John woke early the next day, and just savored the feel of a strong male body against his left side and two soft, lithe women pressed against his right. He felt… at peace. His Bond with Alyssa had put to rest many of his fears about the validity of his lovers' feelings. He knew, without a shadow of doubt or uncertainty, that Alyssa loved him. To question her feelings to him, whether they were organic or just a consequence of the Change, was a disservice to him, her, and everyone else in their growing family. Checking this particular gift horse in the mouth, constantly trying to invalidate it intentionally or otherwise with his own issues, brought nothing but sadness to him and those he cared about. John couldn't promise he wouldn't mess up, but he was officially willing to accept that his lovers loved him as much as he loved them, and that was really all there was to it. Full stop.
And to make up for weeks of dealing with his brooding, anhedonic ass, he wanted to do something special for them all.
30 min later, Jonah, Alyssa, and Calara were each kissed awake and found themselves with a tray of breakfast food. John smiled lovingly at all 3 of them. "Morning, my beloveds."
"Did you hit your head this morning?" Jonah blinked.
"No, just pulled it out my ass," John chuckled. "Bonding with Alyssa opened my eyes. I can't really love you back or be a man worthy of that love if I don't stop with my second-guessing. I love you all, you all love me, so let's just be in love, right?"
"Sounds like an excellent idea," Calara agreed.
Alyssa was hung up on something completely different. "I've never had breakfast in bed before," she finally managed, all choked up.
"Oh, so those gut-busting meals I fed you your first couple weeks were, what, light snacks?" John joked.
Alyssa wiped her eyes as she chuckled. "I can get behind this new attitude! I've never seen you this relaxed."
"It's not just the Change I was worried about," John told her. "You know firsthand how much baggage I've been dragging around. The past is meant to be a lesson, not a burden weighing you to one spot. If I'm letting go about the personality rewrite, I'm letting it all go. The orphan thing, disappointing my grandparents by enlisting… Galon Prime, all of it. Not that simple, but I'll do my best. No more ruminating or wallowing, no more freaking out about futures I don't even know might happen. I'm just going to try to be mindful and live in the moment. And at the moment, I have money, the love of a good man and two good women, and a badass ship for myself. What's there to bring me down?"
"I truly hate to bring this up, but there is the whole question of who your dad is, the evil twin trapped in your subconscious, and while we haven't touched on it you really got to wonder exactly what the rest of your species are up to. I mean, you seem almost designed to make the perfect army and take over the galaxy, I can't imagine at least one other member of your race hasn't given it an honest go at some point," Calara reluctantly pointed out.
"Good points," John acknowledged. "Is there anything I can do about them right here, right now?"
"Not really," Calara shrugged helplessly.
"Then until that changes, I'm not letting that pile of shit darken my head," John stated clearly. "When you worry, you suffer twice. I never really took that seriously, but now I'm going to live by it. Only when I'm in a position to actually affect the outcome will I bother with strategizing and anxiety and tying myself in knots trying to figure out the right thing to do. Until then, what's the point?"
"Who are you and what have you done with John Blake?" Jonah said in a way it was hard to tell whether he was joking.
John rolled his eyes. "I'm the John who woke up this morning. Can't promise he's the same who woke up yesterday or the one who'll wake up tomorrow. Can't even promise I'll stay the same the whole day. But at the moment, I've stopped dragging the metric fuckton of old guilts and ghosts I've borne for over a decade. Why, you got a problem with this version of me?"
"Not at all," Alyssa practically glowed in the dark, so bright was her smile.
"Eat up! Then I figured we could give Calara one last good meal before I potentially turn the focus all on Alyssa's friend, Sparks," John grinned, giving his eyebrows a little wiggle.
They ate like wolves and then John and Jonah enjoyed the show of Alyssa and Calara 69-ing until they were hard enough to spitroast the Latina. Calara got a very filling dessert that left her feeling unable to get out of bed, so heavy and blissed out she was. They all recovered, grabbed a shower, and made for the Bridge in anticipation of their arrival at Karron.
They arrived at Omicron Ceti and approached the dwarf planet in the asteroid belt being slowly hollowed out. A rather unprofessional flight command tech informed them that the only bay that would fit the Invictus was full and they'd have to wait. After a dragging 20 min, a Heavy Freighter exited Karron, no doubt laden with tons upon tons of valuable ore. With the bay now open, Jonah took them in.
They settled down in the cramped berth just barely big enough for the Invictus. John made some quick decisions. "Jonah, get armored up and stand guard at the airlock. Should scare off any random crimes of opportunity or idiots tempted by the big bad ship come to the middle of nowhere. Alyssa, honey, I'll need a guide, casual gear with me but bring a pistol. Calara, you're up here. On the off chance we incite a gang war or Mortimer hired a mercenary army, I want you to man the Gatling Laser grid to deal with them. Any questions?"
"Solid plan," Jonah nodded his approval.
"Covers most every avenue," Alyssa nodded.
"I won't let them hurt any of you," Calara swore.
