Descend- Seeing Stars, Sean Oswald [best e books to read .txt] 📗

into a path to the ship. He didn’t say a word but the air around him shimmered around him and concentrated PSI energy around himself. He wanted to make a point.

      “Martina, great job with the illusions. Don’t dismiss them but guide the illusionary people into the ship. The more of us that they think there are, the better.”

      She nodded, and Jay made a point of only looking at her head. He was angry and didn’t want to let the sway of her hips soften that edge. Then he turned to Charlotte. “I’m placing you in charge of the first guard shift. Keep Esseme, Vermillion, hmm… oh I like the name change, Trudi, and Martina with you. Don’t you dare attack them unless they attack first and then only enough to get you all safely into the ship. And don’t you dare get more than a dozen meters from the ship.”

      The tall blond nodded back and him. He sighed and then said, “Charlotte, I’m disappointed in you. I know you weren’t one of the instigators of this, but you didn’t argue against it. In the future, if it puts any of our people in danger, then my comfort is never to be a consideration. Do I make myself clear?”

      She blushed and nodded again as she softly said, “Yes, Jay.”

      Jay hadn’t come down on anyone other than Sherlyn during the training incident for all the years covered by the time dilation in training. He was known for going out of his way for the girls of Team Jay. Wife, fused, or just team member, they all received as much of his time as he could spare.

      In fact he was burning the candle at both ends sometimes to try to train and keep everyone happy. The repeated and almost continual time dilations had affected him as much or more than the power ups and not just in normal psychological ways. There was a physiological impact, but he had been too scared to look into it any further. Tempus Fugit was the only way that he could manage what he needed, so he would just have to suffer any consequence of that once his women and children were safe.

      After they were all inside the ship, minus the four guards, Jay stopped to look at the women with him. The illusions were now gone. He first said, “Miguel, you and your team are obviously welcome to do what you want. I don’t think this was a wise decision, but it was yours to make. Could you give me some privacy to talk with my team?”

      “Of course, and for what it’s worth, I think they were just trying to look out for you,” Miguel said.

      Jay ground his teeth but nodded at the man as he left with his team. Meanwhile he sent out a telepathic message to the rest of his fuses and asked them to teleport to his location immediately. With a few seconds the airlock that led out of the ship was crowded with the entire fusion except for the four outside. He just stood and waited to let the tension build.

      Finally, once it was ripe, he said, “Bong-Cha, Alexis, Nalani, Sofia, Cadence, Faith, Daphne, Samantha, Scarlett, Saffron, Emma, Kayla, and Sora, you may all leave. But next time I expect you to stand up for what I would want, not just what you think is best for me, especially when it comes to matters of safety. I don’t mind you trying to look out for me but never when safely is on the line.”

Multiple girls said, “I’m sorry,” but each time he just nodded.

Then he looked at those who remained. His wives along with Maddy and CeeCee. Before he could say anything, Huong said, “I wasn’t even out there?”

      Jay got very intense as he stared at her. “So, you are saying that you weren’t in on this plan? You didn’t know about it. Is that what you are saying?”

      “Well no…”

      “I didn’t think so. There is never a plan in my harem without you being in on it. So don’t try to say you weren’t responsible. I have been thinking about this as much as I could while dealing with that problem out there. What would you have done without me? So far none of you had died, but could you guarantee that was going to continue.

      I’m not even sure that they could have killed any of you that were out there, but what about Miguel and his team? They don’t have your level of power and certainly not your durability.

      And think about it. Even if you had managed to keep all the humans alive. How many of the enemy would you have had to kill. A thousand more, five thousand more. Normally an army breaks if the casualty rate gets too high, but if they felt trapped, well they might have fought to the end.

      Did you want to be responsible for killing off an entire race of potential allies. And how on Earth am I supposed to make up to them for almost one thousand dead. What can I give them as compensation? We wanted allies not corpses. We wanted information not enemies. This universe is already hostile enough,” Jay maintained a deadly calm throughout his entire lecture, but he could see it was having an effect.

      “It’s my fault. I was hoping to meet allies too, but I didn’t count on not being able to communicate with them. When they attacked us, I was too slow to really fight back. There were only a couple hundred of them initially and if I had just blasted them and ordered everyone back to the ship, we might have made it back safely,” Trina said.

      The small room got quiet and Jay said, “Thank you for accepting responsibility but