Three Square Meals Ch. 128

"So both factions are still a bunch of evil assholes?" Dana asked with a grimace.

He nodded. "They're bound to attack again, but at least for now, we can consider the Kirrix threat neutralised."

"Thank goodness for that," Sakura said, her expression grim rather than celebratory. "If I never see another of those vile hive ships again, it'll be too soon."

"At least now we can focus on the conflict with the Progenitors," Calara said, sounding equally relieved. She glanced at Helene and quickly added, "I haven't forgotten about the Brimorians, we still have to deal with them too."

Helene gave her a sympathetic smile. "I understand you need to concentrate on the biggest threat. While I want to see my people freed, I'm not in any rush to confront the Brimorians."

John looked at her in surprise. "Don't you want to see them punished for what they've done to the Abandoned?"

"I don't want to burden you with their punishment," she quietly replied. "I'd prefer to forgive the Brimorians than see you suffer with doubt and regret."

"The Enclave won't give up their slaves without a fight, honey," he said, beckoning her over. When Helene crossed the bed to join him, he wrapped her up in his arms. "I'm not exactly eager to wipe out the Brimorians, but I am going to free your people. If that means destroying all the Brimorian fleets and bombarding their planets back to the stone age, then I'll do whatever it takes to convince them."

"What if the Brimorians start killing my people to make you stop?" she asked, worry in her eyes. "Will you blame yourself for their deaths? What lengths would you go to then?"

He mulled that over for a moment.

Sakura ground her teeth in anger and interjected, "The Enclave is already guilty of horrific crimes against all the Terran colonists they raped and murdered! They then spent the last century continuing to abuse and murder the Abandoned on a massive scale! I'm convinced the Brimorian public knows exactly what's going on with the Abandoned... how could the Deep Pool keep it a secret if there's billions of slaves throughout their empire? I won't shed a tear over the Brimorians being removed from the galaxy... they're long due a reckoning."

"When we visit Brimor, I'll find out the truth," Alyssa said with a shrug. "Then we can deal with them accordingly..."

Helene shot a worried glance at Jade, recalling their earlier conversation.

Alyssa knew her thoughts and reached out to hold the aquatic girls hand. *Trust me, Helene. I'm not going to let John tear himself apart with guilt over the Brimorians.*

"We won't make any definite plans now," John said to Helene, unaware of their conversation. "Not until we know exactly what's been happening. When we've got all the facts, then we can discuss the best way of handling the situation. Like I said before; my main goal is freeing the Abandoned... it'll be up to the Brimorians how far they're willing to go to keep their slaves. I won't feel guilty if the Enclave forces my hand."

Mollified by his answer, Helene kissed him on the cheek and gave him a grateful hug.

He rubbed her back, then turned his attention to the girls. "Other than that, there wasn't much else I wanted to discuss. Our plan to distract the Kirrix defenders worked remarkably well, drawing away their forces and allowing me and Sakura a clear run to the nest." He made eye-contact with the Asian girl and continued, "I had been considering a melee battle with the Hive Queen, but with her linked to the Hive Mind it was too dangerous to mess around. You did exactly the right thing taking her out so fast."

She smiled at his praise, then turned to look at Dana. "Those Tachyon rifles are incredible! The Hive Queen looked stunned when your runic penetrators tore her hex shield to pieces."

"You really outdid yourself there, Sparks," John agreed. "The fight was ridiculously one-sided."

"I was amazed how effective the tachyon beams were against juggernauts too," Irillith said with a wry smile. "Can you imagine what the ground battle on Khalgron would have been like with a couple of those rifles?"

"Imagine what the fight with Larn'kelnar would've been like if we had our gear," Tashana said with a wistful smile.

"Definitely a double thumbs up for the Tachyon rifles, babes," Rachel said, doing exactly that.

Dana grinned in delight at their enthusiastic reaction. "That's awesome! I'm really glad they did the job."

"I can't wait to see what you come up with next," John said, with an encouraging smile.

"I'm focusing on the Invictus," the Grand Engineering Overlord replied. "If I can crack that black metal, it'll unlock everything... and then I'll start working on upgrading all the Progenitor designs."

"Now that I'm looking forward to!" Calara exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

John nodded his agreement. "Yeah, me too." He glanced around the group, then continued, "Okay, so we should be meeting the Terran fleet in about-"

"Whoa, hold on a second!" Alyssa interrupted. "We're not done with the combat debrief yet."

