Three Square Meals Ch. 093

*I wasn't teasing you, the offer was quite sincere,* the Nymph said earnestly. *I'd be thrilled to help ease your discomfort.*

He was sorely tempted, but politely declined in the end, wanting to savour the experience with the real Jehanna. *I appreciate the offer, but stick with working on the new pistols, you're nearly done with the second aren't you?*

*Very nearly,* the Nymph replied, only sounding faintly disappointed.

Knowing there was still a while to go until the beautiful journalist was likely to call him back, John asked Alyssa, *Need any help with reshaping the body armour?*

*Thanks for the offer, but I'm pretty much done; just finishing up your second Paragon suit,* the blonde replied. *I repaired nearly all of them yesterday, while you were tinkering around with your secret project.*

*Ah, I see,* John replied, deliberately keeping his mind blank and not giving anything away.

Smiling to himself at the blonde's attempts to pry more information from him, John rose from his chair and stood by the long window that flanked the room. Gazing out at the stars, he realised he was looking at the distant systems that made up Kirrix Space, and the homeworld of those evil monstrosities must be out there somewhere. More importantly, he knew that somewhere in that direction lay Arcadia, the planet where Jessica Blake had met his father. For all he knew they might still be there...

The girls left John in peace as he stargazed, thoughts of his mysterious parents swirling around in his head. Despite spending so many years trying to track down his mother, he'd never dwelled on what he might say to Jessica Blake if she was still alive, or to his father for that matter - whoever he might be. Now that such a possibility might actually present itself, he found the thought quite daunting.

The chime from the holo-interface came as a welcome distraction and John returned to his seat to answer the call. Jehanna's face appeared seconds later, her expression one of shock, awe, and excitement.

"Oh my God! This footage is sensational!" she gasped, gazing at him in wide-eyed astonishment.

He smiled and relaxed back in his chair. "Glad you enjoyed the show."

"I can't believe you and the lionesses rescued the Trankaran Chancellor! You must have fought off thousands of Kirrix! And that fleet... they had so many ships!"

"Am I forgiven for making you wait for our meeting?" John asked, enjoying seeing the euphoric gleam in her lovely brown eyes.

Jehanna let out a disbelieving laugh and nodded exuberantly. "Absolutely! But I really want to see you soon!" She paused then, making a visible effort to calm herself down. "Is there any kind of spin you want me to put on the story?"

John narrowed his eyes and said, "Did you know that the Trankarans asked for help against the Kirrix and High Command turned them down?"

"No! I hadn't heard that!" she exclaimed, before the dusky reporter frowned in confusion. "But why? We've been friends with them for centuries..." She looked thoughtful for a moment, then continued, "We could crucify them with this. Make it look like the Admiralty were betraying loyal allies in a fit of pique, forcing you to step in to save the day..."

Quickly shaking his head, John replied, "I appreciate the thought, but I've already got enough enemies at the moment. After the award ceremony, things seem to be pretty cordial between me and the Admiralty, so I don't want to rock the boat. Maybe just say something like: the Trankarans requested aid against a Kirrix threat, so I volunteered to help them out."

She shrugged and nodded. "Sure, however you want to play it."

Jehanna fidgeted, full of nervous energy and John could tell she was itching to break the story. "I won't keep you much longer, I promise. I just wanted to ask what the response has been like about any surviving Nymphs?"

Giving him a guilty look, she apologised profusely, "I'm really sorry! I can't believe I'm being so self-centred." She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "We had a flood of messages after your plea for information and my boss made our interns sift through them all. There were loads of cranks and con artists, as you'd expect when you offer that much money, but a couple of the calls seemed genuine and quite promising. We've been having problems getting in touch with a few of the callers, but I'll draw up a list and send it to you once I've got some more info."

"I appreciate it, thank you," John said, giving her a grateful smile. "Sorry again for having to postpone the meeting. I'll get in touch in a week or so and let you know when I'll be back on Terra."

Jehanna was so excited at the thought, she forgot all sense of decorum and blew him a kiss. "I can't wait!"

"See you soon," John replied, waving her goodbye and ending the call, her joyful face slowly fading from view.

