fire within her coiled and twisted, almost as if it was begging to be unleashed. There was a vicious edge to that writhing flame, which had been tempered through years of abuse, burning white-hot with rage and hate. Although the call of those flames was incredibly seductive, Tashana faltered, terrified of surrendering herself to so much fury.

*Channelling all that rage helped unleash your psychic fire, but you had to lose yourself to the flames... You've grown far beyond that now,* Alyssa said soothingly, feeling the conflicting emotions pouring off the Maliri girl. *Your Malifica mask was just a tool, but you don't need to hide behind that any more. Now there's just Tashana, and you're so much more powerful...*

Tashana took a deep steadying breath and felt the seething fury that she'd kept bottled up for years slowly drain away. That dancing inner flame burned just as bright, but the ferocious lashing and spitting sparks had stilled, all the energy focused inwards to strengthen the intensity of that blaze.

She calmly straightened herself as she tapped into it, ribbons of fire pouring down her shoulders to gather in the palms of her upheld hands. Ignoring the pounding telekinetic weapons that surrounded her, Tashana stared in fascination at the incandescent fire she held in her hands. It had never burned so bright or been so alluring before, the thrilling sensation sending shivers down her spine. Looking up, she slowly clapped her hands together, then disappeared from sight in the rolling conflagration she unleashed.

Alyssa's eyes widened in surprise as a massive blast wave roared towards her, the flames incinerating her telekinetic weapons in an instant. She focused all her psychic might into strengthening her shield, bracing herself as the inferno swept over her. The white hexagons blistered and cracked, turning black as they were charred to a crisp, then glowed white again but this time with the ferocious heat. The intensity of that fire was shockingly powerful and she had to devote her full attention to maintaining and renewing her telekinetic barrier against the onslaught.

Finally, the flames tapered out, revealing Tashana standing calm and composed on a small disc of grey titanium decking. Beyond that disc, the floor bubbled and glowed orange with the fiery forces that had been unleashed in the hangar.

"Good training session," Tashana said with the hint of a smile.

Alyssa laughed and nodded. "How about we keep John out of the Hangar until I can patch it up? I'm not sure he'd be too impressed with turning bits of his ship to cinders..." Shrouding herself in a soft white aura, she lifted off the deck and soared through the air to land beside Tashana. Alyssa stroked her wounded arm and gave her a look of apology. "But first, let's go see Rachel to get you patched up."

***

John nodded with satisfaction as he slotted the last ring into the case, nestling it into the velvet indentations designed for that purpose. After perfecting the design of the band, it hadn't taken too much effort to adjust it slightly to allow for the gem setting. Making ten identical rings had then been easy, shaping the glistening crystal Alyssium around each precious stone.

He'd been siphoning little pieces of the white metal from one of the huge blocks in the Cargo Bay, so there wasn't a mess to clean up after himself this time. Fitting the lid back on the container, he tucked the case under his arm, then strolled out to the Grav-tube to head up to his bedroom. Deck Two was deserted now, with all the girls busy around the ship, so he was able to enter his walk-in-wardrobe unobserved and hide the gemcase in the jacket pocket of his Lion uniform.

With that done, he relaxed the barrier in his mind, letting his blonde Matriarch and the Nymph back into his thoughts again. *Sorry about that, Jade,* he apologised. *I know I said I'd give you permanent access, but I didn't want to ruin the surprise.*

*You're forgiven, Master!* she said jubilantly, overjoyed to be listening to his thoughts again.

Her euphoria was uplifting and John couldn't help smiling as he strolled back down the corridor.

*That was actually very nice timing,* Alyssa said a moment later. *I was just going to gather everyone in the Medical Bay to hear Rachel present her findings on the Kirrix.*

*Great! I'll see you there,* John said, as he reached the tube.

He was just about to step into the anti-gravity field's warm red glow, when movement above him made him pause. Calara was descending from the Command Deck, a distant look in her beautiful eyes. John waited until she was level with him, then darted into the tube and wrapped his arms around her.

Calara jumped in fright, then laughed when she saw who it was. "You scared the hell out of me!" she protested, playfully smacking him on the arm.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," John said, stroking her back. "You looked like you were miles away. Everything alright?"

She relaxed against him and slowly nodded. "I'm fine, but my research into tracking the Nymphs has slammed into a brick wall. I was following up a few promising leads, but information on several sources was re-classified as top secret, the timestamp dated fifty years ago. I tried using your Vice Admiral authority to access the data, but it's been locked at Admiral-grade."

John frowned in confusion. "Why would High Command have taken an interest in the Nymphs back then? That was before I was even born!"

"Beats me," Calara said with a helpless shrug.

"I'll have to have a chat with Charles and see if he can help," John said, remembering his friend's recent promotion. "It might be wise to do that in person rather than discuss it over a comm channel though. Especially if that data was locked at such a high level."

"We could always ask Irillith to hack her way in," the Latina suggested. "I've not spoken to her about it yet because she's been busy working on Faye's software."