"Oh, sorry," John said with an apologetic frown to Calara. "Of course you did a phenomenal job dismantling the Kirrix fleet... same applies to you Irillith."

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "They know... and you already congratulated Calara this morning. No, I want to talk about the man of the hour, who pulled off a stunning move to take out all the Kirrix and save the Trankarans!"

"Yeah, you really kicked some ass!" Dana exclaimed, beaming at him in awe.

The girls broke out into a spontaneous round of applause, whooping and cheering for John.

He couldn't help blushing at their effusive praise. "Okay, okay, that's enough... it wasn't that big a deal."

"Actually, it really was," Rachel disagreed. "So many Trankarans were infested with eggs that we could never have got to them all in time."

"Calara told me that you'd estimated around 17,000 Trankarans would've been killed."

The brunette gave him an indulgent smile. "That's such a huge understatement of what you managed to accomplish. There were approximately 900,000 infested prisoners, split between 54 hive ships and the dreadnought. It would have taken hours to clear all those vessels with boarding actions, then triaging so many Trankarans to evaluate how close their eggs were to hatching would have been a nightmare. It would've taken nearly two weeks for the Trankaran and Maliri medical teams to treat all those prisoners, with thousands still dying because it'd be impossible to accurately prioritise that many people."

Helene looked up at him and said quietly, "The Trankarans are very brave, but that would be terrifying even for them."

"Exactly," Rachel agreed. "After we triaged everyone and prioritised them by the date they were infested, they'd have to wait until the final day before hatching to be treated. Imagine being forced to wait to have your death sentence lifted, knowing that you'd be ripped apart in agony if the medics couldn't get to you in time. The Trankarans wouldn't complain or plead for help, because their rock-brethren were all in the same predicament... but people would be dying in front of them on a daily basis. You managed to save a million Trankarans from a fortnight of horror, which would have pushed many of them to breaking point."

"See... it really was a big deal," Alyssa said, kissing him gently on the cheek.

"The Trankarans we treated all wanted to know why their eggs stopped moving," Rachel said, her grey-eyes sparkling. "The Kirrix invaded before Niskera became the Glowing Queen, so no one from Dun Hergrun had heard of you before. I was happy to explain that the Great Protector had vowed to pick up the mantle of the Great Maker and saved them all from death."

"The Trankarans were so thrilled, it was wonderful to see," Helene agreed, smiling at John.

"Oh, great..." he said with a groan. "I was trying to downplay all that religious stuff."

Alyssa shook her head, her lips lifting into a wry smile. "Good luck with that. Queen Niskera was already a true believer and I'm sure she's been doing a marvellous job of spreading the word."

"Having faith can be a great comfort to people," Calara said quietly. "I don't think there's any harm in the Trankarans looking to you for protection... we'll be doing whatever we can to help defend the Republic in the future anyway."

"There's also a certain amount of pragmatism to the Trankarans' belief system," Rachel interjected, looking thoughtful. "They revere Mael'nerak as their creator and they also feel a great sense of gratitude towards him for everything he did to establish their civilisation. The Trankarans won't be expecting you to perform miracles."

"At least until today," Alyssa teased him.

"That's true," Rachel conceded. "You did set quite an impressive precedent."

"Wonderful," he said with a sigh of resignation. "Well they survived... that's the main thing."

Sensing that discussion had run its course, Sakura cleared her throat, drawing everyone's attention. "John... I was thinking about buying a present for Maria. I just wondered if you wanted to contribute?"

"Oh? What did you have in mind?" he asked curiously.

Sakura explained what she planned on purchasing and by the time she'd finished, John had a broad smile back on his face again.

"That's a fantastic idea!" he said, nodding enthusiastically. "Just tell me what you need and I'll help however I can."

"Will do!" she replied with a cheerful grin, her almond-eyes flicking to Dana.

"Like you even have to ask..." the redhead said, rolling her eyes.

Calara smiled warmly at her friends, touched by their thoughtfulness. "Thank you, everyone. This really means a lot."

"We all love your mom," Alyssa said, hugging her girlfriend.

John put his arm around the brunette and gave her a supportive squeeze. They shared a kiss, then he looked back at the group. "So we should be arriving at the Terran fleet at 9pm tonight. What have you ladies got planned for this afternoon?"

