Descend- Seeing Stars

by Sean Oswald

  Leader Board:

  M: 9

  F: 286

  C: 215

  Cluster 1- Jay: Level 218 (M2, F150, C44)

  Cluster 2- Shu: Level 71 (M2, F38, C54)

  Cluster 3- Michael: Level 70 (M2, F27, C30)

  Cluster 4- Aroon: Level 60 (M1, F23, C30)

  Cluster 5- Jeff: Level: 59 (M1, F27, C28)

  Cluster 6- Lars: Level 55 (M1, F21, C29)

  Current Threshold %

  3rd- M- 0, F- 115 (Your Cluster: 0/25)

  4th- M- 7, F- 109 (Your Cluster: 0/63)

  5th- M- 0, F- 44 (Your Cluster: 0/44)

  6th- M- 1, F- 16 (Your Cluster: 1/16)

  7th- M- 0, F- 2 (Your Cluster: 0/2)

  8th- M- 1, F- 0 (Your Cluster: 1/0)

  Just as he had expected, according to the A’snkarnt system there were now only six clusters. His was bloated now to two men, one hundred and fifty women, and forty-four children. In fact, looking at the numbers told him that Cluster 1 was actually now more than half the remaining adults and all of the most powerful members.

  There were only nine men left, not including children and of those nine, seven of them were between level fifty and level seventy-five or past the 4th threshold. Another eighty-one women were in that group of which thirty-five were now part of his cluster. Those all had to be women that came with Cecelia and Trudi. It was a respectable accomplishment without having access to his body modification skill or fusion.

  The limited information that he had gained about the other clusters showed that a few of them had found limited ways to strengthen their bodies but none had mastered refinement of their channels in the way that Jay had. The unique set of skills that he had developed or his mindset or something had led him to thinking of refinement as a cultivation exercise. Apparently reading all those nerd books had paid off in the end.

  Of course, that reminded him that however many of the sixty he accepted into Team Jay he was going to be obligated to help refine them. And of course, he would be obligated to them for other things. He couldn’t help but shake his head. If anyone had ever told him on a Friday night gaming with his buddies back in college that someday he would have too many women wanting to sleep with him, he would have laughed.

  On top of that, if any of his buddies from back then heard that he had nearly sixty women at his beck and call with another sixty that would like to sign up, they would have wanted to strangle him. When he told them it was too much, they would have insisted on slapping him silly. Those were simpler days though when the entire fate of the human race didn’t rest on his shoulders.

  He looked at the numbers once more. Twenty-five of the newcomers were only past the third threshold, meaning between level thirty and fifty. They were going to require a great deal of work to bring them up to snuff.

  The sixty women on Team Jay were all at least past the fifth threshold or between level seventy-six and one hundred and five. Even two of the women from Team Miguel had made it there while the rest were past the fourth threshold. Of course, Jay had only provided minimal refining to the girls of Team Miguel. He had wanted them to be capable but had to draw a clear line between his team and Miguel’s.

  As for his fuses, sixteen of them were past the sixth threshold which was where Miguel was although all of them were higher level than he was. The fuses were all between level one hundred twenty-five and one hundred forty.

  Well, all except the last two. Amelia and Trina seemed to be having a race with one another. The competition was pushing them. Meikiyo and a few of the others had tried to race as well, at least until Higen was taken. At that point, his Japanese fire goddess gave up on caring about that. The others had simply fallen behind.

  There was no doubt that both Amelia and Trina had a drive for power, but neither seemed greedy about it. Their feelings were an open book to him on this issue even when they tried to hide it. They both feared being left behind by him and wanted to try their best to keep up with him. Last time he had checked the shared status sheet they were both at level one hundred and fifty-nine. It was definitely impressive and had granted them both access to using a fifth level of boost for skills.

  He really had to come up with a plan for this and he needed to do so soon. The sixty women deserved answers. More than that though, holding over twenty-one million PSI had made him come to a hard conclusion. Instead of feeling invincible it made him feel vulnerable. He didn’t know how much further he needed to push to reach the level at which he could protect his wives, children, and team. But it worried him. He had to decide just what he was willing to do to reach those heights.

  The time for a decision at least on some of the issues was upon him. He reached the room where the rest of cluster one was waiting for him. He could hear a storm of thoughts coming from the room which had been a cargo hold converted into a large-scale meeting room. Another project from the science department. Amelia and Trina might have the greatest drive to level but some of the science girls, especially Ava, had every bit as much drive as them, just in a different way.

  Before he could walk into the room, two beautiful women walked out of the room, as opposite in appearance as they were in personality. One was a relatively petite blonde with just the best breasts that drew his attention. The other was several inches taller and possessed of cocoa skin that made him ready for some chocolate. It seemed appropriate though. He had been thinking about them and what was that expression about thinking about the devil summoning him.

