All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 067'

I'm aware the author has admitted playing fast and loose with human origins. We are cousins to the Neanderthals, not descendents. We've also been around a lot longer than 40,000 years - that's the latest date our ancestors left the African continent.

On that point, it hasn't missed my attention that the main characters feature four Caucasians, two aliens, an Asian and an AI. The one time a darks skinned character was discussed, the reporter, she was described as 'exotic'. Given the main protagonist is half-alien, that seems a bit of an overstatement?

There are some weirdly antiquated stereotypes and turns of phrase concerning culture, ethnicity and religion throughout the series, as if frozen for seven centuries. Many sci-fi worlds use this as an opportunity to invent new ones (The Expanse TV show developed a whole dialect for Belters, on top of their culture in the books), but not here. Given many humans have never been to Earth by this point, why would they hang on to these notions, and not be more ethnically intermingled?

E.g. The addition of Sakura, and indeed all identifiably Asian characters, are straight out of TVTropes "All Asians Know Martial Arts" page.

A major milestone in this chapter was Faye's new Progenitor (thank you Nexus) server, much more powerful a processor with tons of memory space available, Faye's new home is Awesome, ...

then after Sakura's 3rd dose, John has one of his horrible Astral Nightmares, ... 'as they clung to each other, overwhelmed with relief to have survived the terrifying nightmare.' "I'm never fucking sleeping again!" Dana swore vehemently, .... it was rather terrifying for all the girls, and John too, .... awesome chapter, thank you Tef, ... ;-) ttfn

@!purplefizz

Having spent half of my military career in foreign lands, I learned that all of us have pretty keen senses of humor. A good part of my time was around USAF Europe Headquarters where I had contact with several RAF officers. I recognized the "too much rehead in the diet..." line as a great exemplar of British droll wit -- the type that may well produce beer foam spouting from nostrils if released whilst hoisting a pint....

Thank you again, Tefler!

Must have been an explosive multi-braingasm.

(After all the largest and most responsive sex organ is the brain.)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"A total mindfuck?" Dana offered helpfully.

Space Magic, Space (harem) sex, and Astral Nightmare Monsters, ... Tef definitely has an imagination, ... John, and his girls are all learning, all surviving, and growing ever stronger, ... Athena really was helpful, but why didn't she notice that the domed protective shield had no bottom / floor to it? I am curious as to what 'normal' Progenitors do, to stay clear of those horrible Astral creatures, what did John's Guide (PJ) do?... Tef will tell us in drips and drabs as the story progresses, ... I'm curious though, ... ;-) TTFN

Pointless carping about it now, as it isn’t getting rewritten any time soon, but for other potential authors, repetitive extended sex scenes are boring, so putting in a gem of a line about “too much redhead” in a diet is lost as the reader is bored, and has skipped the entire scene including your little witticism, the phrase “less is more” should be adhered to ruthlessly when it comes to sex scenes.

Trust Dana to have the last words. 😂😂😂. Another great instalment with an amazing storyline. Surely, time to rescue Idillith's sister now.

how could a bunch of gifted people not think to put a floor on the shield? rediculous

mundanely repetitive.

Space sex with a load of unfeeling unknowing refugees in the hold.

It may be redundant for me to see how amazing of an author you are in this epic story, but I have not yet read anything in this site that compares with not only your writing style, but with your ability to engage us readers to the extent that you have!

I do want to point out one thing that I have not heard enough of in the comments. Your sense of humor is outstanding! It ranges from the extremely dry sarcasm, to the debauchery of humor. Even in this chapter, you had me laughing in the middle of the orgy when Rachel said to John: "I'll have to watch my diet. I've been eating too much redhead.".

How do you come up with so many different scenarios and can turn things upside down without it seeming like you’re just giving redundant story lines over and over be it sexual or science-fiction.

Thank you for sharing such a great story with us! I wish that this could be submitted for a nebula award, but unfortunately they do not except erotica and that is an intricate part of the storyline. Otherwise, this story would truly be excepted for a nebula award.

Sincerely,

Daniel

Yeah, man, I could really live without the sex scenes, y'know? Boring, repetitive, time-consuming, and, again, really boring. Less is more. They can have sex three times a day if they want, but do you need to detail every freakin' minute of it?

.

It would have much more impact if you described their sex-capades every third chapter or something, the rest of the time just mention they're doing it again and leave it behind closed doors.

