All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 055'

Hooray for the moderators,what a pleasant surprise!!

Showed up on time man

It's great

I'd like to thank whoever it was that first came up with the idea of Dana memorising the tech schematics, rather than still keeping them in a tech repository.

I shamelessly borrowed that idea, and as you can see, it makes an appearance here.

Thanks for contributing to the story!

Tefler

You know it felt like a filler chapter although very important for the development of the plotline the lack of conflict was kinda daunting

I hope there will be some good conflict in the next chapter

I'm very intruiged with the dreams John is having.

I wonder if it could be the collective unconscious of the entire Maliri race that has achieved a sort of seething sentience of their pent up anger at what was done to them.

Cool . keep up the good work.

Finding a hole in the periodic table is like finding a new number between 3 and 4, which is an integer. Elements are defined by the number of protons in the nucleus, and that must be a round number (no such thing as 4.5 protons). Maybe you meant isotopes? There's also the theoretical island of stability, whch would be some stable elements way above what we currently have access to, but they wouldn't be "new" in that way, just newly useful.

This is currently my favorite story to read, fwiw. If you're having trouble thinking of new upgrades, might I suggest fighter/sensor drones? They would fill a unique niche, much like the raptor does, while beng something that can go boom without killing a character.

Oh boy.

I suspect that the Assassin will be more disappointed than he would ever possibly imagine.

This will be hilarious when he finally tries to get to grips with John Blake and the Commodore's crew.

By it, I meant the entity John and Alyssa encountered in his dream.

There'll be conflict in spades in the upcoming chapters, but I know what you mean.

I hadn't originally planned for this chapter to get so large, but it was the perfect opportunity to shed a bit of light on how the behaviour modification makes it easy for a progenitor to influence and recruit. I also wanted to give a bit more of a background to the Maliri, as well as explain more about psychic powers while Edraele was around.

Tefler

A certain suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite to following this series, given the nature of the work. Try not to get too het up, about things breaching your understanding of "science". FFS this a series about a half alien, inflating his ever expanding harem with large amounts of ball juice. Enjoy it or move on?

BTW. Love the work Telfer!

Well, I think that John has an enemy, which in the comments is called the Assassin, who attacks him after he adds a new member in his Pride.

I think that in the beginning only Alyssa was helping him as the white Spirit-walker, reacting on the nightmare the Assassin is using to pervert/convert John to Progenitor-John. If the bonding with Eldraede grows -- she is the more expierenced one in the psychic reality -- I have a notion that she will also appear in any nightmare John gets, maybe as a blue Spirit-walker?

The final battle -- as I see it -- will not only be a battle of powers, mental or physical, but also a battle of the prides of the Assassin and John, and what power their prides want to share with their champion. And yes, I think that John's Pride is the strongest in this battle, due to their true voluntary gift and not ordered gift as done by the Assassin.

I was also surprised with this chapter as it was not in LetErotica's new publications when I tested if this chaper was online.

A lot of things are going on: as in what is Dana going to do with her reviews of the drives and engines, which were stopped short because of the refit, what will Rachel discover on Malri DNA to state the most obvious...

Well, over to waiting for the next chapter;)

Thanks for this story Tefler, I really do enjoy reading this story.

@Tefler I think that was me, in chapter 49, comment 14, as Anonymous. You are welcome. It was just a crazy though at the moment, and I didn't think you would make Dana memorize everything for real.

OH HELL YEAH!!!! I'm loving the way your moving the story line. Keep them coming!!!

Great work. Keep it up.

You have us sitting on the edge of our seats. This is getting better and better!!!

They were pretty strong before but after those upgrades and allmost one hundred maliri to draw power from ... I can barely wait to see the battles. And with that much phychic power at his disposal maybe John will be able to finally acces his pyrokinetic powers.

So, a lot of development.

First I have to say I would have proffered the chapter to be split, and the reasons are two - first it would be easier to manage to read during one session, and second since I liked the fast pace (twice a week) of updated rather than waiting.

Now what?

1. is there any more to the ship upgrades? I think it's good enough as is, but Dana looking on the schematic tell me she can one up things (so they won't need to choose Nova lances or the rail cannons).

