Three Square Meals Ch. 042

John leaned over to one side so that he could see her face. "Did they catch the kidnappers?" he asked her gently.

The brunette frowned in anger, shaking her head. "It was bad enough that she was taken away from me like that, but to know that the people responsible were never brought to justice makes it even worse. They should have paid for what they did to my mother," she said in a furious voice.

John was just about to respond, when Alyssa cut him off. *I know what you're about to offer her, but let Rachel ask instead. This needs to come from her,* she told him firmly.

Heeding the blonde's advice he sat quietly, watching and waiting patiently while Rachel was lost in thought. He glanced at the other girls around the bed, and he could see a fierce hunger in their eyes, as they ached to say the same thing as him, but had obviously been given the same warning. He could see the look of determination on the brunette's face as she finally made up her mind, and then looked up at him hesitantly.

"I know it's a lot to ask, but when we can spare some time, do you think we could look into my mother's kidnapping? I feel bad dragging you all into it, but you have resources and skills that are way beyond me acting on my own," she requested tentatively.

John nodded firmly and smiled at her. "We'll start right away," he replied, before glancing at Alyssa. "Change course for the Procyon System, please."

Dana darted over to hug her friend. "Those fuckers are dead men walking!" she swore vehemently.

Jade stroked Rachel's leg and said in a deadly voice, "We'll hunt down everyone responsible and help you avenge your mother."

Calara nodded at Alyssa as the pair of them moved to get up off the bed. "I'll start investigating the old cases, see if there's any connections tying them together, and look for clues," the Latina said, looking thoughtful.

Rachel held her up hands and said loudly, "Wait a moment... please!"

They all paused and turned to look at her, and she smiled at them all affectionately. "I appreciate your enthusiasm, truly, but we don't have to drop everything immediately. We're nearly at the Maliri border, and New Eden is right in the Core Worlds. If it's alright with you, we can stop there and investigate my mother's murder on our way to Trankaran Space. That's on the way, right?" she asked, looking at Alyssa for confirmation.

The blonde girl sat back down on the bed. "Yes, you're correct. A course from here to the Trankaran Republic would take us past the Core Worlds," she agreed, with a smile.

The girls all settled down again and nodded their agreement with the plan.

Rachel stared at them all, a lump welling up in her throat. "Thank you all, it means so much to see how passionately you all want to help me," she said with a gulp.

John hugged her tightly. "Of course, we'd do anything for you. You're part of the family now," he said sincerely.

The girls all agreed and moved in for a group hug with Rachel in the middle. She sighed blissfully as they gathered around her, feeling loved and supported. They all eventually separated and she smiled at them gratefully.

"You guys are so awesome. Thanks again for reminding me what a wonderful decision I made joining you," she said passionately.

Alyssa frowned at her playfully. "Are you after another group hug?" she asked, as her face lit up with a mischievous grin.

Everyone laughed, and with the mood lightened, John suggested they get some dinner after a quick glance at the ship's chronometer. They had a relaxing shower together, and then all strolled along as a group to go and prepare their meal. After working so well with Calara to serve food for their unexpected guests earlier, he asked if she wanted to work with him to prepare dinner for the others. She eagerly agreed, so John told the rest of the girls to just relax together, while he and the Latina got to work.

Calara suggested making one of her old favourites, Carbonara, and John nodded his agreement, letting her take the lead as he played sous chef for her. He smiled as he watched her humming happily to herself as she cooked, and they worked well as a team as he chopped up vegetables for her, and helped prepare the sauce.

"I was proud of you earlier today, when you helped me cook for those passengers," he told her with a fond smile on his face. "You were lovely with them, very caring and considerate. I could see how much they appreciated it, especially after going through such an ordeal."

The brunette smiled at him shyly as she gently stirred the pan in front of her as it simmered on the stove. "It felt good to be able to help them," she said softly.

John walked over to her and wrapped her in his arms, whilst being careful not to knock her stirring hand. "I love you," he whispered, then kissed her neck tenderly, and she leaned back against him as she let out a happy sigh.

"I better not distract you too much," he said playfully. "It didn't end well when Jade did the same to me," he added with amusement.

