Three Square Meals Ch. 053

He nodded obligingly, and they both lay down with him spooning behind her. She shivered with delight when she felt his arms surround her, and them moaned with pleasure, as he reached down and began to tenderly caress her cum-loaded belly. They lay like that for a while, both of them enjoying the closeness and intimacy.

Irillith took a deep breath, then asked him in a hushed voice, "I've listened to all your conversations on the ship, and I know about the personality changes that being with you entails. Am I still going to be me if I stay with you?"

John continued stroking her tummy as he thought about the best way to answer her question. She eventually grew impatient and turned to lie on her back, staring up at him, watching his face as she waited for him to respond.

"You saw the scars on some of the other girls when they joined me, didn't you?" he finally asked her in a gentle voice.

She nodded, recalling the whip marks on Calara's back, and the burn scars on Dana's face.

"Well you've got physical scars, like those neural whip lashes on your back, but you've got mental scars too," he told her. "The physical scars are probably already gone, but healing your mind of all the torments you've had to endure for decades is going to take a while. If I can heal those, you'll still be you, but the kind of person you would have been if you hadn't been tortured and abused growing up."

She stared into his eyes, and nodded soberly. He stared back at her beautiful angular violet eyes, and when she saw his quizzical look, she smiled and said, "That was me giving you permission."

He placed his strong heavy hand on her swollen belly, and smiled as he said, "I'll get started straight away."

Irillith let out a contented little sigh, and smiled up at him as he caressed her. She suddenly looked thoughtful and asked, "Will I end up getting enhanced the way the rest of the girls have been? Stronger, faster, smarter, that kind of thing?"

Chuckling John nodded and said, "I can't see why you wouldn't get the 'deluxe package' just like the others." Then it was his turn to look thoughtful, and he said, "Alyssa mentioned the Eldritch bloodline earlier. Do you have psychic abilities?"

Shaking her head, Irillith said, "No, at least not that I'm aware of. My mother never attempted to train me how to use them, so perhaps they skipped a generation?"

John shrugged, and said, "It was just a thought, don't worry about it."

She watched him look up from her eyes to her white hair, and a slight frown shadowed his face.

"What's the matter?" she asked him, sounding worried.

He chuckled and said, "It's nothing, don't worry about it."

She smiled and said, "Okay, but I still want to know anyway."

He hesitated for a moment until she frowned, and he laughed, saying, "OK, OK! I was just sad that you'd cut off your hair, it looked beautiful."

Irillith flushed and said, "Long hair on female Maliri means they're a wanton slut. A woman wearing her hair long is absolutely unheard of."

John chuckled and said, "You can style your hair how you like. Don't worry, I'm not going to force you to have a scandalous hairstyle!"

She smiled at him gratefully, and snuggled into him. After a few minutes resting there quietly, she asked, "I know I'm not really in a position to ask you for anything, but I'd like to confirm something, if that's alright?"

Looking at her curiously, John replied, "Go ahead and ask me. What do you want?"

After taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she said, "I'd like to speak to my mother. I want to confirm that my suspicions about her motives are correct."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded, saying, "That sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I'd want to know the truth if I was in your position."

She smiled gratefully, and they got up from bed. Taking her hand, he led her into the bathroom, and over to the shower. She glanced around curiously, and said, "I've never actually seen in here before." Then blushed as she added, "There aren't any cameras set up in here, or your walk-in wardrobe."

John laughed as he walked into the shower cubicle, and turned on the warm water. She followed him in and sighed as the warm water splashed over her. "We seem to spend quite a bit of time in here," he admitted with a grin.

When he took a squirt of gel, and began to massage the smooth skin on her light blue shoulders, she groaned with pleasure, and said, "I can see why!"

He ran his fingers down over the toned muscles in her back, enjoying the feel of her body under his fingertips, and hearing her moan her appreciation. The latticework of neural whip scars had completely healed, leaving acres of unblemished azure skin to explore. He reached her lower back, and massaged her dimples of Venus which elicited more groans, until he finally reached her bottom. When he began to knead her gloriously firm cheeks, she gasped and froze.

"What's the matter?" he asked her, lifting his hands away, startled at her reaction.

