Three Square Meals Ch. 085

"If I'd known you were planning on wearing that, you'd be the one with the full tummy right now," John declared, running his hands over her bared midriff.

The redhead winked at him. "I thought you'd approve of my new Chief Engineer's uniform. I picked it up when we went shopping on Terra. I figured I'd get some appropriate clothing for when I'm your dedicated cumbucket."

John laughed at her crude choice of phrase. "I can see I'm going to be in for an amazing two weeks."

"If you're going to fuck me like that every morning, you definitely will be!" Dana exclaimed with a wild grin.

"Maybe not exactly like that," John replied suggestively, squeezing her pert asscheeks with both hands. "After all, variety is the spice of life..."

Her grin broadened into one of pure glee and she gave him a big kiss, before letting out a happy sigh. "So, what's the plan this morning?"

John released her, shrugging as he said, "I don't know, I'm entirely at your disposal for the next hour or two. Is there anything you want to show me first?"

Dana thought about it for a second then made up her mind with a decisive nod. "There's a few things actually, but we'll leave the best for last." She skipped off down the corridor, turning around and beckoning him after her. "This way!"

He laughed and strode after her, doing his best to keep pace but stopping short of bursting into a jog. She waited at the grav-tube, wrapping her arms around him as they stepped into the red anti-gravity field. They shared a lingering kiss as they descended right to the bottom of the shaft, Dana only pulling away when their booted feet touched down on the decking.

John shared a smile with her as they walked out into the corridor hand-in-hand. "That's a much more enjoyable way of riding the grav-tube."

"You can ride me in the grav-tube any time you like," she said cheekily, before bursting into fits of giggles.

"I can see it's going to be a fun morning," John chuckled as they walked towards the double doors, having a good idea of where they were heading.

She slapped her hand down on the button to the Hangar Bay doors. "You already got me off... to a great start!"

When the door opened, Dana let go of his hand and he could tell she was about to go bounding off across the hangar. He pre-empted her by skipping jauntily across the huge room, leaving her in his dust. The redhead stared at him in open-mouthed shock for a moment, then fell about laughing.

"What?" John asked innocently, stopping mid-skip.

"Ah shit, I haven't had this much fun in ages," Dana replied, wiping the tears from her eyes. She walked across the Hangar, then stood on tiptoe and gave him a tender kiss. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He took her hand in his, squeezing it gently as they walked past the Raptor at a more sedate pace. He pressed the button to open the double doors into the Primary Hangar, then led her through. "I take it we're going to take a look at the assassin's shuttle?"

"Got it in one!" she replied, leading him into the vast hangar space, her eyes fixed on the sinister-looking black shuttle. "I've taken a good look at it and the ship uses some interesting tech."

"Has it got some kind of cloaking device? Is that how they were able to sneak up on us?" John asked, standing beside her as they gazed at the shuttle.

"Nah, the tech isn't that sophisticated. It's not the same as the cloaking field that masks the Progenitor's black ship, if that's what you mean," Dana clarified, letting go of his hand and striding over to the small craft. "You see these bumps and nodules spaced over the hull?"

John walked closer to take a better look. "What are they?"

Dana pulled out her multi-tool and used the powered auto-wrench to loosen a couple of cleverly concealed mag-bolts. She flipped back the panel and exposed a complex array of circuits and components. "These are built into the hull all over the ship and form a sensor-baffling suite. When the suite is activated, they greatly inhibit the sensor profile of the ship. Basically, they make it really fucking hard to detect them with our ship's sensors."

"Sounds like it could be useful," John said, looking optimistic.

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "Afraid not, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as soon as you start shooting, you blow your sensor profile wide open."

"We do tend to go in guns-blazing most of the time," John conceded, studying the compact shuttle. "How about on the few occasions we do try and sneak anywhere?"

"That's the second and much more significant problem. We'd have to build this sensor-baffling suite into the entire hull. This short-assed shuttle is what... ten metres? The Invictus is pushing seven-fifty," Dana explained with a grimace.

Looking at the many nodules dotted over the black ship, the sheer scale of the work involved to incorporate that kind of suite into the Invictus was mind boggling. "Yeah, I can see that's just a non-starter." He raised an eyebrow as he added, "Any refinements you could implement to maybe make it viable?"

