Three Square Meals Ch. 53

Thank you to Azurepeepers

I just wanted to say thank you to Azurepeepers for his advice 6 months ago on chapter 14. Edraele and Irillith are my interpretation of his suggestions in comments back then. Sorry it took a while to implement them, I needed to find a natural way to fit those character ideas into the story.

Anyway, if you're still reading, thanks a lot, they were interesting characters to write!

Tefler

Damnnnnnn

This chapter is big damn big
It will take some time to read it but it's great that it's posted now

16 pages...o.O

Damn it felt good to find this up. How good? Like the opening notes of the Star Wars theme good. In fact, as soon as I found this up, I started my Star Wars playlist, and I'm listening to it as I read.

Only just started on page 2, so not even close to done yet. I'll be back when I am. Probably in a few hours. Sixteen pages. Damn. Good thing I don't have to go to work until the next day, or else I wouldn't be able to get any sleep.

Holy damn, this is a huge chapter! Lots of stuff to catch up on too, but glad you're posting, Tefler. :D Amazing as always.

god damn

so i pounding coffee just so i could stay awake to read this fresh off the presses. and i have to say that tefler you have surpassed yourself in a huge way. i dont normally take the time to comment cause i get depressed when a great author randomly stops writing or leaves a story cold. (Intrepid_Fate i am talking to you) but this chapter just set a new bar even for you... you are rapidly becoming the michael phelps of this site and i want to say thank you. i apologize for the rambling thoughts and what not but i had to throw my appreciation your way.. now i am off to bed cause i have to get up for work in 2 hours =)


~grethane

Brilliant ending

I have to agree with the rest, you indeed surpassed your previous work! Thanks again!

*sees chapter in list of new scifi/fantasy stories*

*happy face*
*click*
*hits "End" key to see how many pages there are before starting to read*
...
16
...
*totally audible and completely unmanly squee of joy*

5*+

Tefler I though the story couldn't get better but I was wrong. This was the most emotional ch until now and I have to admit at getting a little misty eyed at one point.


@grethane
There is someone who wants to continue his stories and posted a new ch for both of Intrepid_Fate stories and did a pretty good job
https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?u id=3059836&page=submissions

I fucking love you

I never ever comment on anything and this is my first. I just wanted to thank you so much for writing this, I've been in a bad place and this series is the only shining thing right now. I hope this isn't the end of the story, because it's so fucking amazing.

Re: anon

"I hope this isn't the end of the story"
Don't worry, I can't leave it like that! There's at least another 20 chapters to go. :-)

"it's so fucking amazing."
Very kind of you to say, I'm glad you've been enjoying it!

The best yet.

This is absolutely my favorite installment so far, even after ch 50. Hell, this chapter alone had more and better plot and character development than most modern movies. I've been following the series since around ch 35, and I look forward to continuing to do so, especially if it continues to be this good.

I hate you tefler..now I have to wait for chapter 54...I hope it will be soon:-)

God dammit!!

Thought I could catch the release this morning, but I fell asleep, now I have to go to work and won't be able to read this until I get home this evening. For some reason you can't read literotica.com at schools.

That was one hell of an emotional rollercoaster

Damn that was brilliant but some parts hit right in the gut. So happy the progenitor-John side got sorted out I was starting to lose hope at a couple of points. But now usual happiness and harmony is restored :)

Any way now looking forward... They finally have a hacker! So now they can go and break into TF High Commands stuff and find out the truth about the war with the Kintark and find the traitors. Next they find out all the info on Johns mother and then move on the find out what R&D are doing with that AI and get Irriliths expert opinion on just how badly it's going to go wrong. May as well steal all their research for Dana's perusal while they're at it.

Should probably give Irrilith some time to settle in first though

One Epic Chapter

Thank you Tefler for an absolutely epic chapter. It was a pleasure to read the close of one story arc for this tale and I look forward to whatever saga John and the crew of the Invictus face next.

*****

AWESOME!!! *cough*I mean not bad I guess five stars or whatever*shrug*

P.s. the bossfight tag made me smile

Damnnnnnnn man
That was too good
Loved it

Wow Wow and Wow

Thank you for 16 spell binding pages. The magmatic shotguns of the Trankarans seems to have come from the discussions of Chapter 52. The compassion towards Irillith when she was injured was touching taking an unsympathetic character to a sympathetic one, and also brings her into the family.

I loved the climax, it was not what I had expected in dealing with PG-John. Although I recall some other stories where similar conflicts are internalised, having Alyssa be the resolver of the mental conflicts between John and PG-John was a nice twist.

Lies back and smokes imaginary cigar similar as if it was just good sex. Now the withdrawal symptoms till the next chapter. 5 star plus :-)

Mal

Pure . . .

