Three Square Meals Ch. 082

"You were delighted to have been given the ability to heal when we spoke last time," John said, carefully studying her lovely face. "Have you changed your mind since then?"

Rachel's eyes flashed wide open and she quickly shook her head as she gasped, "No, absolutely not!" She turned to sit astride him, then leaned in to give him a fierce kiss. "Please don't think I'm ungrateful for the phenomenal gift you've given me!" Faltering then, her voice softened to a whisper. "When I was healing the Ashanath, one of them called me a 'Radiant Goddess' -- I couldn't disagree with her!"

Stroking her smooth cheek, he smiled as he said, "I saw you when you were healing Ularean. That Ashanath was right; you look exceptionally beautiful and serene when you're healing someone."

She blushed and shook her head. "Thank you, but that isn't what I was referring to. Doctor Larson told me once, that I wasn't God; that arbitrary life and death decisions weren't mine to make. He was talking in an abstract way, referring to my circumventing the need for clinical trials." She sounded awed as she continued, "But now I'm actually able to heal by mere thought alone... Some of those Ashanath were beyond the help of conventional medicine - they are only alive today because I decided to give them life."

John nodded, finally understanding what had unsettled the tawny-haired girl. "With all the weapons we have available, it's very easy to take a life. But to save one? Bring them back from certain death?" He stared into Rachel's grey eyes and said softly, "Your ability is very different from all the others I've given to the rest of the girls. There was a resistance when I activated your third helix, as though I was breaking some fundamental law by gifting you this power."

"Why did you do it then?" she asked him, her eyes widening as she stared into his.

"My ability to heal you and the other girls is miraculous, but there are a number of restrictions that make it slightly impractical," John replied, brushing the backs of his fingers over her svelte stomach. "Feeding all of you before the battle saved Dana's life, but what do we do if we're in a prolonged fight?" He smiled as he added, "I can hardly load you up again mid-combat."

Rachel nodded, gazing at him intently. "I don't disagree. It's a very sensible precaution, but why choose me to trust with such godlike responsibility?"

"You were already a doctor, a healer. I just took it to the next level," John said, stroking her back. He smiled at her as he continued, "Besides, I can't think of anyone with a better temperament. You're calm, rational, yet compassionate - what better personality for a fully-fledged goddess?"

Rachel blushed again and nestled into him. "I promise I'll make you proud of me," she murmured, squeezing him tightly.

"You already do, honey," he replied, wrapping his arms around her.

She let out a contented sigh, her long, tawny-brown hair tickling his nose as she snuggled into him. "Thank you for speaking to me about this. I feel more at ease with myself now."

John smiled at her as she tilted her head up to look at him. "Maybe I'm just trying to stay on your good side? It's a foolish man who angers the gods!"

Rachel laughed at that, already looking calmer and much more relaxed now. She suddenly frowned, her expression growing more pensive as she said, "There's something else we need to talk about - something far more serious."

"What's that?" John asked, looking at her with concern.

She bit her lip anxiously then replied, "What on Terra am I going to say to my Dad, when I introduce him to you and Dana?!"

John managed to stop himself from smiling as he nodded sombrely. "You're right, that needs some serious thought."

***

Dana watched Jade as she worked, the Nymph's agile fingers following the holographic instructions on how to assemble one of the maintenance bots. Beside her, four of the smiling automatons worked with precise, methodical movements as they constructed replicas of themselves. Jade was faster, having already built the primary chassis and attached it to the anti-gravity platform, but Dana found her eyes drawn to the maintenance bots as they worked.

All four were installing the final components into the chest of each new robot, the six-digits on their hands skilfully rotating the power core as it was slotted into the cavity in the torso. It was almost like watching them perform a complicated dance, each of the robots operating in perfect synchronisation. Although it was impressive to watch, it was also a little eerie, and slightly disconcerting for some reason.

Shaking her head to shrug off the feeling, Dana hefted one of the Drakkar's rifles in her arms and said to Jade, "If John comes looking for me, I'll just be in the firing range."

"Okay, I'll let him know," the Nymph replied, giving her a bright smile as she saluted with her multi-tool.

Dana grinned, then bounded out of her Workshop, nearly crashing into John as she left. "I was just talking about you!" she exclaimed, as he steadied her with his strong arms.

"Nothing bad I hope?" John replied, giving her a fond smile.

