by David Burke
Jay pinched her backside as he leaned in and kissed Jaxon. “I never forget the schedule. I’ll have to think of something fun tonight.”
“Oh, it’s always fun. If I didn’t have Jaxon with me now, I’d say we could get an early start.”
He just smiled because he knew how seriously she took motherhood. The two of them walked for a while. Simple mundane things like this let Jay forget for a moment that in an hour he had an appointment to start refining whichever girl was scheduled for today. Then he would have a few hours of training, followed by a meeting with the advisors and finally he would make the rounds for the night before ending up at Jessie’s house.
Back on Earth he would have loved the idea of all this excitement. Now it was the quiet moments that he appreciated more than anything else. It was simply nice to walk and talk. She didn’t even pressure him about any of the things that he just knew she wanted to talk to him about. He knew that she was impatient for him to fuse with her. He knew that she was going to stop breastfeeding soon and likely would want more children.
One of the great things about Jessie though was that for the most part she didn’t pressure him. She was content to just have fun with him. He’d steal a kiss and she would act angry that he did that in front of the baby. She would shoo him away a bit and then he would end up behind her patting her firm ass and they would both end up laughing.
He carried that laughter with him into the rest of the day. Responsibility awaited. Some things couldn’t be shirked.
Interlude 1- Can He Be Trusted?
A few hours later while Jay was occupied with refining one of the newer girls, Zuri, another conversation was taking place at the tech division building. D’varn had appeared this morning even though it wasn’t the regularly weekly time.
“Have you made any further progress with understanding the crystals?” the alien asked.
Huong, Ava, and Mia were all gathered around his little hoverpod. It was interesting to Huong how similar this device was to the anti-grav cars that they had created. There were a number of others listening but for the most part only the three of them would speak with him.
Ava was the one to reply, “Like not much more. We already know that they conduct various types of power in theory but in practice they seem best at pulling the heat out of an area to create ice effects. We have cracked crystals by trying to channel electricity, sonic, shadow, psionic, and pure light energy through them. It’s like clear that they don’t work on the same system that our abilities do.”
D’varn replied, “There must be some connection. Our tests indicate that there are similarities between the evolutionary path that the Bal’gi were on with the one that you hoomans are on. It is highly improbable that a connection doesn’t exist.”
“We’ve tried adding or subtracting mass. Charging them, refracting power through them, slicing them up, and Nalani tried to absorb them to see if she could duplicate them. None of that worked. I can’t make crystals with the exact same structure even though they have some of the same form,” Mia said.
D’varn never truly expressed frustration. At least not in a way that Huong could understand. Yet, he seemed tenser today. His answers were terser. “You need to understand that there are time guidelines in the experiment. I can only hide the fact that I am helping you for a limited amount of time. Coreframe has not authorized this assistance.”
“Perhaps if you let us talk to your Coreframe as Jay has requested, it, whatever it is might be more willing to work with us,” Huong replied.
“Coreframe does not change. It does not negotiate. I may have been the lead scientist but I am not the final arbiter here. Besides that most of the systems here are running on automatic protocols. This vessel is too important to fall into the hands of the Forlorn,” D’varn said.
“And what about us? What about this vital experiment that you say we are?” Mia asked.
“Coreframe has concluded that the hooman experiment has value but the leviathan is a known commodity. If it falls into the hands of the Forlorn then the war would be all but over. The leaps this would provide them in technology are too great. So Coreframe would rather that it and the hooman experiment be destroyed than fall into the hands of the Forlorn.”
“You aren’t making it very easy to tell which aliens are the bad ones and which ones are the worst,” Mia retorted.
“You don’t mean that. I have observed this about hoomans. You say many things that you don’t mean. Deceit I understand, but this is not deceit. It makes no sense that you say these things,” D’varn said.
“Fine, then let’s talk about what we need from you to help us make this work,” Huong said. She had that smile on her face that Jay knew meant nothing but trouble. D’varn had no idea what he was in for.
_________________________________________
Down inside the ruins near the entrance to the fourth floor, Amelia was getting ready to lead a hunting group into the arctic dungeon floor. She had Charlotte, Madison, Bong-Cha, Harper, and Esseme with her. Just as they were preparing to enter though another group came out.
Trina, Sora, Kayla, Uremi, Abby, and Aurora all were shaking snow and ice off of them. Both teams nodded at one another and exchanged minor greetings.
Amelia asked, “What sector did you hunt? Just so we know where not to go.”
Sora replied, “We were mostly to the west of the elevator. Everything seems to be functioning just fine but you have Madison with you if something goes wrong.”
