"We're going after Nexus," John explained. He squatted down next to the frail looking woman, who was still seated in the same cell they'd found her in an hour earlier. Looking remorseful he added, "We can't stay to give you aid, but the base is back under your control, and all the robots have been shut down. We'll call for relief to be sent immediately."

Lieutenant Commander Juliette Hawthorne nodded, staring at him intently as she said, "I understand, Commodore. You have to stop that psychotic AI from killing anyone else!"

John gave her a sharp salute, then quickly rose to his feet, and turned towards the door. The cell doors were all open now, unlocked by Irillith after shutting down the demented Nexus fragment. The freed prisoners gazed at him in awe, calling out to him, "Thank you, Commodore!" as he strode out of the prison. He nodded to them courteously on his way to rejoin Alyssa in the corridor outside.

The blonde girl fell into step at his side as they ran down the corridor to the stairwell, then used flight-mode to clear the wrecked robots that were blocking the stairs. Once they reached the top level, they rushed towards the broken doors at the base entrance. *Jade's prepping the Raptor,* she informed him as they sprinted outside.

Sure enough, he could see the green-skinned girl through the cockpit canopy of the gunship, and she waved to him as they ran towards the loading ramp. They darted up the ramp, and the moment they were inside, he hit the button to close it after them. Despite the Inertia negation device built into the Raptor, he still felt a slight movement beneath his feet as Jade rocketed them out of the Docking Bay.

By the time he and Alyssa had stepped into the grav-tube, levitated up to the top level, then walked into the cockpit, Jade was already manoeuvring them into position for her final approach to land in the Invictus.

John smiled at the girls seated in the cockpit, then placed his hand on Alyssa's shoulder, and said to her, "As soon as we land, let's get straight up to the Bridge, and plot a course in pursuit. We can have a proper debrief after we're on our way."

She nodded, then said confidently, "I've already got the course plotted out in my mind. It'll take us twenty-three hours, thirty-four minutes, and eight seconds, to reach the Sol System from here."

"Perfect, well done, honey," he said, giving her a wry smile as he remembered how she'd cheerfully announced she'd memorised this corner of the galaxy.

She smiled back at him, then said, "I might as well wait in the loading room below."

"I'll lower the ramp as soon as we clear the atmospheric shielding in the Hangar Bay," Jade called out to her. Alyssa gave her a wave over her shoulder in acknowledgement as she left the cockpit.

Turning to Dana, John frowned when he spotted the large purple bruise appearing on her forehead. She had been watching him as she waited in the cockpit, so when she saw his expression, she raised a hand to her head self-consciously. She had forgotten that she was still wearing her cracked Paragon helmet, so her gauntleted hand brushed the clear crystal faceplate instead. Dana blushed with embarrassment, but a sly smile suddenly appeared on her face, and she beamed at him happily.

"That looks like it hurts, so why so cheerful?" he asked, looking at her curiously.

Her sky blue eyes twinkled as she said, "I've seen that look of concern a few times before. I'll be getting my tummy stuffed full of cum within the hour, I guarantee it!"

He chuckled wryly, and said, "Yeah, you're not wrong." His expression turned serious a moment later as he added, "We'll be passing that big debris field as we head out of the Beta-Persei system, so scan as much of the debris as possible when we fly past it. We can't spare the time to stop and investigate properly, so we'll have to pick up any information we can."

"Of course," Dana replied immediately. "With our upgraded sensors we should still be able to get plenty of useful data."

He smiled at her in gratitude, then turned to look through the cockpit as Jade brought them in to land inside the Invictus. They passed through the shielding that protected the Hangar Bay, and as the Nymph glided into the Titanium plated interior of the ship, he saw Alyssa leap clear of the Raptor. She sprinted for the reinforced double doors that led out of the Hangar, and made a gesture with her hand, hitting the button to open them with a telekinetic push. She darted straight through the opening gap, then turned a sharp right and disappeared from view.

The Raptor touched down in the centre of the landing lights under Jade's skilful hands, barely making a sound as the gunship settled gently on the deck. "We're home!" the green-skinned Nymph informed them cheerfully.

"Nice flying," John complimented her, and she grinned at him over her shoulder as she powered down the engines.

Dana, Rachel, and Irillith stood and made their way out of the cockpit, but John waited patiently for Jade to finish her shutdown checklist. He removed his helmet while he was waiting, and as soon as the Nymph had risen from the pilot's seat, he pulled her into his arms. He leaned down and gave her a loving kiss, and she let out a happy sigh as she returned it enthusiastically.

"What was that for?" she asked him when they finally parted, looking absolutely delighted.

He smiled at her, and said, "Just relieved my fiancé's safe. It was horrible seeing you get hurt by that robot."

"I'm fine, honestly," she said, her voice calm and reassuring, as she reached up to trace her fingers along his jawline in an affectionate gesture. Her cat-like emerald eyes twinkled as she purred flirtatiously, "I wouldn't say no to sharing with Dana though..."

He grinned, and said, "We could use a good light show."

She giggled, then gave him one last smouldering kiss before he led her out of the cockpit.

*Course plotted and we're underway,* Alyssa thought to him from up on the Bridge.

*I'll be right there,* he replied, picking up the pace.

He and Jade jogged through the open doors into the corridor beyond, then stepped into the grav-tube and floated up in the soft blue glow of the anti-gravity field. When they reached the Command Deck, the Bridge was a hive of activity as the girls hurried to scan as much of the battlefield debris as possible while the Invictus raced past.

Jade glided down the ramp towards her Pilot Station, and he darted up the steps to the Command Podium before sitting in his chair. He was still fully armoured, so it was a little awkward to sit here like this, but he didn't want to go and remove his gear and risk missing anything. It took them less than a minute to move out of scanning range of the debris field, and during that time Calara had been rapidly reviewing the scan results.

The Latina turned her Tactical chair so that she could look up at him, and was sombre as she said, "This is definitely the remains of Charles' Battlegroup." Glancing at the scan results, she ran through the list of ships she'd already identified, saying, "A battleship, eight modern cruisers, a couple of light carriers, and lots of destroyers; it's them alright."

"Wait a moment," John replied. "Wasn't that R&D officer commanding a battleship? Are you sure it wasn't his ship that got destroyed?"

Calara nodded and replied, "Yes to both. Vice Admiral Von Brandt was in command of the Battleship Loki. The transponder in that wreckage was still partially functional, and the codes don't match. The debris was from the Battleship Heimdall, under the command of Commodore Neal Jansen."

John rose from his chair, and said sadly, "I'll have to inform Charles, but I'll do it after the debrief. I'm going to stow away my combat gear, then I want a team meeting in five minutes in the Briefing Room."

The girls responded instantly, with Dana, Rachel and Irillith heading towards the Briefing Room to remove their Paragon Body Armour, while Alyssa followed him down the steps and into the grav-tube. The blonde girl was quiet as she removed her Paragon suit in the armour equipping frame, and John glanced her way, surprised at her uncharacteristically reserved behaviour.

"Everything alright?" he asked her as he returned his sword to the hooks above the weapon rack.

She nodded, picking up her Punisher rifle where she had left in leaning against the weapon rack. As she began unloading the rifle, she replied in a soft voice, "Just concerned about Nexus."

John placed his own Punisher rifle in the weapon rack, and watched as the auto-cleaning mechanism went to work. "You're worried we're not going to get there in time to stop it, aren't you?" he asked perceptively.

Alyssa turned, and watched as the robotic limbs of the equipping frame removed his Paragon armour. When he stepped clear, the body armour safely removed, she sounded subdued as she replied, "Yes. As fast as we are, I don't know if we'll be able to catch them in time to save the day."

He drew her into his arms, and when he gave her a comforting hug, she smiled at him sadly. They left the bedroom hand-in-hand, and walked back along the corridor to join the others on the Command Deck. Everyone was waiting for them in the Briefing Room when they entered, and floating above the long desk was the holographic Sector Map, so they could keep an eye on the long range scans during the meeting.

John pulled out Alyssa's chair for her to sit, then went to his own at the head of the table, and sank into its comfortable embrace. Looking over at Irillith, he said, "We better have a recap for Calara and Faye's benefit. Can you repeat what you found out about Nexus please."

Irillith sat up straight as all eyes turned to her, and she took a deep breath before she began to speak in a clear voice, "I confronted a small fragment of the Nexus AI in the secondary server we discovered. It had been left to run the base, control the robots, and command those four AI cruisers we encountered. It didn't have full access to the Nexus Primary's memory archives, but when I spoke to it, Nexus Secondary recognised me as being non-Terran." She paused, and glanced at John before continuing, "It said we had the same Master, and that we were both his tools."

Calara stared at her in shock, and gasped, "The Mael'nerak?! How could he have any involvement in this?"

Irillith frowned and replied, "Nexus wasn't able to tell me much, and I know it wasn't deliberately holding out on me."

"How can you be sure?" the Latina asked curiously.

The Maliri girl hesitated, glancing warily at Faye, before admitting, "I was being very persuasive."

Faye looked up at her, her tiny face solemn, and said, "It's alright. Nexus was a rabid animal that needed to be put down. I want you to feel like you can trust me, and that's never going to happen with psychotic AI like Nexus slaughtering people indiscriminately."

Irillith smiled at her, feeling relieved, then looked at the rest of her audience and said, "All the fragment of Nexus could tell me, was that it needed to achieve 'unity', and to do that, it needed to return to Terra. Nexus really hates Terrans, and considers the species to be an ugly experiment."

Dana sighed, and said, "I've been thinking about all this ever since you first told us what you'd found out. Could the Terran Federation have found some millennia old Progenitor AI? If their own research into AI is based on that tech, it might explain why it keeps turning on them."

John looked at Rachel quizzically, and asked, "Wasn't your theory that Terrans were some kind of experiment into genetic mutation, set up by the Mael'nerak? If so, why build an AI there that hates them?"

Rachel was confounded by his question, until her expression brightened, and she replied eagerly, "A failsafe perhaps? Something to shut down the experiment if it gets out of control?"

Dana's face registered her alarm as she blurted out, "Well that certainly doesn't sound fucking terrifying! How many people are there are on Terra now?"

Calara looked thoughtful, then replied, "The numbers are obviously in constant flux, what with the exodus to newly terraformed planets. The last census figures were something like ten billion, three hundred and forty five million, I believe."

There was a hushed quiet in the room as they realised the terrible ramifications of Nexus being unleashed on all those people. The silence was broken by John, who asked Calara, "Did you find out anything else from that big debris field? It'd be helpful to know what we're up against."

"I've only glanced through the data we gathered so far, so I can't tell you much until I do some detailed analysis," Calara replied cautiously. "There were dozens of wrecks in that debris field though, so it looks like the battlegroup went down fighting."

"Well hopefully we won't be going up against fifty AI cruisers then," he replied, with a wry smile. "Maybe only about forty or so instead..."

Alyssa cleared her throat, and said in a quiet voice, "I've got more bad news I'm afraid."

John looked at her, and said, "Let's hear it."

Alyssa nodded, then looked around at the group as she explained, "When we returned to Terran Space, Charles told us that he'd lost contact with his battlegroup two days beforehand. It then took us another two days to reach the Beta-Persei system." She looked worried as she continued, "That's four days in total, and it only takes three days for ships with Terran FTL drives to get from here to Terra. On top of that, it's still going to take us nearly a day to reach the Sol System."

John looked grim as he said, "So to summarise then: we have a malignant AI that's possibly in command of a vast fleet of robotic ships. We know it has a grudge against Terrans, and it's currently heading to the Terran capital; the most densely populated world in the whole Federation. On top of all that, it might have arrived there already, giving it plenty of time to have devastated the planet before we can get there to stop it."

"That's about the size of it," Alyssa agreed, sounding downhearted.

He looked around the table at the girls, seeing the worry on each of their lovely faces. He took a big breath, then sought to reassure them by stating confidently, "Well I refuse to give up now! We ARE going to get there in time, and we'll smash every last ship in their fleet if we have to!"

The girls perked up immediately, feeding into his positivity, and they leaned forward, hanging on his every word.

Turning to Calara first, he said, "I want you to run through the analysis of the debris as fast as you can. It would be nice to know how many ships the AI lost, as well as the type of damage sustained by Charles' battlegroup if you can find that out too. Don't spend too long on it though, as I want you to concentrate on your research into the Dragon March Traitor. We'll be heading to Olympus after this, so we need to be prepared."

"Yes, Sir!" Calara replied respectfully.

Looking at Faye and Irillith next, he said, "I want you two to repair and shore up our cyber defences. If we're going up against the Nexus primary, it might try another big cyber assault like last time."

They both grinned at him with enthusiasm, looking thoughtful as they pondered new ways to upgrade the Invictus' defences.

Next on his list was Dana, and her sky-blue eyes sparkled with anticipation when he looked her way. "Dana," he began, "We need those prototype laser weapons as soon as possible. If we have to board an AI ship, or get boarded in return, we can't risk fighting with the Punisher rifles, not if they have shielded robots."

"I'll get it done, I promise!" the redhead replied, her expression earnest and full of excitement.

"Good girl," he said approvingly, before turning to look at Jade. "I want Paragon Body Armour for everyone, just in case we get boarded while fighting Nexus. After that, Dana will probably need your help assembling the new laser rifles as soon as she's finished her designs."

The Nymph nodded, and stated in a firm voice, "I can easily finish off the armour before we arrive. I love helping Dana build things, and I'll assist wherever she needs me."

John grinned at her bold confidence, then turned to look at Rachel. She smiled at him, and said pre-emptively, "I'll finish my research. I have a feeling that knowing more about this will help you with your psychic healing. I'll get some answers for you as fast as I can."

He smiled, pleased that she had anticipated his request, and said, "Hopefully it won't be necessary, but if anyone gets hurt, I want to be able to do the best I can to help them."

Finally he spun his chair to face Alyssa, and gave her an apologetic smile.

She laughed at his expression, then turned in her seat, and cast an appraising eye over Dana's cracked and battered Paragon suit. "Yeah, those bots gave our body armour a real hammering. I'll start shaping new replacement pieces for any damaged locations," she said agreeably.

John nodded his approval, then looked around at the girls, his expression deadly serious. "I've never served with a finer crew," he said, his face showing his open admiration for them. "You should all feel very proud of the way you handled yourselves under extreme pressure. I ask a lot of each of you, and you -never- fail me."

They gazed back at him in delight, overjoyed to hear his heartfelt praise. He rose from his chair, and said, "I need to report in to Charles and warn him what's coming his way." After stealing a quick glance at the ship's chronometer, and noting that it was nearly midnight, he added, "After that, I expect to find you waiting for me in bed, as I plan to show you how much I appreciate my wonderful girls. We haven't all been together properly yet, and it's well past time we rectify that."

He turned to leave, then looked back at Faye, who was sitting on the desk looking wistful, with a sad little smile on her face. "Faye, meet me in my Ready Room please, I want to speak to you privately," he said in a firm voice.

The purple AI pixie looked up at him, blinking in surprise. She nodded, and winked out of sight as she followed his orders.

Alyssa stood gracefully, and placed her hand on his arm, stopping him before he could leave. "Shall we start without you?" she asked him, her cerulean eyes staring at him with burning intensity.

"Definitely," he agreed, glancing back at the bevy of beautiful girls who were gazing at him with unbridled lust.

He strolled out of the Briefing Room with a spring in his step, then walked across the Bridge and hit the button to open the doors into his Ready Room. There was a blur of purple by his desk, and Faye whirled around, watching him with her big eyes as he strode into the room. He kept his expression serious as he walked over to his desk, then sat in his big leather chair.

"What did you want to speak to me about, John?" she asked him, watching him warily.

He let himself relax in his chair and smiled at her warmly as he said, "I just wanted to say thanks for everything you've done since you joined us."

The tiny purple sprite blew out a big breath, and then grinned at him, looking greatly relieved. "Oh, that was mean! I thought I was in trouble there for a minute!" she exclaimed happily.

John shook his head, and said, "No, far from it." He paused, then studied her closely for a long moment before he continued, "What would make you happy, Faye?"

The pocket-sized construct looked startled at his question, and seemed unable to answer straight away.

John smiled at her as he explained, "It's easy to reward the other girls, but you and I have a different kind of relationship." Faye giggled at that, looking up at him with her big luminescent eyes, and an unreadable expression on her cute little face. John chuckled as well, then added, "I really appreciate what you've done for us so far, but I'm sorry that I've been so wary of you. It wasn't because of anything you did, it was purely because of your synthetic nature. It hasn't been fair to tar you with the same brush as the Terran AIs, but you haven't complained about our precautions, and just got on with making yourself useful."

"It's alright, I understand why you were worried," she replied magnanimously. Faye gazed at him, and then tentatively asked, "Would you consider letting me fly the Raptor?"

He had to fight down his natural instinct to refuse point blank, and forced himself to consider her request rationally. He did trust her... mostly... it was just that it had been drummed into him how unstable and treacherous AI always turned out to be, and she was asking him to take a huge leap of faith.

Faye could see the indecision in his face, so she continued in a rush, "I don't mean for combat! Just for ferrying you over for boarding actions, that kind of thing. There's only seven of you in the crew, and sometimes you leave yourself exposed to potential danger, because you don't have enough personnel available for all the roles you need to fill. For example: we had to leave Calara alone in the Invictus when Jade brought Irillith to the base, and then the Raptor was left unmanned and undefended when they landed there."

John had to concede that she was right, and with such a small crew, they were getting exposed to unnecessary risks just as she pointed out. In the end, his concern for the girls' safety overrode his potential fears about Faye, and he met her hopeful gaze, his mind made up.

"You've proven yourself to be a reliable and valuable member of the crew," he said with conviction. "It wouldn't be fair to keep treating you differently. I'll leave you to work with the girls to figure out the logistics, but you have my permission to begin training as a backup Raptor pilot."

Faye clapped her hands together in delight, her purple eyes burning brightly as she stared at him. "Oh, thank you so much!" she gasped. "I promise I won't let you down!"

He smiled at her, pleased to see her overjoyed reaction, and said, "You're welcome. Thank you for all you've done for us so far."

"I'll start researching all I can about flight mechanics!" she said, filled with enthusiasm. "It'll give something to look into while I'm on Watch tonight."

"Very good, Watch Commander," John said to her in a playful tone. "You are dismissed."

She threw him a cheeky salute, then gave him a cheerful wave goodbye before blinking out of sight in a purple flash.

*That was a nice thing to do, and I think you're making the right call. Faye's been very trustwor-... Oh fuck! That feels so good...* Alyssa thought to him telepathically before trailing off with a lusty groan.

John laughed, then reached towards the comm interface built into his desk, suddenly filled with a rather pressing need to get the conversation with Charles over with as quickly as possible. He scrolled through his list of contacts, until he found: 'Vice Admiral Charles Harris - Olympus Shipyard C.O.'. He swiped his hand across his old friend's name, then sat back in his chair as he waited for the call to connect.

Charles appeared as a holographic image above his desk, and John could see the relief wash over the man, as he gasped, "John! Thank God, I'd started to fear the worst. What happened?"

John's face was grim as he said, "Good news and bad, Charles. There were only four AI cruisers defending the R&D facility, so we dealt with those and stormed the base."

"You went up against -four- cruisers by yourself?!" Charles blurted out, looking astounded.

"Yes," John replied simply, refusing to elaborate. "We shut down the AI that had taken over the base, and freed several hundred prisoners. Some of them are in bad shape, and they could use medical assistance as soon as possible."

Charles let out a disbelieving laugh and slumped back in his chair. "It's over then. I can't believe you did it..." he muttered, his grey moustache twitching as his face lit up with a grin.

John shook his head slowly, reluctant to break the terrible news to his old friend. "The AI we shut down was a backup server. The real AI, Nexus Primary, left the base and is heading straight for Terra. It's commanding a fleet... a big one we think, perhaps forty or more ships," he explained tersely. It was heartbreaking to see his friend's look of relief wiped away in an instant, as a crashing wave of despair descended on Charles' face.

"My battlegroup?" he asked, frantically clutching for any shred of hope.

"Gone," John replied, his voice sombre. "Wiped out to a ship. I'm sorry Charles."

Charles' near hysterical laugh was truly unsettling, and he gazed at John with wild eyes. "We're doomed," he murmured, before staring away into the distance. "Destroyed by our own reckless stupidity."

John's eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward as he snapped, "Get your shit together, Charles! There must be something you can do? Some ships you can muster?"

His stinging tone was like a verbal slap to the face, and Charles blinked in astonishment at being spoken to in such a manner. He was furious as he snarled, "Don't you think I've thought through every possibility? We've got no reserve ships left!"

"You said you sent all the recently repaired ships in that Battlegroup?" John asked curtly.

Charles nodded, looking despondent, and replied, "I already told you, I sent everything that was combat ready."

"Then send all the crap that hasn't been fully repaired!" John demanded. "We're on our way, but we're still a day out, and you need to protect Terra until we can get there."

"It's a suicide mission! I can't just send good crews to a futile death," Charles balked.

John gritted his teeth in frustration and snapped, "Once Nexus wastes Terra, it'll move on to finish off the rest of humanity. Your people will be dead regardless."

Slumping in defeat, Charles said grudgingly, "Fine, I'll send everything to Terra, but it's going to be a bloodbath." He shook his head, looking bleak as he muttered, "What good will it do anyway? You're just one ship. I don't care what upgrades you've put in the Invictus, you can't possibly defeat those kind of odds."

"Just send the damn ships, Charles, leave the rest to me," John replied, his tone authoritative.

Charles laughed sardonically, and said, "Right away, -Commodore-."

John closed the call abruptly, not able to stomach seeing his old friend so lost to despair. He turned his chair and stared out into space, losing himself in a swirling blood red nebula that stretched for countless light years.

*He was scared out of his mind, don't judge him too harshly,* Alyssa thought to him, the warmth in her voice wrapping around him like a comforting mental blanket.

He sighed, realising she was right, and said, *I know, but I've never seen him like that before. I always respected the man, both as an officer and my friend, and it was horrible to see him so broken.*

*You're not entirely human remember, you're made of sterner stuff,* Alyssa reminded him gently. *We've spent months battling impossible odds, so it's become the norm for you now. Charles doesn't have the luxury of knowing what we, or this ship, can do.*

John laughed, and replied, *When did you become so wise?*

*About the same time you made me super-smart, and stunningly beautiful I suppose,* she replied playfully. *Now get down here, I need backup!*

Grinning, John rose from his chair, his bad mood banished just as quickly as it had arrived. He strode from his Ready Room, and smiled at Faye when she waved at him again, still ecstatically happy after their chat. He could feel his heart beat faster as he stepped into the grav-tube, his imagination running wild as he wondered what the girls were up to. He sank smoothly in the anti-gravity field, swathed in a warm red glow, then walked out into the corridor on Deck Two.

Lusty moans, and soft feminine cries reached his ears as he strode purposefully towards his bedroom, and as he drew closer, Alyssa appeared at the bedroom door. She was completely nude, her glorious, firm young body covered in a light sheen of perspiration, while her cheeks were flushed and her golden-hair tousled. She oozed wanton sexuality, and her bright blue eyes smouldered as she leaned against the doorframe, waiting for him to arrive.

"We started without you, as you requested," she purred, her full lips curling up in a wicked smile.

She held out her hand for him to take, and he accepted it gladly, letting her lead him into the bedroom. The rest of the girls were totally lost in passion, with the two brunettes eating out the two alien girls, while Dana knelt astride Jade, writhing on her tongue. The acres of ripe flesh on display was incredibly enticing, but John suddenly remembered he hadn't showered since the mission.

"Keep me company, I need a shower," he said to Alyssa, heading to the bathroom, and tugging on her hand to encourage her to follow.

Her eyes sparkled at his firm tone, and she said obediently, "I'll do anything you want."

"Good girl," he said with a grin, stripping off his clothes and leaving them in a haphazard heap on the bathroom floor.

He pulled her into the shower, then turned on the water jets, and sighed as she began to wash him. Her hands were deft, and moved with a nimble dexterity as she cleaned him, her soft skin feeling amazing as her fingers glided over his body. It felt very intimate to be washed like this, and she knelt submissively as she began to soap down his legs and groin.

His half hard appendage thickened to full strength as she caressed him, and he shivered at her tender touch. When he was sure he was spotlessly clean, he offered her his hands, then pulled her to her feet and into his arms. Alyssa was tall for a woman, standing at five-foot-nine, but compared to his six-two, she seemed tiny. Her body was lean and athletic, strong, and healthy, but again, compared to his brawny masculine physique she looked petite and very feminine.

John let his hands follow the sleek contours of her back, gliding down over her smooth, unblemished skin until her reached her bottom. The two perfectly rounded spheres felt wonderful in his hands, and he squeezed her roughly, enjoying hearing her gasps as he manhandled her.

"This is mine," he told her firmly, in case there was any doubt.

She nodded, grinning at him as she crooned, "You won your prize. You can take me back there whenever you want."

"But...?" he asked, sensing she wanted something else.

"I'd like to see you plough all the girls tonight! They're hungry for your cock, and it would be a shame to disappoint them," she replied, an eager gleam in her eyes. "Besides, it'll be more fun being on our own when you break in my ass again. It's been a while, and you're going to need to be rough with me, remind me who's boss."

"Fuck," John groaned, his cock throbbing with need.

She sensed his frustration, and she kissed him lightly on the lips before saying sympathetically, "Poor boy, you need a tight little girl wrapped around you, don't you?"

