All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 068'

The Quantum Annihilator would theoretically convert mass to energy. How that would work is unknown. But Dana might have a handle on it soon.

You said: "Tefler has already said that the power core will be upgraded so using novas wont be a problem, so instead of new weapons have dana come up with a drone/fighter support a small drone/ship that 6 of faye's self's could fly same firepower as gunship ?

you could put holographic emits on them so they look like john ship ?"

cool idea.

"In a moment of sudden clarity, Admiral Edwin Caldwell realised that it wasn't only John Blake's ship that had grown powerful. He wondered if Lynette Devereux had even the slightest idea of what she'd created..."

The Admiral's plans to deal with John, whatever they were, just went up in smoke.

"First, antimatter does not annihilate all forms of mass-energy, and shields would work fine against it."

Not entirely true. Electromagnetic shields would, but the shields in Tefler's universe are not electromagnetic or they would not react so unfavorably to lasers (the lasers would just pass right through them since light waves are electromagnetic waves themselves. And much like the waves from a boat wake just add or subtract from the waves created by the moon and wind action, the lasers would just 'ride' the electromagnetic shield waves to the target.

"Energy is conserved: it takes as much energy to produce a gram of antimatter as you get out of completely annihilating it. So you can't create a few lbs on the fly unless you have a massive energy source."

You are absolutely correct as far as you take it. But there are other considerations here. First, a Kilo of antimatter destroys a kilo of matter. So you have twice the amount of matter turning into pure energy. While this mass conversion is not 100% it IS over 90% while a thermonuclear reaction is less than a 1% conversion to energy. Hence it would take a 190+ kilo nuke to equate to a one kilo antimatter bomb.

"In order to fire antimatter as a weapon (without the antimatter destroying the launcher) you would need to use a similar idea: e.g., make the antimatter charged and accelerate it in an electromagnetic field. Unfortunately, that also makes it easy to shield against (the electromagnetic force is about 40 orders of magnitude stronger than gravity)"

True: IF the shields were electromagnetic…which they aren't. Electromagnetic shields would be useless against light weapons (lasers) and this is just not the case in Tefler's universe.

Finally, Dana was able to effectively produce a stream of antimatter that equated to several tons of material in a matter of just a few hours (the ore output she retrieved in the bins at the bottom of the fusion reactor core). As you said, energy and mass are conserved. So: With a Progen power core, at that rate of production, creating a stream of antimatter worth the effort to weaponize it (a kilo) would only take 0.0036 seconds.

Here are a few issues with antimatter, assuming the physics of 3SM is consistent with what we know in our universe!

1. Antimatter is made of anti-particles, specifically anti-leptons (such as positrons) and anti-quarks (the building blocks of anti-protons and anti-neutrons). Only a particle and its anti-particle (e.g. an electron and a positron) can annihilate to give pure energy (photons). For example, charged pions contain a quark and an anti-quark of different types, and are stable for several nanoseconds before decaying into muons and neutrinos via the weak nuclear force. This has several implications. First, antimatter does not annihilate all forms of mass-energy, and shields would work fine against it. Secondly, collisions between ordinary matter (electrons, protons and neutrons) and corresponding antimatter produce a lot of muons and neutrinos, which carry some of the energy away. Thirdly, such collisions do not create any sort of chain reaction: a gram of antimatter can annihilate at most a gram of matter.

2. Energy is conserved: it takes as much energy to produce a gram of antimatter as you get out of completely annihilating it. So you can't create a few lbs on the fly unless you have a massive energy source.

3. The main reason antimatter is useful in sci-fi is that it is a very efficient way of storing energy: you make it when you have a big energy source to hand (typically a star). Then you can take it with you and annihilate it with matter to recover the energy when you need it.

4. However, this is not without problems, as you have to stop the antimatter from coming into contact with any matter until you want it to. A practical way to do this is to make it electrically charged and hold it in a magnetic field. But it is dangerous stuff (cf. contact poison - why is that not a popular weapon?).

5. In order to fire antimatter as a weapon (without the antimatter destroying the launcher) you would need to use a similar idea: e.g., make the antimatter charged and accelerate it in an electromagnetic field. Unfortunately, that also makes it easy to shield against (the electromagnetic force is about 40 orders of magnitude stronger than gravity).

A weapon is a way of transferring energy produced by the wielder into destructive (essentially kinetic, including heat) energy at the target, and its effectiveness is essentially the percentage so transferred. Firing antimatter is not as good as it sounds: indeed it is probably more effective to use any antimatter you have to fuel your power core than to use your power core to create antimatter.

Progenitor encode the tech in the genes of the son so if another progenitor invent's or improve know tech does that tech get passed on to other progenitor 's ?

Another weapon that theoretically Dana should already know how to build is the Quantum annihilator that Nexus was going to destroy earth with. Apparently some of you are very much more well versed in current physics than I am so any thoughts about what that is and whether it could also be integrated into the ship? I also wonder if it is the same weapon the BSP used to destroy the dreadnaut and Gabrielle's shuttle?

In my post I did, by implication, postulate that either TFed had found a way to bypass the no communication theorem or that in Tefler's universe the theorem is invalid. You pays your money and takes your pick.

On communication i said it simply hadnt been explored as to how the theory behind it worked. Quantum Entanglement is actually something i hadn't thought of. If you found a way around the no communication theorem it would work pretty well.

As for antimatter in regards to shielding if it was an energy based shield as the story seems to indicate it would still be to a large extent effective at withstanding antimatter, you would have to take down the shield prior to firing.

Also it would even seem indicated on Genthalas shipyard, antimatter is not something that you can rapidly create large quantities of naturally, and requires rather specific containment (mag bottles) while i would not by an means rule this out as a weapon, its not something you could realistically pull off at a rapid firing pace, more along the line of how there nova lance functions know sort of a 1 shot weapon.

