Three Square Meals Ch. 074

"Clever girl," he said approvingly. He reached out towards her slim stomach, and asked, "May I?"

She locked eyes with him, nodding as she gave him permission to touch her. He knew she was agreeing to far more however, with the intense, smouldering expression on her beautiful face.

He brushed her toned belly with his fingertips, and caressed her gently, drawing a low moan from the excited girl. "The white hair means that they've swallowed my cum," he explained, looking into her eyes. "I have psychic abilities, and that act links me to them, letting me heal any scars or injuries."

"Is that what you're going to do with us?" Kali asked him, stepping closer and stroking his arm.

"You're beautiful girls, so of course I want to, but only if you want it, too," he explained, looking around at them. The looks he shared with each girl left him in little doubt that they definitely wanted the same thing. He moved his hand lower on Nyrelle's belly, and she gasped as he stroked her. "The Maliri were never meant to have such a huge gender imbalance in your population. That was due to the Mael'nerak changing your bodies, so you'd provide plenty of women for his wars. It's warped your society though, so I'll be seeking to change that, and undo his tampering."

Valani stared at him in wonder, and whispered, "Edraele said that if we're good girls, you might agree to have a baby with us?"

"We all need to rebuild our Houses," Leena murmured, looking at him with a soft, doe-eyed expression. "I can't imagine being with anyone else."

John mused that Edraele was quite fortunate that she wasn't awake at that particular moment, especially when he looked around at each of them, and saw similar longing expressions on each of their lovely faces. "We'll talk about that later," he said firmly, unwilling to commit to anything until they could all think more clearly.

He pulled Nyrelle to him as she whimpered with desire, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately, moaning into his mouth. While he wanted to make sure they all went into this with their eyes open, he knew nothing he did nor said would dissuade them at this point. The genetic modification was far too strong to be resisted, making him appear to be Adonis made flesh - or at least the Maliri equivalent.

For his own part, the Maliri drove him wild, with their toned bodies and smooth blue skin. When he'd been with Jade in the recruitment room, although the physical sensations were overwhelmingly intense, it was a strangely dispassionate affair, in terms of his interaction with the Maliri. It was so much more exciting being able to hold them and touch their bodies, rather than experiencing it via a proxy, as adorable as Jade was.

The girls had no qualms about being naked in front of each other, and quickly divested themselves of clothes before leading him to the bed. From there, he was lost in a stunning sea of azure flesh, kissing one eager girl while caressing another, as two others lapped at his cock. The girls worked well as a team, sharing him equally, and building him up on a crescendo of pleasure. He finally finished with Nyrelle sucking on his rampant head, while the other three knelt around him, licking his shaft.

He came hard, immediately filling her mouth with a sweet-tasting load. She gulped it down as her eyes glazed over, sucking rhythmically as he fed her. Continuing to share, they each took their turn, gulping down about a pint of his spunk before he pulled out of their clutching throat, and moved on to the next eager girl. They sat back in a daze afterwards, stroking the warm load in their stomach's with a blissful smile on their beautiful faces. When they'd thoroughly emptied his quad, he groaned with satisfaction, his balls feeling numb after the concerted and enthusiastic attention they'd received.

John lay there for a minute or two to recover, before helping the dazed girls to lie down on the bed, where they cuddled up together in pairs. In all the excitement, he hadn't had a chance to discuss any injuries, and he checked them over quickly to see if there was anything obvious that needed healing. While they all bore a few whip marks across their backs, Leena, the eldest, bore the most signs of physical abuse. He stroked her dark hair, causing her to mumble in her sleep, then pulled the covers over them to let them rest.

Dressing quickly, he smiled at the lovely girls, then closed the door and walked back to the room he'd left Edraele and Alyssa in. When he opened the door, he saw they were still sleeping, and began to pace nervously, worrying that they were okay. Tapping his watch communicator in an attempt to contact the Invictus, he saw nothing but a blank signal on the small holo-projection. The comms array obviously still had no power, so he was unable to reach Faye, even if Dana had brought her back online.

"Fuck!" he swore, missing his matriarch's instant telepathic communication now more than ever.

***

Sakura felt the soft warm body she was snuggled up with shift position, and her eyelids fluttered open a moment later, to stare back into a set of lovely brown eyes.

