Pirad appeared in front of me. “Azure, you must not think about him! I cannot hide us—”

  “He’s in my head! He knows what I see and what I know! But, he’s too busy to attack—”

  A yellow man ran up and poured several drinks down Pirad! I expected him to drown or protest, but he just let him do it. “You have to rest!”

  “Rest! Ten, Rentappenen can see us despite all I can do!”

  “You think I cannot see that? But, Azure is right. He cannot attack—”

  “You are younger than we are, and you cannot know what I know!” Pirad made that funny gesture with his right hand perched on his bald, shiny head!

  “I do know more healing than you do for our kind, and I say—”

  “Kirnonos collected the minds of our greatest healers and put them in me! I know much more than you—”

  “And I say to you, a healer cannot heal himself!” Ten rolled his eyes, and Kia laughed. She knows Biehshah never do that! All the Biehshah on this ship are picking up her Earthan gestures! I giggled.

  Kia did, too, then she sang a group healing. Even I felt it, though her healing is only for Biehshah and maybe Ty’nirrhans.

  Pirad slapped a hand on my head and clicked his face into a very shocked expression. “You should be dead!”

  “I will be, but I’ll hold this bubble open as long as I can!” More green sweat-stars dripped onto the floor. Healers frantically looked around, thinking a dying Zheien was someplace. That made me giggle more. Stupid! It’s not funny!

  One of the Elshar Zheien was hiding how sick he was, and I made them run to him. Saved his life!

  With an exasperated expression, he stared at me with his huge green eyes and three sets of orange pupils that flew apart. “You are squandering your energy! Concentrate on what you are doing!”

  I laughed in his face. “Pinda said being unpredictable will win this war!”

  “Pinda will kill us all! I—”

  I showed him how one of Pinda’s cat-people was pretending to be one of Rentappenen’s most trusted lieutenants. Instead of targeting Padrisa resource galaxies, he destroyed Rentappenen’s resource galaxies that he corrupted. Galaxies filled with worlds of the Harast, that conquered them then made them into weapons too dangerous to exist.

  Pirad fell on the rubbery red-violet floor! “How can you see so far up the levels? Who taught you to do that?”

  “Rentappenen knows! I can see everything his troops do!”

  My smile dropped when Ry’nao’s anguished face stared at me in horror. Even he doesn’t know about these upper levels and their petty conflicts. The Padrisa is so far above us, the 6th level above the Test Of Levels they designed which is 5 below their 1st Level, our Thirteen is like a flea to them! But, their arguments sound just like the ones on the Council that Ry’nao belonged to, with Councillors who were all learning.

  I realized, there are similarities in all the Tech Levels. There is love and loyalty, and there is greed and hate. All of us are just trying to learn to live with each other.

  But, Rentappenen wants to change all that and just conquer. He’s like the Harast, who believe the most important thing in life is to grab all the resources, even though they don’t need them, just to ‘win’. There is no winner in that kind of contest. Even as young as I am, and I don’t claim to know anything, I know that.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Mama and Daddy had fights like their parents had fights, just to ‘win’ at all costs. They really didn’t. They never learned they could compromise. I just gave in and let them fight. That wasn’t a way to ‘win’, either.

  But, they and both sets of their parents sat down in that room and talked, for hours. They are working things out, now that they’re sober.

  Rentappenen will never know that, what it feels like to consider anyone else’s feelings. He sees the whole universe as some limitless supply of things to ‘have’. Is he that stupid? All you can grab is what can fit into your hand, or your arms.

  “Stupid! I have alt storage to hold it for me! You know what that is!” He scowled at me and Pirad, Ry’nao, everyone in this fight trembled!

  I put my hands on my hips. “Yeah, and alt storage gets power from star systems! You do know there are limits to the number of galaxies with that kind of power, don’t you?” I showed him what the most brilliant scientists of the Padrisa found out. They counted all the galaxies. All the supergalactic clusters like the Padrisa are numbered, and they all have governments, and levels. Levels above theirs divided them up eons ago. I showed them how powerful those levels, like the 15th, are. And they are now looking at him!

