Descend- Seeing Stars

by Sean Oswald

  DESCEND – SEEING STARS

  by

  David Burke

  License Notes: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This ebook is licenses for your personal enjoyment. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Descend- Going Deeper

  Copyright © 2021

  David Burke

  Cover art copyright

  © David Burke

  Contents

  Chapter 1- Final Steps

  Chapter 2-Organizing

  Chapter 3- Red

  Chapter 4- Expanding the Team

  Chapter 5- Breaking into Pods

  Chapter 6- Refining

  Chapter 7- New Ways To Do It Wrong

  Chapter 8- Time Is So Unfair

  Chapter 9- Fusing Skills

  Chapter 10- Family Time

  Chapter 11- Momma Mia

  Chapter 12- Rebellion?

  Chapter 13- Three of a Kind

  Chapter 14- One Man’s Stand

  Interlude 1- Amongst the Wives

  Chapter 15- Nanium

  Chapter 16- Giving Her What She Wants

  Interlude 2- Let Him Sleep

  Chapter 17- Forgot to Set the Alarm

  Chapter 18- Jay Gets Angry

  Interlude 3- To Flee Fate

  Chapter 19- Alliances

  Interlude 4- Final Reckoning

  Chapter 20- Expanding the Fusion

  Chapter 21- Three Million Years Ago

  Chapter 22- Feeding the Flame

  Chapter 23- Really Meeting Eesa

  Chapter 24- Throwing and Jumping

  Chapter 25- Refining Eesa

  Chapter 26- To Be Tamoori

  Chapter 27- Bonding with Eesa

  Chapter 28- Snipe Hunt

  Interlude 5- Too Late

  Chapter 29- Scope of the Problem

  Chapter 30- The Battle to End all Battles

  Chapter 31- It Comes Down to Jay

  Chapter 32- Chasing Fire

  Chapter 33- Battlefield of the Mind

  Chapter 34- But You Can Do Anything

  Epilogue- New Beginnings

  Chapter 1- Final Steps

  Approximately 1 week before Book 4, Interlude 8

  Jay was running laps through the Ark. Physical exercise was simply a good distraction to everything that was going on. The trip towards the other leviathan was going to take almost a month. It sounded long and boring, but the ship was massive; it wasn’t like being stuck in a confined area.

  Still, he felt constrained. For the first time since they were taken from Earth there were no monsters to fight, no dungeons to explore. They had a target they were headed for even if they didn’t fully know what to expect when they got there. Of the month needed to reach the other leviathan, only a week had passed, and Jay was already starting to feel stir crazy.

  He couldn’t help but wonder if this was a sign of permanent changes in his personality or if it was related to anxiety from Higen’s kidnapping. It wasn’t as though there wasn’t a great deal for him to do every day. He still regularly had to cheat time in order to make time for everyone.

  The other clusters wanted time from him to figure out how humanity was going to be organized moving forward, his wives and for that matter all of Team Jay had expectations on his time, and then there was Meikiyo who was stuck in a dark place. Higen’s capture weighed heavily on Jay but it tore her up. Jay at least was able to find solace in activity.

  The thing that surprised him most of all was that despite the fact that they had a new growth stimulant that had no aphrodisiac effect, he was in no less demand than before. Sure, there were some of the girls that didn’t seem to be that interested in sex anymore, but there were others who were even more interested. He chalked it up to the realization that they were free and the desire that came with knowing they were making the decision on their own, not because they were chemically induced.

  Of course, he also prided himself on having learned some pretty top-notch technique by this point. Between simple physical practice, fused connections, and his sensual projections, sex was every bit as superhuman in quality as their other abilities.

  That thought brought around another tension. Of the fifty-nine girls in Team Jay fifty-four of them still wanted to be with him on a regular basis, and most of those expected him to make time every day for them even if it was with a group. At least the pods helped with those.

  Then there was the fact that he had seven wives and eighteen fuses. About twenty more girls wanted to fuse with him and a few of the non-wives, fused and non-fused alike, wanted to be made into wives. There were days that Jay felt he was stretched and pulled in too many directions.

  One of the best things that he had done was assigning Trina to be in charge of organizing the other humans. She and her team had taken over setting up living arrangements and had set schedules for them to have their implants removed and replaced with new ones. About half of the other clusters decided to have the new implants put in to guide their development.

  That left another half though that decided they didn’t want any further evolution. They didn’t take the new stimulant or get implants. They all possessed some abilities but many of them were no more than Tier 3 and far removed from Team Jay in terms of power. Of course, even within Team Jay there were clearly two classes. The fused girls had power at a level the others couldn’t imagine.

