Once that was over, he gathered all the girls in the science lab together. “So, I want to try something out. In just a minute, I am going to ask you to divide up into your respective groups for whatever projects you are working on and go to the relevant rooms of the lab that you need to work in. Then I am going to create tempus fugit fields with me on the outside.”
“Wait, how will you know if you got the time distortion correct?” Felicia asked.
“Good question. I now have the ability to see PSI flows and we have Alexis here to help check,” Jay replied.
He didn’t know for sure who said it, but he heard one of the girls mumble, “Must be nice to keep fusing and getting new abilities.”
Rather than engage with that for now, Jay decided to ignore the comment. It was gonna be an issue soon enough. For now, he wanted to focus on his plan. “You can tell me what level of time distortion you want, and I hope I have enough control now but make sure that you have food and relevant supplies inside. You can of course also opt out.”
He was glad when no one did opt out. Hopefully, it was a sign of their trust in him. At least that was how he chose to take it. Most of the groups were looking for anywhere from two days to two weeks in the lab. After that they all wanted to be able to go to their rooms to sleep in a proper bed rather than the cots in the labs.
Two of the groups were more hardcore. Ava and Veronica were working on the interface with the A’snkarnt systems. They were both willing to take as much time as he would give them. Two months was the most he would go since there wasn’t any way to check on them inside the bubble, at least for now. Hopefully as his skill level increased, he would learn new tricks.
The first time was different like any other new skill. He reached out and focused on the atmosphere filling the room he was going to put into a tempus fugit field. Huong and her project were hard at work there as they were refining the process for removing the A’snkarnt implants and any medical recovery that would be required afterwards.
His awareness was so much greater now. Jay didn’t simply perceive the world through the five senses he had been born with. He had greater and more refined abilities now. He was able to perceive the thoughts of those in the room. Even the girls not fused with him were still open to him if he pushed hard enough.
Jay had made a commitment to himself not to invade anyone’s privacy more than was absolutely necessary but now those thoughts were just a background to the room. They were a part of what made up the area he was going to affect, and he wanted to do this right, so he needed to know it as completely as possible.
He had already absorbed samples of the materials used in the construction of the A’snkarnt vessel, thanks to the ability he gained from Nalani. That allowed his evolved assessment to take stock of the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room as well as all of the equipment in it.
Jay paused and breathed in deeply, allowing it all to wash over him. He expanded his awareness as far as he could and tried to be open to it all rather than focusing on any one thing. His PSI sight from Alexis allowed him to see the PSI energy in each of the girls. More than that he could see how it flowed around the room like gentle eddies of current in a river.
Then he equally saw the strands that flowed between each of the fused girls. They all had a connection. Even more clearly, he was able to see a strand flowing from each of them back to him. That connection was stronger. Or maybe that wasn’t the right word for it. They truly seemed bonded with one another, what he saw instead was that their connection to him was more like the core of all the other connections.
Other connections, the words caused his mind to expand again, and he took in more than he realized. He was staggered and didn’t quite know what he was looking at first. It couldn’t be. Could it?
On a whim, Jay focused on his Hyper Accuracy and tried to channel his PSI sight through the matrix of that skill, creating his own combo. There was more there, deeper levels. He could just sense it, but his skill levels weren’t great enough. He felt like he was on the verge of remembering something critically important, but it just wouldn’t come to mind.
He was left with a great deal of frustration. He could sense that there was more to PSI, more to the connections around him than he had previously understood. Right now, he simply didn’t have enough skill yet to perceive it properly. So, he ran through his other skills trying them one at a time to see if they would reveal anything more about the room.
Most of them were designed to give information. Evolved Strength Forged Body made him durable and strong but didn’t tell him anything about the world around him.
