All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 048'

The million dollar question, do they know she has the camera files?

Brilliant chapter and can't wait to see what happens next.

P.S, hopefully Ceraden makes it out of this alright.

I think tefler still has a few surprises up his sleeve! I mean did anyone expect a sadistic but conflicted voyeur with a rather interesting upbringing on the ship? It will provide some cool interactions in the future

Well done tefler 5 stars as usual!

Xentian

all u guys including me with no faith for one weird reaction...

see? all explained now and such an amazing situation setup...

plus he called her slave in the caves so she doesn't necessarily have to be a lover. slave will do to...

more bdsm undertone options. if not, i'm happy with any blue woman. (as long as its not cuz of O2 deprivation)

-devil

Really glad to hear you enjoyed the chapter!

Ive finished chapter 49, and it's with editors. On to chapter 50(!).

A mastabatory blue voyeur, sums this up nicely. She won't be able to tell mommy if she's enslaved to John, can't wait for him to take her, which I see potentially forcibly when they find out whats she has been upto, and what she knows. Perhaps progenitor John will overwhelm her trying to protect what is his :). 5 stars once again, now the week to 10 day wait for the next chapter :{

Mal

For your comment way back on Chapter 24, about the camera footage getting into unfriendly hands. That suggestion was the inspiration for this chapter.

I enjoyed this chapter and will wait with baited breath for more!

Part of me wants me them to just airlock that blue wench and the other part wants me to watch John break her.

Cheers!

man i really really want to see john space the conniving little bitch and be done with it i mean come on they made all these upgrades to there ship and didnt do anything to protect them from some one trying to hack them realy come on i find that very hard to believe

"didnt do anything to protect them from some one trying to hack them"

Dana disconnected the schematics data server from the network and built an extremely robust firewall on the network to prevent unfriendly intrusion. That would have been good enough to stop all but the very best of Terran hackers.

Irillith isn't a Terran hacker...

Edraele tells John that her daughter is a hacker and he makes little or no extra effort to ensure that her activities are monitored onboard the ship? Obviously the Malari women are all liars... What is the point of this trip? John won't return to Malari space, right?.... Right?

i see in this one where u had him explain his behave your in the last 3 chapters and he does feel like hes getting back to the old john but i wonder why u didnt have any of the cru check her cams at all in the 4 days that she is on the ship exspecily whe he tell his ex o he doesnt trust her and just lets here wonder his ship for 3 days with no interaction just seems far feched my i be spying on her at all times

but like i said be4 love the storie and cant wait for next chpter

Every time I read about Irillith's conniving and general asshattedness I am content. Tefler has a flair for karmic justice and *when* she gets found out it is going to be absolutely hilarious. Great job building up the suspense around Irilleth, keep up the good work.

-Psiichotiic

If you read the previous chapter they did take the precautions all the networks are segmented. The only reason irillith managed to hack the cameras is that the signals from the cameras watching her were the only ingress point for her to hack and where do the cameras save their data but the archive! Its the only network that irillith had access to.

Dana already disconnected the research stations and the command/sensor/fire control and other subsystems would have closed networks and segmented from eachother anyway.

I was initially angry at Irlith's invasion of privacy, but like Psiichotiic said, I'm now just looking forward to her inevitable comeuppance. Can't wait to see John tan her blue behind until it's a bright ... purple, I guess it would be? Humans turn pink because of our red blood, right? Do we know what color Maliari blood is?

I was also concerned about such an obvious oversight in leaving the archived footage on the network. It makes me wonder if that was a deliberate plan made by one of the brilliant beauties (I suspect Dana or strategic-thinking Calara). Leaving hundreds of hours of porn to arouse and entice their guest into letting her guard down or do something she might not otherwise could work, but is somewhat convoluted and a huge risk in letting her see all of their secrets.

Irlith's use of AI is interesting, but I am horrified that she would blithely create intelligent life, take advantage of its naive and trusting nature to send it on its mission, then murder it! I have a feeling the Pride will be bothered by its death, too, even knowing how mistrustful they are about AI. Can't wait to see what Dana will make of it. Maybe she can liberate and nurture it and help it grow, until she can finally break Tefler's first law of AI that all AI will always become violent to organics.

Another great chapter as always, Tefler. Keep up the good work!

Another great chapter. I was surprised you didn't show her reaction to the likely origins of her people. Also I can't wait to see what happens when Dana's protocol system meets those fragments of AI's that are floating about the ships systems.

PS: the only way I see the blue girl joining the crew is if John does break her first.

In reality hacking an unknown computer system is incredibly time consuming. Unless you know the specifications of the system and its vulnerabilities, get extremely lucky, or the system administrator is a total moron (falls under luck) it could take hours or even days (or weeks, or millennia) to hack some systems. If you don't know a systems vulnerabilities and have to brute force a password or encryption algorithm it's all about computing power versus when the system flags your 10 millionth (just an arbitrary number I thought up) incorrect password or bad network packet for the system admin or other safeguard.

When Irillith hacked the firewall it would have taken her more than just a few minutes unless she already knew the specifications of Dana's probably upgraded systems and had programs premade for it. Or her hacking tool had a quantum entangled connection or other ftl connection to a supercomputer or zombie network to brute force it. Even then Dana would have been alerted the moment the hack started.

