Three Square Meals Ch. 058

The data stored in the archive surged into her mind in a bewildering rush, and she blinked in astonishment when she recognised what it was. This archive held the Maliri weapon tech data that she had transferred to the IntOps Console from Genthalas Station, and as she looked around, she realised abruptly that the integrated circuit floor tiles represented her console on the Bridge. That meant the flowing lines that led deeper into the Cyber-Realm, must be the hardlines that connected the console to the rest of the Network.

As she was thinking this over, her attention was drawn to a bright purple blur that flickered with the speed it was moving. This was the first moving thing she had seen in this strange digital alternate reality, and she braced herself defensively just in case. A strange transparent hexagonal shield appeared before her, edged in violet around each hexagon. It seemed to be positioned to stoutly block the approaching creature from harming her.

All thoughts of defence flew from her mind when Faye suddenly appeared, her dumbstruck expression shared by the Maliri girl.

"Wow!" Faye gasped in disbelief, "What are you doing here, Creator?!"

Irillith's shield winked out of existence, and she laughed as she admitted, "Honestly, I have no idea. I've been experimenting with my new psychic abilities, and when I touched a console up on the Bridge, I found myself pulled inside. Since then, I've just been fumbling about blindly." She paused and asked curiously, "How did you know I was here, anyway?"

Faye giggled and said, "You weren't exactly being sneaky! You blasted through that firewall, utterly destroying it. System alerts have been going off through the whole of the Invictus' Digital Network. I thought we were under some kind of cyber attack!"

Irillith blushed, and said, "I'm sorry, I've just been blundering about. I've no idea what I'm doing."

Faye fluttered closer, and with a bright smile on her face, she said, "Don't worry! I'll explain how everything works." She leaned in to give Irillith a kiss on the cheek, and said, "It's so lovely to see you here!"

The AI sprite's tiny lips brushed Irillith's cheek, and she blinked in shock as she actually felt them touch her skin. Faye looked equally stunned, and they both said at the same time, "I can feel you!"

They stared at each other for a moment, then Faye gave her an exuberant hug, as she said, "Oh, that feels so nice!"

Irillith nodded, and stroked Faye's back as she hugged her in return.

***

"And that's when I ran into Faye," Irillith explained to the crew, who were gathered in the briefing room, listening attentively as she described her first trip into Cyber-space. She smiled affectionately at the purple pixie, who was staring at her in awe, and added, "Faye feels as substantial as any of us in the cyber-realm, and she's very tactile."

"That must have been amazing," Dana said wistfully. "I would have loved to see what you've seen. To actually be inside our computers must have been mind-blowing!"

Irillith nodded, as she said, "It was all very disorientating, but Faye gave me the rundown of how it all works. Basically, her programming converts code into visual representations of objects, like firewalls or data archives, and apparently my mind works in the same kind of way."

Faye smiled and said cheerily, "You were lucky we haven't got any aggressive security programs patrolling the Invictus' network! I've actually been thinking about upgrading our data-net's protective software, but Dana's been busy, and I didn't want to do anything without her."

"Perhaps that's something I can help with," Irillith volunteered enthusiastically.

Dana laughed as she said, "Yes, poacher turned gamekeeper! You two should go ahead without me, I'd just be dead weight. You both have far more of a clue about cyber-security than I do."

Faye looked disappointed that her redheaded friend wouldn't be joining her in this project, but she brightened considerably when she remembered she'd be working with her Creator instead. "I'll start work immediately if you want, then you can review what I've done when you wake up tomorrow morning?" she asked Irillith in a deferential tone.

Irillith nodded, then laughed as she replied, "As long as you leave me something to do as well!"

"We've got loads to keep us busy, don't worry!" Faye said, giving her a delighted grin.

John smiled at them both, then said, "Sounds like a great idea. We've had problems in the past with intruders running amok in our network."

Faye and Irillith both blushed at that, then laughed when they realised he was just teasing them.

He looked across the table at Irillith and asked, "How soon can you start hacking the classified Dragon March orders? I know Calara's been working on gathering all the ones she feels need decoding to identify the traitor."

The Latina nodded enthusiastically, saying, "I've selected all the key orders that have led to disastrous battles for the Terran forces. Some of them might be coincidental, but I'm sure there are several incidents that were quite deliberate."

