Three Square Meals Ch. 043

Dana was just pulling a fresh top over her head, and she half-jogged out of the door to catch up with John as he strolled past.

"Everything been working out with the simulator and the pulse generator?" she asked him curiously. "Any performance degradation since we moved it from Oceanus?"

John smiled at her. "After it was installed by you? Of course not, it's working perfectly," he replied, his voice full of admiration.

She grinned at him gaily, happy to receive such praise.

He stopped for a moment, and pulled her into his arms. "Brilliant, fun, loving, loyal, dedicated, and of course, stunningly beautiful and incredible in bed. You really are the complete package, aren't you?" he asked her rhetorically, his voice serious.

"You made me th-" she started to say with a smirk, but he interrupted her.

"No, the really important parts are all you," he told her firmly, and leaned down and kissed her tenderly.

Dana looked up at him, her eyes wide, and then she hugged him tightly. "I'll have to initiate sex more often if it makes you say stuff like that," she joked when she finally let him go, but he could see she was genuinely touched by what he'd said.

"You won't catch me complaining," he told her with a grin, before he looked at her curiously. "Off to have fun with your new toys?"

The redhead nodded eagerly, her body full of energy and raring to go. "You'll know when I've finished the first one," she said with a smile, and then turned and bounded away, waving to him happily as she went.

John followed after her to the grav-tube, but by the time he leaned over to look down, she had already disappeared, rushing to her workshop. He shook his head with an amused smile on his face, and then stepped into the red-glowing side of the tube and descended to Deck Three, to continue his sparring with the taciturn Swordmaster.

***

They all met up for dinner a few hours later, and John was pleased to have all the girls back together again, after they had scattered to do their own thing for most of the day. He had cooked roast lamb for their meal, and as they took their first bites of the succulent, perfectly cooked joint of meat, compliments to the chef came thick and fast. The first topic of conversation was the clean crisp air that now circulated around the ship, after Dana had installed the new air filtration system that she had 'borrowed' from the Maliri, and activated it a few minutes before dinner.

"The air's so fresh," Calara marvelled, shaking her head in disbelief. "It feels even better than back home!"

Jade nodded as she took a vast lungful of air into her chest, her chest expanding even larger than normal to accommodate it. She tilted her head for a moment, as she let it all out, and then looked over at Dana in surprise as she said, "The air feels even cleaner than on the Maliri space station!"

Dana nodded at her and a sparkling smile lit up her delighted face. "That's awesome that you noticed the difference! I actually made a few enhancements. Their design was brilliant, and a huge improvement on the standard Terran system, but I tweaked it a bit."

John raised his glass of wine for a toast, and the other girls picked up their glasses too. "To Dana, our sexy genius spy," he said his voice full of admiration.

The girls laughed happily, and clinked glasses before grinning appreciatively at Dana. She blushed a little, but grinned back at them joyfully.

He smiled at her, and said proudly, "Go ahead and tell them what else you 'acquired' on your little covert mission."

Dana nodded and looked over at Calara as she started speaking, "I managed to take a look at their schematics for the targeting systems. They were much more sophisticated than ours, so when I make a start on the Tactical Station upgrade, I'll incorporate those too."

The Latina's dark brown eyes sparkled with excitement, and she leaned closer, grinning back at her as she said, "That sounds amazing! I can't wait to see what they can do."

The redhead shared an equally enthusiastic grin with her, before she continued, "I've got blueprints for the Maliri anti-gravity generators, which are an enhanced version of the anti-grav cyclics we had already. I'll upgrade the robots first as a prototype, but we don't use them much on the ship, only really in the lift from my workshop to the Cargo Bay.

The Maliri Shield modulators are going to be much more useful though. They help regulate and stabilise the ship's shield strength when under attack. They draw quite a bit of power, but we have bucket-loads with the Ashanath power core we have installed, so that won't be a concern."

John nodded approvingly. "How much extra shield strength will that give us?" he asked, before popping a forkful of lamb into his mouth.

Dana looked thoughtful for a moment as she mulled it over. "Sixty three point five eight percent," she estimated for him.

