Once John literally power-fucked Edraele until she passed out, he'd fed his pent up load to the eager trio of Luna, Almari, and Ilyana. John was almost tempted to then go on to 'claim' each of the bodyguards as members of his harem, but he was a Progenitor, not a machine. Plus, he was getting dangerously dehydrated.
John got clean in a Maliri shower, which was decidedly less sensual than a Terran shower. It involved just floating in the cubicle with a rebreather as water laced with cleaning solution filled to the top and then drained away, leaving the occupant clean after a couple minutes of submersion. His skin tingling, John got redressed and had a helpful Luna lead him to Edraele's office in her personal suite aboard Genthalas. John, working out the interface fairly quickly, initiated a comm link with the Invictus.
The fairy-like form of Faye, his crew's AI and Ship Assistant, appeared on the vid-screen. "John? Do you need something? I figured you'd contact the crew through the chorus if there was an emergency."
"No emergency. I just figured you don't really have much to do during the refit, apart from maybe coordinating the new maintenance bots. I had an idea how you might keep yourself busy, if you're interested," John told the 'young' synthetic female. Despite being less than 2 weeks old and certainly full of youthful cheer, Faye had demonstrated plenty of maturity and understanding of the darker nature of the world since coming online.
"How can I help, John?" Faye asked, eager to help out as her prime directive insisted was her life purpose.
"I need a full audit of House Valaden finances, materiel, supplies, basically a cheat sheet for the whole territory in an easy-to-read format. Once you manage to put that together, I want you to do the same for all 18 other Noble Houses. Basically, I need you to boil the ocean of all that data to get a few clumps of salt so I know what I'm starting out with as Maliri King," John laid out.
"Ooh, fun! I'll get right on that! And look, Edraele was nice enough to already gather all the access codes for the other House intranets. Well, wish me luck John!" With a flash of fairy dust, Faye's representation on the vid-screen vanished.
John rolled his eyes. Of course Edraele had already hacked or somehow snuck the access codes from the rival Noble Houses. She hadn't reigned as top bitch of the Maliri Regency without reason, even if she'd been dangerously insane with her traumatized psyche after decades of abuse at her relatives' hands. Speaking of, John focused on his active connections with the other 18 Noble House Matriarchs. He'd already added them to his network under Edraele, and it was straining even his expanded reserves to introduce positive energy into a dozen-and-a-half tortured minds.
*I really do have my work cut out for me,* John sighed into the chorus. *Distract me. How's the refit going, you started about an hour ago, right?*
*You offering fatherhood as incentive plus Makaela and Irillith's white hair has everyone working at 110%!* Alyssa thought brightly. *We've already detached the old Ashanath Power Core and Dana and the Engineers are putting the finishing touches on the Progenitor replacement. In other news, detaching every Terran Laser and replacing them with Maliri equivalents would be a bitch and a half if we didn't have psychic powers to cheat. As is, we're about to get started. Though we have to upgrade each Maliri Laser with the Kintark heatsinks and a couple of Dana's personal touches first. And Zanthus is personally supervising moving all the wiring and circuits and other bits out of the way to make room for the Inertial Negation Device.*
*Remind me again why we're cutting a big hole out of the middle of our ship?* John thought, almost in pain.
*It's the only solution I could come up with to solve the g-forces of the Trankaran Engines,* Dana thought with a huff. *We need a central core to generate an equal field throughout the Invictus, with an anti-grav generator I had to rough out from scratch specifically designed to stop us from turning into puddles against the wall as soon as we get to max speed. I felt… echoes of some Progenitor schematic while I was designing it, so there's probably an even better version I'm unconsciously ripping off, but it's the best I can do. But once installed, the Inertial Negation Device will let us use the full might of Trankaran Engines and we won't even feel a hint of acceleration or deceleration mid-combat.*
*You don't have to watch as we cut the hole out of the ship, John. Besides, you're going to be busy for the next few days fully recruiting the Matriarchs, all their relatives, and then these work crews. My balls ache just thinking about it, I'm glad I'm not the Progenitor,* Jonah all but guffawed.
*Yeah, yeah, I'm going to be milking myself like a prize bull, woe is me,* John rolled his eyes. *Remind me of all the different Maliri Lasers we're upgrading the old ones for.*
*The Gatling Laser turrets are being replaced by Pulse Cannons, which fire three rounds in quick succession and share the same purpose: taking out strike craft and other small targets. The difference is a Pulse Cannon's individual bolts hit harder than your Terran Laser Cannons, let alone a full burst of 3,* Irillith chimed in. *To replace said Laser Cannons, turreted Beam Lasers. With Maliri focusing crystals to miniaturize the design, they're easy enough to fit onto turrets and give a full range of fire. There's 48 hardpoints for Laser Cannons on the Invictus, meaning we'll be able to fire 24 Beams in any cardinal direction, with 36 from the topdeck given there's double the hardpoints up there compared to the underdeck. In other words, if Jonah or Jade can face the topdeck towards an enemy ship, we can unleash holy hell upon them. And, for the coup de grace, Nova Lances to replace the Terran Beam Lasers. These babies are normally reserved for Battleships and require a dedicated Power Core just to fire them. Us, with a Progenitor Power Core and other supplementary tech, will manage to fit them onto a mere Assault Cruiser. They're the pinnacle of Maliri Laser technology, and are what we used to core holes straight through the Warning.*
*And, no offense Irillith, I want to say they're knockoffs of a standard-issue Thrall weapon. It's not close enough for me to get a 'flash' of the schematic, but there's definitely a better version in the Progenitor schematics, it's on the tip of my tongue,* Dana spoke up. *But for now, Nova Lances are plenty good as a replacement for boring old Terran Beams.*
*Any Maliri tech at all we can adapt to upgrade the Mass Drivers?* John checked.
