Three Square Meals Ch. 092

The small reptilian diplomat slumped in defeat, her tail lashing in frustration as she walked towards the rest of the group who were waiting by the grav-tubes.

"You have a truly remarkable ship," the furry, broad-shoulder mammalian said, when Alyssa drew closer. "It appears to be Terran in construction, but I had no idea the Terran Federation had access to such potent weapons..."

"I've grown quite fond of it," Alyssa said, with a smile at the Ca'tagri ambassador, side-stepping his question about the Invictus' guns.

"It's obviously been heavily modified with Maliri tech, Ralthang!" the Yelneg diplomat squeaked in irritation. "Don't be so provincial, you're embarrassing yourself..."

The Ca'tagri narrowed his deep-set eyes in anger at the fungoid creature's abrasive high-pitched comments, the powerful muscles flexing in his arms. He looked like he was about to pounce on the green-capped Yelneg ambassador and tear it limb from limb.

Oblivious to its peril, the Yelneg turned around to look at Alyssa, it's six stumpy legs making a thrumming noise as it spun. "The War Council might be encouraged to purchase your technology..." it declared, feigning only passing interest. "Perhaps you would be interested in selling it?"

Alyssa glided over, innocuously placing herself between the two diplomats as she stood by the entrance to the grav-tube. "I'll definitely speak to John and let him know you're interested," she replied politely. She gestured towards the red anti-grav field. "After you, ladies and gentlemen."

The diplomats realised they were unlikely to make any headway against Alyssa's courteous but firm deflections and they began moving into the grav-tube. She watched them with a smile of satisfaction, wondering why John found dealing with them so aggravating. Dancing around the diplomats' desperate efforts to acquire their technology had been fun!

When they had cleared the Command Deck, she stepped into the grav-tube after them. When she reached Deck Nine, the Nethrilla ambassador looked a little pale, its red gas-sack looking decidedly pink. It floated beside the Ornalith diplomat, with its many tendrils wrapped tightly around one of Bhegguc's three stocky arms.

"Everything okay?" Alyssa asked, when she saw the Nethrilla's eyes rolling unsteadily.

"I think your grav-tubes are great," Bhegguc said, its three eyes darting back at the anti-gravity field. The Ornalith jerked the third digit on one of its arms at the floating fungoid creature. "But it upsets his sense of balance."

"Oh, sorry about that," the blonde said, looking at the floating creature with concern. "Is there anything I can do, or get for you, to make you feel better?"

"Nah, he'll be fine in a few minutes," Bhegguc said, his mouth turning into an odd sideways smile as it glanced back at the Nethrilla. "Come on you! If you're going to vomit, do it on the Trankaran ship. You're not going to make a good impression on John Blake if you blow chunks all over his vessel..."

"Thank you, my friend..." the Nethrilla murmured weakly as the Ornalith towed it towards the airlock.

Alyssa accompanied the departing group, feeling a surge of relief when the three-legged Ornalith stomped its way onto the Anvil, with the queasy fungoid following close behind.

The Bolon was the last to leave, pausing next to the outer-airlock door, its robotic translator standing patiently beside it. *It was an honour to meet you, Radiant One,* Vluwe said, turning a warm orange colour.

*Likewise, Vluwe,* Alyssa replied, having enjoyed speaking to the Bolon diplomat.

*We will inform you if we discover the entity responsible for the violation of your friend,* the gelatinous creature said earnestly. Vluwe turned a deep purple as it continued, *We do not wish to give you false hope though. The likelihood of such an occurrence is very slim.*

Alyssa gave the Bolon a sad smile. *She's trying to put her past behind her, so maybe it's for the best if we never find it. If she ever does get her hands on it, the results are likely to be... unpleasant.*

*Regardless, our offer still stands,* Vluwe said. *We will leave any punishment to your discretion.*

*Be well, kind one,* Alyssa said, waving the Bolon goodbye.

She sensed the alien's surprise as it shimmered through a rainbow of colours. *And to you, Radiant One.*

It squelched through the airlock, just as John strode towards the portal from the Trankaran vessel. He smiled at the Bolon in greeting, then grinned at Alyssa looking very pleased with himself.

She arched an eyebrow at him. "You're still keeping me out of your mind. Should I be worried?"

