All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 037'

Thanks for another great chapter. I don't have any specific criticisms I want to make right now, so for the first time, I'll indulge in one of your commenter's most popular pastimes -- speculating on new crew members.

Jehanna is exotic looking, seems to have the kind of temperament that would fit with the others, and she would make a great social secretary slash PR officer. When we meet her again (after Rachel is done cooking) I expect that she'll fall prey to Alyssa's wiles since it is being a bit telegraphed by your emphasis on her beauty. It would be great to see her exotic appearance contrasting with the rest, but I admit that I don't know why she would join the crew of her own will. Perhaps the possibility to be so close to the action in an upcoming encounter will make her approach them about joining. It depends on whether she desires more fame or excitement in her life.

I'm also curious to see if Eito Yamamoto has a granddaughter. (I'm guessing at his age, perhaps I should say daughter?) It would be nice to add an Japanese girl to the harem for some racial variety, but that isn't the only thing on my mind. If she's studied her grandfather's art then she would add a valuable skill set to the team as a close-combat specialist and combat trainer for the other girls. Her combat skills would approach supernatural once her body and mind are upgraded. Being me, this isn't just an Asian fetish sex fantasy. I find her a likely prospect specifically because we met Eito Yamamoto. If she has inherited her grandfather's personality as well as his skills, then she would be enthralled by the prospect of needing to use her swordsmanship in life and death combat. That would make her a good fit for the crew and willing to sacrifice some measure of free will for skill, purpose, perfection, and happiness.

If one of the above speculations comes true before we leave, then perhaps we'll see if John can produce enough to transform two girls at once. However I'd be slightly hesitant to try that before Rachel analyzes the process and confirms that it would be safe for each girl to get lower dosages. Only slightly hesitant though, since Progenitor biology seems to be extremely versatile and robust. I expect it would work perfectly.

First thing first, as this story is evolving you keep doing a good work, and while the start was good, you are improving over that with time. Having a decent plot and not just mindless sex puts it high in literotica list, the execution places it high enough to be between the best (literotica or not). As an avid SciFi reader I've read a lot of commercially published stories that aren't this good.

Whether you decide to "recruit" Jehanna or not, she could request to join the crew temporarily, with her team, for a extended coverage about the life of the recent hero crew.

Given the relation between John and the Federation, they may want to request (or try to impose now that they have made him a publicly known Commodore) a small team to join the Invictus (maybe some marines?) or an officer to act as liaison, and make John decide how far he wants their involvement with the federation to go.

For future allies, they could attend a distress call while en route to somewhere, and either rescue the crew from a failing ship, rescue the ship from attackers and escort them during repairs, or carry (if it's a small ship, tug if it's a big ship) them to a safe port. The rescued people doesn't need to join the Invictus necessarily. They could be a species/race/people who believe in paying life debts (even if they are part of the federation, not all people have to share the same culture), and come back at some point to fight alongside the Invictus.

One thing I notices reading comments and your answers is that you tend to use parts of what we suggest, and say so yourself. When you say you will use something, it reduces the anticipation since we know it's going to happen. You may want to answer in a more ambiguous way (I may use this, I'll think about this, maybe...) so that you don't give away the future plot, and so that you don't get tied to an idea you may like initially but then can't fit in the story in a way you like.

And last, but not least, remember this is YOUR story, a story you started without our input. No matter how good or bad our suggestions are, if you like it or find inspiration in something we say, make it yours and adapt it to your liking and your style. Keep the story YOURS

MORE!!!!!!!

Why is he engaging the services of a Japanese sword master practitioner, when if I remember correctly, his sword is more of a European design. The techniques of one doesn't exactly translate to the other, so you would think that he would want someone who is versed in European martial arts not necessarily one in various other martial doctrines. That said I think this is an amazing story!

Ps I probably should have asked previously, but when the invictium or other psi metal is formed more than once(or twice,etc) how is it recycled? You would hope it isn't that wasteful to not be recyclable?

Reading this chapter I have the feeling that an addition of a male crew member could be interesting, and the Charles' assistant seems to peak the interest of the girls...wonder what John's cum will do to a male?

I won't join in on the discussion about any more crew members, as I don't want to ruin the surprises in store. Feel free to speculate away however. It's quite surprising how close the guesses get sometimes!