Calara giggled and then turned to give him a quick peck on the lips before turning her attention back to their dinner. It didn't take long to finish cooking, and John held the door to the kitchen open for her, as they walked out to join the others. The girls had been having great fun listening to Alyssa's raunchy stories about her time alone with John, before the others had joined them, and they eyed him wistfully when he entered the room. As Calara began to serve up, Dana let out a melodramatic sigh as she gazed at Alyssa.

"I do envy you being able to spend weeks alone with John like that," she said longingly.

Alyssa laughed as she glanced his way. "It was a lot of fun surviving on a high protein diet," she said with a smirk.

"But then again, I love seeing you girls with him too. I think I'd miss that even more," Dana admitted with a cute frown. Her face then lit up with an impish grin as she looked at John. "I must admit, making us all rampantly bi-sexual, and not even remotely jealous, was an inspired move."

John waited until the giggling died down, and was just about to reply when Rachel suddenly swore animatedly.

"Crap!" she exclaimed with annoyance.

They all turned to look at her in surprise, and Alyssa put on a mock pout, then said teasingly, "You're saying you don't find us girls attractive any more?"

Rachel flushed with embarrassment at her outburst, and shook her head. "No, I still think you're all absolutely gorgeous," she said with a smile. "I just got so distracted with everything that happened with the pirates, I forgot that I'd found out some amazing new things about John and Jade!"

They all looked at her with bated breath, waiting for her to continue. She smiled at them in amusement and then shook her head. "I'll need to show you the DNA strands, so it'll have to wait until after dinner," she said apologetically.

"Boo!" Dana blurted out energetically.

Alyssa laughed at the raucous redhead and then nodded, "We don't want to wait!"

John grinned at the brunette, and said, "I wouldn't understand the DNA images anyway, just summarise for us."

Rachel raised her hands in surrender, and they all cheered as she admitted defeat. They began to tuck in to the Carbonara as they watched her, making appreciative noises and complimenting Calara on her excellent cooking. After looking thoughtful for a moment, unsure where to start, Rachel finally began.

"As you know, I said I was going to look into John and Jade's DNA structures this morning. It turned out I managed to analyse their whole DNA chain just by sight in a couple of hours," she said in astonishment, looking around at them all and awaiting their reaction.

She was met by blank looks by everyone, and John just said carefully, "I take it that's a good thing? Well done?"

The brunette laughed and smiled at him affectionately. "Sorry, I forget that despite how smart you all are, you don't have my medical background. There's three billion pairs in a person's genetic code, and it would normally take a powerful computer a day to analyse the entire code. I can't even begin to describe how staggering it is that I could do it so fast by sight alone. I'm not trying to sound arrogant, I just wanted to let you know about something amazing that happened as a side-effect of the Gift," she explained carefully, glancing at Alyssa as she used her new term for the change.

"Sorry we didn't understand. That does sound incredible," John said encouragingly. "I did warn you that with your intellect, you'd be just as gifted as the other girls," he added with a slightly smug grin.

"So you did," she replied with a warm smile.

John smiled back and then gestured for her to proceed, "I'm sidetracking you. Please continue."

Rachel nodded and looked around at them all excitedly. "As I stared at his genetic code, looking at the DNA taken from him as an eighteen-year-old, and then as he is today, I noticed some amazing things!" she exclaimed eagerly.

"You were a very cute eighteen-year-old by the way," Dana smirked at John, desperately trying not to descend into a fit of giggles.

Calara leaned forward as she said eagerly, "You've got a picture of John at eighteen? You have to show me!"

The girls chattered away, discussing this astonishing breakthrough, and the noise intensified when Rachel confirmed that a youthful John was in fact, very cute.

He rolled his eyes and raised his hands to quieten the deafening chatter, and the girls looked at him with amusement. "Eighteen-year-old John wouldn't have known what to do with you all, he would have been far too intimidated," he said with a grin. "I know you all really prefer the firm authority that comes with the experience of a more mature man."

The girls laughed at that, and conceded he was right, their eyes sparkling at the mention of strong discipline. With an amused chuckle, he asked for Rachel to continue.

