John and Alyssa entered the Bridge. "Sparks, make sure you get the black box data from the pirate ships," John ordered as he went to sit in his Command Chair.
"Already done," Sparks grinned. "I had to do something while you were busy killing pirates."
"Brilliant, honey!" John praised. "Then I guess we just wait for the reinforcements to arrive before we get back on course for Chendar."
They passed a couple hours with conversation, until a Terran Federation Cruiser and 3 Destroyers entered the system. They were hailed by the Cruiser, and a distinguished gentleman in Terran Federation uniform appeared on the vid-screen. "This is Captain Flintlock on the Indomitable. Please identify, Assault Cruiser."
"Commander John Blake on the Invictus," John replied.
"We're responding to a distress beacon regarding a pirate attack. Where are the pirates?" Flintlock asked.
"My crew was closer, we came and took them out. The Calypso needs a tow though, so you can handle that much," John told the Captain.
"I see. But pardon me, Commander Blake, the computer has you pinged as a civilian vessel?" Flintlock said in some confusion.
"I'm retired, I just happened to buy my old ship," John explained.
"In that case, thank you for your sense of civic duty," Flintlock complimented. "We'll handle the tow, you can be on your way."
"Thank you, Captain," John saluted before ending the call. Alyssa got them to the edge of the gravity well and then back into hyperwarp. "Time to call Charles," John thought out loud before pulling up the comm interface. Selecting Charles from his list of contacts, John waited for the connection to take.
Charles' face appeared on the vid-screen. "John! What's the occasion? How's the Invictus treating you?"
"Hey, Charles," John greeted. "The Invictus is just great, thanks. Anyway, me and my crew are going after a pirate gang in the Outer Rim. Just in case we fail, I want someone to be aware so that the T-Fed can mop them up."
"The Invictus can handle some pirates," Charles brushed off. "What have they got, a dozen Frigates and Corvettes?"
"20 decommissioned Navy vessels, including the Heavy Cruiser Stalingrad as a flagship," John relayed soberly.
"Bullshit! There's no way a pirate gang managed to get that many ships!" Charles gaped.
"We looked up the auction records. All the ships were sold to an Everitt Hitch at price before officially going on sale. All the transactions approved by Commander Rupert Grant at Port Heracles. Coincidence, I think not," John said with a frown.
"I'll see the rat shot for treason," Charles said grimly. "But that's way too much heat for you, John. You got to turn around!"
John just grinned confidently. "I've got a very capable crew."
Charles argued with John a while longer, before admitting defeat and saying he'd send reinforcements to Chendar. John nodded and ended the call. "Lunch, ladies?" John asked.
John cooked for them all, getting out of his armor so Sparks could get her own lunch. They returned to the Bridge and passed the time until they arrived at the pirates' base as best they could. When they were 10 minutes out, they all got ready for an attack. They entered the Chendar system and went dark, Sparks putting all their systems on minimum energy to make them invisible to most sensors. Alyssa coasted them in on retro-thrusters to an asteroid belt, until the passive scans got back with data on the system.
"Sparks, hack their transponders," John ordered.
Sparks typed furiously at her console. In a moment, all the pings became identified vessels. "Alyssa, Calara, you plan out the attack," John told his XO and Tactical Officer. The two women conferred, tossing ideas back and forth before they had a plan of attack. That done, John settled back in his Command Chair. "Do it."
The Invictus launched into attack, going for the picket group on their way out of the system first. Calara took out the ships easily, all of them unshielded since they hadn't anticipated an attack in the heart of their operation. The Invictus went for the other two picket groups, their military-grade weaponry and Calara's preternatural aim destroying the pirates with ease. That done, they went for the gas mining facility, where the Kirrix Hive ship had just finished loading prisoners.
Sparks overrode the safeties on their engines so they could catch up with the insectoid ship. When they were in firing range, Calara began to work her magic. Alyssa dodged the incoming Neutron weapon fire as best she could. Calara wore down the Kirrix's shields and used the Mass Drivers to take out their engines. Sparks had not been idle, getting an active scan of the ship and finding weaknesses. She highlighted a power regulator and Calara took it out with the Beam Lasers. The incoming fire ended, the power to that half of the ship lost.
"They're launching dropships," Alyssa noted. She and Calara worked together to take out two, deliberately leaving the third intact to dock with them.