She shook her head, dark auburn hair brushing over her shoulders. "Nah, you're alright," she replied, with an impish grin. "I'm actually just going to test fire this rifle we swiped off the Drakkar. Fancy coming along to take a look?"

"I'd love to," John immediately agreed. He nodded towards the gun and added politely, "That looks heavy, do you want me to carry it for you?"

"What? You think I'm just a weak little girl? That I need a 'strong man' to help me?!" Dana demanded indignantly.

John looked at her in surprise, holding his hands up defensively. "Sorry, I didn't mean-"

Dana giggled and handed him the gun. "Relax, I'm just fucking with you!" She nudged him with an elbow and added slyly, "I love being part of your harem of hot girls! - I'm hardly going to be one of those twenty-eighth wave feminist nut-jobs, am I?"

Looking immensely relieved, John smiled back at her and replied, "No, that's true. Especially when you've got your JP schoolgirl outfit in your wardrobe."

Dana bounced along beside him as they walked along the corridor, a beaming grin on her face. "Oh yeah! I haven't worn that in ages!" she gasped, looking extremely enthusiastic at the prospect. She skipped ahead of him and turned around, walking backwards so she could watch his face. Her sky-blue eyes sparkled with excitement as she added, "That gives me an awesome idea!"

*Oh yes, that really is awesome,* Alyssa agreed, her voice a seductive purr as it echoed through both of their minds.

"I should know better than to ask, but you're not going to elaborate, are you?" John asked the grinning redhead.

She gave him a playful shrug and replied, "Hey, if you can keep secrets about the Brimorians, you can't complain about me keeping this quiet!"

John laughed and rolled his eyes. "Alright, I suppose I deserved that."

Alyssa sounded amused as she said, *Don't worry, we'll make sure you're well rested before we spring this one on you. You'll need all the energy you can get!*

They'd reached the Firing Range by now and Dana slapped her hand on the button to open the door, then smirked at him as she darted inside. John walked into the room after her, then got a shock when he saw a fully-armoured Drakkar warrior standing at the end of the firing range, all four arms raised in a threatening manner.

Dana cheered with delight when she saw him jump. "I finally got you back for scaring the crap out of me on Ashana!"

He smiled at her and replied, "A rampaging Drakkar I can handle. You turning into a feminist is far more terrifying."

"You're safe there, don't worry," she replied with a wink.

Gesturing towards the black battlesuit at the end of the range, John asked, "I take it we're not just testing the Drakkar rifle then?"

"I thought I'd do a final test of the body armour's shields. I've already finished my research, this is just to confirm the performance parameters," Dana replied, walking over to the firing bench at the end of the lanes. She grinned at him as she added, "Plus it should be fun!"

Walking over to join her, John raised the sinister black rifle a few inches and said, "So, do you want to tell me what you've found out about this gun?"

"It'll be faster just to show you," she replied, handing him a magazine, before leaning against the wall and crossing her arms over her chest. She had a remote in her hand, and she pressed the button. "Go ahead and squeeze off a shot."

John took the black box of ammo and slotted it into the obvious destination in front of the trigger. There was no safety or a fire selector switch on the weapon, so he raised the rifle to his shoulder and took aim down the sights. "No scope," he muttered. "I assume the rifle was smart-linked to the owner's battlesuit?"

Dana nodded and replied, "Yeah, the tech was crude but functional. Smart-linking weapons isn't particularly revolutionary though, so I was expecting that."

Taking careful aim down the range, John readjusted his grip on the rifle trying to get comfortable. The weapon was designed for a Drakkar's burly fist while wearing battle armour, so his own unarmoured hand was tiny by comparison. Giving up on his attempt to find a comfortable firing position, John did his best to keep the barrel on-target and squeezed the trigger.

The glowing purple bullet blasted out of the rifle, leaving a swirling contrail in its wake that linked the barrel to the battlesuit. A red dome appeared around the suit of black Drakkar armour, visible now as the shield was struck by the slug. The impact blossomed a bright crimson as the energy field reacted to the force of the bullet hitting its surface.

"It didn't deflect," John noted, glancing at Dana as he lowered the black Drakkar rifle. "Does that mean the bullet was capable of damaging the shield?"

She nodded and replied, "Yep, got it in one. That gun is quite sophisticated tech, although the implementation is a bit crude. Basically, each bullet it fires is wrapped in an energy pocket, which is why each shot glows purple like that - it's using the same kind of energy matrix as the Drakkar use in their Beam Lasers."