  “So, should I be insulted that you had some thought about the devil when you saw us?” Amelia asked. Both she and Trina stared at him as only a woman who knows her man loves her can.

  “Uh, it was just an errant thought. You know us boneheads, sometimes our minds wander. But shouldn’t we be going into this meeting. We have dealt with the rest of the clusters. Now it is time to set a plan in motion. I sense that the science girls have arrived. Their tempus fugit fields have all come down. Hopefully, some of them have good news for us,” Jay replied and then moved to walk past the two of them.

  Trina held out her hand and placed it on his chest. “Not so fast, we want to talk to you first.”

  He looked at them, and felt the tension rolling off of them. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing or maybe everything, it depends on what you have to say. I felt your worry earlier when you were creating the circuit with us. What was that all about?” Trina asked.

  Jay sighed forcefully. “It was just that I realized I am not sure that I know what true power is. We are all caught up in how much stronger we are than when we were on Earth. Certainly, all of us could be superheroes back on Earth. The fuses would practically be goddesses and I hold even more power.”

  When Jay didn’t expand upon that but left his words hanging in the air, Amelia asked, “What about that made you worry?”

  “When I had ten thousand PSI, I thought I had more power than I’d ever need. Then when I held fifty thousand the same. That first circuit when I held over a million PSI, I felt like I was a god. But is it just the narrow scope of my view?” Jay asked, almost as though he were speaking to himself.

  “Are you worried that you have hit a cap and won’t be strong enough, because so far you have handled everything pretty easily,” Trina said.

  “I wouldn’t call some of what we have been through easy, but yes we have won. I just don’t know the scale of the enemy we are going to be fighting. What if we have to deal with a hundred spaceships that can blow up planets? What if it is thousands?” Jay asked.

  “Or tens of thousands,” Amelia added ominously.

  “Okay, I get that. You are realizing how big the threat is. The truth is the threat was always there, we were just oblivious to it. More than that, we still don’t really know how big the threat is,” Trina said.

  “I mean, that is true, but I always seemed to gain enough power to handle every threat. My leveling has slowed to almost nothing. The only way I seem to be able to gain levels is to fuse now. A
lthough, I hope that if I were to get my skills leveled up that I would be able to gain levels normally again,” Jay said.

  “We have both noticed our leveling slowing too. I guess it makes sense that with our skills so far behind our stats that it might be hard to level up. It is even worse for you since your stats are so freaking high,” Trina said.

  “I don’t really see the problem. We are about to start intensive training. Skill levels will go up obviously. And if fusing is the way to increase levels, then fuse more,” Amelia said.

  “You really want me to just fuse all of Team Jay? I want to like the people I’m fused with. I want them to like each other as we are all part of one greater whole. And if we survive this, we are going to have a long time to live together,” Jay replied.

  Amelia rolled her eyes. “If things were normal then I would not want to share you with anyone. But why does it matter who you are fused with if you don’t survive. Survival is the first pre-requisite. So maybe start with those who will take an exclusivity oath, those that we can get along with, but in the end, you have to do what you have to do.”

  As always, Jay recognized the pragmatism of his blonde wife. She had started out things between them on the same note of practical necessity and that hadn’t turned out too badly. That memory brought a smile to his face. There was a reason that he often dreamed of bathtubs. He looked from Amelia to Trina.

  “Fusing with so many so quickly before was necessary but it made me feel scattered,” Jay said.

  “That is why you need to handle this more systematically. Take on new fuses more slowly. But Amelia is right. If we don’t survive, none of the rest of this matters,” Trina said.

  “So what are you proposing?” he asked.

  The two women looked at each other. Jay didn’t even think they were telepathically communicating, but just doing that thing that women seem to be able to do. Amelia was the one to speak first. “Do you trust us?”

  “Yes. I’d be a poor leader if I demanded that you trust me without extending it back when you have earned it. And for that matter a worse husband. I don’t always agree with you, but I do believe that you want what is best for me, for all of us,” Jay answered.

  “You aren’t gonna like this, but you need to listen,” Amelia said.

  “There are two hundred and ninety-five human adults left, not including the sleepers. With the sixty women that Cecelia and Trudi brought we have more than half of those people. Even though we are the strongest, ruling simply by might is not a good long-term strategy. So, we need to grow Team Jay,” Trina said.

  “We barely know those women,” Jay protested.

  “You barely know them. We have assigned the women of Team Jay to make friends with them as best we can. While it has only been a day on the leviathan and a week on the ship, tense times like this help form quick friendships. We have gone out of our way to bring them onto the team. And that is saying a lot cause you know I’m not the friendliest person in the world. Hell, neither of us are,” Amelia said and then smiled at Trina who simply nodded.