2. Harem wise, the new induction method is better at it can give John the boost without directly increasing the girls count

3. Edraele, liking it, need to see if sh can bond with her girls and maybe with Alyssa.

I also hope to see her standing by John and Alyssa during the next dream (and we know he is going the whole way with her three assassins so three chances right there)

4. the dream, my bet it's the progenitor shared conscious, they (or maybe just his "darth vader" father) tried to make him join their side and are now not pleased by the progress

5. psypowers, despite the explanation by Edraele John showed he was able to build her in real time without the knowledge so it's a bit strange (one minute in the dark, anther in full control)

6. Faye, so is she currently depended on the arm thingy? what if the battery run out or someone place it in the washing machine? :) time to make her more corporeal = Rachel should clone her a real body

7. the assassin? after the shield both John and Alyssa + his mega strength hand to hand or most weapons seem useless, so give him a good dying scene and go on to try and figure who ordered the kill

Please make #56 shorter = available this week??

Anon, I totally understand what you are saying but I think what tefler means by 'finding and adding new elements' is that their actual (fictional) elements. For instance four elements were just added to the periodic table a few months ago. Nh, Mc, Ts and Og were synthesized by people and are not found in nature. Does that make them non-elements? No. I think that the same rules can apply for the 'new' elements in the story. Plus we are always learning new things about the universe so for all we know, there are hundreds of new elements that we haven't discovered. Alas, only tefler can clarify what he means by 'new elements' in this story.

Moving on. Man, I was kinda disappointed that Thasana wasn't johns mom. But it does add a little more to the story. Also, this may be just me but I think the sexy times are lacking. It feels like there hasn't been a nice long sex scene in a while.

I was pleasantly surprised that John helped the malari engineers and the assassins. I guess the engineers could be part of a proto-harem and the assassins will be part of the harem or crew as well. This kinda gave me an idea, I know it's (hopefully!) a while till the end but maybe in like in an epilogue thing John commands a entire fleet of ships like his with a greatly expanded harem. Exploring the galaxy and brining peace among the stars.

Looking forward to the next chapter!

Sincerly, a guy whose been reading since chapter 5 came out.

Edraele is dead. Death of the mind and ego is more important that death of the body. It's a shame that this brand new woman is burdened with the memories of things Edraele did, but at least she can make use of Edraele's experiences to do good. I'm glad I don't own memories of torturing and murdering my own children! I wonder how much Edraele's experiences influence the person John created as a copy of Alyssa's personality. I suspect that over time, those experiences will force her more greatly out of Alyssa's mold.

I think that Mael'nerak is a personal name, not the name of a race. He's the one who shaped all these different species.

I am starting to think that the mysterious assassin may be a progenitor. Obviously not Mael'nerak. He clearly hasn't realized yet that John is like him.

I do not think that "elements" means what Tefler thinks it does.

Saying that the asteroids lack momentum is kinda... meaningless. For one thing, they are in orbit around the sun. For another thing, the whole topic of momentum in space is highly relative.

Great!

Can't wait for the next chapter! Thanks!

Enjoyed having some question answered and being tantanized by thoughts of big battles to come for the more powerful ship and energized crew!

What drugs you are on...because you have one 'wild' imagination and she wants some. ;-)

This chapter had me absolutely rolling with laughter. And every time I laughed (at John's predicament with TWO Matriarchs and all those women wanting him) the wife made me read the story to her. She basically said, "He is screwed and has no clue!" LOL

On the whole I agree with most of the comments here regarding new elements. However, first up this story is Sci Fi/Fantasy, and as such requires some degree of suspension of belief, in fact all literature requires this to some extent, even historically set literature. So to all the Nay Sayers out there please cut the author some slack, we all kind of accept FTL in most space even though it contravenes e=mc^2.

Given that I have a PhD in Chemistry (I have some authority, but not complete) we must remember that science is a discipline that takes observable responses and places them in a model, which when new data becomes available and the data does not fit the model, then the models have to change. Some classics of these are Plutonic and Neptunic views on earth formation, the Plum Pudding theory of matter, all of which are less than about 200 years old.

