Three Square Meals Ch. 053

Despite her rapidly expanding knowledge on these subjects, she found that watching Dana work was truly astounding, and a joy to behold. She stayed silent so as not to disturb her friend, and gazed spellbound at the incredibly complex compound that the remarkable Terran woman was forming.

***

The next several days went by in a blur for Dana, Faye and Rachel, who were all occupied with research. For Alyssa, Calara and Jade, the days dragged interminably, and all they could do was fret and worry, while trying to buoy each other's spirits up. They saw no sign of John, and he didn't even bother to make an appearance when they entered Maliri Space. They greeted Irillith from time to time, and she was friendly and polite with them, but they could see that she was starting to get anxious about travelling back towards her homeworld.

The planet Valaden grew closer every day on the Sector map, as the Invictus raced towards their final destination. Alyssa desperately wanted to bring them to a grinding halt, and turn the ship right around to flee in the opposite direction. No matter how hard she tried though, she was unable to break the overwhelming compulsion of John's orders.

It was with a deep sense of foreboding that they finally arrived in the Epsilon Aquarii system, the home system for House Valaden, and location of the planet named after their house. Jade received a flight path from Valaden Traffic Control, and after a reluctant nod from Alyssa began to guide them down to the Spaceport near the palace that they had landed at before. All the girls were up on the Bridge now, and John strode out to join them with Irillith in tow, as they came in on their final approach to land at the Docking Bay.

Rachel noted the blinking light on her console, and said quietly, "Incoming call from Edraele Valaden."

"Put her through," John said with a predatory smile.

Matriarch Valaden's beautiful face filled the viewscreen a moment later, and she smiled warmly at them. "Welcome back to Valaden," she said, sounding delighted that they had returned.

John nodded to her courteously, and said, "It's good to see you Edraele. Are you available to meet, so we can conclude our business together?"

The Maliri woman had an eager gleam in her eyes as she replied, "Of course, you should come to the palace immediately." She glanced at Alyssa, and her eyes tensed a fraction before she added, "Perhaps it would be best if you came alone."

John smiled at her confidently, and said, "As you wish Edraele. If you arrange transport, I'll be there shortly."

"A hover-car is waiting for you at the Spaceport. My assistant, Luna, will bring you to meet me," she said with a sparkling smile that didn't reach her eyes.

John nodded, and ended the call, rising from his chair.

Alyssa stared at him, open-mouthed with shock, and said, "You can't be serious! Going to meet her alone is crazy!"

Irillith looked equally alarmed and said, "Luna is one of my mother's best assassins! You're in terrible danger!"

John laughed, ignoring their words of warning as he walked down the steps towards the grav-tube.

Alyssa rose to her feet and cried out to him in desperation, "John! Wait, please!"

He turned to look at the shocked and frightened faces of the six girls, who all stared at him in disbelief. Though he had to admit they were surprisingly capable females, they were cut off from him as a power source, and ultimately useless.

"Stay on the ship," he said coldly, in a voice that throbbed with authority.

They all watched him leave, shocked into inaction by his behaviour. Alyssa was the first to recover, and she rushed after him, diving into the grav-tube in pursuit. She reached the corridor on Deck Nine, stumbling as she ran after him, but he had already opened the airlock, and stepped out into the Docking Bay. By the time she had reached the airlock door, he had strolled over to the blue hover-car, and was greeting the lithe Maliri girl known as Luna, who was acting as his chauffeur.

"John!" Alyssa screamed. "Come back, please!"

He turned to her and with a mocking smile, he said, "Goodbye."

That single word had a ring of absolute finality to it, and it felt like a knife stabbing into her chest. Alyssa instinctively knew he had abandoned them, never planning to see them again. She collapsed in a heap, overcome with grief, powerless to leave the ship to follow him.

John got in the hover-car without another word, and nodded for Luna to proceed. Luna smiled at him, then got in the car and started the engine, preparing to pull away.

The sound of the starting engine shocked Alyssa into action, and she focused her will inwards, then yanked herself out of her body, staggering free in spirit form. Frantic for one last look at John, she sprinted over to him as fast as her legs could carry her. Time behaved differently on a spirit walk, and the car slowly pulling away appeared to be in slow motion, allowing her to catch it easily. Her heart lifted as she was able to see John's face once more, then as she drew alongside the vehicle, and could see him more clearly, her eyes widened in horrified disbelief.

