Three Square Meals Ch. 084

"You can call them from here if you want?" John replied, nodding towards the comm interface panel in the bedroom.

She smiled at him in gratitude, then glanced down at the covers. She blushed as she replied, "I appear to be naked..."

"How much do you remember about last night?" Alyssa asked, reaching out to stroke the dusky girl's arm soothingly.

Jehanna gave them both a coy smile. "I remember thoroughly enjoying myself." She glanced at John and frowned as she added, "Although I don't remember what happened right at the end. Was that due to the effects of your cum?"

He nodded, looking startled. "I'm surprised you even remember that. It's normally just a blur for the first couple of times."

"Alyssa warned me what would happen beforehand," Jehanna admitted, giving the blonde a grateful smile. "I was only asking about my clothes so I could make the call to TFNN without raising any eyebrows..."

"I've got something that will fit you perfectly," Alyssa murmured, sizing up the slim young woman and climbing off the bed. "I'll be right back!"

"Any regrets about last night?" John asked, studying Jehanna's face for any sign of doubt.

The raven-haired reporter grinned at him in delight as she shook her head. "Of course not! I'm in the Lion's den! Bill Armstrong would kill for this opportunity!"

"I didn't mean it quite that way," John said in amusement. "Besides, you're much prettier than Bill."

Jehanna laughed, grinning at him as she exclaimed, "Don't let him hear you say that! He's incredibly vain!" She squeezed his hand and continued, "I don't regret anything that happened between us last night. Once I've checked in with TFNN, I'm hoping we can continue where we left off."

"Absolutely," John replied, equally as eager.

Alyssa strolled back into the bedroom and carefully placed a smart business suit on the end of the bed. "It's in your size. I picked it up when we went shopping yesterday... just in case."

Reddening with embarrassment, Jehanna glanced at each of them in turn as she said, "I was trying to be subtle and not just throw myself at you like some crazed groupie. I wasn't too obvious about how much I wanted this, was I?"

"No, not at all," Alyssa said, throwing John a teasing grin. "He had absolutely no idea and I was just being optimistic, hoping we'd all eventually end up in bed together. I bought this outfit for you so you could... well, we can have fun with that later."

John glanced at the clothes and said kindly, "Get dressed and make your call. We've got a few important things to talk about this afternoon and I'd like to introduce you to the girls at some point. As long as that's alright with you, of course?"

"I'd love to meet them!" Jehanna enthusiastically agreed. Giving him a flirtatious glance, she threw aside the covers, then climbed out of the bed nude.

"They're all very eager to meet you," Alyssa said, shamelessly admiring the brown-skinned beauty.

John watched as Jehanna slipped on the lacy set of underwear that Alyssa had bought for her, noting the seductive glance she threw him as she did so. When she pulled on the skirt and started buttoning up the white blouse, he said, "I thought you might be interested in conducting that exclusive interview you requested? What I have planned for this afternoon should make for some dramatic footage."

"Are you kidding?! That would be amazing!" Jehanna gushed, beaming at him in delight. "Let me just check in with TFNN, then you can tell me all about it..."

***

Avery Gibson threw the door to his corner office open, the door crashing into the wall and knocking the embossed plaque that read "Editor in Chief" from the frame. The loud bang silenced the hubbub in the open-plan TFNN office, all the journalists looking his way with trepidation.

"Where the hell's that exclusive?!" he roared. "We're on air in fifteen minutes, god-dammit!"

"I'm still happy to stand in, sir!" Bill Armstrong immediately volunteered, giving him a gleaming smile.

Avery snorted and waved a dismissive hand his way. "Unless you're suddenly best pals with the Lion, don't waste my time!" He whirled around and pointed at a terrified intern, snarling, "Why haven't you made me a coffee yet?!"

"Chief! We're getting the feed through now!" an excited technician called out, leaning to one side so he could see around the holo-screens in the centre of the room. "This stuff is dynamite! The ratings are going to go crazy!"

"Put it through to my office, for God's sake!" Avery snapped. "Do I have to think of everything around here?!"

He stormed back into the office, and slammed the door behind him, hitting the button on the wall that would make the floor-to-ceiling glass window opaque. Concealed from the newsroom, he relaxed and strolled across to his desk, a small smile on his face. Avery Gibson was actually a very reserved and thoughtful man, but there were certain expectations for the role of Editor-in-Chief, which his dedicated team of journalists instinctively responded to. Besides, he quite enjoyed the theatrics, truth be told.

Sitting at his desk, he glanced at the backup piece he'd been reviewing. After the wall-to-wall coverage of the spectacular Award Ceremony the previous night, this attack on the Lionesses at the Enigma nightclub had come as a real shock. What had been even more surprising had been the tone of the official response from High Command, being considerably cooler than the previous line they'd being pushing regarding the Lion of the Federation.