"Oh, sorry, I forgot!" John replied, dropping his mental barrier and letting her into his thoughts.

"So what've you been up to then?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously.

John laughed and gathered her in his arms for hug. "Can't a man keep any secrets?" he replied with an enigmatic smile, studiously avoiding thinking about the end of his conversation with Thandrun.

"Yes, but it'll cost you... and I only accept kisses as payment!"

"I better start building up my credit rating then," John murmured, dipping her in his arms and giving her a soul-searing kiss.

The blonde melted in his arms, feeling wonderfully safe and loved in his strong embrace. Alyssa eagerly returned his kiss, delighted to see him in such a good mood. Her bright blue eyes sparkled with excitement when they straightened again and she gave him a blissfully happy smile.

John returned her smile, then said reluctantly, "I love seeing you like this, but I'm afraid I've got some bad news that's going to ruin your good mood... We need to make a start on the armour repairs."

"It won't be such a pain in the ass with you helping out," Alyssa replied, giving him a final kiss, before taking his hand and walking beside him towards the grav-tube.

"Any problems with the minor empire diplomats?" John asked as they started floating up in the blue glow.

She shook her head, which made her blonde mane rise in the gravity field until it was like a golden halo around her beautiful face. "I had fun, actually! They're all very impressed by the ship and by you in particular, but I managed to avoid committing to sell them any of our tech."

John rubbed his chin as he gazed into the distance, lost in thought. "It might actually be worth selling them something innocuous like the air-filtration system. If we conduct all the sales simultaneously, we could make money off all of them before they have a chance to sell it on to each other. The same applies to the major empires too."

As they stepped out into the corridor on Deck Two, Alyssa gave him a playful smile. "Just imagine how much cash we could have made from selling everyone all the tech we gave away for free!"

He laughed and nodded. "That's true, but we bought ourselves a lot of goodwill with the tech giveaways. I've a feeling we'll need plenty of that when the shit hits the fan."

"Thandrun was right to be worried about another Progenitor war," Alyssa said quietly, remembering all the Gaia classification worlds that had been obliterated in the last one.

"Thank God we've not had to deal with anything like that yet," John agreed, sharing a worried glance with his blonde companion. He paused by the door to Niskera's quarters. "We better check on our guest, make sure she's okay."

Alyssa placed a hand on his as he reached for the button to open the door. "Let's wait and see the final result of the Change, it'll only be another couple of hours. Faye can let us know if there's a problem." She turned and glanced up at the closest camera, "Isn't that right, pixie?"

Faye blazed into life in a burst of purple light. "Niskera is still fast asleep at the moment," she said, smiling at the door. "She seems quite comfortable, but I'll alert you immediately if there's any changes."

"Thanks, Faye," John said gratefully, the AI blinking out of sight again a second later.

He strolled into their bedroom with Alyssa at his side, the two of them heading for the undamaged Paragon suits in their walk-in-wardrobe.

"I'll start repairing all our damaged gear later," Alyssa said, as she kicked off her high-heeled shoes and stepped into the Paragon boots in the armour-equipping frame.

"There's no great rush," John said with a shrug as the robotic arms started sealing the armour plates around him. He switched to telepathy as the Paragon helmet was lowered onto his head. *The most important thing is patching up the Invictus' armour while we're waiting for Niskera to wake up. We can repair the Valkyrie and the Paragon suits when we're in hyper-warp.*

They slotted Quantum pistols into gunbelts which they fitted around their waists, more to keep in habit rather than from any worry about personal safety.

Activating the internal suit comms, Alyssa said, "We'll need to leave by the fore airlocks. The rest of the exits are blocked by docked ships."

John followed her through the bedroom, taking the express elevators down to the Secondary Hangar. They needed to pick up some crystal Alyssium to repair the hull, so they walked around the Raptor as they headed towards the Cargo Bay.

"I know you said the girls were going to be busy after breakfast," John said, waving a hand at the door and using telekinesis to open it. "What're they all up to?"

Alyssa grinned at his casual use of telekinesis. "Calara's in the kitchen, teaching Sakura all her culinary tricks. Rachel's doing an autopsy on the Kirrix heads we acquired. Dana's working with Irillith on Faye's new body, but she also put schematics together for a new pistol design. Jade's building a couple more Reaper Cannons at the moment, but she'll move onto the new pistols once she's finished."

