Three Square Meals Ch. 039

The robotic staff had been extremely busy, preparing a wide variety of fruits for them to enjoy, as well as cooked sausages, eggs and lots of toast. After they had chosen their breakfast, they stood around in confusion for a moment, not seeing any chairs.

"This way, Sir," Rupert told John, and then rolled silently up to the windows which slid open automatically for the automaton.

Following behind, they saw that there was a gentle ramp that led down to a sun terrace by the main beach. There were tables and chairs set up here, with cool shade provided by spotlessly clean, overhanging parasols. John glanced up, and realised that they were now directly below their bedroom, which hung out from the cliff face, sixty feet above them. They settled in the chairs, sipping iced drinks brought to them by the butler and his staff, while tucking into their delicious breakfast.

"This place is unbelievable," Calara murmured as she sipped her drink, and lounged back in her reclining chair.

"I don't think I've ever felt this relaxed," Alyssa agreed, as she took dainty bites of a slice of pineapple.

"I've been on some exotic vacations before, but this tops them all," Rachel conceded. She had already had a big meal that morning, but the food prepared by the Oceanus robotic staff looked so good, she had assembled a small plate of things to try.

John let out a big sigh, as he finished his cooked breakfast and then sagged back into his chair, making it recline like Calara had done. "I could get used to this," he said with a contented chuckle.

The only one who hadn't said anything was Dana, who was busying eating, but kept glancing back at the door longingly from time to time.

"What's up honey, not having a good time?" John asked her when he noticed she had stayed quiet.

"Oh, sorry! I was a bit distracted," the redhead apologised, flushing a little with embarrassment.

Alyssa grinned at her old friend, and shook her head affectionately. "She can't keep her mind off her research projects. Playing with all the toys you've given her is basically a 24/7 vacation for our lovely Chief Engineer," she explained with a look of amusement.

Dana looked sheepish, and when John looked at her, she nodded. "I can't help it! There's so much awesome stuff I'm itching to research and build!" she said eagerly.

"Well it's your holiday, and I want you to do whatever makes you happy," he told her indulgently. "Just make sure you join us for mealtimes though, okay?"

"You're the best!" Dana said with a grin, and then wolfed down the rest of her breakfast.

She got up, and walked over to kiss him affectionately before turning to leave. Rachel stood too, and walked over to join her friend.

"I'll keep you company, if that's okay? I'd like to start looking at the test results," the brunette said with a smile.

Dana nodded happily, and the two girls walked hand-in-hand back up to the building.

"And then there were three," Calara joked.

"Two in a moment. I have my first sword training session this morning," John said apologetically.

"I don't know how we'll cope on our own!" Alyssa said melodramatically, as she reclined in her chair and sipped a fruit cocktail.

Calara giggled and John joined her with a big laugh too. He finished his iced drink and then stood and stretched, looking out over the sea.

"I'll tell her to be back for dinner," Alyssa told him, picking up on his worry about the missing Nymph.

"Thanks, honey," John said, as he glanced back at the blonde and smiled. "Could you also please make sure everyone puts in a hour or two on the firing range."

"I'll have them all turned into lethal killing machines before we leave," she replied jovially.

"I don't doubt you for a minute," John laughed, and then walked over to give her and Calara a kiss before heading up the slope to return to the building.

Alyssa and Calara waved him goodbye, and then lay back in the warm glow of the sun, and sighed contentedly.

***

John walked into the training room and over to the console on the simulation device. He brought up the comm interface, and selected Eito Yamamoto from the list of contacts, the call going through a moment later.

The stern faced man answered the call almost immediately. "Good. You have your equipment?" he asked curtly.

"Yes, Mr Yamamoto, or should I call you Sensei?" John asked curiously.

"Call me, Yamamoto," the other man replied, then turned to a device out of shot of the viewscreen.

He pressed a few buttons, and the simulation system that had been set up in the room flashed with a blinking green light. John walked over to it and pressed the button, and the device hummed happily to itself for a moment, establishing a real-time connection with the simulation machine owned by Yamamoto. Affixed to the outside of the resort, a massively powerful and exceedingly expensive pulse generator kicked in, enabling an instantaneous relay of the signals between John and his trainer.

