Three Square Meals Ch. 077

"It seems the women in our family are destined to fall in love with Progenitors," Tashana said, her eyes sparkling at the thought. Then she faltered for a moment. "What are we going to do when we get back to Valaden? Mother will be with John too..."

Irillith studied her sister for a moment, then leaned down to give her a tender kiss on the cheek. Their eyes met as she replied, "Let's see how things work out between just the two of us and John first. We won't be back in the Maliri Regency for weeks."

*The Maliri Protectorate,* Alyssa teased them both, an undercurrent of amusement in her voice. *Or perhaps that should be Maliri Kingdom...*

Tashana started at hearing the sudden telepathic voice in her mind and Irillith smiled at her as she said, "You quickly get used to it. It's easier when you can talk back to her once you've bonded."

"Can you tell me a bit more about this 'bond'?" Tashana asked, gazing at her sister in curiosity. "It's been mentioned a few times but I don't really know the details."

"It's something unique to Alyssa as far as we know," Irillith explained, thinking it over. "As you two get closer and you learn to trust her implicitly, then it'll allow you both to forge a stronger connection with your minds. As I just said, the bond will let you talk with her telepathically and building a more powerful psychic link with Alyssa makes John stronger too."

*There's often a specific event that acts as a catalyst,* Alyssa explained, her voice both gentle and patient. *There's no rush, these things seem to develop naturally and you'll know when you're ready.*

Tashana nodded as she listened carefully, then looked at her sister and asked, "What event acted as the catalyst for you?"

Irillith blushed furiously, quickly averting her eyes from her sister's curious gaze as she let out a nervous giggle.

Her sister laughed as she realised it must have been something quite naughty, and she leaned in to kiss her on the cheek and said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you embarrassed."

"It's okay," Irillith replied, her mouth twisting into a shy grin. She hesitated for a second before she added, "My one bit of advice for you, little sister, is to keep an open mind. If you do, you and John will have lots of fun."

"Hey, you're only ten minutes older than me, Rill!" Tashana grinned playfully.

Irillith's violet eyes sparkled as she replied, "Which still makes you the little one, Shan!"

The two sisters hugged each other, laughing together as they did so.

"Thank you so much for coming to rescue me!" Tashana eventually blurted out as they pulled apart. Her expression was one of wonder as she continued, "I keep thinking this must be a dream! I can't ever remember being so happy."

"I know exactly what you mean, little sister," Irillith said affectionately, her own smiling face one of happy disbelief. She sat up, and looking thoughtful, she added, "We have John to thank for all of this. Your rescue, fixing my mind so I'm not a horrible vindictive bitch any more, and he's even turned mother into a thoughtful and caring woman!"

Tashana tried to sit up too, but the heavy weight she was carrying in her tummy made it slightly awkward, at least until Irillith took her arm and helped her upright. "Thank you," she said gratefully, before taking her sister's blue hand in her own. Tashana squeezed it and added, "We'll have to think of a nice way to thank him for everything he's done for us."

Irillith smiled at her sister and said, "Don't worry, I know there's something he'll very much enjoy." She leaned over and whispered in Tashana's ear, her twin's eyes going wide as she listened avidly.

***

The glowing white telekinetic dart flashed towards John's head and he swung his arm up just in time for his buckler of blue hexagons to absorb the psychic attack. The shield trembled with the impact but held firm, knocking him back slightly with the strength of the strike. Alyssa made a twirling motion with the fingers of her right hand and a flurry of shimmering bolts materialised in front of her, before springing to the attack.

John had to activate his psychic speed again to rapidly deflect them all but managed to block each shining telekinetic missile without getting struck. Alyssa stopped abruptly and stood there with her hands on her hips as she frowned with disapproval.

He gave her a guilty grin, and attempting to pre-empt a scolding, he said, "Yeah, I know, 'make a bigger shield'. I've tried, but I can't seem to expand them the way you can."

She glided over to him and said, "We'll just have to keep working at it." Shaking her head in confusion, she added, "I can't offer you any more advice, I've already told you how I do it. I just think bigger and there it is!"

To demonstrate her point, she summoned a shield of translucent white hexagons then instantly expanded it to twice the size.

