Three Square Meals Ch. 101

"Hundreds of thousands versus billions if we lose against the Progenitor," Calara reminded him, but he could tell she hated having to be that cold and pragmatic.

"What if we go after the Kirrix, but just transmit the shield tech to Edraele via a secure comms channel?" John suddenly suggested. "High Command will get access to Brimorian shields after the battle regardless, so it's not like we need to hide the schematics from them. Then, when we've helped the Terran border forces liberate those worlds from the Kirrix, we can head back to Genthalas with the Vulkat tech and anything else Dana comes up with on the way back."

The Latina blinked in surprise, a smile of relief lighting up her face. "Actually, that's a great idea! I was so preoccupied with keeping our tech secret I hadn't thought of that."

"We should strip out some Brimorian shield generators from Kintark ships for Lilyana to take with her and also provide her with the schematics," John continued, his mood lifting considerably.

Calara nodded eagerly, realising what he was thinking. "Then the Trankarans can start upgrading their own ships with better shields, as well as build upgrades for the Maliri fleet!"

"Until Niskera can get the comms beacons rebuilt, that's probably the quickest way of getting the shield technology to the Trankarans," John agreed. "We can just transmit that data directly to the Ashanath... then they can start building upgrades for the Maliri fleet that's already en route. If we don't need to redirect that fleet to help fight the Kirrix, then they can guard Ashana and upgrade their armour, shields, and focusing crystals all in one go..."

Alyssa's voice echoed through both their minds as she said, *If Dana can invent some kind of psychic comms device, then we could send the schematics for that to Edraele by secure channel too. It won't matter if the Terran Federation gets their hands on it, because they won't have the personnel to use it.*

Calara let out a happy sigh. "It feels like you've lifted a huge weight off my shoulders! I was so worried we'd have to sacrifice the worlds on the Outer Rim, but now we can rescue those people and start upgrading the Maliri shields even faster than I thought!"

"You're welcome," John said, relieved to see her smiling again. "You did make some really important points though. You're right about the Battle for Terra being a strategic disaster and I completely agree with doing whatever we can to prepare the Maliri fleets for the fights to come."

She crossed her wrists behind his neck then leaned in to give him an appreciative kiss. "Thanks, John. I really needed to talk to you about that... I feel so much better now."

"Me too," he agreed. "It's a relief to have a solid plan ironed out."

The Latina slid off his lap, letting him stand.

"I'll start making calls," Calara said with a grin. "I'll update Lilyana, the Ashanath, and the Maliri about everything we discussed. With a bit of luck, Genthalas will be able to start installing Brimorian shield generators in a matter of days!"

"Excellent! Thanks, honey," John said, sharing a smile with her, before turning and walking up the ramp to leave the Combat Bridge.

*That was wonderful, thank you,* Alyssa said gratefully. *Calara was feeling so down before and blaming herself for the battle. I knew you'd be able to make everything right again.*

*One down, one to go,* John said as he stepped into the grav-tube, but he knew this next conversation was going to be a lot harder...

Walking out of the express grav-tube into the main bedroom, John was surprised to see how crowded it was. Jehanna was standing beside the bed and studying the sleeping teal-skinned girl with fascination, listening avidly to the twins as they told her all about Helene and the Abandoned. On the opposite side of the bed, Sakura was tucking Jade under the covers, the Nymph's eyes drooping with exhaustion. Her four catgirl sisters hovered anxiously nearby, appearing jittery and unsettled.

Jade looked up at her fellow Lenarrans and murmured, "Here's your new master..." She glanced over at John and smiled. "Why don't you go say hello to him?"

John was suddenly staring at four sets of sharp emerald eyes, gazing at him in fascination. The four Nymphs bounded around the bed to join him, eager smiles on their feline faces. "Is it true? Are you this one's new master?" the first one asked hopefully, the rest repeating her desperate query an instant later.

"They need this for now, John," Jade said softly. "You can give them their freedom later, like you did with me."

He nodded his understanding. "Yes, I'm your master," John said firmly, watching the startling shift in mood as the four Nymphs immediately relaxed.

They were at ease for a few seconds... then they frowned and looked perturbed.

The closest one with the leopard-like markings on her fur reached out to gently stroke his arm. "Master... you are blocking this one from your thoughts!"