"I'm an engineer, not a miracle worker!" Dana joked, theatrically scrunching her face up and clenching her fists in anger.

"Argh! Change back!" John begged her, grinning as he pretended to avert his eyes.

Thankfully she relaxed her expression, looking stunningly beautiful once again as she smiled at him. "All joking aside, there's several significant upgrades I could make, but we'd still be looking at incorporating hundreds of sensor-baffling nodes into the hull. If we start sticking that shit in the armour, it's going to make repairing the hull a huge pain in the ass if the ship gets fucked up."

John leaned in and whispered, "We better not give Alyssa any more excuses to whine about armour repairs..."

*Hey! I heard that,* Alyssa protested, making them both laugh.

"I've learned everything I can from this thing now," Dana said, jerking her thumb at the shuttle. "Shall we dump it into space?"

John rubbed his chin for a moment, then shook his head. "We might as well hang onto it, it's not like we're short of hangar space at the moment."

"Sure, that's fine by me," she replied, holding out her hand for him again.

He took it as they walked back into the Secondary Hangar, the double doors closing behind them. "So, where to now?" he asked, as they strolled past the gunship. "Oh, and don't forget to build a replacement Pulse Cannon turret for the Raptor."

Dana looked at him in surprise, then giggled as she said, "I did ask you to remind me, didn't I?"

John nodded solemnly. "I was pleased to see you were closely heeding my advice about not getting distracted in combat situations."

The redhead blushed as she protested, "Hey! We'd gunned down all the assassins in the courtyard!"

"I know, I was only teasing," he admitted, bumping her with his shoulder. "I spoke to Alyssa while we were cleaning house. She told me she was impressed with you in the citadel and that you were 'kicking ass and taking names'."

"I don't remember asking for any names," Dana said with a grin.

"But you did kick lots of ass," John said, pulling her into a hug. "Thank you for listening to me before. You know I'm just worried about your safety."

"Yeah, I know," she replied, gently rubbing noses with him before giving him a kiss.

They left the Secondary Hangar, then crossed the corridor to the second set of double doors. Dana hit the button and the doors swished open, letting them stroll into the Cargo Bay.

"I take it we're heading to your workshop?" John asked as they stepped onto the loading lift.

"Sorry, you distracted me earlier," Dana replied, hitting the button to take them upwards. "Yeah, I've got a few things to show you there."

John had been expecting the usual slow ascent, but the loading lift shot upwards, travelling several times faster than before.

She laughed at the look of shock on his face. "It was just too damn slow; I gave it the turbo upgrade!"

The doors above their heads swung open, just in time for them to be catapulted up into the Engineering Bay. John felt his stomach lurch as the lift came to a screeching halt, his expression eliciting more giggles from his young companion.

"It's nice to see you're having such a great time," he grumbled.

"I certainly am!" she replied, sauntering away with an exaggerated sway of her hips.

He followed after her, a smile tugging at his lips from her provocative display. She strutted over to an opened crate by her workbench and pulled out some black cloth. Kicking off her boots and removing her belt, she stepped into the black outfit, pulling it over her shapely form. John walked over to help, making sure all her lovely curves were snug inside the material.

"Very nice," he noted as he manhandled her.

She grinned at him, then pulled the hood over her head, leaving her fully swathed in the close-fitting black suit. "This stuff is called nanoweave," she explained, her voice sounding slightly muffled through the mask. "I swiped some it from Mikaboshi's base before we zapped the place."

Just as John was about to reply, her black form shimmered then vanished from sight.

"Ta-dah!" she called out in fanfare as she became invisible.

Nodding appreciatively, John said, "Useful stuff. Can we incorporate that into our armour?"

He heard her soft footfalls as she tiptoed around him, but he pretended to be oblivious to her presence. Predictably, she pinched him on the bottom, which was when he whirled around to grab her. He found it interesting to note that a nanoweave bodysuit provided scant protection against tickle attacks. Dana concurred with his conclusion as she howled with laughter, writhing in his arms.

She deactivated the suit and pulled off the hood, her eyes sparkling in the light. When she'd got her breath back, she shook her head. "Nanoweave is cloth with light bending circuitry woven into the fabric. When the holo-field is activated, light is bent around a person's body, effectively providing complete invisibility. Our body armour is made from metallic plates, so the two are totally incompatible."