The first word in my previous post should be "At".

t the end of your post you say that you suggest that the TFed comms tech could be converted to ship purposes, if by that you mean converted to a drive system then I have to disagree. I think that the TFed comms tech is based on quantum entanglement, It is not too big a stretch of the imagination to suppose that TFed has been able to harness the instantaneous effects of quantum entanglement as a communication medium. However, I think that using this tech to develop a super fast FTL drive would be on a par with trying to use our present comms tech to develop a light speed space drive.

On a somewhat different tack: Quantum entanglement - instantaneous and distance independent. Telepathy - instantaneous and distance independent. Is this coincident or is there a link? I suggest that telepathy is a by-product of quantum entanglement.

Tefler has already said that the power core will be upgraded so using novas wont be a problem, so instead of new weapons have dana come up with a drone/fighter support a small drone/ship that 6 of faye's self's could fly same firepower as gunship ?

you could put holographic emits on them so they look like john ship ?

Would be similar to the need to pulse laser blasts. The tremendous shock wave from a matter/antimatter explosion would tend to splatter the oncoming stream. So pulsing the stream would be actually much more effective at putting the antimatter on target. And you would not have the required 'cool down' time between pulses because you are not dealing with heat other than a magnetic containment field generation within the barrel...which is MUUUUCH less than what a laser generates.

cannot only be stabalized but very tightly controlled, as Tekt points out: the beam lasers can be turned into Antimatter Streams....shooting a constant stream of antimatter at ANY force field or normal matter (mass being just organized energy as shown by Einstein's theory of Relativity) would effectively turn that force field or mass into its own sub-nuclear bomb with near 100% energy efficiency.

The mass drivers of all Terran vessels uses hypervelocity to turn mass into plasma which reacts somewhat explosively with a ships mass. Alternatively, antimatter projectiles would turn the ship itself into a devistating bomb, the limits of which would be directly related to the mass of the antimatter. And the shockwave from such an explosion would be anything from a small nuclear device to a wave capable of splitting a small sun...again, depending on the mass of the antimatter in the projectile.

Antimatter mass drivers would be more devistating than the singularity drivers of the Dreadnaughts (which just use the gravity wells of the singularity to propel the standard mass projectile at high speed)...and, since they would also react with shield energy, a single salvo of sufficient mass would take them out as well, leaving the second salvo (projectiles 3 and 4) to desintegrate large portions of the ship. The resulting shock wave of released energy would also affect the rest of the ship and possibly escort vessels if they are too close.

Exactly. I would think weaponizing it would be a no-brainer.

Considering Dana has already shot a stream of it thru a fusion reactor I would say many things are possible with it.

On a guess i would say that a nova lance is something along the lines of inetia confinement fusion, using a laser to confine and start a fusion reaction (basically a small sun hence nova) , in a weaponized format, then allowing it to be released in a semi controlled fashion at a target. which would also account for the very large power draw.

Small amount of antimatter have been observed to occur naturally in nature in large thunderstorms and such a few hundred are observed a day, while 100 lbs's of antimatter seems a bit overkill the theoretical creation of it would not be outside of the technical aspects of the Invictus basically a mag bottle for containment and a bit of Sci-Fi based generation with enough energy thrown at it.

You could also look into the mostly unproven theory behind free quarks which should violently pair with there opposite when released although the science behind that is a bit beyond me.

Also there is nearly instant communication in TSM universe going many many times faster then even the fastest ships able to connect to almost anywhere in a matter of minutes, and then have a delay free conversation, the science behind this has never fully been explored, i can only assume this is taking advantage of some form of sidereal space if you can create communicate tech, many times ftl then you should be able to modify that tech for ship purposes?

So..... You want Dana to build a mini Death Star?.......

I know all the "personal" weapons are a bit "overkill", and the Invictus is a small bit "overkill" (for its class), but seriously? A planet killer weapon? LOL

of antimatter would have a 1,360,777.11 megaton yield. That is 90,718.5 times a Hiroshima bomb.

Dana needs to come up with an antimatter cannon. That would be one thing that would shut down the worm hole generation process or at least destabalize one that was created so BSP could not so easily escape.

All that is necessary (LOL) is to create a shell with an ultra strong, internal magnetic shield as a carrier. The impact destroys the shell/field and the antimatter explodes on contact with matter at a subatomic level. It would release energy well beyond what any thermonucklear warhead could and the amount the size of one's fist could take out an entire sun.

Yeah, John's worm will be holing pretty soon. (Really sorry.....just had to.)

Dana and her mass fabricators will engineer and build a console that lets John have the girls input where he wants to go and event horizons will open at both ends and away they go.

Dave

Lot of theories out there! It isn't like the old days where you could just make up something. There is too much science nowadays and guys a whole lot smarter then any of us working on it.

PLR, your folding paper trick is the classic explanation of warp drive. But I think of a wormhole as two holes on a plane (OK, think sheet of paper) and when you stick your finger in one hole it comes out the other. Your dealing with the space/time continuum so the mechanics is pretty heavy. In our case think of driving your car into a tunnel opening (the event horizon) and then being able to chose where the other end of the tunnel is (the other event horizon). The classic example would be Stargate, which was one established event horizon connecting with another. The ability to create a wormhole and have the other end where you want it would be a tough act. The physics and power requirements would be beyond our current understanding. But I think people forget that this is FICTION, and Tefler can make the laws of physics any shape he wants in his universe.

A Rear Admiral would have the authority to recommend and promote individuals he/she deems worthy/deserving. That being said, John is operating under a retired status and as such could only make recommendations for awards/promotions; sort of like a civilian contractor. If the Federation officers under his command were to at some point leave his command their rank would only be recognized if it were initiated through Federation channels.

In reference to the wormholes and via the tachyon drive then activate secondary drive using Einstein-Rosen bridge theory. I think that Dana realized that the; I can’t keep track of their names (the little grey dudes), that gave them their engines didn’t fully understand the technology behind it and their engines would have to be reconfigured once they were able to dry doc. Should also alleviate the power drain when using their main cannons as well.

