The peaceful darkness of John's dreamless sleep shifted into something much more sinister. The darkness went from a comforting blankness to some yawning abyss, somehow both clinging and vast. John's mind rebelled as he experienced claustrophobia and agoraphobia simultaneously. Then cold mists rushed in from every direction, terror and horror and panic weaved into every wisp. A monstrous howl echoed from all directions, as stygian beasts knew that fresh prey was at hand.
John's conscious mind was overwhelmed by all the strange, foreign, bewildering stimuli. But his instincts, those had been molded in the womb into something literally designed to oppose the mastermind behind this nightmare. In his stunned state, John barely even noticed as he reflexively gathered energy and surrounded himself with a dome of hexagons. When the last polygon slotted into place and completely closed John off from his environment, the subtle influence of the Deep Astral abated for a brief moment.
Realizing exactly where he was in a moment of clarity, John slapped his hand on the inside of the dome. "Cloak of shadows to mask my presence from unfriendly eyes," he intoned in the language of the first civilization, enchanting his makeshift shield with the proper enchantment to protect him from Fallen Progenitors and worse who lurked in the depths of the Astral Plane. The elaborate glyphs and sigils appeared, emblazoned across every hexagon in neat rows.
The encroaching mists seemed to pause, as if they'd been drawn to him and now could no longer 'see' him. John spotted a direction that wasn't filled with icy tendrils of ghostly steam and willed himself towards it. His feet came off the floor, if there even was such a thing in this place, and he soared away from the mists and darkness into a blank gray expanse that while still eerie felt much less threatening.
John blew out a breath. That had been close. He had no idea why he'd gone on a Spirit-Walk in his sleep or otherwise been pulled into the Astral Plane. And if it weren't for his subconscious enhancement as Kyth'vindathys, he'd probably be in one of the Devourer's sub-planes right now, being tortured into making the binding Faustian deal that would seal his fate for eternity as that monster's puppet.
John wondered at the cause, and reflected it was probably linked in some way to his activation and recruiting Alyssa. He'd have to take precautions every night going forward to ensure he didn't have a near-miss like this again. On the bright side, he'd get plenty of practice at warding, making this psychic invisibility cloak on a daily basis.
John willed himself awake and found himself back in his physical body, cuddling a still gravid Alyssa from behind. A check of the chronometer confirmed he'd been asleep barely 15 minutes. Recreating his cloak in the Physical Plane and anchoring it to his body skin-tight, John pressed a kiss to Alyssa's cheek before hesitantly trying to relax back into sleep.
What felt like moments later, he was being shaken back into wakefulness. John blinked awake, a tad disoriented, to find Alyssa putting all her feeble strength into trying to rock his body enough to disturb his rest. When she saw he was awake and looking down at her, she gestured down at her rounded belly. "What the fuck happened to my stomach?" she demanded in full volume.
John had had worse wake-up calls, but this was in the top 10 of his least favorites easily. "That's all my cum. You're still digesting it all. You were actually a lot bigger right afterwards," John groaned, reaching up to rub his tired eyes.
Alyssa blinked and looked down. She ran a tentative hand over her curved abdomen. "This is all you?" she asked in mixed disbelief and awe.
"That's correct," John nodded, collecting his scattered thoughts and willing himself fully awake. "Cum inflation, it's a thing with Progenitors. Sorry if that's not your kink, but it's kind of unavoidable whenever we have sex."
"The idea that you can fill up my belly until I get fat is actually one of the hottest things ever, to me anyway," Alyssa said, stroking her expanded tummy with both hands now. "I'm actually looking forward to three square meals of this stuff a day, just to feel this full."
"Well, glad I can provide," John chuckled. He sat up and stretched, glancing at the chronometer. Absurdly early, but still a little too late to justify going back to sleep. "Feel like a shower?" he offered.
"Oh, sure," Alyssa agreed, snapping out of her fascination with her cum-stuffed middle.
John led Alyssa into the shower cubicle. Much as he had yesterday, he soaped up his hands and gave her a full-body massage. The difference was this time, she was his. So he took a few more liberties, his caresses turning into gentle gropes. Alyssa gasped and moaned as he placed a confident hand between her legs and began to rub, the wetness he found not just from the shower. He delved in with two fingers, twisting and reaching until she shuddered with a climax. He paused to let her recover, then surprised her with rubbing her clit with his thumb while his inner fingers honed in on her g-spot. Alyssa cried out as she experienced an explosive back-to-back orgasm.
John withdrew his hand when she stopped clenching rhythmically around his fingers. He cupped her cheek, her mouth open and panting as she reeled from such intense sensations. When she seemed to return to herself and focused on him, John leaned in to give a tender kiss. Oddly, she reacted more intensely to the brush of his lips and tongue against hers than she had to the fingering. John pulled back, looking into her lust-dilated pupils. "Was that okay? I didn't go too far, did I?" he checked.
Alyssa pulled him back down into a harsher, much more enthusiastic makeout. When she pulled back for air, John was left reeling at the pleasurable assault. "You can go a lot farther than that," she said in a husky purr.
A certain part of John's anatomy made its opinion on that course of action abundantly clear. John himself resisted with difficulty. "Let's wait until you're a bit bigger. I'd be too worried about hurting or breaking you when you're this small to really enjoy it."
"Oh, right. I'm going to have a growth spurt into your perfect woman," Alyssa nodded. "This all feels like a dream."
John sighed and tenderly stroked her cheek. "I tried to warn you, honey. And now we're bound together, so there's no changing your mind."
"I didn't mean this doesn't feel real. I meant that you've just been so nice and helpful and kind since we met, it feels too good to be true. I've never met anyone like you, John," Alyssa clarified, reaching up a hand to trace imaginary patterns over his heart. Her other hand went up to her own chest. "It's like I can feel how much you care about me."
"Um, you can. Literally," John explained. "I made some tweaks to the Connection after I first made it with you. I took out an obedience and a suicide compulsion, those were just awful and unnecessary. Then I added a… call it a psychic imprint. You, and every other woman I recruit, will always be able to know exactly how I feel about you."