Given the massive changes in scientific theories over the past 200 years, who is to say that current theories are correct? Sure they currently fit all the observable patterns that we see but are they correct?

Given the discrepancies between the atomic scale Quantum physics and the macro-scale Newtonian physics, surely then both can't be true. More simply put there is no single theory that covers both sets of observable physics, there should be, but we have not developed it (yet).

New theories/research areas are always developing. Less than 50 years ago no one was really talking about Dark Matter/Dark Energy, or string theory (with all 11 dimensions; I happily think in 4, 11 just does my head in), the smallest fundamental particle was the quark. Since then gluons, the Higgs-Boson, and some 15 new elements have been formulated, discovered, and described all of which fit with current views of matter; a number of these new elements have specific new uses (e.g., Americium in smoke detectors). So who knows where science and scientific theories will be in 1000 years or so when this story is set?

Suspending my belief here, Dana was feeding a stream of anti-matter into a massive fusion reactor. Don't believe in anti-matter? We have the positron mass of an electron with a positive charge, which when it meets an electron produces a burst of energy (enter the PET scanner) ;). The newest elements discovered are by smashing elements like Ni, with Fe at high velocity, fusing the 2 nuclei.

So if oppositely charged electrons exist why not other fundamental particles (protons, gluons, quarks etc; I suspect some are already charge paired, not a physicist). If mass and energy are interchangeable, then it should be possible to have a particle with negative mass. How? Don't ask me I am a here and now chemist ;), but perhaps this is the nature of Dark matter, and dark energy, which appear to increasing the rate of universe expansion. Therefore, if you have an anti-matter particle (with negative mass) and fuse and stabilise it with positive matter in a fusion reactor, then it would lead to a high particle count nucleus, with relatively light mass, but high numbers of electrons for bonding (quid pro quo, new element).

Also current models of atomic structure in dictate bonding shells are s, p, d, & f orbitals with discreet energy gaps (the quantum effect) which produces the discreet line emissions for each element. Current theory indicates that there are no 1p.d.f, 2d.f, or 3f orbital shells, however if these did exist then the shells would provide some very new and exciting bonding chemistry, potentially allowing silicon based lifeforms to exist. Anti-matter matter fusion and stabilisation, may well allow for additional energy levels to be established allowing 1p.d.f, 2d.f, or 3f orbital formation.

So to one and all, just suspend some level of belief, and allow Teller the freedom to explore his imagination ;). Arthur C Clark let his imagination run wild and current day satellites and communication are the reality of his imagination.

Cheers

Mal

Oh by the way Teller thanks for a wonderfully engaging chapter again. Several thing have been unveiled. Some complain regarding lack of action, but there need to be these filler chapters, to bulk out the overall tapestry of the story.

Called that the distressed ship was our assassins ploy to get to John. 6/5 stars.

Mal

Perfect birthday gift telfer , so this show down is gonna be epic but sounds like Calara's mom may end up in danger

Excellent work, for a while I was worried I'd missed the chapter but then I found it.I'm glad I didn't miss this one as it was a work of f*ing art

As for the comments of holes in the periodic table while not in the traditional when you get to the higher elements there are big holes but part of that is the stupid way the traditional periodic table was put together I've examined several other alternatives and they work much better but all of the older chemists and physicists wouldn't change even if you held a gun to their head. In my books I cheat and go above the know and suspected elements to the upper two hundreds through the three hundreds so there's no current data to refute them.

Ed Parachini

So worth the wait. Thank you. I read and soaked up the 15 pages, like a man dying of thirst. More!

it's really funny to see people saying "suspension of belief" regarding this great story when in between chapters over 70% go to church and proclaim to believe in writings in a book with absolutely no evidence at all.... the reality is that this magical story is easier to believe in.

Dear Tefler,

From the head, you had us turned on to your "tail." The story is so DEEP and PREGNANT with HUGE plot devices (see what I did there?). Not in a bad way, just to be clear. I came for the sex (and to it, if you catch my drift), but I spent the night for the plot. You definitely aren't just dicking around. Your story is something we should ALL keep abreast of. I know I will. Just ignore the ASSES who say it sucks (well....actually it kinda does in a way *sounds of a blowjob are heard*).

