Three Square Meals Ch. 070

"How did you know?!" she asked, her eyes filling with tears.

Alyssa looked visibly drained, but she smiled at Sakura as she replied, "You showed me the memories when I first visited your mind."

Sakura put her arms around the weary blonde, and said, "Thank you so much! I haven't got any pictures of them."

John walked over to join them, and as he stroked Sakura's back, she handed him the swords so she could hug Alyssa tighter. He tilted up the ninjato to look at the images, and he immediately recognised her parents from the police video Calara had showed them. They looked very different in the images Alyssa had forged though; no longer worried and scared, they looked happy, and their eyes shone with parental pride.

When he looked at the girls again, Sakura was watching him, and she said in a quiet voice, "My mother and father, but just as they looked the last time I saw them."

John let go of the swords and levitated them over to Alyssa, then opened his arms for Sakura, hugging her protectively. She trembled against his chest, leaning into him for comfort and support as she dealt with her feelings of grief.

*That was a lovely gesture,* John thought to Alyssa, smiling at the tired blonde girl.

*Next time, remind me to just do a separate sculpture for her. Then I won't have to shape the metal eight times to make it!* she replied, returning his smile and stifling a yawn in her exhausted state. There was more she wanted to tell him about their new swords, but with Sakura upset, then wasn't the time.

***

All three of them were worn out that evening, so the girls cooked dinner and looked after them, having been kept up-to-date with events by Alyssa. Calara had been planning on presenting her findings on Jessica Blake to John that evening, but she could tell it wasn't a good time. Knowing that he was tired after the startling events that afternoon, she decided to postpone showing him her research until the following evening instead. Unfortunately, that meant she had an anxious night ahead of her, as she tried to stop herself worrying about presenting her findings.

When John announced that he was going to have an early night, Alyssa put her arm around Calara and they followed after him and Sakura, as they headed from the Ready Room down to their bedroom. While the others weren't feeling quite so tired, Irillith was getting increasingly nervous about her imminent reunion with her twin. After a moment's indecision she decided to follow after John and the others, and hugged her friends as they wished her a good night's sleep.

That just left Dana, Jade, Rachel, and Faye, who sat on the sofas after the others had gone. They exchanged glances for a moment, suddenly unsure what to do for the rest of the evening.

"I've got an idea..." Dana suggested tentatively, looking at Rachel with a hopeful expression.

Rachel knew her lover all too well, and she laughed, rolling her eyes as she said, "We've got a free evening together, and you want to spend it tinkering with your toys?!"

The redhead bobbed her head excitedly, and she pleaded, "Come on, babes! With all of us working on it, we could get shitloads done! I've been putting it off while I've had all this other stuff to do, and I know John doesn't really approve, but it'll be fucking badass when it's finished!"

"You'll have lots of time in Maliri Space, so what's the rush?" Rachel asked, with a puzzled frown.

Dana let out a forlorn sigh, and replied, "I'm worried I won't have any free time to look at it when we get to Genthalas."

With a look of confusion on her beautiful face, Rachel asked, "I thought the Maliri engineers will be doing all the grunt work on the refit?"

Shaking her head, Dana replied, "I've come up with a new plan to make use of the upgraded Heavy Cannons. I'll be working my ass off overhauling the Invictus and making sure the Maliri don't fuck anything up."

"I'd love to help you on your secret project!" Faye exclaimed, bubbling with happiness. "I'll create some programs for the maintenance bots, so they can help with the heavy lifting!"

Jade reached over to pat Dana's leg and said, "I've finished assembling all the new armour and weapons, so I'll be able to help you this evening, and for the rest of our trip to Valaden."

"That's the spirit!" Dana cheered. She grinned at the Nymph and the purple construct, and added, "Thanks girls, you're awesome!"

Rachel laughed as she rose to her feet, and offering a hand to her lover, she said with an indulgent smile, "Come on then, I'll help too. Is there anything useful I can actually do though? I'm hardly a mechanical engineer..."

Dana leapt to her feet, and hugged the brunette exuberantly as she said, "Thanks babes, you're the best!" As they started walking from the room, she added, "You've got a surgeon's hands, you'll be great at wiring up the guidance system for me!"