So assuming Tefler did any research on hacking, even reading wikipedia. Which for the sake of the story, and my immense respect for him, I will believe he did. The fact that the ships firewall was apparently the an only slightly modified, default Terran Federation firewall the Malari already knew the vulnerabilities of and had tools for, and that the R&D servers were already air-gapped (disconnected from any network), leads me to believe that Dana was expecting to be hacked and set up a honey trap, or something to alert her when Irillith broke through the firewall.

tl;dr; Dana probably put up a fake, or modified network behind a weak firewall under the assumption that the system would be hacked by Irillith. So the crew could catch Irillith, or control what she saw.

-Your friendly neighborhood programmer

-The_End

P.S. Tefler, love your story. You're an amazing writer. Keep up the amazing work.

I reread chapter 16 and the ambush by the pirates you get a idea the the shields are both energy and magnetic because the shields held but the for e into the shields through the Corvettes Into the chunk of ice. (Chapter 16). I agree this seemed like a decoy server and Dana is probably monitoring it. I have a feeling when push comes to shove John can open that anytime he wants with his little chrome device . No I have a feeling she is gonna turn on her mother now that she has already started to realize that John could easily take control over her if he wanted just by being stren because of her fear. They could use it as a strength against her and when are we gonna find out more about her dna. I think her mother was trying unlock his mind thinking it would make her the matriarch.

Your welcome. Glad I could help in any little way with this wonderful story . I thought at the time it was dangerous to have any record of their interactions & abilities that might be hacked & hope you have an answer for the little blue viper in their midst .I didn't notice any reference of her seeing Jade doing any of her transformations which should have shocked her to her core if she did see them & if she realized the cause & effect of the girls alterations (John's cumm) Keep up the great work

Hey, glad to see you're still following the story! :-)

"I didn't notice any reference of her seeing Jade doing any of her transformations"

Half way down on page five. She got freaked out afterwards when she saw progenitor John in action. She didn't see Jade's demo in the cargo bay, as she was reviewing a compiled set of footage gathered by the AI (at the beginning of the chapter).

just imagine the AI plus Dana subroutines form a mix the somehow code the progenitors dna samples and form a new very interesting AI.

I think with this chapter you have revealed a weakness of the ships crew and master. They are so secure in their abilities that they discount the danger presented by Irillith and what she might be doing with her species obviously advanced technology. You will deal with this of course, but a bit of caution on John's part would have been appropriate. You have hinted at his innate superiority in the conversation with Alyessa, although it is still somewhat buried in his subconscious mind. The use of the little construct should have been a huge warning flag to John as he saw it was sent out over the comms. Speaking of the use of comms, would not that construct have had to access the approaching ships comms by a two way communication. If the other ship did not respond to comms would there be any access to those systems?

As others have said, it seems that John and crew are far more naive than they should be for their level of experience and intelligence. They routinely neglect consideration of (at least to me) obvious explanations, suspicions, etc. If I had a crew of the smartest humans in the galaxy I would spend much more time analyzing the possibilities and preparing for the worst case scenarios even while working to make things work to my advantage. They should be actively monitoring Irillith beyond trusting their Terran surveillance technology, which they should have figured out was inferior to Maliri tech.

I'm not complaining about the story at large, and I know there have to be things that can challenge the Invictus and its crew, but I would expect them to have to come from unfamiliar places, not places that many very highly intelligent people of varied life experience simply overlook for no obvious reason.

Love the story but i cannot believe how easy it is to hack a command ship without some type of warning being made. With all the updates that Dana has done, sometype of computer security would have been added also. So as much as i like the stor , this chapter would get a very low rating because they have a known unfriendly on board and really nothing is being done to make sure she ddoesn't ttakeoover the ship.

Those of you who are worried about the seeming ease with which Irillith hacked the ship's network, keep in mind hacking is her specialty. Dana probably did improve the standard issue firewall that came with the ship a bit, but she's an engineer, not a computer programmer. She doesn't have nearly the same level of programming/hacking skills that Irillith does. So while Dana was able to delay Irillith a bit, the only way she could stop the hack was if she disconnected everything from the network, like she did with the server that had all her schematics on it, or shut down the network entirely. Plus Irillith has her little AI, something that no Terran would have accounted for, even Dana.

Dana herself has said that she could hack her way into a system, but having her do so would be like using a nuke to open a bank vault when a blow torch would do just as well (or something like that). Anybody she hacked would instantly know about it and be able to track it to the source. Irillith, however, has skills in that regards. Right now, she's like that blow torch used to open a vault. When and if she joins the crew, she'll get even better.

On a related note, computer security is a relative thing. No matter how tough your security is, if someone wants in, they will find a way. All you can do is make it so tough as to be not worth their time. With that in mind, even if Dana had made a super firewall, Irillith not only had a connection to the network but plenty of time and a mandate from her mother; she would have gained access eventually, it was only a matter of when.

By the way, Tefler, nice chapter. I was almost looking forward to seeing how the Invictus would fare against a Maliri ship in combat, but you dodged that deftly. Also, you're already done with chapter 49?!? Good grief man, you have diarrhea of the fingers big time, but in a good way. How do you find the time to do all this writing so quickly and still have a life?

It is pretty obvious that Irrilith is the equivalent of inviting the entire Anonymous hacking team on board.

John will win in the end. Dana is more than distracted from giving network security her full attention but I can tell you that secure is all relative and she would have done an awesome job. Doesn't make any difference if you get over awesomed.

To be fair your average reader wants to see the next chapter more than details of how Irrilith beat rotating holographic encryption.

To work over something I thought was missed, but wasn't.

