The 12 days to Karron passed in a happy blur to Calara. She woke up each morning on one side of John, Alyssa on the other. She'd get 'breakfast' from John's quad, watch the two of them eat, and then go down to the Firing Range where Alyssa helped her work on her aim. Meanwhile, John would practice his swordsmanship or psychic powers in the Gym. They'd meet up for lunch, and then return to the Gym. John had begun to teach Calara martial arts, something she'd always been interested in. While she and John sparred, Alyssa would practice lifting weights with Telekinesis. They'd have dinner, and relax for the rest of the evening, usually with drinks in the Lounge.
Calara was blind to the changes her body went through, though she did notice her thinking was getting sharper and clearer. When, after a week, John showed her the mirrors in his closet, she was shocked to her core. Her face had been subtly altered, made perfectly symmetrical. Her body was identical to Alyssa's sexy form except for her coffee-colored skin. And her hair hung to her lower back, thick and lustrous. John celebrated by making love to her for the first time.
The day before they were set to arrive at Karron, there was an alarm while they were having lunch. They rushed to the Bridge and took their places. "Pirate attack on a Freighter," Alyssa stated, analyzing the data from the long-range scanners.
"Take us in, XO," John ordered. "Calara, get ready for your baptism by fire."
Calara cricked her neck and activated the Invictus' weapons.
They arrived in the system the attack was happening. The Invictus fell on the pirate ships like a shark on minnows. Alyssa flew them perfectly, and Calara didn't miss a single shot. When the pirates were nothing but debris, they hailed the Freighter. They got many grateful thanks and then they both went on their way. John summoned the girls to his Ready Room. "So… we just killed about 100 people. How does that make you feel?" John asked with concern.
"Not people, pirates," Alyssa shrugged. "Probably from the same gang that attacked the Griffon. I won't lose a wink of sleep over sending bastards like that to the hereafter."
"They knew what they were getting into, piracy carries the death penalty. We just happened to be the ones to bring them to justice," Calara mused.
John sighed. "I was afraid of that. Part of the Change, we found, is almost zero empathy for our enemies."
"Would you rather we be wailing and moaning about how we're murderers?" Alyssa asked with a raised brow.
"Of course not. I just want you to recognize that this is a situation where your old selves might have reacted differently," John told the two women in his care.
"Our old selves weren't equipped to handle the stress of life at a Progenitor's side. You've raised us to a higher form," Calara said with a grin.
"If that's the way you want to view it, who am I to argue?" John chuckled. Then he surprised them both by throwing both of them over his shoulders. "Now, to celebrate the Invictus' first victory!" They didn't leave the bedroom for the rest of the day.
The next morning, John and Alyssa dressed in street clothes with Heavy Pistols belted at their hips. They had psychic powers, sure, but nothing like a gun to discourage would-be muggers from assault. They arrived at Omicron Ceti and had to wait 20 minutes for a Heavy Freighter to leave the only docking bay big enough to fit the Invictus.
"We should be safe, but if anything goes wrong, I want you manning the Gatling Lasers," John told Calara.
"You got it, John," Calara nodded, giving both him and Alyssa goodbye kisses.
John and Alyssa went out of the airlock, the air quality taking a nosedive as they entered Karron proper. "Ladies first," John gestured, silently acknowledging that he'd have no idea where to go without her guidance.
"Try to keep up," Alyssa chuckled as she led John into the labyrinthine tunnels that made up Karron. She led him through increasingly claustrophobic tunnels until they reached Diablo gang territory, evidenced by the fact every able-bodied man was armed and wearing red. They arrived at a hatch door with two guards. "What chu want, chief?" asked one, looking at John and disregarding Alyssa.
Alyssa grinned and handed over a cred stick for 100 credits. "We'd like to see Sparks."
Unable to refuse a beautiful woman bearing gifts, they were let in. Catcalls followed in Alyssa's wake until the men saw John in her shadow. They walked through the gang's inner sanctum to a side-tunnel. A wiry, short redhead was working on something with a blowtorch.
"Hey, Sparks!" Alyssa greeted.
The redhead looked up, lifting her welding mask. Half her face was disfigured with burn scars, but her heterochromatic eyes shined, a light blue with a gold corona around the pupil. "Guns are on the wall, blondie," she pointed before going back to her work.
