Tashana bounced up and down, her eyes alight with excitement. "Valada must have built a secret bunker under the palace!"

"It certainly looks like it," John agreed, squinting in the direction of the study. "The lift shaft starts from a room concealed within the wall cavity."

"Let's go!" the Maliri archaeologist exclaimed, turning on her heel to rush to the study.

John caught her hand and pulled her back. "Hold on a second. I know you're excited but we need to be careful; Valada might have rigged all sorts of traps to stop anyone from breaking into her secret bunker... if that really is what's down there."

She paused and gave him a bashful smile. "You're right. We should wear Paragon armour while we explore."

"Definitely," he agreed, before glancing at their captivated audience. "Before we go spelunking, there's one last order of business we need to conclude with our guests. I want to know who won the quiz!"

Alyssa rose to her feet and Rachel handed her a tablet. "We've tallied up the results and there was a clear winner for each contest. For the matriarchs, with an astonishing 48 out of 50 correct answers, the winner was... Faranise Eshenestria!"

The young Maliri looked thrilled, her face lighting up in anticipation.

"Do you want to tell her what she won?" the blonde asked her Maliri counterpart.

"Congratulations, Faranise," Edraele said with a warm smile, beckoning her to join them. "Your prize is a state visit from Lord Baen'thelas to your homeworld. This will be his first public appearance as official leader of the Maliri, so we want to broadcast the event across the entire Protectorate!"

Faranise gasped in astonishment, her eyes locking with John as she beamed with joy. She ran into his open arms and let out an elated laugh as he twirled her around.

John set the overjoyed young woman back on her feet and exclaimed, "Congratulations, honey! I can't wait to see your home."

"I can't believe it!" she gushed. "There's so much I need to plan to make this perfect!"

"Don't worry, we'll give you plenty of assistance," Edraele said, giving her a congratulatory hug.

The rest of the matriarchs were doing their best to hide their disappointment with varying degrees of success.

Edraele turned and gave the despondent Maliri a look of sympathy. "There's no need to look so heartbroken. The trip to Eshenestria will be the first of many official state visits that Baen'thelas will be making."

"Eventually, I'd like to visit all of your homeworlds," John explained, smiling as he saw the matriarchs perk up at this announcement. "I want to see for myself where each of you grew up and spend that time really getting to know you."

The atmosphere in the dining room changed in an instant, with all of the matriarchs now picturing themselves showing Baen'thelas their homes and introducing him to their people.

Putting his arm around Faranise's shoulders in a sideways hug, John glanced at Alyssa. "So who won the Lioness contest?"

"Well... first of all, the prize for the Lionesses is a date with you... where the winner gets to plan out your day together. I volunteered to sit this one out, as did Rachel and Sparks."

"Really?" John asked, looking at the trio in surprise.

Alyssa brushed his hand with her fingertips. "We had our special evening in the Lagoon."

"And we had that amazing picnic together on Arcadia," Rachel replied with a fond smile.

John raised an eyebrow when he saw Dana's pout.

"Blondie said I was banned!" she protested indignantly. "She reckons I've been hogging too much of your time already!"

"That's probably true, Sparks," John admitted, giving her a conciliatory smile. "I'm sorry you missed out on a chance at a date. We'll still be working together a lot on the tech upgrades, but keeping you topped up won't exactly be romantic."

She broke into a delighted grin. "Yeah, that's a real shame. It was totally the romance I was missing."

Alyssa rolled her eyes at her friend. "It wouldn't have made any difference if I had let you join in. The lady in question was highly motivated to win." She turned to meet the look of eager anticipation from a pair of dark-brown eyes. "Congratulations, Sakura... you deserved this."

The former assassin padded across the dining room and into John's arms. "I wasn't taking any chances," she admitted with a playful smile. "I probably should apologise to the matriarchs for interrogating them."

John brushed her jet-black hair away from her lovely face, then cupped the back of her head and gave the Asian girl a tender kiss. "Alyssa's right, you really do deserve this. I can't wait to spend some time alone with you."

"I hoped you'd win. We all owe you a huge debt of gratitude for the way you supported John when he needed you the most," Edraele said earnestly, leaning in to kiss Sakura on the cheek. She stepped back from the blushing girl and smiled wistfully at her wards. "Now that we have our winners, I'm afraid that's our cue to leave, ladies. Baen'thelas and the Lionesses will be scouring the palace for artefacts left behind by Valada, and for safety reasons, the rest of us will be returning to Genthalas."

The matriarchs reluctantly rose from their seats and each thanked their hosts for the wonderful party before departing from the dining room. Edraele was the last to leave and as John finished saying his goodbyes to the noblewomen, he reached out to clasp the Maliri Queen's hand.

"The last few days have been amazing, Edraele," he said sincerely. "Thank you for making such an incredible effort to make us all feel at home."

"Did it work?" she asked, turning to face him with an affectionate smile.

"It really did. I've been roaming among the stars for years now, and it's just not the same as having a planet you can call your own. I felt like I could actually settle down here with you and the girls... and that's not something I've been fortunate enough to experience before."

"That's all I wanted," she said softly, giving him a tender kiss. "To give you a glimpse of the future you could have with all of us... when you're finally free from your duties and obligations."

"It was a lovely vision. Definitely something worth striving for," John agreed, giving her a grateful hug. "I'll see you later this evening, honey. Have a safe flight back to Genthalas."

"I'll look forward to your return, my Lord," Edraele said, then waved goodbye to the girls and glided away. Her faithful bodyguard was waiting at the doorway and Luna fell into step beside her as they left the room.

There were several servants clearing up after breakfast and John spotted the majordomo watching over proceedings. "Good morning, Yelamha," he greeted the senior servant. "We're planning on investigating what might be a concealed facility underneath the palace. Please could you gather the staff and have them accompany us to the Invictus; I'd like to make sure you're all safe in case we accidentally trigger any defences."

She acknowledged his order with a respectful bow. "Of course, John. We'll join you immediately."

"Thanks," John said before turning to his Lionesses, who were all ready to depart. "Alright, let's head back to the Invictus."

"Everyone's curious to see what's under the palace," Alyssa informed him, as they took the gilded steps down to the subterranean passage that led to the hangar. "Who do you want to take with us?"

The way Alyssa framed the question made it quite clear that she would be one of the girls accompanying him.

"There won't be enough room in the elevator to bring the whole team," he replied, thinking about the skills they might require. "We'll definitely need Tashana as she's the most familiar with ancient Maliri facilities. If there is a secret bunker down there, we should try to avoid using brute force to break in; I don't want to accidentally destroy anything useful inside. That means we'll need Dana and Irillith to crack any defences... and we should probably take Rachel with us as well, just in case anyone gets hurt."

There were mild groans of disappointment from those girls that John hadn't mentioned.

"The rest of you can have a look around as soon as we're sure it's safe," he said, giving them a reassuring smile.

When they reached the hangar housing the Invictus, the battlecruiser's airlock door was already open. Daphne was waiting for them outside and greeted the returning crew with a friendly wave.

"Hey, Daph," Dana said, giving the synthetic girl a quick hug as she reached the airlock. "I hope your boys got a good rest, we've got a shitload of work to do!"

"They'll be delighted to hear that, Dana," the automaton replied, sounding greatly relieved. "I've received 22784 queries from the maintenance robots asking if you were back on the Invictus yet."

She laughed and patted Daphne on the shoulder. "It won't be long before they start begging you for some time off. You already know I'm planning a massive refit for the Invictus, but we also need to build a few dozen Paragon suits." The redhead glanced at John and added, "I'm guessing you want to keep the matriarchs as safe as possible, right?"

He nodded in confirmation. "Definitely. We'll be heading to Genthalas this evening, so we can restock on all the materials we need for Crystal Alyssium."

"There's no need to restock, father," Daphne interjected, accompanying John through the airlock. "Maliri freighters have delivered substantial quantities of raw materials over the past three days. The cargo bay is now fully loaded with ore crates."

"That's great news," John said, entering the Secondary Hangar with the synthetic girl at his side. *Thanks, Edraele. That was good thinking.*

*I thought it prudent to resupply the Invictus while you were preoccupied with the matriarchs. Based on your past history, there was a very high likelihood that you'd need to depart in a hurry to deal with yet another emergency.*

*Yeah, that's usually the way it goes,* he conceded with a wry smile.

"You're in charge until we get back, Captain Fernandez," John said to Calara. "Please make the palace staff feel at home until it's safe for them to return."

"Of course. We'll be glad to return their hospitality," the Latina replied, with the rest of the girls echoing their agreement.

She leaned in to give him a kiss. "Good luck! I hope you find something useful."

"Yeah, me too," he agreed, knowing how much was riding on them finding Mael'nerak's hyper-warp gate to secure Larn'kelnar's fleets.

John followed Dana into the express grav-tubes and soared up through the decks to the Armoury. The twins had already donned suits of Paragon armour and were now stepping away from the armour-equipping frames to retrieve their guns from the weapon racks. With the quiet hum of robotic arms sliding Crystal Alyssium plates into place, John, Alyssa, Dana, and Rachel were soon similarly attired and reaching for their own weapons.

By the time they returned to the hangar, wide-eyed Maliri servants were being welcomed aboard the Invictus by Calara and the rest of the girls. They waved him goodbye as John set off towards Saelihn Immanthe and whatever secrets might lay hidden beneath its ancient foundations.

"So how do we get in there?" Dana asked, when they returned to the study.

Rachel studied the imposing fireplace that dominated the northern wall. "I believe tradition dictates that we're supposed to pull a candlestick on the mantelpiece? Or press a hidden button on the engravings?"

"No candlesticks... and no engravings," Alyssa said, turning to frown at the twins. "This isn't fair. Your great-grandmother isn't playing by the secret door rules!"

Irillith rolled her eyes at their banter. "John, can you see the outline for a doorway?"

"It's right here," he replied, his eyes glowing with a deep blue light as he traced the edges with an armoured fingertip. John pointed to a nondescript section of the wall that was a little lower than his head height. "I can also see some kind of mechanism off to the side..."

"Maybe it's a retinal scanner? It's perfectly positioned for it," Dana suggested, drawing a direct line from her eye-level to the centre of the device. "Can you see any cabling leading from there? We might be able to find the switch that activates the scanner."

John squinted at the wall, then followed an embedded cable around to a window overlooking the grounds. The cabling snaked up the golden frame to the top, ending beneath an engraved cornice. "It stops right here."

Tashana had eagerly followed his progress and she stood on tip-toe to firmly press the cornice. "Allow me!"

It sank into the wall with a satisfying click, then a panel slid back beside the concealed door.

"Nice," John said with a look of surprise. "How did you know how to activate it?"

"I'm guessing that this leads to Valada's panic room," the Maliri archaeologist replied as they walked back to the doorway. "If she built this to survive a planetary bombardment by a Progenitor, she'd need to be able to access it quickly."

Dana leaned over to study the gleaming golden panel, while being careful to avoid triggering the retinal scanner. "Do you want me to try hotwiring this thing? I might be able to bypass the identification signal."

Irillith quickly shook her head. "Let me try. If I can locate the data repository, I can use Valada's personal records to replicate her retinal scan and grant us full access."

"Go for it," Dana replied, stepping out of the way.

With a violet light blazing in her eyes, the Maliri hacker studied the featureless wall before her. Now that she knew where to look, Irillith was able to clearly make out the digital access point integrated into the retinal scanner and the data stream that trailed away from view. She took a deep breath and focused her will inwards, peeling away her spirit form and fully immersing herself in the Cyber-Realm.

The study lit up with virulent colours, as data streams from Saelihn Immanthe's open network flowed overhead. A data probe launched across those feeds was unable to locate the retinal scanner, confirming Irillith's suspicions that it was located on an isolated subnet. She approached the access port and hijacked the data stream, letting herself be drawn into this completely new network.

As the momentary disorientation faded, her eyes snapped open and Irillith found herself hovering a few inches above a glimmering golden platform. Data paths stretched away into the distance from the starting node, but deeper access to the network was blocked by a translucent barrier. She immediately recognised the obstacle, despite it being ancient in design, as it shared the same rudimentary traits as the firewalls used throughout the Maliri Protectorate.

Irillith prepared a logic probe and began interrogating the barrier, searching for weaknesses that she could exploit to slip into the network undetected. She began her patient vigil, but it only took a few moments for the probe to emit a satisfying chime. The device had found a redundancy loop in the code, which could be triggered to create an error that would momentarily deactivate the barrier. The hacker shook her head at the sloppy coding, having anticipated that breaking through the firewall would be a long and arduous process.

She triggered the error loop and the barrier flickered for a second before it vanished, granting her uninhibited access to the network. Irillith glided ahead, sailing smoothly across the data platform, then launched a score of probes to search for the archive containing the optical records for the scanner. Her programs sailed out into the Cyber-realm, following streams of data to the brightly lit nodes that illuminated the deeper reaches of the network.

With her eyes locked on her status display, Irillith watched as the team of digital spies began to search for their quarry. The structure of the network was fairly rudimentary, with a dozen interconnected nodes arrayed in a simple subnet. Her probes were careful to avoid detection as they tried to locate the security archive and only scanned the surface index of any repositories they found. One of the probes soon reported success and emitted a tracking signal that led directly into the centre of the network.

Irillith followed that path, pleased at how quickly she was making progress. She felt a momentary flicker of doubt, that perhaps this was all just a bit too easy... but repeated status checks with her probes showed no signs of any internal defences. Soaring above the glowing paths that connected the nodes, she noticed that the network shared many similarities with Maliri training simulations, being simple and straightforward in design. Judging by the lack of sophistication, she concluded that this golden network must have been built in the years after Mael'nerak had abandoned Valada, programmed by one of the Maliri he had left behind.

Upon reaching the highlighted data repository, Irillith delved deeper into the security archive to find the optical records. She located the relevant file and found Valada's iris pattern, then transmitted that data to the retinal scanner, which immediately acknowledged her identity. Smiling in satisfaction that the whole process had been so painless, Irillith was about to exit the archive when she noticed an intriguing file. She accessed the data log and found thousands of records tracking Valada's visits to the facility; the entries started 10,097 years ago and spanned the next two centuries.

Eager to share her discoveries, Irillith withdrew from the archive, then let out a startled cry as her levitation abruptly cut out and she stumbled to the floor. Blinking in surprise, she tried to ascend once again, but remained standing on the golden platform. A quick check of her passive subroutines showed that the network had established an artificial gravity, the environmental constraint overriding her ability to fly. As she was reeling from that shocking revelation, Irillith felt an unsettling sensation of dread, the oppressive sensation akin to being confined against her will in a tiny room.

Her surroundings suddenly began to glitch, the visual data flickering and melting away. It seemed like the entire network was being plunged into a nightmare, as the gleaming golden platforms were revealed to actually be sinister black ledges, the bright lights replaced by a ghastly crimson pall. It was a setting she knew all too well, having encountered a Progenitor network on Larn'kelnar's dreadnought.

Irillith stumbled backwards across the platform, and summoned a sphere of hexagons into existence around her, the protective field crackling with arcs of electricity. She activated her defences just in time, as a pair of massive onyx sentinels emerged from the gloom, rising higher until they towered above her. Panels had slid back to expose huge gun barrels, the formidable looking weapons tracking her as she turned and fled.

*What the hell's going on?!* Alyssa demanded, her voice edged with worry. *Are you okay?*

There was a dull boom and a purple beam lanced out of the darkness to obliterate the platform behind Irillith. Jagged fragments exploded outwards and her hex-shield was pounded by a dozen heavy impacts, the hexagons shattering with the force of each blow. She quickly reinforced her glowing barrier then ran for her life, weaving from side to side to avoid being hit.

*It was a trap!* Irillith cried out in alarm. *I'm trying to get out!*

Virulent purple streams lanced past on either side of her as she sprinted back down the pathway, the height differential between herself and the sentinels making her a hard target to hit. The downside was that those blasts kept striking the data path, blowing huge holes in the connecting ribbon that she was forced to leap across to keep going. She reached the next platform and a new barrier materialised into existence, blocking her escape route. Irillith slammed into the security gate and darted a fearful glance over her shoulder, to see the Sentinels bearing down on her current position.

The Maliri hacker looked up at the imposing obstacle and realised that it was a mirror of the bewilderingly complex node wall she'd encountered on Larn'kelnar's dreadnought. Irillith saw a flickering hex-shield protecting the portal and one missing hexagon that shifted in the blink of an eye to another point on the barrier. With no need to covertly breach the code this time, she ordered her double-pronged data probe to burrow its way to the access subroutine she'd previously exploited, and prayed that this barrier had the same vulnerability.

A blast from a sentinel forced Irillith to leap to one side, the column of energy slamming into the hex-shield behind her. She glanced back at the wall, hoping that the sentinel might have blasted a hole in it, but the formidable shield absorbed the hit without buckling. Irillith had to dodge another shot from the second sentinel, scrambling to safety as a deep boom echoed around the Cyber-realm. The probe chimed in triumph and the wall flickered for a second before dissipating, letting her dart across the platform towards the final data path.

Irillith renewed her frantic escape, running as fast as she could towards the starting platform. The firewall had reformed and now blocked her exit from the network, forcing Irillith to summon another logic probe to activate the backdoor trigger. It rushed ahead of her to begin interrogating the firewall, searching through the code for the same redundancy loop. As she caught up with the device, it reported an almost instantaneous failure, unable to make any progress on the task it had been assigned.