"It was something her parents used to complain about when she had her head in one of her books, and wouldn't hear her mother calling her for supper." - can relate

OKay, this is what our guy and gals were thinking in regard to Faye's new home: "Once we've transferred her to the new platform, there's all sorts of redundancies and backup power supplies to make sure she won't be accidentally shut down. Even if she is, the new system can reboot her easily."

Dana bounced down the steps to join them and said, "I'll move her server to one of the spare rooms on Deck Three, and Alyssa's offered to encase it in a protective Crystal-Alyssium coating. Even if the Invictus takes severe damage, she'll be safe and sound in there." (spoiler *** until she isn't safe and sound anymore, ...), ... they thought they had it all covered, and I think that there would have been some problems with creating a duplicate of Faye for a rainy day, ... ;-) TTFN

Re:Moron

If you know that you are weak and because off that make mistakes, it is stupid to gamble with you’re life. They spend to much time talking about nothing and having loads of sex, while they actually should make time for training, training and more training, because they know that problems will be coming their way.

Re: Moron

It would be more moronic to write a story with an implausibly perfect protagonist. Real people make mistakes. Real people, taken that far out of their training and expectations, make really dumb mistakes. It's what makes them filthy meatsacks instead of murderous AIs ;)

This has likely to have been brought up before now, but here goes,.. When the gang going to see Faye's new server and were dropping down to the Engineering Bay, it was stated that they went to deck 4, not deck 7,.. this is most likely just a small typo,... or maybe,.. the deck 4 location could have been the site of the original ship design's Engineering Bay, prior to when John gave Sparks the whole of the old ship's Amory for 'her' new and improved work location. The old E.B. was never mentioned and would be later absorbed into the new combat Bridge location in the next refit, but Dana could've used it for a secret from Faye working location to create her surprise Progenitor tech based server,.. it's possible. Just a long drawn out thought to explain away a typo, thanks for listening! ;-) TTFN

Meh, the ground appeared to be solid and also magical, so why try to make a full sphere when a dome seemed to be good enough? It's not like there's an instruction manual for them...

So someone tells you to make a psychic shield and you only go and make half of it?

heh. "lay lines" instead of "ley lines". heh.

"So they are in a heavily modified assault cruiser. Most of the room that’s normally used to troops has been reconfigured. If I remember right, it’s standard compliment was the ships crew plus 300 marines. There’s now like 600 people with various injuries, some of which are being treated in the sick bay. Where’s the room for them? What spaces are they filling up?"

- It's still used for trading in tons of material, there's more than enough space in the cargo hold, it just wouldn't be comfortable, but the once slaves on a sulphur heavy planet wouldn't care would they?

"The ships galley has to have someone making all these people food. So if the girls are all sleeping, who’s looking out for them?"

- Faye and her boys will look after them, especially since she can now have more avatars at once. The rescued prisoners will probably eat at mealtimes, so when they prep for themselves the girls and John are prepping for all of them, which would be tedious to write/read. Either that or Faye has used the robots to feed them, the prisoners aren't getting cooked food, just something like rations, protein bars, vitamin supplements etc. since it would take forever to cook.and deplete their personal stores of Maliri deliciousness.

"With all the buildup of Calara wanting to rescue her brother, where’s that reunion scene?"

- the dude is still high as a kite on dragon pheromones, he's not himself and won't be for several hours, why not save the sweet scene for when he can return the love and affection his sister will shower him with?

"It’s never really mentioned, but does the Invictus have the resources to produce this new medical treatment? I remember a pharmacy being on board, but nothing about the ability to create new medications or anything else."

- They could easily have stocked up on any materials or chemicals etc. when they were last in a friendly port, there's more than enough space to store such stuff as I said before. Also she got her equipment ages ago.

" Just saying that there’s a few things that you may not have thought through here."

-It has all been thought through, just not by you before typing this out.

Keep up the great work Tefler I'm very happy to have found this story, I can't believe I've still got so much to catch up on!

So they are in a heavily modified assault cruiser. Most of the room that’s normally used to troops has been reconfigured. If I remember right, it’s standard compliment was the ships crew plus 300 marines. There’s now like 600 people with various injuries, some of which are being treated in the sick bay. Where’s the room for them? What spaces are they filling up? The ships galley has to have someone making all these people food. So if the girls are all sleeping, who’s looking out for them? With all the buildup of Calara wanting to rescue her brother, where’s that reunion scene? It’s never really mentioned, but does the Invictus have the resources to produce this new medical treatment? I remember a pharmacy being on board, but nothing about the ability to create new medications or anything else. Just saying that there’s a few things that you may not have thought through here.

