Chapter 46

***This article contains spoilers.***

## Summary

Dana and Rachel make their way to where John, Alyssa, and Irillith had disappeared and come across Alyssa's crumpled form, and Irillith cowering against a stone pillar. When she went to look for John to help move Alyssa's body, Irillith warned her they should flee while Mael'nerak is distracted.

When Rachel caught up to John in an area scorched and still burning in places, he ignored and walked past her. Then he called out in a commanding voice, *"Thrall! We must attend your matriarch, she has been critically wounded."* When she told him not to move Alyssa yet, he asked if she was a physician. When Dana caught up he didn't seem to recognize her either.

Eventually Irillith ran over and told them they need to leave. She admitted that there is no research facility or data, and that it was a bomb. She blames John damaging the bomb, to which he steps towards her in fury and replies, *"You dare speak to me in such a way, slave?"*

They finally make their way back to the entrance and escape from Quanthos into the Raptor with seconds to spare. John passed out. Jade said that Calara and she got tired at one point, feeling a strong pulling sensation.

The last thing John remembers is being flung through the stone pillar.

Jade feeds Alyssa John's cum. Rachel uses the psi-detector on Alyssa, which shows the energy is all flowing in one direction, from them to her. The rate of energy draw seems to be much faster from Rachel and Dana, but with Calara and Jade, it looks slow and normal. There is a massive surge of power going from John to Alyssa.

Rachel's hypothesis was that John tapped out Calara and Jade’s reserves of psychic energy, and used the power he siphoned from them to heal himself. Dana and Rachel were left alone because they were still in danger from the Fulmanax, until everyone was safely aboard the Invictus, when he drew power from Dana and Rachel to completely heal Alyssa. Rachel's guess is that the girls supply psychic energy to Alyssa, who channels it to you. With Alyssa being incapacitated, he just took matters into your own hands, and tapped directly from the source. John's cum may be a catalyst that allows him to heal them, direct the nature of the Gift as well.

Alyssa and Rachel suggest that hard-coded into the Progenitor DNA is a version of John who runs completely on instinct, that emerges in times of severe physical stress, and appears to have no problem unlocking his psychic abilities when he needs them. So far it's only emerged when Alyssa is in trouble.

Progenitor John had called Rachel a Thrall, Alyssa the Matriarch, and Irillith a Slave. Since Maliri society is run by matriarchs, Maliri may have modelled their current societal structure, on the one previously imposed on them by the Progenitors. When Progenitor-John called Irillith a Slave, he might have recognised her as being from a species that the Progenitors had genetically modified to be used in their wars.

Alyssa can now use telekinesis.

Rachel analyzed the DNA from the Drakkar and Kintark bodies.

* Both are double-helical and haven't been modified in the same way as John's, Alyssa's, and Jade's.
* They've both been modified, but crudely compared to sophistication shown in the techniques used by the Progenitors.
* The Kintark have been experimenting with genetic modification of their species. This change occurred relatively recently, but the modifications strands look like they’ve been through at least a dozen generations. From the warriors, the pilot, and the Royal Guard, it looks like they designed different sub-species that are well-suited for different roles.
* The Drakkar have been massively genetically modified, but not recently. They were "constructed" as a species millennia ago. The modifications are very crude, and show a blunt expediency, which are nothing like the subtle manipulations in John's triple helical DNA. If the Progenitors did make the Drakkar, they probably did it as an emergency fix for a manpower problem.

Rachel presents her findings on the Kintark and Drakkar to the team.

* The Kintark are from a highly adaptable reptilian species, and just like Terran reptiles, they are cold blooded. They only seemed to be giving off lots of heat when the team fought them on Port Medea Space Station due to their armor, which is threaded with a variant of their heatsinks, that disperses heat evenly around them, warming up their body. Since they're cold-blooded, their muscle activity depends on chemical reactions which run quickly when it is hot and slowly when it is cold. The heat from the armour allows them to always move around rapidly. They have tough, leathery hides, and limited regenerative capabilities.
* The Drakkar are genetically modified for war. Their bodies have dispersed and duplicated organs, that would allow them to keep fighting, even after sustaining injuries that would kill or at least cripple a Terran. They also have thick, blue, highly oxygenated blood that helps give them more endurance, with oxygen carried around the bloodstream very efficiently, and the blood coagulates quickly, clotting over wounds and preventing excessive blood loss.