The flashing green light turned a solid green, and then the room seemed to transform, the walls and floor changing before his eyes as a sophisticated holographic environment was created. John turned to look out at the tranquil location that had sprung into being around him.

They were standing in a open air dojo in the middle of a carefully sculpted garden, the only sound coming from a small stream that gurgled and babbled to itself happily, where it wound its way through the glade. The sun shone brightly overhead, and cherry blossom trees cast a dappled shade over the pristine and carefully manicured lawn, which had not a blade of grass out of place. The dojo overlooked a square area set in the ground, that was surrounded on all sides by a tiny green fence, and contained thousands of identical, perfectly rounded white stones. The pale stones had been carefully positioned, and posed to look like the surging waves of the sea, with a single onyx stone at the crest of the wave.

The scene made him feel at peace, and he turned to face his trainer with a smile on his face. Yamamoto was wearing a black hakama, that was belted at the waist, but left his chest bare, and revealed a finely chiselled torso.

"Choose your blade," he said to John, gesturing with his hand towards the practice swords.

John walked over to the weapons, and picked up the Odachi he had practiced with earlier.

"This is closest in size to the weapon I fight with," he explained as he walked back to face the other man.

"Attack me," Yamamoto instructed him, as he stepped back and placed his hand on the hilt of the long katana that was sheathed at his waist.

John nodded, lifted the Odachi over his head with both hands, and stepped forward with a sailing overhead chop. The Katana in Yamamoto's hand flashed out of its sheath and harmlessly deflected the stroke, with the perfect ringing note of steel against steel. The swordmaster did not counter attack, and waited patiently while John followed up with one overhead blow after another, the long blade moving in a figure of eight as John slashed down with it, with an over-the-shoulder blow from one side and then the other.

Finally Yamamoto had seen enough, and he stepped back and sheathed his blade with a deep sigh.

"You're attacking with a sword, not a baseball bat!" he snorted in disgust. "How have you managed to kill anyone fighting like that?" he asked John dubiously.

"I'm stronger than I look," John replied with a smile.

"Your strength will do you no good here, only speed and skill," Yamamoto replied dismissively. "Now pay attention. I will teach you the Kata."

***

Jade swam lazily through the currents, gliding along in the water. Being a shark had been lots of fun, and terrifying the reef fish had been extremely entertaining, but she was starting to feel a little lonely. Having been around John and the girls for the last several weeks, she realised she had become used to their constant presence, and she was missing their friendly chatter. She was just about to head back to the island, when a pod of dolphins swam by, circling her cautiously as if trying to fathom out exactly what she was.

She heard the clicks of sonar coming from the sleek aquatic mammals, and she realised that they were attempting to communicate with her. Unfortunately the shark form was not equipped with the specialised larynx and air sacs needed to respond, so she was about to turn around sadly and return home, when something stopped her.

"Go wild," John's voice urged her, seeming to echo in her mind, and she studied the nearby dolphins with a much sharper eye.

She could feel that surging need to change welling up inside her, and she surrendered to it once again, her shark body shimmering in a green haze. Jade pushed her body into the new form she had in mind, that of a green bottlenose dolphin, and she grew smaller and more compact as she adopted that shape. Finally she was done, and with an effortless flick of her tail she surged towards the surface and flipped out of the water, before diving back down joyfully beneath the surface. The sonar clicks came through stronger now as the other dolphins swam closer, and Jade let her new body respond instinctively.

"Hello," she said tentatively, in what she hoped was a friendly tone.

The pod of dolphins surged around her, nudging her gently before racing away. Their clicks and sounds suddenly began to make sense, and Jade grinned with glee.

"You're so pretty! I've never seen a green dolphin before!"

"We're going to hunt some herring, come and play!"

"How fast can you swim? I bet I can swim faster!"

Letting out a delighted dolphin giggle, Jade surged along with her new podmates, racing away under the waves.

