Three Square Meals Ch. 030

Walking up to a Psi-scanner set into the wall, he stood stationary, while his grey bulbous head was enveloped in a soft green glow. The doors to his side cracked open and then slowly split apart, revealing a huge cavernous room built hundreds of metres below the planet's surface. The room was shrouded in darkness, the faint overhead lights only offering tantalising glimpses of the unevenly shaped objects contained inside.

"What is this place?" John asked in awe, breaking the tense stillness of the underground cavern.

"This is our repository of everything we have found on the Progenitors," he replied quietly, even the computer modulated voice conveying his reverence for the chamber.

"The Progenitors?" John asked.

"It is the name we have assigned to your species," Talari replied.

Talari turned and faced a control panel set into a wall, and it began to glow with an ethereal green radiance. Throughout the room, spotlights began to activate, focused specifically on each of the objects stored within.

"We used to claim ownership of many worlds," the Ashanath councillor began quietly. "We gathered every reference to your people we discovered."

He led John over to the first object, which was a series of massive stone tablets, inscribed with a primitive pictorial form of language. The images showed a pointy eared humanoid, wielding what looked like a bulky staff, and slaying red skinned humanoid men with lightning bolts. As they followed the story conveyed by the pictures, the mysterious staff wielding character seemed to amass a throng of red skinned females. There had clearly been more to the story, but the rest of the pictures had been sheared away from the crumbling stone edifice.

John and the girls shot each other glances, as they looked up at the pictures with wide eyes. "This looks strangely familiar," Alyssa said quietly.

Councillor Talari seemed to be studying John intently. "We removed these stones from the ruins of a long dead, pre-industrial civilisation. They are nearly twenty thousand years old."

Unsure what to say, John could only nod mutely in response. Turning away, Talari glided over to the next set of stone blocks. They showed another member of the Progenitor race destroying what looked like a city. Diminutive creatures were shown to be fleeing, as the Progenitor strode through streets, with red rays shooting out of his eyes, killing indiscriminately.

"We retrieved this one from a system near Terra. The planet no longer bore any life," Talari whispered, his eerie voice making the images seem even more unsettling.

"Are they all like this?" John asked, his own voice as subdued as the Ashanath's.

"No, not all," Talari replied, offering faint hope.

"See, it's not all bad John," Dana piped up optimistically.

"Most of them follow a similar theme of destruction, however," Talari whispered depressingly.

"Ok, could you show us something a little more upbeat then?" Alyssa asked hopefully.

Talari nodded and took them past image after image depicting acts of war and subjugation, of sharp eared Progenitors slaying indiscriminately, and collecting legions of female slaves. He finally came to a halt, pausing in front of a series of tall stone mosaics that were in excellent condition, each showing a Progenitor, and dozens of blue skinned, white haired women. John and the girls walked along, studying each picture in turn, and the murals showed a Progenitor working in what looked like a lab, and then moving from world to world establishing new civilisations.

"So the Progenitors were able to create life?" Jade asked in wonder.

"It seems so," Talari said softly, nodding slightly. "We have found a number of pictographs that seem to support this theory."

Dana had reached the end of the stone mosaics, and she peeked her head around the corner, when she spotted that the backs of the huge slabs were lit as well. "Hey, John! There's more on the back too!" she called out excitedly.

John walked eagerly around the corner, looking for any more positive signs of benevolence amongst the Progenitors. In the next few images, the blue skinned women were massed in legions and were shown fighting other species. One of the stone mosaics showed the Progenitor using what looked to be psychic powers to slay his enemies. The final picture showed a lush green world burning, as the progenitor and his legions boarded a black hulled spacecraft.

"I'm sorry John," Calara said, seeing his hopeful expression fade, as they studied the rest of the pictures.

"So my species are basically a bunch of completely evil bastards?" John sighed dejectedly.

"It appears so JohnBlake," Talari said quietly, his voice modulator conveying his sadness at having to deliver bad news. "We found each of these ancient edifices on devastated worlds, once home to civilisations that had been completely destroyed."

Alyssa stood by John's side and ran her hand around his waist, hugging him tightly. "I'm sorry this wasn't what you were hoping to find," she said comfortingly.

