Three Square Meals Ch. 038

"Shields recharging, but we're only at 8%!" Dana warned them.

Alyssa glanced over at John, and they shared a look of concern. "Time to run?" she asked him urgently.

"We're being hailed!" Calara noted, and after a nod from John, accepted the incoming call.

The viewscreen crackled and a bespectacled older man wearing full dress uniform, including his peaked Terran Federation hat appeared as a hologram in the centre of the bridge.

"This is Vice Admiral Von Brandt on the Battleship Loki. It looks like we were too slow to assist you against that pirate ship, but my congratulations to you for defeating them," the man said in a dispassionate voice.

"This is Commodore Blake on the assault cruiser Invictus, and that was no pirate ship! It had Terran Federation markings for one thing!" John protested.

"Yes, we'd been warned that a pirate band had stolen some Terran Federation vessels, and were using them to ambush shipping," Von Brandt said, telling John an obvious lie. "Thanks for helping with the cleanup, but we've got it from here. It's probably best if you go about your business."

*What do we do?* Alyssa asked him, sounding worried.

*We're in no position to fight them, and we don't have any real justification to attack a Terran Federation ship in any case. We're going to have to do what he says,* John thought to her, and she could sense his frustration.

"Happy to assist, Vice Admiral," John said, managing to smile without it turning into a grimace.

"Farewell Commodore Blake," the older man replied cordially, then ended the call. The Battleship Loki still bore down on their present position, flying on a direct heading towards the debris of the annihilated cruiser.

John turned towards the blonde sitting at the station beside him. "You better take us out of here, XO," he told her firmly.

Alyssa nodded, and turned the Invictus away from the approaching battleship, moving well clear of any local gravity wells so that they could jump into hyper-warp. Despite having decisively won the encounter with the strange grey cruiser, the atmosphere was bleak on the bridge of the Invictus.

"I better report this encounter to Charles," John said gloomily. "I can't believe the Terran Federation could be so stupid as to experiment with AI again. The Ganymede incident was too recent to have been forgotten about."

"Maybe they're getting desperate?" Calara suggested, looking perturbed. "I can't imagine they can continue to take sustained losses against the Kintark. At least not on the scale that flotilla of battle damaged ships from the Dragon March seemed to suggest."

"Well we had a successful fire test of the upgraded heatsinks at least," Jade said positively, trying to lift the downbeat mood.

John laughed, and nodded at her affectionately. "Yeah good point. We seemed to be doing a hell of a lot more damage with the beams and the laser cannons now. How much more powerful are they?"

Dana grinned at him eagerly. "The laser weapons are pumping out fifty percent more damage than before!" she exclaimed with a sparkle in her sky blue eyes.

"We cut through their shields like a hot knife through butter," Calara said with a grin, as she recalled the punishing damage their weapons were now putting out.

"Can we upgrade the Raptor soon, too?" Jade asked with an eager look of anticipation.

"Sure, we can do that at Oceanus, no problem," Dana announced accommodatingly.

"That Interdiction Response System you set up saved our ass, Dana," John said to the redhead gratefully. "Just getting the shields up in time let us turn that whole ambush around."

"Powering up and deploying the weapons saved valuable seconds too. You made a big difference... thank you," Calara said, nodding her appreciation.

"Ah, thanks guys!" Dana said, beaming at them happily.

John watched Alyssa power up the Tachyon drive, and launch the ship smoothly into hyper-warp. He got up out of his chair, and addressed them, "I'll submit an AAR to Charles, and let him know what we encountered. We should be arriving at Oceanus in a couple of hours, so you ladies might want to start getting ready."

The girls got up and started to head for the grav-tube, with John and Alyssa walking down the illuminated steps to the Command Podium at the same time. Just as they were about to part ways, she turned to him, to let him know about the earlier call that he had missed.

"We were contacted by a Peter Koeman, while you were sleeping earlier," she informed him matter of factly.

"The name doesn't ring a bell," John said as he tried to recall the unfamiliar name.

"It probably wouldn't. We saved his sister from the Kirrix, and he wanted to give you a gift in person. Meeting with him would mean a little detour, and I didn't think you'd want to be late to Oceanus, so I told him you'd get in touch later," she said, explaining her reasoning.