John admired the many custom pieces of hardware while Alyssa got closer to the gunsmith. "Sparks, don't you recognize me?"
Sparks grunted and turned off the blowtorch. She took off the welding mask and turned to face Alyssa. "Oh, sure, I recognize you from our old modeling days! The fuck are you, stranger?"
"It's me, Alyssa. Alyssa Marant," Alyssa said clearly.
Sparks threw back her head laughing. "Who put you up to this? Fat Tony? Choppy Bob?"
"Fat Tony stole a box of nutri-bars from me that I bought by selling one of your gadgets. I got stuck by one of the Fletcher brothers and you sewed me up. You got your scars from trying to fix a generator when you were 8. I used to gopher for you and slept right there," Alyssa pointed at a particular nook. "It's really me, Sparks."
Sparks was gaping. She looked closer and recognized Alyssa's eyes. Once she had that frame of reference, it was possible to see her old friend through the holo-model glamor. "Alyssa? Holy fuck, what happened to you?"
"It's called the Change, or the Gift. And it comes from John here," Alyssa said, gesturing at her male companion.
Sparks eyed John with distrust. "Who're you?"
"I'm John Blake. I'm from a race of powerful psychics. With Alyssa's permission, I changed her body into what you see now. And now we've come to free you," John said.
"Free me? Like, what, leave the Diablos?" Sparks asked.
"Like leaving Karron, Sparks," Alyssa grinned. "It's what we always talked about. Join John's crew, and you can leave this rock in your dust. He can make you beautiful too, if you want."
Sparks reached up to feel her scars. "What about my equipment?"
"I'm rich, I can replace all this. You can order equipment right out of the Engineer's Almanac," John said enticingly.
Sparks looked very tempted. "I can't leave. The Diablos will never let me go, I'm their best asset."
"Remember when I said I was psychic?" John said. He focused on the Shadow rune in the Kyth'faren alphabet and reached out with eldritch fingers, bending the light around Sparks. With a shimmer, she vanished from sight.
"Holy fuck, I'm invisible!" came the disembodied gasp.
"Keep up with us," John said, leading them all out of Diablo territory. Once they were out of sight of the last red-shirted ganger, John let go of the surprisingly draining invisibility cloak. Sparks reappeared next to them.
"Once they realize I'm gone, they'll scour the whole asteroid for me," Sparks pointed out.
"By which time we'll be long gone. Come on, let's get a cab," Alyssa said, leading them back to the main hub of Karron. They all grabbed a taxi to the Mortimer Mining Complex. John and the girls were admitted right to the owner's office.
"John! Good to see you," Seb Mortimer said, a bright smile on his face that perfectly concealed the fact he hated John's guts and wanted to see him die.
"Seb," John greeted with an equally fake grin.
"So, what brings you back to my humble mine?" Seb asked once they were all seated.
"I was wondering if you had any more Tyrenium," John asked.
"Oh yeah, we tapped that vein out. Got 20 tons in storage," Seb informed him.
"Same price per ton as last time?" John asked hopefully.
"Sure thing!" Seb agreed. John used his credit chit to authorize the transfer of 5 million credits to Mortimer's account. Then John insisted on having the transaction logged and authorized with the trading guild. That way, Mortimer wouldn't be able to sue later on. While they waited for confirmation from the Core Worlds, Seb eyed Alyssa and Sparks. "Who're your friends?"
"Alyssa is my XO, and Sparks bartered passage on my ship," John answered blandly.
The second they got confirmation, John struck. He choked Mortimer out with Telekinesis, making the man pass out. John pulled out a pair of handcuffs and locked Mortimer's hands behind his back. "What was that for?" Sparks asked, wide-eyed.
"He found out he undersold the ore, by a LOT. He was planning to kill me," John told her frankly. "Now, let's take the truck back to the Invictus."
The three of them got in the ore hauler and went to the docking bay that held the Assault Cruiser. John gave generous tips to the miners who loaded the Tyrenium into his Cargo Bay. That done, he closed the bay doors and took the elevator with Alyssa and Sparks to the Command Deck. "Sparks, this is Calara, my Tactical Officer," John introduced.
