Rachel stared in awe at the absolutely huge green tiger that now stood before them. Jade's powerful shoulders stood five feet above the floor, and the lighter viridian lines that normally accentuated the alien girl's formidable curves now formed the tiger stripes that covered her powerfully muscular feline form.

The other girls laughed with delight at seeing Jade transform into this shape, and they walked over to stroke her soft, dark green fur, while John scratched behind her ears. Jade began to emit a deep throaty purr, and her emerald, vertically slitted eyes watched Rachel curiously.

Fighting down the natural instinct to flee in terror, Rachel tried to rationalise with herself that the colossal feline standing before her was the cute and benevolent Nymph. The fact that Jade's eyes hadn't changed actually helped quite a bit, and Rachel built up enough courage to walk over and join them.

"You look breathtaking," she said in awe as she stood by Jade's side, and the huge tiger gently rubbed her head against Rachel's armoured hand.

Rachel began to stroke the green striped fur reflexively, as she marvelled at the incredible transformation she just witnessed. "Where did all this mass come from?" she asked in disbelief, as she gently touched the tiger's heavy flanks. "You feel as solid and convincingly real as your dolphin form, but you seem so much bigger!"

"That's a misperception caused by the water," Alyssa explained, translating for Jade. "She says that she copied the real bottlenose dolphins she met on Oceanus, and she was well over nine hundred pounds as an adult female dolphin. The biggest thing she's transformed herself into so far was a Tiger Shark, which was about fifteen hundred pounds."

"Why don't you show her how this tiger form has saved our butts before?" John asked the Nymph playfully.

Jade looked up at him, and her large feline face broke out into an amused grin, revealing the tips of her gleaming white teeth. She looked at Rachel and then slowly and carefully opened her maw, to show her the six inch long canines, and surprisingly the faint aroma of mint filled the vicinity. Once the inquisitive doctor had stared in amazement at those for a little while, Jade closed her mouth and then raised a heavy paw, before turning it over and tensing the tendons that controlled her claws. The five razor-sharp, curved claws slowly unsheathed themselves from her padded paws, extending out a good six inches.

Rachel held the paw in her hand, and knelt on the ground so that she could take a good close look. She gingerly reached out to touch one of the claws, staring at the ethereal green material it was constructed from.

"Normally a cat's claws are made from Keratin, but that certainly doesn't look like Keratin to me," she murmured to herself.

John nodded as he looked down at the tawny haired brunette. "We've seen her use them to effortlessly rip through plated armour before, which must have been at least as durable as steel."

"You really are quite amazing, aren't you?" Rachel said, as she stared up into Jade's emerald eyes.

In a shimmering verdant haze, Jade changed form again, shrinking quickly to her Nymph shape. Once she had finished the transformation, she moved from a crouch to kneel next to Rachel, and then gave her a hug.

"I think you're pretty great too," Jade said, and rubbed noses with the startled brunette.

John raised an eyebrow at her now nude green body. "Sorry about your outfit. I probably should have suggested you strip off first," he said, looking around at the shredded clothing on the floor.

Jade stood up and walked over to him to give him a kiss. "It's alright, it was more dramatic that way, and I've got plenty of clothes."

"That transformation was much faster than the last time you turned into a tiger, practically instantaneous, in fact," Calara observed, thinking back to Jade slowly transforming in front of them in the cargo bay.

"I've spent a lot of time shapeshifting on Oceanus now, so as long as I know what form I want to adopt, I'm much more confident about pushing my body into that shape," Jade explained.

Rachel stood up and shook her head in amazement as she re-evaluated what she thought she knew about the exotic alien girl before her. "How have I never heard of Nymphs doing this before?" she asked Jade curiously. "I'd heard some of the more lurid tales about your species, but even those I dismissed as some wild fantasies."

"As far as we know, Jade is the only Nymph who's been able to explore her shapeshifting like this," Alyssa explained to her. "It might well be something to do with John's cum, but that's just a guess."

"May I study you both at the same time? Please?!" Rachel pleaded with John and Jade. "I don't think I could wait to completely finish researching one of you before looking at the other!"

John looked at Jade and she nodded to him with a smile. He then said to Rachel, "Sure. Go and remove your armour, and then we can go to the Medical Bay so you can take some samples to get you started. It's just around the corner from here, so we might as well do it while we're nearby."

The brunette walked over to pick up her armoured Phalanx helmet, placed it on her head and then stepped into one of the two equipping frames in the firing range. When she pressed her thumbs to the buttons concealed in the gauntlets, a series of soft rippling clicks unlocked the armour plating, and the robotic arms moved smoothly down to remove the body armour sections from her chest and limbs, while the helmet was lifted carefully from her head.

"Done!" Rachel said eagerly. "Let's go!"

They laughed at her cheerful enthusiasm, but before they moved anywhere, John picked up the XR75 rifle that Rachel had left on the table and began to strip it, years of marine training kicking in.

"Hang on!" Dana told him eagerly. "I've modded the weapons racks, and this is a perfect time to show you."

John looked at her quizzically, and she strolled over to the weapon locker, placing her rifle carefully on the rack. With a contented little hum, four robotic arms popped out of slots at the back of the rack, and took a firm grasp of the rifle. They ejected and stowed away the magazine clip and then began to dismantle and clean the weapon, before reassembling it with unfaltering robotic speed and precision.

"What do you think?" the redhead asked him eagerly, as the robotic arms slid back out of view, leaving a spotless and gleaming rifle ready for use.

John shook his head with disbelief and let out a snort of laughter. "My old Drill Sergeant would have an aneurism, but that's very nicely done," he congratulated her with an appreciative grin.

Dana jumped up and down, and clapped excitedly, overjoyed as always when one of her inventions received a glowing review. John smiled at her, and then he, Jade, and Rachel turned to walk out of the room, to head over to the Medical Bay.

"Meet me in the Engineering Bay afterwards," Dana called after John. "We'll download your old medical records!"

He nodded as he walked out of the door, giving the redhead a friendly wave goodbye. Rachel could barely contain her excitement as she strolled along beside Jade and John, and then led them into the Medical Bay. As they stepped inside the huge room full of medical equipment and dozens of beds, she darted over to the cabinets of medical tools, searching for the ones she needed.

"I'll just take a quick blood sample from you both," she said, as she walked over to join them. "It won't hurt a bit, I promise!"

John nodded, and rolled up the left sleeve of his shirt. "No white coat, Doctor Voss?" he asked her playfully.

Rachel looked up at him from the device she was examining and shook her head with a smile. "We only wear that as a badge of authority, it's not for hygienic reasons or anything."

"That's a shame," John said with a flirtatious wink, and the brunette let out a throaty chuckle.

Rachel then turned to Jade, sensing some discomfort from the green skinned girl. "Are you okay there?" she asked, then smiled at her sympathetically, "Afraid of needles?"

"No, it's not that... I just don't have blood," Jade explained awkwardly.

Rachel looked shocked for a moment, then smiled at the Nymph. "I'm not sure why that surprised me after seeing the wonderful things you can do with your body. That's quite alright, I'll take a skin sample if that's okay? It will be completely painless," she said in a soothing voice.

Jade nodded immediately, smiling once again, and Rachel took her blood sample from John with what looked like a long pen that she pressed against his arm.

"Didn't feel a thing," he said with a grin.

Jade walked over to them and presented her left arm too, so that Rachel could take a skin sample. The tawny haired girl produced another small rectangular device, that she carefully placed against Jade's arm, pressing the glowing button on the back. A light flashed green when it was done, and Jade looked at her arm, but couldn't see any marks.

"I didn't feel that, either," she said, then smiled at Rachel.

"I'll start my detailed analysis tomorrow, but I've just got to take a peek now!" Rachel exclaimed, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

John and Jade laughed, then joined the animated young woman as she darted over to the DNA analyser. With practiced, dextrous hands, Rachel prepared a sample to use on the machine, before carefully placing the tube of John's blood into one of the refrigeration units. She did the same with the sample from Jade and then held up the two discs, and grinned at the pair of them.

"Let's check out our mighty Progenitor first!" she said, barely able to contain her excitement.

She inserted the first disc into the machine, which hummed quietly as it analysed the DNA strands. It beeped when it was ready, and as Rachel hit a button, a holographic display of John's DNA strands appeared before them.

"I knew it!" she gasped, overjoyed to see exactly what she had suspected. "Triple-helix DNA!"

John walked over to look at the slowly rotating helical structures, which looked identical to those he had seen in Rachel's presentation, when she had spoken about the modifications to Alyssa's DNA. He stared at the third strand that curved around the other two, thinking carefully about the implications.

"Yes, you almost certainly have psychic powers as well," Rachel said to him, when she noticed him studying the DNA strands so closely. "Why they've only manifested for Alyssa so far remains a mystery. Well, for the moment at least," she added with a cheerful grin.

Rachel then turned back to the machine, and swapped out the discs, inserting the second metallic circular object into the DNA analyser. It hummed softly and then beeped a little while later, letting them know it was done. She glanced back at Jade as her finger hovered over the button that would display the results, and the Nymph nodded eagerly. Rachel pressed it and Jade's DNA then hovered above them in a holographic image.

"I have triple helix DNA too!" Jade said in surprise.

Rachel stared at the strands excitedly, and leaned in closer to get a better look.

John took Jade's hand and squeezed it gently, as he said to her soothingly, "This doesn't come as too much of a surprise to me. We already knew that you had some form of telepathy, with your species' ability to sense your Master's desires, and shapeshift into his perfect mate."

"I think it's awesome. It means I'm more like you," Jade said, as she stood on tiptoe to give him a kiss on the cheek, and then grinned up at him.

"Genetic compatibility is very important," he murmured in her ear, as he let his fingers gently brush over her svelte green belly. "I have plans for you, remember?"

She looked up at him with big eyes, and nodded slowly, biting her lower lip with arousal. John smiled down at her and then leaned in to give her a tender kiss, before glancing back at Rachel, who was staring in fascination at the holographic display.

"Let's go Rachel, you can start finding out what makes us tick tomorrow," he said with a smile.

She nodded, and reluctantly tore herself away from the image, turning off the display with a mournful sigh.

"You're as bad as Dana when she gets absorbed with one of her projects," John said with a chuckle, and then pulled her over to him with his right hand and gave her a hug.

Rachel giggled and then kissed him, before smiling at them both. "Thanks for letting me study you like this. Hopefully I'll be able to provide you with some of the answers you've been looking for."

" I have every confidence in you, Doctor Voss," he said playfully.

She grinned up at him as she replied, "I'm delighted to have your trust in my abilities, Commodore Blake."

They walked out of the Medical Bay, the three of them laughing and joking together, as they walked up the corridor to the Engineering Bay. Jade hit the button and they walked into Dana's workshop, but John was shocked at the changes she'd made since the last time he'd been in here. His Chief Engineer had expanded her workshop to take up a significant extra chunk of the huge armoury, with big metal frameworks supporting what looked like four metallic torsos, which were clearly Dana's latest project.

"Come and meet your new robot overlords!" Alyssa said to him cheerfully, and she waved the three of them over to join her and Calara.

Dana appeared from behind one of the machine assemblies, and waved to them happily. John walked over to join them, and looked at the new robots with interest. They had roughly human-sized metallic torsos, with strong looking arms that ended in four pairs of fingers. Instead of legs, they had a sturdy base, and when he ducked down to glance underneath, he immediately recognised what looked like four anti-grav cyclics.

The redhead strolled up to him, and gave him a quick kiss, before turning to look at her newest creations with her hands on her hips. "After replacing all those heatsinks in the Invictus' weaponry turned out to be a huge pain in the ass, I thought making some maintenance hover-bots would save us a lot of trouble," she explained.

"That's a great idea," John agreed. "It'll make it harder for us to flee from them when they hunt us down, so that's a bonus as well," he added, nudging her playfully with his shoulder.

"Do they not have heads to make them more terrifying?" Jade asked feigning curiosity as she joined in the gentle ribbing.