With Jehanna not answering her calls, he'd been expecting to use his secondary Anchor, Bill Armstrong, to go through the official statement. Until that is, Jehanna had called in, jubilant about some exclusive interview she'd been able to arrange with John Blake.

He considered the woman his protégé if he was being honest -- although he'd never admit to as much. She had the same drive and tenacity that Avery himself had when he'd been a young reporter. Where he'd had to work hard to cultivate relationships to gain access and interviews, Jehanna was fortunate enough to be blessed with model-like beauty, which worked even better for opening doors. He didn't begrudge her that, though. Jehanna wasn't conceited with it, she just exploited the way people were naturally drawn to attractive people. If that meant getting better stories for TFNN, then he was hardly going to complain.

The holo-interface on his desk chimed to let him know the data transfer was complete, and the familiar figure of Jehanna Elani appeared, standing next to John Blake. Jehanna was as immaculately dressed and coifed as usual, looking like a million credits. However, Avery's eyes were drawn like magnets to the Lion of the Federation, who was wearing what could only be described as full battle regalia. He wore glossy white armour, similar in style to the sets worn by his two bodyguards at the award ceremony, but this suit had regal-looking lions embossed on his chest and shoulder pads. The hilt from a massive sword was poking up behind one shoulder, while a brutal looking rifle was slung over the other.

They appeared to be in some kind of dropship, probably that Raptor-class vessel which had been sighted at the Enigma building in the early hours of the morning. The front-loading ramp had been lowered and through that open portal he had an unobstructed view of a mountain range in the background, along with John Blake's battlecruiser floating beside it.

Avery leaned forward, his eyes gleaming at the sight. He'd been a newsman for over twenty years, and he knew pure ratings gold when he saw it. After watching the first thirty seconds of the interview, he paused the playback then walked over to his office door. Taking a deep breath, he slammed the door open.

"We've got our exclusive! Run it!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs.

"You got it, Chief!" the technician yelled back, grinning wildly.

The frightened intern was back with a cup of coffee in his shaking hands. "Gimme that!" Avery growled as he grabbed the cup. He turned back to his office while jerking his thumb towards the holo-screens in the centre of the newsroom. "Watch this, kid. You might learn something."

***

"Can't we just impound his ship!" Admiral Carl Weber stated, thumping his fist down on the table. "It's only one vessel, we could overwhelm them with sheer numbers!" He looked around at the four other Senior Officers, who had reconvened their meeting in Fleet Admiral Buckingham's Command Suite aboard the Zeus.

Shaking her head, Admiral Jayanti Mishra said in a weary tone, "We went over this last night, Carl. What justification could we possibly have for trying something like that? Aside from the fact that we all owe him our lives and that he saved Terra from destruction, we've all just attended an Award Ceremony in his honour!"

Carl Weber shot Lynette Devereux a furious glare. "If you'd just listened to Edwin, we could have avoided that disaster! Do you have any idea what you've done?!"

Devereux bristled at his tone, but she faltered before replying, still badly shaken by the events of the previous night's ceremony. What was supposed to have been a stage for her triumphant campaign for promotion to Fleet Admiral had been entirely hijacked by John Blake. She'd seen the looks of adoration on the faces of the attending crowd and had suddenly realised she'd massively underestimated the man.

"It's too late to be pointing fingers and it won't achieve anything," Edwin Caldwell said grimly. "Considering the cult of personality that's growing around him, could we even rely on the loyalty of our troops to carry out such a mission?"

"We have to do something," Carl Weber protested, looking deeply troubled. "How close are we to John Blake instigating a coup?"

"I'm still not convinced that's his objective," Jayanti Mishra stated, looking dubious. "Why would he give us access to new technology if his intentions are hostile?"

"You heard it from his own lips," Vincent Buckingham said, his expression bleak. "John Blake is a member of an incredibly advanced species of galactic tyrants. We've all seen the footage of that cannon hidden in the moon, and after Regulus, everyone's well aware what his ship can do!"

"That's why we need to capture it!" Carl Weber insisted. "Just think of the technology we could uncover. We'd eliminate a threat and be able to harness his radically advanced tech for ourselves. Imagine a whole fleet armed with that beam weapon he used!"

Lynette Devereux quailed as she remembered the shows of physical and psychic strength she'd witnessed during her time aboard the Invictus. She met Carl Weber's eager gaze and slowly shook her head. "I'm not sure we'd even be successful no matter how many men we threw at him. He's extremely powerful and so are his crew."

"Have you seen the footage on the news this morning?" Vincent asked them, glancing around the table at the Admirals' worried faces. "The 'Lionesses' were attacked last night. One of them turned into a dinosaur! A Tyrannosaurus-Rex for God's sake!"

