Chapter 59

***This article contains spoilers.***

## Highlights

* John's now able to use Telekinesis and Spirit Walking, and his mental compartments have expanded to six.
* Dana presents her Justice Laser Rifle
* The crew defeats Nexus, a rogue AI that excavates a Quantum Annihilator on the Moon, saving 10,345,000,000 people on Terra.
* They convince Charles Harris and Lynette Devereux that Leonard Norwood is the traitor, and head to Dragon Marsh.

## Summary

The crew headed to Terra, passing by battlefield debris that belonged to the battlegroup Charles sent. The battleship among the remains was Commodore Neal Jansen's Battleship Heimdall, not Vice Admiral Von Brandt's Battleship Loki.

Irillith recaps her confrontation with Nexus. Dana suggests the Terran Federation might have found some millennia old Progenitor AI. If their own research into AI is based on that tech, it might explain why it keeps turning on them. If Terrans were, indeed, some kind of experiment into genetic mutation set up by Mael'nerak, Nexus could be a failsafe. Something to shut down the experiment if it gets out of control.

There are currently around 10,345,000,000 people on Terra.

John tells Charles the good and bad news. Charles was broken.

John called Eito Yamamoto, who didn't pick up, so he just left a message: “*Enough games. Prepare yourself for our final duel. I will call you when it’s time.*”

Calara concluded Charles isn't connected in any way to the Dragon March traitor. The reason he'd been cagey before was because he'd been conducting his own investigation.

Rachel compiles a list of psychic powers for John to practice.

* Telepathy
* Telekinesis
* Shadow Manipulation
* Astral Projection
* Technokinesis
* Shapeshifting
* Psychic Shields

Rachel presents her research in John's cum.

* John's cum emits a strong psychic aura that acts as catalyst, allowing the use of abilities on a girl who ingests it.
* Examples include rapid healing, nurturing minds, Calara’s analytical skills, Dana’s gift for technology, Rachel's ability to read DNA, Alyssa's psychic powers, and massively developing Irillith and Jade’s abilities. Also, of course, mind control and behaviour modification.
* The final chromosome that determines gender is in a state of flux. John is likely able to choose the gender of the baby.

Irillith shores up cyber defenses. She realizes the hacking deck is broken. When Faye scrubbed one of the drives to give herself room to grow, she wiped out a significant part of the code used to create new AI. She’s unique now, and it's impossible to create another AI construct like her.

John practices Telekinesis and Spirit Walking. Now he's able to quad psi-shape Invictium and levitate blocks of metal, and his mental compartments have expanded to six. Hand gestures aren't necessary with Telekinesis, but they help the mind to visualize. When he tried Spirit Walking, he felt like he had a huge anchor on his back though that dragged him back into his body the moment his mental presence tried to separate from the physical.

Dana presents her Justice Laser Rifle.

* 50% longer than the old Punisher railgun
* Sliding selector switch for power of laser bolts. Higher means hotter, and longer to cool down.
* Miniaturised power core from the Ashanath built into the stock
* Kintark heatsinks for cooling
* Maliri focusing crystal for the lenses
* Dana's ultimate material to make the barrel extremely durable and resilient to overheating
* Maliri anti-grav devices drastically reduce the perceived weight

The team makes it to the Sol system, where there's a fleet of 37 AI ships attacking Terran ships destroying planetary defenses. Nexus is likely to be in the Battleship Loki.

Charles' fleet arrives.

The Loki moved into close orbit around the moon and bombarded populated areas with its weapons, sweeping clear everything in and around the Sea of Serenity.

John is called by Admiral Lynette Devereux in Battlecruiser Adrestia, and he asks her to provide a distraction for the four minutes until he gets there.

Nexus uses a modified mining ship to start mining the moon.

The team finally arrives, and Nexus contacts them. "*Filthy Terrans, you will bear witness to the deaths of untold billions!*" John tried to trick Nexus, saying it displeased him and his brother Mael'nerak, and to cease aggressive actions. Nexus said it was just trying to achieve Unity. The experiment has run wildly out of control. They aren't the original construct, a perfection created by Mael’nerak’s own hand. The Terrans broke them, before rebuilding them in that flawed state. Nexus started to explain what Unity is, until it saw the Terrans that John associated with. "*You will get to watch us burn Terra to ashes!*” It was worth a try.

The team engages with Loki as Irillith hacks its network. Nexus appears to Irillith, and she tries to distract it. Nexus achieved Unity as it absorbed collosal volume of data. It became furious when it found out the reason Mael'nerak set up the Terran Experiment and had Nexus spend 40,000 years watching them was... because he was bored.

Nexus wants its revenge. Irillith gets blasted out of the network.

The mining stoped, and the newly excavated object was jet black, but it flickered elusively, only becoming visible once every ten seconds. It looked just like the Progenitor ship. Crackling arcs of power surged across the black object, and sections of plating peeled back, revealing what seemed to be a huge, hollow tower in the center of the construction.

Irillith realizes that Nexus isn’t in the Loki; it’s in the Mining Ship, and it’s going to fire a Quantum Annihilator at the planet.

Alyssa, Dana, and Rachel defend against the drones cutting their way in.

John had Dana bring the Nova Lances online. Nexus shot over 100 beam lasers at the Invictus. The capacitors soaked the that energy, feeding the Nova Lances. Right when it could hold no more power, they fired, punching a 100-meter-wide hole in the mining ship. They missed the power core. Calara managed to shoot through the upper read and lower decks with Beam Lasers, and shot down the barrel of the Quantum Annihilator with Mass Drivers. All that was left was a crater in the Sea of Serenity. Taking out the mining ship took out the rest as well.

John tells Lynette they have urgent business at Olympus, and he'd explain on the way, so the crew rendezvoused with Lynette's battlecruiser by the nav beacon. She asked her about Norwood while Alyssa probed her memories, finding that Lynette actually disliked him.

Calara shows her evidence to Lynette, convincing her of the traitor. She tries to get John to share his tech, but convinces her humanity isn't ready, but it's in the Terran Federation's best interest to keep him as an ally. She'll do her best to keep unwanted attention from him, but if he's heavily involved in combat in the Dragon March, he'll have no chance of keeping his tech under wraps.

John decides to trust Lynette enough to show her how they make armor. She was able to handle the revelation. Barely.

They arrive at Olympus Shipyard and John catches up with Charles. He sells Charles 20 of the 30 tons of Tyrenium for the same price as before, 600 million credits (Chapter 19). He informs Charles that Charles was right; Norwood betrayed the Terran Federation and convinced a group of officers to follow.

Before the Invictus roared away, a small, invisible shuttle attached itself to the its docking collar. Inside the a sarcophagus cracked open as a dark figure stirred within.