"But my program--" Maia frowned.

"I will have my info scientist finish the prog. He is not doing much now that my team is past the planning stages, and he is shared between departments anyway. No one needs him right now, which is oddly convenient. That should free you long enough for this."

We stayed in the hangar. A room had cots. I enjoyed being there! We could play all day! Vatti talked to a man in a black uniform who insisted I could not leave until they did.

After three days of working with Whatz, Maia was frustrated. The Whatz learned words, but not what they wanted.

"I am Maia. You are Whatz. She is Aronna. He is," she began again, pointing to one of the creatures that was more spotted than ticked like the others.

"Spotss," said Whatz.

Maia looked at me. "I get the distinct feeling these creatures go by whatever name they think we would call them."

"Well, perhaps they see it as a shortname." Mutti sighed.

"You may be right." Maia thought intently for a moment.

"Aronna, try feeling curious to them about how their devices work."

"I do not care how their devices work. I want to play with them, not their machines!"

"But think how much fun it would be to zip places without having to speak or program. Their portals are silent." Maia smiled. Her green eyes had more life in them than Adia's. I missed my other sister.

"I do hate to program. Okay, I'll try." I looked at Whatz, and brought one arm over my head as I squinted in concentration. "Here comes something, Maia!"

Fast-moving images and information came to Maia, who wished she could have recorded it on her computer terminal.

Once she had time to analyze what she did have on her terminal, she said a bunch of stuff. "As you know, particle streams were the key to energy transfer, data transfer, and matter transfer. Then smaller particles were discovered, and eventually harnessed. Quark-stream drives and photon drives broke the FTL barrier, then were soon replaced with smaller and smaller particles' drives.

"Our current technology is dimensional wave theory: We documented 256 layers of successively smaller particles which composed matter and energy that moved in waves about the known universe. The dimensional drive switched rapidly between dimensions, or wave particle types, to shift matter from one set of particles to the next. Since the space between the particles was not moved, very little energy was expended to move the mass a billionth of a micron at a time. Some dimensions were better suited for moving matter, and others for information, still others for energy. The ship's computer worked out the combinations for the particular distance, speed desired, and cargo, then the engines carried them out. This was the breakthrough making intergalactic travel possible."

Our parents shifted from one foot to another. "This is all well, but are you working to a point?" I almost laughed, but I held it in. They don't usually do that!

"Sorry, Papa. You know Ryonne~, King of Ye~, discovered the psi particle recently which allows telepathic species to communicate without sound and successfully equipped a computer on his ship to utilize it. He can give it telepathic commands and it can transmit data telepathically. So, it can open dimensional doorways telepathically, unlike our portals which analyze physiological information to determine authorizations to enter. He will speak about it to us next week.

"These beings, calling themselves the Sehdlat, have taken their technology down to the 1024th particle level and use the psi particle to control it by thought even though they are not telepathic. Our equipment cannot detect dimensional wave activity below the 256th, so when they are mixing dimensions in the 5-256th range with the 257th and above, our equipment still cannot detect it. That is how the kids did not get caught when sneaking into the Spaceport."

Mutti frowned at me. "I did not know you and your friends came to the Spaceport alone!"

"I am sorry, Mutti." My lower lip trembled. Spotz came up to me and purred loudly so I would pick him up. He's too heavy to hold!

"Tell me more." Vatti looked from one furry creature to another. "What equipment do they have to manage all the extra dimensions? It seems that our standard mixing fields would not stand the extra strain."

"Not so! The smaller the particles, the more spread out they are and the less energy it actually takes to mix them. Their mixing fields are replaced by an old-fashioned p-field, with a few extra adjustments."

Whatz came to Maia and a white, glowing, octagonal object about the size of a marble floated to her hand.

"For you." She reached down and gave him a hug. The object lit and communicated with her. A terminal, full of information on how to access the extra dimensions.

"Thank you, Whatz! I cannot wait to take this home and begin learning your technology so I can use it in my progs." But, gave it to Vatti.

Our parents looked at their progs. There was a small error, repeated in several lines, that caused their navigation to pilot them here. Their destination was the 14th Galaxy. His silver eyebrows flew up. "They were going to Sigan Mas, to school! They are all students!"

Whatz purred loudly.

They wanted to go faster to get to school. I thought of how nice it would be to go there, and how they should take out the extra lines of code and just go normal speed. Whatz wasn't happy, but he took it out. They didn't want to go, but they needed to get there, so the Sehdlat spent most of their time with us three children. Maia asked them why.

"Children special. Full of love." Whatz gave us each a terminal, a much simpler one. Apparently, we could send and receive feelings through it. He squatted and we were home again. I slowed down my breathing. So did my family.

Vatti frowned at me. "Aronna, give me your terminal. I will let you have it when you are older."

I put it in his hand, with a frown. "Yes, Vatti."

Once in his hand, it ported to my pocket. He tried using a prog on Maia's terminal to open the interface, and a holo appeared. One of the Sehdlat chattered at him, jumping up and down! That was Spotz.

"You do not understand. My daughter is too young to have contact with other planets--"

Another holo formed. This one had a red uniform. "What is the problem here?"

Vatti explained the Sehdlat, too fast for me.

The man, who had brown skin, nodded. "You misunderstand the purpose of this terminal. Your children can attend Sigan Mas remotely with it. The terminal is attuned to the child's genetics. It is only for the use of one child per terminal. Sehdlat have the ability to share their classes. They gave your children a great gift! You will not have to contribute any trade for these classes."

"Sigan Mas classes!" Vatti smiled! "Will they count for Areon Schools?"

"They count for credit in any school in the Alliance."

"Thank you. So you have Aronna Rayaline enrolled?"

"Yes. Aronna Rayaline may start when she wishes."

He looked at me with a big smile.

"What's Sig-- uh Mat?"

"Sigan Mas. You may learn about anything here."

"Anything?" I clapped my hands.

"It is the education I always wanted to give the three of you. Now you may have it, Aronna!" Vatti smiled at me.

"Better than Academie Praetoria?"

"Much better. Best school there is! It is a whole galaxy of connected worlds with classes. You may learn anything there!"

I talked to the man and chose classes. They had one on mining progs! But school was easy. They have something called the Sleepshare. You set it, and every night, you dream about things.

When I went to school the next day, Madame Apfelbaum smiled. "Oh, you are enrolled in Sigan Mas! All three of you! Until you choose another subject, I will be your tutor here. I can teach you enough trading for scientists, and if you want to learn more than I can teach, you may choose a class of Sigan Mas."

From that day, I only went to Madame Apfelbaum's class and Teacher just led me down the hall to here. The Koch boys said things, but I didn't hear it. I liked school much better. Madame Apfelbaum let me run my mining sim, and she didn't fuss when I put helmets on my workers.

My sisters also took courses—well, Adia didn't come home from work, but we put her terminal on her bed. When she comes home, and our parents come home, she'll see it. Maia and I talked a lot about what we learned. The last time they all had to sleep at work, it was two months before they came back! I hoped it wouldn't be that long. Adia had three free days after it! We went to the Barrens and I threw rocks and ran and played! Derees brought his children, too, and we played together. I wished I got to see them in school but they live in Deciplex 10, so they are on Hall 10 in different classes. Derees fell and they all cried and Adia warned me not to speak about it. But she told me Derees was at work with her, so he was all right.

I wanted to take an art class, but Maia said Vatti would not like it. So I worked on my mining sim, which pleases him. When I am grown and 16 like my sisters, I can take what I want.