"You made the right call," John told her approvingly. "We can always meet up with Mr Koeman after our vacation. You girls deserve a great holiday, so I wouldn't want to cut short our time there. Besides, I've arranged some training with a rather elusive swordmaster, and I don't want to risk upsetting him by turning up late to our first session."

"So I did well?" she asked him tentatively.

"Maybe I should leave you in charge more often. You shouldn't doubt yourself, you're extremely capable," he told her sincerely, as he pulled her into his arms.

The blonde shivered with excitement as she thrilled to his words, his praise making her heart lift with joy. When John leaned in for a kiss, she returned it with passion, and moaned into his mouth as his hands gripped her taut muscular ass and squeezed her cheeks firmly.

*I wish you could just bend me over one of the consoles, and skewer my ass right now,* she told him eagerly, her lusty thoughts surging through his mind as he manhandled her.

*There's a lot of tight little holes that are going to have to remain neglected for the next two weeks,* he thought to her with a hint of regret, as they kissed fiercely.

Alyssa stopped kissing him for a moment and let out a lovely melodic laugh. "I'm sure you'll survive," she smirked at him affectionately.

John chuckled, and released her from his arms. He gave her a parting smack on her perfectly rounded rump as she walked away to join the others, her firm flesh felt wonderful to his touch, and the look she shot him over her shoulder was positively indecent.

"I'll be down in a little while girls, as soon as I've finished speaking to Charles. Alyssa's feeling horny though, so perhaps you can keep her occupied until I join you?" he asked them playfully.

The girls giggled and Alyssa's musical laughter echoed around the bridge as they descended down in the red glow of the grav-tube.

John smiled happily as he watched the young women depart, and then hit the button to open the door to his Ready Room. The door swished open a moment later, and he strode over to his desk so that he could fill out his AAR. After hitting a button on the console built into the desk, he began to dictate the report to the computer, detailing just what had happened in their encounter with the mysterious grey ship. His words appeared in sharp clear text on the viewscreen, and he looked over the report when he was done, making a few minor corrections, before sending it off to Vice Admiral Charles Harris.

He paused for a long moment, wondering how he was going to broach the possibility that there might be some secret AI research going on, or even more alarming, the fact that it might be secret at all. His thoughts were interrupted by the chime on the comm interface that alerted him to an incoming call, and he swiped over the button that would open the channel to Charles.

"You were attacked by an AI ship?" Charles said in alarm, skipping the pleasantries.

"That's what it looked like," John replied with a curt nod. "It seemed relentlessly determined to kill us, and when we crippled it, the ship appeared to self-destruct. We found no evidence of biological matter aboard when we scanned the wreckage."

Charles slumped back in his chair, his worry lines looking even more pronounced. "Vice Admiral Von Brandt is a ranking officer in the Terran Federation R&D division. I've heard of him, but we've never met," he explained, looking like he was trying to recall what he knew about the man.

"They can't be researching AI again, that would be insane!" John exclaimed.

Charles shrugged at him helplessly, then said, "R&D is notoriously secretive, and I've no idea what they're working on at the moment. I'll keep you in the loop if I find out anything."

"OK, thanks Charles," John said gratefully. "We'll be mostly incommunicado for a couple of weeks, but you can always get through on an emergency secure channel if you really need to."

Charles nodded and saluted grimly before he ended the call.

John rose, and shook his head in disbelief. Everything seemed to be going crazy in the galaxy at the moment. Kirrix pushing into Terran territory again for the first time in decades, large scale piracy, escalating tensions with the Kintark, the Drakkar raids on the Ashanath, and the Trankarans seemingly going mad. Now, to top it all off, Terran R&D appeared to be throwing caution to the wind and starting up AI research again, with entirely predictable results.

He stretched his arms above his head, and rotated his neck to release some of the tension. "It's not just the girls who need a break, I could do with a rest myself," he thought to himself, and made his way out of his Ready Room to rejoin the girls in his quarters.

When he strode into his room, he expected the girls to be engaged in some debauched orgy with Alyssa writhing at their centre, so he was very surprised when they were all sitting waiting patiently for him on the bed. They were nude of course, which provided a spectacular view, but the way they were looking at him didn't look at all flirtatious, and the mood was pensive.