@Kazilla122

"Why is he engaging the services of a Japanese sword master practitioner"

I'll go into it more in the next chapter. I did some research into sword fighting techniques, and a lot of them are vary comparable at their core. Hopefully it should all become clearer soon.

"when the invictium or other psi metal is formed more than once(or twice,etc) how is it recycled?"

Alyssa uses psycho-kinesis to melt the armour into a liquid form, which she pulls off the body armour or vehicle. It then hovers in a liquid sphere, until she reshapes it into whatever new form she desires. If too much material has been lost due to battle damage, then she adds more to the mix as she did in previous chapters.

The only time there's any "waste" is when the Invictium has been reshaped more times than she can handle. This happened with the triple shaped black armour that was trashed by the Kintark Royal Guard. In that case, Dana stored the damaged pieces just in case Alyssa might grow more powerful in the future, and she could then make use of it later. A small section of that armour is currently undergoing tests to see how the properties of double, triple and quad shaped Invictium differ from each other.

Thank you once again for a very intriguing chapter.

You have commented that you do not aim to use cliffhangers, but ending this chapter by spilitting one unknown enemy into a contract killer and (obviously) a contract holder is a perfect cliffhanger if ever I read one... ;-). Brilliant!

Furthermore you raised several plot filaments that were not previously or not recently discussed to the fore, causing new speculations about the next direction swing in the plot. Waiting for the next chapter is becoming more and more strenuous, the more your story develops. Please keep writing!!!

Thank you thank you thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More so much more !

Now we have an admiral who spouts John's rank even when she wasn't supposed to. The plot thickens. I still think John should be smarter than just suspecting Charles. Sure, he can't rule out the possibility yet, but Charles is stuck in one place with no surefire way of knowing who he can trust. John is highly mobile and has protection against traitors among his crew. I understand that he can't afford to cut Charles slack yet, but the fact that none of the characters have discussed this aspect at all makes me wonder about how they apply that improved intelligence of theirs.

Keep 'em coming! Any day with a new Three Square Meals chapter in it is an awesome day.

I love what your doing with this. I even recommended it to offend. This is some good work here.

When I saw the new story thread against your name Tefler I was worried that this one was going to end abruptly, thank goodness that it hasn't. A really good story and I check in every few days looking for the next installments.

Not only a good story but spelling and grammar are of a high standard too which adds to the pleasure of reading.

Regarding this story ending: there's still a long way to go yet!

At the current pace, I think there's about another 20 chapters or so before I reach a good place I could stop.

@cayoviolist

I can't readily check right now, but I thought in an earlier chapter I mentioned they were going with a trust no one policy. If they they find out anything either way with Charles, they can react accordingly.

@carcrasher89

" I even recommended it to offend."

Thanks for your message. I'ts great you're really enjoying the story. I wasn't sure what you meant by the quoted line though?

Thit all that's been going on and got started or developed in this chapter, you're making it even harder to wait for the next chapter. Not that I'm complaining. Things are heating up in certain areas and I'm looking forward to new action scenes as well as other things. There's actually much to look forward to, thinking about it. That's what makes the possible middle of a long story really exciting - much to still look forward to. It makes me wonder if you really could warap this up in another 20 chapters, as you mentioned in a comment. I think you might start a riot with not at least giving us about 40 more ... ;-D

That response troubled me also. Then I realized the final word was hit by the curse of auto-correct. It's pretty clear how the sentence should have ended so I won't spoil the answer to the puzzle.

Thanks I get it now. :)

@Teffler: You say, "I think there's about another 20 chapters or so before I reach a good place I could stop." I assume by those words that you mean to end part ONE of the story?

Twenty chapters might barely be sufficient for John to conclude his ship upgrade tour around human space. He still has to meet with the Maliri, Trankaran and Brimorian people. I assume while he's at it, the current trouble with the Trankaran would consume a few chapters. Plus there's the trouble with the mercenary who is after him. Plus who knows trouble will appear when he meets with the Maliri and Brimorians since your apparent philosophy that a trouble-free encounter is slightly boring.

That would conclude the current story arc and I wonder if you can really fit it all into 20 chapters at your current pace of chapters required for story advancement. That will finally lead to the next story arc which begins when he goes to retrace the path of his mother's ship through Kintark space. You've done a good job of selling the Kintark as seriously bad*ss motherf*ck*rs, so I know that won't be an easy journey.