She was referencing a literal elevator that the tech crew had devised to make going up and down the mountain side easier. With refinement and some preparation most of the girls would be capable of scaling the mountain now, if necessary. Only the strongest few might be able to do it bare handed like Jay had months before but as a whole they had come a long way.
Even the weakest member of the cluster, Sheila, was level forty-eight now and nearing the fourth threshold. More than half of the cluster had actually passed the fifth threshold and were somewhere between level seventy-six and eighty-five with all of the wives being past level ninety.
Once Jay had stopped insisting that he had to go on every dungeon run, the girls had been given a great deal of real-world experience. They worked in teams of six and the combat-oriented individuals always protected those who were not. Adding to that the vast improvements in Jay’s refining technique and even the most refined of them were only marginally better than the worst.
Their bodies were now stronger, faster, and much more efficient than before. Overall teamwork was up and Jay’s looser morals had helped to improve morale greatly. Of course there were still some tensions.
Amelia answered, “Yeah, and I’m getting pretty good at the portals that we can actually step through. But thanks for the info.”
As she turned to leave, she felt a hand grab her upper arm. She reacted with lightning reflexes and spun with a blade of pure shadow ready to thrust it into whoever dared to attack her. It wasn’t so much that Amelia or any of them had become more violent, just that they were better prepared.
“Whoa, I just wanted to talk to you for a sec,” Trina said.
Amelia relaxed as the taller girl released her grip on her arm. “Okay, just a reflex.”
“Of course, more proof that we are getting stronger. The question though is it enough?” Trina asked.
Amelia frowned. “Just spit it out, Trina. What are you getting at? I don’t like word games.”
“An odd trait for someone who was gonna be a lawyer, but whatever. You know what I mean. We are out here every day busting our humps taking as many of the girls along as possible for hunting trips. We train them. We prepare them and it is working out. I’m proud to do this, because I want the human race to continue. I will fight to protect us all and I will serve Jay,” Trina said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad for all of the work you are doing. But I still don’t know if I trust your intentions with Jay,” Amelia replied.
“Believe wha
t you will, but I have turned a corner. I think Jay showed his history geek side when he called it crossing the Rubicon. There is no going back for me. Jay is my leader, and I will follow him till my death, just like I will kill anyone who tries to harm him. That includes protecting him from himself though too or also pushing him when he isn’t giving his all,” Trina said. Her glare was palpable.
“You know how hard he is working. He is up early and to bed late. The poor man barely sleeps. Well, maybe I won’t get too broken up for my husband who is fucking nearly sixty women. But the short answer is that he is doing everything he can for us. No one tries harder.”
“But is he really?” Trina asked.
Amelia glared at her but didn’t question what she meant. It was all too obvious and the problem was that Amelia agreed with her for the most part.
When no protest was raised Trina continued, “Why hasn’t he fused with the rest of his wives? It has been four months. I agree that the refining he is doing is important, but he could have done so in a time dilation. It would have accelerated the process by decades.
“I know as well as anyone the amazing things that the tech division is coming up with, but I also know that developing a spaceship for us to escape in is going to take years if not decades even with their genius and the help from the alien. Do you really think that we have that kind of time?
“Given the data that we have from the implant, we know that even Jay is only a little more than a third of the way to the peak levels that the A’snkarnt projected for us. If you add power from refining and fusion, who knows how powerful we might become. Maybe we will be strong enough that we won’t have to flee the Forlorn, but even if we do, we will be much better equipped to do so.
“So I ask you again, is Jay doing everything that he can do? Can we trust him not to be ruled by his fears?”
“I’m going to take your concerns at face value. Otherwise I would question your earlier vow to serve Jay. If there are reasons that Jay isn’t doing the other things that you are suggesting then I believe that they are legitimate ones. All I can say is that I will bring it up with him again,” Amelia replied.
Trina started to say something more but Amelia and her team disappeared into the dungeon entrance.
“You tried, boss,” Kayla said.
“Trying isn’t what this is about. It is about the survival of the human race. Did you see Amelia? She is what? Two levels ahead of me. She doesn’t spend nearly as much time training but the simple power of her fusion with Jay puts her far ahead of me. What would you predict? At least fifty percent faster than me?” Trina asked.
Uremi replied, “Boss, all the fused are super strong. Even the non-combat ones. Supposedly some of them have at least one skill in the 100’s. But Amelia is good people. Well, no, actually she is sort of a bitch. But she loves Jay and for his sake is doing the best she can to help everyone out. I think if it was up to her, she and Jay and maybe the other wives would run away together.”
“Jay would never let that happen and however strong they are, he is so much more than they are. You saw him in the ice castle. He was a force of nature,” Sora said.
