As they were heading out of the room, he touched Alyssa's arm, holding her back. "Calara, could you go rack up the drinks please, we'll be along in a moment" he requested politely. The brunette nodded enthusiastically and headed towards the elevator.

Alyssa turned to him with a raised eyebrow “What's up John?" she asked curiously.

"You're taking our first ship-to-ship combat remarkably well" John said, his voice tinged with concern. "I just want to make sure you're really ok?"

Alyssa shrugged nonchalantly "I trust you with my life. You gave orders and I followed them".

Seeing his startled expression at her declaration of unquestioning obedience, she went on "You're a good man John" she declared, "I know the decisions you make are going to be the right thing to do” she said, caressing the side of his face gently.

“Putting it simply; we killed some bad guys, we saved some good guys. It's pretty black and white in this case" she said, reading his thoughts and seeing that he thought the exact same way about their encounter.

"So let's go get drunk!" She grinned at him happily “who knows how you might take advantage of us young women?" she smiled up at him, lightening the mood.

John laughed at her unassailable positivity.

“Ok honey, let's go" he grinned back at her.

The trio reconvened in the Officer's lounge, with Calara playing bartender. She grabbed bottles of vodka, soda water and Lime and mixed up some refreshing cocktails for herself and Alyssa. She chucked an expensive bottle of whiskey John's way and he smiled happily at her as he caught it deftly. His glass clinked merrily when he dropped in a couple of ice cubes and he then poured himself a drink.

The three of them brought the bottles with them and curled up on a comfy sofa, the bottles sitting ready on the coffee table in front of them. The girls got John to tell them about his old war stories and he regaled them with tales of boarding actions and intense fire-fights. He didn't bother to sugar coat his stories as he would for civilians, he figured they deserved to know the realities that war could sometimes bring. The girls sat enraptured by his stories, amazed at how much he had been through in 10 years of military service.

They got progressively drunker as the evening went on, eventually dissolving into fits of laughter as the topic of conversation changed to lighter subjects. It turned out Calara knew a lot of dirty jokes and she had the other two in stitches with her ribald humour. John's face muscles began to ache from laughing so hard for so long.

Close to midnight after several hours of boozing, John sat in-between the two girls as they looked out at the twinkling stars in the endless sea of blackness in front of them. Calara and Alyssa were curled up under his arms, enjoying the view and the quiet peace of the moment.

"I never realised I could be this happy" John said suddenly, his voice catching.

The young women looked up at him adoringly.

“I love you John" they both said at the same time, triggering smiles on their beautiful faces as they glanced across at each other happily.

“I Love you too" he said, smiling down at them both fondly.

The merry trio walked back to the Commander's quarters on wobbly Legs and collapsed together on the bed in a drunken tangle of Limbs. They were all asleep practically as soon as their heads hit the pillow. John had had such a great night, he didn't even regret not taking advantage of his lovely young bedmates.

They awoke the next morning as one normally does after going on a big bender. Quietly, so as not to aggravate a throbbing headache. John and the girls gulped down some painkillers and had a Light breakfast before returning to bed for a late morning nap to sleep it off. They re-emerged around noon and John persuaded the girls to join him down in the gym.

Somewhat nervous, Alyssa followed behind Calara and entered the leisure area of the ship. Calara was a confident swimmer, so had no qualms about being around a pool. John had come down to the gym earlier to set up “a surprise", which he convinced Alyssa was not going to be a bad one this time. When he saw the teenagers enter the gym, he strode over to them and led them to the area behind the pool. He had activated the Jacuzzi and the warm bubbly water gurgled at them enticingly.

They all stripped off their clothes and John climbed in first and helped a nervous Alyssa step after him in to the large tub. Calara slid gracefully into the frothing water moments later and the three of them relaxed on the submerged benches, feeling the gentle streams of bubbles massaging their skin.

"This feels amazing!" Alyssa sighed happily as she reclined in the ‘lovely warm water.