Some modification of a singularity cannon ramping it up by a few orders of magnitude might be able to create a semi stable wormhole in theory? depends on exactly how the theory behind it works in book one would assume creating a short term weaponized singularity of some form. If you where to create energy density negative to that of vacuum density should do the trick for creation of a stable wormhole , Dana modify the base components into a workable drive system of some form, and i believe there's a gutted dreadnought floating around in space at the moment.

On wormhole's: Only two ways to really make one work is to achieve ftl via there tachyon drive then activate secondary drive using Einstein-Rosen bridge theory, anything sublight would be moving to slow and wormhole would collapse before you would be able to traverse it, but by going ftl then creating a wormhole you could essentially create a tunnel forward in space moving you many orders of magnitude faster then standard ftl. Second way of pulling it off would be to create a stable wormhole through some form of exotic matter manipulation, probably possible once they get upgraded back at shipyards? While technically violating current known laws of physics best theoretical way of creating a semi stable wormhole would be through some form of negative mass manipulation. Also the concept that a wormhole is instant travel from point A to point B is actually somewhat of a misnomer, it creates generally speaking a anomaly in space that greatly shortens a distance (reference the post below) however this is not instant it can still take a length of time. Also there is an incredible amount of both gravitational energy involved as well as quite a bit of rather far out theoretical particles. would probably suggest they not attempt it till shields upgraded again at shipyards once there back in malari space (if its on the table at all).

(I've refrained greatly from talking about many many science topics throughout this overall excellent book.)

Think of an edge of a piece of paper with the two corners being light years apart. Folding the paper so the two corners are right next to each other is the folding of space that a worm hole does. Once you step from one corner to the other you simply stop the worm hole and space unfolds....wolla! you are on the other side of the universe.

A worm hold drive would not move one into the past or have time dilation issues unless the terminal singularity was moving near, at, or faster than light speeds itself. If the two ends of the wormhole, the event horizons, were stable and static in their movement no time travel would occur. One would simply slip throught the event horizon and exit out the terminal event horizon like stepping through a door....and just instantly appear/be on the other side of the Galaxy, Universe, Stellar Cluster, etc.

Visions of "Master of the Universe" and "I HAVE THE POWER!" LMAO

That John has a unique bond with the girls same with Alyssa I believe going back when John was talking with ederele she said normally the matarch has no free will it all is what the progenitor plan. Also Layton was expendable she was just a thrall but my quests is that had John caught her there may be something that would allow another progenitor get information out with out much hassle .I.e something in the DNA or something else we no PJohn had a talk with the Queen we still don't know what he learned from that conversation and probably won't until John makes peace with the other half of himself

it's also possible that BSP is simply bored and waiting for john to becoming more powerful so that he can challenge him to fight with him one on. like he is waiting for a worthy men to fight him.

Lots of different thoughts.

First off, John may not have been able to trade with the Kintark Empire for plasma weapons due to the war, but he did just have a fully tooled (but admittedly somewhat banged up) battle group surrender to him. Hopefully Dana gets a chance to poke around in their stuff for a few hours, or at least a few handgun samples.

Relatedly, here's to hoping that the Brimorians are on the way to where Irillith's sister is so that they can finally upgrade their shields.

Next, In addition to cybersexing it up with John, I think Faye needs a suit of power armor (in pink, natch) so that she can join the team on away missions. Maybe with a built in CPU to overcome the signal lag she was fighting on the Raptor. (which should get a CPU core too) They'll need a method to download a fragment of Faye's personality into the power armor, and to sync back up with the core personality at the end of missions, but that hopefully shouldn't be a problem.

Finally, I've become convinced that the BSP is John's father, not a rival. There's been no known progenitor activity for ~10,000 years, but the BSP could have ruled this part of the galaxy for all that time if he wanted to. Assuming that the BSP, as John's father, is amoral rather than outright evil, this could just be his way of teaching John to be a progenitor in a hands off way. The discord being sown also creates opportunity for John to take his (as the BSP sees it) rightful place as ruler of this chunk of the galaxy while making him earn it (and thus appreciate it) rather than just handing it to John..

Your idea on the use of wormholes is one I had not thought of. However I feel that, given John's philosophy, the enemy would be sent to a point well removed from the battle scene, say 200 parsecs.

"The other side of the coin" is an expression that means "The opposite point of view", and in this case I was thinking about rapid wormhole creation not slow.

We've seen two wormholes created now for jumps, and in neither case did their creation seem to take any appreciable time. it's possible that the difficult work was done ahead of time, but it doesn't look like it

with a rotary dial?

The post by by Draco9881 made me think about weaponizing the wormhole generator. Imagine creating a wormhole about half the size of the target ship in front of them. Half of the target ship gets warped to another destination while the rest stays put. This may be too powerful of a weapon but it'd be unstoppable.

Even smaller wormholes would be devastating. Imagine a small grid of them in front of a moving ship. It'd be like pushing a ship through a garlic press.

John, as a Rear Admiral, ought to have the authority to recommend for promotion persons whom he thinks deserving. In fact as CO of the Invictus I would have thought that he would have had that authority from the start,

In an earlier post I suggested that creating wormholes could be a time consuming task. I have been giving the other side of the coin some consideration and my ideas are that John and company decide that they will only use the singularity drive if they need to get to their destination "yesterday" otherwise they will use the normal FTL drive.

Also rapid wormhole creation opens up the possibility for the development of a "Wormhole Gun". It would work by making a connection between a special room on the Invictus and the target location on the enemy ship, e.g. the enemy bridge, and then pushing a package through. The package could be high explosive, knockout gas or any other form of nastiness that can be dreamed up.

