by Sean Oswald
The fact that he spoke in their own language obviously shocked them. They quickly spoke in hushed tones and eventually one of the females whispered in the Leon elder’s ear. Then he called out, “How is it that you speak our language?”
“I have only just now learned it. I apologize if I sound odd. It was necessary for me to alter my mouth to be able to speak it properly.”
“That is an impressive ability, but it is apparently the least of what you can do. I must say that from what I was told about the Forlorn, I did not expect you to stop and speak to us. However, never let it be said that Jad-bal-ja is not strong enough to speak with a foe,” the golden maned Leon growled back.
“You have been mis-informed then. We are not Forlorn. We are the enemies of the Forlorn and have only recently left a vessel like this leviathan where your people are housed. I presume that the A’snkarnt brought you here from your world and were experimenting upon you to teach you how to fight the Forlorn,” Jay replied.
Again there was confusion, but the creature again responded, “If what you say is true then why are there no A’snkarnt with you? And why do some of your females have those metallic bodies?”
Jay looked around at his people. All of them have the B.O.B. armor on but must have some type of upgraded tech attached to their armor and some of Miguel’s people were in small personal mechas. He yelled at them to get out of the armor.
“Those are not cybernetic implants like the Forlorn use. We are entirely organic creatures just as you are. These things are like the armor and weapons that your people use.” The demonstration proved Jay’s words to be true.
“What is it that you seek then?”
“One of my children was taken by an A’snkarnt who was supposed to be our friend. I want my son back and I want an explanation for this from the being in question. Besides that, I want the A’snkarnt to answer for what they have done to my people. They have destroyed our home world and now all that remains of my race is here. They sought to make us a weapon to fight the Forlorn and I would hold them accountable for that,” Jay answered.
“And are you enemies of the A’snkarnt or the Forlorn?” The elder asked.
“Both. We will never trust the A’snkarnt, but I might be persuaded to leave them in peace if they will leave my people to be. From what I have seen the Forlorn must be exterminated, so in that much at least the A’snkarnt were correct. There is no bargaining with them.
“Now though the question remains. Do you speak on behalf of your people and if so, are you willing to negotiate with us?”
“You did not look like any of the other Forlorn that I have seen, although I was told that they can take other forms. I am inclined to accept that you are not Forlorn. And a male must do what is necessary to protect his females and cubs, but you or your women have killed many of my people today.
I am but one member of the council of elders. They may not be willing to speak with you, but I will suggest it. In the meantime, you may have to think of what you can offer in recompense for nearly a thousand lives.”
The elder was cut off by one of his females who came up to him. She was wearing the same robes that covered most of her frame down to her knees but looked like they would still have allowed her to spring into action. She differed from the other females in that around her neck was a necklace that appeared to be made of some type of red crystal.
That necklace was now glowing. Jay was fairly sure it hadn’t been glowing when they arrived. He focused on his Precognition but there was no danger warning coming. Either the necklace represented an attack, and it was no threat to them because of his dome, or it wasn’t an attack.
The elder nearly backhanded her at first when she came up to him until she held her palm upturned, and a small red flame appeared in it. That seemed to get his attention. A flurry of communication started and three of the other Leon women pulled out various objects from their robes. Each had a brilliant crystal on it, whether green, blue, or purple and all were glowing.
The Leon elder turned back to them. Jay didn’t know how to read the man’s body language but if he had been a human, Jay would have thought it displayed uncertainty. “Very well, I will meet with the council and if it pleases the Source, we shall meet upon this plain with you at first light tomorrow. But you must agree to keep all of your females on our ship.”
“I will agree to that except that four of them at a time will stand guard immediately outside of the ship. And you must have your people stay at least a mile back from the ship, “Jay replied.
“So it shall be,” Jad-bal-ja said. Then without waiting any further he turned and left followed by his females although the ones with the crystals kept staring back at Jay.
He didn’t know what that was all about, but it was definitely going to be something to think about later. Now though he had some wives to spank. Well, not literally, or most likely not literally, but he definitely was going to give them a piece of his mind.
Chapter 18- Jay Gets Angry
The cat people began to slowly withdraw while Jay started guiding his group back. He made sure to keep the dome up even as he shrunk it to channel it into a path to the ship. He didn’t say a word but the air around him shimmered around him and concentrated PSI energy around himself. He wanted to make a point.
“Martina, great job with the illusions. Don’t dismiss them but guide the illusionary people into the ship. The more of us that they think there are, the better.”