"Huh. Cool." Alyssa closed her eyes and breathed deep under the streams of water. "It's so light… and warm… I'm not sure even my Dad ever cared about me this much."
John was about to deny that as obviously untrue, but he didn't really know anything about Alyssa's past. For all he knew, that statement was accurate. John reached up to hold Alyssa's hand that was still on his chest. "Well, that's how much I care about you, Alyssa. And I'm sure it's only going to grow as I learn more about the incredible woman in front of me."
Alyssa blinked doe-like eyes up at him. "It's like you came out of a storybook," she said to herself. She jumped when she leaned in and felt the heat of his erection twitch against her belly. "Oh! Let me take care of that!"
"You sure? You still have about half a load in your belly," John pointed out, though he didn't protest too hard as Alyssa got on her knees before him, making him feel deliciously dominant.
"Sure! Isn't that my job? To keep these big balls empty at all times?" Alyssa smirked, reaching up to fondle his hanging orbs. She opened wide before he could answer and smoothly took him to the root… only to recoil and blink, staring at his tool with a look of cross-eyed shock. John would have burst out laughing if he wasn't so turned on. "What the fuck? How did I do that?! I could never deepthroat, my gag reflex was too strong! And somehow I took this monster effortlessly!"
"All part of the changes you're going through, Alyssa," John managed to string together. That brief few seconds where he'd been buried in her throat had done a number on his ability to concentrate on anything but his own pleasure.
"Oh. Well, that makes this easy then," Alyssa chuckled self-consciously. Then, keeping eye contact with him, she opened wide and gobbled him all up in one movement. John almost came then and there from the combination of slick heat and the heady rush of her willing submission written all over her face. She wasn't in the trance, she was fully conscious and still going down on him. For the first time in his life, John didn't feel like he was taking advantage of his partner due to psychic bullshit or his biology. Alyssa was blowing him because she wanted to. The rush to his ego was intoxicating.
Alyssa withdrew halfway up his shaft before sinking back to the root, repeating the movement smoothly over and over, skullfucking herself on his cock while he just stood there and watched in amazement. No man could last long under that onslaught of sensation, and John was no exception. He reached out to lean against the cubicle walls as he roared his release, unable to see straight as he pumped a solid load of his spunk into Alyssa's receptive body.
John was vaguely aware of Alyssa pulling her mouth off of him. "Um, John? I think I need a little help." John blinked and focused through his post-orgasmic stupor to look down. Alyssa's tummy looked like she'd swallowed a beach ball, her belly-button popping out and looking almost rounder than she was tall.
John crouched down and slowly helped lift Alyssa back into a standing position. His hands went to cup her rounded stomach, a fierce feeling of pride and protectiveness filling him. He knew in his head that she wasn't pregnant or expecting, but the shape and feel of her body gave a tantalizing glimpse at what it would be like when she actually was. Unable to resist, John leaned down to give a gentle kiss to her bump, confident that one day in the distant future, this woman would have his lusty baby in her womb.
John looked back up to Alyssa's face, to find a look of doe-eyed adoration and longing on her face. "Whenever you're ready," she whispered, sounding like she hoped he could reload and impregnate her that very second.
John shook his head, snapping his thoughts out of tempting but unrealistic directions. "Someday. When the Progenitor War is over and we're both prepared to be parents. I promise."
"'Kay," Alyssa nodded, her look of anticipation turning wistful. Then she blinked. "Okay, you weren't kidding about personality changes. I'm honestly disappointed that you're not knocking me up a day after we first met. Your swimmers work fast."
"I did my best to warn you, Alyssa," John sighed, deactivating the shower. He led the blonde to the towel locker to dry them off.
"You did. What surprised me was how… 'me' those thoughts felt. Until I stopped to really think about it, I didn't see anything weird with my ovaries aching for you when we met less than 24 hours ago. I was worried the behavioral stuff would feel like I was slowly killed off and 'new' Alyssa took my place. Now I know that I'll barely notice the changes even while they're happening. Which is sorta comforting, really," Alyssa explained as John toweled her off, taking care not to jostle her extremely rounded belly.
"You may not even remember your old self by the time I'm done with you," John sighed, regretting the necessity but powerless to stop it.
"I'm sorry, are you upset that you're brainwashing me into a happier, healthier person? Because that seems silly," Alyssa pointed out with an eyeroll.
"So you really don't mind? That I'm changing your insides as much as your outsides?" John asked dubiously.
"John, hear my words. This is one of the best mornings of my life. I feel… happy, in a way I can't remember ever really feeling while I was on Karron. If that's all you psychically tampering with my mind, then I say 'thank you'. I'll take what I can get and like it. Why feel guilty for making me feel better than I ever have before? Why taint my happiness?" Alyssa asked rhetorically.
John focused on getting every last drop of moisture off her limbs with the heated towel for a minute. "What about the 'sex' parts, though? Like wanting to be bred by a total stranger? You don't mind that part of the process?"
"Why would I? They're not hurting me. You can have a little naughty fun with the personality tweaks so long as I end up a better version of my old self. It's not like you're making me a masochist who looks forward to you flaying me with a neural whip or anything. From what you've told me, your kinks are pretty vanilla and you're just inserting them into my new mind. Which will make us more compatible, which will lead to hotter sex, which will make both of us happy." Alyssa ran her fingernails through his hair to tickle his scalp. "Imagine if you liked your women to be mute, obedient maids. Or you liked me to be defiant and dominant so you could 'break' me in bed. Compared to just how horrible all these changes could be, the fact you're worrying about little tweaks like a breeding kink is actually a bit funny to me."
"I hear you. But doesn't the fact I'm rewriting your mind at all make me a bad person?" John pointed out.
"Well, you can't help it. It's just part of being a Progenitor and the Connection, based on all you told me. Blaming you for something inherent to your nature, your species, is just plain xenophobia. You're not a Terran, why hold you to Terran standards? That's just silly," Alyssa shrugged.