*Please let me be there when you two finally meet up!* Alyssa pleaded. *There's so much chemistry between you both!*

John couldn't help grinning as he remembered how good the two girls had looked together. *I'm sure something can be arranged...*

*I've finished the second pistol,* Jade informed him. *Would you like to meet us in the Firing Range?*

*I'll be right there,* John agreed rising from his chair and heading out to the Bridge.

Faye greeted him with her customary wave. "Hey John!"

He had started walking for the grav-tube, but stopped at the top of the ramp to talk to the fluttering sprite. "Hi Faye. I was just wondering, did Dana take a look at the pictures you took of the damaged turretwell? If so, what was the verdict?" Raising an eyebrow he added, "I'd go and ask her myself, but I'm banned from the Engineering Bay at the moment..."

She flushed, knowing the reason for him being barred was her new body in the Workshop. "I'm sorry about that. Dana did examine the pictures; would you like to see her response?"

"Sure, go ahead," John replied, turning to look at the holo-cam footage as it appeared in the centre of the Bridge.

The redhead was poring intently over pictures showing the interior of the battered turretwell and she suddenly flung her hands up in exasperation. "Oh, for fuck's sake! Those bastards went and fucked-up the central lifting mechanism! It's been sheared in half!"

"That doesn't sound good," John said, glancing at Faye who was hovering at his side.

Faye shook her head, a sombre expression on her face as she turned off the footage. "There was a lot more swearing, but I believe we'll require a visit to a drydock to repair it."

"Okay, good to know. Thanks, honey," he said, giving her a grateful smile.

She beamed at him, happy to have been helpful. "You're welcome!"

John waved goodbye, then took the grav-tube down to Deck Seven. Several of the girls were already in the Firing Range, with Alyssa and Jade watching as Dana handed a huge double-barrelled pistol to Tashana. The Maliri girl was wearing a full suit of Paragon armour and she turned to smile at him when he walked through the door.

"That monster's enormous!" John exclaimed, as he joined them, looking down at the massive pistol she was cradling in her armoured gauntlets. "That's way too big to be practical, surely?"

Dana grinned at Tashana and made a circle in the air with her finger. "Try doing that twirly shit with it, see how it feels."

The Maliri girl nodded as she shifted her grip on the pistol, then spun it around on the trigger guard. Tashana looked surprised as she caught it effortlessly and reversed the spin. "It feels more like a light pistol than this... sawn-off shotgun!"

The redhead pointed at the discs built into both sides of the long barrels. "Those are anti-grav generators coupled with tiny gyroscopes, similar to the ones I built into the Valkyrie. They dramatically reduce the effective weight of the pistol, which should make it much more comfortable to use in an extended battle, like on Khalgron."

"What's with the two barrels?" John asked, gesturing towards the dual muzzles. "Tashana's right, it looks more like a shotgun than a pistol!"

"I was just getting to that," the redhead said, pointing at the barrels. "It's basically a really powerful laser weapon coupled with a Quantum pistol, which she can use as an integrated grenade launcher. The upper barrel is a cut-down version of the Reaper Cannon, so I've started calling them Reaper pistols. There's a tiny Power Core at the back that powers the weapon systems and I've installed heatsinks between the dual barrels to cool whichever's in use."

Tilting the huge pistol from side to side, Tashana frowned as she said, "I don't see the normal fire selector switch."

"That's because there isn't one," Dana replied with a smile. "I figured you'd be using the Quantum rounds for flaming ammo, like you did against those Juggernauts. They're set for single-fire only, partially to avoid over-heating issues, as both barrels share the same heatsinks."

Tashana upended the pistol to look at the magazine slot. "Looks like it takes normal 10mm ammo like the Quantum pistols?"

Dana nodded, handing her a magazine. "Yeah, standard-issue caseless rounds. I figured there wasn't any point doing anything fancy with them. They have a ton of armour penetration with the Quantum tech, then once the bullet punches through, you can make it explode in a massive fireball."

"Sounds like fun," Tashana said with a lop-sided smile. "Mind if I try them out?"

"Be my guest," the redhead replied, stepping away from the firing lane to give her more room.

Tashana picked up the second pistol, so she held one in each hand, hefting the long weapons to get a feel for them. "The anti-grav generators are amazing! These pistols feel much lighter than the ordinary Quantum versions and they're twice the size!"

