All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 053'

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

This chapter is big damn big

It will take some time to read it but it's great that it's posted now

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.

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

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

*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*

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?uid=3059836&page=submissions

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.

"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!

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:-)

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.

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

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

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

. . . Genius, wonderful job!

Great chapter can't wait for more

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

pete

*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.

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.

/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!

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

Epic!

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

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

That's five each Mac, Tablet and Phone

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

Oh my!

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

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

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

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

Ed Parachini.

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

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...

"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 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

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.

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.

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...

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.

Seen it come up and dropped all my chores to finish it! Can't wait to see how you planned out the epilogue of this chapter. Will Edraele now be cured and with PJ gone, of course she might not know that, become a slave to John? I can't think of her joining the ship. But she should have the fear of PJ permanently engraved on her brain so John could take full advantage of that.

Then what of any intel PJ got from the Glowing Queen, will John remember it? We still have the evil Progenitor out there. Maybe he has plans for dominance of the galaxy. Did he hire the super assassin? The broken down freighter sure sounded like a trap.

There is still a war going on. So I think the story line is far from dead. If they get the Maliri laser upgrade will they wait for the inertial dampener upgrade till they return to Olympus station and drop off the Tyrenium and go into drydock there? It's up to you Tefler, your at the helm.

As far as writing the balance between sex and action is just about perfect to me for this longer action filled chapter. Tefler has came a long way since the short 2 or 3 page chapters at the start of this saga.

help me out people. is PJ dead now in a way?

The revelation about the mindshield made me wonder about something. Since it's pretty much imposible to protect someone from his own mind ( and if PJ would have been a split personality he would still be part of Johns mind) , the mindshield would sugest protection from an external mental intrusion. An overmind that is able to influence, control and manifest itself thru a mael'nerak at interstellar distances with tbe mindshield frustrating it's atempts to use John like the mindshield that John managed to place on Irilith frustrated PJs plan to use her as his puppet.

As for possible story arks besides those allready sugested ( the REALLY pissed off assasin and whoever hired him, the AI ships where Faye might find a cool android body for herself , the Kintark conflict where maybe Calara's father or brother are MIA and they rush to the rescue, an interview and maybe more with the cute reporter after the Kintark conflict , finding his mother ) there's one no one mentioned before. His mael'nerak father. The one that I'm pretty sure that was causing trouble for the ashanath , the one that was kicking the trankaran anthill with his Glowing Queen thrall and that might be behind the Kintark conflict.

Also I just saw the short description for this ch.

Since the Glowing Queen was no threath whatsoever and was nothing more than a pawn the queen might be that overmind that I was talking about. Maybe a female mael'nerak?

Loved this chapter. I especially liked seeing the girls experience the downside of the gift. I can see some serious guilt coming from John in the future for this one. Loved the scene with the alien girls, got to see a new side of jade and illirith's drastic change almost gave me whiplash. We'll see how shap her thorns still are later though. Now to wait for the fallout from this.

Holy shit! That was ridiculously EPIC!!!

Please tell me this isn't the end! To me it feels like they're just getting started!

Every time I see a chapter of this story up it consumes me till I finish it. Damn good job and am eagerly awaiting the next chapter so I can lose half my day again. 5 stars

Speechless....just speechless! What an awesome chapter! I am so freakin psyched! THANK YOU for doing this in one chapter! I would have been on pins and needles for over a week if you had split this up and it would have been sheer torture! Thank you for having compassion on us lowly readers.

I am not worthy! I am not worthy! LoL.

WOW, just WOW, you kept us waiting the delivered an absolute knock out blow. Seriously, how do you do it???

I need to lay down and have a little rest.

Cannot wait for 54!

Stacey x

@Whoever said the trankaran story lacks details: it's still open. Evil John "interrogated" the queen about her master... her progenitor master. As in a progenitor other than John, that was taking control over the trankaran goverment. And that leads to.... many posibilities.

As for the crown, it looks as if John insinuates he created it as a self defense, but that doesn't make any sense. With the ashanath he stated he had no knowledge of being psychic in any way, and he never mentioned it at all. How would he make a psychic construct and hold it without knowing about it or even knowing he has the ability to do so? It would make more sense if somebody put it there. Maybe mom before leaving?

It's been mentioned before in comments that progenitor John resembled a parasitic alien. If he is gone now (and we don't really know), it would look like that's somewhat true. But how does it work? Is the progenitor psychology that way, with two mind fighting for survival of the fittest? Is daddy progenitor an even bigger jerk and places "something" in his unborn sons minds so he can control them when they grow? Are progenitors just easily possessed by "evil forces" unless they learn to fight it, and that's the origin of their bad reputation?

