Matriarch Tsarra Perfaren nibbled apprehensively on her thumbnail as she stared at the holo-map projection of House Perfaren territory. Biting her nails was an unfortunate new nervous habit she'd acquired, but considering the stress she was under, such weakness was understandable. She had bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, and her exhausted dark green orbs flickered over the holographic images, darting from one enemy fleet insignia to another. Large fleets from Houses Valaden, Loraleth, Aeberos, and Naestina, still held position along her border, poised to strike at any moment into House Perfaren Space.
"It's been nearly two weeks! Why don't they get this over with?!" she finally blurted out, as she whirled on her Fleet Commander. "You're supposed to be my most senior military advisor, give me some useful advice!"
Aadya flinched at her matriarch's desperate plea, but she shook her head as she replied regretfully, "I've no idea, Matriarch. Delaying their assault makes no sense at all." She let out a weary sigh, equally as fatigued as Tsarra, and pointed at the territory map as she continued, "Any two of those fleets would be a match for our own forces, but we don't stand a chance against all four. Even the most amateurish Fleet Commander could simply attack with all their forces, and we'd be powerless to repel them from our borders. With our fleets destroyed, they could annex all our worlds at will."
"Maybe their alliance isn't as strong as I feared!" Tsarra exclaimed, clutching at straws. "Perhaps they don't trust each other to attack, as they fear betrayal from the other Houses?"
"I'm afraid our sensor probes don't support that conclusion, Matriarch," Aadya replied, reluctant to quash Tsarra's wildly optimistic theory. She pointed to the crossed-blades insignia of the House Valaden fleet, and added, "We've seen supply ships from House Loraleth docking with the Valaden fleet, as well as personnel shuttles travelling between those forces. That kind of inter-fleet co-operation makes me believe Loraleth and Valaden are firm allies, and we already know that Aeberos and Naestina have been in league with each other for years."
"This is agonising!" Tsarra gasped, slumping in her chair. "Are they just trying to drive me mad with worry?!"
Aadya studied her youthful matriarch for a moment, and asked quietly, "Have you attempted to make contact with any of the Matriarchs? Perhaps we could try and broker some kind of treaty?"
Tsarra grimaced as she snapped, "Of course I've tried, do you take me for an imbecile?!"
"I'm sorry, Matriarch, I meant no offence," Aadya quickly apologised.
The young House Perfaren Matriarch took a deep, shuddering breath, then gave the other woman a sad apologetic smile, and said, "Please forgive me, Aadya, I didn't mean to snap at you." Her haunted eyes flicked to the map again, and she added, "I've tried making contact with all of them, but they're refusing to take my calls."
***
It was deathly silent in the Invictus' Galley as they stared at the slowly-rotating technical schematics, the intricate blueprints illuminated by an eerie violet glow, cast from Irillith's eyes.
"That's the Progenitor's ship..." John finally managed to mutter, as he stared in astonishment at the technical readouts of the huge vessel.
There was no mistaking the sinister-looking profile of the vessel, which they'd only seen in brief glimpses up until this point. The ship was tall in the stern while relatively narrow across the beam, and the long, angular superstructure swept forward, until it split about one-fifth of the way to the aft. From there, the lower section formed the sharp point of the prow, with the upper section set back slightly.
"It's over two kilometres long," Dana said in a hushed voice, her eyes wide in awe.
Rachel turned to look at her, and asked, "How do you know that?"
"All those weird symbols... they're Progenitor runes," John replied for her, and Dana nodded her agreement.
"What about gun batteries?!" Calara asked urgently. "Have you got blueprints for the Progenitor's weapons?"
Dana shook her head, and replied, "No, but we can see all the weapon hardpoints. That fucker's armed to the teeth!"
"How about the engines, or manoeuvring thrusters?" Jade asked, glancing warily at the ferocious-looking vessel that loomed above them. "Can you tell anything about its flight capabilities?"
Dana's sky-blue eyes darted over the holograph studying it in detail, as she replied, "The Tachyon Drive, Power Cores, Power relays - I can see where everything should be, but all the juicy details are missing..." She paused a moment, then pointed at the lower levels near the rear of the ship, "Holy fuck! That's the Drive Room for the Wormhole Generator!"
