《Azure, Timelord》 Chapter 1 Homeless At 16 ¡° ¡°homeis ¡°took ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° I heard that voice again and held my red curls straight out. A woman rolled her eyes. ¡°Honestly, do you have ta-¡± An older lady came running out of the office. ¡°Jennifer! That''s not helpful. Go walk--¡± ¡° ¡° Their footsteps faded. ¡°Honey, did you get your meds this mornin''?¡± ¡°takesleepin The voice drowned her out. YOU WILL GO TO INMAN PARK. NOW! ¡°anywhere YOU HAVE IMPORTANT WORK. GO TO ELIZABETH STREET. ¡°Her record says she¡¯s schizophrenic. Maybe you should call Grady. Her medical cards are in her backpack. I pulled harder on my hair. ¡°Elizabeth Street!¡± My knees shook, and sweat rolled down my forearms. ¡°Honey, you need to sit here on the sofa while I get you a room. Wait here, all right?¡± ¡°Okay.¡± I sat. GO TO THE BUS STOP. YOUR BUS IS WAITING. She walked off. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m Darcy, and she¡¯s Jennifer. You got a bus pass?¡± Sweat rolled down my arm onto my red hair, and dripped. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go. She¡¯ll be a while ¡®cause that social worker¡¯s got Margie in with her. Margie talks her ear off. Last time, they called Grady. C¡¯mon. We¡¯ll help you get to Elizabeth Street, won¡¯t we, Jennifer?¡± ¡°She said to stay.¡± They laughed. ¡°As long as you¡¯re back here by 6 you¡¯re all right. We¡¯re not prisoners here. C¡¯mon. Your business won¡¯t take long, will it?¡± I shook my head. As if I know! We walked to the bus stop, but he said CROSS THE STREET. I led the ladies to the crosswalk. Sure enough, as we reached the shelter, the bus stopped. I got out my wallet and swiped it. My last TransCard. It¡¯s January 19th. My bank account doesn¡¯t have enough for another one because I had to make payments on the bills. Because of a drunk driver who got killed, my grandparents are dead. My aunt¡¯ll never forgive me for donating their bodies to science. She didn¡¯t want anything to do with me when Mama OD¡¯d. Who knows where Dad went. He left when I was a baby. I was 12 when Mama died. Granny and Granddaddy did their best, but who wants a crazy child anyway? At 12 I went to alternative school and drew pictures all day of the people in my head. Never had a friend. Not even another crazy one. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Darcy and Jennifer talked to each other, not to me. Why are they even here? The bus pulled into the MARTA station and I went in. Five Points Station is beautiful. They took parts of the old Carnegie Library and put them on the walls. GO DOWN. I wanted to look, but I sighed and went down. So did the women. Train was there. RUN! I barely got in the doors, and Darcy and Jennifer ran into me. Giggled. ¡°Oh, that was fun! You¡¯re all right, Azure! But, how important is Elizabeth Street, anyway? There¡¯s a house in Cabbagetown--¡± GET OFF AT INMAN PARK! And, we¡¯re here. I got up. Oh, that shouting scared me! I ran up the stairs then wheezed like an old woman. Directions kept coming. To the light. Up Elizabeth Street, past businesses. My new ¡®friends¡¯ didn¡¯t follow me. Nobody much walked. Lots of traffic. Then, Victorians. Lots of rich people¡¯s houses. Granny and Granddaddy lived in South Atlanta. They held out for years. Real estate agents offered to buy their old house, but they refused. It¡¯s part of Atlanta¡¯s history, they said. I was really sorry to lose it, but how would I repair anything on $192 dollars a month? That¡¯s my SSI check. HERE. I looked. ¡°That¡¯s someone¡¯s yard! I can¡¯t go in there--¡± LOOK BY THE TREE. I saw a man, who gestured for me to come. ¡°Azure. So good of you to come. My name is Serappenen.¡± I hesitated and his voice ordered me. I went. ¡°This is for you. I¡¯ll be in your head, telling you what to do with it. Don¡¯t be foolish. I can kill you where you stand, with my telepathy. This is the Cube Of Many Colors. With it you can travel in space and time, and you can change history. I¡¯ll let you have your grandparents back, if you work for me.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the people SETI found this morning?¡± I shook all over. Not the friendly aliens I hoped for. These people came to conquer. He laughed. ¡°Who says we¡¯re not friendly? Earth means little to me, or my brother Rentappenen. Listen. There¡¯s a conflict that you need to solve for me. They don¡¯t know your genetics. Genetics are the key to everything. ¡°There¡¯s a ship there.¡± He pointed to a garden. ¡°You can get on it. Take the cube. Go on. It won¡¯t hurt you, little Earthan. In that ship is Emperor Ry¡¯nao. Ask for him. Show him the Cube and tell him you¡¯re Earth¡¯s new Councillor. He¡¯ll do anything you say. I¡¯ll tell you what to do. Go now.¡± He put the Cube in my hand. I felt the anger of a lot of people, and it came from this plastic-looking Cube. Black, with flecks of rainbow colors. But, I looked up, and stood on that ship. People gasped and stood back. A red-haired girl younger than me came forward. ¡°Oh, Azure! Hi, I¡¯m Molly.¡± I didn¡¯t hear the shouting! ¡°Molly. Is Ry¡¯nao here? I¡ªneed to know what¡¯s going on!¡± I shook so hard, my teeth chattered! Outside, it was late afternoon. If I don¡¯t get back by six¡ªbut does that matter? An old fella with wispy gray hair came out of a room with a tapestry of him and a lady his age. He bowed to me, one leg behind him, like a ballet dancer. ¡°I am Ry¡¯nao, Emperor Of The Seven Unified Galaxies. Why are you here?¡± I tried to bow but did a curtsy. ¡°I-I don¡¯t know! This man, Seranappenen, gave me this cube and told me he¡¯d tell me what to do, to ask for you. Should I give it to you?¡± I held it out. He frowned. ¡°I cannot take it, for I would die. No one can touch it except for you.¡± ¡°Seranappenen did!¡± ¡°Yes, but surely he created it. This Cube is tied to your genetics. It has the power to create or destroy worlds.¡± ¡°Worlds? Why me?¡± A couple came out of a room next to his. She had beautiful red waves that curled on her shoulders. Not like my dark red frizz. And her eyes, brilliant blue, not like my dull green. Thin, like me. I shook so hard, I felt like I¡¯d throw up or faint! Then, words came out of me like I knew what I was doing. ¡°This girl is untrained. We will fight Seranappenen. She is not allowed to interfere with you and Eriganh. We block Seranappenen and Rentappenen from you. He planned to take the White Cube, but we know that is impossible. This Rainbow Cube is weak, but it can change your history.¡± That voice was like a bunch of people talking at once! My voice, small and weak. ¡°He called it the Cube Of Many Colors.¡± ¡°The Cube Of Many Colors created this one, and Seranappenen wants to contaminate your timeline. Our Collective is at war, but we control it, for a short time. Stay on this ship and do not use this Cube. If you think to bring back your dead family, you will change your home¡¯s timeline. This, you must not do. Our purpose is to keep you here on this ship. There must be no interference with Adia, none with Eriganh. Their battle, in the yard you just left, ends our war.