  The fuses had all their stats at well over one hundred with each of them possessing at least one stat over one thousand. Their stat totals were all over three thousand with the earlier fuses being more evenly balanced and the later fuses tending to have most of their power in a single stat. It made for some interesting tensions between even the fused girls. The one thing that it made crystal clear though was the need for skill increases.

  Even Jay realized that and pulled up his status sheet while running to clear his mind.

  M1789

  Level: 218

  Awareness: 3043

  Precognition: 73 - 0%

  Evolved Assessment: 301 - 0%

  Iron Will: 148 - 0%

  Evolved Telepathy: 204 - 0%

  Evolved Projected Bond: 287 - 0%

  PSI Sight: 80 - 0%

  Hyper Accuracy: 80 - 0%

  Durability: 2780 (3336-crown)

  Evolved Strength Forged Body: 316 - 0%

  Phase Burst: 86 - 0%

  Kinesis: 2888

  Evolved Kinetic Manipulation: 188 - 0%

  Evolved Genesis: 101 - 0%

  Molecular Separation: 80 - 0%

  Psionic Teleportation: 80 - 0%

  Mass Control: 80 - 0%

  Judgment: 80 - 0%

  Metabolism: 3226 (3871-crown)

  Evolved Adaptive Speed: 413 - 0%

  Primal Power: 87 - 0%

  Extreme Structure Reformation: 96 - 0%

  Chemical Creation: 80 - 0%

  Necrotic Absorption: 80 - 0%

  Formation: 3450

  Body Modification: 357- 0%

  Psionic Construct: 269 - 0%

  Temporal Manipulation: 199 - 0%

  Evolved Fire Form: 102 - 0%

  Matter Absorption: 80 - 0%

  Veil: 80 - 0%

  Psi Pts: 307,740 (331,760-crown)

  Fused:

  Amelia

  Huong

  Me
ikiyo

  Jessie

  Mia

  Ava

  Trina

  Bong-Cha

  Alexis

  Nalani

  Sofia

  Cadence

  Maddy

  Char

  Esseme

  Faith

  Daphne

  Samantha

  With eighteen fuses, Jay felt both more full and more spread thin than he could have ever imagined. Every moment of every day, he was receiving input from each of them. Their varied moods, thoughts, and dreams filled so much of his time. It was a closeness he had never expected and yet to have it with so many people was odd. He wondered if this was what those sci-fi races with a group consciousness were supposed to be like.

  Examining his status sheet though showed the real deficit. He had stats that were by any standard he could imagine, godlike. But his highest skills were barely ten percent of the stats. Back before all these fusions he had many skills that were nearly maxxed. To him this represented a real lack. Power was great but you needed to be able to handle the power for it to matter.

  As of yet he hadn’t agreed to fuse with any more of the girls. It seemed inevitable and he didn’t think he was putting it off other than just that he needed to catch his breath and adapt to being part of a single being that existed in nineteen bodies. Well, maybe it wasn’t quite like that but somedays it felt like that.

  Of course that wasn’t factoring the full fusion. Surprisingly, that had become the greatest bone of contention. Meikiyo and Trina had been repeatedly questioned by the other wives and then by the other fuses and even by the team as a whole. Everyone wanted to experience it. Jay got some colorful offers if he would only fuse fully with them for a little while so they could experience it.

  Huong was one of the more creative ones. She insisted on a daily basis that she needed to study it for science. Her grin would get particularly crooked when she suggested that she really wanted to be fused with Jay while he was being intimate with some of the other fuses. It was actually that idea which had most put Jay off of attempting any further full fusions.

  He only had vague memories of when he had become one with Meikiyo and Trina. It was clear from what they all remembered that it was something far beyond even the partial fusion that they all experienced now. It was the difference between complete unity and having a shared goal. The thing was that he didn’t remember what he had looked like during the fusion. He felt like he had been himself, but he had also been Meikiyo and just as equally he had been Trina.

  Jay had come to accept that he had a highly defined appreciation of the female form. He was no longer ashamed of that; truthfully, he was embracing it full on. That however didn’t mean that he wanted to be a woman or to have a female form himself. So, for now he was content to use the full fusion as a weapon of last resort.

  Already he could predict that he would be asked about it today. His time was split up too much. He had to work on refining everyone and spending other time with them. Jay hated to do it, but he was going to have to put his foot down. He needed to carve out some time for himself. He needed to train his skills.

  It felt a bit silly to complain about lack of time given the way that he could manipulate time, but that always seemed to have a cost to it. He was definitely tempted though to try a new way of manipulating time that he had thought of. Old Jay would have pined over it for a long time, but as he raced across the decks of the massive ship, Jay decided it was okay to try it. It wouldn’t hurt anyone, and if it worked, he would get a great deal more peace of mind. That thought brought a smile to his face.