“That was four months ago. Practically an eternity here. I can’t help but think that Jay needs to be shown the way forward. He’s just a man. He may need a nudge in the right direction,” Trina said.
“Trust me, boss, if he nudges you it will feel just right,” Abby said.
A pained look crossed Trina’s face. “I’ll let you know when I find out, but not till he is willing to fully commit. I’ve survived this long, I can go a bit longer.”
Chapter 2- Thinking It Through
Jay finished up his day of refining a bit earlier than expected. Part of this was because he was because he was getting faster at the process. Then again a part of it was probably because he was feeling anxious inside. While refining he usually got lost in the process.
It was very intimate and his habit had become to form a temporary bond with the women he was working on. At first he had thought that physical contact was necessary for the process but by now he had learned that he could do refining on an individual from across the room so long as they were willing.
Try as he might, Jay had never been able to force an involuntary body modification on anyone whether it be external or refining. Something about intent again, he supposed. Refining required that the person he was working with opened themselves up to him. It was as though he was inside them moving around and making the tiny changes that led to each level of improvement.
It struck him at that moment, just how much trust was being placed on him. Even people like Trina who still fought his decisions trusted him enough to give him unfettered access to her insides. It had never occurred to him to cause damage but he supposed that ultimately that would have been much simpler than the actual work of refining.
In refining he was pouring his PSI into their body, reshaping it. He made muscle fibers longer and stronger, bones denser while also more pliable. He encouraged the development of the protective structures over joints and other vulnerable spots. By this point all of them had a latticed mesh that ran under their skin and protected the abdomen from injury. The same and more for the throat.
Perhaps this was a reversal of what King Rantark had done with his Bal’gi elites. They were clearly his closest concubines or wives or whatever Bal’gi culture named them. They must have some level of trust with him. Then by using the crown and the crystals in their staves he was able to drain energy out of them to empower himself rather than pushing forth power to strengthen them.
Dark thoughts filled his mind and he was reminded of an anime he had loved. The villain had a power called All for One and his counterpart hero had the power One for All. Was that the difference? The Bal’gi king had claimed that he would show the power of a harem. For him that power was in the way which each of the girls added to his own personal power.
It wasn’t that the changes were not impressive. They obviously had been, even if still inadequate to deal with Jay. That didn’t seem to make up for the lack of synergy. Power combos demonstrated the potential for an impact greater than the individual components added together. Amelia and Meikiyo’s shadow flame combo as an example was clearly more dangerous than simple flames added to shadow bolts.
The other thing that frustrated Jay about all of it was that the Bal’gi power clearly wasn’t using PSI. Neither he nor people with skills particularly inclined to detect PSI, like Alexis, were able to see any PSI usage from the Bal’gi either during the fighting or later when Alexis was examining the crystals and the crown.
So maybe there was a principle to be applied. Maybe he could even reverse engineer what the Bal’gi did to benefit his people. What he couldn’t and wouldn’t do was use them for his own personal power.
Besides that while there were a few like Emma and Grace who had abilities that weakened or trapped the PSI output from another, no one had as of yet found a source for the PSI or a process of converting it faster.
Jay kept expecting it to be like some cultivation novel where he gathered ambient energy from around himself and then his body processed it into PSI. Yet that didn’t match, at all, with what he saw each day. Every person’s channels and internal PSI system was a closed circuit with special ways of releasing the energy.
It wasn’t as though everyone could just use the PSI however they wanted. They didn’t have the endless creative and destructive ability of gods. Their power always had specific forms that it worked in.
Even Daphne’s power after closer observation didn’t actually alter or enhance the output from an individual. Meaning she didn’t make Meikiyo’s flames stronger. Rather her ability stimulated that closed network of channels and increased the body’s own output of PSI.
All of this led Jay to the realization that he was going stir crazy though. He sent a telepathic message to each of the council members who weren’t wives advising them that he was going to go explore the fifth floor. So far they only
knew that the fifth floor was as fiery as the fourth floor was icy.
“Hey, as per our agreement, I’m letting you know that I’m going into the dungeon. I need to stretch my legs a bit,” he said.
Almost immediately he got back from Trina, “Okay, I will prep a team and meet you at the entrance to the fourth floor.”
“Thank you, but gonna need you to trust me. I’m not going to the fourth floor. Just gonna have a look around on the fifth. Past time for us to go deeper anyway. And as for the team, it is Jessie’s day, so I’m gonna give her first chance to pick the people for the team.”
Then he did that thing that infuriated the girls so much and he put up walls to shut off any further response from the advisors. There were others who were starting to display a similar ability but other than Emma, Jay was the best at it by far, at least up until now.
