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

word sank in. It was definitely something missing from his life lately. Oh, sure he had sex, but when was the last time that he had just plain had fun. Of all his wives, Jessie was the one that he connected with the most in that way. She always had a smile and was always willing to get into trouble with him.

      “Glad you woke up. We were all beginning to worry,” she said as he moved.

      “Oh? How long was I out for?” Jay asked, flippantly. He was feeling playful and wanted to bait her.

      She laughed and said, “Oops. Sorry, I forget to turn that off.”

      Jay felt confused and the air around her seemed to dull. It wasn’t that she was less beautiful or less fun, it was more that he was less focused on it.

      “I have been practicing some pheromones. Apparently, they work very well on you,” Jessie said.

His eyebrows knit together, and he said, “Makes sense, I guess. But you don’t need a pheromone to get my attention.”

      “Hasn’t felt like that lately. I get that you are always busy, and I get that some of your wives came before me. But you haven’t seemed very into me lately. Worse, the one thing that I sorta had that was unique is gone now. Why would you need me as your transforming beast girl when you have an honest to goodness cat girl now?” Jessie protested.

      Jay wanted to make a joke about getting into her every day, but he realized that Jessie was feeling a bit neglected. He looked back over his memories and decided that he hadn’t been neglecting her. Maybe he had focused a bit more on Ava lately, but he still loved the blue haired shapeshifter very much.

      He managed to stifle the sigh that threatened to come out as he wondered whether the biggest skill he was going to need over the rest of his life was the ability to juggle the emotions of multiple women. “Wife, I love you very much and any neglect you have felt has been entirely unintentional. And there is absolutely nothing for you to be jealous of Eesa for. You are a wife, I chose. She is a political wife. I will respect her, but she doesn’t hold my heart like you do.”

      Jessie smiled so maybe he really was getting better at talking to women. Then she said, “I don’t ever get tired of hearing that you love me. Maybe just saying that more often would be what I need. But as far as Eesa, I wouldn’t be so sure. I’ve gotten to spend a few days with her, and she is amazing. Brilliant scientifically with a far greater understanding than we ever had back on Earth, an amazing pilot, and a fierce competitor. She is definitely going to be fighting for her place in our little family.”

      He started to say one thing but then shifted midstream to, “A few days? You never said how long I was out for.”

      “Oh yeah. You’ve been out for three days. So, with the two days you gave us in the Tempus Fugit I’ve gotten to know her over the past five days. I’ve even been allowed to go on hunts with some of the Tamoori. It is so cool to get to transform and not have anyone look at me strangely.”

      “Shit, three days out. I knew what I was doing was hard but how badly have I screwed things up?” Jay asked.

She ran her hand along the side of his face as he sat up. “Not at all. You have amazing wives. Eesa helped coordinate with the Tamoori. They did have some trouble working with women at first, but a few displays of physical strength got them on board. Trina has been running joint training with them, getting our people and theirs used to working with each other.

      Mia has been making PSI crystals and working with their scientists to oversee refitting their ships. Meikiyo has Huong and Veronica working with her to go through all the A’skarnt data. It appears that their home world is under attack by the Forlorn. The long-range scans and access to their database show that it isn’t tens of thousands of ships but hundreds of thousands attacking them.

      So, the news isn’t all good, but we covered for you while you were out. Oh, and by the way if the Tamoori ask, you were out hunting. Eesa said that would be the best story to tell them as that would earn their respect. She does seem to have your back over her own people, so do try to cut her some slack.

      I know I’m jealous of her, but she is a cutie in her own way. And I can feel confident at least for now, cause I know I could squish her. They really are rather weak compared to us. Their star fighters are impressive enough, but just wait till Ava gets done upgrading them with more PSI based abilities.”

      That was a ton to take in. “Has Meikiyo found any leads on where Higen might be?”

      “Um, she was able to track the shuttle that D’varn took to their home world, but there is no record of it landing there or of it leaving in the official logs,” Jessie said.

      Jay knew that Meikiyo must be getting frantic. “So, our only lead is a planet that is being attacked by a Forlorn fleet more powerful than any that we could hope to deal with? This is not fair. Maybe we can arrange a strike force that can sneak in if we can get close enough to teleport down.”

      They talked a bit more and Jay got a sense of what had happened while he was out. Eventually Jessie left. They had made