We stepped into a green room with tables of cylinders and thin beds at waist high. Through the clear wall was a crowd of people. Twin-fingered Zheien in a rainbow of colors of skin. Purple Thordes with hands like ours. Elshars—most look like us but their eyes lighten when they’re happy and darken when they’re not. Pirad has five-fingered hands, but he’s got dark green skin and shoulders half the width of an average man. I didn’t smell anything but an occasional whiff of licorice from Ben. This lab looked bigger than the rest of the ship and had a high ceiling.
When they saw Pirad, Deb and her mother froze. He clicked his jointed face into an expression of dismay. “I do not wish to frighten them! Why did you not warn them?” Pirad, and all Bisillips, are green and thin enough to be skeletal. Little green men. I stifled a giggle. But he’s taller than me. I’m really short at 4’1”.
Ryee carried Greg to the soft bed at the side of the lab. “I fear for Greg! Please, Pirad, see him quickly.” Shelves in the wall held a lot of cylinders of various colors. I knew he kept memories of people who had great skills, to make clones of ‘em.
Pirad laid his five-fingered hand on Greg’s forehead. For every joint I have, he has twice as many. Greg’s shoulders went down. “Oh, you are in poor condition! Your father is cruel. Did he send a Thum Mayyahh with you to heal you?”
“We had one at home. Briahh complained that if he could take me to it, I would have less pains. Father and Mother forbade it.” Greg blinked.
“He is a slaver, so I am not surprised! I have memories, so I can heal you without one.” White light flashed.
Greg smiled. “I feel better, thank you. Can you heal my brother?”
“If he is not frightened to come here.”
Greg chuckled. “I think he is eager to feel better!” He reached for Ryee’s hand and missed.
“I will carry you, my friend.” As he picked Greg up, Pas, a grandfatherly healer, had an aandat ready for me. I stuck out my ankle. He waved up another white one and poured it on Greg’s ankles. Ryee frowned at him, but Pas smiled. Good. White gel flowed up my jeans legs. Warm. Not as heavy as I expected. A bulge moved up and looked really weird, like a slow-mo wave.
Sylvania mewed and Ryee startled. Smiled, big. “Is that a cat?” His orange eyes opened wide.
I unzipped her case and she jumped into his arms, on Greg’s lap! “This is Sylvania. She’s my therapy animal.” I pictured yesterday at the nursing home and how people loved petting and holding her.
“O, I enjoyed cats so much, on Earth!” Ryee giggled. Greg laughed and petted her, too. “May Pas take her to many, here?”
“I want to leave her here! Mom threatens to put her outside. She’s Deaf. She’d get killed out there!”
He showed me a prog to keep her in the ship, but she can roam freely. Pas can heal her deafness and give her an aandat. A Deaf person would probably not want her healed, but I did.
Pas put a tiny white aandat on her and hummed. Then took her out into the big room, with a smile. All the Zheien and purple Thordes rushed to see her. Sylvania butted every hand that reached for that soft, white fur. She’s in her element, now! And, I won’t have to get those vaccinations or give the poor thing insulin shots any more. Her ears pricked in every direction! She’s almost a year old, so still about half the size of a grown cat.
We ported. I knew Pas would let me have an aandat! And, white is better than the blue one I had. My telepathy will be stronger! I didn’t feel it now.
In a hall of doors, Greg pointed to the one marked 911. “Molly thinks our number is very funny! When someone needs help, he uses this number on his phone.” Greg used a door knocker three times. I giggled. Then toned it down. People are still asleep. No one in the hall right now. Smells from someone’s breakfast.
Briahh opened the door. He wore white. “Greg, why is he carrying you? Are you sick?” He took his hand. “I saw the memories. I am ready.” I hugged him.
Ryee waved at the door. It closed and locked. Then, we ported back to Pirad’s Lab. I smiled at Pirad.
He clicked his jointed face into a smile. “You are young.”
I took his hand and ignored the cold. Smiled. “I am young, but I want to learn healing. Molly Brown, pleased to meet you. Wow, you’re cold! Are you okay?” Oh, I knew that. He's Bisillipian. I felt naked without my telepathy!
“I am healthy. If I were warm, I would not be. You may come. My lab is here.” He led us from the big room in the giant ship, filled with people, to the right. His portal showed a scene of a world with green mountains, a lighter green sky, and deep green cube buildings in neat rows on a plaza with tile that reflected that green sky and fluffy clouds.
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“Oh, that’s pretty!”
“Thank you.” He walked into it. The others put out a hand, then slipped in. Warmth, then cool but not as intense as the portal that brought us.
Pirad followed us all to the bed. Pas brought an aandat for Briahh and he bared his ankles. His white pants were loose and had embroidery in white of a rocky landscape.
Deb followed and held Greg’s hand. “How are you, Bro? Greg, are you okay? You look pale!”
Pirad healed Briahh while Greg answered. “I am okay. Tired, but healing does that. We will need to sleep. I have to call Jesse, my GTA. Hope he’s able to teach my classes today!”