"We're up, gorgeous," John said, standing and grabbing his XR73 Rifle. Alyssa did the same. They'd already switched to armor-piercing ammo in anticipation of the Kirrix. They took the elevator to Deck 9, where the sound of battering could be heard on the other side of their airlock. John went to the DNA scanner and held his hand to it. Recognizing his genome, the airlock opened, revealing the Kirrix.
John and Alyssa fired at the insectoid drones, shooting them all dead. John lifted all the corpses with Telekinesis and left them in a pile in the Docking Bay. They entered the dropship, Alyssa focusing on the psychic imprints of the drone flying the ship. She settled into the pilot's seat confidently. "Next stop, Kirrix Hive ship," Alyssa said playfully.
They detached from the airlock, Alyssa guiding them to the open docking bay of the Kirrix ship. They saw numerous drones loading into another round of dropships. Alyssa fired their Neutron guns at the Kirrix, blasting them to bits. "Oops!" she said, covering her mouth. John chuckled at her fun.
They landed, and John and Alyssa made for the bottom deck. They came to a room with ramps going up and down, and John guided his XO down. They reached a security station outside the Grub Chamber. John shot the drone manning it dead, and John and Alyssa got in the station. "Ready?" John asked.
Alyssa nodded. John hit the button for the alarm.
The Hive Guard came out to attack the intruders. John used his grenades from the Griffon and Psychic Alacrity to take down as many as possible, while Alyssa used her top-notch aim to take out the Kirrix with shots through their compound eyes. She took on the Overseers with telekinetic lances that took their heads clear off. In a matter of minutes, they took out all the Kirrix guards for the Broodmother and Hivelord.
John and Alyssa checked their ammo and went to the door to the Grub Chamber. John hit the hexagonal button, and the door opened. The Kirrix Broodmother, a 12-foot-tall monstrosity with twice the number of limbs as a drone, was revealed, tending to the whining grubs. She roared at the aliens who dared enter this sacred place. John conjured a telekinetic ax and decapitated her. "Not worth the bullets," he told Alyssa. He had less than zero sympathy for the Kirrix after reading their minds in the future and realizing how depraved and xenophobic they were.
They went past the Broodmother's corpse to the Implantation Chamber. A horrified scream greeted them. The Terrans were locked in prison cells in the walls, watching a scene from a nightmare. 3 Terrans, a man and 2 women, were chained to a dais. The man's stomach bulged, already implanted, and one of the women was shrieking hysterically as she watched the Kirrix Hivelord implant eggs in the intestines of the other woman.
"Hey ugly!" John called. The Hivelord withdrew his ovipositor from his victim's ass and turned to roar a challenge. Alyssa fired a crack shot right into the Hivelord's mouth. The upper-tier Kirrix collapsed dead to the ground. John went to the control panel and opened every cell door. "Everyone! I'm Commander John Blake. Everyone follow me out of here!"
John and Alyssa led the 400+ prisoners through the Kirrix ship back to the docking bay. They found a number of Terran Federation Marines waiting, having been busy repelling a counter-boarding action. Charles' reinforcements, no doubt. A Marine Commander walked up to them when he noticed them. "Commander Paul Richards. Who're you?"
"Commander John Blake and my XO Alyssa Marant. We took out the Hive Guard, the Broodmother, and the Hivelord. Can we leave these prisoners with you? My crew would like to go after the pirates who sold them in the first place," John said calmly.
Richards gaped. "Are you off to win the war with the Kintark single-handed after that? How many men did you lose?"
"It was just us two," John shrugged.
"What I could do with a squad like you. Sure, I'll take the civvies off your hands. Go make those bastards pay," Richards said with a bloodthirsty grin.
John and Alyssa took the Kirrix dropship back to the Invictus, landing in the Docking Bay. The cleaning robots were gathered around the pile of Kirrix corpses, somewhat at a loss what to do with this particular mess. John looked at them, remembering the Invictus_Node_Collective fondly. The cleaning robots switched focus to John and Alyssa, trailing green Kirrix blood as they were. They took the elevator to the Command Deck and went to their chairs. "Let's hail the Indomitable, then we'll take off after Hitch," John decided.
Captain Flintlock appeared on the vid-screen. "Commander Blake! You should have said you were going off to deal with a pirate gang! We could have come with you to assist!" the man said somewhat critically.
"Your orders were to help the Calypso, I didn't want to put you in a difficult position," John shrugged. "Anyway, thanks for the assist with the Kirrix."
