“Yesterday I found a scuppernong bush and ate three! But I filled my ship’s kitchen with most of what I found. There is much more energy in these fruits than in three plain amta.”

Pas startled! “You only eat three?”

“Pas, three is a feast! I had a ship refit on D’sharr before I came to Earth, and I ate two, for a year to have trade for it.”

“Learn of me, my son. A man your size who does heavy work must have six amta three times a day, to keep weight.”

Luc’vel had a lot of scars and his arms didn’t lay straight. Saw a lot of slaves in better shape, in Rainbow. I’m going to ask if we can trade with Oesmen and get all those people in Elders’ Square!

Millie, one of my clones, went to talk with Cev, right now! Oesmen’s in the 7th. It’s his.

Pas adjusted his nutrition progs and let him see. “Eat more than you would, and this timer will remind you to eat often. Small amounts, but often, that you ne feel unwell. Here are aandats for you all.” White masses fell on their ankles.

Belle looked down and smiled. So did Maura. Luc’vel thought about how expensive aandats are, and cringed.

Other people watched, then released their aandats! The more people saw that, almost the entire crowd did!

When they heard enough, they came back and sat with us.

We ate together. Belle got a hamburger from Ruby Tuesday’s with guacamole. Maura had corned beef and coddle, a kind of stew with pale sausages, from a restaurant in Ireland, Ballymaloe, with Irish soda bread. I tried authentic fish and chips from Meehan’s in Atlanta. Pas sang a touching blessing asking Father Of All to help us all with very specific things. I think they got as choked up over that as I did!

Luc’vel looked kind of overwhelmed, so both Belle and Maura put bites from their plates on a piece of china with a shamrock that Maura waved up for him. With a green cloth napkin that he used often on his eyes. I put some of my Atlantic cod, fries and slaw on his plate.

“You should eat that, Molly! I feel bad to take food from you.” He wiped his eyes again.

“Luc’vel, I can get more, if I want it! This is more food than I would eat in one meal, too!” I laughed.

He held my hand. “You were so kind to us all, when we came. I will never forget Rainbow.” His voice broke.

“Belle deserves a good dad like you!” I hummed and his wrist creaked. “Oops, sorry!”

Belle added her hand. “I’m glad you did that! After we eat, I want you to get married!” Then, she blushed. Gave a cowed look at her mother.

Maura shoved her shoulder! “Why, an’ I think that’s a wonderful idea! I’m eager to get rid of Richardson and take back Cliatt!”

Belle giggled. “I can be a Cliatt?” She lost the happy smile. “If it doesn’t cost too much.”

Tan came back. “I can do this now. There will be no cost.” He waved up their Alliance records. Their last names changed to Cliatt. Both of ‘em smiled.

We all finished and waved our plates away. Luc’vel carefully gave the plate back to Maura.

“Oh, I meant that’un to be yours, m’love! How I wanted you to have it, when I couldn’t get one from Earth, on Ye~. I made one from a holo of the pattern.”

He smiled, hugged the plate, and waved it slowly to his alt storage. “Then, I shall eat from it every night!” Luc’vel knelt and recited beautiful poetry. Waved a dress with lots of white lace with Celtic knots and shamrocks woven in on her. A screen came up and he wrote his name in Elshar. “Sign here, my love. Your Earthan signature is fine.”

She used a golden pen that had the colors of the Irish flag on it to sign, with red light that turned blue. Tried to give it back to Tan, but he pushed it back to her, with a smile. She looked happy. Then, took Luc’vel’s hand. “Luc, where’s your room?”

“If you wish not to share it yet, I understand.” He looked down.

“I want to share it! Belle will enjoy having a room, with what she wants in it!” She pulled Belle into a group hug, and all of them smiled.

Luc'vel squeezed Belle's hand. “If healing interests you more, I don’t mind.”

“But I want to do both. You heard my thoughts?” She cowered.

“Yes, I did, but I wasn’t meaning to pry.”

Pas kept rubbing Belle's head, and she smiled. Her long, red hair swung like a curtain. Maura’s was wavy and darker than either of ours.

Her mom’s phone went off, and she dropped it! But it didn’t fall. It floated until she grabbed it. “Hello?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Maura, you gotta come in tonight! Lupita quit, and we got a convention in town—”

“You have a lot of nerve! I told you two weeks ago I wanted this 5-day weekend off—”

“And, you agreed to be on call, didn’t ya? Ya want this job, or not?”

“No, Beverly, I don’t. Bye!” She hung up. “I hate that job! Heavy platters of food and fussy people who treat you like a slave! That felt good!”

“I’m proud of you, Mom! Maybe your back won’t hurt so bad now.”

Pas looked unhappy. “Have you pains? Both need rest.”

“Rest?" Mom’s voice broke. “I need to know what work I will be doing.”

Pas hugged her. She looked shocked, but returned it. “You expected ne to work for five days. Rest first, then speak of work.”

I pointed beside us on the left. “That’s the portal to our room, and y’all can visit us anytime! If you want your room by me, Belle, you can, or if you know someone else and want to be by them, they can move the portals over. Angel’s room is on the other side of the Pedersens’ portal.” Hadn't been in our room but briefly after we married, but I liked the arrangement. Ben made it, and it’s in their house in Marietta and in the Pedersen’s basement at once! I squeezed his hand and that look of love brought tears to my eyes. So grateful for Ben, and now Luc and Maura can enjoy married bliss, too!