Amazed looks and delighted grins were the order of the day, and they all looked very impressed, as they nodded to her appreciatively.

"That just leaves the best till last, the Maliri sensor tech," Dana said surprisingly. "It's radically more advanced than ours, and I'm actually amazed that no-one has realised it yet. If I upgrade our sensor array to use their technology, we'll triple the range of our long range scans! Even more importantly, passive sensors will return data much faster at far longer ranges, and we'll be able to perform active scans from twice as far away!"

Calara grinned even wider as she looked across the table at the redhead in amazement. "That'll give us a massive tactical advantage! We'll be able to detect enemies without them even realising we're there!" she exclaimed, barely able to believe her luck.

"How soon can you get all this equipment fitted?" John asked her eagerly.

Dana leaned back in her chair and tapped her finger on her chin as she calculated how long it would take the mass fabricators to create all the parts she needed, the build times, and then how long it would take to install and test them.

She took a big breath before she launched into her estimates, "The shield modulator is the most complex piece of equipment, but it's only relatively small, and installing it will be easy as I'll just need to hook it up to our existing shield generators. Ten hours to fabricate the parts and assemble it, then two hours to install.

Upgrading the Tactical Station would have just taken me half a day, as I've already started the fabricators making the newly designed weapons controls. As I'll now need to upgrade our fire control systems, too, that will take at least another... six hours, so call it a full day to complete.

Finally, there's the new sensor array. The ship's sensors are built into the front of the ship and there's a lot of them. It's going to take the mass fabricators at least a day to build them all, but probably three full days for us to remove all the armour plating and install the upgraded components."

John added up the estimates she had mentioned, and nodding agreeably, he asked, "So we're looking at basically six full days to get everything up and running?"

Dana nodded as she mulled it over, but Rachel shook her head, disagreeing. "I think we can do it in three," she said firmly.

The redhead turned to look at her with a puzzled expression on her face. "I'm not sure how, those are pretty accurate estimates," she said dubiously.

Rachel smiled as she explained her reasoning. "Why not let us and the robots do the grunt work of installing the sensor array? While the fabricators are forging all the new parts for the sensors, you can finish programming the robots to be able to remove the armour plating, then all of us can install the sensor array for you. That leaves you free to work on the shield modulator and the Tactical Station upgrade which we can't really assist with," she said helpfully.

Dana nodded as she thought it over, looking impressed. "Yeah that could work," she agreed. "I could get the robots finished this evening, and get the mass fabricators working overnight. You'd be able to start installing the new components tomorrow morning."

Alyssa then grinned excitedly. "There's actually one other option. I could go out there and pull all the armour plating off the front of the ship in one go. Once we've swapped out the sensors, I could re-plate the entire ship in triple-forged plating. What do you think? Put on a show for the Maliri?" she asked half-jokingly.

John laughed and shook his head as he said, "We probably better keep your hidden talents under our hats. Besides, this will be a good easy test for the robots, and a good trial run before we need to use them to repair damaged plating out in deep space."

The blonde smiled good naturedly as she agreed, and everyone looked around at each other, excited to be working as a team to upgrade the Invictus.

Calara then frowned and looked over at Dana with a troubled expression on her face. "Won't the Maliri notice that we're installing the tech you stole?" she said hesitantly.

Alyssa shook her head as she glanced mischievously at John, "We don't steal things, we 'requisition' them, isn't that right, handsome?"

He laughed and nodded, but the girls looked confused, so Alyssa explained their long standing joke.

Dana smiled, then shook her head and said, "I plan to make a few tweaks anyway. Our new sensors will be even better, assuming my enhancements are successful, and will look different enough that a snooping Maliri won't realise what I've done."

Calara nodded, her doubts assuaged, and they finished off dinner, talking enthusiastically about the work ahead of them. As soon as Dana had finished eating, she walked around the table to give John a kiss and thank him for dinner, before heading off to the Engineering Bay to finish her robots and start up the mass fabricators. Rachel followed her lead, giving John a kiss too, and then walked away with the redhead, the two of them chattering excitedly.

