Three Square Meals Ch. 045

*Fuck!* Alyssa replied, her thoughts becoming more rambling and incoherent as he built her up to a crescendo with his tongue, fingers and words. Her thighs began to tremble, as her body reacted to his touch, and she quivered helplessly as he fucked her with his fingers.

John smiled confidently as he continued, *So when I've finished showing my appreciation to each of you, you're going to kneel in front of me, and stare into my eyes as you suck my cock. I've decided I want to start every morning with one of you blowing me, and you're going to be a good girl, and show them how it's done.*

Alyssa shrieked and bucked under him, her hypersensitive clit sending her body into pleasure overload. John was merciless and kept her pinned down with his left hand on her stomach, while stroking her with his right fingers, and sucking lovingly on her clit. She wailed through her long, drawn-out climax, until he finally relaxed his strong grip and slid his fingers from her overheated pussy. The blonde curled into a ball, and let out a bewildered moan as she reeled from such a strong climax. John threw back the covers and sat up, beaming a broad smile of satisfaction at the titanic orgasm he had brought forth from his blonde lover.

Four more beautiful young faces stared at him with excitement, and he asked them playfully, "So, who wants to go next?"

***

John spent a very enjoyable couple of hours showing just how grateful he was to Alyssa, Calara and Jade for saving his life, to Rachel for making the discovery about the psychic healing, and to Dana, because he always loved showing her his appreciation. He was as good as his word, and he resisted the urge to fuck any of the gorgeous girls, no matter how much they begged and pleaded as they writhed on his tongue. He finally finished with all of them kneeling on the floor at the foot of the bed, staring up at him with flushed, aroused faces, while Alyssa worshipped his cock.

*This isn't a game now,* Alyssa told him lovingly as she sank his cock down her throat. *No one's pretending this time, we're all completely devoted to you.*

He stared into their eyes as they gazed up at him adoringly, and as he went from shining emerald, to sky blue, deep dark brown, stormy grey, and back to Alyssa's piercing cerulean, he could see that she was telling the truth. For the first time, he truly accepted the complex symbiotic relationship he had built with each of these amazing women, and his own place as their leader.

*As our Lion,* Alyssa corrected him, her voice ringing with satisfaction and triumph. *We're your pride of beautiful lionesses.*

He stared into her eyes for as long as he could manage, but eventually the blinding intensity of that look was too much for him to take. He let out a roar as his quad blasted a huge load down her rippling throat, and she moaned with delight as she sucked him hungrily.

They showered together afterwards, with the girls all wearing blissful smiles as they lathered up, and got each other clean. Alyssa's belly was enormously rounded with the heavy weight of his cum resting in her stomach, and she let out happy little sighs as they lovingly stroked her swollen tummy. It was ten in the morning by the time they finished showering, got dressed, eaten breakfast, and were ready to start the day. They sat around the dining table, drinking coffee as they discussed their plans.

"We're meeting Irillith at noon," John reminded them. "So we've got a couple of hours to kill before we rendezvous with her. Plans everyone?"

"Field test!" Dana and Calara exclaimed exuberantly at the same time.

The others laughed at their eagerness to test the new upgrades to the Invictus, but they could all feel the same sense of excitement.

Alyssa looked at John, and said enthusiastically, "We're right near the border to Terran Space. Quick detour to go and murder some asteroids? There's a belt of them nearby, so it'll only take twenty minutes to get there."

"It does seem to have become a tradition," John agreed with a grin. "Let's go and gallantly vanquish some hunks of rock!"

They all stood and strolled briskly out of the Officers' Lounge, then stepped into the grav-tube, so they could float up to the Command Deck. Everyone fanned out immediately to take their places on the Bridge, and John couldn't help but grin at what a well-oiled machine his crew had become.

"Take us out of here, XO," he said to Alyssa.

She smiled at him, with a mischievous glint in her eyes, and then looked over her console at the Pilot's Station directly in front and below them. "You heard the Commodore. Prep for takeoff, Jade," she said to the Nymph.

The green-skinned alien girl grinned at the two of them on the Command Podium, before turning back to the console in front of her.