*We'll improve the Tachyon reinforcement Dana installed back on Ashana with the superior Progenitor version. Otherwise, no, Maliri rely completely on Lasers for weapons much as my people do,* Zanthus spoke up. *I don't suppose we can ask for blueprints of Singularity Drivers from the Terran Federation once we expose the traitors as a reward? We do have enough Tyrenium to make a Singularity Generator. But that'll take an even longer refit than this one, replacing the Mass Drivers will require cutting the Invictus in half, the ship was built around them after all.*
*Never say never, and Irillith could always hack it if the time comes,* Calara thought, the idea of Singularity Drivers for the Invictus enough to make her start drooling.
*Moving on,* Lirrash thought. *I'm busy with all the anti-boarding measures. Dana's thought of literally 11 different ways to sense if anyone tries to break into the ship and then neutralize them besides the turreted Lasers, which are getting Maliri replacements as well.*
*Cyborg ninjas are after us! Cyborg ninjas! We must be vigilant!* the Grand Engineering Overlord thought dramatically.
*And while it's rather redundant between John's cum and my Healing, we're upgrading the Medical Bay with Maliri tech. As they are in almost every field, they're better than T-Fed military standard,* Rachel added.
*I think the genetic programming is taking effect with me,* Ceraden brought up. *I swear, some of these Engineers are looking at me like I'm a meal.*
*Oh, the horror,* Lauren snarked.
*In all seriousness, Ceraden, if it gets to be a problem then take a break and focus on our money,* John ordered.
*Will do. Besides, I'm dying to set up a few algo-bots to work the Galactic League Stock Exchange. The math doesn't seem so complicated since you upgraded my brain,* the male Maliri turned Financial Officer thought. *One solid arbitrage pump could make us a good 50 million overnight!*
*You do your job the way you want to, handsome. Just make sure there's enough to keep everyone fed and the lights all on,* John thought lightly. *Gamrik, what are you up to?*
*About to help out with decoupling all the Laser Cannons and the Beam Lasers on the topdeck,* replied his Trankaran Angel, who had yet to Bond with anyone and had to maintain active links with each member of the crew to join the chorus.
*Primus, you and the Marines keeping busy?* John checked with the Leader of his Ashanath military troops.
*Yes, JohnBlake, we are volunteering as supervisors of the Maliri work crews,* replied the Ashanath Special Forces officer.
Having heard from everyone, John refocused on his personal surroundings. *Well, keep up the great work, my Angels,* he projected into the chorus before getting up to get a glass of water.
After a solid 4 glasses to rehydrate after shooting 2 loads in quick succession, John filled the glass again and went to rouse Edraele from her little pleasure coma. She slowly came back to consciousness, an indecently satisfied smirk on her full lips. *Ok, you know what you're doing, you'll suffice as my lover for the rest of eternity.*
*Wait until you get tag-teamed by me and the other men, or even Alyssa. She's a master with a Telekinetic dildo,* John chuckled, recalling some rather lurid sexual episodes over the Oceanus vacation. *Now… we have a few hours before I recharge. Tell me about yourself, Edraele. If we're going to be married, we should know the basics.*
Edraele looked away. *It's not a very pleasant history, Baen'thelas. The world hurt me, and I became determined to hurt everyone in my life right back. I was a monster. I didn't really have a choice, but I still became a woman who would torture one daughter and banish the other to the Unclaimed Wastes. You sure you want to dig into the past and not focus on a bright new future?*
*I want to know you, Edraele. Not just the good parts, but the bad and even the ugly parts too. I'll do the same, promise,* John swore through their Telepathic link.
Edraele met his eyes and something softened. *You're unbearably sweet, are you aware?*
*I've heard something like that before,* John chuckled.
Edraele spent a couple hours recalling her childhood, adolescence, and the early days of her Matriarchy. She found herself remembering random 'good' memories, and by the time John felt 'full up' Edraele was convinced that her life hadn't all been one unbroken tragedy after all. John, reluctantly, interrupted Edraele's train of thought. *It's time for another feeding. By the way, are all the Matriarchs safe in that one conference room?*
*Probably safer unconscious with my own guards around the room then they'd be left at the mercy of their families,* Edraele thought with a droll tone.
*Right,* John nodded, acknowledging the cutthroat nature of Maliri succession and how each daughter longed for the day their mother died or, even better, could be killed by their own hands. *How many noblewomen are there, not counting the Matriarchs I recruited earlier?*
*43 daughters, nieces or living cousins, plus 2 males who came along just to watch the show from what I can tell,* Edraele recalled.
*So 3 loads of 15,* John did the math. He glanced at the chronometer. *I got maybe this current one and just one more in me before it's time to hit the sack. I can get the last group first thing tomorrow just before the Matriarchs start to work up. And then there's the second dose for all of them, that'll be tomorrow planned out. Then I need to start focusing on the work crews assigned to the Invictus to get the numbers up, plus to spread the fixed birth ratio when they visit Geniya.*
*You truly intend to fix the Maliri birth ratio to a 50/50 split?* Edraele checked, the very idea feeling just plain odd to her mind.
