Chapter 84: Revenge is a dish best served cold

The Raptor raced through the city, weaving through the skyscrapers with what a casual observer might consider to be reckless speed. Alyssa rolled the gunship to the right around a huge well-lit arch, then slammed back the throttle, retro-thrusters on the front of the Raptor flaring in an orange blaze to slow its speed. The sparkling white ship dropped towards the ground, another orange burst at the last moment bringing them to a perfectly controlled stop on the tarmac.

John was running across the loading ramp before it had even lowered half-way and he jumped off the end before dashing over to Jade and the Maliri girls. The Nymph had been too tired to shift again and was lying in cheetah-form between the two armoured women, her green feline head resting on Irillith’s thigh. She looked much paler than normal, the viridian lines that contoured her muscles were faded and barely visible. Looking up at him with heavy eyes she let out a weary chirrup.

Crouching down beside the exhausted Nymph, John stroked her furry head with his left hand, while activating the emergency-medevac function on the twins’ Paragon armour with the other. A flash of green on his belt drew Jade’s attention and she spotted the special transmitter that she normally kept on the Raptor. Dana knew her aversion to wearing armour, so she’d given it to the Nymph in case she needed to help with evacuations. The transmitter chimed as it linked with the twins’ armour, the suits locking up and rising from the ground.

“I’ve got you now,” John said softly, before scooping Jade into his arms.

He glanced around and saw the brutal evidence of the ferocity of the fight. There was a scattering of ripped and torn cybernetic limbs, along with a couple of hideously mangled assassin torsos, one of which was embedded head-first in the base of the nearby building. Some way down the road, directly underneath the Invictus that hovered protectively overhead, an enormous trench had been gouged into the ground. It was still glowing amber from the intense blast that had vaporised all in its path.

Sakura’s got Dana and Rachel. We’ll meet her at the top of the building, Alyssa informed him, her voice taut with barely controlled emotion. While her initial reaction had been shock and horror, her fear had quickly been burned away by steadily mounting fury.

Carrying Jade while Tashana and Irillith floated behind him, John turned and started striding briskly towards the Raptor. A police officer tentatively approached, his eyes darting to the golden lion on John’s unbuttoned white jacket. “Sir? I’m sorry to ask, but we need to take statements ... these women were witnesses.”

John shook his head, giving the man a grim look. “Sorry, we haven’t got time for that.”

“What about the men who did this?” the police officer asked, glancing over his shoulder at the blackened nightclub, the wounded and the dead already being carried outside. “We can’t let them get away with it.”

“Leave them to me,” John replied, clenching his jaw and briefly making eye contact with the man.

The police officer quailed before that look, his eyes widening as he nodded and backed away.

Re-entering the Raptor, John placed Jade gently on the floor, watching as she closed her eyes and finally relaxed, shimmering in a green haze as she reverted to her Nymph shape. Irillith and Tashana were floating beside him, so he guided their armoured forms down to the deck. Go, we’re aboard, he said to Alyssa, but the gunship was already lifting off.

He turned to look out through the still-open loading ramp, the gathered crowd of shocked onlookers disappearing from view as the Raptor ascended skyward. Rising parallel to the nightclub, the gunship swept past the blackened hole in its side, revealing a glimpse of the epicentre of the blast. John’s eyes narrowed as he saw the extent of the fire-scorched devastation. White clouds of fog had started drifting out into the night, their icy chill having extinguished any remaining flames. Alyssa swung the gunship around, smoothly circling the Enigma building until the landing platforms came into view. Sakura was waiting for them there, carrying Dana and Rachel over her shoulders.

John walked out to meet her as the gunship touched down, gently lifting Rachel from Sakura’s shoulder and carrying her aboard. The loading ramp started to close the moment they had cleared the top, Alyssa taking them up to the sparkling white battlecruiser floating above. The Invictus was resplendent as it reflected the city lights, shining like a heaven-sent guardian angel.

Sakura knelt down and laid Dana on the floor next to the other girls. She watched John as he did the same with Rachel and when he straightened, she said in a small, dejected voice, “I’m sorry ... I was supposed to protect them. I tried, but-”

He turned and quickly wrapped his arms around her. “Shh ... It wasn’t your fault. From everything that Alyssa’s told me, you were incredible.” Stroking her back soothingly, he added, “Let’s get back to the ship, regroup, and focus on rescuing Calara. We’ll talk more when we get the chance, okay?”