"If it's any consolation, we have found you to be an honest, diligent and trustworthy ally. The Ashanath high council has no reservations about the wisdom of forming an alliance with you."

"If you knew how evil my species seems to be, why didn't you just kill me on the spot?" John asked curiously. "Why would you possibly want to make an alliance with me?"

Before Talari could reply, Jade spoke up. "They were afraid of you, John," she said soberly.

"It is as your companion deduced," Talari whispered in his eerie voice. "We had no wish to anger a creature capable of that," he said, pointing to the mural showing a world being incinerated.

"So you made me your ally, purely in the hope I wouldn't start wiping out your civilisation?" John asked, wide eyed. "Gifting me access to your most powerful technology was pretty reckless!"

Before Talari could explain his reasoning, Alyssa cut in. "You made your decision after our little chat outside the council chamber, didn't you?" she asked him, perceptively.

"You are correct Alyssa," Talari said softly, before bowing to her respectfully. He then turned to face John and spoke again, "Truly, you have surrounded yourself with quite remarkable females JohnBlake."

"You don't need to tell me that," John said, smiling at his girls. "But why did speaking to Alyssa lead you to offering me an alliance?"

Talari turned his attention back to Alyssa once more. "When we spoke, it very quickly became apparent that you had received no form of Psychic training. I have never met someone displaying such impressive potency before, and to do so untrained almost defies belief."

"You mean the null-zone I created by accident?" Alyssa said, flushing a little with embarrassment.

"Yes, that's correct. It is possible to create a null-zone of that size, but only by combining one's will with other trained psychics, and powerful ones at that. For you to have done so on a reflex is absolutely unheard of amongst my people, and the Ashanath are gifted psychics." He paused for a moment. "Or so we believed..."

"Ok, so you knew I was powerful, but why did you trust us enough for an alliance?" Alyssa asked puzzled.

"As you know, it's possible to probe another individual's mind." Talari began tentatively. "I must make a confession however, that the entire High council merged wills with me, but we were unable to penetrate your mind-shield, JohnBlake."

"Alyssa mentioned that before, but I've never consciously made this 'mind-shield' you're referring to!" John exclaimed.

"Which makes you all the more remarkable," Talari murmured quietly. "When we were unable to find out more from your mind, we then studied your companions," he said apologetically, glancing at Alyssa.

"You studied my mind?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes, and we examined all your interactions with John since you've known him." Talari admitted. "Both of you have been nothing but benevolent in your actions with others, in particular saving each of your other companions from dire circumstances." he continued, looking at Calara, Dana and Jade.

"Based on what we were able to glean, we knew you would be dependable and kindly allies." he said, sounding a little self satisfied, even with the unemotional speech modulator speaking for him.

" 'All' our interactions?" Alyssa asked archly.

"I am sorry for the invasion of your privacy, but you must understand what we had at stake." Talari said remorsefully, before his already huge eyes widened as he recalled the memories. "What we witnessed was spectacular, I must say..." he tailed off wistfully.

John and the girls laughed, clearing the air, and Talari at least had the good grace to look embarrassed.

"Ok, so these Progenitors were able to create life, they seemed to get off on enslaving hordes of women and they fought and killed a whole lot of people," Dana summarised for them succinctly, unsubtly changing the subject to save Talari further embarrassment. "Is there anything else that you can tell us about them?"

"Only that the most recent of our findings here has been dated to just over ten thousand years ago. We have found nothing showing Progenitor activity in this quadrant of the galaxy since that time, but that is no guarantee that such activity has not occurred," Talari conceded regretfully.

"There must have been some kind of much more recent activity though," John said quietly.

"Your mother..." Alyssa said, reading his thoughts.

John nodded, looking thoughtful. "She must have stumbled across one of these Progenitors. Though how she was able to escape, for me to be born back in Terran space, is a mystery," he said grimly.

"Aren't the Progenitors active in Ashanath territory right now?" Jade asked curiously. She pointed at the black hulled ship in the mosaic behind them. "It can't just be coincidence that we saw that mysterious black hulled ship with the Drakkar, and no-one was able to identify what race it belonged to."