I know you are planning to write another series since you introduced Setting Sail on a Black Sea, but I have to admit that I am loving "Three Square Meals" so much that I am very disappointed to think that there will be many months of break before starting the sequel while you write this other story. Perhaps Setting Sail will end up growing on me. I'll certainly give it a chance. Though I'm disappointed to think that I will have to wait a lot longer before the real conclusion of Three Square Meals.

"That will finally lead to the next story arc which begins when he goes to retrace the path of his mother's ship through Kintark space"

Kirrix space. ;-)

"I know you are planning to write another series since you introduced Setting Sail on a Black Sea"

I'm not in any rush to continue the adventures of Captain Matthew Taylor. The longer I leave that while I think about the plot, the better the story will be. I just felt inspired to write Chapter 1 over a couple of days while I was waiting for my editors to finish with Chapter 37 of Three Square Meals (3SM).

Glad to hear you're not in a hurry though I'm not such a churl that I'd refuse to acknowledge that you need to write the story you yearn to write. It could only hurt your writing to refuse your "muse." Still... I will hope you jump right into the sequel before you turn to S"etting Sail on a Black Sea."

Thanks for pointing out it was Kirrix space. I actually misread that earlier. Oops. The Kirrix sound even more horrible. Shudder!

i love sci-fi and am really enjoying this series

this series has me really hooked , stumbled upon it this week and spent far to much time on my laptop reading it.

john blake ??

with the 8 seats in the raptor & the 8 cyro units / auto docs / various other references to 8 .. one can only hope that we end up with 7 lovely ladies in the crew

( blakes 7 )

names and skills of the various women have me reminiscing on 40 odd years of sci-fi fandom

Alyssa skillset remind me of Ia . hellfire/hardship/damnation

calara reminds me of the Vatta family & trading in danger & also a girl called Longknife

Jade reminds me of a certain shapeshifter in space 1999

sparks / dana ?? well it's a famous trek name. i can't place the female engineer/computer genius skillset

still to early for me to think about Rachel

just hoping that you have maybe done Honor to a famous Honor

as inspiration for crew we have yet to meet... Possibly a girl with a 6 legged pet/companion ???

p.s loved the Interdictor

far as i know that only references my favorite space sim / game

anyhow .. thanks for sharing this story with us , it's totaly made my week

voted 5 stars for each chapter.

off now to spend a few hours this weekend seeing if i can get from dangerous to deadly

xxxTwistedOliverxxx

I've never actually seen blake's 7, apart from the supposedly iconic final scene (which didn't make any sense to me having not watched the rest). When I named the main character, I did wonder if anyone would think there was a connection!

"p.s loved the Interdictor

far as i know that only references my favorite space sim / game"

That and one other game... There's an Interdictor star destroyer in star wars. I remember fighting them in the Xwing game.

I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter!

I've finished chapter 38 which I've submitted to my editors, and I've started on chapter 39 tonight. Hopefully you should get your latest fix soon. :-)

Catherine Shell as Maya. Yes I thought of her from Space 1999 too, as a similar character to Jade. Jade is way cooler, at least now that she is empowered.

I am looking forward to Rachel explaining what Jade is in terms of biology. How she can do her tricks should be fascinating.

First Tefler gives us Lauren all the way back in chapter 19 while giving us a slight glimpse at Jehanna in chapter 20. In all honesty while yes, one could debate that he could take both, keeping Jehanna in front of the cameras and having Jehanna as more of a personal diplomat, it would actually be wiser for John to introduce the girls to Lauren and take her on board as their intergalatic diplomat as Jehanna is such a public figure and suspicions would be raised if she went AWOL for an extended period of time. Also I am still plodding along with a TSM Glossary which covers everything from the Characters to the various vessels that roam open space.

Ah, I wondered if you were still maintaining your TSM Glossary. Hopefully I should have some interesting stuff for you when we move on to the Maliri!

You will probably see it up on the site in about 2 days or so, going by the normal time for approval.

A big thank you to my editors, who have been doing a fantastic job!

2 days and no new stories in this section, minimal in a lot of others, curious what's going.

Have you heard anything on your end Tefler?

I checked this morning and chapter 38 has been approved once, and is just awaiting final moderator approval. I don't have any other info than that I'm afraid, but it will probably be up later today.

