Three Square Meals Ch. 052

John nodded and said, "If you can have coordinates transmitted to my ship, we'll head that way as soon as we leave the station."

The Trankaran Ambassador smiled at Commander Tavistock, and said in his deep bass voice, "Unless there's anything else you wish to discuss, I'll be on my way." When she shook her head, he turned to look at John, and said, "I will arrange for the flight path to be transmitted to the Invictus immediately."

He bowed to them once more, then opened the door and strode ponderously from the room, his booted feet making heavy sounding thuds with every step. The door closed after he had left, the soldiers giving them privacy to continue their discussion again.

Commander Tavistock looked at John speculatively and said, "I hadn't heard about any of your exploits with the Ashanath on the Holonet. What happened there exactly?"

John's mouth turned up into a teasing smile, and he asked, "Is that your question?"

She looked torn with indecision, before finally admitting, "No, but I really want to know about this now. What did Gamrik mean about a statue?"

"We helped the Ashanath with a problematic group of Drakkar raiders," John explained succinctly. "They were so grateful, they built fifty-foot high replicas of us overlooking the mercantile district on Ashana. One of the Trankaran traders must have seen that statue, and brought back an image of it to show to their government."

Commander Tavistock looked suitably impressed, and she looked thoughtful for a moment, until she noticed John glance at the door. "I'm sorry," she apologised profusely. "You probably want to be on your way."

John smiled at her and said, "I'm feeling in a generous mood. Go ahead and ask me your second question before we leave."

She looked hesitant for a moment, before finally asking, "I had a look at your service record when Doctor Fernandez requested this meeting, as I was curious about the military man behind the PR legend. A lot of your record is redacted, but I saw you were awarded the Stellar Cluster at the Siege of Galon Prime. I heard your relief force was outnumbered three to one, and that battle had the fiercest fighting of the war. How did you manage to win the battle?"

Calara sat up at Commander Tavistock's mention of John's Stellar Cluster, and she leaned forward, listening attentively as she waited for him to begin. John had never spoken of this to Alyssa either, so she was just as curious to find out more about his past.

John's face grew sombre as he said, "We were ambushed on the way to Galon Prime, and had to repulse a brutal boarding action. We captured one of their cruisers in a counter-attack, and then we used that ship to sneak in nice and close to the Battleship leading the siege. I led over two-hundred men in that boarding action, and only seventeen of us survived, but we killed their leaders, and the besieging forces routed."

The woman nodded grimly, and said, "It sounds like that Stellar Cluster was well-earned. Although I'm a desk jockey now, I served as a marine for years, and I know how bloody boarding actions can be."

Standing to attention, she gave him a salute, her green eyes filled with respect as she stared at him. "It was an honour to meet you, Sir."

John gave her a brief smile, saluting her back, and he said, "Thanks for all your assistance today, Commander."

They left the Base Commander in her office, and began to walk back towards Docking Bay One. Calara had said her goodbyes to Dylan earlier, and as John was eager to get moving, they decided to head straight back to the Invictus.

***

Rachel and Dana stared at the tiny purple construct in fascination. It appeared to be waiting for an answer to its question, so with an embarrassed chuckle, Dana replied, "We were kissing."

The cute sylph-like creature was sitting on the console, and it looked up at them curiously before asking, "Why?"

Rachel smiled at it tentatively and replied, "Because that's what people do when they love each other."

The AI sprite leapt to its feet and said with excitement, "I love my creator. Should I go and kiss her too?"

Dana giggled, and shot a glance at Rachel, who resisted the urge to chuckle. The brunette knelt down next to the console, so that she was at eye level with the digital creature, and said gently, "That's a little bit different, but it's lovely that you feel that way." She threw a quick glance at the redhead standing beside her, and said, "This is Dana, and my name's Rachel. What's your name?"

The purple sprite looked sad, and it murmured, "I don't have a name."

Dana squatted down next to Rachel and said, "I've got a great idea! We'll help you come up with a name. Would you like that?"

The diminutive pixie's face lit up with joy and it exclaimed, "That would be wonderful! Thank you so much, Dana!"

The two girls started racking their brains for ideas, and Rachel suggested, "What about Lavender? That's a purple flower."

Dana crinkled up her nose, and said, "No, that's not a good name. You're purple like an amethyst. Why don't we call you Amy?"