"It's so nice to meet you. Alyssa's told us so much about you," Calara grinned at the albino.
"Really? Well, I got embarrassing stories about her too," Sparks chuckled, though she was clearly intimidated by yet another beautiful woman.
Alyssa got clearance to leave and guided the Invictus out of Karron. Sparks stared at the system map, looking at the star she'd spent her whole life nearest. They reached the edge of the gravity well and Alyssa took them into hyperwarp. Then they were zooming across the sector map. She turned in her XO chair. "So, Sparks, John's got an offer for you."
They went to the Briefing Room, Sparks sitting next to Alyssa. John, at the head of the table, focused on the redhead. "Sparks, you have 3 options. The first is that we leave you at Port Heracles or Olympus Shipyard with enough money to start a life for yourself. The second is that you join my crew as Chief Engineer but stay as you are. And the third is to become my Ward and go through the Change."
"What exactly is the Change?" Sparks asked, looking at her transformed friend beside her.
"I'm a Progenitor, an all-male race of psychics. Any woman who drinks our semen can be added to our psychic network, allowing him to work his powers on her at a genetic level. The Change is what we call the process of me psychically rewriting your DNA until you fit the template of my Ward. You'll get a body like Alyssa or Calara, your brain will be enhanced, you'll get psychic powers, and you'll become functionally immortal," John listed out.
Sparks was staring at him. "... What the hell have you been smoking, and where can I get some?"
"It's the truth, Sparks," Alyssa said. "Drink his cum, and you'll be utterly transformed. You know what I used to look like, now look at me. As for the rest, I'm a genius now. I passed the Navigator First Class exam after less than 2 weeks of study. I'm a Telekinetic and a Telepath now. And I'll never grow old so long as I keep drinking John's cum."
Sparks reached up to rub her temple. "Wow. Is there any downside to becoming your Ward?"
"There are personality changes I can't stop," John said readily. "Bisexuality, polyamory, submissiveness, a desire to have children, among others. And you should know that my Wards are my personal harem. If you decide to go through the Change, you'll end up my lover and the mother of my children someday."
Sparks nodded. "So I gotta pay for my makeover out of trade, got it."
"It's not like that," Alyssa sighed. "You don't have to join, Sparks. If you do, you'll change, inside and out. John just wants you to make an informed decision. I can personally say that deciding to become John's Ward is the best thing that ever happened to me. But it's up to you."
"Let's talk about my job as Chief Engineer. You'll really give me stuff out of the Engineer's Almanac?" Spark asked, changing the subject.
"You'll have a blank check to outfit your Engineering Bay however you want. And you should know that Progenitors have radically advanced technology locked away in our DNA. It's blocked to me at the moment, but the moment I unlock it I'll give it all to you to play with. My hope is that your mind, especially once it's enhanced by the Change, will be able to reverse-engineer even better versions of all the tech," John told Sparks.
"So I'll have my own workshop to work on whatever the hell I want AND I'll lose my scars if I agree to be your girlfriend. Sounds like a no-brainer to me. I'm in," Sparks grinned.
"You sure, Sparks?" John asked.
"The fuck have I got to lose?" she pointed out.
"Well, then let's grab a shower before you get your first dose," John said, standing up.
They went down to the Commander's Quarters, John, Alyssa, and Calara disrobing without a thought. Sparks gulped, feeling very aware of her flaws when faced with a living statue of Hercules and two goddesses in the flesh. But Alyssa encouraged her with a gentle smile, and Sparks got naked too. They went into the shower and Alyssa got her hands lathered up. She began to clean Sparks, getting every nook and cranny. It wasn't sexual, but it was very intimate. Once Sparks was clean as a whistle, they went to the bath. After a half hour soak, Sparks was practically boneless. They used the auto-dryers and went to the bedroom.
"Last chance to back out," John warned, sitting on the edge of the bed with his dick hard and in the air.
"Cheers!" Sparks said with a smile before taking the head into her mouth. Her eyes went glassy as she entered the daze, John's subconscious reaching out to touch her mind. John blew in his usual amount of time, filling Sparks until she looked ready to pop. John added her to his network, feeling a surge of energy. He channeled almost all of his reserves into healing Sparks, pushing her through the Change as fast as possible. He made sure to focus on her scars, so she'd be healed by the time she woke up.