This vision in my head about when John is going to go into melee combat again. Him realizing that he forgot his sword back on the ship. After some thought he asks his queen bee to have one of the girls on the ship get Faye to have a bot toss it out of the airlock.(No one else being strong enough to lift it.) Once the Sword is in planetary orbit using his telekinetic power to pull it down to the planet and catch it. When the ensuing shockwave has cleared and everyone sees him standing there like a pimp, they cower in fear of his greatness.

unfortunately, there are some jealous types out there so s single 1 by a disgruntled reader = about 200 5's to get you back to 4.95. disturbing but true.

;{

I hope that the Kintark will recover and become allies. All the prisoners and their ships become liabilities otherwise and going after the immortal dragons is not going to be easier if they wait.

...but I am totally hooked on this series. And when I don't have a new chapter to mainline, I'm skin-popping the comments.

Tefler, thank you for being my dealer of choice, and for having so many generous "mules." Your talent and your word output are astounding; I write for a living, albeit nothing like this, so I understand what intense focus it takes to crank out 5,000-10,000 words in a day.

Your ability has grown tremendously since the initial chapters; I've been addicted since Chapter 2. Character development, dialogue, pacing, plotting, exposition, description--all first-rate.

I'm with you until the end, I'll mourn when that day arrives.

atleast on patreon...

might be a faster way for us to get a piece...

cheers!

Glad you are feeling better. Don't overextend yourself. Regardless of how we feel, we really can wait for you to recover (looks for his old xanax pills).

I have been reading stories on this for almost a year now...and to tell you this is the best series i have ever read.plis keep the good work can't wait for the next update

Who the hell voted less than 5* ? I really enjoyed Etaski's and RipperFish's stories but this was better.

Best. Chapter. Yet!

Tefler, my main man. I am solidly impressed with your story crafting skills. I just re-read the entire series for the 3rd time with this last chapter as the big finale and I'm awed once again.

In fact, I'm so impressed that I have decided to become a Patron. You are well worth the investment!

Keep up your most excellent work!

Found this really gripping, a great read, with fantastic demonstrative text, keep it up.

Hey everyone,

I've been enjoying reading all your comments, thanks a lot for giving me such great feedback! Battles take quite a bit of effort to write, so I'm glad you liked this one. It was fun thinking about the scenes and planning them out, while throwing in a few surprises to keep it interesting.

Apologies for not being very active on here this week. I came down with a cold, so as soon as I was feeling better I got stuck into writing chapter 69. Speaking of which, I've written 15k so far, so I hope to wrap up the chapter and hand it over to the editors by the end of the week.

When I've finished the chapter, I'll add some more comments on here. I'll quickly answer Ozkiwi's questions though:

1) I am surprised there were no inklings that the BSP was there?

It was cloaked, and using a Progenitor cloaking device. The Invictus is using an enhanced version of Maliri sensors, but unfortunately they weren't strong enough to defeat Progenitor tech.

2) Why did John let Lynton run?

It was a sensible plan to scoop her up in the Invictus for a number of reasons. Irillith wouldn't have been able to do much if Lynton tried to kill herself. If there was an insurrection amongst the Thor's crew, then they also might have been able to free/kill her. He also had no idea that the Progenitor was lurking around.

"the BSP matriarch could have just drained Lynton of psychic energy leaving her a husk"

If the Progenitor had ordered her to do so, she definitely could have. He didn't though, so perhaps there was a reason for that.

"John seeming to make dumb decisions"

He wanted answers as soon as possible, and rounding up Lynton was a quick way of getting them. It would have worked perfectly if the Progenitor's ship hadn't appeared out of nowhere and blown her away. :-)

Tefler

Many have commented about BSP running & not engaging in the fight but I don't think he was there in person .When Lynton got ready to spring the trap on Santini's Battleship it wasn't her Master but his Matriarch Ailanthea that she was communicating with . As A Matriarch she would be powerful but not enough to go up against another Progenetor so she would naturally flee rather than risk destruction or being taken over/controlled by a rival Progen..

Also loved all the action but felt bad about losing the fighter pilots especially Angel ,but will be interesting if Lt Murphy reappears later n the story .As to Adm. Caldwell & TFed ,any attempts to force John & the girls to share or surrender their tech might have a few diplomatic hurdles since John is the Consort (?) of a Maliri Matriarch .

Anyone worried about all this fame , fortune & power going to John's head can relax . The All Powerful Lion & Rear Admiral was more nervous in talking to his girls father than the battle (Loved it, retaining that little slice of humor among the battle fever & bloodshed)

You rock Tefler! Easily your best chapter so far - can't wait to see what happens next.

Your writing is so professional - better than many Sci-Fi books I've read in the last few years. I hope to see your name on Amazon soon!

I agree with the subs looking for the "hole in the water". I just think that they "forgot", once they saw the Black Ship the 1st time, to program the sensors/computer to look for that "hole in space". Since the power signature might be cloaked, they would probably have to do a "visual/camera" sweep every time they dropped in somewhere, or constantly.

Plus, it should be interesting what the sensors DID pick up when Lynton's shuttle was ka-blewied. I am sure, now that the danger is "over", the logs will get reviewed (Faye has probably already done that) and measures will be taken in the future.

SwirlingJedi: I had a thought reading your note. Maybe the Progenitors don't go out for conquest. Maybe they are like the Greek Gods, sitting up on Olympus, "playing chess", or just stirring up shit because they are bored, doing massive psychological experiments, etc. The Gods (according to mythology) did stuff just to see what would happen, testing, pissed off, bored.

It could be theres an entire planet out there of former Milari that the other progenitor is using as a battery. he could have 10,000 years head start on John in creating an energy reserve. that immortality effect could have quite an impact. but it couldn't get too large as you'd reach a limit on numbers depending on the amount of time the immortality charge lasts, how many a day he could top up, how many you can keep running without introducing new ones drawing a stronger tentacled horror from the astral plane if he can do 40 a day on just a mouthful and the repeat delay is 1 months that would be 1200, once a year is 14400.

It could be that every now and then he starts to run out of the current batch, and so instead of creating them himself he creates a new progenitor, lets him run up a battery of say 500, or 5,000, then pops up and wipes the floor with him using experience, grabbing his thralls without having to do all the hard creation work.