"How about making a cloth 'overlay' for the body armour?" John asked, examining the material as Dana peeled it off her lithe figure.

"Now you're thinking like an engineer," she said, smiling her approval. "I actually did think of that, but I'm worried about how practical it would be. For a start, there's lots of sticking-out bits on our weapons, which would tear the cloth and break the field. Any damage we took would rip the cloth too. Finally, the mass fabricators aren't really designed to make fabrics. They're great for metal objects in all shapes and sizes, but not cloth or anything like that."

"What about our Lion and Lioness uniforms?" he asked thinking it over.

Raising her hands warily, Dana shook her head. "Those are Alyssa's babies. I'm not going to fuck with those!"

*It might be worth looking into,* Alyssa mused, projecting her thoughts to them both. *I guess we'd need a white-cloth nanoweave material to start with, although it might get more complex with all the gold epaulets, the belts and the boots.*

"Ah, don't worry about it," John replied, speaking aloud so Dana could hear too. "It doesn't sound like it'll be an easy idea to implement and you've got more important work ahead with getting the trade bases up and running."

*Sure. Just let me know if you change your mind,* she said agreeably.

John watched Dana walk past her toolbelt and boots as she padded across the workshop. "Alright, Chief Engineer, what's next?"

"Now we move onto the really cool shit!" she exclaimed, an eager gleam in her eyes. "You're going to have to do a bit of work first though, is that okay? I promise it'll be worth it."

"Whatever you say, Grand Engineering Overlord," John replied with a hint of a smile. "Let me guess... You need me to do some psychic shaping?"

Dana fanned herself with her hand. "Handsome and clever, you really are the full package, aren't you?"

"You certainly seemed to enjoy being stuffed full of my package," John replied with a sly wink.

She laughed and gave him an enthusiastic grin, confirming her opinion on that morning's activities. Pointing over towards one of the storage containers he knew was full of crystal Alyssium, she waved her fingers as if casting a spell and said, "Can you do your magic with that, please?"

John walked over to the container and removed the lid, then gestured to the block, drawing out a stream of the psychically shapeable metal. "How much do you need?"

"Enough to make a weapon the same size as a Punisher rifle and a couple of metre-wide discs about five centimetres thick," she replied, pulling out a Kintark plasma rifle from her racks of storage units along the wall.

John started forming the liquid metal into a sphere, watching as Dana walked back to her workbench and placed the Kintark weapon down next to a cluster of intricate components. "How many times do you want me to shape it?" he asked, turning the sphere into a cube.

"You can comfortably Hex-shape it, can't you?" she replied, her fingers drifting over all the weapon components on the workbench as if mentally checking them off her list.

"Six times? Yep, that's no problem," John replied, shifting the cube into a rhomboid.

She glanced at him over her shoulder and smiled as she said, "If you can manage eight, that would be really awesome. Alyssa Octo-shaped the armour on the Valkyrie, so I imagine she'll do the same to all our Paragon armour."

John felt a flicker of doubt as he continued shaping the crystal Alyssium.

*You've got this, there's nothing to worry about,* Alyssa purred to him soothingly.

Edraele's supportive voice drifted through his mind the moment Alyssa had finished speaking. *Remember that you created Athena and we know she was able to at least Deca-shape the armour on the Raptor. Athena is only a guide, you are more powerful than her.*

The absolute conviction in Edraele's voice surprised him, and thinking about what she'd just said, he was forced to agree with her. Focusing on the metal with more confidence than he'd ever felt before, shaping the metal a fifth time suddenly felt effortless. A lopsided grin formed on his face as he pushed through a sixth reshaping, then a seventh, feeling no more strain than before.

"Wow! You're really going for it!" Dana exclaimed, slipping her arms around him and resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Shall we see if I can deca-shape it?" John asked, turning to glance at her.

She had a coy smile on her face as she kissed him on the cheek. "I'd offer to let you do something really naughty to me as an incentive, but..."

"...you're already up for anything anyway?" John finished for her with a grin.

Planting a kiss on his cheek, she hummed her agreement with a broad smile on her face.