The officers all shook their heads, shocked by this latest revelation. They'd been up until the early hours discussing how to deal with the growing threat that John Blake posed and had regrouped to continue the meeting as soon as they awoke later that morning.

Frantic knocking on the door into the meeting room drew all their attention that way. Vincent cleared his throat and said loudly, "I said we were not to be disturbed, Carmela!"

The door opened and Rear Admiral Carmela Morena poked her head around the door. She looked badly shaken as she said, "TFNN have ignored the official statement we put out this morning!"

"What the hell are they playing at?!" Vincent Buckingham snorted in disbelief.

"You need to see this!" Carmela said, dashing across the room to grab the remote and activating the huge view-screen at one end of the meeting room.

They all recognised John standing next to TFNN's Lead Anchor, although he was wearing a suit of intimidating body armour minus the helmet. Through the Raptor's lowered loading ramp, they could see a mountain in the background, with the Invictus floating nearby.

"-so we tracked the group responsible for the explosion back to their lair," John replied, turning slightly and gesturing towards the mountain.

As if on cue, the mountain top shimmered and changed shape, revealing a huge grey stone citadel that had been cleverly concealed behind the illusion created by banks of holo-projectors.

"It's remarkable that such a group could exist so close to the heart of the Terran Federation," Jehanna said, shaking her head in amazement. Her beautiful face took on a grim expression as she added, "I've seen the casualty reports from the Enigma nightclub bombing and it appears twenty-seven people were seriously injured, and another eight were killed."

Across the bottom of the screen, pictures of the dead scrolled past. At the forefront were two famous holo-movie actors, followed by a couple of attractive young women described as "guests". Two bouncers scrolled by next, the list of the dead ending with pictures of a handsome man and beautiful woman identified as host and hostess of the VIP section at Enigma.

John nodded and he said in a sombre tone, "The group was a coven of assassins who'd been operating from this base for over seventy years. We've uncovered their list of contracts and what we found was shocking. Over nine-thousand people have been murdered by this organisation since its inception." Turning to look at the camera, he added, "Rest assured, everyone associated with this nest of killers will be brought to justice. I passed on the list of clients who had placed contracts with these assassins to Law Enforcement agencies in the early hours of this morning."

Nodding in agreement, Jehanna said, "I've been able to confirm that thousands of high-profile arrests are now being made, from corporate executives through to senior figures in well-known crime syndicates."

"We've seized the assets owned by this organisation. I'll ensure that surviving family members of the victims will receive compensation," John said, looking towards the camera with a sympathetic frown.

Jehanna turned to gaze at the imposing grey fortress and asked, "What are you planning to do with this nest of evil?"

John's eyes narrowed as he replied, "I wanted to take this opportunity to make a statement... I will not tolerate attacks against my crew. Should anyone seek to pursue a similar course of action, I am pleading with you to think again. Such a path will only lead to one inevitable outcome. I consider myself to be a loyal and honourable friend to my allies..."

Jehanna nodded and interjected, "That goes without saying. Your defence of Terra and your decisive intervention to save the Terran Fleet at the Battle of Regulus are well known, and were honoured only yesterday."

Looking directly at the camera, John said sternly, "But I want to demonstrate what happens to my enemies..." He paused for a couple of seconds, before continuing, "...the enemies of the Terran Federation."

In the background, a huge ball of light was growing in front of the Invictus, blazing with a radiance so bright that it hurt the eyes to look at it. After building to a crackling crescendo of power, the colossal conflagration of energy was unleashed as a brilliant white beam, that completely obliterated the grey stone fortress from sight. The battlecruiser pivoted slightly, strafing that beam sideways until it dissipated a few seconds later.

It took the stunned audience in the Fleet Admiral's briefing room a second for their eyes to adjust, but when they did, the entire mountain top had been totally annihilated. There was now a flat, glowing plateau where the fortress had once been.

"One inevitable outcome," John stated again for emphasis.

Jehanna smiled at the camera and said, "I for one, will sleep more comfortably in my bed knowing that someone like the Lion of the Federation is watching out for ordinary Terran citizens. It's heart-warming to know that such swift and ferocious retribution await those that dare to prey on the good citizens of the Federation."

"I'm just happy to do my part, Jehanna," John said, giving her a respectful nod. "I consider it a privilege to be able to protect the citizens of the Terran Federation from evil, whatever the source."

Giving him a grateful smile, Jehanna looked into the camera. "That concludes this exclusive interview for TFNN. My thanks to Vice Admiral John Blake, Lion of the Federation, and truly a champion of the people."

"It was my pleasure," John replied, saluting the camera.

The image cut away, returning to Bill Armstrong in the TFNN studio.

The Admirals looked at each other aghast. It seemed quite obvious who the real audience for this demonstration had been -- the five men and women sitting around the briefing room table.

"What are we going to do?" Carl Weber asked, his eyes wide with fear.