Chapter 37

***This article contains spoilers.***

## Summary

John has another nightmare. He finds himself surrounded by the corpses of his notable enemies, and gloats in pride. He becomes aware of a vast, eldritch presence taking an obscene delight in observing John relishing his gory handiwork. John then realizes that the stars were malignant eyes that were watching him like a man might observe the antics of a bug, overwhelming John with dread. A glowing nimbus of light appeared and banished John's terror. Looking around again, instead of corpses he sees the thousands of people he saved, leaving John with a steely determination to face the abomination. Its smug satisfaction turns to disgust, and lashes out at John in rage with tentacles. The glowing nimbus of light saves John again and he's brought back to consciousness.

Upon waking up, he finds Alyssa is also awake, terrified. They discuss the nightmares and Alyssa realizes they occur whenever girls are  permanently added to the crew, when a new girl appears in Alyssa's mind. It could be a form of psychic attack by other Progenitors, correlated with how strong she becomes. John thinks Alyssa could be the nimbus of light from his nightmares.

John tells Rachel he suspects the DNA reader issues mean their DNA is changing. Rachel suggests his medical records from the military 22 years ago might have useful information about him. John suggests she inspect alien corpses for weaknesses.

John lifts a Raptor engine weighing a ton by himself. Dana repairs the Raptor. Alyssa promises to stay out of John's head for two hours.

John accesses the archive backed up from the Fool's Gold, in a folder marked "Jessica Blake," and realized his new Commodore rank may allow him access to more than he could before.

John sets up a resort with an Oceanus representative for 345,500 credits, calls Charles about the award ceremony scheduled at 8:00 PM, and Jehanna Elani from Terran Federation News Network to schedule the next interview. She asks if she can bring a film crew to the award ceremony and he accepts.

John calls a specialized Kendo swordmaster, Eito Yamamoto, to request sword training, but he immediately declines. However, when he learns from John it isn't just for sport, and that John has killed with a blade before, the swordsmaster agrees to train John, and gives him a list of equipment he'll need, which he has delivered to Oceanus.

After talking to Alyssa again, she inadvertantly gave him the idea to draw up a will for the girls. She started crying and left the room. John tried to explain about the will to the other girls, but was only met with horrified looks. They couldn't even contemplate the idea or John dying. John assumed it was due to Progenitor tampering and temporarily created a mental wall to block out Alyssa in order to lie to them that he'd never die.

The team attends the award ceremony, the girls showing off their new uniforms. Admiral Devereux, in command of the Homeworld Defense Fleet, presents the medals as she's the senior officer present at the shipyard. She coins the term Lion of the Federation, and presents them with Lion Defender medals. She also mentioned his promotion to Commodore, despite it being unofficial, perhaps for PR reasons.

A brooding figure picks up his trail on John, thanks to a contact who reported seeing John at the award ceremony.