"What ship is this?" Talari asked quickly, sounding worried.

"We found them delivering supplies to the Drakkar. It looked like they had a wormhole generator!" Dana said excitedly.

"We suspect that's how they snuck the Drakkar forces so deeply into your territory," John explained to the alarmed Ashanath councillor.

"This is deeply concerning news JohnBlake!" Talari exclaimed. "Were you able to scan their ship?" he asked hopefully.

"Only partial passive scans, but I can send you what images and data we have," Dana said apologetically.

"My thanks Dana. We will do what we can to analyse anything you send us." Talari said gratefully.

"If my mother ran into one of these Progenitors, I wonder if there was any data about them on her ship." John mused.

"Perhaps there's more information we could find out in the Terran military archives?" Dana asked curiously.

"She's right! There could well be some more information there, at a higher security clearance than you at Commander rank had access to," Calara said eagerly.

"I'm not opposed to having a little snoop around, see what tasty data I can sniff out!" Dana said excitedly.

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but let's hold off on any major felonies with the Terran Federation for the moment, ok?" he said with a grin.

"Just let me know when!" Dana laughed and gave him a theatrical wink.

The laughter lightened the bleak mood that had previously descended over them, and John turned towards Talari. "Thank you for showing me this Talari. It means a lot," he said, reaching out to clasp the smaller creature on the shoulder in a friendly gesture.

"You are welcome JohnBlake. I am only sorry that we were unable to furnish you with better news," the Ashanath said regretfully.

"It's not your fault Talari. At least I know now, and on the bright side, I built a great friendship with your people due to your research," John said smiling at him warmly.

The Ashanath councillor nodded awkwardly, before looking up. "I have just been reminded that the high council wishes to reveal a surprise for you and your crew. Would you be willing to stay as honoured guests on Ashana for another day? I recall you have an urgent meeting that you must attend in several days time."

"With the Tachyon drive, we can make it back in time with no problem," Alyssa said with a smile.

"We'd be delighted to Talari, please pass on my thanks to the rest of the high council," he replied warmly.

Dana cleared her throat unsubtly. "The Raptor..." she said under her breath, as she coughed into her hand.

John stifled a laugh and then continued, "Talari, we would greatly appreciate it if you were able to install a Tachyon Drive in our dropship, as well as installing grav-tubes, as we did in the Invictus. We were in such a hurry to clean out the Drakkar, we forgot to request those upgrades."

"Of course JohnBlake, we will carry out the work immediately," Talari replied with a bow. "The refit will be completed by the time you are ready to leave tomorrow."

"Excellent! Thanks very much Talari," John said appreciatively, before turning to the girls. "We should probably head back to the ship."

"Land at the drydock you visited last time, and the work you have requested will be performed on your Raptor gunship," Talari said quietly.

John nodded and then ushered the girls ahead of him and back to the way out.

***

After a short flight back to the Ashana shipyard, they landed in the drydock, where a team of engineers were waiting to make the modifications to the Raptor that he had requested. Leaving them to it, John and the girls reconvened to their favourite meeting place, their bedroom. John sat in the middle, with the four girls seated in a semi-circle around him, watching him expectantly and waiting for him to start the discussion.

"So it seems I have a few skeletons in the family closet," John said, then winced at the awfully inappropriate pun.

"To put it mildly," Alyssa smiled at him affectionately, "But to put your mind at ease, it doesn't change the way I feel about you one bit."

Dana, Jade and Calara echoed her sentiments and they all moved in to hug him reassuringly.

"I think a joint family dinner might not be a good idea though," Calara said with a gentle smile.

They laughed at her joke and the mood lifted considerably.

"Do you still want to try and find out more about your father and mother?" Jade asked him curiously.

"I've got a feeling it's not going to be good news, so I'm not in any hurry." he replied ruefully. "I think we'll just continue with my old plan for now, and visit the Maliri for some weapon upgrades on the Invictus. At least, once we've met Calara's family!" he said with a grin, nudging the Latina gently with his left elbow.

"Have you decided how you want to broach our relationship?" Alyssa asked the brunette curiously.