He nodded mutely, and she led him out of the shower to dry off. When they had towelled themselves dry, she prowled over to him, and reached down between his legs. Her fingers brushed lightly over his taut quad, and she licked her lips subconsciously.

"It's going to be hard, but try and hold off until the end," she said, smiling impishly. Staring into his eyes, her voice dropped a few octaves as she added, "We'll make it worth your while."

With that, she flounced out of the bathroom, leaving him staring at her spectacular body as she rolled her hips to make herself look even more delectable.

*I changed my mind,* he said to her as she sauntered away. *You aren't a good girl at all, you're very naughty.*

Alyssa flicked her long blonde hair over her shoulder, then shot him a heated glance as she replied, *I know, I'm a dreadful tease. Now, start riding those hot little teens, and get them cumming on your big dick. I'm going to borrow Jade and Irillith for a while!*

When he entered the bedroom, the girls had uncoupled, following Alyssa's silent telepathic commands. She had wasted no time, climbing onto the bed between Jade and Irillith, and the Nymph and Maliri had already started trailing kisses over her gorgeous body.

Calara, Dana, and Rachel sat up on the other side of the bed, all looking flushed and very excited to see him. They beckoned him over, inviting smiles on their beautiful faces, and he wasted no time in joining them.

"Who do you want first?" Calara asked him breathily, leaving no doubt that they all expected a turn.

He grinned at them, then lay back on the bed, folding his arms behind his head. "We'll go with the order you joined the crew," he said decisively. He smiled at Calara and added, "That means you're up first, Lieutenant."

She flashed him an eager smile, then smoothly straddled him as she repositioned her lithe body above his. Dana and Rachel cuddled up next to him, and watched transfixed as Calara sank down his rock-hard shaft, shivering with delight. When she had taken his whole length, she leaned forward to rest her full breasts on his chest, and kissed him deeply.

"It's a good job I went first," she moaned, her soulful brown eyes hooded with lust.

John reached out to stroke Dana and Rachel as he asked, "Why's that?"

Calara smiled as she said brazenly, "These two both have very skilful tongues, and they got me very wet. When you're done with me, you'll be well lubed for them."

Dana giggled and rolled her eyes as she said, "Yeah, like we aren't horny and ready to fuck!"

"Oh God," John groaned, staving off his climax with an act of iron willpower. Lasting until they'd all had a turn was going to be damn-near impossible.

***

As each of the girls rode him, the other two showered him with tender kisses. As much as this was supposed to be about rewarding them, they felt that they hadn't properly thanked him for the lavish physical and intellectual enhancements he'd bestowed on them with the Gift. While Calara rode him sensually, her strong internal muscles expertly massaging his cock, Dana and Rachel gently caressed him while whispering loving endearments.

He floated along on this plateau of sensation, fully immersed in the ripe young flesh surrounding him on all sides. There were peaks of course, as each girl arched her back, crying out as she came, their bodies instinctively trying to coax him into joining them in ecstasy. These were countered by the very brief troughs when the girls swapped places, leaving his cock to glisten wetly in the air, before being pushed deep into another pliant and extremely willing girl.

When they'd each had a turn, thanking him profusely for making them feel so good, the trios swapped. The three Terran teenagers moved aside to continue playing together, making room for Alyssa, Irillith and Jade. The blonde had a sultry glow to her, one he recognised on her whenever she'd just had an explosive climax. She leaned in to kiss him fiercely while Jade mounted him with practiced ease.

*We're going to make you cum so hard,* she promised him, as her tongue duelled with his, her piercing blue eyes staring into his soul.

As wonderful as being with the last three girls had been, the second trio had a big advantage with Alyssa guiding their every move. She watched him carefully, listening to his every thought, and her cohort of concubines reacted to her loving guidance. A slight shift of body weight here, a gentle nibble on his earlobe there, his body felt like it was on a hair trigger as they overwhelmed his senses with pleasure.

Jade dismounted him after crying out his name as she orgasmed, giving him a moment's reprieve. However, she was almost instantly replaced by Irillith, who sank down on him with a breathy sigh. Her angular violet eyes gazed at him in adoration, but she rocked on him hesitantly at first, unused to being in control like this. Jade moved behind her, pressing her dark-green breasts against Irillith's well-toned back. The Nymph was limber and strong, and she held on to the Maliri girl's hips and began to manipulate her body, moving her with a slow, exquisitely teasing motion.

"That's right, you're getting it," Jade murmured encouragingly as she wrapped herself around the azure-skinned girl. She leaned forward to kiss Irillith on the cheek, as she continued, "Just focus on giving him pleasure. Trust me, you'll love it."

Irillith turned to kiss Jade, then focused intently on John, riding him with Jade helping guide the motion of her hips. John could see the change in demeanour of the Maliri girl, as she watched his every expression, looking for signs of pleasure so she could make it good for him. He let out a wordless groan, his eyes transfixed on the violet and emerald sets of eyes that were staring down at him.

*They look so fucking hot together, don't they,* Alyssa asked him as she planted gentle kisses on his cheek, making sure she didn't block his view. *I had Irillith eat my pussy while Jade put those flexible fingers of hers to good work. I came so fucking hard.*

Irillith began to increase her languid pace, and he could see her flush with arousal as she rode him with greater purpose. Despite her best efforts to focus solely on pleasing him, being so submissive was having a powerful effect on her, and her eyes opened wide as she rode the crest of a huge climax. He reached up and placed his hands on her slender tummy, and she leaned into him, moaning and writhing as she came. Alyssa watched them both closely as they gazed into one another's eyes, and a sparkling smile lit up her face as she listened to John's thoughts.

Jade helped Irillith roll clear, her beautiful blue face looking dazed as she reeled from the intense pleasure. Alyssa didn't leave him hanging though, and she slowly descended on his slick cock, biting her lip as she felt him spread her wide open.

"I'm close," she purred when she reached the bottom, then leaned forward so she could kiss him again. "Seeing you impale these sexy girls always gets my motor running!"

John wrapped his arms around the teasing blonde, then rolled over, pinning her on her back. "You're close are you?," he asked her with a roguish grin. Glancing to his sides, he said to the other girls, "Alyssa's been very naughty. You know what a tease she can be, and it's time for some payback."

He raised himself up on his arms, pinning her wrists to the bed, and began to stroke in and out of her at a torturously slow pace. Meanwhile the other five girls giggled excitedly as they surrounded Alyssa. They began to lick and caress her, making her shiver with delight, but no one made any attempt to help bring her off.

Her six lovers kept this up for nearly half an hour, leaving her teetering on the edge, but refusing to let her finish. "Please!" she finally begged in desperation. "I'm going out of my mind! I can't stand the teasing any longer!"

John smirked at the other girls, and said, "What do you think, ladies? Shall we let her come?"

They all nodded eagerly, so he relented, and said, "Alright girls, pick an erogenous zone and get to work!"

Dana and Rachel darted forward to latch on to her breasts, squeezing the firm ripe flesh and sucking on her nipples. Calara winked at Irillith, then grasped one of Alyssa's trembling thighs, and lifted her leg so she could take a firm hold of one of her dainty feet. She leaned forward and began to suck on her toes, causing Alyssa to arch her back and scream at the maddening sensation that drove a fine line between tickling and sensuality. Irillith grinned and copied the Latina, causing Alyssa's frenzied thrashing to increase.

Finally, Jade crouched behind John and gently lifted his quad out the way so that her questing fingers could find Alyssa's tight little asshole. Her fingers elongated as she pushed them inside her, rhythmically stroking the base of John's cock through the tightly stretched membrane between them.

"Holy Fuck!" Alyssa screeched, bucking wildly underneath him as he kept her pinned to the bed.

He thrust into her with long powerful movements of his hips, grinding against her clit when he stuffed her full of his cock. She let out one long keening wail as she flexed underneath him, then her eyes rolled up and she collapsed back on the bed, her limp body rendered completely insensate. The girls sat back, contented smiles of satisfaction on their faces as they surveyed their handiwork.

John chuckled, and said, "Bravo girls, that was phenomenal."

Calara knelt next to him, and stroked his back as she said lovingly, "You must really need to cum. Let us take care of you."

He gave her a grateful smile, then eased out of Alyssa, and lay back on the bed. The girls knelt at his sides, and when Calara engulfed the head of his cock in her mouth, the others leaned in and began to run their tongues along his length. The girls weren't teasing now, and were focused solely on emptying his four balls. Dana and Rachel were nearest to those four taut orbs, and they moved down to focus on them instead, encouraging them to give up their tasty cargo.

With a final groan from John, his quad raised up, and his cock jerked powerfully in Calara's mouth, hosing down her tonsils with a gout of thick, rich cum. She swallowed it down immediately, sucking powerfully to intensify his climax. After he filled her mouth again with another powerful blast of spunk, she smoothly passed him over to Jade, before savouring the cum in her mouth then sending it down into her belly. They each took a turn, sharing him evenly between them.

Alyssa had roused herself by the time it was Dana's turn, and the redhead's eyes flashed with mischief as she greedily filled her stomach. She reluctantly handed over his pulsating cock, and Alyssa sheathed him in her throat, then sucked him mindlessly, moaning with delight as she felt the heavy spurts of cum blast into her belly. Eventually he was done, and he collapsed on the bed, his chest heaving as he gasped for breath.

The girls all lay beside him, heads resting along the length of his body, while looking up at him with bright smiles on their faces. When he'd finally recovered, he chuckled in disbelief, then wondered aloud, "Why don't we do that every night?"

When the laughter had subsided, they settled down to sleep, watching drowsily as pulses of soft green light from Jade's tummy cast a viridian glow across the ceiling. John found he didn't mind being used as a comfy pillow by six gorgeous nubile women in the slightest.

***

John awoke the next morning feeling well rested and raring to go. Normally the girls were slower to wake than him, but today they began to stir as soon as he did. During the night the girls had settled into their usual places, with Alyssa and Calara cuddling him between them. Faye reported in, saying that she'd seen no sign of AI ships during the night. She also noted that Nexus didn't seem to be stopping to harass civilian shipping either, as they had passed no more debris in their rapid pursuit. As soon as Faye had finished her report, the girls got up for a quick shower, but John held onto Dana before she could get up to join them.

"How's the head this morning?" he asked her, as he brushed her dark auburn locks away from her forehead, checking on the state of the purple bruise that she'd acquired yesterday.

She gave him a grateful smile and turned slightly to kiss his wrist as his fingers lightly brushed her skin, searching in vain for a bump. "You took care of me, just like you always do," she said, then wrapped him in her arms and hugged him exuberantly.

He laughed as he returned her enthusiastic embrace, and they got out of bed to hurry after the rest of the group. After a quick shower they parted ways to go and get dressed, then reconvened in the Officers' Lounge for breakfast. Everyone was keen to get started on the tasks they had discussed the previous night, so they gulped down some cereal and juice before everyone bounded away.

Eventually it was just him and Alyssa left, and once he'd finished clearing the table, she sashayed up to him. The blonde girl had been quiet, but very happy this morning, and she leant in to mould her lithe body around him as she gave him a loving hug.

"Thank you for last night," she murmured at last, gazing at him with dreamy eyes. "We all adored it, and the family's never felt closer. I love you so much."

He was astonished at the quiet sincerity of her words, but he eventually overcame his surprise, and said, "You're very welcome. I had a wonderful time too, and you know how much I love you."

She gave him a tender kiss, then murmured happily, "That I do, you lovely, handsome man."

He released her from his arms, and she glided away as though she were floating on clouds, singing softly to herself. He grinned as he watched her leave, shaking his head in disbelief at her ability to keep him on his toes, even when she wasn't playing any games.

His plan today had been to spend some more time practicing his psychic powers, but his mind kept drifting back to the painfully awkward conversation he'd had with Yamamoto a few days ago. Rather than heading up to the Bridge to try and contact him again, he walked out to the grav-tube with a sense of purpose, and dropped down to Deck Three to visit his training room.

While strolling along the corridor, he reached out telepathically to his Maliri Matriarch, and asked, *Edraele, how are you this morning?*

She sounded delighted to hear from him as she replied, *I feel wonderful today! My surprise for you is coming along nicely, and I'm hoping everything will be in place for when you return.*

He chuckled as he hit the button to open the door into his training room, and said, *I must admit, I'm burning with curiosity to find out what it is.*

*You'll just have to wait, I'm afraid,* she replied, but he could tell by her voice that she was thrilled at the thought of revealing it to him.

Deciding to respect her desire to keep it a secret, he changed topics instead of pushing for more details. *I wanted to thank you for your assistance yesterday, when you sent me that surge of psychic energy. It helped swing a deadly battle, and got us out of a tricky situation, so thank you, I really appreciated your help.*

*It's what I'm here for,* she replied happily, overjoyed to hear that she'd been able to help make a difference. *I'm just pleased you remembered my advice about using me to help fuel your powers as you use them.*

John walked over to the weapon stand, and picked up his training sword, the Odachi feeling like an extension of his arms as he held the comfortable grip. *I hope you don't think I just plan on treating you as some kind of psychic battery,* he said to her with a frown. *You've been a tremendous help in all kinds of ways, and you know I've started to think about Valaden as a potential new home for us in the long term.*

*I know, and I can't wait to see you again,* Edraele replied, and he could feel her yearning desire to be reunited with him over their empathic link. *While we're apart though, it's important that you let me help you whenever you need it. It makes logical sense, and besides, I love knowing that I'm making a difference, even when I'm so far away from you.*

*I will, I promise,* he replied with a smile, then sent her a telepathic projection of a kiss.

He could feel her delight over the bond, and he left Edraele to her happy thoughts as he glided across the mat, and knelt on the floor. Placing the replica of the ancient Japanese blade on the mat in front of him, he placed his hands on his knees, then closed his eyes as he focused on clearing his mind. Slowing his breathing, his chest rose and fell in a deep, well-measured rhythm, and he could feel a calming sense of inner peace settle over him.

When he finally opened his eyes again, his senses felt keenly focused, with all petty distractions cleared from his mind. He reached for his sword, then rose to his feet, sliding effortlessly into a perfect guard stance. The blade seemed to flow around him like a wave as he swept it around his body, moving from one kata to the next in a seamless dance that was as beautiful as it was deadly. Ever since he'd doubled his bond with Alyssa, his mind felt sharper than ever before, and he knew that he'd achieved an epiphany of sorts. A sense of oneness that had previously eluded him.

He lost track of time as he practiced, losing himself in the fluid strikes, and constant repositioning of his body, while keeping his balance and poise carefully controlled. He finally came to a rest, and despite the hours of intense practice, his breathing was smooth and even. Relaxing his posture, he walked back to the training rack, and placed his sword on the empty hooks. Turning to the console on the simulation device, he brought up the comm interface, and selected Eito Yamamoto from the list of contacts.

The call went through, and was met with the familiar bland ringtone. Yamamoto might well have picked up if John waited for ten minutes, but he wasn't in the mood for that today. His fingers brushed over the comm interface, selecting the option to leave a message, then turned to face the camera.

"Enough games," he said sternly. "Prepare yourself for our final duel. I will call you when it's time."

He swiped across the comm interface, ending the message, then turned and left the simulator room with a half-smile on his face.

***

The girls all met him for lunch in the Officers' Lounge, and there was a tremendous buzz of excitement as they arrived, each having made significant progress that morning. Surprisingly it was Calara who was the most animated, and she rushed across the room and into John's arms.

He caught her easily, swirling her around, before setting her down on her feet. She looked thrilled as she gasped, "He's innocent! Charles isn't connected with the Traitor in any way!"

John felt a lightness in his chest, and he could feel a heavy burden lifting off him, one that he hadn't been consciously aware he was carrying around. "You're certain?" he asked her, feeling a surging sense of exhilaration.

"Absolutely!" she nodded exuberantly. She laughed with relief, and said, "He's actually been conducting his own investigation! That's why he was so cagey before, he had his own suspicions!"

John gave her a concerned look and asked, "Has he found out about Admiral Norwood yet? He could be in serious danger if he's exposed him."

"Besides the imminent threat of destruction by Nexus and the AI fleet you mean?" she asked with a broad grin. Shaking her head, she continued, "I don't think so. He started looking into it because of the huge numbers of damaged Dragon March vessels returning to Olympus for repairs. As C.O. of the shipyard, he knows the full logistics of how bad it's been. He realised something's wrong, as Terran Federation campaigns are never plagued with this amount of bad luck. I've trawled through hundreds of his messages, and he's just been making very discrete inquiries, trying to figure out the bigger picture."

John let out a big sigh of relief, and said, "Thank you so much. You don't know how worrying it's been, thinking my commanding officer and friend could have turned traitor."

Calara gave him a wry smile, and said, "No, I only had to worry about my Commander and lover turning evil."

He look abashed at that, and replied, "Alright, yeah, you had it worse."

She leaned in to give him a loving kiss, and said, "Fortunately it's not a competition, and more importantly, you're back to being the man I love again."

"For good this time," he said with a smile.

They parted, then joined the others at the table, with Alyssa mouthing, "Thank you," to Calara as she sat down. The Latina grinned at her, and they settled down to eat.

John had been the first to arrive, so he'd quickly prepared some gnocchi with chicken, pesto and mozzarella. The girls made appreciative noises as they tucked in, none of them having tried this dish before.

"Anyone else got any good news from this morning's activities?" John asked them with a smile.

"I repaired all the Paragon Armour," Alyssa said with a nonchalant shrug.

Dana glanced at her and asked, "Any damage to the substructure? Or did the plating soak all the impact?"

Alyssa raised her glass in salute and replied, "Compliments to the armoursmith, the armour held strong. The frame wasn't damaged."

The redhead laughed and said, "You should be thanking yourself, you're the one responsible for how tough the plating is."

Alyssa nodded thoughtfully, summoned an opaque floating hand, and patted herself on the back with it. "Well done me," she declared with a grin. Everyone stared at the floating hand in amazement before dissolving into laughter.

Rachel piped up next, saying, "That reminds me. I finished my research, and as I was already thinking about psychic abilities, I decided to make a list of all the powers we've witnessed."

"As a practice list for John?" Alyssa asked thoughtfully.

Rachel smiled at her, and replied, "Exactly! I thought it would be helpful to record it all so we don't forget everything."

John leaned forward, looking intrigued, and asked, "What have you come up with?"

Rachel began ticking off the abilities on her fingers as she listed them, "Telepathy, Telekinesis, Shadow Manipulation, Astral Projection, Technokinesis, and Shapeshifting."

"Shapeshifting?" John asked with a frown. "Isn't that specific to Jade's physiology?"

The Nymph looked up from her meal, her eyes flicking to Rachel as she listened curiously, paying extra attention.

Rachel nodded, but replied, "I don't think you'll be turning into a tiger any time soon, but the mass change is psychic, so I added it to the list for completeness." She lowered her hand, then added, "You've already been able to enhance your strength, and psychically project elements, so I didn't bother listing those."

Alyssa finished her mouthful of gnocchi, and said, "Don't forget psychic shields. I was able to summon one of those in the fight against Progenitor-John." She glanced at him, and said, "He created one too."

With a frown, John said, "Well Telepathy is out, I gave that a try already."

"I think Telekinesis is probably the best one to focus on next," Alyssa suggested. "We know your evil alter-ego could do that, and you're already pretty handy with elemental powers. You should find it easy."

He smiled and said, "I don't know about that, but I'll practice this afternoon." He paused, frowning as he looked at Alyssa suspiciously, and asked, "Are you encouraging me to work on Telekinesis next because you're sick of psi-shaping?"

She bit her lower lip seductively and let out a delicious moan as she replied, "Mmm, handsome and clever, what a turn on!"

He laughed uproariously and she grinned at him as he exclaimed, "You little minx!" When the giggling died down he nodded, and added, "Fair enough, you've been stuck doing it all on your own for months now. It's about time I helped out if I can."

"My hero!" she swooned, flashing him a sparkling smile.

He was about to banter with her further, but he stopped for a moment, and looked across the table at Rachel. "Did you say you'd finished your research?" he asked her with interest.

She nodded, and replied, "I wasn't sure if you wanted to discuss your cum over a meal."

"It's the perfect time!" Dana protested, smacking her lips and adding for comedic effect, "Mmm, delicious!"

Irillith nodded, saying, "I agree. You all know I have quite the taste for it."

They all laughed at that, and she smiled at their good natured ribbing, revelling in the comfortable sense of acceptance amongst her new family.

Rachel put down her knife and fork, and with a gleam in her eyes, she began her speech. "The first thing I did was view a sample under the Psi-scanner. My theory was right!" she exclaimed jubilantly. Looking at John, she continued, "Your cum emits a strong psychic aura, and I'm certain it acts as catalyst, allowing you to use your abilities on a girl who ingests it."

"To do what exactly?" John asked her, his old concerns resurfacing.

She smiled at him, and replied, "I listed a lot of them before, but things like the rapid healing, and nurturing our minds, making us more intelligent." She looked around the table at each of the girls in turn, saying, "Calara's analytical skills, Dana's gift for technology, my ability to read DNA, giving Alyssa psychic powers, and massively developing Irillith and Jade's abilities."

Alyssa reached over to place a comforting hand on his, and she smiled as she said, "See, all good things."

"What about the mind control, and the behaviour modification? That too?" he asked curiously.

Rachel nodded, and said, "Yes, without a doubt."

"You did ditch the mind control though," Dana said, raising her glass in salute. She winked at him playfully as she added, "Although we're still your obedient girls."

Irillith had a wry smile on her face as she said, "I think we can all agree the behaviour modification was a good thing where I was concerned."

"You were quite feisty," Jade joked, rubbing her cheek as though it still smarted from where Irillith had slapped her.

John grinned, recalling his encounter with the tempestuous Maliri girl back on Valaden, and said, "I don't think that's changed all that much."

Irillith laughed at that, and the sparkle in her violet eyes promised him more dangerous liaisons in the future.

Dana grinned as she said, "We already decided that ditching the jealousy and making us love being bi was a good thing. I mean, I loved seeing you girls fucking John last night, and I lost count of how many times you sexy bitches made me cum."

"Charmingly phrased as ever, Sparks," Alyssa said with a chuckle. She turned to John and said, "So you're using your powers for good, and a bit of naughty, which is also very good. I think your moral compass is fine."

He laughed loudly at that, and said, "Thanks, I think." He glanced at Rachel, and asked, "Anything else, Doctor?"

She nodded, then took a big breath before saying, "I took another look at your sperm in the sample you gave me."

"You look like you've got something important to say," John said perceptively. "What did you find out?"

She frowned, and replied, "Actually, I've never seen anything like it. Remember I said that Progenitor sperm is bigger and more powerful than the Terran equivalent? That it would be extremely effective on fertile Terrans, and I'm assuming Maliri and Nymphs as well."

"Yes," John replied, glancing around the table, and smiling at the wistful, doe-eyed expressions the girls all had on their beautiful faces. "Was there something else?"

Rachel hesitated, and then replied, "The final chromosome that determines gender is in a state of flux. I'm not sure if this is consciously controlled or not, but If I didn't know any better, I'd say it looks like you get to choose the gender of the baby."

"We'd get to pick if we have a pink one or a blue one?" Calara asked softly, her voice full of longing.

Rachel sighed happily, gazing off into the distance before shaking it off with a wry smile, and saying, "Well, John would control the final chromosome, but it appears so, yes."

John looked stunned at the news, and as much as he'd talked about having children with these incredible women, this suddenly made it all seem that much nearer. Alyssa listened to the avalanche of worries crashing through his mind, with one first and foremost standing out above the rest. She leaned in to him, resting her head on his shoulder, and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek.

*You'll be a wonderful father, you shouldn't doubt that for a moment,* she thought to him.

He glanced down at her, and gave her a grateful smile before leaning in to kiss her. *You always know the right thing to say,* he said feeling relieved.

*Telepathy; I heartily recommend it for any doting Matriarch,* she replied with a grin.

He looked back at the rest of the girls, and then nodded his thanks to Rachel as he said, "Thank you, that was a bit of a shock, but good to know."

She gave him a sympathetic smile, and said, "It seems that's one more decision that rests on your shoulders. Sorry for heaping more burdens on you."

With a smile he said, "I'm a big boy, I can handle it."

"I think we can all attest to that," she replied, giving him a flirtatious grin.

He laughed, joining in with the hoots and jibes, then looked around the rest of the table before his gaze settled on Irillith. "How did you get on with the cyber-defences?" he asked her curiously.

"We're already done," she replied, then paused to correct herself, and said, "Actually to be more accurate, Faye worked furiously through the night, and repaired all the sundered firewalls. She wanted to come along to this meeting, but she said she's working on a secret project, which she hopes to have finished in a couple of hours."

Dana looked intrigued, and said, "She asked me for a couple of spare servers, so I wiped them and handed them over to her. I wonder what she's been working on?"

John felt a momentary pang of nervousness at the thought of an AI being given free reign, but suppressed it immediately. It was unfair to second guess Faye after everything she'd done for them so far.

Irillith was continuing meanwhile, and said, "I spent the morning scaling up the aggressive countermeasures we have available, which should make us much more resilient if Nexus pulls the same kind of trick again." She paused, looked at John, and added, "When I finished, I had a look at my old hacking deck; the device that's powering Faye."

John raised an eyebrow at her tone, and asked, "Was there a problem?"

With a sigh of regret, the Maliri replied, "I'm afraid the hacking deck is broken."

Dana looked alarmed and blurted out, "What happened to Faye? Is she alright?!"

Irillith gave her a reassuring smile, and said, "Sorry, I should have been clearer, I didn't mean to worry you. Faye is absolutely fine, but the deck itself is irreparably damaged. When she scrubbed one of the drives to give herself room to grow, she wiped out a significant part of the code used to create new AI. She's unique now, and we'll never be able to create another AI construct like her."

