Farley's father decided he had to live for his son. I didn't think it was a good idea to think about having a baby right now, when people can die at the drop of a hat! It worried me that Via had long convo with Pas and they didn't share any of it. Via went away with dark eyes. But Farley loves kids, and he has little cousins. I slept enough, and I'm not sleepy. It's morning. Lots of kids are peering in the clear wall with worried little faces. They're scared, too, and we're all in this together. Molly used to keep kids out of the Hospice, Rainbow's main building, until some parents convinced her they suffered more outside than the sight of sick people did to 'em. I saw Tamora and waved her in.

Pas frowned. "If she comes, all the children do—"

"Remember the Hospice? When Molly let the Yeff kids come and sit by their parents when they couldn't get 'em interested in play, the kids were better, and so were their families! They need each other, Pas."

The kids watched his face until he smiled and waved them in. All of 'em ran! Tamora went to her parents, who woke up enough to kiss her forehead, then fell asleep again. Oh, she looked so sad! So I reached my arms.

Five kids piled up here and leaned against me! "Sae Ella, why can we nae go home?" Tamora cried. I stroked her long, blond hair. A lot softer than mine. It smelled like a flower.

I waved up a bis tia and Pas nodded. "Eat this, and I'll try to explain."

She frowned. "What is?"

Pas smiled. "When upset comes, one leaf of bis tia helps one to calm. Did you see Taman or Ramiersen take of it?"

She sighed, and I felt a tiny rumble. "Fa and Mea care for the server. Our server was on our moon, Irsae, and I feared every time they left us to do—"

"Tamora, you should nae mention our Hub! Fa warned me—"

"Fa showed me how he transferred all of our data to Ye~ Hub, which serves all of Alb because he is so well! Ours was Alliance and nae longer serves. Ye~ Hub is Unified. Unified Hubs have more capacity. I had worries when we came, but this time, Fa and Mea took me with them, to move Rahn Estar Hub! Fa will rest well today, knowing he has nae long hours to solve problems." Wow, she's smart!

I stroked her blond curls. "How old are you, Tamora? Who's your parents? I need to learn everyone's names and how we're related."

She giggled. "Fa is Taman, Master Hub Engineer Of Rahn Estar. He was born there. Mea is Ramiersen, Biome Engineer Of Esta Faho, sae of Naisalana, my Meae."

"Oh, so my grandmother—my meae—is also your meae?"

"Eae! You saw them when I came, eae?"

"On the other bed near us, eae! I love our new home. Masen, Healer Of Esta Faho is my family's healer and also my ba, he tells us we nae ever take umar seg again! I am happy nae ever to have mind pains again!"

Pas gasped. "They gave umar seg as they did adults? How old are you, child?" Expected those red-gold eyes to go black, with that expression! His upset rumbled on us. This is the bald Pas.

"I am 9. I saw Galarsmen as he made it and Masen said he should make it a quarter strength, but Galarsmen insisted all must have it when Elshars attacked. He taught me to pretend to take it. Nomo helped me. He also pretended to take it. He studied the Ishah Guides until he could quote large passages from it. I helped him write progs to keep it from him. Was I bad, nae to tell Fa?"

Pas hugged her. Sighed, and it rumbled. "Tamora, you had wisdom beyond your years. Masen is correct, but all of you had umar seg too oft for health! Your colony had suffering that gave hard choices to your rulers, and to your healers. Because even your healers could nae agree, you made a choice that I feel is a correct one. Feel nae guilt of your acts. