Chapter 30 - The mystery of John's parentage is finally revealed!

John stretched contentedly as he awoke, feeling full of energy and ready to go. He looked down to see his four girls curled up sound asleep on the bed with him, and he smiled and stretched again. Not wanting to disturb any of the young women, he lay back, closed his eyes and just revelled in the close physical contact.

With his eyes closed, he suddenly remembered the odd dream he’d had while he’d been sleeping. He recalled being embraced by radiant figures, a glowing nimbus of light had surrounded them and enveloped him, swathing him in a caring and loving aura. The feelings of peace and contentment had been heartbreakingly wonderful, like nothing he had ever experienced before, and he longed to feel that sensation again. He opened his eyes again, and shook his head as if to clear it. These disturbances in his sleep were driving him crazy; from nightmares full of terrifying horrors, to last night’s dream, which left him yearning to feel that sense of love and closeness once again.

Now fully awake he glanced down again at the girls, eager for their company, but they were all still deep in sleep. He noticed the trauma kit on his lower torso, and he suddenly remembered the events aboard the Drakkar battleship. He winced as he recalled that huge four armed brute driving a steel blade through his chest, but he was surprised he didn’t feel any undue pain or discomfort. Carefully extricating himself from the girls, he sat up and tentatively peeled off the bloodstained bandage, worried at the damage that might be revealed beneath. All he could see was normal looking healthy skin, and he gently prodded the area beneath his ribs, but didn’t even feel any tenderness. Wide eyed with disbelief, he reached around to his back and carefully peeled off the rest of the bandage, but he couldn’t feel any damaged skin there either. He seemed to have miraculously healed the severe wound in a matter of hours!

Trying to be quiet and not disturb anyone, he climbed out of the covers and then headed down the bed. He hopped off and padded into the walk-in-wardrobe, to go and stare at his chest in the mirrors there. He could see both his front and his back in the reflections, and he turned to look from different angles, but the mirrors confirmed the same thing; he was fully healed. “Well I’ll be damned...” he said in wonder.

“Are you ok, John?” Dana called out to him softly, her voice sounding worried.

“Yeah, I’m feeling great actually,” he whispered back quietly, as he crept back into the room.

“Holy shit! You’re completely healed!” she exclaimed in astonishment, gawping at the fully restored skin on his chest.

“What is it?” Calara said groggily.

“Is everyone ok?” Alyssa, yawned, sounding exhausted.

“What’s all the noise?” Jade asked rubbing her eyes tiredly, and then bundling herself up in the covers.

“Everything’s fine, just go to sleep,” he said reassuringly, and the three fatigued young women did exactly that.

“Come on.” John whispered, holding his hand out to the perky redhead. She nodded eagerly and slipped out of the covers, following him into the bathroom, where they shut the door behind them. “How’s your arm this morning?” he asked her, concerned.

“I don’t feel any pain,” Dana said, lifting her bandaged and splinted right arm experimentally. She began to carefully unwrap the bandages, to reveal that both the bruising and swelling around the break seemed to have disappeared completely.

“You look as good as new!” John exclaimed with surprise.

Dana poked her arm experimentally with a finger, but didn’t feel any kind of discomfort. She then looked down at her shapely thigh and the hideous purple bruise had vanished as well, leaving healthy tanned skin. “We’ve both been fully healed!” she gasped with surprise.

“Amazing...” John said, shaking his head with wonder. “You healed so fast!”

“I know!” Dana agreed, nodding animatedly. “It took a couple of weeks for my scars to heal, but this only took a few hours.”

“True, and then there’s me...” John said thoughtfully. “That was a nasty chest wound. How come I healed so quick?”

Dana shrugged helplessly. “I’ve no idea, sorry.”

“Let’s go grab a shower, then we can make breakfast for the others. They looked like they needed a good lie-in,” he said with a smile. His auburn haired companion nodded eagerly and they walked into the shower to get ready.

An hour later they walked back into the bedroom, with John carrying a tray overflowing with a full cooked breakfast for everyone. The tantalising aromas woke the three girls up, and they yawned drowsily as they sat up.

