Two Dosilians with black eyes marched towards us. I reached for Sara, Cevit Ion’s wife, and they ported to us. Sara gasped and they stared at her and she at them.

Other Dosilians appeared. An army! No one but us saw them.

Some Dosilians fought with these and I dropped them! Red portals went off like fireworks.

The older Dosilian bowed. “Now my enemies are gone. Thank you, Sara. We agree to fight Rentappenen. He will regret angering me.”

A younger Dosilian also bowed. Cevit Ion bowed to both of them. “Leader Hadibah.”

“You know me?” They got the memory-sharing stare. Ahstam ported to us! Then he and the older one stared at each other. “Father, I agree with you. Our people will help the Zheien. Cevit Ion, I would stay, but I must direct my people.”

They all ported.

People went about enjoying our festival as if nothing happened! Cevit Ion was white!

Ryonne~ ran towards us. “Cev!” He grabbed him and put him in his lap and sat bathing him, before I could blink!

But Sara looked and several other men approached us. She helped me fight them off! Ir decked one, and a bunch of Biehshah ran up to fight! It shocked me that these men had stronger telepathy than my husband, who had better telepathy than some Biehshah on the council!

Ryonne~ tried to fight them with his telepathy and fell! Cevit Ion held him. “They are Wesa Fen! Sara—”

“It’s the rainbow Tessite! I know what to do!”

I sang and kept her healed, but she made a containment with rainbow light in it! In the other future she had to gather it and defeat the Wesa Fen, who were slavers! We freed galaxies of slaves.

Dromie’s people ported in to help! His father, the king, made one of them bow to him. “You convinced my son to fight me. You then took him for your slave. Without your rainbow Tessite, you are weak. Tell your men to fight Rentappenen. Then I will release you.” Hundreds of the goblins moved forward behind him.

The man frowned at him. “I do not trust you or your people. We will die without our rainbow Tessite to sustain us!”

“You will not die, but live normal lifetimes. Many of you feel your great age, and will die soon. Agree for your people to fight, and I will not take them as my slaves!”

He fell on the sand. “You lie, as you always did. Dying men cannot fight.”

“You have slaves, who even now are revolting. They will fight against Rentappenen. Release them all.”

“Done.” All of them collapsed and died. Red portals took them away.

Healers ran for Cevit Ion and Ryonne~! But, all around Ir and I, Biehshah collapsed!

I built up my mental orchestration. Pulled Molly and a lot of healers with my mind and begged them to come! But Pirad wasn’t where I could reach! One of Molly’s clones came from Ea~ because Maggie, our clone of her was sleeping after a healing.

Her green eyes opened wide, like a Zheien’s. “What have you people been doing?”

Cevit Ion groaned. “Wesa Fen. Hersa.”

A huge yellow Elshar Zheien ported here. “Minister! What is your need?”

They got the memory-sharing stare. A purple Zheien ported here. Never saw that color! Rose pinkish purple!

Angel came and sang, and I built it faster. I can’t get Pirad to help us? Ten wasn’t able to help. I sang and Angel’s harmony helped a lot! But the purple Zheien sang and I had energy.

This wasn’t as intense as my other healings. Cevit Ion got yellower, though. He held Ryonne~, who was gray!

I held Ir who stared, brown eyes dull. Other Biehshah crawled on the purple sand to me. I tried to sing louder and the energy wasn’t there. It scared me! My otherselves tried to give some, but they were all exhausted. Several died during the battle, and Rentappenen got happier. He’s worried, and I felt that through Sara. Sara frightens him. I didn’t think he was scared of anything!

Adia, one of her clones, ran to Ryonne~. She also looked exhausted. Both of them were yellow. They should be orange.

He pulled at her and she fell on him.

I worried about our baby. Without Pirad, I can’t have him take him for protection. But, I looked down and my belly was huge! “I need y0u, Deb!”

She ported to me and made me lie in the sand. I kept singing, but went into labor. My singing wasn’t pretty, but I kept on. Oh, it hurt!

“You have to stop!”

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“If I do, my colony is dead!”

Deb gasped, and her blue eyes studied a display of my vitals.

Greg ported beside her and moved some things around. “I don’t know much about Biehshah! Briahh!”

His brother came and moved more things around. “I lived as a Biehshah before I came to Areon to find you.”

“Areon? We never lived there!” Greg’s green eyes went wide and he rubbed his head.

I sang louder. Baby came. Deb pulled him up and cut the cord.

Ir reached for him and helped me hold him. “Our son! Oh, Kia!” Ir fainted but Deb held our son.

“He’s healthy! But all of you have to sleep. We’ll stay right here!”

“I can’t sleep, not in the middle of a battle!”

“What battle?” Deb looked around. The festival was stopped, but Ahstam and his ennead sang for Ryonne~ and Cevit Ion. “What happened?”

Molly hugged her. “We can’t talk about it. Just take care of Kia and her baby. I’ll help them.”

Suma ported here, too.

Sara touched my shoulder. “I can see ‘em. Rest, Kia.”

“Where’s Pirad?”