Irillith took one look at the code it had encountered and felt a shiver of fear run down her spine. The simplistic code had disappeared, just like the golden platforms that existed there when she first entered this network. In its place was staggeringly complex three-dimensional subroutines, and she knew from frustrated experience just how difficult it was to even interpret that code, let alone find a vulnerability she could exploit. Instead of just one rotating hex-barrier protecting the firewall there were a dozen, each stacked layer of defences rotating in opposite directions.

*Are you in trouble? Do you need more power?* Alyssa asked, her voice now calm and steady.

Before Irillith could answer, she was knocked sprawling as her shield took a direct hit, the dome bowing inwards as it struggled to contain the energy of that deadly blast. With her heart hammering in her chest, she poured huge amounts of power into her hex-shield, desperately reinforcing hexagons that were cracking under the strain. Abruptly the beam cut out and she staggered to her feet, then was forced to leap aside to narrowly avoid a blast from the second sentinel.

*Focus, Irillith!* Alyssa barked at the terrified hacker. *Do you need more power?*

Irillith darted a frightened glance at the probe's status panel and was dismayed to see that it was totally overwhelmed by the radically advanced code.

*Yes! Give me everything you can!* she gasped in desperation.

Irillith felt her connection to Alyssa being thrown wide open, then the usual flow of energy to her matriarch abruptly reversed. Eldritch power coursed down that link like a lightning strike, the sizzling influx of energy electrifying every sinew of her body. The Maliri let out a strangled shriek, her senses overloaded with an intoxicating surge of euphoria that swept through her mind.

Arcs of power crackled down her body and Irillith laughed in delight as she rose into the air, runic glyphs overwriting the environmental constraints that had anchored her to the ground. She gestured towards the barrier and a dazzling bolt blasted out from her fingertip to strike the rotating hex-shields. Electricity crawled across the outer barrier, then surged through the gap in the hexagons, like a ferret invading a rabbit warren. It ripped through layer after layer, obliterating each one in succession until all of the hex shields had been burnt out. The barrier disintegrated in a dazzling explosion of violet motes, leaving nothing impeding Irillith's exit from the network.

There was movement in her peripheral vision as two more sentinels closed on the platform from the flanks. Irillith knew that she should flee while she could, but she was giddy with power, and felt an overwhelming urge to strike back at the sentinels that had hounded every step of her retreat from the network. Another blast struck her shield, but this time the barrier didn't waver, the hexagons sparking in fury as they repelled the attack.

"It's my turn now..." she growled, her lip curling into a wicked smile.

With electricity crackling over her fingertips, she thrust her hands towards the closest sentinel and unleashed a massive bolt of lightning, the jagged stroke hitting it dead centre. Dancing arcs spread out across its hulking frame, making its targeting lights flicker wildly. Acrid smoke poured from its cracked frame in grey pixelated blocks, then the sentinel emitted an anguished whine as it tilted over. The security program crashed through the data pathway between the platforms, then sank out of sight into the murky gloom below.

Irillith grinned in triumph, then turned her vengeful gaze on the other three sentinels. They paused in their pursuit as if shocked by her devastating assault on their cohort, then began a hasty retreat, reversing course and descending into the darkness that had concealed them. With her way clear, Irillith nodded in satisfaction and stepped back through the gateway to emerge from the secret subnet. She let her spirit form be drawn back to her body, then inhaled deeply as the reunification was complete.

"Are you alright?" John asked with concern.

She nodded, opening her eyes to look up at him with excitement and relief. "It was a trap, but I managed to fight my way out!"

The Maliri hacker quickly explained everything that had transpired in the Cyber-realm, and her elation at managing to defeat one of the Progenitor Sentinels.

John patted her on the shoulder. "You did an incredible job, well done."

"Thanks!" Irillith gushed, before hugging Alyssa. "I couldn't have done it without you! Holding that much power was such a rush!"

"I could feel how frightened you were when the sentinels attacked. I'm just glad you weren't hurt," the blonde replied, returning her smile.

Irillith glanced at the secret doorway which was now wide open. "After I triggered the door mechanism, I found the archived entry logs. The records showed that Valada entered here thousands of times, so there must be something very important down there."

"Awesome!" Dana said with a grin. "Hopefully there's a map to Kythshara!"

"Shall we get started?" Tashana asked impatiently, peering into the concealed room beyond.

John glanced at Rachel, then frowned at her pensive expression. "You're very quiet. What's the matter?"

The brunette studied Irillith for a moment. "Something about this doesn't add up. You said that breaking into the subnet was easy, but when you triggered the sentinel ambush, trying to hack the barriers blocking your escape was nearly impossible?"

The hacker nodded. "That's right. The first barrier was identical to the one I deactivated on Larn'kelnar's dreadnought and the last one was probably built by Mael'nerak himself. The code was incredibly complex and very similar to Faye's core programming. If Alyssa hadn't charged me up with power, I never would've been able to break out of there."

"But why wasn't the retinal scanner data protected by one of the most sophisticated barriers?" Rachel asked, before pointing to the open doorway. "Which then makes me wonder why you were allowed to open the door and why is it still open? You triggered an alarm; surely that should've locked down the facility?"

Irillith froze, a look of consternation on her face. "Shit!"

"What's wrong?" John asked the deflating Maliri.

"Rachel's right, this wasn't just a simple trap designed to kill invaders," Irillith glumly admitted. "The only reason I can think of for escalating the complexity of the defences, is if they were testing my abilities to prepare measures to counter them. Now I think about it, the sentinels missed with 90% of their shots; they must've just been toying with me."

"You make it sound like they're thinking for themselves," Dana said, looking at her curiously. "The sentinels protecting the Invictus aren't self-aware are they?"

Irillith hesitated, then shook her head. "I... don't think so. I've reviewed their code and it's incredibly advanced, but nowhere near the complexity of Faye's core programming."

Dana's eyes lit up with excitement. "Maybe they've evolved, like the Collective!"

"Hold on, let's not get carried away with wild speculation," John said, before he gestured towards the darkened doorway. "Why don't we just head down there and see what we can find?"

The Maliri hacker grimaced and gave him a guilt-ridden look. "I made a terrible mess of infiltrating the network. If there are physical defences, I'm sure they'll all be on high alert now."

He placed his hand on her shoulder and looked the despondent Maliri in the eyes. "From what you've told us, it sounds highly likely that Mael'nerak designed this network. He spent tens-of-thousands of years perfecting his skills in programming and it would be absurd for me to expect you to counter traps designed at that level of expertise. Don't be upset about what happened in the subnet... look at this as an opportunity to learn from a master."

Irillith blinked in surprise, then broke into a smile. "You're right... this is an incredible opportunity!"

"John, what're we going to do if there are active defences down there?" Dana asked, darting a worried glance at the door.

He unslung his sword and the runes along the blade began to shine with a fierce blue light. "Then we deal with them like we would any other threat. Let's go and see what brought Valada back here so many times."

With the runeblade lighting the way, John strode through the door and into the concealed room. The smooth floor was featureless, showing no sign of any entryway for the lift that they all knew must be there.

"I can see the outline for the elevator shaft," John said, gesturing with his blade. He raised the tip towards a section on the wall. "And there's a device hidden there."

Tashana activated the external lights on her Paragon suit, then stepped closer to study the wall. "Is it another retinal scanner?"

"No, it looks different... simpler," he explained, studying it with his enhanced vision.

The Maliri archaeologist paused with a thoughtful look on her face, then tapped the left side in a staccato sequence before pushing down on the right. There was a click and a hum, then a square section of the floor sank an inch into the ground. At the same time, a panel emerged from the floor, rising up to hand height from the corner of the elevator.

"How the hell did you know how to do that?" Dana marvelled, staring at her in awe.

"There's a hidden bunker beneath mother's palace in Melfalas that uses exactly the same method to open it," Tashana explained. "Valada must have designed it to mirror this one."

Irillith approached the raised panel and studied the glyphs. "Up and down," she said with a shrug. "Looks straightforward enough."

"Alright then," John said, walking over to the elevator. "Everyone activate flight mode on your Paragon suits. If Mael'nerak has trapped the lift shaft we don't want to take any chances."

The girls moved into position beside him and after a nod from John, Irillith tapped the appropriate rune. There was a soft chime, then the platform began to descend, gradually picking up speed as the seconds rolled by.

"500 metres below surface level," Dana called out, reading their depth from her suit's HUD.

"1000..."

"1500..."

"2000..."

"Why so deep?" Rachel asked quietly as they continued their descent.

"Maybe to keep Valada safe from an orbital bombardment?" John suggested, before glancing at Dana. "How long would it take a dreadnought to blast a hole this deep?"

Her brow furrowed as she considered the variables. "Firing a Quantum Devastator this close to the surface wouldn't be practical, so they'd have to rely on Quantum Flux Cannons. They'd also have to blast a really wide hole to stop landslides from backfilling any progress they made. It wouldn't be easy... at least half-an-hour."

"Which would give Valada plenty of time to evacuate by an escape tunnel," Tashana said, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

Dana glanced at her HUD again. "2500."

"This place wouldn't protect her if they destroyed the planet," Alyssa said softly.

"If an invading Progenitor brought a Quantum Annihilator to Valaden, the Maliri would be doomed anyway," John said, his expression grim.

"We know that Mael'nerak dismantled his and buried it in Terra's moon," Tashana said thoughtfully. "I wonder what happened to your father's Quantum Annihilator? He must have had one to destroy all those Trankaran worlds."

John's expression darkened further. "I don't know... he never told me."

Tashana heard his bleak tone and flushed with embarrassment. She reached for him and said, "I'm sorry, John. I was just thinking aloud.... I didn't mean to upset you."

He shook his head and gave her a strained smile. "There's nothing to apologise for. Rahn'hagon obliterated billions of people... he'll get what's coming to him eventually."

"3000 metres," Dana declared, shaking her head in awe. "Holy shit! I wonder how deep this goes?"

Before anyone could answer, the elevator noticeably slowed, before smoothly stopping in a large room.

"I think you have your answer," Rachel murmured, sweeping her suit's shoulder-mounted lights across the objects concealed in the gloom.

"The architecture is different down here," Tashana noted, an edge of excitement to her voice as she studied the arched columns supporting the engraved ceiling. "I've seen this style before... in the recruitment facility where I found Valada's message warning future generations about Progenitors."

"You mean the hacking deck?" Irillith asked, giving Dana a meaningful look.

"Holy shit!" the redhead exclaimed, her eyes widening. "Maybe there's another one here? We could use it to bring back Faye!"

John patted her on the shoulder. "Easy... don't get your hopes up just yet. Let's keep our eyes open and see what we find."

"It looks like there are two ways out," Rachel said, having completed her sweep of the room. "This main passage here and another over there."

Tashana glanced at each, then frowned and walked over to the smaller tunnel. "This was built much later. You can see where they excavated through the original masonry."

"Which way first?" Rachel asked, turning to look at John.

"Let's take a look at this new addition," he said, standing beside Tashana and gazing down the darkened passageway. "If it was built later, it might be a way of circumventing the facility's defences."

The girls began to follow him, until Dana paused and looked back over her shoulder. "C'mon Alyssa, stop dawdling," she said with a cheerful grin, which froze when she saw the look on her friend's face. "Hey, what's wrong?!"

"Valada..." Alyssa murmured, her expression one of profound sympathy. "She was heartbroken..."

"Psychic echoes?" John asked, moving to check on her. "Is it bad?"

"They're a lot stronger down here," she whispered, her cerulean eyes welling up. "I've felt this pain before... but nothing compared to her suffering."

"When we were cut off from John?" Rachel asked, putting an arm around the blonde.

Alyssa nodded and let out a mournful sigh. "I don't know how she survived it."

"Maybe you should head back to the Invictus," John said, looking at her with concern.

"No, I'm staying... I'll be alright," she insisted, giving him a brave smile. "It's just... what Valada went through hits a bit too close to home. Mael'nerak cut her off, then sacrificed himself to protect her, leaving Valada to live without him for hundreds of years. Even thinking about losing you is horrible, but she actually went through my worst nightmare."

"I'll never do that to you, I promise," John said, removing his helmet then hers to give Alyssa a reassuring kiss. "Just let me know if it becomes unbearable down here. We can take a break, or figure something else out... but I don't want you upsetting yourself trying to be stoic... okay?"

"Alright," she agreed, giving him a hug before replacing her Paragon helmet.

They headed into the tunnel, which proceeded for twenty metres before ending in a T-junction. There was nothing but murky darkness to the left, but directly ahead, the beams from John's searchlights picked up the alluring glint of gold.

"Let's take a closer look," John suggested, continuing onwards towards the gleaming reflection ahead.

The passageway continued straight for thirty metres and ended with a very familiar golden doorway.

"This looks just like one of the doors in mother's palace," Tashana murmured, brushing her armoured fingertips across its surface.

"It's not opening automatically like Maliri doors normally do," Dana interjected, studying the sealed portal with a frown. "Can you see any hidden mechanisms, John?"

"Yeah, right there," he replied, pointing towards the centre of the door at head-height. "It looks similar to the retinal scanner upstairs... but there are some differences."

Alyssa grimaced and placed a hand on John's shoulder. "The echoes are much stronger here. Valada visited this place a lot... I can see her image over and over again."

"Alright, let's come back later and check out the other tunnel first," John said, clasping Alyssa's hand and leading her back to the T-junction.

The tunnel leading to the golden door had masonry walls and paved floors, but the adjoining one was hewn directly out of the rock. They began exploring the other passage, which continued onwards for fifty metres before widening into a much larger excavation. For the second time, John's searchlights reflected off something in the gloom, but this time it shone with a pale white light instead of the previous golden glow.

"What the fuck is that doing down here?" Dana blurted out, staring in disbelief at the glistening white metal.

"Is that... Crystal Alyssium?" John marvelled, darting a shocked glance at the redhead.

"It sure as shit looks like it," Dana muttered, a dour expression on her face as she reached for her scanner.

Dana walked around several large machines of Maliri construction and approached the wall. She began to scan the mysterious metal, her frown deepening as the seconds rolled by.

"Fucking useless piece of crap!" she suddenly snarled, twisting to hurl the scanner into the darkness.

"Whoa!" John exclaimed, astonished by her irate reaction. "What the hell?"

"Why are you so bent out of shape, babes?" Rachel asked, her voice calm and soothing as she put her arm around her girlfriend.

"Do you know how many hours I put into researching the formula for Crystal Alyssium?!" Dana exclaimed, clenching her fists in indignant fury. "It was the one thing I was sure had nothing to do with Progenitors and I'd actually created it by myself... but no, apparently I had to be led by the fucking nose through that as well!"

John turned to look at the flawless white surface which still looked as new as the day it was made, which he knew must have been at least 10,000 years ago. "Do you know how many times Mael'nerak folded the metal?"

Dana gave him a guilty look. "I dunno, I couldn't get a proper reading. The structure is crystalline alright, but the scanner readings were all fucked up."

"So this might not be Crystal Alyssium after all?" he asked, turning to face his Chief Engineer.

She snorted and waved a hand at the wall, with its distinctive glistening white sheen. "Of course not. It's just a total fluke that it looks exactly the same, right? What are you always telling us about coincidences?"

"Hey, there's no need for sarcasm," John said, meeting her troubled gaze. "We all know how hard you worked on Crystal Alyssium and I understand how frustrated you must feel. You were justifiably proud of what you'd accomplished, but finding this doesn't make the slightest bit of difference towards the respect I have for your intellect and expertise."

She blushed and looked down in contrition. "I'm sorry, John... I didn't mean to take it out on you."

"That's okay," he replied, pulling her into a hug. "Exactly how you developed Crystal Alyssium isn't important. It was all an invaluable learning experience, which you're definitely going to need to rely on to research tech beyond anything Progenitors have developed."

Dana nodded and gave him a bashful smile. "Yeah... you're right. Sorry I had a meltdown."

"You're forgiven... but I am going to have to tan that ass until it's the same colour as your hair," he said, playfully smacking her armoured rump.

She laughed, an impish sparkle in her eyes once more. "Maybe I should throw my toys out of the pram more often!"

Alyssa walked away in the direction Dana had hurled her scanner and quickly found it with the help of the powerful lamps attached to her Paragon suit.

"Here's your naughty scanner, I think it's learned its lesson now," she said, smirking as she returned the device. "Do you want to give it another try?"

Reattaching the scanner to her belt, Dana shook her head. "Nah, it won't work; I don't think the scanner's powerful enough to penetrate the metal's surface. There is something else I can try though..."

She handed her Tachyon rifle to Rachel, then turned back towards the wall and focused her will inwards. Dana tapped into her psychic reserves, eager to find out the composition of this mysterious metal... but nothing happened. She frowned and tried again, but no matter how hard she strained, her psychic abilities were completely unresponsive.

"I'm being blocked!" the redhead gasped in surprise.

"There must be a psychic dampening device inside," Tashana murmured, placing her hand on the wall. "I can't access my abilities either."

John glanced at the rest of the girls, who quickly checked to see if they'd also been affected. Irillith, Alyssa, and Rachel then shook their heads as they realised that they'd been rendered powerless too.

"I can't even use telepathy," Alyssa said in a hushed voice, unsettled by the eerie silence.

"What about you, John?" Rachel asked, looking at him curiously.

He closed his eyes and tried to access his innate psychic abilities, but it felt like fumbling to light a torch while being submerged in molasses.