He conveniently overlooks the fact that he could have served them all a scoop of his cum... men and women LOL. (In reference to fixing lungs destroyed by inhaling sulfur)

-The red Barren

The power... It's overwhelming!"

reminded me of the dark archons in starcraft. already reloaded my Homeworld game as some events reminded me of that. Now I'm loading up Starcraft.

Canadian Wolf

"Talking of impressive, you should have seen John slugging it out with a dragon in hand-to-hand combat. It would've fuelled your white knight fantasies for years!"

The Holo-Net has to have a YouTube feature. They need to post heroic combat videos on the Holo-Net - for the likes. And the advertising revenue.

This is your story and it is a great one I do not understand how people can ask for more sex or less sex or more action or less action and then say how great the story it is you are doing a marvelous job keep it up and don't worry about the

Paps

another awesome chapter. Thank you. This story could go on forever and that would be just fine with me. I disagree with the readers that want less sex. I love those parts as much as the plot. Thank again and keep up the good work. I love it. Dawn

I love the storyline. Have been binge reading to this point. Great work.

Love Faye; now for satisfying her "longing" for John. The Galactic powers and fates of our folks gradually coming together.

If John somehow managed to enslave & continued to ejaculate into the maw of a giant female drqgoness, would she shed her hide & turn into a hot human sized babe with dragon wings and a dragon tail(like a conventional succubus)

That'd be super hot. I wonder how potent & mutagenic John's cum is.

If I may ask, please less "new girl in team" and less sex. Me, personally, i'm getting bored of this. Wanna see the overall plot proceed...

But nevertheless thanks a lot for your writing!!!

Chapter 68 is going through the final stage of moderation, so you should see it up on the site tomorrow (Friday 20th Jan).

I hope you enjoy it!

Tefler

This submission is awaiting moderator's approval

Then it will be accessible for browsing

I don't think john have to fight with his other personality if he slowly slowly accept and control it somhow. you have to agree that other progenitor don't have love so they don't see there rational side but john have plenty.

The actual question we need to ask is how powerful John needs to be to successfully face his dark half. He's only begun to discover his true potential.

Since PJ is quite strong, John needs to massively increase his resolve, and with the battle now extended to the astral plane, he better do it damn fast.

I guess that such a confrontation will mainly boil down to their plans for the Maliri.

Do we get to see John deal with his progenitor half at some point? I can't help but wonder how much more powerful he would be if he wasn't keeping progenitor John in chains...

As with all your chapters, they're always better the second time around

You are going to FREAK OUT on chapter 68! Unbeleavably good!

Oh man, that's a plot prediction of mine for a while too.

The way I see it is that, in the long term, the weak link in the Invictus isn't Sakura... it's really Calara.

Of all the crew members, most of whom are orphans, Calara has the most potential liability because her family are innocent military members and are vulnerable to kidnappings and combat danger (Mateo, case in point). It's not like Calara's identity wasn't blared out by TFNN and who knows how many other holo-net channels with every gracious save made by the crew of the Invictus... It's only a matter of time before shadowy figures find out where they live and other juicy tidbits.

Let's hope that the crew finds a way to secure Calara's family members before the progenitor finds a way to use them for leverage.

On another thought, isn't Irillith and Faye due for some cybernetic security upgrades? I thought they were working on that ever since the Nexus/AI incident, but as far as I can tell, they haven't been doing major work, or haven't felt the need to reveal it yet.

Also, sorely needed is that we need Faye (or Sakura) to be constantly monitoring the inside and outside of the ships via a camera/ thermal imaging network (and maybe throw some bots roaming the hallways too). I get that she is supposedly to be pretty much invisible due to her suit, but Shinatobe definitely made infiltrating the Invictus seem scarily easy.

I agree about TSM being an easy story to get into. It follows in the footsteps of the classics like J.R.R Tolkien, C.S Lewis and J.K Rowling just to name a few. What I mean by this is that Tefler starts of with giving us a couple of plot points and characters before building on them in later chapters while later chapters still let the reader go back and find little things that they might have missed earlier. It is also in this respect that this is like a short anime series, the characters are given fleshed out backgrounds and the story is easy to follow through all its twists and turns.

On a different note it would be interesting if the rival progenitor ends up going after and successfully recruiting Calara's mum, boy would that make for an interesting rescue and recovery mission. Another point to bring up is are the Progenitors solely a male race or are they just male dominant? If so, bring on a proper rival for Alyssa.

