Three Square Meals Ch. 020

"Wow! You didn't waste any time!" John exclaimed.

"I'll be finished with the prototype by tomorrow morning." Sparks said distractedly, as she examined the barrel section of the rifle closely.

"We're just tidying up at the moment. The girls are putting away their clothes." John said, feeling a little foolish at distracting Sparks from such useful work.

Sparks stepped back from the workbench and stretched contentedly.

"You look like you're enjoying yourself though and I wouldn't want to drag you away at a bad time." John said cautiously.

"No, it's a good time." she reassured him. "I have the mass fabricators working on some replacement components anyway and I can't proceed until they've been completed."

"Oh great!" John said with relief.

"This workshop is incredible." Sparks sighed dreamily. "You're going to get tired of hearing me say it, but thanks again for letting me have all this equipment! No matter what crazy ideas I come up with, this engineering bay has the facilities to put it into practice." The girl said in wonder.

"I want nothing but the best for you honey." John said with a smile.

"I know, you're awesome!" Sparks said enthusiastically.

John led the buoyant young woman back to the elevator and she held his hand, squeezing his fingers with her own, as she looked up at him with a happy smile on her face. The other girls had sent the elevator down to them again so they walked straight in, without having to wait. John pushed the button for the officer's quarters and a few seconds later, the door chimed softly and swished open quietly as they reached their destination.

He picked up a few of the redhead's bags and the two of them walked down the hallway to her room. The door to the room opposite was open and he could see Jade inside, humming happily to herself as she put away her clothes in the roomy wardrobe. Sparks had already gone into her room and had dumped her bags in front of the wardrobe before coming back to collect the last of her purchases from John. She gave him a grateful kiss before turning back into her room.

John turned and stood in the doorway to the Nymph's room, watching the green skinned alien girl as she methodically tidied away her clothes. She spotted him out of the corner of her eyes and smiled at him blissfully.

"Alyssa said I could have my very own room!" She said, with wide eyed amazement. "I don't remember ever having my own room master!" she said with a delighted sigh.

"I'm sorry Jade, I should have remembered before, but you seemed so happy sleeping with us that it slipped my mind completely." John apologised.

"Oh no master, you have nothing to be sorry for." Jade said, walking up to him and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Jade would very much like to continue sleeping with master and his mates." she said, looking up at him adoringly.

John kissed the appreciative girl tenderly, brushing his hand down the smooth skin of her supple back. She felt cooler to the touch than the other girls, but her mouth was warm and inviting as her tongue flickered out playfully to duel his own. They eventually broke apart, sighing happily. Jade looked up at his face with surprise, as he mirrored her own reaction and then she grinned at him happily.

"I'll let you get back to settling into your new room." John said with a smile and Jade turned away to skip excitedly back to the wardrobe.

He walked down the corridor, heading to his own quarters, pausing briefly to greet Calara as he passed her room. He strode into the Commander's quarters and found Alyssa waiting for him patiently, lying on the bed.

"Everything alright honey?" he asked her as he lay down on the bed next to her.

"Of course, everything's great!" she said, smiling up at him fondly.

"Is now a good time to talk about Jade?" she asked him curiously.

"I'm sorry your plans to wind me up didn't work out." John said with a grin.

Alyssa's musical laughter filled the room. "No, not that." she said with a smile. "Besides, I have something much more fun to look forward to now!" she breathed, her eyes flashing with arousal.

John looked down at the exquisitely beautiful blonde girl lying at his side and gently slid his hand under her top to run his fingers over the smooth expanse of her toned stomach. Her skin felt so soft and pliant under his firm touch and he marvelled at having the right to be able to touch her so intimately. Jade had been right earlier, he did consider Alyssa to be perfect and sometimes he just couldn't believe that she was his.

"You're very sweet." Alyssa said, smiling up at him lovingly. "But let's get back to talking about Jade, before I leave you too exhausted for Sparks!"

John laughed and nodded.

"So you've noticed the way her speech has changed over the last few days I presume?" Alyssa asked him curiously.

"Yes, it's happened a few times now." John agreed. "She seems to be developing more of a sense of her own identity." he marvelled. "I've never heard of Nymphs behaving like this before."