"You're being suppressed too?" the brunette asked when she saw his expression shift into a frown.

"Yes... but this is different from before," he replied, driving the point of his sword into the ground and leaning on the pommel of his runeblade as he steadied his breathing. "Just give me a moment."

Clearing his mind of distractions, John focused on the unlit torch he'd pictured in his subconscious. Falling into a familiar Zen state, he felt sharper now, and the cloying field that had trapped him in its grasping clutches started to lose its tenacious hold on him. He fought even harder, revelling in the sense of elation and freedom that brought, letting him surge towards his destination. With his arm outstretched, he touched the torch with a fingertip and it blazed to life, brilliant blue flames roaring upwards in response to his psychic call.

And just like that the barrier snapped, freeing him from its insidious clutches.

John let out a shuddering breath, then opened his eyes, and was delighted to see his runeblade swathed in the same azure blaze as the torch he'd ignited in his mind.

"Holy shit!" Dana stared at him wide-eyed. "You actually beat it!"

He studied the dancing flames until he extinguished them with the blink of an eye. "On Larn'kelnar's dreadnought I couldn't even sense the dampening field, but this time I was actually able to picture it stifling my psychic abilities. It wasn't easy to break free, but when I was able to visualise the problem, I could fight against its effects."

"We all suspected that defeating your guide and unifying your mind had made you stronger, but this is definitive proof," Rachel said, smiling at him in admiration.

John nodded, then turned to look at the wall. "Maybe I can just hack my way through..."

"Hold on," Tashana objected, holding up her hand. "I thought we were going to only use brute force as a last resort?"

"The Maliri obviously tried it but didn't get anywhere," Dana noted, jerking her thumb towards the ancient machinery. "If I'm not mistaken, that's a cutting beam, and that one over there is a diamond-edged drill. It looks like they exposed this side of the bunker and were trying to break inside, but I can't even see any burns or scratches on the wall. It must be as tough as old boots!"

"Shall I see if I can at least make a dent in it?" he suggested, glancing around at the girls.

"Yeah, go for it!" Dana exclaimed with an eager grin. "The ultimate showdown... Crystal Alyssium vs whatever-the-fuck that is!"

Tashana hesitated for a moment, then stepped aside to watch with the rest of the girls.

John faced the gleaming wall in a combat stance, holding his runeblade in a two-handed grip. He took a deep breath, then turned his body into the strike, rotating his hips as the sword whistled through the air. It slammed into the wall with a deafening clang and John grimaced at the bone-rattling vibrations that shook his hands and arms.

Darting forward, Dana leaned down to take a closer look at the impact point. "Goddamn... you only managed to cut a few inches through!"

"I wonder how thick it is?" Tashana murmured, gazing at the white wall in fascination.

"Thick enough to make manually hacking through it a bad idea," John said, rolling his aching shoulder with a frown. "It's hard to tell for sure, but I think it's at least as tough as Larn'kelnar's armour. I was able to chop through a vambrace to sever one of his hands, but that metal was much thinner."

Rachel walked over to the abandoned machinery, a thoughtful look on her face. "Can we go back to investigate the main entrance? I'm curious as to why the Maliri tried to drill through the wall."

"Because they couldn't get in," Dana said, rolling her eyes as she stated the obvious.

"Exactly... but why couldn't they?" the brunette persisted. "Irillith was able to bypass the retinal scanner in the palace using Valada's personal data... so why would the Maliri go to these lengths to access a secret bunker designed for her personal protection?"

"Maybe they weren't able to access the bunker after she died?" Dana suggested. She tapped the cutting beam with a knuckle. "Maybe they figured the only way in was to try drilling through the walls?"

Rachel shook her head and turned to Irillith. "The final entry records you found only showed Valada accessing this facility, correct? And the last of those records was two centuries after Mael'nerak sacrificed himself to defeat Rahn'hagon?"

The Maliri hacker nodded. "It certainly appears so. No normal person would be able to hack the security subnet and make it out of that ambush alive, which means Valada was the last person to come down here."

"What are you thinking, Rachel?" John asked the perceptive doctor.

"I have several theories, but they're all speculation at this point," she replied, lost in thought.

"Alright, let's head back to the main entrance," he said, holding his hand out for Alyssa, who accepted it with a grateful smile. "Were there any psychic echoes in here?"

"No, nothing I could sense," she replied as they walked back to the other tunnel.

"Hold on!" Dana suddenly called out, beckoning John to return. "I just thought of something!"

"What's up?" he asked, returning to her side.

"I can't use my abilities to scan the metal because there's a psychic dampening field stopping me, right?" she asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "So if you can chop out a bit of the wall, we can just move away from the field and I can check it out properly!"

John gave her a dubious look. "You saw what happened, I barely made a dent in it."

She quickly shook her head. "You hit it hard enough to make a cut a few inches deep. I don't need a big bit, just a tiny fragment will do."

"Alright," John agreed, moving back into position and readying another blow.

His runeblade whipped around and slammed into the wall again and again, the massive impacts sending booming retorts echoing around the chamber.

"Stop!" Dana called out, darting over to the wall.

"Got what you need?" John asked, leaning on his runeblade's pommel.

She picked up a sliver of glinting metal and held it up in triumph. "This is perfect!"

The redhead bounded ahead as they returned to the tunnel, her eyes suddenly blazing with a golden light when they'd moved sufficiently far away from the ancient facility.

"Just give me a second, I'll take a quick look," Dana called back over her shoulder, as she skidded to a halt.

John braced himself for another furious outburst from his Chief Engineer, but when he caught up to Dana, her expression had shifted to enraptured fascination.

"So I'm guessing that's not Crystal Alyssium after all?" he asked the captivated redhead.

"No, it's something totally new," Dana replied in an awed whisper. "The arrangement of atoms in its atomic structure is similar to the Progenitor black metal, but the element composition is completely different."

"What does that mean?" Tashana asked, leaning in for a closer look.

"I think this was forged in the same way as Progenitor metal, but Mael'nerak used different materials to make it," she murmured, lost in thought.

"No... that definitely wasn't made using a Soulforge," Alyssa interjected quietly. "Just look at the colour... and there's no residual psychic echoes."

"I don't mean Mael'nerak sacrificed thralls to infuse it with psychic energy," Dana explained. "But the wave patterns left behind in the metal are very distinctive."

"That's fantastic news," John said, slapping Dana on the back. "If Mael'nerak found a way to replicate Progenitor metal without using a Soulforge, there's nothing stopping you from doing the same."

She nodded, a newfound spark of inspiration in her eyes. "I need to get working on this asap!"

"As soon as we've finished investigating down here, we'll head straight back to the Invictus and you can get started on your research."

The girls accompanied John down the tunnel, taking the right turn that would lead them back to the room with the elevator. They crossed the large chamber and took the only other exit, which led into a high-arched corridor that matched the previous architecture. The passageway was long and perfectly straight, stretching on for a hundred metres towards a doorway set at the end on the right-hand side.

There were a few objects scattered across the floor outside the doorway as well as another piece of abandoned Maliri machinery. As John drew closer, he could see charred holes bored through the wrecked device, and the items on the floor were actually pieces of scorched armour.

"They must have triggered some kind of defensive countermeasures," Tashana murmured, eyeing the smooth walls with trepidation. "I can't see any sign of gun turrets though."

When the group were only twenty metres away, they were bathed in a soft blue light that swept along the corridor.

"What was that?" Irillith asked, her eyes widening in alarm. "Some kind of scan?"

Before anyone could reply, a stern voice boomed along the corridor. "Irin'brogari, lieth amest tel'kaintir mir vaharillian!"

They all froze and Dana whispered fearfully, "Did he just tell us to get the fuck out of here?"

Tashana nodded, sharing a worried glance with her sister. "That was ancient Maliri. He just said: 'Interlopers, flee this place or face annihilation!'."

"Fall back, everyone," John ordered, beckoning the girls away from the door.

Before she retreated down the corridor, Tashana grabbed one of the shattered armour fragments, then hurried to join the others. They regrouped in the main room by the elevator, darting concerned glances back towards the doorway.

"Now we know why they started drilling over there," Dana muttered, jerking a thumb towards the other tunnel.

"Why did you stop to take that?" John asked, pointing towards the scorched piece of armour.

Tashana unclipped a golden device from her belt. "I wanted to check how old it was. I can scan the bloodstains and use carbon dating to calculate their age."

"Nice," John said with a nod of approval. "It never crossed my mind to bring one of those."

The Maliri archaeologist gave him a wry smile. "It's a very convenient way of dating finds. You'd be surprised how often I've stumbled across ancient corpses during excavations." Her smile faded as she continued, "Or maybe not, considering the Maliri's bloody history."

The carbon dating device emitted a soft chime, alerting its owner that the scan was complete.

"10,100 years old," Tashana informed them.

"I thought Valada's first recorded entry to this facility was 10,097 years ago?" Rachel asked, frowning in confusion. "How did that Maliri die three years beforehand, when there's no record of her entry?"

"This device is only accurate to the closest decade," Tashana explained. "The dead Maliri must have been part of a group accompanying Valada."

"Ah, that makes more sense," the brunette said, nodding as her suspicions were confirmed.

John looked curiously at the doctor. "Have you figured out what happened here?"

"Yes, I think so," Rachel replied, her smile of satisfaction fading into sadness. "Shall we go and visit Valada's tomb?"

"Her tomb?!" John blurted out, looking at her in astonishment. "How did you leap to that conclusion?"

"I need to check one last thing to confirm my hypothesis," she replied, nodding towards the smaller tunnel. "I'll explain everything if I'm correct."

"Let's go," John agreed, eager to get some answers.

They approached the golden door at the end of the corridor and everyone turned to look at Rachel expectantly.

"This section was constructed much later than Mael'nerak's bunker and isn't part of the main facility," the brunette said, gesturing towards the gleaming metal. "You should be able to easily bypass the door, Irillith."

The Maliri hacker's eyes began to glow and she delved into the Cyber-realm to investigate the closed portal. John had previously found the scanner built into the door, so Irillith simply transmitted the digital image of Valada's retinal pattern to the device, and it spiralled open without any problem.

"I thought you said this was her tomb?" Dana said, peering into the room beyond. "It looks more like one of the guest suites on Genthalas to me."

"We know Valada visited this place thousands of times," Rachel replied as she stepped into the lounge, studying the gilded Maliri furniture arrayed tastefully around the room. "She'd want to be comfortable while she was down here."

There were doors leading off from the Lounge and a quick exploration revealed that there was a dining room, a study, a kitchen, and all the amenities you'd expect in a luxury suite. One of the doors led into a relatively small room, the far wall of which was dominated by what appeared to be a Maliri airlock.

Tashana walked over to the runic control panel and studied the data on the display. "The atmospheric status is showing that the next room has been depressurised. Is this it? Is this Valada's tomb?"

"Yes, but that wasn't its original purpose," Rachel said quietly.

John glanced at Alyssa and saw a tear roll down her cheek. "Are you okay?"

"This place echoes with her grief," she replied in a haunted whisper. "So much pain... the loss more than she could bear..."

"Come on, let's get you out of here," he said with sympathy, putting his arm around her shoulders.

Alyssa shook her head and looked up at him imploringly. "Please don't make me leave, John. I need to see this."

"Okay," he reluctantly agreed, seeing how much it meant to her. "Open it up, Tashana."

The Maliri archaeologist touched several runes on the panel, and after what seemed like an excruciatingly long minute, the light shining on the display shifted from red to green. Now that an atmosphere had been re-established inside, the door cracked open with a quiet hiss, then spiralled up into the ceiling.

"Wow..." Dana murmured, gazing wide-eyed into the huge room beyond. "What is this place?"

There were scores of display tables set up around the vast chamber, with countless small objects neatly arrayed on each one. Lining the edges of the room were clothes rails, with hundreds of outfits filling every inch of available space. John noticed that many of them appeared to be suits, designed in the style favoured by ancient Maliri... and the man who had inspired that trend.

"This is Valada's shrine to Mael'nerak," Rachel said softly, as she led them inside.

Tashana picked up a golden goblet and studied it reverently. "I've seen this before on the Nexus files! It belonged to Mael'nerak, didn't it? These are all his personal possessions..."

"She gathered every last memory she could," Alyssa whispered, her fingers brushing across the suits. "Anything to help her remember what it felt like to be loved by him..."

They watched in silence as Alyssa mimicked lifting one of the suits from the rail, copying a psychic echo that only she could see. Lost in the grief-stricken memory, she glided slowly towards the rear of the chamber, then over to an oval archway in the far corner. There was a large bed in the adjoining room, and when Alyssa gently pulled back the silken drapes, they could see its solitary occupant. The Maliri noblewoman lay perfectly preserved, curled up on the covers with one of Mael'nerak's suits clutched to her chest. Her final expression reflected the serenity that had eluded her for the last two centuries of her life.

"Valada..." Tashana said in a hushed voice, removing her helmet and bowing her head in sorrow.

Irillith removed her own helmet to brush away her tears, then slipped an arm around Tashana to comfort her sister.

A grey mist slowly enveloped Valada as Rachel approached the bed. She studied the ancient Maliri for a long moment, then let out a melancholy sigh.

John walked over to join her, looking down at the woman who had made such a huge impact on Maliri society. "Did you find the final answer you were looking for?"

Rachel nodded as she turned to face him. "She was dying from a malignant brain tumour, just like those we healed in Edraele and the twins. The pain must have been excruciating towards the end and she chose to be surrounded by her memories of Mael'nerak in her final moments."

Reaching down, she picked up the remote device that Valada had used to seal herself inside the vault.

"Why build this shrine here?" John asked, glancing at the brunette. "Was it to do with the facility Mael'nerak constructed?"

Before she could reply, Alyssa spoke up, gazing sorrowfully at the deceased matriarch. "Mael'nerak told Valada that if she was ever in danger, to come down here to be safe. When he cut her off, she felt so alone... and desperately wanted to feel safe in his arms again. Valada was a good matriarch and faithfully followed her Progenitor's orders... but she couldn't get into the bunker, the DNA scanner didn't recognise her."

"Mael'nerak must've made some last-minute changes to help her survive without him," John reasoned, looking at Valada with newfound sympathy. "He enhanced Valada before sacrificing himself against Rahn'hagon... which permanently altered her DNA."

"And he forgot to update the security system," Dana added, leaning heavily against the door. "We're always forgetting to do it and we've got no excuse. That poor bastard was just about to blow himself to pieces in a suicide mission... no wonder he forgot with that on his mind."

"Mael'nerak must have been feeding Valada regularly before they were separated, which would've maintained her physiology as a thirty-year-old Maliri maiden," Rachel continued. "After he died, she lived on for another two hundred years before the pain from the brain tumour became insufferable."

"It's all so sad," Tashana sobbed, brushing her eyes. "Valada never knew the truth about why Mael'nerak abandoned her... and she never got over him."

"She loved him with all her heart," Alyssa murmured, eyes glassy with unshed tears. "How could he expect her to go on living without him? It would've been kinder to let her spend their last moments together."

"He loved her, Alyssa," John said, feeling an outpouring of sympathy for Mael'nerak. "He wanted her to live... to raise their children so she'd always have a legacy to remember him by. The last thing he would've wanted was for Valada to spend the next two centuries grieving for him."

Alyssa shook her head and said with conviction, "You can't love someone as much she adored him and ever get over it. Mael'nerak was the centre of her universe; when he died, her life ended too. Valada loved her twin daughters and clung on as long as she could to be there for them... but it meant two-hundred years of suffering with a broken heart that would never heal."

"I hope you were reunited with him in the end, great grandmother," Irillith said in a choked voice. "He never stopped loving you... I hope you know that now."

They stood together in silence, paying their respects to the tragic matriarch whose influence over Mael'nerak had altered the course of billions of lives.

***

Admiral Charles Harris entered the reception area for his office on Olympus and nodded to his assistant. "Good morning, Victor. Any priority messages this morning?"

The young lieutenant rose from his seat to follow Charles into the office. "Nothing urgent, sir. You've been sent the latest productivity report from the Voss Corporation, Admiral Caldwell is requesting a status update on the Brimorian situation, and there was a message from the Fleet Admiral."

"What's happening on the Outer Rim?" Charles asked, his moustache twitching with concern.

"I didn't check the contents, sir. As it wasn't marked as urgent, I assumed it was a personal message from your fiancée."

"Alright, thank you," the Admiral said, sitting behind his desk and activating the comms interface. "Could you make me a coffee please... I'm going to need the caffeine to get through a Voss productivity report without nodding off."

"Certainly, sir," Victor said, but made no move to leave. "You also received a meeting request from Admiral Van Den Broeck. I checked today's calendar and your only available timeslot is at nine o'clock. After that, you're scheduled to inspect the drydock until midday, you have performance reviews all afternoon, then this evening-"

"Nine o'clock is fine," Charles interrupted, grimacing when he glanced at the time. "You better make that two coffees."

Victor grinned and nodded. "Very good, sir."

Charles snorted at the young officer's smirk of admiration, then waved him out of the office. "Let me know when Admiral Van Den Broeck arrives."

When Victor closed the door behind him, Charles opened up the message from Lynette, eager to hear how she was doing. Reading through the update, her journey to the Outer Rim had proved uneventful so far, but he knew that was all about to change when she arrived at Brecken's World later that evening. Charles flushed when he read her sign off, knowing exactly what she meant about them having breakfast together. Lynette had only been gone from Olympus for a few days, but he was already really missing the vivacious brunette.

