Descend- Seeing Stars

by Sean Oswald

  “Show him”, the Tygar elder said. One of the two women behind him turned and lifted the furs that were on top of one of the crates. Jay saw crystals stacked up within it. Every color of the rainbow was represented.

  The Civet elder was the smallest of them, and his voice reflected that, being higher pitched. He said, “What do you know about PSI?”

  Another staring match began. Jay and the others discussed telepathically how much they should reveal. They had a split in their opinions between telling nothing and spilling everything. Not knowing the right course, he chose something that he hoped would start a conversation but not give away too much.

  “The A’snkarnt experiment on my people was about evolving us to be able to handle PSI. You certainly have reports of the powers my people have. Those abilities are powered by PSI.”

  Suddenly one of the women behind Jad-bal-ja, the one with the crimson necklace asked, “You must have an incredible number of repositories to be able to do this. But if you don’t use helite crystals then what do you use?”

  The Leon elder looked back at his woman and growled. She took a step back and dropped to one knee with her head down and her hands on the ground with her palms face up. Jay took it to be a display of submission. The more he learned about the people the better.

  Before he could answer Jay heard Mia’s voice in his head, “Maybe she is talking about PSI crystals.”

  That made sense to Jay so he reached into his storage ring and pulled out one of the spare PSI crystals that could be fitted into his B.O.B. armor. “So, you mean like this?”

  All of the Tamoori eyes opened but the kneeling woman gasped. Jad-bal-ja looked back at her. “Do you recognize what that is, wife?”

  She stood and said, “Yes husband or at least I have a guess.” She walked forward and kneeled before Jay. “May I hold it?”

  He couldn’t see any harm in it, so he handed the crystal to her. She studied it for a second, then gasped. “Oh, by the Source, this isn’t possible.”

  The Civet elder growled, “What isn’t possible? Tell us mystic.”

  Jad-bal-ja looked over at the smaller elder and said, “You will not speak to my wife in such a manner. If you wish something of her, you speak to me.”

  The Civet bowed his head briefly and turned his hands palm up in the air before saying, “Please ask your honored wife to explain what she has learned.”

  The Leon elder nodded and his wife said, “This crystal is not helite, but it holds PSI energy. Even more astounding is that his crystal is holding raw PSI rather than the typed energy that our helite crystals contain. There is more to it than that. The PSI volume of PSI in this crystal is staggering. I can’t say exactly how much it is but there are tens of thousands of PSI.”

  “What do you mean typed energy?” Ava asked telepathically.

  The seated male Tamoori looked at Jay to see how he would respond, but when he said nothing, they seemed surprised. Jay noticed and finally said, “My wives have my permission to speak at any time. I may not always agree with their actions like yesterday, but they always have my support.”

  That comment caused an even bigger stir amongst the Tamoori both male and female but finally the mystic wife answered, “Some of our people have a mystical skill passed down for thousands of years. Each of us usually have one type of power that we are the strongest with, but even then it is necessary to have a repository of helite crystal to perform any but small actions.”

  “The fact that you brought the helite crystals here says that you wanted to get them recharged and you realize that was happening in our presence,” Jay said.

  Ava jumped in and, “You don’t seem to place your mystics in a position of importance. You have found another way to use the PSI haven’t you. That is why you want all these crates charged up.”

  It was obvious again that Ava had hit the nail on the head as the Tamoori elders looked at one another and finally the Tygar elder answered, “I am Al-na-mar. The A’snkarnt were helping us develop ways to use them in our star fighters. Our people are widely known for being the best pilots in this galaxy.”

  “We are from a different galaxy, so I apologize that we don’t know about the fame of the Tamoori. Truthfully, prior to being taken for experimentation by the A’snkarnt a year ago, my people had never been further away than our own moon,” Jay revealed.

  “How can this be?” Asked the Civet elder.

  “We were changed by the A’snkarnt experiments, evolved. But that doesn’t really matter. What does matter now is that we may have a basis for exchange. I assume that you would like to have your helite charged?” Jay said.

  “Yes, that would be of value to my people, but you have created many widows and orphans,” Jad-bal-ja answered.

  “I am happy to help with ensuring that they are taken care of after we rescue my son, but doesn’t your society have some means of helping them out. I would assume that any race advanced enough to fly amongst the stars would have dealt with such things,” Jay said.

  “We are not prey to coddle the weak. Only the fit survive. If they cannot attract a new mate then they and their offspring will die,” Al-na-mar replied.

  As shocking as that was to hear, Jay was somehow not surprised. Then an idea struck him. “And how do they attract new mates?”

  “A few might simply because of their physical appeal but that is unlikely for any who have cubs. Mates are obtained as a result of alliances or because of a unique talent they have, but no man may take more mates than he can afford to care for. We, Leon are open to having as many mates as we can support, but some of the other clans are pickier,” Jad-bal-ja said.