John finished drying them both and put the towels in the hamper. He took her back to the cabin and sat them both on the bed. "You have a good point," he allowed. "I've just spent my whole life worrying about whether it was possible to be a 'good' Progenitor or if I was doomed to be no different than the rest of them. Guess I have some internalized issues to work on."
"Well, I'm here to help if you ever want to talk it out," Alyssa said, laying a gentle hand on top of his.
"Thanks, honey," John grinned back at her. He glanced at the chronometer and saw it wasn't even 0500. "Well, I better get some breakfast. You should be covered on that front," he joked, patting her drum-like belly.
John threw on a pair of sweats, and Alyssa elected to stay nude. He led her to the rec room, which doubled as his kitchen and dining room. John helped her sit down in one of the chairs to the dining table then went about brewing a pot of coffee.
"Oh, wow, coffee. That's the real stuff, too, isn't it?" Alyssa gasped as she smelled the grounds while he filled the filter.
John paused. "Yes. Have you ever had it?" he asked, struck again by just how deprived an existence she must have led growing up on Karron.
"Even instant was always too rich for my blood," Alyssa admitted. "I know the smell from when I'd go dumpster diving by one of the diners, it was the only place on Karron that regularly had the stuff."
John set the pot to percolate then grabbed a protein bar and a banana. He set them down at the table, noticing how fascinated Alyssa was with the yellow fruit. "This is a banana, a fruit from Terra. Would you like to try it?" John offered.
"I think I'm a bit full," Alyssa chuckled, patting her massive bump. She did look intrigued, though.
"One bite won't hurt," John argued. He peeled the outer layer and offered it for her to nibble. Alyssa, after a beat, leaned in and took a tiny bite.
"It's sweet… and chewy…" she said to herself as she savored her first taste of banana. Her eyes unexpectedly started to well up.
"What's wrong, honey?" John asked in alarm.
"Happy tears," she sniffed, rubbing her eyes. "It just hit me… I really left. I never have to go back. I'm free."
John got up and went to give his overwhelmed Matriarch a hug. He held her until there was a beep from the coffee machine to indicate it was finished brewing. John poured two cups, and dug out the milk and sugar. "Here's another first, if you're up for it," John offered.
Alyssa took a hesitant sip of the bitter black brew and grimaced. "Ugh, it tastes worse than it smells."
"Most people cut it with milk or sugar to help," John indicated the two sweeteners he'd brought out. "And some learn to like it straight," he chuckled, taking a sip of his own cup black as tar.
Alyssa experimented until she had a cup she was comfortable finishing. She and John enjoyed a quiet cup of coffee, John getting quick bites of his breakfast in between sips. Once they were done, John led her to the cockpit. He sat down in the pilot's chair. After a beat, Alyssa went to sit in his lap rather than take the copilot's seat. John made room for her, cupping her bump instinctively.
"So… what happens now? You said you'd have to 'build an empire' if I joined you? What does that even mean?" Alyssa asked, leaning back into his warm bulk. The size difference between them, even with her swollen belly, was quite pronounced.
John tucked his chin atop her head as he contemplated his answer. "As I told you yesterday, the Progenitors are a genetically engineered master race to a number of slave races called the Thralls. Your average Progenitor, from what I can tell, is born in an existing Progenitor's empire and then the infant sent to be raised by an unclaimed Thrall species, their last master having died. Fast forward a few centuries, and the new Progenitor will have claimed them and started to build a fleet and empire worth the name, and joins the Progenitor War in earnest, just another player on the board. His own father could end up killing him, or vice versa. The circumstances of my birth were unique by Progenitor standards, though."
"How so? And engineered by who, exactly?" Alyssa asked.
"As to who made us both, the answer is one sociopathic mad scientist from the first spacefaring civilization in the galaxy, the Kyth'faren. Xar'aziuth, or the Devourer, hunted his own species to extinction, turning psychic vampire to suck the life out of his people to expand his own reserves. When he'd run out of targets, he set up the Progenitor War. He made the Progenitors and the Thralls and the Connection linking them together, the psychic contract that's part of being in a Progenitor's network. The Connection, and it's buried so deep that I couldn't edit this out of our own, makes it so any Thrall who dies has her soul, her Astral body, fed to Xar'aziuth. He literally gets stronger with every death in the Progenitor War. Almost the entire Milky Way is essentially a meat grinder, all the Progenitor Empires locked in bloody wars of attrition designed for maximum casualties. This has been going on for millions of years, Alyssa," John said solemnly.
"That… is the scariest, sickest thing I've ever heard," Alyssa said in numb horror. "He… it… eats their souls?"
"Yes. And this actually ties into how and why I was born," John continued his story. "The Kyth'faren, before they were wiped out, hid psychic libraries in the Astral Plane. It's basically an alternate dimension accessible only to psychics. At first glance, they're there to preserve their knowledge for eternity and leave a legacy untouched by Xar'aziuth. But they're really traps designed to bring about the Kyth'faren's revenge from beyond the grave. Any Progenitor who finds one will find himself drawn to the Kyth'vindathys project, a series of genetic enhancements to make the ultimate warrior. My father must have found one, because I have all those enhancements. I don't think he fully understood what he was doing, though, because if he did then he signed his own death warrant when I was conceived. Kyth'vindathys isn't just 'what' I am, it's 'who' I am. I am the Vengeance of the Kyth'faren reborn, and I will give every breath in my body to end the Progenitor menace until I die or I succeed. There are no other options."
"Doesn't that mean you'll save the galaxy and stop billions or even trillions of Thralls from dying?" Alyssa asked in a very small voice.
"That's the idea," John confirmed.
"Huh. I'm sleeping with a bona fide hero. Lucky me," Alyssa chuckled to herself, her laughter feeling a little out of place after bold declarations of galactic vengeance. "So, you were saying how you weren't born like normal Progenitors?"
