Pas waved up a holo. “Eja fe ne! Ships arrive in Rainbow Samar Thaae! We must—”


    J~oie grabbed his arm, like a shot! “You can ne think to go there!”


    “But these are massive numbers! They will need help!”


    Leticia shook her head. “Taredias has an army of healers, clones of every great healer! They can handle it. He can make more as needed. His clones are in every Rainbow colony. But, he’s equipped to handle all the rogues.”


    Pas paled and grabbed two Tessite symbols on his robe! “Rogues! You expect rogues?”


    “These are from <mark>Dromie’s</mark> people. They went there because Taredias and Siasch aren’t restricted like the rest of Alb. When they did the treaty with the Alb Council, they expected this sort of thing, so any dangerous weapons or shipments go there.” Her blue eyes filled. Her parents grabbed her arms. “If it’s not Alb Seer’s Rainbow, I hope <mark>Pirad’s</mark> okay! If anything—”


    “<mark>Pirad’s</mark> okay, or we would feel it. Remember how it felt every time one of his clones died?” I shuddered.


    “All of them died, even on Samar Thaae where he had hundreds! Taredias makes more, and they all die fast! His, too, and Kirnonos’!” She cried.


    What happened while I was away? Sara’s eyes and mine met and she looked bone-weary. I felt that way, too. But I saw my bright blue eyes that still had that glow, through her telepathy. Weird to see that on me!


    Anxious people crowded around Ir and I. “My parents are there! Please, let me go! I have to say goodbye!” A lady pulled at my arm.


    One of the Ryonne~‘s held up his arms. “I know you are eager to see them, but we can ne leave or allow you contact. Samar Thaae takes unthinkable risk to care for them!”


    “I didn’t want to try to save galaxies! I came here to get away from my horrible life on Earth. This is worse! You people won’t let me leave, and the people in this thing hijacked my body to force me into this fight! I want out!”


    He frowned at her and rumbles shook the floor. “I am most sorry. We ne chose you. Gifts came to you, and we have ne way to know how they chose you. If you ne choose to fight, ne can force this. You have the choice ne to use your Gift. However, this battle we are in needs you. If we lose, all of us lose everything.


    “What do you mean, ‘everything’? We’ll still be here, won’t we?”


    He showed her barren worlds where Rentappenen stripped them of resources, then chopped them up for resources, leaving rocky rubble like our asteroid belt! Didn’t they know what they were fighting for?


    She sobbed and he let her relatives hug her. One of the men held her face up. “Then, Kathey, you have to do this. We can’t fight it for you.”


    Kathey? Yes, the same dark hair pulled in a tight pony. My night boss at Crafts Anonymous. She looks older now. Didn’t expect that to change her mind. “You’re right, Daddy. I need to adult now. I’ll fight!”


    A cheer came from Randy, Pat, Ophelia and Carla. He looked at me. “Yeah, we’ll fight with you, Kia! We’ll make up for all the stuff we did.”


    So my false friends are repenting? I smiled at ‘em. But I’m not convinced. Maybe this is like <mark>Dromie’s</mark> people and people like Wslarc. Wait and see. Yeah. But, I believe Dromie. He brought our people back! Not so sure about them. They didn’t rush over and I didn’t push it. They looked all self-congratulatory. Wait ‘til we’re in the battle.


    I watched that holo. But Ryonne~ waved it down. Rogues can live on a Hub. Samar Thaae is on our Ye~ Hub. It serves all of Alb. Biehshah Hub is Alliance, but separate. Maybe they have separate Hubs for a reason. Pirad, Kirnonos and Taredias have been preparing for an attack from Rentappenen for years. I just want this to be over!The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Taredias’ voice contacted me. We need your help! Heal us!


    I belted out “<mark>Un</mark> <mark>bel</mark> <mark>dì</mark>, <mark>vedremo</mark>” from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. My frenemies joined in and they sounded pretty good, considering. But my healing reached through Samar Thaae to those poor slaves, all in bad shape. Taredias needed it most. Rogues.


