Three Square Meals Ch. 099

"Fuck me..." John muttered under his breath, leaning heavily against Nkkrrit's throne.

The girls looked at him in concern, faces lined with worry when they saw his appalled expression. Alyssa explained what Edraele had just told him and one by one the rest of the girls looked as stricken as John did.

*We'll start heading back; we should be able to get there long before the Kintark,* John said decisively. *We've got several days before they reach the Sol System, so we can rally the fleets, and Calara can start making preparations to deal with the invaders...*

*I'm sorry, John... Maria only found out about it an hour ago, but she's done some digging. High Command's been keeping the invasion quiet for days...* Edraele informed him, sounding sickened. *You've got a day left... if that.*

John choked, his eyes widening. *A day...*

He cast a fearful glance at Alyssa and her grim expression spoke volumes.

*Why didn't High Command reach out... ask for my help?!* John asked, sounding bewildered. *We've been there for them every time they've been in trouble before...*

Edraele was quiet for a moment, then replied, *According to Maria, an executive order was issued by the Fleet Admiral forbidding all outgoing contact with the Maliri Protectorate... she only got around it because all her old colleagues work in communications, routing through secure messages. Buckingham didn't want you riding in to save the day this time... perhaps he still resents your intervention at the Battle of Regulus?*

"That stupid motherfucker!" John roared, his eyes blazing with fury. Clenching his fists to try and contain his anger, he snarled out loud, "He's going to fuck over the Terran fleets just for the sake of his goddamn pride?! We need as much of them intact as possible if we're going to repel the Progenitor invasion!"

The girls winced at his outburst and Nkkrrit's eight eyes sought out Alyssa in alarm. The blonde soothed them all with a telepathic surge of reassurance.

*I'm so sorry, John, I had no idea this was happening,* Edraele murmured, sounding just as devastated.

John closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled as he focused on centring himself, trying to smother the white-hot rage that burned within. *Alright, contact Almari and Ilyana, we need to reroute their fleet. They're already following the Terran border with the Brimorians, so I want them to head directly for the Core Worlds. We'll rendezvous with them there.*

*I'll send them an updated flight plan as soon as we get into range of the Terran comms beacons,* Alyssa quickly interjected.

*They'll undoubtedly meet resistance from Terran Federation forces when they attempt to cross the border,* Edraele advised him. *I'll remind Lilyana to use your pre-prepared message.*

*Excellent, thank you,* John replied, before glancing around at the shocked and fearful faces that surrounded him. "Ladies, we need to move right now! The Kintark are going after Terra!"

Alyssa placed her hand on his arm and nodded. "They know... I've told them what's happening."

John glanced at the Eternity Crystals with deep regret. "It looks like we'll have to leave them behind... we can't afford to waste time carrying them all back to the shuttle."

The blonde gave him a playful smile. "Oh, I think we'll be alright..." She glanced at two of the biggest ones, each over three-metres in length. "You definitely want those two for the Nova Lances, right Dana?"

"Oh yeah!" the redhead exclaimed, a broad grin on her face.

Alyssa turned and faced the field of crystals, then raised both hands in an imperious gesture. There was a musical tinkling sound and the entire forest of Eternity Crystals, numbering in the hundreds, uprooted from the platform.

"Let's go!" the blonde exclaimed, turning to wink at John.

He looked at her in amazement, astonished that she could use Telekinesis to control so many objects at once. Shaking off his shock, he turned to face the Vulkat Queen. "Thank you for your gifts, Nkkrrit. I consider you a friend and ally now... so let Alyssa know if there's ever anything I can do to repay you for your help."

"She says there's no debt to pay. Nkkrrit 's eternally grateful for the peace we've given her," Alyssa said softly, smiling at the Vulkat Queen as she gave her a farewell hug. "Come on, Faye's bringing in the Raptor to pick us up."

By the time they reached the Vulkat Command ship's main hangar, the Raptor was already waiting for them, parked on one of the landing pads. Faye had lowered the front and rear loading ramps, so John and the girls headed up to the cockpit, while Alyssa floated her crystalline cargo right into the back of the gunship. It took less than a minute for her to finish loading the priceless Eternity Crystals and as soon as she had boarded too, Faye closed up the ramps and took off.