Alyssa grinned at him happily. "I think the more we nurture her and make her feel at home, the more this new side of her develops."

"Yes, that's what I was thinking too." John said with a smile.

"I love being able to help her like this." Alyssa sighed happily.

"I feel the same honey." John agreed wholeheartedly. "It just feels like the right thing to do."

"You love fixing your wounded little birds..." Alyssa sighed affectionately, stroking the side of his face with a loving hand.

John leaned down to kiss her and they lost track of time, their lips communicating their strength of feeling for each other.

A light chime from the ship's communicator sounded through the room, interrupting the couple on the bed. Alyssa sat up and looked over at the display by the side of the bed, checking the glowing green readout showing the caller details.

"Calara!" She called loudly. "A Maria Fernandez is contacting the ship!"

A few moments later, the gorgeous Latina dashed into their room, her eyes wide.

"We missed seven calls from her this morning." Alyssa explained, looking at the communicator log. "It must be something important."

"You can take the call in here honey." John said. "We'll give you some privacy."

"No, you don't have to leave." Calara said quickly. "Just stay quiet and out of view of the holo-cam please?" she asked plaintively.

John and Alyssa got up from the bed and went to stand by the doorway, soon joined by Sparks and Jade who had heard Alyssa's raised voice.

This would be the first time Calara had spoken to her family for the last few weeks, the last time being back at Port Heracles when she told her mother about the transfer to the Invictus. Calara had been putting off this call, still not entirely sure what to say about the metamorphosis she had undergone recently. The anxious young woman took a deep breath and then answered the call on the communicator. The vid screen came to life, the holo image of her mother projected into the room.

"Calara!" the attractive middle aged woman said, her olive skinned face lighting up with relief.

"Hello mother." Calara said, smiling warmly. "Is everything alright?" she asked with concern.

"Oh yes, of course! Everything's wonderful!" Maria Fernandez exclaimed."We've all seen the interview on the holo-net!"

Calara blushed with embarrassment.

"Did you really do everything Commander Blake said? He gave you credit for the entire operation!" her mother said, glowing with pride.

Calara nodded slowly , feeling self conscious.

"I've been promoted to first lieutenant and awarded a Novaburst." Calara said shyly.

"I'm so proud of you Calara, that's amazing!" her mother said, enthusiastically.

"It wasn't all my doing mother." Calara protested. "I'm with an incredible crew and the Commander is wonderful." the brunette said, her eyes going dreamy for a moment.

Her mother's observant eyes took in the expression on her daughter's face.

"Your father and brothers are on shore leave in a couple of weeks time. It would be lovely to have the whole family together, if you're able to make it too?" Maria asked longingly, missing her daughter.

Calara glanced to the side at John, who nodded with certainty.

"Yes, I'll make sure I'm there." Calara said smiling fondly.

"Your father and brothers all send their love. They'll be delighted to hear you're going to be able to make it!" her mother exclaimed.

"Perhaps you could bring Commander Blake with you as well?" her mother asked with a knowing smile.

"I'll see mother." Calara said with a happy laugh.

Maria Fernandez smiled with delight to see her daughter looking so deliriously happy. It was a massive change compared to the haunted girl she had been so worried about a few weeks before. With her worries banished and the exciting news about Calara's exploits over with, Maria finally noticed the subtle and not so subtle changes her daughter had undergone.

"Oh my goodness Calara!" her mother exclaimed in surprise. "You look absolutely beautiful!"

"Oh yes, about that..." Calara stammered. "I've been through a bit of a growth spurt recently." the luscious Latina said awkwardly, glancing down at her impressive bust.

Her mother's startled expression softened as she looked at her daughter's beautiful face in the holo-image.

"You look wonderful Calara." her mother said sincerely.

"Thanks mother." Calara said, blushing slightly.

Maria reached out as though to cup the holo-image of her daughter's face in her hand.

"My beautiful baby girl." she sighed wistfully. "I'm so proud of you Callie, I love you so much." her mother said, her voice catching.

"I love you too." Calara said, with a warm smile. "I'll see you in a few weeks and I'll bring John!" the brunette said, realising the cat was out of the bag.

"I can't wait to see you and I'm very interested to meet him!" her mother said, smiling happily.