She turned slightly, gazing up at him and said in a faltering voice, "I know you like to take your women... back there." She went quiet for a moment before adding, "That's completely taboo amongst the Maliri, the very idea is disgusting."

John laughed and said reassuringly, "Relax. I'm not going to force you to take it in the ass. Besides, all the other girls love it, and Dana and Calara can't get enough. I'm spoilt for choice!"

He could see the tension melt out of her immediately, and she looked relieved as she gave him a grateful smile.

***

Edraele Valaden read through the report from her favourite assassin, and her lips spread into a heartless smile of satisfaction. Luna had managed to infiltrate House Ghilwen, then masquerading as a guard, had ambushed Aradrea Ghilwen's eldest daughter, murdering her in her own bed. In a surprising twist, Luna had been discovered while covering her tracks by the third Ghilwen daughter. In a spectacular display of creative ingenuity, Luna killed her as well, then staged the two slain Ghilwen women, making it appear as though they had fought to the death over some bitter rivalry.

Sending out a message to her shadow operatives, Edraele recalled them to Valaden so that she could brief them on their next target. Opening up the comm interface, her elegant blue fingers danced over the controls on her console as she made a call. After a few moments, the holographic image of Aradrea Ghilwen's wizened face appeared above Edraele's desk.

The venerable Maliri matriarch looked haggard, and her bloodshot eyes narrowed as she stared at Edraele, adding even more wrinkles to her tired face. "What do you want, Edraele?" she snapped in a temper.

Edraele smiled at her, and said in mock sympathy, "I just heard about your recent bereavement. To lose two daughters like that. How tragic."

Aradrea Ghilwen's eyes widened in shock, and she blurted out, "It was you! You vicious bitch! When I'm throu-."

Edraele laughed contemptuously, cutting her off as she snarled, "You'll do what? You pathetic old crone! You must have realised there would be consequences for your attempted attack on my daughter. Or has dementia started to take its toll already?"

Aradrea Ghilwen's face was incandescent with rage, and she swore in fury while Edraele grinned at her in delight. She eventually tired of Matriarch Ghilwen's apoplectic anger, and blew her a kiss as she cut her off abruptly. She turned back to the reports from her planetary governors, and continued reading through their status updates on the sixteen planets under her control. The earlier mention of her daughter made Edraele frown in irritation, as Irillith hadn't made contact for nearly two weeks, and she was growing impatient.

A pulsing light on the comm interface drew her out of her reverie, and when she saw that the call was from John Blake, originating in Trankaran territory, she sat bolt upright, her face eager. Edraele accepted the call, and the holographic viewscreen flickered briefly before coalescing into the face of the Mael'nerak.

She put on a sincere smile, and said, "Commodore Blake! How wonderful to see you. You are well, I hope?"

He inclined his head, and replied, "I'm fine, thanks Edraele."

"Marvellous," she said jovially. "All is going well on your mission with the Trankarans I trust?"

John nodded, then said, "We've retrieved the Trankaran engine schematics, but we ran into some trouble, and unfortunately Irillith was hurt in a battle."

Edraele's eyes narrowed and she asked, "Is she alright?"

After a moment's pause, John replied, "Yes, she's in fine health now. Would you like to speak to her?"

Leaning forward eagerly, Edraele said, "Yes! Put her on the line."

John nodded to his side, and the image on the screen flickered, changing focus to another part of the Bridge. Edraele couldn't help but gasp in shock when the screen refocused on her daughter, and she saw Irillith's snowy white hair. She looked just like the Maliri in the millennia-old images that Tashana had recovered!

"Hello Mother," Irillith said quietly.

Edraele smiled at her warmly, but there was a fierce hunger in her purple eyes as she inquired, "John said you were injured. What happened?"

Irillith studied her mother intently as she explained, "I was severely injured in a fight with the Trankarans, but the Mael'nerak has healed me. I'm fully recovered now."

"I'm so relieved to hear it," Edraele said in earnest. She paused for a moment, then looking concerned, she added, "If you could arrange for a full body scan, I will ask the best physicians at my disposal to review your results. That way, we can make sure you're completely healed."

Irillith looked cagey as she said, "I was hit in the lower right side of my torso. Shall I send you a localised scan for them to review?"