Thank you!

ANON GUY WHO IS TOTALLY NUTS!!!!!

Also what is water polo?

I've been checking religiously every day - so great to finaly see the new chapter!

Love love love your narrative! Slight nods to Piers anthony - Bio of a space tyrant?

Too bad John's conversion of the Maliri women couldn't spread like a virus and soon all of house Valedan would be blonde and his clan which he could draw power from. Is a mouthful required? How about John/Jade leaving a load, convert it into an aerosol and give each lady a snort. That would probably work on thousands.

I'm interested in where you're going with two points:

1) Irillith's vision problems which I bet will turn into her being able to view and write code projected from her eyes since I seem to remember someone suggesting that in a comment, and

2) I believe you said Irillith's vambrace Faye resides in is a Progenitor creation. Curious if that means the device only or does that include Faye's AI programming?

Great job.

Congratulations Tefler,

Not only did you succeed in writing another chapter that can be described only as epic in both length and contents. Have sneaking suspicion that the Assassin is actually John's father and that he has John's mother stowed away somewhere.

Out of curiosity was listening to Starset's My Demons and it fits in perfectly with the relationship between John and Alyssa. This got me thinking what would the individual members 'theme' songs be?

Some nice developments here, both for the ship and the crew. I notice John didn't waste much time in expanding Edraele's harem. Too bad he couldn't give her assassins the same kind of attention that his girls got. Another time, maybe.

The new weapons are OP as all hell. I feel sorry for anything on the receiving end. Those new pulsar lasers are interesting. It sounds like they fire in three-round bursts, right? And with Dana's upgrades to them, they have pretty much a zero cycle rate, so that three-round burst is more like the full-auto of the old Gatling lasers. And they hit nearly as hard as the old laser cannons? Ouch time. Then there's the Nova Lances...*drool* Question: is there any way Dana could reduce the charge up time on the Nova Lances? From the demonstration, that charge up time seems to be rather long, plenty of time for an enemy to realize the danger and probably do something other than shit their pants.

The new engines are quite impressive. Any Maliri watching when Jade hit the throttle probably had their jaws drop. Here's a thought: the crew likes using asteroid fields for weapon tests, so why not use them for testing the ship's engines? Instead of blasting the asteroids out of the way, why not make an obstacle course out of them? It would give Jade a nice challenge. I can see those new engines being one hell of surprise in combat; the enemy lines up a broadside, and just as they're getting ready to fire, Jade twitches and the Invictus is suddenly behind the enemy, with the enemy going "WTF?!?"

Hopefully John and the girls are smart enough to not tip their hand right away in the coming battle and not reveal just how deadly their ship really is at the start. Sure, their ship was deadly before, but I think the Terran Federation brass was only just starting to realize it. Now these new upgrades have taken the deadliness factor up to a whole new level, one that John should keep hidden for as long as possible. Granted, it's gonna be hard to hide the fact that they now have turreted beam lasers, but just how strong those beams can be should be relatively easy to hide. The Nova Lances too, shouldn't be that hard to hide, as long as they aren't used. The power of the new engines can be hidden as well, just hold off on the throttle.

I was a bit surprised when Dana said that they had pretty much hit their power limit, and they still haven't gotten to the shield upgrades yet. Although, it seems that Dana is starting to realize that she can improve upon the Ashanath power core and FTL drive. Going to be interesting to see what sort of results those upgrades cause. Will they be going back to the Ashanath to make those upgrades?

Just had a thought. What's being done with the parts that have been replaced, i.e. the old weapons and such? Are they being scrapped right away or what? I could possibly see John storing as much as he can in the cargo bay to sell back to the TF later. I'm sure anybody, not just the TF, would like to examine those weapons to see what improvements were made.

Also, is John going to stop in to see Ceraden, or at least give him a call? Show him Irilltih's new hair style? Tip him off to the changes that Edraele's working on so Ceraden can get in on that action and help?

I just feel that Faye should posses a body especially if she is of progenitor origin so, John could love her just like the other girls. Though, it would be best to wait for that development in the later chapters because I would to see her evolve and see her personality develop a bit first.