She nodded, and Jay made a point of only looking at her head. He was angry and didn’t want to let the sway of her hips soften that edge. Then he turned to Charlotte. “I’m placing you in charge of the first guard shift. Keep Esseme, Vermillion, hmm… oh I like the name change, Trudi, and Martina with you. Don’t you dare attack them unless they attack first and then only enough to get you all safely into the ship. And don’t you dare get more than a dozen meters from the ship.”
The tall blond nodded back and him. He sighed and then said, “Charlotte, I’m disappointed in you. I know you weren’t one of the instigators of this, but you didn’t argue against it. In the future, if it puts any of our people in danger, then my comfort is never to be a consideration. Do I make myself clear?”
She blushed and nodded again as she softly said, “Yes, Jay.”
Jay hadn’t come down on anyone other than Sherlyn during the training incident for all the years covered by the time dilation in training. He was known for going out of his way for the girls of Team Jay. Wife, fused, or just team member, they all received as much of his time as he could spare.
In fact he was burning the candle at both ends sometimes to try to train and keep everyone happy. The repeated and almost continual time dilations had affected him as much or more than the power ups and not just in normal psychological ways. There was a physiological impact, but he had been too scared to look into it any further. Tempus Fugit was the only way that he could manage what he needed, so he would just have to suffer any consequence of that once his women and children were safe.
After they were all inside the ship, minus the four guards, Jay stopped to look at the women with him. The illusions were now gone. He first said, “Miguel, you and your team are obviously welcome to do what you want. I don’t think this was a wise decision, but it was yours to make. Could you give me some privacy to talk with my team?”
“Of course, and for what it’s worth, I think they were just trying to look out for you,” Miguel said.
Jay ground his teeth but nodded at the man as he left with his team. Meanwhile he sent out a telepathic message to the rest of his fuses and asked them to teleport to his location immediately. With a few seconds the airlock that led out of the ship was crowded with the entire fusion except for the four outside. He just stood and waited to let the tension build.
Finally, once it was ripe, he said, “Bong-Cha, Alexis, Nalani, Sofia, Cadence, Faith, Daphne, Samantha, Scarlett, Saffron, Emma, Kayla, and Sora, you may all leave. But next time I expect you to stand
up for what I would want, not just what you think is best for me, especially when it comes to matters of safety. I don’t mind you trying to look out for me but never when safely is on the line.”
Multiple girls said, “I’m sorry,” but each time he just nodded.
Then he looked at those who remained. His wives along with Maddy and CeeCee. Before he could say anything, Huong said, “I wasn’t even out there?”
Jay got very intense as he stared at her. “So, you are saying that you weren’t in on this plan? You didn’t know about it. Is that what you are saying?”
“Well no…”
“I didn’t think so. There is never a plan in my harem without you being in on it. So don’t try to say you weren’t responsible. I have been thinking about this as much as I could while dealing with that problem out there. What would you have done without me? So far none of you had died, but could you guarantee that was going to continue.
I’m not even sure that they could have killed any of you that were out there, but what about Miguel and his team? They don’t have your level of power and certainly not your durability.
And think about it. Even if you had managed to keep all the humans alive. How many of the enemy would you have had to kill. A thousand more, five thousand more. Normally an army breaks if the casualty rate gets too high, but if they felt trapped, well they might have fought to the end.
Did you want to be responsible for killing off an entire race of potential allies. And how on Earth am I supposed to make up to them for almost one thousand dead. What can I give them as compensation? We wanted allies not corpses. We wanted information not enemies. This universe is already hostile enough,” Jay maintained a deadly calm throughout his entire lecture, but he could see it was having an effect.
“It’s my fault. I was hoping to meet allies too, but I didn’t count on not being able to communicate with them. When they attacked us, I was too slow to really fight back. There were only a couple hundred of them initially and if I had just blasted them and ordered everyone back to the ship, we might have made it back safely,” Trina said.
The small room got quiet and Jay said, “Thank you for accepting responsibility but every one of you that didn’t object to this plan and didn’t wake me up is equally responsible. You all made me your leader, well that has real meaning. I have let you tell me when I do something boneheaded, even if I didn’t agree. Well, this was some boneheaded shit and you all should have known better.
I love all of you, but for now you are banished from my sight. If I work things out with this council tomorrow then hopefully things can get back to normal, but for now there have to be consequences. Trina and Amelia, I want you to set up a guard rotation schedule. Ava and Huong, you can see to whatever duties you have in the labs, but only essential stuff. The rest of the time I want you all in your rooms, and no telepathy.
This cost lives today. It is not a game. They may not have been human lives, but they were still the lives of fathers, who now have wives and children that will never see them again. I am your husband, but right now, I am your commanding officer, and we are at war. This sort of thing cannot happen again. Just pray that they don’t ask me to give up one of you to them.”
