Descend- Seeing Stars

by Sean Oswald

  Jay decided he was gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way in real time. He dropped the field. Any second now the others would catch up to him, but he would be deep in meditation. He set aside enough of his mind to react if there was any danger but otherwise poured all of himself into scanning outward.

  His scans detected thought, life, PSI, analyzed objects, could discern heat, metal, and a wide variety of chemical compounds. When he pushed, he could see things down to a molecular level, maybe even an atomic level with effort. But there was another way to use his senses too. His precognitive senses allowed him to see the flows of time.

  Now he was going to try to use that in a new way. Jay began pouring energy into his scan and tried to trace flows of PSI not just in space, but in time. He tried to turn the page back to his sight and see how the PSI had been interacting here yesterday.

  He started to feel a splitting headache coming on but at least he didn’t get an A’skarnt warning about messing with the space time continuum. He pierced back further, and the pain increased again, but now he was seeing the flow of PSI in this area, two days before.

  The general amount had greatly decreased. That made sense though, as the humans hadn’t arrived at this leviathan yet. Then gritting his teeth, he turned the page back again and was now looking four days in the past. The flow had decreased even further, but there was still PSI everywhere.

  His fingernails dug into his palms as he pushed again and was now peering eight days back. The same system existed. He just couldn’t find a source for the PSI.

  Jay took a deep breath and pushed again. A bright white light of pain hit his head and he knew what a migraine must feel like. Still, he had to persevere, so he pushed again and again a dozen times.

  That part of his mind which was set aside for calculations determined he was now scanning almost ninety years back in time. More than that with each jump the breadth of his scan jumped. He was now scanning out for over thirty thousand miles.

  It all told him the same thing though. PSI had been here in this area. Yes, the concentration was much greater around the humans, but it had still been here. He needed to check back further.

  The problem was that his mind felt like it was being put through a meat grinder now. Then he thought about Intellect Fortress and he buried his mind inside it, hiding away from the pain so that he could push himself beyond his limits.

  He was vaguely aware that he was now surrounded by his wives and fuses. He could feel their concern for him, but this was vital. He just knew it was. So, he did the Jay thing to do and pushed again.

  Rather than trying to widen his focus in space, he tried to focus more on moving back through time. Another dozen jumps back and thanks to the doubling effect he was now looking more than three hundred and sixty thousand years ago.

  The levels of PSI were low, but they were still present. Something was off though. He couldn’t explain it, but it seemed almost like PSI was dispersing from the area. Maybe there was a different source. Maybe it had been born here and he just needed to look back further.

  He doubled it again and although he knew he was screaming in pain, it was the pain of someone else. The sound that echoed in his ears might sound like his voice in agony, but he ignored it. And then again, he doubled it and then once more.

  Now almost three million years in the past and PSI was everywhere. There was a giant cluster of it. Millions and millions of points worth and it was slowly dissipating.

  Jay felt that he was close. He tried to push back further without doubling again. When he reached exactly three million years and seven days. There it was. A bright burst of PSI energy. It was hard to say if there was PSI before that but clearly something happened here a little more than three million years into the past.

  That was the last thought that Jay had though before he passed out as the strain overcame him. When he woke, he wasn’t sure exactly how long he had been out but realized that he was in his bed. Jessie was sitting next to him in a chair.

  Jay looked up at her vibrant blue hair, god she was beautiful. He must have been really knocked out for a while because all he could think about was how beautiful Jessie was. Not that she wasn’t but he was around beautiful women every moment of the day. It shouldn’t be affecting him like this.

  More than that, he realized how much he liked her. She was fun. Fun. The word sank in. It was definitely something missing from his life lately. Oh, sure he had sex, but when was the last time that he had just plain had fun. Of all his wives, Jessie was the one that he connected with the most in that way. She always had a smile and was always willing to get into trouble with him.

  “Glad you woke up. We were all beginning to worry,” she said as he moved.

  “Oh? How long was I out for?” Jay asked, flippantly. He was feeling playful and wanted to bait her.

  She laughed and said, “Oops. Sorry, I forget to turn that off.”

  Jay felt confused and the air around her seemed to dull. It wasn’t that she was less beautiful or less fun, it was more that he was less focused on it.

  “I have been practicing some pheromones. Apparently, they work very well on you,” Jessie said.

  His eyebrows knit together, and he said, “Makes sense, I guess. But you don’t need a pheromone to get my attention.”

  “Hasn’t felt like that lately. I get that you are always busy, and I get that some of your wives came before me. But you haven’t seemed very into me lately. Worse, the one thing that I sorta had that was unique is gone now. Why would you need me as your transforming beast girl when you have an honest to goodness cat girl now?” Jessie protested.

  Jay wanted to make a joke about getting into her every day, but he realized that Jessie was feeling a bit neglected. He looked back over his memories and decided that he hadn’t been neglecting her. Maybe he had focused a bit more on Ava lately, but he still loved the blue haired shapeshifter very much.