John, Alyssa, and Calara left Sparks tucked into the bed and went to the Lounge to get lunch. "So, we're enroute to Chendar?" Calara checked.
"Yep," Alyssa confirmed after a bite of pasta.
"We'll arrive just in time to save the prisoners they sell to the Kirrix," John recalled.
"How can anyone knowingly give someone to the Kirrix?" Calara shook her head.
"They're paying him in crates' worth of uncut gemstones. Apparently that's enough for Hitch," John sighed.
They trained for the afternoon, John sparring with Calara physically and Alyssa psychically. They had dinner and relaxed for the evening, staying up late just chatting and having fun. As the 14 hour mark for Sparks came near, they went to their quarters. John grabbed a glass of water and helped the stirring redhead sit up. "Drink this," he instructed.
Sparks guzzled down the water. "That hit the spot!" she said cheerfully. She blinked. "Whoa… what's this thing in my chest?"
"That's how I feel about you, it's part of our connection," John answered.
Sparks looked up at him, tearing up. "We barely know each other. How can you feel this for me?"
"We didn't get around to telling you before. I'm from the future. A future where you agreed to marry me," John revealed.
"Oh." Sparks wiped her eyes. "If you love me this much, why did you offer to let me go?"
"Because I'd rather not have you by your own choice than force you to be with me against your will," John replied.
"I see… I think," Sparks said. She looked at her hand, noting the dead skin clinging from when she wiped her eyes. "What the?"
"I healed your scars," John explained, reaching up and peeling off the last of the dead skin, leaving unblemished flesh in its wake.
Sparks pulled John into a kiss. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said between kisses.
"You're welcome," John chuckled once Sparks stopped her very pleasurable assault.
"So, any other bombshells besides the fact you're a psychic alien or a time traveler?" Sparks asked.
"No, that's everything," John told her.
"In that case, I want my next dose," Sparks grinned.
John fed Sparks a second time, then got into bed cuddling her, Alyssa and Calara joining him. John warded himself and closed his eyes. He endured the interminable wait in the Astral as Fallen Progenitors hunted for his invisible body. He wondered when he'd have the energy to make a sub-plane. Probably not until after he defeated his Guide. He woke up, checked on the girls, and went back to sleep.
He was shaken awake a few hours later. "What the fuck is inside me?" Sparks demanded, gesturing at her obscene bump.
"My cum. You saw the size of the quad. That's all me," John said with a yawn.
Sparks blinked and looked at her stomach with new eyes. "Really? That's… kinda hot."
"You Karron girls and 3 square meals a day," John chuckled.
Alyssa and Calara began to stir. "It's too early," Alyssa groaned.
"Sorry," Sparks winced.
"No big deal, we'll just turn in early tonight," Calara shrugged once she cleaned her eyes.
They got dressed, Sparks put in the 'new girl' uniform of one of John's white dress shirts and nothing else. John, Alyssa, and Calara got breakfast while Sparks just talked to them, learning more about her crewmates. She'd been friends with Alyssa for years but John and Calara were both new. That done, John took Sparks on a tour of the Invictus while her belly went down. Alyssa and Calara went to the Firing Range, each with one of John's XR73 Rifles. They were getting as good as it was physically possible to get at ballistics.
John started at the Command Deck and worked his way down. When they reached the Armory, John explained how he was giving the whole room to Sparks to use for her Engineering Bay. Sparks ended up getting her own breakfast right there and then. John actively invested energy into Sparks' Change, ensuring she'd get the Ward body as soon as possible. John led Sparks back to his Ready Room and spent the morning just talking to her, letting her get to know him. The more she cared about him, the wider their connection would be.
They had lunch around noon, and then the four of them went to the Gym. Sparks observed with wide eyes as John and Calara engaged in a martial arts spar while Alyssa lifted the free weights with nothing but her mind. After John won for the third time in a row, Calara took off her clothes and dove into the pool. She came up near where Sparks was sitting. "John and Alyssa are about to duel. It's something worth watching."