  Rentappenen shook with rage! “You did this! I’ll destroy your Thirteen, and the Padrisa!” But, all his galactic leaders turned into cat-people. All 5,294 of them.

  Oops. I wasn’t supposed to show him that. I wasn’t supposed to even see that. Yamotenanten knew it, and he slipped up because Rentappenen scared him.

  Everything stopped. Froze. In front of me, Yamotenanten stood. His faces and body changed so rapidly, he glowed white. But, his face looked infinitely sad. “You should not know this. Do you know how strong Rentappenen is? You showed him his weakness. Now he can strengthen it! Look!”

  Yamotenanten expected Rentappenen to kill them all. But when Rentappenen lifted his hand, his Cube Of Many Colors glowed less than mine! Not enough people to combine their telepathy to attack those other galaxies.

  Pinda’s people vanished, and those galaxies blew up.

  Yamotenanten gasped. We both saw, this war is now just the Thirteen!

  On Rhaech, their troops broke into the chamber with the portal to Lisbaar. Rentappenen’s forces fought with the Rhaecho, but Gedda Dier got to the chamber next to Rentappenen’s Collective. She put her hands on a giant Cube as big as she was. “It is time! All of you, port!”

  “I can’t leave you, my queen!” A man next to her sobbed.

  “I cannot save this world. It is corrupted. Send everyone who is not of Lisbaar Chouha. Our allies need to leave now!” She activated a device to port them all away.

  Kenneph’s brother ported their group to a ship. The only ones who could not port were Gierdre’s foolish father, who pushed ahead and tried to attack Rentappenen. With a sword. Rentappenen bled on him, but it wasn’t a fatal wound. They still fought.

  Gierdre’s half Xchou, half-Ty’nirrhan sister helped him fight, knowing they couldn’t port. Gedda Dier’s weapon is tied to her genetics, and they are in one body. Her secret weapon was hiding her troops in a sea of living red aandats, slime on these tunnels’ floors that was sealed up and put in stasis for this day. As her troops and those from Rhaecho flooded these halls, they sealed their fate. They became Gedda Dier’s most trusted scientists, who created the most deadly weapons on our tech level.

  The ones trying to get this far, into Lisbaar’s vast underground Burial Chambers, ported in a white portal.

  Gedda Dier, whose anger sparked flashes of rainbow colors on the inside of the chamber, poured her life-force into the Cube to power it. She used Gierdre’s clone’s body with all the telepathic power Pirad put into her. She volunteered to become Gedda Dier, Queen Of Lisbaar, and bring her back to life, knowing this would kill her. Such a brave woman!

  Kenneph’s friends and brother reached his ship and gave manual calcs! He’s hurt, and scared. He’s one of MarKu’s most skilled diplomats.

  Das Marti, King Of Escet Vu, who negotiated some legendary treaties for the sky blue Zheien, led their thousands of troops to try to keep Lisbaar’s weapons out of Eriganh’s hands. Gedda Dier put them all in stasis to save them for this day. Now their thousand ships flew, and all of them gave manual calcs to try to escape!

  Gedda Dier felt Rentappenen reach for her mind, to stop her, but she gave the codes. A fireball reached into the core of Lisbaar and connected it to their sun!

  First, Lisbaar exploded, but all the weapons also exploded! Rentappenen sent Mican into the chamber where his cloned son was. Mican saw Rentappenen’s blood on his hand. Put his Black Cube Of War in the clone’s hand. “I can’t leave, but you can. Go get my weapons on Esta Faho.” A portal took his ship there, and he found most of the facility gone! Pirad in Esta Faho on Elshar Zheiea ported it into the sun! This place is the old Esta Faho, now one of the 5 moons orbiting Elshar Zheiea.