¡± The Cube went dark. Memories came to me of another future. I made Pirad create a son for me to marry, Pier. We traveled to many worlds, and tried many timelines, but none was better than this one, that Adia is in, right now. I died because of the strain of all that time travel, and because my genetics is tied to a room of a thousand people somewhere on Earth. My Collective is right, I am Earth¡¯s Councillor, and I¡¯m supposed to save it from slavers. Eriganh is flooding it with slavers as we speak. And, Ry¡¯nao heard all of it. ¡°What should I do?¡± I sobbed. I don¡¯t want to be holding this Cube in my hand. ¡°Child, let me share memories with you, of the Council, what I know of our future. Put the Cube in your pocket. You don¡¯t have to hold it. I will not tell a Councillor what to do. But, the more you know, this will help you decide what to do. Your Collective cannot tell you how to work.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t I just give it to someone else? I don¡¯t want it! I¡¯m schizophrenic, I¡¯m crazy, and I--¡± ¡°Let me bring a healer for you. Will Pas please you?¡± Like the lady with the red hair, he was orange and had flat, twin fingers. I held his hand. ¡°C-can you fix me so I think better?¡± ¡°Oh, I will try, Maiden. Have you pains?¡± ¡°This shaking hurts, but that¡¯s just a side effect of my meds.¡± ¡°May I look at your medical records? We scanned everyone from Earth. Sit here, please.¡± I nodded. He waved up a padded bench the same color as my pink T-shirt, if it wasn¡¯t faded. My blue jeans had holes at the knees, and dried blood. My medical records came up and he read ¡®em while I watched. Nodded. ¡°We have better herbs than these. May I touch your head? I will be gentle.¡± His mind was also very gentle. Explained what he wanted to do. Unlike rude Serenappenen, he was afraid of hurting me. Ry¡¯nao sat on my other side. I heard the war going on in that Collective. People shouted at each other. But, Adia has one, too. She asked them to listen to each other, and love one another. I showed them. The ones who took control of the Rainbow Cube weren¡¯t supposed to do that. All of them talked to each other, politely now, like Pas did. Pas trembled as he moved his fingers back on my head. ¡°What happened here?¡± I had a scar on top. ¡°Mama got mad because I wouldn¡¯t go get her drugs, and she hit me with a frying pan. I woke up in the hospital. Aunt Kandace took me to her house, but got tired of my social worker. Mama¡¯s social worker let me stay.¡± The old fella wept. ¡°Had you many injuries such?¡± ¡°Oh, I was always falling and getting hurt, or Mama hit. You can¡¯t be more stupid once you¡¯re stupid, she said. I¡¯m clumsy and I fall a lot.¡± ¡°She was wrong, Daughter. Each injury harmed your mind. I wish to give you an aandat. You will need nae rest rooms, will never catch a virus, and you gain telepathy in 2 or 3 days. She is like ¡®living underwear¡¯, as Molly says.¡± ¡°I got mine this morning, Azure.¡± Molly pulled up her yellow T-shirt sleeve and I saw white, like a second skin. Didn¡¯t look scary, so I nodded. Pas waved for a green cube and white fell out of it onto my ankles. Flowed up to my neck. Pas hummed and I didn¡¯t get scared. My knees didn¡¯t feel sore, now! Molly waved and I wore a green T-shirt, long-sleeved, and my jeans were light blue. I smiled. Chapter 2 Friends Molly took my hand. ¡°You want a room? There¡¯s no rent, no utilities, and food¡¯s free. Check this out!¡± She waved up and a menu had food from every restaurant I knew in Atlanta, and then some! ¡°Yes! I don¡¯t want to stay in that homeless shelter! Do I have to see a social worker?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s ask a lawyer.¡± She waved up, and a blond fella walked out of a room that had him and a lady on it. He shook all over, kind of like me. ¡°Hallo, I am Tan Links. What can I do for you, Miss?¡± His hand was cold, but gentle. I was almost scared to ask. ¡°I¡¯m 16 and my mama died, and my grandparents died last week, and my social worker wants to put me in a homeless shelter, and I want to stay here! Can I?¡± ¡°Who has custody of you?¡± ¡°I think I¡¯m a ward of the state, now. Medicaid¡¯s gonna take my grandparents¡¯ house.¡± I sobbed. ¡°This is not right! Who is your social worker?¡± I got out my wallet and gave her card to him. ¡°Tomorrow, I will make an appointment with her. You are welcome to stay with us tonight. Will you come and meet my wife? If you like us, perhaps we can apply to be your foster parents--¡± I gasped. ¡°But, I¡¯m¡ªI hear things that aren¡¯t¡ªvoices talk to me, and my aunt¡ªdidn¡¯t want me--¡± ¡°Young lady, I am sorry these things happen to you. We have progs to prevent harm. May I show you?¡± I expected him to touch my mind like Pas, but he didn¡¯t. He waved up a screen. Showed me that if a person can¡¯t tell what reality is, it brings a healer¡ªmine is Pas¡ªand gently holds the person so they can walk, but can¡¯t hurt themselves or anyone else. I had scars on both wrists from lots of suicide attempts, but they¡¯re gone now. It made me feel good that those voices couldn¡¯t scare me into hurting myself any more! ¡°Oh, please, run it! I said lots of things that hurt Granny¡¯s feelings¡ªI can¡¯t do that if you run it.¡± He showed me how to set it, so I could choose what it did, whether to just let me take a walk outside or keep me in my room. Soft barriers would prevent bruises. I wanted to stay in my room when I was like that! I could also play music. Mozart helped, sometimes, but I couldn¡¯t play anything when I was out of it. Pas showed me new meds. I had choices of whether to sleep or just have something to make me calm, and someone to sit with me. How I wanted that, just someone to sit and talk so I didn¡¯t have to listen to my internal mess! My family either said I was faking to get attention, or got scared of me. ¡°I can sit with you, or I¡¯m sure my friends would help. Samtych, or Angel, if I can¡¯t come. I¡¯ll ask ¡®em. They all live here on the ship and they like helping.¡± ¡°Thanks!¡± I took Molly¡¯s hand. ¡°Want to be 18?¡± ¡°Yes! Pirad says he can¡¯t¡ª¡± ¡°All we need is¡ªhi!¡± She reached out to a lady healer. ¡°Need you healing? I shall bring Pie to you, for I nae know¡ª¡± ¡°You miss your parents. Pirad can wake them now but you need to be 12. Molly¡¯s 12. I can swap your timelines. You¡¯ll be 12, for your parents, they¡¯ll need you to be young. Like they remember you.¡± The girl, like Molly, had red hair and green eyes. That¡¯s a really weird color for a Zheien. And, she was half-Elshar and very light-skinned like Molly. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°How know you this?