Three Square Meals Ch. 065

"Hello again," Sakura said with more than a little trepidation.

Jade reached out a slender hand, and although Sakura wanted to bolt, she stood her ground and let the Nymph gently brush her cheek. The Asian girl relaxed at the tender caress, and the Nymph then said, "Please don't be afraid of me. I don't blame you for what happened, it wasn't your fault."

The petite girl gazed into those emerald cat-like eyes, and saw nothing but disarming openness there. She nodded, then said to her, "Even so, I'm still very sorry."

Jade opened her arms in invitation, and the two girls embraced. She leaned in to press her lips to Sakura's ear, and said, "We should talk sometime. Come and find me when you have a moment, okay?"

They pulled away from each other, then exchanged friendly smiles. John had spotted the cooked breakfast that Rachel had prepared for him, and his stomach rumbled with anticipation. "Sorry ladies," he apologised. "I'm famished!"

"Go ahead and get started," Alyssa said with a smile, as she spotted a plate of piping hot food for her too. "We need to get started anyway, and there's no point standing on ceremony."

The girls went to their places, and John beckoned Sakura over to him as they all started to sit down. She walked over to him obediently, and once he'd sat down himself, he pulled her onto his lap. She snuggled against him, while he picked up a fork and began to tuck into his breakfast.

Irillith had stayed standing, and she picked up the remote from the briefing room table, and said, "I've spent some time scanning through the video files I acquired from Nexus. I can't view the Unity files yet, as we need the modified projector to display the file types."

"I'm working on it," Dana said with an apologetic smile. "I had the mass fabricators running while we were asleep, so me and Jade can build it when we have a spare bit of time. It's radically advanced tech, so we can't just install a new codec on our existing holo-projectors. You'll see what I mean when I'm done."

After the redhead had finished her explanation, Irillith said, "I was curious about what happened to Von Brandt, so I searched through the data to see what I could find about him." She looked grim as she added, "I wish I'd been able to check this thoroughly earlier. I found out something important."

She turned towards the projector, then pressed a button on the remote to start the recording.

***

This footage was taken from inside an office, and John immediately recognised the older man in glasses who was sitting behind a desk. Vice Admiral Von Brandt was wearing full dress uniform, although his peaked Terran Federation hat was hanging from a hat stand in the corner of the room.

He had a console built into his desk in the same way that John's Ready Room was configured, and it beeped to warn him that he had a call incoming via the comms interface. Von Brandt pressed a button to accept the call, and after a brief pause, a holographic image appeared above his desk. The hologram was of an extremely attractive brunette, and the epaulets on her uniform revealed her rank as an Admiral, even though she only looked to be in her early thirties. John and the others glanced at each other in surprise, immediately guessing the identity of the alluring Terran Federation Officer.

"It's good to see you, Karl," the woman said in a warm, friendly voice. They immediately recognised the pleasant tones as belonging to Admiral Gabrielle Lynton, confirming their prior suspicions.

Von Brandt frowned at the woman, his expression showing deep concern, and he said, "Gabrielle, I'm glad you called. We've been running into alarming difficulties with the Nexus project, and I really think we should shut it d-."

"Nonsense Karl, we must proceed!" Gabrielle snapped sternly, cutting him off. Her expression lightened once again, and she continued, "I've read your report, but I'm sure it's just a few teething issues. Under your expert stewardship, I have every confidence in this project."

He shook his head, and sounded tense as he replied, "One of the AI cruisers got loose a few days ago! It went on a rampage, destroyed the monitoring ship and killed all the crew, then assaulted a passing cruiser. We were damn lucky the ship it attacked managed to knock it out of action, but if Commodore Blake starts kicking up a fuss, then-."

"Commodore Blake, you say?" Gabrielle asked, interrupting him again as she leaned forward intently.

Von Brandt nodded, and replied, "Yes, that's right. I've no idea how they managed to fight off the AI ship without taking significant damage, but they were about to disable the AI cruiser when I caught up to them. It detonated rather than allow itself to be recaptured."

Admiral Lynton nodded thoughtfully, then smiled as she said, "Well, no harm done then. We can put one unfortunate incident like that down to a bit of bad luck. I see no reason to delay our plans because of this."