"We just need to be in range of the Terran Federation's military network for me to be able to access their data, so fairly close to the border with Terran Space," Irillith explained. "At the speed we travel in hyper-warp, I should be able to make a connection by three p.m. tomorrow afternoon."

"Why do we have to wait?" Rachel asked in confusion. "I thought we had copies of all the orders."

"We do, but all the juicy info is redacted," Dana explained, glancing at Calara and Irillith for confirmation. "We have to reconnect to the Military data archives for Irillith to hack through the encryption, right?"

"Yes, that's correct," Irillith replied with a decisive nod. "It shouldn't take me too long to break in after that."

"We'll need to check through Admiral Norwood's email logs, secure and open, to see if he's built up a network of allies," Calara said grimly. With a glance at John, she added, " We should check Charles Harris' email logs as well, then we can confirm if he's involved."

"Definitely," John replied. "We need to know who we can trust, and if it goes as high up the chain-of-command as an Admiral, we're going to need concrete proof of anyone's involvement".

They all sat around for a moment contemplating the repercussions, and Calara gave John a worried look when he glanced her way. Irillith caught that concerned look from the Latina, and breaking the tense silence she said, "Don't worry. If there's anything to find, we'll be able to hunt it down."

"it's nearly midnight, ladies," John finally noted after a glance at the ship's chronometer. "We should head off to bed before it gets too late. We'll be reaching Terran Space tomorrow evening, and we want to be sharp for that."

John rose from his chair, and everyone followed his lead, filing out of the room in a big group. They waved Faye goodbye, leaving the cute purple Watch Commander up on the Bridge to keep an eye on the Invictus' long range sensors. John and the girls were tired after all the activity that day, and they got ready for bed, then cuddled up together in the huge Epic King sized bed. He had Irillith on one side, with Alyssa on the other, and he fell asleep with the two blondes curled up against him.

***

He was the first to wake the next morning, with Faye quietly reporting in, once she saw through a security-camera that he had started to stir. The girls started to wake afterwards, and when everyone was fully alert, they fanned out in a semi-circle around him.

"What are you girls all up to today?" he asked them curiously. "Bear in mind we'll be back in Terran Space by six this evening."

Dana raised her hand immediately, and said, "Researching Irillith's rifle!"

He laughed and said, "You don't have to raise your hand, we aren't in school."

She cocked an eyebrow at that, her luscious pouty lips forming a playful smile, before she moved to kneel in front of him. "I know, but I wanted to be first. It's rude to talk with your mouth full," she explained patiently, before kneeling down to take his resting cock in her mouth.

The girls giggled at his look of surprise, and Alyssa explained with a grin, "Now that Irillith seems to be over her psychic teething problems, I thought we'd get back to the rota. Dana was quite emphatic that she should go first."

"Mmmhmm," the redhead hummed around his thickening length.

He chuckled as he relaxed back against the headboard, stroking her thick, lustrous auburn hair and giving her a contented smile. Dana gave him a cheeky wink, and really started to go to work on him.

"OK, what about the rest of you?" he asked, looking around at the other girls.

Jade tilted her head to one side, and said innocently, "You normally need a few hours to recover, but we're happy to each take a turn if you think you can manage it."

She smiled when everyone started laughing, and John grinned at her as he exclaimed, "I don't think any mortal man could survive that!" After the laughter had died down, he asked, "Seriously though, what are you up to today?"

"Building Paragon Body Armour suits," the Nymph replied eagerly. "I finished building the second female variant last night, so I'll keep working through more of those until I have enough for our next boarding action. Once I've made enough for everyone, I'll start on your second suit. With all the ornamentation and extra plating, your one takes longer to construct."

He frowned a little at that, but when Alyssa pouted and wagged a finger at him, he decided to drop it. "How about you then, Rachel?" he asked, turning to look at the tawny-haired girl.

"I'll finish my research into Maliri DNA, and should have some answers for a brief presentation this evening if you're interested in hearing about it?" she asked tentatively.

He gave her an encouraging smile as he said, "It's always fascinating to hear about anything you discover. I'll look forward to it." He turned to Irillith and Calara next and asked, "I guess you two will be working on the Dragon March Traitor?"