  He managed to stifle the sigh that threatened to come out as he wondered whether the biggest skill he was going to need over the rest of his life was the ability to juggle the emotions of multiple women. “Wife, I love you very much and any neglect you have felt has been entirely unintentional. And there is absolutely nothing for you to be jealous of Eesa for. You are a wife, I chose. She is a political wife. I will respect her, but she doesn’t hold my heart like you do.”

  Jessie smiled so maybe he really was getting better at talking to women. Then she said, “I don’t ever get tired of hearing that you love me. Maybe just saying that more often would be what I need. But as far as Eesa, I wouldn’t be so sure. I’ve gotten to spend a few days with her, and she is amazing. Brilliant scientifically with a far greater understanding than we ever had back on Earth, an amazing pilot, and a fierce competitor. She is definitely going to be fighting for her place in our little family.”

  He started to say one thing but then shifted midstream to, “A few days? You never said how long I was out for.”

  “Oh yeah. You’ve been out for three days. So, with the two days you gave us in the Tempus Fugit I’ve gotten to know her over the past five days. I’ve even been allowed to go on hunts with some of the Tamoori. It is so cool to get to transform and not have anyone look at me strangely.”

  “Shit, three days out. I knew what I was doing was hard but how badly have I screwed things up?” Jay asked.

  She ran her hand along the side of his face as he sat up. “Not at all. You have amazing wives. Eesa helped coordinate with the Tamoori. They did have some trouble working with women at first, but a few displays of physical strength got them on board. Trina has been running joint training with them, getting our people and theirs used to working with each other.

  Mia has been making PSI crystals and working with their scientists to oversee refitting their ships. Meikiyo has Huong and Veronica working with her to go through all the A’skarnt data. It appears that their home world is under attack by the Forlorn. The long-range scans and access to their database show that it isn�
��t tens of thousands of ships but hundreds of thousands attacking them.

  So, the news isn’t all good, but we covered for you while you were out. Oh, and by the way if the Tamoori ask, you were out hunting. Eesa said that would be the best story to tell them as that would earn their respect. She does seem to have your back over her own people, so do try to cut her some slack.

  I know I’m jealous of her, but she is a cutie in her own way. And I can feel confident at least for now, cause I know I could squish her. They really are rather weak compared to us. Their star fighters are impressive enough, but just wait till Ava gets done upgrading them with more PSI based abilities.”

  That was a ton to take in. “Has Meikiyo found any leads on where Higen might be?”

  “Um, she was able to track the shuttle that D’varn took to their home world, but there is no record of it landing there or of it leaving in the official logs,” Jessie said.

  Jay knew that Meikiyo must be getting frantic. “So, our only lead is a planet that is being attacked by a Forlorn fleet more powerful than any that we could hope to deal with? This is not fair. Maybe we can arrange a strike force that can sneak in if we can get close enough to teleport down.”

  They talked a bit more and Jay got a sense of what had happened while he was out. Eventually Jessie left. They had made out a bit, cause well, he just couldn’t help himself, but surprisingly they both managed to keep their clothes on. Maybe it was all the stress. Through it all though, Jay couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to happen in seven days. Well four since he had been unconscious for three of them.

  Chapter 22- Feeding the Flame

  Jay took the next hour and made his rounds with most of his wives and fuses. Unlike normal, he didn’t create Tempus Fugit fields, but simply checked in with each of them, found out how they were doing, and then gave them a kiss. The two that he knew were going to take more time were Meikiyo and Eesa. He knew that Meikiyo must be impatient to see him so decided to pull off the bandage and get this over with.

  When he found his fire goddess, she was going through long range scans of the Forlorn fleet. The leviathan’s scanners as good as they were couldn’t scan the fleet but the fleeing A’snkarnt had failed to cut off their connection to the main databases back on the home world. Those scans had detailed analysis.

  As he stepped up next to her, Jay said, “I love you, wife. Have you found a safe way for us to go after Higen yet?”

  She didn’t answer him for a moment but then turned and practically fell into his arms. “I can’t see a way through yet. The armada of Forlorn is larger than anything that even the A’snkarnt had expected. It is overwhelming. The reports show battles where automated satellites are fighting ships or where gravity wells have gone off disrupting space for millions of miles. Worse, Eesa says that those weapons can tear holes in subspace which will keep even the Tamoori star fighters from approaching.”

  “That doesn’t mean we will give up, but have you come up with any plans yet?” Jay asked.

  She was crying against his chest as she said, “I can’t see a way to get him even if he is on that planet and worse, it seems like any attack would result in the death of anyone who is involved. I want my son back and I would gladly give my life for his, but I can’t risk your life if there is no chance of success, let alone asking any of the others to go on a suicide mission.”