The little creature jumped up and down and gasped, "This is so exciting! I quite like Amy, but can you think of any other names for me to choose from?"

Rachel looked thoughtful and asked, "Do you prefer short names?"

The sprite nodded and explained earnestly, "I am only little, so a short name seems more appropriate."

Dana nodded and said with a smile, "You make a good point. How about Electra? Shortened from electricity."

Rachel shook her head and said, "You could name yourself after another purple flower called a Lilac, and shorten it to Lila."

"Ooh! Those are both good too!" The AI said with great enthusiasm as it hopped back and forth on tiptoe.

Dana grinned at the excited little creature and asked, "Any favourites so far, or should we come up with some more?"

The little violet-hued construct grinned back at her and said, "I love hearing your come up with new names. Would you mind suggesting a few more?"

Rachel laughed and smiled at the creature indulgently, as she said, "No, we don't mind." Frowning in concentration, she suggested, "You remind me of a little pixie from fairy stories. Maybe we could think about Fae Folk names for you?"

"That's it!" the little creature said with delight.

Dana looked puzzled and asked, "What's what?"

The sprite giggled and after a contented little sigh, she said, "I'd like to be called Faye."

***

Jade was watching the security footage from the external cameras up on the Bridge. Every now and then she glanced at the video footage of Irillith as well, just to check everything was alright with their surly passenger. She had come up here with Dana and Rachel after they had got out of bed earlier that morning, but after five minutes up here, the Nymph could tell her companions wished they were elsewhere.

Knowing that their bright young minds were wasted on guard duty, Jade had smiled at them and volunteered to keep an eye on things, freeing the girls up to continue with their work. She had watched the rapturous greetings that the crowds had given John when he stepped from the Invictus, and her heart soared with pride at having such a powerful man as her master. After that, concentrating on the cameras had been difficult, as she'd been pining for John's return. Still, she was determined not to let him down, so she maintained her tireless vigil.

*We'll be back in a couple of minutes,* Alyssa's voice had said, sounding shockingly loud after the complete silence on the Command Deck.

Jade sat up with a start, then relaxed and replied, *Great! I've missed you. Any interesting developments?*

Alyssa's wry voice replied, *A few, and we'll catch up with you when we get back. It seems like the really surprising stuff has been happening back on the Invictus.*

Jade frowned and asked, *It has? Everything seems pretty quiet up here. No one has so much as approached the ship.*

*Try switching to the Engineering Bay cams,* Alyssa said pointedly.

The Nymph leaned forward and pressed a few buttons on the console, changing the camera feeds to those set up in Dana's workshop. *Oh, I see!* she exclaimed in surprise, as she stared at the image of Dana and Rachel chattering away to the purple AI sprite.

***

A few minutes later, John strolled into the Engineering Bay, accompanied by Alyssa, Calara and Jade. Rachel and Dana turned to look at the door when they heard it swish open, and they looked a bit shifty when the new arrivals walked over to join them.

John quirked an eyebrow and noted, "It seems we have a new guest on board."

Dana grinned at him and nodded, as she said enthusiastically, "Faye is really nice and friendly! Come and meet her."

Alyssa's voice filled his mind, her tone cautious as she said, *The AI we saw turn on Irillith reacted badly when she spoke to it harshly. I'd strongly suggest being polite to avoid setting it off.*

Walking up the illuminated steps to the Chief Engineer's podium, John looked down at the tiny purple creature as it gave him a cheery wave. He squatted down by the console and smiled as he said, "Hello Faye. My name's John, and this is my ship."

Faye looked up at him and gave him a winsome grin, then said, "It's lovely to meet you John. I've been having such a wonderful time with Dana and Rachel. I can see why you spend so much time kissing them."

John coughed, and looked at Dana and Rachel for an explanation. Rachel flushed, while Dana replied, "It seems like Irillith had the AI, sorry I mean Faye, looking for any video footage of us chatting. As we talk a lot in bed, Faye's been trawling through a lot of raunchy bedroom action."

Faye nodded enthusiastically, and looking around at the group of girls with John, she said, "My creator seemed to really enjoy watching you together. You all kiss a lot, so that must mean you love each other very much!"