* About the new elements: you can just imagine she found a way to stabilize protons made of Top and Botton and Strange and Charm quarks (or even higher generation) and that's what she is calling new elements. This doesn't contradict the Standard Model. She could have said something like "It's not only the number of protons that defines an element. You can make different protons with higher energy."

* There is no XY sperm. They can be Y or X only. The other X of the pair is provided by the egg. So their bodies are killing the Y sperms, stoping XY embryos to be formed.

I can think of a dozen theoretical physics concepts that might reveal gaps in the periodic table.

People comfortably impressed with their own depth of knowledge can be really hilarious in their refusals to imagine more.

Tefler should throw a few more bones. I will start out with suggestions.

They create pocket universe storage holds so that the Invictus has the Cargo Capacity to carry a very large space station in pieces.

They create a warp gate with a value of PI equal to 1. Every line is a straight line, every point coexists and is separate by distance of any lengths. Step back out of the gate anywhere in the real universe.

Edraele creates a crowdsourced democracy by Psychic consensus. More a constitutional monarchy like England, but with full involvement of the citizens in governing.

The Invictus is given a Tachyon burst shield. If it is damaged, they travel back in time to before it was damaged until they avoid the damage.

Psychic pregnancies. They place their unborn children in psychic cocoons, so that the fetus cann mature faster, and they can have multiple pregnancies concurrently.

@Tefler : I remember you mentioned that next chapter was being edited ......can you give us an update on it ...

. . wow . . . . your skill at weaving a storyline and cast of characters is impressive. Thanks for letting me share your vision.

I have an inkling that there will be a confrontation with a group of manic TF AI (battle-) ships in the future. Fae's finest hour when she defends her friends against the hacking part of the attack. The new improvements of the ship demand a challenging opponent, furthermore it is an opportunity for Fae's personality to mature.

Did I mention that at I love this little creature ( She even has a creator).

Again you do wonders. I love this story and await your next release. Always keeps you on your toes. Awaiting to see what was changed in the drawings and when the AI get more involved. And need some red colored women now that we have green and blue. Thank you for the story and have a great day.

Perhaps you should keep your uninformed religious beliefs to yourself....Doctorate in Theology here...and your statements are rather ignorant.

You magnificent bastard!

I salute you - again!

what can i say but wonderful chapter and as always love the story and cant wait till the next chapter

Firstly, thanks for all the nice comments! It's great to hear you guys enjoyed this chapter.

Now, I have some good news and bad news! Firstly the good news:

I just submitted chapter 56, so that will probably be up on the site by about Friday. It's 6 pages, so back to the regular length again (18.5k words).

Which leaves the bad news (boo!):

I've got the in-laws staying for the next few days, and as much as I'd like to space them, the wife tells me that's not an option. After that, I'm away on holiday for a week, so it's going to be a few weeks wait until the next chapter.

Of course, you know me by now. I'd never leave you on a cliffhanger. ;-)

Tefler

Tefler, you couldn't imagine my surprise when I was reading and I noticed that it was 15 and not 5 pages, I would've said I'd squee'd but I'm a guy. Thanks again :)

I hope you enjoy the In Laws and the Holidays.

Absolutely love this tale you weave. This very well may be my all time favorite series on the site. Keep it up!!!

I'm eager to see what happened to trader ciradan, since he was set up iirc.

Can we take a collection to convince them to leave early? ;-)

Has anyone thought about starting a Three Square Meals forum? Yes, debating on the comments section is great and all but with a forum you could expand on that and post canonical material for everyone to view. This could vary from other in-universe stories that happen to other characters such as a day by day log from Charles Harris or a look into a diary that Sparks may have kept on Karron to an ongoing encyclopedia to keep tabs on all characters, species, fleets and groups that are introduced or mentioned in the stories to pictures of the ships and crew that we have been introduced to.

You had to say that about the next ALL KNOWING that it would blow our minds on what's coming. Oh well.👅

Well it took 2days but I finally read it all that was simply amazing how long until the next chapter?