"I'm surrounded by luddites!" Dana complained dramatically, throwing her hands up in the air and shaking her head, before turning around to grin widely at them. "And I'm still working on the heads, they're over there," she said, pointing to a nearby table.

Calara was currently leaning against the table, and she picked one of the heads up, and turned it around, so they could see it's horrifying visage. John laughed when he saw the benign smile on the metallic face, and Dana grinned self-consciously.

John put his arm around her shoulder, and asked, "I'm sorry honey, are we giving you too hard a time? You know we trust you implicitly, and we're only joking, right?"

"Yeah, I know," she said, leaning into his chest and sighing happily, before she darted out of his grasp suddenly. "Would you like to see a demonstration?" she asked them eagerly.

They all nodded excitedly, her enthusiasm quite infectious, so Dana then turned to the Latina.

"Could you throw me the first one on the left please? It's nearly finished," she asked Calara politely.

Calara nodded and picked up the metallic object, but walked over to Dana and placed it carefully in her hands. "I wouldn't want to damage it," she said with a smile.

Dana grinned at her, then tucked the robotic head under her arm, and climbed up the supporting metal frameworks with the surefootedness of a mountain goat. She leaned over and plonked the head on the robot, and produced a bolt tightener, which whirred then clicked as she secured the head in place. She then jumped down and landed lightly on her feet, before taking a remote from her pocket, and walking over to stand next to John and the girls.

"The remote is just a temporary measure," she explained to them. "I'll program them for tasks we need them to complete, be it maintenance, or ship upgrades or whatever. When I get them working properly, we'll be able to send them out into space, and remove damaged plating from the Invictus, then bring it into the cargo bay for Alyssa to reshape and repair. It'll mean we won't need to find a drydock for her to work her magic."

"Now that's a great idea!" John told her, immediately appreciating how much hassle that would save them, and when he glanced at Alyssa, she nodded in agreement.

Dana pressed a button on the remote, and the cyclics powered up with a smooth whir, while the metallic torso straightened up slightly. She turned the remote to the side and placed her thumbs on two pads, which she then used to control its hovering flight through vertical and horizontal planes. The robot floated out of the supportive metallic framework, and then glided quietly through the air, before stopping to hover in front of them. She rotated it through 360 degrees so that they could take a good look, and then brought it down so that it was levitating about a foot off the floor. She walked over behind it, and then stepped onto the back of the base, and the anti-grav cyclics whirred a little louder, but the robot didn't drop in height.

"It's very stable," Calara said, nodding appreciatively as she walked around it, before stopping to look at Dana as she stepped off the back. "I assume you immediately realised their potential as heavy weapons platforms?"

"Considering the way you guys normally freak out at the thought of killer AI robots, I thought I'd save that idea for another time, but yes, of course," Dana nodded with a sly grin. "The arms are modular, so if you decide you needed a Gatling laser with you in the field... then, hey presto!"

She walked over to stand at John's side and looked up at him with anticipation, as she asked, "So, what do you think?"

"I can't think of a better designed robot I'd like to be hunted down and murdered by. Really nice work," he told her approvingly, with a playful smile.

Dana giggled happily, and then wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug. "Thanks," she said with relief, squeezing him tight.

"How long do you think it will take to finish them?" Jade asked curiously, as she walked over to the suspended robots, and looked at them more closely.

Dana let go of John, and then turned to look at the Nymph. "Oh, not long. Probably just a couple more days, and we'll be able to start using them for repairs or maintenance. There's just a little more work to be done to finish off their chassis, then I'll have to get to work on their programming.

Giving them simple, straightforward tasks, like removing a damaged piece of hull plating from the ship, will be relatively easy. It's going to be a lot more complicated to turn them into combat bots though, so if you want me to go ahead with that, I'll have to create some much more sophisticated software. Targeting and tracking algorithms, friend or foe identifiers, combat behaviours... It opens up a huge can of worms trying to create programs detailed enough to cover potential scenarios."

Dana stood lost in thought, a delicate finger tapping her chin as her incredible mind turned over the additional steps and safeguards she would need to implement, to turn the plans into reality. John watched her absorbed in her thoughts, and thought back on Rachel's revelations about increased brain connectivity. He smiled as he realised that a brain scan of the redhead at that moment in time, would be an impressive light show indeed.

"Stick with focusing on getting them ready for repairs and maintenance for now," he said firmly. "After the firearms demo you girls just gave me, I think we're good on the firepower front for the moment. Being able to perform deep space repairs will be invaluable though."

"You got it!" Dana replied cheerfully.

"We better download my old military medical files, then we can call it a night," John said.

Dana nodded eagerly, and then led him over to the raised platform where her computer consoles were located.

"Rachel took a quick peek at our DNA," Jade told the other girls excitedly. She then looked to the brunette, not wanting to steal her thunder. "Go ahead and tell them what you found out."

Rachel smiled at the Nymph affectionately, before she spoke, "It looks like Alyssa isn't the only one with triple-helix DNA. Both our exotic alien companions share the same DNA strand structure."

"The third strand carrying the psychic genetic code?" Calara speculated.

Alyssa nodded, not looking surprised in the slightest. "It's got to be. Jade is definitely telepathic, and the Ashanath were convinced John was as well."

"So much for my big reveal," Rachel said with a good-natured laugh.

Alyssa smiled at her, and gave her a quick hug. "Sorry, it is good to confirm our suspicions. I'm sure you'll be able to find out lots of things we don't know soon," she said sympathetically.

"I can't wait to get started, but I'll be good and wait until tomorrow," Rachel agreed.

Further conversation was interrupted as they overheard conversation coming from the Chief Engineer's podium.

An emotionless automated voice was speaking to John and Dana, and said, "The records you are trying to access are classified and confidential. Please submit the correct voiceprint authority to unlock the requested files."

John cleared his throat and said in an unwavering voice, "Access requested by Commodore John Blake."

"Access granted," the voice replied, and a flashing bar on the console display began to fill rapidly as the files were downloaded.

"Done!" Dana said happily, when the console gave off a light chime. "Shall I transfer this over to the computers in Medical?" she asked Rachel curiously.

"No, it's okay, you know I prefer working here with you," Rachel told her fondly. "If you could transfer the results from the DNA analyser in Medical, over to my usual console, that would be great though, thanks!"

Dana nodded eagerly, and with a few button clicks she smiled as she said, "Done!"

John glanced at his watch, and saw that it was now nearly ten at night. "Well it's been a day full of surprising revelations. How about a quick shower to freshen up, and then a drink in the lounge to unwind, before we call it a night?"

The girls nodded eagerly, and strolled out of the room, chattering amongst themselves as they followed after John. Dana darted back into the workshop before the door closed, and ran up the steps to the podium to start the compiler checking though the latest lines of code she'd written the day before.

"Wait for me!" she called to them as she skipped out of the room and the doors closed behind her.

The only illumination left on in the Engineering Bay once the main overhead lights switched off, was the red glow from the console as it compiled the code, and it cast a sinister hue over the robotic heads lined up on the table. The suspended robot that still had its head attached, beamed a relentlessly happy smile across the workshop, as the blinking crimson light reflected off its blank, emotionless eyes.

***

The girls relaxed together on the sofas, sipping the drinks that John had made for them. Jade was the last to arrive, having gone to her room to quickly pick out some new clothing, having shredded the last set, and John presented her with a vodka cocktail when she sat down gracefully with the others. He poured himself a whisky on the rocks and then strolled over to join them.

Alyssa and Calara were sitting next to each other on one of the longer sofas, but they moved apart in an obvious invitation for him to sit in the middle. Not one to refuse such an appealing offer, he graciously sat between them, and the blonde and brunette curled up next to him as they savoured their drinks. Dana had turned down the lighting a little, so the Officers' Lounge had transformed into a moodily lit establishment, cast in a warm soft glow. The lower lighting made the stars drifting by outside seem all the brighter, and they sat in silence for a few minutes just enjoying the view.

"I love being here with you guys," Dana said with a happy sigh, as she leaned into Jade.

The Nymph encircled her with an arm, and then leaned over to kiss her affectionately on the top of her auburn haired head. "I know exactly what you mean," Jade said with a contented smile, then put down her drink so that she could wrap Rachel in a hug with her other arm.

Calara and Alyssa both nodded and murmured their agreement, before leaning up to plant tender kisses on either side of John's neck.

"Yeah, you ladies are okay I guess," John said with a shrug, and the girls all laughed and protested indignantly.

"OK, OK! I was just fucking with you," he said, throwing a pointed glance Dana's way, and she giggled at him impishly. He grinned back at her and then continued, "You know I love having you all here."

"Actually, I don't think you have 'had' us here," Alyssa replied archly, looking around the Officers' Lounge.

John laughed at her twisting of his words, but he had to admit she was right.

"What do you think? Fancy breaking in the room?" Calara asked him excitedly.

John nodded as he looked down at her, feeling himself immediately responding to her enthusiasm.

Alyssa looked at him, and he could almost see the mischievous delight radiating off her, as she asked him, "How would you feel about playing a little game?"

He laughed and nodded his agreement, and the girls all stood as one and began to quickly strip off their clothing, as they followed the blonde's telepathic instructions. John looked up at them, and matched gazes with each girl in turn, seeing the feverish look of lust in each of their eyes. He felt relieved he'd had a big dinner and a good rest, as he sensed he was going to need the energy.

Soon they were all spectacularly nude, and their faces were filled with eager anticipation as they waited for him to get undressed too. Alyssa and Calara helped him quickly remove his clothes, while the others moved the coffee table out of the way.

"Now, sit back and relax, I think you're going to enjoy this," Alyssa said as she got up and walked around behind the back of the sofa.

Calara grinned and pushed him, so that he sank back onto the comfy cushions of the chair. Alyssa leaned down to kiss him on the ear, and then began to speak to him in a throaty seductive whisper, "Let's play a little game of 'which girl am I inside now?'."

She produced a soft cloth sash that she had been wearing belted around her slim waist and showed it to him, while kissing and nibbling his ear. He nodded, and his cock throbbed, his big head and little head seeming to bob in sync with each other.

"Good boy," she said eagerly, as she gently wrapped the cloth around his head, covering his eyes and blocking his view. "The rules are simple. We take turns blowing and then riding you, and you just have to guess which of these hot girls you have your cock inside."

"I hope you'll be playing too," he insisted.

He could almost feel her smile as she kissed him tenderly on his cheek. "Of course. You know I can never pass up an opportunity to have you inside me," she crooned in his ear.

With a nod from Alyssa, the game began, and the girls took it in turns to deepthroat him, sucking and massaging him with a variety of techniques. As all the girls were physically so similar, his wandering hands didn't provide him any clues, and he had to just focus on their different techniques. He had been hoping that Jade might feel cool to the touch, and give him an obvious clue as to her identity. She was so turned on by the naughty game however, that when it came to her turn, she felt just as warm as the Terran girls.

The blindfold blotting out his vision made him focus that much more intently on his sense of touch, and hearing, which all started to give him clues as to the identity of each girl. The blowjob from Calara was smooth, rhythmic and sensual, the smoking hot Latina seemingly having taken Jade's dancing lessons to heart. Jade's unique physiology gave her away, and when her throat began to ripple like a dozen eager girls gently stroking him, he was able to identify her immediately.

The blowjob from Dana felt amazing, but her excited muffled squeaks once she took his entire length down her throat gave her away. She reluctantly stopped nuzzling in his groin when he correctly guessed her name, and pulled back to give him a congratulatory kiss, before she moved aside for the next girl.

The two girls he had the most difficulty with were Rachel and Alyssa, who kept swapping with each other every couple of minutes. Rachel had been a quick study, and had gleefully put into practice all the tips and tricks that Alyssa had given her over the last few weeks. As a result, they were very much alike, but one of them let out an almost undetectable sigh of regret every time his cock left her lips, and if it wasn't for his enhanced hearing, he never would have been able to pick up on it.