"From what Commander Richards tells me, you hardly needed it," Flintlock said wryly. "But I'm happy we were able to help out. So, what's next for you?"
"We traced the path the pirates took when they fled the system. We're going in pursuit," John replied.
"Godspeed," Flintlock saluted. John returned the gesture of respect and ended the hail. Alyssa took them out of the gravity well and into a course that followed the path Sparks had calculated Hitch would take.
"Let's clean the Kirrix off me and Alyssa, then I think it's dinnertime," John grinned.
They went down to their quarters to shower. "So, was it just horrible? They showed us footage at the Academy, it seemed harrowing," Calara asked as she lathered her mane of hair.
"Squashing bugs is always fun. It was seeing the victims that was the hard part. I'm just glad the Hivelord only had time to rape 2 prisoners," John sighed.
"The Bugs are pure evil," Sparks shuddered. "And you say in your first life they invaded Karron?"
"When the Kintark invaded, Fleet Admiral Buckingham recalled the Kirrix border fleet, despite the fact they'd never reach Terra in time. The Kirrix took Carolus III, Tasmaris Prime, Valia Gate, Karron, and Brecken's World," John recalled grimly. "Alyssa accidentally started a civil war among the Kirrix, some released their prisoners and some ran back for Kirrix space. By the time we reached Karron, there were only 3 survivors."
"Anyone we knew?" Alyssa asked.
"Fat Tony, Kelli, and Perl," John remembered. "Tony supposedly risked his life to keep the girls alive. They fell in love with him, and we set them up on Brecken's World. Last I heard, they were leading decent lives."
"Guess some men CAN be redeemed," Sparks mused, reflecting on the cruel ganger she remembered.
"How'd I start a civil war?" Alyssa asked as she soaped her long legs.
"You found the Kirrix sub-plane, the Palace of Dreams, when we confronted a Kirrix Hive Queen. You managed to imprison the Queens there, but not before roughly half had already fled. You convinced the ones you captured that they had to give up their prisoners and return to Kirrix space or your evil Progenitor master would blow up the Kirrix homeworld. The Queens you talked to agreed, but the ones who fled opposed and wanted to carry on as normal. The two sides wound up fighting to the death across the whole species. Not sure how it turned out, honestly," John answered.
They dried off and dressed casual before going to the Lounge. John cooked for 3 while the girls chatted, they had dinner with Sparks getting her dinner on her knees, and then they all got drinks and lounged on one of the couches. "This is the life," Calara sighed as she cuddled into John's side and sipped her cocktail.
"No arguments here," John agreed, holding her close.
"So, we get Jade tomorrow. Excited?" Alyssa asked.
"Yes, as a matter of fact. I hate to say it, but it's going to be such a relief that I don't have to wait on tenterhooks to get her permission to become my Ward. The moment I become her master, she'll do anything I tell her to and enjoy doing it. I can't wait until I can strengthen her mind and she develops her personality," John said with a grin.
"And she can really become a dragon? A fire-breathing dragon?" Sparks asked curiously.
"She breathed lightning, actually. And once I enhance her to a certain level, yes she can," John confirmed.
They talked until Sparks' tummy went down. Then they went to the bedroom to celebrate their victory over the Kirrix.
The next morning, Sparks went down to the Docking Bay after breakfast to study the Kirrix technology. John, Alyssa, and Calara stayed on the Bridge, in anticipation of the pirates interdicting them. When they neared Iota Carinae, they were pulled out of hyperwarp. Alyssa acted immediately, maneuvering them out of the killbox Hitch and his pirates had pulled them into. Sparks came out the elevator a minute later and funneled all power to shields and engines. "That's right, split your forces you dumb bastards," John grinned as all but the Stalingrad and 1 Destroyer took off to chase the Invictus.
Alyssa took them into the rings of an ice planet. The light of the system's sun reflected off the ice in iridescent prisms. "This would be quite beautiful if we weren't running for our lives," Alyssa commented casually.
"I'll take you on a tour of the galaxy's wonders after the Progenitor War, honey, I swear," John promised. "Anyway, when our shields recharge to 90%, turn around and take them out."
When Sparks informed them the shields were back to almost full strength, Alyssa executed an Immelmann turn. Calara fired the weapons like they were part of her, taking out the pirates before they lost half their shields. Then they took off for the Stalingrad and the Destroyer. The Destroyer was almost a formality, Calara gutting it like a skilled fishwife. Then she focused all her attention on the Heavy Cruiser. Alyssa got them in the blind spot behind the Stalingrad and Calara went to town. She wore down the pirate ship's shields, and with perfect timing fired the Beam Lasers. She punched through the shields and sheared off the Fire Control Tower of the Stalingrad. The enemy ship was now toothless.