  “I assumed that Miguel would take on at least half the girls, I already have sixty girls on my…” Jay paused, searching for the right word. Actually, he knew the right word, but was somehow still hesitant to use it.

  “Harem, I think that is the word you were looking for. Just call it what it is,” Trina said.

  Amelia continued, “And we knew that was what you were gonna be thinking. Here is the deal though. We identified about nine of the newcomers that we don’t really get along with or don’t think would fit into Team Jay, but we would like you to offer a place to the rest of them.”

  “How do you even have time to get to know all these girls?” Jay asked.

  “Delegating, something that you still need to work on,” Trina said.

  “Oh yeah, and we only have sex a couple times a day at best not dozens of times. Even with your time powers you still have a lot on your plate,” Amelia said laughing. Then she continued, “And don’t even let me hear you complain about having to sleep with more girls. In the grand scheme of things if that is what secures our future you can make the sacrifice.”

  Trina burst out laughing at that too. Jay couldn’t do anything but stand there and look at them. He suddenly realized what this was. They likely both realized he would have come to this conclusion eventually, but they were trying to circumvent his usual hand wringing.

  “Well, we should go into this meeting. I will trust you both though to point out who I should be inviting to join the team and who you think we should be fusing with next,” Jay said.

  “Oh, great so now we get to be his pimps just like Huong,” Amelia replied, laughing. Jay just ignored her and the three of them walked into the room.

  Inside he found all of Team Miguel, the rest of Team Jay and all of the sixty newcomers. With everyone here even the children had to be present, but they were all being kept by their mothers. Even Meikiyo was here.

  Jay did the smiling and making small talk before walking to the place obviously set aside for him to address the room. At first, he started explaining the decisions made earlier about containing the other clusters. The discussion took longer than he expected but, in the end, it seemed like everyone came around to understanding the necessity of it.

  The awkward question came from Cecelia. “Is that what you are going to do to us?”

  Trina answered, “First off it is very humane, you would hardly experience the passage of any time.”

  “Yeah but it would remove us from being able to work for our future,” a girl that Jay didn’t know said.

  Trina glared at having been interrupted before she continued, “But you have a choice. First off, we expect everyone from Team Jay and Team Miguel to participate and contribute. You all need to carry your weight. Jay may be too nice, but Amelia and I will make sure everyone is.”

  Huong jumped in and said, “Trina of course means to say that everyone has been doing their part.”

  Trina seemed to realize that she had been coming off too harshly because she didn’t even glare at Huong but instead said, “That is right. Now for everyone who was originally in Cecelia or Trudi’s clusters you have a decision to make. You can either agree to go into a field where it will only seem like an hour passes or you can join one of the two teams here.”

  Another girl that Jay didn’t know the name of called out, “You mean the decision is ours to make?”

  Amelia stepped in now and said, “It is a two-way street. Both the team and you get a say in it. I can’t speak for what the specific requirements are for Team Miguel, but Jay’s team has some rules, and you will have to agree to them. There are also perks obviously.”

  Miguel said, “I have discussed it with the rest of my team and under the circumstances we are willing to take on as many as a dozen more members, but I simply can’t divide my time any more than that. This will already be a sacrifice, so you need to be sure you are serious about it.”

  From there the room broke out into about forty conversations at the same time. Jay realized he wasn’t gonna get a word in edgewise, so he walked over to the nearest of his children, Sara, who was Rosa’s daughter. He leaned in and kissed Rosa on the cheek. She wasn’t exactly the most romantic with him, but they had continued to sleep together even if not as often as with many of the other girls.

  Jay had however decided that he didn’t want to lose the mother of one of his children, so he was going to push a bit more with her. He liked Rosa. It wasn’t a passionate love like he felt for Amelia, Meikiyo, or even Trina. She had always been a bit standoffish with him. When they did talk, they had nice conversations.

  She was a fascinating girl and the mother of one of his children. Sara cooed and played with his hand. He could hear emotions being broadcast by her young mind. As happened with most of his kids, they seemed to be delighted any time that he focused on them. That was a singular joy.

  He wondered for a moment if his own asshole of a father would have b
een a better man if he could have felt how important he was to Jay when he was young. Of course, the man’s actions had killed that and driven a wedge between them. So much so that he hadn’t even mourned when he learned that his father along with the rest of the Earth had been killed. Jay was determined to be a much better father.

  “I love seeing how she looks at you,” Rosa said.

  “That’s good cause I love her. She is precious. So is her mother,” Jay replied.

  Rosa stared at him like she wasn’t sure what to say back. So, Jay just kept going. “I know now isn’t the time and I know you aren’t sure about any of this, but I want you to know that once we get some time, I’m willing to date you or whatever you want to call it. I’m willing to put in the time for you to know that you are important. I want you and Sara to be in my life.”