Well I hope you submitted ch68

And we get to read it by Thursday or friday

Awww...Even though we can't break the word count record anymore, this series is still the best! I remember trying to start Etaski's Red Sisters Saga, but found the initial few chapters to be a lot of politics and background and new names that didn't interest me (maybe I should start it again?).

In contrast, I like Three Square Meals for it's initial simplicity and uncomplicated backstory.

The only other sci-fi story that I enjoyed as much as Three Square Meals would be Tristan's Tale, by IncomingPornDuck, under the mind-control category. However, he writes a lot more slowly than you do, so even though the story's amazing, the readers have to wait 4-6 months at a time for each 20 literotica-page installment, whereas you would crank out something like 200 literotica pages in that time frame.

I don't know how you are so productive, Tefler.

I think the records only applied to stories that have been published into books (and ebooks probably don't count). There's a few I know of that have been going for years, and are huge in size. Arlene and Jeff by Roustwriter is probably close to 3 millions words, and the "Six times a day" story by SpacerX was enormous.

I doubt this story will get that big, as I've got the rest of the main plot arc planned out, and don't want to drag it out needlessly when I've got lots of ideas for new stories.

Oh, and Chapter 68 is up... ;-)

Etaski has already well passed 2 million words and counting, as her Red Sister series is all one continuous story. That doesn't include the 13 side stories which, as a patron, I know pass 500 pages/200K words in Word and she'll be writing at least 7 more.

She's been doing it longer (5 years now, with a full-time job and husband) and is just as dedicated to her story, so Tefler while could catch up once she completes her story, I've also seen much longer works in other categories, so... you don't need to look beyond Literotica (much less Wikipedia) to easily find good works longer than this.

Great writing, as always! I started reading during new year's time, and was immediately absorbed into the series. I finally caught up today....and reading 70k words every day isn't easy while in graduate school, but you've managed to make it so enjoyable.

I have some comments for the last couple of chapters.

It seems like Crystal Alyssium is vulnerable to plasma fire, which is understandable. But from a science perspective, plasma is a bunch of hot, ionized matter, so they should be able to be repelled by magnetic fields that the Paragon suits already emit. Maybe the magnetic devices built in to stop conventional 10mm rounds aren't strong enough yet to deflect a supercharged stream of plasma, but I'm sure our favorite redhead can make modifications for the next armor to be more plasma resistant.

I also love how you manage to weave interesting references to different areas of science, pop culture, and japanese history, showing that you did some research into those fields. I especially liked the bits of medical terminology you used with Rachel, although the chemical terminology you used with Dana were a little confusing (you refer to her creating new "elements", i believe, but she was piecing together different elements to create new molecules/polymers/compounds.

Also, congratulations on hitting 1 million words! If you published the 67 chapters as it is now, it would be the sixth longest novel to be ever written (check wikipedia). I think that's quite the accomplishment in just over a year's time. If you ever hit two million words, though, that would actually be the longest novel ever written! That would be quite the golden Lion on your resume, huh?

at that count this is War and Peace plus Les Misearbles plus Hamlet plus Macbeth (and a tiny bit more)

or The whole of the Harry Potter series plus the Hobbit plus the first theird of the Fellowhip of the Ring

In my personally compiled complete edition in Word, 2088 pages, 1,153,726 words. That is with normal margins. If I switch it over to narrow margins it drops down to 1705 pages.

I'll take my first edition with a stamp of World Record Holder from Guinness Book of World Records for World's Longest Story.

I've mentioned this before, but the current world record holder stands at well over 9 million characters (Guinness goes by character count for some reason). That same book, according to Wikipedia which goes by word count, would only place 5th at just shy of 1.3mil words.

When I mentioned this to Tefler, he responded that he'd have to continue this story for another year in order to top that. I don't have any problem with that. Anyone else? Besides, if anyone could do it, I imagine Tefler can.

Chronicles of Amber was 1300 pages long by Roger Zelanzy. I know cause it took me 4 days to read it. This is doable. I would also pay good money for the book and maybe the art book as a set.

I like your thoughts on the art. Perhaps get the people who did some of Etaski's art. Some was freelance but a couple were professional. Or find some art students.

From the looks of it I would say 3-4 books unless Teflar amt novelette sized them we could see a dozen. Would love an autographed first edition myself.

