Pirad appeared, chest heaving! “Do not discuss this on the commons for all to hear!”

Via bowed low to Pirad. “I am sorry, but to write these progs, she must know—”

“I cannot give an Earthan fine control over her thoughts, and Earthans caused the fall of Ye~ in our future!” His three sets of orange pupils in his green eyes split far apart! The sight unnerved me. Bisillips have huge eyes and the whites are yellow. What’s that mean? His body didn’t click, but made a kind of grinding sound like nails on a blackboard. I knew about Healer Laura talking to a reporter, and she said things that slavers heard. I hope I never think of something that helps a slaver like that!

Via paled. “Teach me, quickly!”

“I cannot teach you how to hide from Councillors—”

“Oh, my host knows.” He pulled Pirad’s hand to his head. “I will reveal our secret to you. I am Feia Na. All that he knew, from our founding, I know, and we had help from Leader Hern.”

“Leader Hern?” Pirad calmed down. Isn’t he the leader of Sigan Mas, that space school that is a galaxy? He’s like a galactic minister. They aren’t Alliance or Unified, but something else. This stuff just confuses me!

“You know of Earthans with Gifts. You know how they got them. Pinda. He convinced me to reclone myself Zheien, but I was Nairaesa, Of The Elshar Elder Council. Micansen thinks to follow my example, that he recloned himself Zheien. I think he is foolish, and emotion--”

“The leader of the healers? I thought they killed you!”

“I faked my death and recloned myself as Feia Na, a Zheien of Ye~ Prov. When Ahstam was born the second time, I was born to his new father’s dearest friend and learned healing. I was a member of his ennead. But I also had knowledge as an Elshar scientist of Deesamor. So, I decided to make a new species with the best of Elshar and Zheien genetics. I saw what happened when Elshars and Zheien intermarried, and I was determined to find a remedy.

“So, I created the Ishah, but Elshars didn’t like that at all, the ones led by Heden. I have been working in secret, and I have the White Cube Of Healing. I created it while I worked in Rentappenen’s lab as one of Rahn Wenh Cet’s assistants. One he supposedly killed in anger when I didn’t make the changes he asked. I suppose I am the only Laruu who knows how to fake vaporization and survive it!” He laughed. What’s a Laruu? I didn’t think I should be hearing this kind of talk, things I heard in whispers, in Rainbow. People walked around us and I realized, they weren’t hearing this convo. Why am I?

“That is why Dai’nos sent you to Rahn Estar?”

“We sent my clone, my son Hanavie. He established a recloning lab on Rahn Estar before there was a colony. It was one of my worlds, and had minerals in just enough quantities to reclone Wasa Mai and myself three times. But we couldn’t interfere with Mican without revealing ourselves. He is the Councillor of the Black Cube Of War. I plan to destroy him because you know TS cannot. My Host is helping Ry’nao fight by healing our Collectives. Mican will die when he goes to Lisbaar. Gedda Dier is ready for him. He has Ty’nirrhan genetics. Her weapons will detect that and prevent porting.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Pirad’s lips buzzed. “Does she think her people can survive—”

“They will na, but we have a plan to save the Escet Vuans. Their weapons should not survive this war.”

All this talk scared me! Lisbaar had a war that killed half of Escet Vu, and Farley warned me never to mention it around Lisbaar or Noperan Zheien—the red-skinned ones—or Xchou—like Emperor Ry’nao, they have red skin but four-fingered hands. Or any blue-skinned Zheien. A lot of all these worked in the shipbuilding facility and we saw them in the market when we traded.

Par Vu also lost half their Zheien population in that battle, led by Escet Vu’s King Das Marti. We studied about it in Sigan Mas Diplomatics courses. Eriganh decimated the 4th Galaxy, but people speculated about how Lisbaar’s star system survived his fatal tour of worlds. The 4th had just as many species as the 7th did, before Eriganh brought his world destroyers. This was only 50 years ago. We went to Escet Vu on one of our missions, and it struck me that on other worlds, you see a lot of elderly Zheien, any world with a Zheien colony, even Elshar Mashai Zheien Colony. But not Escet Vu. They were all young, and only 450 of them, on a huge world with a lot of empty provs. We visited some of those provs to take things to Par Vu. To their Burial Chambers because nobody Zheien could bear to do it.

But there are Escet Vuans on Lisbaar? We went there, we went to a lot of worlds for Farley to work on a treaty between Rahn Estar and a host of worlds. Spent most of our time trying to keep poor Farley alive while we traveled a week or two at a time.

I got good at giving manual calcs to help us get their faster, but Earthans aren’t very much help. It’s algebra of sorts, but all done as fast as you can, with help from the ship’s server, and I could only give every 10th calc. We could shave days off our travel doing that, but that’s how most of our Team died. Brain damage from all the telepathic displays, to try to calc faster, so Farley wouldn’t die.

Their treaty was that important. Farley knew a host of council members on every world of Par Vu and every world of Rahn Estar and a lot of Zheien worlds such as Vasye and Fhiah in the First, K’hasa Zha and Ye~ in the Seventh, Lisbaar in the 4th, and MarKu and Ea~ in the 8th. If he died and someone else had to start over, the war might end before the new diplomat could lay the groundwork! Farley’s fa did. But I didn’t connect all that to his white uniform? I nearly died when—a lot of times, and each time, Farley sang healing on me and I lived. Or he somehow got yllis, that rare miracle herb that brings a regen. You can buy a world for a colony with three leaves of it. That was our first two years together.

We stayed about two weeks on each world, then traveled. I studied databases of their histories, animals, plants—especially herbs used for healing—not because I needed to know it, but long travel is very boring. Our other team members enjoyed learning about ‘em with me. And, sometimes, I spotted a surplus someplace.

But Farley was an expert at balancing trade. Unified treaties have to work out trade to make a treaty provision work, because treaties exist to help worlds trade away their waste for something useful. As his aide, while he was too sick to study much, I learned about what each world needed and what surpluses they had that were likely to continue to be. At times we could throw in when farmers had a better-than-usual year, but it was mainly all about knowing surpluses. Any world has more than you can name, but connecting a surplus on one world with a lack on another—Farley was a master at it and he tried to teach me.