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Three Square Meals - Chapter 146 (Complete) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-12-30 01:10:53
Edited:
2021-12-30 08:25:59
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Hey everyone!

I've finished Chapter 146 of Three Square Meals, so if you were waiting for the completed version instead of reading the preview, here it is!

I hope you enjoy it,

Tefler

Comments

Josh

Thanks Tef! 😊

Florida Reader

Thanks, buddy. I got no problems with how you are doing things -- FYI

bigdawguw65

Thank you ,kind Sir .

Cignal

Thanks Tefler.

Michael56Smith

.5: Seasons Greetings and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas... and thank you for the completed chapter! ;-) TTFN

Droidmek

Thank you Tefler for your continued progression of this fantastic story. I understand how life is and you will have my continued support. Have a peaceful new year.

Ziggy

Hope you had a great holiday, and an overall great year Tefler. Cheers to the health of you and yours, thank you for the great work as always.

Braw

cheers mr

Muledrvr

Awesome

AzureReader

Nice job wrapping up the chapter with some sweet scenes with the matriarchs and the fleet wide address. Thanks for addressing the danger of leaving The Shroud - I was worried about that. I’m also going to sleep better knowing the 70m Mk2 Quantum Flux Cannons are installed. If Mael’ could have defeated Rahn’ with the upgraded 70m Quantum Flux Cannons on his dreadnought, which could probably hold far more of them than Invictus, I’m sure he would have done so. It seems like Dana may need to come up with the mother of all dreadnought busters - singularity rounds with shield penetrating energy fired from 500m Quantum Flux Singularity Cannons.

TF4EVA

a xmas gift followed by a nearly new yer drop - i must have been good. A prototype athena or faye? whatever can happen between 'now and John's return to the refitted ship (and how many more chapters)???.

Ryan Smith
>>74619384

My bet is on Athena. Since she's on the verge of self termination. Also it was stated that it would take a few years to get Faye up and going. (Guessing that means two weeks)

Puttanegra Ficondo

Nice job (as usual), Tef. The additions, especially the speech, are great writing

Wolfarrow777

Great chapter. I was a little confused during the Requisitioning of the new guns. You used the word armories for where the new turrets' ammunition is stored. Typically in naval circles, ammo storage is a magazine while small arm storage is an armory. Unless I missed something and they were shrinking the size of the old marine armories. Or I'm completely off base and you are using armories on purpose. Last note: Dana or the Collective could manufacture new ammo from "raw" materials from Genthalas, and they wouldn't have to worry so much about ammo stores. Great work, as always and apologies for the paragraphs.

Jedi Khan

Happy New Year Tef. Hopefully 2022 is better for all than the past year has been. As for 146, looks like I'm right. The girls are using Mael's lab to grow a body. All indications appear to point towards Faye getting the body, but knowing Tefler, he could pull a fast one on us and give the body to Athena, leaving Faye in the lurch. Mean bastard. Having the body be for Faye is the only real way to develop Faye's character. Bringing her back as an AI is a step backward, in my opinion. Ideally, both Faye and Athena would get bodies, but I''m not entirely sure Athena would want one. Her hangup seems to be on the fact that she exists, sealing off part of Alyssa's potential as a result. I don't see how moving her into a body of her own will alleviate that. She'd still be sealing off a part of Alyssa's potential regardless. Anyways, I wonder what Rachel is using for a base to grow the new body from? Mael created the Terrans using Neanderthals as a base, so I would think the same would have applied to Asthanath and Trankarans, that they were developed from a base organism rather than created from scratch. Unless Rachel found something in storage in the lab, I think the only base that would be available to use would be Terran DNA. I doubt Rachel would want to use the Maliri as a base, given how little variation there seems to be in their DNA, not to mention the various caveats that are built in. Terran DNA offers the most flexibility and doesn't come with all the baggage of the Maliri. Anyways, 147 is going to be interesting. Can't wait to see what's up.

Troy S. Cash

I'd think it would be Athena at the present time. Putting an AI's mind into a body would take more time to be sure of. Why would it still block Alyssa's potential if Athena is completely removed? She's more of a block by using some of it in the same body. We've seen that John has abilities that he's also gifted to the girls. All the gifts haven't decreased his abilities, for example he still has speed. The decrease is in the available power even if they might have referred to it as potential at times. Instead of just him the load has to be spread across all of them in a fight. After all he's not slicing it out of his DNA, he's just copying it into theirs. If Athena gets her own body then they essentially have two Alyssa's as potential powerhouses as well as the possibility of a fourth matriarch. Or a network with two twin matriarchs so if one of them is disabled the other can still manage the network to keep the juice flowing.