"Good morning, beautiful," Calara said to her with a warm smile, brushing her hair away from her face. "Did you sleep okay?"

The Asian girl stretched languidly and let out a contented sigh as she replied, "I haven't slept like that in ages!" Sakura had grown accustomed to hearing her Matriarch's gentle telepathic voice first thing in the morning, and sounding surprised, she added, "I can't hear Alyssa. Normally she's the one waking me up."

The Latina frowned, and replied, "I think she's still asleep at the moment. I haven't heard from her, either."

Sakura sat up, and smiled at the other girls who were starting to stir, before glancing at the ship's chronometer. "It's eleven o'clock!" she gasped in shock, drawing startled looks from the rest of her bedmates.

"Oh, crap, we overslept!" Dana swore, sitting bolt upright. She playfully smacked Rachel's taut bottom, and added, "Come on sleepyhead, we've snoozed through most of the morning!"

The brunette swept her tousled mane from her face, blinking as she shrugged off the drowsiness after her long sleep. "How come Alyssa didn't wake us?" she yawned, before sitting up and stretching.

"We think she's still asleep at the moment," Sakura explained, nimbly vaulting from the bed. She offered Calara a hand, and the Latina smiled at her as she took it, and climbed out of bed much more elegantly. Sakura looked around at her friends, and continued, "I'm going for a shower, anyone want to join me?"

Jade slinked over to join her, followed by Irillith as she got up too. "Sounds like fun," the Nymph said, following the bright-eyed Asian into the shower.

The lovely warm water soon had them all awake again, but they didn't waste time playing, not while they were running so late. After getting refreshingly clean, they left the cubicle to dry themselves in the automatic driers.

"Let's get dressed, then meet back here," Sakura suggested, as she dried herself off. "We should probably figure out what we're doing for the rest of the morning."

Rachel smiled at her, and said, "Everything is fully planned out, we'll just use up a bit of contingency time while we catch up on today's tasks. I'll adjust the schedule accordingly. It wouldn't hurt to reconvene and have a quick recap though, good idea!"

No one objected to the plan, so they scattered to get dressed in their rooms, then returned to quickly make the bed before sitting on top of the covers. The six girls glanced around at each other, not sure how to proceed without John there to lead the discussion.

"Who's in charge?" Sakura asked, looking around at the others quizzically.

Jade smiled at her, and replied unfalteringly, "John is."

Dana gave the Nymph a playful nudge with her elbow, and grinned as she said, "No, she means while John and Alyssa aren't here!" She giggled as she added, "I think our hierarchy is based on how long we've been slurping down John's cum, isn't it?"

Irillith looked amused, and glancing at Calara, she added, "That certainly does fit. They normally leave you in command of the ship when they're away, don't they?"

Calara nodded, then hesitated before she replied, "That's normally in combat situations, though. I think it might be wise to defer to Rachel's expertise while she's overseeing the refit."

Clearing her throat, Rachel smiled at her and said, "I'm happy to lead the discussion." She sat up straighter, and continued, "First things first, we need to get Faye back online again."

Dana looked guilty, and replied, "I was planning to move her server first thing this morning, then hook her up again. I can't believe we overslept so long!"

"What about the new materials you're forging?" Rachel asked, giving her lover a quizzical look. "Weren't you supposed to be overseeing the Maliri this morning?"

"Nah, Alyndra can definitely take care of that, she's quite clever. I modified the Mass Drivers last night, and the test firing worked perfectly. The Maliri were supposed to be running the collider in bursts overnight, and as we didn't get vaporised in our sleep, I'm guessing they didn't fuck it up!" she announced, cheerfully.

Rachel shuddered, and said, "I don't know how you can be so blasé about something like that."

Dana smiled at her, and admitted, "I'm not really, babes. I checked my calculations hundreds of times, to make sure every last precise detail was correct. There's no way I'd put any of you at risk."

Rachel stroked her arm affectionately, then said, "Alright, so you'll bring Faye back online again this morning, then what are you up to this afternoon?"

Dana held up her hand and extended a finger as she ticked off each item on her list, as she replied, "Now John's started recruiting the Maliri, I'll give the first group the plans to construct the two new Trankaran engines we're going to need."

"I'll help oversee that, if you'd like?" Sakura volunteered. "We managed to stockpile all the armour plating with John's help yesterday, so I'm a bit ahead of schedule."