I'm also thinking Johns big advantage in any combat is the girls. if the other progenitor keeps all his powers to himself, then if it comes to a fight he's got to do all the work himself while he's flying he cant be hacking, shooting, controlling whatever ships he has repairing things, healing people all at the same time whereas john has a separate person with the powers to concentrate on doing each thing.

I was just saying its setting an impossibly high standard for anyone else who wants to use him as an example "you can marry my daughter when you've done any of the things the lion did to get his bride" or daughters saying "I'll marry you when you bring me the head of a dragon, or fight off a whole fleet" now they know it isn't impossible :-)

Can we get an update on the thralls who went to the tradeport to find fathers?

Anon: If you recal, there were a handful of Miliri thralls who asked Edrael to speak on their behalf with John about having his children...including her bodyguards.

that BSP keeps showing up and seemingly running away. Hard to decide whether BSP is not as strong as we think, is hesitant to hurt John for some reason, or simply operates indirectly.

I would expect to see a large group of thralls trailing around after the BSP, but we see very few. I know that John keeps breaking up the BSP efforts, having killed at least two thralls directly or indirectly, but it seems like the BSP is no more powerful or advanced (thrall-wise) than John. And since John operates his thralls in a definitely non-Progenitor manner, I would expect that John would have significantly fewer thralls. But from what we have read, this is not so. We have seen maybe one thrall for Trankarrans, one for Drakkar, one for Terrans and maybe one for Kintark. Where are they all? John has 90 (or so) plus two matriarchs.

Could it be that BSP has significantly reduced power, and so has only one old-style matriarch, but can (or will) only support a minimal number of thralls at any given time. It could be that by hoarding his power, he is keeping his network small. We know that normal Progenitors like to force complete control over every matriarch and thrall, and that takes a significant amount of power If BSP is the same Progenitor as in the videos, then we know that he is a loner (seemingly preferring the help of a computer to other living beings,) so this might make sense.

btw - still waiting for green babies

loved it so far...!!!!

Those are some wonderful ideas! I really like the saving of those in danger on both sides.

One thing I would add. Alyssa suits up and flies over in her suit to the ship that is ablaze and stops the conflagaration with her telekenesis. That is already out of the bag, so why not?

I agree totally with your tactical view of the situation. Still not convinced BSP is the Mael'-Nerek.

Tefler,

I really don't want this fleet action to end. Here's some thoughts to extend out this particular battle for my own selfish enjoyment. Feel free to use all, some or none of these ideas.

John and crew spend time after the battle saving more lives (as you alluded to the life and death struggle still going on even after the shooting stopped). Saving lives - the battleship that's mentioned having lost power early in the battle needs help. They don't have enough time to evacuate everyone before emergency power to life support runs out, Invictus docks with it and shares it's battleship sized power supply with the ship to keep people alive while they make repairs to the power cores. The rescued survivors on the Invictus, when told about the battle volunteer to help the crippled ship's crew. Critically injured people are ferried to the Invictus for evacuation to the space station by the fastest means possible (the Invictus).

While the battleship is being repaired enough to support life, Faye and Irillith use the sensors to help the SAR (Search and Rescue) ships locate both human and Kintark survivors in a race against the clock before injuries or life support runs out.

As the fleet sends marines and naval prize crews to the Kintark ships, John gets a call from the Admiral in charge saying that the Kintark Prelate wants to meet with the Lion of the Federation and ask him about the battle at the Nebula and why he spared the troop transports. John could wear his combat armor to help with the prize crew on the Kintark flagship and to make a fearsome show of force. There's an incident where one of the Kintarks attacks John because of an earlier battle that killed his father/sibling/etc. John disables the Kintark and spares him. Telling him that he fights to protect his friends and not because he enjoys killing. This opens up a dialogue that ultimately gets the emperor to realize that he's being played by the BSP. The war is called off/put on hold, as both sides explore how much they've been played against each other by the BSP, though tensions are still high. Maybe you can start a United Civilizations organization from this where the Kintarks and Humans see and advantage working together against the BSP that seems to be pitting them against each other which then starts bringing in other civilizations.

Since they don't have to hide their speed anymore (in-system speed or their hyper-warp speeds), once the volunteers go off ship to help the crippled battleship crew, John and the girls can load up critically injured people and fly them straight to the space station, saving lives that would have been lost thanks to the wonders that Rachel can do. Dana volunteers to stay to help repair the battleship while Jade and the rest of the crew takes the critically injured back to the Dragonmarch station. Dana wears her combat armor for the environmental security of the suit but it ends up fueling the propaganda about the Lion and his lionesses when the crew take pictures of her in all her splendor. They see how easily she can get in and out of the armor on the Raptor and TFed buys the technology for their marines. The armor won't be as good but ease of putting it on as well as some of the upgrades Dana has come up make John and even bigger hero to the military. After stabilizing the power cores and getting the engines back online, they help a Kintark cruiser in the same situation, which starts building bridges between the Kintark and the humans. The Invictus returns to pick up John and Dana and the Invictus crew reunites. Having done what they can for the survivors of the battle, they take off to continue their adventures leaving yet another legend to grow in their wake. The overwhelming popularity of John and the girls starts making political enemies who see John as a potential threat.

Many people have wondered as to why the Progenitor, who may or may not Johns dad, has not gone about conquering the galaxy has been a question raised by many and I think I have an answer. Quite simply, the odds are way too stacked against him. Back when he was ruling everything, thousands of years ago, he had just created the various races out and about the galaxy today, which meant that he had absolute control over every one of them. Wherever he went, several thousand years had passed and every race had advanced to the point where any single one of them has their own level of autonomy and technology, which would be a credible threat to him. Sure, the tech base of each race isn't quite as advanced as the Progenitors is but still quite considerable. If he went and openly started attacking any of the races, such as the Ashanath, they would have started begging for help or had he started conquering worlds, the other races would have picked up on it and decided to band together, albeit temporarily, until he was dealt with. Even such a massive ship, as powerful and advanced as it is, facing the combined might of various races would be insurmountable odds. In order to fully conquer the galaxy like he had thousands of years ago, he would have to pit them against each other, work from the shadows to bring each race down, offering whatever bait and temptations available to him to have them co-operate with him. Then, when each empire is in shambles, pick up the pieces and conquer each one slowly, piece by piece. Being thousands of years old and immortal to boot, having a plan like that makes the most logical sense, even if it takes a few hundred years to complete. Ideas, thoughts, opinions?