Jade had manoeuvred the Invictus so that it was flush with the Vulkat ship, which meant that the Raptor was able to fly straight out of one hangar and into the other. Faye had already retrieved the stealth shuttle, so the moment the gunship was safely inside, Jade powered up the battlecruiser's six Trankaran engines and raced towards the edge of the system. Now they just needed to escape the local gravity wells and they'd be able to jump into hyper-warp.

John rubbed his hand over his face as he stepped out of the armour-equipping frame, feeling a decade older after Edraele's shocking revelation. He glanced around at the girls, seeing them look similarly subdued as they put away their weapons and removed their Paragon suits.

"We need a quick debrief on the Command Bridge," he said quietly, clasping Alyssa's hand and accompanying her down the ramp to join Calara, Jade, and Faye.

The blonde nodded, already listening attentively to his troubled thoughts. As John sat heavily in his Command Chair, the rest of the girls fanned out and took their places at their respective stations.

He took a deep breath, then began, "Okay, so Alyssa's brought you all up to speed. We've got a Kintark armada heading for Terra and only about a day from their target, while we're light years away in Vulkat space." He looked to his right and said to his blonde Executive Officer. "Can we even make it back in time?"

Alyssa leaned forward and her hands swept over her console, delicate fingers dancing over the display to bring up the Empire Map. There was absolute silence on the Combat Bridge as the crew watched her work, the tension ratcheting up a few notches when her brow furrowed with worry. A glowing green line snaked across the sectors, linking system after system, taking them from the Desolation of Vulkat all the way to Terra.

John's heart sunk when he saw the ETA projected by the Nav computer, predicting they'd take 46 hours to return to the Core Worlds. Just as he was about to give voice to his anguish, Alyssa started to use her warp-tunnelling techniques and gravity well sling-shots to increase their hyper-warp speed far beyond the capabilities of the navigation computer. By the time she'd finished, the new course predicted a total flight time of 30 hours 42 minutes.

He glanced at the ship's chronometer and saw that it was currently 11:17 in the evening. "We'll get there the day after tomorrow, at six in the morning..."

"Did my mom give you an ETA for the Kintark armada?" Calara asked, her lovely face shadowed with worry.

"That morning sometime, but she didn't have specifics... I'm not sure if High Command even know for sure," John replied, drumming his fingers on the armrest of his Command Chair.

"We've reached the edge of the Alpha Vulpeculae system, engaging hyper-warp," Jade informed them, powering up the Progenitor-class Tachyon drive. The white battlecruiser was bathed in a crimson glow from the system's giant red star, before it disappeared in a flurry of blue Tachyon particles.

John was quiet for a moment, studying the flight path that crossed the Brimorian Enclave, the line travelling wide of Brimor by a few systems. "What kind of delay are we talking about if we go via Brimor?"

"It'll add seven minutes," Alyssa replied, already calculating the difference before putting hands to console and projecting the proposed changes on the Empire Map.

"What are you thinking?" Calara asked, looking at him wide-eyed.

"If the Kintark are throwing everything they've got into an attack on Terra, we need the Invictus, Raptor, and Valkyrie upgraded to the max," John said quietly, staring intently at the map. "We got what the Brimorians wanted, I don't see why we can't pick up our new shield generators on the way. If we call ahead and get them to have the equipment ready for us, we can do a rapid refit right there on the planet surface."

Dana let out a mournful sigh and slowly shook her head. "I'm really sorry, John, it'll take far too long... We'd have to rely on the maintenance bots to do the work and there's a lot to do. They'd need to remove the fore-deck plating over the shield generators, remove the old components, install and hook up the new ones... We're looking at an eight-hour job, easily."

John narrowed his eyes as he stared at Brimor on the map. "How long would it take if Alyssa psychically strips the armour in one go, then me and the Valkyrie swap out the shield generators?"

"You want to just do that out in the open?!" Dana exclaimed, jaw hanging open in shock. "Everyone will be able to see what you guys can do!"

"Fuck it, we've got no choice," John replied with a grimace. "How long?"

The redhead stared at him for a moment, then blinked and replied, "I dunno, thirty minutes?"

He nodded, his expression bleak. "Alright, sounds like a plan. While we're doing that, the rest of you and the maintenance bots can install as many Eternity Crystals as you can... you said earlier you'd thought of more uses for them?"