"Great stuff," Dana said, giving her an appreciative smile. "We're also going to need a fuckton more retrothrusters to handle the Invictus' increased mass. If I give you the plans for them too, can I leave you in charge of assembling those?"

"Absolutely!" Sakura agreed, glad to be doing something helpful.

Dana extended a second finger, and said, "The next big job we have to do, is start replacing all the power relays and power couplings with the Maliri equivalents, and setting up the new Core rooms. I know Faye said she'd help oversee that with the maintenance bots, but it'll go a lot faster if we get some engineers started on it right away."

"I'll take the front of the ship," Calara volunteered. "Most of the work there is to feed power into the forward weapon arrays, so it makes sense for me to keep an eye on that."

Irillith smiled at the redhead, and said, "I'll take the rear of the ship, then. I'll be on hand if you have any problems getting Faye online."

Dana gave her a grateful smile, then held up a third finger as she said, "I need to start building the new Progenitor Power Cores. I'll start with the first one, now we've got the new materials I needed, but the other two can wait until we've got the new superstructure in place. When they're all up and running, I'll start on the new Tachyon Drive."

Rachel nodded while checking her portable display, and tapped her finger on her chin as she said, "I was hoping we could begin construction of the Singularity Driver barrels today, or at least build the protective shells around the Core Rooms. Unfortunately, we need Alyssa for both of those."

"She never normally sleeps this long," Calara said, looking increasingly worried. "I know she was going to bond with Edraele last night, but do you think something went wrong?"

"John would have said if they needed help," Jade said reassuringly.

Dana blinked in alarm, and blurted out, "Ah, crap! The comms relay is down, so he can't reach us if he tried."

Rachel slid smoothly off the bed, and said decisively, "I'll go and check on them, make sure everyone's alright. The rest of you know what you're doing, but just let me know if there's any problems when I get back."

"I'll speak with Luna, and ask her to take you to my mother's quarters," Irillith said, as she followed the brunette. "I'm sure Almari and Ilyana can manage the construction of the superstructure until she gets back."

"I'll meet you outside, let me just retrieve a trauma kit," Rachel said, as she hurried to her room.

***

Luna smiled with satisfaction as she surveyed the first pieces of the crystal struts, which would form the framework for the Invictus' superstructure. Maliri engineers were using hoists and grav-sleds to manoeuvre the crystal beams into position, carefully aligning them between the two sections of the Invictus, in preparation for their assembly. Only a tiny fraction of the required components had arrived so far, but this was just the first wave of deliveries from the crystal fabrication plants, and it was critically important that they kept up with supply. Much more would be arriving over the next week, as facilities designed to build several large vessels at once were all focused solely on rebuilding the Invictus.

She had no background in engineering, and was merely there to oversee the work of the capable teams of engineers. Her job was to report any problems to Dana, Rachel, or Edraele, depending on the nature of the issue at hand. Speaking of her Matriarch, Edraele normally gave her a friendly greeting when she awoke, and it was unsettling to not have heard anything from her that morning.

"Luna! We could use your help," Irillith called out to her, drawing her attention from the engineers.

Turning to seek out the House Valaden noble, Luna saw her trotting over from the Invictus' airlock, and she smiled in greeting. "How can I assist, Irillith?" she asked, the noblewoman's tense expression putting her on edge.

"Rachel wants to check on Alyssa and Edraele. We haven't heard from either of them this morning, or John for that matter," Irillith explained, sounding worried.

Sharing a similar look of concern, Luna nodded, and turned to the Terran brunette, and said, "If you'd like to follow me, I'll take you straight to her quarters."

"Thank you, Luna," Rachel said, with a grateful smile.

Luna glanced over at Ilyana and Almari, who were organising the engineers at the fore section of the ship, and the confident women seemed to have everything in hand.

"Don't worry, I'll let them know where you've gone," Irillith said, giving her a reassuring smile.

Luna nodded to her appreciatively, then set out at a brisk walk towards the double doors leading from the drydock. Rachel fell into step beside her, the fit young woman having no trouble keeping up with the quick pace she was setting. Noticing the trauma kit clutched in the doctor's hands, Luna looked at her in alarm, and asked, "Do you think they've been hurt? I've not heard of any trouble from the guards on her quarters."

