by David Burke
Jay said, “Yeah, yeah. I know but it can still be hard having people planning out what is best for you.”
Mia nodded and said, “Ultimately there are a number of powers that we felt were the most important and the list of volunteers was nearly as long as the list to get pregnant. So with all due respect to your advisors the wives narrowed it down. It was not easy because the distribution from pods is not the same but these are the five that we want you to consider first.”
Meikiyo added, “We tried to keep the list shorter so as not to overwhelm you. If none of them please you, then we will try to find others, but each of them has a power that we hope they could transfer on to you. Of course we can’t be sure how any of it would work, but still.”
Jessie said, “You need to do everything in your power to become as strong as possible. If we can share you like this, even share ourselves then you should be able to do this too. You need to be able to protect our children.” For a moment there her voice sounded more like her primal self, and Jay felt shivers go down his spine.
“Okay, show me the list,” he said, resigned that this was something he needed to do. Yes he wanted to get more powerful, but no matter what, he wasn’t interested in being stuck with someone for the rest of his life if they couldn’t get along. The trouble between Amelia and Trina already proved that point.
Mia projected the list up for everyone to see.
Madison- mass control
Bong-Cha- extreme regeneration
Esseme- incarnate
Daphne- power amplification
Faith- psionic teleportation
Jay looked over the list. He could tell they were studying him, both his face and searching his emotions through their connection. He did his best to keep a poker face. Maddy and Daphne he knew fairly well. If he were going to expand his relationships then Maddy would have been near the top of his list, but he wondered if that would require Char to be part of the package deal.
Apparently, more of his emotion leaked out than he had thought because Huong said, “Yes if you fuse with Madison she will be hoping you do so with Charlotte as well, but no one was promised any such thing.”
“And you are going to have to decide if you are fusing with them to become stronger or because you want to have relationships with them, lover,” Meikiyo said.
“Or because you need more pets, Master,” Ava added.
Jay didn’t answer any of them. Certainly Madison’s power was impressive and versatile. Daphne’s power would be interesting. He didn’t know if he could magnify his own powers or not, but if so that would possibly be the most useful.
The other three girls he didn’t know nearly as well. Bong-Cha was a good sparring partner, but he understood the deep sorrow that filled her heart after the death of her brothers. Jay also wasn’t convinced that the extreme regeneration would be as valuable as the other powers. A part of him felt that if he got to the point that regeneration was what was saving him then they were probably already screwed.
Esseme, he knew as the French girl with the sexy accent. For some reason, Hanna’s Slavic and Esseme’s French accents just did it for him. He didn’t know her very well and probably couldn’t have told you what her power was but now that he saw it laid out in front of him it made sense.
Incarnate allowed her to create a copy of herself filled with her powers. It didn’t give her two equally powerful duplicates or anything like that. She still had to control the form that she created and most of her power went into that form. The trick though was that she could send it into danger and if it was destroyed it simply dissipated into so many particles of energy, without any appreciable backlash to her. At least that was how he remembered it being described to him.
Faith was another beauty, but of course they all were. She had grown up in a highly religious family and her power had to do with wanting to be able to go anywhere she wanted. Having experienced her teleportation ability he had to agree that it might be as useful as any power that the group possessed. It was an excellent get out of jail free card.
“Okay, I can see the reasons for your selections. I will give full consideration to this. For now, I think I have some dates waiting for me tonight,” Jay said.
“You don’t have to sound so enthusiastic about it,” Meikiyo said.
“It is a biological imperative hardwired into me. I doubt that I could feel bummed out about this if I wanted to. But… I will say that a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do.”
As soon as he spoke he jumped to avoid a small ball of fire that landed where he had been a second ago. Precognition combined with fusion made it impossible for him to get hit by one of his other parts unless he allowed it. Most of the time he let them land their blow against him, because it wouldn’t really hurt him. That time though, Meikiyo had put a bit too much energy into it and Jay didn’t want to have to take time to replace another set of clothing.
He did make one stop though before attending to this not so onerous duty. Well really a circuit of stops. He visited each of his children. He might only be able to spend ten minutes with each, but that still led to him making Huong wait over two hours for him. The night was young though, and he really enjoyed seeing his kids. Especially Michelle and Jaxon. Of course the fact that they were starting to toddle around made them more fun to him.
Sitting there watching Jaxon pick up a rock that should have been impossibly heavy for a normal toddler reminded him that there was no manual for this. He knew he loved more women than he ever would have thought possible. He loved fighting the dungeon floors, but he also loved holding his children. And while there were definitely complications he was truly coming to love being a guy with essentially sixty women around him.