***

John stretched languidly, enjoying feeling the comforting weight of Irillith and Sakura lying with their slender limbs draped across him. He managed to crane his head enough to get a look at the chronometer, and he blinked in surprise when he saw it was eleven in the morning.

"I let you lie-in this morning, I hope that was okay?" Faye whispered to him, as she crawled up the bed.

It could have been his imagination, but she seemed to linger for a moment as she travelled up his body, head tilting down for a second as she reached his waist. She continued moving after a quick glance, then sat up, looking slightly flushed.

John smiled at her and replied, "I needed the sleep actually, I slept like the dead last night."

Edraele's voice drifted through his mind, her tone disapproving as she said, *You were using your own energy reserves yesterday to power your enhanced speed. Always remember that I'm there to help you if you need it, and there's no point you getting tired unnecessarily.*

*Sorry, I got a bit carried away at the time,* he replied, feeling chastened.

His busy thoughts roused Alyssa, and after she'd stretched and given him a magnificent view, she gently woke the other girls. Soon he was surrounded by gravity-defying flesh, with all assets on display except Sakura's as she ducked under the covers with a naughty grin. John felt her welcoming mouth engulf him and he sighed as he relaxed in bed.

"It's time," Alyssa said softly, as she moved closer to replace Sakura by his side.

John glanced at her, and nodded, before throwing back the covers to see the Asian girl's mouth spread wide to take him all the way down her throat. He smiled at her and said, "Sakura, there's something we wanted to show you."

"Hmm?" she asked, her muffled question coming out as a hum which felt marvellous in her vibrating throat.

She eased back, watching his rueful expression as she unsheathed his throbbing cock. The girls climbed off the bed, gliding into the walk-in wardrobe, with Alyssa waiting patiently for them at the doorway. John gave Sakura a reassuring smile, and then they climbed off the bed, and walked over to join the others.

"What's going on?" she asked him in a hushed whisper.

"You'll see for yourself in just a moment," he replied, as they walked into the smaller room, to find the girls waiting for them with eager smiles of anticipation.

Alyssa took Sakura's hand, and led her over to the set of mirrors in the centre of the room. They were cleverly positioned so that someone standing in the centre could see themselves from all angles. "The Change is complete," she said softly. "Have a look for yourself."

Sakura had been watching the blonde girl's face with curiosity, but now she turned to stare at the mirrors, and her eyes widened as she saw herself for the first time in weeks. She gaped at her tall, athletic figure, and cupped her large, rounded breasts, marvelling at the way they felt as she struggled to contain them in each hand.

"I knew I was getting stronger, but how could I have missed all these changes?" she gasped, shaking her head in wonder.

"It's a strange side effect of receiving John's Gift," Rachel explained to the overwhelmed young woman. "We all overlooked the physical changes too, until they were pointed out to us."

Sakura twisted her body to look at herself from different angles, shocked to see the slender, but powerful muscles that shifted beneath her unblemished golden-brown skin. Glancing across at Alyssa, she saw that her figure was now identical to hers, statuesque and flawless in its breathtaking perfection.

Alyssa smiled at Sakura as she listened to her thoughts, and said warmly, "Welcome to the family."

The girls moved to embrace their newest sister, and John smiled at Sakura when she made eye contact with him and mouthed, "Thank you!"

Alyssa grinned at John, and said playfully, "Maybe you'd like to inspect the... crew, Admiral?" She'd nearly said troops, but caught herself at the last moment.

John caught the moment of hesitation, and his eyes flickered to hers as the girls lined up in an identical pose, back straight, hands crossed behind them as they stood at attention. Alyssa took her place in the line, standing in the order they'd joined him, and despite his reservations and feelings of doubt, he couldn't help but be awed by the sight.

Blonde, Latina, redhead, Nymph, brunette, Maliri, and now a raven-haired Asian to round out the mix. While their faces were all uniquely beautiful in their own right, from the neck down, the girls were absolutely identical discounting variations in skin colour. Something about the regimented sense of order stirred something deep inside him, and he felt a profound sense of satisfaction as he inspected his thralls. As quickly as that feeling arose, he smashed it back down, gritting his teeth at the abhorrent thought.