¡± A holo came up. In an instant, she shrank to Molly¡¯s size. Molly still looked like a little kid. But, their Unified records came up. Molly now was 18. This healer, Siluka, Healer Of MarKu, was 12. Her title of healer was still on it. And, her master healer¡¯s worry that she should change her occupation. She stepped into the holo and her parents embraced her. The holo closed. Now she can have Decision again. She chose healing when her parents died. Molly looked at her hands. ¡°Wow! This is awesome! My birth certificate shows me as 18! Thanks, Azure!¡± I hugged her. Now she can run Rainbow. I went with Mr. Links to meet Mrs. Links. She sat in their bed, reading poetry. ¡°Oh, you like Goethe? I don¡¯t understand a lot of the imagery, but I like his works.¡± Like him, she trembled, but had a high, fluttery voice. He introduced her as Aunt Lili. My eyes stung with sudden tears. An aunt for me, who likes German literature? I hugged her. ¡°I like Goethe, but I like Schiller more. He wrote the lyrics to Beethoven¡¯s Ode To Joy.¡± ¡°Oh, I love the part about healing wings! I didn¡¯t know Schiller wrote that. Mama was from Germany, and insisted that I read Goethe, but she didn¡¯t explain anything. One of the few things we liked to do together.¡± When I was nine. But Dad kept calling and upsetting her. He came back long enough to get her to do drugs with him, and left again. Do I have to think about that? He was in the army and met her when he was stationed in Germany. They were in their 50¡¯s. They¡¯d be¡ªMama would be 74 now. I was an accident. They told Mama she¡¯d never have a child. She talked to people who weren¡¯t there, too. Pirad came in. ¡°I am sorry to interrupt, but I need to speak with Azure.¡± I gave both of them a hug, and went with him. His lab was green. ¡°Since you are a Councillor, I want to collect your memories and reclone you. I know more than Serenappenen. If you are strong, you can protect Earth.¡± ¡°Can you make me sane? I mean, if I¡¯m gonna protect Earth, I need to have a better mind.¡± ¡°I can give you other minds to advise you. And, I can make your body much stronger. I cannot make you Ty¡¯nirrhan, but I can make you half. I created a lab under Antarctica, a permanent facility. I moved your Collective there where I can protect it. My clones of many Elders live there. If you like, you may live there also. I think contact with people on the ship is not a good idea. You might be tempted to solve their problems. Stray thoughts are dangerous.¡± ¡°All I have are stray thoughts, Pirad.¡± ¡°Yes, but you will be able to control them as a half-Ty¡¯nirrhan. Unlike the half-Ty¡¯nirrhans on this ship, you will not be injured at recloning. I cannot make you as you were, as an Earthan, so you will be mixed with Elshar. As Elshar you will be as when you were born, but with all of your memories intact, of your life, and of many futures. You will remember all of it. ¡°When Adia meets Eriganh, which will be soon, you are free to go where you wish on Earth. I have memories of other Councillors who died. You may consult them for advice.¡± People in my head? Okay. He brought Briahh, one of those half-Ty¡¯nirrhans, to help me share memories to a purple biome. My Collective added their memories, which surprised me! Hundreds of different species, many destroyed by Eriganh. How sad! I wanted them all. My people wanted their memories to live. All of them are clones, made by Eriganh. All of them wanted their memories to live on, and one of them acted as a living server for everyone in that lab, and without Eriganh knowing about it. That person had secrets. Now Pirad knows them. He¡¯s on our side. Good. With my Collective helping me to store the memories, it was fast. Pirad had five other me¡¯s on tables. I¡¯ll have sisters! ¡°One may choose to live your Earthan life. None of your clones will know about today. They may inherit Gifts to help you. If one does not want to live on Earth, I will make more until one does. All of them will have choices.¡± ¡°They won¡¯t be mental, will they?¡± ¡°I can heal them. They will still be like you and have all of your experiences. Do you want all of them to be 16? I can make them 18, if you want, or other species. I can give them traits to help them, such as knowledge of healing, or skills such as strong telepathy.¡± ¡°Give them stronger telepathy than slavers! I don¡¯t want any of them to end up slaves!¡± ¡°I can do this, and they will have skills to use it.¡± I made choices at lightning speed. Almost faster than I could think! They all sat up. Pirad startled, and his jointed face clicked into a surprised expression. I laughed, then felt like a klutz. But, I¡¯m different! The headache I¡¯d gotten used to wasn¡¯t there. My body didn¡¯t shake. I felt¡ªnormal. One of my sisters hugged me. ¡°I¡¯ll go live with Uncle Tan and Aunt Lili! I--¡± But a couple¡ªMama and Dad? Got off tables. And, Granny and Granddaddy! She saw them and ran over there. I did, too! Mama hugged me. ¡°Oh, I did bad things! I will be good, now. I feel different.¡± ¡°I¡¯m better, too, Mama. Let¡¯s go home. The new meds are working for me.¡± None of them recognized me. But, I¡¯m going to Pirad¡¯s Lab. I have work to do. Pirad frowned at me. ¡°You must not do that again! Eriganh nearly penetrated my defenses! I think you should go to my lab now.¡± Chapter 3 Ry鈥檔ao ¡°But, I need to tell Ry¡¯nao some things, first.¡± I walked through the wall and into his office. He met me there. ¡°Azure. Pirad recloned you?¡± ¡°Yes. I¡¯m going to his lab in Antarctica. I wish I could help Adia! I see now, that I can only help Earth with forbidden tech. As slavers come, I will disable any tech from higher levels. Heden will send his clones, but they will be faulty. ¡°One of them will bring Garagba, but I already ported him, Habir and Hinsin to Pirad¡¯s Lab and disabled his rogues. You can send a diplomat to Kia, and she will have the Biehshah Healing Gift they gave her. Jot will not be a slave now.