Calara got goodbye kisses from them all and then got comfortable at her Tactical station. John and Alyssa went for combat trousers and long-sleeved t-shirts, with the precaution of sidearms belted to their hips. They had psychic powers to attack and defend, but no one knew that. Jonah used Psychic Alacrity to speed up getting armored in the Phalanx Alpha suit and grabbed a brand-new XR75 Rifle, only fired in training up until that point. They took the elevator down to Deck 9 and went out the airlock. The air quality took a noticeable dive once they entered the colony proper.
*Be smart, be safe,* Jonah wished them both.
*Aren't I always?* John joked.
*Try to keep up, Marine,* Alyssa projected as she started to seemingly glide down a catwalk as she went for the exit for the docking bay.
John shadowed Alyssa as she moved into one of the main centers of Karron, large enough to merit vehicle traffic. She led him through the short, dirty crowds to a side tunnel, and then through a warren of smaller, more claustrophobic tunnels.
*Aren't you afraid someone will… never mind,* John cut himself off, realizing that Alyssa looked like practically a completely different person after the Change. No one would recognize her.
They reached Diablo gang territory, obvious by how all the men they passed were armed and wearing red. They reached a hatch door with two guards. "What you want, chief?" one asked John.
Alyssa gave her most winsome smile, drawing both guards' attention. "We're here to buy some custom gear from Sparks. We don't want any trouble." She handed both cred sticks loaded with 100 credits each. "For your assistance," she demurred.
Powerless to resist a beautiful woman bearing gifts, the one guard waved them through after the other hit the button to open the hatch door. A lot of wolf whistles and catcalls followed in Alyssa's wake as she moved through the Diablos' home base, silenced when the admirers noticed John just behind her. Alyssa led John confidently through the tunnels to a cul-de-sac filled with dated engineering equipment.
A wiry redhead with spiky tresses, likely kept short and gelled, was working on something with a blowtorch. A welding mask hid her face.
"Sparks! Been a minute, how you been?" Alyssa called brightly.
The enginner looked up, lifting her mask with a hand encased in a gruby work glove. John's first impression was mainly of the massive burn scar that disfigured half the girl's face. "Guns are over there, Blondie," she said dismissively before lowering her mask and returning to the job.
John glanced at the wall and was impressed with the obvious quality of the finished pieces given the components that made them. Alyssa hadn't undersold Sparks' ingenuity or skills as a gunsmith. Jonah would love her.
"Sparks, don't you recognize me?" Alyssa pressed.
With a sigh of annoyance, Sparks turned off the torch, set it down, and removed her mask. John got a better look at her features. Apart from the burn, she was albino pale like most asteroid colonists, had elf-like features, and her eyes were a curious heterochromatic shade of sky blue with inner coronas of gold around the pupil.
"Oh sure, I remember you from our old modeling days! The fuck are you, stranger? I got shit to do," Sparks said, her chin jutting out confrontationally.
Alyssa sighed. "Do I really look that different? I figured after sharing a room and food for 3 years, you of all the people in this rock would recognize the new me."
Sparks got a look of confusion. "Ok, what the fuck? I've never seen you before in my life!"
"Really? You, Sparks, my sister from another mister, don't recognize your best friend, even after she got some work done? It's me, you goon! Alyssa, Alyssa Marant!" Alyssa tried to make her friend see.
Sparks looked Alyssa up and down. "Bullshit. Alyssa was a good 6 inches shorter, for one thing."
"I tried a new diet, I highly recommend it," Alyssa said with a smirk. "It's really me, Sparks. I used to sleep right in that nook. You sewed me up after the Fletcher Brothers fight. And 6 weeks ago, after Giorgio tried to rape me, you told me to run and hide."
Sparks pushed past her disbelief to really look at the blonde goddess in her workshop. She spotted the first resemblance in her eyes, and from there she couldn't unsee it. It WAS Alyssa, albeit an extremely idealized version of her. Her jaw dropped. "Alyssa? Holy shit, what happened to you?!"
"Luck was with me that day, in the end. I ended up stowing away with John here. And it changed my life, no joke," Alyssa grinned, waving a hand at her male companion.
Sparks turned wary eyes on the much larger male in her midst. "Who're you?" she asked, a bit belligerently.
"I'm John Blake. I'm Alyssa's new boss. She agreed to join my crew as Navigator. She recommended we come back for you and recruit you as our Chief Engineer," John explained. "We can get into how she got her new body and you possibly getting the same at a later time. Right now, all you need to know is I want you on my team, and all I need to know is if you're in or out," John explained clearly.
Sparks blinked, taken aback. "You mean… leave the Diablos?"
"He means leave Karron, Sparks," Alyssa specified. "Come on, it's what we always talked about, leaving this place far behind. Agree to this and no matter what, you get a free ticket off this rock. If you don't feel like being Chief Engineer on the Invictus, we'll set you up wherever you like. And the Change is its own conversation. So the only real choice right now is are you going to spend the rest of your life indentured to some gang on a mini-moon at the edge of the Federation, or are you going to leave to never come back?"
Sparks gulped. She looked all around her, at the place that had been her home for almost 10 years. "I can't leave. What about all my equipment?"