"And Tashana?" John asked, lifting the lid off a storage crate.

"In the firing range at the moment," Alyssa said, winking at a Trankaran dock loader who was watching them and making a casual gesture towards a huge block of crystal Alyssium. The Trankaran's eyes widened in awe as the glistening white metal floated out of the storage crate.

"Really?" John asked in surprise, flipping the lid off a second container. "She's lethal with those pistols already. I'm surprised she's doing more shooting practice."

"You asked her to get certified on rifles, remember?" Alyssa said, nudging him playfully with an elbow. "She's focusing on improving her aim."

John gestured to his own block of crystal Alyssium then followed the blonde across the Cargo Bay, leaving a trail of astonished Trankarans in their wake. "That's probably a sensible precaution."

"I think it's just something to keep her hands busy," the blonde said, darting him a knowing look. "I can't hear her thoughts yet, but I can definitely sense all her emotions. I'd bet a million credits she's just trying to adjust to all her old memories coming back."

"That's no bad thing; she'll need time to get her head around all the horrible things that happened to her in the past," John said as he crossed the corridor into the Secondary Hangar. He darted Alyssa a worried look. "Unless she's distressed?"

She gave him a reassuring smile. "No, just confused mostly. I get the occasional flash of anger, but that goes away pretty quickly. She's coping with it all remarkably well."

John paused when they reached the double doors that led into the Primary Hangar. Instead of opening them, he glanced anxiously at the blonde. "Was it too soon? Everything that happened this morning?"

"What, you mean your super-hot oiled-up orgy?" Alyssa asked, an excited gleam in her cerulean eyes. "Believe me, Tashana loved every second of being stuffed full of your cock!"

He rolled his eyes at her and slapped his hand down on the button to open the door. "You know what I mean; her and Irillith..."

"You heard Tashana yourself," Alyssa purred as she sauntered into the hangar ahead of him. "She wants you to knock the three of them up almost as bad as you do!"

John couldn't help flushing at her teasing, but he knew it was pointless to disagree. The impish blonde knew all his secrets, well nearly all of them anyway.

Alyssa looked at him curiously as she stopped and waited for him, but her expression softened a moment later. "If I thought Tashana wasn't ready for it, I would never have set that up this morning. She needs to get over her anger towards Irillith as fast as possible; the two of them are much stronger together."

John stood beside her, placing his hand on her armoured hip. He gazed into her eyes and saw the heartfelt conviction there. "I trust you; I know how much I care about them both."

She gave him a tender smile and nodded. "I don't know if it's down to me being your Matriarch, but you'd be surprised how much time I spend checking on everyone and making sure they're all okay."

"No, that doesn't surprise me in the slightest," John replied affectionately, returning her smile and stroking her slender waist.

"I'm really looking forward to our victory celebrations tonight," she said, giving him a coy glance under her long lashes.

John raised an eyebrow. "Tonight? Why not this afternoon?"

Alyssa placed a hand over her stomach and made a slight curving motion. She winked at him and did it again, making the curve bigger that time.

He laughed and nodded. "Tonight it is then..."

They strolled across the Primary Hangar hand-in-hand, then parted ways in the corridor beyond, John taking the left airlock, Alyssa going to the right. He carefully manoeuvred the massive block of metal through the doors into the pressurised airlock chamber, opening the outer doors as soon as the inner ones were sealed. With the aid of the anti-grav generators built into his body armour, John climbed out onto the hull, then extracted the metallic cube and brought it out into space with him.

John kicked off the hull, the retro-thruster on his back propelling him up past the glistening white bow of his ship. He passed the ten-metre tall lettering that named his battlecruiser the Invictus, each letter illuminated in blue against the white hull. He was careful to avoid the blocky Trankaran freighter that was docked along the port side as he made his way upwards, until he was looking down across the topdeck of the battlecruiser. The Invictus was a huge ship, measuring 750 metres in length, but it was dwarfed by the vast Trankaran flagship it was nestled up against on its starboard flank.