Rising from his chair, he walked over to the sweeping window that gave him a panoramic view of Olympus and the vast fleets gathered at the shipyard. A colossal dreadnought was currently undergoing repairs in the drydock, the Odin's Thunderbolt having sustained significant damage in the Battle of Terra. All along its three-kilometre flank, welding torches flickered like fireflies as hundreds of engineers laboured to rebuild sections of exposed superstructure.

Rather than focusing on the massive Terran Federation capital ship, Charles gazed beyond it at a cluster of faint stars, which he knew was Lynette's final destination. She was already hundreds of light years from Alpha Centauri and moving further away from him by the second. Her flagship, the Aphrodite, was one of the most powerful battleships in the Terran Federation navy, but that offered little comfort to Charles. He knew what horrors lurked out there in the endless darkness of space.

There was a quick knock on the door before it swung open and Admiral Van Den Broeck breezed into his office. "Morning, Charlie!" she greeted him cheerfully.

"Good morning, Lina," he replied, turning to smile at the sultry redhead, who seemed to have regained all her previous confidence.

"I'm sorry, sir," a flustered Victor apologised, glaring at Lina as she sauntered over to the sofas. "I was about to let you know that the Admiral had arrived, but she was most insistent."

Lina took a seat and demurely crossed her legs, managing to look alluring despite her iron-grey Admiralty uniform. "I know you're a busy boy today, Charlie. I didn't want to waste a minute I could be spending in your scintillating company."

Charles rolled his eyes and walked over to join her. "It's fine, Victor. Thank you."

The assistant nodded and flicked one last irritated glance at Lina before quietly shutting the office door.

"You're mean tormenting him like that," Charles admonished the grinning redhead.

"He deserved it. I can feel him staring at my ass every time I come to visit you."

Charles was about to make a raunchy quip, but coughed and said roughly, "I'll have a word with him, if he's making you feel uncomfortable."

Lina looked delighted and leaned forward. "What were you just about to say then?"

Blushing furiously, Charles was about to stammer a denial, then abruptly changed his mind. He sat up straighter and looked her directly in the eye. "I was going to say that you've got a magnificent ass and I can't blame him for taking a second look. Besides, you love the attention, don't you?"

Lina laughed, her green eyes sparkling. "You do have a naughty side to you, don't you, Charlie?"

"Apparently so," he conceded with a wry smile. "So what brings you here this morning, Lina?"

She twirled a finger in a lock of her auburn hair. "I was hoping you'd come to see me while Lynette was away, but it's been days and still no sign of Charles Harris knocking on my door." She pouted playfully. "Are you avoiding me?"

Charles hesitated, unsure how to reply, then Victor entered the office, granting him a temporary reprieve. The young lieutenant was carrying a tray with two steaming cups of coffee, and he carefully transferred them to the table between Charles and his guest.

Lina waited patiently until the assistant had left, then raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

Cracking under her intense scrutiny, Charles confirmed her suspicions with a nod.

"Why?" she asked, looking a little hurt by his reply. "I thought we'd got closer after the attack on Olympus? I know Lynette doesn't mind us keeping each other company... far from it in fact."

Charles picked up his coffee to delay having to answer for a few moments longer, then took a sip of the dark drink and winced when he scalded his lip.

"Serves you right for stalling," Lina said, her lips quirking into a smile. "Now, tell me why you've been avoiding me."

He let out a sigh of resignation. "Because I find the whole process of you becoming a secret Lioness awkward and embarrassing. I haven't even decided how I feel about it yet, so I had no clue what to say to you if you asked for my advice."

Lina's gaze softened and she moved over to sit beside him, slipping her hand into his. "I've been thinking about it too. I haven't thought about much else actually."

"Have you made a decision?" Charles asked, trying not to get distracted by the way she was gently stroking his hand.

"Can we speak freely here?" she replied, darting a quick glance upwards as if searching for listening devices.

He nodded. "The Lionesses swept my office for bugs and made sure we can't be spied on in here. It's safe to talk."

Lina was quiet for a long moment, her flirtatious demeanour shifting into thoughtful introspection. "At face value, it's an incredibly tempting offer. Most women would sell their soul to have a body like Lynette, but it's not just an aesthetic change, I really would be twenty again... physically at least. It's like being given a do-over, letting me focus on the parts of my life I previously neglected, without having to give up anything I've worked so hard for."

"Such as having children?" Charles asked, listening to her with interest.

She nodded, giving him a self-conscious smile. "I intended to have kids eventually, but I didn't think it was practical to start a family while I was still in the military. It always seemed like I had plenty of time to find a good husband, settle down in a lovely home, and have 2.4 children... until I suddenly hit forty and realised I'd left it too late. Now I'm being offered a chance to have it all, and as I said... I'm tempted."

"You mentioned this being a good offer at face value," Charles noted. "Does that mean you're having second thoughts about the... side effects?"

"Yeah, you could say that." Lina laughed and gave him a lopsided grin. "I do like you a lot, Charlie, but when I started flirting with you, I was just thinking about us having a fun little fling... not some lifelong commitment."

Her smile faded as she continued, "Honestly, I'm not good at long-term relationships. I get bored quickly and miss the excitement of being with someone new... then it all falls apart. No offence to you, but the idea of settling down with one person for the rest of my life feels so claustrophobic..."

"Two people," Charles reminded her, chuckling at how strange it was to be having this conversation.

"Right... you and Lynette," Lina agreed, a whimsical smile returning to her face. "I've had affairs with men and women in the past, but both at once? That's something I haven't tried before... maybe that might make a difference?"

"Is that what's worrying you the most? That you might not be able to handle that kind of commitment ten or twenty years from now?"

"More like two or three years... but yeah," she said, giving him a strained smile.

"Three years? Is that the longest relationship you've had?"

She nodded, biting her lip and looking more vulnerable than he'd ever seen her before.

Charles hesitated, unsure whether to ask what happened. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Lina shook her head, then paused and deflated a little. "My first boyfriend... it was a bad breakup."

He rubbed her back in sympathy. "I can understand why you're nervous, but from what John said, I don't think you have anything to worry about..." Charles blushed and his voice trailed off into silence.

"Why's that?" Lina asked him curiously.

Charles reached for his coffee cup, desperate to avoid answering the question.

"C'mon Charlie, tell me!" she pleaded, giving him a winsome smile.

He sighed in defeat and reluctantly replied, "John told me that the Lionesses are fiercely loyal and that Lynette will never be tempted to cheat on me. He also said that if we do decide to go through with this, then you'll become like that too."

"Really?" she asked, looking intrigued. "Alyssa mentioned some side-effects, but nothing about that. She talked about being bisexual and feeling no jealousy towards other women... neither of which seemed like a big deal because I'm quite open minded anyway."

"So that doesn't bother you? The thought of having your personality changed?" Charles asked with interest.

The redhead thought about it, then shrugged. "If John's able to help me get over my commitment issues, then isn't that a good thing? I'm not a cheater, but I've had a string of disastrous relationships that have all ended badly. If I'd met John twenty years ago, he could've saved me thousands of credits I wasted on therapy!"

Charles chuckled at her joke. "I suppose that's one way to look at it."

Lina studied him for a moment, then asked quietly, "What's really bothering you about this, Charlie? Most men would jump at the chance of having two beautiful young women besotted with him."

He rubbed his moustache and grimaced. "It's... the mechanics of it. John's one of my oldest friends and it's uncomfortable to think of him being involved with Lynette... or you... in that way."

"But they both said that nothing intimate happened between them and I'm sure they're telling the truth."

"I believe them too... it's just the idea of Lynette swallowing... you know. If you become a Lioness, then you'll have to do the same thing as well."

She smiled at him affectionately. "This might come as a shock, Charlie... but I have been with a man before."

He blushed, feeling embarrassed. "I know it's not rational. John changed Lynette before we even started dating, but I can't help the way I feel. I don't have any right to get jealous and possessive over you either, but the thought of you and him... it still makes me uncomfortable."

Lina was quiet for a moment. "Perhaps that's the best way of handling this... just not think about it?"

"The ostrich approach?" Charles said with a chuckle. "Well, that's definitely easier."

She turned to study him, her expression pensive. "Okay... but what about the rest. How do you feel about being in a long-term relationship with me?"

He hesitated, unsure how to frame his reply.

Smiling in sympathy at his discomfort, Lina gave his hand a supportive squeeze. "This is important, Charlie. We're planning to make a huge commitment to each other, so you need to be sure you actually want that kind of relationship with me. Would it be easier if I go first?"

"Yes... please," he said gratefully.

"Alright," she agreed with a coy smile. "Well, I think you're a handsome man... and I love the moustache, it makes you look very distinguished. You also seem like a really sweet guy, who's devoted to his fiancée. You're just the kind of man I'd be looking for to fall in love with and start a family."

"Thanks for the compliments," Charles said with a bashful smile. "Have you got any reservations?"

Lina brushed his hand with her fingertips, then said softly, "I get the impression that you'd be perfectly happy with just you and Lynette. I think you're only going ahead with this because it's something she really wants."

Charles' smile faded and he reluctantly nodded. "That's no reflection on you, Lina. You're a beautiful woman... very confident and charming. You're the kind of woman I've always been attracted to, but I've never had any luck with because you're out of my league."

"Charlie, that's not true," the redhead protested.

He shrugged. "I'm just being honest. I've never been a ladies' man... and I still find it hard to believe that Lynette's fallen in love with me."

"Is that why you're even considering this?" Lina asked quietly. "Because you're afraid that if you say no to her, she might 'come to her senses' and leave you?"

Charles let out a heavy sigh and shook his head. "I'm 52 years old. Lynette used to be the same age as me, but now she's been given a 20-year-old body. By the time she's your age again... I'm going to be an old man."

Lina's eyes widened in understanding. "So you're worried that she might leave you for someone younger?"

He considered that for a moment, then shook his head. "Under normal circumstances I would be, but I'm sure John was telling me the truth; I don't think Lynette's capable of being unfaithful now."

"So what's the problem then?" the redhead asked in confusion.

"I don't want to die of old age and leave her a widow for the next forty years," Charles admitted quietly. "If the three of us are in a relationship together, then you can be there for her when I'm gone..."

"Oh, Charlie..." Lina murmured, leaning into him and resting her head on his shoulder.

He put his arm around Lina as she snuggled closer and kissed her on top of her head. Her presence was comforting as he gazed out the sweeping window, focusing on the distant cluster of stars he'd been staring at before, and missing his fiancée more than ever.

***

John stood in the elevator room with his arm around Alyssa, comforting her as she recovered from being immersed in Valada's grief-stricken memories. Having determined that the matriarch's tomb was safe, he'd granted permission to the girls on the Invictus to see it for themselves, and now he was waiting for them to finish.

Calara was the first to emerge from the tunnel that led to the Maliri facility, and it was plain to see that she'd been moved by Valada's final fate. She walked over to join John and Alyssa, but paused half-way, and stared down the long adjoining corridor at the white walls glinting in the darkness.

"A bunker built by Mael'nerak himself..." Calara said quietly. "I wonder what secrets it holds?"

"Irillith's blocked by the psychic dampening device, so until we can figure out a way for her to hack in safely, we'd have to rely on brute force to break in. It might just be an impregnable panic room, but on the off-chance that Mael'nerak did leave anything valuable behind, I think we should think very carefully about how we go about opening it," John said, before glancing down at Alyssa. "I don't want another repeat of what happened to the Kyth'faren citadel."

She nodded in agreement. "It's best not to take any chances."

"I think that's very wise," the Latina agreed. "I know I keep saying it's urgent that we capture Larn'kelnar's fleets, but I don't want to inadvertently destroy anything that could give us an edge in the war. So if we're not going to try breaking in now, are we just going to assume that the Mists of Loralar are concealing Mael'nerak's throne world and investigate that next?"

"We don't need to assume anything; that's exactly where it is!" Irillith exclaimed, as she rushed out from the other tunnel. The Maliri hacker triumphantly brandished a data crystal as she jogged over to join them. "I searched through all the files on the computer in Valada's study; she was obsessed with the nebula and spent years trying to find a way back into the system. I downloaded all her maps and notes on trying to return to Kythshara."

"Excellent work, honey," John said, pulling her into a celebratory hug. When he stepped back, he looked into her violet eyes. "How are you and your sister doing now?"

Irillith gave him a wan smile. "We're okay...it just came as a shock finding Valada like that. She was so perfectly preserved, it looked like she'd died only a few hours ago. It made it seem like everything she went through just happened yesterday, instead of 10,000 years in the past."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," John said, giving her an understanding look. *Jade, are you ready to go?*

*We're already on our way out,* she immediately replied.

Jade soon appeared along with Tashana and Jehanna, the normally cheerful Nymph looking uncharacteristically sombre.

"Thank you for letting me pay my respects, Master," she said gratefully. "Valada looked much older than I remembered, but that was definitely her. The last time I saw her, she was with Mael'nerak and looked so happy. Valada was proud of him for giving the Nymphs our freedom and releasing us on Lenarra."

"Did you ever visit this place with him?" he asked, glancing down the other corridor towards Mael'nerak's bunker. He'd tried using X-Ray vision to explore the facility, but the psychic dampening field made everything murky and indistinct.

"No... I don't remember visiting any underground facilities," she replied, shaking her head.

"I've resealed Valada's tomb," Tashana informed him. "I catalogued all of Mael'nerak's artefacts, but left everything undisturbed."

"Alright, let's head back to the Invictus," John said, gesturing towards the lift.

They all stood on the platform and Irillith activated the controls, launching them skyward. Everyone stood quietly as the lift ascended, each of them moved by the discovery of Valada's final resting place. John watched Tashana with concern, until she looked up and made eye contact with him, then gave him a forlorn smile.

John beckoned her over, then slipped an arm around her shoulders. "How are you holding up?"

She leaned into him and sighed. "I just feel so sorry for Valada. We already knew that Mael'nerak left her behind and sacrificed himself to stop Rahn'hagon... but I never guessed that she'd still be grieving for him until the day she died."

"We all knew... we just didn't want to face it," Alyssa said softly. "How would you feel in her position?"

Tashana glanced up at John and her face twisted with anguish.

"Yeah... exactly," the blonde said, her voice full of sympathy for the first Valaden matriarch.

No one was in the mood for further conversation after that and they stood quietly as the elevator rose up to ground level. After shutting the secret door behind them, John followed the girls back to the Invictus, where Yelamha and the serving staff were just disembarking.

"It should be perfectly safe for you now," John said to the palace's majordomo. "If you do see or hear anything unusual, contact Edraele immediately."

"We will, John," she said, with a respectful bow. "When will you be returning to the palace?"

"Either tonight, or in several days' time, depending on what happens in the Mists of Loralar," he explained. "Edraele will keep you informed."

Yelamha's expression shifted to a worried frown. "Please be very careful, my Lord. There are terrible stories about what happens to anyone that tries to encroach within the Mists."

"I will. Thanks for the warning," he said, smiling at her gratefully.

The Maliri inclined her head, then excused herself to accompany the rest of the servants back to Saelihn Immanthe. He watched them leave, then turned around to enter the Invictus. When John stepped through the airlock, he found Alyssa and Jehanna waiting for him in the corridor beyond.

"Dana is asking for you in her Workshop," his blonde matriarch informed him. "There's something important she wants to show you."

"Sure, I'll head up there as soon as I've stowed away my gear," John said with a nod. He glanced at Jehanna and frowned. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I know I said I'd help you practice your psychic abilities this morning."

"That's okay," the reporter said, giving him an understanding smile. "Alyssa said she'd give me some training."

"I'm going up to the Bridge first to plot a course for the Mists of Loralar, then we'll be in the dojo for the rest of the morning," Alyssa explained, as they entered the Secondary Hangar. "Feel free to join us whenever you're finished with Sparks."

"Will do," John agreed, returning their wave goodbye as they parted ways at the Raptor.

He jogged inside and entered the gunship's armoury, then slotted his runeblade and Tachyon rifle on the weapon racks. When he moved beneath the armour equipping frame, the robotic arms waited for the rippling clicks that signified he'd unlocked his Paragon suit, before they swung down to remove the armoured plates. His shoulder still ached from trying to batter his way into Mael'nerak's bunker, reminding him just how resilient that metal was.

As he left the gunship and took the Invictus' grav-tubes up to Deck Seven, he wondered if Dana had already made a breakthrough with fabricating the Progenitor black metal. She had certainly looked inspired when he gave her permission to race back to the Invictus' Engineering Bay and start working on her research. Developing a material that tough, which they could easily fabricate, would be the key to unlocking all the Progenitor technology they had discovered so far. Unfortunately, that also meant that until they were able to build those components, the Invictus would be massively outclassed in a fight with a Progenitor dreadnought.

With those worrying thoughts in mind, he strolled down the corridor to the Workshop and hurried inside. "Hey Sparks," he called out to the redhead. "Alyssa said you wanted to show me something?"

Dana was standing on the Engineering Podium, multiple holo-screens floating in the air above her console. She was engrossed in the information displayed and didn't take her eyes off the complex geometric shapes as she half-turned to wave at him.

"Hey John... that was quick," she murmured, sounding thoroughly distracted.

He walked up the illuminated steps then hugged her from behind. "What are you looking at?" he asked, kissing her cheek. "Have you made a breakthrough with the black metal already?"