Dana gave him a look of disbelief that eventually spread into a sparkling grin. "Fuck yeah! The internal structure of those Eternity Crystals is pretty much perfect! If we swap out our current focusing crystals in all our energy weapons, we'll be able to do the same damage for about half the power requirements!"

"So we can keep pumping in more energy and increase our firepower?" Calara asked, her face lighting up with excitement.

"There's a limit to how much stress the barrels can take, but we can definitely crank up the damage on our Photon Lasers and Pulse Cannons!" Dana agreed, nodding enthusiastically. "For the Nova Lances we can just half the power... that'll massively reduce the phased impedance and let us take advantage of the upgraded Kintark heatsinks. We'll be able to fire those bad boys twice as fast instead!"

The Latina clapped her hands together with glee, her grin almost as broad as the redhead's. "Outstanding!"

"What about the Shield Projectors?" John prompted, his expression still tense. "How much of a difference will Eternity Crystals make there?"

"Oh fuck, I forgot about that!" Dana replied, stifling a giggle. "They'll double our shield strength! When we get them installed along with the Brimorian generators and the Maliri modulators, we'll be packing stronger shields than a fucking battleship!"

John leaned back in his chair with a thoughtful look on his face. "Can you really upgrade all those guns and the shield projectors in just half-an-hour?"

"Yeah, it shouldn't be hard at all," Dana replied, sounding supremely confident. "Focusing crystals are usually the first things to burn out, so Terran and Maliri weapons are designed to make it easy to swap them. I'll search through all the Eternity Crystals we swiped and sort them into sizes for the different guns. Trust me, with us and the bots working together, we can get them all done in thirty minutes no problem!"

Jade looked excited as she said, "If we aren't worried about keeping our abilities hidden, I could shapeshift into a form much better suited for this kind of work!"

Shaking his head, John replied, "Thanks for the offer, honey, but I've got another important job for you. I want you to take the stealth shuttle and fly out to the spot you found Helene. Faye can keep an eye on the ship, while you dive down to meet with that girl again; I'd like to find out whatever we can about 'the Abandoned'. Something about their situation stinks like a hold full of Cagfish."

The Nymph sounded delighted as she replied, "I'd love to see her again! I'll disembark from the Invictus as soon as we hit Brimor's lower atmosphere."

"Alright so we all know the plan, any objections?" John asked, looking around at each girl in turn.

"Not an objection, but I do want to point out something important," Tashana replied, her angular eyes revealing her concern. "Our deal was to bring the Brimorians the schematics so they could manufacture Eternity Crystals, but you need to have psychic ability to actually be able to grow them. The schematics for the psychic amplifiers and the crystal solution are going to be useless to the Enclave..."

John gave her a coy smile. "Don't worry about that, I'm pretty sure I remember exactly what we agreed to do in exchange for the Shield Generators." He glanced at the purple sprite perched on his console. "Faye, did you record my conversation with Athgiloi?"

She gave him a knowing smile. "I did, John. We met the terms of our agreement to the letter."

"I thought we might have," he replied with a wicked grin, patting her on the thigh. "Thanks, honey."

Tashana looked intrigued, but it was obvious that John wanted to keep it as a surprise, for both Athgiloi and the crew.

Sakura leaned forward and gazed at John. "When are we planning on upgrading the Valkyrie?"

"Enroute to Terra," he replied without hesitation. "We'll load up the Brimorian generators for the mech and the Raptor, then we can install them on the way."

"Sounds sensible," the Asian girl agreed, with a smile of satisfaction.

Glancing at the chronometer again, John frowned as he said, "We need to discuss our tactics against the Kintark, but it's getting late now." He looked at Calara and continued, "Please can you spend some time analysing how the Kintark and the Terran forces are likely to be deployed? Going by Alyssa's flightpath, we won't cross into Terran Space until tomorrow evening, so we've got a wait ahead of us before we can reach out to High Command and find out what they're planning."

Alyssa's eyes flashed as she bit back her scathing opinion of the Terran Federation leadership, instead saying, "Even if we can get hold of them, they might refuse to tell us how they intend to fight the battle."

"It's okay," Calara said, looking confident. "I'll spend tomorrow predicting Terran and Kintark strategy and tactics, then calculate our best chances of success in all scenarios. If we can get all our upgrades completed on Brimor, we'll have a massive impact on the battle."