He correctly guessed that the regretful girl was Alyssa, which left the last one as Rachel. The girls clapped with delight, and told him how proud they were that he could tell them all apart like that. This ended the first stage of the game, and he groaned as one of the girls straddled him and then slid down his shaft until his whole length was buried inside her warm tight pussy. This second stage was much harder, as he realised that it was rare that he let the girls ride him like this, normally preferring to be the one in control of setting the pace.

Each girl took a turn, riding him for a few minutes, whilst trying to stay silent so that they wouldn't give the game away with an excited moan. The only one he recognised was the last girl, which was Calara, with her wonderful sensual tilting of her hips, but he decided to stay quiet and wait.

"Sorry girls," he apologised, when Calara's time was done. "I think I need to have you ride me like this more often, instead of pounding you into the bed."

The girls giggled and laughed, and forgave him for his lack of guesses.

"Can I suggest a stage three?" he then asked them archly. "You each ride me until you orgasm, and I'll see if I can tell which girl it is from the sounds she makes as she cums?"

Everyone agreed that this was an agreeable way to continue the game, and John pulled Calara in close before she started so that he could whisper in her ear. "I want you to ride me hard, and really enjoy yourself. Are my orders understood, Lieutenant?" he asked her playfully.

"Crystal clear, Commodore," she breathed in his ear, then kissed him lovingly as she gently rested her soft hands on his shoulders, and began to undulate in his lap.

He ran his hands over her body, feeling the toned muscles move under his fingertips, as she gyrated with arousal. He eventually moved his hands up to cup her firm breasts, and he imagined her dark nipples under his thumbs, as he began to stroke them in a matching rhythm with her hips. Calara was already very turned on by the illicit nature of this game and in no time she threw her hair back and cried out as she came.

"That was definitely Calara," he announced as he hugged her while she regained her breath, and the other girls clapped, confirming what he already knew.

He felt another presence at his side, and the impatience gave her away before she had even touched him. Calara dismounted him, and seconds later, he was pushed deep inside an eager teen, who wriggled to take his cock as deep inside her body as he would go. Before she could start moving, he pulled her down to him so that her pert breasts were brushing against his chest.

"I know it's you my sexy little redhead. I want to hear you squeal though, so ride me hard and let me know how much you love my cock inside you," he told her heatedly.

She moaned as she began to move, and kissed him fiercely. "I love you my big dicked man!" she gasped, as she followed his instructions and rocked her hips in a strong pumping motion that had her groaning each time his cock pulled out and then thrust into her womb.

It didn't take her long before she clung to him tightly and squealed loudly as she came, the index finger that he had pushed into her tight little ass helping push her over the edge in short order.

"No fair, you cheated," she said with a smile as she rested her weight against him. "You know I love feeling you penetrate my ass."

The other girls laughed, and agreed that he'd played the game more than fairly. Dana gave him a tender kiss goodbye, before reluctantly dismounting him and collapsing to his left side. The next girl was determined not to give him any clues, as she silently and gracefully threw a lithe leg over his waist, before sinking him deep into her body, while only letting out a very quiet whimper of pleasure. She began to move confidently above him, riding him in a measured pace as his hands roamed over her body, gradually increasing the pace as she stroked him with her pussy, but remaining silent the whole time.

*That's you, isn't it beautiful? None of the other girls has the same willpower and self-control that you do,* he told her confidently.

The silence in reply threw him for a moment, but he realised she was just trying to hold out as long as she could.

"It's okay, you just enjoy riding my cock, baby," he told her lovingly. "I loved this game, and as usual, you've outdone yourself with finding fun ways to keep me entertained."

The girl riding him gave out a soft but happy little moan, and he grinned as he knew for sure it was her. He decided to try and make her cum via thoughts alone, so he began to visualise how he planned to end this fun little game, describing in lurid detail what he wanted them to do. Alyssa moaned and cried out as her hips moved in a blur, and then she drove him deep inside as she finally came, her pussy gripping and massaging his whole length. She eventually sagged against him and laughed in his ear.

"I'm sure that did count as cheating, but well done realising it was me," she said with a happy sigh.

John cradled her in his arms, until she carefully slid his throbbing cock from her body. That meant there were only two girls left, and as soon as Rachel mounted him, he knew it was her. She was more hesitant than the others, this being only the second time they were having sex, but he let her take her time, and enjoy the feeling of control she felt as she eased his cock through her cervix and into her womb.

He pulled her to him, and then told her softly, "Take your time Rachel. I want to hear you cum, but just have fun being the one setting the pace, and enjoy yourself."

"You're sexy as hell," she whispered to him, and kissed him appreciatively.

She gently placed her hands on his chest, and then began to ride him with a smooth rocking motion of her hips. With the blindfold on, he concentrated on listening to her increasingly erratic breathing as she grew more excited, and the smooth nubile flesh under his hands, as they roamed freely over her spectacular body. He finally cupped her lower belly in his hands, and gently stroked the unblemished skin where her swallow tattoo had been, smiling as he wordlessly communicated what he planned to do with her. She ground her hips against him more fiercely, and pushed her tummy into his hands as she rocked in his lap. It didn't take long before she was screaming out his name, and cumming hard around him.

John held her as she collapsed against him, and murmured gently, "Good girl, you were magnificent."

She whimpered in his arms, rendered speechless for the moment, while he stroked her back soothingly. John grinned with satisfaction, enjoying the feeling of accomplishment after having had four teenagers cum on his cock, while resisting the urge to fill them up himself. Rachel eventually roused herself, and then kissed him lovingly, before getting up off him, to make way for Jade.

The Nymph sat in his lap, and immediately impaled herself in one long unhurried movement. He expected her to start moving, but instead, she leaned forward to remove his blindfold.

"You know it's me now, and I want to stare into your eyes when you make me cum for you like this. I don't think it's something we've done before," she said quietly.

John blinked a few times to get used to the soft light, and then smiled at the beautiful green-skinned girl. She beamed a sparkling smile at him in return and then tilted her hips forward and arched her back, so that her breasts were brushing against his chest, and her face was inches from his own. She stared unblinking into his eyes, as she began to move up and down in his lap, just gently brushing her clit against his pubic bone, while her pussy rippled along the length of his cock.

Up this close he could see the swirling green patterns in her emerald coloured iris, and he stared into her eyes with fascination as she rode him. The black vertical pupils of her cat-like eyes began to slowly widen as she got more aroused, spreading wider and wider, until they were perfect black circles that seemed to stare into his soul. She began to emit little mewling cries, until she threw her head back and screamed, unable to maintain the intense eye contact any longer. Her whole body seemed to shudder as she was wracked by her climax, and she rode out the waves of pleasure, her pussy quivering around his length. When she finally came down from the incredible high, she eased back and gazed at him reverently, blinking lazily as her eyes returned to normal.

"We all decided unanimously that you're the winner," Alyssa told him, as she and the other girls gathered around them. "How would you like to finish?"

"It's been quite a while since I took my lovely Nymph in her ass. What do you think, Jade? Would you like that?" he asked her curiously.

She sighed with delight and then nodded happily, before she leaned in to kiss him.

"Oh you're going to love this," Dana said to Rachel, then giggled when she saw the confused expression on the other girl's face.

Alyssa had a wide smile on her face, as she said cryptically, "Jade's a lovely girl, and makes it so that we can all join in. Isn't that right, sexy little Nymph?"

Jade just nodded, and then leaned over to kiss Alyssa, as she gracefully dismounted John. She turned around, and then positioned him at her ass, and gently sank down his broad girthed cock in one fluid motion. She lolled back against him, and then tilted her face to one side so that she could kiss him, while he moved his hands around to massage and squeeze her pert breasts. Calara moved onto the sofa to his left, while Alyssa moved to the right, and then kissed Jade's dark green skin while waiting patiently. John spread his legs, to make room for Dana, and Jade followed his lead, spreading her silky smooth thighs for the redhead too. Dana began to lick at Jade's clit while she waited, while Rachel watched the whole scene quite spellbound.

Jade began to undulate her hips slowly and sensually, and she moaned with ecstasy as she felt her ass stretched wide, while Dana sucked and licked her clit. She was expecting the unusual sensation this time, and embraced it, feeling as though something was unlocking in her mind. She relaxed and continued to move, as she made her body form replicas of John's cock, while simultaneously creating channels through her body so that he could redirect his cum to his mates.

Rachel let out a startled gasp, as two dark green cocks grew out of the Nymph's body, one on either side of her for Alyssa and Calara, and then a third emerged above her pussy for Dana. The three girls grinned at her, and then began to lick the ends of each cock, which had John groaning as he writhed underneath the alien girl.

"Would you like to join in too?" Jade asked Rachel gently, looking up at her with heavy lidded eyes. "John can feel each of their mouths at the same time, so it feels like they're all going down on him simultaneously."

Rachel stared at her with wide eyes, and then nodded eagerly. "Good girl," Jade told her proudly, and then a fourth weighty green replica of John's shaft appeared next to the one Dana was working on.

The brunette eagerly dropped to her knees, and Dana wriggled over a little to make room for her. The redhead winked at her impishly, and then engulfed the head of the green cock in her mouth, her cheeks hollowing as she sucked.

*He won't last long under all this stimulation. You'll need to move quickly if you want to join in,* Alyssa's kindly voice appeared in Rachel's mind.

Rachel nodded obediently, and then decided to be bold, sinking the dark green cock down her throat in one long motion. She grinned as she felt John buck into the Nymph he had impaled above him, and she swallowed and massaged the shaft just the way she would if it was his actual cock. The other three girls followed her lead, and soon all four cocks were encased in tightly rippling teenage throats.

"Fuck!!" John roared, and he thrust powerfully up at Jade, as she faithfully transmitted the four sensations to his actual cock.

He pounded her wildly as the four girls sucked him hungrily, and the orgasm felt like it was ripped out of his body, he came so hard. His four balls convulsed powerfully, and he blasted out long streams of cum that were split evenly between the four attentive young women. Jade just whispered to him lovingly while he ground against her, and it felt like the girls had gleefully sucked every last sperm from his quad, before he finally collapsed, and sprawled back against the sofa.

The replica cocks slowly receded into Jade's body, and she smiled contentedly at a job well done. She had saved the last portion of his cum for herself, and directed it straight into her stomach, so that her body could eagerly absorb it too. She gingerly lifted her weight off John, and let his exhausted cock slide from her body. He had passed out from the intensity of the orgasm, and the girls moved him fully onto the sofa, so that he could rest more comfortably.

The five of them grinned at each other in delight, loving the sense of accomplishment in completely blowing John's mind while working as a team. They all wanted to talk and ask the Nymph questions, but they stayed quiet so they didn't wake up their man. Settling for a loving group hug instead, Jade smiled happily as the girls all embraced her, glowing circles radiating out from her belly.

They didn't have to wait long before John began to come around again, and they gathered around him as he began to groggily regain consciousness.

"My XO might be in charge of recruitment, but we better not try that with any more girls. I think my head would explode!" he said as he chuckled.

They laughed happily, and then helped him up as they gathered their clothes. Dana quickly used the auto-cleaner behind the bar to sanitise the glasses, and then she skipped after the rest of them as they headed to their bedroom. They all wanted a shower after all that activity, and they washed each other under the soothing streams of water, before drying off and collapsing into bed.

Jade lay cuddled up next to John on his left, with Calara switching places to embrace her from behind, while Alyssa, Dana and Rachel lay on his right hand side. With contented sighs, the girls began to drift off to sleep, the questions for Jade having to wait until tomorrow.

*Five beautiful young women with your cum in their stomachs, after you had us all bring ourselves off using your cock.* Alyssa summarised for him gleefully. *You must be feeling like a sex god right about now!*

*You excelled yourself, beautiful. Thanks for a phenomenal night!* he thought to her gratefully.

*It was my pleasure," she purred to him, her voice throbbing with love as she burrowed a little closer to him under his arm, and soon they were both asleep too.

