Three Square Meals Ch. 102

Dana perked up and asked, "Did you find out what shut you down? If you salvaged it, I'd love to take a look!"

John shook his head ruefully. "Afraid not. I shot the device to deactivate it, but it exploded shortly afterwards... there was nothing left."

"Could the Kintark have developed such a device on their own?" Tashana asked, looking highly sceptical.

There was a pause as they all considered that for a moment. Eventually Dana replied, "Nah, I doubt it. They don't even have any Kintark psychics, so how could they develop something to block them?"

"We know the Progenitor has a history of giving out gifts to his pawns; he did give numerous devices to the Drakkar," the Maliri girl said. "Is it fair to assume that this is one of his too?"

"Actually, he's called Larn'kelnar," Alyssa said offhandedly.

Everyone gaped at her in shock and John blurted out, "How do you know that?!"

"The Emperor met him several times," the blonde said with a triumphant grin. "I read Baledranax's mind just before you char-grilled him remember? That's why you always need me at your side."

"Why didn't you say anything earlier?" John asked, looking at her with wide eyes.

"We had to rescue Jade right after the battle, then everyone was knackered and needed a rest. This is the first opportunity we've had to properly talk since then," Alyssa replied with a shrug. She winked at John and added, "Want to see what he looks like?"

He nodded in a daze. "Of course!"

She waved Irillith over again, then placed her hand on the Maliri girl's temple. The projection that shone from her violet eyes wasn't sharp and distinct like the one from Jehanna's memory, but it did reveal a shadowy figure wearing a hood who walked confidently into a vast throne room.

"Why's the picture all fucked up like that?" Dana asked in frustration, squinting at the grainy image. "We need a better look at him!"

"It's my memory of the Emperor's memory, that's why it's all so hazy," Alyssa explained with a helpless shrug. "Anyway, keep watching..."

Larn'kelnar drew back his cowl and the girls gasped when he revealed his handsome face. There was something about his features that strongly reminded the girls of their own Progenitor.

Rachel turned to look at John and said quietly, "Do you see the resemblance too?"

He froze and looked at her in shock. "What are you saying? You think that he's what... my father?"

"I have no way of knowing, but there is an uncanny likeness..." the brunette murmured, turning back to scrutinise the image more closely.

Calara frowned and said, "In the Nexus files, Mael'nerak said something about Ranagon being his brother..."

Dana nodded eagerly. "Yeah, you're right! He said: 'One of my brothers... another Progenitor seeks to challenge my dominion'." She turned to stare at John, her eyes going wide. "Maybe he's your brother!"

There was quiet in the room as all the girls turned to look at John, who was stunned at the thought.

"Larn'kelnar actually means something in ancient Maliri," Tashana said softly.

"What is it?" John asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer.

"The Soul Reaver," she replied in a hushed voice.

Dana winced and gave John a look of sympathy. "He sounds like a real friendly guy."

John took a deep breath then sat up straight, his voice cold and hard as he said, "This doesn't change anything. We already knew he was responsible for the deaths of millions; Trankarans, Ashanath, Drakkar, Kintark, Terrans... He'll pay for what he's done."

Alyssa nodded, eyes narrowing. "He's a bad guy who desperately needs killing."

John put his arm around her and said, "Thank you for showing me this. It was good to finally see who we're up against." He paused for second, glancing at the violet-hued image. "Did you find out anything else?"

"Everything between the Progenitor and the Kintark Empire went down pretty much as we guessed it had," Alyssa replied, remembering what she'd gleaned from the dragon's memories. "Larn'kelnar made contact with the Emperor, then promised to support the Kintark in their conquest of the Terran Federation. Baledranax knew all about the Dragon March traitors and used the information Norwood was sending to orchestrate some stunning victories for the Empire. Lynton never dealt with the Emperor directly, she used Norwood as her puppet."

He nodded as he listened attentively. "What about the Brimorians?"

"They've been allied with the Kintark for over a century. Both empires kept it quiet, but they were acting together to counter Terran expansionism. After the Brimorians captured all those Terran colonists in the Callopean Shoals, Baledranax traded the gene-modification tech with Deep Lord Athgiloi's predecessor..." She grimaced as she continued, "The Brimorians kept most of the young women to breed the Abandoned, giving the Kintark all the men and older women... Those poor bastards were worked to death in slave camps, like the Xen-Nuchek mine where we rescued Mateo."