John put the rifle down on the shooting table, then nodded speculatively. "So, if you were able to harness that kind of technology, we wouldn't need to worry about taking Justice Lasers with us to deal with shields and Punisher Rifles for heavy armour."

"That's the plan," she agreed, studying the vicious-looking weapon lying in front of them. "With the radically advanced Progenitor tech we have available, upgrading the shit out of the base design shouldn't be too hard. I'll get to work on a prototype and I should have something ready for you in a day or two."

"I can't wait to see what you come up with," John said, giving her an enthusiastic grin. He glanced down the firing range and added, "What about the armour? Figured out how their shielding works?"

Dana snorted and waved a dismissive hand. "Of course I have!" she replied, giving him a confident smile. Looking thoughtful she continued, "The tech in the body armour is much more sophisticated than that used in the guns. Being able to miniaturise a shield generator to that extent is way beyond current Terran Federation understanding of energy shielding technology."

"Can you replicate it?" John asked, a hopeful expression on his face.

She nodded but didn't seem as overjoyed as he'd been expected. "Yes, I can do a straight-up copy of the shields in the battlesuits and installing them into the Paragon armour should only take a few hours of work."

"You don't seem too thrilled by that idea," he noted, looking at her curiously.

Dana frowned, shaking her head as she replied, "I'm not." Letting out a forlorn sigh, she admitted, "Shield technology is the one area I've got really limited knowledge. Our trip to the Brimorians couldn't come at a better time; If we can get our hands on their advanced shield tech, then I can really start to put something special together for the Paragon armour!"

"What about a Maliri Shield Modulator?" John asked, recalling the schematics she had acquired from Geniya station. "Can you incorporate that and boost the shield capacity a bit? The Invictus got a sixty percent boost in shield strength from one of those didn't it?"

"Eighty percent actually - I improved the way the modulator stabilises the Invictus' shields when it gets attacked," Dana said with a smile of satisfaction. "Yeah, I was going to look into miniaturising one of those to fit into the armour as well, but that might take me a little while."

John nodded sympathetically. "How much time are you looking at for that?"

She shrugged in reply. "It's hard to say with research. It isn't like churning out new gear, where I can just calculate how long it'll take to fabricate the parts and add up the overall assembly time." She tapped her chin thoughtfully and added, "I've already come up with several ideas for ways to reduce the size of the field inducer - that's the biggest part of the modulator. Give me a couple of hours, that outta' do it."

He laughed and reached out to squeeze her shoulder in appreciation. "You really are a marvel!"

Grinning at him, Dana nodded. "As I said the other day, I am good with tech." She raised an eyebrow as she added, "But maybe not so good at combat."

"I am sorry about the Valkyrie," John said, pulling her in for a hug. "I hope you understand that it was a hard decision to make. Ultimately though, your safety is paramount and I didn't want to risk exposing you to unnecessary danger."

She hugged him back, then gave him an adoring smile. "You're forgiven for the way you handled it in that meeting. It really meant a lot to me, the way you raised it like that with the rest of the girls."

"It was a bit theatrical, but essentially everything I said was true - you are more valuable up on the Invictus' Bridge. We've been extremely lucky so far, but if we take a bad hit, you really are our best shot of keeping the Invictus in the fight," he explained, gazing into her eyes so she could see his sincerity.

"I've actually warmed up to the idea now anyway," Dana replied, giving him a quick kiss. "It was a real rush piloting the mech, but now I get to hang out with you on the Bridge. If you do end up on a boarding action, then you'll probably end up bringing me with you, and then I can help keep an eye on Rachel. Watching her get taken out by the Drakkar when I couldn't do shit to help her was a real fucking nightmare!"

John nodded, his face bleak. "I love having all of you girls aboard the ship and you're all incredible in a fight, but seeing any of you get injured is horrible." His eyes lost focus as he gazed into the distance and murmured, "I lost a lot of friends in the marines, but seeing women I knew take a bad hit was always much worse."

"Were you sleeping with any of those girls?" Dana asked sympathetically.

He shook his head and replied, "No, but I was very close friends with a couple of them. They were both killed at Galon Prime and that made me finally quit the marines -- I just couldn't lose anyone else." Letting out a heavy sigh, he focused on her face again and added, "That's why I'm so overprotective with you girls - I'm sure you can understand why."