***

The next morning started in the usual kind of way, with John waking up first and stretching with satisfaction as he looked down over the girls. He grinned to himself, with the happy look of a man who has five astonishingly beautiful young women at his beck and call. Like a rippling wave, the girls started to wake up too, and they smiled as they recalled the previous night. John sat up, ready to start the day, and the girls fanned out to sit around him.

"Firstly, thanks for a great night. As you might have guessed, I enjoyed myself immensely!" He told them with a warm smile.

The girls smiled back at him, murmuring their agreement, before he turned to look at Jade.

"You seemed to have much more control over what was happening with your body that time. Did it feel very different?" he asked the Nymph curiously.

Jade nodded firmly, then spoke excitedly, "All the shapeshifting recently has made me much more aware of what was going on. Do you remember the first time that happened, and when I tried to make a copy of your cock the next morning? No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't do it. Well when you took me like that, it felt like part of my mind unlocked the potential to form that shape with my body."

"So you can just grow a copy of John's cock, and then give me a good fucking if he's already busy with one of the other girls?" Dana asked eagerly, and the others giggled at her excitement.

Jade smiled, but shook her head sadly, before she replied, "As much as I'd love that too, I can feel that distinct part of my mind has been securely locked up again."

"Bugger," Dana swore with disappointment.

"Yes, exactly," Jade said sardonically, which had them all laughing.

John waited for them to quieten down, and then asked, "So what's everyone's plans for today? We won't reach the borders of Maliri space until early tomorrow morning, so we have a full day to do whatever you like."

"I can't wait to get started on researching you two, especially after last night. That was wild!" Rachel said, her grey eyes flashing with excitement.

Dana piped up next, looking equally as excited, as she said, "I'll finish off the armour identification system this morning, so how about a demo after lunch?"

"Sounds great! I can't wait to see what you've come up with," John said enthusiastically.

Surprisingly Jade was the next one to chip in with her morning plans, normally being happy to just tag along with the others, or spend some time in the pool. "I'm planning to do some research of my own actually. I think it's well past time I started really exploring what I can do," she said intriguingly.

"Now that sounds like a brilliant idea," John said to her encouragingly. "Will you do a show-and-tell for us when you've found out anything interesting?"

"Of course," Jade agreed, and nodded animatedly as she grinned at him.

John grinned back at her, before turning to Calara. "How about you gorgeous? Anything in mind?"

Calara laughed and nodded. "No, I'm not going to do any more research into the Dragon March traitors, if that's what you were expecting," she said with a grin. "That particular trail of breadcrumbs has dried up for the moment, so spending any more time on it will be a waste, until we can get access to more high-clearance information.

Boosting your rank to Commodore did reveal some more things, but it only really confirmed my suspicions. Yes, there are definitely one or more people in High Command deliberately sabotaging the Terran Federation efforts in that conflict. Obviously they are very highly placed, Vice-Admiral rank or above, because all the relevant commands are locked away under a blanket ultra-clearance lockdown. If we can decrypt that information, legitimately or otherwise, I'll be able to identify every single person involved within minutes."

John flashed a quick glance at Dana, and they could all tell he was sorely tempted to ask her to hack her way in.

Dana spoke up before he could ask. "You only have to say the word, and I'll bust their security wide open," she said confidently. "Unfortunately, hacking really isn't my area of expertise, so my brute force attacks will be like using a nuke to blow open a bank vault. Yes, I can get you that information within a couple of hours. They'll know exactly who did it, and where the attack came from though."

John's shoulders sagged, and he nodded his understanding. "As much as I'd love to know, we can't just declare open cyber-warfare on the Terran Federation," he said with a disappointed frown.

"Don't worry, they only have to make a slight slip-up and I'll be all over them," Calara said reassuringly. "I'll still keep an eye on what's happening in the Dragon March, I just can't tell you straight out what you need to know," she added apologetically.

"Thanks, honey," John told her gratefully, smiling optimistically once again. "So what exactly are you planning to do this morning?"

"I was thinking it might be time to redesign the Tactical Station," Calara said, looking thoughtful. "In all honesty, it's slowing me down having to cycle between weapons on the Invictus. We've boosted the cycle times of the Mass Drivers, so rotating them in to maintain our damage output is becoming cumbersome."

Dana looked eager at the prospect of another technical challenge, as she volunteered to assist, "If you plan out what you have in mind, I'd love to help you build the upgrade!"

Calara grinned at her gratefully. "I was hoping you'd say something along those lines. I've got eight fingers and two thumbs, and I think we can come up with something to put them all to work," she said, wiggling her slender fingers in front of her face.

They laughed at that, and then sensing the meeting was over, began to climb off the bed, to go and get showered and dressed before breakfast.

"Wait a minute. What are you two doing this morning?" Dana asked John and Alyssa curiously.

They smiled back at them, having not moved from bed yet.

"John wants a catch-up with his XO," Alyssa said glibly, with a coy look on her beautiful face.

The girls giggled, understanding what she meant immediately.

"I'll bring you some breakfast in about an hour," Jade agreed, after a quick conversation with the telepathic blonde. She bounced out of the room with an extra happy spring in her step, and the others followed along after her, closing the door behind them.

***

"God, I've missed this," Alyssa groaned happily, as she lay face down on the bed, sprawled out under John.

"I know you love your recruitment, but we miss out on this while I'm feeding a new girl," John agreed wholeheartedly, as he rotated his hips, stretching out her snug ass with his broad cock.

Buried up to the balls inside her, he relaxed and just moved slowly, gliding in and out of her tight passage at a languid pace.

Alyssa sighed contentedly, as she lay her head down, and looked up at him with her right eye. "So, what did you want to talk about?" she asked him playfully.

"Just thought I'd check in with you, and see how the girls are all doing," he told her as he enjoyed feeling her rounded cheeks pressed up tightly against him. "You have that bond with all of them, are they all okay?"

Alyssa examined the compartments in her mind, that gave her a window into each of the girl's thoughts and emotions. The stone mosaic that represented Jade showed her looking up at John with wonder, a radiant smile on her adorable features. The crystal depictions of Dana and Calara's faces were lit up with sparkling smiles, as their contented feelings poured out to her, making her feel equally as happy just to experience them. Finally the nebulous swirl of emotions that represented Rachel was still growing under her tender care, and she felt it emitting happiness and contentment.

Focusing on John once more, she smiled back at him, pleased at his genuine interest in their well-being. "Jade's been on cloud nine ever since Oceanus. Considering how devoted to you she was before that trip, you've somehow managed to bump that up a notch," she told him approvingly.

"Perfect," he told her happily. "How about your mischievous Karron compatriot?"

"Dana loves how you give her free reign to pursue whatever crazy project she can dream up. Between access to all this alien tech, her workshop, you fucking her senseless, and this budding friendship with Rachel, I've honestly never seen her happier," Alyssa informed him. "Thank you so much, by the way. You know how much she means to me, and it's just wonderful to see her life so transformed," she added, her eyes tearing up a little.

John stopped moving, and leaned down to kiss her. The blonde lifted up her shoulders so that they could kiss more easily, and when they were done, she lay back down with a big sigh of happiness.

"Okay, emotional outburst over for now, you can keep fucking me again," she giggled.

John laughed and did as she requested, while moving his hands to cover hers so that they could interlace their fingers. "How about Calara?" he asked her curiously. "I hope she wasn't upset after that discussion about the Terran Federation?"

"No, she's doing fine," Alyssa said happily as she moved underneath him. "She found it a bit unsettling, but it was a conversation she needed to hear. In her heart of hearts, she's shifted her allegiance to you quite unreservedly. She's just as unquestioningly loyal to you as I am, and that's basically complete obedience to your every whim, but she still likes to hang on to the past a bit. It's harmless really."

John paused, momentarily distracted by her blunt declaration. Alyssa giggled, as she looked over her shoulder at his frowning face.

"A bit too much honesty?" she asked him curiously. "You already knew the way I felt after we bonded, and you must have known how devoted Calara is to you, so there's not much point in beating around the bush. Not that you'll find any of those around here!"

John laughed at her double entendre, and then started to speak before Alyssa cut him off abruptly.

"Of course I know you never intended for that to happen, but here we are, and I promise you I'm delighted with the way things have all turned out. Calara loves her life here with us too, so if you start feeling guilty about what happened, I'm going to start getting pissed off, okay?" she told him firmly.

"Yes, ma'am!" John replied with a grin, and then leaned down to kiss her.

"Good boy. Now keep reaming me out, it feels amazing getting ploughed like this," she said, her lush lips curling up in a broad smile.

He grinned, and shook his head at her colourful choice of vocabulary, but did as she asked. "How about the budding relationship between you two? Are you still enjoying each other's company?"

"Yeah, that's all awesome too," Alyssa said, looking blissful as he thrust deep inside her. "There's sometimes little moments we have together that are really intimate, and it just makes everything even better."

"Good. I love seeing you this contented," he told her sincerely. "Any kind of problems you're having that you want to talk about?"

Alyssa shook her head, and smiled up at him. "I'm just loving life," she told him simply.

"Just what I wanted to hear," he told her, and gave her a gentle kiss on her cheek.

"That brings us to Rachel," Alyssa continued. "She seems to have adjusted seamlessly to life with us on the Invictus, and all the girls think she's great, me included."

"I'm glad you all like her, and she does seem happy," John agreed. "Has she opened up with anyone about her past yet? She was obviously troubled by something, but I didn't want to push her about it."

"She'll open up eventually, there's no need to rush things," Alyssa said, nodding her agreement. "I think that's the right approach, and when she feels like she trusts us completely, she'll probably let us know, in her own time."

"I'll leave her in your capable hands," John said, as he continued to move slowly, enjoying the girl's firm athletic body underneath him.

"XO catch-up over?" Alyssa asked him eagerly.

John nodded, mentally ticking off everything he wanted to discuss with her about the crew. "Yep, that was everything," he said jovially.

"Great!" Alyssa said with relief. "Now I want you to pound me hard and fast, until you unload your balls. We're so closely linked at the moment, I'll come as soon as you do, so just ride me hard and enjoy my body," she urged him eagerly.

John grinned, and then pinned her hands underneath his own, as he began to pick up the pace. He skewered her incredibly tight ass with his broad cock, and she moaned with arousal, as he began to really give it to her. Her firm little rump was the perfect cushion for him to thrust into, and her cheeks trembled every time he slapped into them. Her cries got louder as he got more turned on, and she quivered underneath him as he worked to bring them both off.

"Yes! Keep going, you're nearly there!" she urged him, as she could feel his balls twitching against her clenching pussy.

With one last thrust, he buried himself deep inside her vibrating ass, and then grunted as he began to shoot his spunk into her waiting belly.

"Oh fuck, that's good!" Alyssa squealed, and she writhed underneath him as his shooting cum triggered her own orgasm.

They bucked together wildly as he rode her exquisite body, until their simultaneous orgasms eventually ebbed out at the same time. John let her breathing return to normal, before he carefully pulled out of her, and rolled onto his back.

"Great meeting," he said with a grin, as he turned on his side to look at her beautiful face.

"Best one so far," she nodded with a lewd wink.

The door to their quarters opened with a swish, and Jade sauntered in with a tray laden with breakfast for the two of them.

"Hey Jade," John greeted her with a friendly wave.

"Hi yourself," she replied with a grin.

"Perfect timing, sexy," Alyssa said to the Nymph. "I hope you're feeling hungry?"

Jade nodded, licking her lips as she handed over the tray to John, and joined them on the bed.

***

Rachel and Dana had decided to shower together in her room, while Calara and Jade had disappeared into the Latina's room with a friendly wave goodbye. Although the showers in the officer's rooms were quite spacious, they weren't designed with four in mind. They all got cleaned up with only the bare minimum of teasing caresses, and all four girls emerged at about the same time, dressed and ready for the morning.

