"They're coming!" Sara's shout set me on edge!

I saw it. Ships came through Pirad's defenses, on the Samar Thaae side of Alb. I would call it the eastern side, if we were looking down at Alb from the top of its sun. The Milky Way center as north.

They got through Pirad! Nothing on our level can do that!

I targeted the lead ship but realized, this is a huge ship! It'll take out Alb if it blows up! It's one of Eriganh's World Destroyers!

But, they have a weakness I can exploit. No Kajarian can get healing from a Biehshah. I sang healing. Targeted all of its crew.

They died instantly. My telepathy is so strong, just a normal Biehshah healing did it. Didn't feel good about that, but it stopped them.

It surprised me that he'd resort to Kajarian troops. That's our level! It means, he hasn't got any troops from upper levels to send. This is Eriganh's last battalion! His elite force, that travels with him everywhere, they left Earth to come here!

I read their minds as I dropped them because Kajarians share everything, it's all or nothing. I saw their entire lives, Eriganh's anger, all of it.

He's mad because Rentappenen used up his troops. All of them. This force, that we're dropping like flies, it's all he has left. Rentappenen demanded all of them. He used his vast forces up. Most of them died on Lisbaar.

Through my Diplomatic Link, I showed Ryonne~, and it floored him. Then I knew how many troops we were talking about. These are measured in world populations, not gazillions!

So many worlds have fighting, it's not practical to list them, so he keeps track of them by galactic groups. Fighting is winding down in The Padrisa, and we won! Eriganh doesn't even have troops there!

Here in the Thirteen, there's fighting in every one of our galaxies! Most of that took place in the 4th Galaxy at Lisbaar, a world.

Lisbaar, Rhaech, and a few other worlds blew up, with their star systems. These few worlds were where most of Eriganh's forces came. Rentappenen wanted to capture Lisbaar and his Collective was there. Lisbaar has all of the weapons from multiple levels that were made for this battle. They used them! Now, Rentappenen's Collective died when Lisbaar exploded, so he has a Cube that has little power. His temporary Collective needs to rest to gain power, and he's overworking everyone. So he is making clones for it and they live, on average, two hours before they die with constant replacement. He's running out of materials for these clones. Scientists are making them so fast, they aren't powerful. Many are coming out flawed. Numbers only increase the flawed ones.

Bottom line, he isn't time-traveling to increase his advantage, or using a time portal to get more clones and troops. That isn't working at this point.

He's still a powerful adversary, but he's a this-level adversary now, except for the slaver herbs and tech at his disposal.

The fact that he's using Kajarian troops, that's telling. The Battle's not a walk in the park, but the odds are more even now.

Knowing that doesn't make me feel better about losing our friends. And I can't bring them back?

I decided not to tell Ir. Too frustrating! He hugged me and I just shared my grief and frustration without words. Telepathy's wonderful that way. We comforted each other. He's known this battle was coming for centuries. That's a lot of stress. But we can look forward to centuries together, if we can just live through this. And, if the Padrisa or the 15th don't decide to execute us! Yeah, just a walk in the park.

Ir laughed. I think of a walk in the park, and I think about Piedmont Park. Ir thinks of the garden, our colony's garden. It reminds him of a place he used to love, too.

"Oh, Kia. I wish I could take you to Leheren. There is a garden there, Sethharran. I used to sit there and hope for a lady to enjoy it with. Now I have you, but I am exiled from Biehshah." He sighed.

I did, too. "When this is over, we can do a virtual tour, can't we?"

My husband nodded. "We can visit Earth, too. That will be nice. I only saw Atlanta."

I thought about all the places I dreamed about visiting. Egypt. The pyramids. Paris. The Eiffel Tower. Germany. Ireland, just to pet a sheep. While looking at fields of shamrocks. Ahh. Or Scotland. Eating Scottish shortbread, freshly baked, with a hot cup of herbal tea. Mmmm. At a cafe, or a real pub. Listening to bagpipes. Yeah, I'd love it. Especially with Ir holding my hand like he is now. I smiled at my husband and felt guilty with all the grieving people near us. But, they'd want us to smile, wouldn't they?

Ir named 55 people who would enjoy seeing us smiling instead of wailing. Biehshah are very literal. And, he named 72 others who might hope we would die too so they wouldn't have to be alone.

"They wouldn't ever be alone. They'd have a lot of dead relatives, wouldn't they, Ir?"

"No! We can reclone ourselves. Biehshah always had plans for recloning, even though the government decided we'd have to wait for materials until the end of the war. With stasis, there is no death, not really, for us. So yes, they'd be afraid of being alone."

I frowned. "But, they're in stasis, so they're not really dead, are they?"

Ir laughed. "No! Our friends wait for healing! They're not dead!"

All our Biehshah friends heard him and quit moping around. Der put an arm on Ir's forehead. "You're right! Our friends are not dead! We need to remember that." His green eyes filled, but he just wiped the tears away with the back of his hand. "We will only miss them a short time."

Ten brought a pink shake to Ir, Der, and several other close friends. "Then, let us drink viev to their memories. I managed to grow one fruit. This is not as good as in our home, but it is our thoughts that matter, yes? Vievmemerashah sies, viewanteresheramach feruach!"

We all raised a glass. Apparently it's all right for an Earthan, too, so we drank. Heavenly flower scent, and a fruit flavor like strawberries! As I sipped mine, we all shared memories of our lost people. I learned things I didn't know about many of 'em. Ir's good friends with hundreds! We shared memories of their triumphs, their sorrows, and their everyday lives before Rentappenen. Biehshah have had shortages almost since their colony's founding, so life is harder there than on Bisillipia. Relatively speaking. Bisillips have plenty of food even out of season, few shortages, can get fuel even when it's scarce and expensive, for the few who travel. But, on Bisillipia, it's easy to end up a slave with absolutely no warning. A trade dispute. Or you make an enemy without realizing it. That's what motivated 80 decillion Bisillips to become a new species and move to Biehshah. The population has a high mortality rate, but there are still 95 decillion Biehshah on our world. Those in stasis are an unthinkable number. So when the war ends, they have plans for new worlds to populate with those in stasis.

Which gave me an idea. "Ten, what would it take to wake up all the Biehshah? Could I do it with a mass healing?"

His blue eyes lit up! "Kia, this would give us an army to fight Rentappenen! We would have even odds of defeating him!"

"Only even?" I felt depressed!

Ir hugged me. "You do not know how powerful he is! He has many allies outside of the Thirteen. Even odds are good! There is less chance for The Padrisa or 15th to say, "Oh, you cheated! Of course, if we use a red portal, there is no chance of reviving him if they decide against us."

What an absolutely horrible thought! We will have to do that. He can't ever be resurrected! "Are we sure he died in the other future?"

Ray came over. "With what I know now, I don't think he did die. It's possible I thought he died and he just ported away. I'm a trader, not a healer."

"Okay. When he dies, just use a red portal. Port his body into the nearest sun!"

Ir showed her how to set one up. Deb learned it, too, and she knows how to prog. We ended up showing everyone, just in case.

Ray showed us how Satauuver's Collective killed him. They assured her, it was better than a red portal. They have ways to spread a person's particles over so many star systems, there is no way to retrieve them. There are particles much smaller than we know on Earth. Collectives can cause a person's particles to spray into tiny portals, millions of 'em. To Ray, he crumbled to dust, but that was the process of his particles porting away at a microscopic level. Satauuver will never come back. Unlike others, he never wanted clones or recloning. Never shared memories to a cylinder. He was too arrogant for that.