I wasn’t tired. But, no one else was waiting for a prog. Maybe that Moment Of My Mistake will wait longer!

Pas and Kono propped Bae and Fae and put Fa in between ‘em, and Farley in Fa’s lap so all of ‘em could be touching. And, he put me against Farley.

In his sleep, he hugged me, hard.

Kono frowned and wrote a containment so he couldn’t squeeze that hard! I wouldn’t be able to breathe deeply.

I wanted to watch ‘em sleep, but with my back to them, I couldn’t. Pas smiled at me. Reach with your telepathy, and see them.

Telepathy’s new, and he taught me how to use it better than eyes. I could feel how warm their skin was. Listen for bad dreams. See the rhythmic twitching of Fae’s left hand, and how he startled and felt for Fa’s curls. Went back to sleep.

Every time one of ‘em moved, or groaned, all four of ‘em groped for hair or fingers.

I looked around at other Zheien. Lots of ‘em slept, but I could tell the diff whether they’d been slaves or not. At least, among most of the orange Zheien, the blue ones, the few red ones. But, all of the yellow ones and green ones startled a lot, and that grab for hands or heads or arms.

You are perceptive, Ella. Know you why they do this?

No. Why? They expect a slaver to come?

Know you how oft slavers came to Ea~ or worlds with yellow ones?

He explained that in all provs of Ea~, a very wet, lush world, with cooler poles but not ever frozen, all the provs are farming provs and large. Slavers can land a small ship and take children as they sleep. Most people love their kids. Slavers who want to upset Zheien so that they die just have to take a child.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The shock of losing that child can kill an entire prov of Zheien, just from grief. Usually, their family dies, and Zheien usually have very large families that are couples, their parents, their grandparents, their great-grandparents, their great-greats, and their 3rd and 4th great-greats. Now you’re counting cousins, and that many generations of grand-kids. One family can easily add up to an entire prov.

Almost an Earthan month ago, there was Marenalay, a large farming prov on Elshar Mashai in the Elshar Mashai Zheien Colony. It had 2000 people. Elshars rode across the Barrens from Prov Nine to there. They took kids and killed them in front of their families with primitive weapons, clubs, rocks, slings, rod launches, whatever wouldn’t register on the Hub.

By the time people in neighboring provs knew they were attacked, it was too late to ride a dorna there. Five Elshars fought back. They came just before the attack and warned people. They brought dorna from Prov Nine and people were too scared to ride when the first slavers came and people fell. So they got cloth from the weaver’s house and used bolts of it to tie people to dorna. Used their telepathy to show the dorna which direction to run, to the next Zheien prov. Because they did this, they saved over 200 people. And, one of them used a rod launch to pick off the slavers. Slavers got 200.

But, half of the saved people died of fright. Most of the prov escaped. But, by the next morning, 1500 died of 2000. The remaining 500 stayed with healers, and moved to Ferrimos. Few were able to work. Their crops were stolen when everyone left. The colony was already starving.

That many, 1500 of 2000? In one attack? Horrifying!

But, this is Elshar Mashai Zheien Colony. There were more attacks on Ea~ because is remote. Most attacks are on farming and mining worlds. These have mere hundreds of colonists, and only one prov. There is nae help to come when attacked.

Rahn Estar is a mining world, and has 12,000. Because they have Antera colony to protect them, attacks are few, but many yet die. Is all one prov, but families leave to maintain automation on one mine, and there are many thousands of mines. An attack is on one. The people of Antera have very strong telepathy, and if there is an attack, they kill all of the attackers. But people die to see such.

Esta Faho is also a mining world, but he has one Tessite mine and all of his population is near that mine. So when he is attacked, is usually one slaver, who takes one child. But, the alertness of their colony is so, nae one child is ever taken. Fright can kill. But, healers quickly give a slaver herb, umar seg, to take the memory of the event from all but diplomats. In this way, is misery, but they recover in a day.

The cost of this is in the mortality of their diplomats. Few return from Sigan Mas, much fewer than from any Zheien colony. Lack of restful sleep kills. They bear the terror of frequent attacks, and fear to sleep, lest they lose people to a slaver.