They waved goodbye and ended the call.

Calara turned to look at her friends and lovers, feeling self conscious as her two worlds; her home life and her life here on the Invictus intermingled so suddenly.

"She's so lovely." Alyssa said with a deep mournful sigh, desperately wishing her own mother could still be here. She hugged Sparks, who had tears rolling down her face.

Calara stood up gracefully and glided over to them both, joining Jade and John in giving the girls from the Karron mining colony a hug.

"What's wrong?" Calara asked with concern.

"I always wondered what it would be like to have a mother who loved me like that." Sparks sniffled. "Your mother is nicer than I even dreamed."

"I'm sorry Sparks." Calara said sympathetically.

"Thanks Calara." The redhead said with a sad smile. "It's no wonder you turned out the way you are, with family like that." she said, turning to hug the Latina affectionately.

They consoled Alyssa and Sparks until they both felt a bit better and then everyone returned to finishing off the last of the tidying up. John waited while they all finished, the call with Calara's family reminding him of his own losses.

"I'm sorry John!" Alyssa came up to him and gave him a big hug. "I was feeling so sorry for myself, I forgot that you'd been orphaned too." she said apologetically.

"It's ok honey, I had loving grandparents that looked after me." he said with a reassuring smile.

Alyssa smiled at him and tapped the side of her head, reminding him that she knew what he'd been thinking.

"It's ok to feel sad about not knowing your parents John." she said. "If there are answers to be found, I promise I'll do whatever I can to help you find them."

John smiled at her affectionately, her positivity cheering him immeasurably. "Come on, let's head up to the bridge and you can plot a course for Ashana. Then you can keep me company while I make us some dinner!" he said with a big smile, leading her out of his quarters by the hand.

They told the girls to meet them in the officer's lounge in an hour and they headed up to the bridge to lay in the course for the Grey's homeworld. Alyssa darted up the steps two at a time and then sat in her chair, spinning it around to face her Navigation console. With a few button clicks a hologram of the Galactic map sprang into existence in the centre of the bridge, laid out in front of them like an old map from ancient Terra.

The Terran Federation was displayed in a soothing green colour, curving in a long broad sweep that encompassed hundreds of stars. Their present location at Alpha Centauri was highlighted by a glowing white arrow and their recent journey to Karron was shown by a glowing gold line, arcing out from Alpha Centauri and travelling in a long path to the extreme right or "eastern" edge of Terran space.

John joined Alyssa at her console and pushed a few more buttons, causing more galactic civilisations to be shown on the map. Firstly, displayed in a neutral grey tone was the Ashanath Collective. This grouping of stars was much smaller, perhaps only including around a hundred stars, all clustered to the "southern" edge of Terran Federation territory which curved around it.

"The Ashanath used to own all of this." John said with a broad sweep of his hand.

"It's amazing they just gave it all up." Alyssa said, shaking her head in wonder.

John shrugged, not understanding why either and then pushed another button. A large red expanse of stars, comparable in size to the Terran Federation was highlighted to the "western" edge of Terran space.

"This is the Kintark Empire." John explained. "I'm still not sure why tensions escalated so quickly. Both sides are pretty evenly matched, so it's going to be a long bloody battle if this turns into full scale war." he said grimly.

"Can you show me the Dragon March stars?" Alyssa asked, curious as to their location.

John brushed his fingers over the small holo-image of the galactic map that hovered over her console and a sweep of stars were highlighted in the bigger map. The dozen or so star systems were spread along the Terran side of the border edge that separated the green and red territories.

He then hit another couple of buttons and a thin blue swathe of stars were highlighted directly above the Terran Federation.

"This is the Maliri Regency." John explained.

"They don't hold a lot of territory." Alyssa said with surprise.

"Actually no-one knows how much territory the Maliri have." John replied.

"How come?" Alyssa asked curiously.

"All those stars in blue have trade stations in orbit that permit alien traders to visit. If you attempt to travel further into Maliri space, you are warned once and then destroyed if you don't turn back." he said ominously.

"They sound dangerous!" Alyssa said with concern. "Will we be ok?"

"I've traded with them in the past and they were friendly enough. Their laser weaponry is much more powerful than anything the Terran Federation has available, so there's never been even a hint of trouble from humanity towards them." he explained.

