Three Square Meals Ch. 116

John squeezed her bottom suggestively. "We'll continue this fascinating discussion later..."

Jade perked up immediately and grinned as she slid off his lap. "Should I eat light, Master?"

He shook his head. "You're going to need as much energy as you can get..."

The Nymph bit her lip and sauntered down the corridor to the cabin, glancing flirtatiously at John over her shoulder. He smiled, seeing how excited she was, then started thinking about which fantasy woman she could be. His first thought was of Lynette Devereux as she was certainly one of the most beautiful women he'd ever met. However, he quickly dismissed her as a possibility for similar reasons he'd refused Maria.

Entering the Cabin, he found Tashana sitting cross-legged on the bed, an array of Maliri dishes spread out beside her. "Hello, you two," she said greeting them with a smile. "We don't have a dining room, so Rill and I made finger-food you can eat on the bed."

"It all looks delicious," John said appreciatively, his stomach rumbling.

Tashana handed each of them a plate. "Here you go."

"Aren't you two eating with us?" John asked, noting only two plates.

"We had a very satisfying lunch," Irillith said with a coy smile as she emerged from the kitchen. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

He turned to the Maliri girl and asked with a straight face, "Are you our buttler this evening?"

She smirked and nodded. "Absolutely."

"Do you have any of that berry juice I had on Genthalas?" he asked, looking hopeful.

"Natalla berries? Sure, I'll pour each of you a glass," Irillith replied, turning to head back into the kitchen. John gave her a playful smack on the bottom and was rewarded with a broad grin.

Jade licked her lips with anticipation. "Can we start?"

Tashana laughed and gestured towards the dishes. "Of course, help yourself."

Sitting on the bed, John started picking samples from every dish to put on his plate, only recognising half of them. He smiled when Jade started moaning with pleasure as she savoured the Maliri cuisine, then found himself doing the same thing as he enjoyed the delicious flavours.

Gratefully accepting the glass of fruit juice from Irillith, he drank some then turned to look at the twins. "Did Alyssa tell you what Jade and I were discussing earlier?"

They exchanged a sly glance, then two sets of violet eyes gave him very knowing looks. "We were a little disappointed you turned down Jade's initial offer..."

The Nymph giggled, her emerald eyes twinkling as she saw his reaction.

"That's... not why I mentioned it," he said, trying not to sound too flustered. "Jade offered to mimic any woman I wanted, so I just wondered if either of you could recommend any beautiful holo-movie actresses?"

The twins looked at him in surprise, then their faces lit up with glee. They activated the holo-projector built into the bed and opened the Holonet, the two of them chattering away together as they searched rapidly through holo-movie fan sites.

"Jade, can you be her?!" Tashana asked, her eyes burning with excitement.

The Nymph studied the holo-screen between bites, then shimmered for a few seconds and reappeared as a fierce-looking black woman with a Mohawk.

"Battle-Sister Asha from the War Monastery series!" Irillith gasped, gazing at her in awe. "You look exactly like her!"

Tashana giggled with glee. "Okay, now her!"

Jade smiled at them, glanced at the next image and changed into an elegant raven-haired beauty with lovely russet-toned skin.

"Dyani Spiritwing from Plasma Fire Over Caranos!" the Maliri breathed, her fingers trembling as she reverently stroked the Nymph's arm. "She was my first girl-crush..."

Irillith laughed and shot an amused glance at her twin. "So that's why you made me watch it so many times! I thought you just liked seeing the Kintark get blown up."

"Can you blame me? She was so brave... and absolutely gorgeous," Tashana murmured, her gaze sweeping over the native American girl's statuesque figure. "Jade, do you think sometime, maybe we could...?"

Jade leaned over and gave her a gentle kiss. "I'd love to, Tashana."

The Maliri let out a blissful sigh, her fingers brushing over her lips where she'd been kissed.

Turning to John, the Nymph grinned and playfully teased him, "The twins certainly know how to have fun, Master."

He nodded, admiring her exotic figure. "So I see... and they've got excellent taste too."

Jade finished her lunch and pushed the plates aside. "Would you like to get better acquainted with Dyani Spiritwing?" she asked, prowling across the bed towards him.

John glanced at Tashana. "I haven't seen that movie yet. Let's watch it together sometime, then we can reward the heroine afterwards."

Tashana nodded, gazing at the Nymph with barely contained lust.