. . . Genius, wonderful job!

Fucking awesome

Great chapter can't wait for more

Excellent

I see a lot of well deserved praise in the comments. Excellent story telling. Thanks for sharing it with us.

pete

Six hours later...

*wipes the drool from his chin after recovering from a powerful nerd-gasm* Ahem, yes, well, that was certainly an entertaining read. I'm looking forward to what happens next, like always. Just a few things to say before I go for the day.

First off, that was simply epic how Alyssa came in and just dominated PJ. Sure, PJ may have been in a weaker state than he otherwise would be, not being able to draw power from thralls of his own, but damn. Are we sure Alyssa's not a female Progenitor? She certainly has the power of one. Maybe we should try finding her original medical records back on Karron. It could be that the males of the Progenitor race are all epic pricks like PJ was unless they hook up with a loving female Progenitor who can keep them in check. So that would make all the evil ones depicted in the Ashanath tablets bachelors, most likely. They couldn't score with women of their own race so they enslaved women from other races instead. Makes sense.

Second, I hope that's the last we're going to see of PJ. I doubt it, but I hope he's gone for good. Maybe now John can access his full power as a Progenitor? I also wonder if John will now know what PJ learned from the Glowing Queen. John seemed to have been privy to PJ planning his domination of the Maliri, so it would make sense that he should be privy to most other things that happened while PJ was in control. Hadn't expected that golden crown that John had as mind shield to be more of a cage to keep PJ in than a wall to keep others out.

Third, that assassin that has been trying to catch John...poor guy can't catch a break, can he? He was planning on ambushing John at Port Megera when he returned from Trankaran space, but there was just one little flaw in that plan: it assumed that John would return to Port Megera. That's not quite how it happened, now is it?

Fourth, sorry, but I've got to get this out of my system: Called it! I knew PJ had been in full control for awhile, and was just acting to keep Alyssa and the girls from getting too suspicious. That bit at the Trankaran palace pretty much confirmed it; as soon as the girls were gone, PJ dropped the act.

Okay, that's enough for now. I'll probably have more after I've slept on this for a bit and processed everything that happened. Keep up the amazing work, Tefler. It's incredible that you've produced 53 chapters of this epic story so far, and you say that you have at least twenty more planned. Damn.

7.5*

This story so much more than I have ever expected to find on Literotica and I read a lot of Literotica.

You should have a Patreon account set up, because giving us a chance to read this feels like so much generous talent that it is embarrassing to realise I am getting all this for free.

Have paid for much less enjoyable stories.

OMG

/bow /bow /bow................. Oh crap this was really really worth its wait to read!!! With a strong story line like this 20 more chapters? ??? No way you could wrap it all like that! UNLESS you hammer it all out with 16 pages per chapter maybe, but when it does end I would cry. Maybe you get a higher ranking on the Hall of Fame!

Once again....

The wait for this chapter was well worth it. 8 stars if was possible.....

Kowabunga Dude!

Epic!

noooo

what a cliff hanger and man not the mom god dam it let Irillith kill her ya that would work fkk now the long wait but its ok will just start where i left off earler at 25 but its been just as good the 3d time through and i knew john didnt seem right after he met Irillith as always love ur work and cant wait for the next one... is there an eta on next chpter lol i know ty for the hard work u put in this

Shock and Awe Tefler *****

I genuflect in your general direction for a tremendous job with this chapter and the story overall. May a lot of people think the same thing and you reside permanently in the Hall of Fame.

The other Dave

15 stars

That's five each Mac, Tablet and Phone

Effing Awesome chapter and well worth the wait

Been waiting and waiting and now, wow. Lots of writing. Loved it

YES!!!

As usual you drop a stunner will be waiting for the next chapter anxiously

Brilliant

What superb, imaginative and creative writing. Thank you Tefler.

Jaw.. drops... O.O

Umm... Wow. Just, wow.

Yes, I'm still reading, and I'm overwhelmingly flattered that you used some of my ideas for such an integral part of your story. Not only did you use them, you really ran with them.

I was rather worried I came off as too arrogant when suggesting ideas for your story. I have a tendency to come off that way, I know. And, really, ideas are cheap, a dime a dozen. The execution of those ideas, turning them into actual work as you've done so brilliantly (and quickly!), that's incredible. That you chose my suggestions to work from... well, I think we're back to "wow, thank you, I'm flattered."