"I'll be converting our defunct Armory into an Engineering Bay if you join. You'll have a blank check to outfit it with whatever you can legally purchase on the market," John reassured her. "If you don't, we'll still leave you at the planet or space station of your choice with enough money to get you started."
"Slow down, Daddy Warbucks. You have any idea how much this shit costs?" Sparks demanded.
"He's got an 8 digit bank balance, Sparks. He knows, he just doesn't care," Alyssa gleefully informed her friend.
Sparks' seemed gobsmacked at the realization she was talking to a multimillionaire. "Wow… are you clowning with me, Alyssa?"
"I am clown-free. Just say the word and you're free," Alyssa promised.
Sparks gulped. "Fuck it. Sure thing. Only, how am I getting out of here? The Diablos won't let me go, I'm their prize possession!"
"Just to preface this, John's not Terran. Now piggyback, missy!" Alyssa said as an obvious order.
Looking very befuddled, Sparks nonetheless hopped on John's back. Once he was sure her grip was secure, John turned to Alyssa, whose hand he was holding. "Ready, honey?" he checked aloud for the benefit of their guest.
"Let's go already!" Alyssa cheered.
John nodded and activated Psychic Alacrity.
The instant Alyssa felt the psychic power flow into her through her contact with John, she took off at a dead sprint. Given her peak fitness for a very athletic shape, it was impressive. Of course John, being bigger and also in prime physical condition, easily kept pace even with the weight of Sparks on his back and her arms trying to wring his neck. They sped through the Diablo hangout almost too fast to see. When they reached the hatch door, closed behind them, Alyssa ripped it off its hinges and tossed it aside. She'd been very diligent with her training. She led John through the opening and they didn't stop until they were in sight of the exit to the tunnel that led back to a major hub of the colony.
John ended his active use of psychic powers, huffing and puffing. "That really takes it out of you, especially spreading it to two people!"
"Least you got your exercise for the day!" Alyssa chuckled. She turned to Sparks and gently guided the numbly twitching form of her friend to let go of John and stand. "How's it feel to be out of the cage for once?" she asked.
"What… what the everloving fuck just happened?" Sparks demanded once she got her breath back.
"John's from a race of psychic aliens," Alyssa informed her now smaller friend. "More on that later, but he basically sped us up so fast the Diablos had no hope of stopping us. So now we just get you tucked safe back on our ship, then we only have 1 errand to run before we can leave. Your new life starts now, Sparks!"
Sparks shook her head. "I'm dreaming. No one pinch me."
Alyssa put her arm around Sparks' shoulders and let her friend and John back to the docking bay they'd landed in. A quick check with Jonah confirmed there'd been no trouble. Sparks had paid avid attention to Jonah's military-grade armor and weapon while he'd chatted with her rescuers. Getting her in the Invictus, they set her up in a room on Deck 2 and showed her where the shower was. Sparks, used to sponge baths with icy, dirty water, leapt at the chance for a hot shower. Alyssa purposely left only one of John's white shirts for Sparks to change into, tossing her former rags in the bin.
That done, they departed the Assault Cruiser and hailed a cab to take them to the Mortimer mining complex.
A quick check with the receptionist and John and Alyssa found themselves in a private meeting with Seb Mortimer himself. Even as they say down, John gave Alyssa telepathic commands. *Deep dive, see how he feels about me,* he ordered.
A quick Astral Projection and survey of Mortimer's mind later, Alyssa spoke up in their mental chorus. *He's ready to eat your liver and piss on your corpse. He knows you cheated him, I'm positive.*
*Hmm. Well, let's at least attempt to do this the easy way,* John decided at the speed of thought.
"John! Good to see you! What brings you back to my humble mine?" Mortimer asked with a genial smile. He must be a terrific liar.
"I was wondering if you'd managed to scrounge up any more Tyrenium," John asked casually.
"Oh, sure, tapped that vein out finally. Got 20 tons in storage."
"Same price per ton as last time?"
"Sure thing!"
John made sure the purchase was all legal and above board, logged with the Merchants Guild. Then he grabbed Mortimer's throat with one hand and squeezed until he passed out. They left the man there to wake up in about 15 minutes and went to hitch a ride in the ore hauler Mortimer already prepared for them.
They got to the docking bay for the Invictus without incident, and John gave generous tips to each of the miners who helped load the ore crates into the Cargo Bay. That done, he sent Alyssa to fetch Sparks and went up to the Bridge. Jonah, helmet off, sat at the XO seat and got them clearance to leave.
Alyssa and Sparks came out the elevator just as they left Karron behind. The System Map glowed as a hologram above their heads. "Wow…" Sparks breathed, blown away as she got her first real glimpse of outer space as she gazed on the representation of her home system.
Alyssa got to her Navigator station and worked out the fastest possible route back to Olympus. "16.4 days," she announced, just as they reached the Nav Beacon at the edge of the gravity well for the lone red dwarf star.
"Take us away," John grinned, and soon the Invictus was flying at hyperwarp. He swiveled to regard Sparks. "Sparks! You look lovely."
"I look like I'm wearing a dress," the burned teenager griped, playing with the hem of the white button-up that reached her knees.