Kim Biel-Nielsen

Thanks a fitting end to 2021. Happy new year to you and your family.

Axel L

My bet on the new organic body is on Athena. They wouldn't give all the focus to this new Nexus code and not use any of it for Fey in the end.

Michael56Smith

.21: OMG, Tef, I do think that your writing is stealthily getting better, darn you! I am already addicted to Three Square Meals, and Now I Find That You Are Penning Your Highly Addictive Stories Even Better! I Am Loving It! And yeah, I too suspect that the cloned 'prototype' body they are creating is for our girl Athena, cause it's time for her independence and for her to receive a belly full of 'John Juice', she deserves it! See ya next year! Thanks loads! ;-) TTFN

BrianM

Thanks Tef and best wishes to you and your family for 2022!

TF4EVA
>>74627200

Rachel has been gathering DNA samples all over the place so she could draw from there. Unlikely me thinks. Yes Terran would seem to be the logical base DNA to draw from but whose? Alyssa's DNA would seem to make some sense but how to turn that base into something unique for Athena to grow into and shape.

TF4EVA
>>74619384

don't you just love how Faye is left dangling for us......

IanBio

The big reveal I am really looking forward is learning what was so dangerous about his Terran creation that Mael felt the need to put an AI and Quantum Destroyer as oversight. Clearly he must have been afraid he was creating a monster! Question is, I supppose, did he?

David Brock

I'm still waiting to hear what's going on in the Outer Planets. Plus whatever is going on with Tom? Or have you just faded him out of the story?

2ndAndrocentric

So about the Nymphs not getting thirsty after the first time. Well, maybe it is not because they don't have blood. Maybe because it is not their first time with a progenitor! Chpt 105 says Mael'nerak was their first master.

Brian Woods
>>74666997

Methinks his concerns stemmed from an inability to predict how the experiment would develop. With the Maliri, he has a hard coded rule over their entire existence. The Trankaran’s were designed as indecisive and noncommittal as possible to prevent an uprising amongst the slaves. The Ashanath as a collective are very passive and pacifistic to the point of rolling over for most if not all aggressive behavior. Not the Terran people, though, they were designed as a Thrall variant species, and as such possessing all sorts of Thrall qualities with little in the way of controlling triggers. No wonder he left a reset button to terminate the project if it got out of hand.

bjcreek

Thanks, Tef. Another good one. You're moving the story in a very comprehensive manner, and I know that's for the best. I just have a hard time waiting for the next big battle!!! Looking forward to the next one.

Jedi Khan
>>74627200

Why unique? Athena is already identical to Alyssa, so just clone Alyssa.

Michael56Smith
>>74670577

.30: Yeah! So, David, when is The Fleet Admiral going to reveal to some, or all, of the Outer Rim Governors' that she's a secret Lioness? And is Tom Walker going to pull a jailbreak and be a 28th century 'Fugitive'? And will there be a side story with the Maliri Fleets involved with the requisitioning of Larn's unmanned (or un-wo-manned?) Black Fleet ships, will they come to interact with any of the former Larathyan Empires remaining people, and will those Maliri try and help them? So many (non-primary) story threads to follow, how does Tef keep it all straight? ;-) TTFN

Jedi Khan
>>74666997

I doubt Mael was afraid of what the Terrans might become. He was the ultimate power in the region, after all. There was no chance of the Terrans ever developing into a threat while he was still around. In fact, I highly doubt he planned for the Terran experiment to last long enough for them to even learn how to split an atom let alone achieve space travel. The whole point of the Terran experiment, besides from alleviating Mael's boredom, was to observe what effects natural selection would have on the Progenitor ideal base template, which the Terrans were made from. If Rahn hadn't shown up, Mael probably would have observed the Terrans for a few thousand years, long enough to get a good amount of data, then blow the planet up once he was satisfied.

Jedi Khan
>>74670577

Not a whole lot of time has passed in the story since we last had an update on Tom's situation. It'll be a few more chapters before we see him again, I imagine. Tefler writes the scenes in sequence according to time, with the various plot threads all moving in conjunction along the same timeline. If it makes sense for a scene on one plot thread to happen at a particular point in time before/after/during another scene on a different plot thread, he'll write it so that the scenes are presented to us in close proximity, often within the same chapter. For example, if something involving Tom was happening at the same time as John was meeting with the Matriarchs, Tefler would have put the two scenes close together. He does not advance any of the plot threads ahead of the others in the timeline, only to go back in time to the other threads.

Jedi Khan
>>74634511

Unless the Nexus code was a red herring, meant to distract us and keep us guessing. It could also be that the code will be used in the future, but not for Faye.

