Sunshine radiated obnoxiously. Admiral Jinar blinked and looked around at the faces of the monkey aliens, who looked almost exactly like rhesus macaques except they had little monocles and simple jewelry and purses and some of them had a daub of a pastel-colored clay somewhere on their faces. Many Riftin carried the water-tight baskets they were famous for weaving with their bare hands.

"What happened?" Admiral Jinar asked.

"You were air sailing to Brochure when your hover barge went down. Your friends are all alright." A human among the Riftin spoke to Admiral Jinar.

"Yeah, now I remember. These monkeys had a reception for us at the space port and told us we'd have to travel by air to meet their king and queen and their royal court, who waited for us in Brochure. That's the capital of Tarnac, right?" Admiral Jinar sat up, noting she was bruised from the crash, but unharmed.

"You should come to our village, it will be dark soon and there are minor injuries among your party, some rest would be good." The human told her. He wore a dark purple robe, almost black. She recognized him to be a Stargazer. Among some humans, there was a belief that one-day humans would Star Sleep, and until then, it was human duty to facilitate and evangelize the use of Star Sleep.

Admiral Jinar went with them on foot from the wreck of the hover barge as the sun began to set. The terrain of Tarnac was covered in ancient and solid looking vines with young hour blossoms all over them. It was the natural order of contrast of Tarnac, ancient things turned to stone with ephemeral beauty springing up and wilting away into sparkling flakes. The Riftin themselves seemed to be of this duality, with a youngness, an innocence to their people, contrasted only by the fact they were among the oldest and wisest of all creatures.

They could have ascended when the galaxy was very young, and waited until what they called the Time When Riftin Wisdom Is Needed to finally ascend and announce themselves.

They were happy to sit and quietly weave their baskets, until humans had come. They saw this as a sign that a great call was being sent out, and each species must rise to the calling. The Riftin liked humans because they believed only humans and Riftin embraced this call wholeheartedly.

"We thank you for all your baskets." Admiral Jinar looked around, wondering with some clarity how the diminutive and mischievous monkeys could be useful. The preacher was called Nebulous, the name of his spirit, as he said, and he explained all about the Riftin to Admiral Jinar, who listened, wondering what Star Sleep was.

"What is Star Sleep? I hear it a lot. Is it useful to our war effort somehow?" Admiral Jinar asked.

"For the Riftin, Star Sleep tells them what will happen in the future, projected from the present. For the Blue Light Watchers, it allows them to 'sail across the ethers' as they call it, some kind of astral projection." Nebulous explained.

"It sounds like it has no practical combat application. I wonder what I am doing here on Tarnac. I wonder why I crashed and ended up in this rural Riftin village. Is it coincidence? Should I listen to you , Nebulous?" Admiral Jinar sipped the punch the Riftin had offered her, telling her 'humans like it' which probably meant it was fermented. Riftin struck her as a species plagued by alcoholism just like Mankind. Great minds think alike, after all.

"Perhaps not for military uses, not direct ones anyway. If you knew Riftin could predict the arrival of an enemy force, wouldn't that be useful?" Nebulous asked her.

"I suppose that specifically would be useful. Now tell me, is that something they could do?" Admiral Jinar asked him.

"Well no. Not exactly. Riftin can only experience emotional abstractions of the future, like 'something bad will happen soon' kind of thing. But according to legend their most experienced psychics could accurately predict disasters and thereby make them far less disastrous." Nebulous sounded like he believed in it, but didn't know how to convince Admiral Jinar.

"Ever wonder why you or I cannot Star Sleep?" Admiral Jinar asked. Nebulous just shook his head.

Eshka Layenna slithered over and spoke to the humans, what she thought, after listening to them:

"Humans cannot Star Sleep because they are too belligerent to accept being part of the whole galaxy. Others instinctively know that each intelligence, the Likeliness, is part of just one whole. Humans can understand this only on a superficial level. It is what makes them so formidable, they do not see other intelligences as a part of themselves, as a species or as individuals."

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Nebulous gets it. He's nicer than you are. Why can't he Star Sleep, if that is true?" Admiral Jinar asked. Eshka Layenna responded with her own thoughts:

"It is not my personal opinion. I think it is simply because the development of a drug that would enable the human mind to stay steadily in that receptive range of sodium ions is impractical to make, since there is no market for it. Only a few humans want to Star Sleep, and they live as guests of other creature like Riftin, they have no money to make it worthwhile. Star Sleep drugs are all made by Blue Light Watchers, and they put very little effort into inventing such a drug."