Jade pouted and sat back on her haunches. "Are you sure I can't tempt you with a preview?"

John gathered her in his arms and pushed her back onto the bed. "No, I've got someone else in mind..."

Dyani Spiritwing's face lit up with delight as she listened to his thoughts, then she disappeared in a shimmering green haze. A few seconds later, Jade's features solidified into a strikingly beautiful blonde, her willowy figure moulding to him.

John smiled at the stunning Oceanus rep. "Hello, Felicity."

"Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me, Mr. Blake!" Felicity gushed, her bright blue eyes sparkling with excitement. "I wanted to thank you in person for saving Terra!"

"You didn't need to do that," he said kindly, caressing her cheek.

"No, but I really want to," Felicity replied, the blonde's perfect diction making every sentence a delight to hear. She gazed at him with a mixture of adoration and lust. "I've thought about nothing else for months..."

"What've you been thinking about exactly?" he asked, trailing his fingers down her throat, before gently cupping a compact breast, the delicate pink nipple stiffening to his touch.

Felicity bent her leg at the knee, then brushed his flank with the softness of her inner thigh. "A night with the Lion of the Federation, where he takes me in whatever way he wants..." She gave him a tender kiss then gazed adoringly into his eyes. "You saved my parents, John... and I want to reward you with a special gift for your heroism. The ultimate act of love... would you give me a permanent memento of our night of passion?"

John held his breath as he traced his fingers over her slim stomach, then looked at Felicity with lust in his eyes. She bit her flushed lip and answered his unspoken question with a nod. Jade's imitation of the beautiful blonde was incredibly accurate, from her lithe figure to her refined mannerisms, right down to her speech. John found himself being drawn into the fantasy and leaned down to kiss her, Felicity's feminine moans of arousal spurring him onwards.

The twins smiled at each other and cleared the plates away, leaving the lovers entwined on the bed as they slipped out of the Cabin to take over watch duty in the cockpit.

***

Perl gazed up at the evening sky in wonder, marvelling at the vast expanse of pale blue and the handful of fluffy white clouds drifting above the colony. She raised a hand to her cheek when she felt the sun's gentle warmth on her face, her heart lifting at the glorious sensation that suffused her whole being with a pleasant glow. There was a light breeze pushing the clouds onwards, the gusts cooling her skin with every gentle caress.

"I've seen pictures... but I never expected it to be like this," she whispered, squinting to protect her eyes from the unfamiliar glare of the sun. She felt a bit giddy and held onto Tony's arm to steady herself.

Kelli wobbled for a moment, then crouched down on the ground, rubbing at her head. "It's just so... open. I feel like I'm going to float away!"

Tony nodded, feeling light-headed himself. After a lifetime of living in caves, with thousands of tons of rock overhead, to see the sheer empty vastness of the sky was profoundly unsettling.

"Over there," he said, pointing to a covered arch between buildings. He reached down to grab the brunette's hand and haul her up.

"Thanks," she mumbled, refusing to let go as she followed him out of the plaza.

The three of them dropped their suitcases and leaned against the wall, trying to get themselves under control again. It felt comforting to have a roof over their heads and they relaxed, feeling the calming reassurance of having walls on either side of them too.

Tony took a deep breath and peered out at the sky again, then suppressed a shudder. "Maybe stayin' here wasn't such a great idea after all..."

Perl gave him a reassuring hug. "Alyssa and Sparks warned us about this. It feels so weird because we lived in a bunch of caves all our lives... They reckon it won't take long to wear off."

Kelli slid to a sitting position with her back against the wall. "Let's just chill and watch the clouds go by. I want to get used to looking at all that open space..."

He nodded and followed her lead, sitting on the floor and putting his arm around Kelli's shoulder. Perl sat down as well and snuggled into him, the tension easing from her body when he held her too.

"That cloud looks just like two people screwing," Kelli declared, pointing at the ephemeral paramours.

Tony snorted a laugh. "What?"

"Yeah, totally!" she insisted. "Look, she's riding the guy cowgirl!"

Perl giggled and nodded. "And there's a woman about to blow someone!"

"You two have got sex on the brain," Tony said with a chuckle.

Kelli smirked at him. "Alright... what's that one look like to you?"

He followed her finger towards the phallic shaped collection of clouds. "That's an ore train drivin' past a couple of huge boulders," he replied with a straight face.