She smiled at him gratefully and nodded.

John sat back and glanced down at their bedraggled group. One girl kidnapped, two drugged, two unconscious, two exhausted, and the last a smouldering powder keg of rage. What a goddamn mess.

He knew exactly how Alyssa felt.

Faye was waiting for them when the Raptor touched down in the Secondary Hangar, flanked by a couple of maintenance robots. Her translucent wings fluttered in tiny stop-start flurries, conveying her current state of anxiety.

“Is everyone alright?!” she exclaimed, her face tense with worry. “I brought a couple of the boys to help out!”

“Calara’s been taken,” John said, meeting the sprite’s shocked gaze as he scooped up the sleeping Nymph. He glanced at Sakura and handed her the medevac transmitter. “Can you take the twins to Medical? We need to give them a full body scan; I don’t want any nasty surprises.”

Sakura nodded obediently and reactivated the evac-mode on their armour. The Paragon suits locked the twins into position again, before levitating them into the air in a silent anti-gravity field.

Tashana had started to come around and she let out a faint groan as she rose. “Irillith...” she murmured faintly a second later.

“She’s right here. We’ll get you both checked out in a minute, honey,” John said, his voice calm and soothing. “Just rest.”

As Tashana let out a soft sigh of relief, Alyssa marched into the loading bay. Jehanna floated peacefully behind her, still fast asleep and wrapped in a sheet, the material tenting over her hugely rounded stomach. The look of fury in Alyssa’s eyes softened for a moment when she glanced at Dana and Rachel, but the seething blonde clenched her teeth and snapped her fingers, lifting the two girls off the ground in a supportive telekinetic embrace.

She glanced at John as she stormed past, growling, “Come on. We need to find those fuckers so we can start with the killing...”

Faye watched her stride past with wide eyes, before she shot John an anxious glance. “I know it’s a bad time, but can you come up to the Bridge, please? Terran Federation Flight Control is very cross with me at the moment.”

“Of course,” John replied, starting to follow after Alyssa. “Let me just drop Jade off in the bedroom; the poor girl’s shattered.”

He suddenly felt an insistent tugging on his arms and when he looked up in surprise, Alyssa’s bright blue eyes were staring right at him. “I’ve got her, I’m already going that way.”

Easing his grip on the Nymph, she levitated out of his arms, supported by a host of invisible telekinetic hands that guided her over to Alyssa. Walking at a brisk pace through the double-doors into the corridor beyond, John saw the ship’s complement of cleaning bots frenziedly scrubbing the floor. The deck was marred with all sorts of black, oily stains, making him wonder what on Terra could have happened aboard the Invictus while they were away. His eyes drifted upwards to something embedded in the ceiling and he froze.

There were two black ninjatos plunged into the titanium right up to their hilts, instantly clearing up any doubts as to the source of those stains on the floor.

“Faye... ?” he asked, walking backwards to the grav-tube, his eyes fixed on the sinister swords. “Care to elaborate?”

“A team of five cyborg assassins infiltrated the Invictus,” she explained with a bright smile. “I didn’t think you’d appreciate them stealing the ship, so I neutralised them!”

John looked at her in shock. “Five?! You managed to kill the entire team?”

Shaking her head, Faye replied. “I could have, but one of them is still alive and in the brig!”

Sharing an alarmed glance with Sakura, John replied urgently, “They’re very dangerous, Faye! I’m not sure the Brig will be secure enough to hold him.”

Hesitating for a second, the purple sprite gave him a shifty look. “Don’t worry, he won’t be going anywhere. I would’ve just disposed of him, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to question him first or hand him over to Terran Federation Law Enforcement.”

“I think you better show me. We’ll head to the Brig after we’ve tracked down Calara,” he said, stepping into the blue anti-grav field.

The group rode up silently in the grav-tube together, each of them coming to terms with recent events. Sakura peeled off first on Deck Seven with the Maliri twins, then Alyssa led her procession of sleeping girls out onto Deck Two. John watched her stride away with a worried frown, until she disappeared from sight as he floated up towards the Command Deck. It was only John left when he finally stepped out onto the Bridge, but Faye was there waiting for him up on the Command Podium. She stood at his side as he sat down on the Command Chair.