"All the same. Now, let's adjourn to the Briefing Room. We have quite the recruitment pitch to try and sell you," John said with a smile.
They were soon all seated in the neighboring room, Sparks sitting uneasily next to Alyssa and across from Calara.
"So, let's get the easy stuff out of the way," John started. "Sparks, if you're half as smart as Alyssa insists you are, you're a valuable asset. We'd like to offer you the position as Chief Engineer on the Invictus."
"What's that entail?" Sparks asked, still a little overawed.
"Essentially, maintain all our existing equipment while researching and developing any upgrades you can think of. That goes for everything from the cleaning robots to our personal firearms to the Power Core. Keep the plates all spinning and replace them with shiny new ones when you can," John grinned at the young engineer. "You can name your salary, you'll have free room and board here on the Invictus, and can help yourself at any time to anything in the Kitchen."
"Sounds too good to pass up. I'm in!" Sparks said eagerly, realizing this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that had fallen into her lap.
"Yay!" Alyssa cheered, leaning over to give her best friend a hug.
"So these are real," Sparks said in deadpan into Alyssa's generous bosom. She pulled back and gave her friend and John a curious look. "I'd really like to know what the hell happened to Alyssa. It have anything to do with your freaky space magic?"
John braced himself for a possible explosion. "As you know, I'm some kind of psychic humanoid. I never met my parents, my mother returned from a research voyage pregnant with me and abandoned me the day I was born. But we've gotten some answers over the last few weeks, and now we're aware of the Change, among other things."
"What's 'the Change'? Is it how Alyssa went from starving bumpkin to holo-fitness model?" Sparks asked astutely, already connecting the dots.
John gestured at the crew. "Jonah and I discovered the Change by accident. We offered what little we knew about it to Alyssa, and she accepted. Calara agreed to it even after finding out something rather disturbing about it. Now we'll explain everything we know to you, with the caveat we're still learning about it, and you can decide either way."
"I'm all ears," Sparks said, crossing her arms with an expectant look.
John just went for it. "One of my most potent powers is to add a person to my psychic network. I get to use them as a battery to fuel my powers, and we're pretty sure it's for life. There's also personality changes built in, among them total obedience to my orders. In exchange for knowingly becoming my slave, I can rewrite your DNA and give you the body you see on Alyssa and Calara if you're female, or Jonah if you're male. I can also bestow psychic powers to people in my network. That's the bad and the good. Now for the weird part. To join my network, you need to drink my cum. It's ridiculous, but it's true. Part of the personality changes are bisexuality, polyamory, submissiveness, a total lack of jealousy, and I'm pretty sure an enhanced libido. My network is also my harem. And that's the gist of it."
The only reason Sparks didn't break out in guffaws was the serious look on all 4 of their faces. She turned to Alyssa. "Alyssa… did you invite me here to fix the guns or join the alien's free love commune?" she asked dryly.
"Six of one, half dozen of the other," Alyssa waved her hand dismissively. "You're the best mechanic I know, so I knew you were perfect for the job, even before you got an enhanced IQ. And as your unofficial sister, I wanted to match make you with the best man in the galaxy. That happens to be John, in my opinion anyway. And while you only ever have to be with him and even then just oral, safe bet you'll end up part of our orgies if you go through the Change."
Sparks shook her head. "Lot I could do with that, most of it rude so I'll spare you all that bit. Though what's this about a higher IQ?"
"Our bodies are enhanced to the top-tier of what's possible for a Terran, I'm certain," Alyssa explained. "That includes our brains. I'm a genius now. I passed the Navigator First Class exam after 2 weeks of study. You're already brilliant, but you'll become 1-in-a-billion if you agree to get the perk package in John's balls. There's really no downside, Sparks, not really."
"Apart from a boyfriend who can force me to do anything and having to share him with 3 others and counting?" Sparks fired back, dry as a desert planet.
"This isn't a timed offer," John explained quickly. "Take as much time as you need to think, ask all the questions you want. Just know we don't have all the answers. And no matter what, you're the Chief Engineer. Joining the family is entirely optional."
Sparks' breath hitched. "Did… did you just say family?"
John scratched his neck. "I know it's unorthodox, but I love everyone at this table except you. And I'm sure once I get to know you, especially after the Change makes you your best possible self, I'll fall hard and fast. Yes, a family, that's what we are. The only reason Jonah, Alyssa, and Calara aren't wearing my rings is because I haven't had a chance to shop for them yet or make the perfect proposal. One day, when we're all good and ready, we'll settle down and have a gaggle of kids and live happily ever after. If you don't want to be part of that, that's perfectly understandable."
Sparks gulped. She looked at Alyssa hesitantly. "We'd really be sisters then?" she said tremulously.
"Sister-wives, but that's splitting hairs," Alyssa said with a triumphant grin, seeing where this was going. "Oh, and in case this wasn't obvious, you'll lose your scar. You'll be beautiful as I am once John's done working on you," she went for the coup de grace.
Sparks blinked watery eyes. She turned to John. "I'm in," she said simply.
"Are you sure you've thought this through? You're offering me your soul here, Sparks. The Change will make you a different version of yourself, one you might not even recognize," John said, trying to impress the seriousness of this.