    All the healers in here joined in, too. Angel ran over and found a part. She sang much better than Ophelia’s 1st soprano. I’m a 1st soprano, too. So if we were on stage, it would be pretty boring, three sopranos without a descant or harmony. They’re still competing with me.


    As I sang I built my usual orchestration because we all really needed max healing! All my Biehshah were looking very pale. Something’s going on.


    We sang and I had this feeling that it wasn’t as good as usual. Didn’t taste ice cream this time. As if something was blocking it.


    I sang louder, put more emotion into it, and I did sound better, but healing wasn’t better. Am I trying too hard?


    There was some contention going on between Ophelia and Carla. They always competed for parts. But Ophelia’s pink cube and Carla’s sky blue cube gave flashes occasionally. Why?


    Randy had a purple cube that also did that. It got more intense. I felt my healing go down!


    People in my Collective got irritated. <mark>One-upmanship</mark> during a healing? And, it’s interfering with it!


    <mark>Cathey’s</mark> yellow cube started it. Then, Pat’s orange cube! Finally, they faced off and my cube gave one big green flash that knocked them all off their feet. I sang louder. They started arguing.


    Things got bad, fast! Half my Biehshah collapsed! That startled my false friends and Zheien led them into the garden while I tried to salvage things. My people are dying!


    I got angry. Anger and healing don’t mix! So I thought about our beautiful gardens in our colony, and how we all love each other.


    That inspired all my Biehshah to sing as they put people on beds. Healing got stronger. Zheien, Thordes and <mark>Ishah</mark> danced, so they weren’t much help. Elshars tried, but they don’t know healing for us. A few knew which drinks we needed and Ten was able to direct them.


    What a disaster! Finally, I did all that I could do and wound it down. I ran to our beds. Ir, Der and <mark>Inana</mark> hugged people. So did I.


    Half our people died! Oh, I got mad and stormed over to where my false friends sat at that table. “All of you, get out! You can go to that building across the garden.”


    “You can’t tell us where to go! You’re just jealous—” I cut Randy off.


    “Half my people just died! When I sing, it’s not for fun, it’s to save lives! I just saved all those poor slaves on Samar Thaae, but half my people died trying to help because you just had to misbehave!” My chest heaved.


    Randy got upset. “I didn’t see anything <mark>happ</mark>—”


    I jerked my hand up and stats rolled. 1856 slaves who were dying, they’ll live now. That’s on Samar Thaae. Here, Pas had 13 dying people in a room, they will also live. His healers brought them out here.


    Their jaws dropped. I pointed. They left.


    No time to enjoy my petty victory. Grieving people wailed and I had no healing left! We got busy just helping Ten get drinks down them and comforting people.


    Both Ryonne~‘s and their family were still trying to make people understand that their relatives can’t come here and they can’t talk to them. It’s awful! I cried, but that’s not helping. People see me cry and they get sick.


    How would I feel if Mama was on Samar Thaae, but I couldn’t talk to her or see her? That’s like she died, all over again! I felt awful for these people, but what can we do? Will they have to exile them, like <mark>Dromie’s</mark> Earth family? That’s awful. Just awful!


    But half our people died! Because of my stupid friends who just don’t know how to think about anyone else! The war, we know we’re gonna lose people. Losing half our colony because of those dodos, that’s unnecessary casualties! Maybe I’m justified in bringing them back with my Cube. I concentrated, and ignored that warning voice in my head.


    Stop! You will weaken your Collective—


    We need them all to win this war!


    You need your Collective to be strong! If you bring back so many, how will you fight? Your Collective is the most important here! You can keep Ry’nao alive.


    So can Suma, or Deb, or even Molly.


    All of you are the most important ones. You must not do this. It will take all of you to keep him alive. He is the only one who can direct so many.


    I remembered how it felt, to run over there, to feel his hand on my head—seeking my healing. Not <mark>Suma’s</mark>. She went over there, but he reached for me. Is he part Biehshah? Or is it just my unusually strong telepathy?


    It is your healing. Even Ket, who is bred to carry telepathy no Elshar can, cannot heal him as you do. He is taking healing from you constantly. You are all he has. Soon you will see for yourself.