"No, send me a full scan," Edraele snapped insistently. Her expression immediately mellowed as she added, "That way I can make sure that there were no other complications from the Mael'nerak's healing process. I want to make sure you're not at any risk."

Irillith looked despondent, but she nodded obediently, saying softly, "I've had a scan taken already. I'll have the data sent to you now, Mother."

Edraele beamed a bright smile at her daughter and said, "Hurry home, Irillith! I can't wait for you to return."

Irillith nodded, her face saddened, and she ended the call. Edraele was so excited at this wonderful development that she didn't even notice the heartbroken expression on her daughter's face. She drummed her fingers on the desk impatiently, and a few minutes later the comm interface chimed as the file arrived. Holding her breath, she opened up the full body scan image, and ignoring everything else, she zoomed in on the detailed representation of her daughter's brain. Studying the image with frantic haste, she searched for any sign of the tumour that she knew would be there. But it was gone, completely healed by the powers of the Mael'nerak.

"Yes!!" Edraele crowed in triumph.

She laughed with delight, shaking her head at her incredible good fortune. Tashana had come to her decades before, with tall tales of the Mael'nerak's abilities, and Edraele had dismissed her fanciful ravings until she mentioned phenomenal healing powers. Her curiosity piqued, she had listened attentively as Tashana had explained her findings, and Edraele had eventually been persuaded that the Mael'nerak fairytale actually had a basis in fact. When Tashana had been banished, Edraele had given up on the idea of Mael'nerak healing, considering it an extremely improbable pipedream, focusing instead on more practical solutions to cure the ticking time bomb in her head.

Like her mother before her, and presumably the rest of the females in her family line, Edraele had been blighted by agonising migraines. They had started around her fiftieth birthday as a mild headache, and progressively got worse and more frequent as she had got older. Despite sinking millions of credits into researching a way to heal herself, her physicians had proved utterly useless, warning her that the tumour was too large to remove. She had begun to despair of finding a way to save herself, and then Irillith had randomly discovered someone she claimed was the Mael'nerak.

Initially scoffing at the possibility that the long dead species had made a reappearance, the mounting evidence that Irillith had assembled, eventually convinced her otherwise. Edraele had put her plans into effect, and now everything was working out perfectly. She just had to position Luna and the rest of her most capable women in her palace, and wait for John to return.

***

Back on the Invictus, the crew on the Bridge turned to look at Irillith with sympathy. The conversation with Edraele seemed to prove her daughter's suspicions without a doubt, and the Maliri girl looked downcast as she confirmed the extent of her mother's betrayal. She rose from her chair, and walked over to the grav-tube without a word, then stepped into the red glow and descended from sight.

"I'll go after her," Jade volunteered, springing to her feet, and gliding up the ramp towards the grav-tube.

Alyssa watched her leave, then turned back to look at John, and shook her head sadly. "That poor girl," she said with heartfelt sympathy. "I can't even imagine what she's going through. Maybe being an orphan wasn't that bad after all."

John nodded solemnly and said, "Edraele must be incredibly desperate to plan something like this, but using her own daughter as a test subject is monstrous. The Maliri have legends about how evil the Mael'nerak was. To just throw Irillith to the wolves like that..."

"Yeah, I know," Alyssa said in a grim tone. Her face suddenly brightened as she said, "Lucky for Irillith, you're one of the good guys!"

He smiled at her fondly, then glanced up at the Sector Map, hovering above the bridge. "Have you plotted the rest of the flight path yet?" he asked, as he watched the Invictus racing through Trankaran Space.

She shook her head, and replied, "I've only plotted a route to take us back to Terran Space. You just need to let me know where to go from there."

John turned to look at her with a warm smile. He started to speak, but his face abruptly contorted in a bizarre expression, and as he clutched at his head, his mind shield came crashing down. Alyssa stared at him in wide-eyed panic, and when he pulled his hands away from his face, he stared at her coldly.

Rising from his chair, his voice rang with authority as he ordered, "Plot the quickest, most direct course for Maliri Space. It's time to complete this deal."

He walked down the steps of the Command Podium, and strode into the Ready Room without so much as a glance at the girls. Staring after him in shock, they watched him leave in stunned silence.