“I can move the contents of your apartment here, or leave them, as you wish. We fear for you to stay on Earth. Soon, Earth knows of us and we shall offer membership in the Alliance. Slavers will also be active here, despite all we can do.” Ryee frowned.
Greg trembled. His green eyes opened very wide. I never saw him scared. “Where can we go? Will Deb and her family have dangers because of us?”
“I am King of Ye~, a small Zheien colony of 2500. We are growing because we terraformed our world to be less harsh. You and your people are welcome to come to us. Our world is now in the Alb System, and the Biehshah have the best security in the Alliance. Only S’ai have better, and they assisted the Biehshah.“ They moved Ye~ from the Seventh Galaxy?
“But, Molly’s healer colonies will be on 25 worlds and more to come in the same system, Alb. Pirad’s Lab will be on Alb Seer but he will have labs on all the worlds. Will you join us? You may live on any of the worlds near us and port to others freely within four minutes.” That's like Biehshah was, in the other future, but I never ported there. People had to take a ship. They have better tech, now?
He looked at Briahh, who nodded. “I am surprised you would welcome us, sons of the most powerful slaver on the Council! All of those in Ry Pethe are related to our father. Our sister is in Scotland.” He named many others.
Ryee took their hands. “I can provide colony space for Ry Pethe, or whichever name your colony wishes. We will protect all of your people!”
“Greg, can we stay here? And go to Ye~ when they leave?”
“Deb, I must know how you feel about this, before I agree.” His green eyes filled.
She hugged him. “Greg, I want to get married! I’ll go where you go. Mom, do you think you and Dad might want to come?”
“I want to know what it’s like there before I decide! All of this is too much for me! Can we talk about it--your father’s still asleep!”
Pas rubbed Greg’s head. “My son, if you rest well, you will feel well to speak. I wish to go with you because you shall need frequent healing for this discussion.”
Pirad held green cylinders to their heads. “These will store your memories. I can put them in clones so they may share them with you at times. You must both avoid thoughts that bring pain until I have a solution.”
“That thing’s hurting him!” Deb paled as she noticed huge bruises on their foreheads under the green. I remembered this from when Pirad recloned people. He recloned me. More memories came to me!
“I am now finished. Ty’nirrhans share more quickly than Zheien and other species.” He took the cylinders away and Pas healed them both. Greg’s clones and Briahh’s clones—five of each—got up and smiled! Two of them came.
“I will go to work for you today, Greg. You can rest.”
“I will apply for Briahh’s job. Then I will go see Roger. I will have all day to hunt for our people!”
Greg and Briahh held Ryee’s hands, and their clones’ gently.
Briahh frowned. “We have no trade—how can we repay you for the aandats? And clones are expensive! I should have—” His brown eyes filled as he tried to say something, but no words came.
“This is our gift to you! Both of you gave knowledge to us that will help to defeat slavers!”
They smiled and relaxed. Because they were not afraid, Deb and her mother also took aandats. Thank goodness!
Deb smoothed his short, blond hair.
“Thank you, Pas. Deb, may I rest?”
She laughed. “Don’t ask, just close your eyes. I can stand it if you sleep for a few hours. You mind if Mom and I go talk about this for a while? At 5:30, Daddy’s alarm’ll go off. If we port now, we can be there when he wakes up.” Mrs. Bruce smiled and nodded.
“I have Briahh, and Zheien are nice.” He smiled, hugged his brother, and fell asleep. Briahh smiled, too.
Ryee gave her and her mother a green terminal. “You may port wherever you like, but you risk others seeing it. If you take a diplomat with you, they can listen for others before you port. Ah, South is free. She is a diplomat of Thorde.” She ported to them. At first, she appeared Black with dark brown skin. But, I remembered her. Thordes have purple skin. Like them, she hid her true appearance. Zheien have graceful twin fingers and their feet look like their hands.
“I have a lot of questions for you two! Shall we go?” Deb and Mrs. Bruce nodded, and they ported home. Whoosh!
Ryee sent diplomats to the other Ty’nirrhans. I hoped Pirad could heal their crazy sister!
Ryee hugged me. Gave me a green cube terminal, a Yeff Unified one. “This is for you. Know you we can trace DNA? Here are your missings.” He waved, and holos of items with my DNA ported to me from landfills. All my items also ported to me, and holos replaced them at home. One item, a brown teddy bear, made me gasp! All items came cleaned because of progs to restore them and remove any microbes, stains or chemicals.
I hugged the bear and cried. “Grampa gave me this bear on my 5th birthday. He died a couple days later. Dad saw it and got teary. Mom got mad at him for crying and threw him in the garbage! I'm so happy to have him back! Grampa was Dad's father and he was good to us. I think she was jealous because her dad was so mean to her. He broke her arm once for making a B in algebra. Maybe I ought to be nicer to my mom.” I waved everything back into my cube. Things’ll be so much easier now! Zheien always forgive.