"They want to change shape and be your perfect mate," Jade told him, watching their interaction with great interest. "You're keeping them out with your mind-shield."

He glanced at her and frowned. "Can't they stay just as they are?"

"They could, but it's probably not practical," she said with a smile. "Don't you remember my pointy canines in my natural form? I expect you'll be feeding them on a regular basis, which might prove a little... painful."

Turning his attention to the closest Lenarran, John reached out to cup her furred face and stroked her gently. "I'll let you in one at a time... are you ready?"

She looked up at him with big trusting eyes, her excitement and anticipation quite clear on her cute face. John pictured Jade in his mind but imagined her with subtly different facial features resembling this Lenarran, and a faint patterning that mimicked those leopard-like spots. When he was satisfied that he'd captured this Lenarran's likeness in a more Terran shape, he opened a window into his mind and let her in.

The catgirl gasped, her eyes widening as her consciousness reached out to brush against his mighty presence. The Nymph looked awed when their minds met, as if she could barely believe the power behind his thoughts. Her expression of wonder turned into elation when she found the image he'd prepared for her and she rushed to copy it. John pulled his hand back a few inches as the Nymph blurred and shifted, growing taller and bustier, while her fur receded.

"Oh, thank you, Master!" she gasped, nuzzling into his hand and planting fluttering kisses on his palm.

"Do you like this form?" John asked cautiously, watching as the dark-green girl examined her statuesque new body.

The Nymph nodded exuberantly, her emerald eyes bright and filled with joy. "It's beautiful! This one adores it!" She bit her lip and gave him a coy look. "Would Master like to use this one for pleasure now?"

He encircled her in his arms and gave her a gentle kiss. "Later, I promise. For now, I'd like you to keep your big sister company. Jade will look after you until we can get some time together."

She nodded and let out a happy sigh, then prowled across the bed to rejoin Jade. John repeated the same steps with the next three catgirls and a few minutes later all four Nymphs were snuggled up with their sister.

Despite her state of exhaustion, Jade gave him a hungry look. "Are you going to feed me now, Master?"

"Let me help," Sakura immediately volunteered, brushing her fingers through Jade's dark hair. "We don't want you exerting yourself when you're this weak."

Jade gave her a grateful smile, then lay near the edge of bed with her head tilted backwards, watching as John walked around to join them. Sakura straddled the supine Nymph, licked her lips and opened her mouth in obvious invitation. Standing in front of her, John undid his trousers and wasted no time sliding his length home into her welcoming throat. Sakura hummed in satisfaction as she started to bob in his lap and John was suddenly aware he had quite the audience, with Jehanna, the twins, and the four Nymphs all watching avidly.

He felt a warm tongue lap at his quad as Jade's voice echoed through his mind. *You did a wonderful job on my sisters' new forms; they look really beautiful...*

*I can't take credit for that, you were my inspiration,* he replied, tilting his head to one side so he could share a smile with Jade.

She sighed with contentment and he could feel her breath tickling his balls. *I can't wait to feel you healing me, Master. I've never needed it like I do today...*

*Not long, sexy,* he replied, enjoying Sakura's loving attention.

Focusing on the Asian girl again, he ran his fingers through her silky jet-black mane. "You were incredibly brave today and saved a lot of innocent lives... I'm very proud of you, honey."

Sakura's gaze softened and he could see how much his words meant to her. They looked into each other's eyes as she brought him to release, a wonderful sense of closeness between them. John eased back before his climax, then slid into Jade's eager mouth, hilting himself in one thrust inside her malleable body. He groaned as the Nymph's throat embraced his shaft in a snug grip and began to massage and stroke him, quickly pushing his over the edge. Sakura sat up and kissed him while he filled Jade's stomach, his quad clenching as he pumped her full of cum.

The four Nymphs looked on in awe, entranced as they watched him feeding Jade.

"This one, cannot wait to be used, Master..." the leopard girl murmured, licking her lips in anticipation.

The tiger striped Nymph placed her hand on Jade's throat and moaned as she felt him throbbing in her sister's throat. "Master is so amazingly endowed!"

"And so potent!" the girl with tabby-like markings gasped. She exchanged a look of wonder with the final Lenarran as they placed their hands on Jade's growing belly, feeling it swell with that huge load.

