by Sean Oswald
“You keep saying you can’t be a pilot anymore. Why do you say that? Is it because your people won’t let you?”
Her thoughts were so powerful that he heard the words, “Could it be?” as clear as day even without trying to. But he didn’t respond and waited for her to vocalize.
“I am a wife now, not a warrior. I might not have chosen this, but I told you, I am a woman who finishes things. I will not bring dishonor to your house,” Eesa said.
“Several of my other wives are warriors. You would bring great honor to me if you remained a fighter pilot. I don’t want you to be in danger, but these are dangerous times. Not only that but you would be the only one of my wives who was a fighter pilot, so that would be very prestigious.”
“Lord husband, please do not play with my emotions like this.”
“I am not. And more than that, I meant what I said earlier about possibly having a way to make you stronger. That is if you are willing. There is some risk because I have never done this with a Tamoori, but if you are willing, I believe that I can make you much quicker, tougher, and stronger. And while we are here, Ava has instructions from me to work on making your fighter the best in all the squadron. We can’t have anyone else beating our house, now, can we?”
“I am already yours forever, lord husband. You can use me, mate with me, have me serve you, or anything else you wish, so I have nothing to offer you in return for this great kindness you are proposing,” Eesa said.
“First off, in my house, the women have independence and freedom. I will never force any of my wives to do anything they don’t want to. It might seem sometimes that I do with Ava, but it is something she has requested from me. You have met Amelia, Trina, Meikiyo. Do you think they would stand still for a man to take away their freedom?”
“It isn’t taking away freedom, it is fulfilling their purpose, but I will try to understand your ways. You also must remember that I am a Tamoori. I need to know that my husband will have a firm hand.”
“I showed you a fraction of how strong I am today. You must know that I could do whatever I wanted to. But what I will treasure from you is the day that we truly know each other, and you decide if you want to be with me or not,” Jay said.
A moment of silence started to become awkward and so finally Jay said, “Do you want me to try this on you?”
“What do I need to do?” Eesa asked.
“We just need to find a comfortable location where we can sit or several hours without moving. It would probably help if we were touching, but if that makes you uncomfortable, I can try without,” Jay replied.
“What kind of wife wouldn’t let her husband touch her,” Eesa said with a grin. She flashed her sharp, predatory teeth when she smiled. He almost suspected she was messing with him.
They both sat next to a small stream that ran through the area, cross legged in the long grass. Jay reached out and grabbed her hand. It was surprisingly warm, not quite as warm as Meikiyo since her fire powers had truly blossomed but warmer than he would have expected. Her palm was smooth and other than some thick call us like pads at the top of her palm and again at the tips of each finger.
That made sense for a being who had claws in each finger, retracted as they were. Her hand would have to be built strong enough to not be broken by a swiping strike. Instead of beginning the refinement or delving into her with his Life Sense, Jay found himself just feeling the shape of her hand. The back of her hand had very light fur, not as thick as her arms or legs.
He was surprised when he caught himself stroking that light fur. It felt pleasant to his fingers. Jay paid close attention to her reaction. She made a very faint, soft purring sound in the back of her throat that he might not have even heard before being refined.
“Lord husband, if this is how the process is done then it seems very pleasant,” she murmured as she batted her eyes. She was obviously a complete novice at seduction compared to some of the girls on Team Jay, but it was cute to see her try. He was startled again when he felt something stroking his legs and sliding up it to eventually slide into the opening of his short’s leg.
He had almost jumped until he realized it was her tail. That was kinda fascinating and it was doing some entirely fascinating things near a very sensitive part of him. Jay wondered at the precise control she seemed to have over it. He could see definite possibilities, but realized he needed to focus and began scanning her.
Jay sent his mind into her, trying to avoid reading her thoughts. Sensory Precision Mastery and Simple Telepathic Mastery were different skills, but he had developed a habit of using them simultaneously to gain the most information possible. By combining them he was able to sense and see the force of life in organic material, the flow of PSI, the thoughts of a living being, analyze the chemical composition of an object or being and even detect probabilities around them while examining the flow of time.
Her body was a wonder. It was already far more efficient than a base human body. The muscle fibers were longer, stronger, and more pliable. The bones were denser but also seemed more flexible. As he analyzed, he realized that she was definitely carbon based as he was, but there were alien elements that he didn’t recognize within her cellular structure.
Jay pushed harder trying to understand and activated his Expanded Mind skill which he had continued to Assimilate from Mia. It allowed him to utilize the knowledge of the others within his fusion. Then as he increased the PSI flowing into it, he was able to use the understanding of biology from Eesa and then eventually the Tamoori scientists and doctors.