"Yeah. I think my father is marooned on a planet in Kirrix space. At any rate, he encoded its location in my genetic memory and tried to program me to report there after I'd completed my 'mission' of killing every other Progenitor. My working theory is that he's living there, for whatever reason, and my mother's research crew happened to land on his planet to survey it. They met, he made her his Thrall, I was conceived. Then either she managed to escape, her crew found and rescued her, or he deliberately allowed her to be taken back to her ship. I'm not sure, all the mission logs and fine details were always above my clearance level. In any case, they brought her back to Federation space and I was born.
She vanished immediately after I was born, around the same time her ship was sabotaged to explode with all hands aboard. I'm sure that's not a coincidence, but given she's under my father's psychic mind control I guess it's not rational to blame her for being a murderer. If he was smart, she suicided afterwards to cover his tracks, no loose ends. If he wasn't, she stole a ship and returned to him and he's waiting for me to make my triumphant report while shacking up with her," John relayed, his tone flat and cold as he discussed his parents.
Alyssa leaned back into his grip and laid a soothing hand on his arm. "Not rational, but I wouldn't blame you. It can't be easy, knowing your mother killed some people and abandoned you like a parcel she dropped off. Even if she couldn't help herself, that's got to sting. I'm sorry, John."
"Thanks, honey," John said, truly appreciating her kind words. "Anyway, back to me building an empire. There's actually one practically waiting for me to claim already. I'm fairly certain that the Maliri are a Thrall race left unclaimed since their last master died. It won't exactly be easy, arranging a meeting with their leaders, but they have genetic programming to be very eager to please and obey a Progenitor. It shouldn't be too hard for me to gather them all beneath my banner and declare myself Maliri King. At least compared to leading a bloody coup of High Command."
"That does sound neater," Alyssa gave a weak giggle. "But could you? Lead a bloody coup, I mean?"
"Once I get a big enough network and a chance to really build a fleet of Progenitor-grade warships… there's not much I couldn't do, Alyssa," John said solemnly. "And until I reach that point, if any other Progenitor in the galaxy discovers the Galactic League, we are fucked. No ifs, ands, or buts. His Dreadnought alone will be enough to wipe out an empire's entire navy without losing Shields. And I can't tell you whether it'll be a century or if he'll show up tomorrow. There's a certain urgency to me getting on the Maliri throne and getting them ready to hold off a Progenitor incursion."
"Right," Alyssa said faintly. "Can we talk about something else besides the potentially unstoppable extinction of humanity?"
"Sure," John agreed. "Well, you know how I was born. I was eventually released into the custody of my grandparents. Growing up, I always had my genetic memories, I just never really understood what it all meant. I learned to stop speaking Progenitor or sketching schematics of Progenitor tech when it started to make my grandma really uncomfortable. Other than being a budding Progenitor killer, I had a pretty good childhood. My grandparents were a sweet couple, and they raised me right, not too strict but not too loose either…"
John spent hours recounting his childhood to Alyssa, going over his most treasured memories of Don and Eva, and then giving the executive summary of the rest of his life once he'd gone to the Academy. His service as a Marine officer, how he'd gotten out with a handful of perks after the massacre at Galon Prime, and his decade as an independent trader aboard the Fool's Gold. He lost track of time and didn't realize how late it had gotten until he felt his stomach gurgle. John glanced at the chronometer in shock. "Wow. I've been talking for over 6 hours. If I was boring you, you could have just said something," John chuckled, embarrassed to have monopolized the conversation for so long.
"Oh, no, I wasn't bored! You have a nice voice, and your life is way more interesting than mine. I could have listened to you all day," Alyssa assured him, her belly having slowly shrunk over the course of the morning until any hint of a curve had vanished.
"Still," John said, helping Alyssa to her feet so he himself could stand. They returned to the rec room, and John picked a different flavor of protein bar before helping himself to a couple. He sat down to chew them, and was only half surprised when Alyssa slipped to the floor and nudged his legs apart before reaching for the waistband of his sweats. And so both of them got a filling lunch, if in very different ways.
When John had swallowed the last bite and could see straight again, he tucked himself back into his loungewear and made himself decent. He helped Alyssa to stand, surprising her with a quick kiss to the lips that had just been wrapped around his cock. "Thanks for lunch," he grinned.
"Isn't that my line?" the blonde chuckled, patting her convex belly that was once again a gravid sphere.
John sat back down on the couch, gently but insistently guiding Alyssa to sit in his lap. They stretched their legs out and leaned back into leathery comfort. "So, I gave my life story. Care to return the favor?" John asked.
"... Is that really necessary?" Alyssa asked in a soft, broken voice. John's full attention was immediately on her. "Can't we just pretend my old life is over and I got to start over on this ship as your Matriarch?"
"That bad, huh?" John aimed for levity, but it fell flat.
"The worst. I don't want to think about it. With one exception, there's not a single thing I miss from Karron," Alyssa stated in no uncertain terms.
"Can you tell me about that one thing, at least?" John gently prodded.
Alyssa took a deep breath. "Her name is Sparks. She was my best friend. Probably the reason I managed to live this long. I owe her so much, and now I may never see her again."
"How'd you two meet?" John encouraged, trying to keep Alyssa talking. He didn't mean to pry, but he sensed it would be therapeutic for Alyssa to open up about her past just a smidge.
"I was 14 and digging in the trash heaps for something to eat," Alyssa said in a rather dry way. "Sparks is a mechanic, she was looking for old parts to scavenge and repurpose for her own inventions. I helped her find what she was looking for, and she shared a protein bar with me. That set the tone for our friendship. She's indentured to the Diablos gang as their gunsmith and handyman. I kept her company while she worked, helped gopher parts for her, basically was her assistant. The Diablos let me hang around her, and she shared what scraps they deemed worth giving her with me. We had a good thing going. Then fucking Georgio took a shine to me and… well, now I'm here."
John hummed in thought. "You care for her? You miss her already?" he checked.
"She's the closest thing I ever had to a sister," Alyssa admitted quietly.