At the end, Edraele is passed out and inflated, so it looks like she got at least part of what she wanted (treatment for her tumor). Given the strong reaction that produced over Irillith, maybe she is now an unplanned part of the family. I hope that, after the mess she organized (damaging the crown, betraying family, attempting to enslave the main character), she gets some kind of public punishment, and "since progenitor John is a jerk" I hope it's something evident either to her or to everybody. He may have forced a quick hair growth to shame her (public shame), or fucked her ass since it's so taboo for maliri and make her like it permanently (private shaming) or something entirely different. I just hope the consequences for her aren't just joining a group of people which company she would end up enjoying

This is the first time i have commented on a story and i must say this is the best one i have read yet 5 stars just isn't enough, keep up the good work.

He has no doubts that he cannot defeat Alyssa. I was so happy to see my suggestion of a spirit walk used to help heal the rift with John/Progen John. And Tefler, you did an amazing job in making that your own. Only with Progen John now utterly defeated can John now begin to incorporate his abilities into his now dominant personality...and with Alyssa to watch over him in their new and improved bond, it will happen easily. So while not dead, Progen John is now ripe for assimilation...seeing as how he now has no choice.

YES!!!!!!!

With Progen John likely conquered, is it time to see some breeding?

Thanks a lot

7 / 5

Was absolutly worth the waiting

Harald

incredible writing tefler, adjetives fail me. you tranceded all your previous work in this chapter. while the wait was a bit longer, itwas definately worth it. i dont think anyone has mentioned it, so i'll just say it now- you just entered etaski's realm in storytelling ability. well done sir.

*slow golf clap*

Amazing writing as always, I hope to see John gain his progenitor powers but with his good conscience. I don't know how you are going to top this chapter but I have thought that before and been surprised!

Dam.! Nice long chapter. Someone got the a.s kicking of a lifetime. Good work and please more..............

Ghost.

I think you got this done weeks sooner this way.

It was kind of you to make us wait and then give us all sixteen pages.

Just the idea of two batches of anguished comments from splitting this into three chapters saved weeks of crowd management to get us to this point when getting to this point as soon as possible would have been the topic of so many comments.

Yoda says,

Make a living out of this, hmm, you shall.

I enjoyed this chapter a lot, but I feel like the events in the second half are rushed to be able to close this chapter at 16 pages. It makes no sense to me that an explanation of events is offered through a disembodied John, and that John is seemingly capable of doing something he never even hinted at knowing in the 50 chapters prior. Where did he gain that knowledge? Why didn't he tell the girls in his moment of clarity. Surely it would have been much easier to expel ProgJohn before he ran off to never return again.

Aaaaanyway, I'll just wait to see what more you have prepared for us.

love this chap. extra long 3d to read, and packed with plot and characters. so the progenitor back plot is revealed, what next? :)

With the release of No Man's Sky, wondering if anyone is going to name discoveries in relation to Telfer's Opus?

What a wonderful, massive chapter.

I can only hope that John doesn't lose all of his abilities since they seem to be caused by "leaking" from PJ.

Now I'm looking forward to the cleanup, since there will be a lot of fallout from progenitor John's actions among the Maliri. John may have to restructure Maliri society anyway just to restabilize things. Having both the Maliri and the Ashenath as allies could come in handy when the confrontation with the other progenitor happens.

I have been curious as to why the Maliri have been missed by the other progenitor. My mental map of the systems might be off, but my memory seems to tell me that the Maliri are on the other side of Terran space from where the progenitor is acting. If that is the case, what led to the Progenitors abandoning that section of space? I am looking forward to answers (and a sexy female archaeologist team member.)

I'm also looking forward to the investigation into the corruption in the Terran military and the assassin's attempt to destroy John and his crew.

To the person wondering why John was able to do something he didn't know before, it seems that both John and Alyssa had a lot of instinct driving them near the end. My question would be where Alyssa gets her power from, since she clearly rivals a progenitor in ability. Answers eventually, please!

Thanks for the update.

Okay, so that I've slept a bit and had time to process most of what happened in this chapter, here are a few of my thoughts.

It seems that John built up the crown that kept the darkness at bay on his own by doing his mediation routine that he's pretty much abandoned since meeting Alyssa back in chapter one. He wouldn't have known he had built it because it was a subconscious mental construct that came about as the result of his mediations. The crown manifestation of it that we see was only visible when Alyssa or Edraele were doing their spirit walk, and the mental barrier had to have some sort of visual representation.

It wasn't until after bonding with Alyssa that his Progenitor DNA activated, granting him his powers. However, the crown had the side effect of locking away his abilities as well as the darkness, so even after his Progenitor DNA activated, he didn't know he had those powers. Remember, he didn't start tapping into his Progenitor abilities until after he had witnessed PJ slaughter the Drakkar and then do a bit of weight lifting to experiment. Even then, he had to do mediate first in order to access the super strength.