Why did Irrilith not see all the Ashanath doing the upgrades before they fought the Drakkar. Hint. What were the AI search parameters. Think about it.

Phew! Everyone had me worried there. I thought I might have been giving the wrong impression about what the characters can and can't do, but you have it spot on.

"Dana probably did improve the standard issue firewall that came with the ship a bit, but she's an engineer, not a computer programmer."

Exactly. Dana is a materials science engineer. She's gifted at designing and building them new equipment from technology they acquire. She's very intelligent, so she picked up a bit of hacking and computer knowledge, but it's not her specialist field. I think I even mention that she only started dabbling a bit when she joined the crew.

"Dana is more than distracted from giving network security her full attention "

Right again! She's just acquired a whole load of new tech, like the Maliri crystal, and was almost entirely focused on combining that with Etherite crystals.

"Dana probably did improve the standard issue firewall that came with the ship a bit,"

Yeah, she did upgrade it, and did a pretty nice job considering her lack of expertise in the area. It meant that it took Irillith eight minutes to hack through the firewall instead of four.

"Plus Irillith has her little AI, something that no Terran would have accounted for, even Dana."

Bingo! The crew has been pretty clear with their views on AI, and all Terran experiments with AI have gone disastrously wrong. There was no way they could have anticipated or done anything to stop Irillith, aside from stripping her naked and shoving her in an empty room.

"I was almost looking forward to seeing how the Invictus would fare against a Maliri ship in combat, but you dodged that deftly."

;-)

"How do you find the time to do all this writing so quickly and still have a life? "

Work gets in the way sadly, but I proofread what I've written the night before during lunchbreaks. I'm a bit of a night owl, so I tend to stay up until 1am most nights, which gives me at least 3 hours a night after spending the evening with the family.

"It is pretty obvious that Irrilith is the equivalent of inviting the entire Anonymous hacking team on board."

That was a nice analogy. To further it, Dana is the equivalent of a script kiddie trying to stop that whole group.

Now, this begs the question... Why even allow anyone that dangerous on board the Invictus?

1) John's judgement is -affected- when it comes to dealing with the Maliri (as discussed in this chapter). As he discussed with Alyssa, he wants to see what Edraele is up to with her scheming.

2) The girls follow his lead, and place almost blind trust in his judgement. They are also only 18, and lacking experience (Apart from Jade, but being cautious and suspicious isn't in her nature). Although very smart, they are not experts in everything, only areas that I specifically mention they've trained in.

As with most stories your main character is dumb and ignorant. John is a military man, and in many of his battles in the beginning of the story uses his military intelligence to lead his forces. But with someone aboard a ship that he cannot trust there is no surveillance or any other type of activity to keep an eye on her behavior and what she's up to doing on the barge. No security checks no one actively seeking to find not her true intentions are those of her mother. You need to make the main character a little more intelligent than stupid. With all the new revelations that come with the psychic abilities he has done nothing to investigate these are to strengthen them so that he can be more help to is Harold.

What make everyone think that John in not giving her enough rope to hang herself.

Dave

at first I was with the camp of "John is being naive", now that you wrote he knew what he was getting into I think he is way over confident.

time and time again he walks into a battle under bad odds = only he and the girls against multiple enemies, and each time his "progenitor side" comes out and rescue him; the "lion of the federation" went to his big head (not the one attached to his shoulders).

for fucks sake it the 30+ century (or what ever) and they don't know how to turn the WIFI off? no VPN and the military grade firewall is a joke!

I know because he's the hero (of the story) he will find a way to sway her in their direction / she will succumb to lust, but she is evil, and even if she'll feel remorse that account for shit.

I for one hope she will NOT join the crew but get killed during the mission or even by them.

You submitted this chapter 4 days ago and it took them this long to approve it! I'm happy to hear you kept writing the next chapter but nobody would have blamed you if you had decided to take a break!

Also, maybe they have a backup device monitoring her sleeping quarters, maybe a fibre optic connected to an air gapped computer in the next room?

Subconscious progenitor John is causing Professional Military Combat Specialist Officer John to feel like basics are history maybe?

* They only let me out to play when there is a disaster - so more disasters please. *

Hmm I know John will be punishing our hacker when he founds out, wonder if we'll see Mistress Alyssa emerge from this too

Frankly i've always thought the worst thing you can do to an adversary is let them think they're smarter than everyone else.

I read this once and something bothered me I could not quite put a finger on.

Upon a second reading, this jumped out at me.

"With the jacks disconnected, the AI would immediately de-res, so she turned off the computer built into the vambrace."

The AI would not de-res until it had accomplished its mission. That was to protect Irillith. Just disabling that cruiser was not a completed mission as far as the AI would perceive it. The other ships, and those on the cruiser would be killed, perhaps more. Or the AI would find her later and use that cruiser, or the battleship to help defend the Invictus as long as Irillith was on it. VERY intriguing Tefler....you devil!

I'll be honest I don't much care for that blue bitch but at some point she may redeem herself we'll have to wait and see I guess speaking of which how long until the next chapter tefler?

I've finished chapter 49 and gone through the first round of edits. It will probably be up on the site by Monday.

(1940's radio voice) will there be a red girl to finish the set? only time....and Tefler will tell. tune in next week for another installment of the greatest epic scif fi porno ever on literotica.