She could see the brilliant gleaming crown on his head, almost as it had looked the first time she had noticed it when in spirit form. Unlike the first time she had seen it though, there was an ugly splintered crack at the back, exactly where Edraele had been trying to break in. There was darkness lurking behind that crack, and she could feel another presence. Something evil, malignant, and terrifying.

Shocked to the core, Alyssa lost her focus. With her concentration broken, she was abruptly swept off her feet and pulled back to her body, her mind too distraught to be able to keep them separate.

"John..." she sobbed brokenly, overcome with despair.

***

Edraele paced back and forth in her reception room impatiently. She had sent Luna to pick up the Mael'nerak, and he would be here in minutes. She felt giddy with anticipation, and she could hardly bring herself to believe a potential solution to her agonising nightmare would be walking through her door any moment now.

Her mother had been a strong, powerful woman, gifted with incredible psychic powers, but cursed with mind-splitting headaches that had got progressively worse as she aged. In the end, her mother had taken her own life, rather than live with the pain any longer. Edraele still remembered finding her mother's corpse with the laser pistol in hand, smoke rising from her temple, and her mother's once beautiful face ravaged and twisted with agony.

Edraele had sworn there and then that she would not die like that, reduced to such desperate measures to end the pain. After over a century of incredible frustration, as one avenue of research after another dried up, her long search for a cure was nearly over. There was the small matter of getting the Mael'nerak to cooperate, but without that unnerving blonde witch with him this time, she'd be able to break into his mind at her leisure. Even if that failed, she had her most capable of assassins on hand, who would be more than happy to persuade him to be more amenable if it came to it.

A pet Mael'nerak of her own. She gloated at the very thought. If he proved to be anywhere near as powerful as Tashana had suggested, the other Noble houses would tremble in fear, rueing the day that they had dared to cross -"Queen"- Edraele Valaden. Yes, restoring that title to the ruler of the Maliri regency, herself, would be a delicious victory indeed!

Booted footsteps coming from behind the door to her sanctum drew her attention that way, and she beamed a sparkling smile at Commodore John Blake as he strode into the room. "Edraele! How wonderful to see you," he said, grinning at her eagerly.

She could barely keep herself from laughing out loud. The fool had marched into her abode completely oblivious to the horrible fate that awaited him. "I'm overjoyed to see you John, it's been far too long. You said you were successful in your mission?" she asked him, savouring the tantalising knowledge that her prize was so close.

"Yes, I've acquired the Trankaran Engine schematics you requested. That's not really what you desire though is it?" he asked her knowingly.

His bold confidence shook her for an instant, and she felt a moment of doubt. Recovering quickly she replied, "Those Engine schematics will be invaluable to my people."

"Yes, the schematics. Of course," he said with a chuckle, and his mocking, condescending tone made her grind her teeth in anger.

She mastered her temper, then smiling at him coyly, she purred, "And I know what you desire. Maliri weaponry for your ship."

He laughed aloud and said, "Ah yes, I'm looking forward to having all sorts of wonderful new toys at my disposal."

Something about the way he said that was deeply unsettling, and Edraele felt an involuntary shiver run down her spine. Telling herself to stop being ridiculous, she decided that she was bored of this conversation, and that it was time to break his mind. She was bored of course, she reminded herself, definitely not afraid.

She smiled at him warmly and said, "Perhaps you would tell me some details about your expedition?"

He returned her smile, and said, "Of course. Now, where should I begin..."

Edraele tuned him out, having no interest in listening to him drone on. She kept a politely attentive expression on her face, then focused her will inwards, and peeled her spirit form from her body. Now it was time to end this, she thought to herself, and stalked forward, a predatory gleam in her eyes.

When she reached his side, she had to do a double-take as she stared in shock at the torn rent at the back of his mind-shield. She doubled over with laughter, and couldn't believe her luck. The breach in his gleaming crown had been at the exact point she'd been examining him, before she'd been interrupted by his blonde lackey. She realised instantly what had happened. When she'd been forced to create that null zone to keep Alyssa at bay, it had channelled through the mind probe she had left in place, and ripped a big rent in his defences. For some bizarre reason, the Mael'nerak hadn't bothered to repair the damage, and with the hard work already done for her, breaking into his mind was going to be laughably easy.