The girls looked at him incredulously for a moment, then when he broke into a grin, they dissolved into giggles.

"I guess this isn't so bad," he said, taking another long look at the sky. "Maybe we should stay here for a bit, then find our hotel?"

His companions nodded their agreement, then tried to come up with the most outrageous interpretations of cloud formations as possible. The game helped distract them from their agoraphobia and their raucous laughter soon echoed around the plaza.

***

Dana studied Valia Gate's Comms Array with an appraising eye, as the colony's Chief Engineer talked her through his attempts to repair it.

"The primary communications node is intact, it just got shorted out when the Kirrix blasted the Comms Array," Niklas Petrov said, pointing at the soot blackened access panel. He glanced skyward and continued, "I thought if I could maybe jury-rig a satellite control interface, I could bounce the signal off one of the survey sats in orbit and use them to reach the nearest Comms Beacon instead of using the array. The signal-quality might be a bit weak, but at least we'd be able to re-establish contact with T-Fed colony administration."

The redhead tapped a finger on her chin as she mulled it over. "Are the satellites in geo-stationary orbit above the town?"

He shook his head. "Nah, one's on an equatorial orbit, the other covers the poles..." Niklas' face fell as he realised why she was asking. "Shit... we'd only have comms for 4 hours a day."

Dana nodded, giving him a sympathetic smile. "That's what I was thinking... otherwise, it was a great idea."

Throwing his hands up in the air, Niklas snorted in exasperation. "I don't see what else we can do! Look at it, those bastards blew the fucking thing to bits!"

She glanced at the huge emitter system that formed the Comms Array, or at least it had, before the Kirrix blasted it with Neutron Beams. Now it was a smoking charred ruin, huge emitter dishes lying shattered and blackened on the ground.

"Alright, here's what we'll do. I'll start running the Mass Fabricators and we'll build you a smaller scale Comms Array before we leave tonight." Dana turned to look back at the battlecruiser that loomed over the town. "We can take the hyper-pulse generator off the Invictus and hook that up, then you'll end up with even better signal quality than you're used to. I can build a replacement for the ship after we leave."

The engineer looked at her in a mixture of confusion and disbelief. "There's no way you can construct a Comms Array that quickly!" He stared at the Invictus and added, "And we haven't got drydock facilities here... I'm not sure we've even got a crane big enough to reach that high!"

Dana winked at him. "Trust me, we'll get it done." She turned on her heel and started striding back to the ship, calling over her shoulder, "Come on, we've only got 4 hours!"

Niklas gaped at her for a moment, then jogged to catch up, wondering if he'd gone crazy or the redhead had.

***

Perl finished hanging up the last of her clothes in the hotel room's wardrobe, then glanced back at the case lying on the bed. "Should we unpack for Tony too?"

Kelli was rifling through the bag of cosmetics she found at the bottom of her case, grinning from ear-to-ear as she recognised all the exclusive brands. "I guess... he's been gone a while. Any idea what he's up to?"

The blonde shrugged and squatted by his case. "I'm not sure. He just said he was going out for a bit."

As she reached for the magnetic clasp to unseal the suitcase, the door swung open and Tony hurried into their bland but functional hotel room. "Hey! Come with me a minute, I want to show you somethin'!"

Perl smiled at his exuberance as she walked over to join him. "Do we get any clues?"

"Nope!" he replied with a grin, propping the door open as he ushered them into the hall.

They went downstairs and the handful of men sitting in the bar exchanged greetings with Tony as he led the girls outside.

"Making friends already?" Kelli teased him.

He shrugged. "Guys sittin' around gettin' wasted like to shoot the shit. I wanted to check what it was really like round here."

"What's the verdict?" Perl asked, slipping her arm around his.

"They like Luce... she's the real deal," he replied, turning right and leading them across the asphalt. "The colony seems alright too. They reckon land is dirt cheap, but Luce is tryin' to expand Valia Gate... get a settler rush goin'. Might be worth savin' some cash and buyin' a house outside of Forty-Seven."

The girls exchanged a glance around Tony, then Kelli frowned as she realised he was leading them away from the town and up a small hill. "Come on, Tony... tell me what's up here?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Just wait a minute, you'll see."