  He hit the showers after his exercise and then called his wives together. It took them varying amounts of time to arrive, but each one’s appearance brought a smile to him. Jay really was a lucky man. He would have been blessed to have any one of these beauties as his wife, but to have seven of them…

  “Morning, wives, I thought we should meet and discuss something that I have in mind,” he said once they were all in the meeting room.

  “Morning, husband,” Amelia said before she leaned over the table and kissed him deeply upon his mouth. He wasn’t going to argue about it even if he knew that some of the others felt Amelia was intentionally trying to mark her dominance.

  Meikiyo, Mia, and Jessie didn’t move but the others all must have felt the need to prove their own place. Ava came and kneeled next to his seat. Trina leaned in and gave him her own kiss. Huong of course was the most flamboyant. She kissed him but didn’t stop there as she turned and planted a kiss on Amelia and then Trina.

  When Jay looked at her with an upraised eyebrow, she just shrugged and grinned. “You are always pointing out that we are all fused, not just you. So why can’t I kiss my sisters and fused.”

  Jessie laughed. “You are so crazy, Huong, but I love it.”

  “If you really love it, we can find out more about that later,” Huong replied without missing a beat.

  Jessie’s face got red, but she nodded her head as she looked at Jay and said, “Who knows.”

  “Not that I’d mind watching, but we actually do need to talk about serious issues,” Jay said.

  “Shouldn’t we wait for the entire team?” Mia asked.

  “No, I don’t think that we will. We will set up a meeting with the rest of us, and then with the other humans, but I don’t have the time for politics. We need to focus on finding Higen, dealing with the A’snkarnt and Forlorn, and finding a home for our people,” Jay replied.

  “I agree. It would take too long. We need a plan in place. Then we can present it to the rest of the team. As far as I’m concerned though, it is Jay’s decision to make. We voted him to be the leader,” Amelia said.

  “The other clusters didn’t vote,” Trina said.

  Amelia turned on her. “So, what are you saying, that we should have another general election?”

  “No, that is silly. I agree with you. Jay is our leader and none of the rest of them have a fraction of his power or even that of those of us who are fused. We don’t owe them anything. They already owe us their lives, so as far as I’m concerned, they either follow Jay or they get left behind,” Trina replied.

  The two women stared at each other for a moment and then both grinned and nodded. Since the threesome, these two had definitely been getting along better. They were both hard charging and ready to bring anyone into line who didn’t listen to Jay. It drove home the point of how important it would be to stay on their good sides.

  “The first question I have is how long will it take for us to arrive at the other leviathan?” Jay said, looking from face to face.

  Huong said, “It isn’t clear. The map information that we have been able to extract from the A’snkarnt systems suggests that it was a little over two million light-years away. The hyperspace drive technology from the A’snkarnt could have made the trip in about three months.”

  “Isn’t there a way to get there faster? Who knows what could happen to Higen during that time,” Meikiyo said desperately.

  “The good news is that Ava’s spatial jump drive moves us much faster based upon the data that we are collecting. I am guessing that it will take us about a month to get there,” Huong answered.

  “Is that true, Ava?” Jay asked while he extended his hand down and stroked her head.

  “Yes, Master. I’m sorry though. If I already knew where we were going, we could jump there in a single jump. As it is we can only jump as far as I can get sensor data for,” Ava said.

  “That isn’t anything to be sorry about, pet. It is amazing. Are you saying that the ship could jump more than two million light-years in an instant?” Jay asked.

  “Yes, well I mean if we had enough PSI. The way the jump works, the amount of distance doesn’t really matter. The jump drive just connects one location with any other known location. For that great of a span, we would likely need more than two million PSI energy. As it is now, we are powering the drive with PSI crystals, Master
.”

  “Would it help if I supplied more energy?”

  “Only if we knew the exact location and had either sensor information or personal knowledge of being there. I’m sorry, my Master, extra power isn’t the solution,” Ava replied.

  “Okay, so, we essentially have three more weeks then till we get there?” Jay said, looking from Ava to Huong.

  The two women looked at each other before Huong nodded. “I would say that is pretty accurate.”

  “Then it is incumbent upon us to make the most progress that we can before we get there,” Jay pronounced.

  “Well I for one get all turned on when you take charge. I absolutely love it, maybe not as much as Ava but there is something about a man with a plan. So, I don’t wanna seem stupid, but what exactly do we need to make the most progress in?” Jessie asked.

  “I told you what my goals are, but we honestly can’t work on those until we get more information. Hopefully, we will get that at the next leviathan. But we don’t even know what we will encounter there. We don’t know if the residents are another race being tested like we were.

  “If they are like the Bal’gi then we will have to be very careful with them and be ready for a fight. Either way, what we can work on now is improving our skills, technology, and teamwork. To that end, I’m going to make something of a drastic recommendation.