"I knew the old Alyssa better than anyone else alive," Sparks stated plainly. "And I see her in the new Alyssa. Just all the bad parts taken away and the good parts cranked up to 11. She's not a different person at heart, just a more perfect iteration. An upgrade, essentially. I'm willing to get upgraded to Sparks 2.0, especially if it comes with belonging to a family for once in my sorry ass life."
John looked her in those two-toned eyes, which were rather pretty actually, and saw nothing would sway the young woman from this except his outright refusal. And since he had no good reason to do that, he grinned. "Welcome to our family, Sparks. We'll do our best to make sure you feel welcome."
"So… this the part where I blow you?" Sparks asked, looking a bit nervous at the moment of truth.
"The first dose knocks you out for 14 hours, the second for 4. We don't know why," John said plainly. He glanced at the clock. "It's almost lunchtime. If you drink from me right now, you'll wake up just as we're going to bed. Then we can wake up a bit early tomorrow and show you around the ship before you get on a regular feeding schedule."
"What about food and shit?" Sparks asked, confused.
Alyssa chuckled. "John cums in buckets. I'm being literal, Sparks. Your stomach's going to swell until you look 8 or 9 months pregnant after each nut. All 3 of us lived on a cum-only diet while we were going through the Change."
"That's as arousing as it is weird," Sparks chuckled, shaking her head at how crazy her life was becoming.
She got up and went to kneel at John's feet as he swiveled his chair to face her. "Let's get the show on it," she said, though John saw it was mostly bravado. Alyssa had told him Sparks was a total virgin, likely due to her disfigured face.
Still, John obliged her and unzipped his pants to let his cock out.
"What the fuck?!" Sparks gaped, seeing something that was easily triple the size she'd been prepared for. "Are those 4 balls?" she asked incredulously, once she got a better look at John's endowment.
"Not Terran, remember?" John gently reminded.
"Aw, fuck it. See you on the other side," Sparks said before just taking the massive head into her mouth, a very tight fit. His sugar-sweet precum coated her tongue and her eyes went glassy and vacant. She began to move as if on autopilot, moving up and down until eventually John was up to the balls in her throat.
"So that's what we look like," Calara said, admiring the erotic scene. "And that's the only kind of blowjob you had until Jonah?"
"He was the first to show me individual technique," John groaned around the pleasure of a deepthroat and the primal male satisfaction of getting some strange.
In short order, by John's standards anyway, he unloaded into Sparks' belly. She withdrew when he stopped twitching inside her, mindlessly stroking her obscenely rounded abdomen. On her emaciated frame, she looked overdue with twins.
John focused and added Sparks to his network, forming a Connection with her mind. He blinked. "Huh. I expected to lose one of my 3 spare boxes to fit her. Instead, I now have 4 free ones. What's up with that?"
"You get more powerful with each member added," Jonah said with surety. "Which begs the question, how strong will you be when there's dozens of us?"
"Let's not get overly ambitious. I struggle to keep up with just you 3," John said in mild alarm at having so many committed relationships to juggle.
"You'll adapt," Alyssa said confidently. "Anyway, let's tuck Sparks in then get some grub."
John carried the comatose Sparks to the Commander's Quarters, settling her in under the sheets and comforter on the double-king bed. Then the 4 conscious members of the crew went to get a quick lunch.
Calara paused after her last bite of the panini they'd made. "I have a request. If it's not unanimous agreement, I'll let it go, but I'd regret it forever if I didn't at least ask."
"What is it, honey?" John asked, focusing 100% on her.
Calara took a deep breath. "I'd like to try and track down the pirates who attacked the Griffon. Not just that specific crew, the whole gang. And I'd like to take them out. If I can find them while we're still in the Outer Rim, would you all mind a detour for some exterminating?"
Jonah steepled his fingers. "Is this about revenge?" His voice was neutral, no judgment.
"I won't deny I'd feel a great deal of satisfaction knowing I fired the guns that killed them," Calara said readily. "But it's mostly to make sure no one else has to go through what I went through, what that poor Freighter would have suffered if we hadn't intervened. Someone needs to stop those pirates, and I think we're up for the job. If you 3 think it's too dangerous or I'm being too selfish, I'll still try to track them down and then we can just report their base to the Terran Federation to handle. But I'd really like it if we could do it ourselves."
"I'm all for it. We handled those 3 ships like it was nothing, we can definitely crush those despicable cockroaches!" Alyssa gave her vote.
Jonah shrugged. "No good reason not to. Sure, why not?"
Calara grinned, then turned to John for his answer.
John grinned. "If this was just about avenging the Griffon, I'd have said no. But closure is less important to you than protecting other innocents, I can tell. So I say yes."
Calara grinned. "Thank you, all of you. This means so much to me."
"Well, you're done eating. What are you waiting for? Get to the Bridge and start the forensics!" Alyssa encouraged.
Calara gave a pearly-white smile then got up to jog for the door. The other 3 finished eating and went to the Gym. John and Jonah were going to spar and Alyssa would train her Telekinesis.
