Pirad and Via had a heated discussion going on what to do about people from all five worlds of Rahn Estar. Which herbs might work better for their upsets. Via found something wrong with every herb he created to treat them with.

Via sighed. "Pirad, you think like a Bisillipian, and you need to think like a Zheien! No matter what you give them, they will never be happy with sleeping more than their five hours. If you slow the perception of time, they notice."

"If they gain health, they can stand the shock of noticing."

"Why do you think people die in every colony start, with no causes? I and my scientists have studied this from the founding of Ishah, when Zhea~ began sending many more colonies. Once they had nesfa for travel, they easily found suitable worlds, and when colonists arrived, the worlds had more problems than they anticipated. The fear that they could not solve these problems quickly threatened to kill all of them!"

"It is useless to argue this. If we simply write progs, you may choose which herbs you feel will help them. Time is limited." He got his smug expression and crossed his arms.

Via didn't look happy. But, he took my hand and I didn't stumble on the way into the yellow building. Pirad ported. Now I noticed that he didn't just vanish, but there was a tiny bit of white light that swirled around his outline. A white portal, like Farley took from Esta Faho to Earth? That might not have hurt him, but it must have been scary!

At times, I had to port between worlds to give parts of treaty provisions. Discussions of things we thought would balance the trade for that provision. Endless lists of herbs, minerals, animals, plants, all surpluses of more than the planet could use, or sometimes, just to store. Alt storage and stasis has costs. Even empty space for buildings has value to offset the cost of building and maintaining a facility and energy. I was always scared of falling out of a portal, and in space, you die instantly.

Via heard my memories and listened. "You mostly had ideas that pleased them." His blue eyes turned light.

"How can you tell? All I remember is endless arguments about every idea I had and why it wouldn't work! If only I could keep all the trades in my head long enough to prove things!"

The old healer held my head. "I have help for you. Do you know of basperi?"

Of all the herbs I studied, that's one I always wanted! It increases your memory many times! "It works for us Earthans?" For Elshars, a miracle. All the Elshar Elders and a lot of council members swore by it. But, only council members had enough trade to get a leaf! You could buy a bag of 30 yllis leaves for one. Or a prime colony world, near Elshar Mashai, with established farms, mines and maybe a shipbuilding facility! If you could find one.

"Oh, I think it would work better on an Earthan than an Elshar or Ishah! You remember certain Earthans that Ahstam gave it, to help their Gifts work better. Maybe you have a Gift, Child."

I waved a hand down. "I'm just a garden-variety programmer. Dr. Apfelbaum thinks of me as a daughter, so he tells me I'm special, but I don't believe him. He wants grandchildren and all his sons' wives want careers." I sighed. Would I want to bring a child into the world here, with my dysfunctional family? Through the clear wall I saw them walk by, and Zheien frowned at the way Daddy carried on with Mama! How can anyone argue when we live in a Zheien colony and have everything an Earthan could possibly want?

Via put a triangular leaf in my hand. Ahstam waved up a little containment to hold the dust in so no Zheien got any. He pressed on it to crush it, and waved a bit of the dust around to Farley's family on the bed. Their sleep got limper.

But I smelled a very spicy-sweet smell, and suddenly, my telepathy found all the programmers in the room! And, none of them liked the touch of my clumsy mind!

I tried to pull back, but like a hologram, I saw colored lines connecting people with my mind!

Via held my mind so I couldn't pull back. His excitement tingled on me! "What do you see? Show me!"

"But, people don't like—" He explained to the Zheien healers and server instructors near the Earthans, and they dropped their indignation. Just that fast!

We formed a very big mindlink. A server instructor mindlink. Somehow, Via led me down the colored lines, and I saw the progs everyone was writing, who was affected more by this mine poison and more by that one--

"Look for asferas—"

"They all have asferas, Via!" But, I saw vials of it in all the healers' holdings. He waved to take them all. Vials of that and five other mine poisons, that they mixed with the umar seg and carried, with diff symbols on each cap. The most concentration of it was in Nitomahan's, his son Antomias', Nathanhai's and Farley's!

I saw Mican with Farley.