“You three look wasted this morning!” Dana said with surprise. “You’ve been asleep eight hours already and you still seem like you need a good night’s rest.”

“How come you’re so perky all of a sudden?” Alyssa grumbled, rubbing her tired eyes. “And where’s your bandage?” she asked suddenly in alarm.

“I’m completely fine this morning - fully healed!” Dana said excitedly, as she bounced over and sat on the edge of the bed.

“Me too,” John grinned, as he brought the tray over to the sleepy young women.

The girls looked at him in surprise, and he carefully placed the tray down before turning to show them his fully healed chest.

“Wow! That’s amazing,” Calara exclaimed, then stifled another yawn before suddenly frowning with irritation. “I feel exhausted this morning, and I wasn’t even involved in the battleship fight.”

“Perhaps you’ll feel better after having something to eat,” John said comfortingly, uncovering the lids from the various piles of cooked food on the tray. He handed out plates and cutlery, and the girls tucked in, eager to get started on the mouth watering feast in front of them. They hungrily ploughed through breakfast, but still looked tired after they were done.

“I know what will perk you three right up,” Dana said suggestively, looking at John. “What do you think John, do you feel like rounding out some tummies?” she asked him with a sly wink.

“Sure, but I feel like burning off some of this energy first. What do you think, my sexy little flame haired minx?” he asked playfully.

Dana scampered over the bed and threw herself into his arms. “Always!” she gasped exuberantly.

The girls smiled fondly and moved the tray full of breakfast plates out of the way, giving John plenty of room to carry the eager redhead to the middle of the bed. He laid her down gently, holding her protectively in his arms, and she grinned up at him excitedly.

“No foreplay needed, I’m turned on already,” she gasped, spreading her toned athletic thighs for him welcomingly.

John pushed into her tight pussy with his broad cock, spreading her open for him as he sank deep inside her.

“I love it when you’re inside me,” she said, sighing contentedly as she felt his pulsing heat pushing all the way into her womb. She let out a cute gasp as the blunt head brushed against her far walls and then brought her legs up to hook around his back.

He cradled her head protectively in his hands as he looked down at her, and then leaned in to kiss her tenderly. “You frightened the life out of me when you got attacked,” he said, remembering the horrible feeling of fear and worry. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”

“Well I’m safe and sound now,” she replied with a smile, staring up at him with her sky blue eyes as she relished feeling safe and protected in his arms.

They kissed passionately, their bodies moving together in harmony as they physically expressed the strength of their emotions. Dana clung to him tightly, gasping and panting as he fucked her powerfully, her smoothly rocking hips urging him onwards. She arched her back, rubbing her erect nipples against his chest as he pounded into her, letting out appreciative little moans. She eventually pulled his head down toward her, and leaned up to whisper in his ear, “Let me ride you instead.”

John rolled on his back, bringing the auburn haired beauty with him so that she was lying on top, with his cock still buried up to the balls inside her. They stared into each other’s eyes as she leaned back and balanced gracefully astride him, her hands resting lightly on his muscular chest as her hips began to undulate slowly. He sighed happily as she began to move faster, her tight pussy gliding up and down his length. Tearing his eyes away from her beautiful face, he gazed at her magnificently toned teenage body, as she rode him expertly. She moved with a sinuous grace that accentuated the strong muscles in her perfect physique, and his gaze dropped appreciatively to her trim tummy. Dana had the well defined figure of a girl who lived in the gym, but she stopped just short of having a six pack. She still maintained her soft feminine curves that he loved so much, and those curves looked incredible as she writhed on top of him.

“You love my toned stomach, don’t you?” she purred seductively, as she followed his heated gaze.

“You’re absolutely beautiful,” he agreed, his eyes burning with lust.

“But there’s something about filling up my young tummy with your cum that you really love isn’t there?” she pushed, her mouth turned up in an eager smile. “Is it the thought of having me carry around your spunk in my belly, that gets you so turned on?”

“Ah, god!” John moaned, his hands gripping her flexing thighs as she rode him closer to the edge.

“Or is that just a temporary high? What you really want is to impregnate me isn’t it?” she hissed excitedly. “Show the world your dominance over me, by breeding my hot little ass?”