"I'll make you some brunch in a moment," Calara said with a fond smile. "After that, I'm going to start gunnery training for Neysa and Marika."

Jade was the next to speak up. "I'll be teaching Leylira and Betrixa how to pilot the Invictus. When they're comfortable with the fundamentals of flying, I'll train them to specialise with the Invictus and Raptor."

"I still have a few millennia of AI research to keep me occupied," Irillith said, her lips quirking into a wry smile.

"I'll be researching too," Tashana chimed in. "I'm going back through the video archives looking for anything related to Mael'nerak building Nexus."

"I need to contact the Terran Federation Medical Administration and send them the formulas I've developed that will cure all those supposedly incurable diseases," Rachel said with satisfaction. "I'm sure they'll drag their heels over comprehensive testing with clinical trials, but I think I might have a solution to circumvent their protests if necessary..."

"Are you quite certain there won't be any side-effects?" John asked, listening with interest.

Alyssa frowned and poked him in the ribs. "That's like asking Dana if a prototype gun's going to blow up in your face!"

He winced and gave the tawny-haired doctor a look of contrition. "Sorry, honey. I didn't mean to sound like I don't trust your medical expertise."

Rachel waved away his apology. "It's okay, it's a perfectly reasonable concern considering the risks involved. If Dana made a mistake and blew your hand off with a malfunctioning gun, I could regenerate a new limb for you in five minutes. If I miscalculated my formulas for the serums to counter those diseases, the results could be catastrophic."

"Hey!" Dana protested indignantly. "My guns don't blow up!"

"Wait... what do you mean by catastrophic?" John asked, looking perturbed.

The brunette shrugged. "If a cure accidentally mutated those pathogens with an increase in lethality or rate of infection, potentially billions of civilian lives could be at stake. They are extremely dangerous diseases and critical mistakes could lead to a super-plague that would wipe out humanity."

Dana went pale and looked at her in alarm. "Err... maybe extensive clinical trials might be sensible after all?"

"Oh, ye of little faith..." Rachel sighed theatrically, placing a hand over her heart as if wounded by Dana's comment.

John swallowed and gave her a reassuring smile. "I do trust you, Rachel. If you need me to use my rank to cut through the red tape, just let me know."

"Thank you," she said, with a look of gratitude.

"I won't be doing anything quite so dramatic," Sakura said, winking at Rachel. "As soon as we're in range of the holo-net, I'll start shopping for Maria's present."

Dana grinned as she said, "That reminds me... I came up with a design for-"

Alyssa shot her a sharp glance and the redhead froze mid-sentence. "I'll head down to your workshop after we wrap this up, Sparks. I can help with that project."

"Actually, I need you here," John said, leaning over to run his hand over her cum-filled stomach. "I want to take advantage of you being topped up and teach you as much as I can about Progenitor runes. If you're missing any necessary abilities, I can give you whatever you need."

She arched her back and closed her eyes, savouring his loving touch. "Mmm... alright, you convinced me."

As his hand caressed Alyssa's impressive curves, John glanced at Dana. "We've only got about four hours until she's absorbed this load. Alyssa can help you out then."

Opening her eyes, the blonde nodded. "I've got some business to take care of myself on the holo-net. I can look into that while I'm doing any shaping Dana needs."

"Business?" John asked curiously. "What kind of business?"

"Land purchases for the Lion Orphanage foundation, stock trades to grow your portfolio, and a few other odds and ends I've been neglecting for the last couple of weeks."

"In that case, why don't you let me do the shaping for Dana instead?" John offered. "Then you'll be free to concentrate on everything you're working on this evening."

Alyssa's cerulean gaze flicked to the twins. "I believe you've already lined up some important business of your own."

Irillith tried to look haughty and disdainful, but couldn't help grinning at the prospect. Tashana made no attempt to hide the beaming smile lighting up her beautiful face. The rest of the girls broke out into laughter at their expressions, the giggling intensifying when they saw John flush with embarrassment.

"It's not all fun and games," he protested over a flurry of ribald comments. "Tashana wants to join me and Alyssa when we visit the Kyth'faren fortress. I need to enhance her so that she can Spirit Walk."

Dana smirked at his indignant reply. "I'm sure you'll shove those new abilities really deep... into her mind."

