John woke around midday, stretching languidly as he felt a couple of very familiar, soft, and warm, female figures cuddling up next to him. He glanced down and smiled fondly at the blonde and brunette, who were hugging him tightly in their sleep, as though not wanting to let him out of their grasp. Relaxing back in bed, he thought back to the rather uncomfortable debrief he'd had with Vice Admiral Charles Harris, after they'd returned from New Eden in the early hours of the morning.
Although the evidence against the Armoured Cobras had been damning, Charles had been catching some flak from senior officers in High Command, who had previously sanctioned the use of the mercenary group. Worried about possible bad press, when there was already a tense public mood due to the Dragon March conflict, the Terran Federation military were desperate to avoid news of the rogue merc group's criminal origins from getting out. Charles had therefore had some choice things to say about John's spontaneous bit of summary justice.
"Why not just own the story?" John had eventually suggested in exasperation, growing weary of being chastised for vigilantism. "Say that Terran Federation High Command suspected something was amiss with the Armoured Cobras, and they sent me, 'the Lion of the Federation', to get to the bottom of it. Then they look like they're rooting out any bad elements, and can claim the moral high ground. Besides, we rescued half a dozen kidnap victims, and a few interviews with them reunited with their families will sell whatever story you want."
Charles had been taken aback by this, and he studied John suspiciously as he asked, "Have you been taking Public Relations training since you retired?"
John shrugged and said dismissively, "People will accept any story you tell them, as long as you put in the effort to make it convincing. In any case, the Terran Federation legitimately seized the assets of that Merc group, so you've now gained a modern cruiser to replace your losses in the Dragon March, and reclaimed a partially terraformed planet for free. High Command should be falling over themselves to thank me, not giving me grief."
Charles looked startled at his tone, but then looked thoughtful, and said, "I'm sorry John, you're right. I'll discuss this with Admiral Devereux, and see how we can spin the story for some positive PR."
They said their farewells, and once the call ended, John had strolled onto the Bridge to confirm that a course had been set for the Trankaran Republic. Satisfied that they were well on their way, he then joined the girls in bed. His irritation with the debriefing had fallen away as he'd lain in bed with them, and they'd all drifted off to sleep almost straight away, everyone exhausted after the long and arduous day.
John waited patiently for the girls to awaken on their own, not wanting to disturb them. He glanced over to his right, looking past Alyssa and Dana, and saw Rachel's beautiful face looking serene as she lay asleep on the pillow. He studied her for a while, and she seemed to have found a sense of peace, which had previously alluded her the entire time he'd known her. He smiled in satisfaction, glad he'd been able to help the tawny haired girl deal with some of the ghosts from her past.
Alyssa's tousled blonde hair suddenly blocked his view and she smiled at him, then leaned in for a kiss. *Good morning, handsome,* she thought to him, as her soft lips brushed his own.
*Good morning to you too, beautiful,* he replied, feeling in a jovial mood that morning.
The other girls all started to wake up as well, gently nudged into consciousness by Alyssa's telepathic wake up call. They sat up and stretched, glancing at John flirtatiously, which soon had him thinking of interesting ways to start their day.
*Uh, uh. Not so fast mister,* Alyssa told him sternly. *We need to talk about what happened yesterday first.*
The girls fanned out in a semi-circle on the bed, with Alyssa sitting opposite him. John looked at each of them in turn, then said proudly, "You girls were all incredible yesterday. You performed perfectly in the battle, reacting calmly and sensibly to all the surprises that were thrown at us. The fact we all came out of it unscathed is a testimony to your outstanding efforts."
They all smiled broad, sparkling smiles to receive such praise, but Alyssa's fell away, and she frowned as she said, "Yes, the girls were amazing, but you just went missing for about twenty minutes, and left Dana and Rachel to fend for themselves! It was also my first time in command on the Invictus, and If I'd made a bad call, everything could have gone horribly wrong. I couldn't contact you or anything!" There was a hushed silence for a moment, and when she continued, they could all hear how worried she was as she added, "We were all very lucky it didn't turn into a real disaster. What happened to you?"
John faltered and shook his head in confusion as he said, "I've no idea... I was jogging along with Dana and Rachel, then I just blacked out. When I came to again, I was in the south east corner of the base near the outer wall. I ran over to rejoin them at the backup generator, and we continued on from there."
