Three Square Meals Ch. 116

She pulled him down for a smouldering kiss. "You're on, mister..."

They shared a grin, then walked hand-in-hand back to the town, pausing to watch and wave goodbye as the Invictus lifted off.

***

John checked that Jade was fast asleep and carefully untangled himself from the slumbering Nymph. Pulses of light were still curving over her nude body, so he pulled the covers up over her shoulders and leaned down to plant a loving kiss on top of her head. "Sleep tight, gorgeous."

Jade murmured in her sleep, a serene smile on her beautiful face.

Feeling sweaty after hours of torrid lovemaking, John slipped into the shower and had a quick wash, not interested in lingering without a nubile companion to keep him company.

*I can ask one of the twins to be your shower buddy?* Alyssa suggested.

*It's okay, I don't want to disturb Jade with a long shower.*

*I feel like I'm neglecting you,* she said quietly, an underlying tension in her voice.

John shut off the shower and grabbed a towel. *Why on Terra would you think that? Jade and the twins have been amazing.*

Her silence stretched out for a painfully long moment, then Alyssa blurted out, *What are you going to do when you catch up to the Kirrix?*

He dried himself as he mulled it over. *I guess it depends on a few factors, like the size of their fleet and if the colonists are in any danger.*

*Please don't do anything reckless,* she pleaded with him. *You're so far away from us... we'd never be able to get there in time if you run into trouble!*

Storing the towel on the heated rail, he pulled on some shorts and a t-shirt. *We're in the Raptor, honey. Even if we did attack the Kirrix, I can't exactly rescue 10,000 colonists and stick them in the cargo hold. Besides, those people would have been infested with eggs at least a week ago, so there's not much we can do to save them until you join us with the Invictus.*

Alyssa relaxed and sounded much calmer as she said, *Okay, well we'll get there as fast as we can. We just took off from Valia Gate and are heading towards the border. Going with our worst case scenario, we should catch up with you sometime tomorrow evening.*

Glancing at the chronometer on the wall, John saw it was 11:04 pm. *Give the girls a kiss goodnight from me. I'll look forward to seeing all of you tomorrow.*

*I'll give them a lot more than that!* Alyssa exclaimed, blowing him a flirtatious telepathic kiss. *Goodnight, handsome.*

*Goodnight, beautiful,* he replied with a fond smile, then left the cabin with a final glance at Jade to check she was alright.

He could hear the twins speaking Maliri together in the cabin, their quiet voices reaching his sensitive ears. Their language was curious in that it could sound so haughty and disdainful when used in the clipped commands of a matriarch, but it seemed so lilting and pleasant when the twins spoke softly to each other.

Closing the cabin door behind him, he padded along the corridor to the cockpit. "Hey, you two."

They turned in the pilot's and co-pilot's chairs and greeted him with lovely identical smiles.

"Did you have fun?" Tashana asked, rising from her seat and opening her arms for a hug.

"It was... different," he replied with a self-conscious grin.

Irillith laughed and joined her sister in his arms. "The chance to have a consequence-free one-night stand with any woman you desire? That's every man's fantasy isn't it?"

"Different doesn't necessarily mean better," John said, embracing them both. "Of course the novelty of being in bed with a new girl was exciting and Jade's performance was breathtaking." He pulled them in closer and continued, "But I can't get enough of the loving looks you girls give me when we're together... especially when I feel the same way about you."

"Keep talking like that and I won't be responsible for my actions," Tashana said with a smouldering glimmer in her angular eyes.

Irillith kissed his cheek, her lips lingering on his skin before she pulled back. "We want you again before we sleep tonight..."

"Of course," he agreed, stroking their backs. "I'll want to see the two of you perform for me first..."

The twins shot excited glances at each other and their alluring violet-eyed gaze was filled with promise when they returned their focus to him.

John looked past the twins at the Sector Map. "Have you seen any sign of the Kirrix yet?"

"Nothing so far," Tashana confirmed with a shake of her head. "We would've called you if we'd spotting anything interesting."

"We're coming up on the border though," Irillith said, slipping out of his grasp and returning to the Pilot's chair. "If we can locate the nearest satellite in the sensor grid, I can review the data logs and check if the Kirrix came this way."

John sat in the co-pilot's chair and pulled Tashana down onto his lap. "They're all embedded in asteroid belts. Did you get the sensor grid coordinates from Calara?"