¡± I showed him how, years from now, this Earthan tried to learn healing and couldn¡¯t. But Tenadu, a Biehshah Elder, was trying to heal his brother who had terminals, and they had rogues. He got her to help him and she got a gift that healed a lot of Zheien in Rainbow Unwell Colony. They saw that future and made 20 of them, and moved a lot of worlds so slavers couldn¡¯t get them. I showed him many more Zheien worlds that were targets. Ea~ is already here, but First Prince Tos married Ferra, a healer. She created a persona to take over a large slaver network. Pirad¡¯s already cloned them, and was about to send them to slavers, but I showed him a better location for her to take over a ship of high-level slaves. And, it¡¯s headed to this star system and near Alb now. Fhiah can intercept it with an armed ship, Pirad can clone slaves until he gets volunteers, equipped with his rogues, to go with the couple. Slavers don¡¯t know that Ferra is Zheien. This Ferra is Elshar with Zbbat telepathy. Look out, Ken Ma! The Piee Sahrrat will soon be trading slaves to Rainbow colonies all over Alb. I showed Ry¡¯nao where it¡¯s been getting forbidden slaver herbs. This morning, the Esteerrians, Zbbat and all their slavers broke contact with Ken Ma, homeworld of the Piee Sahhrat. There are still clans of rogue Zbbat and Esteerrian slavers there. Ferra will give them slaver herbs to retrain them. They¡¯ll pretend to be slavers to trade with them for slaves. Then they¡¯ll trade them to Alb worlds in huge numbers. Alb will heal them and set them free. Alb also decided on strict and very humanitarian rules. Slavers who want the most profit will have to treat slaves kindly. He let me use his Diplomatic Link to touch diplomats¡¯ minds and tell them secrets Heden didn¡¯t want known. All over the Thirteen, he has diplomats and operatives. He¡¯s bred to hold these links, but I still gave him a headache. I taught Pirad things for his next recloning. Oh, this Ry¡¯nao is a clone. His host is in the UN giving a speech. I showed him fields of herbs that shouldn¡¯t be on his home planet, Vch¡¯san. I gave his host a headache, too. Great. Every world in Alb had rogue fields! I touched hundreds of minds. TS Inspectors got very busy. Diplomats got evidence for them because of what I showed them. Warned them of future cases, who to watch. Cargo and how to detect higher-level herbs in it. I showed him Earthans who would affect his Reign. He already knew about Ray, who¡¯s going to take over the Red Cube from Eriganh when Adia gets through. Suma, who has the Yellow Cube from the Imwa. They¡¯re dropping to our level because they interfered on Soskanna. But, they helped Ni¡¯olmai and Suma to fix it. The Council should make someone else Rainbow¡¯s Councillor. Kieta was too scared to do much. No, there¡¯ll be another one after her. Wslarc¡¯s clone¡¯ll let Pirad do more, and he will be on MarKu with Molly. That¡¯s after Ray defeats Rentappenen. I can¡¯t help her with them, either. She already changed all the Aryllans to the Zheien-like people they were before and defeated Satauuver this morning. The Alliance denounced slavery this afternoon before I got here? But I showed him a lot of Earthans, like two women who influenced the Ulukai. One was on Rhaech where Kenneph, Master Diplomat Of MarKu is. Molly and Liz are really worried about him. She can save him. Or, her clone can. The other one influenced the Bokruks to learn Zheien healing from a database Ahstam, the best Zheien healer, created. More diplomats die or get disabled on Bokrukzky than any other Alliance world! ¡°The Council¡¯s very disorganized because several Councillors rose to higher levels. That¡¯s why Eriganh and Rentappenen decided to try to take over. Once they¡¯re gone, the Council will be stable, for the first time in 300 years. Higher levels take a lot of time to come take care of infractions. If we can take care of it ourselves, we advance faster.¡± I wanted to say more, but it didn¡¯t come. All this learning, and I can¡¯t tell him more? Because Wally already told him. Oh. Wally¡¯s part of the Imwa who rose to the 5th level, and he just left, because most of what he was sent here to do is already done¡ªtoday. He brought Mike here, who refused to leave Perla. Now he¡¯s met his future wife and they traveled back home to Thorde and convinced it to allow cloning and recloning, for Elders! If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Most of what I showed him, he already knew, but I did show him hundreds of Earthans with Gifts who will want to leave Earth. Most of ¡®em will marry Zheien or Thordes, but some will marry Elshars or Aryllans or even Areonians! Most of the future spouses are people on the ship now or who will either travel here or they will go to where their spouse is. The old Emperor hugged me. ¡°Thank you, Azure. I have hope. Do what you feel you can, and don¡¯t worry about us. I will do what I can, for our people. I will rest easier tonight because of what you told me. Will you be all right, in Pirad¡¯s Lab?¡± I smiled. ¡°I feel much better after recloning, and it¡¯s just for a little while, until the 31st. Adia will last, Ry¡¯nao.¡± ¡°So soon? We planned to be here, months!¡± He looked very surprised. ¡°Better let your embassy director get busy! You¡¯ll be very pleased with her work.¡± ¡°Thank you, Azure! Do not worry about your work. All of us feel inadequate at times. Make the best decisions you can with the information you have. That is all any of us can do, Child.¡± ¡°Thank you, Sir!¡± I bowed low, and he bowed lower. I thought about Pirad¡¯s Lab, and I was there. Green obsidian walls, halls that went for miles, and above it, blue ice that let the light in. Beautiful! And, at the end of a hall, a building of blue cubes about twice my height, and about that, wide. Light undulated in them like water. Clear, beautiful water. I smiled. Pirad came out of his lab. ¡°Azure, I am happy to welcome you. Let me introduce Kirnonos.¡± Like Pirad, he was a clicking, deep green skeleton but darker. Thinner. A bit taller. Still half my width and twice my joints. But his face appeared older, with higher cheekbones. He clicked his face into a smile, not like the smug expression Pirad usually wore. ¡°Hi, Kirnonos!¡± ¡°Kirnonos taught me all I know about recloning, and he stores all of our collected memories. These are copies.¡± Walls behind him had shelves of purple cylinders, stored on end in neat rows. Our librarian! ¡°And, here is Taredias Gupa. He is cloning Zbbat and Esteerrians to supply their colonies. Soon they all will decide slavery is a bad thing.¡± ¡°Kieta didn¡¯t like your work, but someone is coming who wants you to expand it. Wslarc.¡± ¡°Ah, but I am patient. Thank you, Azure.¡± He was shorter than the other two, but they resembled each other. Pirad brought a shorter one who didn¡¯t. ¡°This is Habir. In another future, he brought secrets of Ilhanhsa to Rainbow, but you brought him before he had much injury. He invented the deep blue portals I used before I created new tech. His work inspired me.¡± ¡°What¡¯s Ilhanhsa?¡± ¡°A place where slaves grow parts in stasis for other slaves.¡± Habir moaned. ¡°I did not know how slaves suffer until I was one. Zheien are aware in stasis despite all I could do.¡± Pirad put his forearm on Habir¡¯s forehead. ¡°I have new tech. Once Zheien come with my improved terminals, they will not suffer. Soon, Ilhanhsa will be liberated and fall into Earthan hands. Then we may improve it. Molly gave me many new ideas when she saw her future. She sees a different one. Ours.¡± That would be very useful! ¡°Pirad, can you make a clone of Molly for me? If she doesn¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°I have not collected her memories yet.¡± ¡°Oh, later. Will you ask her?¡± ¡°I will.