Three Square Meals Ch. 075

Alyssa laughed, and interrupting her, she said, "If we're still alive tomorrow, we can worry about installing the rest, after the battle. John's right, you did a hell of a job coordinating everything."

"The sheer number of components we've installed and upgraded is astounding," Irillith agreed, giving Rachel a respectful nod of the head. "Planning out the phases of the install was tremendously helpful; we would have been lost without your guidance."

Dana slipped her arm around the brunette's waist, and said honestly, "There's no way I could've built all those Progenitor devices, and supervised everything too. If I'd been left in charge, the ship would still be in bits!"

"I've no idea how you managed all those teams," Sakura agreed, nodding. She smiled at Rachel, and added, "I watched you organising pretty much everything, and I still don't know how you pulled it off!"

"I wouldn't have known where to even start," Jade freely admitted.

Alyssa smiled at the Nymph, and said affectionately, "You spent most of the last three weeks either acting as a very tasty straw for John's quad, or blown up like a deliciously curvy, cum-inflated balloon. I doubt you'd have had time for anything else, sexy!"

Jade let out a happy sigh, and glancing at John, she said, "Feeding all those little kittens was bliss!" She smiled at Rachel, and added, "Even if I hadn't been busy, I still couldn't have managed everything. I don't think any of us could have."

Rachel grinned at her in gratitude, and looking around at her friends, she replied, "Thanks, everyone! I must admit, it was very exciting, running a project of this size. I'd be happy to plan and oversee the next one, too."

John faked a groan, and exclaimed, "We've only just put my ship back together again! I'm not having you girls chopping it to bits, again!"

Dana grinned at him, and her eyes sparkled, as she said, "With the right tech, you'd change your tune!"

"Yeah, that's true enough," he conceded, sharing her grin.

"Shall we take a tour?" Calara asked everyone, impatient to have a good look around.

John nodded, and said, "Not much has changed in the rear of the ship, if I remember right? Pretty much everything new, is built into the middle section?"

Dana nodded, and said, "Yeah, most of the new stuff, we can access from the front-tube."

"'Front Tube'?" Calara asked with a frown. "Maybe we should start calling them the 'fore grav-tube', and 'aft grav-tube', to be more accurate?"

"Nah, that's too much of a mouthful. We refer to those fuckers dozens of times a day," Dana said, as they followed her down the steps from the maintenance gantry, to the drydock deck. She waved a hand dismissively, and continued, "Front-tube, and rear-tube will do."

"Which do you prefer taking, John?" Alyssa asked airily. "Are you a front-tube, or a rear-tube man?"

"I like to use both, as frequently as possible," he replied, suppressing a grin with some difficulty.

Dana groaned, and said, "Yeah, you lot won't let that go, will you? Fine, we'll use whatever Calara said."

"How about we compromise with 'fore-tube' and 'aft-tube'?" the Latina suggested with a smile, as they approached the secondary airlock on the starboard side of the hull.

"Sounds good to me," John agreed, and the nodding heads all-round clinched it.

Stopping by the forward airlock, Dana said, "Alright, let's start right here. I decided to install two new airlocks, on the port and starboard side, mainly for ease of access. They operate in the same way as the old one, with DNA scanners built into panels beside the outer and inner airlock doors."

Sakura stepped forward, and turned to look at her audience, as she said, "I wasn't sure it was wise to triple the number of possible entry points for hostile boarders, but Dana made some compelling arguments."

The redhead smiled at her, and said, "Firstly, we've beefed up internal security. Secondly, I'd prefer badguys come in through the doors where we're prepared for them, rather than burn their way through my hull, and thirdly..." She grinned at her audience, and added, "Anyone boarding us would have to be fucking crazy. If they're badass enough to survive for more than a few seconds... Well, it probably wouldn't make a difference if we just had one or three airlocks, at that point."

Sakura pressed her hand on the DNA scanner, and it flashed green, when it identified her. The airlock door spiralled open, and she gestured inside, and said, "Shall we?"

The tour group proceeded inside, where they were met by Faye, who greeted them all with a beaming grin. "Welcome to your new home!" she announced, cheerfully.

"Thanks, Faye," John said with a smile. He raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Have you got free-run over all the new rooms?"

"I certainly do! There's holo-projectors mounted everywhere!" she replied, bouncing with excitement. Turning to Dana, she gave her a guilty smile, and added, "Sorry to interrupt your tour!"