More seriously, this series continues to impress, Ilirith being a voyeur was a nice touch. maybe she gets off on being a cuckquean, being forced to watch other women with "her" man, and forced to clean up afterwards. There's all kinds of interesting possibilities with her, does exposure to John activate her latent psi abilities? will she join the crew? How? Are there roles on the ship that still need to be filled?

We'll find out in good time. Tefler has but together a 50(!) chapter story that still has us at the edge of our seats.

For those of you complaining about how letting Ilirith on board is dumb, consider the following:

1. John doesn't trust her

2. Alyssa is a powerful psi

3. SHE doesn't trust any malari, and has seen psi attempts to break into john's head

4. she can communicate instantly and as far as we know, completely securely with John and the entire crew.

So while Ilirith might be a lithe blue hacker queen and Dana and the other girls not up to her level on hacking, they are her superiors on multiple levels. Trust Tefler, he's not steered us wrong yet.

Another angle to consider, is what did the progenitors need?

Nymphs are obviously meant to be ideal bed mates/ bodyguards

Malari, are meant to be soldiers/slaves

What else do they need? what else does john need?

Obviously the author listens to useful feedback, it's where he got the voyeur idea from. Rather than complain about about poor IT security, try and add something constructive.

I'll add something, John is obviously a pretty fair businessman from his years as a free trader, but does he have a business manager?He's going to be one of the most powerful business people in the federation based off allysium alone, not including all the other discoveries the girls have made. Maybe that cute reporter can join the team as his PR person,

Anyway, Tefler, you're doing an excellent job. please keep up the good work

Well crafted stories and psychology tell us that the strongest attachments are to those that challenge us. You love most if you have to transcend some hatred.

I think the big ego mistake was by Irillith . She produced her AI in front of the crew & then had it attack the other ships computer ,I think this should be enough to get John & his paranoia about AI & Dana with her limited computer skills to start checking just what she might have been up to in their computers .

It seems the crew needs a computer hacking specialist :-) I think the ExO should look into it .

Telfer ..wouldn't miss any of your story , I check every night around midnight for any updates .

Tefler had mentioned in the comments on the last chapter I think that he wondered if anyone had picked up on the hints regarding Edraele's plans. I had some thoughts on that before this chapter, and some of events of this chapter just confirmed a bit. I'm now going to put those thoughts into text here, that way if they turn out to be true later, I can later say "Called it!" and have proof that I did. :-D

So, to start with, Maliri society is obviously divided into factions along house lines a la Game of Thrones, and the various houses are obviously not on friendly terms. They aren't openly hostile towards each other, but if an opportunity to hurt another house comes up, like the heir of an opposing house being on a ship that shouldn't be in Maliri space, they're going to take it. This is true at least for the female part of Maliri society. The male part seems to be a good deal more peaceful.

Now it seems to me that the mostly unused giant space station orbiting Irillith's home world is likely a holdover from when the houses were united as one, meaning that no one house has the ability to utilize the full station in their current state. Only if the entire Maliri race unites could they hope to make full use of the station. And if that were to ever happen, the rest of the galaxy will likely tremble in fear (if they even knew about it).

So, with all this in mind, Edraele has seen an opportunity in John. She wants to try to gain control of him somehow, either with mental domination or with manipulative lying to get him to run errands for her. Regardless of if she'd be able to control him or not, she wants his tech to gain a definitive edge over the other houses. Basically, she's trying to setup for a power play/grab. John senses this on a subconscious-Progenitor John level, and as he mentions, feels like letting Edraele play her little game because Progenitor John thinks it might be entertaining, especially when everything starts to come together for Edraele and then John just crushes it in front of her.

As for the scope of Edraele's power play, I'd say getting all the other Maliri houses under her control would be just the start. Once she has all the houses under her, she'll start to make full use of that immense space station to construct a massive fleet with which she'll start expanding Maliri territory. And she hopes to have John at the head of that fleet, or at the very least, his tech powering it.

As for how John will end up crushing Edraele's plan, it's likely that the first step is/was preventing Edraele from gaining access to John's mind. Second step will be to keep her from getting John's tech, which will likely involve Irillith joining the crew, as making someone else's pawn your own is a lot more satisfying than just getting rid of them. What comes after that is anybody's guess. When John will do all of this is something only Tefler knows.

For those that mention naivete or similar among the crew, it seems like a limited view. Tefler even gave us a hint of who's keeping tabs on this. Hacking has a limited scope of what it can hide.

Looking forward to the next installment!

Thanks for keeping us in the loop can't wait for Monday your stories are the best on this site hands down you should consider making this a book series I would buy it

Chapter positives:

1. Reasons for making the deal with Maliri - explained. Progenitor's gut feeling - well played.

2. Irillith's emotions and behavior - well described.

3. Irillith's mission and resources (advanced Maliri AI technology) - well described. Apparently only House Valaden has that AI, because House Ghilwen failed to detect and\or block it - I guess not all Maliri are great hackers.

Chapter negatives:

1. No new important developments.

a) a spy looks over some old sexy footage from previous chapters.

b) Nymph morphing is explained (we already knew she gained\lost weight for shapes).

c) No battles or confrontations - all is very polite, civilized and boring (except for the sexy bits).

2. "Dana disconnected the schematics data server from the network". Well, Irillith has devices for the cameras - she can use them to sneak out at night and get to the "schematics data server" on foot. Even if she gets caught, what John will do? Make her stay in her room? - She spends all the time in her room anyway.

Guess the server is not that important at this point and camera footage information is valuable enough to risk getting caught. Still, I'd like Irillith to at least consider other spying options than just watching TV all day ...