"I'm really sorry you lost your friends, that must have been awful," Dana said, giving him a tender kiss. "I promise I'll try to be much more careful in the future."

"You're a good girl, thank you," he said, his voice filled with gratitude as he wrapped her in a fierce hug and held her tight. They stood quietly together like that for several minutes, John stroking Dana's back as she leaned into him.

When they finally pulled apart, she looked at him with sympathetic eyes and said softly, "You're usually so busy running around saving beautiful girls from trouble, you don't show it much, but you need looking after too, don't you?"

He smiled at her and replied, "Let's just keep that a secret, shall we? I'll be the stoic alpha male and you can be the beautiful heroine that spurs me on to acts of valour."

She laughed and nodded exuberantly. "As long as I don't have to be the damsel in distress! Getting in trouble usually means being shot and I'm sick of that shit."

"No more getting shot," John agreed with a grin. "Sounds like a good plan to me."

Dana glanced at the rifle on the table and said, "Well, that was it for the Drakkar gun." She smiled at him affectionately as she continued, "If you're done hugging me, shall we head back to the workshop?"

John picked up the black rifle and said, "I'll try to resist, but you're extremely huggable." He took a final glance at the Drakkar battlesuit before they left the firing range. "That armour plating was much tougher than I expected. I take it that isn't just the normal Onyxium and Steel alloy they used on their hulls?"

"Actually it is!" Dana exclaimed, giving him an apologetic smile. "I meant to mention it before, but I got a bit sidetracked moaning about the shields. The armour's been through some kind of hardening process, which is why it was as tough as old boots. The effect on the metal is unlike anything I've ever seen before, but it feels... familiar."

"That is interesting," John said, sharing a pointed glance with the redhead. "It must be some kind of Progenitor tech behind it if you're getting one of those feelings."

She nodded, a bright sparkle in her eyes. "Which means more time coaxing out schematics from your quad!"

"An excellent discovery all round then," John said, putting his arm around her as they left the firing range.

"I'm actually looking forward to our two weeks together more than the skiing trip!" Dana admitted, a hungry gleam in her eyes. "I'll take such good care of you, you'll be begging me to set up another one!"

John smiled at her and stroked her slender back as they walked, then reached out to Alyssa telepathically. *Hey, beautiful. Would you mind gathering the troops in the Engineering Bay? I'd like to go over our plans for rescuing Athena.*

*Everyone's already on their way,* Alyssa replied, having heard his fleeting thoughts and acted immediately.

When they arrived at the Workshop door he paused for a moment and said, "Before I forget, I was thinking about doing something special for Irillith. I could use your help when you can spare a moment?"

"Sure, no problem. I'll probably be busy for the rest of today, but tell me about it tonight and I'd love to help," Dana replied with a curious smile. Her pupils flared with excitement as she added, "Is it something naughty?"

John gave her a mysterious smile, then hit the button by the door and waved the cheeky redhead through. She flounced into her Workshop, giving him an impish grin, and yelped as he gave her a playful smack on her gloriously firm rump. Handing her the Drakkar rifle, John strolled over to the ore storage crates looking for the ones marked with the white glyph that labelled their contents. Jade looked up from her work when she spotted that he'd entered the room and they exchanged warm smiles in greeting.

Lifting the lid of the enormous storage crate, he chose a huge block of crystal Alyssium. Making a curt gesture to the metal, John drew it out in a sparkling white stream and into a tightly controlled sphere. Rachel was the first of the girls to arrive, and she walked over to give him a kiss as John started reshaping the glittering metal. By the time he was onto his fifth shaping, Alyssa and Calara had arrived too, greeting him with a hug before moving over to sit on some storage crates.

Alyssa glanced at the box underneath her shapely bottom, then jumped off it as she flipped away the lid with a telekinetic push. As John started forming the shape of a Photon Laser barrel, she began reshaping her own orb of roiling crystal Alyssium, getting ready to help make more of the new weapons. Irillith entered the Workshop just as the blonde girl had finished forming her first ten-metre-long laser and between Alyssa and John, they'd managed to get seven completed by the time Sakura and Tashana arrived. Tashana had a look of contentment on her face and she was the one sporting the heavily rounded tummy now. She flashed a grateful grin at John as she walked over to embrace her sister.