The quality of the posts to each chapter is another bonus to this story. Hats off to OZKIWI for his really informative post on this one in particular. The level of engagement and debate is great to follow so thanks to the regulars like Slinkky and Pussy.

Terra Lupis' forum idea is another pat on the back to Tefler and I hope it gets some serious consideration. As long it does not distract our author!

So OZKIWI how about a formula that the quality of the comments are directly proportional to the quality of the story?

What about a wiki instead of a forum? That would be a much better place to post information about the world and characters. Plus it is free to create one on wikia.

Not the in-laws........ Hmm.... I guess the wife won't let you toss them in the brig till you get the next chapter done either.... :(

Who knew you would be happy to actually LEARN something new (elements and such) on a porn lit site LOL. From REAL science type people too LOL. (awesome)

A forum? Neat idea. But I'm sure the Tefler doesn't have the time to maintain and moderate it. :( (real life sucks)

About the story. Wow. Lots of great info in there. Gonna have to stew on it for a while. Hope to see the next chapter soon. Hating that we will have to wait till the "rents" leave for you to write more. :(

Ok so you're dropping 56 tomorrow? Shiny!!! Note to self must stop production of Telfer voodoo doll... Absolutely love the series!

I got a good chuckle out of way you explained how the Maliri are able to speak English so well. The original broadcast of the Three Stooges should be floating around out there somewhere in space, right? What a shining example of human culture they are.

And that leads to another thought...I hope Faye hasn't been digging through whatever archives of human new broadcasts might exist. That can lead to some very...disconcerting conclusions regarding humans as a species. Maybe that's where all the Terran AI research is going wrong? Not only are assholes in charge, but they're having the AI watch archived news broadcasts. That'd be enough to drive anyone insane to the point of wanting to wipe out humans as a species.

Just...phenomenal. AND, the comments are almost as fun as the story. What an awesome story and community you've created! Thanks for giving away such fantastic work. Cheers!

Love these stories keep them comin!!!!

Another great chapter hope to see the next one soon.

The next chapter has been through the first round of moderation. That means it should be up on the site tomorrow morning UK time (2nd September).

Hope you enjoy it!

Tefler

Tefler, I really enjoyed this chapter! Good read! Your doing a great job with personal interactions and some pumping up of the tech.

Tefler..another of those amazing chapters. The detailing you go through despite all the intricacies n web you've spun..it must be Herculean indeed to ensure you have everything down to a tee. Look at us nerds getting a high from discussing the periodic table n lasers n grav sleighs on a site like Lit. Truly phenomenal. What was most satisfying were the induced chuckles - John showing off in front of the Maliri.. The sighs..the oohs..the aahs.. loved the hero worship n adulation. Look forward to 56 but I guess 57 would be cruel..with the wait. However, we as a community know that there's a Projenitor Tefler in you somewhere.. and you'd be able to sleep write or through tele-kinesis. Wouldn't that be amazing..hehe..keep up the good work n it's OK I guess that you deserve some family time after having robbed us of a few.. (wicked..sarcy..whiny..) Have fun mate..!

Neil

You're the only author who after a longer than normal absence, I'm not worried as I know something quite long will be in the works.

I was right, this chapter is the longest ever at 16 pages! I like where the storyline is taking us, hopefully John can grow strong enough in time to handle te Unknown enemies looking for him!

A very nice chapter.

I am increasingly viewing the assassin as comic relief. Shades of Eric Morecombe.

uber chapter! took me a few days to read. the chapter is double length. full of goodies.

What could possibly be next ? I will be glad to be in terran space again. I thought there might be more maliri crew members maybe some stowaways will be discovered. I did think a more personal servicing by John would be in-store for them.

Might make Terran Admiral feel inadequate

Nova Lance=wave motion gun

This is the best series on this (or any) site that I have found.

I can't help thinking, after all the upgrades they've put into the Invictus, that they are reaching the limits of what can be crammed into the old cruiser. They can't even have the mass drivers powered, and the nova lance makes the lights dim. Imagine something in the battleship class, made with Crystal Alyssium structural members instead of titanium (and armor, of course) and a much larger (and/or multiple) power cores.