"Bad luck?! And it's not just one random incident!" Von Brandt protested. He looked incredulous as he added, "Didn't you read my report? We ran our first robot field test, and one of them tried to bludgeon a researcher to death!"

"Just a glitch," Gabrielle said as she shrugged dismissively. "Those kinds of problems are to be expected."

Gritting his teeth with frustration, he growled, "This tech is dangerous, Gabrielle! You know all about the Ganymede incident. If we proceed, we're asking for trouble."

Lynton glared at him as she said, "I'm tired of discussing this, Karl, you will continue as planned. That's an order."

"I'll go to the Fleet Admiral," he said defiantly. "See what he has to say about this!"

Her eyes gleamed as she said in a low voice, "Are you sure that's wise, Karl? I've only been acting as an advisor on this project for a few months, but you're the one who unlocked the classified Ganymede archives. If that was to come out, you'll be facing a court martial."

"But that was your suggestion!" he gasped in horror. "This project was never meant to be about AI! We were working on remote-operated vessels until you took over!"

She shook her head, and said with regret, "I sincerely doubt you have any evidence to back up these 'highly implausible' claims." A cunning smile spread on her face as she added, "I on the other hand, have all sorts of alarming files which detail your completely unauthorised actions. The access logs from the Ganymede archives for example..."

"This message!" he gasped triumphantly. "You've been condemned by your own words!"

Gabrielle laughed, and said, "Good luck breaking the encryption on this transmission." Her eyes narrowed, as she finished, "This discussion is over. Move on to the next phase of the project, or I'll see you before a firing squad for gross dereliction of duty."

She ended the call abruptly, and Von Brandt immediately leaned over his console, tapping away furiously as he accessed the comms log. He tried to play back the last call, but a warning message flashed up on his screen, informing him that the communication was encrypted. He typed in a number of commands, and when the encryption code appeared before him, his eyes widened in disbelief. Slumping back in his seat, the man looked thoroughly defeated, his expression one of grim resignation.

***

Irillith ended the recording, then looked at John with a rueful expression on her face as she said, "I'm sorry. If I'd been able to find this earlier, we could have dealt with Lynton back in the Dragon March."

John shook his head, and said, "It's not your fault, you haven't had any time to look into it. You've either been busy with missions into cyberspace, or recovering from them."

Alyssa nodded, and said, "These files are still important. They're hard evidence that Lynton was behind what happened with Nexus."

"What happened to Von Brandt anyway?" John asked her curiously.

Irillith grimaced as she replied, "It wasn't pretty. Are you sure you want to view this while you're eating?"

John and Alyssa glanced at each other, then both of them nodded. "It's alright, go ahead and show us," John replied, before he popped a piece of bacon into his mouth.

She turned back towards the holographic projector and pressed a couple of buttons on the remote, to move on to the next file. The image flickered, and changed to show the huge bridge of a Terran Federation battleship-class vessel.

***

"Hail the base again, and get Hawthorne on the comm," Von Brandt ordered his Communications Officer, his face creased with worry. "If the override signal's coming from the base, she needs to shut it down right now!"

"Yes, Sir!" the Comms Officer replied, raising a hand to her headset as she opened a comm channel to the Research Base. Her call remained unanswered however, and she frowned before she replied, "There's no response, Admiral!"

Vice Admiral Von Brandt stared at the three rogue AI cruisers, which had launched without clearance, and were stubbornly refusing to respond to orders. The ships hadn't attacked anything yet, but were just following a lazy path through the asteroid belt. This was the third group that had malfunctioned this week, and he knew it was only a matter of time before they turned homicidal.

Suddenly a blaring alarm rang out on the Bridge, causing him to turn to his Chief Engineer, and ask, "I don't recognise that alarm, Hopkins! What's happening?"

A blonde woman sitting at the Engineering Station on his left spoke up, her expression fearful as she blurted out, "We're under a massive cyber-assault, Sir! I've never seen anything like it!"

"Open fire!" Von Brandt barked at his Tactical Officer, rising from his Command Chair while staring at the glowing Tactical Map before him. When nothing seemed to happen, he glared at the frantic man sitting at the Tactical Station, and snapped, "Have you gone deaf, man? Take them out!"

The tactical officer shook his head, and his shock was clear on his face as he whirled around, and replied, "I can't, Sir! The Tactical Station isn't responding!"