In earlier chapters John has been able to use the airlocks while wearing his armor. Suits that can take bullet hits and deflect laser blasts and yet his dna can be read thru the armor? Also, the ship gets to sneak up on all foes by limiting their power signature. It is odd that no one other than the crew can be sneaky. I think Dana might think of a way to detect any adversaries who are trying to use the same stealth, like the master assassin. All in all I live for each chapter. I beg you to never leave us in the lurch even though you owe us nothing.

At 34000 words it can be a 10 or 11 page story, and with a total wordcount of about 1.154.000 words - including chapter-headings, table of contents, and title-page - it is at 10pt letter-size setting in Libre-Office Writer about 1665 pages long. So with all blank pages included it will be about 1670 pages long, depending on paper-size and all other layout-parameters on standard A4. Legal-paper-size or other formats may result in other page-counts.

How Tefler can/will split this epos into a series is for me not clear, due to the fact that there is no clear cut-off point in the story, at least not that I did notice.

And for the typo: On page 4 Valada brings a cup to Mael'Nerak while in the rest of the story his name is written as Mael'nerak.

Now for something different: The master assassin Amatsu Mikaboshi is a complete cyborg. Would it be nice for Sakura after some training-sessions with Eito Yamamoto and John to bring him down, and have this body, after remodelling and redesign be assigned to Faye and a copy for Athena. And for a long shot can John's "teacher" a.k.a. progenitorJohn be given a body, not gifted with teh powers John and Alyssa share?

about 1.1 mil. so about 3 to 4 books so far.

rule of thumb is printed books re 250 words per page, so last three chapters together are (and this is quite back of an envelope) a 375 page book, and assuming a similar size for the next chapter, add another 130 pages to the current volume.

Is there a current wordcount for the entire thing?

I've finished the last part of chapter 68, and just handed it over to my editors. It's about 34k in length, so about 11 pages on literotica I guess. Depending on how fast my editors have a chance to review it and get back to me, I'm guessing Monday or Tuesday for Patrons, and the end of the week here.

I could have easily kept going and ploughed on to the 50k+ barrier, but I reached a good place to stop.

I've had positive feedback from my editors, so I hope you guys will enjoy it. I dialled the epic up to 11 for this one. ;-)

Tefler

I know Tef has been talking about an e-book. I am hoping for a signed, first edition hardback printing of a six to 12 book set that has collector value. Complete with a book dedicated to maps, artist renderings of weapons, characters, etc. I would pay good money for a limited edition package.

I agree with anonymous. Patreon would be nice if you and afford the other costs to tipping. I for one will buy the book when it comes out. But I am glad Tef is sticking to his roots and putting it on here (free). That being said great work as usual Tefler and I hope this will take another year. I personally don't mind waiting two weeks to get something well written which you handily partake everytime.

Now about Faye. We just have to wait until Tef gets us closer to there. Her body may not be top priority.

Aw, I was hoping it was turning out to be another 50k+ epic. Certainly seems like it could have. Just don't leave it hanging on a nail-biter or heart-breaker, Tef!

Now if only we can get you up to the goal on Patreon where you quit your day job and write full time. That'd be even better for everyone! You get paid more, and we get chapters faster and in high quality! Win-win!

Rather than having Dana build a body for Faye, I'm hoping for a different sort of "physical" relationship between Faye and John. When Irillith spirit walks into the digital realm, she is able to make seemingly physical contact with Faye as though Faye were solid. With Faye's new CPU, the physical sensation is perceptible at a refinement roughly equal to a human body.

John has largely developed his psychic abilities by observing someone else using psychic powers or being told about his psychic buddy using them when in control of John's body. John hasn't attempted to spirit walk into the digital realm, but he could easily try to learn it from Irillith. I'd like to see John/Faye happen as a digital spirit walk.

Unfortunately, based on how brief John's spirit walks have been to date due to the difficulty of spirit walking while maintaining the psychic cage for his evil half, he may need to defeat his inner evil before being able to spirit walk long enough to provide Faye with a satisfying experience.

I'm making good strides on it (27k so far!). It'll be finished by the weekend, then a few days for editing, etc, etc.

Regarding Patreon: Since I've started using that site, I'm fully aware that people are now paying me for my efforts. As a result, I write more, at a faster rate, and spend longer proof reading and editing.

Readers here benefit from all that, so there's no need to feel any resentment towards Patrons. :-)

Tefler

Tefler seems to appreciate people chipping in tips through Patreon but he is offering the chapters for free. Just waiting for the finished chapters here on Literotica is what got you all interested and it I have seen every indication you will be unable to enjoy it here through the final chapter.