The Kerhom's Anvil was a colossal battlecarrier, by far the biggest vessel in the Trankaran fleet. While only twice as long as the Invictus at 1500 metres, it was enormously broad and at least four times deeper in the draft. The Trankaran ships had curved hulls without too many defining features, reminding John more of a rocky mesa, than an interstellar spacecraft. The Anvil had the same rust-red armour plating common to Trankaran ship construction and he knew from experience that the armour was several metres thick. That armour plating was pock-marked and pitted by neutron beam fire after the deadly battle with the Kirrix in the Delta Corvus system.

John turned and looked out at the remnants of that battle, the sprawling sea of Kirrix debris stretching for kilometres in every direction. Their sinister ochre hulls were dark now, the broken insectoid ships nothing but cold tombs for the dead crews inside. There were derelict Trankaran vessels amongst that grim field of debris, but the recovery efforts had ended, the surviving Trankaran forces regrouped around their battlecarrier flagship.

Six Trankaran battleships, dozens of cruisers and scores of destroyers had survived that ferocious battle and those vessels were being rapidly repaired by maintenance crews. He could make out the makeshift gantries assembled around the most badly damaged ships, with hundreds of engineers working in spacesuits to replace destroyed weapons and engines, or patch damaged plating.

That reminded him of the primary purpose behind this spacewalk and he glanced across the hull, spotting Alyssa floating above the opposite side of his ship. She had already turned the cube of metal into a roiling white orb, which sparkled in the light from the star at the centre of the Delta Corvus system. She waved at him, then moved closer to the scores of armour plates that had been detached from the Invictus' hull by Faye's maintenance bots.

He watched as the first half-dozen plates seemed to melt at an imperious gesture from the psychic blonde, coming together into a slowly rotating sphere of metal. Alyssa added metal from the orb she had already melted, replacing the mass that had been obliterated in the Kirrix attack. Once she was satisfied that she had enough, she split the huge metallic sphere into six pieces, then simultaneously shaped them all into pristine white armour plating to be replaced on the hull. Five of Faye's boys grasped those armoured plates, then floated down to the battlecruiser's hull, slotting the armour back into position before securing the bolts that would lock it in place. John glanced down at the five robots waiting patiently for him to start his repairs and he drifted down to the lacerated armour panels to begin patching them too.

It took nearly two hours for John and Alyssa to work their way along the topdeck, then back along the underbelly of the Invictus, repairing the plates as they went. The armour had been quad-shaped before, so John left it quint-shaped, being more concerned with having a full set of armour in place rather than trying to make it as resilient as possible. He started off with shaping two plates at the same time, then found that trivially easy, so quickly started working on more. After an hour of melting and shaping scores of armour plates, he eventually worked his way up to six at a time as well.

Once the work was done, they met up again on the armoured housing above the Bridge and sat down on the shiny white surface to survey their handiwork. The Invictus shone like a gleaming white beacon between the dark-red hulls of the Trankaran vessels, aside from the ugly blackened turretwell on the starboard side of the ship. John had replaced all the armour around the site of the explosion that had destroyed the Heavy Cannon, but was unable to repair the smashed pop-up turret itself.

The Invictus had taken a huge amount of damage in the battle of Khalgron, or more accurately, the armour had withstood an incredible number of hits. John was astonished that they hadn't taken more significant structural damage, having only lost a handful of retro-thrusters and the Heavy Cannon on the topdeck.

"I tried to rotate the ship and keep the worst damaged armour from taking too many more hits," Alyssa explained a little defensively. "Calara helped a hell of a lot there. We would've taken some brutal punishment if she hadn't warned me about the worst of it."

"Don't worry, I wasn't being critical," John replied, the admiration clear in his voice. "I'm just amazed you managed to avoid losing any major components. Let's just try and avoid ever getting into that kind of position again."

"You'll get no arguments from me there!" Alyssa vehemently agreed. She turned to look at him and he could see the worry on her face.

"What's the matter?" he asked, putting his arm around her shoulders.

"Jade's a much better pilot than me, with exceptionally fast reflexes, but I was able to avoid half the shit the Kirrix threw at us by hearing Calara's thoughts," she explained, apprehension in her eyes. "If we ever do get into something really nasty like that again, I'm not sure Jade will be as effective."

John gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, if we ever get into another intense firefight, you can pilot the Invictus and we'll find something else for Jade to do. If she's right and all her old restrictions are gone, we could train her up with a rifle and maybe have her accompany a ground team. It worked well with Irillith."