3. No one is checking on Irillith's room footage. At least, that was not described in the chapter. That appears ignorant.

4. All girls are working on something interesting, while John fucks around. I am all for smart and driven beautiful women, but John's development has been obviously neglected for a couple of chapters now.

It has been explained how Nymphs change mass... it's a psionic power. And everyone acts like, "Oh, it makes perfect sense that psionics can be used to violate the conservation of mass and energy," Is it known that psionics can do that? It seems way too blasé to me.

Did I miss something?

PS. In other news, it's funny watching Irillith think she's on top of the world when the truth is she has no idea that's she's already so very fucked. (Figuratively speaking.) Amusingly it seems that her Maliri instincts really want her to get so very fucked. (Literally speaking.) She can't fight her pre-programmed genetic imperatives which is probably why John's progenitor instincts are laughing and laughing at the idea of a toy believing it can make use of the one who plays with it.

I like the relaxing chapters as much as the adventure chapters. Balance is good.

I like them better than the adventure fairly evenly.

Good things start with all the development that happens here is how it always feels, and I enjoy the anticipation of how it will come to harvest.

I also just like the happy family feelings.

All it would take for a Nymph to change mass like that is to be able to translate energy to mass, like your body does on a regular basis through cellular respiration, or plants do through photosynthesis. Modern Physics today is beginning to question the whole conservation of mass/energy thing. It all started back in the 1960's and early 70's with the invention of breeder reactors which seemingly make energy and mass out of nothing. Look it up, the Physics are quite interesting.

"All girls are working on something interesting, while John fucks around. I am all for smart and driven beautiful women, but John's development has been obviously neglected for a couple of chapters now."

While I would like to see some movement on John's sword practices, you are wrong about John's development. He used psionic energy to kill the Fulmanax guardian AND developed telekinesis just two chapters ago.

I take it you are a glass half empty kind of person?

On 07/06/16, Tefler said "Ive finished chapter 49, and it's with editors." but I haven't seen any updates to his Bio stating as much. (Yes Tef, people actually read that to see when they're getting their next fix.)

I am not sure Jade really changes mass. I think there is a mass alternative in use.

Make Four right turns and you can travel down the same block you started on.

Either she amplifies and damps her inertial and relative mass or she is borrowing banking her mass.

This is all fairly tame if we are allowing telekinesis.

Telekinesis is just electrostatic manipulation so it is all a matter of how and not what they do.

It has to be entropic shifts related to observational phenomena.

That means playing with a plane of existence that manifests observational phenomena and that is commonly known in fiction as the Astral plane.

It is not well theorised in science literature because even though it has a basis in quantum physics, it is kiss of death.

Anything so shrouded in mysticism tends to be heckled by scientists unless you carefully avoid any of the spooky action at a distance type magical possibility.

You are on the right path, kelp them coming. I have gone back to chapter 1 and read through to end of latest available chapter at least twice now.

Well they did pick one up as she threw it at them after the fulamax so I guess they could just do a little looking themselves if they want too

"He used psionic energy to kill the Fulmanax guardian AND developed telekinesis just two chapters ago."

I agreed that he used telekinesis in progenitor state. But in half-human state he does not try it nor does he work on making it his skill. Hence, no development.

Alyssa, on the other hand, is moving chairs and stuff...

"I take it you are a glass half empty kind of person?"

I'd like to consider myself a person who points out what can be done to make the glass full.

"I agreed that he used telekinesis in progenitor state. But in half-human state he does not try it nor does he work on making it his skill. Hence, no development."

None of the crew saw him use telekinesis or pyrokinesis. Why would he randomly start trying to use those when he has no idea he is capable of it? After his attempts at telepathy were an abject failure, why would he even try telekinesis which is a more dramatic ability?

Alyssa developed telepathy first, then telekinesis later, so there seems to be logical progression to her growth in psionic ability. He fell at the first hurdle.

I think you're confusing what I let you see as a reader, with what the characters are aware of and can act on.

Sorry about that. I thought I had updated the bio page when 48 went live, but I must have forgotten. It should be up to date now.

> "Oh, it makes perfect sense that psionics can be used to violate the conservation of mass and energy," Is it known that psionics can do that? It seems way too blasé to me.

That is a fair point. On the other hand, Alyssa used psionic energy to change the density of ship's armor plates. Same as converting energy to mass.

From what I know, psionic energy does not exist in our reality. We should expect unexplained phenomenons, because our scientists haven't researched this type of energy. Also it is a fantasy world, so the only debatable things are characters reasoning, behavior and decisions. Everything else is author's imagination.

You're proving my original point. Which was "4. All girls are working on something interesting, while John fucks around. I am all for smart and driven beautiful women, but John's development has been obviously neglected for a couple of chapters now."

See "Uneventful for my taste" comment

Expecting character development for a character every chapter is entirely unrealistic, especially with an expanding cast.

In any case, there actually has been something happening with John but it's been subtle, and will only become clear as the next chapters unfold.

Write it how you want. I can't understand how folks can't suspend the "real" and accept the fantasy and enjoy it without having to pee on it.

For example, Hyper-warp rifle. I love it, sounds great, not gonna argue with you.