"I did," the Maliri said with a smile. "Let's just hope no one's been using them for weapon tests."

"What kind of interstellar vandal would do such a thing?" he asked, adopting an innocent expression.

Tashana pointed to a broad belt of asteroids floating near the border between Terran and Kirrix Space. "That's it. The satellite is meant to be in there somewhere."

She turned to face the console, squirming a little on John's lap and flashing a playful smile at him over her shoulder. He tickled her and she laughed as her slender fingers brushed over the navigation controls, altering their course towards the asteroid belt.

"Do we need to enter the field?" John asked, studying the broad sweep of misshapen rock.

Irillith hesitated, then shrugged. "The satellites are programmed to transmit their sensor data back to the beacons that route them through to the fleet. We need to view the data log, so I'll have to make a remote connection... if it's set up to accept incoming comms traffic. When we get closer, I'll broadcast a wide-band data query and see if we get any hits."

He nodded his understanding, then kept himself occupied as they approached the asteroids by kissing Tashana's bare shoulder and listening to her soft murmurs of appreciation. They dropped out of hyper-warp at the edge of the belt, then waited for Irillith to finish her transmissions.

"Fuck!" Irillith swore under her breath ten minutes later.

"That doesn't sound good," John noted, raising an eyebrow.

She shook her head, an exasperated look on her face. "It was a long shot anyway. Hacking those satellites and corrupting the sensor grid would be far too easy if you could connect to them remotely."

"So now we have to search through the haystack to find the needle?" John asked, frowning at the thousands of small asteroids scattered throughout the belt.

"What about detecting the outgoing transmissions?" Tashana suggested. "Could we find the satellite that way?"

"The Invictus could with its comms array, but the Raptor's isn't powerful enough," Irillith muttered, looking frustrated. She paused for a moment, then glanced at them with a hopeful smile. "I might be able to track it down though..."

John gestured for her to proceed and she nodded, her eyes illuminating with a violet glow. The cockpit seemed to come alive to Irillith, with brightly coloured data streams arcing over the consoles, information scrolling by at an incredible rate. She stopped to admire the beauty of the digital realm, even if this was only a superficial glimpse of the data flowing through the Raptor's subsystems. Turning to look through the cockpit canopy, Irillith focused her concentration on the sprawl of lumpen rocks hanging motionless in space.

After scouring the field for a few minutes, her eyes caught a flickering yellow line arcing away from the far corner of the asteroid belt. "Over there, Shan!"

Tashana grasped the flightstick and ramped up power to the engines, carefully guiding the Raptor around the field of rock. Following Irillith's directions, her sister approached the asteroid belt from the far side, bringing them much closer to the source of the signal.

"That big one with the recess on the bottom," Irillith said pointing out the satellite's concealed location. "It's fortunate there's no background traffic this far out in deep space, the signal was hard to spot."

The gunship coasted underneath the huge chunk of rock, external lights shining into the cave and glinting off a metal object partially buried within.

"Well done, honey," John said, giving her an admiring glance. "So what now?"

"Time for a spacewalk," the Maliri hacker replied, rising from her seat.

"Want some company?" he offered, lifting Tashana from his lap.

"You ask as if I have some choice in the matter," Irillith said, smiling at him affectionately. "You have no intention of letting me go out there alone, do you?"

"At least do me the courtesy of pretending that I'm not being overprotective," he replied with a grin, waving goodbye to Tashana as he followed her sister out of the cockpit.

Irillith stepped into the grav-tube beside him and crossed her wrists behind his neck. "Who knows what might be lurking in that scary cave, John. Would you come along to look after me please?"

"Of course, Ma'am," he replied, tipping an imaginary hat. "It'd be my pleasure."

They shared a smile, then entered the armoury and headed for the armour-equipping frames. It took a few seconds for the robotic arms to clad them from head-to-toe in their Paragon suits, then they each slung a Tachyon Rifle over a shoulder and made their way to the rear cargo area. After entering the starboard airlock, John shut the inner door behind him and the chamber was depressurised shortly afterwards, the green atmosphere light switching to red. Irillith placed her hand on the DNA reader and after it checked her genetic code, the airlock door spiralled open, letting them kick off from the deck and drift out into space.

"We're looking for a maintenance access panel," Irillith said over the suit intercom, as they floated into the cave.