Brian Woods
>>74666997

While I don’t doubt you’re right insofar as they wouldn’t be a threat to a Progenitor, I also doubt Valada would have allowed Mael to apocalyptically eradicate Terrans from existence. Perhaps given time, he would have recruited their species for himself. The Trankaran’s were miners, the Ashanath were probably an experiment in accumulating psychic energy collectively without killing, so maybe the warlike and somewhat greedy expansionist humans could be used as war fodder in place of the Maliri…

Puttanegra Ficondo
>>74634511

It is alluded heavily. Why would Alyssa be the only one with an answer? Why would the memories be less important? How could Alyssa quickly get the answer telepathically? I read again the section and I think it is Athena. Why would Alyssa have to ever defend her choice of it was about Faye?

JP

Anyone else getting rather bored of the John beating himself up over his actions trope? I'm not against it but it seems to get rehashed way too frequently. Feels like word count filler rather than plot advancement.

Christopher Miller
>>74689199

Honestly, he's about 300% better about it than he used to be. Particularly after he gave his guide the boot and Alyssa and he had their heart to heart. I think it'll always sorta be there, but slowly diminishing over time. It's kind of the nature of a decent guy gaining absolute power. He either becomes an asshole or is terrified of becoming one. John has been making strides in becoming more comfortable with his decisions though. For example, he had no problems with deepening his connection with Vestele being unable to give consent. Because he knew what her answer would be and felt no guilt about taking that step.

James Hârn
>>74689199

Yeah, I'm with you JP. I don't think Jon was a particularly decent guy before - he was just afraid of responsibility, so he had to have all his girls take responsibility for what he was doing.

TF4EVA
>>74627200

two alyssa would be horrible. so would cloned alyssa be a matriarch? of who? implications of that? No there needs to be some point of difference..

Jedi Khan
>>74627200

Why would Athena, in a body identical to Alyssa's since she is identical to Alyssa, be a Matriarch? The point of difference would be in the role Athena fulfills and her personality. Athena is a different entity, a different person after all. She is just an identical twin to Alyssa. Give Athena a body and now there'll be two sets of twins on the Invictus. But that still doesn't solve the problem of Athena's very existence sealing off a part of Alyssa's potential. Giving her a body isn't going to change that, or at least, not in any way I can think of. Only some Space Magic and handwavium on the part of Tefler can solve that.

Jedi Khan
>>74634511

Tefler has been indicating Faye would become a real girl for a long time, ever since Faye read that story about a puppet becoming a real person. All the pieces have been laid out for her to achieve her dream, a dream John couldn't give her on his own. The Nexus code offers a chance for Faye to come back, but as an AI, not as a real girl. The work Rachel has begun offers a chance for Faye to come back as well, but as a real girl. As for defending her choice, Alyssa has made big decisions on her own initiative before that put John is a bind, choices that John didn't fully approve of and needed to be defended. Alyssa is likely thinking this choice will be the same. It'll be a chance for change when Alyssa goes to defend her decision and John just says "You made the right call, good girl."

Jedi Khan
>>74666997

I doubt Mael planned for the Terrans to be greedy and warlike. The whole point of the experiment was to see how Terrans would turn out naturally, without programming or his intervention. For him to have designed them with a purpose in mind later would have been contrary to the goal of the experiment itself. Plus, because he designed them to not have the built in loyalty programming of the other races, he may not have been able to control the Terrans. John doesn't seem to be having any major issues at the moment, but that can change drastically with little warning.

Anonymous

Bravo, Thank you.

Michael56Smith
>>74634511

.45: It is just that the preparations for a cloned body, to put Faye into, requires many steps that have not yet been taken, give it some more time... ;-) TTFN

Christopher Miller
>>74689199

@james- are you SERIOUSLY suggesting John's not a decent guy? He made his money more ethically than anyone on Wall St, and could have made LOTS more unethically. Look at Terran admirals and how they behave. He could have fucked literally tens of thousands of women to this point with exactly zero consequences. Instead he constantly puts himself in harm's way to save other people. He's more moral and ethical than literally 999,999/1,000,000 over people that would have been put in his position. As a matter of a fact anyone who makes stupid statements like "John Blake isn't a decent man" obviously a really busted moral compass and if put in those circumstances has just proved by their own words they would fall colossally short of John's standard behavior. Let's be honest, John is a fictionalized paragon of moral behavior. Almost nobody in RL if put in his position of absolute power with no ramifications because of his wealth, rank, influence and mobility would behave better than him, because they would be untouchable and would have anyone/anything their heart desires with zero limits. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, unless you're Admiral John Blake.