"We're being hailed," Sparks alerted John.
"This ought to be good," John shook his head before taking the call. A large man in an archaic pirate costume appeared on the vid-screen. "Commander John Blake on the Invictus. Everitt Hitch, I presume?"
"Indeed, Pirate Lord Everitt Hitch," the criminal said with a cheeky grin. "You seem to have damaged my fine ship some, may I request a parley?"
John looked Hitch in the eye. "I'm coming for you, Hitch. Enjoy your last moments." Then John ended the call in his frightened face. "Calara, take out his engines then get us out of the blast radius of the self-destruct. Sparks, hack his turrets and take out the pirates guarding the brig. Alyssa and I are going in."
John and Alyssa got to the dropship and took the short trip to the Stalingrad's docking bay. They got out and John took a moment to pull up a map of the Heavy Cruiser on his vambrace. "Brig first, then we go for Hitch and Jade." They took the elevator, gunning down 3 pirates by surprise. They got to the right deck, and found the guards full of holes thanks to the Gatling Lasers that Sparks had hacked. John and Alyssa freed the prisoners in the brig and led them to the dropship. That done, they took the elevator again to the deck where Hitch's quarters were.
"Commander bloody Blake… curse him to Hades!" Hitch said to himself as he frantically stacked crates of gemstones, his payment from the Kirrix.
"Can this one help?" came a high-pitched voice from his bedroom.
"Shut the fuck up!" Hitch hollered.
John and Alyssa swept into the room and John shot Hitch in the head before he could get a word out. That done, John went into Hitch's bedroom. On the bed was a girl straight out of a hentai cartoon. She had pink hair, titanic breasts, and wore an indecent schoolgirl's uniform. "Are you this one's new master?" she asked, looking at John with too-large eyes.
"Yes, I'm your master," John grinned. He felt a knock on his mind-shield and let the Nymph in. He focused on the form he wanted her to take. The Nymph shimmered into a dark green catgirl with lighter lines highlighting her curves and the Ward body.
"Will Master use this one now?" the Nymph asked in a sultry purr.
"Not now. Follow me. And your name is Jade," John told her before turning to leave. They jogged to the elevator, Alyssa admiring Jade's body, and went to the docking bay. John and Alyssa took out a couple pirates trying to steal the dropship and entered the Kirrix spacecraft. Jade's nude form proved very popular with the prisoners. John and Alyssa sat in the cockpit and Alyssa got them out and away from the Stalingrad before it exploded. She took them into the Invictus' Docking Bay.
"Everyone, I'm Commander John Blake. This is my ship, the Invictus. We'll get you to rooms where you can rest while we escort you back to Port Heracles. You can leave the guns on the floor," John informed the prisoners. Alyssa led the 15 prisoners into the elevator, taking them to Deck 4. When the elevator returned, John took Jade to Deck 2 and his quarters. Jade got very excited when she saw the bed.
John got out of his kevlar bodysuit and stood naked before Jade. "Jade, I'd love to feel your mouth," he said leadingly.
"Of course, Master!" Jade said brightly. She got on her knees and took John to the root in one motion. Her throat began to ripple in a way only a Nymph could do. Her latent psychic powers protected her from the daze of John's mind touching hers. John came quickly from the overwhelming stimulation. Jade's belly rounded out. John withdrew from Jade's mouth and helped her to stand. "Master is so potent," Jade moaned, rubbing her rounded belly.
John added Jade to his network. The flood of energy was intoxicating, her single-minded devotion to him letting him have almost all she had to give right from the start. "Oh!" Jade gasped, reaching up to feel her heart. Jade looked up with watery eyes. "Master loves this one," she breathed in awe.
"I do. I love you, Jade," John said honestly.
"This one loves Master too!" Jade said with a beaming grin. Her connection to him, already bigger than Calara's and Sparks' combined, widened even further. John almost felt high from all the new psychic energy. He took his new reserves and funneled them all into his newest Ward. He focused on strengthening her mind, toughening up her body, and enhancing her shapeshifting. Concentric rings of light began to emit from Jade's belly. "This one feels Master making her stronger! Master is so generous!" Jade gushed.