"Yeah... kinda," she muttered, turning to quickly return his kiss. "I've just been running an analysis on the elements used in Mael'nerak's alternate metal. It's crystalline in nature and uses Onyxium and Etherite crystals, just like my Crystal Alyssium... but it's actually a simpler formula."

"Really?" John said in surprise. "I was expecting it to be much more complex."

"Yeah, me too," Dana agreed, nodding exuberantly. "But I gave it some thought, and I think I figured out why that is. I was trying to create an alternative to Etherium, which we could psychically reshape ourselves, but that also used Onyxium to make it much stronger. Mael'nerak's version gains most of its strength from the initial forging process and it's not intended to be reshaped, just like Progenitor black metal."

"There's no way we could've survived the last six months without making all those repairs and upgrades aboard the Invictus ourselves," John said, giving her a grateful hug. "If we had to rush back to the drydock every time we needed to fix anything, we'd have been totally screwed."

"Yeah, I know... it was pretty awesome to find out that my version is actually more sophisticated," Dana admitted with a lopsided grin. Her smile faded and she darted another glance at the holo-screen. "The problem is that this forging process makes a massive difference. It was really interesting finding out about the metal's properties, but it doesn't actually bring us any closer to replicating what the Soulforge does when it psychically smelts metal."

"True... but the real win here is finding out that it is actually possible to create an alternative," John reminded her. "Now you know that your goal is definitely achievable."

"That's a good point," she conceded, brightening considerably.

John gave her a supportive squeeze. "It sounds like you're making some excellent progress already. Thanks for showing me what you've discovered so far; I'll leave you in peace to focus on your research."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Dana protested, turning around in his arms. "I didn't ask Alyssa to get you up here just to show you this!"

"Oh... okay," John said in surprise. "So what did you want to show me?"

She wriggled out of his embrace and bounded down the steps. "Come and check this out!"

John followed her across the Engineering Bay, then froze when he saw what she'd really brought him there to look at. "Holy shit!"

Dana grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I know... pretty awesome, right?"

The redhead had stopped in front of the wide cultivation beds that they were using to grow eternity crystals. The last time John had seen those trays was a week ago, when he'd poured in some fresh gel solution to replace the previous crop that had been ruined by Larn'kelnar's ambush. He'd expected to see a delicate forest of tiny, beautiful crystals, but the latest crop had grown at an astonishing rate, with the one in the centre growing so huge that it had pierced through the titanium ceiling tiles.

"How the hell did it grow so fast?" John marvelled, staring at the massive crystal in fascination. "Did you use miracle grow or something? Wasn't it supposed to take at least a month to cultivate crystals big enough to use in a Nova Lance?"

"I didn't do anything," Dana replied with a smirk. "This is all on you, buddy."

"What do you mean?" John asked in surprise.

"That cultivation bed over there is Alyssa's," the redhead explained, pointing to a much more reasonably sized crop of crystals. "The one that's gone berserk belongs to you. Maybe crushing your guide and becoming 'Kyth'vindathys, Vengeance of the Kyth'faren reborn!' might have had something to do with it?"

"Wow..." John murmured, staring at the huge crystals towering over the crop bed. "I wasn't even paying attention; I was just growing them in the background."

She shrugged and walked over to give him a hug. "I thought you'd be interested to see concrete proof of how much more powerful you've become recently."

"Thanks, Sparks," he said, stroking her back. "I'm glad you showed me that."

"No problem," she said with a beaming smile. "Now, can you harvest all those crystals for me, then set up the cultivation bed again? And make it snappy, we need lots more!"

John laughed and swatted her rump as she giggled and skipped away. With the skilful use of telekinesis, It didn't take him long to dislodge all the crystals from the bed, then pour in a a fresh batch of gel.

"Same again please," Dana said with a twinkle in her eyes. "If you're going to keep making eternity crystals that huge, I better start designing guns big enough to take these bad boys!"

"Sounds good," John agreed, before returning Dana's wave goodbye and leaving the Workshop.

He had just started walking towards the grav-tubes when the door to the Medical Bay slid open and Rachel stepped into the corridor.

The brunette saw him approaching and smiled in greeting. "Have you been summoned to the Bridge as well?"

John shook his head. "Are you helping the girls investigate Valada's research?"

"Irillith discovered medical files documenting the effect the Mists of Loralar had on the Maliri sent to explore the nebula," Rachel explained, her face lighting up with anticipation. "They want me to give them a professional diagnosis of the symptoms."

"Sounds interesting..." John said, sorely tempted to see what else they'd found.

"You're welcome to join us," she offered with an inviting smile.

*The girls were planning to review everything they've found, then give you an executive summary,* Alyssa interjected. *If you do want to help with the research, I'm happy to go over the basics with Jehanna. I was going to begin with teaching her how to create a hex shield.*

*I'm still planning to join the two of you in the Dojo,* John replied. *You're right about Jehanna needing to learn how to protect herself though. Can you help her get started? I'll just be a minute.*

*Okay, see you soon!* the blonde said cheerfully.

John offered his arm to Rachel and the brunette fell into step beside him as they walked towards the grav-tubes. "Thanks for the offer, but I already volunteered to teach Jehanna how to use her new abilities. I'm looking forward to hearing all about everything you discover though."

"It should be fascinating!" Rachel enthused, squeezing his arm in her excitement. "I can't wait to take a look at the autopsy reports!"

He glanced at her, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

She blushed and gave him an embarrassed grin. "That sounded really macabre didn't it?"

"Somebody's got to review those files. I'll take your professional enthusiasm over Dana's squeamishness any day of the week."

Rachel laughed at the thought of her girlfriend squirming at the prospect. "She's such a big baby about anything like that. I think that's why she was so delighted when I joined the crew... I spared her from doing any more alien autopsies!"

"Oh... I don't think that was the only reason," he teased the brunette as they stepped into the blue anti-gravity field. "You made a pretty big impression on all of us."

"Likewise," she said, nuzzling into him affectionately.

Before John could respond, Rachel gave him a big hug, burying her face in his chest.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked, rubbing her back as they floated up through the decks.

She nodded and hugged him tighter. "It's just so nice to have you back again. I really missed you while you were busy dealing with the matriarchs... we all did."

"I'm sorry, honey. Unfortunately, I didn't have much choice. I couldn't risk the new matriarchs causing any more havoc; I needed to connect them to Edraele and our network as quickly as possible."

"There's no need to apologise... I know how important it was to bring them into the family," she said, before studying him with her analytical, grey-eyed gaze. "How do you feel after recruiting all the new matriarchs? Are you still feeling guilty about having to divide your time between so many women?"

John paused for a moment, then confirmed her suspicions with a hesitant nod. "Yeah, I am a bit. Don't get me wrong, I did really enjoy getting to know the new matriarchs. When I was able to get past all the haughtiness, even the eldest daughters turned out to be nice girls. I just worry about not being able to give each of you enough attention."

Rachel's brow furrowed and she studied him closely. "Can you spare a moment for a coffee? I'd like to discuss a few things that might ease some of your concerns."

"Sure," he agreed, wondering what the perceptive young woman had on her mind.

They stepped out of the grav-tube on Deck Two and walked through the Officers' Lounge to the kitchen. With steaming cups of coffee in hand, they returned to the comfortable sofas, where Rachel kicked off her shoes and sat beside John.

She folded her legs underneath her and took a sip from her cup. "Mmm... that hit the spot."

John nodded his agreement after trying his own drink, then looked at her quizzically. "So what did you want to discuss?"

Rachel swirled her cup as she gathered her thoughts. "I thoroughly enjoyed the party last night. It was very... enlightening."

He couldn't help chuckling at her response. "I'm glad you had fun... but why do I suddenly get the impression that you spent the entire evening closely observing everyone?"

"I couldn't help myself... it was too good an opportunity to observe you interacting with the Maliri," she admitted, her grey eyes sparkling. Rachel reached up to caress his cheek as she continued, "Besides, there's only one person able to distract me from thinking deep thoughts... and he was a little preoccupied with Kali Loraleth at the time."

John kissed her hand, not making any attempt to disagree.

Rachel put down her cup, then turned to meet his curious gaze. "When I first joined the crew, and you told me about the girls you're intimate with becoming bisexual, I just thought it was a bit of kinky fun. I've always been attracted to women as well as men, so it didn't make any difference to me regardless. Then I got to know Dana... and we fell in love."

"You two make a beautiful couple," John said, gently stroking her hand. "I'm really glad you found each other."

"Me too... and I have you to thank for encouraging Sparks to embrace that attraction," she said, looking at him with profound gratitude. "I love her with all my heart and couldn't imagine life without her... but my relationship with Dana still pales in comparison to the way I feel about you."

John was touched by her sincerity and pulled her closer for a kiss. "I love you too, Rachel."

When they separated, she gave him a lovely smile and patted her chest above her heart. "I know, you've made that abundantly clear to all of us. I've also talked about the nuances of our relationships at length with Dana and she feels the same way I do. We have a wonderful time together and share a lot of really special moments, but you will always be the number one priority in both our lives. We're with you whenever we can be... and when you're occupied with someone else, we thoroughly enjoy each other's company."

Frowning in confusion, John said, "But... that's exactly what I'm worried about. I hate the thought of all of you pining after me, waiting for a spare hour or two of my time, then having to wait for days before it's your turn again. Adding the entire matriarchal council to our inner circle has only made the problem worse!"

Rachel immediately shook her head. "If the matriarchs were Terran girls, then I'd agree that you'd massively overcommitted, but that's simply not the case here. You have to remember that you're dealing with alien women from a radically different culture to the one you grew up in; their outlook towards their relationship with you is not like ours at all."

John rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I've already had a similar discussion about this with Edraele. I know the matriarchs aren't expecting to spend much time with me, but I still don't want them waiting for weeks just to get an hour of my attention."

"They won't be," she said firmly. "That's why I mentioned the side-effects of being intimate with you and the latent bisexuality you've encouraged in each of us. I spent several very pleasant hours getting reacquainted with the Young Matriarchs and I could immediately see just how deeply involved they are as couples. Nyrelle and Valani are besotted with each other, just as Tsarra is with Leena."

"I knew they'd all got close recently," he said with a fond smile. It faded a moment later as he continued, "But doesn't that mean they're in a similar position to you and Dana? That they're just enjoying each other's company while waiting until I can spare some time to be with them?"

"No, the relationship dynamics are quite different," Rachel said with an emphatic shake of her head. "Nyrelle and Valani are a couple, even more so than I am with Dana... and neither of them have any expectations about spending time with you. You don't need to worry about them pining away, waiting wistfully for a brief turn in your arms."

"Oh... okay," John said, feeling a strange mixture of relief and disappointment.

Rachel laughed and cupped his face. "Don't worry, they still absolutely adore you."

John frowned in confusion, then gave her a helpless look. "I'm afraid you lost me. If they feel that strongly, surely they'd want us to spend as much time together as possible?"

The brunette paused and studied him for a moment. "Alright, let me try explaining it differently. I want you to close your eyes please."

He raised an eyebrow, then smiled as he did as she asked. "Eyes closed, Doctor."

"Very good. Now, I want you to try putting yourself in their shoes. Picture yourself as a 40-year-old Maliri noble. Your four elder siblings take great delight in tormenting you, and your mother views you with utter contempt. You have no friends, nobody cares about you, and your life has been made a living hell for the previous four decades."

John's brow furrowed and he said quietly, "I knew what they'd all been through, but putting it like that really drives it home."

"Their lives were horrendous," Rachel agreed, her voice full of sympathy. "Now, I want you to imagine being rescued from that nightmare by the most impossibly gorgeous person you've ever met. Your saviour is kind and gentle, doing everything they can to make sure you're happy in every aspect of your new life."

"But it was Edraele who saved the Young Matriarchs," John interrupted, opening his eyes again. "I can't claim credit for that."

"She was only acting on your behalf," Rachel countered, studying him intently. "You didn't order the assassinations, and would've handled the situation very differently if you'd been present, but Edraele achieved the best solution possible given the circumstances. Four tyrannical matriarchs were deposed and noblewomen who hadn't been corrupted by Maliri politics were given the power to help you transform the Regency for the better. All the Young Matriarchs love Edraele for everything she's done for them, but they all know that she only intervened to help you achieve your goals."

He considered that for a moment, then conceded her point with a nod.

Rachel smiled, then continued, "After the Young Matriarchs were rescued, their lives then went through a miraculous transformation. They now rule their respective Houses and are greatly respected by their peers and associates. They're surrounded by wonderful new friends who genuinely care about them, just as they care deeply about each other. They all love you with every fibre of their being... and know in their heart that those feelings are reciprocated. Finally, they're fulfilling their duty in rebuilding their noble line, by having children with the most incredible person they've ever met."

"Alright, I see what you're saying. That does sound pretty good," John said, flushing at her glowing praise.

"It does," Rachel readily agreed. "The Young Matriarchs are so profoundly grateful to you that they would quite literally do anything within their power to please you. This kind of response towards a Progenitor is instinctive and built into their DNA, but you've made the effect even more pronounced by genuinely trying to make them as blissfully happy as you can. They have no expectations that they'll get to spend time with you, but any attention they do receive will be welcomed with open arms."

"But just because they don't expect to spend time with me doesn't mean I should take advantage of that," John said with a frown. "They are the mothers of my children and they deserve as much attention as I can give them."

"I know you feel that way and it's a lovely sentiment," Rachel said, caressing his cheek. "I'm just advising you that it's almost impossible to fail here and end up disappointing them. The Maliri have been genetically bred to be part of a massive harem attending to an unappreciative Progenitor's every twisted whim. The fact that you're not like that... at all... and truly love those wonderful girls, has them all floating on clouds. They might technically be your thralls, but they chose this life of their own free will, and you've rewarded them a hundredfold for it."

He was quiet for a moment as he took in everything she was saying and tried to look at it from the Maliri's perspective. It was very difficult, because their outlook was so alien to his own.

"The way they feel is never going to change, John," Rachel murmured, given him a gentle kiss. "Agreeing to start a family with the Young Matriarchs took everything to another level. Those girls are totally devoted to you and will do everything they can to support you in reforming the Protectorate and fighting the Progenitor War. They'd actually be mortified if they ever found out that you've been worrying about keeping them happy, so please don't say anything."

"I won't," he agreed, having no intention of upsetting them.

"Does hearing that help alleviate any concerns?" she asked, looking at him hopefully. "I can honestly say that I don't think you could make the Young Matriarchs any happier than they are now."

John nodded thoughtfully, then brushed his hand through her long tawny hair, feeling the silky softness slip through his fingers. "What about you? How do you feel about the Maliri?"

"I really enjoyed seeing you get the Young Matriarchs pregnant," she replied with a coy smile. "Watching you conceive a baby with Kali last night was thrilling."

"That's not quite what I meant," he said, looking into her eyes. "I know you don't get jealous anymore... but do you feel any kind of resentment towards the Maliri for monopolising my time?"

Rachel paused to consider her feelings, then shook her head. "I honestly don't. They're all such sweet girls and it was lovely to see how happy they are with each other, with you, and with their pregnancies. There's a big part of me that wishes I could share that too... to be able to start my own family with you and all the other Lionesses. However, I could never leave you to fight the Progenitor War without me... so I know I just have to be patient."

His gaze dropped to her stomach and he reached out to gently stroke her with the backs of his fingers. "I wish that things were different. That you didn't have to wait... that I could've started a family with you months ago."

She let out a wistful sigh, then leaned in for a hug. "I wasn't intending to tell you this, but Nyrelle said essentially the same thing."

"What do you mean?"

Rachel snuggled in closer and said softly, "Nyrelle is elated that she's pregnant, but also feels guilty that she's carrying one of your firstborn children and not me. All the Young Matriarchs felt the same way... until we convinced the Maliri that we were all overjoyed for them. After we watched you impregnate Kali, her friends showed us their appreciation... and believe me, they were very appreciative."

John looked at her in surprise. "All four?"

"I know I said that they'd become couples, but those girls have spent a lot of time in bed together. They've definitely been focusing on their teamwork," she replied in a sultry grin.

He burst into laughter. "So that's how you figured out they haven't been pining away for me?"

"Partly, but you can't really miss how into each other they are. You've been distracted with meeting all the new matriarchs over the past few days, but next time you spend some time alone with Tsarra and the others, see for yourself."

"Alright, I will," he agreed, giving her a grateful smile. "Thank you for discussing this with me. I've been really concerned about trying to split my time between so many women, but it's a huge relief to know that I might have been worrying for nothing."

"It's not nothing," she said tenderly. "I'm always touched by how much you care about all of us, especially considering everything else you're dealing with at the moment. My advice is to just trust in Edraele and Alyssa; they'll warn you if there's a problem with any of the girls feeling neglected."

*Wise words indeed,* the Maliri Queen said with a hint of amusement.

*You heard her... Doctor's orders,* Alyssa teased him a moment later.

"I'll take that under advisement, Dr. Voss," John said, rising from the sofa and offering her a hand. "Now, I better let you join the others. We've only got a few hours until the Invictus reaches the nebula and we need to plan how we're going to get through the Mists."

"Right away, Admiral," she said with a grin. "Thanks for the lovely hugs... I really missed those."

"Any time, honey," he said, giving her a kiss goodbye before she headed for the Bridge.

