“Oh thank God! Bless you, the pair of you!" one of the men blurted.

“I'LL Let my wife know the coast is clear," he added, heaving a sigh of relief as he moved to Leave the room.

John waved away the thanks from the crew of the Calypso, nodding graciously.

"We better get back to our ship," he told the freighter Captain. "Will you be ok here?

“Our engines took some heavy damage, so we'll have to wait for assistance from Port Heracles," the Captain replied. "You go ahead though. Terran Federation patrols responded to our distress beacon, and said they'd be arriving in two hours. We never would have survived that long, if you hadn't arrived in time, thoug!

John smiled and said reassuringly, “We'll return to the Invictus and cover you."

He turned to face Alyssa, smiling at her as he said, “Come on, honey, we should let the others know we're okay."

The beautiful blonde nodded and waved goodbye to the Calypso crew. They clapped and cheered as the two of them left, the applause echoing down the corridors as they walked back to the Griffon to get to their ship.

“Are you ok?" Alyssa asked him as soon as they were alone, her voice tinged with concern.

“I feel drained and my back feels Like I just wrestled a bull and lost, but other than that I'm fine," John said honestly.

"You managed to rip apart steel with your bare hands," Alyssa said, feeling awed as she remembered John tearing the cyborg's arm off his body. "I've never seen anything like it!"

“Adrenalin rush I guess," John shrugged. "I just knew I had to stop him from hurting you and then I sort of blacked out."

“Well thank you for saving me," she said as she smiled at him gratefully, realising that John had no answers to explain his mighty surge of strength.

They arrived at the docking collar between the Griffon and the Invictus, and John activated the airlock into the Assault Cruiser by placing his hand on the DNA reader. The airlock door spiralled open, and they headed into the ship, with Alyssa sealing the airlock behind them.

"We're back on board," John said into his watch communicator after he got through to Calara.

“Disengage from the Griffon and provide cover for the Calypso. Relief will be here within two hours. We're going to our room to get out of this gear".

“We were so worried about you two!" the image of Calara said, forgetting to call him Commander she was so overwhelmed with relief.

John smiled at her affectionately, and said, “We're fine, honestly. We'll catch up with you soon."

Calara grinned at his smiling face and waved goodbye.

“Executing your orders, Commander," she said cheerfully, ending the call.

John slumped, having put on a brave face for the Latina, and walked wearily to his quarters with Alyssa watching him closely as she kept him company. They entered their walk-in-wardrobe, where the beautiful blonde helped him gingerly peel off his armour, trying to be careful not to hurt his back or shoulders.

Sparks walked in on them just as Alyssa had taken off the Last of John's armour from his upper body, exposing his muscular chest and arms.