I thought for a moment. Not about the project, because without any walkers onboard, that was really a no-brainer, but about the amount of inventiveness that had come from my simple order of making an organic carbon scrubber.
Now we not only had such a one, but with the vertical hydroponic gardens in one cargo hold, plants all over the ship and now this 'park area', it was turning out to be one of the most unusual warships I had ever been on or even heard about.
Getting an idea, I called up the specs for the cruisers on my datapad and studied that for a moment. Unlike the two Dreadnoughts, the cruisers did have some Manka-class armored transport onboard, but only half of what they could carry. That left enough hangar space for this project to happen on the cruisers as well.
"All right, people. I'm going to run with this in a big way. The empty Manka-hangars on both dreadnoughts are yours and so are hangar C2 on the cruisers." I called up the different ships in the battlegroup on the datapad. "The Drake-class Frigates are too small for what you suggest but find some free space on the Delta-class carrier and the Gage-Class, when Keller is done repairing it. I doubt that the Kraken have any free space you can have, but please ask Keller anyway."
Jander San's eyes widened. "Do we even have enough materials for that?"
"I don't know, but if not, we have the biggest junkyard in this part of the galaxy right outside and we can get what we need from the other ships here."
He nodded slowly. "Good point, sir."
"Get this project up and running on all the major ships. The more food we can produce ourselves, the better." I looked at Betty Nagos. "XO, you organize this. The more people we can get to help on this, the faster it will be done... oh, and when we get more time, have a team of people search the civilian transporters and freighters out there for anything useful. We have a lot of free cargo space and we might as well use it."
"Yes, sir."
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After the meeting, I discovered that it was time for training, so I took a bag with some extra clothes and a towel and ventured down to the training facilities to spar with Tristana, Elanore, and Anna. As I had suspected, the three Echani had been trained since childhood and they were a lot better with a vibro-rapier than me.
At first it seemed like they didn't really believe that I was serious about it, but after I had explained the connection between the vibro-rapier and the lightfoil to them, they understood why I wanted to learn more. After a few training sessions where I had asked them to press me as much as they thought would help, they even grudgingly accepted that I was serious and from that point on, our three weekly training sessions had become exactly the learning experience I had hoped for.
Admittedly, the training was harder than anything I had ever experienced before, being even more intense and physically demanding than the fencing training at the academy or as a Praetorian, but on the bright side I could feel my skills increasing, so I kept coming back for more.
This time, however, it was only Tristana standing there, but the fire in her eyes warned me that she intended to put me to the test.
I wasn't wrong about that. For almost an hour, she drove me through every move, attack, and parry, as well as any combination of the three that the three sisters had taught me during the last two months, correcting any small mistake I made.
Then it became even harder as we moved to sparring. Normally, I would have the advantage of being taller and thus having a greater reach, but Tristana was an Echani and blindingly fast, so I had to spend most of my time on the defence, parrying or dodging her attacks, while trying to find her weak points.
It took me a while and my arms were getting tired, before I realised that as long as I let her do most of the attacking, Tristana didn't really have any weak points. Her style was close to perfect for the vibro-rapier, and I would become tired a long time before she did. At least when using the same style.
It simply suited her better and she even looked extremely good executing it, dressed in shorts that were easy to move in and showed off both the feminine swell of her hips and her long well-shaped legs, while the tight-fitting tank-top not only kept her breasts in place, but also left no doubt that they were as big, well-shaped and tempting as Shakka's or Iska's.
The training sword darted towards me and without thinking, I parried and when she shifted her weight to the front leg for a follow-up strike, I parried that attack as well and, using a move from Pretorian close-combat, swept the leg away from under her.
She went down, but the moment she hit the mats covering the floor, she lashed out with her legs and swept me off my feet as well and, despite my efforts to avoid it, caused me to land on top of her, pinning her to the floor.
For a moment, my red eyes locked with her silver ones and it was like a spark passed between us as I suddenly became aware of her body under me. The womanly curves, the swell of her chest as it pressed against mine and her warm breath on my face.
Then the world moved as she used the ground to roll us over so she was on top of me, but to my surprise, she didn't try to finish the combat. Instead, she kept eye contact as she leaned closer to me and whispered. "Commander Yaki says that it's forbidden for a superior officer to make the first move, so I have to ask if you have anything against kissing me?"
Speechless, I managed to shake my head and a moment later her soft lips met mine in a kiss. Our tongues tentatively touched between lips, then explored deeper as we went further. My hands circled her waist as the first few testing moments passed and then we were kissing in earnest.
With a groan, she pressed her body against mine and I could feel myself getting hard and pressing against her. She clearly felt it as well, because she moved her hips slightly, grinding her crotch against my hard dick, which also made her breasts press pleasantly against my chest. In return, I slid my hands from her waist to her well-shaped ass, fondling the firm, yet soft, cheek.
Still kissing me, she managed to get out of the top of her training clothes, allowing me to catch a glimpse of a dark red bra that looked shockingly colourful against her pale skin.
As soon as she had dropped the training top on the floor, I took a firmer grip on her ass and rolled over, so I was on top of her. In that position, her weight wasn't on me, giving me room to take off my own training shirt.
Just as I had done that, Tristana flashed me a smile and dragged me down for a kiss. I complied, but after we had kissed a little, she rolled us both over once more and took off her bra without a hint of hesitation, freeing her breasts.
They were just as well-shaped and pale as the rest of her body, the pale skin making the red areolas with the even darker nipples look shockingly colourful in comparison, somehow reminding me of fresh berries on top of a mound of ice cream. Berries that just begged to be stroked, kissed, licked and sucked on.
Using my hands on her magnificent ass for leverage, I pulled myself closer and gave one of those tempting berries a lick and a kiss, causing her to moan softly and wrap her arms around my head, pressing my mouth against her breast. Sucking the hard nipple into my mouth, I flicked the tip of my tongue over it, feeling shivers running through her.
The position was a little awkward for my neck, so I rolled us over again, so I could be on top with plenty of room to enjoy her fabulous breasts. Her moaning became more intense as I continued to caress her tits, licking and kissing them all over, while paying special attention to her hard nipples.
Fun as it was, I wanted more and moved down her body, kissing the soft skin of her flat belly, my tongue making small swirls with every kiss.
The downward movement had landed me on my knees and I took advantage of that by removing the weight of my body from her, hooked my fingers on the edge of her training shorts and pulled gently. Tristana understood my intention immediately and lifted her butt from the training mats, so I could pull the shorts down along with her panties. When they were on the middle of her thighs, she lowered her butt to the mat once again and lifted her legs, enabling me to take her shorts off completely before lowering her legs again, placing one leg on each side of me.
That gave me an unobstructed view of her pussy and it was a work of art, with swollen lips shining pink against the pale white skin, surrounded by a sparse bush of soft silvery hair.
Instead of going directly for her pussy, I placed my hands on her soft, firm thighs gently caressing them, the blue of my hands creating a striking contrast against her white skin. She shivered as I teased her by running my nails over her skin, my hand moving slightly higher up her thigh. Her breathing had become heavier, more ragged as I went, showing her excitement.