"I must have only unlocked part of this ability," John suggested, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He saw the gleam in her eyes and his voice was firm as he continued, "Nope, don't even think about beating up Sakura again to try and unlock it."

Alyssa grimaced and said, "You're making it sound like I want to hurt her! Nothing could be further from the truth." She let out a frustrated sigh before admitting, "I'm worried, John. Getting burned by Tashana was the closest I've come to losing you. If I hadn't been there to stop her, you would've been incinerated!"

"She's on our side now, so I'll just have to make sure I'm extra nice to her," he joked, giving her a mollifying grin.

Shaking her head, Alyssa said, "We can't afford to be complacent about this. The shields you can make are an excellent first step, but they won't be enough to face this other progenitor. If he sends waves of fire at you, you're fucked!" She heard his thoughts, and waved away his protest as she continued, "Yes, I know you could use speed to get out the way, but what happens if he tries to burn Dana and Rachel? Those forearm shields aren't big enough to protect you and you'll get torched trying to save them, I know it!"

Wrapping her in his arms, he stroked her back as she laid her head against his chest. He could feel her trembling against him and asked gently. "What's wrong, honey? I know you well enough by now to tell that there's something else bothering you."

Alyssa glanced up at him and he could see the fear in her cerulean eyes as she replied, "You saw Valada; she was broken after Mael'nerak left her. I don't know if I could go through losing you like that again."

"I understand," he said, brushing his hands through her golden hair. Leaning down to kiss her forehead he added, "Seeing Valada like that must have dredged up a lot of bad memories. I'm sorry you had to go through that."

Tilting her head back so she could kiss John properly, Alyssa wrapped him in her arms as though never wanting to let him go. When their lips finally parted she said earnestly, "I love you."

"I love you too," he replied, giving her a loving smile. He looked at her expectantly, and added, "Shall we have another go with the shield training?"

Alyssa appeared torn for a moment, before finally conceding, "Actually, I think we've probably done as much as we can for now. You're handling those small shields like it's second nature, but unless we try something dramatic, I don't think you'll be able to break through that wall in your mind." She gave him a rueful smile and added, "I'm sorry I got frustrated with you, I was just worried, that's all."

"I'll keep working at it, I promise," he said sincerely. Smiling optimistically he added, "You never know, it might just be a case of needing more time practicing."

She returned his smile and released him from her tight embrace. "Actually, we might as well take a break, we've been at it a few hours. Calara wanted a word anyway, she's up in your Ready Room."

"I'll go and say hello then," John replied, giving her a brief kiss goodbye before striding from the Training Dojo.

***

"Nice grouping!" Sakura noted, grinning as she admired the tightly spaced collection of shots on the target dummy. The results of Tashana's initial round of shooting were faithfully displayed on a holo-image above the console in front of her. "Either you're an absolute natural or you've been holding out on me. Are you sure you didn't do a stint in the Maliri military?"

Tashana ejected the spent magazine from the ten-millimetre sidearm, the pistol feeling comfortable and familiar in her hand. She slowly shook her head as she slotted a new mag into the slot, watching her hands move deftly as if on automatic pilot.

"I was never interested in guns," she murmured, eyebrows climbing as she swiftly moved to a rock steady firing position and unloaded the magazine on the target in one fluid action. As soon as the magazine was empty, her hands moved through that same routine, ejecting it and placing it on the table.

*Careful, honey,* Alyssa murmured to Sakura. *She had a lot of combat experience in the Unclaimed Wastes. It's probably muscle memory.*

Sakura gave the startled Maliri girl a congratulatory pat on the shoulder, and said, "Well, gifted natural it is then! You'll be combat ready in no time."

Tashana looked pleased, and turning to her enthusiastic shooting instructor, she asked, "What do I need to do to be considered combat ready?"

The Asian girl paused for a moment as she mulled it over, then continued, "John made me train for hours on the pistol before we moved on to the XR75 rifles." Leaning forward with a wide smile lighting up her beautiful face, she continued furtively, "But it looks to me like you've already mastered the pistol! I think we can move on." She picked up her own sidearm from the shooting bench, checked the magazine had been ejected and the safety was on, before turning to walk back to the weapon racks to retrieve a rifle.