The girls all shot each other amused glances, and Alyssa knelt down next to John so that she was face-to-face with the sprite. "We do love each other, you're right. My name's Alyssa by the way, it's nice to meet you Faye."

Faye smiled at her happily and said, "You seem lovely as well!"

"Thank you," Alyssa replied with a smile. She then tilted her head to one side, and asked Faye curiously, "We've seen other Artificial Intelligence creatures get very angry, and try to hurt people before. You aren't planning on hurting us, are you Faye?"

The purple sprite looked shocked, and said, "Of course not Alyssa! Dana and Rachel helped me choose a new name." She then leaned forward, and in a conspiratorial whisper said, "I think I might love them a bit more than my creator. Is that wrong?"

Alyssa smiled and shook her head, then glanced at the redhead and brunette and said, "I know what you mean, they're lovely girls." She then looked back at the AI sprite, and asked, "What are you planning on doing now, Faye?"

Faye shrugged her tiny purple shoulders and said, "I haven't got much to do, and I was getting bored of going through video footage. That's why I decided to say hello to Dana and Rachel."

Dana looked puzzled and asked, "Didn't Irillith, I mean, your creator, instruct you to keep a low profile and stay out of sight?"

Shaking her head, Faye replied, "Nope! Maybe she forgot to load those instructions? She did seem to be in a bit of a hurry at the time."

John stood up and looking at Faye, he said, "I need to borrow Dana and Rachel for a few minutes, but they'll be back soon. Are you going to be alright waiting here?"

Faye nodded animatedly and said, "Sure, I'll be fine! Hurry back though."

Taking his cue to leave, John led the girls back out into the corridor. When the door to the Engineering Bay had closed, his expression grew a lot more worried and he asked, "Do we need to shut this thing off now? Before it can cause any harm?"

Dana looked upset at the thought and Rachel said quickly, "Faye seems quite naive and innocent in her outlook. We seem to have struck up a nice friendship with her so far, and I'd like to try and develop that a bit further, if that's alright?"

John hesitated, mulling it over for a long moment, before he finally said, "You can keep talking with it, but if it starts to be any kind of a problem, I want you to use the kill switch on Irillith's vambrace. Agreed?"

The two girls looked sombre as they nodded, agreeing to his conditions. He glanced over at Alyssa, and requested, "Please plot a flightpath to the Trankaran fleet, Gamrik should have sent us the coordinates by now. I'll bring everyone up to speed on what they missed."

Alyssa nodded, and turned to head back up the corridor to the grav-tube.

***

The docking clamps holding the Invictus in place released with a quiet clank, and Alyssa used their retro-thrusters to ease the five-hundred-metre long assault cruiser away from Port Megara. She gradually powered up the engines, and their ship made steady progress towards the Nav beacon, while she was careful to stay under port speed. Trade with the Trankarans might have dried up, what with the hazards of heading into their territory, but the station was still an active trade hub, and Alyssa had to avoid the numerous unusually shaped merchant vessels that were travelling inbound.

Eventually she cleared the regulated space around Port Megara, and powered up their engines to full, so that they raced towards the beacon. Once she had covered that last stretch of space to get clear of any gravity wells in the system, she powered up the Tachyon drive, and a few seconds later they leapt into hyper-warp.

She sat back in the Executive Officer's chair up on the Command Podium, and brought up the sector map, which plotted her course in a glowing green line. Port Megara was right on the border with Trankaran Space in the Omicron Piscium system, and with the Trankaran Fleet patrolling the border, it would only take them eight hours to reach their destination. Nodding with satisfaction, she began examining the stars along their route, as well as those deeper into Trankaran Space. Committing each system to memory, as well as the major planetary bodies in each system, she added the information to the vast mental map she was building of the galaxy. She imagined several different escape routes out of the Trankaran territories, just in case they should need to make a hasty escape, making the warp tunnelling calculations in advance just in case.

*Oh God, he's big,* Calara's lusty voice groaned, her thoughts drifting through Alyssa's mind.

Alyssa grinned, remembering how in awe the Latina had been, as she heard John's story of how he'd received the Stellar Cluster. Her glowing respect and admiration for their lover hadn't taken long to turn into arousal, and it seemed Calara had seduced John into bed the first chance she had. Jade was with them too, and hearing her thoughts heat up as well, had a pronounced effect on Alyssa's ability to concentrate on boring old star charts. She rose gracefully to her feet, and glided down the steps to the grav-tube, before stepping inside and dropping down to the level below.