My thought on that is his mediation taps into a power even PJ didn't have and John isn't consciously aware of, which allowed him to build the crown, and then subsequently work around it to access his super strength and communicate with Alyssa via telepathy. That's why when PJ takes over, the mind shield seemed to slam down blocking Alyssa out, but it was really because John instinctively locks the door when PJ takes over and PJ didn't have the keys.

So now that the crown and the mental barriers that it represented are gone, maybe John will have access to his Progenitor powers.

Now Irillith...she probably didn't stand much of a chance resisting the urge to indoctrinate into the crew given that her own DNA had been weakening her willpower for weeks in advance, but it was really that second load of spunk she took that sealed the deal for her. She probably would have been fine if she had just stopped after the first one, but the second load weakened her resolve so much so that she broke down and took the third one that sealed her fate of her own will. It's going to be interesting to see how she develops and fits into the crew. We can already see that instead of being compassionate and supportive when the girls are down, she's probably going to get the girls to resolve their emotional hangs ups by being the antagonist, like she was with Alyssa after PJ bailed on them.

Edraele I don't see joining the crew. She's only going to get the one load, and John will have zero interest in giving her more. Her DNA hasn't had a chance to break down her will like Irillith, so she's not likely going to want more of John's spunk anyways, and as has been established, it takes three loads to lock a woman into the path to indoctrination. So yeah, she's not joining the crew.

The extreme personality shift from PJ to John is probably going to throw her for a loop, but hopefully her encounter with PJ has scared her enough that she's just going to accept that she's gotten incredibly lucky, won't question it, and will give John the Maliri laser upgrade without fuss. If she does try figuring out what happened with John and/or attempts to take control of him like she had originally planned now that PJ is gone, hopefully he'll have access to his powers and can put her back in her place. He does have about fourteen hours to figure it out. If not, Alyssa is there to do the bitch slapping if needed.

Jade's little revelation that she's regained most of her memory was an interesting surprise that was quickly swept away by more pressing events. How has she been able to hide that from Alyssa so far, and more importantly, how far back does her memory go now? Does her memory go back to the time of first contact with humans, or does it go even farther than that, perhaps even to when the Nymphs were still being used by the Progenitors? Hopefully this will be discussed in more detail later.

When the girl that wants to kill you gives you a blowjob instead.

Why can't that happen with my ex?

I've enjoyed this story for 53 chapters now and feel like I'm robbing you every time. Do you have a patreon account or the like where some of us might be able to contribute to your artistic endeavors?

Or a Paypal or Paypal.me account. It would be great support your writing in small way!

Sixteen pages! Sixteen beautiful pages! It was so good and it just kept going! So many developments in one chapter!

You magnificent bastard, I salute you!

They both have good ideas. But I recommend using paypal.me as a tip jar. The othe site that was suggesed has alot of drawbacks and is time consuming. Let's not take any time away from your writing!! I for one would love a chance tip you for this magnificent story as a way encouraging you to keep writing (self serving I know).

A question that does not need to be answered if it breaks spoiler.

How many matriarch's can a progenitor have? For though PJ just started the process, John could ultimately finish the process and have command of desperate blue idiots part of the malari empire, couldn't he?

Beyond that little question, excellent work and very well done. You have me on tenterhooks for the next chapter.

Shadow

PS- I may just make an account for Literotica after all of your work just so I can have a comment and everybody will know who I am.

You have done it again. I totally loved it and glad yougot it done. Please keep writing. I get started reading and can feel myself being in the different locations and seeing things as described. Thank You

That was beautiful.

I know..The heaps of praise n admiration..please let it fuel the fire in you to write amazing chapters n to go pro Tef. Loved the pace..the suspense..drama..The fights and your interpretation of the evil swirls..this is fantastically awesome..n thanks a ton for this great piece of work. Keep writing more..plzzzz.

Obvious to happen - Jade n Irillith pair up n form a bond like the other lithe beauties. One alien with another..! U nail it Tef.. every God damn time..! Classic..!

Slinkky suggested a botanist and a zoologist in 36.

Caroviolist suggests an archaeologist in these posts.

Any other good ideas for crew on the good ship Invictus?

The other Dave

Went through the chapter again and enjoyed even more this time around because I read into all the little details.

My questions from this chapter are:

When is Illrith going to give John and the girls a run down on the runnings of Maliri society (faint GoT vibes), Maliri history (why such harsh discipline, favouring short hair over long locks)?

Is Rachel going to research into why Illrith's hair changed colour from sable to snow?

Is John going to bed with the whole crew one night and wake up with only Jade and Illrith pleasuring him while the others have paired off and are pleasing each other (Alyssa/Calara, Dana/Rachel)

Are we going to get any more information on John's missing mother?