Rachel glanced up at them from the Comms Station, and informed them promptly, "Clearance granted to leave the Docking Bay."

John nodded to the brunette approvingly, and sat back in the Command Chair, watching Jade at work. She had an air of confidence about her as she used retro-thrusters to lift the Invictus off the deck, easing them smoothly and cleanly out of the Geniya Space Station. Once the five hundred metre long assault cruiser was completely clear of Docking Bay Twenty Four, pivoting gracefully under her skilful hand, she powered up the ship's massive engines, and gently brought them up to port speed.

They cruised away at a steady pace, on a course that led them past 'The Warning', on the way to the Nav Beacon. John couldn't help but glance at the catastrophic damage that had devastated the ancient freighter, and it made him feel ambivalent about their upcoming expedition. Being able to get their hands on such incredible firepower would be a game-changer, but did he really want to expose his ship and crew to potentially hostile ships that could wreak such destruction? He looked down at the normally exuberant Nymph, who was staring intently at the console in front of her, her hands moving precisely over the controls as she piloted their ship with great care.

"Textbook departure Jade, well done," he praised her, and she beamed a delighted smile at him as she transferred control of the Invictus to Alyssa.

His beautiful blonde Executive Officer had brought up the local sector map, and had already plotted a course for them to travel to the asteroid belt she had mentioned. The ship was swathed in a blue aura for a moment, before the Tachyon drive surged into life, and launched them into hyper-warp.

Dana rubbed her hands together with glee and said, "Alrighty then! Time to see if you guys managed to install the sensor array correctly!"

John laughed apprehensively and admitted, "I'm actually feeling nervous! I hope I didn't let you down, Chief Engineer."

She smiled at him affectionately, and her mouth widened into a massive grin when the sensors began to perform the long range scans, displaying the results on the sector map. Information was appearing much further out than John was used to seeing, and he frowned at the map, checking the scale to see if he could figure out just how much they had improved.

"Fuck yeah! You guys aced it!" Dana exclaimed, clapping with delight.

She turned to face one of her consoles, and tapped away on a few buttons, until a moment later a wide ring appeared around the Invictus on the sector map. The size of the ring looked familiar, and John realised that was the distance he usually expected to see contacts on the long range scans.

Dana confirmed it a moment later when she said, "That circle shows you the long range sensor radius we had on our shitty old Terran Federation sensors." She tapped a couple more buttons and a new circle appeared, but this one now encompassed a vast amount of space. "This is our new sensor radius. Nearly four times bigger!" she added, looking overjoyed.

Calara stared up at the screen in awe, and said, "The tactical advantage this gives us is immense! Unless the enemy has some form of cloaking device, we'll be able to get the jump on practically anyone."

Dana sat up and told them all proudly, "You guys did a great job installing that sensor array. It must have been a real chore to finish, but it's performing perfectly. Thanks for mucking in everyone."

They smiled at her gratefully, and she turned back to her console, looking very excited once again. "Okay, so that's one badass upgrade out the way! Let's fire up the shields!" she said eagerly.

With the press of a button, the shields on the Invictus were activated, enveloping the assault cruiser in their protective embrace. John and the other girls waited with eager anticipation, but the damage control hologram looked exactly the same as before, with the Invictus swathed in shields, depicted in green.

Dana turned to face them looking bashful. "Well, that one wasn't quite so visually impressive," she said jerking a thumb at the holographic representation of the ship.

John smiled at her and said, "Not to worry, we can't be wowed by everything. Is the new shield modulator working as you hoped?"

She smiled back and nodded. "It took a few hours for the mass fabricators to crank out all the parts I needed, so I had a bit of time to kill and made a few tweaks to the design. I managed to lower the power draw, not because it's an issue for us, what with our Ashanath power core, but it just wasn't efficient and I couldn't leave it like that. I also slightly improved the stabilisation effects of the modulator, so our overall shield strength has been boosted by nearly eighty percent," she explained helpfully.

Calara grinned at the redhead, and said excitedly, "Well, that wowed me! Almost doubling our shield strength is a phenomenal upgrade to our survivability!"

