Father put a red-violet Cube in Ryonne~‘s hand. “Do not let your host know you have this. I made an orange Cube for your brother, but Laura will give us away. After the Final Battle I will send it to him. Tomorrow, we must be ready. Earth must vote on the Unified Treaty.”
I startled and looked at the date. It’s the 30th? But, it was the 21st yesterday when Earth passed the Alliance Treaty!
Ry’nao put a hand on my right shoulder and tapped it. “All of you, do not think. When it is time, your Cubes will instruct you. Azure created a time bubble. All of us are inside of it, and not inside of it. When our otherselves die, we shall be within it, and it will burst. I can only hope Azure is successful.
“Ryee, we have work.” His tears bounced with little pings and a Zheien ran in to gather them. Little white crystals. “Ipano~, go and rest, my friend.”
He gathered all of them in a clear pyramid and pressed it into my hand. “Hold this when you need strength.”
Ir put a hand on his. “Ipano~? Dear friend, I wondered what happened to you! Is Haven here also?”
He paled and Ir hugged him. “I—I stay with ‘Ao, because—”
Ry’nao put his hands on Ipano~‘s shoulders. “We should ne remind him—”
“But, I worked with Irdaktin! His ba Tinak was with me—” He got upset.
A healer ported in. “Ipano~, ne think. Is time for rest.”
“Rest? But we must go to Kajar and get Tinak! I can ne leave him there!” His brown eyes opened past wide, and he shuddered.
Ir hugged him. “Dear friend, we cannot go to Kajar. There are things that must happen first. Be calm.”
“You found me! Travel on your ship harmed me, but you gave me nesfa. You took me to Vohl. I will tell you everything, not Eriganh!” They got the memory-sharing stare. I heard Ry’nao directing an Esteerian and Zbbat force on Kajar!
“I have your report, my friend. Rest.”
“Will they—will they?” His dark-curled head rested against Ir’s chest.
“They will attack Eriganh’s Fortress in his home. If there are hostages, maybe they can free them. We cannot go, my friend. Rest.” Ir stroked his head but the healer sat on the floor and held his legs. Ir sat down holding his upper body.
At the mention of that place, Ryonne~ paled from orange to white! Ry’nao got down there and pulled all of us together. “Do ne think, my sons. If you believe I can help you, I can. Put all thoughts from your minds. All of you, think of pleasant things.”
“Flowers!” Ipano~ sobbed. “Vohl has beautiful flowers, that my home has ne.”
Ry’nao led us outside, hundreds of us including our bewildered Earthans. He directed them to go enjoy the festival.
Ipano~ lifted his head. “There is a festival, ‘Ao?”
The Emperor startled. Smiled. “Yes, there is a festival. Here is a tumasnie for you.” He waved and held an orange candy that smelled spicy and sweet.
Slowly, Ipano~ reached for it and Ry’nao helped him get it into his mouth. He shook all over, so it wasn’t easy. But when he tasted it, he stopped crying. “I remember Mea!”
Ry’nao led us into the nearest puddle with lavender sand. That healer hummed and bathed his arms in it.
Ryonne~ helped him. “Wish you for me to bring your parents? They are here.”
With an eager face, Ipano~ nodded.
A couple came from a green swirl, followed by five kids! All boys. Three were identical triplets and teens, then twins who were a bit younger. All of them had golden eyes and dark curls like Ryonne~.
The older fella looked at him and bowed. “Fae, here is Ipano~.”
He startled and held a hand at the back of Ipano~‘s head. Went pale. “My bae! O, we thought you died!”
Ipano~ hugged him. “Fa! I missed you and Mea so!”
“He was too injured, for many years to speak, Hav. I took him as my servant. Ahstam told me ne ever to bring him to Ye~, for memories might destroy him, so I kept him on Vohl, but my home is here now.”
Ipano~ startled and looked over his father’s shoulder at Oshfah in the distance. “Fa, this is our home? I see Oshfah and our mountains, but all else is changed! Our sands are light, and hold flowers?” He crumbled sand in his flat fingers.
“Think ne too much, dear bae. Ea, our home is as we thought to change him when we grew and had trade for it. Much time passed since your injury. Ne more missions for you, Ip. Rest in my arms. Our family is large now, when you can bear them.”
One of the twin boys sat on the sand but avoided the water. “Fa, we have another ba?” His golden eyes studied Ipano~.
“Haven, ea, this is your ba. Pirad cloned me after I had injury and added your genetics to create my new bae. He is Ipano~, and he chose his name. I gave him all my skills and he traveled with Ry’nao. We can ne speak of that time, for the War requires our silence.” He held Ipano~ tighter.
