Three Square Meals Ch. 081

To give her a moment to compose herself, John turned back to Dana. "I know you're planning on starting work on the maintenance bots, but we have a few other important things that need your attention too. Have you made any plans for prioritising the work?"

She nodded as she uncoiled herself from Rachel's arms. "Building a replacement turret for the Raptor should only take a few hours and the armour repairs will be down to Alyssa. The same applies to the Paragon suits that got bashed up. Repairing the inner shell will only take me or Jade an hour or two, then it'll be up to you or Alyssa to patch up the armour plating."

"How about the research into the Drakkar gear?" John asked, spearing a piece of the blue fish on his fork. "I'd really like you to take a look at the shields built into their battlesuits if you can - probably as a higher priority over everything else."

Dana smiled at him fondly as she replied, "I should have known - you want to protect your girls above all else, right?"

John winked at her as he said, "Got it in one, honey."

She glanced at the Nymph sitting across the table from her. "If I give you the schematics for the maintenance bots, would you mind making a start on your own? I'll take a look at the Drakkar battlesuits right after dinner."

"Of course, I'll start working on them immediately," Jade replied, looking pleased at the prospect.

Dana gave her a grateful grin. "Thanks, sexy! You're the best assistant I've ever had!"

"Hey!" Alyssa exclaimed indignantly.

The redhead smiled at her old friend. "Let's face it, you had trouble telling a plasma torch from a hydraulic wrench."

Alyssa shrugged and said, "Alright, I admit it, I was a crap assistant." She frowned in distaste and added, "The worst bit was all that oil and grease! Why does everything in your workshops have to be covered in so much of that stuff? It gets everywhere!"

Dana just laughed and rolled her eyes.

Calara smiled at her lover and noted coyly, "You're normally so enthusiastic in your liberal use of lubricants."

Everyone laughed as Alyssa conceded that the Latina was absolutely right.

Dana smiled at the blonde, then turned to look at John again, her expression serious now. "While I'm checking out the Drakkar armour, I'll investigate their guns as well. If our theory is right and their equipment is a limited copy of Thrall gear, it'll be worth taking a look sooner rather than later."

"That's a very good point," John said, looking thoughtful. "Those rifles weren't hitting as hard as a high-power railgun slug, but they still had a lot of stopping power. If you can upgrade them the same way you turned the original black armour into crystal Alyssium... Yeah, definitely worth checking out."

"You got it!" she eagerly agreed.

Before taking another sip of wine, John asked, "How about the Valkyrie?"

"Repairing that shouldn't be too hard. A lot of that will be down to you, reshaping the armour plating to get rid of all the dings," she replied, giving him a shifty look.

"And the upgrades we discussed before? I'd rather we get them finished before I risk letting anyone out in it again," John said in a firm tone.

"Do you mind if I weigh-in with my opinion?" Calara asked politely.

He smiled at the Latina and gestured for her to proceed. "Of course not, gorgeous. You didn't need to ask."

She smiled at him gratefully, then looked across the table at Dana. "I agree with John about the personal shields being our highest priority, but I think fully upgrading the Invictus' guns should be next. Doubling the firepower from the Beam Laser batteries by replacing them all with Photon Lasers is a massive increase in our destructive capabilities. I think that should take precedence over everything else, including the capacitor upgrades in the ship's armour."

"Sounds reasonable to me," Dana said with a shrug. "Our armour's already highly reflective; the capacitors just make it almost impervious to laser fire, unless we get hit by anything really fucking nasty."

"Yeah, I agree," John said, tapping a finger on his wine glass as he thought it over. He smiled at Rachel and added, "Are you too tired to prioritise the tasks for everyone?"

The brunette shook her head, smiling at him as she replied, "No, this should be quite straightforward compared to the last refit!" Turning to look at Dana, she continued, "The order of priority for you will be: Drakkar gear research, then develop a prototype shield for our Paragon Armour. Once you've completed that, you can begin developing designs for new guns, incorporating all the new tech we've acquired."

"Like I said, I'll start right after dinner," the redhead agreed with a broad grin, sky-blue eyes gleaming at the prospect of investigating new alien technology.

Turning to Jade next, Rachel said, "We'll need to start fabricating the parts for the Maintenance Bots first, then you can start construction as soon as we have all the necessary components. Once that fabrication run is complete, we'll need to start the Mass Fabricators on building the parts we need for the Power Couplings and Power Relays."