Sparks watched in shock as both John and Alyssa became surrounded by transparent hexagons, John's blue and Alyssa's white. The hexagons began to spin at a decent clip, taking maybe 2 seconds to do a full rotation. Glowing lances appeared in the air beside both of them, and they began to throw them at each other. The lances either shattered against the shield or managed to break a patch of hexagons. But due to the spinning, the patch didn't stay still and by the time it came around again, it was usually filled.
As the duel went on, John and Alyssa got more and more creative. Alyssa conjured 2 turrets which fired rapid-fire telekinetic darts at John's shield. John conjured tentacles that came out of the ground and began to batter at Alyssa's shield. Alyssa formed a second wall of hexagons which began to spin the opposite direction as her first shield. John focused and a 7-foot-tall construct of some kind of 4-armed alien charged at Alyssa's shields and began to punch with its fists. Alyssa, her face scrunched with concentration, fired two lances, one in the other's shadow. The first pierced John's shield and the second stopped an inch from his chest.
"Your win," John acknowledged with a grin. "You're getting good at this, honey! How'd you manage to spin your second shield in the opposite direction? I can't manage that, I've tried."
"It wasn't easy, it kind of felt like trying to look left and right at the same time. Maybe only Ward brains can manage that," Alyssa said, blowing out a breath.
"What was that alien thing?" Sparks asked.
"A Drakkar. We'll run into them when we go to Ashanath space," John told his newest lover.
"What powers does Calara have?" Sparks asked, glancing at the Latina.
"Prescience. I can see the future. Only about a minute max so far, but John tells me I'll get stronger," Calara answered.
"What will I get? Laser eyes?" Sparks asked excitedly.
"You, I was planning to give the same powers I gave you in my first life. You'll be able to see the atomic makeup of materials, alter their physical properties, and you'll be able to make black holes. I'll also give you a full knowledge of Progenitor runes, which you can use to enchant objects," John said after wiping his brow of sweat.
"Aw, not that that doesn't sound cool, but I really want laser eyes!" Sparks whined.
"If you're a good girl, I might throw in Photokinesis so you can make lasers," John said with a laugh. "Now, again."
John and Alyssa had 2 more duels. Calara entertained herself by swimming lengths in the pool while Sparks just watched the magic battle. Apparently it was a rule that neither one could move from where they started, otherwise Sparks thought the fights would be much more complicated as they ran around the room and tried to hit each other. Alyssa won the second duel too, but John managed to pierce her shields in the third. That done, they all grabbed a shower and John went to cook dinner while the girls chilled in the Lounge.
"So, what's on the docket? John's from the future, so he probably has the next few months all planned out, right?" Sparks asked.
"Well, the more changes he makes, the more his later memories will become unreliable. At some point we'll be flying blind from how different things will be," Alyssa pointed out.
"I've learned that even the smallest changes can have big consequences," Calara nodded, thinking of her spars with John where she'd used her power at his command.
"But as a general outline, we're going to deal with the pirate gang that attacked Calara. After that, we're going to Ashanath space to save them from the Drakkar. After that, we'll save Port Medea from the Kintark. John has a 2 week vacation planned after that. And once that's over, we're going to the Maliri Regency," Alyssa told her friend.
"Who are the Ashanath and the Maliri?" Sparks asked.
"The Ashanath, aka the Grays, are a race of peaceful scientists and explorers. They actually ruled over all of what's now the Terran Federation, but they gave up the territory without a fight when the T-Fed began to expand. The Maliri are a Thrall race, a species genetically designed to follow and obey a Progenitor. John's going to go claim them, or at least get the ball rolling," Calara replied.
"Cool. So, he tell either of you what other members we're going to recruit?" Sparks asked.
"We're rescuing a Nymph named Jade from the pirates and a doctor named Rachel from Port Medea. And one of the Maliri joining the crew is a hacker named Irillith," Alyssa remembered. "And of course, XO is in charge of recruitment. So if any potential girls catch my eye I'll talk him into convincing them to join the crew, or at least the network."
"Informed consent only, Alyssa!" John called from the Kitchen.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Alyssa sighed. "This would be so much easier if he just hosed down the throats of any girl who gives him a second look."