¡± Then, he introduced me to Hinsin. ¡°This is Habir¡¯s brother Hinsin. He also did a lot of portal work, and herbs for slaves.¡± He trembled a lot. ¡°I also learned how slaves suffer. Habir and I worked to improve slaves¡¯ herbs so they did not suffer as much, in mines. I will work harder now.¡± I showed him how a lot of herbs from higher levels didn¡¯t work as well, after his improvements, which helped slaves. Then, he smiled. And, he saved a lot of people in Rainbow, before Pirad came. Rainbow colonies were just formed yesterday with a few healers from Fhiah, and already, they save lives. They¡¯ll save many more when Molly goes to Alb. A couple hours later, I got two clones of Molly. One, with all her healing skills. Another, who wants to be my buddy. She¡¯s 16, like me! And she can see this future. ¡°Something¡¯s happening on the ship!¡± She shook all over! I sent her back, before she ported here. Kia went to Ry¡¯nao and I ported there, just as Rentappenen destroyed Pirad¡¯s Lab! He killed everyone! I ported into the past, but so did he! But I slipped everyone onto the ship and Pirad hid us all. I also swapped out the cylinders of all the memories with empty ones from Pirad¡¯s Lab on Alb Seer. He doesn¡¯t know. My Collective¡¯s there in a new chamber under Kirnonos¡¯ Lab. He¡¯ll find it when this is over. Other futures tell me I¡¯m going to die here. So, I¡¯m making copies. Pier and my exact clone are going with my Collective, in stasis until February 1. Until then, I¡¯m going to fight! Chapter 4 Battle Plan I went into my room. My bed that I had in my grandparents¡¯ house had a quilt Granny gave me that was ripped in a lot of places, and stained, so she got me a lace cover for it with flowers. I sat on it. The bed was a lot softer than I remembered. The room had my junky furniture, so I waved all of that into my account. I learned in Rainbow how to set it up. Pier and I lived many lifetimes. We saw civilizations rise, and we saw them fall. I trembled. No one person should have this power that I have right now. I could play the stock market and get rich, just with what I remember about what became valuable in Rainbow. But, so could Molly, who¡¯s talking with Liz and the MarKuan royalty right now. Or Deb, who¡¯s watching Ray trade with a very worried expression. She¡¯s sitting by her husband. His brother¡¯s talking with a sick and very pregnant lady they just rescued off a bridge in New Orleans. The healer¡¯s worried. They are in a room by Pirad¡¯s Lab. Ray and her Zheien husband, Asha, are trading in the Trader¡¯s Circle. From here in my room, through these transparent walls, I can see a lot more through my Cube. I don¡¯t want to be here. But, Ry¡¯nao said, ¡°All of us feel inadequate at times. Make the best decisions you can with the information you have.¡± That¡¯s from a man with the responsibility of running 13 galaxies. They are at war and have been for 300 years, and he was there when it started. The good guys are the Unified Seven. The bad guys, The Tiers, are run by Eriganh, who wants to take over. He leaves a path of destroyed stars everywhere he goes. He¡¯s good at breaking things. Not good at building anything. All he knows is greed. Satauuver was like him, but now he¡¯s dead and his slaves are arriving in the Alb System, which is growing. Most of 25 colonies moved there in the past week, some with their star systems, all made possible by one Adia Rayaline. She holds the White Cube Of Light, most powerful of the weapon-cubes. Eriganh holds the second most powerful, the Red Cube Of Fire. My Cube is ¡®way down the line of power, but I can change everything by what I do because I have time travel. Snafanas, Satauuver¡¯s 2nd in command, wants to somehow take power away from Eriganh and confront Rentappenen. Does he know how powerful Rentappenen is? I¡¯m shaking, because I do. My Cube Of Many Colors is a clone of his. The only reason I have it is, its power is extremely limited. I used it to explore other futures, in the other future. The one I left it at wasn¡¯t enough. Every use took my life-force, and made me weaker until I died. Pier and I were linked and he died with me. But, Rentappenen didn¡¯t die when Ray fought him. He faked it. Now I know that, and he¡¯s trying different futures, even now. However, he¡¯s been using a species to destroy the Padrisa that¡¯s now fighting back. A species that wasn¡¯t even supposed to be brought back from its destruction. A species that struck fear into the Padrisa because it destroyed every star system in it in a future that I hope never happens! The Padrisa is the Virgo Supercluster Of Galaxies, and our 13 galaxies and our entire subgroup of galaxies is part of it. They don¡¯t have names. One of them came to a family here on Earth, and their 4 year old calls him Dromie. I have one advantage, and one advantage only. I lived all those futures. I didn¡¯t live this one. This one is an unknown, to me, and to Rentappenen. If we don¡¯t stop him in this one, we will lose the Padrisa. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Levels above ours tried to get rid of Rentappenen for centuries, and they banished him to lower levels. Now, he is destroying those levels¡¯ entire Councils. That¡¯s unheard of in the history of Councils. I can think about all this because I can stop time itself from passing, just for me, while I think of what to do about it. Because I have Rentappenen¡¯s Cube clone, I can see what he¡¯s doing. He¡¯s scared. He¡¯s porting troops from one timeline to another in a desperate ploy to win. That¡¯s the flaw! He¡¯s using up resources in one timeline after another. I used up my life doing that, the first time. Because I am sitting still, I can see it. Time is a resource, just like food in the refrigerator. Once Rentappenen visits one timeline, it¡¯s blocked to him. He can¡¯t send anything back to it. He can¡¯t pull resources from it. As he does this, people in his Collective, and the copies of it, die. He has a finite number of followers. As they realize he is using them up, they are considering alternatives. Pirad made a lot of Cubes, over centuries. People have been traveling, swaying worlds to join the Seven. This has also been going on in the Padrisa, on other tech levels. But, timelines have foci, places where many converge. Earth is one focus of many timelines, maybe even all the ones I saw in my search to find the one future where everything worked. Maybe I was looking at the wrong thing, and Pirad¡¯s son, Pier, too. Rentappenen knows I¡¯m not cooperating with his brother, but I¡¯m hidden from him here because of Pirad. He expects me to do what I did last time and burn myself out. I¡¯m scared to death, but I already know I¡¯m going to die. What have I got to lose? Maybe I can save the Padrisa before I do. My clone and Pier went to Alb to find out where Dromie¡¯s people are. I¡¯m not sure what they have in mind. That