Three Square Meals Ch. 053

Alyssa laughed, and joked, "Well I just hope I have as firm an ass when I'm your age! Come on, 'Old Mother Time', let's go and have a cuddle with the others." She paused, then looked into Jade's cat-like emerald eyes, and gently brushed the side of her face with her fingers. Her words were heartfelt as she said, "I'll definitely come to you if I need to talk again. You really helped, thank you."

Jade nodded, with a satisfied smile on her beautiful face, and they walked out of the room hand-in-hand.

***

The alarm began to chime softly, filling the bedroom with a quiet melody, which gradually increased in volume until Alyssa rolled over and stretched, calling out "Deactivate wake-up call."

John had set the alarm to activate at six in the morning, three hours before they were scheduled to arrive at Trankara. They intended to stop near Demladuhr trading post, to plan their final approach to the rebel held planet, which was the location of the Radiant Palace, and the lair of the Glowing Queen.

Dana and Rachel had been flanking John when they went to sleep, but they were both up first, eager to get started on the day. By the time the others had roused themselves from bed, the redhead and brunette were striding nude from the bathroom, dried off and on the hunt for fresh clothes.

"You two are early birds this morning," John noted with a smile.

Dana gave him a quick kiss as she breezed past and exclaimed, "I need to work on the Inertial Dampeners! Catch you later!"

Rachel smiled at her exuberant lover, and said, "I want to take a look at the Trankaran genetic samples and scan data I gathered yesterday. If we're about to go into combat with Trankarans, we'll need to know their weak spots."

John nodded, impressed at their dedication, and said, "Great thinking, both of you. We'll bring you some breakfast."

The two girls waved them goodbye, then sauntered out of the bedroom. That left John, Alyssa, Calara, and Jade to have a shower, and they luxuriated in the warm streams of water that cascaded down on them.

Alyssa began to massage John's shoulders, and purred in his ear, "Talking of breakfast, how about giving me a nice full tummy to start the day."

Calara and Jade leaned in, both massaging him too, and he groaned as his body responded to their sensual touch. He was about to turn and pin Alyssa to the shower wall to have his way with her, when he held back and said with regret, "I'd love to, but we're so close to the Trankaran rebels, we better not. We might get in a fight any minute, and I don't want to risk slowing you down with a swollen belly. We'll have some spectacular victory sex later when we're all done, I promise."

She pouted, but nodded, unable to refute his logic. They finished up quickly, dressing and going their separate ways. John and Jade headed over to the kitchen to make breakfast for everyone, while Calara and Alyssa ascended to the Bridge, to keep watch for rebel ships.

***

Dana hit the button to open the Engineering Bay doors, and she grinned widely at the purple AI construct, when she saw it sitting on one of her consoles looking lost in thought. "Good morning, Faye!" she called out to the violet-hued sprite in a friendly fashion.

"Dana! Rachel! It's so lovely to see you!" Faye said with delight as she leapt to her feet. She scampered along the top of the Engineering consoles, and launched herself into the air, her arms flung out in front of her. Iridescent gossamer wings sprouted from her back, and she fluttered over to join them, leaning in to give each girl a kiss on the cheek.

Rachel smiled at Faye, quickly getting over her surprise, and said, "Those are new!"

Faye hovered in the air beside her and said, "Do you like them? You said I reminded you of a Fae creature, so I thought I might as well look the part!"

Rachel laughed and said kindly, "You get a gold star for effort!" Leaning forward, she asked, "They're very pretty, could I take a closer look?"

The purple AI sprite nodded, looked very pleased with herself, and when Rachel held out her arm, Faye landed, unfurling her transparent shimmering wings.

"Hey, Dana!" Rachel called over to the redhead, "You should take a look at these, they're gorgeous!"

Dana didn't answer for a moment, she was so engrossed in the data she was reviewing. She eventually looked up distractedly, and then smiled as she said, "Very beautiful Faye, nice job!" before turning back to look at the data again.

Rachel rolled her eyes at Faye, who giggled in amusement. Walking over to join the redhead she asked, "What's got you so distracted?"

Dana looked up, and beaming a huge grateful smile at the sprite who was standing on Rachel's arm, she said, "You must have spent hours on this! Thank you so much!"

Faye looked overjoyed at Dana's reaction and replied, "It was the least I could do after you set up the holo-emitters to let me roam around the Engineering Bay. I can't tell you how good it feels to be able to have some freedom!"