"Well, we're currently in transit to Alpha Centauri so I can trade the 10 tons of Tyrenium I got for a steal at Karron. But there's more that I couldn't afford. Once I complete the sale, it would be worth the time to make a return trip to Karron and buy up the rest of the ore available. While we're heading back to that rock anyway, we could see about helping Sparks run away to freedom."
Alyssa twisted her head to look incredulously at John. "You mean, recruit her? Make her a Thrall?"
"Not necessarily, though that would be ideal, I won't lie," John clarified. "At the very least, we can offer her a free trip to the Core Worlds and then some money to set herself up. A position on our private crew as an engineer isn't out of the question, though. And assuming she's a legal adult woman like you, then the option of joining my network and becoming my Thrall would be on the table. Then the two of you could be together for eternity."
Alyssa twisted and threw herself into a passionate liplock with John that lasted several minutes. Her bump was a distracting obstacle between them but she was determined to kiss the life out of him as best she could. Alyssa finally pulled back, a rather arousing strand of saliva still linking their heaving mouths. "I already owe you my new life. Save Sparks from that hellhole, and you'll own my soul."
"Honey, I already do," John chuckled as he tried to get his breath back and focus on calming down his reawakened erection.
"I'm serious, John. If you can talk Sparks into joining me on this adventure with you, I'll do anything you want. ANYTHING," Alyssa stressed.
"Intriguing," John said lightly, even as his thoughts went wild imagining a number of depraved acts of debauchery he could enjoy with Alyssa's blanket consent.
"But that's the plan for the return trip. We just started the trip to the Core Worlds in the first place. So let's calm down a bit," Alyssa realized with a self-conscious giggle.
They went back to spooning on the couch for a few minutes as they both relaxed. Searching for a new topic, John was about to speak when Alyssa beat him to the punch. "What's the plan? You know, the plan. Now you're an activated Progenitor and got your Matriarch and everything?"
John gave the question serious thought. "Well, like I said, our first priority will be a return trip to Karron to get the rest of the Tyrenium and sell it off. We'll need lots of funds to pull off what needs to get done. So that's two trips from Karron to Alpha Centauri. Somewhere in that, probably after the first sale, we should look into getting a proper ship instead of this rustbucket. After the second sale, I figure it might be worth a tour of the Galactic League to upgrade the ship with state-of-the-art tech from each empire. Progenitor tech is better across the board, but most of it requires a Soulforge to produce. Finding a base planet to build a Soulforge, having one constructed, and fixing a few design flaws could take months or years before we can get properly started.
So in the meantime, we'll get a new ship and use the best the Galactic League can provide as stopgaps. While we're visiting each empire, we can see about recruiting talented women to serve officer roles or general recruits to simply serve as psychic batteries. Visiting the Maliri will be a whole ordeal, figuring out how to get an audience with just one Matriarch to start the process of 'claiming' them will be a major headache, I'm sure. So, the 'plan' is to make a lot of money from the Tyrenium, upgrade our new ship with alien tech, and expand the network with willing women who can pull their own weight. And no plan surviving contact with reality, there will probably be a few wrenches or hiccups thrown in for us to deal with along the way."
"Sounds decent enough," Alyssa nodded. "Just to give me some perspective, how long is the trip to Alpha Centauri going to take?"
"On the Fool's Gold's FTL rating, and with the standard route I plotted, a good 4 and a half weeks from now," John sighed. "This will probably be the slowest leg of the whole trip going forward."
"Well, that gives us plenty of time to get to know each other and adjust to our new lifestyle as immortal life partners!" Alyssa pointed out with a bright grin. "I mean, I know the whole Progenitor-Matriarch thing is more of a working relationship, but something tells me you won't be able to help catching feelings for me the way I already am for you."
John pressed a soft kiss to her temple. "The changes to your DNA and my own subconscious tampering with your mind will mold you into my perfect woman. It'll be almost impossible for me not to fall in love with you the way you'll be forced to fall in love with me. I figure it's only fair that I be a good partner for you now that I'm your only option."
"You warned me about the imprint, John. I'm not being coerced, I went into this with eyes wide open," Alyssa contested sharply. "I'm not being 'forced' into anything. Through a combination of things, from your psychic jizz to your personality to your smoking hot bod, I'm going to end up wrapped around your fingers. Don't feel you have to return the favor out of some kind of guilt or shame."
"Then can I do it because you're a lovely girl I can see myself being very happy with?" John asked, deciding it wasn't worth an argument. And he wasn't certain he'd come out the winner in any case, with his own bias against his Progenitor nature that was hardly the most rational of things. Maybe, instead of getting bogged down with the fine print, he could just enjoy the coming presence of a lovestruck teen who thought he hung the stars and proceed to the natural conclusion on his part.
"That sounds much better," Alyssa snuggled back into him, appeased.
They wound up dozing for a couple hours, just enjoying the warmth of each other's bodies while they digested their lunch. Rousing, John checked both Alyssa and her bump and then the chronometer. "We should head back to the cockpit. I want to double-check our route and make sure the path's clear."
"'Kay," she agreed easily, coming to her feet with a smaller but still distinctive curve to her abdomen. Her body was voraciously consuming her regular meals of John's spunk to help fuel the various changes alongside the fuel of psychic mana supplied by John.
They returned to the cockpit, Alyssa sitting in the co-pilot's seat so as not to distract John too much. John reviewed the next few sections of the astro-nav projected course, making sure all his planned maneuvers were viable and there wasn't any debris in the way. "I don't like how many wrecks are popping up on the long-range scanners," John thought out loud as he altered course around a dead-in-space freighter that had appeared on the deep-space scans but hadn't been logged in the Federation database yet.
"What's causing them?" Alyssa asked, a tad worried that some ill fate would befall them just as they were starting on their epic journey.