Farley was in healers' chambers getting people to go outside. They were about to pack it up, the last building of Esta Faho, for the move to Alb. But, he looked in Galarsmen's room and Mican was looking through stuff Galarsmen had on shelves, rows of vials of herbs! Had 3 glowing ones in his hand!

"Why are you here in Galarsmen's chamber? I—"

Mican waved a vial of umar seg against Farley's throat. He fell on the floor, holding his head, and passed out.

Galarsmen came in and tried to send a surge of telepathy to disable him and was shocked, that he didn't fall. Any Elshar would. He planned to give him umar seg so he wouldn't remember that Galarsmen fought him!

"You think I don't know that you're not putting enough in their vials? Slopfah, I want twice the amounts. If you want me to spare the lives of all these slopfahi, do as I say!"

"Eae, Master, I will!" He left sobbing Galarsmen with Farley and walked out. Rubbing his head, so he did have a headache from what Galarsmen did! Passed by the wall of herbs without a glance. Those 3 vials floated back into place. Other healers came and packed it. Galarsmen refused help and they left.

He held Farley. "He gives too much! We need our treaty or all of Rahn Estar—I must calm. I must think. Mican thinks he knows all of our herbs, all of our poisons. But he cannot know of this one." "He pulled out a glowing leaf. "Forgive me, my son. My fae helped tend Ahstam's garden and was to destroy this plant of Elshar. But he kept this one leaf. All of us merely sniffed at it, and we had strength for healing long after our colony should be dead. After umar seg, I let all of us smell it, and I can resist Mican's slaver herbs, and his training.

"But, no healing can compensate for this, after you witnessed savagery on D'gharr! Just a little." He let the point of the leaf touch Farley's tongue. He wasn't dark gray after that, and took a breath.

"Galar, help me!"

He let Farley smell the leaf again, then put it not in his herb terminal, but gave a complex series of hand motions. Kajarian navs gestures? It vanished.

Then he carried groaning Farley out to his ship and gave him to Konomai. Who gasped.

"Tell no one. Mican was in my chambers. All of you, come to my ship. Today, we escape him."

He was arguing with the council, but they drew weapons. That's when Farley jumped out of their arms and ran over there. Got people to stop threatening violence. Galarsmen saw how Farley threatened to show Berto what the Elshar was doing, and he suddenly convinced his friends on the council to let them go.

Micansen ran over there, told people about resources on Par Vu and ported Elshars.

His healer touched his head. "You overuse your telepathy, Mican! Come with me." They got on a ship with Elshars and waved to him, but he nodded his head. Mican was sleeping and missed it as the ship closed up. Micansen shook all over, and a healer carried him onto Galarsmen's ship. They carried all of the Zheien on that ship with all their healers.

All the Elshars left fast and got on the other ship, but Galarsmen had everyone take umar seg, and gave it to Farley. He didn't want them to know that he hurt Mican, because he didn't want Mican to hear it. Telepathy's not limited by distance. Even between galaxies.

I gasped. So did Via. Pirad came back, and he knew how to remove traces of that herb. It heals, but it does other things healers don't like.

I wrote a prog to look for that, and 50 other poisons that healers didn't think had bad effects.

"What is this that you do, Daughter?"

"On Earth, pharmacists use a software to check for drug interactions, but they can only predict three. This prog is like that, but it can see 50. I'm checking for 100, if I can figure out how to do it." I shook all over. It's an impossible task, even with the advanced tech that I'm using to write code!

Via tried to help, but he couldn't see how what I wrote worked. I didn't really understand it, but I used the connections I saw in people to tie effects to poisons. There were a lot of connections that didn't make sense, but then I figured it out. Combinations of poisons make a new poison. There were 25 new poisons that progs didn't check, that people didn't—I made the prog check for it. Made a new database of 'em.

And a combination of 4 poisons made a new drug to treat it. That became the solution to asferas. I wrote code for a complicated series of checks, because giving this new drug wasn't like three times a day. It was when levels of substances in a Zheien's blood made a pattern, and it changed a lot. Finally I saw enough similarities to make the pattern, and had it look for that pattern, within 5%, and then it would give the treatment.

Pirad clicked his face into a happy smile, a frozen one! He looked like that symbol on stages with the happy face and the sad one, just like the mouth-open happy one. "Oh, keep working, Ella! You just saved the people of Esta Faho! Try this one."