The time bubble first put me behind Ry’nao, who fell. Ket, his healer, caught him. No, Ryonne~, his 2nd in command of the Thirteen, caught him. Timelines crossed at him. I expanded the bubble to include thousands of Ry’nao’s, each a tiny bit younger. And, mine. And, Ket’s. And, Ryonne~’s. Kia’s, as her nowself put her hands on his head! Ray kept trading for that world Snafanas was hawking. Even as her thenselves ran into the bubble and the Blue Cube crackled!

  As I created an army of me’s, each a fraction of a second younger, we all fought him and he created other him’s. So I multiplied all of us! All our Collectives! Then I saw just how many Earthans had Cubes!

  I multiplied Ray, who’ll take the Red Cube when Adia defeats Eriganh. Deb, who’s healing all the half-Ty’nirrhans who are leaving Earth. Ray made all the Ty’nirrhans into half-Ty’nirrhans. Some are half Earthan or Areonian now. It’s a shock! Rentappenen is weaker now, and he wasn’t expecting that. Greg’s brother had a plan that they made centuries ago. In this future, Briahh didn’t die. He can make that plan work. Deb wants to marry Greg. In Rainbow, she was the midwife, she and her army of clones.

  Kia ran across the ship and put her hand on Ry’nao’s head. He’s lying across Ket’s lap, his healer. No, he’s lying in Ryonne’s arms, his 2nd in command! He’s helping him with his legendary telepathic skill!

  When Eriganh attacked Titan, he attacked Adia, too. Adia and Ryee are in their room with their healer, Pas. I helped him but he can’t know.

  Eriganh’s temper fit killed half his Collective! Rentappenen tried to help him and lost a third of his. I shifted time so part of his chamber got destroyed on Lisbaar. There’s a portal between Lisbaar and Rhaech. That’s why Kenneph is so important. Time has foci. He is one. He signed a treaty to save 50 worlds including Rhaech.

  One of Ry’nao’s clones found Ronda, who convinced the Rhaecho that their ‘healing’ killed people like Kenneph. And she showed them their future. I’m the one with the futures. Every person on Earth or other worlds who remembered memories of Earth, or Rainbow when it was on Alb Seer, Adia was the first to see them, but I am the source of that. Because of Pirad, Rentappenen can’t see them. What did Pirad do that enabled this? I can’t see everything!

  By me, Pier smiled. In our other future, we married and tried one timeline after another. I thought we succeeded by the time I died. Now I can see we didn’t, and Rentappenen’s followers revived his Cube and him. He destroyed the entire Padrisa, that’s the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies!

  My other clones are fighting. Time for us to visit the Padrisa. I reached for his hand, but another me took it and they vanished. What?! They went to Alb Seer, not the Padrisa?

  Another fella took my hand. “Hi, I’m Roosevelt.” He’s handsome. Blue eyes, not like my drab pickle green ones. Green sweat-stars dripped off my deep red hair, darker than Adia's, much darker than Molly's orange ringlets.

  A man screamed for help down the Diplomatic Link. “Help us! If Rentappenen takes over Ry’nao, thirteen galaxies will be in his control!” That’s Ilios, Ry’nao’s son! They sent Iona to try to free him from his slaver, Snafanas. He’s chasing them in a portal, but they’re trying to make Alb, right now! Ry'nao, and his son, should be fire-engine red. They are white as me.

  I cringed. Rentappenen can see them, but he’s too busy fighting to do anything. Good!

  Ry’nao heard it, too. Every diplomat he’s got is helping him fight off Rentappenen’s forces.

  Dromie appeared. Looked straight at me, smiling with those huge teeth, the mouth that cuts his neon green head in half. “We’re fighting on your side, Azure! Now we know that Rentappenen just lies. He can’t have Earth, or Alb! Granny taught me that family is worth fighting for!”

  My grandparents appeared on a barren world, with our house. They and my parents fell down in sheer terror. Nothing but gray rock as far as the eye can see, except for a couple of blocks of Earthan houses and a sidewalk that ends in the dust. One house has a dying garden. Ours has barren trees and dying grass. What will they eat? Terminals don’t work on this planet.

  I made a picnic appear on a tablecloth by them. Put food in the refrigerators in all the houses, and the cabinets. It’s got to last.

  On the ship, people who weren’t fighting went on as usual. People came onto the ship. Marriages happened. I held Roosevelt’s hand. No time to talk, or get to know him. I’m only 16. He hasn’t got a Cube or any special abilities like Pier’s intelligence. He’s 16, too. But, he’s worth fighting for. My family’s worth fighting for, and Earth’s worth fighting for. The Padrisa’s worth it, too.

  I shook harder. Holding this bubble still is taking a lot more out of me than each frantic trip down a timeline, to find and talk to important people. I had to convince Adia to meet Ryonne~, because in that one, they didn’t. One person after another, and I felt weaker with each.

  This time, I just felt strength drain from me. Roosevelt held me up.

  Kia reached Ry’nao. This is war! They are attacking my emperor!

  Molly startled. Deb ran out of Pirad’s Lab!

  Ry’nao came from Lab into the main room of this red-violet ship. Fell into Ryonne~’s arms! “Ket! No—Suma!” He reached a hand. “Ray!”

  Suma and Ray came out of their rooms, too. Suma had that white walrus fella with her. He’s a Councillor from the 6th. At first, he sided with Rentappenen. Now he’s on our side.

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  We formed a single mind, directed by Ry’nao. “I want to help, but what can I do? A time bubble! I’ll gather all our selves from now until the Final Battle and use us all to fight him! He can’t switch timelines fast enough to avoid all of us!” I came up with this while I stopped time, but now, I’m saying it to rally our troops.