“I’ll put you through,” the purple sprite said quietly, opening a channel to Terra Flight Control.

A stern middle-aged man appeared in the holographic viewscreen, a Commander by the rank insignia on his uniform. “How dare you cut me off like that! Have you any idea how many laws you’ve broken?! Firing your weapons in a-”

“This is Vice Admiral Blake,” John said curtly, in no mood to deal with the man’s indignant outburst. “I authorised all of it. Now, I want a complete planetary lockdown. No ships to leave any starport on Terra for the next ... three hours.”

The Flight Control Commander’s jaw dropped open in shock and he babbled incoherently for a moment before blurting out, “That’s impossible! There’s no way I can justify that! The chaos that would-”

“Alright, who do you need to sign off on it, Commander?” John interrupted in an even tone, making it clear that he wasn’t intending to take no for an answer. “One of my crew’s just been kidnapped. Either you shut down flights out of Terra, or I start disabling every ship that tries to leave the system until I find her.”

Looking aghast, the Flight Controller paused for a second before replying, “Admiral Devereux has direct command over the Homeworld Sector, but I don’t think-”

“Track her down and ask,” John said curtly, cutting him off again. “If she says ‘no’, then put me through to her.”

Giving him a shaky salute, the Terran Commander nodded. “Putting you on hold, Vice Admiral.”

As the man’s face disappeared, John glanced at Faye, who was nervously biting her nail as she watched him. He studied her anxious expression for a moment, then asked, “What is it, Faye? You look like you’ve got something on your mind; something other than Calara and these assassins.”

“I ... I wanted to talk to you about something I did. I mean ... I didn’t do it, but I thought about it. A lot,” Faye blurted out in a rush, her reply leaving John completely mystified.

“Is it urgent?” he asked, giving her a pained expression. “I know I promised you that my door’s always open, but it’s a really bad time right now.”

Faye slowly shook her head. “No, it can wait.”

John brushed his fingers against her purple holographic cheek, being careful not to break the image. “I’m sorry. I promise when I’ve got some time, I’ll listen to anything you say with an open mind, but with Calara missing ... you understand?”

“I do, perfectly!” she replied, giving him a lovely smile. “We can talk about it later, that’s quite alright!”

“Thanks, honey,” John replied, giving her a grateful look. He blinked as he suddenly remembered the devastation he’d seen outside the nightclub. Raising an eyebrow, he added, “I saw your handiwork in the city ... what happened?”

Faye carefully described the attack on the Invictus and how she’d raced towards Terra’s surface to save the girls. John shook his head in amazement as she told him how she’d blasted three of the ninjas, using the ship’s Beam Lasers to obliterate them the moment Jade had sprinted clear.

“Thank you for saving her,” he said, his voice filled with gratitude. “Jade was exhausted when I found her. I don’t think she could’ve lasted much longer.”

“I love all of you,” Faye said in a whisper, gazing into his eyes. “I’d do anything to keep you safe...”

Before John could reply, the viewscreen crackled to life again, the fraught Flight Control officer looking worried. “We can’t get hold of Admiral Devereux, Sir! She isn’t answering any of our attempts to raise her on her private comms.”

John ground his teeth together in anger. “There were dozens of Admirals on Terra for the Award Ceremony! You must be able to find someone with authority to order a temporary planetary blockade! What about Fleet Admiral Buckingham? Admiral Harris?”

“We’ll keep trying, Sir,” the Commander replied, giving him a helpless shrug.

“Call me the minute you can lock it down!” John snapped, ending the call.

The click of heels alerted him to Alyssa’s presence on the Bridge. “Fucking useless,” she snarled, bristling with anger as she stalked over to the Command Podium. “Doesn’t that dickhead realise what’s at stake?!”

John rose from his chair to meet the furious girl, reaching out to take her hands in his. “We’ll get her back,” he said quietly, staring into her eyes. “I understand you’re furious, but we’ve got to keep it together to track her down.”

The blazing intensity of her cerulean gaze lessened for a moment, and she said in a tortured whisper, “I can’t let go of my anger ... I’d fall apart...”