Rachel gently nudged Dana with her elbow, a playful smile on her face, and she asked with interest, "Come on, don't leave me in suspense. What did Faye do?"

Dana pressed a few buttons on her console, and a long list of metals appeared, including a wide variety of data on each element. "She sorted and categorised all the known metals, including those the Trankarans sold to us." Glancing to her side, she asked the sprite intuitively, "Is this list sorted by bonding likelihood with Onyxium?"

Faye hopped off Rachel's arm, and her wings disappeared as she skipped along to sit on the console in front of Dana. "That's right!" the AI construct said, bobbing her head animatedly. "I remembered how you were studying each metal, and looking at their ability to form metallic bonds. I sorted every metal in your database, and created indexes, so you can cross reference each one against every other metal, and look for likely candidates for your new alloy."

Dana did a little dance for joy, and with a huge smile of gratitude on her face she exclaimed, "You're fucking awesome! This would have taken me days to sort out!"

Rachel smiled at the purple creature, and then leaned in to say in a conspiratorial whisper, "Dana's been getting so cranky trying to finish this research off. If you've helped speed things up, I owe you big time!"

Faye had not stopped giggling after watching the redhead's jubilant jig, and she looked up at them both in delight, her tiny face shining with happiness.

***

John arrived on the Bridge with a plate containing three bacon rolls. The delicious aroma wafted over to the girls, and both Alyssa and Calara turned to look at him, sniffing the air. He strolled down the ramp to the Tactical Station to offer one to Calara first, then climbed up the steps to the Command Podium to present the second to Alyssa. Taking the third for himself, he sat in the Command Chair, and studied the local Sector Map, which was displayed as a glowing hologram in the centre of the Bridge.

He nodded towards the map, and before he took a bite of the roll, he asked, "Spotted anything interesting yet?"

Alyssa paused before taking a bite, and replied, "We both have actually." She glanced down at Calara, who was savouring her first mouthful of breakfast, and she said wryly, "I guess I better go first."

Turning to look up at the Sector Map, her right hand was a blur over the keyboard, while her left held the bap clear of the console. The map began to light up with curving lines, and at first just a few dozen appeared, but eventually hundreds were dotted over Trankaran territory.

John looked on curiously, and asked, "What are all those?"

"Asteroid belts," Alyssa noted. "Trankaran Space is absolutely saturated in them. It's no wonder they have access to so many metals, with such huge amounts of resources just begging to be mined."

He nodded, and said, "I remember seeing a lot when I came here in the Fool's Gold. The sensors on my freighter only had a fraction of the range we've got on the Invictus though. I didn't realise there were quite so many."

Alyssa grinned and said, "With the Trankarans having so many mineral resources at their disposal, perhaps they weren't quite so daft with their trading after all."

John laughed and nodded, saying, "Let's not steal Dana's thunder." He glanced down at Calara, who was hurriedly gulping down the last of her roll. She smiled at him sheepishly when he frowned, but when she had swallowed the last, he gestured for her to proceed.

Calara nodded, then brought up the data from her long range scans, displaying the data on the Sector Map. "I found out what happened to the missing merchant shipping," she said in a sombre voice. "The approach to Demladuhr trading post is littered with wrecks. It looks like the rebels have been picking off anything that makes it close to the station."

John nodded and said, "Keep your eyes peeled for any rebel patrol ships. We should have a massive sensor advantage over them, and I'm certain we have far greater hyper-warp speed too."

The Latina smiled at him confidently, and asked, "So just give them all a wide berth and then slip into Trankara?"

John returned her smile, but he shook his head slightly and replied, "No, I have different plans, if we can find the right target."

***

Jade strolled into the Engineering Bay, carrying a plate of bacon rolls for her friends. She walked up the illuminated steps to the Chief Engineer's Podium, and as she handed them out, she spotted the purple sprite sitting on the top of Dana's console. Jade greeted her with a warm smile, and said, "Morning Faye, it's nice to see you."

Faye leapt to her feet and gasped, "I love your colouring, you're very beautiful! Your name's Jade, right? Like the gemstone?"

She skipped along the console, then leaned in close to look at Jade's arm, and the tiny flecks in the Nymph's smooth dark-green flesh. They reflected the light and gave Jade's skin an alluring lustre.