"I know I always enjoy being thoroughly stuffed... with new knowledge," Calara agreed.

"John, I must admit I'm curious about something," Rachel mused aloud. "How does buggering Irillith help you give new psychic powers to Tashana?"

"That's the fun and games part," Alyssa explained helpfully. "It's a very important part of the process..."

"Yes, you're all very funny," John said, with a good-natured smile. "Everyone missed their vocation as a comedienne..."

"John?" Helene asked, looking up at him.

"You're not going to tease me too, are you?" he enquired playfully. "I thought I had at least one nice girl on the team..."

"No... I just wondered if I could stay with you for the rest of the day?" she asked tentatively.

"Of course, honey," he agreed, giving her a reassuring kiss. "I'd love to have you keep me company."

Helene relaxed in his arms, already looking much happier.

"Alright, that's it I think," John said, glancing at each of the girls in case they wanted to add anything. When they each shook their heads, he locked eyes with Jade. "I'll get back to feeding your sisters after Tashana."

"They'll be delighted to hear it," the Nymph said rising to her feet. "They're making excellent progress already... as I'm sure you're aware."

"Actually, I'm not," he admitted. "I've been trying to make them stronger and tougher, but that's as much direction as I've given their enhancements. Everything worked out perfectly with you, so I didn't want to stray from a winning formula."

Her emerald eyes softened and she leaned down to kiss him. "I think you're perfect too, Master."

They shared a smile, then Jade accompanied the rest of the girls who were filing out of the Observatory. After they'd gone, John, Alyssa, and Helene were left sitting on the oval bed, with the aquatic girl still in his arms.

"Okay, where do you want me?" the blonde asked, raising an eyebrow.

John hesitated, glancing down at Helene.

"Don't worry, I'll move," she said, slipping out of his embrace. Helene sat beside him with a teal-hued knee touching his thigh. "Am I in the way here?"

"No, that's perfect," he replied, patting her leg as Alyssa replaced the aquatic girl and sat in front of him. Encircling the blonde in his arms, he added, "Comfy, beautiful?"

Alyssa leaned back against his chest. "I couldn't be happier," she murmured, sighing with contentment as he stroked her swollen belly.

"It's wonderful seeing you with the girls..." Helene murmured, caressing John's arm. "I can feel the love practically pouring off you."

He smiled at her then kissed Alyssa's bare shoulder. "As lovely as this is, we've got work to do and the clock's ticking."

"Alright, I'm all ears," the teenager said, grinning at him as she copied one of his catchphrases.

He ran a finger across the pointed tip, making her tingle at his touch. "You certainly are. Okay... I know you've picked up a few things already, but I think we should start with the basics."

John held up a finger in front of her and started tracing a glowing shape in the air, the intricate pattern as big as his hand.

"This is the primary letter at the centre of the Kyth'faren eldritch alphabet," John explained, carefully forming the precise pattern. "It combines with many of the others, adding power to runic phrases."

"I know that one!" Alyssa exclaimed, watching in fascination. "I inscribed it on Sakura's ninjato."

"I saw... you did a nice job," he said, gesturing towards the floating rune and shrinking it so that it was only an inch tall.

Next John drew six more large runes, positioning them in a circle around the primary, then added another twelve around those.

"These are the inner and outer secondary rings," he explained, reducing them to the same height as the primary. "They control size, shape, and the direction of whatever you're trying to accomplish."

She nodded her understanding, committing each of the glowing runes to memory.

"Finally, there are the inner and outer tertiary rings," he explained, drawing 18 more runes, then another band of 24 outside on the largest circle. "Combining those together add context and meaning to whatever eldritch power you're creating."

"Like the elements?" Alyssa murmured, her hand reaching out to touch one of the runes on the periphery. "That represents air, doesn't it?"

"That's right," he replied, looking at her in surprise. "That wasn't just a lucky guess was it?"

Alyssa shook her head, looking at the runes in fascination. "Some of them look very familiar. I know that one means spirit... and that one represents travel..."

"Combined with the Power and Self runes, they enable Astral Projection... or Spirit Walking as we call it," he confirmed with a nod. "When you use that ability, your mind forms these runes instinctively. Athena is a strong believer in the results being all that matters and skipping over the details... but for you to really understand and grow your abilities, you need to learn this."