Purchase of the ebook when the story is finished and redrafted will be welcomed just as much.

Frankly my wife manages the credit card bills so I will just avoid having the whole discussion with her about the recurring charges for Patreon. She can get unreasonably sensitive and she is not enlightened regarding erotica. To her it would be porn and mean she was not good enough for me and she would cry. Chipping in a few bucks a chapter has too much added cost for me.

But the story is pure gold.

No freebee if you have not paid before

And not a single thanks for the heads-up. :-)

Chuckles as everyone runs to get their fix.

https://www.patreon.com/user/posts?u=3814558

Tefler kindly posted a freebee on patreon.

You state "If that were so, one would eventually increase speed to the point one would arrive before leaving (the time paradoxes we have spoken of before)."

This is exactly the paradox of going FTL, and Eienstien's General Theory of Relativity

The paradox we were talking about dealt with relativistic speeds, which Tefler's universe, along with all other sci-fi, just ignores. What I was refering to above was linear time...you cannot double and double and double speed in a non-theory of relativity universe and be able to subtract the time to destination beyond the time you initiated the trip.

A warp drive by nature has none of the relativity time distortions that would be part of a rocket ride upto light speed.

You are inside a bubble of space time that is space normal equivalent or sidereal. The ship's bubble moves like a wave through space and that distorting curvature of space itself seems to have no speed limit. It can form instantly and it collapses instantly. The warp drive itself would have a power limit. The spatial offset of the distortion takes energy and determines how fast the bubble will push through space. It is self cancelling so that the ship never physically moves. You just move where here is until here gets to there.

The wormhole drive does something different. You kick space real hard until it collapses into a fold that touches a distant point in space. You step across because for a moment or so the distortion puts here and there side by side. It may not be as hard as you think and tiny momentary folds might happen all the time spontaneously as part of the surface tension of space. To enlarge and keep a distortion aka wormhole stable for even a fraction of a second at a useful size might also be impossible.

In theory a wormhole drive could fold to anywhere and anytime so you are talking multiverses and time travel paradox. Solving for now to now or to soon travel might be a special solution that works and travel to the past might breakdown into chaos with no information transmitted, meaning you come out the other side as a blast of random energy or you bounce.

I've written another 11k to go along with my 11k preview, so I'm making good progress on Chapter 68. It'll probably be about 30k in size, which would make it around the same as the last chapter in length (10 literotica pages).

Tefler

Any update on ch68 ???????

I hope we get to read it soon

The singularity drive is a whole new ball game compared to the present FTL drive and I think that the calculations would be more complex. Also If you re-read my last post you will see that I also suggested that there would be a delay while the wormhole was created. A three to four hour delay in conjunction with normal FTL travel to a suitable jump point would provide the time for an orgy.

if a long time for calculation fit for FTL jumping with Alyssa's instant navigation ability.

Your travel time objection is easily overcome if we posit that it will take several hours to calculate the wormhole parameters and then create it. There is also still a place for their present FTL drive because I do not think that would want to hang around after a battle waiting for the wormhole to be ready. Also I suspect that they wound also want to keep it secret from the TF and so would want to be out of sensor range when using it.

With respect to the present FTL drive, imagine a searchlight on Earth aimed at the celestial equator and a space ship at a distance from Earth such that a circle of that radius would have e circumference of 24 light years. If we now imagine the space ship traveling along that circle keeping in the illuminated spot it would have to have a speed of I light year per hour. Next we have the beam creating a warp that will carry anything below a given mass along with it, the mass limit being dependant on the warp intensity. I feel that it is not too big a stretch of the imagination to suppose that this warp will be immune to the relativistic space-time effects and thus things caught up in it would also be immune. If we now move the warp generator onto the space ship we get a FTL drive that has no relativistic distortion.. Mass carried by the warp is a function of the power used to create the warp and propagation speed dependant on the method of creation.

singularity drive giving instant movement. it would remove the chance for the crew to interact with each other. Travel time is important for the story.

And a crystal Alyisium skeleton for Fayes body sounds interesting. It's something manipulable by John so is seemingly a possibility

No need to reread your post!

going ftl min effort is that you be able to see in the past

all other guesses are unproven at the moment even if the maths prove it

if you count down from 10 on one hand you get 6 then add 5 on other hand answer is 11 unless you have more/less normal 10 digit's(i lost 1 so answer is either 10 or 12 depending on which hand i count down on)

so math can be wrong if you dont do it right

so unless someone actually does it all things are theory/guess work

You state "If that were so, one would eventually increase speed to the point one would arrive before leaving (the time paradoxes we have spoken of before)."