So, just FYI, I was entering the link to chapter 53 in my browser and refreshing constantly starting at 10pm Pacific time on the 10th (when it entered the moderation queue but didn't go up, much to my disappointment) and then again last night when it finally went up. At exactly 10:00pm it wasn't up, but I finally saw that it had gone live by 10:04pm, at which point I made a giant bowl of popcorn and devoured it in one go. So yes, I'm still reading regularly ;-)

My favorite part of this chapter wasn't my idea though: It was learning John's shield wasn't for keeping things out, but to keep something in. That's a really brilliant reversal of expectations. My favorite sort of writing is when the reader thinks they know what's going on, only to find they had been misled by false assumptions all along.

Also, I liked how freighter in trouble was almost certainly the assassin preparing the perfect lure for caring, benevolent John (after all, there were other vessels that were closer, why contact John otherwise?), only to be confronted with PJ. That must have been very, very frustrating and confusing for him. I found that part highly amusing.

One thing that concerns me... I feel like I really didn't get a feel of what was going on in the Trankaran conflict. PJ was being PJ the whole time, executing his plan with relentless single-minded focus to achieve the goal of taking out the Queen to acquire the engine technology. However, there were... questions unanswered. Major questions. Like, what did the rebels want? Why did so many Trankarans follow them? What was the central disagreement of the conflict, what did the Rebels want other than power? And -- very importantly as this was an issue when dealing with the Fulmanax as well -- was the crew of the Invictus on the right/good/just side of that conflict? PJ wouldn't really care about those questions, but they feel important to what's going on in a major interstellar empire, and the overall political instability present in numerous races.

That Trankaran cruiser they disabled -- The Invictus fired first. They'd just seen a blown-out space station, and a bunch of wrecks. The cruiser's shields were up, and their weapons were powerful but short-range. The *assumption* was that they would have fired when in range. Now, PJ didn't care. But it really begs the question: how can we be sure it was the "Rebels" and the Glowing Queen that blew up all those merchant ships.

Oh, and remember how the "Loyalists" didn't have the person with them that negotiated the deal with the Maliri? The Maliri are pretty evil, sure, but it really does make me wonder what side of that conflict the deal was negotiated with, and who the true rebels are.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'd really like to know more about what was going on there. It makes perfect sense that PJ wouldn't care, and that information wouldn't come out because there was no one to ask the right questions... but it felt like something was off to me, other than just PJ.

Finally one minor nitpick (yes, after heaping on the praise -- and, trust me I gave the story five stars and favorited this specific part -- I can still find a nitpick. Did I mention I've been accused of arrogance before?) You mention the *speed* the Invictus can achieve allowed by Trankaran engines. That word... I don't think it means what you think it means. The word you're looking for is *acceleration.* In space, there's no friction/air resistance so going faster merely requires applying the same acceleration for a longer length of time. There is no speed limit other than the speed of light. Better engines, however, will allow you faster acceleration which gives you better maneuverability and the ability to achieve higher speeds more quickly. Also, you don't need inertial dampers to compensate for *speed*, you need them to compensate for *acceleration.*

Anyway... I anxiously await the next installment. As always, I am in awe of your creative and writing talent.

😋

That's what I'm talking about!!!! The Wait was so worth it.

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for this ????????????? chapter (sorry, I've run completely out of expletives). There can be no doubt that this chapter was more than worth waiting for. The only downside is that the wait for the next chapter is so much more excruciating.

Like all the people commenting before me I can only bow in reverence, and hope and pray for many more chapters.
R.W.

AWESOME!

Well that was certainly worth the wait!!

I figured you'd release two parts of the story close together once I realized there was a delay on the next chapter, but I was surprised by what you did. Pleasantly!! You put some real effort into this section of the story and it was well worth it!
I have to agree with the comments before me that there were a couple of plot holes in the story (that made perfect sense) that I hope get addressed later on during or soon after the follow up that has to happen after this.
You've left yourself with many possible places to lead this story in and definitely look forward to where this story leads to.

P.S. This might seem picky or bossy but I sure hope the AI in the story turns out to be an integral part of the crew eventually. She's got a lot of potential, and I'd hate to lose her.

Fantastic!

A tour de force! A wonderful return of an exceptional story. Keep up the good work

Wow

Oh my!

Speechless!

Tefler that was ridiculous, how can you write so well. This is the most awesome chapter so far. Keep the good work!

Aaaand I'm done.

So now that the important stuff is out of the way....

How do I hack Literotica to give this a 6/5?

long wait

I figured something was up with the long wait for the next chapter. As always riveting. Good job.
Ed Parachini.

Good, you're back!

I haven't read the whole chapter yet. I startee wondering if you were ok, or that you'd take a break. But, for the love of God! SIXREEN PAGES !
Well that explains it! I'm going to love reading this book !

Johan

Great work!

As usual it's a fun experience reading your work!