John spotted the shimmer of white on the wall at the end of the range. "You re-plated the Firing Range, Sparks?" he asked in surprise.

"Well I designed the changes, but Alyssa did the plating, and Faye's maintenance bots built in a bunch of capacitors," the redhead replied. "The Reaper Cannon is so powerful, a missed salvo from that will seriously fuck up the internals of the ship. Now you can just blaze away for hours without causing any damage."

"Okay, I'm ready," Tashana called back to her audience, flicking off the safeties.

She tapped the range console to run through a target routine, then shifted to a firing stance, both pistols pointed downrange. A target dummy sprang up twenty metres away and Tashana squeezed both triggers, sending bright streams of blue laser bolts screaming down the range to punch burning holes through the polycarbonate figure. In just a couple of seconds she'd blasted the target to pieces, scattering glowing chunks across the deck from the filleted dummy.

"There's quite a lot of heat buildup!" she said over her shoulder, switching targets to a second dummy as it popped up. "I can see it shooting up in my HUD!"

The redhead shrugged helplessly. "I had to shrink a metre-long support weapon into something pistol-sized and the shorter barrel meant less heatsinks. I could've reduced the stopping power by sixty percent and let you shoot constantly, but you've got two pistols, so I figured you could alternate for suppressing fire."

"No, they're fantastic just as they are!" Tashana exclaimed, neatly eviscerating the second dummy. "With the Quantum pistols I was really worried about running out of ammo, so I had to hold back against the Kirrix. I would've been so much more effective with these!"

A third target dummy popped up, but this was a lot more angular and made from a very familiar gleaming white metal. Tashana eyed it curiously and squeezed off a prolonged burst, the laser bolts shimmering oddly where they struck the armoured surface. Glowing red circles marked the points where the blue laser fire had hit the dummy, but it was otherwise unharmed.

"I figured it was about time the dummies got an upgrade too," Dana said with a grin. "There's capacitors built into the floor to dissipate the energy, so they don't take any damage from lasers. The red hit markers are holo-projections, so you can practice shooting without making Faye and her boys build a crapload of replacement dummies!"

John nodded, impressed by her ingenuity. "What about test-firing Quantum weapons?" he asked, glanced at his Chief Engineer.

"I'll have to come up with something new there," Dana admitted, looking downrange at the glossy-white dummy. "Quantum accelerated rounds would really fuck up the armour plating."

They watched as more targets sprang up, Tashana spraying each with short bursts to keep the barrels from overheating. John was amazed at her accuracy using dual pistols as she struck one after dummy after the other in the centre of mass. Not being ambidextrous himself, he knew he'd struggle to even hit the target using his left hand like that. He studied the Maliri girl as she effortlessly dispatched scores of targets, the dummies coming thick and fast. Tashana looked different this afternoon, filled with an inner confidence that she'd been lacking only days before. He glanced at Alyssa and she gave him a subtle nod.

*She's been handling the integration of her old memories really well,* the blonde replied, the admiration quite apparent in her voice. *Tashana excelled herself in psychic training today and had a bit of an epiphany. A bit of time surrounded by people that love her has really done that girl wonders...*

John couldn't help sighing with relief. After seeing the remarkable change to Tashana's personality since joining them, he'd been tremendously worried that the barrage of horrific memories would be too much for her to cope with. Losing that bright young woman he'd grown so fond of, would have been heartbreaking.

Tashana put down her pistols, heat shimmering around the weapons as the excess heat was vented. She pulled off her Paragon helmet, freeing her long tresses with the shake of her head, then turned to give Dana and Jade a radiant smile. "Thank you both for going to so much trouble for me. These Reaper pistols are absolutely perfect!"

Dana grinned back at her. "I'm really glad you love them!"

Jade stepped forward to hug the Maliri girl. "It was no trouble at all! I was happy to help." She turned to look at John and continued, "Do you want me to make more of them for the rest of you?"

He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. "The Quantum pistols are fine for the rest of us as a sidearm, so keep making more Reaper Cannons for the moment. Although you might want to make a spare pair of Reaper pistols for Tashana, to keep on the weapon racks in the Briefing Room."

"I'll get on to them after I've finished the next two cannons," the Nymph agreed.

Tashana turned to John and Alyssa, a look of satisfaction in her eyes. "I'll be much more lethal with those new guns than I would've been with a Reaper Cannon. Thank you for asking Dana and Jade to make them for me."