Tefler Fan 007
>>74689199

Christopher- yep ethical in making his fortune? Cheated mine owner knowing he put wrong price on ore. Then went back to rip him off again 🤔

Brittany durin

Does anyone know how many side stories there are now and what they are?

Christopher Miller
>>74689199

Ethical in the sense he offered a good faith buy price for a commodity and kept the deal. There are no "set prices" for commodities on the open market. Notice that that 30 tons of tyrenium was sitting in the mine owners warehouse for MONTHS with no takers. Why? Because no one else could move it because they didn't have John's contacts, or weren't willing to take a month to trudge across pirate infested space to risk collecting and delivering it. Prices for every commodity everywhere go up and down. Notice the mine owner said it was worth "50x" what John paid for it. Truth was the mine owner was chortling when the original deal was made because he thought HE was the one making out like a bandit because it WAS a huge payday 6 MILLION TF credits, just not as big as it should have been. The payday for John for huge for several reasons. #1- timing- the Dragon War had driven demand (and the price) for Tyrenium through the roof and into the stratusphere. Increasing the payday by at least 500% #2- John's relationship with an influencial shipyard commander who was authorized to make a deal weighted in John's favor. In RL lawyers, negotiators and business contacts who make the introductions could have claimed at least 1/3-1/2 of the profits. But because he knew Charles he kept all the profit. #3- The location way out on the edge of Federation space negatively impacts the value of every commodity. It sounds like 60-75% of small free traders in that part of space were ending up executed by pirates or eaten by Kirrix. Yes, snooping around the rim could net you the deal of a lifetime but statistically you are going to die a painful, gruesome death fairly quickly. Which means almost all the companies and traders who had the money to make an offer for Tyrenium weren't around. If an "extremely valuable" commodity is gumming up your CoS and sitting in a warehouse taking up space in your warehouse for months on end what is it's true worth? Answer=Diddly/f**kingsquat. Then Blake swoops in and offers 6 MILLION creds and probably gives him more profit than he'll make the rest of the year combined.

Christopher Miller
>>74689199

#4- That the deal was possible at all was due to John's balls of steel in being willing to risk the pirate infestation in the area and having 6 million credits from a successful trading career. Bottom line though, is in trading you never have to disclose how much you believe you can make in profit. Often times bad luck will still make you a loser. All you can do is make an offer in good faith, complete the contract agreed upon and work your business. John SHOULD have statisically never got away from the outer rim alive, and he never "cheated" the mine owner. As a matter of fact, that same individual tried to murder John and Alyssa, steal the Invictus and their money. As a result he lost his hand and most of his security force. THAT is textbook unethical and immoral business practices.

Christopher Miller
>>74755563

It's murky as to what is a authentic side plot and what is a character whose time is time was played out as a PoV shift. Tom Walker/Treason plot is definitely a side plot. The Abandoned/Brimorian War is a sideplot. The Larathyrian Armada/Aureali/Starforge is actually the main plot ATM. Maliri pregnancies, state visits, Matriarch character arcs, etc are a side plot. I'd say the Outer Rim Revolt is a side plot. I'd say everything else is either a potential side plot or not active. Not active = the Vulkat, the Enshunu, Leprechaun and the Maliri pilots, Commodore Papados, his fiance and Commodore Iryskya, Admiral Almada, TF politics among the Admirals and about a dozen others.

DemonHunterCole

That cliffhanger… omfg. But no spoilers from me.

Michael56Smith
>>74755563

.102: Doesn't Brittany ask some really good questions? They do tend to bring out a few responses... Thanks Brittany duran! ;-) TTFN

Michael56Smith
>>74755563

.103: Howdy TF4EVA, I have been thinking about a few 'what if' possibilities for that mystery object... 1) it is likely associated with the Archonin... so what is it, and why is it on/in Karron? ... and will some T-Fed or Outer Rim investigators be sent in to check out Karron and what do with it? ... and 2) what if it turns out to be one of hundreds/thousands of 'Shroud' relays? Lynnette finds out, and she notifies Alyssa, who then tells John... who gets the twins and Dana to check it out... 3) And for some Tef twisted reason, Tom Walker shows up, and super-smart Rachel notices his eyes are similar to Sparks, so she tests his DNA... and he is related to Dana? 4) so, John and the girls get involved with Tom's frame job while they explore the ins and outs of the Shroud... And Tef didn't think that I'd see that one coming, Pe-Shaw! ;-) TTFN