*If the stars align, I'll be the Maliri's last master, and I swing both ways. I'd rather have an even ratio for my Kingdom. Plus, it'll solve the population slump in a couple generations even if we can't convince the border males to return to their homeworlds somehow,* John shrugged. *I've been planning this a while, I already put the change into you, Irillith, the bodyguards, and Makaela. I'll add it to every other Maliri Angel going forward.*
*Well, far be it from me to tell a Progenitor how to tweak his personal Thrall race,* Edraele chuckled. *Speaking of births, though… how soon should I expect to bear you a child? It just makes good sense for you to secure your claim on each Noble bloodline by siring an heir off each Matriarch.*
*As hot as the thought of a full 19 women all ripe with my babies in their bellies and tucked safely into my royal seraglio is, I refuse to be just a sperm donor,* John thought firmly. *I grew up an orphan, and it sucks. My grandparents did the best they could, but I always felt abandoned by my mother and forgotten or unimportant to my father. No child of mine will go through that. I'll be spreading myself a bit thin, but I fully intend to be there every step of the way for every one of my wives' pregnancies and then each milestone for every child. I can't do that if I'm busy fighting a war and I ABSOLUTELY won't conceive a child if I'm not sure the mother will be safe throughout the pregnancy. So at the soonest, after we deal with Larn'kelnar and then get the rest of the Galactic League prepared for the next Progenitor to come knocking. At the latest, and if I feel particularly paranoid, after I've hunted down and killed every other Progenitor in the Milky Way until it's just me.*
Edraele felt a chill in her bones. *You'd do that? Render your own species extinct?*
John gave a grim smile. *I'm the first 'good' Progenitor out of who knows how many in over a million years. And it took a fluke of the Shroud going up and then all the crap with Mael'nerak and Rahn'hagon for me to be born under it. You can blame it on the Devourer, and I certainly intend to take the fight to it once we have the power to do so, but the galaxy won't be poorer if every Progenitor besides me ends up dead at my feet.*
Edraele looked at John, and saw how firm his resolve on this issue was. *... Very well, my King,* Edraele bowed. Best to just drop the subject, there would be no swaying Baen'thelas on this, she could tell. *Summon your Nymph, I'll round up the first 15 members of the nobility.*
Jade turned out to have only wanted to pull the tentacle trick on the Matriarchs. John met with 15 Maliri noblewomen in a new conference room, utterly besotted just at the sight of them, and convinced them each to nurse from a loaded up Jade with little fuss. Each passed out in the nearest chair Jade tucked them into. John made the Connections to Edraele's network. That done, John realized he was starving. Edraele led him back to her suite, and coached him along with Luna, Almari, and Ilyana on making a traditional House Valaden supper.
John enjoyed the exotic flavors, but the true prize was the wine. He savored a very rich aroma, but the taste blew him away. *Oh, wow! Where did you get this stuff? It's the best wine I've ever had, by far!*
*House Holaris, no finer vineyards in the Maliri Kingdom and perhaps even the Galactic League,* Edraele explained. *They have a number of naturally volcanic planets that were masterfully terraformed, and volcanic soil is extremely fertile. Between that and millennia of experimentation with fermenting and processing the grapes, they've made their wines the pride of their House. On paper, they forbid sale outside their House borders, but everyone knows Emandra and every Matriarch before her takes a cut from the smugglers' profits. They just enjoy us jumping through hoops to get their prized trade good.*
*Well, that's one of the things changing under my reign. You could charge sommeliers through the nose to get House Holaris stock for their restaurants or private clients. What other 'prized trade goods' does each House have?* John checked.
John enjoyed a couple hours with Edraele, her trio of assassins-turned-bodyguards chiming in at certain points and also at John's encouragement. He kept half an ear on the chorus, keeping track of the rapid-fire progress of the refit. Between the mass of trained willing bodies in the Maliri Engineers, Dana and her team's technical mastery, and the use of psionics to cut corners that would stymie any mundane operation, they'd made a lot of progress in less than half a day. Dana's newest creation, the maintenance bots, personally coded between her, Zanthus, and Irillith with Faye's helpful input, handled very well from what John heard.
Starting to fight to stay awake after each blink, John loaded up Jade and made a welcome speech to the second group of 15 Maliri nobles. This group had one of the males, and he agreed to nurse more to touch Jade than because he was overtaken by genetic programming. But an Angel was an Angel once John made a Connection, however his cum got in their stomach. Leaving the lot of them to sleep off their first dose, John followed Luna back to Edraele's suite. Without thinking about it, John stripped nude and crawled into the bed to cuddle Edraele after making his Astral invisibility cloak. He blinked when he noticed the bodyguards about to leave. *Whatcha waiting for? Join us.*
Luna tensed, eying Edraele warily. But the Valaden Matriarch was very mellow in the prolonged afterglow of her session with John, so she just nodded her approval. Luna, Almari, and Ilyana all hesitantly stripped and joined their ward and master in the very large bed. John sighed contently when he felt the extra bodies cuddle up on either side of him. *Much better…* was his last thought.
And then the Astral Dream. Less said about that, the better. John woke up after a minor lifetime of fear, checked on his network with a mental skim, and slipped back into natural slumber.
An alarm went off, which John finally silenced by crushing the offensive device into a ball with Telekinesis.