"We have to make them pay for that!" Sakura snarled, face twisting with anger.

"Definitely, but we might have to wait a few weeks first," John said, leaning back against the headboard. "The bulk of the Terran forces are in no shape to fight, and we need to start rolling out shield upgrades on the Maliri fleets before we commit them to battle."

Dana glanced at the ship's chronometer and frowned. "We better wind this up soon and sort out Tartarus. We need to get cracking on our repairs as soon as possible."

"How bad is it? I saw the Valkyrie took a hammering..." John said, making eye-contact with Sakura and giving her a reassuring smile to let her know he wasn't upset with her.

The redhead waved at Faye. "Better show him the damage status..."

Faye deactivated the System Map and brought up an image of the Valkyrie with a damage status overlay. "There you go."

Dana studied it for a second, then allowed herself a cautious smile. "The mech looks bad, but most of that is cosmetic damage to the armour from the explosion. An actuator in the thigh seized-up, and the right leg was blown away below the knee. It should only take a few hours to fabricate all the parts we need, then a few more to rebuild the busted leg. Either you or Alyssa could re-armour the Valkyrie in an hour or so."

"Perfect! We can get the Valkyrie fixed by tonight. How about the Invictus?" John asked, bracing himself for bad news.

Dana turned to face John and winced, "We've got a shitload of work ahead of us there..."

Faye brought up the damage status display for the battlecruiser and the shocked silence from the audience spoke volumes. Almost every square metre of the ship was sporting plasma burns, the once-majestic white plating now a blackened ruin. The worst damage was at the stern, where the three starboard engines were totally destroyed, and a plasma fire had raged unchecked through the rear of the ship.

"Fuck me..." John muttered when he saw the state of the Invictus.

"I'm so sorry!" Faye wailed, wringing her hands together in consternation. "I tried to keep the ship out of danger, but I'm nowhere near as good a pilot as Jade or Alyssa!"

John crooked a finger at her. "Come here, Faye."

She hung her head as she got up from the chair and walked over to the bed, her feet dragging as if she were approaching the hangman's noose.

When she climbed onto the bed, John pulled her into a hug and gave her a broad smile. "Silly girl, you were amazing today! We literally couldn't have beaten the Kintark without you."

"Really?" she asked in disbelief, looking up at him with a flicker of hope in her big expressive eyes.

"Of course! You took complete control of the Invictus and the Raptor; Calara and Dana couldn't have swung the battle in our favour without you there to man the ships for them. If you hadn't been there to take over as pilot to replace Jade, she wouldn't have been able to go after Weber. I'm not happy that she abandoned ship like that, but she probably saved the lives of her four sisters and Jehanna because of it," John said earnestly.

The TFNN reporter reached over to clasp her hand. "Thank you, Faye..."

"You're welcome!" the purple sprite exclaimed, giving her a smile of delight.

Dana cast her professional eye over the red-tinged hologram. "We lost a power regulator and a bunch of retro-thrusters, but aside from the engines, we actually got away fairly light in terms of systems damage." She shrugged and continued, "Everything we lost is replaceable, but John and Alyssa will have to completely re-plate the ship."

Alyssa let out a despairing groan, but when Faye shot her a look of alarm, the blonde waved her concerns away. "Just a bit of indigestion, don't worry."

"I reckon at least 48 hours of work ahead of us to get the ship combat-worthy," Dana said, tapping a finger on her chin. "But that doesn't include the fire damage on Deck Four. The Galley and half the Crew Quarters are a charred mess... that whole section really needs gutting and replacing."

"Perhaps we could get that entire deck refitted at Genthalas?" John suggested, glancing around at the girls. "We'll be there for a while, so it would be a good time to get it done."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Dana said nodding enthusiastically. "By the way, we don't have to put in a direct replacement. It depends on how important you think it is having spare quarters for guests."

"I'd never really thought about changing it," John freely admitted. "We do end up rescuing people quite often, so having that capacity is useful. Have you got any preferences?"

"Whatever you want is fine by me," the redhead replied. "Oh, speaking of repairs, your Paragon suit is really fucked up. Try not to get the spare suit damaged until I've had a chance to fix your old one."