  “So if the widows had some wealth, then it would make them more desirable?” Jay asked.

  “Yes, I suppose so,” the Leon answered.

  Jay smiled. “How much would one of these crystals be worth?” He pointed at the PSI crystal still being held tightly by the mystic. Then he paid very close attention to their thoughts. It was obvious that they were trying to conceal their excitement. He felt a bit dirty peering into their thoughts as he was negotiating, but this wasn’t a game. Fair didn’t count, only results.

  He was almost distracted as he heard Amelia speaking to him and all his wives, “Look at the boy scout. He is all grown up now.”

  Jad-bal-ja finally answered and said, “A crystal like this would be a treasure.”

  “Then I will provide one such crystal to the family of each fallen warrior. I will only give them to those families and that should help provide for them,” Jay said.

  The sounds that followed sounded like a massive cat choking up a hairball, but he assumed that it was their sound for shock. Jad-bal-ja was the first to regain his composure as he said, “That is an acceptable restitution even if the crystals will lose some value for there being nearly a thousand of them. However, there is still the matter of negotiating an alliance between us.”

  “Well even those crystals will eventually run out of PSI. So, I will offer our services to recharge your crystals in exchange for an alliance,” Jay said.

  “And what would this alliance entail?” The Civet elder asked.

  “Hopefully, it will be a long-lasting alliance for the immediate, it will require you to allow my wives and concubines access to the A’snkarnt database on this leviathan. Then after that it will require that we act as allies and we jointly fight the Forlorn to provide a future for all of us. We may need to train together and perhaps by combining our knowledge together we can create new wonders,” Jay answered.

  The elders looked at one another but finally Jad-bal-ja said, “The council of elders will agree to this on one condition.”

  “What condition?”

  “As the leader of your people you must be joined to our people,” Al-na-mar said.

  “Forgive me but I don’t know your customs, so I’m unclear what you mean by joined to your people,” Jay said.

  Jad-bal-ja said, “Simple, your blood must be mixed with ours. We will give you a
female from our people. Custom dictates that when tribes merge within a clan that a chieftain’s daughter must marry into the merging tribe. That means that their offspring will blend and the strength of the two clans will be joined.

  The Tamoori have never formed an alliance with an alien people. The A’snkarnt obviously thought of us as servants or children rather than equals. But if you would be equals you must enter into this exchange of brides.”

  Jay tried to answer in as diplomatic a way as possible. “We respect your customs, but it is contrary to the ways of our people to force a woman to marry anyone that she doesn’t want. There are women outside of my team who might be willing to marry into your clans but that will be up to them and it will not be decided at a negotiation.”

  The clan chieftains all looked at one another. It wasn’t telepathic communication, but they were clearly having some exchange of body language and when it was concluded, Jad-bal-ja said, “That is acceptable. If you are to respect our customs, then we must respect yours. So apart from the restitution for the families of the fallen, you will provide services to recharge our helite crystals and whatever these new crystals are called. We will provide you with knowledge and will fight the Forlorn alongside you. To symbolize this alliance, you will take as a wife the daughter of an elder from this council. The alliance shall last for as long as that marriage remains whole.”

  The only elder who hadn’t spoken was the Lepar. Now though he stood and said, “I am Namur-san, elder of the Lepar clan. It is my daughter who is being offered to you. As an elder, I understand the need for this. As a father, I am troubled by giving my precious daughter to an alien. You are pink and hairless and while your might is not in doubt, it is not the same type of might that my people know.”

  Jay turned and offered a shallow bow to the man who was apparently about to become his father-in-law. It occurred to him that he had seven wives and was likely to eventually have more and so far, no in-laws.

  “I have a number of daughters of my own although they are only infants at this point. You don’t have to worry; I will treat your daughter with kindness and respect.” Jay didn’t add that if he were to do anything otherwise, his other wives who have his hide.

  Namur-san chuckled at that. It was somewhat intimidating. For while the man’s face was fairly human, his teeth were very clearly those of a predator and were put on prominent display as he laughed. “You misunderstand. As a father, I expect you to treat her with the same honor as you treat all of your other wives.

  As an elder of the Tamoori people it is my duty to remind you that you must take the marriage seriously if you wish us to take the alliance seriously. I do not know how your people couple, but of all the races we have encountered yours is one which has fairly similar structure to ours.

  And while it may be unlikely that our DNA is compatible for procreation, you will still do your best to cause her to bear cubs for you, so that your strength may be added to the Tamoori people.

  Finally, as a man of the Lepar clan, let me advise you that if you treat a Lepar woman with only kindness and respect then you are asking to have your hand bitten off. Our women respect strength. She will earn your respect or not on her own merits, but I advise a firm hand. She is not so docile as your current wives seem. Of all my children she is the one who had most often made me wish to pull at my ears. But she is also the most talented pilot of my clan.”