While you have noted that you will go back to the original chapterlength, I think your pacing of sex vs story got better with longer chapters. Still, I'll read whatever you write so pick the chapter length that you want!

Please give us an update on next chapter tefler...

Re: Azurepeepers

"I'm overwhelmingly flattered that you used some of my ideas for such an integral part of your story."

They were great ideas, and really helped shake things up a bit. Thanks for taking the time back then to make some suggestions, your comments were very valuable, especially to a novice writer!

It was a fun challenge to write some really nasty, horrible characters, and lot's of people really loathed Irillith, so I'm pleased how that went! :-)
Trying to make them redeemable or likeable after that is going to be a challenge, but that's what makes writing interesting!

"I feel like I really didn't get a feel of what was going on in the Trankaran conflict."

I'll get back to that later, in the next chapter in fact. As you say, PJ was quite single minded in his objectives, so that didn't leave much avenue open for exploring what was happening (although, he hints at what's going on),

"You mention the *speed* the Invictus can achieve allowed by Trankaran engines. That word... I don't think it means what you think it means."

I know exactly what it means, don't worry! ;-)

You are quite correct in you explanation of how acceleration determines overall velocity in space. However, space in real life is boring, and makes for crap stories. I have therefore followed a tried and tested sci-fi convention, and chucked realism out the window, when it comes to space combat.

In the grand tradition of Star Wars, Star Trek, Elite, Wing Commander, Galaxy Squad, Homeworld, Freelancer, Descent: Freespace, Rebel Galaxy, and every other scifi movie/game I can think of, in this universe, big ships move more like ocean bound naval ships. Smaller ships move more like aircraft. The quality of a ship's engines affects overall top speed, as well as acceleration, and retro-thruster quality affects, turn, yaw and pitch rates.

"As always, I am in awe of your creative and writing talent."

Thanks very much!

Thanks for all the comments!

Thanks everyone for the overwhelmingly positive feedback! I'm really glad you enjoyed this chapter, and there were lots of parts in it to that were really fun to write.

The timelines in this one were tricky, because I was juggling John/PJ switches, and making sure they were the right persona at the correct time. I also had Irillith's mental conflict to pace through correctly, so she snapped at the right time. Then there was Alyssa and the rest of the girls reactions to events, as well as trying to keep the story moving along while all that one was going on.

I wrote out a detailed event timeline in the chapter to start off, then linked up each important event to make sure it all worked in the correct sequence. I decided to keep writing until the whole PJ plot arc was played out, as lots of readers were finding it hard going with the darker edge to the story.

To everyone struggling with it over the last few chapters; I hope you can see that when things get tough for the heroes, it makes the big win more satisfying. In any case, sorry if you found it difficult to read.

I think I'll stick to my 15k-20k words per chapter as normal for future releases. Although chapter 53 came to 53k, I actually wrote this one in three chunks anyway, then passed each bit off to my editors as it was completed (thanks guys you did an amazing job!). I could have released each of them one at a time, but the cliffhangers would have been absolutely brutal!

Chapter 54 - current status: I've written 14.5k, so I hope to hand it off to my editors in a day or two. It will probably be up on the site by about Tuesday.

Tefler

Just 1/3 of the way through.

Was about to head off to sleep. Then I saw that this was up. Then I read about Alyssa's pain. Then PJ started acting like the biggest asshole I had ever seen. Then Irillith jumped off. The hits just kept on coming.

And then I saw that there were 16 pages in this chapter.

I guess sleep is overrated anyway.

Re 15 stars

Oh, just so you know, in the long run, voting on multiple devices to pad the score doesn't help the author. At least monthly, the site strips votes that don't meet an algorithm, and that includes multiple anon votes from one IP address. The best practice is to be logged in, and vote after reading the story. That way, your vote sticks and doesn't get all three or more stripped to where you just wasted your time and didn't count in the scoring.

This is because the site does run monthly story contests, and suspicious voting patterns both high and low get thrown out.

Wow! Quite a chapter!

To the Author, thanks for the time and efforts that you put into this saga.
And, I'm glad that mellowed Irillith is now on board.
I hope that PJ is banished for good. We'll see...

"We saved each other" sums it all up.

The rise of a cum-stealing interloper and the true matriarch and a victory for goodboy John. Yep. You've outdone yourself with this chapter.

Still a bit sad at not having a Trankaran join the flock, though. Now that I think about it, having a Trankaran female with "less-than Progenitor perfection" join the crew would be a slap on the face of PJ. But then would the Gift actually work on a Si-based life form?

Things for you to ponder while I go off to sleep. Thanks for this wonderful serving of entertainment, Tef.