“Somebody named Bedelia’s going to see him on Fhiah. His clones died, and nobody knows—”

“Sara, we can nae speak of it.” Cevit Ion reached for her hand and she took it. Looked scared!

“Kia, sleep while you can.” Molly sounded urgent.

Ir waved up several shakes for me and Molly looked shocked that I downed them one after another. Then, I did sleep.

I woke up and Ten poured water down our son. “Shouldn’t I be feeding him?”

Ten laughed. “He has nutrition from your body until he can eat as we do!”

I pointed at my chest. “These aren’t just for decoration, you know!” But Biehshah women are very flat-chested. I didn’t feel very motherly. Mama said when her milk came in, she felt like a Valkyrie.

Then, Ten got it and laughed. “Kia, we do not do that. At first, we give babies water. By the second day, they are on sisbie, then by the third, they eat as we eat. We are ready for your naming ceremony.”

Deb, Greg and Briahh wore Biehshah outfits in the sparkly green. So did I. The material felt cool and nice against my skin.

Baby looked up at me and clicked his tongue. Not just once, but rapid like a machine gun! I laughed and did it back at him. He laughed.

Ir put an arm on his forehead. “Nagesh.”

“Nagesh!” He clicked more.

Ten put an elbow on his elbow. “Ptat.”

“Ptat!” He made a face.

They went through all the gestures kids learn. I saw this process many times in our colony. Tried hard not to laugh. But our son learned them all.

Ten handed him a huge cup and he downed it. Then he guided him to walk.

Mama frowned. “Ya can’t expect my grandson to walk when he was just borned, can ya?” Sonny looked up at Mama with very blue eyes. “Hi, I’m yer granny.”

“Granny!” He giggled as she picked him up.

Ten looked kind of dismayed. “You must not teach him foreign customs! Let us teach him until the naming, will you, Mrs. Garfield?”

Mama pressed her lips together. Baby looked scared. “Aww, that’s okay! Granny can hold ya later. Do what they tell you, okay?” She put him in the sand.

“Okay, Granny!” He smiled. Then paid attention to Ten and Ir as they taught him about a hundred more gestures. After every ten, he got something to drink that gradually looked more yellow. They led him to walk around, then jump, and encouraged him to run while we all ran after him! He giggled the whole time! Then I laughed. All this running didn’t even make me out of breath, but Mama wheezed and quit after the first block.

We ran all over our Biehshah Colony, then through the Areon Colony, both Bremen and Stuttgart and people smiled to see us. Then got this shocked look as they saw our son! He’s the size of a baby, but running like an older kid? Ir explained telepathically as we ran through dirt paths lined with grass and wooden homes with beautiful carvings of flowers. Each house had flower boxes under huge windows, but they were all one story. Even the town hall was one story but had a steeple. The church had a taller steeple but a smaller building with a bell. Shops were the same size as the houses but in a square in the middle. Paths led around the square in circles in Stuttgart, and more of a grid in smaller Bremen. There were so many flowers, we smelled them as we ran past.

After Areon colony, we slowed down and taught our son to dance in the festival. He learned Yeffdance, kind of like a waltz with fast footwork but graceful. Elshar musicians taught us every Elshar dance they knew, and Thordes taught us Thordes dances from Ka, Wetarush, and several other jeia, which are like countries.

I expected Sonny to get confused between all these foreign customs and Biehshah ones, but he didn’t. In the festival, Ten picked him up and handed him to Mama, who caught up to us there. “Now you may teach him your customs. We taught him differences of many peoples.”

“Yes, teach me, Granny! Then I will be ready to learn my name.” Perfect English! Ir taught him all the languages he learned at Sigan Mas! In the future we shared, Ir got hurt and couldn’t do this. Our kids just learned what all the kids learned. There weren’t any diplomats in our colony then.

All our Biehshah ran with us for part of our day and taught our son.

Granny taught Sonny to sing! At first he sounded like babbling, but learned fast, like Gen and Noka did. He learned a Zheien stringed instrument at the same time like they did. After about an hour, he sang as well as Mama did! He could sing all the parts and notes humans couldn’t hit, some that we couldn’t even hear if I was still human. The word human didn’t seem very appropriate. I felt just as human as a Biehshah.

Ir held his hands like a Y and everyone watched him. “In the other future, you were Daka, but now you know enough to choose your name. What shall it be?”

Our son smiled. “Daka! I still like it.”

Happiness of our people, and me, tingled on everyone. Lots of Yeff waved their arms in the air, and their happiness tingles made ours stronger. I giggled, and so did lots of our people, but Daka did most of all. “I love our colony! And I love our Yeff friends! Ea yeo, Friends!” He waved his little arms in the air. Then hugged all of us, Mama and Daddy and Uncle Chase and Aunt Camila, too. Everyone smiled.

Ten gave Daka his first serving of sassmilk. “I thought you said that would be the third day.”

He frowned. “It is the third—”

Sara ran over. “Don’t worry about that. It’s me. Time gets a little confused when I’m around.” What?

My mind touched the calendar. Friday, Jan 28, before the Unified vote on Earth? But that’s before Daka was born!