I woke up to Molly comforting someone. “I don’t want my husband to die! I don’t want to die! I’m only 12 years old!”

  Oh, Cattie. I put out my hand to her shoulder. “Honey, he won’t. Your pastself is with him. He doesn’t know you’re here. We are all our nowselves. They’ll go on without us.”

  “You’re not missing your husband! You don’t know what it’s like!”

  I sighed and my tears started dripping. “My husband Roosevelt went to Minaria with my pastself. He doesn’t know I’m here, and I’m glad! He has her. He doesn’t need me!”

  She gasped, then we hugged. “Oh, I’m sorry! You do know what it’s like! But that means I’m really alone with this! It’s not fair! I saved those worlds, but there’s nobody to save me!”

  Molly held up her hands and stood up. “Everybody, we have each other! I know we’re not who we want with us, for some of you. I miss my husband, but I’m glad he has her. They can run my Rainbows and I don’t have to worry about that. We have to all remember what we won for everybody we care about! I don’t have any regrets, even if they kill us in some horrible way. I’ll be thinking about the lives we saved, and that’s what I dedicated my life to do!”

  “Maybe I deserve to be here, but not my husband!” A Black girl stood up and people gasped when her husband stood. “And not Ry’nao, who was just trying to protect all the Thirteen Galaxies, even the six that were at war with us!”

  Her husband took her hand. “Alice, I rule 800,000 worlds of Zheien. If anyone should ne be here, is you.” His voice broke. Oh, that’s King Ishmarel who rules all the Zheien!

  Ry’nao got up and Molly steadied him. “Ish, if I could be the only one here, I made decisions that I knew would put us here. The responsibility is mine!”

  “My liege, all of us who reign agreed with those decisions! I think all of us agree, Rentappenen had to be stopped, whatever the cost! Our peoples have peace. All of us knew our lives might be required, to save our people.” His deep blue eyes had the anguish of the ages in them.

  A girl stood up. “I didn’t sign up for this! I’m not a leader or anything. I’m just a student! I had a—husband and a family in Ridene Prov, and now—I’d rather die than be a slave again!”

  Suma reached for her. “I don’t think we have to worry about that—”

  “You don’t know what I saw, in Ginda! Bour Wenh Cet had all sorts of awful plans, and I told Pirad all of it! That’s why I’m here! And she gets to live with my husband and be safe, and I—just wanna die! Why can’t they just kill me and let all of you go?!” She ran over to Yamotenanten and attacked him! He held her arms so she couldn’t hit him. Not a very skilled fighter.

  That shocked me! Maybe if someone feels like they have nothing else to lose--

  “Suza, listen to me! This isn’t help—”

  “He’s like them! Drugging people and convincing them they want to do what they’d never in their life do! This is a slaver ship! What did they give us, that we think we have clean clothes, and food, and like everything’s okay! It’s not!”

  Suma had tears on her face. Studied the girl’s expression with her brown eyes wide. Pulled at her brown hair. “Suza, we’re not drugged. The food is real. Calm down, please.”

  “Calm down? You can do all that psychology stuff, but look around you! Everybody’s scared of him! He’s our slaver! I can’t stand any more of this! All of us, we’re broken, just like the Zheien say! I didn’t do anything! They did it to me! Can’t Pirad just erase me, like they’re probably going to do?! I don’t want to hear these memories in my head any more! I don’t want to be laid out on one of those stone tables and be a staring zombie! What do you want from us? What sick joy do you get from watching us cry? You didn’t even care enough to bring food and water for us! I hope they punish you! You don’t even know enough to be our keeper! Are we fodder for your zoo? You’ll sell tickets for your people to come stare at us like you do?” She sobbed.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Yamotenanten slowed until he had one face. “My task is merely to deliver you to our Council. They will decide what your punishment is. Violence is not allowed. No one will harm you. I did not harm you and I will not. You are to be taken to the Council, together. They will listen, then they will judge. This is all I can tell you. Until we arrive, I am not to harm you in any way.”

  “You think being a prisoner is not harm? This is torture, wondering when we’re going to leave here and being scared to death of where the next place is going to be, or who’s going to do what to punish us! Llsam left people like you! He didn’t like it there, but he wasn’t your prisoner.” She cried, loudly.