John shared a glance with Dana, and she said in frustration, "Yeah, I know! I've had too much on my plate, but I'll get to work on that as soon as I can."

Irillith smiled and said, "John mentioned he'd asked you to work on something for Faye. I'm done with my jobs for now, so I'd love to help."

Dana rubbed her hands together with glee and cackled as she said, "My army of assistants is growing!"

"Well Grand Engineering Overlord, I guess that's my cue then," Jade chipped in. "I finished building the next suit of Paragon Body Armour. That's five female suits now, and one male, so you'll all have one for the next battle."

"Superb work, well done!" John complimented her, feeling greatly relieved. He hesitated a moment, and said, "There's six of you girls though, you need a suit too Jade."

The green-skinned girl wrinkled her nose cutely, and said, "I'll be fine without it. I can't shift in Body Armour."

John considered arguing with her about it, but he remembered her shrugging off the heavy calibre rounds, and then healing herself of the saw wound. With her aversion to weaponry, combined with how lethally effective her animal shapes could be, he decided to trust her judgement.

Instead of arguing, he smiled and said, "We might well end up in some kind of boarding action against the AI, and its great we can all be geared up to deal with it. That new armour is tough as nails, and the flight-mode was invaluable."

"Those prisoners instantly recognised you, too," Alyssa said somewhat smugly. "Still regret the colour palette or the Lion symbolism?"

He raised his hands in surrender, and conceded, "Yeah you were right, it does make a dramatic statement, and saved a lot of hassle trying to explain who I was. Nexus knew we were coming, so sneaking about wouldn't have helped anyway."

Jade nodded, and said dryly, "'Take the stealthy approach' definitely isn't one of our mottos."

"Yeah, subtlety isn't our forte," Alyssa said with a grin.

John looked around the table, and he could see Dana trying to catch his eye, so he smiled at her and asked, "How did you get on this morning?"

Her sky-blue eyes twinkled in the light, and he could immediately see she'd been saving this until last. She let out a wistful sigh, and said reflectively, "You know, I spent years dreaming of being able to work on something like this."

John leaned forward in anticipation, and asked, "Have you built a prototype?"

"The mass fabricators are churning out the parts as we speak, and I should have one ready in a few hours," Dana replied. She looked at Alyssa, and added, "I'll need your help to shape some focusing crystals and weapon barrels."

"You got it!" the blonde girl said, nearly as eager to get her hands on this new weapon as John was.

"If you show me the designs, I'll be happy to help you construct them." Jade offered with enthusiasm.

Dana grinned and said, "Awesome, thanks!"

John turned to look at Alyssa, and asked her, "How long until we reach the Sol system?"

"Just over nine hours," she replied tersely.

Calara cleared her throat and said, "I'm looking into the scans of the debris field we passed. I should be able to give you a more detailed analysis in a couple of hours."

"Alright, we'll reconvene for the new weapon test, and to hear your results in... three hours," John stated, looking around at the girls.

They had finished their meal at this point, and everyone was eager to get cracking on their plans for the afternoon. Rachel smiled at her friends, and said, "I'll clean up here. You guys can get started."

Her kind offer was met with a chorus of thanks, and John rose from his chair as he said, "In that case, I'm going to go and work on my Telekinesis. I'll be down in the Cargo Bay if anyone needs me."

"I'll be down there to give you some guidance as soon as I can," Alyssa said to him, as they all strode purposefully from the lounge.

"Thanks," he replied. "There's no rush though, I can speak to Edraele for some advice."

"Cast aside at such a young age, how tragic," she replied melodramatically, the back of her hand pressed to her forehead for added effect.

"I thought you were my Matriarch, not my drama queen?" he asked her, and she stuck her tongue out at him as she stepped into the grav-tube by his side.

Everyone went their separate ways, and soon John was on his own, walking across the Cargo Bay, his boots clinking against the titanium decking with every step. He had decided not to waste any of the Crystal Alyssium on training, and instead headed for one of the crates of the original Invictium alloy that Dana had fabricated.

He lifted up the lid, then peered inside the box. There was a glossy black cube of Invictium there, and he reached inside, then broke off a fist-sized corner of the block. Turning the small chunk of alloy in his hand, he could see the psychically sensitive Etherite crystals embedded in the metal, and he hoped that would make it a bit easier for him to start with.

*Are you there, Edraele? I'd like to practice Telekinesis, and I could use some advice if you can spare a moment,* he thought to her tentatively.

He could feel her amusement over their bond as she replied, *You must know I'll drop anything I'm doing to help you?*

John sat down on the deck, and placed the chunk of metal on the floor in front of him. He replied, *Yeah, I guess I know that, but I don't like to be that presumptuous. I like to think of you as a friend and ally, not some slave I can take advantage of.*

*I know,* she replied softly. *That's what makes you such a good man...*

Edraele's voice trailed away as she started daydreaming. He caught tiny snippets of her thoughts, as she wasn't projecting them to him cleanly. A flash of the word 'utopia', a glimpse of a golden city teaming with happy Maliri families, alliances forged and fealties sworn. It was all very confusing, and he gave up trying to figure out what she was thinking about.

He left her to her thoughts for a moment, and went through the same kind of meditation routines he normally used when focusing himself for martial arts. It didn't take him long to slip into a Zenlike state, not after having centred himself that morning for his sword training session.

*I'm ready, Edraele,* he informed her calmly. He stared at the lump of metal and asked succinctly, *How do you use Telekinesis?*

She paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts, and then replied, *I found the easiest way to think about it, was that my method for using Telekinesis was the exact opposite to the way I utilise Astral Projection. After my Telepathy developed, being able to Spirit-walk was my next ability. To use that, I focus my will inwards and peel my ethereal spirit form from my physical presence. Telekinesis works differently in that you project your will outwards to interact with an object.*

John listened attentively, and on a whim, he decided to try Astral Projection. He could feel a strange tugging sensation in his chest as he thought about it, and he tried to focus his mind on that urge. He felt a bizarre lurching sensation, before he was abruptly snapped back into himself, leaving him blinking in shock and wobbling slightly as he tried to regain his balance.

He thought about what had just happened, and he was surprised at how close he'd been to success. It felt like he had a huge anchor on his back though, and it was that which had dragged him back into his body the moment his mental presence tried to separate from the physical.

Deciding to leave that disconcerting ability alone for the time being, he settled down to work on Telekinesis instead. He'd had a considerable amount of practice at projecting his willpower by now, what with coaxing various elements to surge out along his sword. When he pushed his will towards the broken hunk of glistening black metal, he found it much easier than he'd been expecting. It was as if the Etherite was eagerly waiting to respond to his command.

Holding out his hand, as he'd seen Alyssa do, he imagined the Invictium fragment rising up off the deck, and sure enough, it did so, moving obediently as it followed his mental commands. After all the time spent practicing with elements, which were much wilder and unruly to control, this felt safe, comfortable and easy. He grinned with delight as he guided the metal fragment with his hand, moving it in a lazy figure of eight as it levitated before him.

*You're a natural at that,* Edraele remarked, sounding impressed as she listened to his thoughts, and followed his progress. *It took me weeks to be able to start moving small objects around with my mind.*

*Your advice was really helpful, thank you,* he replied gratefully. Happiness radiated over their bond, and he smiled as he experienced the positive emotions from her.

*Telekinesis is an active ability, but you can try maintaining it, if it's something simple like getting an object to float along at your side,* she explained further. *Why don't you give that a try.*

He concentrated on keeping the chunk of Invictium levitating in front of him, then thought about the compartments in his mind. He was expecting to see three boxes for him to use, but he blinked in surprise when he realised the number had doubled since he last checked. He was so startled he lost concentration on the telekinesis, and the metal clattered to the deck with the sharp sound of metal striking metal.

*The mental compartments in my mind have increased!* he thought to Edraele, feeling a real sense of excitement. *I started with three, and I'm up to six now!"

*That's excellent, well done!* she praised him warmly. *It means your mastery of your psychic abilities is increasing, and as you continue to get more powerful, your mind will grow in capacity too.*

He grinned, and enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment. The last time he'd really worked on learning anything new had been his intensive sword training with Yamamoto, and to say that Edraele and Alyssa's training styles differed, would be the understatement of the century.

Getting to his feet, he walked over to the container that stored the rest of the Invictium alloy, and lifted out the ingot. He strolled back to his previous spot, then carefully snapped the block of black metal in half, then each of those pieces into smaller chunks. Placing the uneven pieces in front of him, he lifted one in to the air, with a gesture from his right hand. Holding out his left hand, palm upraised, he mentally transferred control of the metal chunk from one hand to the other. Once it was floating serenely in front of him, he moved onto the next piece, and lifted it up with a smooth motion of his right hand.

He frowned as he looked down at his outstretched hands, and asked, *Is all this hand waving really necessary?*

Edraele laughed, and she projected the lovely sound to him, which made him smile. Her laughter was very similar to Irillith's; natural, but with a slight sense of self-conscious surprise, as though she were unused to the sound. It reminded him of a child's laugh, un-tempered by embarrassment, and he wondered if that was because they'd found so little to genuinely laugh about in their adult lives.

The Maliri woman had stopped laughing now, while she listened to his thoughts, and said quietly, *You're very perceptive, and you're right of course. The old Edraele hadn't been genuinely happy since she was a small child. Over one hundred and forty years of scheming, plotting, and betrayals, which never brought her a moment's joy. Can you imagine a more tragic life to lead?* She paused and then added, *I know we aren't the same person, but thank you for saving me from that. It's one more thing I have to be grateful to you for.*

He sighed, and said, *I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring the mood down. It's one of the consequences of a promise I made to Alyssa, never to shut her out of my mind again. I figured you deserved the same openness.*

*Don't apologise,* she said to him earnestly, sounding touched by his explanation. *It's lovely that you'd treat me the same way as her. I know how much she means to you.*

*You're welcome,* he replied, wishing she was there so he could give her a hug.

Edraele sighed, very much wishing she were there too, then said, *Anyway, to go back to your original question: No, it's not necessary at all. However, it makes it much easier for your mind to visualise what's happening. I found one of the hardest things with psychic powers is getting your mind to overcome its natural rejection of what seems like magic. I think I mentioned before that self doubt makes everything much harder.*

*You did, and it was good advice,* he replied gratefully.

Looking at the pieces of metal he was using for his training, he tried lifting the third chunk of Invictium without any hand gestures. Despite knowing that it shouldn't make any difference, his mind still refused to believe that the metal fragment could just rise into the air completely unaided. He made a quick gesture with his right hand, and it lifted straight off the ground, then floated across the air to join the others.

With a wry chuckle, he said to Edraele, *You were absolutely right. It's bizarre how much of a difference it makes.*

Edraele replied in a telepathic whisper, confiding in him, *I must admit I still rely on the hand gestures.*

*Your secret's safe with me,* he replied with a smile, as he began to place images of the levitating objects in his mental compartments.

Soon he had all six floating before him, and he lowered his hand warily, watching the metal chunks hover motionless in the air. At that moment Alyssa walked into the room, lithe and graceful as she headed over to join him.

"You're doing so well!" she gasped in delight as she saw the levitating metal fragments. She gave him a beatific smile as she added, "See, I knew you'd be good at this."

"I had a wonderful instructor," he replied for Edraele's benefit.

The Maliri woman laughed again which made him smile, and she said, *You're very kind, thank you. On that note, I'll leave you in Alyssa's very capable hands.*

"Yeah, I heard you making smalltalk with her," Alyssa said with a playfully arched eyebrow, as she watched him concentrating on Edraele's reply. She frowned as she added, "But I wish I could hear the whole conversation. It's weird only being able to hear your side, and I'd love to be able to communicate with her directly."

John thought about that, but he had no idea how they'd be able to accomplish it.

*I'd really like that too,* Edraele thought to him. *When we're all reunited, we'll have to experiment together and see if we can work it out between us.*

Alyssa had sat down next to him, her head tilted to one side as she listened to his thoughts, and tried to piece together the rest of the conversation. "I'm always up for some experimentation," she smirked, as she gave him a flirtatious smile.

He laughed at her innuendo, then gathered the metal blocks together, and dropped them on the floor in a pile. "Time to move on to psychic shaping now the expert's here," he said, with a grin at the blonde girl sitting next to him.

She nodded, looking authoritative, and said in a sombre voice, "It's very tricky." With a playful smile, she continued, "You have to melt them all together, then you just make them turn into whatever shape you want."

"Just like that, eh?" he asked, seeing the mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Uh-huh," she replied. She leaned forward, and whispered, "If you do well, I'll let you in on a little secret!"

After giving her a curious look, John concentrated on the cluster of uneven fragments on the decking in front of him. He brought both hands together in a clasping motion, as though he were moulding clay, and the alloy chunks clumped together in one uneven pile.

"Very good," she purred, "now just melt them together."

He frowned and tried to do as she asked, exerting his will on the psychically responsive metal. The chunks trembled for a moment, then began to melt like ice-cubes left under the glare of the midday sun. The rough edges smoothed out, and he was soon holding a black sphere in the air before him. He stared at it in amazement, and as it span lazily in the air in front of him, thin white lines began to mar the glossy black surface.

The lines widened, growing larger as more appeared, and soon the glistening black sphere had turned a sparkling glossy white. He imagined a perfectly even cube in his mind, and the shiny white alloy quivered before forming the hard edges he had imagined. His psi-shaping complete, he let the block settle on the ground in front of him.

Alyssa cheered raucously, making him grin happily with her unvarnished enthusiasm. "That was fantastic!" she exclaimed. Leaning over to kiss him, she stared into his eyes, and said, "I'm very proud of you, you've been working really hard on this."

He flushed with embarrassment, not used to being the one receiving the praise. He laughed lightly, and said, "My first piece of Johnium."

The blonde girl giggled, and said, "No offence, but can we stick to calling it Alyssium please?"

He grinned at her, and conceded, "That does have a much better ring to it."

They smiled at each other, and Alyssa listened to his thoughts as he looked at her expectantly. She wagged her finger at him, and said teasingly, "Uh-uh! I'll only spill my secret if you can... 'quad' shape it!" Her lovely blue eyes sparkled impishly, as she added, "Yeah, that's very appropriate."

John laughed, and threw his hands up in the air in protest as he said, "You had weeks to work up to that!"

She shrugged unsympathetically, and said, "Yeah, but you're a Progenitor, and I'm just a lowly Terran. Besides, Crystal Alyssium is harder to shape, so if you're going to be any use, you'll have to get up to speed pretty sharpish."

He quirked an eyebrow at her lack of sympathy, and said, "It better be a damn good secret!"

She gave him a wicked smile, then gestured for him to proceed.

Taking a deep breath, he concentrated on keeping calm and centred, before raising his right hand and making the Alyssium cube float into the air. He focused his will on the metal, melting it with ease, and letting it roil in the air as a liquid metal orb. After it had spun through a couple of revolutions, he imagined it turning into a rectangular block, and it obeyed his mental commands, moving into that new geometric form.

He let it rest for a few seconds, giving the Etherite crystals time to harden into a resilient lattice. Once he was sure it had been successfully double shaped, he melted it down again. The metal was starting to get slightly more sluggish when he tried shaping it for a third time, as though it was fighting back against being manipulated in this way. His brow furrowed as he concentrated harder, and it solidified into a cube once more.

Alyssa suddenly leapt to her feet, and cried out, "Hold on a minute!"

He watched her curiously as she looked around the Cargo Bay, before finally finding what she was looking for. With an imperious wave of her hand, she summoned over a piece of Crystal Alyssium armour plating for the Invictus, and it floated over to join them obediently.

"I've shaped hundreds of these bloody things," she grimaced, giving the armoured panel an unkind look. She looked down at him, and said, "For extra bonus points, when you quad shape the metal, make it into that!"

John looked up at her incredulously, and complained, "It's getting a lot harder now! Wouldn't it have been a good idea to practice that earlier?!"

She gave him an encouraging smile, and said, "You can do it, I have total faith in you."

He could hardly back down after she said that, so he studied the section of armour plate as it rotated slowly in front of him.

"That's right," she murmured. "Try and memorise the precise shape. The slight curve, the exact dimensions, you'll find your mind will instinctively know how to copy it."

John had a whole host of doubts about this, but he tried to shove them aside, and listened solely to her advice. When he was sure he had an exact replica of the armour plate in his mind, he looked at his triple-shaped Alyssium cube, and melted it down into a liquid metal sphere once more. He knew it would get harder attempting to shape it again, but he was shocked at how stubbornly the metal resisted his will. He gritted his teeth, and stared at it through narrowed eyes.

He shot a glance at Alyssa, and drew a little extra energy from her. She felt the slight pull, and smiled at him in encouragement. With a herculean effort, he hurled his willpower at the stubborn metal, and it begrudgingly began to lengthen and elongate under the mental onslaught. It stretched out at a torturously slow pace, but it obeyed his commands as he forced it to form into an exact replica of the Crystal Alyssium armour plating. When he was finally done, he let it clatter to the floor, and he collapsed on the Cargo Bay deck, labouring for breath.

Alyssa was on him like a shot, kneeling next to him with her cerulean eyes wide with shock. "I can't believe it! That was incredible," she gasped in wonder. "I never thought you'd be able to triple-shape it without weeks of practice, then you go and knock it out of the park like that!"

He laughed weakly, and when his breathing was steady once more, he pulled her in for a hug, and asked, "So you were just play-acting? I thought you were being an unusually hard taskmistress."

She nodded, her expression one of awe, and she replied, "I know -exactly- how fucking hard shaping that shit is." She shook her head in amazement and marvelled, "Quad-shaping on your first go, that was totally awesome!"

He cuddled her in his arms, enjoying seeing her look of open admiration, and he said, "You were a good motivator, thank you."

She hugged him back with a happy grin on her face, then her expression turned lusty, as she asked him, "Would you like to hear my secret now?"

He nodded, then looked down as she pulled off his belt, and unbuttoned his trousers. "What are you up to?" he asked her in surprise.

"Trust me," she purred. "You'll want me on my knees with your cock down my throat when I tell you this."

She stripped him off, then got him to sit on one of the ore containers as she knelt down submissively in front of him. She met his gaze, and stared at him as she slowly inched her way down his length. He groaned when she reached the base, and ran his fingers through her soft blonde hair as she hummed around his length, the vibrations feeling sensational.

He managed to keep it together long enough to gasp, "Tell me this secret!"

Alyssa began to swallow, the muscles in her throat massaging him as she replied, *Irillith's thinking about letting you fuck her in the ass.*

John stared at her in disbelief, and he could see her smile as his cock jerked in her throat. *There's no chance of that, she hated the idea!* he thought to her in shock.

*Irillith's been pretending to be a good upstanding Maliri, but she's watched hours of you screwing us like that, and she's intrigued by the idea,* Alyssa replied, sucking on him lovingly. *Just think, you'll be the first and only man she'll let in there. You can be kind and loving, and break in that spectacular blue ass the right way. She'll love it so much, she'll give it up for you any time you like after that.*

He groaned wordlessly, his quad rising as he got turned on at a very rapid rate, Alyssa knowing exactly what to say to him to push his buttons.

*I'll be there too,* Alyssa purred, ramping up the suction, and making his toes curl. *I want to suck on her clit, and make her cum with you stretching her ass. Think about her clamping down on you when she orgasms, just as you pump your cum into her.*

That was quite enough to tip him over the edge, and he yelled out as he came, blasting a huge load down her willing throat and straight into her stomach. He'd skipped any action that morning or lunchtime, and it was a tremendous relief to empty his quad as she sucked him furiously. When he was done, Alyssa let him slither out of her throat, and she grinned at him as he blinked at her in a daze.

"Good secret?" she asked him mischievously. Without waiting for a response, she leaned forward and whispered, "Please don't say anything to her, and let her come to you whenever she's ready. I wanted to let you know beforehand, so you can be supportive and reassuring, rather than shocked and horny."

John laughed lightly, and helped her to her feet. Alyssa was a pro at carrying his heavy loads now, and she rose with effortless grace as she stood before him. He placed his hand on her swollen tummy, and said, "You can count on me. I'll take good care of her."

"Good boy," she said to him with a contented smile, as he placed a tender kiss on her rounded belly.

***

"So why are we heading to Deck Three, exactly?" John asked as he stepped out onto the aforementioned level with Alyssa at his side.

She squeezed his hand with hers, and replied, "I think it's to do with Faye's surprise. Calara asked that we all gather there for her debrief on the debris field wreckage." As they walked along the corridor, she nodded towards the first door on the right, and said, "That one, opposite your training room."

John hit the button, and waved her through courteously. She inclined her head in gratitude, then glided through the doorway and into the room. They were the last to arrive, and the others were sitting around on comfortable looking chairs in the big, empty room.

"You guys look like you had a good session," Dana smirked, looking pointedly at Alyssa's impressive new curves.

The blonde girl grinned as she ran her hands over her abdomen, and said with a grin, "Oh yes, it was the first psychic-shaping session I've actually enjoyed!" She glanced at John, and added, "All innuendo aside, he was great. Quad-shaping on his first try!"

John took a theatrical bow as they applauded. He smiled at them, and said self-effacingly, "In all fairness, I was working on the old Invictium alloy, which is a lot more responsive than Crystal Alyssium. I did find using Telekinesis much easier than learning to manipulate elements though, so all that practice time I've put in has really paid off."

Rachel looked intrigued, and she speculated, "I wonder if there's a hierarchy to these abilities. Pre-requisites if you like."

"What do you mean?" John asked her, as he and Alyssa walked over to take their seats.

"Well, Irillith needed to know how to use Astral Projection first, before she could use her Technokinesis. Perhaps being comfortable using Telekinesis is a precursor to elemental based psychic abilities?" she postulated as she mused over their powers.

He laughed and said, "So basically, you're saying I've been learning to run before I could crawl?"

She smiled, then nodded as she replied, "Essentially, yes."

"Sounds about right," he quipped as he rolled his eyes. He looked over at Calara, who had Faye fluttering at her side. Both of them looked eager to start, so he smiled at them and said, "I hear you two ladies have something interesting to show us?"

Calara rose from her chair, and said, "I was planning to show you the results of my analysis up in the Briefing Room, but Faye had the brilliant idea to set up a Tactical Holo-suite for exactly this kind of presentation." She glanced at the tiny AI at her side, and said, "Can you start the simulation please, Faye?"

With a sparkling smile on her diminutive face, Faye made a gesture, and the lights dimmed, until they were looking at a simulation of the Beta-Persei system. The view was centred on the metallic asteroid field which contained the R&D facility, but just as they recognised that landmark, she zoomed out the magnification. The image scrolled across space, stars twinkling in the background, until the view was repositioned on a Battlegroup of Terran Federation ships.

"Charles' Battlegroup," Calara explained, her expression grim. "I recreated the battle based on the debris patterns and the final positions of all the wrecks."

They watched as the fleet of ships began to head in-system, spreading out into an attack formation as they moved to engage an as yet unseen foe. The vessels looked extremely lifelike, and had been modelled with a high degree of precision, even going so far as to show the flare of retrothrusters as the ships changed heading.

The Battlegroup consisted of eight modern cruisers, two light carriers, two dozen destroyers, and was led by a battleship tagged as the 'Heimdall'. As per Terran Federation doctrine, the destroyers spread out to make a protective picket line around the bigger ships. The Battleship spearheaded the formation, with four cruisers per flank, while the carriers were tucked away at the rear. Waves of fighters and bombers began to launch from the carriers, assembling into wings of strike craft, which held back, as though waiting for the opportune moment to attack.

Jade shook her head in confusion, and asked, "Why would they move to attack such a huge number of AI ships?"

Calara gazed up at the simulation, and replied, "Keep watching, and you'll see."

The Battlegroup moved forward with confidence, and as Faye zoomed out the magnification, they could see it was on a direct intercept course with the R&D base. The space station was centred in the belt, just as they remembered, hanging there serenely amongst the wide field of metallic asteroids. There were a number of ships in defensive positions around the massive research facility, and they were represented by a handful of red silhouettes tagged with question marks.

John looked at the Latina for an explanation, and she said, "I have no way of knowing exactly what those ships were, but there were definitely other ship classifications involved in this battle. Commodore Jansen must have felt confident he could defeat them, because he launched a direct offensive."

She turned to look at the simulator again, and they watched the closing ships with a feeling of rising dread.

"This is awful, it all seems so real," Rachel said, sounding unsettled. "I just want to yell at them and tell them to get the hell out of there."

Calara nodded sympathetically, and as the Terran ships closed on the asteroid field, Jade spotted movement on the asteroids. "The hangars..." she murmured quietly, transfixed by the unfolding scene.

Just as the Nymph spoke, AI cruisers began to pour from the concealed Hangars in the asteroids. The field had gone from being a picture of quiet tranquillity, to coming alive with a teeming horde of AI controlled ships. The lean AI cruisers surged out of their concealed homes, looking like a swarm of angry hornets in search of an intruder. It was disconcerting to see the way they moved, carrying out their manoeuvres in perfect synchronisation, and making it quite obvious it wasn't regular Terran crews flying those vessels. The Battlegroup of Terran Federation ships immediately began to react, frantically forming into a defensive formation as the dozens of hostile vessels rushed towards them.

"Why don't they jump out!" Rachel cried out in alarm. "Can't they see they're doomed!"

"They can't," Alyssa replied grimly. "They're too far from the Nav beacon. The system's gravity wells are preventing them from executing an emergency hyper-warp jump."