A typical .220 Swift rifle will wear itself out in as little as 1000 rounds due to the high velocity. That's a fact, but I can suspend my expertise in ballistics in order to enjoy your story. Why some of these others take you to task with every niggling detail, I can't say. You've written a beautiful story and I look forward to every chapter. Your battles, character development, twists and turns are golden. Keep it up. peace

My comment "Re: Nymph mass alteration" had a hypocritical part: "Also it is a fantasy world, so the only debatable things are characters reasoning, behavior and decisions. Everything else is author's imagination."

I apologize for it. Please ignore it.

Everything else in that comment seems fair from my point of view.

"Expecting character development for a character every chapter is entirely unrealistic, especially with an expanding cast."

In this chapter:

1. Alyssa worked on telekinesis and armor

2. Dana worked on new alloys

3. Nymph worked on shapeshifting

4. Calara beat John in Judo

5. Rachel researched the Nymph

6. John - fucked around

Just pointing out the lack of actual work in John's daily activities compared to female personnel.

This bothers me, because I'm a male and feel bad for how my gender is represented in this chapter. Naturally, this is my personal reaction, not an attack on the story. The author has complete privilege to create unlikable traits to any character.

Just to be clear.

Everyone enjoyed the steak dinner.

Some people would have preferred French fries on the side instead of baked potato.

Is that a good analogy to the level of complaints we are seeing?

"4. Calara beat John in Judo"

So if he beat her as normal, that would count as not fucking around? That fight strengthened their relationship, which all the crew value more than anything.

He's got tech specialists working for him who provide him research Summaries to review. Being a leader and reviewing reports from your subordinates is not "fucking around" it's a vital part of being in command!

I'd strongly recommend not reading the wheel of time books. In one book, the main character, Rand, does nothing for something like 500 pages.

The device Irillith lobbed toward Dana was the bomb control/countdown and the guidance for the grav-sled. It wasn't her hacking deck (which she hadn't brought with her on the Fulmanax mission).

"She paused and unclipped the device from her vambrace and then lobbed it carelessly in Dana's direction"

Ummm what I don't understand is that you showed each of the john's bonded girl's ability only after their transformation

Why show irillith's ability before ?????

Good question.

Actually most girls hinted their ability with Alyssa development of class A navigator skill being the one that seems like it developed purely from enhancement and training.

Irrilith I think is from a culture with advanced information technology, had access to every resource and instructor of the highest quality, and had awesome talent that she has developed. It is rude to talk about a woman's age but I feel like Irrilith might be 300 or so years old. Imagine if you had that much longer to practice your favourite skills.

She is as alien as the Ashanath.

I appreciate a concern asked as a question instead of complaint.

Deal with it people because Irrilith is awesome (aside from being an evil bitch which does not seem accidental to me) and I do not even feel like I am reading the same story as some of the Frowner Downer commentary contributors.

Even if I see a point in your comments, it makes me mad when it hints at complaints.

Well I am mad most of the time anyways but I take pills for that.

Great story five stars again. When this story is done (not to soon I hope) would really like to download the whole story to be able to read again at leisure.

Thanks very much to Anonymous for posting this.

Irrilith's society appears to revolve around advanced information technology, That in turn appears to be driven by the Drow-like society it is. Each of the Great houses is spying on and backstabbing the other. Knowledge is power. So surprise, surprise they are fucking good at it.

Again I have to agree with my anonymous friend. As heir-apparent to House Valaden, Irillith would have got access to every resource and the best instructors to develop her awesome talent. If Ceraden is 300 or so years old, fair chance our blue bitch isn't far off that so yeah imagine if you had that time to practice your favourite skills.

She is as alien as the Ashanath. Excellent point. The point. Too many people are putting a Terran IT box with Terran hacking skills around Irillith.

I'm with my anonymous friend. I also appreciate a concern asked as a question instead of complaint.

Let's sit back and enjoy a great story. Nothing is accidental in Tefler's writing so I am also wondering if people are reading the same story.

Maybe my anonymous friend could make his chill pills available to a few select commentators.

Dave.

You state: "Just pointing out the lack of actual work in John's daily activities compared to female personnel.

This bothers me, because I'm a male and feel bad for how my gender is represented in this chapter. Naturally, this is my personal reaction, not an attack on the story. The author has complete privilege to create unlikable traits to any character."

Okay, and I mean this from a foundation of concern: if your feelings about "being male" are so fragile that a fantasy story upsets you, then perhaps you should look at that a bit more.

Problem is: You do not present your "personal reactions" in the form of inquiry, you present them in the form of criticism, and not even constructive criticism. The very obvious base from which you comment is one of assuming you should have control over the story because it does not meet your needs for escapism. That arrogant pretense is a rather serious character flaw to which the others, and myself, on this blog are reacting when we rebuff you. Typically, that intense a level of a need to control is bedded in a lack of a good self-image. While on one level I, and it seems others, are reacting to your need to control; at a deeper level I also feel very sad for you because I understand where that comes from.

You actually come across, at least to me, as either very jealous or rather immature; using the anonymity of the internet (this blog) to express latent animosities, of which you have not appropriately dealt, from your past. I base this on the fact your comments are not positive in any way, do not offer any conjectures (only condemnations), and you justify it all with it is "my personal reaction". As if that justifies you using Tefler, this fantasy story, and this blog as your emotional trash can. News Flash: It doesn't.

We are not your therapists nor are we your inferiors. So my suggestions are simple and straight-forward.

If you are upset with the realities of a FANTASY, SCIENCE FICTION, piece of escapist literature, then please just quit reading it and save us your hubris and give us a break from your hamartia.