Dana smiled at her joyfully, and nodded as she said, "We'll be able to take quite a battering! But unfortunately it won't do anything for the shield recharge rates. If we lose our shields, it's going to take a long time to regenerate them all back up to full strength again."

John shrugged, and said, "Well the main thing is it's a huge increase in shield power. That could give us more time to survive an ambush and fight back, for example." He then grinned at her and said appreciatively, "Superb work as usual, Dana."

She returned his happy grin, and then they all turned to look at the sector map, which showed that they were fast approaching the system with the asteroid belt they were planning to pulverise. The Invictus raced into the system and the safety protocols kicked in, dropping them out of hyper-warp before they got too close to any gravity wells, but near enough to the field of unwitting chunks of rock.

"Bring us within weapon range," John said to Jade, and she nodded firmly as she carried out his orders.

Calara took a deep breath, and then powered up the gunnery chair for the Tactical Station. There was a bass hum of power as the lights came to life around her, and with a click of a button the holographic targeting matrix appeared, casting a soft blue glow over that corner of the Bridge.

They could see at once there had been major changes. Calara was now positioned inside the interface with a holographic shell surrounding her, rather than just a glowing panel in front of her eyes. The softly glowing blue sphere curved out from both sides of her chair, and she sat at the rear end of the globe, with a holographic representation of the Invictus directly in front of her. She pressed a button activating the ship's weapons, and the armoured sections of hull plating slid back, revealing the lengthy barrels beneath. As each of the gun batteries came online, the weapon controls in her hands began to illuminate, the buttons beneath her fingers flickering before glowing brightly.

Firing arcs were shown on the holographic sphere, displaying the fields of fire for each of the different ship based weapons at her disposal. The Mass Drivers and Beam Lasers could only face forward, with narrow, but very long fire arcs. In contrast, the laser cannons and the Gatling lasers were all turreted, and their numerous overlapping fields of fire criss-crossed each other in a complex latticework of broad cones.

"Everything looks good with the weapon integration to Fire Control," Calara said to Dana, before carefully moving the weapon controls in her hands. "All weapons are fully active and tracking correctly."

They could see the fire arcs shifting as Calara moved each hand, the dozens of weapons responding to every movement.

Dana nodded, and then turned to her console, before replying, "Hooking up the data from the sensor array, and feeding it to the Fire Control System."

The faintly glowing blue sphere flickered briefly, and then just like that, it was as if Calara was floating in the middle of the asteroid belt. Exact replicas of each hunk of rock were faithfully displayed; from tiny ones no larger than a man's head, to the absolutely enormous ones that were as big as the ship, all shown spinning and drifting gently.

"I'm picking up the local objects. Now testing the data overlay and optical targeting," Calara informed them calmly.

She activated a control, and all the asteroids in the vicinity were immediately tagged with a variety of information from velocity to heading. As none of the asteroids were shielded, all the information was displayed in red. The Latina glanced at each potential target, cycling through dozens in seconds, and leaving each one displaying a targeting reticle.

"OK, commencing fire test," Calara said, her eyes shining with anticipation.

Calara lined up the front weapons on the hulking rock formations in front of the assault cruiser, and began to go to work. She pressed both thumb buttons on each control, and the ship trembled as the two hundred metre long magnetic rails accelerated the heavy shells to hyper-warp. The shells slammed into the huge asteroids ahead of them, which exploded in a tremendous explosion a moment later, sending smaller chunks ricocheting off their untouched compatriots. By that time, she had quickly moved on to the next set of rocks with the Beam lasers. She carefully activated the port and starboard weapons, sending coruscating lances of energy into several more asteroids, and slicing them in half.

Next she opened up with the laser cannons, and laser bolts arced out before slamming into the smaller remnants of the shattered asteroids, blasting them into tiny chunks. Finally she pressed a button on the control, and unleashed the defence grid that vaporised the rest, leaving a glowing field of gravel in their wake.

"Very impressive field test," John said nodding appreciatively. "It looks like the new Fire Control System has connected seamlessly to the Invictus' weapons and sensor array."

Dana bounced up and down in her chair excitedly, and clapped with delight as she cheered, "Yay! It all worked perfectly!"