The skill had tremendous potential with the only true downside being that he didn’t retain the knowledge afterward. Yet he hoped to counteract that by developing his own conclusions by comparing human and Tamoori physiology. She had some organs that were pretty obvious like a heart, three lungs, and waste filtering systems like a kidney, but there were also a couple of other organs that he wasn’t familiar with.
As Jay continued to scan her, seeking to understand, he could tell that she had mammaries much like a human woman. He was interested to note that on the surface her torso didn’t have any of the fur that was on her arms and legs. In fact, she was likely smoother than a human woman. He didn’t know why, but that was somehow exciting. Maybe it was because it made the prospect of what they might end up doing less odd to him.
Her reproductive tract was also somewhat different. He could tell that her cycle was much less frequent than the monthly visit from aunt flow that human women had, probably just once a year. But it also had the potential for much higher hormone levels if he was understanding what he saw. His best guess was that she went into a heat once a year or so that likely lasted a couple of weeks and was probably almost uncontrollable.
That put into a new light her repeated offering of herself to him. She had always given off the vibe that it was a chore but one which she was willing to perform, sorta like washing the dishes. Jay’s mind began to form wild speculations. He wondered if the Tamoori people hadn’t evolved with an annual heat for the women, but as they became more stable in their society, perhaps the men had realized that sex was pleasant all time even if it wasn’t for pro-creation.
That left him wondering if the female Tamoori all saw it as a chore except during their annual heat. He supposed that made sense. Then he saw something else. There were chemicals affecting her reproductive system. He started breaking down the compounds in his analysis and with the knowledge he was absorbing from the Tamoori, he realized that Eesa was on a form of chemical birth control that also served to mute her annual heat.
He guessed that in a civilized society at their level of technology, it was only reasonable to have found a way for their women to not become slaves to reproductive hormones once a year. A grin came to his face as he tried to imagine what Earth would have been like if every female between sixteen and fifty had experienced two weeks a year of uncontrollable urges.
Jay realized that his mind was getting distracted. Fortunately, the parts of
his brain that he had partitioned off to do behind the scenes chemical and cellular composition analysis along with probability of compatibility assessment had still been running. These alterations to how his mind worked had definitely been a huge improvement. A part of him even wandered down the path of thinking about what would happen when he passed the tenth threshold in only six more levels.
He smiled, he was wondering again, but the assessments came back. They were compatible. They would be able to produce offspring, but more importantly than that, Jay would be able to refine her body. The biggest difference was that she didn’t have a PSI core or channels, although there was a small part of her brain that seemed capable of storing up to a couple dozen points of PSI.
“I don’t know if you could feel that at all, but I’m done scanning you. If you are ready, I am going to begin the refining. I will go slow at first because I don’t want to hurt you, but there likely will still be some pain eventually. At first you will likely only feel some warmth and tingling. I will start in your legs and then expand from there,” Jay said.
“I am not afraid of pain, lord husband. Do as you will, my life is in your hands,” Eesa responded.
Jay realized at that moment that she didn’t trust him. How could she? He was an alien, literally. His people had come in and killed nearly a thousand of her kind in a battle that lasted less than an hour. Now she was being compelled to marry him out of a societal obligation. Yet despite that she took her duty so seriously that she put her life under his control.
Jay hoped he could build on this. It might not be much of a romantic beginning, but it was a beginning. He just needed to show that he was trustworthy. Then he could build from there.
Even with the differences, the work soon became automatic. He had done this so many times refining more than one hundred and fifty people, many of them over dozens of sessions, some even more. Doing the work by rote allowed him to focus more of his mind into other treks. A portion was dedicated to working out how he wanted this relationship with Eesa to go. Another part was trying to figure out how he was going to get to the Forlorn ships and the best way to combine Tamoori starfighters with overpowered evolved humans.
Finally, one last partition was busy mapping out future potential changes to Eesa. He would have to wait to see how the current changes worked, but they had time. That was the entire point of giving himself six months with her. Well, that and he just wasn’t comfortable with the idea of a fully political marriage. There was no way he could treat her the same as his other wives if he didn’t get to know her.
After four hours, Jay decided it would be good to let them both get up and stretch their legs so to speak. His skill level was so much higher now that he had managed to do three full rounds of refinements. If he was correct, she should now be about five times as strong as she was before. The problem was that he was reaching the limits of simply improving her muscles, bones, and connective tissue.
“So how about we take a little break. Be careful at first because your body may not react quite like you are used to,” Jay said.
Eesa tilted her head to one side slightly which he was coming to understand was the equivalent of nodding for Tamoori. She had been stoic in accepting the process of change. It had to have been painful, but she hadn’t let out so much as a whimper. “Yes, lord husband. Thank you.”