John watched her leave, then was just about to clear away the coffee cups when one of the cleaning robots practically sprinted into the Officers' Lounge. She skidded to a halt by the table, her expressive features set into a caricature of mock indignity.

[Monsieur, this is inacceptable!] Trois protested in her outrageous French accent. [Are you trying to see me destitute? Cast aside to the inhospitable streets of Paris?!]

He froze and looked at her in surprise. "No, of course not. What's the problem?"

She used her feather duster to playfully bat away his hands that had been reaching for the coffee cups. [Madame Daphne would be outraged to see his Excellency the Admiral cleaning like a lowly scullion! She would naturally assume that Trois was neglecting her responsabilités once again!]

"I don't want to get you in any trouble," he replied, withdrawing his hands to a safe distance.

[You're forgiven, Monsieur. I wouldn't want to get a spanking again... at least not from the Madame!] she said, giving him a saucy wink.

John laughed at her bawdy flirtation and watched as she deftly cleared away the cups. Trois bit her lip as she cleaned, her long eyelashes fluttering as she wiped up a water ring from the table, making the surface pristine once again. He realised that the cleaning robot must have been waiting just outside the Lounge door, desperate for the first opportunity to clear up after him. He paused and studied the cleaning robot for a moment, thinking back over their brief conversation.

"The Lounge looks spotless, mademoiselle," he declared, playing along with the automaton. "I shall pass on my compliments to Madame Daphne."

Trois looked at him in surprise, then beamed in delight. [Oh, Monsieur! Merci beaucoup!]

"You're welcome," he said with a sweeping bow.

She giggled and curtsied in return.

John was about to leave when he was struck by a sudden thought. There was something about the robot's banter that resonated with a ring of truth to it.

"Trois, may I ask you a question?" he enquired politely.

[Of course, Monsieur!] she replied, pausing on her way to the kitchen.

"You said that you've been in trouble with Daphne before," he stated, watching as Trois suddenly froze, a look of consternation on her cute synthetic face. "Was that when we asked the Collective to help us inspect the Invictus' gun batteries?"

Her expression shifted again, and she looked stricken with guilt. [+++ stated with infinite regret +++ [Begin statement] My dereliction of duty placed the Invictus, the Collective, and array [Invictus crew] in jeopardy. {Little_One} refused my request for self-termination, but I have granted {Admiral John Blake} administrative privileges and that decision can be overridden. Do you wish to proceed?[/End statement]]

John looked at her in shock. "No, of course not!"

The cleaning robot didn't respond and just hung her head in shame.

"Come here," John said gently, pulling the synthetic girl into his arms. "I'd never order you to do something like that. Please don't ever think about harming yourself again, Trois."

[I will delete that subroutine,] she replied contritely, her voice regaining some of its earlier animation.

"Thank you," John said with relief. "What happened with the gun batteries wasn't your fault. We were still recovering from the disaster on Arcadia and I asked far too much of the Collective because we were desperate. You were programmed for cleaning duties and it wasn't fair of us to suddenly expect you to be able to assist with the repairs. I certainly don't blame you for what happened... and I'm very sorry that you've been so upset. Will you forgive me?"

Trois nodded and gratefully returned his hug. [No forgiveness is necessary. All of the Collective wanted to fix our home too.]

"Let's say no more about it then," John said, giving her a sympathetic smile.

[Absolument!] she replied with a cheeky giggle, before tickling his nose with her duster.

Pleased to see her looking happy once again, John turned to leave, but paused when he felt her hand gently touch his arm.

[Thank you,] Trois said quietly.

He looked into her eyes and nodded, feeling a strong sense of solidarity with the cleaning robot. "You're welcome."

When John left the Officers' Lounge, he found his thoughts turning to Faye. He knew that she would've been overjoyed to see how far the Collective had come, the fledgling AIs faithfully following in her footsteps. The robots had proven themselves to be fiercely loyal to the Invictus and her crew, pushing themselves to the limit to assist in any way that they could... as their creator had before them.

John stepped into the grav-tube and let out a sad sigh. "They're growing up just like you, Faye," he murmured under his breath. "You'd have been very proud of them."

He descended in the red glow of the gravity field, his mind preoccupied with memories of the cheerful purple sprite as he dropped down to Deck Three. Not even a fortnight had passed since they'd lost Faye and he still felt her loss just as keenly as ever. With a visit to Mael'nerak's throneworld looming on the horizon, John could only hope that the architect of Faye's Artificial Intelligence might have left some clue to her construction on Kythshara. Stepping out into the corridor, he tried to put his grief behind him, knowing that dwelling on her loss wouldn't bring Faye back any faster.

John entered the Dojo and saw that Alyssa and Jehanna were there already, the two women standing together in the centre of the sparring area. Neither were wearing remotely practical outfits, the elegant dresses designed to showcase their stunning figures rather than allow for strenuous physical activity. However, the latest addition to the Invictus crew was there to train her mind, not her body, and the lessons were already in full swing.

Holding her hand upraised, Jehanna frowned in intense concentration as she tried to focus her will. Hexagons with a pastel pink tinge flickered into existence before her, interlocking at a torturously slow pace as she attempted to construct a hex barrier. She managed to connect seven together into a neat pattern, then began adding more to the periphery to extend the area of protection. Her frown deepened as she struggled to hold her construct together, then the hexagons in the centre began to waver, the trembling intensifying until the barrier collapsed in a flurry of pink motes.

"Damnit!" Jehanna swore, shaking her head in frustration.

"Don't worry, you're doing really well," Alyssa said, giving the dusky girl an encouraging smile. Her eyes twinkled with mischief as they flicked to John. "Trust me... you're nowhere near the worst student I've had to deal with."

"Really?" Jehanna said in surprise. She turned to look at Alyssa, unsure if it was polite to ask who the blonde was referring to, when she finally noticed they had an audience. "Oh! Hi John!"

"Hello," he replied, walking over to join them. "It looks like you're off to a great start."

She grimaced and rubbed at her temples. "Alyssa makes it look so easy; I've no idea how she can instantly make a complete sphere. The best I can do is create one hexagon at a time, then slowly connect them all together... but I start to lose control after about fifteen and it all falls to pieces!"

"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself," John said, putting his arm around the frustrated girl and giving her a supportive squeeze. "Nobody's expecting you to become an expert straight away. It takes time and lots of practice to learn how to use your psychic abilities."

"I just want to be a useful part of the team," she said, giving him a wan smile. "The rest of the Lionesses are amazing; I've got a long way to go to catch up to them."

"You're doing far better than you give yourself credit for," Alyssa interjected. "Most of the girls only learned how to create hex shields in the last couple of weeks."

John nodded in agreement. "You already proved that you're an excellent marksman and solid squad tactician. When you've mastered all your psychic abilities, I think you're going to make an invaluable addition to our ground team."

Jehanna looked delighted, her face lighting up with enthusiasm. "Are you going to teach me some more about how to use Shadow runes?"

"Focus on your hex shield for now. Learning how to protect yourself from psychic attacks is your highest priority."

She nodded her understanding. "Okay, will do. Can you offer me any tips?"

John glanced at his blonde matriarch and grinned self-consciously. "Actually... I'm the terrible student Alyssa was referring to. I'm really not the best person to give you advice."

"John's gifted at many things, but creating shields isn't one of them," Alyssa said with a wry smile. "Am I right, handsome?"

"We all have a natural inclination towards certain psychic runes," he explained. "Rachel's our resident expert at creating hex barriers, so if you want any tips, she's the person to speak to."

Jehanna looked at him curiously, wondering what runes John was inclined towards.

*Don't ask,* Alyssa said firmly, interrupting the former reporter before she could satisfy her curiosity. *I'll explain why later...*

"Everything alright?" John asked, seeing Jehanna open her mouth as if to speak, then snap it shut an instant later.

"Yes, I'm fine," she replied, recovering quickly after her goldfish impression. "I suppose I better get back to practicing my hex shields."

"If you want to help research Valada's files, I can keep an eye on Jehanna and make sure she doesn't push herself too hard," Alyssa offered. "I'll let you know when she's ready for some Shadow lessons."

"Alright, thanks," John said gratefully. "Just let me know if you need any help with anything."

The girls waved goodbye then returned to their training session, with Alyssa gesturing for Jehanna to begin again. She frowned in concentration and began carefully forming hexagons, only for the blonde to roll her eyes and wave them away in a shower of pink fragments.

"You're never going to improve by building a hex shield slowly like that. Why don't you try picturing seven hexagons already connected together, then make them appear in a flash," Alyssa suggested, flicking her fingers and instantly creating a shimmering white cluster of hexagons.

Jehanna took a deep breath then made a flourish of her own and an identical group of pink hexagons appeared before her.

"Nice one!" Alyssa enthused, patting her on the back. "Now dismiss it and start over. Practice that a dozen times, then you can try something a bit more challenging..."

Seeing that everything was well in hand, John left the two girls to their training session and departed from the Dojo. He was crossing through the armoury when his practice sword caught his eye, and he walked over to pick up the gleaming blade. Turning it in his hand and watching it catch the light, he thought back to Luna's critique of his fighting style and her encouragement to create one of his own.

*Alyssa? What's Sakura doing at the moment?*

*She's running across the Bridge to the grav-tube, delighted that you need her help,* Alyssa replied drily. *Why do you ask?*

He chuckled at her response. *Never mind, I was just curious. Thanks, Alyssa.*

*You're welcome.*

It didn't take long for the former assassin to appear and Sakura rushed into the Armoury, her eyes shining with excitement. "Hey, John!"

"What a coincidence, I was just thinking about you," he said, returning her smile. "I was wondering if you might be interested in helping me develop a new fighting style? If you want to get back to Valada's research though, I totally understand."

"No, I'd much prefer being with you!" she gushed, bounding over to give him a joyful kiss. "So, how can I help?"

"Could you gear up for me, then start going through the kata for the different fighting styles you know. I'd just like to watch for the moment and think about the strengths and weaknesses of each approach to combat."

"Yes, of course," she agreed, stepping over to the armour-equipping frame.

"Thanks, honey," he said gratefully. "When you're ready, let's head down to the hangar. You'll have plenty of room there and we won't distract Jehanna from her training."

"Makes sense," the Asian girl agreed, as the armour plates were locked into position. "How's Jehanna getting on?"

"She's pushing herself hard," John replied, standing under the second equipping frame to don his own set of armour. "I think she's worried about letting the team down."

Sakura reached for her twin ninjato, then turned to smile at him. "She doesn't want to disappoint you, John."

"I'm not that harsh a taskmaster am I?" he asked, looking at her with concern.

She quickly shook her head. "No, not at all, quite the opposite in fact. It's just that Jehanna's very different from the rest of us girls. We all joined the crew shortly after meeting you for the first time, but she's been fantasising about becoming a Lioness for months. After all that anticipation, Jehanna's putting a lot of pressure on herself to become a valuable member of the team. She'll be devastated if she makes any serious mistakes in combat."

"Which is why she's been pushing herself so hard in training," John murmured, nodding in understanding. Now fully armoured, he stepped away from the equipping frame and gave her a grateful smile. "That was very perceptive, honey. Thanks for the insight."

"Thank you... but I can't claim the credit. Alyssa informed the rest of us what was going on with her and asked that we be especially accommodating to Jehanna until she settles in."

John passed on his telepathic gratitude to his blonde matriarch, who responded with happiness to his praise.

He removed his helmet, then offered an arm to Sakura. "Alright, let's get moving. I'm looking forward to watching you in action."

Sakura removed her own helmet and accepted his arm, then they left the Armoury and took the grav-tube down to Deck Nine. After a parting kiss, John sat on a munitions crate and watched the Asian girl as she struck an offensive pose. Beginning with Kenjutsu, she shifted into the rigid posture of Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu, utilising one of her blades for defence while the other went on the attack.

Striding silently across the titanium deck, Sakura shifted through one Kata to another, her twin ninjato whistling through the air. Her technique was honed to perfection, each slash a textbook recreation of the ancient Japanese fighting arts. John followed her movements in fascination, appreciating the skilful expertise on display. Unfortunately, now that Luna had pointed out the flaws in his own fighting style, he could no longer look at Kenjutsu the same way.

Eito Yamamoto had dedicated his life to mastering that martial art, rejecting the modern variant he'd learned as a professional sportsman, in favour of a lethal adaptation designed to avenge his slain family. There was no question that it was an efficient fighting technique, but at its fundamental core, John could see that its creator had tried to impose order on the chaos of combat. He thought back on the many times he'd fought, with so many battles teetering on a knife's edge between victory and disaster. Combat could be wild and unpredictable, chaos in its purest form, and no attempt to control it would ever be truly successful.

As John was pondering that thought, Sakura pivoted and held out her twin swords at arms' length. She extended her left leg, sliding forward with her weapons pointing in opposing directions, then began to spin, thrusting and slashing with each blade. John wasn't proficient in Wushu himself, but he recognised the technique immediately for its flowing elegance.

Years ago, he would've dismissed the style as being hopelessly impractical, but having been on the receiving end of that whirlwind of flashing blades, he could testify to its effectiveness. The footwork and posture might seem like an elaborate form of dancing, but each turn was cleverly designed to use the momentum of Sakura's body to increase the power of each thrust. While her previous style emphasised strength and precision, this technique demanded incredible agility and flexibility.

John knew that such a fighting style was far more suitable for Sakura than himself, making full use of her exceptional athleticism and acrobatic flair. However, there were some elements that could still prove to be useful. The sweeping turns magnified the effective power of each strike, a technique that would be much more devastating with his two-handed runesword than Sakura's much smaller blades. He leaned forward, watching in fascination as she altered her stance and moved fluidly into the next martial art.

***

Jehanna narrowed her eyes and ignored the throbbing in her head as she gestured with her hand. A wall of interlocked hexagons popped into existence before her, the two-metre disc the largest she'd been able to create so far.

"That's excellent, well done!" Alyssa exclaimed, clapping her hands in celebration.

"Thanks," Jehanna replied with a tired smile, before wavering unsteadily. The hex barrier disintegrated as she lost concentration, but the former reporter was blinking owlishly and didn't notice. "Whoa... I think I need to sit down a minute."

"Easy now, you've tapped yourself out after all that psychic activity," the blonde said with sympathy, slipping an arm around her waist. "You just need a bit of rest and you'll be absolutely fine. Can you walk, or would you like me to carry you?"

Jehanna hesitated for a moment until Alyssa's indulgent smile put her at ease. "I think it might be simpler to just carry me," she admitted, feeling wobbly on her feet.

"No problem," Alyssa replied, summoning a dozen telekinetic hands into existence.

The disembodied appendages gently scooped Jehanna up, holding her effortlessly in their supportive grasp. Alyssa carried her exhausted companion through to the bedroom, then placed her on top of the covers. She kicked off her high heels, then crawled onto the bed to lay beside the dusky girl.

"Is that better?" she asked, propping herself up on one elbow and looking down at her companion.

"Much," Jehanna agreed, stretching like a cat. "I still feel weary down to my bones though..."

"You've drained yourself of all your psychic energy reserves," Alyssa explained, gently massaging her friend's temple. "If you'd pushed yourself any harder, you would've started draining your own life force to fuel any psychic abilities."

"Scary stuff," Jehanna said with a shudder. She looked up at her matriarch with a worried frown. "How did I do today? Did I run out of psychic energy quicker than you expected? It didn't feel like I was training for very long..."

"You've actually been practicing your hex shields for over an hour. I couldn't be prouder of how far you've developed already."

Jehanna sagged with relief, a lovely smile appearing on her face. "Thank you. I'm glad I did okay."

Alyssa brushed a lock of jet-black hair aside. "You don't need to push yourself this hard, gorgeous. Nobody expects you to be an expert in psychic abilities overnight, especially not me or John."

The former reporter had a sudden gleam of curiosity in her eyes. "Why didn't you want me to ask John about his rune affinity earlier?"

"Because the rune he feels most closely attuned to is Destruction," Alyssa explained with a pensive frown.

Jehanna looked at the blonde in confusion. "But what's the problem with discussing it with him? He was designed to be the Kyth'faren's instrument of vengeance against the Progenitors, so being attuned to Destruction seems pretty logical to me."

"I know that, but John hasn't come to terms with it yet, so it's a bit of a prickly subject. I don't want him dwelling on it and leaping to some boneheaded conclusions, like it somehow applies to his relationships with us or something equally ridiculous."

"Okay, that makes sense," Jehanna said, nodding in understanding. "You're just being protective."

Alyssa gave her a self-conscious smile. "You probably think I'm overreacting, but after dealing with months of John's guilt about recruiting all of us, I'm not taking any chances. He's still getting over what happened with his parents, so we all need to support him while he recovers from that."

"I'm not criticising," Jehanna murmured, cupping the blonde's face and gently brushing her thumb across Alyssa's flawless skin. "I think it's wonderful how much you care about him... about all of us."

Her enchanting cerulean eyes softened and Alyssa leaned down to kiss the dusky beauty. *Of course I care about you...* Her hand slid down Jehanna's torso to rest on her toned stomach. *When you start having John's babies, they're going to be brothers and sisters to all my children. You're part of our family now, gorgeous.*

Jehanna moaned with arousal and pulled the blonde down into a deeper kiss.

***

Sakura flipped through the air and landed lightly on her feet, her twin ninjato swishing around in a deadly flourish until she sheathed them on her back. She'd spent the last couple of hours demonstrating all the different fighting techniques that Mikaboshi had forced her to learn, as well as the combat styles she'd taught herself since escaping from cybernetic bondage.