This is exactly the paradox of going FTL, and Eienstien's General Theory of Relativity

Mal

Oh I do! If you go back and read some of my past posts I have been pushing for the development of the singularity drive we saw when the crew went after the pirate lord and saved Jade. That would allow the Invictus to travel instantaneously anywhere they wished.

As i only had cse lvl 3 in maths in late 70's i wont go further on that

as for the time going backwards i did not like that idea but i do like getting there within a few minutes instead of days and if they can still go faster i prefer go further in the same time(i.e. 3 day trip in a few minutes then 6 days trip in same few minutes )

if you get my drift

Hmm i think your got it wrong

"if x 3 takes 48 hours off travel

so x6 will take 96 hours off "

Not accurate, actually: that would be a geometric progression instead of an arithmetic. All factors of increase are constant and arithmetic....hence they are a factor or constant RATE of change...not a constant value of change...your doubling of the hours off constitutes an error of the order of operations.

When I wrote this I was refering to the 48 + 48 constant value incorrectly applied. Twice as fast does not take off twice the hours off. If that were so, one would eventually increase speed to the point one would arrive before leaving (the time paradoxes we have spoken of before).

Hmm i think your got it wrong

"if x 3 takes 48 hours off travel

so x6 will take 96 hours off "

Not accurate, actually: that would be a geometric progression instead of an arithmetic. All factors of increase are constant and arithmetic....hence they are a factor or constant RATE of change...not a constant value of change...your doubling of the hours off constitutes an error of the order of operations.

"going by your 72 ÷ 6 = 12

easy maths

72 ÷ 3 = 24 so ftl 1 = 24 × 6 = 144"

Actually, since 6 = 2 x 3 the 6x is only twice the increase of 3x. You are right that three times faster is 1 day or 24 hours. But half of 24 is 12 (the decrease in time is the inverse of the increase in speed) so 12 x 6 is 72. You are right, however that in one 24 hour day the invictus would travel 6 times as far as a terran ship, or 144 units, rather than the standard 24 units of travel per day.

"and not

X6 = 12 24 36 48 60 72"

See above. Sorry to disagree....but I do have some background in the subject (30+ years in the field).

Hmm i think your got it wrong

if x 3 takes 48 hours off travel

so x6 will take 96 hours off

going by your 72 ÷ 6 = 12

easy maths

72 ÷ 3 = 24 so ftl 1 = 24 × 6 = 144

and not

X6 = 12 24 36 48 60 72

i believe thats the math of it

so using your math it should have taken 2 days not 1 day

unless ftl goes slower as you speed it up ?

Tef sorry if messing up your story

You said:

normal terran ftl 3 day trip 72 hours

john ftl is × 3 terran same trip 24 hours

john ftl will be × 6 same trip couple of minutes

x6 speed for a three day trip would be 72 hours divided by 6 or 12 hours.

Why would Ashanath be quite reasonable in having amazing Antigrav systems if they also have the best FTL drives?

There is no acceleration.

You bend space and it acts like a hydraulic piston to push your bubble along. You set the amount of warp and you are immediately travelling at the rate desired.

If i were Tfed then i would have teams to collect data storage from battle lost ships to see what happened if figth and get anyother info if possible

Ok here is my thinking

normal terran ftl 3 day trip 72 hours

john ftl is × 3 terran same trip 24 hours

john ftl will be × 6 same trip couple of minutes

most of that will be getting to speed more than anything else

Jedi 2 things

1 powercore wont be running at 100% unless in battle firing novas not sure it at 100% even then

2 if normal sonsors can scan a 5 hour travel in hype wrap than john will be on they sensors for a few minutes at most travelling at 6 times as fast so they sensors wont be able to get much the tag beacon on ship will tell poeple ship info

So only ships on the same journey that left before john would really see anything of note and all that will be is they speed to know more you would need a active scan and that must be done with john ship at near stop and that wont tell would output the core is unless its in battle and he john is using the novas you still wont know and he does you wont need scans to know its a badass system

That smacks of fishing. It was an educated guess based on After Action Reports.

If they are achieving battleship results at least because they probably are underestimating Calara's effectiveness and allowing for missed shots that never happened, the Invictus is powering battleship level damage.

Another alternative is active scans as they approach the dockyards.