But Ipano~ grabbed his healer’s hand. “Easan, you must strengthen me, somehow. I was born to defeat—”
“My son, is impossible! I had to open the portal for you so you came here. I had to lead you from your chamber to your sorting. How then, could you remember treaties and arguments? You must accept—”
“All I need to remember is in my Cube! They will—”
Ry’nao put a hand on his forehead. “My son, you no longer have a Cube. When you fought Eriganh, it exploded. The mission is over. Another will fight him. We cannot interfere with that. The Council decided it. If you believe I can help you, I can. Let these memories go by you. Ip, you are injured. Let Easan help you and Fa holds you safe.”
I got upset. Eriganh did so much evil to all six galaxies he took over! Pirad made Ipano~ as a weapon, but he couldn’t stop him?
In the other future, Adia did, after all her injuries on Areon, and without Pirad’s recloning. You must understand, Ipano~‘s emotion was anguish, and it was not enough. He had Ha~Veh’heien’s memories of the suffering of his people, and he is Zheien. The burden of this was too much for him.
My husband sighed. Pirad did not understand Zheien as well then and thought his desire to prevent more suffering for all peoples of the Thirteen would make him powerful. Instead, it destroyed him. We all tried to tell him he needed another species. All have their weaknesses, and Eriganh knows them because he enjoys torturing them. He taught Rentappenen.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Poor Ipano~ sobbed that he wasn’t fit to be Ha~Veh’heien’s son and his father corrected all of Eriganh’s lies. I heard Eriganh’s Collective listening. to all of it, too. He tortured them, too, and told them the same lies. Your family hates you. They will kill you if you return home. Because Eriganh lost control, he killed half his Collective, but his scientists are bringing them back to retrain them. This is interfering with that.
Other male members of Ha~Veh’heien’s family came, despite Easan’s protests. All of them went to Kajar and died from his torture, or of ill health from it. Areon let half of Ha~Veh’heien’s family die in orbit from starvation while negotiations dragged on. All five of his sons died. Horrible! They finally agreed to go to the lifeless moon instead of Areon’s Barrens and the Biehshah helped them with genetic mods for it. Their king and his family died and Ha~Veh’heien became king. He had one older son, A~vhen, who survived all that. His healer had to carry him. “Ba!”
Ipano~ gently pulled at his silver hair. “You are my ba? But you are old, older than fa?” Ipano~ had golden eyes and dark curls. He resembled Ryonne~ a lot, but so did Ha~Veh’heien and A~vhen, well, all of his family.
“I had many injuries. Pirad has limitations. Believe me when I tell you, Eriganh lied to you, as he did to me. He taught me that Fa would kill me on sight when he sent me home. But I found kindness, and love of my family. I am yet weak, but all of my family, even my newfamily, love me. When ‘Ao sends you, I will go also—”
“A~vhen, I will ne send either of you. Rest with your family and your healers.” Ry’nao frowned at him.
“My Emperor, I can hold the Red Cube! I can use it to heal our colonists—”
“Your people were injured by multiple Cubes. Even if I agreed to this, neither of you are well for missions. His followers would not let you reach him. Both of you must stay in Alb. Zhea~ is here, and Pirad woke all of your family, Hav.”
He sighed, and it rumbled on us. “Our home is changed, and we are safe here. Most of my sons have a few memories of the home we left, and none of this new place. I fear Av is too unwell to leave here. Ip, can you bear to come home? When you were born, I gave you memories Llsam gave me of Haven’s life, if you remember them. But you also had my memories, and you were born at 20.”
Ipano~ frowned. “Haven and Ahei, you were 5. Eiabae, Havhehbae and Heien, you were 11 and Av, you were 16 when I met you. Fa needed to help our colony, so I went with ‘Ao. Later, Fa, you were Emperor and I went with you—”
Ha~Veh’heien grabbed his head! “Ne think. You live with us now. Shall we go home? We can discuss, whether to stay on Ye~ or move to Zhea~.”
A~vhen held onto his fa’s arm. “I wish to stay with our family, Fa. if we go to Zhea~ or stay on Ye~, I am happy. What Ip needs, I abide.”
“But, ‘Ao needs me.” Ipano~ looked at him.
Ry’nao smiled. “My son, I am happy that you can go home! Go with your family. I have other servants who cannot go home. When I come for my respite, you will see me then.”
With a huge smile, Ipano~ hugged his father, who carried him out of the marsh. All his family kept a hand on him as they walked. His healer hummed as they walked, and A~vhen’s healer hummed harmony as he carried him. But they went in the purple building.
Ryonne~ and Ry’nao walked to another city by Oshfah with gray domes. Went in one that was bigger. They were in a circle and had different sizes.
“That is Xchou Ye~. They plan to move to Vohl when it is ready. Pirad woke all their Elders and they have tech to rebuild, but it takes a few months. Oh, I talk too much!” Ir got very orange in this cheeks.
