by David Burke
Second and just as importantly this was a shift in his view of his own role here. He had initially struggled with being a leader. Then he had struggled with the Adamic role of having a harem and recreating the human race. Now he had been struggling with the rush to power.
There was still a great deal to be afraid of. The warnings about the danger of temporal manipulation were not lost on Jay. While he didn’t view the A’snkarnt as infallible, he also knew that he would be a fool to completely disregard what D’varn had to say. His wives were more willing to ignore the little alien’s advice, but then again they had not felt what the strain of repeated tempus fugit fields had on him.
That feeling of not being in sync with anything around. It was real, and Jay knew enough to take it seriously. Sort of like the difference between recognizing good sore from a workout and bad sore from an injury. This was definitely not a good thing. The question was though, had he thrown out the baby with the bathwater.
Maybe if he used them more sparingly, they might not have such a detrimental impact. Perhaps, no more than every third day with two full days at a minimum between using the fields. He expected that with the continued increases in his power that he would be able to create larger and more powerful fields, with the hope of being able to train as many of the people as possible.
A secondary benefit might be the ability to allow the children to age faster from the perspective of the outside world. He would be lying if he didn’t say that the need to protect infants unable to even walk was a burden on him. Jay was unwilling to allow the children to age in a way that kept them from him and their mothers, but if the field was large enough he could keep them all together.
Then the next obvious issue was what to do about the fusions. He had done two or at least one and a half back to back almost. There was something odd about his fusion with Trina, but he had to admit that overall he only felt stronger. There was something of a strain on his body, but he wondered if that would fade with time. And there was no disputing that it was an effective tool for increasing his power.
Some simple math told him that if he gained eight levels from each fusion then fusing with the rest of Team Jay would place him far beyond the levels covered by the information they had gained from the recovered implant. If level two hundred and seventy was in fact the max level, then it would take him just over nineteen more fusions.
He tapped the side of his head. Was there even room inside there for all those connections? Each of the girls that he fused with felt like a little knot inside his head. There had to be some kind of cap on that. Or did there?
None of this was territory that any of them had any experience with. He would be lying if he said that he was confident that he could handle all of it, but he didn’t exactly have any other options. So far despite trying to explain about fusion to Miguel, the man had no aptitude for it.
He accepted that this needed to be done. But he was going to do it on his terms. One step at a time. He felt his wives all getting very close. They clearly wanted to talk to him but at the same time were trying to give him his space. The thing was with fusions, there really was no such thing as privacy.
Speaking of fusions, he felt a seventh woman there. Trina wasn’t one of his wives but if he knew her at all, it would be hard to exclude her now that she was fused. They would have to decide what the protocol was for how she fit into their hierarchy.
He sent out a message to them, “It’s okay you can join me. I’m sure we have some things to talk about.”
An instant later they were all sitting down on the ground around him except for Trina who was standing off a few feet from them. He started to try and speak just to her but realized that he couldn’t seem to create a channel that didn’t include the other fused girls.
Amelia said, “You could say that.”
“The reality is that I’m not ready to talk about most of this. Tomorrow we can sort out the details about Trina. I really hope that you all can work it out, but now we have real issues. We need to move from the third floor because it isn’t safe here and were we to be attacked while too many of our fighters were gone, the Forlorn could kill all the rest,” Jay said.
The waves of discontentment rolled off of his wives, with the exceptions of Ava who seemed quite pleased and Huong who had a mischievous aura about her. Meikiyo asked, “So what then?”
“We have to move to the sixth floor but in order to do that, there is a guardian that we must defeat, according to D’varn. So we have to put together a team. At the same time though we have to keep enough fighters here to protect everyone,” Jay replied.
“Surely they won’t attack again this quickly after their last defeat?” Mia asked.
From off to the side, Trina said, “Maybe, maybe not. But this isn’t a game. We can’t really take that risk. That is why Jay can’t go to the fifth floor.”
Jay was caught off guard but he suddenly realized he should have seen this coming. Trina continued, “Jay has proven himself to be the only one who can defeat the Forlorn.”
“I don’t know about that. Jessie, Meikiyo, and Trina destroyed a great number of them,” Jay said. “Besides, you know me, I can’t be stuck here all the time. No telling what trouble I will get into. But if it appeases you all any, I will start using one tempus fugit field every three days. If that goes well we can talk about every other day.”
“Why not more often?” Jessie asked.
“I will give it my all, but you are just going to have to trust me that using it too often causes me to feel out of sync. I don’t know exactly what it means, but it is not a good thing, of that much I am certain,” Jay replied.