No one could tell him the right decisions to make. He had to play it by ear. That also meant that no one could say that his decisions were wrong either. It was just that he sometimes hesitated to make decisions because he knew that he didn’t want to screw things up. He truly loved his growing family and after tonight it was going to be growing even more.
Interlude 4- Tete a Tete
The two A’snkarnt looked at one another across a vid screen. S’vanth had been unwilling to meet in person. From what D’varn could tell, his counterpart was hunkering down and trying to build up the most defensible position possible.
“You have to give me something to offer them, or why would they negotiate with you. Even me, they barely tolerate and I am trying to give them some limited technology advice,” D’varn said.
“I will give them something when they give me appropriate bodies that I can wipe clean,” came the same tired reply.
“If you want trust from the hoomans you are going to have to make the first concession,” D’varn argued.
“Trust hoomans? Are you insane? Sometimes, I wonder how you ever got appointed as the head science officer of this project. You have viewed their history. Hoomans are lying, back-stabbing, murderous little animals. Even these evolved hoomans are only more powerful versions of the same,” S’vanth snapped.
“That is your problem, you look down on them. All the while you talk about taking their children and using them.”
S’vanth pressed some buttons on one of the consoles next to him before he turned to look at D’varn again. “Of course, they are lesser beings. I will elevate the body that I choose to make my host. It is an honor and they should be happy to offer up their children.”
“Your grasp of inter-species ethics astounds again, S’vanth. This is all a moot point though. The Forlorn are only a short hop away from here and even fear of the gravity weapon is only going to keep them at bay for so long. They know that there are only two leviathans left and that if they both fall then their victory is inevitable,” D’varn said.
Silence greeted him back. The two stared at one another.
“Fine, I will give you the codes that you need to send the male-less clusters to merge with M1789’s cluster, but I won’t allow any other males in there because they migh
t contaminate the breeding pool,” S’vanth said.
“Very well, I will see if this motivates them. I have done as you asked and not implemented any further level of birth control for the hoomans. I am sure with the elevated levels of stimulant as well as the biological imperatives programmed by the implant that they will start breeding faster soon.”
S’vanth gave the A’snkarnt equivalent of a smile as he replied, “You don’t seem too resistant to this.”
“Not for the reasons that you want them for, but I still believe that an army of evolved hoomans would be able to turn the tide in the war. Time is really the only problem in my mind. Which, again, I ask, why won’t you work with me to get the leviathan moving. The defenses here are enough to stall the Forlorn only so long. If we worked together we might be able to get the leviathan into hyperspace and then we could move to a new location and gain some time for this experiment to play out,” D’varn said.
“No, I told you the quantum reactors are broken and the hyperspace drive is damaged. Even if it could be repaired we wouldn’t have the power for anything as extensive as moving a ship this size. Maybe a cruiser but not a leviathan,” S’vanth said.
“Fine, I will let you know what they say, but don’t try to back out of this. The hoomans are not fools and I still believe they are our best hope,” D’varn said.
“Perhaps, but perhaps the Tamoori will prove more useful. Either way, I have sent you the codes that you need,” S’vanth replied.
Interlude 5- Vultures are Circling
Caj Decius, Overmind to one of only two Forlorn armadas not participating in the assault upon the A’snkarnt home world, stood looking out the view screen. His view was empty, the scene quiet so to speak. It always was like this, until it wasn’t. Space was vast even to the Forlorn, vast and empty. They had waited here. Other matters had occupied his mind, but now it was time to move.
Yes, this was exactly where he wanted to be. He kept contact with the other Overminds. Most were intent on the upcoming battle with the A’snkarnt. Victory was a foregone conclusion, but they expected to pay with tens or hundreds of millions of drones and ships by the tens of thousands. The enemy might be cowardly, chaotic and unfit for battle, but they were also devious.
It was that trait of the A’snkarnt that had Caj’s armada sitting here on the edge of this tiny solar system. Nine planets if you counted the tiny one on the outer edge, a small and young star, yet so much fuss about this place. Twik Evni, the other Overmind that wasn’t at the attack against the A’snkarnt, was doing much the same as he was, hunting another leviathan.
Supposedly from the data they had received the other leviathan was a training ground for the A’snkarnt last attempt at building warriors who could defeat the Forlorn, as if such a thing were possible. These Tamoori were known to Forlorn. Conquest had never reached them, but it would have within a few more decades.
Caj knew that Twik took undue pride in being tasked to defeat this last great threat as he put it. But Caj thought his mission to be the more important of the two. There were simply too many irregularities coming out of this tiny solar system. The A’snkarnt had actually destroyed an entire planet simply to keep its inhabitants from the Forlorn.