Belle smiled and her mom nodded. “There is fine! I’m happy that we can live here, where it’s safe!”

Ao~ waved and a picture of Belle was there, like a pretty tapestry. Woods in the background. But, Maura frowned and it changed to Ye~! “Oh, that’s pretty, Mom! I wish we could go to Ireland and see your folks.”

She sighed. “I miss it, but there’s no work I want to do there. Translators or broadcasters have a lot of competition. I like the idea of living on Ye~.”

“I will put a lock, so Tem cannot enter. Oh, M’Naga invited him to bring the kittens to his room.” Beside Belle’s room was a picture of Luc’vel and Maura against a background of Ireland.

“Tem? But, he hurt you—”

“Be~saech cleaned him of rogues. He would not harm anyone, now. See?”

Several Yeff in orange tunics and pants walked with him. He carried a cardboard box with a mother cat and five kittens. Only one was orange striped like her. All of them talked happily about cats! He petted them.

Tem was the shape of a person, but blue liquid sloshed as he walked. He also wore orange tunic and pants.

Luc’vel laughed! “Oesha invited him to join the Science Council? A sim can do that?”

Tan smiled. “Yes! Zheien consider them sentient if they are high enough intelligence. He is not like simulants on Areon, who only do menial functions. Oesha asked me about artificial life. There are guidelines for lawyers, because Zheien kings brought the matter to Trader’s Service. I tested him.

“Sa’i uses simulants to trade because no trader could bear contact with them, so M’Naga taught him to trade and gave him Provisional status. He learned from watching you, but no one on Oesmen would take him seriously.

“So I had him trade with Areonian and Yeff children learning trading. He made artworks from natural materials that pleased them! Before Sun2 set on Ye~, he made 15trade. I think he will make much more than that, tomorrow! He wants to trade pets, but he must wait until Earth votes on the Alliance Treaty for that. Tem loves children, and his telepathy is gentle. He cares for all the animals on the ship.”

His mind pointed to a tapestry with animals of all sorts on it, like a zoo! Through the clear hull were all sorts of them, no cages, just interacting in friendly ways! Some had holos of places. A tiger had a pool to wallow in. Two elephants shared it and sprayed the tiger, who rolled over for more! It also had cattle, horses, dogs, cats and other pets. Fish floated above their heads in globes of water. Birds flew around or sat on perches. Lots of people were in there and several healers. Every animal had an aandat. Most were dogs and cats, and diplomats kept porting in with more. A steady stream of people carried mostly dogs and cats out.

“Ry’nao wants all to leave for Alb tonight, but you may send holos to Earth, to contact your loved ones with a diplomat here.” Ao~ smiled at them.

Luc’vel chuckled. “I am happy to go to safety, after what happened!” He lost the happy smile.

Pirad came. “I would like to reclone both of you now! It is fortunate you did not return to Oesmen. It is bad enough you grew biomes from a Lerk terminal, and Tem and your other simulants! But he and your ship are safe now. Men should not go to Jain! Oesmen should know people of our tech level are forbidden to go there!”

“But, Elshar Elders went there, and that is how Elshar learned to make colonies! Jain was a colony of Elshar that traded with many people who had technology and they collected it!”

His face clicked into an expression of dismay! “The Jain went to destroyed worlds to find tech that destroyed them! As many civilizations before them, they thought they could destroy one ethnic group and not others. Their weapons trade destroyed other civilizations besides theirs!”

“Weapons trade! We were told to look for plants and animals!” His chest heaved.

“Everything on Jain was a weapon! They made weapons of things that Elshars do not think of as harmful. The Lerk were peaceful, but they traded their deadliest weapons to the Jain in exchange for food. Even Jain food was deadly, and they traded it lying about how beneficial it was!” His thin chest heaved, and he clicked with it.

Luc’vel paled. “Oesmen has farms on Jain, and we carried food with us. We ate it!”

“I can make you fully Elshar. I know more than Oesmen will ever know, or Jain.”

He offered to take Luc’vel and Maura to his lab, so they went.

I put a hand on Belle’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. C’mon, want to see Brian, Jason and Steven? They're here!”

“Yeah! I’m so glad we don’t have to go to Oesmen! I’m surprised I didn’t grow a third eye or something!”

Of all the Elshars we got in Rainbow, I didn’t remember anyone else from Oesmen. I asked M’Naga about trading partners there, to see if we could get food from there for Luc’vel. Oesmen doesn’t trade food, ethnic items, anything that Elshars usually want, specifically from Oesmen.

My traders didn’t know much about it, but M’Naga knew a lot. He never had a regular trading partner from there for longer than a few months. Usually, traders have friends for decades. Because he couldn’t find anything out about them when he didn’t see them, he asked me. Their Alliance record would say Elder’s Square. We tried, but we couldn’t get Oesmen to let us take any of them, even for large amounts of trade. That’s where they put people to die, but I didn’t tell M’Naga. I knew from what Luc’vel told me.