The Nymph nodded, then turned to look curiously at Fay. "Are you able to program the bots to help me make more of them? With Dana busy, I could use a hand."

"Of course!" the purple sprite agreed. "I'll assign my tertiary Avat- Erm, I mean Avatar Quaternary to begin the reprogramming work right now!"

Rachel smiled at Faye as she said, "Once the Maintenance Bots are complete, you can have them build, then replace the Power Couplings and the Power Relays." Looking back at John again, she continued, "While they start on that, you can start shaping the Photon Laser barrels while we wait for the Mass Fabricators to finish their run."

Dana nodded thoughtfully as she said, "Then we get the Fabricators churning out the rest of the bits for the Photon Lasers. By the time that run is finished, we can start assembling the weapons!"

"How long?" John asked, taking another sip of wine and admiring its rich body and flavour. While Dana was working out an estimate, he spoke telepathically to Edraele, *Did you supply us with this wine? It tastes fantastic!*

*It was a gift from Emandra, the Matriarch of House Holaris,* Edraele informed him, sounding delighted that he was enjoying it so much. *Their vineyards are legendary amongst the Maliri, but House Holaris have jealously guarded their bounty in the past.*

*Maybe we can encourage them to trade it more openly in the future?* John added thoughtfully. *There'd be a huge demand for exotic, luxury items like this. If we introduce these trade goods to the market when Alyssa's new stations are operational, we could capitalise on the hunger for new trading opportunities and draw in more merchants.*

Edraele sent him a telepathic smile. *The other Houses have similar specialities. I'll discuss this with the other Matriarchs and see if we can come to some kind of arrangement.*

Dana had finished mentally tallying up the time to complete each of the construction tasks and said, "I reckon it'll take... two days." She looked surprised at her own estimate and blurted out, "Organising it like that makes a fucking huge difference! I was expecting at least a week!"

"Then you thought another day to fit all twenty-four Photon Lasers?" John asked curiously.

She grinned at him and nodded. "Yep! That outta' do it."

"Three days to double a big chunk of our firepower... outstanding," he said, a lopsided grin on his face. "We can fit in the Paragon Armour shield upgrades once you've done your research and have a better idea of how long they'll take to design, build, and install."

Rachel smiled in satisfaction, glancing at Alyssa as she said, "I didn't include you in the timelines, but we do need you to take a look at the Raptor's plating when you get an opportunity."

"I'll go do that after dinner," Alyssa said amiably. "I could do with stretching my mental muscles!"

John rubbed his chin as he tried to remember the rest of the remaining tasks. "That just leaves upgrading the heatsinks for the Pulse Cannons and the Nova Lances, which we can do once the bots have installed all the Power Couplings. We also need to fit a new turret for the Raptor, repair then upgrade the Valkyrie, and patch up the three damaged Paragon suits. All of those can wait until later, especially the Paragon armour as we've got a number of spare suits."

Rachel glanced at John and said, "That reminds me, I got covered in Ularean's blood when I touched his robes to heal him. I've taken a sample of his DNA from my armour's gauntlets and I'll begin my analysis of the Ashanath genetic code tomorrow morning."

He looked at her in surprise and said, "That was fortunate! Good thinking, honey."

The brunette looked guilty as she made eye contact with him. "I wish I could say it was an accident. I reasoned it would be more efficient than asking for a genetic sample later, which they might refuse to provide."

"You sneaky little minx!" Dana laughed in delight, nudging her girlfriend with an elbow.

"I doubt Ularean would object," Sakura remarked, as she smiled at Rachel. "He seemed in awe of you after your work in their hospital."

"Still, it was a fine bit of requisitioning," Alyssa said with a smirk. "I'm sure John thoroughly approves."

Rachel blushed but didn't waver from meeting John's gaze. She waited patiently for him to confirm that he wasn't upset at her for exploiting the unfortunate situation to their advantage.

"Relax, I'm not mad at you," John said, giving her a warm smile. "Nobody got hurt and I must admit, I'm fascinated to learn more about the Ashanath's DNA. They've all got psychic powers, so they must all have triple-helix DNA, right?"

"That's what I'm expecting, but I can't wait to confirm that theory!" Rachel replied, nodding eagerly as she relaxed.