Tashana held her back though, lightly catching her arm with her slender blue hand. With a funny look on her face, she asked, "Before you put that pistol back on the racks, could I hold it for a second please?"

Sakura turned to look at her in surprise, and replied, "Sure, be my guest." She handed over the second pistol to the Maliri girl, then watched her curiously.

Looking down at both pistols in her hands, Tashana reached for two fresh magazines and carefully slotted them into each weapon. Despite the complexity of reloading a new magazine into a pistol while holding one in each hand, her fingers moved with sure, confident motions, as she expertly reloaded each weapon. Her thumbs moved to the selector switches on both pistols, turning the setting from semi-auto to fully automatic, before looking downrange at the solitary target dummy. Sakura tapped several buttons on the wall-mounted target control panel and four dummies sprang into place down the firing lane at various distances.

Relying solely on instinct, Tashana raised both hands and squeezed the triggers, her toned arms keeping each weapon steady and level as she opened fire. The raucous chatter of both pistols chewing through their entire magazine was only interrupted by a split-second's pause as Tashana switched targets half way through, and when both pistols clicked, signifying that their magazines were empty, she slowly lowered the two guns.

"Holy shit!" Sakura gasped, as she stared at the lacerated target dummies, all four hit with ten well-aimed rounds to the centre of their torsos.

Tashana stared at the two pistols in her hands and said dryly, "I must be a natural..."

*Meet me in the bedroom, we need to have a talk,* Alyssa thought to her, her voice calm and soothing.

***

The door to the Ready Room slid open with a swishing sound and John walked inside, finding Calara sitting at his desk and staring at a holographic projection. He smiled at her as he strolled across the room. "Hey, gorgeous! Alyssa said you wanted a word. Have you found something interesting?"

Calara's grim expression wiped the smile from his face as she replied, "I think the Ashanath are in serious trouble." She rose from his chair then stepped aside, gesturing for him to sit.

"That sounds ominous," he said, sitting as she had requested then staring at the holographic map projected in front of him.

It took John a moment to orient himself with the systems on the map, but when he spotted a reddish-orange planet tagged as Ashana, it all immediately became clear. There were dozens of red Xs dotted along the Ashanath border with Drakkar territory and he didn't need his tactical officer to explain to him that they signified battle sites. He glanced up at the Latina, seeing the anxious look on her face as she stared at the map.

Realising that she had his complete attention, Calara turned to him and said, "I've spent hours reviewing all these battles and the Drakkar Raiders aren't behaving as you'd normally expect."

"How so?" he asked, wondering what she'd spotted.

She brought up some battle footage taken from one of the concealed sensor satellites that the Ashanath used to monitor their border. John immediately recognised the distinctive angular shape of a trio of Drakkar cruisers, their grey hulls ribbed with purple reinforced banding. The three raiding ships closed on a pair of Ashanath patrol cruisers they had interdicted, the silver craft shaped like perfectly symmetrical discs.

There was a furious exchange of Beam Laser fire, with the Ashanath ships focusing on the lead Drakkar cruiser. Red columns of energy arced out and stripped it of shields, the beams scoring deep glowing furrows in its heavily armoured hull before causing several explosions. However the bigger Drakkar Cruisers struck with a vengeance, knocking out the shields on both Ashanath vessels, before crippling and immobilising the Grey ships by destroying their engines. As he would have expected, the Drakkar then launched a wave of dropships which docked with the doomed Ashanath cruisers.

John grimaced, knowing that the Drakkar were likely slaughtering and devouring the grey skinned aliens inside, the ravenous monsters considering them to be delicacies. Calara accelerated through the next couple of hours of data and the dropships disengaged from the silver-hulled patrol cruisers before returning to the Drakkar raiding ships.

"That's panning out how I'd have expected," John said, nodding towards the map. "What are you seeing that I'm missing?"

"Just wait a moment," she urged him, as the three cruisers began blasting the Ashanath ships with coruscating purple beams. As soon as the silver-hulled ships were destroyed, the Drakkar turned and jumped out of the system.

John looked at her blankly, and said, "Sorry honey, it looks like you'll have to give me the executive summary. I can't keep up with your brilliant mind."