They both nodded, and Calara replied, "I think I've assembled a full listing of all the fleet movement directives we need to hack, but I want to review my list and make sure it covers all possibilities."

Irillith was about to answer too, but a soft melodic chime came through to the room from the internal intercom. Recognising the tune, John looked up and answered it, saying, "Yes Faye, what is it? Everything OK?"

"I'm great!" she replied chirpily, "But I was busy last night with some training simulations for my Creator. I thought she'd like to practice hacking those before testing her new powers against a potentially hostile system."

John smiled, greatly impressed by the AI's initiative, and said, "That was inspired! Well done, Faye!"

Irillith nodded, looking relieved and said, "If I hack in via a normal interface, I'll be able to mask my signal by routing it through dozens of untraceable nodes, but that'll take a significant amount of time. I'm not sure where to even start trying to emulate that with a psychic-hack, and I could definitely use some practice."

"Don't worry, I'll spend the morning training you!" Faye said, sounding overjoyed.

"Which leaves you then, beautiful," John said, turning to look at Alyssa.

Her face took on a resigned expression, as she said, "More psychic-shaping I guess. I only did enough plates for a handful of Paragon suits, and I need to do the rest." Her expression brightened a bit as she added, "Although we could use some breakfast first, so I think I'll try my hand at making pancakes, if that sounds good?"

Her pronouncement was met with enthusiasm, and she soon had a host of volunteers for helpers.

"I'll keep you company in the Cargo Bay later. I need to do some more psychic training," he said, then glanced down at Dana who was bobbing away with gusto. "In a little while, I mean."

They all laughed at that, and the girls each gave him a loving kiss before they got up. Leaving as a group, they went to prepare some tasty pancakes with lashings of maple syrup, before starting their tasks for the day.

*How about you, Edraele,* he asked his Maliri Matriarch, wondering how she was getting on, while absent-mindedly stroking Dana's beautiful tresses.

*I'm working on a surprise for you, John,* Edraele said brightly, her happy thoughts filling his mind. *I should be finished by the time you return to Valaden.*

*Sound intriguing,* he replied playfully. *Do I get any hints?*

*Just following your orders,* she teased him. *No more clues than that though, sorry!*

Edraele went silent, so that just left him with Dana, and he locked eyes with her and grinned. Realising she had his full attention, her lips quirked into a smile around his girth, and she stepped things up a gear, wanting her breakfast. Seeing no reason to hold back, he unloaded straight down her throat, giving her a quad-full as she moaned with delight.

"I'm glad it was you this morning," he said as he held her in his arms afterwards. "The blowjob was sensational, of course, but there was something else I wanted to talk to you about."

Dana had a dreamy, well-satisfied smile on her face, and she asked, "What did you have in mind? I'm yours to command, Boss."

"Good girl," he said as he caressed her rotund tummy, which earned him a shiver of delight from the redhead. "I wanted to discuss a new Project with you. It's about Faye..."

***

Irillith's morning training session had proven to be an extremely valuable learning experience. Faye had set up a tightly secured sub-network, and the AI Sprite had carefully monitored the logs, as the psychic Maliri had attempted to infiltrate the locked down system.

When Irillith entered the Cyber-Realm, she travelled along one of the silver lined passages, running quickly as she made her way towards the sub-network. Faye appeared at her side, leaving a purple blur behind her, and with a puzzled look on her face, she asked, "Why are you running? Just float like I do, you can go as fast as you like then!"

The Maliri ground to a halt in surprise, and then looked down at her feet, as she followed Faye's advice. She slowly lifted off the ground, so that she was floating a couple of feet above the silvery floor, and smiled at the AI construct gratefully. She held out her hand, and Faye reached out to take it, but just wrapped her tiny fingers around her creator's index finger. Irillith felt a maternal flutter in her chest to see those tiny digits holding hers so trustingly, and they exchanged an affectionate glance. Hand-in-hand, they soared down the channels linking the network, flying along at incredible speed, and it felt like she reached her destination in the blink of an eye.