***

Dana grinned excitedly as she pressed a button, and fired the stationary laser at the piece of black double shaped Invictium, that she fixed securely in place. The floating display to her side began to fill with data as the effect of the solid beam of light was recorded. She nodded with satisfaction at the results, seeing nothing particularly unexpected. Ashanath Engineer Zanthus had explained that double shaping Etherium made that alloy grow much tougher, and Invictium had followed the same behaviour, becoming more resilient too. Poring through the results, it looked as though the reflective nature of the Invictium had increased slightly as well, which was a handy bonus.

"That can't be possible..." Rachel murmured distractedly to her side.

Dana stood up straight and clicked her back, then turned to glance over at Rachel, who was working beside her on the raised dais in the Engineering Bay. The brunette had asked if she could keep her company, so Dana had transferred the results of the full-body scans, as well as the blood analysis, over to a spare console on the Chief Engineer's podium in her workshop. Rachel was staring in wonder at a holographic representation of her double helix DNA, and rotating the complex image by tiny motions of her right hand.

"Found out something interesting?" Dana asked her friend curiously.

Rachel looked up, and blinked owlishly, startled out of her daze. She looked at the redhead, and smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, I was totally absorbed then. Could you repeat the question please?" she replied in her well spoken voice.

"I should be the one apologising, I hate it when my concentration gets broken!" Dana said with a sympathetic grin.

"You're forgiven," Rachel laughed, then looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh right!" Dana said, remembering why she had disturbed the brunette in the first place. "You said something quietly, and it sounded like you had found out something cool?"

Rachel looked at the redhead, and appeared to be torn for a moment. "I said to John that I'd do a big presentation at the end, but I guess this won't hurt," she said with a mischievous grin.

"Now I'm really interested!" Dana said eagerly.

"Well I've been studying these DNA strand samples, that were taken in this morning's round of tests, just before I..." and she paused suddenly, and blushed as she looked at her friend.

"Before you licked all of John's cum from my pussy?" Dana inquired teasingly.

Rachel laughed, and the awkwardness passed. "Yes that's right. You were quite delicious," she said with a smile.

"That's good to know," Dana smirked, then continued, "But, I'm taking you off topic. What did you find out?" she asked Rachel curiously.

"Well as a person gets older, their DNA sequence gets naturally worn and damaged. DNA damage causes age related diseases, and can lead to things like cancer," Rachel explained.

"Damaged DNA equals bad, right, got it..." Dana nodded with a grin.

"Well I've compared today's sample with the sample I took before I had undergone any changes, and the existing DNA damage seems to have been repaired!" Rachel explained, quite astounded.

"We already knew that swallowing John's cum made us heal fast," Dana said, looking puzzled. "Does this tell us something new?"

"If what I suspect is true, then..." Rachel paused, and studied her friend. "Let's just say we'll need to be very discerning about who we invite to our little group," she said, with a mysterious smile.

"Ah, getting your own back with the secrets and mysteries now?" Dana laughed good naturedly.

"It seems only fair," Rachel replied playfully.

They shared friendly grins, and then got back to work.

***

"You are dead," Yamamoto told him coldly, and then stepped back, sheathing his sword.

John groaned with frustration, and then walked back to his starting position on the wooden floor of the dojo. They had been training solidly for the last two hours now, and to say that he found Yamamoto to be a difficult teacher was putting it mildly. The older man had gone through the initial kata that he wanted him to learn, which for someone with many years of martial arts experience like John, came as no surprise at all. However Yamamoto expected perfection in his student, and any slight deviation from the sword stroke was met with an angry flash of the man's blade. The simulation software would then gleefully inform John how he had been decapitated or dismembered.

"Break for lunch, be back here in one hour," the man said curtly, and then disappeared from view as he exited the simulation at his end.

John placed his Odachi next to the Katana on the weapons rack, and then with a sigh, he strolled out of the room to join the others. He found the girls waiting for him in the lounge, and they smiled at him warmly.

"Finding the training tough going?" Alyssa asked him sympathetically, which was mainly for the benefit of the other girls, as she already knew the answer, having listened in on John's thoughts that morning.

"Let's just say he's a difficult man to interact with," John replied with a smile.

"Don't worry, we're going to make you feel all better," she said soothingly, and took his hand and led him around to one of the chairs.

Rachel was kneeling there already, waiting patiently for him, and she flashed him an inviting smile when he sat down.