John turned his head, sweeping the left side with the lights on his helmet. "How about that?" he asked, pointing to a hatch marked with chevrons.

Irillith finished her own sweep. "That must be it."

They landed beside it and John crouched down to grasp the handle. He tugged it carefully, then shook his head. "Is there a way to unlock it? If not, I can just rip it open..."

Placing her hands on the metal beside the hatch, Irillith murmured, "Let me see what I can do."

Her eyes lit up with an inner light as sparks danced over her fingertips, arcing back and forth as she channelled electricity through the metal. She raised an eyebrow as she carefully studied the metal panel, then glanced at John. "Go ahead, give it a good tug."

He tried again, being careful not to overdo it, but the hatch still wouldn't budge. Frowning in irritation, he yanked back, tearing the metal hatch from the panel. It floated away, a coil of severed electrical cabling stretched out behind it, looking like a multi-coloured tail.

Glancing inside the now open hatchway, John's eyes widened when he saw what lay within. "Shit... that's H-269! This was a booby trap!"

Irillith nodded, studying the bricks of high-explosives packed on the inside of the metal panel. "I shorted out the demolition trigger. If you'd tried to pull that free while it was still live, this whole asteroid would've been blown to pieces."

John sat back on his haunches and frowned. "So where the hell's the access panel?"

"Concealed somewhere," Irillith said with a shrug, reaching into the open portal and pressing her hand against a black box. "There's data routing through this... just give me a moment."

He nodded and waited patiently, even if he felt a bit uncomfortable sitting on a massive bomb.

"I'm in," the Maliri hacker murmured, her glowing violet eyes flicking back and forth.

"Any luck finding the data log?" John asked, watching her fully absorbed in her work.

She nodded. "I'm searching the entries from the last few days' for any sensor contacts..." A smile spread across her face a few moments later. "Got them! They did come this way!"

"It is the quickest way to Kirrix Space from Menganus IV," John said, feeling a flood of relief. "We're lucky they were in a hurry to escape."

"The sensor information is stored in raw data files, but I can translate it if you want to see?" Irillith offered, glancing his way.

"Sure, go ahead."

Irillith twisted around, the glow from her eyes projecting a violet-hued re-enactment of the sensor data she was reading. Four hive ships escorted by four drone carriers inched across the Sector Map, heading towards Kirrix Space on the direct path they'd predicted.

"That was nearly three days ago," she said, her expression sombre. "The fleet must be quite deep into Kirrix Space now."

John clenched his jaw. "They could be anywhere..."

The Maliri nodded, then accelerated the projection, the Kirrix fleet moving quickly towards the invisible demarcation line between territories. "This is the point they crossed into Kirrix Space..."

He watched as the eight ships carried on in a straight line for another minute, then made an abrupt course change, shifting heading in hyper-warp. "Wait... where are they going now?"

Irillith tilted her head to one side as if listening to someone. "Eta Tauri... Alyssa says it's the only star system directly on that course for hundreds of light years."

"This sensor data was from three days ago..." John mused, staring at the image of the Kirrix fleet. "How far away is Eta Tauri?"

*If you head there right now, they'll arrive shortly before you,* Alyssa informed him. *You'll reach the system tomorrow at 9:06 am.*

He glanced at Irillith and gave her an appreciative smile. "We got what we needed. Great work, honey."

*John... you're not seriously planning to invade a Kirrix planet?* Alyssa asked, her voice pained.

Rising to his feet, John clasped Irillith's hand and kicked off from the satellite. *We can scout the system and get the lay of the land. We'll meet you there, then launch a rescue.*

Alyssa sighed with resignation. *Okay, I'll plot a new course for the Invictus and rendezvous with you in Eta Tauri* After taking a moment to make the calculations, she added, *We'll arrive at 6:17 pm tomorrow evening.*

*Perfect! See you then,* John said with a smile, looking forward to the reunion. He floated over to the Raptor and landed beside the airlock, then helped guide Irillith through. "Ladies first."

She shut the airlock door behind him then pulled off her helmet after the chamber repressurised. "Ladies first?" she asked, her lips twitching into a coy smile.

"Oh yes, definitely. How many times is entirely up to you and Tashana," he replied, pulling her into a passionate kiss.