*Huh, so it's not just me who does it,* Edraele chuckled sleepily as she fully woke up. *I'll dig out one of the spares, I have about 5 or 6 last I checked.*
John enjoyed a quick breakfast, discovering a love for Natalla berry juice, and then Edraele gathered the last 15 of the Maliri nobility who'd yet to join the network. Jade worked her magic, and with that last nursing John had every member of the Maliri's ruling class in his network. Apart from Tashana and a few males, but close enough.
Coming up close on the 14 hour mark, John went to that first conference room with Edraele. Luna, Almari, and Ilyana were personally guarding each of the 3 other rooms holding the nobility. Could never be too careful, John figured. He and Edraele came into the room, and John went through the laborious process of gathering 18 glasses of water even when Edraele insisted a servant could fetch refreshment. This was a ritual for him.
The 18 other Noble House Matriarchs slowly stirred. John grinned at them all. "Welcome to your new lives, ladies. Please, drink, and I'll answer any questions you may have."
"What… what's going on? I feel like I've been drunk for a couple weeks. My memories all have this… haze," Shaedra Loraleth asked, eyeing John, Edraele, and really everyone with suspicion.
"Ok, let's start from the beginning. The Maliri are one of several genetically engineered slave races known as the Thralls. Thralls were designed to serve a master race called Progenitors. Mael'nerak was the last Progenitor to rule the Maliri, and his reign faded through oral histories into nothing but a vague bedtime story. But the genetic programming inherent to all Thrall races stayed alive and well in every one of you. So, when I, a Progenitor, recorded my message a couple weeks ago, you all were essentially hypnotized by the very sight of me to obey whatever I said. Even via a video," John laid out.
"Insolent male! Who are you to think you can–" started Gaenna Baelora, building up a head of steam.
"Stop talking," John interrupted in an even tone.
Gaenna's mouth locked shut, even as her eyes widened.
"The genetic programming is merely to keep you compliant up until I can feed each of you a dose of my cum and then add you to my psychic network. From there, there's an obedience compulsion built into the Connection between each of you back to me. You all, no two ways about it, are my slaves for me to do with as I please," John said, calm but direct.
Aradrea Ghilwen, who had been the most geriatric of the Matriarchs before John went and restored her youth, set her shoulders. "What is to become of us, Baen'thelas?" she asked, seemingly resolved to meet the very worst of fates with dignity.
"It's much as I said yesterday, though I'll forgive you if the memories aren't crystal clear. I, in claiming all of you as my own, have seized control of every Maliri Noble House and their territory. In other words, the Maliri Regency is now the Maliri Kingdom. I am your Immortal King, and you will all serve to rule beneath me as my Council of Matriarchs," John explained.
"You mean… work together? Stop all the wars? Unite as one people?" asked Tsarra Perfaren, the youngest of the Matriarchs. She was barely over 40, which was the Maliri equivalent of just past drinking age.
"That's the plan," John nodded with a small grin at Tsarra. "Now, while I certainly believe you all need some supervision and that the transition period will take time, I unfortunately can't be in the Kingdom at all hours. I have multiple obligations outside our borders, not the least of which is defending us from the rival Progenitor Larn'kelnar. Whenever I am not available in person, you will defer to the authority of my Eternal Queen, Edraele Valaden."
"Ugh, why does she get to be in charge?" grumbled one of the 'minor' Matriarchs, from the lowest 12 Houses. Valaden as top dog, 6 Major Houses, 12 Minor Houses, that was how it had been as long as anyone could remember.
"In simple terms: I got to her first, and I trust her the most out of all of you. Sadly, that's not saying much, but I have hopes that over the months and years and centuries to come we'll all learn to get along splendidly," John said warmly.
"Centuries?" asked Yunaliss Aeberros, Matriarch of the 4th ranked Noble House.
"Progenitors are unaging. And I'm sure you've all noticed by now that you're each back in the prime of youth. Amusing as it is to contemplate, my semen is something of a panacea. Get a little in your stomach, and I can restore any female in my network to the very best of health, including reversing the hands to time to your physical peak. Barring any of our deaths due to injury or accident, we'll all be ruling the Maliri Kingdom from now for thousands, perhaps even millions of years," John laid out to the dumbfounded Matriarchs.
Tinefain Naestina thought of a problem to that scenario quickly, though. "What about our families? With respect, Baen'thelas, if I was a daughter and found out my mother had been blessed with immortality, I would have stopped at nothing to kill her myself and take her place. What measures will you take to protect us from our daughters?"
"Hell, we don't need them to secure our line anymore, why not just execute them?" snorted one Minor Matriarch.
John stared at that particular woman until she squirmed. "You'll learn that I prefer good girls to bad girls. Murdering your daughters would make you a bad girl. We'll have to work on that. And in any case, I've also recruited every Maliri noblewoman who accompanied you to Genthalas. In effect, the current Noble Houses are set to stay the same for generations going forward. Apart from any… new additions. But that's a discussion for a bit down the line."
The Matriarchs all reacted at John's words, mostly with a slight squirming. Genetic programming or no, they were now horny young women again and John was a handsome, virile male.
John cleared his throat and steepled his fingers. "Now, let's establish some ground rules for how you'll each be ruling your territories in my new Kingdom…"
John spent the next half hour issuing a series of simple but comprehensive commands, each one taking root with the obedience compulsion. Each would be unconsciously reinforced with each of the Matriarchs until John so deemed them trustworthy of John reforging the Connection with Edraele and all under her portion of the network. But until he could count on them to do as they were told and work towards a united Kingdom out of the goodness of their hearts instead of due to psychic slavery, needs must.