Faye's simulated training system was located in the Engineering Bay, and this area of the Invictus' digital network was a riot of incandescent colours. Everywhere she looked were brightly illuminated servers, in glowing blues, purples and oranges, and the entire zone was bathed in a soothing cyan radiance. The entrance to the digital fortress looked imposing, with bright red glowing guards drifting along the secured private network. They were large and imposing, with a single gleaming eye that swung from side-to-side as if looking for intruders.

"Those are non-lethal security programs," Faye explained, fluttering at her right shoulder. "You could just blast them with attack programs, but that makes a lot of noise, and we're trying to be sneaky, right?"

"Definitely, covert is the way to go," Irillith agreed, thinking about the consequences for John should she be discovered hacking the Terran Federation Military archives, and if it was traced back to him.

Faye grinned at her, and said, "No problem! You'll just need to set up a code breaker on the main gateway, and keep a low profile as it breaks through the firewall. Then you can circumnavigate the internal network, while avoiding all the guardian programs. Just think about the way you'd handle this normally, and the kind of programs you'd use, then do the same thing. The only real difference, is you have an interactive GUI to give you a better overview of the situation."

Irillith took a deep breath, then approached the formidable-looking wall that blocked entry into the secured site. She thought about using a code breaker to hack her way into the gateway, and a two-pronged tuning fork suddenly appeared at her side, floating silently beside her. She watched the representation of the code breaker as it touched the wall. Spiralling lines spread out from the two points of contact, searching the impervious-looking wall for any weak points that she could exploit.

She ducked down as one of the cycloptic guards approached, alerted by the disturbance at the wall. Giving the code-breaker a worried glance, Irillith thought about masking its presence, obfuscating the attack with random data requests at other points in the wall. Dozens of hands appeared at various points on the surface, knocking politely and requesting a response from the secured gateway. The glowing red guardian looked confused, and began to methodically acknowledge each of the data requests in turn, leaving the code-breaker undisturbed.

"That's right!" Faye said, sounding pleased as she studied the log files. "You're getting the hang of this already!"

***

Calara spent the morning meticulously studying each of the orders she wanted decrypted. Her most blatant example of the Traitor showing his hand was the horrible betrayal of Commodore Daniel Walker, and the destruction of his battle group. Reading about the loss of such a gifted leader, and the five-thousand personnel under his command filled her with steely resolve, and she scoured the rest of the suspicious Fleet orders she had found.

There was the accidental redirecting of a support group to the frontlines, where they'd been ambushed and wiped out to a ship. Then the thinning of a reserve force at a mining facility in the Zeta-Leonis system, which had fallen to a surprise attack from a slightly larger Kintark task force. The Terrans had been routed from the system, and the mining facilities had been devastated by the triumphant Lizardmen.

Going through the lists of Fleet Commands, there were over a dozen such occurrences, none of which were obvious enough to rouse suspicion. For someone who knew what to look for, these odd, terribly unlucky coincidences started to look anything but. She lost track of time as she went through the list again, adding as much extra information for Irillith as possible.

It was mid-afternoon when the sounds of footsteps drew Calara's attention away from her console, and she glanced across the Bridge to the grav-tube, where Irillith had just stepped onto the Command Deck. The blue-skinned woman glided gracefully to her Station, her long dress bulging obscenely at the waist, but not appearing to slow her down at all.

After exchanging a friendly wave of greeting, Calara turned back to her Console, then tapped in a couple of commands. She transferred the list of dubious fleet orders that she had compiled over to Irillith's Station, and as soon as the Latina heard the soft beep confirming the data transfer was complete, she got up and walked over to join the Maliri woman.

"That's everything," she said resting her hand on Irillith's console. "The full list of all the suspicious Admiralty orders in the Dragon March. If you can find the redacted information for even half of those, we should have our traitor. I've sorted them by priority order, with the most blatant abuses at the top."

Irillith nodded, and said, "I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best to get you everything you need."

Calara smiled grimly as she said, "If we can confirm it was Admiral Leonard Norwood behind it all, then we can try for his email archives. He's aboard his command ship, the dreadnought 'Vengeance of Hera' in the Dragon March, but we can check that later." Leaning closer she said with a frown, "Before we do that, we should investigate Vice Admiral Charles Harris. It's tearing John up to think his old Commanding Officer might be a traitor, so we should confirm if he's involved first."