  All the Biehshah on the ship, over a hundred, helped Kia trace the Wenh Cet slavers and she killed them! Deb helped. She and Kia healed people fighting on our side.

  We all gathered around Ry’nao. Others didn’t notice. This time bubble didn’t have boundaries. People walked through it without seeing us. Time moved differently for us. As more people joined us, time stopped. Or it sped up. Or it slowed down or jumped to another timeline. People will be fixing what I’m doing here for millennia. But, they’ll be free of Rentappenen’s evil. I hope!

  Adia recovered and came out here. She managed our attacks, very skillfully. She’s a scientist. Pirad gave her a lot more skills so she could help her husband, Ryonne~, but that’s just helping her with this battle. She touched Ry’nao’s mind and helped him know where to direct his men, on a thousand key worlds! It made me sad, she won’t remember any of it. Eriganh will hurt her and Ryonne~ badly in 2 weeks from now.

  Around us, people got ready to board ships. They combined ships bound for every world in Alb and made them into one virtual ship. Outside, the sun set and there’s a full moon rising. Clear skies show a lot of stars.

  On Rhaech, Kenneph just signed his treaty and they are attacking the Info Storage. Down inside it is a portal only Rentappenen knows about, to Lisbaar. The leadership of Rhaech ported troops from all 50 worlds with primitive weapons on a variety of animals. Some of those riding animals with armor are observers from higher level worlds who are using their telepathy as weapons! Some have Cubes or the stronger Lenses. Focused telepathy of thousands of telepaths. This is the weapon of higher tech that levels above us use to keep civilizations in line.

  They know this chamber leads to Lisbaar, seat of all the higher-level weapons of our tech level.

  On Lisbaar, vast armies have been in stasis, some for millennia, but one army from 50 years ago came from Escet Vu, a Zheien world. Many of the troops from Lisbaar are Zheien also. Zheien never start a war, but they have fought in many due to alliances and treaties. This war 50 years ago made a species, the Chouha, go extinct. Their weapons just revived their armies, and their leader now knows Rentappenen betrayed them all.

  And, Gedda Dier knows Rentappenen’s Collective is on their planet. She made a weapon to fight him then that she never got to use.

  Rentappenen sent all his troops there, but not many are close. They are outnumbered. His nowself ported there!

  That gives us a distinct advantage here. I fought harder.

  Sara, Cevit Ion’s new wife, can see slavers as if they were in the Diplomatic Link, a very rare talent. She’s targeting people for others to take down. Large numbers of these slavers came to Earth because Rentappenen sent them here to conquer. Now, he’s trying to get them to go to Lisbaar. Many don’t want to go because they are in the middle of capturing large numbers of slaves. Because Eriganh’s foolish temper tantrum weakened his Cube and he can’t port them.

  In the Seventh Galaxy, Adia’s new fuel solution works wonderfully well to power ships cheaply. Here in the First, it isn’t. The chemical compound that’s so plentiful there and in certain similar galaxies is in short supply here. So, ships that came from The Six have to steal fuel for their ships to run. Eriganh abandoned the War. Without him, his troops aren’t getting the resources they need. So, ships are running out of fuel in this solar system, and they are having trouble getting fuel here.

  Our people are capturing ships at a very quick pace. We’re taking them to Alb where they can’t find them. As ships slow down for orbit here, our guys are capturing them, along with their slaves and resources. Our ships mostly came from the Seventh because it’s the seat of our 2nd largest trade network, the Alliance. We offered for Earth to join, so many diplomats, traders, and scientists came from the Seventh here. Worlds that moved to Alb, most of them are from the Seventh. Or, got the fuel to move from the Seventh, like Zhea~ from the Sixth Galaxy. Zhea~ is the home planet of all Zheien and their 800,000 colonies, so they all trade with the Seventh. Until Adia’s fuel solution, ANW was a worthless commodity that everyone in the Seventh was eager to rid themselves of, so Zheien worlds took a lot of it to be nice. Now every Zheien world has all the fuel they can use, and they trade it to worlds that need it. Zheien worlds are mostly in the Seven. Isn’t that nice?

  Eriganh’s troops are mostly from the Six. Zheien worlds are mostly fleeing the Six for Alb. Because they lost trade taking unwanted ANW, they have fuel for the move. Because Eriganh moved his troops to the Seventh, then to the First, they used a lot of fuel, and there are few troops in the Six to stop the Zheien exodus.

  Not to mention the troops who got cheap fuel in the Seventh and escaped. Most of them are former slaves. The Six is now one big uprising.

  Eriganh has troubles all around. And he just killed half his Collective. Half Adia’s Collective was corrupt and she had to fight that. So her Collective is also down by half. Now, it’s even. Eriganh’s cheat didn’t work.

  I can feel his Collective getting weaker as more of his slaves find a way to escape. Adia released all of her slaves. Rentappenen is getting more ruthless with his and they want out, too.

  I offered all of mine the choice to leave. They decided to fight at my side and take freedom when this is over. When I learned what Adia did, I let them see and gave them that choice.

  Wally decided to get his Soskannans involved. That’s not a good idea! Suma and her diplomat husband Ni’olmai vanished! Soskanna is where a war is starting. People there think it’s just them, and that Collective on their world is some kind of weapon against them. They don’t know about Wally’s people, or this war!

  People boarded that ship while their selves stayed to fight this war. Part of me wanted to go with them. Molly’s 16 year old clone reluctantly went with ‘em, too. And, the clone of her that was in Antartica. That lab is destroyed, and that is what they know. They think I died in that. Rentappenen has to think that. But I saved all of us. They’ll find out when Molly visits Dromie’s world. Alb’s Council will have a hissy fit when they know she went there!