A bit of the edge of his intensity was blunted by his lecture but then he saw Huong standing there with a wicked grin on her face. “What could possibly be funny about this?”
The smile left her face, but she said, “I’m not laughing, that was my pleased smile. Certainly not about this. I agree it was a tragedy. But I did smile because you called all of Team Jay your harem.”
Jay just shook his head and then Astral Stepped back to his room and laid down. He had no intention of turning over even a single strand of hair from one of his precious wives to them, but he was still angry after all. The sleep he had gotten really had been something he needed. He felt so much more recharged now. He was going to have to cut way back on the time dilation fields. Whatever they were doing to him was unnatural but for now he was just going to mediate.
Jay began circling his PSI energy and feeling it flow through him. A portion of his mind was partitioned off planning contingencies for the meeting tomorrow, assuming that the council would agree to meet with him. For now, he just needed to relax. Watching the PSI speed through his channels was almost hypnotic. He sped it up and followed the flow.
After a while, Jay started to pay attention to how the energy bled out of him into the environment. That prompted him to keep his eyes closed but activate his PSI sense. He could see streams of PSI pouring out of him and every other one of the fused. The non-fused had tiny drops but most of it just dissipated without any clear stream of movement.
Not so for him and his fuses. They had clearly defined streams of PSI flowing out of them into the world around. Instead of wondering why he couldn’t see what was powering up his core to create the PSI he focused on where it was going when it left him. It passed through walls and many of the streams drifted out into space far beyond his ability to sense.
But something was different now. In the past whenever he had observed the flow of PSI leaving him it had always been uniform. An equal amount has always gone in every direction forming a sphere of streams leaving him. Now it was different. More like seventy percent of the PSI was pouring out of him towards the areas of the leviathan housing the cat people.
As he spread his senses out, he could see that the same was true for all of his fuses. Most of the energy seemed to pass out beyond the leviathan but some of it was stopped, almost like it was being absorbed.
Jay wasn’t sure what the significance of this was yet, but he knew it had to mean something. If the…, he couldn’t keep calling them cat people in his head. He knew the one race was Leon but didn’t know the names of the other races. If these people could benefit from PSI then maybe they did have something to trade after all.”
Interlude 3- To Flee Fate
Eesa was walking around the traditional meeting tent of the clan chieftains. It was a long-outdated structure made of materials that their ancestors had used thousands of years ago. It came from at time before her people had made it to the stars, from before they had mastered the atom, even before they had learned the resins necessary to craft the layered metallic alloys.
It was a cloth tent, sewn from the fur of animals taken in the hunt and bound together with metallic threads. The craftsmanship was fine, but it felt like a reenactment of their history. Still tradition always seemed to be important to the elders. Some of the clans valued it more than others, but even her father, Al-na-mar, chieftain of the Lepar clan had repeatedly said that tradition was what balanced a society.
Eesa wasn’t sure that any of that made sense to her, but she had been up in one of their mini fighters today. She had seen a woman flying in the air if she could be called a woman. It seemed more likely that she was a fire demon from the tales told to scare children.
Now the entire camp was abuzz. The normal tensions between the clans were gone. Tygar and Civet walked arm in arm and Leon laughed with Lepar. Coming face to face with monsters such as these beings that called themselves humans had driven the clans together more thoroughly than even the A’snkarnt had been able to do. Now, the four elders all sat inside the tent.
Jad-bal-ja was an honorable man. Her father had repeatedly told her this and she had seen it herself. He was not the type of pridemaster who led from the rear. He had spoken to the aliens. And unlike the shouted command they had all heard in their head, the soldiers on the ground had claimed that the huge pink human male had somehow spoken in their own common tongue.
Many strange things happened today. The might of the combined clans had been for nothing. This foe seemed more deadly than even the dreaded Forlorn. The A’snkarnt had all disappeared from the leviathan. But stranger than that, all the relics that had been near the strangers were now fully suffused with PSI energy. Even the ones kept with the builders and keepers had started to fill up with energy.
Normally such a
thing took more than a dozen years. This was part of why relics were so valuable. They could store PSI energy in their helite crystals and then depending upon the type of crystal the energy could be used for everything from healing to conjuring fire from the air. They were the tools of the mystics of old.
Technology had replaced such things in their modern life. Even those amongst the builders and keepers who maintained ancient customs were not able to hold more than a tiny amount of PSI in their own bodies. That made the relics necessary for working their powers. Thus, as soon as a crystal was charged there was always someone willing to pay for it to be utilized. Now though all the crystals in the camp were being charged in a single day and those that had been at the battlefield were charged almost instantly.