"Well I'd like you all to come and visit, if you'd all like to?" Calara replied cautiously, looking to Alyssa, Dana and Jade in turn who each nodded eagerly.

"But, if it's ok with you, I think it will probably be easier if we keep up the pretence that it's just John and I in a relationship," she said apologetically. "My family is quite conservative, so I think we probably ought to play it safe."

"So I can't tell them how much I love it when you eat John's cum from my pussy?" Dana pouted, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Let's just keep that between us for the moment," Calara laughed nervously, just imagining the reaction that little titbit might provoke.

"It's your call," Alyssa said soothingly. "I'd love to meet your family, but I don't want to cause any kind of problems for you."

"I think it's a wise decision," John said, putting his arm around Calara's shoulder and hugging her gently. "You're probably going to have some fast talking to do already, considering the physical changes you've undergone recently. You're taller now than when we first met you, right?"

"That's true. I was 5'6" and I'm three inches taller now," Calara said, grinning. She then glanced down at her enhanced bust with a raised eyebrow. "And these will cause quite a stir," she giggled. "I've gone from a 30B cup to a 32D!"

"They are quite wonderful, though," Jade said fondly, with a smile on her face. "I always sleep soundly, being able to cuddle up behind you, holding them in my hands."

Calara turned to her left to face the Nymph and gave her an intimate hug. They smiled at each other coyly as their sensitive breasts pressed against each other, the pliant flesh rubbing together and sending excited shivers through each girl's body. Dark brown and Emerald eyes flashed with arousal as they stared at one another, and the two of them began to kiss tenderly. Calara moved lithely to sit in Jade's lap and encircled her with her athletic legs, while the Nymph pulled her into a tight embrace, neither interrupting the soft, gentle dance of their lips and tongues.

John, Alyssa and Dana watched the two of them entranced as they kissed sensually, their lovely pouting lips brushing together, accompanied by breathy sighs and moans. Alyssa caressed Dana's shoulder teasingly, and the redhead turned back towards her friend with a hungry smile on her lips. The blonde opened her arms invitingly, and Dana moved gracefully to sit in her lap, copying the other two girls who were fully absorbed in their erotic embrace.

Grinning happily, John watched both pairs of girls kissing and touching each other intimately, the room echoing with the wonderful sounds of aroused young women. As they got more turned on, more clothes started to come off, until all four girls were gloriously nude, and presenting him with a spectacular sight. He slid off the bed and removed his own clothes, before moving to sit in the comfortable chair that offered him an excellent view of the bed.

"Alyssa, come here and suck my cock," he requested firmly, causing the girls from Karron to pause in their loving kisses, and glance at him excitedly.

Dana unfolded herself from her friend's embrace, and then eagerly joined Calara and Jade, freeing the blonde to prowl towards him at a languid pace.

*My, my, this is a masterful new side of you* her approving voice sounded clearly in his mind.

*Well considering my... background, it does feels natural,* he explained carefully. *I figure, why fight it? But I'll need you to rein me in, if I get out of hand!* his thoughts carried a playful tone, letting her know he would never for one moment allow that to be a possibility.

*My only wish is to obey you, master,* she purred, making him tremble excitedly. Alyssa sank smoothly to her knees in front of him, and spread his thighs to give her plenty of room. She reached out with both hands to cradle his balls lovingly, feeling their weight , before moving her fingers back to caress the second set in turn.

*These have done so much for us, it's only right that we service them whenever they need,* she mused, glancing up at him coyly for just a second, flashing her piercing cerulean eyes at him.

*You've learned your place well, slavegirl.* John replied, amused and aroused at her little game.

*If my place is to kneel and worship your cock, it's one that I've learned to love,* her voice said in his mind, as she opened her luscious lips, and engulfed the head of his throbbing cock in her mouth.

*Fuck, that feels good,* He gasped, staring at her face as she looked up at him adoringly.

*You feel so big in my mouth,* she sighed contentedly, *When you push your way into my body, it's the best feeling in the world.*

*Let's make you happy then,* he thought to her, taking her tousled blonde head in his hands, and guiding her down his shaft. Alyssa swallowed repeatedly, making it easy for him to sink right down her throat, so her lips were tightly stretched around the base of his cock.