John could feel the active connection with Jade lighting up in his mind and he was horrified to see how badly she'd been injured. Even after Rachel's healing efforts, the Nymph was terribly wounded, and shifting into her normal form had simply dispersed the damage over her whole body. One of the Gauss Cannon rounds had even cracked her crystalline heart, leaving her teetering on death's door. He suddenly realised just how close he'd come to losing her and he crouched down to give her a fierce hug.

"You nearly died, Jade!" John exclaimed, his voice fraught with worry. "With the astral monsters around, I wouldn't be able to bring you back!"

"I'm so sorry, Master," she said softly. "I promise I won't let any more spaceships use me for target practice..."

John couldn't help laughing as he pulled back and gave her a tender kiss. He was relieved to see her returning to her normal colour again, her skin darkening and the lustre returning as she began to respond to his healing. With the extent of her injuries, he knew that fully regenerating the Nymph was going to leave him tapped out as well.

*I'll give you everything we've got left,* his Maliri Matriarch murmured, infusing him with the last of her psychic energy.

*Thank you, Edraele,* he replied gratefully, feeling the eldritch power flowing through him and into Jade. *We'll talk later, okay?*

John sensed Edraele's silent empathic acknowledgement, then he watched the Nymph relax back on the bed, with Sakura helping Jade to move back so her head was on the pillows. Bands of light were pouring off Jade's curved belly and her four Lenarran sisters gaped at her body in astonishment. They flanked her two on each side, with the lower pair resting next to her rounded stomach, the second two cuddled in with their heads on Jade's shoulders. All four were entranced by the pulses of light as they spread out over her lithe form, following them over the contours of her body with their slender fingers.

Jade gave him a tired but blissful smile and closed her eyes, never looking more contented. *We saved my sisters, John... I'm not alone any more...*

*You never were, honey. Now get some rest and we'll talk when you're feeling better,* John said kindly, stroking her dark mane and listening to her soft purrs. He saw that Jehanna and the twins were watching him too, so he smiled at them and continued, "The three of you must be exhausted as well. Try to get some sleep, I'll be back in a little while."

They waved goodbye as he left the bedroom and John walked briskly along the corridor to the grav-tube. Stepping out onto the Bridge, Faye rushed down the steps to meet him, a worried frown on her face.

"We've been receiving calls from lots of admirals!" she said pensively. "They all want to speak with you, John!"

He darted a glance at his Ready Room door, then said to the purple sprite. "Just stall them for a bit longer, I really need to speak to Dana first."

Faye nodded, her eyes flicking to that same door. "After we blew up the Kintark with the mines, she got really upset... I'm worried about her, she's never been this sad before."

John stroked her arm. "I'll go talk to her. We can deal with the admirals after that."

"Okay, I'll keep them occupied," she agreed, before darting in to give him a quick hug. "I'm so glad you're safe! It was terrifying watching you fight that dragon!"

"Fighting him was fairly terrifying too," he said with a wry smile.

Faye giggled as she released him. "I bet!" She skipped up the illuminated steps to the Command Podium, leaving John to walk over to his Ready Room.

He took a deep breath, worried what he was going to say to Dana, then hit the button to open the door. The Invictus was currently on the dark side of Ganymede, the sun's distant radiance blocked by the fragments of that moon. With the overhead lights off, his Ready Room was bathed in soft starlight, revealing a solitary figure standing by the long windows. Dana had her arms crossed tightly around her chest as she gazed despondently out at the stars.

John walked over to join her, but was surprised that she didn't greet him, the redhead's attention fixed out in space. He gently rubbed her back, and when she finally turned to look at him, it only took a glance into those sky-blue eyes to see how deeply troubled she was.

"Talk to me, Sparks," he said quietly. "Tell me what's wrong."

She was quiet for a long moment, then she asked in a subdued voice, "Do you remember how you felt after the Siege of Galon Prime?"

Her question surprised John, but he nodded, remembering that dreadful battle a decade ago all too well. "Yes, I do."

"You personally killed 50, maybe even 100 rebels in the boarding actions, right?" she asked, the pain quite obvious in her eyes as she searched his face.

He nodded, his expression grim. "Yeah, I think so. It was brutal combat... hard to tell for sure." He sighed with regret and continued, "I blamed myself for the reprisals afterwards; hundreds-of-thousands were killed in the orbital bombardments..."