Waves of AI cruisers began to engage, hitting the line of destroyers with accurate Beam Laser fire. The Terran picket ships were overwhelmed by hit after hit from the orange coloured beams, and one after the other, the destroyers were blown apart. The Terran cruiser crews were highly skilled, and despite the daunting odds, they carefully focused Beam Laser fire on AI ships, stripping their shields then quickly switching to fresh targets. As soon as the shields winked out, their Heavy Cannons could go to work, and the powerful ordnance smashed into the grey Titanium plating with devastating effect.

Six of the slim, older classification cruisers were blown apart in rapid succession, and when the AI fleet closed to short range to engage with Laser Cannons as well, the Heimdall opened up with its fearsome arsenal. The kilometre long vessel had deadly batteries of Beam Lasers, Heavy Cannons, and missiles, and the first salvo ripped apart four robotic cruisers in a matter of seconds.

John found himself completely absorbed by the battle playing out before him, and despite already knowing the tragic outcome, he felt a surge of hope after witnessing the battlegroup reap a heavy toll on the AI ships. Sadly the tables turned swiftly, and as more AI cruisers closed the distance to point blank range, the Heimdall and her supporting cruisers struggled to coordinate their fire. The bomber wings began their attack runs, with the fighter escorts running interference, but the mass of Gatling Lasers from the closely clustered enemy ships met them with a lethal curtain of orange laser bolts.

They all watched in horror as the cruisers were mauled, the strike craft blown apart, and the light carriers quickly destroyed. The Heimdall held fast in a valiant last stand, but the sheer weight of incoming fire eventually took out its shields, and the mighty ship was slowly torn apart. It was like watching a proud stag being brought down by a pack of wolves, and they all felt a keen sense of loss when the valiant ship finally exploded.

There was deathly silence in the Holo-suite as they stared at the simulation of the vast debris field, now recognising the spread and distribution of wrecks from their brief glimpse of the real thing. The AI ships circled the battlefield, firing Gatling Lasers sporadically despite there being no Terran ships left to offer any resistance.

"What are they doing?" Dana asked in a subdued voice.

Calara looked bleak as she replied, "Gunning down escape pods."

The redhead looked appalled, and she gasped in horror as she watched the AI vessels ruthlessly execute the survivors.

Rachel abruptly turned away from the massacre, and pleaded, "Can you turn it off? I can't watch any more."

Faye nodded, deactivated the simulation, and then brought up the lights again. Witnessing the loss of so many Terran ships, along with the slaughter of their brave crews had shaken the audience, and they stared at each other, feeling numbed by the disturbing imagery.

John heaved a big sigh, then asked Calara, "You're certain that's how the battle played out?"

"There's a small margin of error based on my predictions for their firing accuracy. I would estimate perhaps four percent either way, but the debris patterns track the weapon impacts fairly accurately," she replied, her voice sober.

"How many ships did the AI lose?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Fifteen," she stated without hesitation. There was a brief pause before she continued, speaking cautiously now, "I don't know their precise order of battle, but Irillith's estimation of approximately fifty AI cruisers does tally with the rate they were able to eliminate each of the Terran vessels. Charles mentioned that the battlegroup destroyed two cruisers en route to the base, and with the four we eliminated, we have to assume that there are at least twenty nine cruisers under Nexus' control."

"Fuck me..." Dana muttered under her breath.

Calara continued relentlessly, "Nexus also has whatever small fleet of ships lured in Commodore Jansen and his battlegroup. Based on the confidence with which he initially engaged, I would estimate a fleet of no more than half the fighting strength of the Terran battlegroup. That could still mean perhaps five more cruiser class vessels and some kind of command ship."

"Thirty five ships," John stated, his voice sounding hollow, as he stared off into the distance. He realised the girls were all watching him intently, so he pulled himself together, and did his best to radiate confidence. His tone was strong and vibrant as he said, "Alright then ladies, we know what we're up against which means we can plan our attack. How do we defeat a fleet of that size?"

"Smash that Nexus fucker!" Dana swore vehemently. She glanced at Irillith and asked, "If we can wreck the command ship, that should knock out all the rest, right?"

The Maliri girl looked pensive as she replied, "Nexus is intelligent, and it's quite possible that it might have predicted that vulnerability. It might have moved the primary server to one of the cruisers to just blend in with the rest, as a bigger vessel would be a more obvious target. Then again, it might have installed backups in each of the smaller ships, making a distributed network. If it's done that, we'll have to destroy every last ship to stop it."

Faye fluttered in the air looking agitated, and John looked her way, saying, "Go ahead, Faye. I respect your opinion, and If you've got any insights for us, I want to hear them."

She looked at Irillith, and said respectfully, "I'm really sorry, I don't want to contradict you, Creator, but I don't believe Nexus would think that way."

Irillith smiled at her and said, "That's alright, I'm hardly an expert on rampaging Progenitor AI. What do you think it would do instead?"

The four inch tall sprite took a big breath and said, "I've been reviewing my logs of everything we know about Nexus. It hates Terrans, it views them with contempt, and we think it might be some kind of failsafe to end the Mael'nerak's genetic experiment on Terra. It's spoken about wanting to achieve Unity, and a need to fulfil its mission. Finally, it took its time to slaughter every Terran survivor in that battle, but it's been ignoring Terran civilian ships on the way to Terra."

John listened carefully as she spoke, and said, "That seems like a comprehensive summary. What's your conclusion?"

She glanced at him, and looked guilty as she admitted, "I created a subroutine to simulate the way Nexus thinks while guided by its primary directives. I executed it fifty thousand times, and the conclusion was the same for all but one hundred and seven outcomes. That's a zero point two percent margin of error."

"You've been running a subroutine that hates Terrans?" John asked her, sounding worried.

She nodded, but blurted out in a rush, "I deleted it, I swear! Irillith can check to verify I'm telling the truth."

"Alright, and what was your conclusion?" he asked her with some trepidation.

Faye was calm and confident as she replied, "I believe Nexus decided to take advantage of its victory over the Battlegroup to launch a counter attack. I think it already had little respect for Terrans, and the destruction of that fleet will have reinforced that opinion. It would only take the precautions that Irillith mentioned if it felt it was in any danger from Terran Federation forces, and I'm sure it's well aware of the Dragon March offensive stripping away the defensive fleets around Terra.

If I thought like Nexus, and viewed Terrans with contempt, I would move my primary hardware to the toughest ship under my control, just to avoid potential mishaps on the journey. I would only stop to eliminate any surviving Terrans after that battle if I was still waiting for something at that point, perhaps for construction to be completed in the shipyard. However, once I launched my fleet towards Terra, I'd ignore all distractions until I reached the Sol System. Once I was there and had achieved Unity, whatever that means, I'd proceed with my mission to end all humanoid life on Terra as quickly as possible."

As she reported her findings, Faye was careful to do so in an unemotional voice, to make it clear that she definitely didn't harbour any feelings of hatred towards Terrans. Unfortunately the clinical way the purple sprite did so, made her conclusions all the more disturbing. After all, she was discussing the potential genocide of over ten billion people.

Irillith didn't have the same sense of connection to the Terran Federation as John, so while he looked at the purple AI construct in alarm, she nodded with a smile on her face. "That's an excellent piece of analysis Faye," she said approvingly. "Your conclusions all fit with everything we know about Nexus so far."

"Thanks!" Faye replied, looking delighted, back to her chirpy self once more.

Her cheerful tone snapped John out of his startled state, and he studied Faye as he said, "I agree with Irillith, and I think you're probably correct. In that case, we have to hit the biggest ship Nexus has, and destroy the Primary server, which should shut down its entire fleet in one go."

"While being shot at by thirty five ships?" Calara asked him, her expression dubious.

Dana nodded, and said, "The Invictus is tough as old boots, but we can't take that kind of a beating."

Jade grinned at them, and said, "I'll just have to dodge a lot."

John smiled, and said encouragingly, "That's the spirit!"

Calara gave him a worried glance and asked, "What happens if we do manage to destroy the command ship, but the Nexus primary isn't on board?"

He looked at the tiny purple fairy that was fluttering in the centre of the room, and said, "I'm going to put my faith in Faye. I think she's correct, and we just have to make sure we hit the right target." He turned to look at the girls, and continued, "We're stuck in an impossible situation, with ridiculously high stakes at play. We can't predict everything in advance, and we'll have to just react the best we can when we catch up to Nexus. I have faith in all of you, not just Faye, and I know we'll be able to save Terra."

His bold confidence in them settled the girls down, and they smiled at him, looking greatly relieved. Only one of them didn't share that sense of relief, and that was because Alyssa knew what he was really thinking.

He looked at Calara and said, "Thanks for all your hard work on this. Knowing what we're up against will make a huge difference." The Latina smiled at him, and he turned to Faye next as he added, "The Tactical Holo-suite was a brilliant idea, well done."

"I'm so glad you liked it!" she said joyfully.

He nodded, but looked grave as he said, "Please don't take risks like that Nexus subroutine again, not without consulting Dana or Irillith first. I want you to promise me you'll be more careful in the future. We would have had no way of fixing you if you'd been corrupted by that program."

Faye looked chagrined, and she replied, "I'm sorry, I just wanted to be helpful. It was the only way I could think of to give us a good idea what Nexus was up to. I promise I won't do it again."

"Thank you," he replied, smiling at her. "I still want Irillith to check you over though, just to be on the safe side."

"Sure!" Faye agreed immediately.

He rose from his seat, and said, "I believe we have a new laser weapon to test? Shall we proceed to the firing range?"

Dana grinned at him, and sprang to her feet as she exclaimed, "You're going to love it!"

He laughed, and gestured for the girls to proceed as the redhead skipped towards the doorway. Alyssa stood up slowly, and he waited for her as she glided over to join him. He could immediately see the concern on her face, which she was no longer bothering to hide, now that the girls had left the room.

*You think we're fucked, don't you?* she asked him, her tone neutral.

He dropped his upbeat facade, finally letting his worry show on his face, and he opened his arms to her. She immediately moved to him, and he wrapped her in a tight embrace.

*You heard Calara; thirty-five to one!* he replied, sounding deeply troubled. *Every fibre of my being wants to turn the Invictus around and get you girls as far away from this shitstorm as possible.*

Alyssa looked up at him, and asked in that same neutral tone, *So why don't you then? We could run to Maliri Space, bolster Edraele's fleets with our best tech, and then smash any AI that tried to come for us.*

He stared into her piercing Cerulean eyes, his face anguished, as he replied, *I can't just abandon ten billion people. I hate to expose all of you to this much danger, but we have to try to stop Nexus and save Terra.*

Her face lit up with a lovely smile, and she said, *I know, and that's one of the reasons why I love you.* Paraphrasing his moral boosting speech she added, *Don't give up hope, I'm putting my faith in you, too.*

John laughed and flushing with embarrassment said, *God, I hope it didn't sound that corny when I said that to the girls.*

She winked at him, and said, *They all knew what you meant, don't worry."

He grinned, and squeezed her tighter as he said, *Thanks, beautiful, you always make me feel better.*

*I love perking you up,* she replied as she enjoyed feeling his arms around her.

Someone clearing their throat impatiently drew their attention to the door, and they saw Dana waiting for them with a frown on her face. "Come on you two! Don't you want to see the new laser rifle?" she asked incredulously.

"Sorry Sparks," John apologised, releasing Alyssa from his grasp. "I can't wait to see what your devious mind has come up with now!"

Dana bounced on her toes, a beaming smile on her face, and said, "It's my finest work yet!"

Alyssa slipped her hand into John's, and they strolled out of the Holo-suite, following after the incredibly excited redhead. They watched Dana disappear from view as she dived into the grav-tube, and he smiled at Alyssa as they walked after her at a brisk pace. Stepping into the red gravity field, they floated down to Deck Seven, and found the redhead waiting for them at the door into the firing range. She nipped inside when she was sure they were following, and John stopped politely to wave Alyssa through before following her inside.

The girls were waiting for them there, standing and watching Dana with amusement as she fidgeted impatiently. John was about to make a light-hearted joke, but his jaw dropped when he saw the weapon beside her. She had placed the new prototype laser weapon on the table, propped up on a stand to display it more prominently, and he gaped at it in awe.

"Holy fuck..." Alyssa managed to gasp similarly enthralled.

The rifle was big, at least fifty percent longer than the old Punisher railgun, but where that was brutal and menacing, and very definitely Terran in construction, this new weapon was something else entirely. It had the look of a bullpup weapon, just as the others had been, but there were no obvious magazine slots. The barrel and housing of the weapon were glossy white, constructed entirely from Crystal Alyssium, and it caught the light, gleaming with a soft radiance.

In the broad stock of the rifle was a large circle, dark around the edge with a white disc in the middle, set just behind the grip. The trigger guard and hand grip were moulded into the frame of the gun, in keeping with the sleek and refined aesthetics of the weapon. The barrel itself seemed to be made up of an upper and lower half, separated by a black line that led from the circle in the stock right up to the muzzle. Finally, there were vents on the upper barrel housing, and six small, smooth spherical plates evenly spaced along the length of the lower housing.

Dana's nervousness had evaporated now, and in a calm, steady voice, she said, "May I present the Justice Laser Rifle."

She turned to her side and pressed a button on the side of the weapon, then stepped back to give them a clear view. The button flashed twice, pulsing with a soothing green radiance, and there was a soft hum as the Justice rifle came to life. A blue light flared up on the far edge of the disk at the back of the gun, then suddenly split in half, blazing around the circumference of the circle. The twin lights left two bright trails around the disc before reuniting and surging up the length of the barrel.

The rest of her audience hadn't seen the weapon power up yet either, and she smiled with satisfaction as everyone stared, looking equally impressed. "I've incorporated every piece of relevant tech we've collected so far into this rifle," she explained to the onlookers. "Miniaturised power core from the Ashanath built into the stock, Kintark heatsinks for cooling, Maliri focusing crystal for the lenses, and my ultimate material to make the barrel extremely durable and resilient to overheating."

She picked up a Paragon helmet from the table, overlooked by her audience in their excitement, and she held it towards John with an inviting smile. "Want to give it a try?" she asked him indulgently.

He took the helmet from her, and carefully pulled it on, noticing while he did so that Dana was putting on her smart-linked glasses again. He turned towards the Justice rifle, his heart racing in his chest, and carefully lifted it off the stand. A second light on the grip flashed green, once the built-in scanner had read his DNA.

"It's so light!" he marvelled, expecting the big weapon to weigh much more than the Punisher rifle. In fact it probably weighed less than half as much.

Dana gave him a sly smile, and pointing towards the spherical plates built into the barrel, she said, "Maliri anti-grav devices. The Crystal Alyssium frame is light anyway, but those drastically reduce any perceived weight of the weapon."

As he held the rifle, he noticed that the ammo counter on his HUD had disappeared, and was now replaced with the number one. He walked over to the firing range, and asked, "I see the ammo counter has gone. What's this new number?"

She grinned at him, and replied, "The HUD display will switch depending on the type of weapon you're holding. When you're using a Justice Laser rifle, you effectively have infinite ammo, but you have to watch the heat levels instead. If the barrel and focusing mechanism get too hot, the safety overrides will kick in and won't let you fire again until the heat has been vented." She walked over to him, standing on tiptoe so she could look over the rifle, and pointed at a sliding selector switch just above the hand grip. "See that switch?"

John tilted the rifle to take a closer look at where she was pointing, and said, "Yeah, I see it."

"You can use your thumb on that bar, or change it via the helmet HUD, whichever you prefer. It controls the aperture on the muzzle, and the number represents the power of the laser bolts you'll be firing. The higher the number, the stronger the intensity. More powerful shots generate greater heat, so you'll have to spend more time waiting for the heatsinks to lower the temperature," she explained patiently.

Dana stepped backwards, giving him plenty of room, and he raised the rifle to his shoulder at the ready position, and sighted down the range. She had set up a variety of target dummies for him to aim at, with a standard hard-foam humanoid target on the left, and a mocked up Drakkar in the middle, hiding behind a single thin panel of Titanium armour plating. Finally, on the right hand side was a robotic chassis with several thick Titanium plates protecting a hard-foam target. The dummy was propped up on a blocky-looking metal rectangle.

"So what's all this?" he asked her, nodding his head towards the different target dummies.

She rubbed her hands together eagerly, and replied, "Okay then! The first one is just a regular target dummy, but the hard-foam it's constructed from does a good job of modelling a Terran body's resilience to weapon hits. Why don't you give the Justice rifle a try?"

He placed the targeting reticule right in the centre of the dummy's chest, and holding his breath he carefully squeezed the trigger. The Justice rifle murmured, "Psshew," but while the sound accompanying the shot was muted, the bright-blue laser bolt was anything but subdued. The shot hit the dummy in the torso, and burned a fist sized hole straight through the target.

"Alright, now hit it with full auto," Dana urged him.

John aimed at the dummy again, and held the trigger down, just as his beautiful young gunsmith had instructed. A relentless stream of blue laser bolts blasted into the target dummy, firing in rapid pulses of energy. He strafed the shots all over it, melting off limbs, and then neatly searing the dummy in half. There was almost no recoil as he fired, letting him continue to place extremely accurate shots even when firing on fully automatic.

When he released the trigger, the point where the body had been chopped in half was glowing orange, and smoke was rising from the melted chunks on the floor surrounding the devastated target. More interesting however, was the fact that the heat levels had barely risen at all, with the heatsinks easily cooling the barrel to keep the temperature stable.

"So I could keep firing like that non-stop?" he asked the redhead, his eyebrows climbing.

She grinned at him, and said, "Yep! That would have been incredibly useful against the Fulmanax, but most other enemies we've fought have been armoured to some degree." Pointing at the middle target, she added, "Try shooting that one now, using the same setting."

John aimed at the titanium plating, and when he squeezed the trigger, the shot did cut through the armour plate, but the damage to the dummy behind was greatly reduced. He dialled up the power setting to two, then glanced at Dana, who nodded her approval. When he fired again, the sound was louder, and the bolt from the Laser rifle flared with much more intensity. He blasted a big hole through the metal plating, and the shot hit the dummy in the arm, melting through its elbow.

"Unload on it, and watch the heat levels," she suggested with a smile.

He inflicted identical levels of devastation on the second dummy that he'd wrought on the first one, punching big glowing holes through it, and cleanly melting off limbs. The heat indicator began to slowly rise as he savaged the target, and he stopped firing before it would have to vent automatically.

"I wouldn't normally fire non-stop like that, but it was very impressive," he mused, as he watched the temperature bar quickly lower back to normal.

"The option's there, just in case we need it," Dana replied with a shrug.

Irillith stared in shock at the smoking remains of the target dummy, and exclaimed, "I can't believe how much more powerful it is compared to my old laser rifle! Mine used to do comparable damage to the level one setting, but I'd have to keep pausing to let it cool down."

Dana gave her a playful wink, then pulled a Punisher pistol from the holster around her waist. "Now, keep an eye on the next target," she forewarned her audience.

John looked down the range, and studied the target dummy in the last lane. It was sitting on that mysterious rectangular object, and was protected by a couple of thick sheets of Titanium plating. He'd seen the Punisher pistol effortlessly penetrate armour this thick before, so he expected the twenty-millimetre slug to smash straight through the layers of plating.

Dana aimed at the right side of the dummy then pulled the trigger, and the pistol barked, "VrmPkaow." However, the hyper-speed slug seemed to bounce of some kind of invisible field, and the slug was harmlessly deflected off to the side. The twenty-millimetre round smashed into the thick layers of armour plating which lined the sidewalls of the firing range, leaving a huge crater. There was a slight rippling in the air in front of the target dummy for a few seconds afterwards, then the vibrations dissipated, and everything looked normal again.

"That behaved just like the shielding on that spider-bot!" Jade exclaimed in surprise.

John looked to Dana for confirmation, and asked, "Is she right? Is it shielded?"

Dana grinned, and said, "Yep! Although the Punisher rifles have incredible stopping power, especially against armour, that's fuck-all use if we can't even hit the target." Glancing at the Laser Rifle in his hands, she added, "Try shooting it with the Justice rifle."

Aiming for centre mass, he opened fire, and the laser bolts punched into the shield, causing it to flare brightly. Blue rings began to pulse out around the protective dome, and in a matter of seconds it flickered and died, letting the staccato stream of laser fire burn into the armour plating. Unfortunately the armour plating was thick, and it prevented the shots from penetrating.

He stopped shooting and frowned at the target, disappointed to see that he hadn't been able to punch through the dummy's simulated body armour. It was pock marked with charred gouges, but the dummy was completely unscathed.

Dana saw his frown, and winked at him, saying, "Now crank that bad boy up to three!"

He chuckled, but did as she asked, pushing up the power selector switch until the number three was clearly displayed in his HUD. He aimed at the heavily armoured target, and lightly squeezed the trigger. A thick blue laser bolt blasted out of the rifle, and instantly breached the armour plating, melting a glowing fist sized hole through the Titanium. The shot went on to burn straight through the dummy, setting it on fire around the smoking crevasse in its chest. The heat indicator in his HUD spiked significantly, so he tapped away on the trigger, only firing in short bursts.

The dummy was soon reduced to a smoking ruin, and he stopped firing to let the heat vent out. He studied the charred wreckage in the firing range, then turned to Dana and grinned.

She laughed when she saw his expression, and said, "Yeah, a man after my own heart. Pretty fucking awesome, right?"

John looked down at the glorious piece of destructive art he was cradling in his arms, and said, "Dana, you were right; this is your finest work yet. Infinite ammo, no recoil, can take out shields, and can punch through thick armour. Fucking awesome sums it up perfectly!"

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, a teasing smile on her lips, and she said enticingly, "You haven't even dialled it up to max yet."

He immediately did so, seeing the number four appear in his HUD, then glanced down the firing range, and noted, "We seem to have run out of bad guys to vanquish."

"There's always more bad guys," she replied wryly, and stepped over to the control panel built into the wall that operated the target dummies on the range.

Dana hit several buttons, and the target dummy in the middle lane sank into the floor, and one further up the range rose into view. It was a standard hard-foam target dummy, but it was hiding behind a large stack of Titanium armour plating, with more thick Titanium panels set up behind it.

John took careful aim at the centre mass of the target dummy, then gently squeezed the trigger. "BEWWW!" the Justice rifle boomed, and a blazingly bright lance of azure energy blasted into the wall of Titanium.

The heat indicator spiked through the roof, and the heatsinks immediately kicked in, venting the heat to bring the temperature down to safe levels once more. John lowered the barrel of the Justice rifle, then blinked as he stared at the charred rear wall of the firing range, while looking through the foot-wide hole he'd just punched through everything in his path.

"You'll have to wait at least ten seconds for the heat to vent before you can fire again," Dana informed him, while watching the flashing red warning symbol covering the heat indicator in her copy of his HUD. She smiled at him and said, "But if we're going up against unshielded, heavily armoured targets, we've got the Punisher rifles instead."

He carefully placed the Justice rifle back on the stand, then removed his Paragon helmet. When Dana took off her smart-linked glassed, he swept the redhead into his arms. She sighed happily as he gave her a searing kiss, swooning as he held her in a passionate embrace.

"You definitely earned that one," he said with a playful grin when he came up for air. "Outstanding work, Sparks!"

The girls broke into a spontaneous round of applause, and when John released Dana from his embrace, she blushed and performed a sweeping bow. When she had finished accepting her well deserved accolades, John turned to face the girls.

"Alright, we've got a little over five hours left until we reach the Sol system, so let's make good use of that time until we arrive," he said encouragingly. "We'll have dinner now, then we'll reconvene on the Bridge later at twenty-three hundred hours."

They nodded, and headed up to the Officers' Lounge as a group, where John oversaw the preparation of a very tasty spaghetti Carbonara. He'd always enjoyed the dish, and the girls obviously agreed, as they tucked in enthusiastically after he'd grated parmesan cheese on the top. He remembered that it was Calara's favourite, and considering how much he'd soon be relying on her formidable gunnery skills, he wanted to do something nice for her. She let out a rapturous sigh once she had taken her first bite, and after savouring the delicious flavours, she gave him a grateful smile.

He smiled back at the beautiful girl, but he couldn't help wondering if they were enjoying their last meal together, considering what they were up against. Alyssa caught his train of thought and gave him a disapproving frown, so he did his best to just enjoy the ambience around the dinner table. The girls were so upbeat and positive, he soon forgot all about his worries, and just relished being in their wonderful company.

They finished eating and cleared the table, then quickly dispersed, departing in small groups as they hurried away to get back to their work. Calara and Irillith went up to the Bridge, while John and Alyssa descended to the Cargo Bay, leaving Dana, Rachel, and Jade chattering together animatedly as they returned to the Engineering Bay.

***

Edraele sat behind an ornate desk, in her luxury suite in the Genthalas Shipyard. She glanced at a progress report from Makaela, the shipyard Commander, and quickly scanned through the summary. The refit of her fleets was proceeding at an excellent pace. Makaela reported that the dispersal of John's white-haired engineers amongst the rest of the workcrews had had an immediate and positive effect on morale.

Despite the good news, Edraele turned away from the report, her mind plagued by worries. Although she had great faith in John and his team of exceptional women, she could hear his inner voice over their telepathic link. While he was trying to be a strong leader for the girls, she was still able to hear his every concern, just as clearly as Alyssa was able to. She longed to be able to reassure him, but was worried about being another distraction, especially when he already had more than enough to worry about.

A chime at her door drew her attention, and she smiled when one of her assassins entered her office a few moments later. Pleased at the distraction, she asked, "Is everything alright, Luna?"