They all looked at Calara, expecting her to have an equally jubilant reaction, but instead they were surprised to see her sitting quietly, staring off into the distance.

"Calara? Are you alright?" John asked her with concern.

The brunette didn't answer, as she was far too absorbed in her introspection. The fire test had felt like she was just going through the motions, and as improved as the new system was, it still felt horribly sluggish. She knew she was capable of so much more.

Calara darted a fevered glance towards Dana and said sharply, "Increase the sensitivity of the weapon controls by five hundred percent." She then turned to look at Jade and said, "Take us deeper into the field."

John and Alyssa darted concerned looks at one another, while Dana looked shocked for a moment at her friend's abrupt command, before hurrying to obey the Latina's orders. Jade powered up the engines, and pushed the Invictus forward, sending them further into the vast field of tumbling asteroids.

Calara cracked her knuckles, before taking hold of the weapon controls once more. They felt fluid at last, and moved effortlessly as though extensions of her own arms. She thought back to something Dana had said yesterday, "Just relax, and let it flow through you," and she closed her eyes, letting go of the rigid self-control she normally maintained.

When she slowly opened her eyes once more, everything seemed sharper, and she knew that she was ready. She focused purely on the targets, letting her remarkable mind guide her hands by instinct alone. She took a deep breath and then unleashed the full firepower of the assault cruiser.

Everyone else on the Bridge watched in open-mouthed amazement, as Calara's fingers danced over the triggers on the weapon controls like a concert pianist performing a masterpiece. The Invictus continued drifting through the asteroid belt, as orange laser bolts, pulsating beams of energy, and heavy shells poured out in an unending stream of destruction. Her hands were moving independently of each other, controlling both the port and starboard mounted weapons simultaneously, as she ripped through the asteroids. She alternated between ruthlessly eliminating target after target on both sides of them, and ploughing a path directly ahead with the front facing heavy weapons. She timed the weapon cooldowns and recharge times to perfection, maximising the damage output of the ship.

"You're using the same technique Dana does," Rachel said in awe, "concentrating on multiple complex tasks at the same time!"

Calara flashed a grin at the redhead sitting on the opposite side of the Bridge to her and said, "She gave me a few pointers."

The Latina ceased firing, and the Nymph brought them to a gentle stop, pausing at the head of a long trail of devastation torn through the asteroid belt.

"I've never seen anything like it!" John marvelled. "It was like you were using all the weapons at the same time! I couldn't even tell what you were firing at half the time."

Calara deactivated the ship's weapons, covering them behind the Invictus' protective armour plating once more, and she blushed slightly as she looked around at her shipmate's awed faces.

"Where did that come from?" Alyssa asked the Latina, looking astonished.

The brunette shrugged and said, "I guess it's been building for a while now. Maybe that's why I was feeling so constrained by the old Gunnery controls."

"Well, I think you proved the new interface kicks ass," Dana said with a grin. "And that you do too!"

John agreed, nodding his appreciation. "Well done everyone, that was one hell of a show. Let's make our way back to Geniya Station now, and get ready for the rendezvous with Irillith."

Alyssa smiled wryly as she said, "She doesn't strike me as the kind of girl who likes people turning up fashionably late."

John laughed and said, "I think you're probably right. Jade, take us out of here please."

The Nymph leapt to follow his order, and she brought the Invictus around in a tight arc, before travelling out of the asteroid belt back the way they came. They admired Calara's handiwork on the way out, amazed at how total the destruction was through the floating rocks, in a broad path as wide as the firing range of the laser cannons.

Soon they were clear of the hazardous asteroid field, and Alyssa plotted them a route back to Geniya Space Station, the green line of her flight path on the Sector Map showing the trail through the intervening systems. She powered up the Tachyon drive, and they jumped into hyper-warp, racing at incredible speed across the huge distances between the stars. The twenty minute journey passed by in the blink of an eye, with them all chatting animatedly about the upgrades to the ship, so it almost came as a surprise when they eventually arrived in the Theta-Aquarii system.

The passive sensors almost instantaneously populated the Tactical Map with detailed information on every ship in the system, as the incredibly sensitive sensor array went to work.