As she went to stand up, he grinned when the motion turned into a leap that propelled her feet a good three feet off the ground. She landed gracefully and then leapt intentionally a few times sending her up into the sky. When she landed, she took off running and streaked around, even going so far as to swipe her claws at a foot wide tree, practically cutting it in half with the casual swipe.
Then she ran back to him and did her typical submissive kneel, “Lord husband, I can never repay you for this. I am stronger than the grandest Tygar huntmaster and faster than fleetest of Civet trackmasters. This is amazing. How long will it last for?”
Jay felt strangely happy at her bubbling excitement over it. No matter how odd the idea of this arranged marriage, Eesa seemed like a good girl put into a situation she hadn’t asked for. Giving her gifts that pleased her was pleasing to him. “These changes are permanent, wife.”
With that she prostrated herself even more and let out a sound that was like nothing so much as a very deep purr. “You are too kind, lord husband. I know now that you will truly treat me as a treasured wife to invest so much effort.”
“Eesa, if I can sort it out, I plan to make you much stronger and not just physically, but it is up to you. I know the process can be painful and I don’t want you to think that you have to endure it.”
“It is your right as my husband to do with me as you wish. And because you are so gentle with me, I know that you won’t exercise that right with anything but my best interest at heart. If you believe this will improve me, then I will allow whatever you ask. You have earned my trust.”
“Thank you, I will not abuse it. Now, how about you show me how Tamoori fight. Become my instructor for a while. It will help me get to know more about your people and in turn will allow you to practice with your new body.”
A toothy grin told him he might end up regretting asking for this but once again her glee made it worthwhile.
Chapter 26- To Be Tamoori
Several hours later, he had been thrown and pinned as well as slashed and bitten repeatedly. So far, even with the upgrades, Eesa wasn’t strong enough to pierce his skin even without him activating Evolved Strength Forged Body. That wasn’t really surprising given that his base durability was now more than fifty thousand greater than a normal human.
That never seemed to daunt Eesa though. She kept trying and as she became more comfortable with his sturdiness made more and more aggressive attempts to break through his defenses. Jay found that he enjoyed wrestling with her. Her fur was surprisingly sensual as she flipped him around. It wasn’t at all like dog or cat fur but more like silky hair. Eesa clearly took care of herself.
“That was amazing. You are far heavier than I expected, lord husband, but I still had no trouble picking you up. I would guess you weigh half again as much as a huntmaster,” Eesa said.
“Is that a way of saying that I’m fat?” Jay teased.
To his surprise she didn’t immediately apologize but instead went along with him. “No, my lord husband, you actually seem to be very fit. Your muscles are your most attractive feature.”
Jay grinned, but then she added, “Which is a good thing to make up for your lack of fur, blunt teeth, funny ears, and odd shaped nose. To say nothing of your lack of claws and a tail.”
He simply shrugged and said, “No one can be perfect, but I bet your Tamoori males can’t do this”. Then with just a moment of thought he created a PSI blade and sliced through a three-foot tree. Before it hit the ground, he caught it with kinetic manipulation and then used Molecular Separation to turn the tree’s trunk into so much dust on the wind.
Then he fed energy through Genesis Modification Mastery and caused the branches to grow new leaves feeding them solely with his power before he finally burst into flame form and ignited it, incinerating the rest of the tree in a second.
When he looked back at Eesa, she said, “If my people had not outgrown the belief in gods, I would probably assume you were a god. With their belief in the Source, some of them may still end up worshiping you.”
Jay made a coughing sound and then said, “Truthfully, I still believe it is likely that humans are the source of PSI in the universe. You know a little bit about how much PSI your helite crystals hold as well as how much your mystics use, right?”
“All children receive some education on it but if they are not born with the mystic gift they are pushed into a path as a scientist, maker, breeder, which is what you would call a farmer, or a warrior. Now that the A’snkarnt helped us to use PSI with our starfighters I have learned more about it than ever before.
As an energy source it is fairly rare at least when compared
to nuclear, or solar, or geo-thermal energy as examples. Very little is known about it in that it doesn’t behave as particles or rays would. There is an expression that PSI is as PSI does, meaning the only real way to understand PSI is to see it in use. Even the A’snkarnt had no real understanding of it.”
“Okay, interesting. And how many PSI points does a helite crystal hold and how many can a mystic hold on their own?” Jay asked.
“The strongest of mystics can hold as much as one hundred PSI according to what I was taught but as an example, Jad-bal-ja’s wife who is a mystic can probably control thirty of forty PSI on her own. I don’t know the specifics about that.
I do know more about helite crystals. They range from one hundred for tiny crystals to the strongest which can hold ten thousand. Our fighters are set up to store crystals holding between ten and twenty thousand PSI, but we don’t have enough of those crystals so only a small number of starfighters can be fully equipped at a time,” Eesa answered.