She smiled at him for the compliment, but that faded as she glanced at the footage and replied, "There are two things that really stood out and I've observed the same pattern in attack after attack along the border. Firstly, Drakkar don't normally bother to stop and destroy Ashanath military ships after they've eaten all the crew - they're in too much of a hurry to chase after their next meal. That leads me to the second more important point, which is that the raiders don't head deeper into Grey Space on the lookout for civilian ships to plunder. Instead, they turn around and leave Ashanath Territory!"

"That does sound highly unusual," John said, nodding in agreement. He turned to look at the territory map. "You've observed the same behaviour in every one of those battles?"

"That's right," Calara replied, following his stare at the map of Ashanath Space. She looked bleak as she added, "I don't think these are normal Drakkar raids at all. I think the Ashanath are being systematically weakened in preparation for a major invasion."

John stared at the sobering holographic image for a moment then asked, "What have their losses been like so far?

Calara brought up a list she had compiled of destroyed Ashanath vessels, her mouth forming a grim line as she replied, "They've lost lots of patrol craft; mainly corvettes and destroyers, but nearly fifty cruisers too. That level of attrition is unsustainable." Flicking back to the holographic territory map, she continued, "Even more worrying, the dispersal of the preparatory strikes make me think that the Ashanath are being encouraged to split their forces. It looks like they're being goaded into protecting the more exposed periphery systems from assault. However, I'm certain that the Ashanath's border colonies are not the Drakkar's primary target."

John frowned, his eyebrows climbing as he asked, "So what is? Ashana?!"

She nodded and replied, "Yes, I believe so."

"It's possible some gifted Drakkar Warlord has taken control, but the Drakkar aren't normally that sophisticated," John reasoned, the holographic map looking more alarming by the second.

"We know someone else who is though," Calara prompted him, her frown deepening. "He's worked with the Drakkar before, so why not again now?"

John thought that over for a second, then nodded and replied, "You're right, it has to be the Progenitor pulling their strings. What could he want with Ashana though?"

"I strongly suspect it's got something to do with whatever the Greys have got buried near that Progenitor monolith site. Do you remember how it was guarded by all those orbital defence lasers?" she prompted him, her brown eyes tense with worry.

John slumped back in his chair and said, "Yeah, I remember, and I have a feeling this other Progenitor isn't interested in some stone monoliths." He thought over the best plan of action for a few moments then continued, "I better speak to the Ashanath, give them some warning."

He sat up again and tapped a button on the console built into his desk, bringing up the comms interface. The holographic panel appeared and he searched through his list of contacts until he found Councillor Talari from the Ashanath High Council. Swiping his finger across the name, they waited in silence for the call to go through, John reaching out to take Calara's hand and stroke it with his thumb.

Edraele had been as good as her word and his high-priority message was routed straight through to the Ashanath. The only problem was the vast distances involved, so it took nearly a minute to establish the initial comm channel. A bulbous grey head eventually filled the holographic image and his silvery robes identified him as an Ashanath High Councillor.

"Your call is unexpected, JohnBlake, but it is good to see you again," the Councillor said in his eerie murmur, staring at John with big round unblinking eyes.

Taking a chance that this was Talari he was speaking to, John said, "Good to see you too, Talari." Deciding to come straight to the point, he added, "My Tactical Officer has been reviewing the battle data you sent us."

"Ah yes, Calara," Talari replied, in his odd whispery voice. "Her mind was even more impressive than the spectacular curvature of her..." The Grey trailed off then, blinking twice in embarrassment.

John chose not to comment on Talari's appreciation of the Latina's physique, although he fully agreed with the diminutive alien. He nodded and said, "Well, Calara's been analysing the attack patterns and she's made an alarming discovery. We think the Drakkar are preparing a major assault on Ashana itself."

Talari began blinking rapidly and even his computer modulated translation device managed to sound alarmed as he said, "Our analysts suspect a raid on the outlying colonies. We cannot risk the Drakkar landing a sizeable raiding force on any of our worlds, the consequences would be too terrible to imagine."

When John glanced up at Calara they shared a knowing look; the Ashanath were being distracted by these probing attacks. Turning to look at Talari once more, John asked, "Have you divided your fleet assets to defend those colonies?"