"Based on the debris patterning I'm seeing… pirates," John sighed. "There's too many wrecked ships and the damage is too consistent for it to be all environmental. I heard that pirate activity was escalating out here in the Outer Rim, but I've spotted at least a dozen wrecks just on my shitty sensors since leaving Port Heracles. That's not a small uptick, that's just shy of a warranting a state of emergency and a fleet being sent from the T-Fed to hunt them all down. Hopefully, though, we won't be a juicy enough target to draw their eye by the time we get back to patrolled space-lanes."
"Fingers crossed," Alyssa said, actually crossing her fingers. She concentrated on the route itself as opposed to the looming threat of pirates along it. "How does the whole 'astro-nav' thing work, exactly? It seems to be a lot of looping around stars without entering their gravity well before heading for the next nearest star in the direction you're headed."
"Slingshot maneuvers like that are common practice, yes," John nodded. He launched into an impromptu lecture on astrophysics, navigating around the galaxy, and a general explanation of hyper-warp and how it interacted with gravity. Alyssa proved an attentive and intuitive student, asking questions that John actually had to think to answer. Her questions became more and more complex until John was at a loss to satisfy her curiosity.
John opened a browser on the Holonet and sent it to the screen at the co-pilot's seat. "Honey, you officially know as much about astro-nav as I do now. If you want to know more, do your own research."
"Great!" Alyssa rushed to type in her first question, when she paused. "Hold up. I'm calling psychic bullshit. I wasn't the village idiot, but I was never this interested in math or science or able to think this clearly. Ever. This must be part of the mental enhancements you talked about."
John blinked. "Well, you'd know more about that than I would, actually being in the middle of them all. If you say you feel smarter and more intellectual, I'll take your word for it. And it's just getting started, in that case. I like my girls smart, so you're probably going to end up with close to a peak IQ for a Terran. You can give yourself a doctorate in astro-nav by the time we reach Alpha Centauri, I'd wager."
"Is there some kind of test you take to prove you're good at astro-nav?" Alyssa asked.
"The Navigator's Guild has a test you can take online. First attempt is even free. Depending on how well you do, you can get a pass and get an official certification as a Navigator. The highest score is Navigator First Class, but less than 10% of applicants ever manage to do that well," John recalled.
"Then I'm going to become a Navigator First Class," Alyssa declared as if it were as simple as tying her shoes.
"Alyssa, people pay thousands of credits for official schooling and study for years just to take that one test," John pointed out.
"Well, I'm cheating with psychic smart juice. I'm going to become a Navigator First Class. Prove I'm more than just a pretty face," Alyssa said with a challenging smirk.
"I wish you luck, then, honey," John conceded. And for all he knew, she'd make it look easy once his cum was done boosting her brain.
Alyssa dug into her research, pulling up one holo-wiki article after another as she devoured all the free information on the Holonet regarding her chosen field. John finished his check of the Fool's Gold's route, and decided he might as well do some maintenance work while Alyssa was occupied. The engine filters were due a cleaning. Going to change into coveralls, John tackled the grimy task of cleaning all the carbon buildup. It was a dirty, thankless job, but it kept the ship from exploding so it was necessary.
A solid 3 hours later, John emerged from the engine room black with carbon residue. He gingerly walked to his cabin and happily stripped once he made it to the shower. He gave himself a quick rinse and then just luxuriated in the fall of hot water and steamy atmosphere.
The whole time he'd been working, he'd been channeling a small but steady stream of energy across his link to Alyssa with the intent of speeding up the process of her transformation. He felt some invisible tipping point pass, and suddenly John heard feminine whispers inside his head.
Assuming an FTL rating of 2.7, calculate the ideal vector on the horizontal around a singleton system of a F-type with a mass of…* Alyssa's soprano voice appeared in John's thoughts without the requisite steps of noise being filtered through his ears and translated into meaning by his brain.
John blinked, having a good idea behind the cause of this phenomenon. He pictured his mind-box filled with Alyssa and gently directed his own thoughts towards her. *Alyssa? Can you hear me?*
John heard a startled screech all the way from the cockpit from where he was standing nude in the shower. *John?! Where are you?!* he heard her project alongside her physical voice, though that was muted by the walls between them.
Your Telepathy has come in. I'm in the shower. We're speaking mind-to-mind, honey* John patiently explained, even as he stepped out of the cubicle and went to dry himself off.
We can hear each other's thoughts? I mean, you said that was what made Matriarchs special compared to other Thralls, but wow…* Alyssa's mind-voice trailed off, leaving John to feel a cresting wave of emotions emanating from her special place in his own mind. Chief among them was wonder and awe. *You made my psychic* she projected after a beat.
Just like I told you I would* John confirmed.
John finished drying himself off and put the used towel away and had just entered his cabin when Alyssa came in through the door. She prowled, there was no other word for it, up to him. Looking John dead in the eye, she came up to just an inch in front of him, invading his personal space without actually touching. Maintaining eye contact, she sunk into a crouch and then a kneeling position.
Please bless your Matriarch with more of your magic, Master Progenitor* she projected, before opening wide and circling her mouth with her tongue to make her lips moist and inviting.
John was hardly going to turn that down. His mighty endowment rose to full hardness, looking almost too big for Alyssa to fit. Alyssa reached up, but not to touch his cock or balls. She took his hands, and guided them to land on either side of her head. Then she rested them folded in her lap. The look she gave him made it obvious what she wanted, what she was permitting him to do.
Treasuring this moment for the gift of submission it was, John canted his hips to get the angle right and then moved Alyssa's head to swallow his tool from tip to root. His progress was smooth and unhurried, Alyssa taking every inch like a champ without any issue. John ended with Alyssa's nose pressed into his groin, every bit of his cock in the warm, wet embrace of Alyssa's mouth and throat. He savored the rush of pleasure and power as he held her there, conscious of her need to breathe but keeping her pressed to his pelvis just a moment longer. Then he withdrew her head, giving her ample opportunity to catch her breath before he reversed the motion and fully impaled her once more.
John moved Alyssa's head, using her like a living, breathing fucktoy with her full consent. His orgasm was long and slow in coming, taking his time as he slaked his lust in no particular hurry. Finally, he roared with the whiteout of sensation as he finally busted his nut and pumped 4 pints of thick Progenitor cum into the waiting hollow of Alyssa's stomach. She was soon filled to capacity and then some, her waist ballooning out as her body made room for one rich spurt after another.