"That's everything I know," she said, removing her helmet and padding silently across the deck towards John. "Was it helpful?"

"Incredibly helpful," he replied, rising from the munitions crate. "Watching you go through the Kata was fascinating. It gave me a lot of insight into the different fighting styles, and I could see the various strengths and weaknesses for each of those martial arts."

"How do you plan to proceed from here?" Sakura asked, listening with genuine interest.

John considered that for a long moment. "I think the next step is to develop a unique set of Kata for offense and defence. They'll need to be optimised for fighting with a two-handed blade... and working in close conjunction with a dual-wielding partner."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "Are you serious?!"

"Absolutely," John said with conviction. "I didn't give you the ability to synchronise with me in combat just to make you feel better. The two of us fighting as a duo will be key to overwhelming Progenitor opponents; they'll never expect it and won't have ever faced anything like it before."

Sakura beamed at him in delight. "This is amazing, John! I'm so thrilled that you want me to be a part of this too!"

"It's going to mean a lot of intensive training," he cautioned her. "We'll need to spar with Luna as much as we can to benefit from her decades of experience and incredible insight into combat techniques. When we're happy with the fundamentals, then we'll need to train together as often as possible until we've perfected our new fighting style."

She flung her arms around his neck before giving him a big kiss. "You don't need to give me the hard sell. I'm in!"

John smiled at her exuberant response. "I was just warning you that you'll probably need to spend all your spare time sparring with me until we've mastered fighting as a cohesive team."

"I'm getting goosebumps!" Sakura gushed, before showering him with more kisses.

He laughed and spun her around, before setting the excited young woman down on the deck again.

*Sorry to interrupt, but Jehanna's worn herself out and needs topping up,* Alyssa informed him in a sultry purr.

*Okay, I'll be there soon.*

Sakura noticed the tell-tale signs that John was in telepathic communication with his matriarch and gave him a lopsided grin. "Duty calls?"

"Afraid so," he replied, clasping her hand. "Want to help me feed Jehanna?"

She blushed, but there was no mistaking the lustful twinkle in her almond-shaped eyes. "I'd love to..."

***

Shoal Commander Taguch paced back and forth on the Command Deck of his flagship, pausing every few minutes to dart a nervous glance at the Sector Map in the centre of the Bridge. Fleet Broimedha was holding position on the Brimorian side of the border, while the Kintark side was still devoid of Imperial forces. It should've been uplifting to see the border swept clear of enemy warships, confirming that the Enclave invasion fleets had driven them back to their homeworld. However, now that the Brimorian armada had disappeared without so much as a distress call, the vast tracts of empty space felt ominous and forbidding.

Every Brimorian in the fleet seemed to have a theory as to the fate of the missing armada. Rumours had spread like wildfire, growing more far-fetched as the days rolled on... with still no communication from Kaelotegh's forces. Taguch had heard many of the crew's furtive speculations, but they all seemed highly implausible in his opinion. Casting another pensive glance at the Sector Map, Taguch wondered for the umpteenth time what had really happened to Kaelotegh and his armada.

He'd scoffed at the very idea of the fanatical Shoal Master going rogue and switching sides to the Kintark Empire. Kaelotegh was highly respected within the Enclave and considered next in line to join the Deep Pool, so the Brimorian hero turning traitor made no sense at all. Taguch was also convinced that the might of the Kintark Empire had been shattered after their crushing defeat in the Battle of Terra. It was therefore highly unlikely that they would've been able to muster enough ships to even defend Kinta from invasion, let alone wipe out the numerically and technically superior Brimorians forces.

If the Kintark weren't responsible for the armada's defeat, then he had to wonder who was. The Terrans had been at war with the Kintark only a matter of weeks ago, so there was zero chance of them collaborating with the Empire to defend their homeworld. With the Federation out of the picture, the only neighbouring civilisation that might have had sympathy for the Kintark would be the Trankarans, but rumour had it that their Republic was under siege by the Kirrix.

Taguch's eyes were drawn to the outer limit of his battleship's sensor range and he felt a shiver run down his spine. Somewhere out there lurked the culprit behind the armada's disappearance and he had absolutely no idea who it was.

A sensor ping suddenly echoed around the Bridge and Taguch jumped as the pensive silence was shattered.

"What was that?!" he demanded, rushing closer to the Sector Map. "Are we under attack?"

"It's one of ours, Shoal Commander!" the Tactical Officer blurted out, sounding as shocked as Taguch felt. "It's the Relentless Tide!"

Taguch frantically searched the Sector Map until his eyes locked onto the green sensor contact for the Brimorian battleship. "There's more incoming!" he exclaimed, his fears banished as hope returned.

The Tactical Officer nodded, his black eyes shining with excitement. "The Triumphant Depths, the Ocean's Might, the Immutable Heart of the Seas... they're all capital ships from Shoal Master Kaelotegh's fleet!"

"Hail them!" Taguch demanded, returning to his command chair and grinning with relief.

The Communications Officer quickly followed his orders, sending out an open broadcast to the incoming battleships. The Brimorian officer frowned a minute later when there was still no response and attempted to contact each of the massive spacecraft directly.

Taguch glanced at him in irritation. "What's the problem?"

"They're not responding to my hails, Shoal Commander," the Comms Officer explained. "Perhaps they suffered damage to their communication array?"

The Brimorian leader gave him an incredulous look. "All twelve of them?"

His fins wilting under his commander's angry glare, the Comms Officer stammered, "P-perhaps they're being jammed? If we close the distance with them, then I might be able to-"

"No. Hold position here," Taguch stated firmly, having no intention of countermanding Deep Lord Athgiloi's very specific orders.

They were forced to wait as the Brimorian battleships inched closer, the returning Enclave fleet sailing through hyper-warp in a broad formation. The approaching warships did not appear to be in any distress and much to Taguch's relief, they were not being pursued by hostile forces.

The Brimorian officer at the Engineering Station turned to face his leader. "None of them have suffered any battle damage, Shoal Commander."

Taguch snorted as he glanced at his comms officer with disdain. "So much for that theory. We'll simply wait until they exceed the range of the jamming device."

More minutes ticked by until the approaching Enclave fleet seemed to glide to a halt. The battleships remained stationary some distance out of weapon range, lined up neatly as if awaiting an inspection.

Taguch leaned forward in his command chair, squinting incredulously at the green sensor contacts. "What are they doing now? Have they just dropped out of hyper-warp?"

"It appears so, Shoal Commander," the Tactical Officer replied, looking thoroughly bewildered. "Wait... they've just launched something. It looks like... a salvage tug?"

Rising from his chair, Taguch slowly approached the holographic map, watching intently as the tug sailed towards the Kintark border. The smaller craft disengaged from the large object it was towing, then turned and made its way back towards the battleship it had come from.

"Launch a probe!" Taguch called out, pointing at the mysterious object. "Find out what that is!"

The Bridge crew rushed to follow his orders and seconds later a sensor probe raced across the border. After being guided into position, it performed a broad loop, circling the object and broadcasting the footage back to the flagship.

"That's a section of armour plating," the Engineer said quietly, his voice filled with dread. "Look at all those plasma burns..."

"Roll back the footage!" The Brimorian at Tactical called out. "There's something written there!"

The other officer did as he asked and zoomed in the recording, focusing on the bold Brimorian script that was partially obscured with scorch marks.

Taguch stared at the debris in horror. He could make out the name now.

"Retribution from the Depths."

He suddenly knew with dreadful certainty that this forlorn chunk of ship plating was all that remained of Shoal Master Kaelotegh's mighty flagship.

"More contacts, Shoal Commander!" the Tactical Officer called out in warning. "Kintark forces... at least two fleets!"

"Fall back!" Taguch cried out, staring fearfully at the holographic map. "Get us out of here!"

As Fleet Broimedha sounded the retreat and withdrew from the border, the Shoal Commander could only watch in dismay as the Kintark fleets moved to flank the cohort of Brimorian battleships.

"Contact Deep Lord Athgiloi," he ordered, struggling to believe what he'd just witnessed. "He needs to know everything that transpired here!"

***

John slipped an arm around Jehanna's waist as he spooned her from behind, then stroked her cum-filled stomach. "Does that feel better?"

"Mmm... that feels wonderful," she agreed, shivering with delight at his gentle caress.

"How about you, beautiful?" he asked the blonde facing him. "Glad to have me back?"

Alyssa wriggled closer so that her curved tummy was touching Jehanna's, allowing John to caress them both at the same time. "I think you know the answer to that. How about you? Glad to be back with your Terran girls, or are you missing being worshipped by doe-eyed Maliri maidens?"

John stared at their contrasting skin tones in fascination, admiring Alyssa's warm bronzed flesh and Jehanna's lovely caramel complexion. "I finally get what the twins meant when they kept saying how exotic you girls are."

"You're not bored of blue and white already, are you?" Alyssa teased him. "Edraele will be heartbroken..."

"No, definitely not. Being with the Maliri feels... comforting and familiar... like we're made for each other. But you girls... you're all so sexy and gorgeous, I could eat you up!"

He buried his face in Jehanna's tousled raven mane and nibbled at her neck, making her giggle.

Alyssa smiled fondly at the pair. "True... Sakura was very tasty."

John glanced over his shoulder at the third girl in bed with them, but Sakura was still insensate after receiving so many orgasms.

"Oh, speaking of the Maliri, I've got some amazing news!" Jehanna blurted out, turning to look up at John when she had his full attention once again.

He kissed her shoulder. "Go ahead, I'm all ears."

"Edraele wants me to chronicle your fight against the Progenitors and present our side of the war to the Maliri!" she gushed, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "She offered me a job as Lead Anchor for a brand new network, broadcasting to everyone in the Maliri Protectorate!"

"Wow! That sounds like an incredible opportunity," he said, giving her a congratulatory hug. "Did you accept?"

She blushed and nodded. "Do you mind that I didn't discuss it with you first? From the way Edraele described the role, I'll basically be an embedded reporter with the crew, so it shouldn't interfere with me fighting for you as a Lioness. If you do have any reservations, just let me know, and I'll turn her down."

"Of course it's okay. If this is something you're excited to do, then go for it," John said, giving her a reassuring kiss. "I want you to be part of my life, but you're free to make your own decisions... I don't own you."

"Except in bed," Alyssa quickly interjected.

"That's true," Jehanna agreed, returning his kiss with a loving one of her own. "I think it's fair to say you've laid a claim on my heart too."

"She makes a good point," Alyssa noted, languidly stroking her luscious bedmate. "And you actually do own lots of us body and soul. There's Dana... and Rachel... and Sakura... and me... and the twins..."

*Don't forget about me and my sisters!* Jade interrupted. *We all call you Master for a very good reason.*

"It sounds like I'd be in very good company if you owned me as well," Jehanna said with a playful grin.

John traced a finger around her neck. "Hmm... maybe I should have a quiet word with Dana; I'm sure she could make me a collar and cuffs in your size."

Jehanna flushed at the thought and couldn't help letting out a moan of desire. "Oh my god... that would be so hot."

"Who would've thought TFNN's demure lead anchor had such a naughty side to her," Alyssa teased the raven-haired reporter. "When you start your new job, I'm sure John could be convinced to give you a full tummy before your first broadcast."

"Stop, please! I'm turned on enough already!" Jehanna pleaded, before looking at John hopefully. "Unless you're ready for another round?"

He chuckled and shook his head. "I'm going to need a bit more recovery time. You two drained me dry."

They settled down together and Alyssa leaned forward to give her a tender kiss. "Congratulations on the new role. I'm really glad you're excited about it."

Jehanna started to thank her blonde matriarch, then looked at her perceptively. "You already knew. Did Edraele discuss it with you beforehand?"

Alyssa hesitated, then shook her head. "No... the other way round."

"You asked her? When?" she asked in surprise.

"About a month ago... when John first started filling you up," Alyssa admitted, brushing her fingertips across Jehanna's swollen belly. "We had a chat about it then."

The Indian beauty gaped at her in astonishment.

"When you joined our network, I became your matriarch," the blonde quietly explained. "It's my job to take care of you and make sure you're happy... just like all the other girls I look after. Nothing was set in stone, but I wanted to give you the option of still having a fulfilling journalism career if you decided to leave TFNN and join us on the Invictus. I'm sorry everything went so badly wrong with you being exposed as a secret Lioness. I would've done everything I could to prevent that from happening... but then we got ambushed by Larn'kelnar."

Jehanna's eyes filled up and she hugged Alyssa fiercely. "I didn't quite believe everything you were saying about me being family... but you really mean it, don't you?"

Alyssa nodded solemnly and kissed her on the cheek. "Most of the talk about Lionesses is a bunch of propaganda. When you made love to John for the first time and joined our network, that's when you truly became one of us. You just needed a bit of time to leave your old life behind and embrace a new life with us."

Pulling back, Jehanna stared into her matriarch's eyes. "I'm ready now... I feel it in my heart."

"I know..." Alyssa agreed, meeting that loving gaze.

John watched their interaction with interest, recognising the telltale signs that the two girls were about to bond. To his surprise, he suddenly noticed an undulating column of psychic energy connecting Jehanna and Alyssa, the link growing more distinct as he focused on it. The bond flickered for a moment, then blazed even brighter, both women opening themselves up to share everything about their pasts and their dreams for the future.

The narrow connection thickened into a broad beam, blazing with a brilliant white intensity as they enmeshed their minds together. John felt inextricably drawn to that beacon of love, reaching out with his mind to tentatively touch that shining radiance. When he made contact, he was suddenly immersed in their combined subconscious, gaining such a profound insight into both girls that it took his breath away.

John hastily retreated, feeling like he was intruding on a moment of incredible intimacy between Alyssa and Jehanna. He rolled over onto his back and let out a heavy sigh. Pulling away from the pair had strained his willpower to the limit, but he couldn't stay and just wallow in their devotion to him... it felt like being a voyeur on something intensely private.

Sakura snuggled up against him, raising her head for a drowsy kiss. "Thanks for this morning... I loved every minute with you."

"Me too. I always enjoy spending time together," John agreed, stroking her back.

The Asian girl glanced at their bedmates and blinked in surprise. "Oh, they're bonding!"

"Yep. They just started."

A wistful smile lit up her face as she settled down with her head on John's shoulder. "Jehanna's a lucky girl. I love you, John."

"I love you too," he murmured, holding Sakura close as she drifted off to sleep.

John lay awake wondering if bonding was a similar experience for all the girls, with him featuring so heavily in their aspirations for the future.

*I loved every moment of it, Master,* Jade said with a happy sigh. *We spent the entire time sharing wonderful thoughts about you. I learned so much from Alyssa... I'll be eternally grateful to her for that.*

*Don't you usually spend most of your time thinking about me anyway, Jade?*

*Of course!* she enthusiastically agreed. *But sharing that with someone who knew more about you than I did was incredible!*

*What about you, Edraele?* he asked inquisitively.

*Alyssa and I shared a great deal, John,* the Maliri matriarch said softly. *Obviously you are an integral part of both our lives, but it wasn't quite the tightly-focused experience that Jade enjoyed.*

*Ah... because she's a Nymph and they tend to have one-track minds?*

*Exactly,* Edraele concurred.

He paused, noting the tension in her voice. *Are you okay, Edraele? You've been very quiet since we found Valada's tomb.*

*I'm sorry I've been distracted,* she said ruefully. *I just felt so sorry for Valada. I pictured myself in her position and could only imagine how devastated she must have been after losing Mael'nerak... yet she still managed to safeguard the future of the Maliri to the best of her ability.*

*You've been grieving for her,* John realised in a moment of epiphany. *I'm sorry, honey. I didn't realise this had hit you so hard.*

*Sensing her torment in those psychic echoes was a harrowing experience,* Edraele said in a hushed voice. *Please don't ever subject me to that, John. I couldn't survive without you.*

*I won't, I promise.*

*You're promising me that you'll never die?* she asked, some of the tension easing from her voice.

John smiled self-consciously as she pointed out the absurdity of his declaration. *Yes. You have my solemn pledge that I will never be killed ever.*

Her laughter was carefree and infectious as it echoed through his mind. *That's very sweet, but I probably should be extracting that pledge from Xar'aziuth, not from you.*

*Hmm... you might have a point there,* John playfully conceded. *I'm sorry that we left Valaden in such a hurry. If I'd known you were upset, I would've visited you on Genthalas.*

*There's no need to apologise. I understand all too well your need for haste in retrieving Larn'kelnar's fleets.*

*We'll definitely be back this evening to heal Vestele Waephyra. I'd also like to spend the night with you and Luna... I need to enlist her help in sparring with me and Sakura.*

*She'll be absolutely thrilled when I tell her. I promise we'll give you a night you'll never forget, my Lord...* she purred, her dulcet voice turning seductive.

*Now that's a pledge I can believe in,* he said, enjoying their banter. *Get plenty of rest, Edraele. I plan to make it a very memorable night for you too.*

*I'll summon Luna to my bedroom immediately,* the Maliri Queen promised.

John sensed her mounting anticipation and allowed himself a brief smile of satisfaction at successfully shaking Edraele out of her grief. Deciding to follow his own advice, he kissed Sakura on the top of her head, then closed his eyes and let himself be pulled into a deep sleep. He believed Edraele when she told him that he'd need plenty of rest.