“Ahhh! fuck me!” John groaned, as he thrust up powerfully into her, his tight quad flexing as he came.

Dana wore a contented smile on her face, as she continued rocking up and down on his throbbing cock, her abdomen slowly swelling as she carried more and more of his cum inside her. “That feels so good, fill me right up,” she crooned delightedly.

Finally spent, the tension in John’s body was released and he laughed happily. “That was so hot! I loved what you were saying,” he admitted with a grin.

“Who needs telepathy? I know what my man likes,” Dana laughed along with him, as she stroked her swollen belly. She gently eased his still hard cock from her pussy, gracefully dismounted him and then lay on her back. She glanced over at Alyssa, Calara and Jade who had been watching them both lustily. “So, I believe you girls needed a pick-me-up?” she asked coyly, while spreading her thighs for them. “Who wants to go first?”

John enjoyed himself immensely, watching the three other girls hungrily lick the beautiful young redhead to a succession of powerful orgasms, as they sucked his cum out of her pussy. When Jade had greatly extended her tongue to make sure she got every last drop of spunk from the quivering girl’s womb, Dana had shrieked with pleasure and clawed at the bed. The nymph left Dana panting and gasping for breath as she recovered, and came over to John to give him an affectionate kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for a lovely breakfast,” Jade sighed contentedly, as glowing ethereal lines spread slowly out from her slightly rounded stomach.

“You’re welcum,” John laughed, running his hand through her thick green hair affectionately and pulling her in for a big kiss. The Nymph smiled at him adoringly, and then curled up in bed with Calara and Alyssa, who wore similarly happy expressions on their faces. “You girls rest, I’m going to go up to the bridge,” he told them kindly. “Come and join me when you feel better.”

He dressed and then waved goodbye to the girls who were snuggled up in bed together. They promised him they would join him shortly, while Dana just groaned and waved feebly at him. Chuckling to himself, John strolled down the corridor past the officer’s quarters, and then stepped into the soft blue glow of the grav-tube. He rose steadily up to the command deck, and he climbed the illuminated steps to sit in the Commander’s chair. He was about to ask Alyssa reflexively to bring up the system map, then smiled wryly to himself, and then leaned forward to press the button for the map on his own console. It had been quite some time since he’d had to operate all the systems himself, and he’d gotten used to ordering around his exceptionally capable bridge crew.

The system map appeared in the centre of the bridge, showing that they now orbited Ashana. Nodding to himself, as this was what he expected, he pressed another button on the console to bring up the communications interface. He was about to contact the high council, when he noticed that there had been several missed calls from them already that morning. He pressed the button that would raise a secure communication to Senior Councillor Ularean, and a few moments later, the Ashanath leader’s grey bulbous head filled the viewscreen.

“Ah, JohnBlake!” the robed alien said with relief, even over the unemotional computer voice modulator. “When your ship appeared in this system, and moved to high orbit above Ashana, we attempted to contact you. When there was no answer, we grew concerned.”

“Sorry to have worried you unnecessarily,” John apologised. “We took a few hits clearing out the Drakkar, and we’ve been asleep and recovering for the last few hours.”

“No apology is necessary, JohnBlake,” Ularean said softly in his ethereal voice. “Did I hear you correctly? You have defeated the Drakkar Raiders?”

“Yeah, we did it,” John grinned happily, with no small degree of satisfaction. “The Drakkar had a battleship in the Kappa-Indarran system, as well as two more cruisers they were going to equip with the black armour. We’ve destroyed them all.”

“You have exceeded our wildest expectations, JohnBlake,” Ularean whispered in his eerie voice, and seemed to sag with relief. “The Ashanath Collective is profoundly grateful for what you’ve done for us.”

“That’s what allies are for,” John gave him a self-effacing smile and nodded.

Ularean tilted his head slightly to the side, and blinked slowly with his huge black eyes as he stared at John. “We made a bargain with you to seal our alliance. If you wish it, we will now reveal what we kept from you earlier,” he murmured quietly.

John sat forward eagerly, his curiosity peaked. “I’m all ears!” he said wryly, with a hungry glint in his eyes.