John let Alyssa go, and she withdrew gently until his softening prick flopped out of her mouth. She licked her lips and patted her tummy. "Compliments to the chef! That was a tasty dinner!"
John could only laugh breathlessly. "You're going to kill me. And I'll die a happy man," he stated with calm certainty.
"No dying allowed. You haven't even properly rung my own bell yet, and I was promised an eternity in your bed," Alyssa fired back with a crooked grin.
"Well, we can't have that," John said. He surprised Alyssa, complete with a girlish scream of fright, as he literally swept her off her feet into a bridal carry. He laid her down on their shared bed, then he got into position between her thighs. Nuzzling her bump, he lowered his head to the gates of paradise as far as he was concerned. Ignoring the blond hairs that would take care of themselves in due time, John dived in to feast.
Alyssa proved both remarkably sensitive and multiorgasmic. A combination of John's tireless fingers and tongue had her climbing to unexplored heights again and again in rapid-fire succession. Somewhere after the fifth or sixth screaming climax, Alyssa pulled back her leg to push against his shoulder. "Enough! I'm gonna lose my mind," she moaned, half delirious.
"Consider us even… for now," John chuckled with something dark and hungry behind his bright words.
Remind me why I thought it was a good idea to sell my soul to the alien sexual demigod?* Alyssa thought, probably to herself.
I believe the deciding factor was that being with me would make you a 'somebody', in your own opinion* John commented silently.
"Right. Telepathy. Is that just going to always be on from now on? Privacy is dead and gone between us?" Alyssa checked aloud.
"The link will remain as open as we both allow it. We can have unfiltered access to each other's thoughts and feelings 24/7, or we can block it out and only use it like a radio inside our heads, or something in between," John explained patiently.
Alyssa hummed in thought. *Why start bad habits? I'm fine with full transparency if you are. We'll literally always be just a thought away from each other. It's kinda romantic, if you think about it.*
Open connection at all times, agreed* John assented. Then his stomach gave a slight gurgle. He chuckled. *We just fed you dinner, now it's my turn.*
John made himself a protein shake with a mix of whey and greens powder. The sacrifices he made to save costs on long-term food storage. He missed cooking, working with real ingredients to create a meal. "What's your favorite thing to eat, honey?" John asked, his mind on food as he choked down his bland albeit nutritious rations.
"Your cum," Alyssa said with a straight face.
"Okay, other than that," John managed not to break out in chuckles.
"John, what you're eating now would be considered eating like a king back on Karron," Alyssa stated flatly. "Protein bars that you seem to tolerate for money's sake would be a luxury for most anyone back in that rock. Most of what I've eaten over the last 18 years barely counts as 'food' in my mind. I'm not the one to ask if you want a rousing debate over cuisine."
"Right," John sighed, reminded yet again of how bleak a life on Karron must have been for his young Matriarch. "Well, when we go shopping for a new ship, it's going to have a good kitchen. And I'll spend years introducing you to food from all over the galaxy, the best you've ever had."
"The way to a girl's heart is her stomach, and you're going overkill on that front," Alyssa chuckled, patting her rounded tummy. But he could feel how touched she was by his promise. "What's your favorite food?"
"So hard to decide," John hummed. "I guess you can't go wrong with a proper steak. If there's one thing I can't stand though, it's pizza."
"Why pizza?" Alyssa blinked, vaguely aware of the dish from ancestral Terra but not sure exactly what it was.
"My grandparents ran an Italian restaurant, and we served a lot of pizza. That meant a lot of leftovers, and guess who got to eat them all," John said with a groan. "If I never see another slice, it'll be too soon. I used to love it as a kid, but by the time I left for the Academy at 16 I was ready to swear it off for life."
"Gotcha. That's kinda how I feel about 'mystery stew'," Alyssa nodded.
"Dare I ask?" John wondered.
"Kind of a 'break glass in case of emergency' when it comes to food for your average Karronite. Literally just a credit for a bowl if you bring your own. But it was a roll of the dice whether you'd survive to get another bowl the next day," Alyssa described with a shudder at the thought of that atrocious taste and texture. She'd resorted to mystery stew more times than she'd been proud of.
"Was the mystery what the secret ingredient was?" John asked lightly.
"It was a mystery how anyone could swallow any without going full vom," Alyssa corrected.
John got up and went to give Alyssa a tight hug out of nowhere. *Never again. You'll never be that desperate ever again* he vowed with the full weight of his soul.
I'll hold you to that, John* Alyssa thought, snuggling into his embrace and feeling properly safe for the first time since she was little, or maybe ever.
Having woken up rather early, even with their post lunch nap, John and Alyssa called it a night after another hour of conversation after John finished his dinner. Alyssa observed with wide eyes as John crafted his psychic invisibility cloak and explained its purpose. They settled down to sleep together, alarm set for a reasonable time the next morning.
The next couple weeks swiftly fell into a productive routine. John and Alyssa would wake up, and Alyssa would blow and go getting her first meal of the day while John was still blinking away sleep. Once recovered, John would exercise, shower, and get his own breakfast. He'd do maintenance chores until lunch, and then again until dinner. Alyssa would spend all day in the cockpit keeping an eye on the long-range scanners and digging into her astro-nav research on the Holonet. Despite only meeting up for mealtimes, they remained in constant Telepathic contact. After dinner, they'd cuddle and just talk for an hour or two before going to bed to repeat it all the next day.
A river of words, thoughts, and emotions flowed back and forth between the Progenitor and his Matriarch. John had never shared as much of himself with another sapient being as he did with Alyssa Marant. And she had bared her very being to him to do with as he would. Just being in the same room, sneaking looks at the other while they weren't looking, felt intimate. To say nothing of their hugs, shared showers, the oral sex that was as mutually pleasurable as it was frequent, or their casual kisses. John couldn't remember how he'd ever lived without Alyssa by his side, her presence fulfilled him in so many ways he'd long suffered without. He'd die for her. Even better, he would live for her.