"You were right," Alyssa said, glancing at the redhead. "The Progenitor is definitely opening wormholes to get around!"
Having already memorised the schematic, Dana glanced at Irillith with concern, and reluctantly let go of her hand. Just like that, the schematics for the Progenitor ship winked out in a violet flash, and Irillith blinked slowly, as she massaged her temples.
"I'm really sorry about that," Dana apologised to the Maliri girl, remembering how that kind of projection had left her with a pounding headache. She gave her a worried frown, and asked sympathetically, "Are you alright?"
Irillith looked pleasantly surprised as she smiled back at the redhead, and replied, "My eyes tingle a bit, but there wasn't any pain!"
John was greatly relieved to see she hadn't been hurt like last time, and said, "Athena said you weren't ready before, but you've definitely grown more powerful since then. I guess this confirms it."
Rachel had been staring at Irillith thoughtfully, and she laughed then, shaking her head in amusement. They all turned to look at her, wondering what she'd found so funny.
"What is it?" Dana asked, turning to look at her lover curiously.
The brunette smiled at her, and replied, "Do you remember how stressed-out you were about Irillith coming aboard? You thought she was going to steal all our tech. It's no wonder John's Progenitor-side couldn't care less, though, he had far more advanced schematics locked away in his mind already. It must all be there in John's mind - everything a new Progenitor needs, to get himself started on a life of galactic conquest."
"So if he keeps loading me up, we'll get the whole lot?" Dana asked, with an acquisitive gleam in her eyes. "All the badass tech the Progenitor has?"
Alyssa shook her head, then darted a quick glance at John, and replied, "Your Progenitor side..."
John nodded glumly, and said, "He must be stopping me from unlocking everything. I'm going to have to confront him to claim the rest of it."
Sakura shook her head, and looking thoughtful she said, "Not necessarily. I was able to help you harness psychic speed, which was an ability your Progenitor-side used. Perhaps if you're given just the right encouragement, you'll be able to reveal more technology?"
Rachel's face brightened, as she said, "I think you're right! John's prepared Dana as a proxy for all these schematics, and when we've actually seen Progenitor hardware, it's been the catalyst for her to discover something new."
Dana grinned as she said, "Yeah, that's true! We got the Progenitor Power Core and Tachyon Drive from the Ashanath's ripped-off versions, and then looking at the crashed Progenitor ship gave us the schematics for the whole thing."
"We need to pay a visit to the Ashanath, see what else they might have found," John said, nodding his agreement.
"Don't forget the crashed ship on Arcadia!" Calara said enthusiastically. "If it's still there, that could be a real treasure trove of tech upgrades!"
Alyssa looked at John then, and asked, "So does this change our plans? Do you want to bother refitting the Invictus if we can just build a copy of the Progenitor's ship?"
He thought about it for a moment, then asked Dana, "How long would it take to construct our own version?"
"Several months, but I'm not sure it's worth it. At least, not yet," she replied with a sigh. "We'd have to fit it out with all our own tech for power couplings, Terran shield emitters, all that kind of stuff. Until we can acquire all the upgrades to properly equip the ship, it wouldn't be as powerful as the one the Progenitor is using. We'd get creamed trying to go toe-to-toe with him."
Alyssa looked apprehensively at the redhead sitting beside her, as she asked, "It's bad enough trying to plate the Invictus in Crystal Alyssium, let alone something that huge!" She paused for a second, then added with a frown, "Have we even got the materials to build something that big?"
Dana shook her head as she replied, "No, we don't have enough Onyxium for that, and it's not an element I can manufacture. It's a really good point though: If we do think about constructing a completely new ship, we should definitely use Crystal Alyssium for the superstructure, and not just the armour plating. At the moment, the Invictus is like an egg; tough on the outside, squishy on the inside."
"We'll stick with the current plan," John said, after considering their options. "Upgrade the Invictus, then try and secure some more tech schematics. There's no guarantee we'll even find anything we need with the Ashanath, and for all we know, they only found the Tachyon Drive and Power Core. As for Arcadia, it's deep in Kirrix Space, so it makes sense to upgrade the Invictus before we try and reach it."