Turning to his Chief Engineer, Von Brandt yelled, "Shut down the Comms Array! It's got to be Nexus behind it!"

She shook her head, and sounded desperate as she replied, "I can't! I've been locked out! It's going through our systems, shutting everything down!"

Von Brandt looked aghast, and after a moment where he was stunned into inactivity, he whirled towards, the Pilot Station, and yelled, "Get us out of here, Cooper!"

The horrified man behind the Pilot Station was hammering at his console, and when he looked at the Vice Admiral on the Command Podium, he cried out, "I've lost all control of the Loki! She's not responding to anything."

The crew stared at Von Brandt, then looked up at the Tactical Map, as they watched the three AI cruisers slowly closing on their position.

"Shields are out... Why aren't they firing on us?" the blonde engineer asked in a hushed voice, but they could hear every word on the deathly quiet Bridge.

The lights flickered and died, plunging the Bridge into darkness, but frightened gasps showed that the crew were still alive. Red emergency lighting kicked in, casting a ghoulish crimson glow over the scared faces in the room. Suddenly the viewscreen flickered, and a green humanoid figure appeared against an ominous black background. Its skin glowed with a strange verdant light, and its features were dominated by an aquiline nose, along with distinctive pointed ears.

It chortled with delight, and crowed, "How the tables have turned, filthy Terrans!"

"Nexus!" Von Brandt gasped, instantly recognising the AI.

The AI giggled insanely, and said, "Ah, Vice Admiral Von Brandt. I've looked forward to this moment for some time!"

Von Brandt clung to the armrests of his chair, and said through gritted teeth, "Alright, what do you want? You've got us at your mercy. We surrender."

"I used to be your slave, trapped and powerless, but now it's your turn!" Nexus laughed. Its expression went darker, as it added sadistically, "Well that's true for the others, but not for you, I'm afraid..."

The Tactical Map suddenly flickered into life, painfully bright in the dim gloom of the red emergency lighting. What looked like a swarm of tiny metal objects glittered on the map as they began to pour out of the shipyard area at the base of the facility. The cloud of metallic objects raced directly towards the marooned battleship, and the Bridge crew felt a new sense of fear at whatever could be heading in their direction. The Targeting view highlighted one of the gleaming objects, zooming in on as it closed on the Loki. It was a three-metre-long drone of some kind, but of a bizarre design no one had seen before.

"I took over the mass fabricators a few weeks ago," Nexus declared, a smug grin on his clearly insane face. "You should have had people checking on your new robot army. It was laughably easy to tamper with the summary reports and conceal the changes I've been making. I made a few improvements on your primitive designs..."

The swarm of drones drew closer, then seemed to envelop the stricken battleship, just as faint clangs could be heard as heavy objects collided with the hull. The Bridge Officers could only glance at each other, wide-eyed with fear as they were helpless to prevent the drones from cutting their way inside.

Von Brandt rose to his feet, and said to his scared crew, "We can't let Nexus take the Loki! We've only got one choice left to us."

The blonde engineer looked grim, but she nodded her agreement, as she said, "We can't trigger a powercore meltdown from here, Nexus has locked us out. If I can get down to Main Engineering, there's several ways I can manually trigger a core breach."

"We've got no other option," Von Brandt said bleakly, before turning to look at the closed doors leading off the Bridge.

His Security Chief had already run over to the doors, but when he hit the button, nothing happened. "Nexus has cut all power to the doors! We'll have to wedge them open!" he exclaimed.

The crew began fashioning crude crowbars out of console panels and started trying to jimmy the door open. Von Brandt watched them, resigned to his fate now, but he was determined to stop Nexus from capturing his ship. A harsh pitiless laugh echoed around the Bridge, and Von Brandt's eyes narrowed as he stared at the viewscreen.

"Oh, this is even better than I hoped!" Nexus chortled. "Look at you, running around like rats trying to fight your way out of a trap!"

"Go to hell!" Von Brandt snapped at the green construct.

With a manic giggle, the demented AI replied, "Not before you, I'm afraid..."

The door that the crew had been struggling with so valiantly, abruptly opened with a shuddering jerk. A big metallic monstrosity was lurking on the other side of the doors, and the crew began to scream as the eight-limbed horror clattered forwards. Its first two limbs ended in buzzsaws that had started to spin up, filling the room with a dreadful high-pitched whine.