Looking around the table at all the beautiful faces watching him, John asked, "Does anyone else have anything else they'd like to mention? If not, I'll quickly cover the rest of my plans for the immediate future."

They shook their heads, the girls all intrigued to know what he had in mind for them next.

"As you know, we'll be heading to Terra tomorrow," John began, leaning back in his chair as he mulled over his thoughts. "While we're in Terran Federation Space, I'd like to tie up a few loose ends. First and foremost, we need to start looking into Mikaboshi and hunting that bastard down. I've only let that slide because we've been dashing around trying to meet a number of more pressing obligations. What with the Dragon March traitor, rescuing Mateo, the Battle of Regulus, rescuing Tashana, the refit in Maliri Space, and then rushing out here to save the Ashanath, we've barely had time to breathe, let alone anything else."

John looked around the table and saw the profound gratitude in Calara's eyes, matched by similar expressions from the Maliri twins. Returning their smiles, he continued, "Don't get me wrong, I don't regret any of those actions, but let's take advantage of this lull in the action and find out more about this 'Master of Assassins'."

Irillith frowned and gave him a look of regret as she said, "While we were in Maliri Space, I got so caught up in events, I completely forgot about chasing up the black market leads on those cybernetics. I'm sorry, John."

He waved away her apology with his hand and replied, "You've got nothing to apologise for. We were all working around the clock to get the refit done in time and I forgot all about that lead as well."

*I'll follow up on that for you right away,* Edraele immediately offered. *If you can send me all the information you have on the cybernetic brain, I'll take steps to find out whatever I can. I'd like to apologise too; I shouldn't have allowed myself to get so distracted that I let that slip. It was an unforgivable lapse and I'm sorry for letting you down.*

*Keep apologising like that, and the first thing I'll do when we get back to Valaden Space is bend you over in front of the other Matriarchs and tan those lovely blue cheeks of yours,* John warned her with a telepathic smile. *It was a very stressful time for all of us and with everything we were juggling, it's understandable that we all dropped this ball. You're making me feel guilty for upsetting you, so please stop.*

Edraele didn't reply, but she sent him a loving telepathic caress that swirled through his mind, every touch filled with her affection for him.

The brief conversation only took a couple of seconds via telepathy, but the girls knew him well enough to recognise the slightly distracted look in his eyes. It therefore came as no surprise when he announced, "Edraele just offered to follow up on that one for us. Dana and Rachel, please could you send every bit of useful information on the cybernetic brain to her."

The girls shared a glance then nodded, with Rachel answering for them, "We both studied the implant in detail after the surgery. It shouldn't take long to transmit all our findings to Edraele."

"Excellent, thanks girls," he said, with an appreciative smile.

Alyssa grinned as she said, "I've a feeling Edraele will be far more... robust... in her approach to pursuing this lead than we would've been. We shouldn't have to wait long for that information."

*My fellow Matriarch is exceedingly perceptive,* Edraele replied, in a chilling tone. *My predecessor had no qualms about using illicit black market technology when it suited her purposes. By turning a blind eye to their activities, she allowed the criminal element to flourish. I think it's time I made an example of those who flaunt the laws of your Kingdom.*

*Don't go overboard, Edraele,* John said in alarm, worrying what he might have inadvertently unleashed.

*I'll show admirable restraint,* she replied, her tone earnest. *I promise I won't disappoint you with my approach.*

He gave Alyssa a worried glance, but she looked relaxed as she replied, *Edraele knows exactly how you expect her to behave. Relax, this is in good hands.* Her eyes flickered to the girls and she added impatiently, *Now, hurry up and tell them the good news, I really want to see Calara's face light up!*

John turned back to his attentive audience and smiled as he said, "When the award ceremony is over with and after our visit to New Eden, I thought we should take a bit of time off for a well-deserved vacation."

"Where are we going?!" Jade asked, breathless with anticipation.

He glanced at Calara and replied, "Jericho, for a skiing holiday!"

The quiet in the room was shattered as the girls gasped at the news and began chattering away excitedly amongst themselves.

Calara beamed at him in delight and said, "Oh, John, that'll be wonderful! I'll be able to visit my family too!"

"That's the idea," he replied, giving her a broad grin. "With the amount Maria's been calling you, she must be desperate to see her little girl."