John, who'd been drinking glasses of water regularly over the course of his commands, cleared his throat as Jade entered the room. The Matriarchs seemed to remember her. "You each will be getting another dose of my cum, that I may ensure you stay in good health. The second dose knocks you out for 4 hours, from then on you can stay conscious with each dose. Don't worry, no tentacles this time. Each of you stay seated until Jade here reaches you and you can nurse."
Jade slipped under the conference table and did her work with impressive speed even for her. Coming out from under the table, her breasts now swollen with John's seed, she beamed at the Matriarchs in various stages of wariness. "Time for some milk," she giggled.
Edraele got a small dose, just to refresh her and not to single her out as separate from the rest of the Council of Matriarchs. The other 18 women all got their portion from Jade, some clearly resisting but trapped by the obedience compulsion. Finally, they all were knocked out for 4 hours.
John sighed, focusing most of his attention on once again injecting positive energy into the negative cesspools that were most of the Matriarchs' minds. It was no mean feat to take a mind that had endured decades of abuse or outright torture (or inflicted it) and turn it into a healthy, high-functioning individual with a reasonable baseline of happiness. He'd gotten some practice with Irillith, Edraele, and the other Maliri Angels. And he'd gotten a major power boost by fixing the Connection to his personal crew. But still, he wouldn't be training today, he didn't have the spare energy.
"Gather them and have them transported to their suites, they deserve to wake up in their own beds, or at least the guest ones here," John sighed. "This is a major logistical issue we need to address at some point, too. We can't run the whole Maliri government out of Genthalas. We need to find a neutral location to set up a base or something."
"There's always Mael'nerak's Throne world, Kythshara," Jade said, before blinking. "What's a Throne world?"
John felt the chill of someone breathing on his grave, also known as the sensation of a piece of Progenitor knowledge being knocked loose from where Other John was hoarding it all. "Where a Progenitor sets up base. Kythshara is Progenitor for 'birthplace'. Wherever it is, it's probably where his lab is where he made all his creations."
"I'm not aware of any planet named 'Kythshara' in Maliri space," Edraele frowned. "But then… there is a nebula, known as the Mists of Loralar. It's similar to the old Terran tale of the Bermuda Triangle or the Niryean Rift. Any ships who enter never return, or half the crew come back driven mad by some unknown phenomenon. Now that I know my history, my gut says Mael'nerak set up defenses to protect his Throne world before he left to face Rahn'hagon."
"Well, then I guess an expedition into the Mists of Loralar is on the to-do list. Far, FAR down the list," John sighed. "Sounds like he left some heavy-duty defenses, maybe something that mixes psionics and technology. We're not ready for that yet."
Refocusing, Edraele summoned enough armed guards to safely escort each unconscious Matriarch back to her suite. *On a completely separate issue, having a whole Council of Matriarchs and then distinguishing Edraele as the 'Matriarch' in my network is going to get old real quick. Since we changed the name for members of my network from Thralls to Angels, I propose we change the name for my lieutenants to Archangels. Objections?* John posed to the chorus.
*I love it!* Alyssa chimed in, decidedly chipper this morning.
*Fits the whole sex god thing you already got going for you,* Jonah chuckled.
The rest of the chorus agreed easily. John nodded, then had Edraele lead him back to her suite. He was still hopelessly lost about Genthalas, all the hallways looked the same to him. Jade had the hack of using her enhanced smell to follow her own scent trail to retrace her steps back to the Docking Bay with the Invictus. John and Edraele both went to her office, John intending to continue to bond with Edraele. But there was a chime from both her computer and his wrist communicator when they reached her rooms.
"Hey, John! I finished that report you asked for!" Faye informed him.
"Oh, thanks, Faye. For House Valaden, right?" John grinned at the fairy.
The sprite chuckled. "No, silly, for all 19 Houses!"
John blinked. "You trawled through all those bytes of data to pluck the useful bits and made a report in… 15 hours?" he asked incredulously after a quick check of the time.
"Time moves slower in cyberspace, and I don't have to sleep. Plus dealing with data is kind of my thing!" Faye chuckled. "Anything else I can help you with?"
John had perhaps underestimated how freaking useful an AI assistant would be for him and his crew. "Um, nothing at the moment, honey. You can focus on the crew and refit or just do your own thing if you want."
"Alright, but just give a ring if you need anything. I'm here to help!" Faye chirped before ending the call to his smartwatch.
"It would have taken half my administrative team a full week to do a full audit of just House Valaden," Edraele said delicately.
"Well… let's be glad she's friendly and on our side," John finally shrugged. "Let's take a look at what she put together."
Edraele logged into her console and pulled up a rather dense file that was fresh in her inbox. There, in clear pixels, were 19 different files. Opening the one labeled 'Valaden', Edraele nodded. "Ah, I see. She didn't start from scratch. This is a similar format to my usual annual audit, just with fresh information. She pulled up the old one and edited in any recent changes. Still remarkable, but not quite scary."
"Actually, that's even more impressive. She had the bright idea to piggyback off each Houses' existing audits instead of starting from square one. She's smart, she's… alive. I'm still getting used to that, having a synthetic crewmate under my protection and command," John admitted.