jdg45
>>74755563

#58 I am intrigued by the 'device' found on Karron (TF4EVA - just above). What device? I have searched for it and not found any reference. So please enlighten me. However, I did find an apparent anomaly... How can the power plant have auto-shutdown if destroyed?? Ch 107 - When the Kirrix arrive Karron's aging fission plant had been destroyed days earlier, the invaders wasting no time in shutting power down throughout the bulk of the hollowed-out asteroid. Ch 114 - When the Inviticus arrives at Karron The redhead tapped an LED display, then turned a dial and watched as the bar graphs began to level out. "The power generator has an auto-shutoff that eventually kicks in if the plant isn't maintained on a regular basis." Jerking a thumb at a clipboard on the wall, she continued, "According to that, it was supposed to be checked five days ago... but the plant workers must have legged it when the Kirrix invaded." And while on side plots let us not forget Tamolith.

Christopher Miller
>>74755563

It was a large construct and as it was described it sounded Achonin in origin. It was found by "Big Tony" Phoenix when he and his girls were fleeing the Kirrix and dealing with a cave-in. This happened a chapter or two before John brought back Alyssa's parents. It was when Perl lost her arm IIRC. So it probably would have been chapter 111-113.

jdg45
>>74755563

#60 Yes. Thanks Christopher Miller. Chapter 109. Drawing closer, he finally realised why the beam of light wasn't reflecting off any rocky walls. When the roidquake brought the ceiling down, it had also shaken open an entrance to what looked like some kind of cave. Thanking his lucky stars, Tony clambered over the rocks, trying to get a better look at the chamber beyond. He paused when he got closer, finding that the corner of some kind of big metallic object had broken through the ceiling, its weight probably contributing to the tunnel's collapse. The strange tan colouring was unlike anything he'd seen before, and Tony ran a hand over its pockmarked surface, feeling tiny indentations under his fingertips. Whatever it was, he was sure it was old... maybe even dating back to the very first colonists who'd started the excavation of Karron.

Ian Kennedy

Did anybody pick up on the ONE major error I found? the sentence "The Terrans, the Trankarans, the Kintark, and the Brimorians have all lost millions of people in those needless wars and the Maliri would have been next. " is wrong as it SHOULD READ ...'and the ASHANATH..." The Brimorians weren't affected by the wars, only by their own decision to take advantage of the Kintark's weakness at the time. THAT decision was made WITHOUT Larn'kelnar's interference.

Michael56Smith
>>75203369

.166: excellent catch Ian, maybe Tef needs another story editor, or a first one? I agree with all your reasoning, ... ;-) TTFN

AShi

Vuitton.

Michael56Smith

.64: Yay! Tef said spoiled and not spoilt, we may be a bad influence on him... ;-) TTFN

JC Armstrong

Someone tell me that I am wrong but the girls are going to give Athena her own body. I think it would be great but something is going to go wrong, there is going to be a hiccup in this ... But as always I thought the story was amazing and now I am moving on the the next chapter

Bp Hlpt

Let’s save that for our first sparring session. -- There are actually at least two places in chapters 146 and 147 where this upcoming event is referred to. But John and Luna have already had a training/sparring session together, haaven't they? [Chapter 139, John 'lost' the sparring match 35 to 1, Luna suggested John develop his own personal style, and they made love afterwards in view of the folks in the viewing galleries] So shouldn't this event be called "their next sparring session" instead? If so, then all references should be changed. Or are you distinguishing the previous sparring/training session and the future training sessions? But then it's referred to as a sparring session here, so... Let’s save that for our first sparring session. Let’s save that for our next sparring session. Xar’aziuth’s might be able to attack people directly when they’re not protected! Xar’aziuth might be able to attack people directly when they’re not protected! He was about to protest that meeting the matriarchs was about business rather pleasure, He was about to protest that meeting the matriarchs was about business rather than pleasure, Rachel’s had a lot more practice at healing those kinds of injuries than me, but it was an emergency, Rachel’s had a lot more practice at healing those kinds of injuries than I, but it was an emergency, Follow the Maliri Queen’s telepathic directions, the matriarchs rose from their seats Following the Maliri Queen’s telepathic directions, the matriarchs rose from their seats The Terrans, the Trankarans, the Kintark, and the Brimorians have all lost millions of people in those needless wars and the Maliri The Terrans, the Trankarans, the Kintark, and the Ashanath have all lost millions of people in those needless wars, and the Maliri -- The Brimorians have lost millions, but only indirectly, not directly due to Larn’kelnar. The Kirrix also lost millions, but I don't think they were directly influenced by Larn’kelnar either. Edraele sent a warm sweep of affectionate across their bond. Edraele sent a warm sweep of affection across their bond.