"But then he wouldn't be John," Calara pointed out.
"Good point," Alyssa groaned.
"What's a Nymph?" Sparks asked.
"They're an all-female race from the planet Lenarra, though John found out they're not actually native to that planet. Anyway, they're psychic, shapeshifting into whatever form their male master considers female perfection. As John puts it, the ancient Progenitor Mael'nerak, the Maliri's last master, created them as spies. He'd send them into a rival empire, they'd seduce the leaders and gather information, and then report back to him. Jade is a special case, because she was discovered by the Achonin, the empire Mael'nerak made them to infiltrate. She was tampered with, made to become a double agent. John says we can fix that easily though once we have enough energy," Alyssa said.
"Huh. So what did Jade become in John's first life? What's his idea of the perfect woman?" Sparks asked.
Alyssa blushed crimson. "Um, me."
"Oh, that's so sweet!" Calara gushed.
"You don't mind?" Alyssa asked her girlfriend.
"You two are clearly soulmates, you just have to share each other because of how Progenitor life works. No, I don't mind," Calara reassured Alyssa.
Sparks shrugged. "Lucky you, he literally thinks you're perfect. Must be nice to have a guy THAT devoted to you."
"Just feel your chest, Sparks. He cares about you too," Alyssa reminded her friend.
Sparks got a dopey grin. "Oh, right, thanks for reminding me."
John came out with dinner for him, Alyssa, and Calara. "Dinner bell! I made lasagna!"
Sparks got dinner from John's quad and chatted with him and the other two teens as they ate. Afterwards, they got drinks and relaxed in the Lounge. Then, given Sparks had woken them up so early, they went to bed around 2000.
The trip to Chendar proceeded with days similar to the first. Sparks matured into the Ward body within 5 days, marveling at her new face and body in the mirrors once John saw the Change was complete. From that point on, she took Alyssa's place in the Firing Range, using the XR73 Rifle alongside Calara, picking up the skill as only a Ward could. Sparks loved her new psychic powers, her eyes often glowing gold as she looked at the makeup of the things around her. She practiced making black holes in the Gym under John's careful supervision.
The day came when they were set to arrive at Chendar in the evening. After breakfast, they all went up to the Bridge, anticipating the distress beacon from the Calypso. Sure enough, around 1000, the alarm went off. "Get us there yesterday," John ordered. John hailed the besieged Freighter.
A middle-aged woman answered. "Please help us! We're being boarded by pirates! Slavers, I think!"
"This is Commander John Blake on the Invictus, we're 3 minutes out. Hold out as long as you can!" John told the woman.
The transmission cut out before she could reply.
They arrived at the system of the attack. Sparks gave full power to weapons and Alyssa lined up the fire arcs so Calara could work her magic. Two pirate Corvettes and a Frigate were dealt with in less than a minute. The Invictus pulled up alongside the last Corvette, the commandeered Griffon, and docked with her. John and Alyssa went to their quarters to get dressed in armor and grab their weapons. Then they went to Deck 9 and, feeling a bit of deja vu, used John's hacking device to open the Griffon's airlock.
They crouch-walked into the Calypso, following John's ears. They found 2 would-be rapists menacing a group of women and downed them with headshots. "Take their guns, guard the door," John ordered, no nonsense, before taking Alyssa towards where the sound of gunfire originated. They came upon the ship's galley, where a last stand seemed to be going off between the pirates and the Calypso's crew.
"Surrender and your lives will be spared!" shouted a familiar cyborg.
"Fuck you, slaver!" shouted one of the crew.
*Work from the left,* John ordered Alyssa before beginning to gun down the pirates, starting from the right. He and his Matriarch worked to the cyborg at the center. John rushed forward at psychic speed and used his super strength to twist the pirate's neck 180 degrees. "The pirates are dead, you're safe!" John announced.
The Calypso's crew were very grateful. "Just here to help," John grinned, ignoring how Alyssa rolled her eyes at his unassuming hero act, except it wasn't an act. "Do you need a tow?"
"Reinforcements from Port Heracles are coming but they're a couple hours away. We'd never have lasted that long," the captain told him.
"We'll stick around in system until they arrive," John promised. Then he and Alyssa returned to the Invictus.