John guided her out onto Deck Seven then shook his head. "Let's wait before we unleash her on top-secret classified files. I've no doubt she'd be able to break her way in and find out what we need to know, but there's always a chance she might accidentally trip some kind of electronic trap that reveals her identity. Things are reasonably friendly between us and the Admiralty at the moment, so I'd rather not risk stirring up any unnecessary trouble if we can help it."

"That's sensible," Calara readily agreed, as she fell into step beside him. "Besides, when you speak to Jehanna, she might have some new leads from that contact number TFNN set up for us."

"I was planning on speaking to her later," John said nodding thoughtfully. "I'll ask her then."

"Not planning on dropping in to see Jehanna along the way?" she teased him. "What happened to using the cam footage to woo her into bed?"

He laughed and rolled his eyes. "That was just a favour to give her an exclusive and help us out with some good PR. I was never seriously intending it as some kind of seduction gift." He let out a frustrated sigh. "I would've really liked to have seen her, but Terra is too far out of our way. We're so far out near the Kirrix border, the detour would've added another two or three days until we could rendezvous with the Maliri. I want Edraele back on her feet as soon as possible."

"It won't be long now," Calara said, giving him a reassuring smile and squeezing his hand.

Reaching the door to Medical, John opened it then stepped aside for the brunette. She gave him a peck on the cheek, then glided inside. When John followed in after her, he was surprised to see the entire crew were already assembled there, gathered around the two grisly Kirrix trophies.

"Hey everyone," he said, pleased to see all the girls. "You got here fast!"

Tashana looked a bit shifty, darting a quick glance at Rachel, but Alyssa simply beckoned them over to join the group. "We were all in the vicinity anyway. Most of us were already in Engineering."

Jade bounded over to greet John with a kiss and he put his arm around her as they stood by the dismembered insectoid heads. Glancing at Rachel, he said, "Over to you then, honey. Did you find out anything interesting?"

She nodded and pressed a couple of buttons on the nearby console, bringing up expanded holographic images of the two huge Kirrix creatures. "The autopsies were quite fascinating and provided supporting evidence to my theories around a Kirrix hivemind." She pointed to a large fleshy organ in the Hivelord's skull first. "The Hivelord possesses the same kind of enlarged Amygdala as the drone I examined earlier, which makes it apparent that this creature can tap into the same kind of hivemind as the drone and possibly be controlled by it too."

"So the Broodmothers run the show then," Dana muttered, wrinkling her nose in distaste as she looked at the hideously alien creatures.

"Possibly," Rachel said, a mysterious smile on her face. "I took a look at the Broodmother and I found the same kind of massively enlarged amygdala in their heads, but even larger, with a number of subchambers and extra nodules. I suspect that these extra structures allow the control of lesser-tiered Kirrix."

Dana smirked at her lover and said, "I feel there's a huge but coming..."

Rachel smacked her playfully on the bottom and nodded. "Yes, you're right. The organ in the Broodmother skull has a number of differences from the others, but the fundamental structure of the amygdala is still largely the same as the other Kirrix creatures we've encountered."

"You suspect there's another creature capable of controlling the Broodmothers as well?" Irillith asked, studying the multi-faceted black eyes that stared back at her, malevolent even in death.

"Yes, that's my current theory," the brunette agreed. "We know from experience that telepathy has no range limitations, so perhaps there's some higher-tier set of creatures deep in Kirrix Space which coordinate the actions of the Broodmothers. They may or may not be able to take direct control at such massive ranges, but simple communication is almost a certainty."

"That's as interesting as it is disturbing," John said, patting her on the shoulder. "Anything else?"

"Mainly just observations on the rest of the organs in the cranium," Rachel said, pointing towards an expanded holographic image showing her dissection of the huge insectoid skulls. "You see how they each have just the one huge brain, rather than duplicates like the Juggernaut? These creatures are almost certainly much more intelligent than the rest of the Kirrix we've looked at. We already guessed that they led the Kirrix forces, but this essentially confirms it."

Their Chief Engineer gulped and looked away, trying to distract herself from the gruesome sight.

Calara frowned as she looked at the ugly creatures. "They were able to take enormous amounts of damage before we took them out. Are they actually capable of feeling pain?"

"They have nerve-ganglia structures similar to a drone," Rachel said gesturing to a highlighted image on the holograph. "I'd obviously need to do a thorough examination of their thorax and abdomen to confirm this, but I imagine they're fundamentally the same as a drone. Head shots to quickly kill them, or hits to the central ganglia in the thorax to cripple them."

Dana nodded and muttered, "Shooting off limbs just seemed to piss them off even more!"

"I wonder if the Juggernauts are a new subset of Kirrix creature, or if they've always been around, but just haven't been encountered by anyone yet?" Jade wondered out loud.

John shook his head. "There's a high chance they're something new. I've never heard of anything like them before and the Terran Federation reclaimed a number of worlds in the last purge that had previously been taken by the Kirrix."

"I don't think the Maliri have met anything like that either," Irillith said, glancing at Tashana who shook her head. "At least I've never read about anything like it."