"The Maliri don't seem to want to attack us either, so there's been a pretty stable peace for over two hundred years." he said comfortingly.

"They have been known on rare occasions to allow trades for laser weapons, so I figured we could give it a try." he said with a smile.

"What do they look like?" Alyssa asked, intrigued by this mysterious alien species.

"They wear ornate armoured suits, so no-one really knows." he said. "There's a lot of theories about why they never take off the armour, from the Maliri having some horrific infectious plague, to being so hideously ugly that they're ashamed to remove the suits." he said, rolling his eyes.

"They sound fascinating." Alyssa said excitedly, before pausing for a moment, looking thoughtful.

"You mentioned two other species you wanted to trade with when you were talking to Charles. The Trankarans and Brimorians wasn't it?" she asked him.

"Yes, that's right. Good memory!" John said, impressed.

"The Trankaran Republic and the Brimorian Enclave are both located underneath Terran space." John explained, pressing buttons on the console that displayed both civilisations in orange and brown respectively.

"The Terran Federation is kind of hemmed in!" Alyssa said, looking at the riot of colours on the galactic map. "What's that way? Past Karron?" she asked, seeing a dark mass of unclaimed stars.

"Kirrix Space." John said, frowning in distaste.

"I see why no-one wants to settle that way." Alyssa said, nodding her understanding. "Have they conquered all those worlds?" She asked, feeling afraid all of a sudden.

"They had, until the Terran Federation pushed them back about 30 years ago." John said. "We haven't seen any Kirrix forces in our territory for a few decades, so running across them with the pirates was a nasty surprise."

"They were horrible." Alyssa said with a shudder. "I hope we don't run into them again!"

"Well I have no intention of going anywhere near their territory, so we should be fine." John replied hearteningly.

"So what about all the other species I saw at Port Heracles? Do they have big territories too?" Alyssa asked, thinking about the Bolon they had run into at the trade emporium on the station.

"No, not as far as we know. There's a lot of minor races with just one or two systems under their control." John explained. "But there's over 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone and humanity has only surveyed a few hundred thousand so far."

"Who knows what could be lurking out there?" he said in an eerie voice, that made Alyssa laugh.

"Thanks for explaining all that." Alyssa said gratefully. "It feels good to know a little bit more about the galaxy."

"You're welcome." John replied, smiling. "Now why don't you work your navigation magic and let's be on our way to Ashana!"

"Will do!" Alyssa said with a grin, bringing up the sector maps between Alpha Centauri and the Grey's homeworld.

"We should be there in just under 5 days John." She said, checking the ETA from the course she was plotting.

"Nice work honey." John thanked her. "If the Grey's are willing to upgrade the ship, our journey home should be much faster!" he said with a grin.

"How much quicker are their FTL drives?" Alyssa asked curiously, as she powered up the engines on the Invictus and then guided the assault cruiser out of the Olympus shipyard docking bay.

"At least twice as fast, but they cost a small fortune." John replied. "It's only the very wealthy who can afford them, so they aren't in widespread use in Terran space."

"Isn't it lucky you're one of those privileged few then?" Alyssa said with a grin.

"It certainly is!" John replied, matching her grin.

He watched his young lover pivot the massive ship effortlessly and then plot a course towards the Nav buoy, which designated the safe jump distance from the nearest gravity well. After a few torturous minutes cruising along at port speed, Alyssa was able to power up the FTL drive and they leapt into hyper-warp, saying farewell to Alpha Centauri.

"Let's go and see about making some dinner." John said with a smile, Alyssa joining him eagerly beaming a happy smile at her man.

---------

Meanwhile, many light years away, a foreboding figure brooded in a gothic throne, watching the Terran Federation Network News on an overhanging monitor. He had just finished watching some air headed reporter fawning over some half-baked "hero" and he snorted with derision.

"The T-Feds must be getting hammered by the Kintark if they're resorting to this dross." The man thought to himself and sneered derisively.

A digital readout flashed on the machine next to him as the complex decryption algorithms went to work on the incoming message. The man looked at it with interest, hoping that perhaps this might alleviate his boredom. He read through the message and a sinister smile spread across his face.