This is definitely the best story on this site IMHO. Your writing has improved during the journey as well. You should definitely have a successful career in writing. Good luck. I'm working on an anonymous way to support you on patreon as your writing is worth it. Between my wife and public career I don't want the exposure of my vice. I can't believe you can write this well and be as prolific as you are. Keep up the good work. Impatiently waiting for the next chapter.

TP

That is what this chapter was. In fact it is what this series is. I have not read a series that has a proper dominant male lead who is not an asshole to any degree. Pair it with psionic powers, high tech spaceships and hot alien babes and you got a perfect match for my tastes. I have always found other stories lacking in many department and sooner or later they disappoint me or gross me out. But every chapter of TSM has kept entertained and chomping at the bits for the next one.

There is also the matter of Grammer and Editting. Nothing turns me off like bad grammar. So kudos to you and your editors for an excellent literary work. I have also noticed throughout the series and especially this chapter that you like to indulge yourself with some word play. I heartily approve. It is my first time reading an article published in an online forum that has used words like quintinary or duodenary. It was also incredibly clever to avoid the Latin interpretation of eleventh. I don't think anyone noticed. It has been quite a journey for us and you from that conversation with Mad Jonah in that bar in the core world. And you have tremendously improved. Sorry if I am rambling but I am that excited.

The questions raised by Ozkiwi are definitely valid. The event leading to Lynton's death seems a little forced. But I have no doubt that you will integrate this event in your story seemlessly. Best of luck to you on your future endeavors.

-----Samuel Stone

Your post: "I'm thinking, that in the crew AAR they might discuss whether the Invictus can detect the Black Ship, and how to modify the settings to pick it up. The sensors "might" have picked something up, but, if the computer isn't looking for it, it won't display it. I think it will be a matter of parameter settings." is interesting.

I know one way we used to look for enemy attack subs was to listen for a "hole" in the water. U.S. subs re-emit sea sounds to foil that process. If the ship can be seen through the lack of stars shining through its hull, then that is a fatal flaw, even if the sensors cannot pick it up. Regardless, it has to have an energy signature when moving.

Also, while BSP was watching the Invictus, the Invictus also has some intel on the BSP's weapons systems now. That energy weapon they have is not that much more powerful than the current Nova Lances. When Dana upgrades the heat sink technology, the Nova Lances will be superior. The time to energize those weapons is also an important piece of tactical information. With those weapons being fixed, the Invictus has a distinct advantage with her maneuverability. Also, the Invictus can absorb massive amounts of energy from energy weapons and redirect it to the Nova Lances. That capability I see only as improving with the upcoming refit, with additional elements to increase resistance to plasma bolts, included in the ship plating and additional re-shaping (100% resistant to energy weapons now with 11 shapings on the Raptor). With John and Alyssa working together they may be able to reshape the Invictus the requisite 8 times to make it effectively impervious to energy weapons.

The Invictus and the Raptor are about to be an order of magnitude more powerful after the refit than they are now. Soon they will be able to contend with an entire Fleet just by themselves.

Probably the best chapter yet, and one of the best stories I've ever read and I've been reading sifi for almost sixty years, well done (hate to admit I'm so old though).

You saidd, "I was also thinking If John is going to ask for Calaras hand in marriage In rescuing her brother from a dragon, destroying an enemy fleet and saving her fathers life, he is setting a rather extreme example of requirements for tings needed to justify her father saying yes."

Don't forget the pirates, the mercenaries, saving Calara (twice), saving Terra and billions of lives on the planet, being the most powerful persona in Terran space, and commanding a ship capable of successfully an entire battle group single handed. Not to mention having the grace and wisdom to let dad win the sparing match in front of the family.

Plus his daughter (who may soon outrank him) has totally blossomed under his tutalege and wants to marry him.

Yeah, dad is no fool.

I'm thinking, that in the crew AAR they might discuss whether the Invictus can detect the Black Ship, and how to modify the settings to pick it up. The sensors "might" have picked something up, but, if the computer isn't looking for it, it won't display it. I think it will be a matter of parameter settings.

Marriage. I think polygamy, was mentioned at some point back several chapters. I don't remember what the outcome was, other than John and Alyssa decided they didn't care and was going to do it anyway at some point. I think it was one of the "rare" "XO updates".

Thanks for the info!

Tefler, what are the thoughts of Tfed about polygamy? Is it possible for john to marry all the girls? As far as I remember after jade's death, john asked her to marry him and now calara( although he hasn't mentioned anything about it) so if they don't allow it, will he be living with the maliri or the invictus is their permanent home?

Even with the awesome fleet battle, my favorite part of the chapter was the description of Faye's nighttime activities (and the subsequent wake-up call).

If a suitable chance arrives, you should consider giving some more exposure to Santini and/or Grikira. Should be an interesting story how hotheads like them got to such high positions in their respective militaries.

and theres mention of it being twice the size of a normal human sperm cell.

I was also thinking If John is going to ask for Calaras hand in marriage In rescuing her brother from a dragon, destroying an enemy fleet and saving her fathers life, he is setting a rather extreme example of requirements for tings needed to justify her father saying yes

Once previously Rachel wanted John's cum for the study. As far as I remember he gave it to her. Now although I don't remember the exact conclusions drawn but did she study the progenitor sperm cell? Is it like human or somewhat different?