"I'll be careful," John said with a smile.

Alyssa raised an eyebrow as she looked at him. "Now that sounds like the perfect cue for us to see your exploits in the battle..."

He chuckled and nodded to the girl in his arms. "Go ahead, Faye."

The girls turned to watch in fascination, as Faye displayed a compilation of the girls' Paragon suit footage and the Kintark broadcast fully documenting John in action on Terra.

Irillith gaped at him in amazement when he created the thunderous storm and fried the Kintark flagship with a titanic stroke of lightning. "How did you do that?! There's no way I could control that much power!"

Tashana nudged her with an elbow. "More practice, remember? You'll get there..."

He nodded his agreement with her twin. "I've been using lightning offensively on a few occasions now. With the massive surge in power I had recently, I found it much easier to control... and having a storm already in place helped a lot."

His audience watched enthralled as he fought the Emperor, although they gasped in alarm as Baledranax repeatedly smashed him across the battlefield. They cheered when John rallied himself and took out the psychic dampener, allowing him to fight the Emperor with his full range of powers back in effect. When he finally defeated the dragon, John couldn't miss the smouldering glance Calara gave him, or the awestruck look in Jehanna's eyes. Alyssa stayed silent throughout, disapproval pouring off her, over their empathic bond.

John sighed and looked at the blonde. "Alright, out with it, Alyssa."

"You'd be absolutely furious with any of us if we went charging off alone like that!" she exclaimed, giving him a stern glare. "You going mano-a-mano with the Emperor might make for an awesome propaganda broadcast, but I care far more about your safety than feeding the Legend of the Lion! Why wouldn't you let me, Rachel, and Tashana gun that bastard down at the start? And don't give me any excuses about us saving the Terran troops instead!"

"It wasn't just the Terran forces in danger of being overrun. Almari, Ilyana, and the Maliri marines were under fire too," he countered, not backing down.

She shook her head and scoffed, "They would've been fine for a few minutes! The Maliri were packing plenty of firepower."

"There were other reasons too," he replied defensively. "First and foremost was that none of us had our powers..."

"But we ended up just shooting through his shield anyway!" Alyssa protested.

"Yes, but I didn't know how strong his shield was going to be," John said firmly. "You didn't have line-of-sight on him at the start of the battle because he was on the opposite side of the Citadel. If you'd repositioned and got too close, he would have been on you before you dropped his shield, and I wasn't going to risk any of you being pounced on by a 200-foot dragon. My armour is also triple-plated whereas yours is only double and believe me, that extra layer saved my hide!"

Alyssa frowned and looked unconvinced. "I think you were just being over-protective. Taking him on alone like that was extremely reckless, especially when you didn't have any powers yourself!"

"Alright, I'm not going to lie, I didn't want you anywhere near that monster," John reluctantly conceded. "But I was genuinely worried about your safety, I wasn't being overly cautious."

"You need to trust us more," she said gently. "We came very close to losing you there... you know we'd be destroyed if anything happened to you."

"The next time I go up against a 200-foot dragon, I promise I'll let you just shoot it out of the sky before I even draw my sword," John said with a hint of a smile.

She laughed and rolled her eyes as she wrapped her arms around him. "I'll hold you to that..."

John hugged her back, then looked around at the rest of the girls. "We better get geared up if we're heading back to Tartarus." He locked eyes with Jehanna. "Let's have a quick chat before we go."

Jehanna nodded, still dazed by everything she'd seen that afternoon.

Alyssa peeled away from him and said, "Take as much time as you need. I'll do that red aura trick and we'll clear out the rest of the bad guys. Come over and join us when you're done talking."

As the girls started heading down to the Combat Bridge to get suited up, John thought to his blonde matriarch, *I didn't have a chance to say it because we digressed a bit, but you were incredible today. I was extremely glad you were there at my side.*

*Any time, handsome,* the blonde replied, blowing him a kiss as she paused at the grav-tube. *I'm your beck and call girl after all... where else would I be?*

She waved goodbye and John found himself alone with Jehanna. "So what did you think of your first Lioness debrief?" he asked sympathetically, seeing how shaken she was.

"It was terrifying!" she admitted, falling into his arms and clinging to him for reassurance.

"I was worried this was a mistake," John said, his expression sombre. "I didn't think you were ready to see us in action... the fighting can get pretty grisly."