"But you didn't order the orbital bombardments. You weren't directly involved in any way with the deaths of all those people..." she persisted, her voice catching.

"Irillith explained to me what really happened... that it was already planned before we even tried to lift the siege," John said, before he paused and studied her carefully. "Why are you asking me this?"

Dana's eyes filled with tears as she blurted out, "Because I just murdered a million people! I exterminated those poor bastards like fucking cockroaches! I can't blame anyone else... it was all me!"

John looked at her in alarm and protested, "You didn't murder anyone! You can't bla-"

She shook her head, interrupting him. "I didn't even give them a chance to surrender, I just fucked them up!" Dana's shoulders shook as the tears rolled down her cheeks. "I always thought I was one of the good guys... but I'm not... I can't be..."

"Of course you're good!" John objected, pulling her in for a hug. "You're sweet and kind, generous, thoughtful, and-"

"...the biggest killer in Terran history," she finished for him, crying openly now.

John ducked down to make eye-contact with her. "We were at war with the Kintark and we were defending Terra! If the Kintark won, they probably would have slaughtered all the Terran fleet personnel, just like they did in the Dragon March."

Dana shook her head. "But, I still-"

"You didn't have any choice! I was talking to Calara about it only a few minutes ago. She said that if it wasn't for you, we probably would have lost the battle!"

The redhead had a haunted look in her eyes as she whimpered, "A million lives, John... I just wiped them out. How can I ever justify that much killing?"

His heart went out to Dana and he pulled her into a tight embrace. She leaned heavily against him, arms hanging limp at her side, and he could feel her tears soaking his shirt as she wept. John began to realise just how much the weight of all those deaths was pressing down on her.

"You can't blame yourself for this, honey," he said quietly. "I gave you the go ahead for your plan and I actually gave you those abilities in the first place. I'm responsible for everything, not you."

Dana's voice was thick with emotion as she murmured, "Rachel uses her abilities to fix people and make them better again... I've used mine to kill a shitload of people; so what does that say about me?"

The door to the bridge slid open and Alyssa breezed through, her voice firm and uncompromising as she said, "They were the bad guys, Sparks. Fuck them... they're not worth shedding a single tear over."

John and Dana turned to look at the blonde as she walked over to join them.

"They can't have all been bad," Dana said, guilt etched across her face. "I should've given them a chance to surrender at least..."

Alyssa shook her head. "They didn't deserve it, trust me." She placed her hand on her friend's shoulder and gazed into her eyes. "The Kintark were planning on wiping out humanity... Irillith found out everything. They were going to enslave all the Terrans and work them to death; men, women, even children... You saved billions of lives."

"Really?" the redhead asked, a flicker of hope in her voice. "You're not just saying that?"

"Talk to Irillith later, she can show you everything she found. Besides, I'd never lie to you," Alyssa said, leaning in to touch her forehead to Dana's. "We're best friends forever, right?"

Dana nodded and sniffed as she tried to brush the tears from her eyes. "Right..."

Slipping an arm around Dana's waist, Alyssa smiled as she said, "You know John's just going to blame himself for you getting upset now..."

The redhead darted an anxious glance his way. "Shit! And we only just started helping him get over all that guilt..."

He chuckled and hugged them both. "Don't worry about me. As long as you're okay, I'll be alright." He looked at Alyssa and added, "I had no idea the Kintark were planning to do that... I never would have imagined they were capable of being that evil."

The blonde let out a sad sigh. "We've seen the same thing with the Maliri and the Terran Federation. It only takes a few fucked up guys at the top... then the rest just follow orders. I bet no one in the Kintark armada was complaining when they were gunning down escape pods in the Dragon March."

John nodded his agreement, then cupped Dana's face with his hand and brushed his thumb across her tear-streaked cheek. "I'll always try and make sure we're on the right side, I promise. I'm very proud of you and I never want you to feel any regret over what you do for me... okay?"

Dana let out a huge sigh of relief and stood up straighter. "Okay, and I do trust you; I know you always try and do the right thing. I just... well, it looked really bad, that's all."

He leaned and kissed her. "I know, but you did good, Dana. You just saved about 80 billion lives, so you're doing just fine on the karmic scales... Rachel's actually got quite a bit of catching up to do..."