They worked quickly and efficiently to get breakfast ready for everyone, and then Calara, Rachel and Dana sat down to eat together. Calara asked Jade if she was going to eat with them as well, but when the Nymph explained that she was planning to have a big meal a little later, they all guessed exactly what their leader and his XO were up to right at that moment. When the giggling died down, they quickly finished off their breakfast, and Jade offered to clean up for them. After thanking the Nymph gratefully, Calara left their company to go to the bridge, while Rachel and Dana headed down to Deck Seven to continue their research projects.

As soon as the brunette and redhead entered the Engineering Bay, the overhead lights activated, brightly illuminating the huge room. Dana skipped over to the mass fabricators, and configured them to begin creating the holo-emitters she had developed.

Rachel climbed the steps to the podium, and activated the panels on the spare console that Dana had allocated for her use. The first thing she did was to open up John's medical records, and she held her breath with anticipation as she waited for them to be displayed. Apart from being overjoyed to find a picture of John as he looked at eighteen, which she immediately pointed out to Dana who found it equally as entertaining, the rest of the file was disappointing.

The doctor who had performed his initial examination of Second Lieutenant John Blake twenty-two years ago, was a Captain David Tolland, and he had obviously been immediately aware that the young man was not of entirely human parentage. The ears were a dead giveaway, and the young man's impressive genitalia dispelled any remaining doubts. Doctor Tolland had noted the extremely unusual triple helix DNA structure in John's blood, but after performing some extensive analysis, he had concluded that it was some kind of evolutionary dead-end, as all the genes on this third helix appeared to be dormant. John had been declared fit for active service, and the rest was history.

The attached DNA-analyser report was much more useful however, as it provided her with a base sample of his DNA from over two decades ago. If there had been any changes recently, and Rachel strongly suspected that there had been, they would become immediately apparent in a comparison.

She brought up the original example as a holo display, and then with a click of a few buttons, displayed the sample she had taken yesterday alongside it. She carefully began to rotate each DNA molecule, looking for a good place to begin her comparison, but it was painfully slow going with the small segments she was examining.

"Dana," she called out to the redhead, who was tinkering with one of the robotic heads. "Would you be able to help me with something please?"

"Sure!" the enthusiastic redhead replied helpfully, as she bounded over and then vaulted up the steps. "What do you need?"

"I want to look at a larger section of these two DNA holograms, but my view using the console is quite limited. Is there any way you could make it bigger, so I can see more?" she asked tentatively.

"No problem!" Dana replied eagerly. "How much more?"

"A lot more," Rachel said emphatically.

Dana giggled. "Okay, you asked for it!" she said impishly, and then turned back to her own consoles. Her two hands became a blur as they glided over the panels, working independently of each other on separate consoles.

"Your brain shouldn't really be able to work on two things simultaneously like that," Rachel told her hesitantly, staring in awe as she watched the redhead work.

Dana nodded, and turned to wink at her. "Yep, I know. One of the many perks of the job," she said casually.

A minute or so later, Dana grinned, and then turned to face the brunette. "All done! Hit that red button on the middle console when you want to fire up your new toy," she said playfully.

Rachel laughed at her friend's perky tone, and then did as she was instructed, pressing the button. The half of the room that was currently unoccupied by machinery immediately went dark, until a second later, that half of the room began to glow with a bright array of colours. Rachel spun to face the area with her mouth open in shock, and saw two beautiful helical structures arcing gracefully overhead for over fifty feet, covering almost the entire width of the room.

"How did you do that?" she asked in amazement.

Dana walked over to stand beside her. "It was simple really. I reprogrammed the overhead lighting, and turned the ones in the unused part of the room into holo-projectors. Thanks for requesting that, it looks really pretty," she said gratefully, and leaned in to give the brunette an affectionate peck on the cheek.

Rachel laughed in disbelief, and then watched the remarkable young woman skip down the steps, humming a happy tune as she went over to her workbench to resume her work on her robots. The brunette then turned back to the DNA structures, and as if a switch had been flipped in her brain, she began to see intriguing clues leaping out at her from the long strings of data.

She walked down the steps in a daze, and then sat cross-legged on the floor a little distance away from the intricate depictions of John's DNA molecules. She reached her hands up to twist the complicated structures so that she could get a better view, but then remembered with annoyance that she'd have to go back to the console to do that, so she dropped her arms.

"Go ahead, I programmed the holo-projectors to respond to your hand movements," Dana called out to her across the room, and Rachel realised she had an audience.

She turned and waved gratefully, then looked up at the curving triple helix, and felt herself being drawn into her research once more. She raised her hands excitedly, and began to gently twist the huge holograms, carefully rotating each one, as she looked at them in more detail. She then began to swipe her hands to the side, so that she could examine further along the DNA molecule. She watched the moving image in fascination, and her fingers flickered again, allowing her to see more of the seemingly endless chain. Her hands began to move in a blur, as she examined section after section, her mind studying and absorbing the data too fast for her to consciously comprehend.

Suddenly strong and slender fingers held her hands still, and brought them down to rest in her lap. Dana stepped behind her and sat down, then produced a remote.

"Let me," she whispered to Rachel gently, and clicked the button.

The holographic image began to scroll from left to right, in a continuous, unending stream of data, and Rachel stared up at it in open-mouthed wonder. She could see patterns and shapes appearing clearly before her eyes, which began to tell her a wondrous story; one that another species had unlocked an eon before.

"Faster?" Dana asked her softly, and when Rachel nodded distractedly, she began to increase the speed.

"Keep going," the brunette murmured, and Dana ramped up the speed even further until Rachel finally raised her hand.

Dana wrapped her arms around Rachel, then rested her chin on her friend's shoulder, and settled down to watch the magnificent light show as vast amounts of genetic information scrolled across the room.

***

John strolled out of the bathroom having just dried himself off after his shower, and then walked into their cavernous wardrobe to get dressed for a training session with Yamamoto. When they left Oceanus, he had helped Dana move all the simulator equipment to one of the spare rooms on Deck Three, and while he had cleared the conference room of furniture, she had hooked up the equipment for him. She had excitedly explained that she was going to connect the pulse generator to the powerful communication relay on the Invictus, and promised him that it would work flawlessly.

He walked back into the bedroom, and over to the bed, and then leaned over to kiss the two girls there goodbye. Jade was curled up under the covers, sleeping off the huge breakfast of cum that now filled her belly. Alyssa was still awake and cuddling the Nymph, but she turned around to return his kiss when his lips brushed her cheek.

*Good luck with the training,* she said to him via telepathy so that she wouldn't wake Jade.

John stroked her soft blonde hair as their lips touched, and stared into her cerulean eyes. *Thanks for this morning. I love you, beautiful,* he told her with a sigh of contentment.

*I love you too, handsome, but you need to focus on your training now, or Yamamoto will chop you to pieces!* she said with some amusement.

John grinned at her and waved goodbye, then strolled out of the room. He walked along the corridor then descended one floor in the red glow of the grav-tube, before stepping out onto Deck Three. This deck mainly consisted of conference and training rooms, but with their tiny crew, there had been no reason to use any of the space here. His new sparring room was set up in the first room on the left, and he walked inside and then powered up the simulator, before striding over to collect his Odachi from the rack.

After two solid weeks of intensive training, the weapon felt comfortable and familiar in his hands, and he smiled as he looked down at it. The padded floor suddenly blurred and shifted below him, changing as the holo-simulation reconstructed the dojo where he had been decapitated and dismembered countless times. Yamamoto blinked into view with his hand on his sheathed Katana, and he grunted wordlessly in greeting.

John smiled wryly, nodding at his mentor, and then walked across the polished wooden floor of the dojo, in preparation for their first duel of the session.

***

Calara sat in her tactical chair up on the bridge, and stared through the targeting matrix off into the distance, as she pondered what improvements she would like to make. Cycling through the weapons had to go, as that was proving far too cumbersome. It made sense to align the front arc port weapons with her left hand control, and then the starboard weapons with her right, which would allow her to easily split the Beam lasers and Mass Drivers between targets.

The laser cannons were a little trickier to allocate, as there were four positioned on the front, rear and each side of the top deck, with two in each facing on the underbelly of the Invictus. She remembered the advanced optical targeting system that had been installed on the Raptor and looked thoughtful as she planned out how she would control the splitting of the laser cannon's firepower between multiple targets.

There were even more Gatling lasers in the defence grid, but if the optical targeting worked as she hoped, then it should make hitting multiple fast moving targets like fighters or missiles much easier to manage. With a nod of satisfaction, she brought up a blank document, and then began to detail exactly what modifications she had in mind for their gifted Chief Engineer to make.

***

Dana stood up while being careful not to disturb Rachel, who was still staring transfixed at the streams of data flying overhead, in the form of the triple helix DNA structures. She had only briefly stirred from her trance, to absentmindedly ask Dana if she could add Jade's DNA to the hologram projections, which the perky engineer then set up for her immediately.

The redhead stretched, looking down fondly at the brunette, and then stifled a quiet giggle. She remembered Alyssa complaining that whenever she got absorbed in one of her projects, that Dana became impossible to understand, talking in half sentences of technical jargon. By the looks of it, Rachel immersed herself even more deeply in her work.

A quick glance at the mass fabricators told her that they had finished, and she bounded over to retrieve the tiny devices that she was going to incorporate into their body armour. She scooped them up in one hand, then tipped them carefully into a small container that she picked up from her workbench.

One of the armour equipping frames had been set up in her workshop, so she hummed a jaunty tune to herself as she walked over to the Phalanx armour, and produced her multi-tool from her belt. She carefully attached the holo-emitters to the corners of the shoulderpads, and then skipped up the steps to the podium so that she could make some adjustments on her console.

She cycled through the images, nodding with satisfaction, and then glanced over at Rachel to make sure she was ok. The tawny haired girl was still entranced, staring up at the images in open-mouthed wonder, as though the secrets of the universe were unfolding before her. Dana shook her head with amusement, and then bounced out of the Engineering Bay to upgrade the rest of their body armour suits.

With all the talk of third DNA strands unlocking psychic powers, Dana bumped the creation of the Psi-detector to the top of her to-do list. She thought back to her time on Oceanus, when she had taken apart the Psi-shaper that Alyssa had wrecked so spectacularly, and studied the psychic sensors that were built into it. She paused for a moment, realising she was being unfair on her friend, who had clearly tried to be careful, but had just not appreciated her own Psionic strength. Dana walked into the Firing Range, and then began attaching the holo-emitters to the two suits of armour there.

In any event, it had been easy to understand the basic principles the Ashanath had used to create the sensors, even if she wasn't actually psychic herself. She figured it would take her half a day to miniaturise the Psi-sensors and then build them into a working prototype, which would hopefully have it ready for Rachel if she decided to start looking into these psychic abilities next. Dana finished modifying the second set of Phalanx armour, and then walked back out into the corridor to make her way to the grav-tube.

In all honesty, Dana found the whole idea of psychic powers a bit strange and unnerving, preferring to keep herself firmly grounded in the solid reality of metal and machinery. Still, she couldn't deny how comforting it was to be able to hear Alyssa's voice in her mind, along with being able to sense her thoughts and feelings.

*I love you too, Sparks,* Alyssa told her fondly, and Dana laughed as she realised the blonde had been listening in on her train of thoughts.

*I'm always listening to you. It reminds me of hearing you chatter away in your old workshop on Karron. I might not understand half of the things you're thinking about, but I find you comforting too,* Alyssa told her affectionately.

Dana giggled, as she strolled along the corridor and stepped into the grav-tube. She had been planning on going up to the bridge next, but she decided to leave those suits until last. Instead she stepped out onto Deck Two, and walked along the corridor towards the Commander's Quarters.

*Jade's asleep, so keep the noise down when you come in,* Alyssa requested considerately.

Dana smirked when she tiptoed into the room, and saw Alyssa gently stroking Jade's swollen tummy. The room was dark, but glowing ethereal green circles were pulsing out from the Nymph's stomach and curving around her body, illuminating the room.

*Sleeping off another big load... I'm quite envious of our sexy green skinned girl,* she said to her blonde friend, who grinned at her as she walked by.