They reconvened about 6 hours later in the Lounge, the Gym crew freshly showered and Calara brimming with excitement. "It's going so fast! I know the Change made me a genius but wow! I already have it narrowed down to the righ few cubed parsecs. I could have their base narrowed down by this time tomorrow! Your average T-Fed Analytics team would take a couple weeks to do what I've done in one afternoon!"
"I like my minions smart," John said jokingly.
"But is that the standard Change or another part of your specific Gift?" Alyssa wondered. "Even with perfect obedience built in, I know I'd rather have dumb underlings than ones that could outsmart me."
"Short of meeting another of John's race to compare, we're just chewing the fat," Jonah shrugged. "But I'm with Alyssa on this, think this is more of the Blake generosity than typical psychic alien sexual domination."
"Hard to believe you're being serious," John sighed. "Imagine if I'd discovered the Change back when I was a teenager, had a steady boyfriend or girlfriend, found all my powers. How different would things be?"
Calara frowned. "And imagine all the T-Fed might have ordered you to do if they knew what you were capable of. I mean, I have faith in humanity and its leaders. But as Grant shows, there's bad eggs even in positions of power. The wrong Admiral hearing what you could do… that could have gone all kinds of wrong."
"Huh, good point. For all I know, I could have ended up chained to a slab while I was milked like a prize bull day in and day out," John nodded. "And as a very smart, good girl told me, why torture yourself with what ifs and maybes? What matters is today, and there's a reason they call it 'present'."
"You're so cheesy, you're lucky I'm not lactose-intolerant," Alyssa giggled, but her thoughts were loving at John's words.
John grinned. "Sparks is gonna be out of it until after midnight. I think we can spare one last load for my dedicated, loving crew before she wakes up and gets on her new diet."
They almost forgot to put away the dishes, Jonah and the girls were so eager.
After some very mutually pleasurable physical exertion, John and his lovers settled into the bed around Sparks', who'd still be out of it for a while yet.
"What to do, what to do," Jonah mused, rubbing his slightly distended tummy.
"I haven't Bonded with you or Calara yet," John suggested.
"And you don't really need to with the Connection," Jonah fired back.
"Is that a no?" John pressed.
Jonah rolled his eyes. "Fine, if it means that much to ya, Johnny boy." He cuddled up to John and looked him in the eye. Then they initiated the Bond, the total merge of their minds until everything overlapped and they could know each other on the deepest possible level.
While their eyes started to glow and they stilled but for breathing, Alyssa sidled up to Calara. "I'm ready if you are, beautiful," Alyssa grinned.
"Really? I've been here less than 2 weeks!" Calara said, delighted as she was surprised.
"We fall fast around here," Alyssa giggled. "I love you, Calara. You're an amazing woman, and not just for John. I find you dazzling, and I'm not talking about your outsides. Your thoughts are so pure and kind, you love so fiercely, and you genuinely want to protect those who can't protect themselves. I trust you not to take advantage of me when I'm most vulnerable. Can you say the same back?"
"Oh, I love you too!" Calara said, bursting into happy tears. "I never thought I'd feel that way about a woman, but I do!"
"We can both thank John for that later," Alyssa chuckled, before wrapping her naked body around the Latina. "Let me in," she breathed.
"I'm yours, Alyssa," Calara swore, and soon they both sunk into their own Bond.
Both couples woke up around the same time, and John decided to get caught up on Galactic news. He pulled up the TFNN website and saw there was a new interview by his favorite reporter, Jehanna Elani.
"Tensions continue to mount in the Dragon March…" the young Indian woman said to the camera, her face composed and professional while somehow keeping a cheerful cast.
"You got a crush on her, don't you?" Alyssa asked teasingly.
"She's hot, and it's not just a pretty face, she's not just regurgitating a script. Yeah, I guess. Everyone's got a celebrity crush, though, right?"
"Jessica Carbright," Jonah said without blinking. "Bit before your times, but she was a real fox."
Calara blushed crimson. "Shawn Bheen. Blame it on the Dawn Saga."
Alyssa shrugged. "Never watched a holo-movie in my life. Didn't pay attention when the Diablos went nutso for zero-g football matches, either. Don't know any celebrities to have a crush on."
John glanced at the clock and calculated the time. "Well, here's my favorite movie of all time. Might as well cut your teeth on this."
They all settled down to watch, of all things, an old classic. The first Avatar, way back from the early 21st Century. It had been remade, of course, but John pulled up the original 2D version released in Terran theaters centuries ago.
*It's got everything,* John told his lovers mentally as he started the movie. *Makes you laugh, cry, gets your blood pumping, has a decent but tragic love story, all with a happy ending.*
So for the next 3 hours, they watched the story of the Na'vi of Pandora and the Earth colonists. Alyssa thought the whole experience was magical, especially since she got to share it with the 3 most important people to her in her life. 4 if you counted the unconscious Sparks.
Speaking of whom, Sparks started to stir just as the credits started to play. John got up and grabbed a glass of water from the wall dispenser. He went to Sparks, who was being helped to sit up by Alyssa. "Here, we know you're thirsty."