Rachel smiled at her, and said, "I brought it with just in case there was an emergency, but none of us have sensed any problems."

They strode out of the drydock, and Luna immediately spotted some kind of commotion to her left. She paused, looking at the cluster of medical and military staff gathered at the door to the next docking bay, and said, "I better check what's happened. That's the bay we're using for Edraele's private shuttle."

"I understand," Rachel agreed. "I might be able to help."

Walking quickly to join the group, Luna announced brusquely, "I lead the Matriarch's bodyguard. What's happened here?"

One of the officers from the garrison forces was there, a capable woman by the name of Melandris, that Luna had dealt with before. The officer looked deeply anxious, and she pleaded, "Luna! You've got to tell Matriarch Valaden it wasn't my fault! I wasn't even on duty last night!"

Luna raised her hand in a calming gesture, and said, "Just tell me what happened, Edraele is highly unlikely to hold you accountable."

Melandris still looked nervous, but she stammered, "Someone assaulted these guards, then gagged and bound them. They were only discovered when their relief shift arrived ten minutes ago."

Rachel hurried over to kneel by the groaning Maliri, glancing at the two women, and immediately looking alarmed. She turned to look at Luna and the Officer, and said, "This first woman has injuries to her trachea, the second is suffering complications from being strangled. See her bloodshot eyes, and drooping right eyelid? It's indicative of neurological trauma. I'll go and get Jade, can you arrange for them to be taken to Edraele's quarters?"

Melandris was astonished that the Terran girl had been able to diagnose them in less than a second, and she started to say, "How did she-"

"Do as she says," Luna said abruptly, cutting off the officer. "Take them to the Matriarch's private suite."

"But shouldn't we take them to Medical?" Melandris protested.

Luna shook her head, and replied, "No, this is the best course of action. They'll be fully recovered in no time."

Melandris nodded, albeit reluctantly, and began giving orders to the personnel to arrange for the injured guards to be stretchered away via medical anti-grav beds. Luna glanced into the docking bay, curious as to why someone would have attacked the guards, and her eyes widened when she saw that Edraele's private shuttle was no longer parked in the bay.

"It seems you omitted to mention something fairly important, Melandris," Luna said, in a disapproving tone. "What happened to the Matriarch's shuttle?!"

The officer gulped, and replied, "It was taken, Luna. I've checked the holo-footage from last night. It was a golden-masked woman..."

"Tashana!" Rachel gasped, looking alarmed. She started sprinting for the drydock, and called back over her shoulder, "I'll get Jade and Irillith! We need to tell John what's happened!"

***

On Deck Three, in Faye's specially prepared server room, Dana carefully conducted a myriad of checks to make sure that the network was stable, before reactivating their ever-helpful AI. After nodding to herself in satisfaction, she pressed the button on the console, reconnecting Faye's server to the primary power grid, then waited patiently for her to come online once again.

An array of lights on the server flickered for a moment, and a purple pulse of light began to fill out into a five-foot-tall feminine shape in the centre of the room. The figure started out as a vaguely androgynous shape, but detail was layered onto the holographic image, until Faye's lovely smiling face was filled out in exquisite detail.

"Welcome back online, Faye," Dana said, greeting the purple sprite with a warm smile.

Faye blinked for a couple of seconds, then looked at her in surprise, and said, "I think my server's chronometer has gone out-of-sync with the Invictus! I'm reading the time as one in the afternoon!"

The redhead gave her a guilty look, and replied, "Sorry about that. I meant to bring you online first thing this morning, but we all overslept! Then when I woke up, I had to disconnect all the data lines we lasered through to avoid shorting out the Invictus' network, and reconnect primary power to Deck Three. All that took about an hour."

Nodding her understanding, Faye suddenly looked startled as she exclaimed, "About a third of our internal Cyber-Realm is offline! I know you warned me to expect it, but it's weird seeing a big chunk lopped off the Invictus' network!"

"That'll be down for at least a couple of weeks. We'll need to build up the new superstructure, then lay down all the new data lines to reconnect to the front section of the ship," Dana confirmed, while studying the power readouts for Faye's server. She glanced over at the purple-hued girl, who was now sitting cross-legged on her hexagonal server, and added, "Everything looks good from here. Are you reading any problems with your server?"