Another alternative is that it is monitoring while they are docked and other sensors like the docks power management bus controllers. Ships often plug in when they dockyard and take their power units offline for safety reasons. In a friendly port the power computers would talk to each other. The sensor might be a computer that asked how much power are you rated? Ship told rhe dockyard 750 Terawatts momentary power and 5 Terawatts sustained.

Dockyard computer flagged that as strange and needing dockyard engineering approval outside of battleship berths.

cause some confusion as the sensors say "hey, you've got a battleship coming at you at crazy fast speeds" while people looking at the ship say "no, that's a cruiser"?

It does not work that way. They normally use cruiser power levels so they look like a cruiser.

I can look at a lightbulb and guess it is 100 watts. I can not tell it is a bulb on a 100 amp breaker or that it is running on 480volts just by looking at it.

Sounds like Howard Phillips L. Nice!

What clue is this buried in the tags?

Tef, I just had a thought regarding how sensors work. Apparently, a ship can go pretty much unnoticed on passive sensors if it is powered down and hiding among some rocks or other debris, but lights up like a beacon when powered up. And if I recall correctly, a long time back, Vice Admiral Charles was able to tell that the Invictus had a new power core by the sensor readings. So here's the thing...wouldn't sensor readings of the Invictus show that they have the power equivalent of a battleship, and thus might cause some confusion as the sensors say "hey, you've got a battleship coming at you at crazy fast speeds" while people looking at the ship say "no, that's a cruiser"? Or would it be more like the sensors detect the hull of the ship, and use that to determine classification rather than the power readings, which again would cause some confusion as people are like "wait, how's a cruiser got the same power rating of a battleship?"

I'd imagine anyone paying attention to the power readings from sensor scans of the Invictus would pause a moment as they try to puzzle out the mystery of where all that power is coming from and what it could mean.

Or all this could be wrong or make absolutely no sense since it's late in my day and I'm a bit loopy-tired. Hopefully you get where I'm going with this train of thought, Tef.

Um...

You guys are good but it gets better.

Research was puzzling because the the other ancestor seems to some like it should be a superior human. They had larger brain pans,and more durable skeletal stucture that would resist several human failings. They would have been much more resistant to bad backs for example. Their musculature was subtly different and more pronounced. They would have been stronger pound for pound by as much as double.

Neanderthals were used as a basis but then they also interbred afterwards.

We would be diluted and partly degenerate versions of "God's" design.

That is how I read it anyways.

I don't know how you do it but it gets even better every chapter. Can hardly wait for the next chapter.

I think you could really make some money turning this into a book. even without the sex scenes you could sell a lot of copies just with the story alone. Your story is extremely well written and many science fiction lovers would love to buy and read a story like this.

just finished reading this chap .. on another site. hope my vote is counted here.

5!

While everyone is optimistic about an electronic shell for Faye to utilise what I am suggesting is what could be best described as a Sombra style human body. It wouldn't be hard for Irillith, Rachel and Dana to create the body. Rachel for the blueprint and mold of the body, Dana for the creation of the required elements as well as hybrid cybernetics so that Faye could still access the Cyber World when she needs to and finally Irillith to make sure that all circuitry/nervous system works like it should. There would still obviously be teething problems but once they are out of the way, you then have another playmate for John and the girls.

You tease us with knowledge of a battle grrr. that one of the areas you keep improving on TEF. only forces we know of in the area they are heading is the other traitor and the rest of the returning fleet. So this may not be as one sided because trying to keep their weapons secret from the rest of the tfed. I doubt the other progenitor upgraded a tfed ship so my guess is she a thrall/spy for him. This she be good though I doubt she is gonna make it easy but she will either be captured and left in John's care or she will be killed.

What a tease Tefler, what a tease...

Now it is waiting time for more major mayhem and destruction, who against who and for what reason, and what is the role of the Invictus and/or Raptor. Showtime for Calara and Faye

Can the hacking-device of Irilith not be copied/extended into the Raptor so that Faye does not have that lag while she is controlling/flying it? She is now really "multitasking" as in the human perspective...

Herman Grootaers

You are so mean. But i love the to be continued.

You're welcome!

I really enjoy reading through the all the feedback too, and it's been great to see such a positive response! I haven't been replying much recently, as I've been busy writing chapter 68.

I've written just over 5k of part 2 at the moment, and its been going well. Battle scenes always take longer to write, as they're much more complex to structure and keep interesting. Hopefully you'll all enjoy what's coming!

Tefler

Is chapter preview looking good?

What Jedi said. :-)