"Thanks," Sparks rasped, gulping down the water as fast as she could. She handed the glass back and frowned. "My face itches," she complained.
"Probably all the dead skin," John grinned.
"What the fuck you talking about?" Sparks demanded.
Alyssa reached out and pulled off a large swathe of detached scar tissue. Perfect, unblemished skin, still 'worm' white but otherwise healthy, was revealed. "John works fast," she grinned.
Sparks jaw dropped. "You mean… it's gone?"
"Well, some of it's still stuck to your face," Alyssa giggled. With quick motions, Alyssa peeled off every trace of Sparks' burn scar. "There! Good as new."
"I need a mirror!" Sparks begged.
John helped her up and led her into the bathroom. Sparks' breath hitched when she got a look at her healed face. "It's not there… I'm not hideous anymore," she said to herself, tears overflowing from her eyes.
John grinned at her in the mirror. "And it only gets better from here. It's all cosmetic, but you're going to get in the same league as Alyssa and Calara within a week or two."
Sparks turned and jumped into John's shocked arms. She launched into a clumsy but very passionate kiss. "You own me now. I'll do anything you want, forget the mind control. I'll never pay you back for this!" Sparks said, gratitude radiating from her face.
"There's nothing to repay. Just doing the right thing," John told her. "But I certainly won't say no to more kisses like that!" he added with a grin.
Sparks pulled him down and they made out for a bit. John's cock, naturally, woke up at all the amorous attention. Sparks giggled, a beautiful sound, when she felt it throb against her rear. "Someone's ready for action. And I'm much more eager to blow you this time around."
"Well, you'll go into a trance again. Next time, you can show me what you really got," John smirked.
Sparks dropped down to the floor and enthusiastically began to suck on the head of John's mighty manhood. She went on autopilot, as expected, and John was soon enough blowing her up like a balloon with his baby batter. He withdrew from her mouth, and carried her back to the bed. He tucked her in, and the rest of the crew arranged themselves around her. In the end, John had Sparks cuddled into his left side with Alyssa spooning her old friend, with Jonah spooned by Calara on his right. He nodded off, reflecting that for all the issues of his parentage, he really was a lucky son of a bitch.
Then he began to dream. Which was a novel experience. He couldn't remember dreaming any night he slept in his life. He felt like he was falling or being pulled through cold mists, and then he found himself thrust into a strange, alien reality.
He stood above a planet's surface like a colossus. Legions of women bowed at his feet. But he cared nothing for them, they were just tools, chattel, Thralls to command. His gaze turned to the stars, where his enemies lurked. He must find them, crush them, rape their women and slaughter them after the most painful torture imaginable…
… Wait, what?!
John's mind rebelled, casting off the alien thoughts that went against all he stood for. "That's not me!" he shouted, as if to reassure himself.
The stars somehow turned menacing, and John realized with horror they weren't really stars. They were eyes, the eyes of some eldritch abomination so vast and large he felt like an ant, a gnat before a giant. And it radiated disapproval and sadistic glee like a sun radiates heat. Vicious hooks and claws formed from solid darkness appeared and lashed out towards him.
John flinched, only to find himself surrounded by a golden-white dome. Unlike the evil (and John had no doubt whatsoever that's what the thing above him was) entity and its weapons of shadow, this light felt good and pure. It felt… like love. And oddly familiar to John.
Then it felt like a hand took his and he was suddenly gasping awake.
Jonah, Alyssa, and Calara were roused awake by John's panicking thoughts. As he slowly calmed down from their words and caresses, he explained what he just experienced, hiding nothing.
"That's not your garden-variety nightmare," Jonah frowned.
"If not a nightmare, then what was it? Did some other psychic attack me in my sleep?" John wondered.
"I have no idea, and I doubt any of the rest of us do," Calara said softly, considerate of the still sleeping Sparks even though a bomb wouldn't wake her with John's second dose in her system.
Alyssa was about to offer some words when she felt a tugging in her chest. Following her instincts, she Astral Projected. The world slowed down as her spirit detached from her body. And she gasped as, where Jonah had been sitting, a new figure with an aura of golden-white light had appeared. He looked like Jonah, down to every last detail, but Alyssa just knew this wasn't the man she loved almost as much as she loved John.
*Who are you?* she asked her lover's doppelganger.
*I've taken to calling myself Michael. The guardian angel, get it?* Michael grinned in a way unique to himself, not Jonah. *I was born just a little bit before you joined. John made me, whether he realized he was doing it or not, to look after Jonah and guide him as he discovers his true power.*
Alyssa pursed her lips. *Interesting. Do I have my own guide? Will Calara or Sparks or any future member get one?*
*You do, but you and her can't exist on the Astral Plane at the same time. So you can't talk to her, only me and eventually John when he's strong enough. Or I suppose any future member of his network he gifts the necessary power to Spirit-Walk,* Michael explained.
*Spirit-Walk? That's the proper term for this?* Alyssa checked.
*Yes. See, most of John's own power, he locked away and it formed Other John. He literally doesn't consciously perceive some basic facts about the whole psychic thing. But I'm a being of pure thought, a construct of John's making to protect his Patriarch. I know as much as I need to know to fulfill my purpose, and it's about time we sat down and I filled in some big gaps you guys have,* Michael explained.