“It would be easier for us to show you,” Ularean said mysteriously. “Please travel to these coordinates, Councillor Talari will await you there.”

The comm interface flashed, the incoming details arriving for a location on the surface of the planet Ashana. John looked up at Ularean, who stared at him as if studying his every reaction. “Thank you Ularean,” he said, suddenly unsure of himself.

“We will speak again before you depart, JohnBlake. I hope we are able to provide some of the answers you seek.” the senior councillor said, before ending the call.

John sat there in his command chair for a long while, just mulling over recent events. Answers he’d been seeking for decades now awaited him on the surface of the planet below, but he couldn’t help but worry that he might not like what he was about to find out. Soft footfalls coming up the steps to the command podium reached his ears and Alyssa moved around to his side, coming into view. She ran her slender fingers through his hair and then leaned down to kiss him.

“Come on,” she said to him soothingly. “Let’s find out what you’ve wanted to know for all those years.”

John nodded at her, making up his mind, and then looked around to see the other girls assembled on the bridge as well, looking at him with understanding eyes. “Ok, let’s find out who or what I am exactly,” he told them decisively.

Alyssa walked over to sit in the executive officer’s chair, and entered the coordinates that Ularean had given to John. The four powerful engines on the Invictus fired up, taking them around to the other side of the planet, before they began to descend into the atmosphere. Alyssa brought them down closer to the Reddish-orange surface of Ashana, and a green guidepath lit up to lead them to their destination. They flew over what seemed like an abandoned, desolate area of arid scrubland, with no discernible features or buildings whatsoever, but the guidepath was still leading them directly towards it.

As they glided forward on their final approach, the surface of the planet seemed to split, and it became clear that there was a huge hangar bay concealed below them, that was now opening to grant them entry.

“Oh wow!” Dana gasped, where she had been studying her engineering console intently.

“What is it Dana?” John asked her curiously.

“I just did an active scan when they revealed the hangar. Check this out!” she said in wonder, hitting a few buttons on her console. A holographic representation of Ashana’s surface appeared in the bridge, red, dry and dusty. Dana manipulated a few more controls and then the newly revealed hangar was displayed, as well as hundreds of subterranean installations surrounding the underground facility.

“Those are planetary defence lasers!” Calara gasped in shock, as she spotted row upon row of massive weapons concealed below the surface. “A couple of hits from one of those would blow us out of the sky!”

“What are they hiding down there?” Jade asked, looking at John with wide eyes.

Alyssa brought the Invictus in for a gentle landing, right in the middle of the underground hangar bay. She powered off the engines, and then looked at John expectantly with a reassuring smile on her face.

“Ok let’s find out what they know,” John said resolutely, as he rose from his chair. The girls followed his lead, and they headed out of the bridge, down the grav-tube and then out the airlock on deck nine. When the outer airlock spun open at John’s behest, they noticed a silvery-grey disk shaped ship parked nearby, with one of the robed Ashanath waiting for them patiently.

Greetings Alyssa. It’s wonderful to see you again! Councillor Talari’s voice sounded clearly in the blonde girl’s head.

It’s great to see you too Talari! she replied, genuinely pleased to see the helpful Ashanath high councillor.

“It’s Talari,” she said to the rest of her group, as they walked purposefully towards the Grey.

“Ah, JohnBlake!” Talari said softly, when they arrived in front of him. “Thank you for proving my faith in you was well founded.”

“Your faith?” Alyssa asked perceptively.

“Yes Alyssa. I am head of the Collective’s security division, and it was I who recommended the alliance to the High Council,” Talari revealed, in his quiet whispering voice.

“What made you recommend that?” John asked, curiously. “Was it our victory against those Drakkar that interdicted us?”

“That only brought you to my attention, JohnBlake. Although our ships were severely outclassed by the Drakkar, and your success against them was the first we had witnessed, that was not the main factor that swayed my decision. It was when Alyssa revealed her psychic potency, that I realised there was so much more to you and your companions,” he murmured cryptically.

“Which is what exactly?” John asked, dying to know what the Ashanath had kept from him so far.

“It will be easier for me to show you,” Talari said infuriatingly, and then turned and walked towards a set of heavy doors, that were covered in silvery Ashanath glyphs.