Calara laughed, blushing self-consciously. "That's true, she's dying to discuss our wedding plans."

"It'll be great to see her," he agreed, looking forward to meeting Calara's mother once again. "Do you know if your father or brothers will be there?"

The Latina pondered his question for a moment, then replied, "I'll need to double-check, but I think Dad is still on-duty in the Dragon March. I know Mateo got rotated back to recover after his captivity, so he'll almost certainly be there. Dylan I'm not sure about, but Eduardo might be. Let me find out and I'll get back to you."

"How long are we staying on Jericho for?" Jade asked, her green eyes glinting in the light.

John smiled at her and replied, "You've all been extremely dedicated and highly focused, but everyone needs a chance to recharge their batteries. We'll play it by ear, but at least a week, maybe two. The last holiday brought all of us closer together, but we've had lots of lovely new additions to the crew since then."

"I'm happy to keep investigating Mikaboshi while we're there," Irillith offered. "Whatever leads my mother uncovers might lead to some kind of digital trail."

"As long as you spend as much time as possible with all of us on the slopes, how you choose to spend your free time is entirely up to you," John said with a smile. "You've been working just as hard as everyone else though, so I want to see you get a chance to relax and unwind as well, okay?"

She smiled at him and nodded, before glancing at her sister and adding, "Do you remember the snowball fights we had with father?"

Tashana laughed, nodding as she got a wistful look in her eyes. "I loved them, they were great fun." She gave John a grateful smile as she added, "This holiday sounds like a splendid idea."

"Have you girls ever been skiing before?" John asked the Maliri twins. When they both shook their heads, he glanced around the wider group to include them in his question.

Calara grinned as she nodded eagerly, while Rachel looked equally enthusiastic, her head bobbing too. The rest of the girls shook their heads, with Dana appearing anxious.

"Didn't you say that snow was basically a big hill of frozen water?" she asked the Latina nervously.

The brunette gave her a reassuring smile as she replied, "It is, but it feels nothing like water. It's more like the sandy beaches on Oceanus, but white and much softer. You'll love it, I promise!"

Rachel put her arm around her girlfriend and said soothingly, "Don't worry, I'll look after you. I've been skiing lots of times when I was much younger. Calara's right, it should be a really fun holiday."

John smiled at Tashana and said, "We'll try and adjust the times I feed you to fit in with the time we spend on the slopes. You won't be able to ski with a huge tummy."

Her beautiful blue face revealed her surprise for a moment, before she suddenly looked very excited by the idea. "This vacation is sounding better by the minute!"

Rachel laughed as she said, "I was the new girl during our trip to Oceanus. The food there looked amazing, but John kept me so stuffed, I never really had any room to try it!"

Tashana's angular eyes darted to her sister before she said coyly, "I wouldn't want to miss out on tasting exotic new Terran cuisine. I might have to share a few times, just to make sure I get the most out of the vacation experience."

"I'm sure I can accommodate you there," John agreed, enjoying seeing the accompanying flash of lust from Irillith. He looked at Dana next and added, "We can start working together on the Quantum Flux Cannon schematics after the holiday."

"So I'm basically getting two holidays, back-to-back?" Dana asked, a huge grin on her face.

Alyssa shook her head and explained patiently, "You'll be on your knees for most of the second one."

Giggling and raucous laughter filled the room, with John's baritone chuckles there right along with them.

When everyone had settled down, he looked around the table and said, "After our vacation, I plan to take us to the Brimorian Enclave as our next major destination. We need to see if we can acquire some of their shield technology."

"I don't know anything about the Brimorians," Dana said, her eyebrows lifting in curiosity. "Fancy giving us a quick summary?"

John smiled at the Nymph sitting down the table from him and replied, "I think Jade's going to love visiting Brimor. The Brimorians are an aquatic species, who colonise oceanic planets by building submerged cities. I've only been to Brimor once and it was an amazing place to visit."

"Why, what's it like?" Dana persisted. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she continued, "You're not going to leave us in the dark again are you? Waiting to see Ashana was torture!"

He winked at her and replied, "Afraid so. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!"

While the redhead whined in frustration, Irillith leaned forward and said, "When I hacked the data archives on Mars, I saw a reference to something called 'The Brimorian Annex'. Do you know what that was referring to?"