Alyssa nodded. Then she surprised Michael by crawling into his lap and wrapping her arms around him. She tucked her head under his chin just as she would with Jonah and grinned. *Well, now that we're comfortable, fire away.*
Michael regained his composure. *John's a Progenitor. But he's far from a typical one. For one thing, he's supposed to be straight as a board. All the knowledge I have about how a psychic network and Thralls are supposed to work is centered on women. We're breaking new ground here, having Jonah as his second-in-command.*
*His species are Progenitors, and they make a network of Thralls,* Alyssa repeated. She frowned. *That's another word for 'slave', right?*
*From what I can tell, your average Progenitor treats his women like disposable sex toys, breeding stock, and soldiers in his wars apart from the whole psychic battery thing. Pretty sure John could take all you had to give and kill you to fuel his own powers. He never would, but worth remembering,* Michael told her solemnly.
*I trust him,* Alyssa said, and it really was that simple. *What am I and Jonah? Why did we get Telepathy and Calara didn't?*
*Jonah's his Patriarch, and maintains the portion of the network dedicated to male Thralls. And he's the first,* Michael revealed. *You're his Matriarch, who looks after all the female Thralls. As you know, you get Empathic bonds with each Thrall. You guys have somehow found a way to grow it into full Telepathic bonds like you naturally have with John. Again, unprecedented based on all I know. You guys are really breaking the mold here.*
*Right, right, good to know. But let's get to the good stuff. Do you know what attacked John just now?* Alyssa checked.
Michael shivered, which Alyssa couldn't help but feel with her nestled against him. *I don't know what its name is. But it's the Progenitor's god. It lives in the Deep Astral, and the only thing that can draw its focus this close to the Material Plane is a Progenitor making a new Thrall. I don't know much more than that, but my guess was that nightmare was it trying to condition or torture him to become its minion, its own Thrall.*
*So John's going to have a nightmare every time he makes a new Connection?* Alyssa asked in alarm.
*Sadly, yes,* Michael confirmed. *I'll talk with your Guide, try to find a solution. We can't exactly ask John to never sleep another night of his life.*
*Ok. Anything else you feel like sharing?* Alyssa checked.
Michael gulped, but he couldn't hide this from them all. *John can only die from injury. He's stopped aging. But if he dies, you all will suicide to join him. The urge will be overpowering. So tell him to get good at his powers real quick, especially Psychic Shields.*
Alyssa gulped, struck by a surge of overpowering misery and heartache at the very thought of John's passing. It could only be artificial, part of the… Progenitor Connection. *I'll let them know,* she promised. Trying to introduce some levity, she said *Remind me to come give you a good time at some point. No reason you should be left out of all our fun!*
*My sole purpose is to…* Michael started until Alyssa surprised him with a kiss.
*You were made as Jonah's Guide. But you can be more than that,* Alyssa said, with wisdom far beyond her age. *I'll be back soon,* she promised before returning to her body.
Alyssa quickly filled the crew in on everything Michael had told her. John had a very odd look on his face. "I'm immortal?" he asked in shock.
"No, just stopped growing old. Bullet or knife or fire or any of a thousand other things can still kill you dead," Alyssa clarified. "And as we already know, the Change can restore us to youth. So as long as you keep us regularly 'fed', we'll stay with you through the centuries."
"I'm more concerned with this Astral monster thingamajig," Jonah spoke up. "Even more than the fact I got a twin in the spirit world or back of my head or whatever."
"It can only find me and drag me into the Astral when I make a Connection, right? The solution is obvious: we stop with Sparks here," John said, moving past the fact he was eternally young.
"No can do, Hercules. We haven't even filled every station on the Bridge yet," Alyssa said in all seriousness.
"Alyssa, I'm serious," John scolded.
"So's she," Calara spoke up. "And while I certainly understand wanting to stay under the radar, we've already gotten proof you get stronger with each member added to your network. It's in our own best interest to keep recruiting and just have Michael and Alyssa's Guide figure out a way to protect you."
John sighed. "I hear you. Alright, I'll keep deferring to my… Matriarch and Patriarch when it comes to recruitment. Now, I think it's safe, but I'm in no hurry to go back to sleep. What to do to pass the time until Sparks wakes up?"
"You and Jonah Bond with me?" Calara suggested. "Finish it off, make so our chorus is fully linked. Then we'll all Bond with Sparks when we're all good and ready."
"Sounds like an excellent idea," John grinned.
John and Jonah each took an hour to Bond with Calara. Afterwards, they grabbed a quick cat nap. John cautiously went to sleep, and what felt like seconds later was shaken awake. Relieved he hadn't had another Astral dream, he opened his eyes and looked down at a wide-eyed Sparks.
"This is really all your cum?" the mechanic asked dubiously, indicating her rounded belly.
"And you're over halfway through digesting your second dose," John nodded, suppressing a yawn. Well, at least he'd gotten a little sleep to fuel him for the coming day.
The rest of their bedmates woke up, and they all set out for their day aboard the Invictus.