I finished chapter 39 too, which is now being edited.

Once in a great while Mondays seem to be a day off here. Not often.... but once in a while. I would think we will see Tefler's fantastic work very soon.

Chapter 38 is now available!

As the title says, fantastic as usual. The quality never drops with you.

I have one nagging problem with this chapter though: the weight of the gatling lasers.

You said they weight two thousand pounds. However, unless there is some sci-fi measurement system that I missed, doesn't that roughly equal a ton? If not, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of him not lifting the crate that weighs exactly that?

The crate with the Raptor engine weighed just over 2000 lbs (one ton), but the Gatling lasers were much lighter.

They are two metres in length, and slightly larger and heavier than the Gatling that Arnie hauls around in Terminator 2. Too big for a person to stroll around with and shoot, but not so heavy that a physically fit and strong man couldn't lift them up onto the back of the anti-grav flatbed with a bit of a struggle.

Sorry if the way I wrote the scene caused some confusion.

I checked and I see the bit you mean (start of page 3). I'll have a look at wording that a little better in an edit. Thanks!

Tefler

They are too fast.

I suspect the ship is so fast that it is throwing off pursuit and making it hard to figure out where they went.

Assassin gets an idea of where they might be but their range is enhanced by speed. When he does track them down they are farther than expected, have been there for days and ready to leave while hunter is on the way. Makes them hard to hunt down.

"Only Rachel had much familiarity with these kind of formal events, and she wasn't going to be the focus of attention."

I would have assumed that Calara would've been even more familiar with these types of ceremonies being a military brat and going to a military academy.

Things are going pretty well for John and crew. John hasn't left to many alive since I've known him. Some one from the mining asstroid, or from fools gold.

Think anyone will notice the similarity of the girls, or do they look different enough ? I'm glad your bringing this up. The problem with Star trek or Star Wars we see the main story as time allows, but there must be a lot of pissed off beings that would like some revenge. I'm hoping 'rogue one' will fit that bill, and yes Capt. Kirk did scuffle a bit, the Kelvins commader I think. She was a Haley Mills look alike.

I've noticed that they have had a dramatic decrease in description and that you only use one word to explain what is going on really, compared to the first 5 chapters the newer ones seem pretty lame in all honestly. You have a real talent for painting a vivid image and its quit saddening that this aspect has gone down in quilty while everything else has gone up so dramaticaly

Unlike the other comment I appreciate the verity in description for the sex scenes. You can only hear about John getting blown so many times before it loses it's impact. The dialogue during the sex scenes has spiced things up dramatically, I was actually getting so drawn into the overall plot that the sex scenes were becoming a speedbump. Your balance has drastically improved as the chapters have progressed.

I was glad to see you introducing a smudge on the oh-too-perfect relationships you've been painting between John and his harem. The girls reactions to his making a will was disconcerting to him, as it should be. I certainly don't want to see everything fall apart, but even this little bit of discord between them was a healthy change of pace.

Geon54 is perfectly right, IMHO.

Gee, I thought Dana had the Ashani replace the main engines in the Raptor with FTL drives.

Rereading earlier chapters is such a treat while waiting for the latest to be posted. Something about going back to the origins of this great epic. Comments about the story lasting more than 20 chapters were amusing.

As for the Invictus and Raptor engines, the FTL drives for hyper-warp speed were replaced by the Grays, not the regular engines. 🚀

Alyssa behaves like a madam in a cheap whorehouse. Now I don’t only skip the sexscenes but also the scenes where Alyssa is involved.

Awards ceremony: gee, I guess the Military wearing their head gear indoors is okay six and half centuries from now. At least it seems to be fine in the TSM Tefler universe, so fine then.

Having someone in your head 24 hours a day and having to constantly police what you think to avoid upsetting them sounds exhausting. No matter how much you like them, everybody needs a little space now and then.

Refer: chapter 35, page 2, John tells Rachel that he expects her to accompany him on dangerous trips off the ship,.. You would have thought that our darling Dana would have whipped up a 28th century, high-tech, little black bag for Doctor Voss, or better yet a hovering crash-cart that automatically follows her around. And its outer shell made of Invectium to provide some emergency cover,.. oh, and maybe something similar to carry some spare ammo and such gear for our heroes, also made highly bullet proof.