*She's thoroughly enjoying herself while John's making up for lost time. I'm surprised you haven't asked him to take you like that yet, I know how much you love it,* Alyssa thought to her with amusement.

The redhead blushed as she disappeared into the walk-in wardrobe, and sashayed over to John and Alyssa's body armour that hung up in the alcoves here. *I usually let him take the lead with choosing when we're together,* she admitted shyly.

*That's all the more reason to take the initiative!* Alyssa encouraged her excitedly. *Think how turned on he'll be if you get lubed up, and start the encounter yourself. You'll be stuffed full of cock before you know what hit you.*

Dana squirmed at the thought, biting her lower lip with arousal, and decided to follow her friend's advice. *Good girl,* Alyssa told her proudly, as Dana attached the holo-emitters to the armour.

Changing the subject before she got too turned on to concentrate any more, Dana then said, *You must have been following what happened in my workshop. It was amazing to see Rachel get absorbed in the data like that.*

*You were right earlier, you do the same thing,* Alyssa said to her fondly. *I wonder what she's found out though, it seemed like it was something significant.*

*I doubt it's anything as crazy as last time, my fellow immortal,* Dana giggled quietly as she padded into the bedroom again.

*I know, right!* Alyssa managed to stay quiet, but her delight came through loud and clear via the telepathic link. *And what a fun way to earn our immortality too.*

Dana nodded with a wide grin on her face, before she stopped and looked at the Nymph who was still slumbering peacefully. *Jade was already at least a few centuries old. I wonder if she was like that already?*

*Quite possibly. Perhaps Rachel can tell us more when she finishes her research. I still struggle to think of Jade potentially being thousands of years old. She just seems so young, cute, and innocent all the time, and she thinks the same way as well.* Alyssa said, as she smiled down at the sleeping Nymph.

*Let's hope we still have the same mindset after we've lived that long,* Dana said wryly.

*I can't imagine you ever changing,* Alyssa told her lovingly. *In fact, there's no-one I'd rather spend eternity with than my oldest friend.*

*I love you too,* Dana thought to her as she walked over to the bed quietly, and then knelt beside it. *But what about Calara and John?* she added teasingly.

*Okay, them equally as much too, but they're my lovers, and it's different with you. You're my adorable little sister,* Alyssa said as she carefully pulled away from Jade, and then rolled on to her other side, and stared at the redhead who knelt by the bed.

Dana leaned forward and then gently rubbed noses with Alyssa, and they stared into each other's eyes. *I know exactly what you mean, my caring big sister,* she replied with a happy sigh.

Alyssa smiled a sparkling smile at her, and then gave her a little wave goodbye as Dana stood and began to walk quietly out of the bedroom. The blonde went back to cuddling Jade, and Dana smiled happily as she strolled down the corridor towards the grav-tube. She stepped into the blue glow, and then travelled up to the Command Deck, where Calara was engrossed in her plans for the Tactical Station upgrade.

"Come up with some good ideas?" she asked the Latina in a friendly voice.

Calara turned and waved at her, smiling happily. "Oh hey! It's good to see you."

Dana grinned, as she always enjoyed speaking to the lovely brunette, and she walked eagerly down the ramp to join her. "It's great to see you too," she said warmly.

"To answer your earlier question, the new weapon controls should greatly improve our flexibility with weapon targeting. At least, as long as what I've come up with is viable," the Latina said tentatively.

Dana leaned against the Tactical Station. "Let me just take a quick peek here..." she said, and studied the document Calara was working on carefully. "Fuck, that's brilliant, Calara!" she enthused immediately. Nodding confidently, she added, "Yep, that should be no problem at all. It'll just take a little extra programming, and rerouting of some of the weapon controls."

"That's a relief!" Calara exclaimed, and then grinned at the redhead happily.

"I'm just glad I can help," Dana said happily.

"What are you up to at the moment?" Calara asked her curiously.

Dana showed her the box of components. "I'm just putting the identification devices on the last suits of Phalanx armour. I hope John likes them," she replied a little nervously.

"You always blow him away with your ideas, you've got nothing to worry about," Calara told her confidently.

"Thanks, gorgeous," Dana said, grinning at her affectionately and then waved her goodbye as she walked over to the Briefing Room.

***

Rachel stood and stretched her back, feeling stiff from having sat in the same position for so long. She suddenly realised that she had no idea how long she'd been sitting there, lost in the wonders of John's Progenitor genetic code. Walking around the podium and then up the steps, she glanced at the chronometer there, and realised she'd been lost in the data for a couple of hours. Still, the secrets that had been revealed to her, far surpassed her wildest dreams, and she was eager to tell John and the girls the incredible news.

*Sorry to interrupt your research,* Alyssa said to her in a sombre voice, *Could you come up to the bridge please. We've run into some trouble, and we'll probably need your assistance.*

Rachel was about to reply, and then rolled her eyes when she remembered that Alyssa wouldn't be able to hear her. She jogged over to the workshop door, and then pressed the button and left the room as soon as the doors swished open. She marvelled at her powerful body as she sprinted effortlessly up the corridor to the grav-tube, and then paused for a second, remembering to step into the blue side to go up to the Command Deck. She stepped onto the bridge a moment later, and then walked over to the Comms Station on her left.

"What's happening?" she asked with concern.

John spun his Command chair to face her, and he looked grim as he spoke, "We stumbled across what seems to have been a recent pirate attack. Some kind of luxury liner was interdicted and then ambushed. Dana's not detected any life signs, so we think the passengers have probably been kidnapped."

Alyssa magnified the tactical map and they saw the doomed passenger liner. It was a shiny, modern looking spacecraft, that looked very expensive. Unfortunately its chromed hull was now pockmarked with blast craters, and one of the engines had been destroyed by an explosion. The transponder tagged the vessel as the passenger liner Excelsior.

"The passengers might have all been killed," Rachel said sadly. "You wouldn't pick up any life signs then, either."

Dana nodded, but then said, "Yep, that's right, but I scanned the ship thoroughly, and I'm not picking up any significant biological matter. I'm fairly sure the survivors have been taken."

Alyssa had turned the Invictus, and had begun plotting a new course on the sector map hologram that floated above the bridge. When the blonde girl activated the Tachyon drive, the holographic representation of their ship was suddenly swathed in a soft blue glow, and they leapt effortlessly into hyper-warp.

"Do you know where they went?" Rachel asked in surprise.

John nodded, and said, "Calara studied the nearby star systems, and then cross-referenced them with reports of pirate attacks in the last few weeks. She's fairly confident she knows where they might be based."

Alyssa zoomed in the sector map until it switched to the system map for Eta-Tauri, which was a bright blue-white star orbited by four gas giants, and a couple of small barren planetoids. She activated the tactical map, and it began to list the facilities that were located in the system.

"There's the abandoned Gas mining facility. We think it's a good candidate for the pirates to use as a base," she said, pointing to the Rastan-Cooper Gas mining station that was in orbit around the third gas giant.

"Uh-oh," Dana said ominously, tearing her eyes away from the console in front of her. "I've just been researching the facility, and it was hit by an asteroid and badly damaged, that's why it was abandoned. From the logs of the incident it was deemed structurally unstable, and they couldn't drain the fuel tanks before it was decommissioned."

John frowned with annoyance, and growled, "Is there any chance we could catch them before they return to their base? If we can interdict them ourselves, it will keep the civilians from any added danger."

Calara shook her head as she regretfully informed him, "It's extremely unlikely. The attack must have happened several hours ago at least, or we would have been in range of the distress beacon. It's possible the liner didn't activate one, but that seems highly implausible, and it's much more likely that the pirates probably turned it off when they captured the ship."

"If that's the case, we'll sneak into the facility to take control of it, and prevent the pirates from rigging or setting off any explosives," he said decisively.

The girls nodded, and then looked up at the sector map to watch their progress. The Invictus raced through the systems on their rescue detour, the powerful Tachyon drive covering the vast distances in record time. A short while later they dropped out of hyper-warp in the Eta-Tauri system, and Alyssa immediately powered down most of the ship's systems, massively reducing the energy profile of the assault cruiser. The passive sensors did their work, and the tactical map began to fill with additional information, updating the map with some minimal details on the ships in the area.

"I'm only picking up what looks like one ship by the gas mining station," Dana informed them. "The transponder is turned off though, so I'm not sure what kind of vessel it is."

"The passenger liner wasn't hit that hard, mostly by laser cannon blasts," Calara said appraisingly. "If I had to guess, I'd say it's a small band using a decommissioned Destroyer or Frigate."

"OK, we stick with the plan," John said firmly. "Alyssa, Rachel, you're with me. Jade can sneak us in on the Raptor, just like we did with the Drakkar. Calara, Dana, I want you to stay on the Invictus. If anything goes wrong, you can try and bluff them into surrendering, but try and avoid a fight until we can secure the passengers. Any questions?"

The girls all shook their heads, and John, Rachel and Alyssa walked briskly to the briefing room to get geared up for combat. Dana got up quickly to follow after them and then she watched from the doorway as John and the two girls approached the equipping frames for the Phalanx armour. They stepped into the armoured boots and gauntlets, and then activated the controls that swung the robotic arms into position, which fixed the plated armour to their limbs and chest. Once they were fully enclosed, there was a series of rippling metallic clicks as the armoured was sealed, and John was the first to step away from the frame to collect a railgun from the weapon rack.

Dana clapped excitedly as she watched them, happy to see that the new identification system was working perfectly. John turned his armoured head to face her, and she could easily imagine the quizzical look on his face.

"What?" he asked her curiously.

"Take a look at the girls, you should be able to tell them apart now," Dana said with a big grin.

He turned to look at the two of them, and their gleaming white armour now sported the stylised head of a wise looking lioness on each shoulderpad. Alyssa's lioness was a golden yellow, while Rachel's was a tawny brown.

"Don't worry, you complete the set," Dana smirked, as she leaned against the doorframe.

He tilted his arm up so that he could look at his own shoulderpad, and saw a lion's head, complete with mane, in the same style as those identifying the girls.

"What do you think?" she asked him jovially, but a quick glance let him know how eagerly she was awaiting his verdict.

"Excellent work," he told her appreciatively. "It'll be really easy to tell the girls apart in a combat situation now, so well done!"

Dana beamed at him with pride, and then pointed towards the equipping frames. "I tweaked the safety sensors in those, so that as well as making sure it's safe to secure the armour pieces in place, they use facial recognition software to identify the user. The body armour then displays the correct lioness image, so that means we can use whatever suits are handy, and we'll be identified accordingly."

"Nice attention to detail," John nodded approvingly, as he slapped home a sabot clip into the XR75 railgun, and then picked up some hollow point magazines which he attached to the webbing on his armour.

"Good luck and take care," Dana said to them and waved goodbye, leaving them to finish getting ready.

Rachel and Alyssa were also now holding their weapons, and sighting through the scope now that they had loaded the magazines. They stood ready once they were happy with their equipment, and with a nod from John they walked out of the briefing room.

"You guys look great!" Calara told them enthusiastically, as they trooped past her. "Be carefully out there though, don't take any chances, not when the station is so dangerously unstable."

"I'll look after them, don't worry." John said, and they walked over to the grav-tube, where Jade was waiting for them patiently.

They waved Dana and Calara goodbye, and then stepped into the anti-gravity tubes and headed down to the bottom deck to go to the Hangar where the Raptor was awaiting them. Jade darted ahead, and slapped her hand on the button that would open the sturdy doors into the Hangar Bay. The gunship was ready, spotless and gleaming brightly in the overhead lighting as they jogged up the ramp and into the Raptor.

When they caught up to Jade in the cockpit, she was powering up the engines, and had opened the huge hull doors in the Invictus. In less than a minute she had lifted the powerful ship off the floor of the Hangar, and then used the retro-thrusters to ease the Raptor out of the Invictus, and away from the assault cruiser out into space.

"We're clear," she said to Calara on the voice comm.

Calara's face appeared in the view screen and she waved to them. "Good luck, and let us know if we can help with anything," she said soberly.