"How much of Mael'nerak's success was down to having Nexus to do all the hard work for him? She's limited to that console for now, but eventually she'll grow until it can't support all her memory anymore. Then you'll either have to de-res her or build an even bigger computer to transfer her into. And then who knows what she'll be capable of?" Edraele mused, even as she reviewed the audit for her House.
"I guess we'll find out," John finally shrugged, having mixed awe and a nagging worry about his AI crewmate. He didn't think she'd do anything deliberately hostile. But she was still figuring out the world, all the 'rules'. If she broke one in a big way, the consequences could be severe.
John and Edraele reviewed all the House audits to get a general idea of the state of the Regency, or Kingdom rather. John left to meet the first round of 15 noblewomen with Jade, easing them into the idea of an eternity under his rule as King as best he could. He returned to Edraele and continued to review all Faye's reports until it was lunchtime.
"The populations are even lower than I thought they'd be," Edraele mused after a bite of some Maliri vegetable skewer. "If I can do basic math, then the sum total of the Maliri population as of the last census in all 19 territories is under 200 million. That's insane. I knew we were in decline, but given the sheer size of the Kingdom that's an unacceptably low population density. We're over twice the size of the Terran Federation and have less than a hundredth of the people!"
"I agree that numbers that low are downright scary," John nodded after a sip of water. "Unfortunately, repopulation takes time and resources, and most of those are going to have to go to getting us on a war footing as soon as possible."
"How far are your Rachel and Engineers on making the 'Potion Machine', the device to artificially produce the enzyme for the Connection?" Edraele asked, turning her mind to converting what Maliri there were rather than the problem of how many there weren't.
"They have a design they think will work, but it's untested and will take time to build the first prototype just to get a sample for experiments," John reported to his Queen, who he'd readily acknowledge had more experience ruling than he did.
"Have them send the schematics to me," Edraele decided. "With the collective resources of all 19 Houses at my beck and call, I can fast-track the research and get us to a working version with all due haste. Then we can start mass-producing it by the kiloliter and start expanding the network to add and heal every Maliri in the Kingdom. You become a stronger psychic, they get restored youth and health, I get the power to coordinate them via Telepathy, everybody wins."
"That'll be a bit odd, I'll admit, remotely adding people to my network," John mused.
"Well, arousing as the idea might be, you can't have all the millions of Maliri maidens in the Kingdom service you one by one," Edraele teased.
They finished lunch and John, at a bit of a loss, asked Luna for a basic tour of Genthalas around Edraele's suite before he was due to refeed the second group of nobles. Just the fifth of the massive shipyard that was currently online was roughly the size of Olympus Shipyard back in the Terran Federation, but the assassin strove to explain to John the basic layout and the routes from Edraele's suite to wherever John needed to get.
The second group of nobles were greeted and then knocked out for 4 hours, and John was getting downright exhausted from the psychic strain of healing so many minds. Alyssa and Jonah, his loving Archangels, gathered spare energy from the rest of the crew and gave him a little psychic pick-me-up. Feeling the surge in energy like a shot of eldritch caffeine, John went back to Edraele's suite and focused on learning more about Edraele from the woman's own mouth. She was about halfway through her life story, which at 162 Terran years was substantial. John left his Queen to start dinner preparations as he and Jade dealt with the third and final group of nobles from early that morning, 14 hours having passed.
John almost fell asleep as soon as he sat on a couch in Edraele's suite. *I'm essentially giving psychic therapy to over 60 criminally insane patients. I should be collecting an hourly fee,* he grumbled in a state of exhaustion as the full wear and tear of the day hit him. Physically, he hadn't done much, but the mental and psychic strain had been immense.
*In brighter news, we're ahead of schedule for the refit!* Dana tried to cheer him up. *We made all the elements with Makaela at the Fusion Reactor today to make Crystal Alyssium, and all the Telekinetics on the crew are chipping in beautifully. Turns out even my Minions and the Marines have been juiced up enough to at least give a single shaping to Crystal Alyssium. I've been having them make the frames for a new round of Punisher Railguns and Justice Rifles while Alyssa, Lirrash, and Zanthus work on the heavy-duty shit like armor plates for the Invictus or the central core of the IND.*
*And it's all turning white, I presume? We ever figure out what caused the Onyxium to change color like that?* John checked with his Grand Engineering Overlord.
*Well… don't laugh, but I think positive and negative psychic energy is a thing. Onyxium, in its base state, is black and full of negative juju. When it gets touched by a happy mind like an Angel's or yours, though, it gets 'purified' and turns white. I also legit think that's why Soul Forged metal comes out black, since it's literally made from the painful deaths of the women fed into it. That's as negative as it gets,* Dana thought back to him.
*So, theoretically, if and when we unlock the Soul Forge and you fix it so it doesn't industrially slaughter people, our future ships will be white like the Invictus?* John thought, forcing himself to his feet before he actually passed out on the couch.
*That's what I'm thinking,* Dana confirmed. *Also, you didn't hear this from me, but Alyssa is doing something 'special' with your personal Paragon suit. She says you have an image to maintain.*
*Well, I'm literally a king now, my armor can be a bit ostentatious,* John thought distractedly, not fully listening.
Edraele, sensing his sleepiness, gently guided him to the dinner table. John ate mechanically, the chorus, Edraele, and the trio of guards all keeping him distracted with chatter. Barely remembering to make his Astral invisibility cloak, John was out like a light as soon as his head touched Edraele's pillow.