John strode after the quickly gliding councillor, with the girls following in his wake. Talari opened the door and went inside, then led them past several security checkpoints, until they reached a grav tube. Dozens of anti-personnel weapons were built into the walls, and the barrels tracked the group ominously as they walked closer to the tube. Talari went in first, leaving John and his crew to follow behind him down the anti-grav tube. They descended in pensive silence, travelling downwards for what seemed like an eternity, before the tube eventually ended with a single exit. The robed Ashanath was waiting for them to land, and then he turned, leading them down a corridor to a high archway containing two heavily glyphed doors.

Walking up to a Psi-scanner set into the wall, he stood stationary, while his grey bulbous head was enveloped in a soft green glow. The doors to his side cracked open and then slowly split apart, revealing a huge cavernous room built hundreds of metres below the planet’s surface. The room was shrouded in darkness, the faint overhead lights only offering tantalising glimpses of the unevenly shaped objects contained inside.

“What is this place?” John asked in awe, breaking the tense stillness of the underground cavern.

“This is our repository of everything we have found on the Progenitors,” he replied quietly, even the computer modulated voice conveying his reverence for the chamber.

“The Progenitors?” John asked.

“It is the name we have assigned to your species,” Talari replied.

Talari turned and faced a control panel set into a wall, and it began to glow with an ethereal green radiance. Throughout the room, spotlights began to activate, focused specifically on each of the objects stored within.

“We used to claim ownership of many worlds,” the Ashanath councillor began quietly. “We gathered every reference to your people we discovered.”

He led John over to the first object, which was a series of massive stone tablets, inscribed with a primitive pictorial form of language. The images showed a pointy eared humanoid, wielding what looked like a bulky staff, and slaying red skinned humanoid men with lightning bolts. As they followed the story conveyed by the pictures, the mysterious staff wielding character seemed to amass a throng of red skinned females. There had clearly been more to the story, but the rest of the pictures had been sheared away from the crumbling stone edifice.

John and the girls shot each other glances, as they looked up at the pictures with wide eyes. “This looks strangely familiar,” Alyssa said quietly.

Councillor Talari seemed to be studying John intently. “We removed these stones from the ruins of a long dead, pre-industrial civilisation. They are nearly twenty thousand years old.”

Unsure what to say, John could only nod mutely in response. Turning away, Talari glided over to the next set of stone blocks. They showed another member of the Progenitor race destroying what looked like a city. Diminutive creatures were shown to be fleeing, as the Progenitor strode through streets, with red rays shooting out of his eyes, killing indiscriminately.

“We retrieved this one from a system near Terra. The planet no longer bore any life,” Talari whispered, his eerie voice making the images seem even more unsettling.

“Are they all like this?” John asked, his own voice as subdued as the Ashanath’s.

“No, not all,” Talari replied, offering faint hope.

“See, it’s not all bad John,” Dana piped up optimistically.

“Most of them follow a similar theme of destruction, however,” Talari whispered depressingly.

“Ok, could you show us something a little more upbeat then?” Alyssa asked hopefully.

Talari nodded and took them past image after image depicting acts of war and subjugation, of sharp eared Progenitors slaying indiscriminately, and collecting legions of female slaves. He finally came to a halt, pausing in front of a series of tall stone mosaics that were in excellent condition, each showing a Progenitor, and dozens of blue skinned, white haired women. John and the girls walked along, studying each picture in turn, and the murals showed a Progenitor working in what looked like a lab, and then moving from world to world establishing new civilisations.

“So the Progenitors were able to create life?” Jade asked in wonder.

“It seems so,” Talari said softly, nodding slightly. “We have found a number of pictographs that seem to support this theory.”

Dana had reached the end of the stone mosaics, and she peeked her head around the corner, when she spotted that the backs of the huge slabs were lit as well. “Hey, John! There’s more on the back too!” she called out excitedly.

John walked eagerly around the corner, looking for any more positive signs of benevolence amongst the Progenitors. In the next few images, the blue skinned women were massed in legions and were shown fighting other species. One of the stone mosaics showed the Progenitor using what looked to be psychic powers to slay his enemies. The final picture showed a lush green world burning, as the progenitor and his legions boarded a black hulled spacecraft.