"You two stay safe as well," John told her, and she grinned at him and nodded before ending the call.

Jade looked up at him over her shoulder as he stood behind her pilot's chair. "It'll take me about ten minutes to get us there. Do you want me to come in with you as well after we dock?"

"Yes, definitely. If we have lots of civilians to rescue and protect, having you there too will be invaluable," he said firmly.

"No problem. Once we're inside, I'll shapeshift," she said confidently.

The ten minutes to approach the gas mining facility seemed to take an eternity, and it loomed larger as they stared at it through the cockpit canopy. It was a dark rusty red, with a cylindrical body and five long arms sticking out from the top. There should have been eight in total, but three had been sheared off in the impact with the asteroid, which had left a huge rent down the side of the facility.

They saw what looked to be a battered old Terran Federation Frigate that was docked on one side of the facility, proving Calara's guess to be correct. Jade didn't need to be told to dock on the opposite side of the gas mining station, and they soon sidled up to one of the docking arms, before clamping themselves securely in place.

John turned to face Rachel, and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You okay? Feeling nervous?" he asked her considerately.

She paused and then nodded hesitantly as she looked up at him.

"We'll look after you, don't be scared," he told her soothingly. "Just stick with Alyssa and follow her instructions. I'll be communicating directly with her via telepathy, and she'll pass it on to you. If you need to ask me anything, just use the voice-comms in the suit."

Rachel stood up straighter and nodded much more firmly this time. "I won't let you down," she told him in a determined voice.

"I know, you're a good girl," he told her affectionately, before he glanced at Jade and Alyssa. "Alright, let's move out."

They went down the grav-tube and then through to the cargo compartment at the back of the Raptor which contained the airlocks. Jade had docked on the port side of the gunship, so they approached that airlock cautiously. Once Alyssa had hit the button that made the outer airlock door spiral open, John removed the chrome decryption device from a compartment on his belt and then attached it to the door. It hummed happily to itself for a moment before the station airlock unlocked with a dull sounding thunk, then the two doors creaked loudly as they ground open. A rush of fetid air swirled through the doorway, and Jade wrinkled her nose with distaste.

She stepped away from them a little way, back into the room, and stripped off her top and dropped her trousers, then began to shimmer as she changed her shape. An instant later she reappeared in her Jade tiger form, and she padded past them and through into the station. She sniffed the air, her powerful muzzle lifted high, and then began to stalk forward.

*There's men approaching,* Alyssa warned John. *Only a couple she thinks, probably to investigate the noise from the door.*

He darted out of the airlock behind Jade, moving quickly along the corridor after her, with Alyssa and Rachel following close behind. The facility was in a terrible state of disrepair, with pipes venting steam into the corridor, broken overhead lighting, and floor panelling removed in various sections where maintenance had been started and then abandoned. They all heard the sound of men talking before they saw any signs of the incoming pirates.

"Ugh, why do we even need anyone on guard duty," one of the grumbled. "I could be getting laid right now."

"Tell me about it," the second one snarled. "I've never had me any high class pussy before, and now it'll be sloppy seconds at best."

John clenched his jaw with anger, and he could feel the fury coming off Alyssa over their telepathic connection.

*We better try and grab a prisoner if we can. We're going to need some information fast if we're going to have any chance of protecting those women,* John told her.

*Jade's on it,* she told him immediately, and John watched the huge tiger prowl forward rapidly, not making a sound.

She disappeared from sight for a few seconds, and there was the sound of a muffled scream, then frantic cries for mercy. John darted forward to catch up, and saw that Jade had cornered one of the men, who had dropped to his knees in terror, flinging his hands up in the air in surrender. The other man's decapitated head lolled on the floor, a horrified expression frozen on his face.

John strode up to the man and pointed his gun in his face. "Start talking now, or either I'll start shooting bits off you, or I'll let the tiger take her time with you. Where are the women prisoners?"

"On the n-n-next level down," the terrified man stammered.

"And the rest of the passengers, where are they?" John snarled.

"Locked up on this level, being guarded by a handful of the men," the pirate replied fearfully.

John tightened his grip on his weapon as he stared at the loathsome man. "Have you rigged this place with booby traps or any kind of explosive triggers?" he said in a no-nonsense voice.

The pirate shook his head quickly as he stared up at John. "We only moved in here a couple of weeks ago, and none of the crew are explosives experts. The Captain said something about an insurance policy though..."

"OK, you're coming up with us. Rachel, watch him. If he tries anything suspicious or attempts to warn his friends, you can kill him," John said forebodingly, and then nodded to Jade who darted away down the corridor.

John jogged along after the Nymph, with Alyssa at his side, as they tried to keep up with the dark green tiger, whilst making as little noise as possible.

"Move it arsehole," Rachel growled at the pirate, and the man stood up warily.

He put his hands on his head, and then walked several paces in front of her while she kept her weapon trained on him. They eventually caught up with the others who were paused to strike out of the darkness. They were on an upper gantry overlooking a gloomy circular room, in the middle of which was a table where four surly men sat around playing cards.

"I can't believe we got picked for fucking guard duty," one of them whined, in what seemed like a common grievance amongst those pirates stuck on this level.

His one-eyed compatriot nodded as he stared at his guards. "These useless dicks aren't going anywhere, they're locked up tight," he grumbled. "This is a bullshit waste of time."

"Did you see those bitches we pulled off that liner," an overweight pirate leered. "I'm gonna have me some fun when the Cap'n finally lets us have a go."

The fourth man was about to speak when John gave the signal to strike, and Jade leapt off the gantry, dropping twenty feet to the ground and letting out a terrifying snarl, revealing her razor sharp fangs.

"Freeze or you're dead!" John called out to the pirates as they scrambled back in fear from the enormous green tiger, the fat man falling off his chair in his haste.

The four men looked up frantically at the sound of his voice, suddenly spotting John and Alyssa pointing lethal looking rifles at them. They warily raised their hands, being careful not to do anything that might give the tiger, or the white armoured soldiers, any reason to attack.

John and Alyssa walked carefully down the ramp from the gantry, keeping their weapons trained on the pirates. When John reached them, he moved from man to man, stripping them of any obvious handguns or rifles.

"Any concealed weapons on the table. If we find them later, I'll kill you," he said in a voice that promised instant enactment of his threat.

The one-eyed man reluctantly pulled a small pistol gingerly from his belt, hidden behind his back, while the fat man slowly uncovered a vicious looking knife from his boot and added it to the growing pile of weapons.

"Good now back up over there," John said, waving them off with his weapon.

Jade had been prowling around the room, and she scratched at one of the sealed doors.

"The rest of the passengers are in there," Alyssa translated for her.

John turned to Alyssa and nodded. "I'll take Jade and save the women. Lock up these pirates in one of the rooms, and free the other passengers," he ordered.

He could feel Alyssa's reluctance to leave his side, but she nodded her agreement.

"Which way to the level down?" John snarled at the first pirate they had taken prisoner, who Rachel had brought down to join them.

The man pointed down a corridor on the other side of the dimly lit curved room. "Down there, then look for a gantry like this one with a ramp down to the next level," he answered quickly, then put his hand back on top of his head.

*We'll be back as soon as we can,* John thought to Alyssa, and he sprinted down the corridor, following Jade's lashing tail.

Alyssa kept a wary eye on the pirates in the middle of the room, and then carefully opened one of the sealed doors. The room inside was empty and featureless, and after a cautious look inside, she determined there was no way out of it.

"Alright, all of you in there," she told the pirates, indicating the room with a nod of her head.

The five pirates glowered at her with annoyance, now realising they were being guarded by two women, and feeling braver now that the terrifying beast had left the room. They shot her sullen looks as they walked past, and she could almost feel the hate and contempt pouring off them. When the last one was safely inside, she sealed the door behind them and spun the locking wheel on the metal door, locking them in.

"What a complete bunch of arseholes," she said to Rachel, shaking her head in disgust.

They walked over to the next door, the one that Jade had indicated, and carefully spun the identical locking mechanism, which unsealed the door. Alyssa tugged at the rust stiffened portal, and it open grudgingly with an unhappy squeal. Dozens of scared faces peered back at them from the dimly lit room, and as Alyssa yanked the door wide open, they saw there must have been at least fifty men in the room.

"Don't be afraid. We're here to rescue you," she called out to them in a clear voice. "Are any of you injured?"

A man in a ripped pseudo-naval uniform staggered forward. "Oh thank God you're here!" he said, his voice sounding desperate.

As he moved into the slightly brighter lighting from the circular room behind them, they could see that he had received a beating from the pirates, and his face was blackened with bruises, and bloodied with several cuts and gashes. Rachel slung her railgun over a shoulder, and then pulled the medical kit from her back as she walked over to him, and helped him to sit so that she could tend to his wounds.

"My name's Alyssa Marant, I'm the Executive Officer on the Invictus," Alyssa informed him, as she squatted by his side. "Who are you?"

"I'm Merick Bragan. I was First Officer on the Excelsior, and I guess I'm in charge, as these bastards beat the Captain to death," he said in a quavering voice.

"You're safe now," Alyssa told him in a soothing voice. "Just take it slowly and tell me what happened."

Merick slumped back against the wall, and stared up at the ceiling as Rachel began to clean the cuts on his face.

"We got yanked out of hyper-warp, and then the pirates started shooting at us. This part of Terran space is supposed to be totally safe!" he exclaimed, still shocked. "How could the T-Fed navy have let them set up like this?!"

"We can try and find out answers to that later," Alyssa said calmly. "What happened after that?"

"When the pirates shot out our engines, they boarded us. We had a small security contingent aboard the Excelsior, but they were so outnumbered they stood no chance. When the Captain refused to turn off the distress beacon, the pirates..." he faltered as he struggled to continue.

"It's okay, I get the idea," Alyssa told him comfortingly. "How many of you are there?"

One of the other men in the crowd of faces that were staring at them stepped forward. "There's sixty three of us here, nearly all men, some of the older women and nearly a dozen children. The pirates took the others," he said pointedly, leaving little doubt who he was referring to.

Rachel immediately glanced around the room, and suddenly realised there were a number of kids staring at her with wide frightened eyes. She pulled the helmet from her head, and smiled at them reassuringly.

"It's okay, we're here to keep you safe," she said gently.

A little girl, probably aged about six or seven in her estimation looked around one of the men and stared at her with big blue eyes. "They took my mummy. Are you going to bring her back?" she asked in a scared voice.

Rachel stared at her in shock, as her mind flashed back to those dreadful events ten years ago...

***

"Daddy, when will mummy be back?" she asked her father curiously, looking up at him where he sat behind the heavy desk in his study. "She was supposed to be home hours ago."

Her father had a funny look on his face, one she had never seen before. He looked angry and worried at the same time. "Not now Rachel," he said waving her away dismissively. "Go and play with the Nanny, I'm speaking to someone about your mother at the moment."

Rachel snapped back to the present, and stared off into the distance, as those feelings of fear and helplessness threatened to overwhelm her once more.

Alyssa glanced at her, frowning at the sudden surge of negative emotions she was picking up from Rachel.

*Are you ok?* she thought to the brunette, who turned and nodded to her distractedly.

***

Jade had slowed slightly as they darted down the gantry, letting John keep up with her. As they descended to the next level down, they could hear the dreadful sounds of women sobbing and crying coming from up ahead, as well as the raucous sounds of braying laughter from a large group of men.

John hurried along the corridor, desperate to try and stop what he feared had already started, as he and Jade closed in on the sounds. The pirates hadn't bothered to post any guards, and he was able to approach the room and glance inside without alerting any of them.

There were at least fifteen pirates in here, with around twice that number of women in various stages of undress. The pirates were laughing and drinking as they bartered with each other for who got to have each of the women first, and a young, mid-teen girl was currently the centre of their attention.

"Strip! Strip! Strip!" they yelled and howled at her, as she stood quaking in terror before them.