"No problem, Faye," the redhead replied, grinning at her affectionately. Turning to look at her audience, she added, "Alright, the first new internal room, is this security corridor."

Looking past her, the long corridor stretched back for just under half the width of the Invictus, before turning a sharp corner.

"I've been wondering about this," Jade mused. "Why is there a bend in the corridor? Wouldn't it have been easier to just build it in a straight line, connecting the two airlocks?"

Rachel nudged her lover, and asked playfully, "Did you lose your ruler when you made the plans?"

Dana rolled her eyes, and pointing at Sakura, she said, "Hey, it was her idea!"

"Very nice," John said, nodding his approval as he took a few steps along the corridor, moving to one side, to try and see around the corner.

"What is?" Rachel asked, in confusion.

Sakura smiled at the brunette, and replied, "With the modified design, if we're boarded from both sides simultaneously, defenders in the reinforced sentry station in the middle can't be caught in a crossfire."

Dana nodded, and said, "We've built pop-out turrets in the walls, and pop-up barricades for cover in the floors. There's also a small secured armoury at the bend in the corridor, to make sure defenders are stocked-up on gear."

Sakura pointed to the floor, and said, "The decking can be electrified to stun intruders, and when the blast doors have been lowered, we've got knock-out gas we can use to incapacitate people caught between them. We added the same security measures to the corridor inside the original airlock."

"Very sensible precautions," Irillith replied, looking suitably impressed. She raised an eyebrow as she turned to look at Sakura, and asked, "Would they have stopped you?"

The Asian girl thought about it for a moment, then shook her head, and replied, "Not on their own, no. However, we've repositioned the airlock's sensors to a non-standard location, to make them much harder to find and block. They're also shielded, so simple scanning devices won't pick them up, either."

Dana shared a look with Sakura, then explained, "I also modded the cameras to add thermal and mag-vision, and motion scanners have been built into the walls that are designed to detect disruptions in airflow. Infiltrators using similar stealth technology to that light-bending weave Sakura had, would be immune to most forms of detection, but the motion scanners would have allowed us to track her, when she snuck aboard."

Sakura nodded, and continued, "The motion scanners are tiny and shielded, making them very hard to locate. I wouldn't have been able to block or hide from them, and Faye would have been alerted."

"Unfortunately, we've still only got Gatling Lasers in the turrets at the moment," Faye said, with a cute frown.

Giving her a sympathetic smile, Sakura said, "The upgrade had to be abandoned on the tighter timeframe, but we'll work on them soon."

"What are you going to replace them with?" John asked, as it hadn't come up in earlier briefings.

Dana winked at him, and replied, "Remember that weird-looking sonic rifle I swiped from Underworld? I've been redesigning and improving that in my spare time, and I'll fit Sonic Cannons to replace the Gatling Lasers. They can be used on lethal or non-lethal modes, and although they have a hard time with very thick armour, they'll be ideal to combat most invaders, without fucking up the hull with missed shots."

"They'll be devastating against stealth-based infiltrators who favour light armour," Sakura agreed. She gave them a rueful smile, and added, "I think we're all agreed we don't want any shady characters like that sneaking aboard."

John put his arm around her, and said, "If they all turn out like you did, that wouldn't be so bad."

She gave him a playful peck on the cheek, then pointed at the nearest door leading to the bow of the ship. "Do you want to show them that, next?" she asked Dana.

"Nah, that's not finished," she replied, pouting in annoyance.

Rachel rolled her eyes, and said, "Yeah, you did say you wouldn't get a chance to work on it. I suppose I'll be putting my delicate surgeon's hands to work on your grubby electronics again, right?"

"Oh, a girl after my own heart!" Dana swooned, holding a theatrical hand on her chest, before grinning at the brunette.

"Yeah, yeah, on with the tour," Rachel replied, smiling at her lover.

Turning to the double-doors on the aft side of the corridor, Dana hit the button, and the reinforced doors slid wide open, revealing the cavernous room beyond. "Here, we have the Primary Hangar," she said, walking inside the two-hundred-metre long hangar bay, and turning with her arms wide apart. "What the fuck we're actually going to do with all this space, I've got no idea!"