  Ryonne~ put a hand below her wrist, where Yamotenanten still gripped her. “Please, may I take her to sit with us? Maiden, will you come?”

  He let go and she nodded. Looked down as he led her to where Ry’nao sat. Ryonne~ stumbled, and Suza held onto him. “You shouldn’t be on your feet! Won’t he let them heal you? Molly!”

  Molly got on his other side and helped him sit by Ry’nao. Sighed. “We all tried, Suza. Pirad and Kirnonos tried, and Suma and I, and Ray. There’s only so much we can do.”

  She put her head on his arm and wept. “I’m sorry! I know better. I’m 17.”

  “Suza, I am many years older than you, and I knew better, but we all had to act as we did. I am sorry you are here. When we speak before the Council, I will defend you.” Ry’nao stroked her long hair. She flinched. He got tears in his red-violet eyes. “I did not mean to hurt you.”

  “Oh, it doesn’t come out when they pull it—” Gasps made her look down.

  “Maiden, o, I am sorry! Nae will harm you here, while we travel.” Ryonne~ wept silently.

  She put a hand on his, on her arm. “Zheien don’t hurt anyone. He wouldn’t care!” Her dark eyes glared at Yamotenanten, who just stood there.

  Greg sat by us. “Miss, he will not harm you as slavers do.”

  She tensed, and he startled. “You don’t know what he is.”

  “He is Ty’nirrhan. I know this because I am.” His green eyes filled.

  “You don’t glow, or change faces!”

  “Once, I did. I was a slave. My group were forced to work with Bour Wenh Cet. Opseh Wenh Cet sent us to Earth and made us half-Earthan.” He rubbed his face.

  Another man sat by him. “Brother, you should not talk about this. You can hurt yourself, to remember it.”

  “Briahh, I want to tell her. Most of my students were just a little older than her. What, Briahh? What should I tell her?”

  Ryonne~ pulled his head against his shoulder and stroked it. Hummed. He fell asleep and Briahh smiled. “Zheien are healing.” He has brown eyes like her. Both her arms were pink up to her elbows, then pink spots on dark skin. What could do that? She had pink blotches on her face, too.

  She looked at them, then at Yamotenanten. “You were slaves?”

  “Yes. Our people don’t want to hurt people. Only slavers do. One of my students tried to steal chemicals from our lab. I was sad, but I called the police. He tried to fight me, but I used my telepathy to make him sit down. I was careful not to hurt him. He went quietly with the policeman. But I heard his thoughts, all about how he’d lie and go to another school to take chemistry. It shocked me that he didn’t feel any guilt about stealing and lying.

  “In telepathic societies, there is no need to put people in prisons, if they are willing to learn to act better. I don’t think they will hurt us. They might want us to live on another tech level where our secrets can’t interfere. People of the 5th do not have slavers, or experimentation such as you witnessed. Rentappenen created that. We lived peacefully until he came. Since we did not know evil, we were fooled.” He shook his head and his brown hair waved.

  “Yamotenanten came from people like us who rose to the 5th. We lost our place there because of Rentappenen. I say, ‘we’ because this was probably in the time of my grandparents. I don’t remember much, but we had loving families then. But we decided to change ourselves. These bodies were like we were before we changed. Rentappenen wasn’t satisfied with our lives. He used forbidden tech to change us.

  “People who stayed on our level like Yamotenanten never knew what a slaver was, so he does not know why you are angry. I do know, and I am very angry bad men hurt you. Greg and I never wanted to hurt helpless people. I hope we don’t scare you.” His lips quivered.

  She looked up at him. “So, what do you think they will do?” Her voice trembled.

  “I don’t know. Yamotenanten, what do your people do when someone breaks your rules?”

  He stood near us. “I do not know. No one ever did. This will be our first time. We may have to consult with higher Councils. My position never required me to travel here to where you consider the Thirteen. To me, your local group is 25 galaxies. You will represent them also.”

  Ry’nao looked very surprised! “We only have contact with 17! Which are the others?”

  He stared at him and Ry’nao paled.