"I overheard your thoughts, and we've been having a chat," Alyssa said ominously.

"Really, that sounds foreboding. What's up?" John asked her curiously.

"Everything 'IS' going crazy right now! Galaxy wide chaos suddenly ensues, just as a Progenitor makes a mysterious reappearance? That can't be coincidence," she stated firmly.

"So you think whoever was flying the mysterious black ship might be stirring up trouble elsewhere too, not just with the Drakkar against the Ashanath?" He asked her, rubbing his chin as he thought it over.

"It's definitely worth considering," she confirmed with a nod.

"What could they hope to achieve by escalating conflicts everywhere?" he pondered.

"Divide and conquer?" Calara said, staring up at him with her dark brown eyes. "If the Progenitors destabilise all the galactic empires, they can pick them off piecemeal. At least, that's what I'd do," she added with a shrug.

"Fortunately you're on my team though," John grinned, as he walked over to sit on the bed beside her, and he stroked her toned olive-skinned back affectionately.

"You seem to be taking this revelation in your stride," Jade observed with a smile.

"Well we've seen what looked like a Progenitor ship, and we know they were stirring up trouble with the Drakkar. It's surprising to think they might be involved with all the rest too, but after what the Ashanath showed us on those stone pictographs, it doesn't come as too big a shock," he said calmly.

The girls looked relieved at his relaxed demeanour, and smiles began to light up their faces once more.

"All this will still be waiting for us in a couple of weeks time, but we don't have enough information to do anything about it at the moment. You're all amazingly gifted young women, but as incredible as you all are, you need a rest to recover from the recent strain we've been under. I want you all to relax, forget about galactic conflict for a while, and just enjoy yourselves for a couple of weeks," he said sympathetically. "That's an order," he then added firmly, but with a hint of a smile.

The girls all looked at him and nodded as they heeded his command, smiling back at him appreciatively.

"Good girls," he told them patronisingly with a smile, and they began to laugh.

He stood and started to strip off his clothes, before joining them on the bed, and the mood in the room changed to one of eager anticipation.

"Now, I notice your waist is looking slim and sleek again," he said, turning to look at Rachel. "You look gorgeous, but how do we like the new girl to look around here?" he asked her teasingly.

"Like she's stuffed full of your cum?" Rachel answered him with a happy smile.

"Clever girl," he told her playfully, and she grinned with excitement as she crawled across the bed to work on filling her tummy.

"As for the rest of you, I believe I told you girls that Alyssa needed some attention?" he asked them quizzically, as he softly stroked Rachel's hair while she sank his cock into her snug throat.

Alyssa let out a startled gasp as the other girls pounced on her, and after a few moments of giggling where they all arranged themselves around her, the sounds of licking and lapping filled the room.

"Oh my God..." Alyssa groaned as her eyes rolled back in her head.

***

A couple of hours later, the girls were all packed up, and the entire crew had assembled on the bridge to watch Alyssa bring the Invictus in to the planet Oceanus. They had been met by the picket ships that guarded the planet, and had been amazed to see a battleship leading a flotilla of destroyers and corvettes. After John identified himself to the Captain of the battleship, the man waved them through, after wishing them a pleasant vacation.

"With the amount they charge, I can see how they can easily afford a defensive fleet of that size," John had observed.

"The super wealthy take no chances with security," Rachel agreed, but there was an odd catch to her voice.

Dana noticed it immediately, having got to know the brunette very well over the last few days, and she looked at her new friend curiously. Rachel didn't elaborate, so the redhead decided to ask her about it some other time.

Alyssa brought their ship closer to the planet Oceanus, and the beautiful blue orb filled the viewscreen as they approached. They glanced at each other excitedly as they looked at the place that would be their home for the next couple of weeks.

An incoming call lit up the comm interface, and Alyssa pressed a button to open the communication channel. John recognised the strikingly beautiful blonde girl he had spoken to the other day, as her image appeared as a hologram in the centre of the bridge.

"Welcome to Oceanus, Mr Blake!" she said in her lovely clear spoken voice.

"Thank you Felicity. Is everything prepared?" he asked her politely.

"Of course, Sir. You and your guests may land at your resort whenever you are ready," she replied with a sparkling smile.