"If we get there in time..." Sakura said, an anxious frown on her face. "I agree with the plan to upgrade our ships before the fight, but we're still talking about, what, a... forty minute delay? Do we really want to risk arriving after the battle's already finished?"

John let out a heavy sigh and spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "I don't think we've got any choice. The new upgrades will make a massive difference to all our ships and we're going to need whatever advantage we can get, especially if the Kintark have thrown everything they've got into this invasion. I refuse to get you girls involved in this battle without giving us a fighting chance of survival."

"I still find it hard to believe that High Command would deliberately turn their backs on us," Calara said, a forlorn expression on her face. "All we've ever done is try to help them... why wouldn't they trust us this time?"

"They're probably afraid of me and resent the fact that I didn't just hand over all our tech," John replied, his anger building again.

The Latina nodded, her expression glum. "You're probably right, but it's such a tragic waste of what could have been an incredible advantage... With a few days to plan and prepare beforehand, I could have made the Kintark invasion a living hell for them. As it is, we'll just have to rely on brute strength to win rather than anything subtle or elaborate."

"I can't believe how badly High Command fucked up this whole situation!" John fumed, before glancing at Alyssa. "We haven't even started discussing what the hell we're going to do about the Outer Rim if the Kirrix invade too! Assuming any of the bastards in High Command actually survive the battle, I'm this close to letting you clean house..."

Alyssa rose from her chair and glided over to join him, before brushing her fingers through his hair. "You're angry and stressed, so let's just call it a night. We can discuss our long-term plans tomorrow if you want, but I'm more inclined to just see how the chips fall after the battle."

John paused for a moment then nodded. "Yeah, you're right." He rose from his chair and offered the blonde his arm. "Let's go up to bed."

They walked up the ramp towards the grav-tubes, the rest of the girls standing and following after them. Alyssa gave him a mischievous grin and said, "As appealing as going to bed with you sounds, I thought you were working your way through the crew? What about your misguided attempt to atone for turning those sexy Young Matriarchs into your hot little knocked-up broodmares...?"

He flushed with embarrassment, much to the girls' amusement. Glancing at Jade and the twins, he saw the Nymph smile and nod towards the two Maliri girls. He followed her gaze over to Irillith and Tashana who grinned in return, their eyes smouldering with excitement.

Alyssa patted him on the arm before they entered into the grav-tube. "I'll leave you in the twins' capable hands, but we'll rejoin you when they've emptied your quad. Have fun!"

Leaving the express gravtube's blue glow, he stepped aside to make room for the girls to pass as they walked through the bedroom. He received lots of fleeting kisses and flirtatious smiles on the way, until he was left alone with Irillith and Tashana. They both studied him with interest, seeing that despite the smiles he'd shared with the girls, he was tense and on edge.

The sisters shared a meaningful glance, then Irillith took his hand and led him to the bathroom. "Let's get freshened up, then we can talk."

Tashana darted ahead and activated the shower, then they quickly stripped off and stood beneath the hot streams of water. "Close your eyes," she whispered, brushing her fingers up his arm and along his shoulder. "It's time to relax."

John did as she asked and he felt the twins step closer, with Tashana hugging him from behind, while Irillith pressed herself against his chest. They stood there embracing him for a couple of minutes, not saying anything, but simply stroking his muscles and planting delicate kisses on his neck and throat. Deprived of sight with his eyes closed, and with the splashing water masking all sounds, his sense of touch heightened to compensate.

John found himself anticipating the path of those four hands as they roamed over his body, their touch gentle and loving rather than aggressively seductive. He felt the tension flowing out of him, forgetting his fury at the Terran Federation catastrophe, as the sisters soothed away his anger.

"Feeling better?" Tashana murmured, nibbling at his ear.

He nodded and slowly opened his eyes. "Much, thank you."

Irillith's enchanting violet orbs watched his face with concern. "I haven't seen you this furious before. Are you sure you're okay?"

John reached behind him and guided Tashana around so that he was facing both sisters. "You're worried that my Progenitor-guide is influencing me..." he replied, his voice troubled.

Irillith immediately nodded, while Tashana shook her head. The twins glanced at each other in surprise for a moment, then focused their full attention on him once more.