I saw a holo playing, in Kirnonos’ Lab.

  “When Mican is dead, and he will die on Lisbaar, take the necklace to Ry’nao and he will tell you how to use it. Mican released poisons of our level on your world. Your people will die unless you save them.” The holo ended.

  Pirad moaned as he walked. “He may not remember how to use it! I do not know enough! Kirnonos, help us!” We stepped into a white portal again.

  We came out and Farley ran me to another Bisillip. “Did you hear?”

  This one moaned, too. “I did! Poisons of the 6th! What was Mican? Dosillian?”

  “I think, Naisain, as Tanorsen made himself. They were supposed to be observers like the Imwa and Laruu, but they hid weapons and came back to conquer. Their reign of terror lasted for millions of eons! All their knowledge was thought destroyed. Put him here. I am ready. If we cannot save him, none of his clones know what he knows.”

  Ry’nao ran to us on the arm of his healer. “I came as soon as I could. Where is the necklace?”

  I started to take it off and Kirnonos grabbed it! “Do not think to take this off, ever, Ella! Why do you have it and not Farleikon?”

  “He tried to give it to King Nitomahan, but he said Farley should keep it. So he gave it to me when he married me.”

  “Did he see that holo? Did you know?” Kirnonos moaned and another Bisillip poured several large drinks down him.

  His four-fingered hand shot out and pressed it against my collarbone! “Ella, if you remove it, you will die, and Farley also!”

  “But, you can use it to save the Thirteen! There are poisons from the 6th level on Esta Faho, and everyone from there is dying!”

  He gasped! I think it takes a lot to make an emperor gasp! “Child, I could not use it even if I could take it! I think you are able to use it because your husband can. I do not know enough to use it! But, it may teach you how—”

  “I just want my husband to live! And, his brother!” I didn’t think before blurting that out!

  Farley stood in front of me. Looked around. “Where is this? Did we travel to Bisillipia?”

  Farley’s new clone stood beside him and held him up! “Nae, we are on Alb Seer! I am alive?” He looked at me. “Ella, you used the necklace!”

  I grabbed Farley! “You weren’t supposed to give this thing to me! Put it back on! I don’t want you to die!” I sobbed.

  He put his arms around me and kept a hand on the back of my neck. A very cold hand. “Ella, if you used it, keep her! I nae know how to–I thought it merely a necklace of stones that reflect telepathic attacks.” His eyes turned black.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The necklace spoke to both of us. You must act quickly, before the poisons take both of your memories. We go to the site of the weapons facility.

  Suddenly, we just stood on black glass. This place wasn’t Elshar Zheiea! Red sky and five moons, where one small one traced a path across the other four, but it’s night here! Yellow sand—pale yellow—ended on one side. Bare sand led to a mountain range. The other side was all black glass. We sank into it.

  Farley held me! “What happened? Where is the weapons facility?”

  “Pirad ported it into a sun, and it destroyed the star system!”

  Foolish one. It destroyed a hundred. But they were not inhabited worlds. They all had substances forbidden on this level. The only world left with these substances is this one. And, it is mine, at last!

  An Elshar walked towards us! Farley tried to reach with his telepathy, and it didn’t go anywhere. It hurt! He tried harder and nearly fell! I held him up, away from that poison dust! I wished Mican dead, but it didn’t work.

  Did you think you could control it? I let you think that. Your friends do not know where you are. This world’s mines are automated. They won’t find you for a very long time.

  Mican jerked the necklace off me and threw it on the black glass. We were underground in a black glass room with no openings. The necklace shattered into fine dust!

  He left them there to die, then got into his ship to collect the poisons in the dust that scattered when the facility had an explosion centuries before that. Mican left it there for a later time.

  But, his ship had repairs. Ella noticed that.

  I kept talking. I want him to have the comfort of my voice, if his head doesn’t hurt too bad. “What is this place? I never saw a building with one empty room, and open to the sky like that! Oh, that must be Mican’s ship. He’s running something like a vaporizer. What’s he trying to get? Vaporizer progs analyze things, and they can port it to alt storage. Sand is vanishing, and there’s black obsidian left, like when ships used to leave it in spaceports, and we still see melted sand obsidian in old spaceports.

  “Oh, he makes me mad! I wish his engine would just fall out!”

  I was watching his stupid ship. Suddenly, his engine, an engine very much like the one the scientists demonstrated in the festival that day, I saw it. Vibration began.

  What are you doing? I’ll kill you!

  A crack formed in the side of his gray metal ship! It grew wider.

  Stop it! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill--

  The crack was just wide enough. The engine fell out and the black obsidian cracked, too! A crack spread until the room we’re in—the wall cracked! Boom! His ship fell! Black obsidian cracked, and engine and ship fell through!

  I pulled Farley back. Expected glass shards to finish us! But, the wall slid down and was smooth. A panel behind me in the floor slid open.

  The other walls wavered. I pulled my husband into the space and a ramp slid us down! It wasn’t a steep slope, just enough that my jeans slid, and it made a wide spiral.

  At the bottom was a room I knew well from Sigan Mas. More than once, I went in the biome storage to check on our men. Before me, a panel of glass had Biome Maintenance Facility in Elshar script. It had its own? And Pirad didn’t get it?

  There was another glass panel. On the other side of it, Mican stared at me with his eyes black. “I’ll—kill you—” Pinned by half his ship. On top of half his body.

  But, the way to that Clean Room was open. All I have to do is tap in a DS code and I’m in. I have to destroy that server!

  But, he didn’t die then. I shifted his ship back in time so the repairs didn’t happen, but his species is tough. Ella is working to destroy that server. Her friend Becky can spot Dosilians and manipulate time to port them into space and back so they die. I did that? Wish I knew how! We need armies of us!

  Kia can see them. So can Sara, Cevit Ion’s wife. It’s gotta be enough! Ella’s gotta stop Mican’s clone! Bedelia’s in Kirnonos’ Lab now.

  I can’t do it all. But, I can hold this bubble open.