species could destroy the Padrisa trying to save it. I¡¯m here, and I¡¯m going to do something only someone here can do. I¡¯ll create a time bubble in the focus of many timelines, all that converge right here. I¡¯ll use the copies of each person with a Cube, from moment to moment, to fight him, and to hold it open as long as I can. Rentappenen is using up his selves on these endless timeswaps. He expects me to second-guess him and use myself up chasing him from one timeline to another. I refuse to play that game. I¡¯ll build a time bubble that stops time, and all our selves will fall into it because of the sudden stop, just like a car crashing into a wall throws everyone in it around! Ray traded with that Aryllan. Snafanas. He isn¡¯t feeling so good. All of his people got changed today, and he misses his two-foot saber nails. Eriganh¡¯s planning to destroy Titan! Anyone with a Cube can hear the thoughts of everyone else with one. Rentappenen¡¯s trying to hunt all of them down. Pirad is hiding the good guys. They¡¯ve found a lot of Earthans with Gifts and given them Cubes to help Rentappenen fight. That¡¯s not fair! But, it¡¯s using up Rentappenen¡¯s resources to do that. After this battle on Earth, he¡¯s done. He won¡¯t have anything left to fight with. And, he¡¯s scared that Ry¡¯nao will notice. Our government of tech levels always has a higher level that might notice rules are being broken. There are higher levels than the Padrisa, and the Padrisa has already had warnings. I can¡¯t see much of that, but the Padrisa already wants to see people from our level about leaks of higher-level tech into our level that Rentappenen did. That¡¯s forbidden on all levels. They send observers. Then they send someone to enforce the rules. The process can take centuries. Rentappenen¡¯s been ignoring the rules, thinking he¡¯s somehow going to take over everything. That only works until the day of reckoning. As she traded, she fought the urge to pull at her blonde locks. Her deep blue eyes didn¡¯t leave him. He attacked her with his telepathy and she zapped him. She has Snafanas¡¯ Blue Cube, and it multiplies her telepathy. But, she can also see Eriganh¡¯s Red Cube¡ªand use it. Pirad startled and ported in there. Eriganh pushed his Collective to heat up Saturn! A reaction started, but I grabbed it. The heat melted the slaver base, and a wave swallowed up ships! But I reversed it. People un-died! Rentappenen saw me, but I slipped back into timestop. The Cube Of Many Colors heated up in my hand and sweat made green powder-stars on the floor of the ship. But, I slipped through time faster than Rentappenen could. Someone¡¯s helping me! I saw a man with black fur and cat-ears smile. Pinda. And, Pirad kept Rentappenen from getting a fix on where I was. I kept it going, then remembered. I created a time bubble that Rentappenen didn¡¯t see, on the ship. I¡¯ve already lived this future? How? Chapter 5 Time Bubble 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¡ªSuma!¡± 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. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. 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! Chapter 6 Rentappenen鈥檚 War By me, Molly kept finding things for others to do, and healed our friends. ¡°Azure, how you holding up?¡± I felt healing. ¡°Save it for the others¡ª¡± ¡°I have to keep you healed! Without you, all this falls apart!¡± Does it? My arm looked impossibly thin in her hand and she fed me a pastry. I could absolutely live off Zheien pastries. I ate an impossible amount. ¡°Without Ry¡¯nao, we couldn¡¯t do this.¡± Suma also healed legions of our people. ¡°Or Suma¡¯s healing. Wally¡¯s people are fighting him, too, on a lot of worlds. Neal got hurt¡ª¡± ¡°Kia¡¯s finding more Ty¡¯nirrhans who are fed up with being slaves!¡± I showed her ships flying from C¡¯tral, their homeworld after the Wausen rose. Some came back to fight with them! Sara showed Kia more Ty¡¯nirrhans to fight who sided with Rentappenen. Those 700 worlds that Pirad gave ¡®em this morning? One of Eriganh¡¯s World Destroyers exploded in their new star system. There went Rentappenen¡¯s forces in the Seventh. I felt sad. All of them weren¡¯t evil. Most got trained to be that way from herbs that didn¡¯t belong on our level. No time to cry! Deb found rogue Ty¡¯nirrhans and sent a surge to destroy them. We¡¯ll all cry when we know how many people we all killed! Molly wiped a tear. ¡°I¡¯m just a healer, not a warrior! At least I¡¯ll probably die doing this. Maybe my host won¡¯t know. You won¡¯t tell her, will you, Azure?¡± I shook my head. I¡¯ll be dead, too. Maybe that¡¯s a good thing. How will the others¡ªbut they are all Otherselves, not the hosts. No, they are safe in Alb. The worlds and the people and the battles all got jumbled in my mind. All I have to do is hold this bubble open. I¡¯m not killing anyone. That¡¯s for others. Every Cube has a role. The hosts, they aren¡¯t killing. The minds in the Collectives are, and they are bred to be weapons. Adia directed Cubes, but someone in her Collective showed her what to say. No one is directing me. My Collective warned me, what I¡¯m doing is impossible by what they know. Maybe someone upper level¡¯s helping me do it. Gave me the idea¡ªno, no, and no. My Collective is telling me, we¡¯re on our own. Upper levels washed their hands of Rentappenen. They thought the shame of kicking him to lower levels would stop him. It just gave him new land to exploit! People like him never get tired of collecting power. Greed never ends. Everyone looked exhausted. Ry¡¯nao frantically directed men until they died, and the anguish on his face was hard to watch! He¡¯s got responsibility for all the people linked in his mind through his Gray Cube Of Knowledge. That Cube exists to know everything we can know on this level, to record it for other tech levels. It¡¯s like the master archive. It records every death in this War. Entire civilizations died. I can¡¯t-- ¡°I brought them back!