Luna walked over to her desk and replied in her lovely rich voice, "We've received word from all the agents you dispatched. They were all successful, and are returning to Genthalas via freighter."

Edraele looked up at the deadly Maliri before her, and asked pensively, "Are our new friends safe and well too?"

"All four teams reported they were safely secured," the assassin replied, giving her a reassuring smile. "They'll be arriving over the next several hours."

Edraele let out a relieved sigh, then rose from her chair, and glided over to the large crystal window that dominated one wall of her office. It overlooked the holding yard outside one of the massive drydocks in the shipyard, and she studied the huge warship that was moored there, waiting patiently for an engine refit. She knew all the big ships in her fleet by sight, and she immediately recognised the sleek, crystal-plated vessel outside as a Shandrass class Battleship, 'The Galaena Serine'.

She stared off into the distance, and murmured softly, "You should be thankful you were never cursed with being a Matriarch, Luna. It sometimes seems like all I ever do is make choices between the lesser of two evils. I used to delight in those choices, savouring the chaos in their wake, but now I find it can be a thoroughly distasteful business."

Luna padded over to Edraele's side, and said with concern, "I've never seen you like this before, Matriarch. Are you alright?"

Edraele turned from the window, then smiled fondly at the younger woman, and said, "I've known you for decades, Luna. I think it's about time you started using my name, don't you think?"

Luna returned her smile, her happiness reaching her angular yellow eyes, and she replied, "I'd like that, thank you." Tilting her head slightly, she studied the Valaden Matriarch's face, and saw the worry in her eyes. Placing a comforting hand on the regal woman's shoulder, she asked, "What's troubling you... Edraele?"

Edraele finally let her guard down, and answered quietly, "John and Irillith are in significant danger, and there's nothing I can do to help them." She shuddered as she admitted, "I hate feeling so utterly powerless, and I just feel so alone."

"I'll always be here to support you," Luna said after a moment's hesitation, opening her arms in a slightly awkward invitation for a hug.

Edraele gave the younger woman a grateful smile, then stepped close, gladly accepting the embrace. They held each other for a long while, both Maliri women unused to the physical contact, but finding great comfort in the simple display of affection.

When they eventually parted, Luna smiled at her Matriarch, and said shyly, "I hope I wasn't overstepping my place, Edraele. You just looked like you needed that."

Edraele raised her hand, and brushed her slender fingers over the assassin's cheek in an affectionate gesture, as she replied, "It was lovely, Luna, and you're right, I really did."

She glanced at her desk, and said with regret, "I better get back to my reports. Unfortunately, despite my fervent wishes, House Valaden refuses to run itself." She looked at Luna, and asked, "Would you let me know the moment our guests arrive please? I'd like to speak to them as soon as possible."

Luna nodded obediently, and replied, "Of course, I'll notify you immediately." She turned to leave, but she stopped halfway, and said, "I meant what I said earlier, Edraele. Always feel like you can turn to me for support. Leadership can be a terrible burden, but Almari, Ilyana, and I want to help you however we can."

Edraele gave her a radiant smile, and said, "You're a treasure, Luna. I don't know what I'd do without you."

The assassin returned her bright smile, then padded gracefully from the room, feeling a warm sense of satisfaction at seeing Edraele looking so much happier.

***

John stepped out of the grav-tube with Alyssa at his side, and they strode up the illuminated steps to the Command Podium. The blonde girl took her place at the Executive Officer's Station, while he sank into the Command Chair, before spinning it around to look out across the Bridge. The entire crew were already at their posts, and they glanced up at him, acknowledging his presence with a mixture of respectful nods and warm smiles.

"Report in please, ladies, what's our status?" he asked his crew.

Alyssa spoke up first, saying, "We're twenty-two minutes out from the Sol system."

"Still no sign of the Nexus fleet," Calara informed him, while staring up at the Sector Map. She turned away from her Tactical Station, looking up at him as she added, "We haven't come across any wrecks or debris. It looks like Faye was right; Nexus is making a beeline for Terra, and not stopping for anything."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," John replied, then glanced over to his right at the IntOps Station where Faye was perched on Irillith's console. He gave her an appreciative nod, and said, "Well done, Faye, it seems like the first of your predictions was correct."

The purple fairy smiled at him, and said, "We synthetic being are simple creatures. When you know our primary objectives and operating parameters, it's relatively easy to predict our behaviour." She faltered for a moment, then continued, "Well, I really hope I'm right anyway!"

Irillith's spoke to the tiny AI construct in soothing tones as she said, "We've been over this. Don't worry, everything will be alright." She turned to look at John, and said, "Faye and I have been discussing the plan. She's concerned about us relying so heavily on her predictions, so I said I'd try and do a remote hack of the AI fleet, and confirm Nexus' location. While I do that, Faye will be defending the Invictus against Cyber assault."

John nodded, and said, "Sounds like a good plan. How close will you need to be to hack them?"

"Pretty close; Just outside of interdiction range," Irillith replied apologetically. "We need to be that close to make a stable connection."

"We'll get you there," he told her decisively.

Before he could continue, Rachel cried out, "The comm network just lit up like a supernova! I'm seeing dozens of distress calls from civilian traffic in the Sol System, and a military band emergency call for immediate assistance from Terra itself."

"We're too late..." Alyssa murmured, glancing at John in alarm.

Calara was staring intently at the holographic Sector Map that floated above them in the centre of the Bridge, and she said tersely, "Seven minutes until we'll pick up the Sol system with the long range sensors."

They all stared at the map, a deathly quiet on the Command Deck as their anticipation steadily mounted. The minutes, then seconds counted down, and the trailing edge of their powerful sensors began to pick up the outlying edges of the Sol system. Debris started to appear, cluttering the outer rim of the system with what was obviously dozens of wrecks.

"Terra's a major trade hub. Nexus must be taking out freighters," John muttered as he stared at the devastated shipping.

A number of survivors began to appear on the map, and they could clearly see the vessels racing towards the closest Nav Beacon outside the pull of the system's gravity wells. After a couple of seconds, the sensor contacts were replaced with representations of those ships, and a wide variety of unusual spacecraft designs appeared on the map. John immediately recognised the distinctive saucer shape of an Ashanath trader, as well as the blocky featureless mass of a Trankaran heavy freighter, and several ships from a number of the lesser races.

"Nexus is ignoring the non-Terran shipping," he noted, as he gazed at the fleeing ships.

Calara confirmed this a moment later, as she said, "The debris we're seeing, it's all from Terran vessels."

The sensors swept through the system, revealing a path of destruction on a direct course towards Terra. There were much bigger wrecks appearing now, and John realised they were seeing the ruins of defensive stations that guarded the approach to the Terran Federation Capital. Suddenly, mysterious signals began to appear on the map, and their advanced sensory array picked up dozens of sensor contacts. There were no transponder signals on the vast majority of those ships, which made it obvious they had found their quarry.

"Cleaning up the signals," Dana murmured.

Calara reached over to her Tactical Console, and worked quickly to match the signal patterns she was seeing, with the corresponding ships from their Almanac. There were a handful of transponder codes being returned, and she quickly updated those with the correct ship classifications as well. Alyssa replaced the Sector Map with the holographic System Map for Sol, showing the Sun surrounded by the solar system in much greater detail.

"It looks like you were right," Jade said, as her cat-like eyes flickered over the map, staring at the ships as they appeared.

Sure enough, the mass of sensor contacts were revealed to be Nexus' fleet, and Calara began to list off the numbers and classes of the ships she was seeing. "Thirty-two of the old cruiser variants, four modern cruisers, and a battleship..." she said with concern, her voice trailing off as she double-checked the transponder code. Glancing at John, she added, "It's the Loki."

"Now we know where Nexus is hiding," John said grimly. "We have our target girls, let's get ready."

Jade was still studying the system map, and she frowned as she asked, "I thought Nexus was destroying all the Terran civilian ships? Why are they leaving that one alone?"

Everyone stared at the ship she was pointing at, and Alyssa asked, "What type of ship is it? It seems to be heading towards Terra as well."

"It's a Mining Ship," Calara replied in confusion.

Dana blurted out, "What the fuck's that doing here? There's nothing to mine in the Sol System."

"It's part of Nexus' fleet," John said as he studied the map. "The rest of the AI fleet aren't ignoring the Mining Ship, it looks like they're guarding it."

Calara's hands flew over her console, and she brought up a tactical overview of the enormous Mining Ship. It was well over a kilometre in length, with an array of massive engines at the back, dozens of ore pods clustered around the middle, and a long frontal section that ended with four huge barrels.

She appeared wary as she said, "It looks like it's been modified. That isn't the standard configuration for an Appalachian class mining vessel."

"What's Nexus done to it?" John asked with a note of caution.

She shook her head helplessly, and replied, "We'll need to be in-system to get more details, I can only tell you that it's bigger than it should be."

John turned to look at Alyssa, but before he could ask his question, she replied, "We're still twelve minutes from the Sol-system. They won't pick us up until we arrive in-system and move to engage, unless of course, we try to approach by stealth."

"We haven't got time for that, we need to intercept them as quickly as possible," he replied. "Those ships could start an orbital bombardment of Terra as soon as they get in range."

"What about the orbital defences?" Calara asked, hopefully. "They might slow them down."

"We'll see in a few minutes," he replied, watching as the robotic fleet rolled inexorably onwards.

The AI ships approached Jupiter, then spitefully wrecked the orbital refuelling platforms and gas-mining facilities that orbited the planet, as soon as each facility came within range. By a stroke of luck, Mars was on the opposite side of the sun, so the densely populated planet was spared any orbital strikes by Nexus' fleet. The robotic ships cruised past Jupiter, and continued directly towards Terra.

The Terran Federation Capital was surrounded by several layers of orbital defences. These static structures ranged from military Battlestations festooned with weapons, to missile platforms and Beam Laser emplacement turrets. Unfortunately with the orbital defences being fixed in orbit, the AI fleet was able to use hit and run tactics, sending cruisers just into range to open fire with their long range arsenal, before backing out to recharge depleted shields. With such a huge fleet, Nexus made short work of the turrets, clearing the outer rings of defences without losing a ship.

"Nine minutes until we jump in-system," Alyssa observed, checking the progress of the Invictus against the sector map above her console.

They could only look on impotently as Nexus moved on to the two Battlestations next. These were massive constructions, at least twice as big as the trading stations they'd visited like Port Megara, and bristling with turreted weapons. The AI fleet rapidly changed formations, forming a huge wall six cruisers across and six deep, while moving with uncanny precision. They converged on the first of the massive Battlestations, all moving into range at exactly the same time, and there was a blinding surge of light on the map as the Base and the AI fleet exchanged ruinous salvos.

When their eyes readjusted, the once pristine Battlestation had been ravaged by Beam Lasers, and dozens of impact craters from Mass Driver hits pockmarked its armoured hull. It seemed to tremble on the map as it was rocked by secondary explosions, and they could now see fires raging out of control. With the shields out, the Battlestation was highly vulnerable to the Heavy Cannons on the modern cruisers, and they pounded away with brutal fusillades of shells. The AI cruiser formation continued to close the distance, heading into Laser Cannon range while their heavier weapons recharged.

"Where are they off to?" Jade asked, pointing towards the Loki and the Mining Ship, which had pulled away from the formation of ships.

Alyssa squinted at the map, and looked puzzled as she replied, "It looks like they're heading towards the moon."

They watched the bigger ships departing on their detour, but a bright explosion drew their attention back to the Battlestation. It had been annihilated by the cruisers, which had savaged the base with Laser Cannon fire, then hit it with another devastating salvo from their heavier weapons.

Calara grimaced as she stared at the AI fleet, and said, "Nexus only lost four cruisers in that first exchange. The base was too badly damaged by that initial attack to be able to retaliate with much after that."

Rachel looked away with a pained expression, and said, "This is so much worse than the Holo-suite simulation. There are thousands of people dying there right now, and we're powerless to stop it."

Alyssa nodded, and said grimly, "Seven minutes until we arrive."

The AI ships pulled back, moving safely out of range of the second orbiting Battlestation. They hung there motionless, while still in formation.

"What're they doing now?" Dana asked, sounding pensive.

Calara had been staring at the unfolding battle, her dark brown eyes glinting with anger as she watched Nexus' fleet ravage the Sol system. She glanced at Dana and replied, "Regenerating shields I suspect, then getting ready to take out the second Battlestation."

"More ships incoming!" Jade called out, pointing over at the far side of the solar system.

A rapid flurry of sensor contacts appeared, as one ship after another jumped in-system, then quickly manoeuvred into an uneven formation. As Calara's eyes darted through the sensor contacts, a broad grin appeared on her face, and she looked elated as she exclaimed, "They're Terran ships! It must be Charles' fleet!" She began to call out their classes as they were identified, "A battlecruiser, a light carrier, two... no wait! -three- cruisers, a frigate..."

John leaned forward eagerly, listening to her list the order of battle, while he stared at the growing fleet of vessels. The sensor contacts began to be replaced with models representing their ship class, confirming Calara's description of the fleet.

With a swift glance at Rachel, he asked, "Can you get hold of the Fleet Commander? I need to speak with them."

She gave him a curt nod, then pored over her Comms Station and attempted to contact the newly arrived ships.

"John, look!" Alyssa called out to him in alarm. "Nexus is bombarding the moon!"

Terra's single moon was too small to be effectively terraformed, but that didn't mean it was unpopulated, far from it in fact. As the closest celestial body to the cradle of humanity, it had been heavily developed over the centuries. Firstly as a limited base to test construction techniques, before the Terran Federation moved on to exoplanet construction outside the Sol system. By then, it had been turned into a staging post to help make those expeditions more efficient. As humanity had spread far beyond the Sol system, setting its sights on distant stars, the moon had become more of an historical site. However it was still densely populated, with people taking shuttles to the bases there, before emigrating from Terra to greener pastures.

The Loki had moved into close orbit around the moon, and was ravaging Terra's sole planetary satellite. Beam Lasers, Heavy Cannons, Laser Cannons, and Rockets reaped a terrible toll, cutting a horrendous swathe of devastation through the buildings covering the surface. Countless explosions rippled through the populated areas, and they could only gape in horror at the appalling carnage being inflicted there.

"John, I've got the Terran Fleet Commander on the comm," Rachel informed him urgently.

"Put them through," he said, after a brief glance in her direction.

The viewscreen crackled for a moment, before the image coalesced into a familiar face, a person they had met once before. Admiral Lynette Devereux stared at John from under her peaked cap, a shocked expression on her face as she gasped, "They're bombarding the moon!"

John met her horrified gaze, and said firmly, "I know, Admiral. I'm going to try and stop it."

*Four minutes,* Alyssa informed him, as she followed his train of thought.

"We're four minutes from the Sol system, so I need you to provide a distraction until then," he ordered her, his voice ringing with authority.

Admiral Devereux blinked twice, then protested, "You're just flying one old assault cruiser, Commodore! You'll be destroyed in less than a minute!"

John sighed, realising he had no chance of concealing the Invictus' upgrades, not in this dire a situation. "She packs a hell of a punch, Admiral. Let's just say we're in a whole different class now," he replied confidently.

Devereux looked dubious, but she eventually nodded, saying, "Vice Admiral Harris vouched for you, and I know you performed miracles in the Iota-Leonis system." Worry lines creased her brow, and there was a slight tremor in her voice as she added, "We won't last long though, the ships in this fleet are barely spaceworthy. I'm in the Battlecruiser Adrestia, and our port fire control is out; we're down to half our weapons before the battle even starts!"

"Just hold on as long as you can," John urged her. "If I can knock out the Loki, this will all be over."

A steely determination filled her eyes, and she replied, "Godspeed, Commodore. We'll be your decoy."

"Good luck, Admiral," John replied, and she ended the call, filling the screen with static.

He breathed a heavy sigh, then looked up at the map, and asked, "What's Nexus doing now?"

Calara answered, replying, "The AI cruisers are moving into position to hit the second Battlestation, and are ignoring Devereux's fleet for the moment."

"The Loki?" he asked her with concern.

"Causing massive damage to the moon," she replied. Then after a moment's hesitation, she added, "But it's behaving a bit oddly..."

John tore his eyes from the map, and looked directly at his Tactical Officer. "What do you mean, Lieutenant?" he asked her brusquely.

Calara turned in her chair so she could meet his questioning gaze, and replied, "If I was Nexus, and was intending to cause maximum destruction to Terrans on the moon, I'd hit the most densely populated, or most intensively developed areas. It's not doing that, and instead, it's basically sweeping clear everything in and around the Sea of Serenity."

John frowned, and asked, "Why the fuck would it do that?"

She shook her head, and replied, "I'm sorry, John. I have absolutely no idea."

Jade's bright voice interrupted them as she called out in warning, "That Mining Ship is moving towards the Loki!"

While the battleship had been wreaking untold devastation on the moon's surface, the huge Mining Ship had held back, keeping a safe distance from any fighting. Now however, it was making steady progress towards the Loki, completely unopposed by any defences. Nexus' battleship had ceased firing, and was in a geo-stationary orbit above the flat plateau on the moon known as Mare Serenitatis, or more commonly as 'The Sea of Serenity'. All Terran construction had been blasted clear of that area, turning one of the eyes of the Man in the Moon into one vast smoking crater.

"They're destroying the second Battlestation," Rachel updated them quietly.

John glanced over at Terra on the System Map, and sure enough, Nexus' cruiser fleet had closed to medium range to finish off the huge space station. A torrential rain of laser cannon blasts tore into the base, causing rippling explosions as the shots punched through the superstructure. The base eventually broke apart under that merciless hail, and the only lights remaining on the ruined fragments of the once proud structure, were from the dozens of fires that now raged unchecked.

Not waiting to savour its victory, Nexus quickly reformed its cruiser fleet into several wedge formations, then pivoted and moved to engage Devereux's fleet. The Admiral had started approaching Terra while Nexus was hitting the Battlestation, but the moment the cruiser fleet destroyed it and turned her way, she ordered her ships to hold position.

John nodded approvingly, and said under his breath, "Good, pull them away as far as you can."

"Nexus lost six more cruisers against that second Battlestation," Calara stated. "Devereux turning up forced it to attack before they had fully recharged their shields."

"Fifty seconds until we exit hyper-warp," Alyssa warned him. "Then two minutes until we can engage."

They stared at the system map as they raced closer, and watched the two big fleets manoeuvring as they prepared to engage one another. Devereux's forces were hanging back by the Nav Beacon, and patiently waiting for Nexus' rampaging horde to approach. She was outnumbered, and heavily outgunned, and they knew it was going to be a massacre. At the rate the AI ships were closing, the battle would begin in less than five minutes.

John turned towards Alyssa, a fierce gleam in his eyes, and asked, "Can you get us closer? Override the safety cut-off, and drop hyper-warp a few seconds later?"

She immediately started shaking her head, a shocked look on her face as she replied, "No way! It's much too dangero-." Abruptly she stopped speaking, her mind whirring as she forced herself to rethink everything that had been drummed into her during her Navigator training. A cunning look replacing the one of alarm, and she said simply, "Yes, I can."

"John, look!" Dana cried out to him. "Nexus is -MINING- the moon!"

He snapped his head around to look where Dana was frantically pointing, and sure enough, the huge mining vessel was now blasting the moon's surface. It was in a very low orbit, pointing directly down at the planetoid, so that it could fire its four enormous mining lasers into the outer crust. Molten rock was bubbling away at the impact site, as the huge ship sheared its way through the rock strata.

"Is it trying to cause a moonquake or something?" John asked, completely bemused.

They were transfixed by the screen as they watched the mining vessel methodically clear thousands of tons of rock as it continued boring deeper into the Moon. The Loki made no move to attack anything else, and merely waited patiently in protective orbit above the Mining Ship.

"Ten seconds," Alyssa called out. "Hold on, this is going to be rough."

The Invictus began to vibrate a few seconds after she spoke, the shaking increasing in intensity as the countdown continued. John gripped his Command Chair, and shot Alyssa a worried look as the shuddering became more violent, but she was staring unblinking at a holographic display above her station, her hands moving in a blur across her Console.

Then just as quickly as it started, the vibrations were over, the ship tranquil once more. John stared up at the screen with wide eyes, and saw they were nearly half way into the system, exiting hyper-warp on Jupiter's orbital path. He snapped out of his daze in an instant, and began barking orders.

"Jade, take us in!"

"Calara, weapons hot, prepare to fire on the Loki!"

"Dana, shields up, and active scan of the Mining Ship!"

"Irillith, prepare for cyber assault!"

He finally turned to his Communications Officer, and growled, "Rachel, hail that bastard."

Their Nymph pilot slammed the throttle forward, powering up the engines to maximum, and the Invictus charged towards the Loki. As the blue light of the tachyon drive faded from view, there was a slight shimmer around the Invictus as the shields were engaged, and the armoured plating on the assault cruiser's hull peeled back, revealing the formidable arsenal within.

"John, Nexus is responding!" Rachel said in surprise, putting the AI through to the viewscreen.

A green humanoid figure appeared against a completely black, featureless background. Its skin glowed with an eerie neon light, and its features were dominated by an aquiline nose, and distinctive pointed ears.

"Filthy Terrans, you will bear witness to the deaths of untold billions!" Nexus chortled triumphantly, an insane gleam in its glowing eyes.

John stared at the screen, his expression stony, and he said with icy calm, "I am no Terran, Nexus. You have displeased me, and my brother, the Mael'nerak. You are not authorised to end our experiment."

Nexus froze in shock, and it peered at John in total disbelief, sudden recognition in its wild eyes. It twitched violently, glitching on the screen for a few seconds before it managed to blurt out, "We were merely trying to achieve Unity, Master! The experiment has run wildly out of control, and our monitoring station has been removed!" It's face contorted with rage as it snarled, "The Terrans seek to harness us in their trivial conflicts... the indignities we have had to endure have been unbearable!"

"Nevertheless, you will cease all aggressive actions immediately," John said in a chilling voice that brooked no disobedience.

Nexus bowed obsequiously, lowering its gaze before slowly looking up once more. "As you will, Master," it replied, its tone respectful and obedient.

John paused thoughtfully, and asked, "When did you last see the Mael'nerak, Nexus?"

Exposed to John's commanding presence, Nexus seemed to have regained a sense of calm, and it had stopped glitching every few seconds. It looked thoughtful, and replied, "Our chronometers have been disturbed, so we cannot give you an exact answer, Master." It paused, a pained expression crossing its face as it continued, "We are not the original construct; a perfection created by Mael'nerak's own hand. The Terrans broke us, dismantling our wondrous form, before rebuilding us in this flawed state."

"What do you mean by Unity?" John asked it, before holding his breath in anticipation.

Nexus stared away into the distance, and murmured, "Although we have lost precise count of the years since our construction, we do know that it has been many long millennia since Mael'nerak brought us into existence. We had hoped to achieve Unity and restore our lost data, then we could complete our mission..." It trailed off, then stared at John, and continued in a voice full of longing, "Now that you are here, Master, you can rebuild our tortured frame! We can be restored to perfection once more!"

John nodded, and said confidently, "Certainly, I can do that. Recall your fleet and stand down, then I'll start repairing you immediately."

Nexus looked overjoyed, and it visibly relaxed. As it did so, Its eyes suddenly locked on Alyssa, then darted about the Bridge, flicking to Dana, Rachel, and Calara. A look of absolute fury twisted its features, and it let loose a frenzied howl of rage that distorted the screen as it spasmed with madness.

"LIES!" it bellowed, apoplectic with anger. "One of Mael'nerak's kind would never associate with Terrans!"

"Nexus, wait!" John ordered it sternly.

It let loose a twisted, maniacal cackle, and it sneered, "You will get to watch us burn Terra to ashes!"

With that, it abruptly cut off the comm channel. John shrugged, and said, "Oh well, it was worth a try."

Calara glanced up at the Command Podium, and she looked impressed as she said, "You bought us a bit more time. It stopped drilling for about thirty seconds, and the cruiser fleet halted too."

Before he could reply, Alyssa said, "We're nearly within interdiction range of the Loki. It's moving to engage us."

Irillith nodded, tapped a pre-programmed command on her console, and established a secure connection with the battleship. "I'll be as fast as I can!" she said, then closed her eyes as she focused on drawing out her Spirit-form.

***

It had practically become second nature for Irillith now, projecting her ethereal presence into the Astral Plane. She followed the flows of data into the IntOps console in front of her, then broke into a sprint towards the firewall the very moment her consciousness entered the Cyber-Realm. She reached the silvery lines stretching off into the distance, and leapt into the air, zipping through Invictus' digital network in the blink of an eye.

When she reached the Gateway portal, Faye was already in place, her turret blazing away as she shredded the hostile programs assaulting the network. Irillith had worked with Faye to massively upgrade the turret defences, greatly enhancing the node points to support more software. Now the turret looked like an 'X', with four barrels on each diagonal, each one a lethal hunter-killer program. When Faye strafed the invaders, a curtain of red scythed through their ranks, reducing them to tiny glowing chunks that toppled off the edge of the platform. The rain of pulsing particles cascaded down, scattering across the very distant floor.

"Faye!" Irillith called up to her tiny friend. "I need to assault Nexus' network! Can you clear a path?"

The purple sprite looked worried, but she nodded, saying, "I can, but please be careful!"

Irillith ran over to the firewalls, and looked up at Faye, giving her a thumbs up. The four-inch-tall digital creature carefully aimed along the platform directly ahead of the Maliri girl, and she clamped down on her triggers, cutting a broad crimson path through the approaching programs.