I have had a reread simply because the weather is shite and I can't mow the several acres of land around the house. What I did notice were several things, which raise subsequent questions.

1) Given Dana's upgrades regarding sensors, I am surprised there were no inklings that the BSP was there? Mass is really hard to hide as it tends to obscure things behind. Even if you have some cloaking effects, there will be distortions that should be detectable in some way. Today, we are able to detect gravitational waves (mind you it is black hole masses), given the closeness of such a massive ship there should be a distortion of the light from stars. In addition, simple magnetometers are used in geologic surveying today and should be able to detect density/magnetic field differences. Given Dana's advanced sensors, particularly range and sensitivity, I would have though the BSP would have been detectable by the Invictus at least.

2) Why did John let Lynton run? She was safely isolated and tucked away in the middle of a dreadnought, once the battle is over Irillith could easily have allowed John access to her, for her capture, so letting her run in a shuttle seems illogical? Irillith, could also have easily kept other TF admirals from getting to her before John. What played out was much riskier and less logical, but did with the closing off an opportunity to get access to information. This just seems too much of a plot contrivance for me. From the back story, the BSP matriarch could have just drained Lynton of psychic energy leaving her a husk, as provided by the Milari information still cutting off the information source from John and the TF. This would be a more logical plot device without John seeming to make dumb decisions, that a good tactician (he is meant to be one getting to his original rank) wouldn't make. Teffler could then have the BSP slink off, allowing John still to have the realisation that most of his cards are out and played to his opponent.

There were a couple of other smaller things, but I'll let them slide for the moment.

Cheers

Mal

@Redleg55

I'm really hoping that Irillith's sister isn't a thrall to the other progenitor because they need an archaeologist to organize all the piecemeal learning about progenitors. Plus, twins ;)

@anon

Anytime that John's left a load in either the womb or ass of one of the girls, someone else has eaten it out of her shortly after. (at least the times I've noticed. Anal load retrieval has always been Jade, as far as I recall) So, they wouldn't need to retain it for long. It's not really safe to make assumptions based on human physiology anyway, given how massively enhanced the girls are.

in its larger size locks its individual pieces together with much longer tails, or the psychic component builds a force field that holds it together as a single solid lump, rather than it acting as a liquid as regular seminal fluid would

Dana was able to reverse engineer the tech for those quickly because of her increased intelligence which bring up the point her would probably still be more effective because she has materials that are not available to the other races. My guess is the Terrans have got ahold of the plasma rifles in the past but still have a hard time reverse engineering the tech or reproducing the original version of the tech. just like the other races have made tech that is inferior to the progenitor tech because they don't fully understand everything in it.

Psychic enhancement and are made progenitors.

Whatever they are up against having Alyssa has been the crucial advantage. Everything started with her. Her understanding and careful crew development was the front edge of every blade John wields. Alyssa should level up, but it has become clear that it is value of the individuals in the bond that gives them their advantage. John needs Alyssa at her peak and to get her there he will need to power up the individuals she is bonded to.

.fs

Holding is in the womb, not vaginal....A temporary plug like when pregnant?

What you didn't realize is all those abilities are psychic...hence Sakura will need to be given the 3rd strand just like Alyssa.

I've a query regarding the belly inflation. Everytime when the girls either blow or fuck john, their belly inflates. Now as far as the oral is concerned, the cum remains in the stomach while John does his mendings so it is just like when you drink too much water or eat too much since the cum provides required elasticness to the abdomen muscles therefore no problem there but I don't think vaginal muscles are strong enough to keep all that spunk from flowing out. Even the vagina can't contain piss for long.

The battle was awesome! It would be interesting to see the accumulated talley of Jade's kills just in this last battle. And of course the three destroyers will have everyone shocked.

Caldwell thinks John was leading the remains of Santini's and the traitors fleets. He should be shocked when it is told that it was actually Calara. Caldwell is worried, with the popularity and respect John now has, how can he order anyone to go against him in any way. Which includes taking his ships (if that was in the Admirality's plans). In the military brotherhood when someone saves your ass in combat that amasses a whole lot of respect points.

I think the technology on board the Invictus will get a boost when John gives Dana her second "honeymoon" and the re-fit back in Maliri space will be awesome. Wormhole drive and a even more stronger power core will be the start. It almost seems that the Nova Lances are more powerful then the purple beams of the evil Progenitor.

I can see Sakura getting the speed enhancement that PJ showed and then maybe John and Alyssa gaining it also. She may also get some super strength. As far as psychic abilities like John, Alyssa, and Irillith, she doesn't have the third strand DNA.

The next thing is the rescue of Irillith's sister. It would be interesting that they find she is the leader they call Hades and has white hair. Perhaps the evil progenitor was also behind the increase in the piracy in T-Fed space and used her as his proxy to promote it. Maybe the early enemy, Rupert Grant, will cross paths with the crew there not to mention the master assassin may have his base in the area.

When John gets back to Maliri space I can see him increase his connections with some of the Maliri, like the bodyguards and some of the original engineers. I'm sure Edraele will want the Matriarchs that she has put in place to get a dose. I'm sure the next batch of engineers will get into the fold. If Edraele finally gets to ride John will that step up their connection?

With Faye it appears she is becoming obsessed in gaining physical form. Could that drive her into unstable crazed psychological state?

On the astral plane could the beast seek out progenitors that are gaining too much power? Could it target those with too much power to keep the playing field equal?

Then did the Ashanath find a progenitor's ship to reverse engineer? Who's ship was it? Did a progenitor take out another one, perhaps Malnerak found himself on the short end of the stick.

You said: "every one has missed a point with bsp he created the human race cause he was bored and he's medling with all the other for the same reason bordom."