That was love, right?
John woke up and realized there was no incessant beeping. His sleep had been quiet and nightmare free, his Astral cloak apparently serving its purpose for he hadn't gone on a Spirit-Walk in his sleep since he'd started implementing it. Reasoning that Alyssa had gotten up already and muted the alarm, John found himself puzzled why he could not sense her warm body anywhere in the general vicinity. Or why his morning wood was twitching in the air rather than encased in willing female flesh.
Wow, have I been spoiling you? You're honestly surprised not to get a morning blowie?* Alyssa teased him across their mental link. Her physical laughter came from next to him. John opened his eyes to see her standing, gloriously nude, beside the bed waiting for him to wake up.
Maybe a little* John admitted with a chuckle at his own unrealistic expectations.
Alyssa glided over and leaned down to peck a kiss to the crown of his dick. *Oh, don't get me wrong. Just say the word and I'll suck your soul out through your cock in a jiffy. I just had a little surprise for you this morning and was curious to see what kind of 'reward' I'd get if you were fully loaded.*
John blinked, sitting up and twisting to get his feet on the ground. Alyssa backed up a bit, and he stood to his full height, which felt perfect in relation to her own. Ignoring the stray thought, he grinned down at her. *Okay, you've got my attention. What's the surprise?*
She turned and moved like a model down the catwalk out of the cabin towards the cockpit. Something in the effortless grace of her body tickled something in his mind, but he brushed it off again as he cracked a yawn. Alyssa guided him to sit in the pilot's seat, and then worked the instruments with sure familiarity.
"This is our current route through hyper-warp to Alpha Centauri," she said physically, pulling up the route John had programmed way back before leaving Karron in Omicron Ceti. The projected ETA marked it as having 15 days remaining at current speeds. "And here's a new route I worked out with a neat trick," Alyssa said, pulling up a secondary route on the adjacent screen.
John regarded Alyssa's route. It certainly seemed shorter, though she did some maneuvering and route changes he'd never seen before. He glanced at the projected ETA and his jaw dropped. 10 days. A full third of their travel time shaved off. "How is that possible?" he asked in shock.
"Warp tunneling. Devilishly complex, has to be individually calculated for each system between point A and point B. In a nutshell, we trick hyperspace into making a slipstream for us to ride through, and we get places faster," Alyssa declared with obvious pride.
"Put it in, honey!" John beamed.
Alyssa's answering smile could have outshone a star as she switched the Fool's Gold to the newer route. Then she reached to the dashboard and grabbed her old ID cover. "Scan this. Please," she asked, expression suddenly anxious.
Confused but willing to play along, John pulled up Galactic-SEC and ran a scan on Alyssa's ID. "Alyssa Marant. Age 18. No outstanding warrants. Navigator First Class."
John blinked and reread the last part. He turned to her, eyes wide. "You didn't," he breathed.
"All my research started to feel repetitive or too niche to really matter the last couple days. After you fell asleep last night, I came here and took the free exam. It was surprisingly easy. Whether that speaks to the quality of the test or how crazy stupid smart your cum turbocharged my brain into, I can't say," Alyssa laid out. She gave a nervous grin. "Told you I'd do it."
"Alyssa… honey, I'm so proud," John choked on his words, unable to express with sound the overwhelming sense of happiness and adoration welling up from inside him.
Alyssa's smile turned bright and open. "I know you were waiting for me to get bigger before we properly fucked. But maybe this one time we could make an exception?"
Her words sparked a brainwave in John's mind and he realized what had been right in front of his eyes but they both seemed strangely blind to. John pulled up a live feed from the cockpit cameras on the screens. "I think you're done changing, actually."
Alyssa blinked and narrowed her eyes at the camera feed on the screen. She tilted her head and made some slow gestures, watching the woman in pixels mirror her movements. "That's… that's me?" Alyssa asked breathlessly.
When John had first found Alyssa stowed away, she'd been 5 feet and a hair, less than 100 lb soaking wet, and about as pretty as possible for a street urchin, but that wasn't saying much. The goddess made flesh regarding her own reflection via cam-feed was a different creature entirely. She was tall at 5'9, and every inch of her oozed with feminine strength, beauty, and grace. She had luscious curves, a 32D chest that hung high and proud in flawless proportion to the rest of her hourglass figure. Curves that distracted from the hard muscle of an Olympic gymnast or special ops soldier, with just enough softness to make the effect more alluring than intimidating. Her face was a work of art, worthy of being immortalized in sculpture and paintings, lovely as a dream of heaven. Her thick, lustrous blonde hair fell in a waterfall of golden silk to her hips. Her skin had not a single imperfection, smooth and clear, the gorgeous bronze of one who spent lots of time in the sun. Every movement flowed with elegant poise, giving the impression of a dancer or nobility.
In short, she was now the most attractive woman John had ever seen or even imagined. Alyssa had transformed into an Amazon, a woman with enough strength to fight a war and enough beauty to stop one in its tracks. It was obvious that she was fully transformed into the Thrall template.
John stood and went to hug Alyssa from behind. Part of him noted how good they looked together on the screen, his own masculine frame juxtaposed against her feminine splendor. "Now the way you look on the outside, reflects the girl I fell in love with on the inside."
Alyssa twisted in his hold and curled her arms around his neck, pulling him down into a scorching kiss that had him hard as steel and ready to go in moments. *You can't say something like that and not expect me to jump your bones!* she informed him even as she did her level best to kiss him witless.
They might well have consummated their union right there, standing up in the cockpit, if they had not been interrupted by a blaring klaxon on the intercom.
"What the fuck?!" Alyssa demanded, pulling back from making out with John to glare at the source of the offending noise.
Very few things could have gotten John's mind off Alyssa and sex at that moment, but that particular alarm was one of them. "We're picking up a distress beacon. Someone's in danger."