***

Alyssa groaned and slumped back in her dining chair. The crew had all worked through dinner to finish helping the Valia Gate colonists as quickly as possible, so they were now gathered together in the dining room for a late snack as the Invictus sped through hyper-warp towards Eta Tauri.

"What's up?" Dana asked, between bites of her burger.

"John's planning to scout a Kirrix planet; that's where the Menganus IV colonists have been taken..."

The redhead's eyes widened in shock. "Holy shit! He's crazy!"

Sakura's brow furrowed with worry. "Now I wish I'd gone with him in the Valkyrie."

Faye wrung her hands together anxiously. "John promised he was going to be careful!"

Calara reached across the dining table to hold her girlfriend's hand. "He isn't seriously considering a planetary invasion with just the Raptor, is he?"

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Of course not. He's just 'scouting'..." She added air quotes for extra sarcastic emphasis.

The Latina sighed and shook her head. "Let me guess... Tashana piloting the gunship, Irillith causing mayhem with her hacking, while John and Jade paint the planet green?"

"It sounds like you've met our illustrious leader before," Alyssa said with resignation.

Rachel looked at the blonde with concern. "We better make sure we're all well rested tonight and we should probably refrain from using our powers tomorrow morning. John's likely to need as much psychic energy as he can get."

Helene looked at the other girls in confusion. "I'm afraid I don't understand. When warriors from our village went scouting around the borders of our land, they were looking for dangerous predators that might threaten the villagers. When they discovered a threat, they would gather a hunting party to deal with them... not attack on their own. If John says he's scouting the Kirrix, isn't that what he plans to do?"

"We don't have a great track record with scouting and stealth missions," Dana explained with a troubled frown. "They nearly always end up in a bloodbath."

Alyssa nodded and gave the aquatic girl a weary smile of resignation. "John might only be planning to do a bit of reconnaissance... but things rarely work out that way."

Helene looked bewildered, then reached out to pat Alyssa's arm. "If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know."

"You're a sweetheart, thank you," the blonde said, nodding to her in gratitude.

They all went back to eating their meal, the girls lost in thought and concerned about John. The exception were the Nymphs, who didn't seem unduly concerned, having absolute faith in their eldest sister to keep their Master safe from harm.

Finishing her burger, Dana looked down the table at Alyssa. "Are we still on for tonight?"

Alyssa's cerulean eyes flicked to Calara, a hungry gleam in her smouldering gaze. "I could do with working off a bit of tension... what about you, gorgeous girl?"

The brunette licked her lips with anticipation. "I can't wait to find out what new tricks you've learned. You're on, baby..."

Dana shared a flirtatious smile with Rachel, then they both looked across the table at Sakura, the invitation quite obvious to all.

The Asian girl laughed and nodded. "Absolutely."

Tracing a finger over the back of her lover's hand, Alyssa turned to Helene. "Would you like to join us? You'll have a very good time... I promise."

The aquatic girl hesitated then slowly shook her head, a strained smile on her face. "Thank you for the kind offer, but I think I'll just get an early night."

"I could use a nice cuddle," Faye piped up, seeing Alyssa's look of concern for the teal-skinned beauty. "Would you like to sleep with me tonight, Helene? It sounds like the main bedroom is going to be busy!"

"That sounds lovely, thank you," Helene replied, then stifled a yawn.

Alyssa gave her a sympathetic look. "Go get some sleep, you must be exhausted."

Helene nodded and rose from her chair. "That does sound like a good idea."

The blonde stood too and pulled her into a hug. "All those people needed you today and you helped them in ways that none of us could have done. You were amazing, Helene... you should be very proud of yourself."

Trembling in her matriarch's arms, Helene suddenly began to cry, overwrought with emotion.

Alyssa looked at her in surprise then held her close. "Shush now, beautiful. Everything's going to be okay..."

***

Sarinia Baelora steepled her fingers together as she gazed across her study, the eldest daughter of House Baelora lost in thought. A soft chime echoed through the plush office, alerting her to the presence of a visitor at the door... then it chimed again and again in rapid succession.

Frowning in irritation, she rose from the chair behind her desk and called out, "Enter!"

A ruffled Maliri noblewoman blustered into the room, a furious scowl on her face. "You better have a damn good reason for disturbing me at this hour, Sarinia!"

"Welcome, dearest Myrdina," Sarinia said making a placating gesture with her hands. "I promise I have good reason to call you here."