The others cleared away dinner, and Calara suddenly looked thoughtful, and said, "If you guys don't mind, I might go and have a chat with Dana. I want to know what the new targeting systems are capable of, before we finalise the changes to the weapon controls."

John nodded and she gave him a lingering kiss, before thanking him for a lovely meal.

"That just leaves us three," Alyssa said playfully. "What do you think Jade? Want to help me keep him entertained?"

The Nymph smiled at her happily, and then surprisingly shook her head. "I've still got a full tummy," she said, joyfully stroking her slightly rounded belly full of cum from earlier. "You two have fun together, I'll go and work on my shapeshifting. I napped through the time I had planned to work on it."

Jade gave them each an affectionate hug, and then strolled out of the room, humming happily to herself.

Alyssa stepped up to John, and placed her hands around his neck. "It looks like you'll just have to make do with little old me," she said looking sympathetic.

He grinned at her and replied, "'Making do', is an expression I'll never use with you, beautiful."

"Ahh, aren't you sweet," she told him, with a happy smile. "If I didn't know what a good romp Dana had with you this afternoon, I'd think you were trying to get into my pants."

John frowned and looked playfully puzzled, "I thought you'd given me an all-access pass, whenever the urge took me?"

Her musical laughter filled the room and she nodded in confirmation.

"Maybe later," he grinned, and she unhooked her arms from his neck, as she sensed he wanted to chat.

John led her over to the sofas so they could sit down and talk together, and when he sat down, she lay back on the sofa placing her head in his lap again, looking up at him with a warm smile.

"Yeah, I enjoyed that too," he told her as he began to stroke her golden blonde hair.

He put his feet up on the coffee table, and they just lay there for a while, relaxing together as he brushed his fingers through her soft, lustrous hair.

Eventually she looked up at him and asked, "So, what did you want to talk about?"

John smiled wryly and looked down at her. "I thought you could read my mind. Don't you know full well what I'm thinking about?"

The blonde grinned at him and nodded. "Sure, but it starts to make you guys unsettled when I just answer your questions before you've even asked them. Besides, I only know what you're actively thinking about at the moment. Sometimes, just letting a conversation play out, takes a person's mind to interesting places," she explained gently.

"Well thank you for being so considerate," he said with a smile. "It's actually amazingly useful when you supply me with information, while I'm in conversation with someone else."

She nodded and looked thoughtful. "I guess this is new for all of us, so working out the etiquette is going to take a little time."

"Fortunately, time seems to be something we have a lot of," John said, raising an eyebrow archly.

Alyssa sat up for a moment, turning around to kneel at his side on the sofa, and look at him excitedly. "I still can't believe it's true," she said, shaking her head in amazement. "Immortality... the very idea seems crazy."

"I know exactly what you mean," he replied. "As amazing as it all sounds, I can see there's going to be some... complications, in the future."

She nodded as she followed his train of thought. "Yeah I hadn't thought about it before, but this is going to get tricky for Calara," she said sympathetically.

John nodded, noting that the girls avoiding thinking about mortality seemed to not just be centred around him. Still, they were young, and hadn't experienced the loss of friends over the years that he had, which had made him painfully aware of just how brutally short life could be. He quickly changed tack, to avoid any lingering on his own possible death, not wanting to risk upsetting her.

"Calara is the youngest of the Fernandez children, so her outliving them all would have likely happened anyway," he conceded.

Alyssa nodded, but then smiled as she said, "True, but I think we'll have a few tricky questions to answer when she still looks like she's eighteen, thirty years from now."

"There's going to be tricky questions for all of us from the Terran Federation in thirty years' time, if none of us are going to age," John said thoughtfully. "With the way they're using us in these propaganda PR pieces, we're starting to make a name for ourselves. Remember that Excelsior passenger recognising me on the Raptor?"

The blonde girl nodded, as she remember that conversation. "So what do we do? Try and keep a low profile?"

John looked thoughtful for a moment and then glanced at Alyssa as she unfolded her long legs, putting them up on the coffee table the way he had.

"Come and lie on me instead," she offered with an inviting smile.