“It’s Calara; I understand what you’re going through,” he said, stroking her arm supportively. Glancing at the holographic System Map behind him, he continued, “We need to track all the ships leaving Terra. The kidnappers must be heading for Mikaboshi’s base and my gut tells me it’s not here. We have to figure out which system they might be taking her to...”

“I’ve already started monitoring all system traffic!” Faye declared. “I’ll keep following every ship for as long as they’re within the radius of our long-range sensors.”

Alyssa’s expression turned bleak, that hard edge reappearing in her eyes. John spotted movement over her shoulder and Sakura stepped out onto the Bridge, nodding to him in acknowledgement as they made eye contact.

“I’ve run Tashana and Irillith through the medi-scanner,” the Asian girl said, as she strode up the steps to join them. “They’re both suffering from concussions from the blast, but the full-body scan didn’t pick up anything life-threatening.”

Oh, thank goodness for that! Edraele gasped and John could immediately feel her relaxing. She’d been fraught with worry ever since she’d heard her daughters had been caught in an explosion.

They’ll be okay, I’ll take care of them, John told her, his voice soothing.

“We need everyone back in action for this,” Alyssa said, giving John a pointed look. “If you top them all up, you can fully heal Irillith and Tashana, and burn away the drugs that knocked out Dana and Rachel.”

John nodded, then grimaced as he replied, “I need a little more recovery time first, we were only with Jehanna an hour ago. Let’s try and figure out what we can between the four of us until then.” Turning his Command Chair to look at Alyssa, Sakura, and Faye, he continued, “What do we know so far about the location of Mikaboshi’s base?”

May I interject a moment, John? Edraele asked politely. I might have some useful information.

Of course, go ahead, he replied, glancing at Alyssa who could also hear everything the Maliri Matriarch was saying.

After a moment’s pause, Edraele said, I’ve taken all the cybernetics dealers operating out of Lahlenor into custody and had a little chat with them. They proved most cooperative and we tracked down the serial number on the cybernetic brain that you removed from Sakura. It was sold to a Peter Koeman, who I believe is registered as a precious stones dealer in the Theta-Serpentis system.

“Peter Koeman?! That’s the guy who tried to contact us before we went on holiday to Oceanus!” Alyssa blurted out, looking at John in shock. “He was working for Mikaboshi!”

“And was probably setting us up for a trap,” John replied, his voice grim. “He wanted us to go to visit him didn’t he?”

Alyssa nodded, her eyes blazing with anger. “We should definitely pay him a visit later.”

Sakura was looking at them both in confusion. “Would you mind giving me a recap? This all happened before I joined you.”

John patiently explained how they’d been contacted by a merchant, that wished to give them a box of gems in gratitude for supposedly saving his sister’s life from the Kirrix. He then described the merchant’s confusion when they’d turned down his offer and suggested he donate them to orphanages instead.

Sakura couldn’t help smiling at that. “That sounds like classic bait for a trap to me. Your rejection must have infuriated Mikaboshi.”

“How long has Mikaboshi been hunting us?” John murmured, looking at the girls in amazement. “That was nearly three months ago!”

Alyssa glanced at Sakura and replied, “I thought Shinatobe’s attack on us was the first attempt, but it looks like he’s been after us a lot longer.”

“Peter Koeman is dead!” Faye squeaked, luminous eyes wide as she displayed a news article above John’s Command Console. “When you mentioned his name, I did a quick check. I got this hit from the Zento Station Chronicle; that’s the trading hub where he was based in Theta-Serpentis.”

John glanced at the heading of the holographic news article. It read: “Successful local trader slain in ritualistic murder! Police investigating possible links to organised crime...” He scanned down through the rest of the article, reading how the man had been tortured to death, his body subsequently found by a property developer.

“Mikaboshi didn’t appreciate you foiling his plan,” Sakura said, her expression bleak as she also finished scanning the article. “It looks like this Peter Koeman paid the price for his failure.”

John sat back in his chair and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Alright, we’ll have to forget about that lead for the moment. Theta-Serpentis is a bit of a trek from here, at least a day I think.”

“It would take us eighteen hours, forty three minutes to get there,” Alyssa confirmed.

“Alright, so what else do we know?” John asked, staring up at the ceiling. “I feel like we’re missing something obvious.”