John somehow discovered a state of sullen fear as he was forced to wait out the monsters that were the souls of his forefathers in the alternate dimension he got dragged into in his sleep. He was starting to give serious thought to Jade's idea of going from defense to offense in dealing with the Fallen Progenitors, but that was mostly frustration talking. Their power… it was terrifying. He snapped awake when the barrier holding him in the Astral lifted, then just snuggled into the warm body he was holding and slipped back into slumber.
After an alarm, a Maliri shower, and a filling breakfast, Edraele cleared her throat. "John, before you focus on the work crews, I was hoping you might feed my Fleet Commander and all my Planetary Governors. All 17 have been waiting since you arrived, they just didn't seem a high priority."
John saw the logic in getting the key players in House Valaden in the network, and wordlessly summoned Jade through the chorus. Half an hour later, his balls tingling, John followed Jade back through Genthalas to Docking Bay 1 and the Invictus. They arrived and John blinked. He'd thought his ship had looked busy during the Ashasna refit. But with over 100 Maliri plus their own crew working in concert to upgrade so many systems all around the ship, both inside and out, it was like a kicked anthill of activity.
*You need about 3 or 4 hours to really charge up a full load again, so for now, you'll be getting your hands dirty,* Jade told him privately. *But, realities being acknowledged, you'll send productivity grinding to a halt wherever you end up. So we're sticking you with the Raptor, it's almost done and you can finish it off yourself with 'assistance' from lovestruck Maliri.*
*I feel the love,* John playfully gripped even as he rolled up his sleeves and headed towards the dropship. John made polite small talk with the team of 20 Maliri Engineers assigned to the Raptor, who one and all were so distracted by him and the genetic programming they were in danger of walking into each other. Coordinating with Rachel and Engineer Korsus, John detached each Terran Laser and replaced them with upgraded Maliri versions. John got lost in the work, his unconscious use of psychic powers not distracting from how comfortingly familiar it felt to work on a ship. He'd lived for a decade on the Fool's Gold, maintaining every system personally, and it felt surprisingly refreshing to work with his hands again.
A bit before lunchtime, John felt his balls were heavy with spunk again and the poor Maliri Engineers assigned to the Raptor were almost ready to rip off their jumpsuits and tackle him. Jade and a helpful Ilyana showed up and led them all to a nearby conference room. John was at least polite enough to get each of his future Angels' names before he loaded up Jade and she nursed each of them. A round 20 Maliri added to the network, John tucked himself back in his pants and debated what to do for the afternoon meal.
*You see our asses every day while we're out saving the galaxy, these blue babes are a limited-time engagement. Actually, Makaela is feeling a bit neglected,* Alyssa sent along her Telepathic link to John.
Plans made, John tracked down the Manager of Genthalas, Irillith's second cousin. *Makaela, would you be so kind as to accompany me to lunch? We can go anywhere, my treat,* John grinned.
Makaela blinked, before her whole face lit up. *Oh, Baen'thelas, I'd be honored! There's this wonderful little deli that makes the best Aloysia breads!*
John enjoyed an intimate lunch with Makaela, bonding with her as he had with Edraele, Luna, Almari and Ilyana. It wasn't just that she had such an important job in the Maliri Kingdom with her duties running Genthalas; she had asked to join his harem. She was his future wife. The fact she'd be one of dozens was neither here nor there, John was determined to be an attentive, dutiful husband. They even ended up having a quickie in a janitor's closet, John barely cumming a pint with how little time he had to recharge but Makaela certainly enjoyed the experience.
When they were panting and sweaty, Jade found them with an amused smirk. She gently nuzzled her beautiful face between Makaela's thighs and lapped up every drop of John's seed. *This can be a light snack for us Lions and Lionesses who are being ignored in favor of all this fine blue fillies and broodmares,* she thought salaciously as her elongated tongue did a final scrape of Makaela's womb.
*HOW is this my life?* John asked rhetorically.
*Just embrace the madness and enjoy the ride, Johnny boy,* Jonah snickered.
They all, clothes a tad disheveled, returned to the Docking Bay and the refit. John helped lift the massive central core of the IND with Alyssa, Lirrash, and Zanthus' help. Between the 4 strongest Telekinetics on the crew, the multi-ton mass of Crystal Alyssium moved like it was light as a feather. They oh so carefully slid the core through the laser-cut slot that had been painstakingly bored through every deck of the Invictus.
*I must say, there's something quite satisfying about sliding a large rod into a small hole,* Lirrash thought with ribald humor once the core locked into position.
*You know it!* Zanthus chuckled, bumping shoulders with the woman who once was one of the highest officials in his government while he was a lowly Engineer. But life had taken them both to new places.
John helped out where he could, even with the genetic programming being more a harm than a boon, until he recharged from his impromptu episode with Makaela. Another round of 20 Maliri Engineers were nursed and sent into the 14 hour nap, their hair turning white and psychic energy starting to funnel from them through Edraele back to John. John had noticed that all the women he'd fed that day had much less mental scarring than the Maliri nobility. Still a considerable amount, but apparently it was less toxic in the military, civilian politics, and working on Genthalas. In any case, he wasn't as bone-tired as he'd been by that point yesterday.
John worked again on the refit until the dinner bell, where he grabbed another lucky team of 20, getting halfway through the full number of Engineers assigned to the Invictus. He left them to sleep it off, wishing farewell to his crew while following Almari back to Edraele's suite. *And how was your day?* John posed to his Queen when he sat down at the dinner table.