"No problem at all," John said, giving her a warm smile. "I've seen what an incredible shot you are with pistols and if you're happier using them than anything else, that's absolutely fine. I'm not going to force you to do anything you're not comfortable with."

She stepped closer, her violet eyes softening as she reached out to place her hand over his chest. "No, you've been really gentle and understanding with me every step of the way." Looking at each of them in turn, she continued, "I'd like to speak to both of you about something important. Is now a good time?"

John nodded, surprised at the firm tone in her voice. "Of course, honey."

Tashana leaned closer to give him a fleeting kiss. "Let me remove this armour, then I'll meet you in our room in... fifteen minutes?"

"We'll be there," Alyssa replied, leaning against John.

Tashana waved goodbye to the redhead and Nymph, then turned and walked out of the Firing Range. John watched her leave, then followed the rest of the girls out into the corridor. Dana and Jade both had more work to do, so after a quick kiss goodbye, they headed off towards the Engineering Bay.

"I wonder what Tashana wants to speak to us about?" John mused as he walked the opposite way along the corridor with Alyssa falling into step beside him.

"Don't start worrying," the blonde replied affectionately, slipping her arm around John's waist. "She's happy and content at the moment, it won't be anything bad."

They embraced as they stepped into the blue glow of the grav tube, riding up the floors together. "Is this something you've had your hand in?" he asked, giving her a knowing look.

The blonde shook her head. "Actually no. I'm just as intrigued as you are!"

They strolled into the bedroom and Alyssa clasped his hand, then tugged him towards the bathroom. "We've got a bit of time to kill. Let's grab a quick shower in case Tashana's got something naughty planned." Turning around, she backed through the door, her blue eyes sparkling. "And if she doesn't, then I'm sure I can think of something fun for the two of us to get up to..."

Showering with the lithe blonde was always a wonderful experience and John did a thorough job of making sure she was exceptionally clean. He could see Alyssa was excited at the thought of Tashana's mysterious meeting, enjoying the thrill of the unknown. They dressed in fresh clothes then sat down on the end of the bed, and had only been chatting together for thirty seconds, when Tashana glided into the bedroom.

"You look gorgeous!" John exclaimed, admiring the effort the exotic beauty had gone to.

Tashana had styled up her hair into an elaborate sweep of snowy white tendrils and subtly applied makeup to bring out her violet eyes. The Maliri girl was wearing one of her signature long dresses with slashes at the back and sides, which revealed alluring glimpses of her flawless blue skin.

"You look very handsome too," she replied, before glancing at Alyssa and smiling. "And you always manage to look effortlessly beautiful."

John started to rise to his feet to greet her, but Tashana crossed the floor and placed a restraining hand on his chest to keep him seated. She leaned down to give him a tender kiss, then stood before the pair of them. Reaching down, she gently caressed their cheeks, looking from John to Alyssa and back again.

"I just wanted to say thank you," she began, her angular eyes filled with emotion. "I know I've said that so many times over the last few weeks, but I've got so much to be grateful for."

John placed a hand on the graceful curve of her hip and gently stroked her waist with his thumb. "You don't need to keep saying it. You've grown far beyond the wounded little bird we rescued and most of that has come from you..."

Tashana gave him a loving smile as she brushed her fingers through his hair. "We both know that's not entirely true, but it's just the kind of thing I love hearing you say." She turned to look at Alyssa next. "You've played just as big a part in healing me as John has. You're both such amazing people, I keep thanking my lucky stars that fate brought us together."

Alyssa turned her head to plant a soft kiss on the Maliri girl's wrist. "I'm not so sure about stars... You're mostly lucky that John has a thing for twins."

John rolled his eyes at the blonde but Tashana smiled, knowing that her rescue from the Unclaimed Wastes came from his desire to help Irillith atone for what she'd done to her.

"I know how much you've each done for me, but I'm better now... and stronger than I ever was before. Perhaps I can finally start repaying you both," Tashana said earnestly.

Shaking his head, John replied, "I don't want you to feel-"

Tashana leaned over to kiss him again, silencing his protest. "I don't feel obligated, I want to help you because I love you."

"And I love you too," John said, his sincerity reflected in his warm smile.