*Oh my, she's gorgeous!* Alyssa said to him, and he could sense her growing arousal.

*She is, but the role of devastatingly beautiful blonde has already been filled aboard this ship,* he told her playfully.

Alyssa glanced at him and grinned, before focusing her attention on the Oceanus Representative once more.

"We're ready now," John confirmed with a nod. "By the way, did you receive the packages I ordered? I asked for them to be delivered to Oceanus," he asked Felicity curiously.

"Yes Mr Blake, I took the liberty of arranging for the training equipment to be prepared in readiness for you. I do hope that was not overstepping my bounds?" she asked him in her precise and elegant manner of speech.

"Excellent work, thank you, Felicity!" John exclaimed, genuinely pleased. It came as quite a relief that he didn't have to set up the equipment himself, or in all likelihood, have to ask Dana to do it.

"It was my pleasure, Sir. I hope you have a wonderful stay here with us, and please get in touch should you require anything at all," Felicity told them, beaming a wide smile at both John and the girls assembled with him on the bridge.

"We will, thanks again," John replied, and ended the call.

"Her accent was amazing," Dana sighed, as soon as the blonde girl had disappeared. "I sound like some poorly educated street urchin in comparison!"

"That simply isn't so." Rachel replied, in the same well spoken accent, sounding remarkably like the sublime voice that they had just been entranced by. "You have a wonderful sounding voice, your speech could just use a little refinement."

John and the girls stared at her in amazement, and Rachel flushed self consciously.

"You sound so classy!" Dana gasped in awe. "How did you learn to talk like that?"

"It's the way I was trained to speak, growing up in high society. I made a conscious effort to drop the accent when I went my own way," Rachel admitted, talking in what was apparently her natural accent. "Speaking this way made it painfully obvious that I hadn't received a normal upbringing, and I didn't want to draw undue attention to myself."

"You've got to teach me!" Dana pleaded, her eyes sparkling with excitement. This was echoed by a chorus of excited pleas by the other girls too.

John laughed with amusement. "It looks like you might be running a finishing school in your spare time," he said to Rachel with a smile.

"Would you prefer me to speak this way, too?" Rachel asked him anxiously, looking up to where he sat in the Commander's chair.

He got up and walked down the steps of the command podium, and she rose to join him. He opened his arms to embrace her, and she gladly accepted, her heavily swollen belly brushing against him after her late evening supper.

"I'm not going to dictate what accent you use," he said, smiling down at her gently as he held her in his arms. "You've had a troubled past, and I know there's some things you're not telling me about, but whether you decide to share them with us eventually is entirely up to you."

Rachel looked up at him with surprise, and he leaned down to kiss her comfortingly on the cheek.

"Joining us as you have, is a fresh start for you. You can decide to keep hold of things from your past, like Calara with her lovely family, or start over, like Alyssa, Dana and Jade have. Be the Rachel that you want to be; whether that's a completely new person, or keeping elements of your old life," he said, empowering her with the decision.

"It feels more honest to not use an affected accent. As long as you're okay with me speaking this way?" she asked him tentatively.

"He's being nice, and giving you a choice, but he's loving your 'new' accent," Alyssa interjected with a grin.

"Is that so? You like the idea of being with a well bred young lady?" Rachel said with a flirtatious smile.

"If you keep that up, you'll be well bred in no time," John said wryly, and the girls giggled excitedly.

"That sounds wonderful," she whispered softly, staring up at him with big round eyes.

He smiled and kissed her tenderly, then said, "We'll have plenty of time for practice down on the planet."

They looked up, and saw that Alyssa was bringing them ever closer to Oceanus, the big blue orb filling the planetary map as the holographic images switched over from the system map. A glowing green guide path led them down, and under the blonde's highly skilled hands they rapidly approached the surface. Their island was currently shrouded in darkness, it being eleven at night local time, so all they could see at the moment was the gentle glow of the lighting in the docking bay as she brought them in to land.

"And here we are!" Alyssa exclaimed exuberantly, as she powered down the engines.

She flashed an excited grin at John, and then they all rose, and headed down in the grav-tube to collect their suitcases for the vacation. It didn't take too long for them to assemble in the corridor in Deck Two, and they headed down in the grav-tube, ready to leave the Invictus.