They wouldn't want to sell the Invictus though. After all, a commodore should be commanding a flotilla, not just a single ship. Maybe if they can figure out the multiple-matriarch trick they could have each ship captained by the matriarch for its crew.

Ok, I'm getting a bit silly. Time for bed. (sadly, not draped in a half dozen exotic women)

I loved the use of "Jade Falcon" in this chapter. I have no idea if this was an intentional Mechwarrior reference, but if so Bravo!

For my opening bid, I will use only one Star of Mechs, and five Elementals to take your puny planet!

I couldn't resist using it, and I'm glad someone spotted the reference. :-)

Tefler

I know this comment is late and won't have much effect seeing as there is 20+ chapters after this one already posted but please consider making Sparks more human and less of a know it all. I love science (science major in college) and love women who understand and practice science but as a scientist I know that there are absolute limits to what one person can do.

Sparks is unnaturally smart and from what she has accomplished so far would be considered the smartest person to ever exist but that doesn't mean she should have all of the answers or worse dream up some incredible result without putting anytime into physical research.

Its believable that Sparks is able to combine different alien technologies and improve the Invictus far beyond its design. Its believable that she is even able to improve upon these technologies with her knowledge of other alien technology. But it absolutely stretches the realm of disbelief when she is somehow able to come up 19 different new elements, or Alysiumm without doing any physical research.

Her character would be much better and less of a Mary Sue if you gave her limits to what she could. Acknowledge that some problems cannot be solved by any amount of brain power coming from a single individual but a team of like minded individuals who have the resources to address the problem.

I really do enjoy the science fiction aspect of this story but a character who seemingly is a master of all aspects of science: (engineering, physics, chemistry, computer science, etc.) really does take away from the element of believability that good science fiction has.

"But it absolutely stretches the realm of disbelief when she is somehow able to come up 19 different new elements"

Of course, to do that spontaneously all by herself would be ridiculous. She's getting this knowledge from somewhere though, you'll have to keep reading to see where. ;-)

Tefler

What a great chapter. So much brought together, with so much portending for the future.

Tefler, I would love to see you base a story in the Battletech Universe.

When you do the physical and e-books, please include some kick-ass photos of the aliens, the hero, his crew, the ships, the weapons, the planets, the space stations, etc... and TAKE MY DAMN MONEY!!!!!

What a unique and compelling story!

It's not so much of a stretch of the imagination. One of the Manhattan Project scientists was credited with discovering 12 new elements. And Dana hasn't actually created them, just Theorised that they will exist. Mendeleev when he created the Periodic Table knew there were unknown elements that fitted into empty slots in the layout. by altering the layout dana has just created something with 19 free slots. and looking at those slots the properties should be understandable across the layout

I am enjoying your story very much. Chapter after chapter it just gets better and better. Thanks for sharing your passion and wonderfully creative imagination. Love it. Dawn

So now that you have established that a progenitor can have more than one matriarch with many thralls under them, how many does this other progenitor have? I see how the Maliri society developed from their last mass enslavement. I inferred that the current matriarchs are descendants from the originals that the progenitor of the time. But as much as you told in this chapter, you have raised more questions.

1. How did the progenitor species emerge? Since you make no mention of any female progenitors, I wonder if they were created by accident or design. And that in order to procreate, they had to find other species to modify to that purpose.

2. Are there female progenitors? No idea, but seems unlikely.

3. Since the progenitors can theoretically be immortal with a harem, then it seems possible that every other progenitor before might be around still. You have mentioned 2 others via genetic engineering differences. Does this mean that John is only the third one in existence, the third one in this part of the galaxy, or only one of three known progenitors?

4. This other being in these nightmares tha John gets is presumed to be another progenitor. But what if it’s not? Here’s a thought, what if progenitors were created to fight a bigger threat? Hmm, that’s a plot twist!

Anyway, thank you again Tefler.