She looked up at him and shook her head in disbelief. "It wasn't just the relentless carnage! Watching you and the Lionesses in action was like watching a group of vengeful gods laying waste to everything in sight!"

John wrapped his arms around her and said quietly, "I'm sorry we frightened you. You've got nothing to fear from me or any of the girls, I promise. We would never hurt you."

Jehanna pulled back, a deeply conflicted look on her face. "No, you don't understand! I trust all of you completely, I know I'm totally safe here..."

"What is it then?" he asked, running his fingers through her silky black hair to soothe her.

She darted a wary glance at the grav-tube to make sure they weren't being overheard, then whispered, "It's the girls... they're all so sweet and kind; I've honestly never met a lovelier group of women. I expected some cattiness and a tense social hierarchy when I first met them, but there was nothing like that at all. They welcomed me with open arms when you invited me aboard the ship; I've never felt more cared for."

John frowned in confusion. "You say that like it's a bad thing?"

"It's not... but it just left me totally unprepared to see them in combat," she replied, a haunted look in her eyes. "It was a real shock to see Irillith electrocute those soldiers..."

"I'm not sure puns like that are in good taste," he said gently, trying to lighten the mood.

Jehanna smiled when she realised what he meant, then pushed his arm. "No bad jokes please, it was horrible watching her execute those soldiers like that."

He rubbed her back and said sincerely, "I'm sorry, please continue."

She sighed and glanced at the spot where the holographic images had been displayed. "I know Dana was troubled by what she did in the battle, but for the rest of the girls it was just another day at the office." Turning to look him in the eyes, she continued, "Rachel, Tashana, and Alyssa wiped out thousands of Kintark soldiers and didn't even bat an eyelid! I don't want to end up that blasé about killing people, even if they are 'bad guys'."

John sat back, finally understanding what was bothering her. "You're worried that if you become a Lioness, you'll be turned into a remorseless killer, slaughtering indiscriminately at my command."

"No! I mean... a bit, but you're making me sound so ungrateful and judgemental," she protested, her expression twisted with anguish. "I already feel like I'm betraying the girls by saying this, especially after they just saved my life... but I don't mean it the way you said, I swear!"

"You've got nothing to apologise for. Anyone with a healthy set of morals would feel the same way." His expression was filled with sadness as he continued, "You're right to be afraid. If you stay with me, it would be a case of when that happened to you, not if... We do too much fighting for the girls to be burdened with regrets, they'd probably be all suffering from PTSD otherwise. I haven't really thought about it before, but now you've mentioned it, I'm sure this is another personality change I've made to them."

Jehanna gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm not criticising, I was just concerned..."

John let out a heavy sigh. "I'm a Progenitor. I've tried to fight my nature as much as I can, but you know what my kind do to women, how they turn them into soldiers or breeding stock." He brushed his thumb across her cheek. "Would you like me to take you back to Terra? I can ask Rachel to heal you and-"

"No!" she exclaimed, silencing him with a long tender kiss. When she felt him relax, she pulled back and gave him a coy smile. "I suppose I'm just saying that I'm a lover not a fighter..."

John laughed and pulled her into a hug, holding her close. Glancing over her shoulder, his eyes fell on the two holographic portraits hanging on the wall that Tsarra had made for him. One was of a stylised Lion with his Lionesses, the other depicting a Stallion with his herd.

"I haven't had a chance to tell you yet," he whispered quietly in her ear. "I'm actually going to be a father..."

She jerked back, a sparkling smile lighting up her face as she gasped, "Oh, John, congratulations! Which of the girls is pregnant?!"

He shook his head. "Actually, you haven't met them yet, they aren't part of the crew..."

"They?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sure you've heard us talk about the Young Matriarchs before. Well, four of them are expecting," he replied, unable to suppress a contented smile.

Jehanna let out a low moan and writhed against him, her pupils dilating with arousal. "I can't believe the thought of you having babies with four other women is turning me on!" She bit her flushed lower lip and straddled him, rubbing her panty-clad pussy against his thickening shaft. "It's really making me hot, John..."

He placed one hand on her hip and the other slid under her shirt to brush across her svelte stomach. "I must have removed any jealousy when I fed you that first time..." he said, a conflicted look in his eyes.