*It's alright, that's not you,* Alyssa murmured to him, her cerulean eyes staring at him intently. *Just look at the girls, they're with you out of love, not because you enslaved them.*

He walked down the line, making eye contact with each of the girls in turn. In Calara's brown eyes he saw profound respect, in Dana's sky-blues impish excitement, Jade's cat-like emerald eyes gazed at him rapturously, while Rachel's stormy grey orbs studied him intently, burning with her fierce intelligence. The playful challenge he saw in Irillith's angular violet eyes was very enticing, while Sakura almond eyes looked at him with heartfelt gratitude. At the same time, he could see the genuine warmth and love they all felt towards him.

*You've helped us grow strong so we can protect each other, not as pawns to be casually discarded,* Alyssa told him, sashaying over to stand by his side. She reached out with her hands to clasp his, then guided his fingers over to Rachel's slim, tanned tummy. Speaking out loud now, she continued, "When the fighting's done, we'll be able to give you the big family you always wanted."

John brushed his fingers reverently over her belly, and Rachel sighed with contentment, her intense gaze softening when he looked into her eyes. He reached out to caress Irillith in the same way, then Sakura, the girls gathering around him so he could stroke each of them possessively. The tender looks they gave him were intoxicating, and he couldn't remember ever being more aroused when they guided him back to the bedroom.

***

It was late in the afternoon when they eventually emerged from bed, Faye's maintenance bots floating out of the room with dishes piled high, carrying the remains of the lunch she'd prepared for them. The purple AI girl had dearly wished that she'd been able to take part in the energetic celebrations, but she'd resolved to stop torturing herself with such wild dreams, and simply focus on enjoying her life here with John and the girls.

Besides, the thought of John entering the Cyber-realm had left her giddy with excitement. As she'd watched him ravish the girls, she couldn't help wondering if she might soon experience the same kind of ecstasy. This train of thought was playing havoc with her efficiency though, and seven of her avatars were currently hard at work, trying to figure out how video clips of the loving orgy now showed seven copies of Faye writhing in delight.

John and the girls showered then dressed, before reconvening up in the Briefing Room to go over everyone's findings.

"Rather than telling you about everything Faye and I have done," Irillith said, looking intently at John down the long table, "I thought I might be able to bring you with me on a trip into the Cyber-realm. What do you think?"

He looked startled for a moment, then replied enthusiastically, "That sounds like an amazing idea! I'd love to see what it's like in there!"

Faye practically swooned at the thought, and Irillith glanced at her briefly, then smiled as she said, "We'd love to show you the sights."

Looking at her curiously, John asked, "Are you sure I'll be able to join you, though? I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to enter the Cyber-realm."

"Going by the theory that anything we can do, you can do too," Irillith replied, looking pointedly at Sakura, "I don't think you'll have any difficulty with it."

His enthusiasm wavered, and he sighed as he said, "There might be one real problem though. Your trips into the Cyber-realm are based on astral projection, and my progenitor half is like an anchor on my back. If it does work, it'll be a very brief visit."

Irillith's violet eyes glinted mysteriously, and with another sly glance at Faye she replied, "We'll plan out your trip, and focus on the most important things."

"You're getting stronger," Alyssa said to him, stroking his arm. She smiled as she continued optimistically, "Pretty soon you'll be able to defeat your Progenitor half, then you can spend as long as you want with Irillith and Faye."

"It's a good motivator," he agreed, smiling at the purple girl, whose wings were vibrating in a shimmering iridescent blur.

"I've got something to show you!" Dana blurted out, unable to contain her excitement any longer.

He turned to look at her with an arched eyebrow, and grinned as he said, "I've been looking forward to this! Were you able to enhance the Heavy Cannons, Gauss Cannons, and Singularity Drivers?"

"No-, I mean yes I did, but that's not what I want to show you!" she exclaimed, as she leapt from her chair to grab the remote for the holo-projector.

"I'll get that for you!" Faye chimed in breezily, blinking once and activating the holographic projection system built into the Briefing Room.

The image that appeared above them shocked John into silence for a moment, his eyes darting from side to side as he took in Dana's plan. He finally blurted out, "Holy shit! What did you do to the Invictus?!"

Dana's eyes glinted with excitement as she said, "Yeah, I know, right? It's going to be so fucking awesome when I'm done!"

He gaped at the image in stunned disbelief, and replied, "Won't all this take months to complete?"