"Let me get rid of your tension," she purred, and after pulling out his cock from his training trousers, she enveloped the head, and began to blow him with gentle, teasing suction.

"Something to eat?" Calara asked, presenting him with a plate of sandwiches.

John took one, and grinned up at her appreciatively, before his attention was drawn to Dana approaching on his other side.

"Something to drink?" the redhead asked him, bringing the straw of a chilled fruit cocktail to his lips, so that he could take a big drink.

Alyssa stood behind him, and began to massage the tense muscles in his shoulders. "Just relax. We're going to look after you, while Rachel empties your balls," she whispered lovingly in his ear.

John sagged back in his chair and moaned happily as he munched on his sandwich, while the gorgeous brunette between his legs began to step things up a gear.

***

With a heavy heart, Jade clicked and chattered to her new dolphin friends, explaining that she had to return to see her family that evening. They were sad to see her go, but very understanding. She flipped in the water and began to swim to the North, heading on a direct course back to the island where John and the others were staying. The other dolphins turned and swam with her for a while, cavorting around in the water, as they kept pace with her. After much begging and pleading, she agreed to meet with them again tomorrow morning, and she grinned at their antics as they flashed alongside her in the water.

The pod leader, Bigfish, decided that they would accompany her all the way back home, and Jade chittered to him gratefully. He was named sarcastically, after his tall tales of the supposedly huge fish he'd managed to catch when out swimming on his own. Jade had been delighted to find that the dolphins had a great sense of humour, and were always making jokes at their own, or each other's expense. Her name was "Greengills", as the dolphins had said that with her mottled verdant colouring, she looked like a sickly fish.

"Come on, Greengills, I'll race you back," said one of the particularly energetic dolphins, called Seaslug.

"Maybe I'll just use one flipper, then you might have a chance, Seaslug!" she retorted, and they raced away under the waves.

***

The afternoon meant a long session of Kata practice for John, with Yamamoto chastising him with a fatal sword stroke for every misplaced foot, or incorrectly angled strike. Despite the simulator chirpily informing John that he was dead every few minutes, he was finding the instruction quite enlightening. He had no idea what sword fighting technique Yamamoto was teaching him, but it certainly wasn't Kendo. The style emphasised control of the blade, with flickering strikes to maim and disable, then quickly returning to a state of readiness in preparation for the next attack, or to move quickly to the defensive.

On the whole, John found the day extremely productive, and he grinned happily at the end of the session.

"Thanks for today's session Yamamoto, I feel like I learned a huge amount," John said gratefully.

Yamamoto just grunted, and turned away. "Same time tomorrow," he said brusquely, and ended the simulation.

John had to blink a couple of times to readjust as the dojo in the tranquil glade was instantly replaced with the smooth cream coloured walls of the resort's training room. He laughed, and shook his head, before returning his two-handed blade to the rack of swords and exiting the room.

The lounge was currently deserted, and he looked about with surprise, expecting a deluge of scantily clad girls to descend on him.

*We must be spoiling you...* Alyssa teased him mischievously as she read his thoughts.

*Okay, lunch was pretty incredible. I was hoping we had set a new precedent,* he joked back.

He could feel her delight at how great a time he was having with them, and her sense of satisfaction at a job well done. *We're just wrapping up in the firing range, but we'll be with you soon,* she promised him with the telepathic equivalent of a kiss.

*Any sign of Jade yet?* he asked hopefully.

*She'll be back soon,* she replied, mollifying him.

John ascended in the elevator, and turned on the lamp on the mezzanine, before he went into the bathroom to go and take a shower. His body ached from the intensive training today, using muscle groups that he had seldom used before, and never at this level of intensity. The warm water eased the twinges in his tired body, and he stood under the shower head for a long time, just relishing the stream that pattered over his skin.

He eventually roused himself, stepped out of the shower, and took a warm soft towel from the heated rails, which he used to get dry. He strolled out of the bathroom completely naked, and walked into the nearby wardrobe, to get changed. Picking out a white shirt and some light linen trousers, he got dressed, put on some summer shoes, and headed out onto the mezzanine to look for the girls.