John melted down the cube he'd formed, making it into another sphere. There was more resistance this time, but nothing insurmountable. When he reshaped it once again, he did so with a slight frown of concentration. "That makes nine. I'll start making the discs while you get me the plans for the rifle."

Dana hugged him tight and exclaimed in wonder, "You were amazing! That was fucking awesome!"

He watched her scamper over to her workbench, feeling a swell of pride at her heartfelt admiration. Drawing away a portion of the metal, he spun it out into a large flat disc, just as she'd requested, but deca-shaped instead.

*Dana's right, you are awesome,* Alyssa said quietly. *I'm very proud of you too.*

*Never let doubt hold you back,* Edraele chimed in, sounding positively thrilled. *Your only limit is the strength of your mind and we all know how incredibly powerful you are.*

John put the first disc to one side, then began to form another while smiling self-consciously at all the praise. *Stop, you're going to give me a big head.*

*That's no problem. You've got a whole harem of beautiful girls to use it on,* Alyssa immediately replied, a teasing lilt to her voice once more.

John rolled his eyes, then saw Dana's look of confusion as she walked back to him. "Some lewd commentary from Alyssa," he explained to the redhead.

"Ah, I see," she replied, giving him a knowing smile. She lifted up the holo-viewer and pressed a few buttons, projecting the plans for a... weapon, in front of his shocked eyes.

"Holy fuck!" John blurted out, staring at the brutal majesty of the rifle in awe.

Dana's voice was hushed as she said reverently, "Yeah, I know..."

John stared at the weapon, noting Dana's now-signature bullpup design and the power core built into the stock. In many ways it looked a lot like the Punisher rifles they'd been using, being around the same kind of size, but it looked much more hi-tech and menacing. The major difference was the clear crystal Alyssium strip down the barrel, which made the upper and lower mag-rails visible this time.

The transparent metal made him pause and he asked, "Have you got some clear crystal Alyssium prepared? Just give me a minute and I'll shape that up for you."

Shaking her head, Dana replied, "There's no need, just use the normal metal."

He studied each of the parts, then said decisively, "Alright then, let's do this."

Working methodically through the list, he started with the lower weapon housing that included the trigger guard. He imagined that precise shape in his mind, then forced a stream from the roiling metal orb to form that piece of the rifle. When he had finished, he floated it over to Dana's workbench.

She darted over to the workbench, moving the freshly forged component into the centre of the bench so that she could start building the weapon. All the rifle components she'd built in the Mass Fabricator floated up on raised platforms, clearing her workspace and gave her plenty of room. Her nimble hands working with deft movements as she slotted in the firing mechanism, the sound suppression system, and the ammo feed from the magazine housing. When John levitated the lower mag-rail over to her, she lined that up and fixed it into position, connecting it up to the internal power couplings.

The miniature Progenitor Power Core went into the stock he built next, the rifle taking shape with each new piece he sent to her. Next were the heatsinks, then the barrel, the power modulator, the smart-linked targeter, and the upper mag-rail, all connected up by Dana's agile fingers. The final piece was the upper rifle housing, which she slotted into place, then bolted together, hiding the magnetic rails from view.

John walked over to stand beside her and after studying the rifle for a moment, he murmured, "Now that's a thing of beauty, Sparks."

"I'm not done yet," Dana replied, the coronas around her pupils flaring as her glowing eyes cast a golden halo over the workbench. "Check this shit out..."

She touched her hand to the rifle and rippling waves pulsed out from her fingertips. The immediate and obvious effect was the long strip along the barrel turning clear as she leeched the white colouring out of the metal. The subtler change was the sharper gleam to the glossy-white crystal Alyssium plating. Something faint but just noticeable caught John's attention and he ducked lower, staring intently at the metal.

His eyes widened in awe when he realised what he'd spotted. "You've etched Progenitor runes onto the rifle!"

"I removed the imperfections from the metal, strengthened the lattice, then empowered it with resilience runes," Dana murmured, walking over to the first of the metal discs he'd formed. Placing her hands on the disc, rippling waves pulsed out from her fingertips, sweeping over the surface.

John traced the runes with his finger, marvelling at the sight of the unfamiliar glyphs she was so casually reproducing on the metal. "This is incredible, Dana!" he marvelled. "How are you doing this?!"