She grinned at him, then nodded, and began to explain more of her findings, "John's third strand was almost completely inactive in the earlier sample. At some point between then, and the sample I took the other day, significant sections of the third strand of DNA seem to have been enabled."

"So you ARE becoming more psychically active!" Alyssa exclaimed with a grin. "That backs up what the Ashanath were saying."

John looked puzzled as he looked at Rachel. "So what caused my third strand to suddenly become more active then? Was it age related? Because it seems a bit odd to wait until I'm forty to turn my life upside down," he asked, quite bemused.

Rachel glanced at Alyssa before studying him intently. "I can't verify this for certain, as I only have two samples of your genetic code, and one of those is from decades ago. I suspect however, it's because of her," she said, nodding at the blonde.

Alyssa now looked as confused as John. "Me? How could I have done that to him?" she asked in bewilderment.

Rachel smiled at her with amusement. "The deal you made back on the Fool's Gold, where you agreed to be his plaything for a month. From what I know of John's relationships prior to that, there was a string of one night stands, so no woman ever had that much exposure to his cum before," she said, darting glances between the two of them.

John had been stunned into silence, but Alyssa leaned forward eagerly, hungry for more answers. "So he packed me full of cum, and his Progenitor genes kind of activated, sensing they had a receptive girl to work with?" she asked, her eyes flashing with excitement. "If so, that's fucking hot!"

Rachel nodded eagerly. "Yes, I think you're exactly right, and it is! His body reacted to him feeding you so much cum, and must have responded instinctively, thinking he was getting you ready to breed," she said, her eyes sparkling.

Calara, Dana and Jade all nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly, that it was a very arousing bit of news.

Rachel then turned to John again, and decided to continue with even more revelations. "There's lots more I found out, are you ready to hear that too?" she asked him carefully.

John nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, hit me with the rest of it," he said warily.

Rachel nodded eagerly and continued with her findings, her voice animated. "The human body has something called telomeres, which are structures that constantly repair our DNA. The ones in our bodies get massively boosted every time we swallow your cum, so that our DNA is being repeatedly refreshed as I discussed before. Well, in the DNA sample taken from your eighteen-year-old body, everything about your telomeres looked normal, which is why you aged just as a regular Terran would do," she told him, breathless with excitement.

John looked at her carefully, as he said, "I take it things have changed?"

Rachel nodded, gazing at him with wide eyed wonder. "You now have 'super telomeres' for want of a better expression. They are always working on overdrive, and there's lots of them, constantly repairing your genetic code, and leaving it in perfect condition," she explained joyously.

"You're immortal too!" Alyssa gasped with delight, "And it's all because of me!"

John stared at her in shock, before turning to look at Rachel for confirmation. She spoke reverently as she stared at him in awe and said, "We'll live forever as long as you keep feeding us. You're the real deal though, and there's no caveats!"

Taking a big breath, he carefully walled off his mind to keep Alyssa out, "How about combat or accidents?" he asked Rachel delicately.

She frowned, and looked pained, which told him everything he needed to know.

"Never mind, forget about that," he ordered her firmly. "Is there anything else?" he added, more to distract the girls from thinking about his mortality than through willingness to hear any more bombshells.

"Oh yes!" Rachel nodded eagerly.

Dana waved her hand a moment, drawing everyone's attention. "Wait a sec!" she interrupted before Rachel could continue. "If his DNA is now being constantly refreshed, is he going to turn into the eighteen-year-old version of himself?" she added with a mischievous grin.

Rachel smiled with amusement, before shaking her head as she said, "Sadly, no. I'd need to take several more samples over the next few weeks for confirmation, but from what I've seen, John's 'template' was taken from the time his Progenitor genes became active."

Calara giggled as she looked at him. "It's a good job you decided to make that deal with Alyssa now, and didn't wait until you were eighty!" she said, as she reached out to take his hand and squeezed it affectionately.

John looked at her in surprise and then laughed heartily as he nodded. That would be a cruel twist of fate indeed, to be made immortal with a ravishing harem of insatiable girls, and being physically incapable of doing anything about it!