Trina walked over next to him and Amelia moved to cut her off. The tall caramel-skinned girl looked at her shorter blond rival. “Don’t worry, I’m not trying to move in on your spot, first wife.” The last words were dripping with sarcasm, so much so that Jay stepped between the two of them.
He frowned at Amelia. “Not a good way to smooth things over. I am asking them to try to work with you, but you have to give a little to get a little.”
“Or in Jay’s case you have to give a lot to get a lot,” Huong said with a fiendish glint in her eyes.
“Not helping,” Jay said. Then he looked at Trina again.
She looked back before saying, “This is so much more than I expected. You really mean all of this. I can feel it. I mean I know you are wrong about some of it, but I am completely sold by your commitment to it. It is crazy.”
Ava said, “Master is a man who makes us believe many crazy things.”
Trina grinned in a way that Jay hadn’t seen her do since they arrived here. “I really thought that you all were overacting about this fusion thing, like you were trying to make everyone else jealous. This is crazy though. I mean it is like I know what he is thinking before he even says it.”
Once again Jay tapped the side of his head. “I can feel you in here too. In fact since passing the sixth threshold, I can read your thoughts most of the time.”
“What?” Amelia asked. “You are just now telling us about this?”
“Well, it only happened a couple hours ago and we have been sorta busy since then,” Jay protested.
“Sure, sure, a likely story,” Amelia said and then winked at him. “You’re so cute when you get nervous like that, husband.” She leaned in and brushed her lips against his.
A shudder ran down Jay’s spine. “So, are we agreed? Top priority is getting to the sixth floor and then we can sort out the other issues.”
All of the women looked at each other. He could sorta hear their voices but tried to not invade. The facial expressions were already telling enough. They were clearly arguing but unless he intruded, he couldn’t tell about what.
Finally Amelia said, “We are in agreement, reluctantly. We believe that the best opportunity to get through this is to take out the guardian as quickly as possible. Speed is our best bet to get this done safely. Those who stay behind will pack up and stay close
together, ready to flee into the fourth floor in the event of an attack.”
Jay nodded. “Okay, so who is going with me?”
Once again the girls looked at each other briefly. This time Trina spoke, “We don’t agree with you going, but respect that it is beyond our control. So, Amelia, Huong, Meikiyo, Jessie, me, and Madison are going to go with you.”
“Why Madison? I mean, I understand the rest of you and sort of even understand Huong going versus Sora or Kenzie. The latter’s ice would have melted far too quickly there and since the fusion Huong is just physically much stronger than Sora. The question is will the heat affect Huong’s plants too much and would Zuri be a better choice? Sorry, my mind started to wander there.”
Huong answered first, “I won’t be relying on my ‘plant powers’ as you said it and simply put since speed is important, you need people capable of moving fast. Trina and all of your fused wives have that ability. Meikiyo can do it with her flame form and Madison can be carried with her mass reduced. She can even help us all go faster by reducing our mass.”
Amelia added, “And now that you and I have access to healing, we will have three healers.”
Ava raised her hand again. Jay knew he was gonna regret it but said, “Ava, you are a full-fledged member of this group. I appreciate your respectfulness but I would prefer if you spoke your mind when it is just us, okay?”
She beamed with contentment at his words and the sentiment that she could no doubt feel behind them. “You could always fuse with Meikiyo, even Madison for that matter. Then they would be upgraded and if you granted them speed as an enhancement then everyone would be fast.”
“I already stressed that time is of the essence. We need to hurry to get everyone moved to the sixth floor then we can talk about more fusions,” Jay said.
He could feel Meikiyo’s hurt and it cut him to the chase, but he really wanted to get this done, now. It was made all that much worse by the slight surge of joyfulness he had felt in her at Ava’s suggestion.
“I call bullshit,” Mia said.
“What?” Jay asked, turning his focus towards her.
“You know what I mean, Mr. Time Lord. You have as much time as you need. Just create one of your fields and you can take your sweet time sorting out as much stuff as you want,” Mia continued.
Jay wasn’t quite sure why she was so animated about it, but he had anticipated this as an argument. He didn’t really have a good comeback, just a feeling that they needed to get to the sixth floor as quickly as possible. He had a way in his head that this was supposed to go down.
Finally he shrugged and said, “Look, I didn’t want to get into this right now, but if we have to. The fusion with Trina didn’t work completely. I am not going to do more fusions until that issue as well as the issue of how Trina fits in with the rest of you is resolved. I’m sorry that is just the way that it has to be. And there I am apologizing again.”
He tried to make eye contact with Meikiyo, but she refused, and then tried with Jessie. At least she would look at him but it was clear that she was hurt. Her face spelled that out even if he couldn’t feel it in their bond.