By the way Tefler, I love your story. I would not change a thing and have no criticisms...constructive or otherwise. Thank you for blessing us with your vision.

If we can keep the comments well purposed that means Tefler should have more time for writing chapters.

Discuss the story, with every well mannered thought worth mentioning. Do not let the tone of the comments go rancid.

I do not object to anyone putting a brief lapse into text, but expect to be called on it. I would. If I feel the need to defend something that others find unnecessary I would be careful before assuming that everyone else is wrong.

@Dry_Opinion:

regarding chapter style: You have to understand that while this is being written as a serial and as such can be frustrating after waiting a week for a chapter(and Tefler writes at an obscene pace by any standard), the story has to make sense and be comfortable when read by someone who comes years later to read it and that person will want chapters that have some slow down in it. Pacing is always important

Regarding John Fucking around: He's the military commander and CEO of their trading/PMC 1 ship setup, he reviews information, gives necessary orders, deals with morale but otherwise when not meeting people or fighting, he doesn't have much to do and if you read back through the story, never really has either. He's spent plenty of afternoon's swimming away his time with Jade or fucking one of the girls while the other girls do important work.

@ms904191

Tefler showed what every girl's, Alyssa aside, ability would be prior to them getting their enhancements. What we don't know is whether or not Irillith becomes something even more spectacular if added to the crew. Her hacking ability, at least to now seems to be use of a particular AI program, nothing more.

@PussyLickersRus:

Personal attacks aren't necessary, that's over the line.

Thank you for making a detailed, somewhat hurtful, yet fair assessment of my character flaws. Now that you've described it that well, I must completely agree with you. I do see all those things in me.

Special thanks for making the effort to present it in such a constructive way. Since you've made great suggestions for improving my commenting, I'll work on:

1. inquiry not criticism

2. conjectures not condemnations

3. and most of all - give up control of the story

You are correct that the comments should not be so brutal, but rather subtle and encouraging.

The other stuff about me requires some soul searching...

You wrote "We are not your therapists nor are we your inferiors". Well, you're definitely not my inferior, but are you sure about not being the therapists part?

Anyway, Thank you very much for helping me become a better person and face my demons.

You, Sir, are a good man.

Looking forward to another friendly banter with you. Hopefully about the actual story next time.

Peace among us.

And back to the story.

The Ashanath talk telepathic so the AI filter caught none of their work on the Invictus. Irrilith missed them in her video compilation.

I think John needs to be himself and spend some time with Irrilith. Treat her as if she is a decent example of a female person and let her practice being one.

It feels like the story is reaching a major milestone.

I think this must be half way to reaching the end.

Just amazing so far, and can't wait to see how it ends, even though I will miss it.

I can almost picture John settled down with baby filled beauties.

Your intentions always seemed honest. Your interest in the story is obvious. You belong here.

We have seen others with bad intentions that have no interest in the story and bullshit to honesty ratios that are disturbingly out of whack. Pure trolls. They don't belong here.

You were a little disruptive but as a guess, you were just excited. It happens to everyone and you got a double dose probably.

Relax and have fun. Enjoy the story. That is why we are all here.

What Irrilith needs is a good load of John's cum. That would mellow her right out.

I've been working on a character for some time, and, while the original was going to be male, I think I'd be willing to share. If you want to know more, email me at teroshin9@gmail.com

... like some of the prior commentators I'm a bit concerned about the naivety and "fools rush in..." attitude exhibited by the protagonists (especially John himself). Seems a far cry from his cautiousness in the starting chapters.

Maybe their newfound abilities and successes have lulled them into a false sense of invincibility? I'd love to see them suffer a bit (nothing severe like deaths but something very humiliating) before they finally "wake up" and start taking their roles as galactic-destroyers-turned-to-saviours a bit more seriously.

Right now their cavalier attitude is starting to tick me off a bit.

All will make sense in the end. ;-)

Chapter 50 is done. It's 21k and with the editors.

John has two sides.

WTF? Someone on the internet accepting an unsolicited and very harsh personal criticism in a positive way? And then said, "thank you." I have never seen that before.

Despite your flaws, you have just impressed the heck out of me with your talent for self-improvement and rationality. The internet would be a better place if everyone could do that,

His private messages are a bit different.

Guys,

Tefler is writing this the way he has envisioned it. the comments are a place for readers and fans to interact with the story and its author whether it be an opinion, observation, idea or even criticism. Attacking each other does not further this story nor does it help Tefler improve his writing in any way.

It would be great if we could all just agree that we have a unique and interesting story being written then sit back and enjoy!

Cheers!

Xentian

looks like at least another 4 day wait from Lit, no idea why they're moving so slow compared to normal lately

@Inevitable_, Sundays are frequently a speedbump.

@Xentian, True enough. No need for personal drama here.

I like comments about the story in the story comments.

I had a weird idea that Jade should win a pod race in a rig that Dana soups up for her.

I like that idea, however it if were against only humans, she'd win hands down, no contest. If it was open to other species, then there might be a real race.

To build on the race idea, maybe it can be a special endurance race, where the race organizers provide the vehicles, only catch is that they're all junkers that are one lap away from the junkyard, and the racers have a limited amount of time to fix it up as best they can using only parts found in the aforementioned junkyard. Then they have to run it through a timed endurance race, with the first person across the finish line after the time runs out being the winner.