As John pulled back before he was spotted, he noticed a couple of female bodies lying sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood, and he shook his head sadly, realising they were beyond his help.

*Tell Jade there's too many for us to kill without risking hitting the women in the crossfire.* John thought to Alyssa, and when the green tiger looked up at him and nodded, he knew his commands were being relayed verbatim.

*I want her to scare the shit out of the pirates. We've got to get them so scared, they surrender before they realise how much they outnumber us,* he thought to Alyssa quickly.

As Jade blinked at him, and then crawled forward silently, Alyssa's voice came through to him, *She says she understands, and she knows what to do.*

John held his railgun tightly, and prayed he was making the right decision as he got ready to spring the attack. He had no worries about his own safety, clad as he was in his incredibly resilient armour, but the exposed women in the room had no such protection. The time for doubt was over when Jade darted into the room, and he rushed in behind her.

She opened her massive maw and let rip a terrifying roar, that chilled him to the bone even though he was on her side. All other sound in the room stopped in an instant, as men and women alike stared at the monstrously huge tiger in abject terror. Not giving them a chance to react, Jade leapt forward onto the nearest pirate and dragged him to the ground, her vicious snarls drowning out his screams as she ripped the man to pieces.

"Drop the guns, or we'll slaughter you all!!" John roared, his amplified voice booming around the room.

Having seen what the hideous tiger was still doing to the massacred man in front of them, the horrified men hurled their weapons away, and shrank back against the walls, desperate not to be next on the menu. A quick glance at each of the surviving pirates reassured him that they were now unarmed, and John strode into the room. Jade left the mangled pirate behind her, blood dripping from her teeth and claws as she snarled at the men.

"All of you - get out now!" he told the men, waving at them to move as they desperately tried to back away from Jade.

Seeing an opportunity to put some distance between them and her, they eagerly edged around the walls, and then backed out of the room, not taking their eyes off her.

"Wait in the corridor. If any of you try and run, I'll let the tiger finish all of you," he promised them, and the men nodded at him fearfully.

When they had all done as he commanded, he nodded to Jade who padded out after them to keep them under her watchful gaze. He heaved a sigh of relief and then pulled his helmet from his head, so he wouldn't seem quite so frightening.

"You're all safe now," he said to the terrified women in a soothing voice, and smiled at them gently.

The women were huddled together against the back wall, having not been sure who to be more scared of, the pirates or the tiger. When both of those had left the room, and they saw this man in white armour looking kind and unthreatening, they began to calm down, and some of them began to weep softly with relief.

"Get dressed, it's over. We'll take you back to the other passengers, and lock up the pirates," he told them, and then walked over to the women in the pool of blood.

He crouched down to check on them, and saw there were in fact three, all in their early thirties he'd guess. One of them had torn clothes, but all three had been shot at point blank range and stared up at the ceiling lifelessly. He was aware of movement behind him, and a striking blonde in her late thirties came forward to stand at his side. Her face was filled with sadness as she stood next to him, and looked down at the trio of murdered women.

"I think the pirates used them as an example to intimidate the rest of us. They were going to rape the first one, and when her friends tried to help her, they shot all three of them," she said mournfully.

John stood then turned to face her, and she looked into his eyes, as she said, "I'll never forget what you did for me today. That was my daughter they were going after next."

John nodded in acknowledgement of her thanks. "I'm just sorry we couldn't get here quickly enough to save them too," he said, glancing down at the dead women regretfully.

The woman reached out and gently touched the side of his face. "That wasn't your fault, but rescuing the rest of us was down to you," she told him sincerely.

John smiled at her in gratitude, and then turned to look at the rest of the group of women, who were walking forward to join them warily.

"Just follow behind me, I'll lead you back to safety," he told them, and then put his helmet back on again and strode out the door.

Jade was pacing back and forth in the corridor, snarling every now and then for effect, and the group of pirates stared at her in absolute terror.

"Alright, get moving, we're going back up to where you kept the rest of the passengers," he told them, and the pirates started to slowly inch up the corridor, backing away from the tiger.

"Move! We haven't got all day!" he snarled at them in irritation, and when Jade let out a throaty rumble and began to pad forward quickly, the pirates scrambled ahead of them.

It didn't take long to go back up to the next level now that they weren't trying to be stealthy, and John nodded to Alyssa with relief when he saw her waiting for them.

"In here," she ordered the pirates sternly as she spun the wheel unlocking their impromptu prison, and the fourteen remaining pirates stepped inside, grateful not to have to worry about the tiger any more.

John put his hand on the door before she could shut it and stared inside. "Which one of you is the Captain?" he asked the scared pirates. When none of them said anything, Jade poked her head in through the door and snarled viciously.

"Start talking or we'll leave her in here with you," he said, weary of dealing with the men already.

A number of the pirates started talking all at once, and John pointed at one of them to continue, and the rest went silent. He had chosen a grisly looking man, who spoke up again, "He said he was going to check on his 'insurance policy' and went to the lower levels with a couple of the men."

"What does that mean?" John asked curtly, but the man shook his head.

"Captain Farley used to be a demolitions engineer in the military before he got kicked out," an older, bald pirate volunteered.

John nodded and then backed out of the room and slammed the door shut, before spinning the wheel, locking it closed.

*Shit! That doesn't sound good at all,* he swore to Alyssa, and her sombre look told him she felt the same way.

*What's the plan?* she asked him, her voice sounding worried.

John felt torn for a moment, unsure what to do. They had to get the civilians clear, but they couldn't risk the Pirate Captain finding out what had happened, escaping and then remotely triggering some kind of explosives.

*You girls get the passengers to safety, I'll go and hunt down this Captain Farley,* he told her decisively.

Alyssa shook her head immediately. *Nope, I'm coming with you. The pirates are terrified of Jade and they wouldn't even attempt to break out while she's around. Rachel and Jade can easily lead the passengers to the Raptor,* she said convincingly.

John could tell by her tone of voice that she wasn't going to be argued with, and so he nodded, and headed back down the corridor towards the lower levels with Alyssa by his side. She relayed the orders to the other girls, as she strode alongside him.

***

Rachel had finished cleaning up First Officer Bragan's wounds, and then walked back out to the circular room when Alyssa passed on the orders to evacuate the passengers.

"We'll lead you back to our ship," she told the group of women, who had been watching Jade warily.

They dashed past her instead, to reunite with their men who had followed her out of the room, and she smiled as she saw them hugging and kissing one another. Her smile froze when she saw the little girl who had spoken to her earlier, looking around worriedly for her mother. One of the women walked up to the girl's father and shook her head, with tears rolling down her cheeks, and the man's face crumpled. He sagged as he shook with grief, before seeing that his daughter was looking up at him. He knelt down in front of her, and stared into her young hopeful face.

"Mummy isn't coming home Carla, it's just you and me now," he said in a broken voice.

The heart rending sobs from the little girl shook Rachel to the core, and just like that she was thrown back into her past once more, to relive one of her worst memories all over again.

***

"Mummy's not coming home, Rachel," her father told her, his face stricken with grief.

"Why not? Why didn't you give the men what they wanted?! It's only money!" Rachel wailed, her heart threatening to break in two.

"Henry Voss doesn't give in to blackmail," he told her sternly, but his voice faltered half way through and even her young eyes could see the guilt he felt etched plainly across his face.

"I hate you! It's your fault she's dead!" Rachel cried out, and she ran from the room, her eyes blinded by tears.

***

Rachel walked over to the grieving girl, unshouldering her railgun and gripping it tightly.

"The bad men won't hurt anyone any more," she said, as the girl looked up at her, tears streaming down her face.

Rachel turned and walked purposefully over to the other door, and then spun the wheel unlocking it. Jade looked up at her with concern in her emerald eyes, and gently nudged her hand.

"My mummy isn't coming home again either," Rachel said, her eyes filling with tears, and after a long pause, Jade stepped aside.

The door swung open with a squeal, and Rachel stepped into the room. The pirates looked up and saw the stunningly beautiful young brunette standing before them, and began to grin lasciviously.

"Come in here for a good time, have you sweetie?" one of the more brazen men said to her, leering as he stepped forward.

"Yes, let's have a good time," Rachel replied in a voice dripping with menace.

She brought her railgun to her shoulder and shot the man in the face, splattering his brains and blood all over the stunned faces of his fellow pirates.

***

"Oh, fuck!" Alyssa swore, halting John in his tracks. "We have to go back, it's Rachel!"

"What? What is it?" John asked her in alarm.

"I looked into her past!" Alyssa said with frustration as she whirled and began to run back to the ramp. "Her father must have covered it all up!"

*You're not making sense* John thought to her, his voice throbbing with concern, as he ran after her.

*Jade said Rachel's executing all the pirates. She must have lost her mother under some kind of similar circumstances,* Alyssa explained as they sprinted up the ramps, going back up the levels.

*Shit! We should have pushed her more on her past. I did wonder what happened to her mother when she mentioned a step-mother,* he said feeling guilty.

They raced down the corridor, and burst into the circular room, where dozens of passengers stared at them with wide eyes.

*I'll get the passengers out of here, you take care of her,* John said firmly, and he sensed Alyssa's acknowledgement of his order.

"Alright everyone, we need to evacuate immediately," he said in a no-nonsense tone, and his commanding voice calmed the civilians, and had them moving straight away.

He strode up the ramp that led back to the gunship, and waved for the nearly one hundred civilians to join him. They had been shocked by the recent turn of events, and they followed him quickly and quietly as he led them back to the Raptor. It was a tight squeeze to cram everyone into the cargo compartment at the back and the loading area at the front, but he just about managed to pack everyone in. Remembering that they were still in significant danger in case the pirate captain detonated any explosives, he stood by the airlock door, waiting impatiently for the girls.

***

Alyssa had darted into the room they had been using as a makeshift prison, and paused a moment in shock when she saw the bloodbath within. Rachel had methodically killed every last pirate in the room, and the back wall and floor were awash with blood. The brunette was kneeling on the floor, sobbing brokenly. Her pristine white armour was now spattered with blood, and the tawny coloured lioness was now underlit in crimson, where one of the holo-emitters had been covered by a splash of blood. Jade had transformed back into her nude Nymph girl form, and was kneeling beside her with a comforting arm around her shoulders.

The blonde girl sighed as she removed her helmet, and then walked over quietly and knelt on Rachel's other side. The pure grief written over the brunette's face made her heart lurch, and she put her arm around her shoulders too.

"It's going to be okay, we're going to look after you," she said in a soothing voice to the heartbroken girl, and Rachel leaned her head on her shoulder.

*We need to get her out of here,* Alyssa thought to Jade. *This place could blow any minute.*

The Nymph glanced over Rachel's shoulders and nodded curtly. She rose to her feet, and then gently scooped the brunette up in her arms, while whispering to her softly. Alyssa picked up Rachel's railgun and helmet that lay discarded on the floor, and then followed after them silently, as she worried about the young woman in Jade's arms.

They walked briskly back to the Raptor, with Alyssa and Jade darting worried glances at one another. John was waiting for them at the airlock, and his face shone with relief when he saw them, and he beckoned them to move faster. They strode past him and walked straight through the throng of astonished passengers who gawped at the naked green girl in their midst. John sealed the airlock door behind them, and then walked along to the grav-tube, heading up to the cockpit.

Jade had disengaged the clamps locking them in place to the docking collar, and they drifted clear of the station with the use of retro-thrusters. She powered up the Raptor's engines, and they roared away from the gas mining facility, as she plotted a course back to the safety of the Invictus. The assault cruiser was now waiting for them within weapon range of the frigate, covering the pirate vessel in case it tried to escape.

Rachel was slumped in one of the chairs at the back of the cockpit, and John and Alyssa looked at each other in concern from either side of her, as she curled up and started crying again.

*Well we saved the passengers at least,* Alyssa said, as she stroked Rachel's hair gently.

*I won't lose her in exchange though,* John said firmly, locking eyes with Alyssa, who nodded immediately.

*I know,* she said, and smiled at him lovingly.