Cackling with glee, she approached his side and with a moment's concentration, she rammed a mental shield breaker into the side of his glowing crown. She felt a brief chill again, which managed to make her body tremble even in spirit form, but this close to victory, she wasn't going to let a few last minute jitters upset her plans. She grinned with excitement, and tugged with all her psychic might at the shield breaker, the gleaming crown breaking in half with a shrieking, tearing sound.

John began to laugh, but it was deathly cold and humourless; the most chilling sound she had ever heard. She felt a surge of mind bending terror course through her, and with her concentration shattered, she was snapped back into her physical form. That low pitched, malevolent laughter echoed around her room, suddenly sounding deafeningly loud, now she was back in her body. She tried to flee, but with her body frozen rigid with fright, she could only back away slowly.

With dreadful and shocking understanding, she finally realised that his mental barrier wasn't to keep people out, it was to keep something in. Something dark, something powerful, and something altogether terrifying.

The lights dimmed in the room, and she could feel power surging towards him like a maelstrom, whistling around her like a living possessed thing. He flexed his arms as black coils of ethereal madness began to gather around him, and the lashing black tendrils started to coalesce as they circled and shrouded his fists. She staggered back faster, and tripped over one of the chaise-lounge chairs, stumbling to her knees. The clatter drew his attention, and when he looked at her, she shrank away from that dreadful gaze, desperate to escape from the malevolent nightmare she had unleashed.

The doors to the room opened with a crash, as Luna and two of her fellow assassins threw them open, and dashed into the room. The Mael'nerak didn't even look behind him as he made a gesture with his hand, and scooped the three deadly Maliri women up in shadowy swirls of force. They thrashed vainly against their bonds, and with a flick of his wrist, he flung them effortlessly back through the doorway. The swirls merged together and formed an opaque wall of murky darkness, which completely sealed off the portal.

Edraele backed out of the room, her whole body quivering with terror as he began to walk after her at a measured pace. His confident composure made the roiling chaos surrounding him even more unsettling, and she wished with every fibre of her being to be away from this demonic monstrosity. Forming a devastating telekinetic strike with her mind, she lashed out at him, sending a spear of force racing towards him to pierce his heart.

He chuckled with contempt, and an ethereal shield made up of grey hexagons appeared in an instant, deflecting her most potent attack as one would swat away a fly. Gathering every last vestige of her willpower, she threw everything she had at him. A storm of razor-sharp telekinetic shards appeared in the air, floating in a broad sphere around him, before flashing down to lacerate his body. His shield appeared again, but this time surrounding his whole body, and her telekinetic swarm rebounded harmlessly.

He smiled at her wickedly as he opened his fists, and the tendrils around his fingers undulated towards her with a sluggish, sickening motion. Unable to stand in the face of such horrors, she turned and fled, but the tendrils lashed out, binding her ankles and wrists, and lifting her from the floor. She thrashed impotently, her body twisting and writhing as she desperately tried to break free, but she was bound with a freakish, unnatural strength. Edraele tried to scream, but her voice was hoarse, and she realised she hadn't stopped screaming with terror since she had been snapped back into her body. Her heart pounded in her chest as it threatened to burst free, and she rode the fine line between madness and despair as the Mael'nerak approached her.

He walked around to face her, and when she looked in his eyes, she saw absolutely no trace of the person she had spoken to before. This creature was something else entirely.

"Poor, broken little toy," he taunted her, reaching towards her with his hand. His voice had an unnatural ring to it, echoing slightly when it shouldn't have done so.

Edraele tried to shy away from his hand as it approached her face, but she was bound so utterly, she couldn't move a muscle, and could only stare, wide-eyed with fear. She could see his fingers glowing with a dark nimbus of energy, and her skin crawled as he brushed her cheek with his fingertips.

He chuckled as he said, "Using your own daughter as a test subject... that was impressive. I was going to slay you, and replace you with Irillith, but my alter-ego ruined her as a puppet."

"W-w-what do you want?!" she managed to stammer through a herculean act of will.