Sincerely,

JAFCritic

John helping the Malari and changing Edreal was amazing. there is hope, for all. the new upgrades will give them a great advantage to do good things. Irillith and her mom's relationship taking a turn for the good is a good thing, Johns guide being caged and John in control so ta speak... amazing story

Best chapter yet. I'm not a writer, how you've kept this story going through the years is beyond me. I can't write 1000 words without stumbling over my fingers. Keep up the great work. Obviously you have, cuz I'm only half way through this epic adventure

Page 7, Luna talking about "final" exams - and I thought I had some tough classes. But a 60% failure rate is very steep curve!

Is obviously a gorgeous girl with a quality sashay!!

Whew! One hell of a chapter! I really hate to repeat myself but this keeps getting more and more interesting. I loved the combo of the cultural and genetic revolution combined with the ship upgrade. Made for non-stop thought provoking twists. #gratitude

An ant 🐜 sized King Kong.

Going to "collar" a traitor. Let's not get over confident. 💯

Switching between erotic and wholesome relationship repair shit isn't an easy thing but hot damn did you do it well.

Hopefully they don't get rid of the Mass Drivers on the Invictus and find a way to upgrade them.

After cultivating allied pacts with three major galactic neighbors, he returns home.

Also expanded his Harem to Ninety-two ??? Him serious though.

Exploring John's effect on the Maliri as well as their effect on him, the Invictus's extremely rapid refit / upgrade, the whipping up of the first ever batch of Crystal Alyssium, the patching up of Edraele's bodyguards (fixed Luna's voice), and the early days of the mending of Irillith and Edraele's relationship, and then of course, the traditional blasting apart of 'bad' rocks at the chapters end (testing the new guns) ... to say this was an Awesome chapter would be to under sell it... well done Tef!! ;-) TTFN

@Razzakel. I agree 100%. The Mass Drivers are just so brute force. I’ll fight you and then I’ll slam a bomb into you that knocks you silly and blows you apart from the inside. Nothing says “die” like the mass drivers. A lower tech punch to the face.

Upgrades maybe… longer barrels for faster shells or wider barrels for bigger shells maybe. Or both, the ship is 500m long after all.

This chapter always makes me lol. I love it.

This is my 5th or 6th reread and I'm still loving it .

Just starting this chapter and going through the description of elements is painful. The definition of an element is really based on just the number of protons. 1 proton hydrogen, 2 protons helium... 92 uranium etc. Isotopes are the different combinations of protons and neutrons. Protons are positive, and attract a corresponding number of electrons. There are no "gaps" in the periodic table, it's saying there's missing letters in the alphabet or a missing positive whole number less than 100. Don't worry, Iron Man 2 made the same fallacy.

Since you're dealing with chemistry the issue isn't the nucleus but interplay of electrons to form the molecules.

Also in nuclear reactors criticality is the desired goal, it means theres a stable population of neutrons or conditions that support a stable neutron population. It has no indication of the overall population. You can make an empty box be critical. Supercritical is when there's a growing population of neutrons, leading to an increase of energy output and in extreme cased catastrophic consequences.

Anonymous and The Elements:

You are preoccupied with real elements in our real world. If you have not realised it, the story is fictional. In the present episode it deals with fictional elements in a fictional world in the same way it deals with psycic powers and a vast array of different species.

The criteria for doing this in sci-fi stories was establish by H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs many many moons ago - if not by earlier writers.

A little learning is a dangerous thing ....

Great, loved the way he brought reform to the Maliri

I too am on my 5th or 6yj re-read of this series, and yeah, I am also still loving it, ... A thought that occured to me a few re-reads ago, .... consider -- "Crystal Alyssium is very light, and without all that extra mass, the Invictus is even quicker. Three-point-one-seven times our old speed, and nearly five times the old acceleration!" and that was just improved mass reduction from altering the material in the Invictus Armor, .... in other chapters, it is mentioned that the decking and walls in both the Main Hanger and the cargo bay are composed of Titanium also, ... I suggest that the crew replace the light weight gray alloy with something like shiny Ethereum, reshaped at least 3 times (it's Aluminum based, so should be lighter than Titanium) and with a few reshapes it would be several times the tensile strength of the Titanium it is replacing, ... the lesser weight/mass would mean allowing for even greater maneuverability for the Invictus, ... but, the T-Fed's just love that Titanium, and I guess John and the girls do too, ... ;-) TTFN