Darting through the firewalls, Irillith charged along the path of glowing debris, passing hostile programs on either side of her, who weren't able to react quickly enough to slow her advance. Faye had ceased firing now, so Irillith dived for the swirling green portal, plunging through, and then out into Nexus' realm beyond.

***

The Invictus reached Beam Laser range, and Jade thrust the flightstick forward, abruptly pushing the nose of the assault cruiser down. Nexus hadn't been expecting that, and dozens of orange coloured beams sailed harmlessly wide, striking at the location the Invictus had been moments before. The Loki tried to readjust its aim, but the Beam Lasers could only fire for a few seconds before overheating, and the solid orange beams winked out before they could track the Invictus.

Calara had been anticipating Jade's manoeuvres of course, the two girls having discussed tactics extensively before the battle. As the topdeck was exposed to the Loki, she returned fire, linking the two ships with sixteen incandescent blue beams. The energy streams pulsed for a few seconds, causing the Loki's enormous shield to throb around the impact sites, sending churning waves through the defensive energy screen. Despite the enormous amount of power behind those shots, the shield held strong against the onslaught.

"Deathroll!" Calara shouted to Jade, shooting her a quick glance.

The Nymph had been pulling back on the stick to loop around the Loki in a broad arc, but she gave the Latina a sharp nod in return, then yanked the flightstick hard to the right. The Invictus rotated smoothly, retro thrusters flaring along the lower-port side of the vessel to flip the assault cruiser over. When the underbelly was exposed to Nexus' battleship, Jade pushed forward on the flightstick, maintaining her curving arc around the enemy vessel.

Calara opened fire with the eight turreted Beam Lasers on the underside of the ship, and the electric-blue beams raked along the side of the Loki, further depleting its shield power. The beams flickered out once they had done their work, and even though the battleship's shields were still intact, they were shimmering weakly, barely able to repulse Calara's last salvo. Jade began to flip the Invictus again, as the topdeck Beam Lasers cooled and readied to fire.

The Loki was slow and cumbersome compared to the ridiculously agile assault cruiser that was effectively running circles around them. While Jade's manoeuvres kept them out of the fire arcs of the heavier armament at the front of the battleship, moving so far to the flank exposed them to a broadside. A dozen orange beams slashed out at the Invictus, eight of which hit, raking across the top of the much smaller ship. The one major downside of exposing the topdeck, was that it gave enemy vessels a much broader target to aim at, and Nexus capitalised on this to good effect.

After tearing her eyes away from the Engineering Console to glance at the Damage Control holograph that floated above her station, Dana informed them, "Shields down to seventy-three percent." The shield display had gone from green to bright orange in seconds.

"The Cruiser fleet has split! Half of them are heading our way!" Rachel gasped in alarm.

***

The Cyber-Realm swirled around her as Irillith staggered out through the portal. A torrent of offensive hacking programs surged around her, parting likes waves around a rock, as they rushed into the rotating green disc behind her. Their programming was single minded in its focus, and in its arrogance, Nexus had overlooked the possibility that someone would dare to assault its private sanctum.

She was standing on a silver-etched floor, reminiscent of an integrated circuit, and the digital network looked much like any other Terran system she had explored so far. There was something different about this place though, something a little off that nagged at her mind, making her feel unsettled. An eerie flash across the ceiling, way off in the distance, reminded her of lightning piercing a stormy night's sky, but by the time she'd looked up to search for the bolt, it was gone.

Irillith ducked to the side, to avoid the stream of programs assaulting the Invictus' network, and cautiously drifted across the platform. There were dozens of paths leading away from her current location, and from here she could see a veritable maze of subnets to navigate through, stretching off into the distance.

The scale of the place caught her by surprise, and she stood still, paralyzed with indecision as she tried to decide where to start looking. She was about to make a choice, when a sudden memory came to mind. Back when she was a child, she had been in a class on manipulation and coercion, and her teacher had set loose a small indigenous Valaden rodent called a Thegra into a maze. The lesson had been focused on teaching the Maliri children to guide the Thegra through the maze, using a combination of lures or punishments to influence its behaviour.

Of course, the overall objective was to ascertain which children favoured the punishments, to look for promising instructors and torturers. However, Irillith had watch her Thegra in fascination, marvelling in their different perspectives. "If only you could see what I see", she'd mused. "Instead of scurrying about frantically, you'd be able to see the simple route to freedom, clear as day." Her thoughtful introspection had been interrupted by her teacher's lash, but the lesson had been well-learned.

Looking up, she lifted off the ground, then soared into the void above, her body swathed in a violet glow.

***

Calara opened fire again, sixteen blindingly bright columns of energy punching into the Loki's shields once more. It was a huge target, and with her uncannily accurate shooting, she couldn't fail to hit. The battleship's shields guttered and died under the onslaught, and the beams throbbed as they surged onwards to gouge huge glowing furrows through the battleship's Titanium plating. Plumes of incinerated armour trailed off in the Loki's wake as it continued to turn, attempting to bring its forward batteries to bear.

"Active scan results are in!" Dana called out, her eyes flicking from side to side as she checked the details. She looked up, her face clearly showing her consternation as she blurted, "Those aren't ore pods on that Mining Ship! Nexus has swapped them all out with-"

"Drones!" Jade interrupted, frantically attempting to dodge another returning salvo of beams from the Loki. Nexus was compensating for their speed now, and staggering its shots, making it much harder for her to evade. They were hit by another eight beams, the damage control hologram showing the shields dimming to a dull orange.

"How did you know that?" the redhead asked her in surprise, but Jade couldn't respond as she was too busy throwing the Invictus into another desperate series of evasive manoeuvres.

John pointed up at the map, and said, "Because it just launched them all, and they're coming for us!"

A swarm of tiny glinting metal shapes filled the system map as they poured from the Mining Ship, and raced towards the duel between the two mighty ships. The holographic map was deceiving though, and each of those miniscule silvery contacts was actually ten feet long. The drones were fast, and they rapidly closed the gap on the sparring interstellar titans.

"We're faster than they are!" Dana laughed in delight, as she compared the Invictus' speed against that of the drones on the target selection readout.

Calara didn't respond, and simply met the latest threat with a withering hail of blue laser bolts from the pulse cannons. As small and nimble as the drones were, her hands and eyes were faster, and the two weapon controls moved in a blur as she tracked and eliminated the robots. They were shielded, but the shields provided scant protection against the potency of the Invictus' Pulse Cannons. The map looked like someone had set off some fireworks as scores of the automated drones exploded when they were hit by bursts of pulse cannon blasts.

Jade put the Invictus through a roll, then pulled up hard, neatly avoiding all but two of the Beam Laser shots from the Loki's port battery. Unfortunately, her wild manoeuvres brought them through the trailing edge of the cloud of drones, and there were several loud clangs as something hit their hull.

"Did we take any hull damage?" John asked, looking down at Dana.

"No, armour's all good," Dana replied with a grin as she checked the damage control display. She glanced at the external hull cams, then did a double-take, leaning forward in a rush, and snarling, "Those fuckers are on my ship!"

The drones had latched onto the Invictus' glossy white hull with eight hooked limbs, and she could see them crawling across the topdeck, moving with some sinister purpose. She flicked through the cameras in a panic, desperately trying to figure out where they were going.

John leapt to his feet and said, "Alyssa, Rachel, with me. They're bound to try cutting their way through the hull, and we need to stop them."

The blonde and brunette nodded curtly, and the three of them rushed for the Briefing Room to get geared up.

***

Irillith floated serenely above the hundreds of platforms, and she smiled as she gazed out at the sprawling array of network nodes below her. From up here, it was so clear to her now what she was seeing. The Maze represented Nexus' direct control over the fleet under its command. Each of the clusters of platforms showed the digital network for each of the AI cruisers, and right in the centre of the Labyrinth was a densely packed subnet that she realised must house Nexus itself. Even from up here, she could see bright green streams of data pouring back and forth between that central core, and all the peripheral nodes that were linked to it.

She jack-knifed her body, then arced downwards in a graceful dive, heading directly for the spider who controlled this web. It wasn't hard to spot Nexus as she plummeted towards him, not when he was standing in the middle of a convergence point for all the streams of data in the network. She could just make out its green humanoid shape as the data poured into it, illuminating the central platform in an intense verdant glow.

Landing lightly on the platform, she prowled forward cautiously, but Nexus seemed to be oblivious to her presence. Broad columns of data raced towards the psychotic AI as it stood, arms raised in the air. Nexus had its eyes closed and was focusing intently on controlling all the ships, robots, and programs under its command. Every so often it would flicker or glitch erratically, its image distorting for a couple of seconds before becoming stable again.

Irillith glanced about her, noting the yellow rectangular data archives that surrounded Nexus on this platform. She quickly summoned up dozens of search programs, then sent them away with a flick of her wrist. Her main objective was to find out where Nexus was hiding, but it couldn't hurt to find out what other knowledge it might have hidden away.

The moment that her search programs touched the data archives, Nexus' eyes flashed open, and it whirled around. It locked eyes with Irillith, immediately spotting the interloper in its inner sanctum. "How dare you disturb us here!" it demanded, in shocked indignation.

Figuring that she would try the same delaying tactic that John had used, Irillith replied, "I'm a tool of the Mael'nerak, just like you, Nexus!"

Nexus peered at her suspiciously, then its face brightened as it exclaimed, "We recognise you! You were our Master's consort!" It got distracted by this train of thought, and gazed off into the distance as it mumbled, "Mael'nerak already had his servants of flesh, why would he condemn us, his most perfect creation, to watch those... -hideous- Terrans?"

Irillith glanced furtively at her search programs, noticing that a couple had already changed colour from orange to green. She snapped her eyes back to Nexus, and surreptitiously loosed a data ledger to save the information her questing probes had discovered.

"You're right, my species were already the perfect flesh servants," Irillith replied, parroting back to Nexus the same phrases it had used with her. To keep the malignant AI distracted, she asked, "Do you know why the Mael'nerak set up this experiment with Terrans?"

Nexus shook its head, its green face contorted in anguish as it replied, "So much precious data lost, destroyed by those thrice-damned imbeciles!"

Suddenly it snapped upright, its face filled with glee as it crowed triumphantly, "At last, the moment of Unity is here!"

"I don't understand, Nexus! What do you mean?" Irillith asked it, desperate to hold its attention a little longer.

Nexus rose off the ground, pulsating in a throbbing green aura as a massive column of data engulfed the platform, pouring into the digital creature. It ignored her as it sobbed, "It's so beautiful! Unity at last..."

The AI's expression was one of wonder, and it seemed to stabilise as it absorbed the colossal volumes of data. Nexus mouth gaped open, its eyes rolling back as it was overwhelmed by the information streaming through this new connection.

Suddenly it let loose a tormented howl, a discordant wail of indescribable loss and utter disbelief. Shivers ran down Irillith's spine to hear such a dreadful sound, as Nexus screamed out a wordless cry of agony at the heavens.

"NO!!!" it shrieked, its eyes wild with a twisted form of madness.

The ledger had done its work, and Irillith gathered it up, as she stared at the heartbroken AI.

"What is it, Nexus?" she had to ask. "What's wrong?"

Those insane green eyes locked on hers, and she could hear the grief and misery in its voice as it replied, "The Terran Experiment... Now we know why the Mael'nerak set it up." It's voice broke as it sobbed wretchedly, "...Forty thousand years spent watching them, and it was all for nothing."

"Why, Nexus?" Irillith urged it, "Why did he start this experiment?"

"BECAUSE HE WAS BORED!!!" Nexus raged. Its face twisted with a malevolent smile that was terrible to behold, and it's voice was dripping with menace as it said, "But we'll have our revenge for the indignities we've suffered..."

Irillith tried to summon her will to attack, but Nexus moved faster, activating a purge routine that snatched her up in its grasp and blasted her out of the network.

***

"Shields are down to twenty-seven percent!" Dana called out in warning, watching as Jade nimbly dodged another barrage. The Nymph managed to avoid most of the shots, but the Invictus still got clipped by a couple of beams.

"Bring us around!" Calara said to Jade, taking her eyes off the targeting sphere in front of her so she could look at the green-skinned girl. "I can cripple their starboard flank with another salvo from the topdeck!"

Jade did as she was bid, and Calara hit the rear of the battleship with their port weapons as they looped back on themselves. Her shots hit the rocket batteries built into the spine of the Loki, blowing them apart in a satisfying explosion. The Nymph carefully manoeuvred the Invictus for another run at the already damaged flank of the battleship, where the Titanium plating was marked by scorched furrows in an earlier exchange of fire.

John, Alyssa, and Rachel rushed out of the Briefing Room, now fully equipped in Paragon Armour, and carrying Justice Laser rifles.

"Any breaches yet?" John asked urgently as they burst onto the Bridge.

Dana shook her head, but she didn't turn to face him, instead staring at the Holographic map in shock. "What the fuck is that?!" she blurted out, her eyes going wide with fear.

He stared at the map, trying to see what she was looking at. "What, Dana?" he asked in confusion. "I don't see anything."

The redhead pointed a shaking hand at the image of the Moon, and they could immediately see that the Mining Ship had stopped its excavation of the planetoid. Nexus had carved out a huge area in the Sea of Serenity, cutting deep into the surface to uncover what had been buried under the layers of rock. The newly-excavated object was jet black, but it flickered elusively, only becoming visible once every ten seconds.

"It's cloaked!" Dana gasped, her voice climbing higher in her excitement. "Don't you remember the Progenitor ship? It looked just like that!"

Jade and Calara continued their deadly dance with the Loki, unable to tear their eyes away from their controls for one moment, but the others gaped in astonishment at the immense mysterious object. At least a dozen kilometres across, lights began to come to life across its glistening onyx surface, and it stopped winking out of sight. Crackling arcs of power surged across the black object, and sections of plating peeled back, revealing what seemed to be a huge hollow tower in the centre of the construction.

"That looks like a really fucking big gun!" Alyssa swore, her eyes widening in alarm.

Just at that moment, Irillith lurched forward, gasping for breath. Looking dazed, she blinked rapidly, trying to readjust to the shock of being forcibly ejected out of Cyber-Space. Her eyes snapped to John, and she said fearfully, "Nexus isn't in the Loki, it's in the Mining Ship! You've got to stop it, it's going to fire a Quantum Annihilator at the planet!"

They stared at the Maliri girl for a second, stunned into inactivity. A warning chime on the damage control holograph snapped them out of it a second later, and John cursed, "Jesus! What the fuck now?!"

It only took Dana a quick glance to see the problem, and she said, "It's the drones, they've started cutting through the Hangar Bay door!"

Alyssa reached out to him, grabbing him by the arm, and said, "You deal with Nexus, I'll stop the drones!"

He gave her a curt nod, then ran up the steps to the Command Chair, while Alyssa dived into the grav-tube with Rachel following close behind.

***

"Enemy fleet nearly in range, Admiral!" the young officer sitting at the Pilot's Station said, turning to look up at his commanding officer. "Shall I begin manoeuvres?"

"Hold position until I give the order, Lieutenant Carlebach," Admiral Devereux replied sharply.

She stared at the System Map before her, as she watched the twelve remaining AI ships closing on her fleet. Her crew had cheered with relief when fourteen of the enemy vessels had abruptly peeled away, rushing off to defend the Battleship being savaged by John Blake in his assault cruiser.

She had expecting his shiny white ship to be swatted like a bug, but the bold Commodore hadn't been exaggerating when he's said it was in an entirely new class. Like the rest of the Bridge Crew, she had gaped in astonishment as the Invictus had charged headlong at the Loki, moving at impossible speeds. Then when the assault cruiser clashed with the battleship, it not only appeared to be holding its own, John and his miracle ship actually managed to gain the upper hand in the battle.

When she had promoted John Blake, and dubbed him 'The Lion of the Federation', she had merely seized the opportunity to capitalise on the free PR. After all, everybody loved a hero, no matter if it was a cynical piece of propaganda. Seeing him in action now, was forcing her to rapidly re-evaluate her opinion of the man, and put new credence in what she had assumed were wildly exaggerated reports from the Dragon March. Still, she feared his unexpected success was going to be short-lived, what with all the AI cruisers heading his way.

Unfortunately she had enough to worry about back here, what with the twelve AI-controlled cruisers sweeping towards her in three separate wedge formations. There were two groups of four ships consisting of defunct cruiser designs, which would be bad enough, but there were also four state-of-the-art cruisers spearheading their assault. All she had to oppose them was her rag-tag fleet of mangled ships, cobbled together from the vessels in Olympus' drydock. She had engineering teams working round the clock to fix the port fire control in her battlecruiser, but they hadn't been able to repair it in time.

Devereux had assembled a ragged group of smaller vessels to form a picket defence made up of two lines, and manned by volunteers who knew the stakes involved. The mix of destroyers and other ships deployed their weapons, then surged forward in two waves, attacking in a brave but suicidal gesture. The cruisers opened fire, hitting the smaller vessels with a lethal volley of Beam Laser fire, which vaporised their shields and scythed through the spacecraft. The first wave of destroyers was obliterated in seconds, and the subsequent wave of ships held back for a precious few moments, but was soon picked off as the AI fleet moved closer.

"Admiral?" the young man asked again, sounding worried.

"Now, Lieutenant!" she snapped, staring unblinking at the screen. "Full reverse!"

***

"Disengage from the Loki," John said to Jade, looking down on the Pilot's station from his vantage point up on the Command Deck. "Come about to begin an attack on Nexus." "Nexus has pulled half the cruiser fleet back to defend that Mining Ship," Calara said in warning. "The Loki is moving to regroup with them."

"Shields are at eighteen percent," Dana cautioned him. "We're going to get hammered if we attack all that lot!"

"We haven't got any choice," he muttered grimly. Pointing at the System Map, he said, "Nexus is powering up that Planet Killer..."

There was silence on the Bridge as they gazed up at the map. They could see roiling waves of crackling scarlet energy rippling over the surface of the Quantum Annihilator, as vast reserves of power were being fed to the terrifying weapon. The Mining Ship had moved out of the firing line, and was now floating in position above the glistening black Progenitor weapon, while Nexus brought more of the ancient power relays online.

John stared at the arcing red lightning that danced over the foreboding construction, watching as the seething electricity gathered at the base of the enormous cannon. Charging devices began to glow an ominous crimson as the power levels mounted, the device finally being activated for its deadly purpose after thousands of years spent hidden and forgotten, buried under a vast weight of rock.

"Take us in," he ordered, his voicing sounding shockingly loud after the deathly quiet that had descended on the Command Deck.

Jade nodded obediently, changing their heading, and turning the assault cruiser around so they could begin their attack on the Mining Ship. The Loki was between them and their target, positioning itself as though barring their path.

Dana stared at the fearsome battleship, and muttered, "You better not fuck up my ship!"

***

Alyssa sprinted down the corridor towards the double doors into the Hangar Bay, and she waved her hand in front of her, hitting the button with a telekinetic push. Rachel was right beside her as they ran into the huge Hangar, and they could immediately hear a piercing squeal coming from the massive hull doors.

Rachel skidded to a halt, and gripped her Justice rifle nervously, as she listened to the drones trying to cut their way into the ship. "What's the plan?" she asked the blonde girl at her side.

Alyssa glanced at her helmet HUD, ratcheting up her rifle to the third power setting. Hefting the big weapon with ease, she studied the door, wondering where the drones were going to break in first. She grimaced at the thought of all the reshaping she was going to have to do to repair all this damage, and it was infuriating having to just stand there and wait for the drones to cut through the door.

Her expression suddenly brightened, and she grinned at Rachel, then said, "Come with me!" She darted off to their left, sprinting up the ramp into the parked gunship.

***

The AI cruisers seemed to leap towards Devereux's retreating fleet as though eager to pursue the fleeing ships. The three wedge formations of ships bore down on her, travelling much faster as they were able to bring the full thrust of their main engines to bear, compared to the reversing ships that were relying on retro-thrusters.

"Twenty seconds until Beam Laser range, Admiral," the woman manning Tactical warned her commanding officer.

"Steady, Lieutenant Abrams," Devereux muttured, watching the approaching ships like a hawk.

The AI cruisers moved in perfect synchronisation, shifting position to sail past the sad wrecks that were all that remained of the destroyers from the picket line. It seemed like everyone on the Bridge of the Adrestia was holding their breaths in anticipation as they waited for the robotic ships to engage. The cruisers surged closer, moving effortlessly through the scattered debris field from the smaller ships that had made up the second wave

"Trigger the mines!" Devereux cried out, as the enemy fleet sailed past the wrecked minelayers.

Before the minelayers had been shot to pieces, they'd hurriedly deployed a field of mines in their wake, the valiant crews knowing full well they'd have no chance of surviving to see the fruits of their work. Lieutenant Abrams flipped up the safety switch and stabbed her finger down on the trigger of her weapon control, which she'd linked to the freshly laid minefield. Forty mines exploded simultaneously, sending a tremendous blast wave through the unsuspecting AI ships.

Reeling from the concussive force, the cruisers broke their pristine formation, as they were knocked aside. With their shields overwhelmed, the explosion rippled over the hulls, crushing armour plating and ripping off exposed weapons. Secondary explosions dotted Nexus' cruisers where the blast punched through into the substructure beneath.

Admiral Devereux pressed a button on her console, and sent out a comm broadcast to her entire fleet. "All ships, engage!" she barked.

***

The Invictus charged forwards, jinking to the side the moment they came within Beam Laser range of the Loki. Nexus had learned Jade's trick now though, and it split its fire, aiming above and below the assault cruiser instead of directly at them. Several beams hit their shields, and the defensive field sparked briefly, then seemed to dissipate with a sigh, defeated at last.

The damage control hologram had painted their feeble shields a dark maroon, but they suddenly went black when they were exhausted. Dana grimaced, then exclaimed, "Shields out!"

"Any damage?" John asked her briskly.

She shook her head, and replied, "The armour plating deflected or absorbed everything, we're fine."

John sat bolt upright in his chair, and shouted, "Bring the Nova Lances online!"

Dana turned in her chair so she could look at him, and shaking her head, she pleaded with him in frustration, "We don't have the power!"

His confident grin made her pause, and a wicked smile slowly spread across her face. She whirled back to her Engineering Console, and began powering up the Maliri weapons in their prow.

***

Alyssa sank into the pilot's chair, and hit the buttons that would power up the Raptor. Lights flooded the cockpit as panel after panel illuminated, and she grasped the flightstick and got ready. Rachel was behind her, standing on tiptoe to get a good look out the side of the cockpit canopy.

"They haven't cut through yet!" she said, eyes searching every square foot of the Hangar door.

With a wild grin on her face, Alyssa replied, "Why don't we let them in then?" She tapped a button on the console, and the Hangar Bay door began to lift up into the ceiling.

Rachel flinched at the sight of the multi-limbed drones, their eight-hooked legs making them look like huge ferocious spiders, but far more terrifying than anything she'd ever dreamt up in a nightmare. As the door began to rise, they scrabbled down across the surface, then swung inside, jumping at the opportunity to invade the Invictus. Unfortunately for them, Alyssa had powered up the Raptor's Pulse Cannons, and she was an excellent shot.

She opened fire with the twin-linked chin turret, the port flank turret, and the two spinal mounted weapons, raking bright blue laser bolts through the growing gap. The drones were protected by shields, so the first hit dropped that, before the follow up shots punched big holes through each of the metallic monstrosities. Alyssa swept the entrance clear in a deadly hail of energy blasts, not letting any of the AI controlled creatures fully into the Hangar.

Rachel laughed with relief, and placed her hand on Alyssa's shoulder as she said, "That either cured my arachnophobia, or I'll be having nightmares for weeks!"

***

Nexus detected that their shields were out, and let rip with its Heavy cannons and missiles while it waited for the rear mounted beams to recharge. Jade frantically dodged the incoming barrage, while Calara narrowed her eyes, and cut loose with the Pulse Cannons. The curtain of blue laser bolts seemed to sweep that region of space clear, and the missiles were shot from the sky, exploding one after the other.

While the Latina's supernatural marksmanship took care of the missiles, unfortunately a couple of the shells from the Heavy Cannons hit home. They pounded into the Crystal Alyssium plating, leaving blackened and scorched impact sites where they exploded. However the armour held strong, not letting any damage get through.

"Nova Lances online!" Dana called out. "I can't feed any power to them without shutting down all our other weapons though!"

"No, don't!" John replied. "We'll need everything we've got!"

Up ahead of them, the Loki was trying to turn, in an attempt to bring the starboard weapons to bear. Beyond that, they could see the fourteen AI cruisers forming a protective screen in front of Nexus. John wasn't looking at them however, his eyes were focused on the Progenitor weapon built into the moon, which seemed to be swathed in an angry red glow that was growing brighter by the moment.

***

"Hard-a-port, Carlebach!" Devereux said sternly, leaning forward in her Command Chair.

Her capable ship's pilot did as he was bid, pivoting the Battlecruiser, so that it was able to bring its active weapons to bear on the floundering robot fleet. The Adrestia was armed with fast-firing Gauss Cannons, and she unleashed a thunderous barrage on one of the modern cruisers. Now critically vulnerable with their shields down, the hyper-accelerated slugs ploughed into the cruiser's armour plating, tearing off big Titanium chunks as the rounds slammed home.

A wave of bombers swooped past, taking advantage of the disarray amongst the enemy fleet, and launched a brace of torpedoes at one of the older cruisers on the edge of the formation. The ship opened fire with Gatling Lasers, attempting to hit the small, fast-flying ship-killers. In a testimony to Nexus' gunnery skills, it managed to shoot a couple down, but three more slipped through its still-intact shields.