You are assuming BSP is Mael' Nereck (sp). If Tefler has shown us anything, he has shown us that assumptions in his universe have the consistency of smoke, at best.

every one has missed a point with bsp he created the human race cause he was bored and he's medling with all the other for the same reason bordom s/he been around for an unow amout of time and proble been there and done it all so he kicks the ant hills sit backs laughs at the ensueing chaos then sends in the krix to wipe the systems and starts over??

sorry for the bad gramre andseplling lmao

"This was the first time a living creature had passed through her holographic form, so such an event would obviously need to be closely examined in slow motion, pausing at the point of contact. Faye could hardly wait!"

Faye is fetting laid! Body at 11.

I would like to see John gift a girl that actually gets a breast reduction to take the form of a girl in his harem.

I would like to see a girl whose talent is as an artist, musically, dance, and drama would be lovely.

I want them to establish an Astral Domain where they can meet up and hang out with Edraele no matter where they are in physical space. That might allow psychic transport so they can step out to another physical location. That might allow them to ignore physical damage. They lose a physical form, but they just manifest a new one.

Athena and other Psychic Entities stick around in the Astral Domain.

Dana needs to become full psychic after her second honeymoon. She will develop their wormhole gate drive soon.

Faye can develop much further, but she is likely to have some trouble I imagine. Why are people killing each other? Filthy Organics ARE crazy!

Looking at Sensor Data they will start mapping trace signals from farther out. Why hang around just this corner of space. There are other cultures to meet.

This story. Space battles like this are hard to resist but I hope they don't take over too much of the story.

Another refit for the Invictus in preparation for the final face off? Loved the comedy at the end. Suspense, action filled, intrigue ..... great story.

good work. you did a great job .your work is tops thank you

And for John to get busy impregnating some blue girls.

I think the argument that TFed possession of the advanced technology would have resulted in John not being able to save the day might hold some water considering the traitorous nature of some of the TFed fleet. It may have leaked to the Kintark had the schematics been available.

I'm wondering if there can't be a United Nations type of organization that John can formulate that would be given the technology. He can use his women from the Maliri to command the ships but the crew can be made up of other member civilizations. That's one way for the Fernandez's to be kept safer while at the same time allowing them to continue military service. Imagine a carrier with Raptor-like interceptors. Maybe on the next visit to the Maliri world, they can build Faye controlled interceptors that can help out in larger scale battles. With the shorter distances, Faye can control them without too much of a signal delay at no risk to the crew. It would be a great force multiplier that right now is a big limit on the capabilities of the Invictus.

One lone assault cruiser isn't going to be able to take on a whole fleet. In this last engagement, they were able to be so effective because there were other ships for the enemy to deal with. Once the technological gap narrows, the Invictus will be in trouble if they don't keep pushing the envelope. The armor advantage will be hard to overcome but the beam laser tech and the heatsink tech is too easily reverse engineered. It's only a matter of time before the tech that was used by Dana to produce the Invictus versions will become available to their enemies.

I'm having lots of fun thinking about all the possibilities. Thanks, Tefler for the great story. BTW, what kind of computer did you end up getting?

The armada scale conflict, the different points of view, the elegance of the tactics. All of it. The way you described the fleet and sub-fleet manouvers interlaced with fighter pilot points of view all added to the complexity of the picture you were painting. It made me picture those small scale skirmishes all the while finding elegance in the battle group's engagements. I particularly like the part where Jade compared the current Raptor to its previous self, that got the adrenaline going. You my friend are an exceptionally talented artist.

As someone who found you when chapter 4 was fresh off the press over a year ago, job well done and I hope that you will never stop improving. Great chapter as always.

Hoping the chapters to come will have more of the same epic storytelling that we've come to known and love. Why can't I give more than 5 stars? It deserves more.

Looking forward to next week,

Wolf

After all, Calara was in tactical command of not one, but two essentially intact Admiral level battle groups during the latter portion of the fight.

Now yes, they do have a populist power base, but the way i'm thinking is this. the fleet admirals have just seen how truly threatening the Invictus actually is. and at least one of them appears worried by this. the tech possessed by John might be seen as a racial survival issue. The raptor is the obvious weak point. whereas John owns the Invictus outright, he was given the Raptor, and they could try to reverse that so it wouldnt surprise me if the powers that be or the R&D department fiddled with classsifications of equipment and John all of a sudden no longer had clearance to keep it, so ooops you'll have to leave it docked while the paperwork is sorted out here. and while its parked, seeing as it technically is TFed kit, we'll just take a few bits to look at.

now this wouldn't strictly be a problem as most of the parts are not reproduceable by Terran technology, the substances in the armour and laser barrels are made from chrystal alysium that contains several elements that are outside the periodic table,and on top of that have to be molded psychically which is an ability humans don't have. It would also be interesting to see someone trying to cut their way in with lasers to actually get at the inside or trying to hack their way past the doors. and if someone did manage to get in it wouldnt be difficult for Irilith to remove all the safeties from the power core, wiping the raptor from wherever it was being held.

If anyone was to try this how about Harris's single minded superior in charge of building battleships. ( after all the nice shiny new dreadnought they supplied materials for found its way to the hands of a traitor, he may have been influenced by its admiral before she was unfortunately vaporized)

What can I say but Outstanding. Your writing is absolutely fantastic. Keep up the wonderful work and like always, I look forward and eagerly await your next chapter.

How do you keep doing this??? I mean are you a sex Isaac Asimov or something? Its just not fair you have this much talent! Love,love, love this story. Now hurry up and get on with 69 *snicker* (please have a 69 scene in that one)

Expect one of my daft e mails shortly

Stacey x

I don't think a lot of us understand. The T-Fed is not in a position to ask for squat. John Saved Terra, with billions in witness. John Saved the Fleet, with hundreds of thousands of military personnel in witness. John has a very very powerful populist powerbase of the commoner and the wealthy. The ONLY question T-Fed will be asking is what can we do for you???!!!!

I read it twice. Amazing space combat. I really got into it. I'll do an in depth post later, but before I forget. Please have those awesome pilots return in some capacity.

This was so freaking awesome. That space battle was just great. THanks for sharing and Im looking forward to more soon.