"What the fuck just happened?!" Dana asked in alarm.

Alyssa shook her head in panic, as she replied, "I've got no idea. He just lost control right out of the blue!" Her hands moved over her console, and she began to plot the course from their present location back to Valaden.

Calara looked up at the Sector Map in alarm as she spotted their projected flightpath, and said, "Wait! I thought we were going to avoid going anywhere near Maliri territory!"

Shaking her head in despair, Alyssa gasped, "I can't help it! He ordered me to take us there, and I can't stop myself from obeying him!"

***

Irillith lay on her bed in her quarters on Deck Four, staring up at the ceiling. Jade had followed after her when she left the Bridge, and had offered kind words and a comforting hug when she needed it the most. Sensing that Irillith needed some time alone to process her feelings, Jade had given her a tender kiss on the cheek, and left her in peace.

She had been lying there for a few hours after Jade departed, mulling over recent events. Irillith now realised in her heart, that she hadn't needed to make the call to Edraele to confirm what she already knew was the truth. It had still hurt to have it settled without a doubt, and she felt a rising swell of anger at her mother for her callous betrayal. Her anger eventually ebbed away, as her mind turned to John and his acceptance of her into his crew. She was astounded that they had all been so welcoming, but after her conversation with John earlier, she had started to understand why.

*Hello, Irillith,* Alyssa's voice said as it echoed through her mind. The psychic blonde girl sounded friendly, but the tone sounded off somehow. *John asked for you to join him in his Ready Room."

Irillith wanted to reply back, but suddenly remembered that she wouldn't be able to until she bonded with Alyssa. She frowned slightly at the thought, but if she was going to make a life for herself here, she knew she'd have to make some awkward adjustments. Rising smoothly from her bed, she walked into the bathroom to check how she looked in the long figure-hugging grey dress she was wearing.

She blinked in shock when she saw her reflection, her white hair having grown back down to shoulder height in just a few hours. Her hands urgently reached for the scissors she had left on the bathroom unit, and quickly brought them up to cut her shamefully long locks. Her hand wavered before she took the first cut, and she remembered the slightly disappointed frown on John's face when he'd seen that she had cut off her long hair earlier.

Taking a deep breath, she put down the scissors then really studied her reflection for a moment. Every other woman on this ship had thick manes of long hair, and despite what it signified, Irillith knew it looked beautiful on them. She stood up tall, and smiled at herself brazenly, and strolled out of the bathroom, embracing her new look.

***

"Enter," Progenitor-John said, as he heard a polite knock at the door.

The Maliri slave girl entered obediently, and he smiled with satisfaction when he saw that she was now under his thrall. She gave him a wide smile as she walked over to join him at his desk.

Irillith smoothed her hands over her slim stomach, and smiled at him coyly as she said, "It looks like it might be time to 'top me up', I believe you say?"

He smiled at her, and turned his chair, making room so that she could kneel in front of him. She sank down to her knees submissively, unbuckled his belt and pulled down his trousers so that she could service his growing cock. He watched her slowly envelop the head between her soft lips, and she closed her angular violet eyes as she concentrated on her task. With a triumphant grin on his face, he reached out with his mind to hers, getting ready to plunder her secrets and assert his absolute control over her.

With shock, he found himself bouncing harmlessly off her mind. Narrowing his eyes in anger, he tried again, but this attempt was just as fruitless as the first. Really scrutinising her for a moment, he saw an intricate mental latticework draped over her mind, protecting her from hostile intrusion. That fucking bastard! This was John's doing, he was sure of it! How the hell had that bumbling incompetent managed something so complex as this?!

Progenitor-John gripped the armrests of his chair in barely controlled fury, causing them to splinter under his incredible strength. Irillith's eyes flickered open at the noise, and the trusting look she gave him as she bobbed in his lap made him lose control. With a mental cry of frustration he slipped back, leaving John dominant once more.

Smiling at Irillith he said, "Thank you for letting your hair grow again. You look absolutely stunning."

He reached out and gently brushed his fingers through the silky soft white-blonde hair, stroking her head as he did so. She stared up at him, and carefully took his cock from her mouth, holding it in her right hand as it throbbed in her grasp, angry at the interruption.