“It’s all my Earthan thoughts wreaking havoc in your Biehshah brain! I wish I could corral my thinking!” I was always disorganized, which made my organized Mama crazy.
Ir held my shoulders and stared into my eyes with his brown ones. “You are my Cesarae, and I am happy we are together. Yes, your mind affects me, but I like it. We Biehshah, and Bisillips we were before changing ourselves, are very rigid in our thinking. We fear change because we saw people try to change and it killed them. So we live out our lives in fear of change and we do the same things. We make mistakes and know they are mistakes, but we keep making them.
“Your mind frees me to think in new ways. Our colony needs this to survive. Because of your healing, all of us are free!”
Der came up and spread his arms in the same exaggerated way! “We are free to love! Here is my wife, Inanarur, and she is happy, too!”
She had bright blue eyes and brown skin with a coppery sheen. Those cobalt blue trader’s robes set it off nicely. “Thank you for our colony, Ir, and thank you for our marriage! Ten said without him I would die here! But our garden has every flower of Renashar in it, so I have reminders of home.”
Der sighed. “I died in the other future and my last thought was of regret, how I should never be able to see my Inanarur and tell her how I feel. How happy I was that Pirad saved her from Titan!”
“How happy I was to feel Der’s mind near me! I had hopes, but in Renashar a lawyer must sit with a lady if a man wishes to speak, and when Der came home, he was in Ten’s house getting healing. My trading was in more remote provs so I did not have an excuse to visit Leheren.”
Der’s green eyes watched her as he put an arm around her. “I wanted to visit you in Renashar and consulted a lawyer. But Ten did not agree the risk was worth it when Garat inquired. He said my health would suffer. It did, without you.”
We all took a long walk in the gardens. It had about an acre for each prov that we had colonists from. Der and Inanarur enjoyed Leheren, especially the swamp with geffen plopping about! We enjoyed Renashar, which had little blue-furred creatures with cat ears that mewed. Like balls of fur on two legs with huge blue eyes. “Some people think the Sehd are related to the Sehdlat, that they somehow evolved into intelligent life.” Inanarur giggled.
Every one of the Sehd stopped bouncing and gathered around her. She wasn’t expecting that!
VW ported nearby and they all ran to him! His mauve skin paled. “Oh, we scientists believe you!”
They used their feet to scrawl a long message in the sand, and Inanarur’s brown skin paled to yellow! “They are related? I trade with them at times. The colony A’laf on Fhiah’s moon wants me to trade flowers, and many Zheien colonies agreed to provide some.”
They stopped writing and came back to Inanarur and bounced!
VW laughed. “They have contact with A’laf and the colony in Sigan Mas! Now that the A’laf have Zheien traits, they can accept visits to trade from your ship. Talk to Maff and he will arrange it.”
Der and Inanarur got busy talking to gardeners on Xchou and Fhiah, and even traders on D’sharr Alb. Progs warned against some flowers on D’sharr and their government took steps to export all the plants to worlds without Zheien or people with Zheien traits. Just like that.
“D’sharr is Elshar, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Cesarae, but Elshar worlds are changed! D’sharr Alb sent a colony here because they disagreed with D’sharr’s government, but they had such an increase in their trade balance, D’sharr changed how they do things. They destroyed all the slaver herb research in Ponna! Now they are very careful that their exports do not affect Zheien. Ponna now is an ScSv facility researching cures for affected Zheien. They accept inspections from any world that has a worry.”
That’s sure different than the Rainbow I remembered! They had victims from just about every Elshar world. Some Zheien who came to visit acted funny if I was performing and a certain tune came up. That was different for every one of them who’d been trained with Ponna herbs. Sometimes healers would come and learn the tune and use it to untrain ‘em. But if they were a diplomat, their career was over. No cures. So the idea of a cure in Ponna—awesome!
Ir helped with some of the trades. I wished I had trading skills so I could help, too. Never learned any of these languages.
The little furry people wrote messages to me in English and I answered ‘em. Telepathy made that easy.
“What is a rose?”
I thought about all the colors I’d seen of them, how they smelled, and how I had to be careful of thorns.
Some flowers in our gardens had thorns and a few were poisonous, but containments protected us.
They asked me to think about buying flowers on Earth, so I waved up websites for seeds, flower shops, garden supply places, and nonprofits that taught people how to grow things. Garden clubs and the University Of Georgia County Extension Service. I knew about the Extension Service when I tried to grow flowers and strawberries in pots. I hadn’t done that in years.
But I found a US website that talked about what could and couldn’t be exported offplanet. That was useful.
A lot of plants they couldn’t get from Earth were already ok to export from worlds of Alb.
About time I got tired, Der, Inanarur and Ir finished up and Inanarur’s emerald green ship was full of plants. They took off for Alb Seer’s moon A’laf and Ir and I went home. But, Ir had plans.