¡± Dromie smiled at me. I couldn¡¯t smile. Every death is still recorded in Ry¡¯nao¡¯s Cube. Every. Last. One. He feels them all. How¡¯s he still alive, feeling that? There are things too horrible for me to be thinking about. I concentrated on my bubble, keeping it expanded just a few feet beyond my emperor. The bubble itself is tiny compared to all the people fighting in it. They don¡¯t have to fit. It¡¯s virtual, like some humongeous computer game that¡¯s international and online. I used to like to memorize which game had the largest maps and how much of Earth they covered, it it could be real. It¡¯s easier if I think of this as a game, a chess game between me and Rentappenen. He has troops and we have troops. One galaxy at a time. But, this affects a lot more than the Thirteen that Ry¡¯nao rules. What¡¯s the score? No one can tell me. Are we winning? If we aren¡¯t, the Padrisa loses. That¡¯s estimated to be a hundred thousand galaxies. So. Many. Worlds. Worlds with people. People with families they love. Do I know what that¡¯s like? My grandparents said they loved me. My parents did. But, did I get any love? All they did was fuss. I¡¯m not doing it right. I¡¯m worthless. I should have died as a baby! But I tried to do what they want, in the hope of love. My aunt said she loved me but she didn¡¯t want me living with her. None of my cousins. Nobody. Yet, Ry¡¯nao welcomed me on his ship, a person with a weapon that could destroy it and his Thirteen Galaxies! He doesn¡¯t know me, but he loves me. Molly loves me. Right now, my relatives are complaining to one of Pirad¡¯s many clones that they want out. He¡¯s dismayed that I¡¯m in one of Kirnonos¡¯ secret labs with my stupid relatives. This Pirad doesn¡¯t want to bother his Pirad with it so he¡¯s in his lab working, the lab that he had in Antartica that Rentappenen thinks he destroyed. Along with all the memories of my entire Collective and their peoples! The thought makes me happy. My memories are there, too, not that I¡¯d want to burden a clone with ¡®em. Pirad can use ¡®em, maybe. But, my parents are back, and my grandparents, and they are cured of their addictions. Cured. Maybe they know what love it. I¡¯ll never know, but they all have a second chance. Are they thinking about that? Right now, they¡¯re thinking how nice it would be to leave that cold room and go home. They can¡¯t go home. Ever. But, they can live on Alb. Why doesn¡¯t he let them leave? Then I realized, stupid, they all have your genetics. Rentappenen wants them dead, like he wants you to die, because you can all interfere with his power. When this is over, they can go. They can be free. I¡¯ll be free, too, because I¡¯ll be dead. As a spirit, I can go wherever I please and do what I want. Isn¡¯t that a nice thought? If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. But, Pirad, that Pirad¡¯s shielding me and the ship, he¡¯s helping Pirad here on this ship, but he¡¯s for me. He¡¯s sweating. Doesn¡¯t he have a healer down there? I realized, no one knows he¡¯s there! They can¡¯t, in case Alb Seer Pirad, the host Pirad, gets killed. They¡¯ve had attacks in the Alb System from upper level people! Pirad¡¯s Earthan wife, Leticia, she¡¯s on Ye~. Not with him. Yikes! Deb made Greg lie down. They heard my thoughts! But we people with Cubes, we hear each other. Rentappenen hears me, but I hear him, how scared he is. He can¡¯t go back to a timeline once he goes there. That never happened before. What changed? He¡¯s worried about losing territory. His troops are losing star system after star system. He¡¯s exhausted. People are dying in his Collective faster than he can clone new ones. People are rebelling and leaving, even though it¡¯s instant death from his guards on Lisbaar. And those guards? Some are pretending to work for him and some slaves are getting out. Others left. He can¡¯t track them. There¡¯s a new recruit with a light green Cube powered by fear. She just learned how to take others¡¯ fear and project it onto Rentappenen. He doesn¡¯t know how to handle that! I made that ability in a time loop. This girl heard Ry¡¯nao¡¯s fear for his son, for his diplomats, and it¡¯s powerful! Now Rentappenen¡¯s getting hit over and over like a broken record. You don¡¯t listen as well when you¡¯re scared, do you, Rentappenen? You¡¯re missing things! He got mad and people died in his Collective! The more upset he gets, the faster they die! On that ship to Alb, they got the slaves from Titan, the ones I saved on that ship! Molly and MarKu¡¯s royalty are relieved to see Jog Sa, their greatest programmer, and he¡¯s not badly hurt! Healers take him and his family to a room and Goes, First Prince Of MarKu, goes with them. Molly and healers taught Earthans on the ship to help everyone. A few didn¡¯t want to do that, or had small kids, but most of them learned to be healer helpers. That amazed me, in Rainbow. Molly got all of them to help her heal people. If they couldn¡¯t heal, they could comfort people or bring a healer. If I lived, would I want to be a healer? I¡¯m scared to open my mouth, just to talk to someone. Molly, she¡¯s checking in on everyone in this battle. I¡¯m just struggling with my time bubble, and it makes me shake to think Rentappenen can see me. He¡¯s too busy to attack little me. I guess it takes attention to a lot of things to run a war. Even him, a boss with lots of people to run parts of it. He doesn¡¯t know who he can trust. Lots of his head honchos died, and he¡¯s having trouble replacing them. Doesn¡¯t he have clones? Oh, they got killed, too, and the memories to make them know what to do. Sara did that! Cevit Ion¡¯s new Earthan wife. Oh, she¡¯s talented! She and Cevit Ion are working together. She finds slavers and he finds a diplomat in the links who¡¯s near enough to strike. They have diplomats all over the Thirteen. This War is bigger than that, but that¡¯s where they are working. Dromie¡¯s people are doing the rest. They are infiltrating slave camps and inciting riots. Some of the species they resurrected are wiping out Rentappenen¡¯s troops and their worlds at the same time! Some of those civilizations they brought back are dying again? But, they are taking chunks of Rentappenen¡¯s defense with them. My Collective¡¯s glad. They think they were all evil. But they think Dromie¡¯s people are, too. Someone created them out of weapons. They thought like weapons, ruthless, kill, kill. I couldn¡¯t imagine our supply of atomic bombs waking up and deciding to blow up a country! But that¡¯s what Dromie meant when he could make people into weapons. That¡¯s what Kia thought. I sent a surge through Peatabus expecting Pirad to protect him. Bour Wenh Cet died. Peatabus had a convulsion and everyone got upset! Kia killed people? But the Wenh Cets were evil slavers, and Rentappenen depended on them to do his slave training. Greg and Briahh Wenh Cet infiltrated Rentappenen¡¯s Lab and organized a revolt that¡¯s still going, hundreds of years later! Now they¡¯re helping Pirad. Dromie told his story to Kia. ¡°I noticed children and thought I¡¯d take the form of a toy in my real form. Children speak simply. They can help me learn what this people wants so I can promise them things. I made noises like the book described when people picked me up at times. It made them laugh, like the goblin in the book. Then I got messy like the goblins in the book and put myself in a store for used things. ¡°A man picked me up and bought me for his daughter. ¡®Oh, I¡¯d love to see Gwen¡¯s face when I give Luna you! But Luna will love you. She¡¯s like a dog you kick and she always comes back.¡¯ I grimaced. Wasn¡¯t I like that? With my parents, and my grandparents? He sounded like Daddy. ¡°¡®Dromeda! Yay! I love lookin¡¯ at galaxies far away! That¡¯s it! I¡¯m gonna call ya Dromie! Wanna see somethin¡¯ purty? Andromeda¡¯s purty. Look at all those stars up there. I wanna see ¡®em someday.