"That sounds more like it. And these Riftin, how do they Star Sleep, without drugs?" Admiral Jinar asked Nebulous.

"They meditate. They alone can do this. But I think it can be learned." Nebulous replied.

The humans were talking while the Riftin started partying. For as wise as their monastic ways seemed at first, after nightfall they drank and celebrated raucously. Admiral Jinar loved their fruity beverages and simple rhythmic music. She accepted an offer to dance from Nebulous, and had a lot of fun.

In the morning the Riftin soberly gathered, each having put on the colored daub they liked to wear on their face. They seemed a little sour, they didn't want the visitors to leave.

A replacement hover barge arrived, but this one had strangely dressed Riftin, wearing grotesque masks and with their fur dyed bright colors. The villager Riftin fled at the sight of them, apparently somewhat afraid of them.

"They are called Magi. They keep the ancient pre ascent history of the Riftin, a secret society of psychics and saboteurs." Nebulous introduced them. "They want you to come with them, and meet the very old ones, who will guide you with their wisdom."

The Riftin spoke in rapid syllables, but it was not too different from a human language, and Nebulous understood them and could make himself understood. He offered to come along and translate, but they refused because he could come back to the village and freely tell them their secrets. They said no to him for that reason, not finding it necessary to trust him to be discreet.

The hover barge landed at the cliffside caves, covered in ancient petrified vines with fresh blooms only minutes old. Admiral Jinar went alone, leaving her friends with the Magi. She soon was in a very old cavern carved into the solid rock standing before a small crowd of old looking Riftin wearing a variety of elaborate crowns that seemed to be indicating knowledge in different sciences, although Jinar could not be certain of this.

"Welcome Admiral Jinar, we apologize for the tactics of the Magi, who deliberately caused your hover barge to crash. It is necessary, in order for things to escalate to their true form. But we are sorry for using a tactic that might seem hostile or reckless. We assure you, we have only good intentions." They spoke in a weird kind of stereo unison, but what they said was translated into just the singular voice of Kyle Chandler, evidently resorting to the use of a Frendsikeel translator. How they got it, Admiral Jinar guessed.

"And you've stolen my friend's translator." Admiral Jinar pointed out.

"We're only borrowing it." They promised.

"What is the purpose of this?" Admiral Jinar asked.

"We wish to make a secret bargain with you humans, at this time." The Riftin said.

"For what?" She asked.

"To continue to build your armies, but to follow a separate, secret plan. It is the only way the galaxy will survive. We must do something that the Dark Beings will not be able to defend themselves against. It cannot be done by any alien except the humans. You alone can cause this to happen. We've seen it is the only outcome that anyone in our galaxy survives. There are no words to describe the awfulness that is drawing near." The Riftin confided.

Admiral Jinar heard whispers in her mind, strange sounds, confiding in her the vision of the plan. She somehow knew it on its full scale, but could not put into thoughts exactly what they wanted her to do. She shook her head.

"Get out of my mind." She said.

"We cannot enter the mind of a human with our minds. Nothing can be in the mind of a human except a human. Do you not see, do you not realize what they are, the Dark Beings? Search your feelings, you will understand what will happen to them when this phase of the war happens. Just follow the plan, if it is followed and never spoken, never thought of, never written, they cannot see what we are doing. They will not understand humans. They just won't get it, not until it is too late." The Riftin said.

Admiral Jinar searched her feelings, and something in her changed, she realized the war could be won, but only with terrible costs. She felt something in that future, under their influence, that felt profoundly and personally sad. She began to think of what it was, and swore it would not be so.

"The Riftin, they don't make it, do they?" Admiral Jinar asked.

"This is why it must be a secret. We cannot ask so many to willingly allow this exact course of events to occur, that will result in such a time. We are sorry to go, but it is our choice. The rest of the galaxy must survive." The Riftin said, stubbornly refusing to ask for help.

"That's not how it is going to go down. We aren't going to leave you behind. We'll come for you, that is what we do. I'll get the tarantulas to help us predict the future, then we'll be there for you." Admiral Jinar sounded upset. The thought of another innocent alien species going extinct on her watch was unacceptable.

"You will try, human. We know you will."