Jay tried to make it right by saying, “We have so many things to sort out. We need to figure out how this crown works. Maybe get some history of the Bel’gi from D’varn. We need to know what the PSI catalyst ability that you all got when you hit the fifth threshold means as well as what my Mind Reading ability can do.
“I also have some ideas about further refining that we may be able to do, not only in different environments but also perhaps refining or brains for more efficiency. Oh, and I’m pretty sure that with enough refining, I can reverse whatever the A’snkarnt did to us so that our babies are predominantly girls. Then we need to work out how to handle this douchebag S’vanth.”
Apparently though they weren’t having any of it. He was met by more than one icy stare. Finally Mia said, “Those things are all true. And for the records we actually learned about the Bel’gi while you were unconscious. D’varn seemed quite intent on telling us about them prior to reviewing our technology upgrades. We have been patient, but our patience has limits. You need to do what needs to be done.”
“Kill the boss. Move to the sixth floor. Then we can go down the list one item at a time,” Jay replied.
Amelia said, “Fine, but we need you to go around and personally comfort everyone. We will make sure the preparations are made, you just need to talk to everyone, let them touch your biceps, that sorta thing. Then we can leave in an hour. Meet us outside the entrance to the fifth floor.”
Then she and the others left. Trina paused like she was going to say something but then shook her head like she was groggy and walked away. The fusion with her was a bit wacky but he could almost feel lust oozing out of her and her confusion over it.
He almost didn’t notice that Meikiyo had lingered behind. She looked at him and all the hurt he felt through the bond was raging in her eyes. Her hair burst into flame and in a voice filled with deadly calm she said, “Fire doesn’t have patience. It has needs.”
Chapter 14- Rescued Before the Mission
Fear was rampant in the camp after the attack. They had been living on the third floor for over four months and while in the back of their minds everyone had to know that they were in danger, it had started to feel safe for many of the girls. Thus the attack struck at that sense of security.
As he walked around from area to area, Jay found the girls talking in small groups with friends. Anxiety was evident on many faces and even though they had won without any loss of life, for all too many this was a reminder about how fragile life was.
What baffled him the most though was how he seemed to be the only one that had a calming effect on the more scared of the girls. Jay had accepted that he was a leader, heck, he had slept with all of the girls on Team Jay, excluding Trina. But, he still didn’t know everything about being a leader.
How could he understand that a leader did more than fight, more than save lives? A leader has to create a sense of security and stability for those that are following. Even if security is an illusion, or perhaps most especially in that situation.
Today was causing that to sink into him. First the way that he was clearly not living up to the expectations that his wives had for him. Even more so as he spent more than half an hour hugging girls who somehow felt free to cry as soon as he took them into his arms. Something about his presence both allowed that dam to break and restored the sense of security.
When he told many of them that he would have a new, safer home for them by the end of the day, they just sobbed. Jay had expected questions. What he got was trust. It was unnerving. They believed in him more than he believed in himself. He would have to strive to be the leader that they needed, on and off of the battlefield.
He grabbed a quick meal and then headed to the dungeon entrance. By his calculation he was there twenty minutes early. This was good. It would give him a few minutes to sit down and look at his theory about refining his brain.
Plopped down cross legged, Jay began turning his scan inward. Instead of focusing on muscle, bone, or even his core and channels, he turned his attention towards his brain. It soon felt daunting. The level of connections and detail was greater than any of the other structures that he had worked on. As he opened himself up to a deep scan he could see that there were billions upon billions of neurons.
He remembered reading somewhere that a normal human brain contained something like eighty-six billion neurons and if his scans were correct his brain had something like one and a half times that many. Dealing with numbers like this was beyond his conscious mind but there was this underlying part of him that seemed to be capable of processing more.
Jay began to question whether he should mess with this. If his brain was evolving an automatic way of processing all of his powers, he might screw it up more than it was worth at this time. What if he accidentally cut off his ability to control PSI energy? That would be the end of him a
nd likely the end of all the others.
No, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that while this might bear fruit in the future he needed to focus on the safe gains. There were still so many ways for him to gain power that he had been putting off. Temporal manipulation and fusions were the most promising even if both scared him in some ways. Better the devil you know than the one you don’t, was the only appropriate expression that came to his mind.
Thinking about his fusions caused him to be aware that one of them was near. Oh, very near. He had been so lost inside himself that he hadn’t realized what was going on around him. He had to remember not to do these deep delves into himself without having someone watching his back.
Then his focus was broken as a warm body sat down on him straddling him as he sat there cross legged on the ground. Her legs were wrapped around him, breasts pressed against his chest, warm breath on his neck and lower down his most private of spots was being pressed against by hers, with only the thin layer of B.O.B. armor that they were both wearing in between them.