The Nymph smiled at her and nodded, then said, "That's very kind of you to say, thank you. I think you look lovely too." Looking down at her plate, she added, "Unfortunately I couldn't bring you a digital roll."

The AI sprite giggled, and held out her hand. A second later a miniature bacon bap filled her hand, and Faye took a big bite. "Yummy!" she exclaimed after she swallowed.

Rachel looked on curiously, and asked, "Can you actually taste that?"

Faye shook her head, and explained, "It's just a 3D image, and I can't taste anything anyway. It's fun to pretend I'm eating with you girls, though."

Rachel blushed and said, "You're so convincingly real, I forgot you're a hologram!"

Dana grinned at Faye and said, "She's much more special than just a hologram!"

Rachel reddened further and apologised quickly, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make it sound like that."

Faye gave her a sparkling smile, and fluttered over to the embarrassed young woman. "It's okay, I knew what you meant. I wasn't offended," the construct said sweetly, and it reached out to pat Rachel on the cheek.

Jade smiled at them, and asked, "So what are you ladies up to down here anyway?"

Rachel glanced at her console and replied, "I'm going to do a rapid analysis of the Trankaran scan results. If we get into a fight with them on the planet, I'll need to try and find some vulnerable points for us to aim at."

Turning to Dana, Jade asked, "And how about you?"

Dana was staring at the long lists of metals, her brow furrowed in concentration, as her eyes scanned through the data in fascination. She suddenly realised that the Nymph had spoken to her, and she smiled at her apologetically as she said, "I'd love to be able to get stuck in to my materials research, but the Inertial Dampener upgrades are a higher priority. I've already got an idea of how we could replace them with a completely different system, but I'll need to crunch the numbers. Make sure it's viable."

Jade nodded and said wistfully, "I wish I could help with your research, or do something really useful like that. I always feel like a bit of a fifth wheel when we're travelling anywhere."

Dana gave her a sympathetic smile and asked, "The swimming pool isn't as enticing as it used to be?"

The Nymph laughed and shook her head, saying, "After being able to roam free on Oceanus, it feels too confining in there now."

Rachel looked thoughtful for a moment, then asked, "Why not make yourself as small as you can? Then the pool will feel a lot bigger."

Jade looked startled for a moment, and then grinned as she said, "Beautiful and smart. It's a good thing I'm incapable of jealousy!"

Rachel chuckled as Jade wrapped her up in an exuberant hug. When the excited green-skinned alien girl finally let her go, the brunette asked, "Are you going to go for a swim now?"

Shaking her head, Jade replied, "I'd love to, but I might be needed on the Bridge. I'll head back up there now, and stop distracting the clever girls."

Dana and Rachel laughed, and waved her goodbye as Jade bounced out of the Engineering Bay in a buoyant mood. Faye sat down on Rachel's shoulder, and looked hopeful as she asked, "Did she mean me too?"

Dana nodded and smiled at the purple sprite as she said, "Definitely! Now, If you aren't busy, I could really use your help to create a holo-simulation of the force negation device I've been thinking about."

An eager grin spread over Faye's face, and she leapt from Rachel's shoulder to the Engineering console. "Tell me what you're planning, and I'll get started immediately!" she said, her bright opalescent eyes glowing with excitement.

***

The frequency of the wrecks increased as they drew closer to the Trankaran trading post known as Demladuhr. Calara brought up the scan results for the wreck sites as they raced past each shattered hull, and she studied each scene of devastation carefully.

"Looks like they were taken apart by Fusion Beams," Calara said, with a sombre expression on her beautiful face. She turned and looked up at the Command Podium and said with certainty, "It was definitely a Trankaran vessel that ambushed these merchants."

Alyssa had been studying the incinerated hulls of the broken hulks as well, and she exclaimed, "Taken apart is an understatement! They ripped these poor bastards apart!" After letting out a sigh, she looked over at the Latina and added, "The Base Commander at Port Megara said there were eight merchants that were overdue, but we've seen lots more destroyed shipping than that."

Nodding Calara replied grimly, "Yes, I've counted eight destroyed Terran freighters. The rest are all from minor empires, but I did see one wrecked Ashanath saucer as well."

John leaned forward, a hungry gleam in his eyes as he asked, "Any sign of what took them out?"