Would be interesting to see what Dana could pull off in that situation, using only junk parts and a limited amount of time. Might remind her a bit of Karron; help her appreciate how spoiled she is on the Invictus. Maybe they can host the race on Karron to really drive home the point? Could give the crew an excuse to go back and try looking for Alyssa's and Dana's original medical records, if any exist.

While we wait for ch. 49, could someone (not Tefler - he is busy) help me make the list of races with their | brief description | advanced technological features | advanced biological features.

So far we had:

Terrain - people | no special technology | advanced breeding (fast growing population)

Ashanath - grey small humanoids | advanced reactor\generator technology | telepathy

Drakkar - big, mean humanoids with four arms | advanced armor | two of each organ

(forgot the name) - insects | advanced armor | their eggs require living organisms to eat their way out of

Kintark - lizards | - | advanced genetic body modifications

Fulmanax - mushrooms with hooks | - | all specimen are controlled by a single mastermind

Maliri - skinny blue tall humanoids | advanced lasers | genetically modified by progenitors, mostly females

Any corrections or additions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Also does anyone remember the complete ship upgrade plan?

1. Ashanath - reactor\generator

2. Maliri - lasers

3. Trankarans - engine

where next?

P.S.

@ slinkky - Thanks for the good words. I'll try not to disappoint.

@ PussyLickersRus - I haven't sent any private messages after responding to your comment. Not sure what you are referring to.

It has bothered me some time now that allysas's telepathic ability to read minds seems to have mystriousily disappeared and everyone seems to be just drifting along without a clue also, Dana is way to tech savvy to have any body causaully tramping through her system

"It has bothered me some time now that allysas's telepathic ability to read minds seems to have mystriousily disappeared"

Her being able to read other people's thoughts (aside from her shipmates), only kicks in under certain circumstances.

"Dana is way to tech savvy"

The earlier comments address this pretty thoroughly. Have a read through those for more info. :-)

Terrans build large hulls. Most other races make fewer Battleships I think and no dreadnoughts. Singularity cannons also appear to be humans only. Those would be one of the reasons for huge hills.

The Kirrix are the insectoids and they use neutron beams.

The Ashanath have the Faster Than Light engines of the highest quality. Their power cores are several generations better and smaller so that the Invictus was able to fit a powerful Battleship power core.

Maliri are the best laser technology but seem to possibly have some computer and AI advantages.

Trankarans have powerful engines and maybe gyros and inertia dampers to keep the people in the ship from going splat against the walls when they are hit full acceleration.

The Brimorian shields are their fame and are probably high recharge rate. I expect they will also provide personal shields for the armour suits.

Kintark have plasma weapons and heat sinks

Brimorian Enclave for shield tech

Have you heard anything Tefler? Stories are still getting posted, albeit at a slower rate than normal.

Tx Tall Tales has a post in his Bio dated June 30th talking about how he isn't posting on lit due to self appointed arbiters, " I have some issues with what's going on with newbie self-appointed arbiters and the credence the website is giving them."

Just a bit frustrating when I know it's written, edited and submitted and it's just not showing up

I guess they got flooded with new stories over the 4th July holiday and it's taking a while to clear the backlog?

Chapter 49 is showing as pending moderation in my story list. The word is in blue, which means I can click on the entry and make changes (which would put it at the back of the pending list, so I won't do that!). Once a story has been through moderation, then that link greys out, and the chapter goes live the next day.

Unfortunately that means it will be at least 2 more days before the next chapter is up on the site.

:-(

The good news is that I've finished the first round of editing on chapter 50. It's the biggest chapter yet, and is a nice milestone for 50 chapters of this story. I enjoyed writing it, so hopefully you guys will enjoy reading it too!

If we get three chapters showing up it will all work out as far as us addicts... I mean readers are concerned.

As long as you are writing and post them, we can't complain is all I mean. Not that we ever would, being typical internet citizens.

Thanks to everyone for helping to make this list. Now it will be easier to associate the name of alien race with it's involvement in the story.

Races Database:

Name - brief description | advanced technological features | advanced biological features:

Terrain - humans | ships with large hulls | advanced breeding (fast growing population)

Ashanath - grey small humanoids | power cores | telepathy

Drakkar - big, mean humanoids with four arms | advanced armor | two of each organ

Kirrix - insectoids | neutron beams | their eggs require living organisms to eat their way out of

Kintark - lizards | plasma weapons and heat sinks | advanced genetic body modifications

Fulmanax - mushrooms with hooks | - | all specimen are controlled by a single mastermind

Maliri - skinny blue tall humanoids | advanced lasers | genetically modified by progenitors, mostly females

Ship upgrade status:

0. Terrain - a ship with a large hull (done)

1. Ashanath - reactor\generator (done)

2. Maliri - lasers (in progress)

3. Trankarans - engine (current quest)

4. Brimorian - shields (planned)

The next chapter hasn't entered the moderation queue yet, the link (http://www.literotica.com/s/three-square-meals-ch-49) says "page not found" instead of "it's pending moderation". Once it enters the queue, somebody tends to approve the chapters in the next 24 hours, and then it will sit there until 5:00 UTC when all new approved chapters get published.

This chapter is sitting in some inbox somewhere, so it seems this it will be delayed at least until Thursday. :(

seriously will help out later on. I think ur missing the trader species who are psionic too... The ones who call alyssa bright one, i'll look up the name later... 2 runins with them. (u can create a sort of species of secondary imp database if u don't wanna add to main ones)

now all we need is an animator/designer/arts student with some time on their hands... thought I'd float the idea...

-devil