“My abduction!” Sakura blurted out, eyes going wide. “I was captured on New Eden at just after ten in the morning. The men who abused me before handing me over to Mikaboshi said the handover was at two o’clock the following afternoon!”

John leaned forward and asked intently, “They took you to Mikaboshi’s base?”

She hesitated for a second then shook her head. “No, but I was definitely in Yomi-no-kuni two hours later. I remember the stone corridors ... that place is unmistakeable.”

“Yommy what?” Alyssa asked in confusion.

“Yomi-no-kuni, it’s what Mikaboshi calls his base. The name’s from ancient Shinto mythology and it’s what they called the land of the dead,” Sakura explained to them. “I never knew what planet it was on. Shinatobe was always in cryostasis between missions, so I was only awake for brief moments at his base for maintenance.”

“Okay, well that gives us a good starting point,” John said, turning to look at the System Map. “Faye, can you display a Sector Map and mark New Eden at the centre, then show every system reachable within say ... twenty six hours?”

A huge green globe appeared, covering scores of systems, including Terra itself.

Alyssa shook her head, saying, “Assume they were using a non-military Terran FTL drive for the transport vessel. That radius is based on modern military drives and this was seventy years ago.”

Faye nodded obediently and the radius shrank dramatically, no longer covering the Sol System.

“We’re making a few assumptions, but that backs up my gut feeling that he’s not on Terra,” John said, staring at the holographic map. “Trying to operate a coven of assassins with that much Terran Federation scrutiny on the Homeworld would be impossible...”

“We’re still looking at a very large area. There’s thirty-four systems still in range,” Alyssa replied, staring intently at the map.

“Alright, what else?” John asked. “How about when Shinatobe attacked us?”

“My shuttle attached to the Invictus at Olympus shipyard,” Sakura said, pointing to Alpha Centauri on the map. “I’ve no recollection of how I arrived at the system I’m afraid.”

“Yeah, but we know where we were when we intercepted Mikaboshi’s battlecruiser,” Alyssa said, her eyes gleaming with a predatory light. She leaned forward and her hands danced over the Executive Officer’s console with practiced familiarity. “When Shinatobe attacked, we were knocked out of hyper-warp right here. Irillith shut down their battlecruiser’s FTL drive at that spot there.”

John turned and glanced at the map, seeing two crosses appear on the map, one blue for the Invictus, one red for the Amaterasu. They were both a significant distance outside the previously marked green sphere, marking the point on the Invictus’ route towards the Dragon March where Shinatobe had struck. “He was heading back this way...” John replied, seeing the red cross appear closer towards the Core Worlds.

“We shut them down very fast,” Alyssa said with a note of satisfaction. She frowned then as she continued, “Unfortunately, that makes using this point for triangulation quite difficult. The Invictus was twelve hours out from Olympus Shipyard at that point and we’d covered a lot of ground. We were attacked some distance outside the primary shipping lanes, probably to avoid any interference from Terran Federation patrols.”

“Does it help narrow things down?” John asked, tracing a line from the blue cross to the red one, then following it onwards. “It looks like they were definitely flying somewhere close to Terra.”

“That does make sense,” Sakura said, cupping her chin as she pondered the map. “The wealthiest Terran citizens and the most populated systems are in the Core Worlds. These were Shinatobe’s prime hunting grounds for decades...”

Alyssa hesitated for a moment then said, “There’s no guarantee they were heading straight for his base when we intercepted them, but if they were, there are five star systems they could have potentially been aiming for.” She tapped in some more entries on the map and the five systems were highlighted. “He could have been heading for: Alpha Centauri, GJ 1061, GI 628, Kapten’s Star, or Epsilon Indi. Alpha Centauri is a triple star system, so that’s actually eight stars in total.”

“So we just need to track every ship heading in that direction since the kidnapping?” John suggested, sounding more optimistic.

Alyssa nodded but the flicker of hope in her eyes faded a moment later as she looked at the Sector Map. “Twenty-seven vessels have already left Terra heading in that direction!”

“If Irillith were awake, I’m sure she’d be able to hack each of those ships and find out in no time if Calara or the assassins were aboard!” Faye suggested, her face lighting up with a bright smile.

“We’re much faster than those vessels. We could easily catch up and start searching each of them in turn,” Alyssa said, nodding her agreement with the plan.