  “You don’t think that I am willing to risk my life for our son?” Jay asked.

  “I know you are. I’m sorry, I’ve been hard on you. I just miss him so much and hate that this happened. If we lost you though I would be dooming all of humanity and I can’t do that even for my son. It just hurts so much. How is it possible to love a little person that you have only known for a few weeks, so very much?” she asked rhetorically.

  They stood in each other's arms drawing comfort from one another for several minutes of silence. Then he said, “I want you to work on a plan. Use whatever resources you need to and let me know what I can do to make it work.”

  She looked at him for a second then said, “There is one thing that you can do, but I know you don’t want to. I was upset about that at first too, but I have had a lot of time to myself recently and I am thinking more clearly now. I do get it. It is a risk to all of us, maybe not a huge risk but there is a risk. And it asks a great deal of you because it's a lifetime commitment.”

  Jay didn’t say anything but looked at her. He didn’t know why he was worried about it, but yet he was. There was a part of him that didn’t want to keep fusing with girl and girl, but it was more than that. He was already at his breaking point in terms of how thin he could stretch his attention.

  None of them, even his fuses, knew the strain that continually being in time dilation placed upon him. He was afraid of losing himself to some grand hive mind. They already could finish each other's sentences and that was only because they still followed old human habits of speaking out loud. Most of the time they knew what each other was thinking without even trying.

  Then there was one other fear. Maybe it was irrational, but he feared the power. He kept thinking that he was becoming god-like but each time he saw a grander scale of power and threat. Now their enemy was a locust like swarm but instead of tiny insects it was massive star ships that were capable of destroying entire planets.

  Power had corrupted the A’snkarnt so that they lost their own ability to pro-create and then felt justified in experimenting on the lesser races. Power had corrupted the Bal’gi who enslaved the weak and drained their very lives to power the strong. Power had corrupted the Forlorn, who were bent on consuming the entire universe.

  On a smaller scale, his study of history had shown example after example of noble leaders turned to petty dictators by the taste of power. Each time lives were lost or ruined and the one with power always came to a sad end. Even their very myths were full of that. And in a far more personal way, his father had held all the power in Jay’s life for almost his first two decades. He had belittled and even beaten Jay all because he could.

  Those genes were in Jay even if he had evolved. Both the heritage of petty tyrants as a human and the specific lineage of lording strength over the weak instead of protecting them which came from his father.

  Still, Jay felt like a coward for not taking it on. There were still girls that Jay wouldn’t mind being more intricately connected with. Uremi, Abby, and Hanna were prime examples. Harper and Grace had already born his children and while they might not be his favorite members of Team Jay, he did get along with them. Then there was Rosa that he did want to fuse with but who was uncertain about it from her end. Add to that another dozen or so that had expressed interest and that was a great deal of girls to share himself with so completely.

  The power that he would gain from that many more fusions was staggering. He stopped the partition of his mind that made calculations from going there. Each fusion brought more power than the last one and each elevated him further beyond the girls. They made him simultaneously part of a larger whole and more alone.

  He looked down at Meikiyo and said, “I will do it if you say so. But maybe limit how many we do. We shouldn’t expand it any more than we have to.”

  First she looked up and there was a warmth in her eyes, the heat and light of a fire by which you might warm yourself on a cold winter night. But then the fire showed its hunger. For fire was always hungry, it always consumed. Finally, a hardness settled onto her face. “I am not eager to give away pieces of your heart to even more women, but for our son, I will rip my heart out. Do it.”

  He had offered. Her push got him over his fear at least enough to agree to fuse with five more girls, one for each of the stats. This time though he insisted on choosing his own. He would apologize to the others for not allowing them to pick as he had originally intended, but if he were gonna do this, he needed to make sure he picked women he could get along with. Besides, better to ask forgiveness than permission.

  Despite the fact that he cou
ld form a fusion in his sleep, Jay still took his time with each of them. He wasn’t even surprised that they all chose the traditional way to form the fusion and desperate times or not he made sure that they enjoyed it. He knew he sure did.

  It was scary to jump into this but by leaning on his offer to Meikiyo he was able to get into the first one and then it was easy from there. He really liked each of these girls and or they were the mother of one of his children. So, in order based upon the stat that they would get the biggest boost in, it was Harper, Abby, Hanna, Grace, and Uremi.

  As he had expected the boosts continued to escalate in power. When he fused with Harper, he gave her an Awareness score of seventeen thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven but by the time he fused with Uremi he gave her a metabolism score of thirty-nine thousand and forty-two. As all of the other fuses adapted, they all ended up with over just over forty-thousand in-between their five stats combined.

  That represented a total increase of almost triple the power they had been before. The same applied to him but now his lowest stat was over thirty-nine thousand and his highest was over forty-seven thousand, before the bonus from the crown. The increase in power took away not only his breath but also those of his fuses.