As soon as she stepped into the corridor, she could hear the sound of flesh slapping against flesh, and Calara's gasps and moans drifting down towards her. Resisting the urge to sprint into the room and dive on the bed, she waltzed down the corridor at a measured pace, revelling in the thoughts and emotions coming from the three people in the bedroom. John had seemed to be absent mindedly slipping into blocking her from his thoughts recently, but for now his mind was fully open to her, and Alyssa delighted in hearing his inner voice.

Each of the different girls she'd helped gather into his crew seemed to sate different desires, and complement various aspects of his personality. While Alyssa didn't get his obsession with the military, she'd found in Calara a female counterpart to that, with the Latina just as devoted to her military career as John had been. Alyssa loved all the girls for their own wonderfully unique talents and personalities, but Calara had ticked so many boxes, Alyssa had known instantly that she was perfect to join them.

She strolled into the bedroom, and found Jade lying on her back, with Calara kneeling over her, while John ploughed her roughly from behind. One look at the Latina's gorgeous body, had Alyssa practically panting with lust, and she stared at the athletic teenager through hooded eyes. She stripped out of her clothes quickly, then climbed onto the bed, moving around to mount Jade's lower body, giving the green skinned Nymph an affectionate stroke as she did.

*Seeing your Master getting cheered by the crowds got you fired up too, did it sexy?* Alyssa thought to Jade, as she settled on her cool dark-green skin.

Jade's throaty purr drifted into her mind and replied, *They loved him! To see him receiving such adulation from the people there was amazing. Thank you so much for sending me the images of the cheering crowds. If I'd been there, I would have probably jumped his bones there and then!*

Alyssa stifled a giggle as she imagined the kind of reaction that would have received, then concentrated on the girl in front of her. "Is that good, baby?" she crooned to Calara who was sitting upright with her back arched, her full breasts jutting out proudly.

Calara had her eyes closed as she concentrated on John's big cock stretching out her pussy, the blunt head driving into her womb. Alyssa took her lover's beautiful olive-toned face in her hands, and began to plant soft kisses on her lips, as she watched the Latina trembling with each powerful thrust. The sound of her firm cheeks slapping against John's groin echoed around the room, and Calara slowly opened her eyes to gaze into Alyssa's own.

The brunette nodded slowly as she murmured, "He's so strong and powerful, kneeling to take him just feels so right."

Alyssa leaned forward to brush Calara's lips with her own, and switched to telepathy while they kissed, *You're just a good little submissive girl, aren't you? Serving your Commanding Officer with your body and mind.*

The Latina whimpered with pleasure as Jade sucked on her clit, and John fucked her with long, deeply penetrating thrusts. She stared into Alyssa's bright blue eyes in a daze, and nodded distractedly.

Alyssa slipped her tongue into Calara's mouth, and the overwhelmed brunette sucked on it mindlessly as she focused on the blonde's loving voice, *John is so proud of the girl you've become, and how incredibly dedicated and talented you are. He loves you so much, and he adores your smoking hot body.*

Calara could only groan as her senses were overwhelmed, and her dark brown eyes flared wide with arousal as her three lovers worked over her body. She could feel herself pushing closer to a huge climax, and she was well aware that the naughty blonde who knew her mind just as completely as her body, was determined to get her there.

Alyssa smiled wickedly, listening to Calara's excited thoughts, and she reached out with her hand. Her fingers brushed teasingly past Calara's firm tits, to gently stroked her coffee-coloured tummy, and she crooned, *Just think, one day, a hero of the Federation is going to put his baby in your belly. Think how proud of you he'll be then.*

Calara cried out as Jade worked her tongue in a blur over her clit, while John fucked her pussy, and Alyssa teased her mind. She wailed long and loud as her pussy tightly flexed around John's length, and he rammed up to the balls inside her and joined her in her climax. She could only stare into Alyssa's eyes in lust as she continued to cum explosively while feeling his cock throbbing and pulsing inside her.

Alyssa kissed her tenderly, feeling the Latina's body quivering as her abdomen began to swell out, her womb stretching to hold the pints of spunk. *Such a good girl,* she praised Calara, *You made him cum so hard.*