*Productive,* Edraele thought with satisfaction. *You can't imagine how satisfying it was to order the other Matriarchs to do something and they had no choice to obey since you told them they had to listen to me. Still, I didn't have too much fun with that, there actually is a lot that needs to get done. Refitting every Maliri ship at Genthalas with Trankaran Engines, Kintark heatsinks, and Progenitor Tachyon Drives and Power Cores will be a major project. The fact we don't need to man the inter-House borders anymore and can focus on the outermost parts of the Kingdom will free up a lot of military hours and crew, but it's still an undertaking to rotate them all through the Shipyard to get all the upgrades. And that's just for this round, if and when you finally vanquish Other John we'll need to do this all over again with the rest of the Progenitor schematics, or just start building a new fleet entirely through the Soul Forge.*
*Well, it has to be done, we need the whole Maliri navy as capable as possible,* John thought before a bite of some kind of pasta. *How about Genthalas itself, how long to get it up and running to full capacity?*
*Even consolidating almost every free Engineer in the other 18 Houses and my own territory to come, we'll just barely be able to run at 100%. I honestly think we need some program to fast-track apprenticeships or incentivize Maliri to go down the Engineering route just to meet the demand in the timeframe you've set,* Edraele thought. *I understand the urgency, I do, it's just another problem to solve in an ever-growing list. On a completely separate note, each House has lifted the 'bans' on their trade goods leaving their House territory. Geniya and the other trading outposts are going to see a flood of business once never-before-seen Maliri products hit the market. In fact, if my predictions aren't off, they might be overwhelmed. Are you willing to commit billions of credits in resources to repairing and reopening the other trading outposts that have gone defunct?*
John considered it. *There's 4 trading outposts currently open, on the Terran, Ashanath, Kintark, and Brimorian borders?*
*Yes, and while that functioned for a divided Regency, it might prove a choking bottleneck for a united Maliri Kingdom,* Edraele thought solemnly.
*I have the alliance with the Ashanath, open at least one station on their border, I'll ask Lirrash to call Ularean and try to funnel trade that way once it's open,* John decided. *We'll see how that one outpost goes in addition to the boosted business to the other 4. I don't want to over-commit and end up losing money and resources opening every old trading post if they won't end up getting good use.*
*A reasonable caution,* Edraele agreed. *When do you leave tomorrow?*
John consulted Dana through the chorus. *If I start recruiting at breakfast, and we continue to schedule, the Invictus can be ready to go by mid-afternoon. I actually slowed things down, they were moving lightning-fast before I started distracting the work crews,* he chuckled at his own expense.
*And the plan is to make straight to Olympus to coordinate with Vice Admiral Harris how to handle the traitor Admiral Norwood and the Thrall Admiral Lynton?* Edraele checked with a sip of her wine.
*Yeah, and hopefully we can sever the Gordian knot with that whole cluster and stop the Terran Federation from declaring outright war with the Kintark Empire. When that whole mess dies down, we need to head to the Unclaimed Wastes to rescue Tashana. And assuming no other emergency pops up in the interim, we still are working with baseline Terran Shield tech. I need to buy or steal Brimorian tech and then pass it out to all our allies right quick as Larn'kelnar gears up for round 2,* John thought with a sigh.
*Heavy is the head that wears the crown,* Edraele mused. *You take on so much responsibility that you don't necessarily have to.*
*Just the way I am. Without that, I'm not me,* John shrugged.
*A heroic spirit… such a rarity. I'll be sure to treasure having it in my life,* Edraele thought. *Might I interest you in 'dessert'?
Different from their frenzied coupling 3 days ago, their session after dinner was soft, tender, and intimate. John pressed a soft kiss to Edraele's rounded belly in the afterglow and then another to her lips. *You'll make a fine Queen for me,* John thought, knowing Edraele would take it as high praise.
*And you'll be a finer King,* Edraele thought back. Feelings she hadn't felt in decades, maybe ever, were starting to surface. But she'd deal with all that later. *Now, girls, I know you were listening. Come get your share,* she called to Luna, Almari, and Ilyana.
As John enjoyed the show, warm and pleasantly sore and content, he reflected that it had been a good trip to Maliri space.
A New Breed
"What do you mean he got past you?!" the Master Assassin demanded of the dumb pawn who captained the Melpomene.
"He must have Ashanath tech or something for his FTL Drive! We called him when he should have been a couple hours from reaching us, hype up the urgency to come to our 'rescue', and turns out he was already lightyears further into Federation space! It was bad timing, ok, don't shoot me for giving us bad intel on his speed!" the portly fool protested his innocence.
The Master Assassin roared his fury and brought his fist down on the vid-screen, utterly destroying it. Then he chastised himself for his lapse in temper. This John Blake mission was consuming him. The client had even tried to withdraw the contract, despite a very clear no-refund policy for his organization. But the cybernetic killer had already poured too much time and resources into this. He needed to see it through to the end. He needed to kill John Blake, and by now he was ready to choke the life from the man with his bare hands.
It was time to pull out ALL the stops. His next move was risky, could draw attention and heat he'd striven to avoid up until now for the sake of survival and safety of himself and his organization. But enough was enough. There was one destination that this John Blake kept returning to, and the Master Assassin was going to lay a trap that would end with John Blake's head on a platter.