Can we have Lauren from the arms emporium on Olympus meet the girls and potentially become the designated trader on the crew?

Can we explore the middle sectors of Terran space without epic battles?

Are we ever going to see a softer side to the Kintark?

Are there any female Drakkar?

Are we ever going to see Seb Mortimer and/or Commander Rupert Grant again?

Am I ever going to stop asking these probing questions?

Wish there were more than just five stars to give to this. The best chapter yet, hope to see the next chapter very soon.

-Public Relations Specialist (probably going to be Jehanna from TFN)

-Sergeant at Arms, i.e. the person who manages the ship's armory and security (might be that detective from a few chapters back, forgot her name)

-Supply Officer, the person responsible for ensuring they have enough ammo and other essential materials, as well as possibly handling trade negotiations (Dana already does a fairly decent job of that when it comes to trading)

-Legal Counsel

-Raptor pilot and/or gunner, someone who can fly the Raptor when Jade's busy and/or keep up with her flying so they can fire the guns

-Accountant...I mean seriously, someone's got to manage all of John's finances considering how filthy rich he is. Maybe Rachel can help with this, what with her daddy being the biggest banker in Terran space

I'm sure there are others, but those are the only ones I can think of at the moment.

"Beware the Ides of Faye"

One of the best, if not the best chapter yet. Can't wait for the next chapter.

Leading us down the garden path, then nicely bringing us to a new and mysterious point.

Very very very well done. As a fan of both erotica and Sci-Fi I have to say you have merged them both into one hell of a story line. While reading the story I can see the action taking place in my mind's eye. That is a talent that only a truly gifted writer has and you have it. This story would make one hell of a nice movie.

Tom

"During that brief time, he'd done what he could, working with his radiant ally to strengthen the girls' protection from his diabolical other half."

Am I the only one that finds this statement pregnant with possibilities? The Trankaran Glowing Queen (head anyway) is not dead??? INTERESTING!

For the record I'm the guy who mentioned the split personality and asked for it not to go on too long. That said...

Great chapter. Thank you so much for making this chapter so long and bringing the fight to an amazing climax. I really enjoyed it. Thank you for writing and sharing this we all of us. I look forward to reading more.

Mic drop as Tefler leaves room! Did not see that one coming!

Have read a second time, and one thing puzzled me. With the ship distress call, and PJ dismissing the call as there were 4 other Terran ships closer than he was. Was this another assassination ruse to lure John in, and the egocentric Progenitor John, just saved their (his) tooshes? I can see another torture victim appearing, very soon?

Given the ships ability to travel so fast with their FTL Drive, I don't see the assassin catching up with them anytime soon, unless they take a long vacation, for the ship to be modified as Dana suggests. However, this could be done in Malari Space ports, with the retrofitting of new lasers, so would seem unlikely that the assassin is going to catch many breaks.

Mal

They're based on the Sith, aren't they? At least their mode of organization. whatever differences the Ashanath and the Maliri might have with each other, they and other species would all unite against a large Progenitor army.

I think that reference to the "radiant ally" refers to the glowing woman that had appeared in John's dreams in what seems like forever ago, the one that protected him from the dark entity and helped heal him when he got stabbed by the Drakkar. And if I'm not mistaken, **possible spoiler** that woman was revealed to be Alyssa in this chapter.

Of course, now that you mention it, what's going to happen to the Glowing Queen's head? John stuck it in cyro and seems to have forgotten about it. Is there anything Rachel might be able to learn from it?

A thought just occurred to me. Maybe John doesn't have two personalities - human John and PJ - but three of them, the third being a not-evil Progenitor John. This third personality is probably what built John's crown and worked to strengthen the girl's defense against evil PJ as was mentioned. Human John certainly seemed incapable of doing such things, having demonstrated no psionic ability, so how did he do it? It would have to have been this third personality working on a deep subconscious level, so much so that evil PJ didn't now it was there. This third personality probably has no interest in being the dominate one, like evil PJ did, and would most likely integrate with human John sort of like how we were expecting this split personality arc to be resolved. (I much preferred the resolution that did happen; PJ supposedly being blasted into oblivion by Alyssa is a much more epic way to finish things)

I've been following this story since Chapter 3, and I don't know why it took me so long, but this chapter has cemented this story in my mind as an Epic; One of very few on this site. It's definitely going in my archives.

You've developed your own voice as the story has progressed, and it's clear and beautiful. There's a wonderful balance of plot and action, and the sex doesn't interfere with that. Keep up all the excellent storytelling.

Thanks so much for allowing us on this journey with the Lion and his Lionesses! You've crafted an awesomely wax citing and sexy tale. I look forward to your next installment.