Descend- Seeing Stars by Sean Oswald (the ebook reader .TXT) 📕

      He could feel the buzz of communication going between his fuses with that. They all seemed to think that teasing him about sex was still going to make him blush. He was long past that, but it entertained them so he would go along with it at times. Right now, though he simply wanted to see what they were so excited to show him.

      When they got to the lab table, Trudi pulled back her hands and he looked down to see a spill of what looked like a gray metal sludge on the table. It was maybe a four-inch circle. There was nothing else on the table. His confusion must have come through their bond because Nalani laughed and said, “I told you he wouldn’t be impressed. You are gonna have to give him a demonstration.”

      Trying to salvage the day and prevent any hurt feelings Jay said, “Before that why don’t you tell me what I’m looking at.”

      Trudi said, “We have all had a hand in working on this. I’m calling it nanium. It is a new metallic alloy composed of microscopic, little machines called nanites.”

      “I know what nanites are. Remember, I was a nerd back on Earth,” Jay said before asking, “So it can be programmed to take different shapes and things like that right?”

      Trudi said, “Something like that.”

      “Then why have them be just a puddle on the table?”

      “That is just their inert state. We haven’t been able to create very many of them yet, only a few hundred million. There are still some problems with their replication process, and it takes a huge amount of effort from Veronica, Ava, and some of the others to introduce the processing potential into each new batch. Ava is always busy with different projects so this is all we have been able to produce so far,” Huong explained.

      “Just show him, or I will,” Nalani said. She was usually fairly quiet so Jay realized she must be excited to be discussing it that much.

      Trudi just held out her hand and what looked like liquid metal moved in a stream up off the table and onto her hand. There it formed a glove that fit perfectly over her hand and spread all the way up her arm. She looked at him and said, “See.”

      “I do see, but I already know you have metalmancy. Remember I got the skill from you when we fused,” Jay replied.

      “Except she didn’t use metalmancy,” Sofia said from behind.

      Jay must have gotten a confused look on his face because his response elicited smiles from the girls. “How did she make it move then?”

      Trudi said, “That is what is so cool about it. The nanites that make up this nanium have been programmed to obey me. They are responding to my psychic signature. Any of us could do this once we know how to and if we are approved users of the batch of nanium in question. We can set it so that anyone can do it or only a single individual.”

      Nalani added, “It just has to be determined when the batch is made.”

      Jay watched as Trudi reshaped the nanium from a sleeve into a gun on her arm and then watched as she fired a blast of energy out of it straight into the wall. It wasn’t overwhelming but still impressive how it had changed in a second.

      “Nanium is an amazing conductor of PSI. So, with practice you can learn to funnel energy into it. Imagine if we could make body armor out of nanium or ships or buildings, really anything,” Huong said.

      “Okay, I take it all back. This is amazing. How soon can you make more?” Jay asked excitedly.

      “We don’t know yet, but we wanted to show you as soon as we had enough to demonstrate with,” Trudi said.

      After that they had talked about applications for a while but then Jay was called off to yet another one of his many training sessions. His mind however was abuzz with the possibilities for this new creation.

      Despite this development they had not yet managed to create what they were calling fused technology. It was one of those things he wasn’t sure about. He didn’t want to be turned into some kinda cyborg. It was already enough that he had an implant in his head. But then again, he wasn’t going to turn down anything that might make his people safe.

      It was for that reason that he allowed the girls to keep practicing fusion. Pretty much all but the newest of his fuses could do it now, although they still hadn’t been able to get more than three of them at a time. As they gained power from the further fusions, they were able to extend it out to five minutes now.

      He worried that this would cause more of them to be put in harm's way. On the other hand, it did make them stronger even if only for a limited time. He did chuckle though because it wasn’t like he could have actually stopped them from practicing short of locking them in their own little Tempus Fugit fields, and they were part of him. He could sooner cut off his own hand than willingly harm one of them.

      The fusions had caused their own set of problems though. He fused with one more girl each day. Rather than just working down their original list he decided it was too important and he needed to fuse with the right people. CeeCee and Trudi had made sense as the leaders of the other clusters, but now it needed to be about people he liked and powers he needed. It had to be in that order, people over powers though.

      So, while still trying to match them