If the scans were correct there had been nearly eight billion of these humans on the planet. Disgusting that any race should so overpopulate a planet but, rapid procreation seemed to be one of the strengths of this race. The limited data he had received before Commander Mapor had stopped transmitting or had been cut off suggested there was something odd about this race.
Then there was the one claiming to be a new Overmind. That was a first. For a creature to be consumed and in the process of being converted into a drone, but then to overwhelm her captors, well that was just unheard of. The Forlorn were methodical in the conversion and nothing was left of the former being. Yet not only had this human done exactly that but she had turned the other Forlorn on the ship to her service.
Commander Mapor and the others were cut off from the collective but the little data they had been able to gather suggested that they were in some way being sustained by this one who went by the designation, Jasmine. She was still connected to the collective mind and had even breached the level of the Overmind. Most frustrating though was the way that she was able to connect with them while keeping them from initiating contact with her.
She was an entirely new thing, a creature of pure chaos. Caj felt something as close to frustration as a Forlorn could feel that the other Overminds did not see the true threat that she represented. Potential for power or not, these humans represented too great of a threat. The Overminds worked in unity but each was empowered to work with all the authority of the collective on their own.
Caj intended to destroy this threat. And now, it would begin. He sent the first of his sorties out. Small drone ships, none that carried more than three soldiers, although one of the ships carried a commander on the long shot that they could make it through to the leviathan.
Caj didn’t know what the specific traps were that the A’snkarnt had planned, but he expected some combination of pulse cannons and zero point energy mines. They would be effective and if he could trigger them with smaller ships then he would take fewer losses before reaching the leviathan. If the traps didn’t trigger for smaller ships then he would simply have those ships begin attacking the leviathan. It was a win-win situation for the Forlorn, as it usually was.
Chapter 29- Domestic Life for Dungeoneers
The next morning when Jay woke up, he wandered between the houses for a while. Laundry was being done, babies and toddlers were playing, women were talking and their little community seemed like it was almost its own village.
His attention was caught though when the scans that he sent out almost continually on reflex picked up new life forms, lots of them. Those extra neurons paid off and his subconscious told him that there were seventy-four evolved humans. Wow, he could tell that they were all female and that fourteen of them were infants. About two-thirds of the adults were past the 4th threshold and the rest were past the 3rd. .
Jay was definitely liking the way that his mind could now compile extra data for him now. Oh and wait, he just realized that he was detecting an additional life form. It was D’varn. He had never been able to detect the A’snkarnt before but then again his Awareness had soared up and his brain was functioning at a new level.
A moment later he got a telepathic message from Trina. “We have newcomers. D’varn has brought a bunch of women and children.”
As tense as he got about Trina he had to admit that she worked tirelessly for them. She was up at the crack of dawn running the patrols and reported to him faithfully. He felt himself soften up towards her. Well soften up in some parts while other parts got stiffer. “I will be there in a second.”
“No,” Trina exclaimed telepathically.
“What? Why not?” Jay asked. While he waited for her reply he traced their connection to see what the fusion would say. He found some genuine concern but it was also laced through with jealousy. Interesting.
“These women are Tier 3 and 4. They have never seen you in person. Especially with the crown on just seeing you is likely to drive these women crazy. So please let me handle this. I will send D’varn to you, while we work on getting them and their children settled in,” Trina answered.
Jay thought about it for a second. “Okay, I will trust your judgment. You should probably let them pick a leader or two to send over to meet with me at some point. Unless you want to see if Miguel will take them all onto Team Miguel.”
“No, I don’t agree with that idea at all. Let your advisors or maybe your wives meet with them first. But you should claim as many of them as possible,” Trina said. The last part came out as the telepathic equivalent of speaking through clenched teeth. “I know you can feel my emotions and yes, I’m feeling jealous. I’m fused with you but I’m still the only woman on Team Jay who hasn’t… well you know. But that aside, more women ultimate
ly can only make you more powerful and if that serves to free us all then that is for the best. I take my oath to serve you seriously.”
Jay nodded to himself and said, “I’m happy to let you and my wives take care of vetting them.”
“My only question is what you want me to do about the women with babies,” Trina said.
At first the question confused Jay then he realized that perhaps they thought his refusal to sleep with any woman who still wanted to sleep with other guys would carry over to single moms. “If the baby’s father is dead, and they are able to move on then I will accept whatever decision you and my wives make. If they are still pining after their lost love then put them in the same category as any woman not willing to make an exclusive agreement.”
“As you command,” Trina responded.
“Oh, and after this, I am planning on a dungeon dive. I would very much like you to come along. I think it is getting to be time for us to have a talk. I would say just the two of us, but out of respect please ask my wives who they want to come along with us,” Jay said. He felt a sigh of relief and then he focused on the hoverpod of the alien floating into his view.