  Jay wasn’t quite sure how to take that advice so he simply said, “I shall heed your words. Again, I am not familiar with your customs but when is the wedding to take place?”

  “Why now, of course,” Jad-bal-ja spoke, taking the lead again.

  “Now?” Jay echoed back as a question.

  “You wish for our alliance to begin now, don’t you?” The Leon elder asked in return.

  “Obviously,” Jay replied

  “Well this marriage is the physical embodiment of our alliance. No marriage, no alliance.”

  “Very well. Then shall we go to meet my bride?” Jay asked.

  Namur-san looked at the kneeling woman at the left side of the tent and called out, “Eesa come and attend your new mate.”

  They were aliens so Jay shouldn’t have been surprised but it still felt awkward that they had been talking about this young woman’s fate while she was forced to kneel in silence. But he buried that feeling and looked at her more closely. She was wearing a leather vest that covered what appeared to be an ample chest but left her navel bared. She had tight fighting pants of some odd material and a utility belt around her waist filled with various gadgets. Her face looked fairly human except that her nose was a bit flat, and her furry ears popped up from the top of her hair out of the mop of dirty blond hair she had.

  From what he could see her torso had no more hair than an Earth woman would have. In contrast her arms and legs had what appeared to be a soft fur on them. He felt the strange desire to stroke her fur. Behind her she had a long sinuous tail that also had the same fur with leopard-like markings.

  She walked up and bowed before her father and knelt in their odd manner with one knee on the ground and her hands against the ground. He supposed that for people with claws the custom of presenting their hands with the palms up to show that claws were retracted had symbolic meaning.

  For his own part he wondered if he was going to regret having a wife with actual claws. Then again, he remembered the many times that Jessie had raked his back with her manifested claws and realized this wouldn’t be so odd. Besides what guy had ever watched anime and not thought about what a cat girl might be like.

  She repeated the bow to the rest of the council, then Namur-san said, “Eesa, my daughter, I give you to this man, Jay, the ruler of the humans and our new allies. You will be his wife. You are no longer of my house but are now of his. You shall seek what benefits him and perform all the duties of a wife as he desires. You shall seek to bear him cubs and your talents shall be his to direct. May he prove worthy of you, my daughter.”

  Eesa then turned and bowed to Jay. This time though she held the bow longer and it started to feel awkward. Jay realized that he must need to do something, but of course he had no idea what the right words were to say.

  So, as he had been for the past year, he just decided to wing it. “Rise and be accepted into my house, wife. I shall shelter you, provide for you, and protect you for so long as you are faithful to me.”

  She stood and leaned in to sniff him. Whatever she smelled must not have been too bad because she licked his face. Jay knew in an instant that he was in over his head. He said to her, “Take your place with my other wives. We will be going back to our ship. Listen to Amelia,” who he pointed out as he spoke. “She is my first wife and manages my home.”

  Eesa growled under her breath and said, “For now.” But she went to stand between Amelia and Trina.

  A brief discussion followed in which Jay learned that Eesa only got to keep the things that she was wearing when she left her father’s house and joined his. He was expected to provide everything else for her. That wouldn’t be a problem, but it was just another example of how harsh these people were. Definitely a patriarchal society but he decided since he was sleeping with more than one hundred women that he was no one to judge.

  “And when can my scientists access the computer logs?” Jay asked.

  Jad-bal-ja smiled, “Tomorrow. Tonight, you will have your hands full. You have a new wife to tame and an alliance to consummate.”

  Apparently, they took this very seriously. He retrieved the PSI crystal from the mystic. It wasn’t that he would have been opposed to them having it, but he didn’t want to devalue them any further. She was clearly reluctant to release her grasp on it, but when her husband growled, she pulled her claws back and handed it over to Jay.

  Then he decided that he had been polite enough to his new allies. It was time to show his power. He telepathically instructed all of his fuses present to be sure that they were all touching one another and asked Amelia to mak
e sure she had a hold of Eesa. Then he reached out and touched his first wife. With a surge of PSI, he teleported all of them back inside the ship. He smiled as he imagined the shock that must have caused.

  Interlude 4- Final Reckoning

  The very stars around the A’snkarnt home world were trembling. For more than three light years in all directions the crafty A’snkarnt had seeded space with traps. They were not warriors though and there was only a limited number of ways that they utilized their traps.

  The sheer power of missiles that destroyed planets, bombs that created miniature blackholes, and even automated gun satellites capable of firing pulse cannons with absolute precision were terrifying. Most any enemy other than the Forlorn would be daunted by such defenses. They might even decide that taking one little planet with the infertile remnants of a dying race only numbered in the hundreds, wasn’t worth it.