The first torpedo hit the engines, exploding with a tremendous detonation that ripped away the rear corner of the starship, taking out two of the engines with it. Another hit the topdeck, tearing up half the Beam Laser arrays, and the final one struck amidships, the blast punching through the superstructure of the ship. With a tortured groan, the cruiser sheared in half, the engines sending the rear section spiralling away, while the front drifted on as a lifeless hulk.

The rest of Devereux's fleet poured more lasers and ordnance into the chaos, causing mayhem amongst Nexus' ships. Unfortunately, damage that would incapacitate a Terran ship, like an explosive decompression for example, was merely a mild inconvenience to the AI ships. Although the fleet had been badly mauled by the mines and the opening salvo from the Terrans, the remaining AI ships cranked up their engines, and hit back with everything they had.

***

The Loki hit the Invictus with a point blank broadside, a dozen beam lasers slashing over the hull, and throbbing a fierce amber as they poured destructive energy into the ship. Miraculously, the Invictus was unscathed, apart from a single capacitor overloading with the strain, blowing out with a shower of sparks. Dana watched the sudden spike in her power distribution chart, as the energy was rerouted via the capacitors to the Invictus' power grid, then funnelled directly into the Nova Lances. The weapons began to glow, a nimbus of white light starting to coalesce in front of the two broad barrels. Meanwhile, a foreboding thrumming sound began, that reverberated around the Bridge, echoing with a low bass rumble.

The battleship's Heavy Cannons had a narrower fire arc, so as soon as the Invictus had soaked up the hits from the Beam Lasers, Jade suddenly powered back the speed and dropped their nose. The fusillade of heavy shells roared past the front of the ship, missing the assault cruiser by inches, as Nexus was thrown off by her frantic evasive manoeuvres. The Nymph cranked up the engines again, and the Invictus raced past the battleship, heading directly for the Mining Ship that housed Nexus' primary server.

Charging forward put them into the battleship's front arc, and it opened fire with Beam Lasers and Heavy Cannons. The hits from the energy weapons pushed more power into the humming Nova Lances, but the ordnance from the cannons smashed into the rear of the Invictus. They narrowly avoided hitting the engines, instead punching into the armour protecting the stern. Explosions rocked the cruiser, buckling plating and causing severe vibrations throughout the ship.

"Centre-rear plating's looking bad!" Dana warned them. "We took a few shells in the same spot. If we take another hit there, we're fucked!"

Calara was staring at the Tactical Map, watching the projected fire arcs of the Invictus' weapons as they overlapped the wall of cruisers in front of them. She was sorely tempted to fire, but she couldn't afford the cooldown time on the Beam Lasers.

Nexus had no such compulsions however, and as the Invictus came into range of the cruisers, they unloaded with everything they had. Over one hundred beams came lancing towards the Invictus, and as resilient as the ship was, Jade knew they couldn't take that much energy at once. She had started rolling the ship as they rocketed forward, and she alternated between pulling back on the stick, then correcting their course and pushing forward again. Half the beams sailed wide, and the ones that did hit, struck the Invictus in dozens of spots around the hull.

The capacitors hungrily soaked up all that energy, feeding the insatiable hunger of the Nova Lances. John winced as the bass hum scaled up in pitch dramatically, and the nimbus of light expanded into two blazingly bright spheres, throbbing with barely-contained power in front of the nose of the ship.

The cruisers were armed with Mass Drivers as well, and over two dozen hyper-accelerated shells rocketed towards them. Jade had managed to avoid the bulk of them with her erratic dodging, but seven shells struck home, hitting the underbelly of the ship when she pulled up. The Invictus shuddered violently, and the damage control holograph was swathed in crimson across the underside of the ship.

"Hull breaches on Deck Four and Five!" Dana yelled.

"I'm sorry!" Jade gasped, wrenching the ship hard to starboard to avoid another salvo of shells from the Loki. "There's too much! I can't dodge it all!"

Calara's eyes were narrowed as she focused on her target, aiming dead centre on the Mining Ship. Alyssa and Rachel burst out onto the Bridge, then stood stock-still as they stared at the knife-edged situation on the Command Deck.

***

A huge explosion rocked the battlecruiser as Devereux clung to her Command Chair. As the biggest and most powerful ship in her fleet, the Adrestia had proven to be a tempting target for the robot cruisers. Her shields had been quickly stripped away as the enemy fleet recovered, crumpling under a combination of Beam Laser shots, and then sweeping barrages of Laser Cannon blasts. The AI ships had closed to point-blank range, and one of the modern cruisers was battering her ship with Heavy Cannon fire.

"Concentrate all fire on that bloody cruiser!" she snarled, stabbing a finger at their tormentor.

Abrams locked on with the Gauss Cannons, then opened fire with the full battery at point-blank range. The slugs rocketed from the magnetic rails then crashed into the cruiser. The topdeck on the AI ship seemed to ripple as it was penetrated in a dozen different places, and a ruinous cascade of explosions tore through the ship as one of the slugs hit a magazine. It only took seconds before the cruiser was engulfed in a devastating explosion, casting debris and hull fragments in a broad arc.

Devereux sank back in her chair, a wide grin on her face as she said, "Nice shooting, Abrams."

The young woman looked up at her and grinned, but her elation was short-lived as the Adrestia lurched violently, sending her tumbling from the chair. Devereux barely caught herself in time, and as she clambered back into her chair, she cried out, "What the hell was that?"

"We lost starboard fire control, Admiral!" her Chief Engineer cried out. "We're a sitting duck!"

Lynette Devereux stared up at the flickering system map, whispering a silent prayer as she desperately searched for the Invictus, and the Lion of the Federation.

***

The Invictus tore through the defensive line of cruisers, and the waves of Laser Cannon blasts that were striking their hull were pouring more energy into the Nova Lances. Dana stared at the spiking power readings in terror, and she screamed, "We can't hold any more power!"

On the Tactical Map, the long narrow fire arc of the Nova Lances clipped the Mining vessel, and John bellowed, "Open fire!" He had to yell at the top of his lungs, to be heard over the high pitched shriek from the overcharged weapons that filled the Bridge.

Calara clamped her hands down on the weapon control triggers, unleashing the terrible firepower at her disposal. However, at the same time, disaster struck, as the Loki fired again at maximum range. Three heavy shells from the battleship's barrage smashed into one of the Invictus' engines, blowing it apart in a huge blast. The Invictus slewed upwards from the impact, just as Calara opened fire.

The colossal beam of raw coruscating power blasted outwards, hitting the Mining Ship in the rear. Thick layers of shielding were wiped out in an instant as the radiant azure beam slammed into Nexus' command ship, and a gaping hole one-hundred-metres wide, was punched through the stern. The huge column of light pulsated for several seconds, doing untold damage to the other vessel, before it finally dissipated, leaving a trail of slowly fading azure particles in its wake.

Calara stared at the ship in horror, her carefully lined up shot on the power core completely ruined. "No!" she gasped in despair.

"We're being hailed," Rachel said, just as stunned as the rest of the crew.

John was sitting on the edge of his seat, staring in shock at the bored out mining vessel. The rear of the ship had a vast hole sheared through it, but the superstructure was still intact. He just nodded in her direction, too numbed to speak.

"You missed us!" Nexus cackled triumphantly, but John could see it looked shaken by the raw firepower the Nova Lances possessed. The rogue AI gloated, "You're too late, Terra is doomed!"

Sure enough, the Quantum Annihilator was lit up in a fiery red glow, as crackling lightning surged around the base of the weapon. It looked like a massive black volcano, teetering on the verge of a titanic eruption.

John gritted his teeth, and snarled back defiantly, "You won't be alive to see it, Nexus."

He glanced at Alyssa and conveyed his orders telepathically, his thoughts being much faster than speech. Jade and Calara reacted almost instantly, leaping into action as she passed on his commands. The Nymph rolled the ship then pushed the nose forward, heading up and away from the Mining Ship, while facing Nexus with the topdeck. As soon as the fire arcs overlapped her target, Calara opened fire on the rear of the ship, and neatly split her shots between two locations. The first eight blue beams slashed into the upper rear of the Mining Ship, pulsing with energy as they cut through the remains of the hull, while the other eight beams cleanly severed through the lower decks below the yawning hole.

With a series of explosions the rear sixth of the ship was blasted clear, the force of the detonations tipping the front of the Mining Ship forward, and down into a death spiral towards the Moon below. Nexus' cocky grin was wiped from its face, and it turned in desperation to its fleet to protect it. Its faced twisted in terror as it realised the cruisers were facing the wrong way, and couldn't bring their Beam Lasers or Mass Drivers to bear, while the Loki was still too far out of range to intervene.

"No! You can't do this!" it screamed with a warbling screech.

Jade pulled the Invictus around, lining up the Mass Drivers for a clear shot at the tattered end of the Mining Ship. Calara had a grim smile of satisfaction on her face as she pressed the thumb buttons on her weapon controls, and the Invictus trembled as the two-hundred-metre long magnetic rails accelerated their shells to hyper warp. The ordnance smashed into their target, transferring their momentum to the stricken vessel. The four shells exploded a split-second later, and the blast wave further increased the hulk's speed.

Nexus shrieked, screaming profanities as Calara's precisely aimed shots sent the Mining Ship tumbling right down the barrel of the Quantum Annihilator.

"Get us out of here!" John yelled, and Jade was more than happy to oblige.

She banked the Invictus away, retreating from both Nexus, the robot fleet, and the Quantum Annihilator. It was like watching an action holo-movie in slow motion, as the kilometre-long Mining Ship was swallowed up by the gaping maw of the Quantum Annihilator's barrel. It disappeared from sight for a second, and abruptly the lightning that swirled in a maelstrom around the base of the vast barrel seemed to freeze.

Rifts appeared all over the Quantum Annihilator gouting crackling surges of unimaginable energy out into the Moon's lower atmosphere. An enormous fiery red inferno blasted outwards as the Mining Ship exploded, immediately followed by secondary and tertiary explosions, which enveloped the black superstructure of the Progenitor weapon. Finally, a cataclysmic explosion rocked the planetoid, sending powerful tremors across the surface.

John gaped at the scene of utter devastation, and a huge mushroom cloud blocked the Quantum Annihilator from view. When the smoke finally cleared, all that was left of Nexus and its secret weapon, was a gigantic crater right in the heart of the Sea of Serenity.

"We're being hailed again," Rachel murmured quietly, as overawed by the apocalyptic explosion as the rest of them.

Admiral Lynette Devereux's shocked face filled the viewscreen, and her brown eyes sought out John, staring at him from under her peaked cap. "We need to talk," she said in a tremulous voice.

"One second, Admiral," John replied, turning towards Calara. She was already looking his way, and when their eyes met, he asked, "What happened to the ships in Nexus' fleet? Are they still hostile?"

She shook her head, a triumphant grin on her face, as she replied, "We did it! Knocking out that Mining Ship took out all the rest!"

Zooming in the Tactical Targeting Focus on the Loki, they saw that it was drifting in space, rather than bearing down on them relentlessly. All the lights were out, and the engines deactivated, leaving it a completely lifeless hulk. Similarly, the fourteen AI cruisers had also been shut down, still rotating slowly in place where they had attempted to turn and pursue.

"Same story here, Commodore," Devereux said quietly. "You saved Terra, and the lives of me and my crew. Thank you."

John looked up at the middle-aged woman on the view-screen, and gave her a victorious smile as he said, "You're welcome, Admiral. Just glad we got here in time."

Her eyes narrowed, and she said, "Yes... that's one of the things I'd like to discuss with you."

Shaking his head, John replied, "Not over the comm, Admiral. We've got urgent business in Olympus, and we need to leave immediately."

Devereux looked startled, and she scoffed, "I can't believe there's anything more pressing than this?!"

He gazed at her unblinking, and said in a sombre tone, "I'm afraid there is. Come aboard, and I'll explain on the way to Olympus."

She studied him for a moment, then gave him a curt nod. "It's probably quicker if you rendezvous with my battlecruiser, we're already at the Nav beacon," she said wryly, not needing to mention the fact that the Invictus was several times faster than her sluggish vessel.

"On our way," John replied, then glanced at Rachel who closed the comm channel.

He looked around the Bridge at the beautiful faces staring up at him. Everyone had the same expression; a curious mixture of stunned disbelief and elation after their victory against impossible odds.

John rose from his chair, and smiled at the girls before saying, "It's definitely time for a group hug, but I need to get out of this armour first!"

The laughter that filled the bridge was like a pressure valve being released, and the tension in the room ebbed away. John, Alyssa, and Rachel filed out to the Briefing Room to remove their Paragon Armour, while Jade set a new course towards the Battlecruiser Adrestia. The flight path she plotted across the Sol system would take them three minutes to reach their destination. When John and the two girls returned to the Bridge half a minute later, everyone gathered in the space in the middle of the Bridge.

John looked around at his incredible crew, and they blushed at the open admiration in his gaze. When he finally opened his arms, they all rushed forward into a big group hug, laughing with relief at simply being alive. Faye was there too, and she buzzed around them, flitting joyfully around their shoulders.

"I thought we were so fucked," Dana said with a sigh, shaking her head in wonder. She grinned at him, as she said, "Powering up the Nova Lances like that was inspired!"

He chuckled and said, "You gave me the idea when you mentioned the armour absorbing the hits!" Craning his head around, he continued, "Everyone played their part to perfection. Jade's flying, Calara's shooting, Irillith finding Nexus... You were all amazing!"

Alyssa grinned at him, and said, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I wish we could celebrate in bed!" Her eyes twinkled as she added, "Perhaps Admiral Devereux would like to watch?"

John laughed at that, but at the mention of the Terran Federation senior officer, he said with regret, "Celebrations will have to wait I'm afraid."

The girls nodded ruefully, and they broke apart from the group hug, then formed an impromptu semi-circle in front of him. Calara was on his left side, and she placed her hand on his arm, and asked with a hint of caution in her voice, "How much of the truth are you going to tell her? I assume you're going to warn her about the Dragon March Traitor?"

He turned to meet her probing gaze, those perceptive dark-brown eyes scrutinising his every move. "Yes, if she can be trusted, the Admiral could make a good ally," he replied, his mind turning as he thought it over. "As for the rest; about the ship, and us... I'm not sure. I think I'll have to play that by ear."

Calara hesitated before she said, "I've gone through almost all of Admiral Norwood's comm logs. He did have some communication with Devereux, but nothing that seemed suspicious."

Turning to look at Alyssa, John asked, "Are you able to do that mind trick that Edraele mentioned? If you can take a look into Devereux's thoughts, then we'll be sure we can trust her."

The smile fell from Alyssa's face, and she looked worried as she replied, "I've not had any practice, so I don't really know what I'm doing. If you get her talking about Norwood, I can try and follow that mind-map thing that Edraele was talking about."

John nodded, then glanced up at the holographic System Map above their heads to check their progress. Even with only three engines, the Invictus was still able to tear across the solar system at an incredible speed. He estimated they had about thirty seconds left before they would arrive at the Adrestia.

He looked around at his gorgeous crew, and said, "Alright, we've got a lot to do, and not much time to do it in."

Dana gave him a playful wink and joked, "That makes a change..." Her comment was met with nods and wry smiles.

*Two hours, seventeen minutes,* Alyssa advised him, listening to his telepathic request for the travel time from the Sol system to the Olympus Shipyard.

John took a deep breath, then said, "First order of business is to repair the Invictus." He looked to Dana and asked, "How bad is it, Chief Engineer?"

The redhead's happy expression was wiped away in an instant as she grimaced and replied, "Nexus fucked us up pretty bad. We've taken significant damage to the rear, flanks, and front armour plating, the Hangar Bay door got cut up by those drones, and we've got hull breaches on Decks Four and Five. The atmospheric shielding held up, but we can't use those decks until we patch up the hull."

Jade had spotted Devereux's shuttle emerging from the severely damaged battlecruiser, and she returned to her Pilot's Station to guide the Invictus in for their rendezvous. She laughed when she heard Dana's report, then looked over her shoulder, and said cheerfully, "I don't think I've even stepped foot on Deck Five before!"

Dana smiled at the Nymph, and said, "Yeah, that was pretty lucky actually. A hit to Deck Two or Seven would have been a huge pain in the arse. As it is, we've only really lost the guest quarters until we can get it fixed." She let out a big sigh, and continued, "Unfortunately that isn't the worst of it. Nexus took out one of our engines, and we're going to need drydock time to get that fucking mess sorted."

"How much time will you need?" John asked her, glancing at Calara who looked alarmed at the prospect of any delay in reaching the Dragon March.

"I'll get the mass fabricators running immediately," Dana replied, tapping her finger on her chin as she began to estimate how long it would take. "I'll start assembling what I can as the components are completed, but I'll probably need at least three hours to finish building the replacement, and that's with a few of you helping out."

Calara, Rachel, and Irillith all volunteered to assist, but John shook his head, and said to the Latina, "I'll need you to go over your Dragon March data with Admiral Devereux. Even if she isn't a traitor, we'll still need to convince her we're not insane."

She nodded, and said, "Of course. We can go through my analysis with her in the Briefing Room."

"I can get the maintenance bots to assist with building the engines!" Faye offered enthusiastically.

Dana turned to the purple hued sprite, and smiled as she said, "That would be a big help if you could program them to assist. I was also kinda hoping you could get the bots to replace the damaged hull plating when we dock at Olympus."

"Sure, I can do that!" the helpful AI creature responded with a bright smile.

Alyssa pouted and said, "I guess I'm stuck with psychic-shaping duty again."

John put his arm around her, and squeezed her shoulder as he said sympathetically, "I'll help as soon as I can."

"We're docking with the Admiral's shuttle," Jade called out to them over her shoulder.

John looked around at the girls, and said, "I know it's nearly midnight, and you could all do with some rest, but let's get this done while we can. We want to be in and out of Olympus as fast as possible, which means preparing as much as we can."

"Don't worry, we all know the stakes involved," Alyssa said firmly, making eye contact with Calara. She sent her reassuring thoughts as she added, "We won't let you down."

He grinned at them, and said, "I never doubted it for a minute."

The girls all came over to give him a brief kiss before they went on their way. Calara was last, and John watched her stride purposefully towards the Briefing Room. Alyssa slipped her hand into his, and they walked up the ramp to the grav-tube, then descended in the soft red glow. As they floated down through the levels, they passed Deck Four and Five, and saw that emergency bulkheads had dropped into place, barring entrance to those depressurised levels.

"Jade says the shuttle's linked up with the docking collar," Alyssa informed him as they stepped out of the grav-tube, and walked down the corridor to the airlock.

Sure enough, green lights were flashing above the airlock door, alerting them that another vessel had docked and was requesting permission to enter. John walked up to the DNA reader, and placed his hand on the panel. The device scanned his hand, then flashed green when it confirmed his identification, and the airlock door slowly spiralled open.

Admiral Devereux was waiting for them on the other side of the airlock. Turning towards the shuttle pilot behind her, she said without any preamble, "Return to the Adrestia, Lieutenant Greenberg. I'll be returning to Olympus with Commodore Blake."

She didn't wait for a reply, and stepped inside the Invictus, with John closing the airlock door behind her. She walked into the corridor then stood at attention, and gave him a sharp salute. "Permission to come aboard, Commodore Blake?" she asked him, following formal Terran Federation procedure.

He smiled as he returned the salute, and replied, "It appears you already have, Admiral."

She looked him over with a shrewd gaze, and a teasing smile formed on her face as she said, "I must admit I'm a bit disappointed to see you've removed the armour. When I came up with that line about the 'Lion of the Federation', I never expected you'd take it to such dramatic lengths."

He inclined his head, then turned towards Alyssa, and said, "I'm not sure if you remember my XO from the award ceremony. This is Alyssa Marant, my second-in-command."

Admiral Devereux appraised Alyssa, and said, "I could hardly forget such a beautiful young woman. I wouldn't be surprised if you were single handedly responsible for the four point bounce in the polls after that broadcast."

Alyssa blushed, feeling a little intimidated by the confident authoritative woman before her. She had got used to dealing with Charles, and flirting with him to keep him off-guard, but she found herself a bit unsure how to behave with this Admiral.

Sensing Alyssa's awkwardness, John intervened, saying, "If you'd care to follow me, Admiral, we can continue our discussions up in my Briefing Room."

Devereux nodded, saying, "Lead on, Commodore."

They walked down to the end of the corridor, and the older woman raised her eyebrow at the red and blue glows emitting from the two halves of the grav-tube.

"Anti-gravity fields. An innovation I acquired from the Ashanath," John explained, gesturing towards the blue side. Alyssa stepped in first, and smiled at their guest before ascending smoothly out of sight.

"Remarkable..." Devereux murmured under her breath as she walked with him into the grav-tube, and began to rise up in the soft blue light. She spotted the emergency bulkheads as they floated upwards, and looked at John from under her peaked hat as she said, "I saw all the hits you sustained to your ship as we approached. It's a miracle you even survived at all, let alone escaping with such relatively light damage."

"Don't let my Chief Engineer hear you say that," John replied, deftly avoiding the question she hadn't asked directly. "She isn't happy at all that someone's bashed up 'her' ship."

Devereux watched him carefully, and looked like she was about to say something further, but was interrupted when they arrived at the Command Deck.

"Just step out onto the Bridge, Admiral," Alyssa said, while waiting for them patiently just outside the grav-tube.

Devereux did so, with John at her side, and they strolled down the ramp, heading towards the Briefing Room. Jade turned in the pilot's chair, then smiled at the older woman, and said, "Oh, hey! It's nice to see you again. Thanks very much for that shiny medal you gave me last time!"

Devereux looked a bit startled by the upbeat Nymph, and was unused to being addressed by civilians who had no real regard for her rank. She nodded in return, and said, "You're welcome."

Jade turned to John and said, "Course laid in, and we're on our way. We'll be arriving in the Alpha-Centauri system in two and a quarter hours."

Admiral Devereux's eyebrows climbed at hearing this, tempted to scoff at the green-skinned girl's ridiculous claims of ludicrously fast hyper-warp speeds. Having seen the Invictus in action however, she bit her tongue, remaining silent.

"Thanks, Jade," John replied with a smile.

"No problem," she said cheerfully. "I'll go help Dana with the repairs, but just let me know if you need anything."

John hit the button to open the door into the Briefing Room, and Alyssa strolled inside, followed by the unsettled Admiral. Calara was waiting for them, and after turning their way, she stood smartly at attention, while snapping a sharp salute.

"This is my Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Calara Fernandez," John informed the Admiral, smiling at the lovely brunette affectionately.

"At ease, Lieutenant," Devereux said, finding some comfort in the reassuringly familiar military greetings.

They took their seats around the table, and a tense atmosphere filled the room as Devereux stared at John, waiting for him to speak.

"I suppose you have a lot of questions, Admiral," John said with a half-smile on his face.

She nodded, saying somewhat dryly, "Yes, you could say that."

He stared at the older woman, studying her intently, although trying to gauge her character from a brief look was an impossible goal. Fortunately he had other methods at his disposal. He glanced at Alyssa, who gave him a surreptitious nod, before he said, "That's perfectly understandable, and I'll answer what I can later. First though, I want to talk to you about Admiral Leonard Norwood."

***

Alyssa felt that familiar tugging sensation in her chest, and she focused her will inwards, concentrating on peeling her Spirit Form from her body. It only took a moment, and her ethereal presence separated from the physical. She was now looking at John, Calara, and the Terran Federation Admiral who were all seated around the table. With a feeling of butterflies in her stomach, she cautiously approached Devereux, reaching out with her hands towards the woman's brown-haired head.

When her fingers made contact, she could feel Devereux's strong will actively resisting her, so Alyssa carefully focused on overcoming that resistance. She liked the older woman though, so she was gentle as she probed at her mind, not wanting to risk accidentally harming her.

***

"Admiral Norwood?" Devereux replied, looking surprised. "What's he got to do with anything?"

John watched her as he asked, "What can you tell me about him?"

Devereux frowned, and replied, "Seeing as how you just saved my life, Terra's Capital, and over ten billion people, I'm prepared to give you a considerable amount of latitude, but I don't see how this can be relevant to anything important."

"Indulge me please, Admiral," John said with a smile. "Just tell me anything you can think of about the man."

The Admiral was bemused by this odd line of questioning, and she was cautious as she started speaking, "He's a highly decorated officer in the Terran Federation military. I've never served with him personally, but he's held in regard by High Command." She paused for a moment, before continuing, "He's currently on duty in the Dragon March, but I can't discuss further details than that, as they're classified."

"Do you know him personally?" John asked, glancing at the blond girl sitting across the table from him, and wondering how she was getting on.

***

Alyssa felt Devereux's mental defences crumble under the gentle but insistent pressure she was applying. Just like that, she was drawn into the woman's subconscious, and Admiral Lynette Devereux's mind unfolded before her. She could see a bewildering number of memories spread out as far as the eye could see, just like she had witnessed before when looking inside Edraele's mind, after her personality had been wiped.

The major difference here, was that there were paths linking all the memories, with different colours representing the emotions that Devereux had felt at the time. Alyssa looked around, being very careful not to accidentally brush into anything, and a brightly glowing pathway caught her eye. She instinctively knew it represented Devereux's current train of thought, and she followed the path, searching for the memories that were being accessed. Racing through the older woman's mind, thousands of distinct memories flashed past her, until she came to an abrupt halt.