She shook her head, and replied, "Not if we get enough engineers. I talked it over with Rachel last night, while we were working on my... project."

Rachel nodded, and replied, "If Edraele can provide enough engineering teams, we should be able to get all the work done simultaneously. It'll still take a good few weeks, but with all of us to oversee the teams, it shouldn't be too mountainous a task. I can draw up some project plans to make the work go as efficiently as possible."

*I can supply you with as many engineers as you could ever need,* Edraele told him with a great deal of satisfaction.

John slumped back in his chair, and shook his head in wonder as he said, "You girls never cease to amaze me." He smiled at Dana then, and added, "If you think you can do all that to my ship, and it'll still fly, then we'll do it your way."

"Fuck, yeah!" Dana crowed with delight, high-fiving Rachel who grinned at seeing her lover so animated.

Everyone smiled at the redhead, her open enthusiasm proving to be quite infectious. It wasn't just Dana that was looking forward to arriving at Genthalas shipyard now, and they could hardly wait to get started on her plans for the Invictus.

The girl's smiles eventually faded as they looked at Calara who was staring at John with a tense expression on her face. Alyssa nodded to her, and the Latina asked him in a quiet, tense voice, "Would you like to hear what I discovered about Jessica Blake?"

He turned to look at her, surprised by her sombre tone, and replied, "Of course, but what's wrong?"

Calara glanced at Faye, and the image of the Invictus faded from view, to be replaced by a very familiar folder of files, one that he'd pored over for decades. He knew the contents of that folder like the back of his hand, so he immediately noticed the changes when the files spread out into a huge collage, with the picture of Jessica Blake at their centre.

"Where did you find all this?!" he asked, leaning forward in his chair and staring wide-eyed at the pages of information that had been missing from his files.

"You first showed me these files months ago, just before we went on vacation to Oceanus. I haven't ignored them since then. I reviewed the information you'd found, just to get an idea what might have been redacted or removed from your mother's records," she explained patiently. Glancing at the Maliri girl sitting further down the briefing table, she continued, "When Irillith joined us, I knew we might be able to get some real answers. I had a pretty good idea of what to look for, and between your new rank opening up more doors, and Irillith's assistance, we were able to gather much more evidence before we left Terran Federation Space."

"Evidence?" John asked grimly. "What are you saying?"

Calara's eyes flickered to Alyssa, and the blonde girl placed a hand on his, squeezing it gently as she said, "Let her talk, she'll tell you everything."

He glanced her way, then nodded warily. "Go ahead, tell me what you found out," he said to Calara.

She rose from her chair and gestured to his mother's service record, and replied, "As you know, Jessica Blake was a Xeno-Biologist attached to a deep space survey vessel called the 'Cora'. Her ship set sail from Olympus Shipyard in 2737, under the command of a Captain Joseph Ebner. The Cora had a crew of seventeen, who were mostly scientists, with a handful of additional personnel necessary to run the ship."

She pointed at another file which Faye expanded to show a glowing flightpath heading deep into what was now known as Kirrix Space, and continued, "Their mission was to head beyond the eastern frontier of Terran territory and discover new alien species; both plant life and animals. The Kirrix had been scoured from this area of space decades beforehand in the previous purge, and these systems were uninhabited by bugs at this time.

"They spent months landing on planets, studying exo-fauna and flora, until they eventually stumbled across an Eden World deep in a dense nebula. The planet was unnamed, Terran astronomers being unaware of its presence, hidden as it was by the nebula's electromagnetic disruption. Setting down on the planet, which they named 'Arcadia', they spent several months there, cataloguing hundreds of different species."

John shook his head in astonishment and asked, "Why was all that removed from the Cora's and my mother's records?"

"You'll see in a moment," Calara explained carefully. "It was Irillith who found the data for me."

"I found it in a top-secret archive on Mars, describing encounters with hostile alien lifeforms. With Arcadia now deep in Kirrix Space, the reports were never followed up by Terran Federation Xeno-investigation teams," the Maliri girl replied. "Conspiracy theorists would have a field day with the data in there."

Calara pointed to another file, and Faye dutifully opened it up for her, expanding the contents so they could all see. It was a series of images, with one particular subject featuring in every one. A sinister black spacecraft, that looked terrifyingly familiar in both size and shape.