"It's my pleasure, Jade," John grinned.
Alyssa, Calara, and Sparks came into the room together. "Hello, Jade," Alyssa grinned, getting out of her own body armor.
"Master, who are these women?" Jade asked.
"These are my other mates, Alyssa, Calara, and Sparks," John pointed to each as he named them.
"This one will take good care of Master's mates!" Jade declared.
"Wow, she really is just a mindless sex slave," Sparks said in disbelief. "I know you warned us, but wow."
"It's nice to meet you, Jade," Calara grinned, falling back on her manners.
"Let's get a shower, then I'll go cook lunch," John declared.
They went into the shower, the light from Jade's rounded abdomen playing off the water in interesting ways. John massaged Jade as he soaped her down. As he remembered, her skin was slightly cooler than a Terran woman's but heated up as he touched her erogenous zones. They got dried off and then John led Jade with Alyssa and Calara to the Lounge. Sparks volunteered to check on the prisoners.
Sparks took the elevator to Deck 4 and checked on the rescued prisoners from the Stalingrad. She noticed an odd phenomenon. People had a hard time looking at her, they stumbled over their words, and said thoughtlessly rude things by accident. It was the exact same reaction she'd gotten from being super ugly. Apparently being super beautiful came with its own issues. Sparks also got a bit self-conscious about her name when more than one prisoner commented it didn't seem to fit her. She returned to Deck 2 with some things on her mind. She enjoyed her first taste of John's cooking, his loads now dedicated to Jade for the foreseeable future.
They relaxed in the Lounge the rest of the day, celebrating their victory over the pirates. John fed Jade again at dinner, channeling a constant stream of power into her body and mind. By the time bedtime came around, John looked exhausted. "You overdid it," Alyssa chided him as they tucked him into bed.
"Just want her to become a real person as soon as possible," John said tiredly.
"Jade loves her Master," Jade purred as she cuddled into John's side, her belly rounded out with a nightcap.
"She's using her name instead of 'this one' already, that's progress," Calara said optimistically.
"She'll be normal by the time we get to Olympus," Sparks predicted, spooning up behind Alyssa.
They went to bed, John warding himself before he closed his eyes. The Astral dream was the usual hell, but at least he wasn't actually having to defend himself from Xar'aziuth or his Fallen Progenitors. He just had to hide until they got bored. He woke up, checked on his girls, and then went into natural sleep.
The next day, they arrived at Port Heracles in the afternoon. John was hailed by the Station Commander. "Commander Clive Steeran. I understand I have you to thank for my recent promotion," the new official told John.
"Grant bolted?" John asked, knowing the answer.
"Yep. Investigations show he'd embezzled millions of credits on top of selling trade route data to the pirates. With those resources, he could be anywhere," Steeran sighed. "Anyway, I've been asked by High Command to see if you'll give a small news piece about the pirates and Kirrix."
"Sure. Send me the comm code for the reporter," John said.
"If you ever come out this way again, John, we'll roll out the red carpet," Clive grinned before ending the hail.
John called Jehanna Elani, a future Ward. He tried to keep the flirting to a minimum, answering the questions as he saw fit. That done, the Invictus docked to release the prisoners. When the freed
slaves were transfered to Port Heracles, Alyssa got them on a course for Alpha Centauri. "4 days," she announced.
"You're all free to do what you want," John told them. "Jade, follow me."
Jade eagerly followed John down to Deck 7 and the Gym. "Do you know how to swim?" John asked.
"Jade is not sure, Master," Jade said, though she didn't seem to have any fear of the water.
John led her into the deep end, and she naturally treaded water. He demonstrated a few different strokes and she copied them perfectly. "Let's have a race," John grinned before taking off with the free stroke.
Jade kept pace with him, until she suddenly seemed to double in speed. She flew under the water, going from one end of the pool and back. She swam to the surface, launching out of the water and doing a little flip before slipping back into the pool. She swam up to John. "That was fun!" she grinned.
"Jade, did you notice you grew gills and fins?" John asked gently.
Jade regarded the additions to her body with awe. "Jade did not even realize!"
"Can you go back to normal?" John asked.
Jade furrowed her brow and the fins and gills shimmered out of existence.
"I'm very proud of you, Jade. This deserves a reward," John grinned. And he led Jade back up to his quarters to make love to her.
