Chapter 99

***This article contains spoilers.***

## Highlights

* Alyssa befriends the psychic Vulkat queen, Nkkrit, who has a tragic story. Alyssa lets Nkkrrit join her psychic chorus, so as thanks she gives them eternity crystals and the method of manufacturing them.
* Maria figures out about the Kintark invasion and informs John via Queen Edraele.
* On the way to Terra, John stops by Brimor to trade the eternity crystal schematics for the for pre-built shield generators. Deep Lord Athgiloi was not pleased they were useless to the non-psychic Brimorians.
* Jade goes to meet with Helene again before they leave. She doesn't get much time to talk, but for some reason she's in a good mood as she heads back to the team.

## Notes

### Miscellaneous

* Buckingham loses his shit.
* Jack gives hidden clues to Maria in their message that something's wrong. He's being recalled to the Core Worlds right after their trip to the border. Maria checks the emails from her friends, and finds a coded message from Commander Vivian Grayson that implies the Kintark are invading Terra. Jack apparently didn't know the severity of the situation, but she realizes he wanted her to get in contact with John and Calara to warn them that the border worlds on the Outer Rim had been left undefended.
* The team takes the stealth shuttle to sneak into the Vulkat command ship. Alyssa befriends the psychic Vulkat queen, Nkkrit, who has a tragic story. Alyssa lets Nkkrrit join her psychic chorus, so as thanks she gives them eternity crystals and the method of manufacturing them.
* Maria contacts Edraele on a spoofed, ultra-secure channel, warning her of the Kintark invasion and asking for John's help.
* John redirects Lilyana's fleet to help at Terra. She comes across Admiral Morgan's fleet and plays John's message. Morgan let her pass.
	+ Buckingham's son, under his mother's maiden name, is posted on Morgan's ship, the Momus. They've been redirected from the Outer Rim to the Brimorian border to keep him out of harm's way of the invading Kintark.
* Rachel gives John therapy. Alyssa had explored the memories of all the girls' first time with John, and found that they were actually in a state of euphoria. Basically, it's a preview of what it would be like with John.
* They send the schematics for manufacturing eternity crystals to Deep Lord Athgiloi. When they arrive at Brimor to get the shield generators installed, Jade takes the stealth shuttle to meet with Helene again.
* Athgiloi was furious to learn the eternity crystals require psychic abilities to manufacture and tried to renege on the deal. John threatened to obliterate his fleet and take their shield generators. He isn't welcome back.
* Dana found a remote shut-off switch in the shield generators. John said not to remove them yet. *"Why don’t we give them enough rope to hang themselves?"*

### Minor Characters

* Jayanti Mishra: Admiral.
* Carmela Moreno: Rear Admiral.
* Maria Fernandez: Former communications officer. Jack's wife and Calara's mother.
* Jack Fernandez: Captain of the Damocles. Maria's husband and Calara's father.
* Vivian Grayson: Commander. Maria's friend.
* Nkkrrit: Vulkat Queen. A potent psychic with defences to match
* Alexander Morgan: Admiral. Positioned on the battleship Momus. His fleet had been heading towards the Outer Rim because the Kirrix encroachments have been intensified over the last several weeks. However, he’d received an executive order to turn divert to the Brimorian border instead. Had to accept a posting of Bucking's son, who is using his mother's maiden name. Suspects his fleet is deliberately being kept out of harm's way.

### Locations

* Alpha Vulpeculae
* Uxturo
* Omicron Ceti
* Theta Columbae
* Brimor

### Ships

* Dream of Salvation
* Momus

### Eternity Crystals

* All they have to do is build the psychic amplifiers and replicate the mineral composition of the growing agent, then either John or Alyssa can psychically shape as many as they need.
* The eternity crystals can be used to upgrade their shields and more.
* If they swap out their current focusing crystals in their energy weapons, they'll be able to do the same damage for about half the power requirements.
* There’s a limit to how much stress the barrels can take, but they can increase the damage on their Photon Lasers and Pulse Cannons. For the Nova Lances they can just half the power, which will massively reduce the phased impedance and let them take advantage of the upgraded Kintark heatsinks. Then they can be fired twice as fast instead.
* They’ll double the shield strength. When they get them installed along with the Brimorian generators and the Maliri modulators, they’ll be packing stronger shields than a *fucking battleship*.