Rachel waited for his nod for her to continue with her results, and then she launched into them relentlessly. "As I was examining your DNA, my mind began to... understand, the patterns I was seeing in the genetic code. I can't easily explain it, but I know..." she stated, putting great emphasis on the word, "that you've been genetically modified."

John looked at her, astounded. "Me specifically, or Progenitors as a species?" he asked her bluntly.

"Your whole species," she said with conviction. "The knowledge started to be revealed to me slowly at first, but after two hours of staring at the structure of your DNA, I'm absolutely positive. There's a certain... uniformity in the areas of your genetic code that stand out, where they've clearly been manipulated. Your ears and enhanced hearing for one thing," she said glancing at them with a smile.

He reached his right hand up self-consciously, just as Alyssa leaned in and kissed the tip of his pointy ear. "I always thought they were cute," she told him lovingly.

"What else has been modified?" John asked Rachel with fascination.

"I believe your species was innately psychic, but that third strand has been heavily modified, in ways that I'm only just beginning to understand. Your 'equipment' is also greatly enhanced," she said looking downwards suggestively, and raising her eyebrow.

"I'm quite fond of that too," Alyssa said, with a lascivious wink.

The other girls giggled at this, and John nodded his understanding, as genetic modification certainly explained what he was able to do.

"And of course, there's Jade," Rachel said, dropping another bombshell.

"Me?" Jade asked, looking shocked. "I've been modified too?"

Rachel looked at her for a long moment, before glancing at John, seemingly suddenly unsure if she should proceed. John recognised that look, and its meaning. "Go ahead and tell her everything. She has a right to know," he insisted firmly.

The brunette got up and walked around the table to sit next to the Nymph and took her hands in her own. She stared into the alien girl's emerald eyes and began to speak to her softly, "Your whole genetic code has Progenitor 'fingerprints', I guess you'd call them, all over it. I believe the Nymph species is a genetic construction made exclusively by the Progenitors, and I don't think you were a naturally occurring species at all. They seem to have drawn in and melded different genetic traits together, using a form of feline DNA structure as a base, but that parent structure is so massively modified it's a tenuous genetic link at best."

Jade looked at her in astonishment. "So his people made me and the other Nymphs? But why create us and then abandon us on Lenarra?" she asked in shock.

Rachel shook her head helplessly. "I'm certain your species was created by the Progenitors, but as to why you were left on Lenarra... I'm sorry, but I have no idea why," she said to her sympathetically.

Jade nodded as she absorbed this information, before she suddenly turned to look at John, her face looking dumbfounded. "Didn't the Ashanath think that the last time the Progenitors were active in this area was nearly ten thousand years ago?" she said, her eyes wide as saucers.

The girls gasped, seeing what she was hinting at as he nodded. "Which would make you at least ten thousand years old," he confirmed for her softly.

A profound silence settled over the dinner table as they desperately tried to wrap their heads around this latest string of revelations. Even Rachel was stunned, having not realised the Nymph's likely age.

Jade shrugged suddenly and beamed a sparkling smile at John. "At least I have a great ass for a deca-millennial," she said with a giggle.

John laughed loudly holding out his arms for her, and she bounded over to him and sat in his lap. "You do have a spectacular ass," he told her sincerely, and she laughed gaily, hugging him tightly.

Rachel grinned at her, relieved to see that she wasn't upset. "I'm glad you're taking this so well," she said to Jade happily.

Jade beamed a broad smile back at her and shrugged nonchalantly. "I can do some pretty bonkers things, so this makes as much sense as anything. It actually explains why I'm genetically compatible with John, whereas Nymphs weren't with any other species in this section of the galaxy," she explained astutely.

John reached his hand down and stroked her slim stomach, and she purred with delight as she nuzzled into him, kissing him eagerly. The other girls watched them with broad smiles on their faces until the couple finally broke apart.

*It explains her aversion to using guns as well,* Alyssa observed. *It looks like your forebears didn't want the Nymphs using weapons.*

*You think she's been genetically coded with a strongly adverse reaction to firing guns?* he asked her curiously.

*That would be my best guess,* Alyssa agreed. *We can always ask Rachel to look into it.*

John took a big breath, before looking at Rachel again and smiling. "Any more shocking revelations for us?" he asked her playfully.