He smiled at her, but there wasn't an ounce of warmth or kindness in that soul chilling expression. "You sought to use me as a puppet, didn't you, broken toy?" he asked her knowingly.

She tried to deny it, but the gleam she saw in his eyes made her immediately reconsider lying to him. She managed a trembling nod, unable to trust her voice to reply.

He paused, then said in that chilling voice, "Sadly your plans have failed, but I have a proposal for you instead. Serve me as my matriarch, and I will rejuvenate your body, curing you of your malady."

Desperate hope surged in her chest and she grabbed at the chance frantically. "I would gladly work with someone as potent as you, Mael'nerak," she gasped eagerly.

He chuckled and said, "No, broken toy. You misunderstand. You wouldn't 'work with me', you would be my obedient slave. A plaything for me to use at my whim, and discard if you displeased me."

She shrank back, as much as the unyielding bindings would allow, and with her hopes dashed, she asked wretchedly, "Why would I agree to such a thing?"

His eyes gleamed, as he replied, "Because I would enjoy seeing you submit to me, proud, broken little toy." He laughed and added, "If that is not incentive enough, know that you will serve me whatever you decide. This way, you save yourself days of agony."

She whimpered and her heart filled with despair, she nodded limply. He laughed with delight to see her willpower broken, shattered beyond repair, and as they retired to her quarters, his chilling laughter echoed in their wake.

***

The girls found Alyssa slumped in the airlock, weeping wretchedly. Gathering around, they knelt beside her, and held her tight, sharing her feelings of loss and grief. The only one not completely overwhelmed by John's departure was Irillith, and even she felt a wrenching sorrow in her chest at the thought of never seeing him again.

She took a deep breath, and squaring her shoulders, she gathered her willpower as she resolved to do something about this, rather than simply give up. Stepping over Alyssa she strode purposefully towards the airlock door, and walked out. At least she tried to, but her right leg refused to obey her command. Remembering that her mother was going to sink her claws into John if she didn't do something, Irillith felt a bright surge of anger within her, and she used that to strengthen her resolve. Trying again, she burst out the airlock with a joyous feeling of elation.

The other girls had been watching her, and they stared at her in open-mouthed amazement as she managed to overcome John's compulsion to stay aboard the Invictus.

"That's impossible!" Dana said in astonishment. "I can't even think about trying to leave the ship, let alone act on it!"

Rachel stared at Irillith intently and said, "She's new. Maybe the effect isn't so strong on her?"

Irillith turned to look at them, and said encouragingly, "Just focus really hard! You can do it, I know you can."

The other girls shrank back, unable to even comprehend disobeying John's direct order.

Irillith frowned at them in anger and said, "I thought you claimed you loved him?" Her eyes narrowed as she deliberately goaded them, "It doesn't look like it to me!"

There were shocked gasps at that, and Alyssa surged to her feet, fuming in anger. "You don't get to speak to me like that," she snarled. "No one loves him more than I do!"

"Prove it!" Irillith sneered. "I think you've grown complacent and lazy, and aren't fit to be his Matriarch any longer. If you don't want him, then I'll take him for myself!"

With a shriek of fury, Alyssa stormed towards the airlock, and her eyes blazed as she leapt through, lunging for the maddening Maliri girl.

"You did it!" Irillith said with glee as Alyssa pounced on her, knocking them both to the ground.

Alyssa stopped clawing for Irillith's throat, and she blinked in shock, feeling like she'd just had a cold bucket of water dumped on her head. She let out a light laugh, then hugged Irillith fiercely. "Thank you," she said earnestly.

"You're welcome," Irillith said to her with a smile.

Alyssa leapt to her feet, and offering a hand, helped Irillith stand too. They turned to look back at the airlock, where Calara, Dana, Jade, and Rachel were watching them in awe.

Irillith grinned at them and said, "Now, who wants to go next?"

Calara shook her head mournfully, her face full of regret as she said, "I can't disobey him. It won't make any difference what you say or do, I know it's impossible."

Alyssa placed her hand on Irillith's shoulder and said, "I think she's right. You're new, and I'm his Matriarch. The other girls just can't do it." Turning to them she said, "You girls stay here and guard the ship. Can one of you grab us some pistols? I don't want to risk stepping foot on the Invictus, in case John's order takes hold again."