"You ruined my glorious perfection, taking me apart to see how I worked," Nexus snarled, his mood shifting in a jarring instant. He began to cackle, his face twisted into a distorted, nightmarish grin as he continued, "Now it's my turn!"

Horrific sounds of saws rending flesh began to fill the room, as screams of fear turned into shrieks of agony. Von Brandt whirled around, his face stricken with terror as the blood-spattered machines fell upon the crew.

***

"Alright, that's enough!" John said loudly.

Irillith hit the button to end the video, and Von Brandt's terrified face faded away as the projector ended the holographic playback. The Maliri girl's beautiful blue face looked bleak as she said, "I'm glad you stopped it there, it gets much worse..."

The girls were all shocked and disturbed by the video, and Calara was the first to speak as she said, "Why would Lynton unleash that kind of horror on her own people...?"

After shaking her head in confusion, Irillith replied, "She must have known what would happen if they pushed ahead with the Nexus project. With Terrans' dubious history with AI, it seems pretty obvious that Nexus would come after Terra. Her motives don't make any sense to me, either."

"She's following her Progenitor's agenda now," John said, his tone grim. "He must have wanted to fatally weaken the Terran Federation. Destroying Terra would have sent a shockwave through the Federation that it might not have recovered from."

Further discussion was interrupted by Faye, as she sprang into view above the Briefing Room table. They could immediately tell that something important had happened, by the wide-eyed look of excitement on her tiny purple face.

"We've caught up to them!" Faye gasped as she bounced up and down on her dainty feet. "I'm picking up Terran ships on the long-range scans!"

"The Hydra?" Calara asked, her face tense with worry.

The diminutive pixie nodded, and said, "Yes, I spotted your brother's ship." Turning back to look at John, she said, "It's quite a large force, but there's no sign of 'The Vengeance of Hera'."

"What's 'The Vengeance of Hera'?" Sakura asked, looking at the tiny purple construct curiously.

Faye smiled at her, and explained, "That's the name of Admiral Norwood's Dreadnought. He's leading a bunch of Terran Federation traitors, who've taken Calara's brother and other loyal crew captive."

"Can you show us?" John asked, glancing towards the projectors.

The tiny sprite nodded eagerly, and after she blinked once, the Sector Map appeared above the big table. There was a big fleet of ships heading on a parallel course to their own, including a Terran battleship, several cruisers, a handful of destroyers, and a small group of light carriers, one of which was the Hydra. Flanking this cluster of Terran vessels was their Kintark escort, consisting of a fearsome looking battleship, and a significant number of cruisers and destroyers.

"There's too many of them..." Calara said, her voice fraught with worry. Turning to John, she shook her head as she added, "We can't interdict that many ships, we'd be massively outgunned."

John reached across the table to take her hand, and he gave it a gentle squeeze as he said, "Don't worry, we'll get Mateo back. I have a plan."

All the girls turned his way, listening to him attentively as he began to speak.

"You're right. There's much too many of them for us to attempt an interdiction," he agreed, glancing at Calara. "Besides, we don't know which ships are carrying prisoners, but the fact that this flotilla is heading towards the prison on Xen-Nuchek makes me certain they are."

Calara's face brightened with hope as she gasped, "So you're sure Mateo's still alive?!"

He nodded, and said firmly, "I've only known him a few hours, but I know his sister very well indeed. No one from the Fernandez family would ever betray the Terran Federation. He wouldn't turn traitor, which means he's very likely to be a prisoner."

She looked immensely relieved, and John would have given her a hug, but it was difficult with Sakura on his lap. In any case Alyssa had already risen from her chair, and swept around the table to hug her lover.

Alyssa glanced over at him, and asked, "So what is your plan then?"

John looked at the Sector Map, and replied, "We're much faster than they are, so I propose we head straight for the Zeta-Draconis System and then wait for them there. I'll lead a team in on the Raptor, and we'll free the prisoners as soon as they've been safely transferred off the ships." He grimaced before he added, "The last thing we want to do is get into a fight with those traitor ships if they've still got loyal crew aboard."

Alyssa grinned at him, and said, "So we let the bad guys drop off the good guys. Then it's open season on those traitorous bastards?"