"The Kirrix don't encroach on Maliri territory though," Tashana said quietly. "Even though the Regency had always shared a border with Kirrix Space as far as I know, I've never heard of an incursion."

Calara grinned at the Maliri twins. "They probably know better than to even try it!"

"It looks like the Kirrix are smarter than Terrans," Alyssa said wryly, thinking of the cored out Terran freighter in Maliri Space known as 'the Warning'.

John glanced at Rachel and said, "I know you said you saw no evidence of Progenitor tampering with the drones. Anything in the Hivelord or Broodmother?"

The brunette shook her head. "They definitely seem to be a naturally occurring species. The Kirrix only have double-helix DNA, but seem to have developed organs to unlock psychic abilities, rather than encoded it on a triple helix strand."

"I wonder how common psychic species actually are," Alyssa murmured, turning to looks at Rachel. "There's the Bolon as well obviously."

"I asked for a genetic sample from all the minor empire diplomats," the brunette replied. "If any of the rest of them are psychic, it's not through triple-helix DNA. None of them are Progenitor creations."

"That's good to know at least," John said nodding thoughtfully. He gave her a grateful smile. "Nice work checking all that out, Rachel."

"It was my pleasure," she replied, returning his smile.

Sakura glanced down at the grotesque dissected Kirrix heads. "I don't know if anyone's still got an appetite after looking at these, but I made lunch for everyone."

"I'm famished!" Rachel said with a grin.

***

John strolled through the Bridge an hour later, having enjoyed a sandwich and a chat with the crew in the Officers' Lounge. They'd been in fierce combat only two days earlier, but that seemed like a lifetime ago now and he was really enjoying just being able to spend a bit of quiet time with the girls. He waved Faye goodbye as he entered his Ready Room, then walked over to his leather chair and took a seat.

During the early hours of that morning, the Invictus had crossed over from Trankaran Space into Terran Federation territory, so they were back in range of the Terran comm beacons. John scrolled through his list of contacts until he found the right one and swiped across her name. They were still a long way from the Core Worlds, so it took over a minute for the call to be routed through to Terra.

Jehanna Elani's familiar dusky features appeared in his holo-display a moment later and she looked delighted to see him. "Oh, John! I was worried about you! Are you all okay? Did you manage to deal with that emergency?"

"We're all good thanks, Jehanna," he replied, just as pleased to see her. "But I've got some good news and bad news."

The coffee-skinned beauty frowned and said, "It might just be the reporter in me, but I want to hear the bad news first."

"I'm afraid I'll have to postpone our meeting for at least a week," John said, giving her a look of regret. He gave her a wry smile. "You'll forgive me if I was hoping that came as bad news, not as a relief."

"Definitely bad news, I was really looking forward to seeing you," she said, disappointment written over her gorgeous face. "Why the delay?"

John eased back in his chair. "Things got pretty ugly in the Trankaran Republic. They had a bug problem and needed some exterminators."

"You fought the Kirrix!" Jehanna burst out, looking thrilled. "Did you get any footage of the battle?!"

John laughed and reached over to tap some buttons on his console. "I'm glad you find me being up to my eyeballs in hideous insectoid monsters to be so exciting. Yeah, I'm sending you the footage we put together for you."

The Indian girl blushed as she faltered, "I'm so sorry! I get like this when I think I'm on to an exclusive..."

"I'm only teasing you, don't worry," John said, with a reassuring smile. "The copy I'm sending you is an edited version, so feel free to use anything you like from there. When we finally get to meet up, I'll show you the unedited footage. You'll see why we made two versions when you see it."

The light of understanding shone in her eyes and she slowly nodded. "I must admit... I'm already intrigued to see that version."

There was a chime from Jehanna's console alerting her that the file transfer was complete. John laughed when he saw the hungry gleam in her dark-brown eyes and waved her away, "Go ahead, you might as well watch it now."

Jehanna nibbled at her flushed lower lip, obviously torn between wanting to continue speaking to him and viewing the cam-footage of the battle. "Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Give me a call back when you're done and I'll answer any questions," he replied, enjoying seeing her face light up in a beaming grin.

"I'll call you right back, I promise!" Jehanna gushed, waving him goodbye as she closed the call.

He relaxed back in his chair, knowing it would take the excited reporter at least twenty minutes to watch the footage.

*That was fascinating,* Jade murmured, her telepathic words meandering through his mind. *I never realised just how much you watch our mouths when we talk to you.*

Alyssa laughed and said, *Now you see why I like listening to his thoughts so much. I've no idea why he's so obsessed with silky-soft pouty lips...*

*I'm sorry you had to postpone your meeting with Jehanna. You really were looking forward to feeding her again, weren't you, Master?* Jade said, the sympathy clear in her voice. *If you like, I could come up to see you and shift into her form...*

John groaned and readjusted his trousers at the thought. *I thought it was bad with just Alyssa rattling around in my head. I don't know how I'm going to survive the pair of you teasing me!*