Chapter 40

***This article contains spoilers.***

## Summary

The team heads to the Maliri Regency. John recommends Jade become the Invictus pilot, and Rachel become Comms Officer. John returns Peter Koeman's call about the gift for John (Chapter 38). John declines the gems, but recommends donating them to orphanages.

Rachel presents her research:

* Rachel gained just over four inches in height,  bust increased a cup size, and gained eight pounds in weight, due to an increase in muscle mass. She tested her strength, speed, agility, and reflexes, and she's now at the top end of all categories achievable by Terran females. Her lung capacity has also massively increased, and oxygen transfer through the lungs is much more efficient.

* Progenitor sperm are bigger and more powerful than the Terran equivalent, but they are compatible.

* A girl doesn't go into a pheromone-induced daze on her first blowjob. There’s a component in his genes which is carried via his pre-cum, that causes a narcotic/anaesthetic effect. It’s an intoxicating, addictive, mind-numbing, throat-coating, pleasure-inducing, liquid relaxant, which tastes delicious to compatible females, encouraging them to ingest more. The more the girl swallows, the less she is affected by the sedative effects, until by the third ‘exposure’, she becomes immune to it, and the accompanying memory loss. The muscle relaxant properties still remain, which also protects a girl’s stomach, allowing it to stretch to accommodate all the cum, and the healing properties prevent any stretch marks from occurring.

* Additionally, that first time a girl swallows a load, the sedative knocks her out for 14 hours, during which time her body absorbs his cum, and her DNA begins to change, reprogrammed by his genes.

* The healing that they’ve all experienced begins with that exposure. It seems to start with more serious conditions first, then physical enhancements, and finally moves on to cosmetic improvements afterwards. The body reshaping takes a few weeks mainly because of the vast numbers of calories needed to grow new hair, muscle and bone, which were all fuelled by their bodies absorbing his cum to provide the energy for the change.

* Rachel's hypothesis is that John's Progenitor genes, which the girls swallowed via his cum, change them to a base ‘template’. The healing process took a while during the two week change, as their bodies had to radically adapt to adhere to this new template. However, now that they’ve changed to fit that template, giving them a fresh dose of cum quickly resets them to default settings, so to speak. This is why the girls were able to heal life-threatening injuries overnight.

* This constant repairing and healing effect occurs every time they swallow his cum. This means that they’ll be exceptionally healthy, and effectively immune to disease, as long as they' keep being able to. They'll also never suffer from aging effects. This means that as long as they still swallow his cum, they won’t age, grow sick, or die, barring fatal accidents or injuries in combat

* Her brain now uses a greater number of synapses, and the electrical activity has increased fourfold. There’s also conclusive evidence, that the areas of her brain that affect personality and behaviour have been rewritten.

* Rachel doesn't think John enhanced them like that just to be better soldiers to be used as his pawns, but rather that he likes his women athletic and healthy, so they’ll be strong and fertile when he wants them to start making babies for him.

* Alyssa has triple-helix DNA, which may explain her psychic powers.

Alyssa discovers she can now send thoughts to Rachel. When she talks to Rachel alone, she thanks her for doing what she's been failing to do: to get John to quit feeling guilty about the change. (Rachel called it the "gift.") Alyssa asked if Rachel meant what she said about them being changed to make good mothers, not soldiers. Rachel said "mostly." It was partially to make him feel better. However, John seems to do things differently. Feeding a new girl exclusively for two weeks isn't feasible for building an entire army.

Calara asks John why they aren't giving their new tech to the Terran Federation. John mentioned the traitors in High Command, and that he's not sure if the Terran Federation is their side anymore. Also, he considers the tech as Dana's to decide what to do with. Dana said she doesn't feel any particular loyalty to the Terran Federation: "*High Command can go fuck themselves for all I care.*" This shocked Calara, and they went back and forth until John ended it by summarizing, "*I think the Terran Federation is generally benign, and looking out for the best interests of humanity. However, they could certainly do far more to help out the fringe outposts like Karron, which are basically just run by the gangs and mine owners. They fight against the Kirrix and the Drakkar, who are unrepentantly evil, but they’ve exploited the pacifism of the Ashanath to ruthlessly expand Terran territory. A man like Rupert Grant should never have been allowed that far up the ranks, but ultimately he was a traitor who betrayed his people for personal gain, and the Terran Federation can’t really be blamed for that. I agree with what Rachel said about the Kintark conflict too, but with traitors in High Command, who knows what’s going on there exactly?*”

Then, of course, they had sex.