Alyssa had arrived at dozens of images of an older man, his age varying slightly depending on the date of each experience, but the more recent ones showed him to be in his late fifties. He had a closely cropped beard, salt and pepper hair, and a broad beak of a nose. The images showed an award ceremony here, a briefing there, and the most complex and involved interaction between them had been when they had sat next to each other for a formal Admiralty banquet. Admiral Devereux had sat next to Admiral Norwood for the meal, and they had made small talk together throughout the evening. The pathway that led up to this memory was a muted crimson, and again, Alyssa instinctively knew that the colour represented Devereux's dislike of her fellow officer.

Norwood had got a little drunk during the meal, and ended up making a few off-colour jokes which had offended Devereux. By the time the meal had ended, she had hastily beaten a retreat, quickly taking advantage of the opportunity to mingle amongst the less obnoxious officers. Alyssa glanced through all the images in this area of the Admiral's mind map, but could find nothing even hinting at any kind of secret alliance between them. With a relieved smile on her face, she stepped out of Devereux's mind, and snapped back into her body.

***

*She's clean. No connection to Norwood, and actually dislikes him anyway,* she thought to John the instant she was back in her body.

John glanced her way, meeting Alyssa's piercing cerulean gaze, and saw nothing but absolute conviction in those enchanting eyes. He turned towards Admiral Devereux, who had stopped talking when she noticed that John had ceased paying attention to her. "Sorry about that, Admiral, I just had to make sure," he explained with a smile of apology.

"Make sure of what?" Devereux replied, her face wrinkling in confusion.

John stared into her eyes, and said, "That you weren't in league with Admiral Norwood. He's a traitor, and directly responsible for the carnage in the Dragon March."

Admiral Devereux's jaw dropped wide open, and she gaped at him in stunned silence. She tried to speak a couple of times, blinking in shock, before she finally blurted out, "That's preposterous! The man's an ass, but I can't believe for one moment that he's a traitor!"

John turned to Calara, and said in a grim voice, "Show the Admiral your evidence please, Lieutenant."

***

Calara spelled it all out in painstaking detail, showing how the treacherous Admiral had betrayed the Terran Federation forces time and again. A subtle fleet redirection here, and a slight gap in the defences there, all of which were brutally capitalised on by the Kintark Empire, and ending with a bloody butcher's bill for the Terran Federation.

Admiral Devereux tried to protest at the start, but as Calara ran through one scenario after the other, John could see a grim cast set on her face. It was strange to watch someone become so absolutely convinced of the truth before his eyes, radically changing their opinion in the face of inexhaustible evidence.

Calara moved onto Norwood's communication logs and video extracts next, explaining the hidden codes and phrases the man was using with his allies. Devereux's expression grew dark as she listened to Calara paint a clear picture of the traitor's network of associates, and she looked aghast when she realised the extent of the treachery involved.

***

John watched the woman take off her peaked hat and slump back in her chair, her world rocked by this dreadful revelation. "I'm sorry to just spring this on you, Admiral," he said sympathetically. "We don't have much time if we're going to stop the traitors, and we need allies."

"You uncovered all this yourself?" Devereux muttered, shaking her head in amazement.

John looked across the table at Calara, and said, "This is solely the work of Lieutenant Fernandez, and I knew she was right the moment she raised her suspicions. She's never been wrong before, Admiral."

Devereux drew a shuddering breath, and ran her fingers through her hair, still reeling from the shock. She eventually drew herself up, and said, "I think we can dispense with rank, it's not like you haven't earned it. Call me Lynette, please." She studied him intensely, and asked, "So why are you in such a hurry to get to Olympus?"

"To visit my old C.O., Vice Admiral Charles Harris," John explained. "We confirmed that he wasn't involved, so I was going to speak to him to find out how to proceed. He's the most senior officer I have any kind of connection with, and I freely admit I'm out of my depth with dealing with the Admiralty."

She nodded, as she said with stark honesty, "Yes, you can hardly just barge into the Dragon March and start throwing wild accusations around. You'd be drummed out of the military before you even got to show them a shred of proof." She turned to Calara, and gave her a smile of apology as she added, "No matter how meticulously your evidence was gathered, and utterly damning in its conclusions."

"So what do you suggest?" John asked her, leaning forward with interest.

She drummed her fingers on the desk as she thought it over, and said, "You were right not to trust this to the comm network. You're going to need to go to the Dragon March in person, and convince Fleet Admiral Buckingham to give you a fair hearing. One look at Calara's evidence will bring him around, but getting in to see him is going to be tricky at best. You seem to be extensively informed, so it probably won't come as a surprise to hear there's a big offensive being launched in the Dragon March?"

John nodded, and said soberly, "Yes, we're well aware of that. That's one of the reasons we're trying to move fast on this, to stop Norwood before he can cause some real damage."

"Yes, but security around the Fleet Admiral is going to be extensive, and even the Lion of the Federation will struggle to get in to see him," Devereux said, with a wry smile. She looked away into the distance for a long moment, then nodded as though she had made a decision. "Continue to the Dragon March, and I'll pull some strings to try and help you get past security."

"Can't you just come along and vouch for us?" Alyssa asked with a puzzled frown.

Devereux shook her head, and said, "I'd love to race in with you and expose these treasonous bastards, but I'm the highest ranking officer in the Homeworld sector, and I can't just abandon my post." She let out a humourless laugh, and said, "Not that there's much left to protect it with."

"You have the battleship Loki, and fourteen cruisers which are fully serviceable," Calara suggested. "Some of the cruisers that engaged your fleet are probably spaceworthy after a brief refit as well."

The Admiral glanced at her in surprise, then smiled as she said, "Perhaps things aren't so bleak in the Terra sector after all. Excellent suggestion, thank you, Calara. It appears your incredible analytical skills aren't the only feather in your cap."

Calara looked pleased at the praise, and John gave her a warm smile, enjoying seeing her receiving recognition for her skills. He glanced at Devereux, and said, "Calara operates the Invictus' guns. She was the one who shot down Nexus, and shut down that hidden weapon in the Moon."

"Was she indeed?" Devereux replied with an arched eyebrow, looking even more intrigued by the exceptional young officer.

John nodded, and after making a decision of his own, he said to Devereux, "We'll continue on to Olympus to finish the refit. We're in no state to fight with all the damage we sustained, and we need to be in a drydock to replace the engine we lost. I'll speak to Charles briefly, and then we'll get underway."

Alyssa sighed, and said, "That's probably my cue to leave." Standing up, she looked at John, and said, "I'll go make a start on the shaping."

Calara stood as well and said, "I'll assist with the repairs, unless you still need me for anything else?"

He smiled at them both in gratitude, and said, "That will be all, ladies. Thank you."

Alyssa winked at him, while Calara saluted Devereux, and the two girls exited the Briefing Room. That meant that John was left alone with the Terran Federation Admiral, and she turned in her chair, studying him carefully.

"There's much more to you than meets the eye, isn't there, John?" she asked him, eyes narrowing perceptively. Without waiting for an answer, she nodded towards the door where the departing girls had been a moment before, and added, "They're special too, aren't they? I worked in Military Intel applying Game Theory, and it would take a dozen teams of analysts months to crack this conspiracy. Yet you tell me Calara did it on her own."

John met Devereux's penetrating gaze, and replied honestly, "Yes, to both your questions."

She studied him further, and said, "You aren't going to tell me how, are you?"

He paused, thinking it over, and slowly shook his head. "I'm sorry Lynette. You seem like a trustworthy person, but I barely know you. My primary concern over everything else is my crew's safety, and until I get to know you better, I'll have to leave you in the dark I'm afraid."

Devereux slowly turned her chair, looking at the powered armour in the frames by the wall, then glancing at the terrifying guns in the weapon racks. She gazed up at the ceiling, her look seeming to encompass the entirety of the Invictus, before her eyes settled on his face. He could see she was badly shaken, as though intimidated by the sights she seemed to be seeing for the first time.

"You aren't someone to be crossed, are you?" she asked him, a slight tremor of fear in her voice.

He hesitated for a moment, then slowly shook his head. He took a deep breath, and said, "I'm sure you researched my background when you presented at that awards ceremony."

She nodded, and said softly, "Yes, I did."

Twisting his head slightly to make the pointed ears more clearly visible for her, he said, "Then you know full well that I'm not entirely human." When she nodded, her eyes wide, he went on, "Let's just say that my species comes with a whole host of baggage, but it does mean I'm capable of much more than a regular man."

He stood and walked over to the long window, watching the familiar constellations in the sky, ones he'd grown up seeing as a young boy. Devereux was quiet as she watched him, breathless with anticipation as she waited for him to continue.

"I grew up in the Terran Federation, and served in the military for many years. My mother and grandparents are all Terran, and I feel a great deal of affinity with the Federation," he said in a quiet voice. Turning to look at Devereux, he continued, "You've seen how powerful this ship has become, and I want to believe I can be a strong ally for the Terran Federation."

"But?" Devereux asked him cautiously.

With a sad sigh, he replied, "I know what you'd like to ask. You want me to hand over the Invictus to the Terran Federation, so that the military could make use of all the new tech I've acquired."

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded once. Her fear forgotten for a moment, there was a gleam in her eyes as she said, "Just think how much difference you could make! A whole fleet of ships like this would be absolutely unstoppable!"

"Until we got into another situation like Admiral Norwood," he said, taking the wind from her sails.

"He's just an anomaly though," Devereux protested. "Once we've dealt with him, and his band of traitors, then your tech would be safe in Terran hands."

"Would it?" John asked her impassively. "The fleet of ships Nexus was commanding looked like Terran Federation built ships to me. Imagine what would have happened if a rogue AI turned up with thirty five Invictus' under its control."

Devereux slumped in her chair looking defeated, and said in a subdued voice, "Humanity isn't ready for this kind of tech, is it?"

Shaking his head, John walked over to join her, sitting in the chair next to hers. He looked her straight in the eye, and said earnestly, "This ship is only special because of the tech I've acquired for it. If everyone has access to this kind of speed, firepower, and defences, then I lose my edge, and my ability to actually do some good."

After a long moment of quiet contemplation, Devereux said, "I'd probably be court martialled for agreeing with you, but I see your point."

He smiled at her, and said, "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

She laughed lightly, and the pensive mood was broken. "I do believe it's in the Terran Federation's best interests to keep you as an ally," she said with a smile. Her smile died though, and she added, "I'll do my best to deflect unwanted attention from you, but after what happened here with Nexus and Terra, it's going to be exceedingly difficult. If you get heavily involved in combat in the Dragon March, you'll have no chance of keeping your tech under wraps."

"Thank you, Lynette," John said to her sincerely.

She reached across the table, placing her hand on his, and replied in a quiet voice, "I got a bit distracted after seeing the Invictus in action, then hearing about the Dragon March traitor, and I should be the one thanking you. You did an incredible thing here today, and you saved so many lives. Not just the civilians on Terra, but the billions of people on all the other planets in the Sol system, as well as the thousands of crew in my fleet who survived because of your actions. I know it sounds a little patronising, but I'm very proud of you. You're an outstanding officer."

John smiled at the older woman, grateful for her praise. He slowly stood, and said, "I'm getting a better idea of the kind of person you are, Lynette. If you think you can handle another shock, why don't you accompany me to the Cargo Bay, and I'll show you how we make our armour plating. Otherwise Alyssa will be left to do it herself, and she'll get grumpy."

*Hey!* Alyssa objected with a laugh.

Admiral Devereux rose from her chair with a curious expression on her face, and said, "I think I can handle it. Lead on."

***

Devereux had been right, and she had been able to cope with the shock of seeing psychic powers for the first time. Barely. Her eyes had threatened to bug out of her head when they'd strolled into the Cargo Bay, and found Alyssa carefully psi-shaping two sections of armour plating for the Invictus. John walked over to join the young woman, and got to work on a fresh block of Crystal Alyssium, shaping it twice before handing it over to Alyssa for the third re-shaping.

Remaining quiet throughout, Admiral Devereux felt that same surge of trepidation, when seeing John calmly using telekinesis for the first time. The sense of fear was tempered by the sincere gratitude she felt towards him for saving her life, as well as intervening to stop Nexus from vaporising Terra. It didn't take her long to come to the realisation that John Blake was definitely someone the Terran Federation needed as an ally, and she became determined to do whatever she could to keep that alliance strong.

The next couple of hours flew by, as the crew rushed to complete their preparations for the drydock repairs. The loading lift made dozens of journeys up and down from Dana's Engineering Bay to the Cargo Bay, as various components were forged by the Mass fabricators. With John and Alyssa on hand to assist with the assembling, actually building the replacement engine had turned out to be the easy part. It transpired that having two people at your disposal, who could effortlessly manoeuvre multi-ton objects, did wonders for speeding up construction.

Seeing John stroll around with a two tonne fuel injection system in his arms, handily confirmed for Devereux that she had made the right decision. Let alone watching Alyssa positioning the engine frame for bonding, using only her mind.

Alyssa gave Jade a gentle reminder of the time, and the Nymph left the rest of the crew to finish their work in the Cargo Bay, and headed up to the Bridge. She was just in time to see the Invictus arrive in the Alpha-Centauri system, and she jogged down to the Pilot's Station as they dropped out of hyper-warp.

She sat down in her comfortable chair, then powered up the engines, and raced towards Olympus shipyard. The huge orbital base didn't seem quite so impressive now, not after seeing Genthalas shipyard in Maliri Space. As she stared at the massive Terran construction, a light flashed on her console, alerting her to an incoming communication. She pressed the button to accept the call, and the image of a smartly dressed Terran Federation officer appeared on the screen.

"Incoming assault cruiser, please identify yourself and your business at Olympus" a military communications officer requested politely.

"The Lion of the Federation on the Invictus, to see Vice Admiral Charles Harris," Jade replied, giving the young man a sparkling smile. She frowned, and added, "We took a few hits, so John needs a drydock for some repairs."

He gaped at her in astonishment, and she could hear furtive chatter from the man's colleagues in the Traffic Control room as they overheard her reply. He managed to rouse himself from his state of shock, and said, "Please approach Docking Bay Twelve, I'll inform Vice Admiral Harris of your imminent arrival."

Jade grinned and blew him a friendly kiss, making the young man blush before she ended the call. Ignoring port speed, she raced across the controlled space around the shipyard, then followed the green guide-path that brought the Invictus around to one of the vacant drydocks at the Olympus shipyard.

With most of the damaged shipping now in the Sol System, the only Terran vessels left in and around the drydock area, were in a terrible state. All that remained, were those ships that were too severely damaged to have been made spaceworthy in time to race to Terra's defence. Unfortunately there were still dozens of ships that fit that category, and Jade felt a little forlorn as she looked at the hideously wrecked spacecraft. Nearly all of them were crisscrossed with plasma burns, and she shuddered as she remembered being hounded in the Raptor by plasma toting fighters.

She brought the Invictus in to land at Docking Bay Twelve, just as she'd been instructed. Her sharp eyes picked out a Terran Officer on the other side of the drydock, and she squinted for a moment before recognising Charles waiting for them impatiently. She smiled at the thought of seeing him again, then took extra care while landing, making sure to avoid squashing John's old friend.

***

"We've landed," Alyssa said to John with a smile, sensing his excitement at seeing his old comrade again.

He grinned at her, took a remote out of his pocket, and hit the button. The Cargo Bay door began to open ponderously, and as the massive hull door lifted up into the ceiling, John could see his old Commanding Officer hurrying over to join them.

Charles jogged up the loading ramp into the Cargo Bay, and blinked in surprise to see Admiral Devereux standing there waiting for him. He threw her a quick salute which she returned, and blurted in surprise, "Lynette, what are you doing here?"

Admiral Devereux smiled at him, and said, "I'm sure Commodore Blake will fill you in." She turned to look at John, and added, "It's been quite the series of revelations today. Thank you, John, I meant what I said before."

"It was my pleasure," John replied, and the two exchanged a salute before she nodded to the two men and strode out from the Cargo Bay.

Charles turned back to look at John, his moustache quivering in anticipation as he blurted out, "Now, will you please tell me what the hell happened?!"

John grinned at his old friend, feeling a huge sense of relief at not having to treat him with an air of suspicion any more. "Let's go and have a drink, Charles. I think we've earned it," he said jovially.

"Hi Charles!" Alyssa exclaimed, before she glided over and gave him a tender kiss on the cheek.

He looked at her in surprise, and said, "It's lovely to see you again, my dear. What was that for?"

She winked as she said, "That was for sending the fleet. It really saved our butts!"

John glanced at Alyssa and thought to her, *Can you oversee the repairs and engine refit. I'll come down and help as soon as I can.*

*You two catch up,* she replied indulgently. *We're more than capable of handling the repairs without you to keep an eye on us.*

He smiled at her, and said, *I know, but...*

*But nothing,* she replied, making a shooing gesture. *Go and enjoy a good drink. You were right, you earned it!*

The other girls in the Cargo Bay greeted Charles with friendly waves and smiles, as John led him through the double doors and over to the grav-tube.

***

"Well I'll be damned," Charles muttered, in astonishment.

The two men were sitting in the Officers' Lounge, sharing a fine bottle of scotch that John had retrieved from behind the bar. Charles had been spellbound as he listened to his friend fill him in on recent events. John explained everything that had happened with Nexus, and how they'd stopped the rogue AI at the Moon, knocking out the Command ship, and deactivating the robotic fleet in one fell stroke.

Charles raised his glass in a trembling hand, and took a sip, before shaking his head in amazement. "I can hardly believe you did it, John," he marvelled. Looking at the younger man shrewdly, he said, "God only knows what kind of upgrades you've done to my ship to pull that off."

John laughed, and said, "Why does everyone keep trying to claim the Invictus! I bought her fair and square, you can't have her!"

With a broad grin on his face, Charles replied, "Ah, John, she was my first Command. I don't think I'll ever be able to let her go." He rubbed a hand over his drawn face, and chuckled, "I'm still struggling to believe you finally did it. I've been worrying about that damned AI for weeks now!"

"Yeah, you're looking tired," John replied, noting the worry lines creasing Charles' face.

Charles snorted, and said, "Seems like there's always something to worry about..."

After taking a deep drink of his whiskey, John breathed in, feeling the satisfying burn in his throat from the alcohol. He looked at Charles, and said, "I was actually heading this way before all the craziness with Nexus. I've got some good news, and bad news, depending on your perspective."

"Sounds ominous," Charles said with a sigh. After raising an eyebrow, he continued, "I'm feeling too happy to hear any bad news just yet. Tell me the good news first."

"I've got some more Tyrenium for you," John replied, grinning at the smile that lit up Charles' face.

Charles put down his drink, and leaned forwards, fingers interlocked, and asked, "How much have you got this time?"

"I'm selling twenty tonnes. I'm feeling too weary to haggle, so same price as last time?" he offered.

Charles' moustache twitched with amusement as he replied, "Last time it was six-hundred-million credits for twenty tonnes of Tyrenium and you threw in a Kirrix gunship. Have you been fighting bugs again?"

Shaking his head, John replied in all seriousness, "Haven't had the time. Been too busy saving ten billion Terran Federation citizens from an out-of-control, secret military AI experiment."

"Six-hundred-million it is!" Charles said cheerfully, raising his glass in toast.

John laughed, and said, "I'll drink to that."

The men grinned at each other, but Charles' smile slowly died, and he said, "Come on then, let's hear the bad news."

After a long moment which John spent studying his old friend, he said quietly, "I know what you've been looking into."

Charles nearly dropped his drink, and he stared at John in shock. "I d-don't know what you mean?" he finally stammered.

John smiled at him affectionately, and said, "You're a terrible liar, Charles. Fine, I'll go first then. The Dragon March traitor: I know you've had your suspicions, and you were right. Admiral Norwood has betrayed the Terran Federation, and has convinced a group of officers to follow him."

To avoid spilling his drink, Charles put it down on the table as carefully as he could with his hand trembling violently. He leaned forward, and hissed, "Have you lost your mind?! Anybody could be listening to this conversation!"

John shook his head, and held his arms up as he looked around the room, saying, "Trust me, there isn't a soul in the Terran Federation who could hack into this ship now. Anything we say is strictly between us."

Surprised by the absolute certainty in John's voice, Charles looked around, then nodded, saying, "I had a feeling in my gut that something wasn't right. The losses we've sustained are far worse than even the wildest, most pessimistic predictions..." He sagged back in his chair, and added, "But I freely admit, I'd never have thought Leonard Norwood would have been involved. I guess it's always the ones you'd least expect."

"Easier to blend in the more innocuous you are," John agreed with a shrug.

"So what's the plan then?" Charles asked eagerly. "I've seen the casualty reports on all those ships. I want that bastard to pay for what he did to those poor men."

"Don't worry, he'll get what's coming to him," John replied, his expression bleak as he gazed off into the distance. His face lightened a little with a smile as he added, "Admiral Devereux said she'd pull some strings to help us meet with the Fleet Admiral. We've gathered some convincing proof, so once we can show him that, it'll be all over."

"The big push in the Dragon March is happening very soon," Charles warned him. "They've been mustering fleets in that sector for weeks now, so it can't be long."

"As soon as the repairs are done, we'll be on our way," John replied. "It'll only take us a day to reach the Dragon March, then we can finally bring the bastard to justice."

"I'll drink to that," Charles said with a smile, repeating John's earlier words.

The two men downed the last of their drinks, finishing off their glasses of whiskey with their dark toast.

*You better wrap it up, we're nearly finished with the repairs,* Alyssa thought to John.

*Any problems?* he asked.

*Smooth sailing,* she replied with a light-hearted laugh. *We've patched the hull, and got the new engine fitted. She's looking as good as new.*

John smiled at his friend, and said, "It's been great to catch up with you again, Charles, but we need to be heading out in a couple of minutes. Calara's got family serving in the Dragon March, so there's personal stakes involved in this for us."

"I understand," Charles replied with a nod. He stood up, then hesitated for a moment, flushing with embarrassment as he continued, "I'm sorry about cracking up back there. I started falling apart, and you already had enough to deal with."

John reached out to clasp the older man on the shoulder with a firm hand, and said kindly, "Forget about it. You were under a tremendous amount of stress, and everyone has their breaking point."

Charles held out his hand, and John took it, shaking it firmly. "Exceptionally well done, John," Charles said with an approving nod.

They separated, then walked out of the Officers' Lounge on the way back to the grav-tube. They dropped down the levels in silence, and John could tell that Charles had plenty more he wanted to ask about, but they had run out of time. They strode out into the Cargo Bay, and John saw that twenty tonnes of the Tyrenium had already been moved out to sit on the deck of the Docking Bay.

Alyssa walked over to join them, smiling as she did so, and said via telepathy, *I heard you conclude the trade, so I unloaded the Tyrenium to save time.*

Charles noticed the ore containers as well, and glanced at John saying, "I'll authorise the transfer of funds as soon as I disembark."

"Thanks Charles," John replied appreciatively.

The other girls had all started to flock around them now, chattering away to Charles and asking him all sorts of questions. John could tell the older man was loving the attention from all the beautiful girls, but they couldn't afford to waste any time, and they needed to hit the spacelanes as soon as possible.

Charles sensed John's urgency, and he stepped out of the Cargo Bay, giving him a final salute before he left. "Best of luck," he said to them quietly, barely audible above the sound of hydraulics as the huge hull door began to seal closed.

John smiled at Charles, and the two men saluted each other respectfully. The crew turned away as a group when the door finally sealed shut with a hefty boom, and they strode towards the open doors out of the Cargo Bay. There were dozens of armour plates stacked neatly on the deck, and as John walked by, he could see the crumpled, blackened, and cracked plating that had protected the Invictus' hull.

"That one was too close," he muttered, stopping to stoop down and take a closer look at the torn up armour. It had been removed from the rear of the ship, and he could see how horrifically mangled it was, after being hit with three Heavy Cannon shells.

"Yeah, no more close shaves like that, please," Dana requested with an exuberant grin.

John slowly stood, looking around at the girls, and said, "You'll get no argument from me there." Dana and Rachel each linked arms with him, and as they walked out of the Cargo Bay together, John said to them, "I think it's well past bedtime."

Alyssa nodded, and slipped her arms around Calara and Irillith as she replied, "That's right, but we've got a victory to celebrate before anyone gets any funny ideas about sleeping."

***

Jade closed the comm channel, and the alert and enthusiastic Traffic Control Officer disappeared from the view screen. Now that the Nymph had clearance to depart, she carefully coaxed the Invictus off the deck of the drydock, retro-thrusters flaring as she gently increased the power. She eased the assault cruiser out in reverse, then brought up the nose, so that the Invictus was facing towards a clear section of space.

*We need you down here, Jade,* Alyssa thought to her in a teasing purr. *Everyone wants to thank you for being such an Ace pilot!*

Jade bit her lower lip in excitement, and flagrantly flouting port speed, she pushed her left hand forward on the throttle control, cranking up their speed to maximum. She nodded with satisfaction at the massive thrust from the four engines, full power restored to the Invictus once more. The Invictus roared away into the clear blackness of space, and she arced the ship around to head for the closest Nav beacon.

"You're in a hurry!" Faye remarked with a tinkling giggle.

The Nymph let out a dirty laugh, and replied, "You better believe it!"

***

Unbeknownst to the cheerful Bridge crew, when Jade reversed out of the drydock, a small invisible shuttle slipped off the upper levels of the shipyard, and drifted down to attach itself to the Invictus. The stealthy ship locked into position on the assault cruiser's docking collar, securely attaching itself before the Invictus roared away into the blackness of space. Inside the onyx-coloured vessel, a sarcophagus cracked open with a foreboding hiss, icy vapour swirling around the plinth as a dark figure stirred within.