“I’m sorry John,” Calara said, seeing his hopeful expression fade, as they studied the rest of the pictures.

“So my species are basically a bunch of completely evil bastards?” John sighed dejectedly.

“It appears so JohnBlake,” Talari said quietly, his voice modulator conveying his sadness at having to deliver bad news. “We found each of these ancient edifices on devastated worlds, once home to civilisations that had been completely destroyed.”

Alyssa stood by John’s side and ran her hand around his waist, hugging him tightly. “I’m sorry this wasn’t what you were hoping to find,” she said comfortingly.

“If it’s any consolation, we have found you to be an honest, diligent and trustworthy ally. The Ashanath high council has no reservations about the wisdom of forming an alliance with you.”

“If you knew how evil my species seems to be, why didn’t you just kill me on the spot?” John asked curiously. “Why would you possibly want to make an alliance with me?”

Before Talari could reply, Jade spoke up. “They were afraid of you, John,” she said soberly.

“It is as your companion deduced,” Talari whispered in his eerie voice. “We had no wish to anger a creature capable of that,” he said, pointing to the mural showing a world being incinerated.

“So you made me your ally, purely in the hope I wouldn’t start wiping out your civilisation?” John asked, wide eyed. “Gifting me access to your most powerful technology was pretty reckless!”

Before Talari could explain his reasoning, Alyssa cut in. “You made your decision after our little chat outside the council chamber, didn’t you?” she asked him, perceptively.

“You are correct Alyssa,” Talari said softly, before bowing to her respectfully. He then turned to face John and spoke again, “Truly, you have surrounded yourself with quite remarkable females JohnBlake.”

“You don’t need to tell me that,” John said, smiling at his girls. “But why did speaking to Alyssa lead you to offering me an alliance?”

Talari turned his attention back to Alyssa once more. “When we spoke, it very quickly became apparent that you had received no form of Psychic training. I have never met someone displaying such impressive potency before, and to do so untrained almost defies belief.”

“You mean the null-zone I created by accident?” Alyssa said, flushing a little with embarrassment.

“Yes, that’s correct. It is possible to create a null-zone of that size, but only by combining one’s will with other trained psychics, and powerful ones at that. For you to have done so on a reflex is absolutely unheard of amongst my people, and the Ashanath are gifted psychics.” He paused for a moment. “Or so we believed...”

“Ok, so you knew I was powerful, but why did you trust us enough for an alliance?” Alyssa asked puzzled.

“As you know, it’s possible to probe another individual’s mind.” Talari began tentatively. “I must make a confession however, that the entire High council merged wills with me, but we were unable to penetrate your mind-shield, JohnBlake.”

“Alyssa mentioned that before, but I’ve never consciously made this ‘mind-shield’ you’re referring to!” John exclaimed.

“Which makes you all the more remarkable,” Talari murmured quietly. “When we were unable to find out more from your mind, we then studied your companions,” he said apologetically, glancing at Alyssa.

“You studied my mind?” she asked in surprise.

“Yes, and we examined all your interactions with John since you’ve known him.” Talari admitted. “Both of you have been nothing but benevolent in your actions with others, in particular saving each of your other companions from dire circumstances.” he continued, looking at Calara, Dana and Jade.

“Based on what we were able to glean, we knew you would be dependable and kindly allies.” he said, sounding a little self satisfied, even with the unemotional speech modulator speaking for him.

“‘All’ our interactions?” Alyssa asked archly.

“I am sorry for the invasion of your privacy, but you must understand what we had at stake.” Talari said remorsefully, before his already huge eyes widened as he recalled the memories. “What we witnessed was spectacular, I must say...” he tailed off wistfully.

John and the girls laughed, clearing the air, and Talari at least had the good grace to look embarrassed.

“Ok, so these Progenitors were able to create life, they seemed to get off on enslaving hordes of women and they fought and killed a whole lot of people,” Dana summarised for them succinctly, unsubtly changing the subject to save Talari further embarrassment. “Is there anything else that you can tell us about them?”