"You could fit a destroyer in here!" Calara marvelled, slowly walking out into the cavernous room. "I hadn't realised how big this was actually going to be!"

Dana nodded, and pointing upwards to the ceiling that soared high overhead, she said, "It's double the height of the old hangar, just in case." She stood with her hands on her hips as she turned around to survey the enormous room, and added, "We don't necessarily have to use it for one big ship, we've got tons of options. We could convert it into automated-combat-drone bays, or maybe Maliri-crewed fighter bays. Hell, we don't even have to keep it as a hangar! You could convert this whole area into one vast missile battery."

Alyssa appeared to be mulling the options over, until she said, "I vote for the Maliri fighter bays." She raised an eyebrow as she glanced at John, and added disingenuously, "How many gorgeous Maliri pilots and groundcrew do you reckon we'd need for that? Fifty? One hundred? More?"

He laughed, and grinned at her, as he said, "I'm not sure that's such a great idea. Next, you'll be wanting to know if they can fly fighters while pregnant."

"Accidents do happen," she said archly. "Who knows how reliable Maliri birth-control is, or if they even bother with no men around!"

Rachel suddenly looked stunned, and she murmured, "How on Terra did I miss that?!"

"What's the matter?" John asked her, startled to see her looking so taken aback. The incredibly intelligent doctor rarely seemed to be surprised by much these days.

Shaking her head, the brunette replied, "Let me look into it, and I'll get back to you, okay?"

"Sure," John agreed amiably, seeing the bemused looks on all the girls' faces, except for Alyssa, who appeared flushed with arousal. Realising he wasn't going to get any answers for the moment, he glanced at Dana, and continued, "Let's leave the decision on the Primary Hangar for the moment, there's no rush. I'm guessing the Secondary Hangar is basically the old one, with the Raptor in it?"

"Yeah, that's right," she confirmed for him. Smiling then, she added, "I did think of something new to add there, that wasn't on my original plans. I'll show you that in a minute."

They filed back into the corridor, and followed her along to the bend, where they found the entrance to the fore-tube. The design was identical to the previous grav-tube, with red and blue anti-gravity fields in a large cylindrical shaft, that rose up through the decks. There were only two exits from this tube though, one at Deck Five, and the other was right at the top of the tube, on Deck Three.

Stepping into the blue field, Dana said, "There's no point showing you Deck Three yet. We had to postpone everything there, to finish all the combat-orientated facilities in time."

"No problem, let's just take a stroll along Deck Five," John agreed, shrugging his shoulders amiably. He knew what had been constructed on that level, having armoured most of it, but this was still new for most of the others in their group.

Stepping out into another long corridor, there were closed bulkheads every fifty metres or so, which were designed to limit the damage from internal explosions. This level contained the two new Power Core Chambers, along with the magazines for all the new ordnance-based guns. They stopped at the first pair of those magazines, with Dana strolling inside the one on the right, as soon as they'd all caught up with her.

Pointing to an enormous reinforced caisson that dominated the room, Dana said, "The ammo for the front pair of cannons goes in there, and there's six rooms like this, one for each set of Heavy Cannons. We used Maliri crystal-tipped rounds so we didn't waste any priceless elements like Onyxium, but they're harder and denser than standard Terran titanium rounds, so I was able to reduce the calibre, and pack in a lot more." Nodding towards tubes that rose up through the ceiling, she continued, "Rounds are fed by gravity fields up to the chambers above, then auto-loaded into the cannon."

Calara nodded her approval, and said, "Looks like an elegant, sturdy, and reliable design, and a huge improvement over the original." She smiled at the others, and explained for their benefit, "Terran Heavy Cannon magazines have been notorious for conveyor-belt jams."

Dana chuckled, and said, "Yeah, I didn't fancy running all the way out here mid-combat, and getting stuck in with my wrench. We'll leave that shit to Terran Federation crews! They've usually got more engineers aboard than they know what to do with!"

With that, she led them outside, and jerked a thumb at the next room, as she said, "Same idea here, but it's smaller calibre, for the cannons on the underbelly."

There were two identical rooms opposite each other, one for the port weapons, the other for the starboard batteries. John glanced through the clear-crystal window in the sealed door, and spotted tubes leading down into the floor this time. He jogged to catch up with the rest of the group, who were walking through the first bulkhead.

"So, there's three pairs of each magazine type, along this deck?" Calara was asking, when he fell into step beside Dana.