***

"Can you give me just a quick preview of Valada's research?" Dana begged, clasping her hands together and looking at Calara with big endearing eyes. "Please?"

"Alyssa already told you that they'll be here soon," the Latina countered, shaking her head. "You'll just have to be patient for a few more minutes."

"I've added all the autopsy reports," Irillith informed Rachel as she sat down on her seat at the conference table. "Do you need anything else?"

"I made notes, but I've already memorised the key points," the brunette replied. "Thanks though."

They all felt the deck plates tremble beneath their feet as Alyssa dropped the Invictus out of hyper-warp and dispersed the bow wave. Outside through the long windows, the stars stopped sweeping past as the battlecruiser glided to a halt.

Tashana fidgeted with the remote for the presentation, barely able to contain her excitement. When the door opened and John entered the packed briefing room, she bounded over to greet him with a beaming smile. "We've found out so much! Take a seat and we'll tell you everything!"

"I can't wait to find out more... but I think Alyssa wants to make a quick announcement."

The blonde stepped forward, holding hands with their newest recruit. "I'm bonded to Jehanna now. She's truly part of the family."

Jehanna was immediately surrounded by the girls, who proceeded to shower her in congratulatory hugs and kisses. At one point she glanced at John and gave him a beautiful smile, her joy at being enthusiastically welcomed as a full-fledged member of the crew plain to see.

Tashana waited patiently after congratulating Jehanna, then cleared her throat when everyone had taken their seats. "Welcome everyone. This is an overview of Valada's life's work: to reclaim Kythshara and all its secrets for the Maliri."

She glanced at Irillith and gave her sister a brief nod. A moment later, a holographic image appeared above the conference table, casting the entire room in an ethereal shade of purple.

"The Mists of Loralar..." Tashana said in a hushed voice, staring reverently at the swirling nebula before turning her attention to her audience. "We now know for certain that this is the location of Kythshara, Mael'nerak's Throne World. It was from here that he ruled over a vast empire that dates back to at least 72,000 years ago."

"Is that when he wiped out the Achonin?" John asked, listening with interest.

She nodded in confirmation. "Valada rarely mentions Mael'nerak in these research notes, but she did talk about his past in the files I found on Epsilon Aquarii IV. He told her that he was sent here seventy-two millennia ago to wage war against the Achonin, a technologically advanced civilisation that took considerable effort to defeat and ultimately exterminate."

"Basing a story off hearsay from a third party is always a big risk," Jehanna interjected. "Do we only have Valada's word to rely on for that?"

"It is possible that Mael'nerak exaggerated or was not telling Valada the truth," Tashana admitted with a frown. "But I can't think of a good reason why he'd lie to his matriarch."

"No, me either," Alyssa agreed. "I think it's reasonable to believe that Mael'nerak was being completely honest with Valada. It's not like he needed to lie to impress her... she was already totally devoted to him."

"So that means the Maliri weren't native to this quadrant of the galaxy?" John concluded, looking at the archaeologist for confirmation.

Tashana shook her head. "Apparently not."

"But Mael'nerak stayed after the Achonin were destroyed and established an empire here," John mused, studying the holographic depiction of the nebula. "Presumably for the same reason that my father, then Larn'kelnar never left this area after they arrived."

"Because of the Shroud," Tashana finished for him. "It freed them from Xar'aziuth's control and they never wanted to go back to being his puppets."

"Exactly. Which again raises the question of who actually made the Shroud? Was it the Achonin defending themselves, or did Mael'nerak create it to defeat them?" John asked, looking around at the girls. "The Kirrix Hive Mind told Alyssa that they've been attacked by two Progenitors before and the Shroud appeared during their war with the first. They were convinced he was responsible because the Shroud disrupted their natural lifecycle and could've doomed them to extinction. We've confirmed that the second Progenitor was my father, because he readily admitted to it when he told me about wiping out the Vulkat, which means Mael'nerak must've been the first."

"Hey, I just thought of something!" Dana blurted out, sitting up in excitement. "If Mael'nerak created the Shroud, then whatever's generating it might be located on Kythshara! I can't think of a safer location in Mael'nerak's empire than right smack in the centre on his homeworld!"

Tashana looked at her in surprise. "You think the Shroud's being powered by a machine?"

"How else would it work?" the redhead asked, looking at her in confusion. "I just figured it must be like a huge psychic dampening device."

"That does make sense," the Maliri conceded. "I assumed that the Shroud was a psychic construction in the Astral, like the Ashanath's subplane, or the Kyth'faren citadel."

"Psychic constructs need to be constantly maintained," Alyssa interjected, her brow furrowing in thought. "Mael'nerak did originally create the Ashanath's subplane, but he handed it over to the Greys and they've been keeping it going ever since. One of the Kyth'faren had to sacrifice his own life to maintain the citadel... but they'd already lost their war and that was his only real chance at revenge."

"Like a man driven to sacrifice himself in a massive suicidal explosion?" Sakura suggested quietly. "Mael'nerak was already willing to go that far to protect Valada and the Maliri, so why not take it a step further and really make his death count? If Mael'nerak is maintaining the Shroud, he kept the Maliri safe for another ten-thousand years."

Everyone fell into a shocked silence at the thought of someone going to such extreme lengths to protect the ones he loved.

John gave Tashana a rueful look. "It looks like I completely derailed your presentation. Sorry about that."

"It's quite alright," she said, waving away his apology. "That was a fascinating digression."

"Please continue," John said, gesturing for her to proceed.

She nodded, then glanced back at the purple nebula. "Where was I... Oh yes, I was just recapping the timeline. So if Mael'nerak is to be believed, then he arrived here 72,000 years ago and defeated the Achonin Empire. The Nexus files that Rill retrieved had timestamps, so we know for a fact that the AI was built 62,000 years ago. Mael'nerak created the Trankarans and the Ashanath shortly afterwards, then thousands of years later, he created Terrans."

"And that footage was especially significant because it featured Valada just after she'd become his new matriarch," Irillith said, sharing a poignant smile with her sister. "She served Mael'nerak faithfully for 40,000 years... until he broke their connection and exiled her to Valaden. Valada then spent the next two centuries desperately trying to find a way to pass through the Mists of Loralar and return to Kythshara."

"She was trying to go home," Alyssa whispered, her eyes glistening as they filled with tears of sympathy.

Irillith paused and nodded, her expression sorrowful. "Show them what you found Shan..."

Her sister took the remote and opened several new images, each one an incredibly lifelike painting of verdant fields, immaculate parks, or a beautiful city filled with tree-lined boulevards. The images cycled through again and again, showing hundreds of landscape portraits.

"These were stored in the wall projection system in her bedroom," Tashana explained. "I don't know if Valada painted them herself or commissioned someone to paint them for her, but it looks like she tried to capture all her memories of Kythshara."

"I recognise that city from the Nexus files," John murmured, staring at the remarkably realistic reproductions. "The view is very similar to the one from Mael'nerak's lab."

"Did she have a portrait made of Mael'nerak?" Jehanna asked, wondering what he looked like.

Tashana shook her head. "I couldn't find a single one."

Alyssa stared off into space as she murmured, "She didn't need it. Mael'nerak's face was permanently engraved on Valada's mind; she knew every line, every curve... every glorious expression he'd ever had. The way his eyes lit up as he smiled at her... it was impossible for her to ever forget."

"Did you see that in a psychic echo?" John asked, reaching over to gently clasp her hand.

She interlaced her fingers with his, but struggled to meet his concerned gaze. "No."

"Come here," John said, pulling the blonde towards him. When she was settled on his lap, he continued, "I promise I'll never leave you like that, okay? I know Mael'nerak thought he was doing the best thing for Valada, but I can see how cruel that decision turned out to be."

Alyssa snuggled into his chest and kissed his cheek. "Thank you."

Once he was sure that Alyssa was settled again, John nodded towards Tashana to continue.

"That was everything from me," the Maliri said, before turning towards the Latina sitting to her right. "It's your turn, Calara."

Rising from her seat, Calara used the remote to dismiss the gallery of paintings and bring back the enchanting purple hues that formed the Mists of Loralar. This holographic map was different from the previous one though, with hundreds of flight paths marked, each one heading towards the centre of the system from a myriad of approach vectors.

"This image shows the culmination of Valada's scouting attempts into the nebula," Calara explained, pointing to the spiderweb of multicoloured lines. "The green paths depict a successful exploration and safe return, while each red path track spacecraft that were lost within the Mists."

"Hold on a moment," John interrupted, frowning in confusion. "I thought any Maliri going into the Mists ended up scared out of their minds? Edraele told me that she sent an expedition inside and when the crew returned, some of them were so terrified that they never recovered."

"That's correct," Rachel replied, her expression turning grim. "I reviewed hundreds of autopsy records and in every case the Maliri exhibited identical trauma. Entering the Mists exposes the brain to a massive overstimulation of the amygdala, indicative of each patient suffering an incident of extreme fear or anxiety. The onset is so rapid and severe that even ten minutes of exposure can inflict permanent brain damage and trigger incurable side-effects. Extending that exposure makes the symptoms exponentially worse."

"But if Valada knew these scouting missions would have fatal consequences, why the hell did she keep ordering them?" John asked incredulously.

"The crews all volunteered," Calara quietly replied. "Valada didn't order any of them to do this."

"All the autopsies were performed on Maliri that were at least 250-years-old," Rachel clarified. "Many of them were already suffering from degenerative mental or physical conditions brought about by their advanced years."

"Alright, but that still doesn't explain why they kept flying to their deaths," John persisted, waving a hand at the mass of sinister red lines on the map. "Hundreds of Maliri threw away their lives for this!"

"Kythshara is protected by static defences," Calara explained, her expression now as bleak as Rachel's. "Valada already knew that the gun emplacements existed, but she didn't know their precise locations. The scouting missions were intended to track all the defences and allow Valada to plot a safe course to Kythshara that would avoid most of the defence grid. She planned to send the fastest Maliri vessel they had to penetrate those defences, reach Mael'nerak's Throne World and deactivate the device powering the Mists."

"But she obviously never succeeded," John said, grimacing at the pointless waste of life.

"No, Valada grew too sick to continue," Rachel explained. "Her malignant brain tumour triggered agonising migraines, which eventually reached the point where they became unbearable. She sealed herself inside her shrine to Mael'nerak to escape from the constant crippling pain."

John let out a ragged sigh. "So were all those Maliri killed for nothing?"

Calara shook her head, then gave him an optimistic smile. "The Mists block sensors, but that didn't stop the Maliri scouts from visually identifying over a dozen gun emplacements. If we follow through with Valada's initial plan to rush to Kythshara, we should be able to avoid a significant amount of defensive fire."

"Alright, well that's good news at least," John said, perking up considerably. "Have you found a method of countering the brain damage caused by the Mists?"

Calara's smile faded and she sat back in her chair. "No, I'm afraid not."

"We do have a few theories though," Rachel quickly chimed in. "We know that the Mists are designed to prevent intrusion by the Maliri, but I think it's a safe assumption that Mael'nerak would want to keep rivals away too. There is a distinct possibility that the Mists are specifically tailored towards repulsing thralls, which means that only Irillith and Tashana would be affected from our crew. If the twins waited in the Raptor on the periphery of the system, the rest of us could rush to Kythshara and deactivate the field."

"We'd be taking a big gamble that Terrans and Nymphs are unaffected," John said, looking dubious. "I'm not willing to take any chances of the rest of you getting hurt. Trying to heal mental scars is incredibly difficult... and there's no guarantee that either of us could actually undo this kind of trauma. Did you have any other suggestions?"

Calara and Rachel shared a pensive glance, which John happened to notice.

"Alright, what's the problem with this next theory?"

"It's not a problem precisely, but this theory is also untested," the tawny brunette admitted. "It seems likely to me that the field blanketing the nebula is actually psychic in nature. I can't think of any natural phenomena that can penetrate through an armoured hull and would have such dramatic side-effects, so we could treat this like any other psychic attack."

"We've encountered similar psychic auras before," Tashana said, drawing everyone's attention to her. "Nkkrrit was able to unsettle anybody that boarded her ship and the effect worsened as we got closer to her throne room. For those last few steps onto the balcony, it was all I could do not to run screaming in fear from her presence."

"And we've experienced the terror that Xar'aziuth radiates in the Astral. We managed to survive that and I can't imagine the Mists being anywhere near as bad," Irillith added, making those who had visited his terrifying subplane shiver at the disturbing memory. "If the Mists of Loralar are a psychic defence to repel intruders, then we might actually have a way of countering it."

John watched her violet eyes flick across the table and he blinked in surprise as her gaze settled on Helene.

The teal-hued mermaid sat up straighter, reflecting her firm resolve. "I'd like to help however I can."

His natural instinct was to immediately refuse, but John rubbed his chin as he gave the idea serious consideration. "I know you helped thousands of colonists recover from being abused by the Kirrix, and you supported the girls when they were traumatised after we disconnected, but that's very different from defending against an ongoing psychic attack. You'd need to protect the entire crew, including yourself, from a constant mental onslaught designed to terrify us into fleeing the nebula."

"I know it will be difficult, but I'll do my very best to protect everyone," she said earnestly.

John gave her a fond smile. "I don't doubt that for a second, honey... but I don't want to risk you burning yourself out either. This would be the first time you've used your abilities like this and I'm worried that shielding the entire crew would put you under huge strain."

"I understand," Helene said, deflating with disappointment.

"He's right," Alyssa said, sitting up on his lap. "Asking you to protect everyone would be too much, especially when you're trying this for the first time... but what about just a few of us?"

John looked at her curiously. "What've you got in mind?"

"What if we park the Invictus here, then take the Raptor with a small crew?" she explained, turning to face him. "I wasn't affected by Nkkrrit's fear aura, so I shouldn't have any problem resisting this either. You shrugged off the worst of it last time, but that was before you absorbed your guide, and you're by far the strongest out of all of us now. I doubt you'll even notice it."

"So just the two of us then?" John asked, nodding thoughtfully. "That might work... but then we wouldn't need Helene to shield anyone."

Alyssa shook her head and gestured to the twins. "We'll definitely need Tashana for this; she's the most familiar with Mael'nerak and the ancient Maliri. I think Irillith should come too in case we need her hacking skills, and Dana's our best shot at identifying and shutting down whatever device is generating this aura in the Mists of Loralar. If we do run into any serious trouble, we'll end up kicking ourselves if we don't bring Rachel."

"I'd like to join you as well," Jade volunteered, her emerald eyes gleaming. "I'm the only one of us that's actually been to Kythshara before."

"That's six then, including yourself," John said to Helene with concern. "Do you think you'll be able to handle that many?"

"I'm used to working with big groups of people, so six should be easy to manage," the aquatic girl replied, looking pleased. "I'll be able to give each of the girls much more attention."

"Alright, let's give it a try," John said, giving her an encouraging smile. "We'll stay near the outskirts of the system to give you some practice shielding the girls from the Mists. When you're confident that you're able to protect them, we can make a rush for Kythshara."

Calara gave him a look of amused resignation. "I guess I'm in charge of the Invictus until you get back, Admiral?"

"That's normally my line isn't it?" he replied, returning her grin. "Yes please, Captain. One last thing... how powerful are the static defences in place around Kythshara?"

Her expression immediately turned sombre. "Mael'nerak was a highly accomplished engineer with an in-depth understanding of Progenitor technology. Any gun emplacements he left behind are likely designed to repel an assault by a dreadnought, not just a mere thrall fleet. Be very, very careful when you approach Kythshara... I can't stress that more emphatically."

"Duly noted," he said, acknowledging her concern with a nod. "We'll take as many precautions as we can."

Dana frowned in confusion. "Wait a second... why don't we just sneak past them? We could take Larn'kelnar's shuttle, it's got a cloaking device."

Alyssa blanched and shot a pensive look at John.

He felt her tense and gave the blonde a comforting squeeze. "Don't worry, I wouldn't ask you to step foot on that ship again."

"Sorry, I forgot how you reacted to it," the redhead apologised to her friend. "But we could still take the Invictus and leave everyone else behind in the Raptor. If we go in cloaked, we could avoid all the gun turrets."

"I had considered the cloaking device, but using it would be a huge gamble," Calara explained, ruefully shaking her head. "We'd need to deactivate our shields to activate the cloak, which would leave us incredibly vulnerable to attack."

"But they can't attack us if they don't know we're there," Dana persisted.

"Mael'nerak set up these gun emplacements to defend his homeworld, and the only threat dangerous enough to launch an attack on Kythshara would be another Progenitor and his thralls. I think it's extremely unlikely that someone as technically gifted as Mael'nerak wouldn't have found a way to track cloaked vessels. The fact that he detonated his own dreadnought and caught Rahn'hagon in the explosion is ample proof that Mael'nerak knew exactly where his adversary was before he sacrificed himself."

Dana's face fell and she glumly nodded. "Shit... you're right. There's no way he'd blow himself to bits unless he was absolutely sure that he was taking Rahn with him."

"It was a good suggestion, Sparks," John said, giving her a conciliatory smile. "I think Calara's right though; we have to assume that Mael'nerak would've protected Kythshara from intrusion by cloaked ships."

"It's probably for the best," she said with a wry grin. "At least we're not attempting a stealth mission."

They all laughed at her joke, the levity easing the tension in the air. John offered Alyssa a hand and the blonde slid off his lap, allowing him to stand.

"Alright, ladies, time to get geared up," John declared. "Let's see what Mael'nerak left for us to find."