Chapter 106

***This article contains spoilers.***

## Highlights

* John realizes he claimed the Maliri, information he got from his guide. A Progenitor lays claim to a seed race to use as his thralls. No other may dispute that ownership.
* Jade remembers waking up on Kythshara, which is Mael'nerak's throne world, and means "birthplace"" in ancient Maliri. She also remembers an ancient Progenitor battle hymn.
* Edraele starts using the term "wards" instead of "thralls."
* Lynette and Jehanna say goodbye, and Dana gives them both a shield belt and a laser pistol.
* Devereux promotes Calara and Rachel to Captain.

## Notes

### Miscellaneous

* Lynette asks if the Maliri would be useless against other Progenitors due to the genetic modifications to view Progenitors favorably. John realizes he *claimed* the Maliri. He must have "squeezed" that knowledge out of his guide: A Progenitor lays claim to a seed race to use as his thralls. No other may dispute that ownership.
	+ The Maliri being unclaimed means that Mael'nerak is dead, unless there’s a way of giving up ownership of a thrall race.
* Maria Fernandez unofficially adopts Sakura. Now Calara has *another* overprotective older sibling.
* John and Faye go on a date on Gravitus.
* Edraele starts using the term "wards" instead of "thralls."
* Alyssa reads the Nymphs mind to find out why the new Nymphs could remember their original forms and Jade couldn't, and discovers that someone tampered with Jade's mind.
	+ How a Nymph's mind works: Leylira’s mind is structured into a number of parts, the most important of which is her core instincts, which are like a set of rules she must obey: Take the physical form of her master’s perfect mate, service her master in any way he desires, and obey his every command to the letter. The only exceptions are the use of weapons and taking a male form, which are strictly forbidden. (Since Jade's been with them, John's changed her core instincts, removing her limitations and making everything optional for her.)
	+ The next part of their mind is their personality which is determined by their master. A Nymph makes mental contact with her new master and finds out how he wants her to behave. All that information is stored in a separate part of their subconscious and basically forms their personality.
	+ There are no obvious differences between Jade and her sisters there with the personality part. What's different is their memories. When a Nymph is claimed by a new master and a new personality established, all their old memories are wiped away permanently. The only thing that never changes is the memory of their original catgirl form. That way they’ve always got a basic shape to revert to. All of the new Nymphs are a blank slate. There are no memories there; only what they’ve experienced since being with John the night before.
	+ With Jade, there’s a shitload of really nasty stuff in there from the last 300 years, as well as a few millennia of Jade running around on Lenarra. With all that clutter, Alyssa didn’t notice the tiny sections for Jade's core instincts and her personality. With Jade's sisters she spotted those parts immediately.
	+ Jade's earliest memory is waking on Kythshara with all of her sisters, then Mael'nerak telling them that they were freed from service. After that, they were transported to Lenarra.
	+ Kythshara is Mael'nerak's throne world, and means "birthplace"" in ancient Maliri.
* They decide to convert the primary hangar into a treatment center for Kirrix-infested victims. To make room for it, they sell the titanium-plated imitation of a Tormentor-class destroyer they looted from Tartarus back to the Terra Federation.
* Alyssa and Lynnette bond.
* When Jade spoons Lynette, she sings a soft song under her breath that John recognizes as an ancient Progenitor battle hymn.
* Lynette has transformed dramatically. Now when she wears her highest-ranking Terran Federation uniform, she looks like a model in a parody shoot. Fortunately, Dana made her a wearable holo-disguise to make her face look the same as before.
* Devereux promotes Calara and Rachel to Captain. Calara had already been the youngest to make Commodore, let alone Captain.
* Jehanna and Lynette say goodbye. They're going back to their jobs and won't see the team for at least a few weeks. However, they'll be working with each other with Jehanna's new press liaison position that Lynette is giving her.
* Dana made Lynette going away presents:
	+ Personal shields belts. Not as strong as Paragon suit shields, but it can handle ten seconds of gatling laser fire. Oh, and completely invulnerable to conventional bullets.
	+ Laser pistols. As strong as gatling lasers and can fire non-stop. Biometrics readers are built into the grip keyed to DNA. There is one pistol for each of them but they can use either one.
* Irillith hasn't yet translated the Vulkat text, but Faye shows the team images:
	+ A severely-damaged, Tormentor-class, destroyer. This was the real, black thrall vessel, unlike the titanium-plated imitation they had just left behind on Olympus. It was severely damaged, showing hundreds of pockmarked impact craters over its sinister hull. Despite the incredible amount of damage it had sustained, the ship was still more-or-less intact.
	+ Each image had been taken inside the distinctive interior of the Dream of Salvation, the Vulkat Command Ship. Huge ship components had been salvaged from the remains of the wrecked destroyer, the glistening black objects positioned on the deck, surrounded by Vulkat scientists.
	+ Dana groans, her eyes flicking from side to side. *“Null-Inertia Gyroscope ... Zero-Point Regulator ... Solid-Phase Shield Matrix ... and ... a Tachyon Lance!”*