Chapter 69

***This article contains spoilers.***

## Highlights

* John meets with the Admirality, who wants his tech.
* Rachel develops a treatment for plasma burn victims.
* John gets Calara's parents' blessings to marry her. Calara accidentally overhears, and accepts.
* Irillith presents ~~stolen~~ requisitioned Terran Federation schematics.

## Summary

Sakura sees the psychic link between John and her.

John gets ready for a call with Admirality. Edraele gives John four pieces of advice:

1. The Admirality will covet his tech, and that could cause them to make rash decisions.
2. Leave quickly. The Terrans Federation has a huge fleet there, so they might be emboldened to attack. Don't hand control of the interdiction beacons until then.
3. If Admirality saw the Progenitor's ship killing Lynton, they may be even more determined to keep John in Terran Space as a deterrent.
4. Conceal Calara's part in this battle. If they knew how skilled she is, they might do whatever it takes to get her to join, and use her family against her.

John decides not to wear his Terran Federation hat. As Jade puts Buckingham through John suddenly realizes their future within Terran Space entirely depends on the way the conversation goes.

Buckingham is with Weber, Mishra, and Caldwell, and they all have an odd cast to their expressions. Edraele points out they respect and fear him in equal measure.

When John tells them about the 645 evacuated Terrans, Caldwell seemed even more unsettled than he was before. John recommended leniency with the clemency. Weber asks how he took over Thor. Buckingham asks if he has an unshackled AI. John says he just has a talented crew. Buckingham asks for a debrief with his crew. John declined as most are civilians. Weber points out Calara wasn't, and asked if it was her in command against the Kintark. John implies it was him.

Then they mention the Invictus tech, watching him like hawks, aside from Caldwell who is clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning. Weber tells him it's his duty to hand over the tech. John says he's retired. Buckingham invites him to discuss it in person on the Zeus, but the looks of apprehension from the other three tell John it's a bad idea.

John tells them he has pressing business with Edraele Valaden, leader of the highest ranked Maliri Noble House. Weber doesn't believe him. John asks where he thinks John's guns came from.

The Admirals have a shocking revelation: there was a whole empire on their doorstep, already wielding the kind of monstrous firepower that John possessed on his ship.

The knock-out punch:
"'*I’m not particularly happy with the direction or tone of this conversation, Vincent. Can I be bluntly honest with you? If I hadn’t intervened today, this whole battle would have had a very different, and far more unpleasant outcome. Don’t bother to deny it, you’re all skilled enough tacticians to know I’m right.*

"*I didn’t expect you to be falling over yourselves with gratitude, but I definitely don’t appreciate these attempts to intimidate me. I’m an ally of the Terran Federation, but you shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking I don’t have other options. My primary concern is stopping the Progenitor behind all this chaos, and there’s a bigger game at play here than you realise.*

"*One final thing I need to make absolutely clear. I won’t tolerate any kind of threats, veiled or otherwise, towards my crew. I’m very protective towards them, and I’ll be forced to take steps if I feel they, or their families are in any kind of danger. You know the identities of some of my girls, and that they have family here in the Terran Federation. Just in case the thought of using them as leverage crosses your mind, I want you to think about what I did to the Armoured Cobras; they hurt one of my crew, so I wiped them out. You’ve seen what my ship can do, and with the alliances I’ve made, I could unleash retribution on a truly terrifying scale. Let’s not go down a path that all of us will regret.*"

Weber flushes and looks away guiltily. The others try to placate John.

Edraele tells John she thought they agreed not to use threats. He hadn't appreciated them pushing so hard about Irillith and Calara.

John meets the Terran personnel. Faye flies John, Calara, and Mateo over to Jack's ship, the Damocles. Jack is surprised to find his son alive.

When Rachel treats patients, she recalls their complete medical history of patients in an abrupt burst of knowledge.

Commander Erik Larson, once-Chief Medical Officer of Phobos, doesn't believe she's the one who developed the treatment, and starts complaining when he finds her treatment hasn't had clinical trials. She preferred that they live, but he said she's not God. "*No, he hasn’t been around for over ten thousand years. I’d be fascinated to know how he did it though...*" "*Did what?!*" "*Created life.*"

While Calara takes Mateo to get medically scanned, John asked for Jack's blessing to marry Calara. Jack isn't surprised because Maria had warned him they'd end up together, so he had time to get used to the idea.

When John tells Jack about the possibility of Admirality wanting to seize the Invictus, Jack makes a good point: Who are they going to order to take it from him? "*I’m about as loyal as it gets, but if they ordered me to attack the Lion, I’d tell them to go fuck themselves! Even if he wasn’t about to become my son-in-law.*"

Jack tells John not to let his guard down, but he's not as vulnerable as he thinks he is. Edraele telepathically concedes that she may have underestimated the legendary reputation that’s developing around the Lion of the Federation.

The Raptor doesn't recognize Calara's DNA, meaning it may have changed.

After getting back to the Invictus, Alyssa fills them in: Commodore Michael Dawson, previously in charge of the battleship Hyperion before it got burnt out by plasma fire, asked if they can evacuate the severely wounded to Port Medea. So they've taken on over eight-hundred injured personnel from several ships.

Rachel develops a synthetic enzyme that will act as a catalyst for cellular regeneration for the plasma burn victims. Dana is her inspiration.

While Calara's asleep, John asks for Maria's blessing to marry her. Calara overhears it anyway though.

Jehanna Elani called but John wasn't there.

Irillith presents the ~~stolen~~ requisitioned Terran Federation tech schematics.

* Dreadnought-class vessel
* Heavy Cannons
* Gauss Cannons
* Singularity Driver

They realize that the other Progenitor probably gave the Drakkar a poor imitation of his tech, so they have to work on the assumption his ship is immune to laser fire.

Dana blew John as he called Jehanna Elani back. She was on Terra when he beat Nexus, so he saved her life. He promises he'll get back to her for an in-person interview once he's back in Terran Space. Jehanna gets John to tell him everything about the Kintark engagement.