The redhead nodded, and replied, "There's no point showing you the others, they all look the same. I figured it was sensible to split the magazines though, what with John reinforcing them all. Even if one is penetrated, the resulting explosion would just vent out through the point of impact. A detonation wouldn't be powerful enough to rupture the quad-shaped Crystal Alyssium shell. The main benefit, is that the rest of the guns can keep on firing, even if we lose a magazine."

"That's a very sensible damage-mitigation policy," Calara said, thoroughly approving of the redhead's modifications to her original plans.

"I thought you'd like it," Dana said, nudging the Latina with an elbow.

They walked along the length of the corridor until they reached the aft-tube, and the newly-cut hole in its Crystal Alyssium shell.

Before Dana could step out into the grav-tube, Alyssa said, "When you asked me to shape new doorways in this grav-tube, I was too busy to bother asking questions at the time, but won't punching holes in it fuck up the Inertia Negation device?"

The Chief Engineer shook her mane of dark auburn hair, and replied, "Nope! The tube is incredibly strong, with the built-in crystalline lattice. Knocking a few holes in it won't make a difference, and besides, we've got the 'fore-tube' to share the load now. If anything, the stress on the frame has been lessened since the refit."

Alyssa patted her on the shoulder, and smiled, as she said, "I knew you'd have thought it through, Sparks, I was just curious."

"Anyone else want to second-guess my designs?" Dana asked, airily. When everyone shook their heads, she smiled at them, and continued, "Alright, let's move on to the really good shit!"

They stepped into the grav-tube, and rose up in the blue field, passing level after level, until they reached Deck Two. Dana jumped out with a spring in her step, and bounced there impatiently, while she waited for the others to join her.

"Aren't you going to show us the new Tachyon Drive?" John asked, glancing back down the tube.

"It's a big, round, shiny sphere, on Deck Five," she replied with a shrug. "Progenitors have developed some incredible technology, but it's not particularly exciting to look at."

"Alright, we'll skip that then," John said, with a chuckle. The rest of the group had arrived, so he bowed to Dana, and gestured down the familiar corridor with his hand, as he said, "You may continue with the tour, Grand Engineering Overlord."

She giggled with excitement, then skipped down the corridor ahead of them, turning around every ten metres to urge them to hurry. The girls had been sleeping in their own rooms for the last couple of days, just while the Captain's Bedroom went through a refurbishment, and Dana had forbidden anyone from entering until the work was complete. John had been involved with her plans, as he'd been the one reinforcing the walls with Crystal Alyssium, to keep them safe while they slept.

They passed all the Officer's Rooms, and strolled into the Captain's Bedroom, to find it had dramatically changed. The room was now double the length, with the vast bed still dominating the back wall.

"Isn't the corridor a bit longer now?" Jade asked, looking back through the door, to get her bearings.

Dana nodded, and said, "Well spotted!"

John saw Alyssa dart off to the left, a worried look on her beautiful face, as she disappeared through the new door in the wall.

"Are you alright? Where are you going?" Calara called after her.

"Checking my clothes!" the blonde replied, her voice muffled from inside the new room.

Alyssa reappeared a few moments later, and sounding deeply relieved, she said, "I'll have to thank whoever you got to move everything. It all looks pristine!"

"I'll tell my boys you said thanks!" Faye replied, grinning at her. She frowned for a moment, then added, "Enhancing their programming for that level of fine-motor-control was tricky, but they were due an upgrade, anyway. I knew you'd be upset if anything got wrinkled."

John walked over to the door and peered inside, finding everything looking much the same as before, but with twice as much space in the wardrobe. At the far end was the weapon rack, and two armour-equipping frames, complete with armour. His and Alyssa's clothing were hung up in a breathtaking display of neatness and orderly perfection, with long empty rails beyond the ones occupied by their clothes.

"It looks so sad, half-empty like this," Alyssa said, a forlorn expression on her beautiful face. She glanced at him with puppy-dog eyes, and continued, "It's just begging to be filled up with loads of sexy new outfits..."

He laughed, and rolled his eyes, as he replied, "Alright, we'll go on a shopping trip sometime." He smiled at Sakura and Irillith, and added, "You two haven't experienced the joys of one of Alyssa's shopping bonanzas yet. I wouldn't want you to feel left out."