### Nkkrrit's Story

Alyssa stumbled a step then looked around in awe as she got her balance. She stood amidst a city of towering spires, a place of beauty and artistry, with delicate sculptures lining the wide boulevards. It appeared to be market day of some kind, with all sorts of aliens bartering and trading under the bright warm sun. There was a sense of harmony amongst the strange-looking aliens she saw there, none of whom she recognised.

Bliss, happiness, contentment...

Nkkrrit emerged from one of the nearby dwellings. Her home was on the planet Uxturo. A smaller Vulkat appeared beside her – Ixxttranao, her mate. They nuzzled affectionately, while dozens of spiderlings capered playfully around their legs before the lovers parted for their day. Her first brood ... so good, pure, and innocent, their childish games an endless source of amusement to the mated pair. The parents shared such fond hopes and dreams for their young, each of the babies brimming with potential, so bright and keen to learn.

The sudden shift in scene threw Alyssa off-balance again and as she struggled to stay on her feet, she gaped at the rapid shift in memories. The city burned all around her ... what had been exquisitely beautiful now lay ruined, left blackened and scorched by the invaders. Vulkat and off-worlders alike attempting to flee from pitiless killers, the burning dead piled high in the streets. Two-legged females in their black armour scoured the city, hunting and killing without provocation. Nkkrrit ran through the chaos, desperate to be reunited with her family.

Horror, grief, loss...

Nkkrrit found Ixxttranao blown to pieces, limbs still glowing from the dozen laser bolts that had brutally dismembered him. He’d died trying to protect her family, but no matter how valiant his sacrifice, it had been in vain. Nkkrrit found her first brood gunned down without mercy and her heart threatened to break into a million pieces.

Alyssa was expecting the next shift in scenes, so she was better prepared this time. The disorientation passed quickly and she looked around, trying to get her bearings.

Determination, loyalty, revenge...

Nkkrrit boarding the ‘Dream of Salvation’, the vessel that was built to fight a war the Vulkat had been ill-prepared for. It was the vessel that was to become her eternal tomb...

Now settled into her new home, Nkkrrit prepared herself to do her duty to defend the Vulkat Empire against the merciless invaders. She still carried Ixxttranao’s essence within her body and used it to grow more clutches of spiderlings ... all the while trying to fill the void in her heart by letting her lost mate live on through her children. Those children became adults, adults became crew, the crew fought and died, which meant yet more sharp daggers of grief to tear at her shredded soul.

The scene swirled and moved on yet again...

The Vulkat fleet assembled and was sent to the borders, to defend against the invaders and their sleek black ships. Images of terrible battles assaulted Alyssa’s mind, full of flashing beams of energy tearing Vulkat ships to pieces, the hulls not strong enough to withstand their hateful caress. All that ferocious fighting led to horrific losses, the Vulkat losing a dozen ships for every invader vessel. While each of the enemy’s losses were tremendously satisfying, stoking the fires of revenge, they proved to be little more than pyrrhic victories. There was a brief lull in fighting, giving hope that the attackers had relented; but those hopes were soon dashed...

Shock, horror, grief...

The planet Uxturo, a beautiful jewel in the Vulkat Empire ... her home and birthplace. Nkkrrit returned to find it obliterated by a weapon so potent as to defy belief. What was once a haven of learning and culture, the home of billions, had been reduced to nothing more than cold broken rocks floating lifelessly in space.

The Vulkat strategy changed from fight to flight, in a frantic attempt to avoid total genocide. Nkkrrit spoke to the Empress herself and was commanded to retreat rather than continue to defend against the invaders ... just long enough to weather the storm and to save as many as she could. Nkkrrit’s fleet was filled with worthy citizens, the best and brightest, chosen to rebuild when it was safe and the terror had passed.

After long years spent in exile, the mounting fear amongst her people twisted inwards, turning to madness and despair. The citizens were falling to murder and cannibalism, the surviving Vulkat raging against their claustrophobic confinement. Desperate to restore hope to the surviving citizens, the decision was made to return to the Vulkat Empire.

But it turned out to be a false hope...

Everything was gone. The invaders had done a thorough job before they left, scouring all traces of the Vulkat from the galaxy, every ship wrecked, every planet destroyed. Suicide rates amongst the citizens aboard the fleet grew to terrifying levels, the last death-spasms of a broken, ruined people.

Desperation, revulsion, remorse...

Nkkrrit brought back the dead to help serve the living, using procedures once considered an abomination; but all the citizens that might have cared were long gone. She stabilised the crew numbers ... leaving enough to run the fleet and keep the last of the living alive, but for what purpose? All their colonisable worlds had been destroyed, and even if they found a new home, there were too few left to rebuild ... too much had been lost.

