"Kaswpas used my ideas to create a species?" He fell on the floor!

Dromie prostrated himself.

"Don't do this. No." Kerponie lifted him with all four arms and put him on his feet. "Where is Kaswpas now?"

"He made us to fight Rentappenen but he is more powerful than the Guaspesi so we followed him. I know now that this was wrong."

"Surely you were like children. But you use my lens, so my genetics must be in you. Did anyone teach you to use it, or the consequences of using it?" His blue eyes glowed, and everyone in the room startled! His white hair also stood on end.

"Rentappenen taught me to destroy." Dromie looked down.

"I warned his people not to touch rainbow Tessite, but they did, and all of them are contaminated—"

"Not now. A lady took it and returned it to a higher level. I can't see them."

The man quivered. "I see them. You did things they do not like. But you did not know of the consequences and I do. You did what I would have done, to bring back the civilizations you destroyed. Their war destroyed much of Rentappenen's contamination.

"I see why my friends are letting you work. But how did you obtain a Lens?" He looked at Ir. "Your Lenses were Taken."

"My father—"

Father bowed. "I am Tanirpahadachan, Elder Of Biehshah. I was chosen of the Padrisa."

Kerponie bowed and stumbled. "I think your species is too weak to control a Lens! To try to teach you would destroy you! Let me give the White Lens to Dromie. I will keep the Rainbow Lens. Rentappenen knows of us now, so let us fight! The Padrisa warns us they cannot help us. If we defeat Rentappenen, they will give me a seat on their Council. Wslarc can contact me. You will tell him, Prince J~oie?"

"I will. May Father Of All bless your efforts." J~oie bowed lower. He trembled.

Dromie took Kerponie's hand and he lifted him onto Bponas' back. "If I could leave you here, I would. We cannot win without your help."

The unicorn stared at the ceiling. "Get on with it! I'm not happy about going into war again, but it's my destiny."

Kerponie chuckled. "Just help the slaves. I won't make you kill. You're better at healing them. I sent crops to Dromie's rock. They'll grow by the time we get back."

"Our world didn't used to be a rock! War kills everything."

"Ah, but I'll bring our people back who want to live peaceably—"

Dromie shook his head. "The weapons they used destroyed it. I was only able to bring you and Bponas back."

He lost his smile. "Then, we must save other civilizations. I worked too hard for this." The trio vanished.

Pamela, that teen, shook her head. "At least I found out unicorns are real!" She pulled at her long, brown hair.

J~oie startled. "That was ne a unicorn! Dromie brought a created species, as he is. Kerponie and his ba were the last of their species who ne sought war. All of their people followed Rentappenen, willingly. These two brave scientists thought to fight against him. Kerponie created Bponas to help him. She is as Dromie, an intelligent species as are we. But they are more advanced than we by many levels."

Ir laughed. "But, she looked like Earthans think a unicorn should look! And Dromie's species look like an Earthan thinks a goblin should look! I will petition Wslarc endlessly until he makes Dromie's world filled with all sorts of fantasy creatures! I might try my hand at creating magic."

Ir's father laughed! "I like making new species. Kia is thinking of people from movies she saw, let us create them!"

"Maybe we shouldn't do that. Won't they fight?"

"Our people create simulants that look like animals to carry disabled people and do work because is fun." J~oie waved and a furry thing with four legs waddled to me. "They are like mobile biomes, Kia. Ne living. Could an animal live without a head? This one has plant life similar to your algae growing in it, so it can move, but ne think except of work." He showed me a room with jars of blue goo. That's how they store data? Wow.

I reached a hand to it and it moved closer. Its white fur was warm. "It's not alive?" I felt liquid sloshing, which startled me.

"Ne. This one carries people, so he is warm and soft. Fur color is for temperature. We need warmer ones, so brown ones are most common, but people who need much warmth use black ones.

"Now we have many gelsai, so our made animals are ne used as much. They are more pleasant." He waved a six-legged cat to us.

She rubbed against our legs.

"Can I bring my cat here? Pamela brushed her brown hair back.

"Ea, bring your pets, all of you. Progs keep them from harm in the garden. I think they miss you as you miss them." J~oie smiled.

Most of 'em waved and we had a variety. I wanted to wait until the War ends to have a pet, but I loved our gelsai. We decided to keep her. She had beautiful fur, gray with patches of stripes and round spots in orange, gray and white. Her green eyes had round pupils like ours. When we petted her, they turned lighter.

I realized we had two teens in our group, about the same age. Pamela was slightly taller but they both had brown hair and brown eyes. Lee and her look a lot alike and they both have pink cubes. Lee's is darker and more powerful. She brought her family back, too.

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.

So all those people he rescued can never come here, if they can get healing so they can live? That's not fair!

I saw ships arriving in all the Rainbow colonies. Slaves in poor condition. They ported some to Dromie's world. But if Pirad's not doing that, who is? I can't ask?

J~oie startled. "Kia, we should ne discuss. Mon Pa and his team are helping Be~saech in this. Healers are upset that people port, and ne knew where they went! We can ne tell them."

"I hate all this secrecy!" I spread my arms out, which confused Ir.

"Kia, they cannot know what we know. Why frighten them more?" With a sigh that rumbled on me, Ir hugged me.

"My friends, that is why we stay here. Diplomats try to explain to those who know us, and people are yet very frightened. They can ne know what we do here." J~oie's golden eyes opened very wide.

"What are they telling 'em? I bet Mama's havin' a hissy fit!" I looked at the ceiling.

"We asked for their patience. They know we are in a safe place working on a project. Diplomats explain this as a 'working vacation'."

I laughed and he got this puzzled look! "This isn't like a vacation! If it was a vacation I'd want to be on the beach and be able to swim!"

But then I got serious. Dromie's worried about that family that got exiled with him. If his cube—uh, 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.

Tech will end. That means stasis, too. I looked over the worried faces. Anyone in stasis waiting for healing will come out of stasis, and they'll die.

Ir hugged me tighter. 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.

How did you handle that?

I distracted myself. It is easier for Bisillips to do that. As a Biehshah, I could not do it. We all wanted a simpler life, after we came to this level. Most Bisillips missed our higher level lives. They were not as bothered by losing worlds, except for Kirnonos, Pirad and Taredias.

Llsam and Lilan created a secret lab together. They were the most distraught about our loss. Lilan created worlds like Areon, Alb Seer and Biehshah. Llsam created the Biehshah. But then he went insane and changed the peaceful Aryllans into monsters! He shuddered.

Morgan said Rentappenen did that.

Who's Morgan?

My mind pointed him to a sad girl in the corner. She didn't talk to anyone. One of our Cube holders? In Rainbow she did a lot of miracles and people thought she used Llsam's mind to do it.

She loves Llsam and we cannot bring him from stasis! The Council will have to give permission for that because of what happened with Aryllans. They are as they were now because of Ray, who will hold the Red Cube. She had the Blue Cube, but gave it to Wtensau, King Of Aryll. Ray also sat by herself studying a database of trading. Her blond hair looked nice on her shoulders as she frowned into her holos. That answer came from my Collective.

I knew about Ray in Rainbow, too. She woke up all of the Elshar Zheien's Burial Chambers!

Pirad saw how she did that and he woke up all of Alb's Burial Chambers! Ir smiled at me.

That must've made a lot of people happy! Far above us, festivals are still going on to celebrate all these worlds coming to Alb to escape destruction. But only if we can defeat Rentappenen.