John glanced at the map, his brow furrowing for a second. “I was about to suggest getting the Terran Federation involved, but most of the local fleets are in orbit around Terra. Even if they were able to catch up to these ships, I’m not sure I’d want to entrust Calara’s life to a bunch of Terran-led, stop and search operations.”

Alyssa looked at John with a raised eyebrow. “Looks like we need Irillith back on her feet then.”

“We’ll need Jade’s help to feed the girls, but she’s exhausted at the moment,” John said, meeting the blonde’s questioning gaze. “I don’t want her exerting herself to ... you know.”

Alyssa’s stoic expression wavered for a moment and he could see the anguish behind her mask of anger. “I’d normally have you load me up in a heartbeat, but ... I can’t handle that intimacy at the moment, I’ll crumble like a pack of cards! I need to stay angry...” She darted a glance at Sakura who was standing between them.

The Asian girl traced her fingers along the epaulets on John’s shoulder, before brushing them through his hair. “Let’s go,” she said with a tender smile.

Rising to his feet, John took her hand, then paused and turned back to look at Faye. “What about the assassin you captured? Should we interrogate him first? I’m still worried about leaving him in the Brig.”

Alyssa sprang to her feet, her eyes blazing with anticipation. “Now that’s something I’m more than happy to get stuck into.”

“We’ll go there now,” John agreed, before taking a final glance at the green sphere in the Sector Map. He could see the limit of the Invictus’ sensor range marked in a globe around the ship, which covered the local systems but not those further afield. “Faye, can you contact Terra Flight Control and tell them to forget the blockade. I assume they haven’t been able to authorise anything yet as they haven’t called us back. Instead, tell them the Lion needs full access to the Terran Federation Sensor net. When we’re patched into that, we can make sure nothing slips past us in case we were wrong with any of our guesses.”

“I’ll contact them right now!” Faye exclaimed, nodding enthusiastically. “I’ll start monitoring everything in the sector after that!”

“Thank you,” he said, giving her an appreciative smile. “We’ll meet you down in the Brig.”

They turned and walked down the illuminated steps of the Command Podium, before entering the crimson glow of the anti-gravity field. The red shroud made Alyssa’s glowering expression all the more terrifying and when they arrived on Deck Seven, she marched out purposefully. John chose not to comment, holding Sakura’s hand as they followed the blonde.

The new Brig had been constructed to replace the old gym at the end of the corridor and Faye was waiting for them by the reinforced security door. She gave them a bright smile in greeting, then purposefully stepped in front of the door to block their path. “I took a few precautions to make sure that the assassin wasn’t going to be a threat to any of you,” she warned them, her tone uncharacteristically serious. “I’m just letting you know beforehand so it won’t come as a shock.”

John darted a slightly apprehensive glance at Sakura, while Alyssa snarled, “Don’t worry, whatever you’ve done to him was just the warm-up act.”

Faye nodded and stepped aside, opening the security door to allow them into the Brig.

The huge gym and swimming pool that had been there before had taken up a fairly substantial section of this deck, so with all those facilities removed, there’d been more than enough room to build a large prison. Directly behind the door was a spacious area flanked by more security doors, with one wall fitted with clear crystal Alyssium windows. The door directly ahead of them led to the Security office that monitored the Brig, while two long halls could be seen stretching away through the window, with ten cells per side.

“He’s in the closest one on the right,” Faye explained, opening the inner security door.

They followed her through, walking over to the first of the prison cells. The bars on the front of each cell were made of very familiar sparkling white metal, with a shimmering blue forcefield in place directly behind the sturdy cell door. There was something neatly piled up on the floor outside the cell and John’s eyes widened as he recognised the shape of the golden-brown objects.

He shot a quick glance at Faye. “Are they... ?”

“I had my boys remove his arms and legs!” she replied with a beaming smile. “They were all cybernetic, so it wasn’t quite as grisly as it sounds.”

Alyssa looked through the cell door and spotted the battered cyborg assassin, his dismembered torso lying propped up on the bed. Her pitiless laughter echoed around the Brig.

When Faye dropped the forcefield, the assassin finally realised that he had company, the opaque screen having blocked out all sight and sound from inside his cell. “Please!” he begged, seeing John and the girls. “Keep that AI away from me! She’s fucking crazy!”