He chuckled and then did as she asked, resting his head in her lap, with her thighs forming a lovely pillow. She began to run her hands through his hair, and he closed his eyes, feeling wonderfully relaxed. He stopped to think about living forever with such an incredible group of young women, but try as he might, he found it difficult to try and imagine an eternity. His mind just wasn't equipped to be able to imagine that vast span of time, let alone a few centuries. In the end he just focused on the idea of spending the next several decades with Alyssa, just as she was now, and he smiled in wonder at the thought. He eventually opened his eyes, then looked up at her, and she smiled down at him lovingly, having listened to the whole thing.

"I think we'll really have to put some thought into our long term plans," he said finally. "If the Lions of the Federation are still flying around in the Invictus in one hundred years time, even the dimmest of Terran scientists are going to start asking questions."

Alyssa nodded at him in agreement. "I don't really fancy living forever as a science experiment," she said with a shudder.

John looked at her with worry. "If we got captured and separated..." he said, faltering at the end.

"I'd never let you get captured," she said fiercely, her eyes flashing with anger at the thought.

He nodded as he said, "I feel the same way. I feel sorry for anyone who tried to take you away from me," he told her equally as passionately.

She leaned down and kissed him tenderly, while staring into his eyes, then sat back and smiled. "So where do we go to avoid attention in the long term? The Ashanath?" she asked him curiously.

John thought it over, but then shook his head as he said, "It's hard to say how they'd react to that idea. They'd either be delighted, at the thought of having their own resident Progenitor, or horrified at the possible attention it would bring their way."

Alyssa nodded as she thought about the pacifist and conflict averse Ashanath. "Yeah you're right, and I'm fairly sure it would be the latter," she said ruefully.

"Truth be told, they still creep me out. Those whispery voices are just too eerie," he admitted bashfully.

She smiled at him, and said, "They're actually quite expressive and interesting to chat with via telepathy." Then added playfully, "You should try it sometime."

John frowned as he looked up at her, and said, "I wouldn't even know where to begin. How did you start developing your telepathy anyway?"

Alyssa looked thoughtful as she considered his question, then said carefully, "It wasn't a conscious choice, it sort of just happened. I started picking up your emotions after a few days, without really realising what was happening. Then I began to pick up snippets of random thoughts from your inner voice. I thought I might be going mad at first... hearing voices, you know what I mean. Then I realised it was your thoughts I was hearing, and I just started to listen in."

He laughed and said, "Unfortunately that doesn't really give me any pointers to start from."

She grinned at him apologetically, and then said, "I just gather my will, and then kind of... project my thoughts at people. You have to be careful, because if you put too much effort behind it, it seems like you're shouting."

He nodded and looked up at her, his brow furrowing as he concentrated. She closed her eyes, and focused on what he was thinking, and then said encouragingly, "That's it, just push out with your mind."

John tried to do just that, but no matter how hard he concentrated, nothing seemed to happen. "Anything?" he asked her, half-heartedly.

Alyssa opened her eyes and looked down at his furrowed brow, and then gently smoothed his forehead with her fingers, making him smile as he relaxed his tense expression. "No, I'm afraid not," she said gently, shaking her head.

"Maybe I'm just not psychic after all?" he asked her, sounding frustrated.

She looked down at him, and looked thoughtful. "No, I'm sure you are. You might not be able to use telepathy for some reason, but your mind shield is rock solid, and you have no problem shutting me out from time-to-time," she said, with a knowing smile.

John looked shifty, and she leaned down and kissed him gently. "It's okay, don't feel bad. I'm always listening to your thoughts, so the moment I can't, I'm aware of it instantly. If you're shutting me out for some reason, I know it's for my own good," she said, looking down at him trustingly.

He looked up at her, and marvelled at the depth of her absolute trust in him. He was about to reply when his watch began to chime melodically, as someone attempted to contact him on the Invictus. Smiling at Alyssa apologetically, he sat up, and pressed the button on his watch that would put the call through.

Ceraden's face appeared as a holographic image above the watch and he said in a jovial tone, "Hello my friend! Something has come up that I'd love to speak to you about, but it's best not to talk to you about it over an open Comm channel."