Dana thought back to when he'd made his sudden reappearance, and said in a quiet voice, "When you finally turned up, the paint on your sword was all chipped, so you'd obviously been in a fight."
Rachel nodded as she said, "And you weren't injured, but you were drenched in blood."
Alyssa reached out and took John's hand as she asked with concern, "Why would you lose control to Progenitor-John like that?" She then looked around and added, "I think we're all agreed that's what probably happened, right?"
The girls all nodded quietly as they looked to John for an explanation. After a long moment, he shrugged helplessly, and looked troubled as he replied, "I'm sorry, I haven't got any answers for you. After we discussed this previously, I'd just assumed I'd only lose control like that when I, or one of you, was seriously injured."
Alyssa crawled over the bed to join him, giving him a hug and saying gently, "Maybe we should try and avoid letting you be in combat situations on your own, at least until we can get some answers."
John nodded. Hugging her back tightly, he looked around at the girls as he said, "I'm sorry that what happened put you in danger. I swear I had no control over it."
Alyssa leaned in and gave him a kiss, then said with a smile, "It's alright, we aren't blaming you. It would be good to know why that happened though."
He smiled at her ruefully and said, "One more for the list of progenitor mysteries I guess."
They sat for a moment wondering about that, before Rachel cleared her throat, drawing their attention to her. She paused for a moment, before saying in a voice thick with emotion, "Can I just say thanks to all of you, for putting your lives on the line for me like that. Now that I've finally got justice for my mother, it feels like she can rest in peace. I'll never forget what you've all done for me."
There was a chorus of soft sighs as the girls were touched by Rachel's heartfelt words. Alyssa moved aside, and John opened his arms for the tawny haired girl. She immediately responded to his invitation, and hugged him tightly as he encircled her in his muscular arms. The other girls joined them, surrounding Rachel in a loving group hug. When they finally parted, Rachel smiled at them all gratefully.
Alyssa looked hesitant for a moment, as though she wanted to raise some other topic of conversation, but didn't want to bring down the mood. Rachel could feel her indecision over their bond, and smiled at her as she said encouragingly, "It's alright, go ahead."
The blonde girl smiled at her gratefully, then said, "Sorry to bring this up, but while everyone's here, I think we need to discuss Irillith. I'm getting worried about her pet AI."
This had all their attention on her immediately, as she said, "Yeah, she confirmed it was an AI before she unleashed it on the mercenary cruiser. That's not the only worrying part though. She summoned it from her vambrace just like she did on New Eden, but the first time the AI appeared, it turned on her. It threatened to turn the oxygen off in the ship, and If Irillith hadn't killed it off, I'm sure it would have tried!"
Calara nodded and said with a frown, "The sound of the AI's death cries were awful. It sounded like it was in agony." She glanced at Dana and asked, "Can an AI actually feel pain?"
Dana shrugged helplessly and said, "I'm sorry, I've got no idea. I haven't had any kind of experience dealing with an AI before. I guess if the programming was sophisticated enough, it might be able to feel simulated pain responses, but why you would build such a thing into a digital construct in the first place is beyond me."
John looked concerned and asked, "How worried should we be about the AI taking over the ship?"
The girls all exchanged glances, no one knowing for sure, and Alyssa said tentatively, "Her kill switch will probably keep it from getting loose on its own, but we might need to be more worried about Irillith ordering it to attack."
Dana laughed and said sarcastically, "I guess we'll have to try and be bestest friends with her, to make sure that doesn't happen."
Calara looked thoughtful and said tentatively, "I know we've had a chequered history with Irillith up till now, but she really came through in the fight against the Cobras defensive fleet. We were in really big trouble, and heavily outnumbered, until her hacking one of the cruisers tipped the battle in our favour. She turned it from a three-against-one slugfest to a one-on-one turkey shoot. The Red Hornets deserted the battle after the Cobras started firing on each other, so we have her to thank for that too."
Alyssa nodded, and said, "As much as it pains me to admit it, our gorgeous Tactical Officer is right about Irillith. Her attack on the Cobra cruiser turned that whole battle from a really close run thing, to a complete cakewalk. We should definitely make the effort to thank her."
