Three Square Meals

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.