🎯

Who painted a bullseyes on John?

Who is this brooding figure?

What kind of trap was set?

Jessica !!! Can they find out what happened to her?

So many questions. New chapter please.

Feeling lonely when you are with friends is a horrible feeling, why didn’t Alyssa feel his sadness? And how does John live with the knowledge that the relations are not equal?

Power Shopping with Alyssa, a will for John and all his new money, an Awards ceremony with medals and a promotion, a TFNN interview and lots of pretty photos... and a nasty bad guy about to cause some trouble... And loads of cum loads... What more could a fan ask for? (Yeah, I know, more space battles...) ... So, until next time, thank you and God Bless... ;-) TTFN

Got this far through the story and I have realised that human civilisation spread through space is far more likely to use metrics than imperial measurements such as feet and inches or pounds, as they are simpler to use This will avoid problems such as NASA ran into by using both types of measurement and losing a Mars probe.

This is after all, Science Fiction, and science uses metrics almost exclusively. It is a bit late for Telfer to change the units of measurement in the story but the measurements do niggle me in a country that got rid of miles, pounds, ounces, feet, inches roods, chains and the rest of the imperial measurements almost 50 years ago. I am sure anyone under 50 years of age here would consider the reintroduction of imperial measurements akin to introducing horses as a replacement for cars

Actually, once John had realized he was in a dream, he should have been able to control said dream. Its called lucid dreaming. Look it up.

No, John can't control a dream if it is not a dream. At this point in the story, the characters think it is not a dream but a psychic assault. It is not just in John's subconscious imagination; it is being influenced by some external evil entity. Even if it were just a dream, controlling a lucid dream is not automatic; it takes practice.

John now knows for sure that the girls' behavior is at least partly determined by the transformation, how can he be seriously happy when they say they love him?

I’ll echo the complaint about the nonsensical units of measurement, apart from North America virtually nobody uses those anymore, even my country that invented them has moved to metric for anything remotely scientific. It’s sci-fi, use metric people!

Who is this Dark stranger? we will soon see I like this it so fast

Who is the brooding figure and who has bought his services? Was Rachel keeping out of the way to hide from her father?

Loved this again.

And not one that he’s fucking…the weight of the discovery that the girls can’t fathom his death underscores how isolated he really is. I assume the behavior is designed o protect the progenitors from being murdered by a subject in their harem…

-- Rachel is going to unearth a few of the mysteries around John's psychic cum, ... and now Commadore John Blake knows two disturbing changes / side effects of the girl's 'change': 1) complete obedience. 2) anguish at even the thought of their master dying, ... He needs to find a way to 'fix' these negative compulsions, ... and how does Dana even have the time for all the stuff she does? ... ;-) TTFN

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Admiral Devereux was a plain looking middle aged woman,

*!! FOR NOW!!*

The epic tale continues, absolutely love this story.Another well thought out and written chapter. I look forward to reading the next. I appreciate your and your Muse's imagination and abilities to bring it to your story. Thank you for sharing your vision and talents.

I love the new and improved 'white' armor, almost as much as Jade does, .... and since Dana / Sparks got her Engineering equipment all set up, she has been super busy, (where does she find the time?), ... as well as being super horny, and jumping on John every chance she has, (such a good girl), .... also, a certain reporter seems to have the hots for our new Commadore, ... and just who the heck is this brooding and dark Asshat that wants John dead? Oh well, more for the following chapters, ...

-- and thank you ranec1 for your little SPOILER:

-- "Admiral Devereux was a plain looking middle aged woman, ...:

*!! FOR NOW!!*,,, ';-) ttfn

another set of *** Spoiler Alerts *** -- the dark and broody Asshat that says "All fall before me, in the end, ..." -- this is a deadly ninja Assassin, a Cyborg named Amatsu Mikaboshi, and he is an absolute tool, .... the galaxy will be a far better place when he is gone, ...

-- also, we will definitely see more of Admiral Lynette Devereux, ... John does seem to enjoy powerful women, ... and after all, she is the one that named John and his girls, 'the Lions', so thanks Lynette, ... ;-) ttfn

patiently waiting for the yellow N

Love the story. Recently noticed it is on Amazon too.

Cringe a bit each time magnets work on exotic materials but I'll live with it.