Calara shook her head and said, "The debris patterns indicate they were hit by multiple simultaneous Fusion beam hits, so it was either from something big, or a coordinated attack by smaller vessels."

John grinned and said, "I'm betting they've left a cruiser or two in the area to disrupt trade."

The Latina nodded, and said, "That would be my first guess as well."

Alyssa glanced at John and a worried frown darkened her expression as she had been abruptly cut off from John's inner voice by his mind-shield. She was distracted from her troubling thoughts, as Jade bounded out onto the Bridge a moment later. Alyssa turned her chair, and smiled at her, but the Nymph's eyes narrowed when she noted Alyssa's look of concern.

*What's the matter?* Jade asked her curiously.

Alyssa glanced to her right, at the back of John's Command chair, and replied, *John just blocked me from his thoughts again.*

Jade gave her a reassuring smile as she walked past, heading towards the Pilot's station, and thought back to her, *Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine.*

A soft chime coming from the Sector Map drew their attention, and they all stared up at the holographic image, as the long range sensors picked up the Trankaran trading post. The huge station was located right in the centre of a swathe of asteroid fields, with clearly defined space lanes providing access routes to the station. They watched with interest as the Invictus made steady progress towards the massive station, travelling between the huge chunks of rock that flanked them on both sides. When the sensors had gathered enough information to display an image of the Trankaran base, they were surprised to see that the facility was built into a huge, semi-circular bowl, hewn out of a vast mineral formation.

"Looks like a hollowed out asteroid to me," Alyssa said with an inadvertent shudder, as she looked at the blunt towers and squat buildings that jutted up from the enormous hunk of rock.

Calara glanced up at her, and asked sympathetically, "Bringing back memories of Karron?"

Alyssa smiled at the brunette and nodded, but her attention was drawn back to the map as they flew further along the space lanes between the asteroids. Jade sat down in her chair, and stared at the zoomed in view of the station, her cat-like eyes narrowing as she studied the image intently.

"I don't think these are separate asteroid belts. It looks like these channels were strip mined through one massive field," Jade said, pointing up at the holographic image that floated motionless in the centre of the Bridge. After taking a closer look, she added, "Do you see those fine clouds of pebbles in each channel leading towards the station? Asteroid belts look like that after Calara's finished testing weapons on them."

Calara looked equally surprised, and said, "The original field of asteroids must have been vast! I don't think there's anything that size in Terran Space is there?"

Alyssa shook her head decisively, and said, "No, definitely not. I've never seen an asteroid field like it."

The Latina carefully examined the tactical map and said, "I'm not getting any power readings from that station. It looks completely dormant."

"Shall I get Dana and Rachel to come up here while we check out the station?" Alyssa asked John.

He nodded and said, "Yes, and tell them to bring Irillith with them as well."

Alyssa looked concerned, but she nodded, and sent out a telepathic summons to the girls. Meanwhile, Jade had been piloting the Invictus further along one of the space lanes between the asteroid belts, and they left a sweeping path through the dense cloud of pebbles as they navigated through. By the time they were nearly at their destination, Dana, Rachel, and Irillith had arrived on the Bridge. They looked up at the image of Demladuhr with curiosity, as Dana and Rachel walked over to their posts at Engineering and Tactical, while Irillith moved to sit in the dormant station to the right of the Command Podium.

"I'll do an active scan of the facility," Dana volunteered, having already been brought up to speed by a telepathic brief from the psychic blonde.

John nodded, and glanced up at the Sector Map as though searching for something.

"What are you looking for?" Alyssa asked him in a quiet voice.

"Bait," he replied with a sly grin.

Jade had been studying the image of Demladuhr Station, and she glanced up at John and said, "I think I see something on the right side of the station. I'll bring the ship around to take a look if that's okay?"

He nodded absent-mindedly, so the Nymph skilfully rotated the assault cruiser to starboard, using the retro-thrusters to perform the manoeuvre. When they were facing the desired direction, she began to gradually increase engine power, bringing them around to the flank of the station. There was a sudden intake of breath from the girls, and they stared in shock at the series of holes bored out of the side of the space station, which they could now clearly see from this direction. The rust red armour had several big, ugly russet red scars, where the plating had been melted completely through. Rivers of liquefied metal had streamed down the side of the station, before solidifying once again in malformed lumps on the starboard face of the hollowed out asteroid.