The centuries rolled by and Nkkrrit grew older, and weaker, her fertility long spent. One by one her people died out, until she was the last, the sole survivor of the catastrophe that had befallen the Vulkat. Submerged in grief, her ghostly fleet now haunted the bleached bones of what had been a proud and noble empire.

Loneliness, overwhelming sorrow, rage...

Nkkrrit was now a pathetic shadow of her former glory, a ragged Lich Queen leading her nightmarish undead children. All that was left was to seek vengeance against the living; to slaughter the shameless fish-men who sought to pick through the graveyard of the Vulkat, intent on looting the dead.

Alyssa let out a strangled sob, her heart filled with sympathy for Nkkrrit and the endless horrors she’d fought so hard to endure. Stepping forward, she embraced the startled arachnid, her ghostly ethereal tears rolling down her cheeks and splashing against the Vulkat’s heavy head.

**I’m so sorry**, she whispered, struggling to imagine what it must have been like for Nkkrrit, with one series of terrible events after another dragging her down to ever lower depths of despair. **Ixxttranao, Uxturo, I’ll remember them for you; help keep their memory alive.**

Nkkrrit raised one of her huge forelimbs then gently curled it around the weeping girl. In that moment of closeness there was peace, a touching of minds that the Vulkat Queen had missed so much. Alyssa’s eyes widened at the contact and she suddenly gained a far deeper insight into Nkkrrit and her people.

The Vulkat were psychic, the largest of the females being the most powerful with that gift. Nkkrrit had once joined with millions of voices lifted up in exultation, all joining the hymn of the Vulkat. But that had been over ten-thousand years ago, the glorious song then turning into a terrifying lament, as one voice after another was brutally extinguished. Nkkrrit had abandoned the choir before the end, no longer able to stand the endless screams of grief and pain.

**I’m building a new choir**, Alyssa said softly, opening her mind to the ancient creature. **Sing with us once again...**

The voices were too faint at first and Nkkrrit strained desperately to hear, wanting to listen to that wonderful harmony with every fibre of her being. Alyssa sent soothing waves through her mind, calming the last of the Vulkat, and encouraging her to surrender herself to that connection. Nkkrrit balked at the level of trust that would entail, but with Alyssa’s gentle telepathic caresses, she gradually relaxed, opening her mind the same way.

Nkkrrit listened in awe as the telepathic song grew louder and clearer, Alyssa’s wards like beautiful echoes of their Matriarch’s glorious voice. She began to sway to that gentle rhythm, her mind revelling in the loving notes. Throwing herself more fully into that connection, Nkkrrit suddenly became aware of the multitude of Maliri connected through Edraele. While their voices were far quieter, united together they provided a much broader depth to the shining stars in Alyssa’s chorus.

The ancient arachnid began to sing, her voice unsteady at first after thousands of years of disuse, but growing stronger by the second. Alyssa had been the only one aware of Nkkrrit’s presence at first, until that song flooded through the network, making all those connected to her pause in wonder. Acting by instinct, they followed Nkkrrit’s lead, raising their voices to join the hymn of the Vulkat.

Gratitude, love, respect...

Alyssa smiled as she felt the flood of emotion from the last survivor of a terribly-wronged people. **You’re welcome**, she murmured, caressing the Vulkat Queen. She hesitated for a second, then continued, **Would you like us to heal you? We could try to help you bring back the Vulkat and rebuild your empire?**

Regret, appreciation, but rejection...

Pausing for a moment, Alyssa gazed into Nkkrrit’s sad eyes. **Do you want us to end your suffering instead? I promise it would be painless...**

Longing ... then duty, loyalty, rejection...

Alyssa sighed as she nodded her understanding. As much as Nkkrrit wanted a release from her torment, she felt honour bound to defend what had once been Vulkat territory from the vultures that sought to pick over the carcass of an extinct civilisation.

**If you ever change your mind either way, reach out and speak to me**, Alyssa said gently. **We’ll do whatever we can to help you.**

Nkkrrit gazed at her for a long moment, then broadcast a dazzling series of images into Alyssa’s mind.

Blue eyes widening in shock, Alyssa gaped at her new friend. **Thank you so much! I promise we’ll put your gifts to good use!**

The Vulkat Queen embraced the young woman, long black limbs curving around her in a gentle, protective gesture. Alyssa hugged her back tightly and with a final goodbye, they broke the telepathic connection.