Taking the time to adjust to being outside had really helped, the eerie feeling that they might fall up into the sky fading away as they followed the dirt path. The trail wound its way up the grassy hill, giving them a nice view of the town and the battlecruiser parked at the starport. Pausing for a moment, they watched the bustling activity around the white vessel. A mech was working on the front of the Invictus, the humanoid figure looking relatively tiny in comparison to the enormous warship. The Valkyrie carefully detached a device from the bow, then thrusters flared in the mech's legs as it descended to the ground with the component in its arms.

It took another ten minutes for Tony, Kelli, and Perl to reach the top of the mound and the girls gasped at the spectacular view it provided over the surrounding countryside. A crystal clear river wound its way down through the valley and past the outskirts of town, then further in the distance they could see the silvery falls that had lured the original Terran colonists to settle here. When Valia Gate was first founded, the colonists had planted forests of spruce, oak, beech, and pine trees that had thrived in the rich soil, adding a welcome swathe of green to the vista.

"Oh, Tony... it's so beautiful," Perl said in a hushed voice, staring wide-eyed at the view.

He put his arm around the girls and gave them a gentle squeeze. "Yeah, the guys said it was nice up here." Nodding with his chin to a bench that had been placed at the brow of the hill, he added, "Let's sit there for a while..."

Tony sat in the middle, with Kelli and Perl snuggling up beside him.

"I think I could get used to living in a place like this," Perl said, before turning to look up at Tony. "If you had enough money to live wherever you wanted, would you still stay here, or move to the Core Worlds?"

"This is the first time I've left Karron... I dunno what everywhere else is like." He thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. "I like Luce and Pete... they seem like they wanna help us settle in. Plus, I wouldn't exactly fit in to some fancy T-Fed colony even if I had plenty of cash... which I don't."

Kelli and Perl exchanged glances again. "Don't forget... we have money, Tony," Kelli said, reaching into her bra and producing one of the credit sticks. "I added it all up... we got nearly 25 grand from the Diablos vault."

He shook his head and looked at each of them in turn. "I want you to keep that..." Raising a hand to hold off any objections, he continued, "I'm serious. If anythin' happens to me, you'll have some cash to go somewhere safe and start over. The money we earn here should be enough to get us started, it'll just take us a while. You should open accounts with a big T-Fed bank... make sure those credits are nice and safe."

"We actually already have accounts..." Perl said, a smile tugging at her lips.

"You do?" he asked in surprise. "Oh, alright... great."

"Is it me or is it getting darker?" Kelli interrupted, looking around and suddenly feeling exposed. "What's going on?"

"It'll be night soon," Tony said, rubbing her back. "I asked the guys the best place to see the sunset."

She looked at him in shock, her eyes going wide. "You remembered!"

He smiled at her then looked across the valley towards the horizon. "Over there, Kel..."

The white sun was dipping low, the sky changing from a deep turquoise to a glorious array of red, orange, and purple. As Zeta Phoenicis descended out of sight, the sky darkened further, until all that remained of Valia Gate's sun was an enchanting amber glow bathing the horizon.

"That was a hell of a thing..." Tony murmured, his voice catching. He swallowed, then glanced down at the brunette. "What do you reckon about your first sunset?"

"I've never seen anything like it," Kelli whispered, amazed by the spectacular natural beauty. She wiped away the tear that rolled down her cheek, then leaned up to kiss him. "I won't ever forget this, Tony. Thank you."

Perl nodded, hugging him tight. "I love it here... I want to stay."

He kissed her on top of her head. "We'll save up, get a nice place. Maybe we can watch the sunset every night..."

"We should start looking tomorrow!" Kelli exclaimed with a mischievous smile.

Tony frowned and shook his head. "Even with us gettin' a free room at the hotel, it's gonna take us at least 6 months to save the cash to buy some land. We'll have to build a house too... that'll take a bunch of credits."

Perl turned to look up at him and clasped one of his hands in hers. "Tony... we've got something to tell you." She nibbled her lip nervously, not sure how to begin.

"What's the matter, babe?" he asked with concern.

Kelli took his other hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Remember you said we didn't have to be whores anymore?"

"What happened?" he asked, looking worried. His eyes narrowed with anger. "Did one of the colonists say somethin'?"

The brunette quickly shook her head. "No, nothing like that. Alyssa and Sparks wanted some lessons on how to be good in bed... they offered to pay us to give them a few pointers."

He relaxed and chuckled, looking at the pair in admiration. "You had me worried for a minute! So you two made some cash teachin' the Lionesses how to fuck? Genius..."