The 4-day trip to Olympus passed quickly. John fed Jade at least 3 loads a day, and actively invested what energy he didn't spend training on enhancing her. She developed by the day, until the day they arrived at Alpha Centauri she was using 'I' and calling John by name. Jade mostly spent the time she wasn't with John playing in the pool, though she bonded with the other girls when they met for mealtimes and when they relaxed in the evening.
They pulled close to Olympus Shipyard. "It's much bigger than Port Heracles," Jade noted from where she was sitting in the pilot's station, currently inactive.
"Yes it is, Jade," John agreed.
They were hailed by Flight Command. When John gave his name, they were directed to Docking Bay 13, which John didn't think was a coincidence. Alyssa took them in to land, and the 5 of them took the elevator down to the airlock. They walked out and saw Charles and an Admiral waiting for them next to a terrifying piece of Terran hardware.
"Commander John Blake?" the Admiral asked blandly, emotionless as a statue.
"Yes sir," John saluted.
"I'm Admiral Cartwright. On behalf of High Command, I wish to give you this Raptor-class gunship as thanks for your efforts in the Outer Rim," Cartwright said, gesturing at the ship next to him.
"Thank you, sir," John grinned.
"Yes, well, good day," Cartwright said, almost bored, turning to leave. He paused though. "Vice Admiral Harris says you've brought more Tyrenium?" Cartwright asked hungrily.
"Yes sir, 20 tons," John confirmed.
"Outstanding," Cartwright grinned before finishing his turn and walking away.
Charles led them to an office, different from the one they went to last time. "My old one's being expanded, a reward for my 'outstanding initiative in selling the Invictus' to you," Charles chuckled.
"What's the Raptor? I've never heard of it," John asked.
"It's fresh off the production lines! You must have made High Command really happy," Charles chuckled. "Trades increased firepower for reduced troop capacity, but that shouldn't be a problem for you. Speaking of which, you seem to have expanded your crew. Who are these lovely ladies?"
"Second Lieutenant Calara Fernandez, sir," Calara saluted.
"I'm Sparks," Sparks said distractedly, most of her mind on the pile of engineering equipment she'd seen waiting in the docking bay to be installed in the Invictus.
"I am called Jade. I am John's Nymph!" Jade said proudly.
Charles raised a brow but didn't comment. "So, 20 tons of Tyrenium. Same price per ton as last time?"
"Well, there were a few issues in transit. Travel costs must be accounted for," John shrugged.
Charles frowned. "How much?"
"30 mil per ton and I'll throw in a Kirrix dropship," John said. Sparks had already finished her analysis of all the Kirrix technology on the ship.
Charles stood up. "600 million?!"
"And a Kirrix dropship. That's got to have some value to R&D, surely? Don't I get some leeway for being a hero?" John asked with a teasing grin.
Charles sighed. "Fine. I can't believe you're price-gouging us like this." He accepted John's credit chit and transferred over half a billion credits to John's account. That done, he contacted a maintenance team to retrieve the Tyrenium from the Invictus' Cargo Bay. "So, John, what's next for the retired trader?"
"We'll take a tour of the Galactic League. The Ashanath, the Maliri, the Trankarans, the Brimorians, in that order," John answered.
"I see. Well, good luck," Charles wished him.
John led his women back to the docking bay. They got into the Raptor, and Alyssa settled into the pilot's seat. "Let's see what this bird can do," she grinned. She took them out of Olympus at port speed, but once they were out of regulated space she opened the throttle. "Whoa, she's got some kick!" Alyssa marveled.
While they were in transit to Gravitus, John pulled up the comm interface and called Rachel. The brunette answered, glasses over her tired gray eyes. "Oh, hello John," she grinned.
"Hi, Rachel. Alyssa and I are back on Gravitus for the night and I wondered if you'd like to go out or something," John asked.
"I'd love to, but I'm fried from finals and I ship out for the Dragon March tomorrow. I think I'll turn in early tonight," Rachel yawned.
"Oh, you graduated? Congratulations, Second Lieutenant Voss," John grinned. "Port Medea?"
"Exactly," Rachel nodded. "Sorry I can't make it."
"Don't worry. We'll keep in touch. Get some sleep, you look exhausted," John encouraged.
"I will do," Rachel nodded. Then she ended the call.
"So that's our future doctor?" Sparks asked.
"Yep, and your lesbian lover," John nodded. "Well, more so than any of the other girls."
"You just want to see us together so you can 'straighten us out'," Sparks accused playfully.
Alyssa landed them at the spaceport.