¡± She held me so my face pointed up. I never saw what stars looked like. I knew some of them had planets with people. But, for the first time in my life, I stood on a planet and looked at a dark sky with points of light. I knew every one. Some were empty star systems and I piloted ships to the worlds, to divide their resources and carry them to other worlds. Others were inhabited, but I didn¡¯t act differently. The beauty of it through Granny¡¯s telescope touched me. Here¡¯s a galaxy of star systems, like ours and not like ours, in a spiral galaxy very like ours. Dromie sighed. ¡°I saw things differently that day. Granny and her people talked, and I learned. But when Luna gave me to Granny, and Gwen left me with her to go work, I saw that even helpless people have worth. When I revealed myself, at first, she was scared. But when I told her about myself and what my people did, she told me I should fight, even if I died doing that.¡± But, those people went to Alb and got exiled, because Dromie had rogues that killed one of Pirad¡¯s clones! Right now, they¡¯re on a dead world with their house like they wanted, but no one else. And, the food Dromie left ¡®em is spoiled. They¡¯re starving! I put food in the refrigerators and cabinets of all the houses. Left the cabinet doors open. In other words, I reversed what the rogues did. It can¡¯t last! But no ships are coming to bring them supplies because all of Alb is terrified of Dromie¡¯s people. Yet, he keeps popping into Kia¡¯s big meeting of everybody with Cubes. They¡¯ll all get infected! Pirad¡¯s upset. But what can we do? These rogues are like a computer virus for people, and it¡¯s from levels far above us. My Collective can¡¯t tell me anything. But one of those rogues infected Kia, and she can do massive healings for our troops, those who are Ty¡¯nirrhan and Biehshah and Bisillips like Pirad and Kirnonos and Taredias Gupa and his Elder friends I met in Antarctica. Yet, they killed Pirad on Ye~. Pirad¡¯s losing clones like water, and he¡¯s making more. Are we winning? Chapter 7 Pirad鈥檚 Frustration Pirad appeared in front of me. ¡°Azure, you must not think about him! I cannot hide us¡ª¡± ¡°He¡¯s in my head! He knows what I see and what I know! But, he¡¯s too busy to attack¡ª¡± 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¡ª¡± ¡°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¡ª¡± ¡°Kirnonos collected the minds of our greatest healers and put them in me! I know much more than you¡ª¡± ¡°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¡ª¡± 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. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. 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. Chapter 8 Mican鈥檚 Clone ¡°willoursave hear ¡° ¡° ¡° die ¡°Thirteendying emperorcouldIyou ¡°livebrother this supposedmeonwant keep You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. You must act quickly, before the poisons take both of your memories. We go to the site of the weapons facility. ¡° 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 one. And, it is mine, at last! hurt 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. 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. is ¡°madout saw What are you doing? I¡¯ll kill you! Stop it! I¡¯ll kill you! I¡¯ll -- wallBoomfell ownget kill gotta Chapter 9 Goblins this ¡°all ¡° ¡°speciesconsequences weakfight ¡°used ¡° created thinkgoblin But I saw why Dromie¡¯s people are exiled. Most of them have a kind of computer virus. Zheien call them rogues, but these are more advanced than that. They target people with Cubes. Our Pirad here on Ye~ died of that. Dromie¡¯s worried about that family that got exiled with him. If his cube¡ªuh, lens, is keeping it livable, what happens if he gets too distracted? My Collective answered, and I didn¡¯t want to hear it. Dromie powers life. If he cannot, all life there will end because a Lens must have a Host as a Cube must. Life he created there will die. Tech will end. Life he brought there will continue but they must have needs and there is no trade. Now you know things I didn¡¯t like about living on higher tech levels. I didn¡¯t like having to keep worlds alive. One mistake, and your worlds die, and all the people on them. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡° evil ¡° ¡°does ¡° ¡°deadfast allcreate Chapter 10 Creation Of The Alliance ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° contaminating You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡° here ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° three Chapter 11 Changes On Earth pin dat shea?¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. out there! Chapter 12 Adia Battles Eriganh Cube spoke. It is time. me seeing it. We are running out of selves from other days, other minutes, other seconds and smaller measures. The Time Bubble is shrinking! th Level. They brought back entire civilizations they destroyed for him. I will free all of you when this battle ends. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. you are my slaves for the rest of your lives! Arguments fly. But many of them, especially Ryee¡¯s relatives, they are hearing Ryee¡¯s memories of them and they are listening. More of them decide to fight Eriganh. Concentrate! If I die, you die-- Lies! We will be free! Adia said it and I find no lie in her! ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° th, the Padrisa, pleading for help. He won¡¯t get any. If we don¡¯t stop Rentappenen, the Padrisa will die again. Dromie¡¯s people can¡¯t help us, now. Padrisa is demanding that we who broke the rules come there. Today! Chapter 13 Group Healing undid me! It hit the floor. So did Roosevelt, who sobbed. Ray fell and hugged him. ¡°Oh, Roosevelt! I¡¯m so sorry! Were you people married?¡± ¡° ¡° ¡°here! Where is this! I haven¡¯t got anything left! Suma.¡± She leaned against him, on this white floor. ¡° ¡° ¡° gone, and that¡¯s a worse shock. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. them! They¡¯re a created species and none of them know any healing! dying, and so is Ry¡¯nao!¡± ¡° ¡° ¡°healers? It¡¯s not fair! We didn¡¯t try to hurt anyone!¡± my fault, because I followed Rentappenen. Yes, that was stupid, and all of us will pay for it.¡± ¡° ¡° destroy my Thirteen because Rentappenen contaminated it! Wally, what can we do? You are right, we need to prepare our arguments!¡± ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡°th. I am a Wausen. You know healing. Can you teach me?¡± Chapter 14 Teaching Yamotenanten her ¡°do childknow ¡° ¡°undoliveskillingpeople ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡°weapon ¡° hurt ¡°right ¡°injured ¡° ¡°twolivethinking him ¡° ¡° Ea fe ¡° never ¡° ¡° ¡° survive not ¡°do ¡°¡¯ ¡°centuriesany ¡° ¡° ¡°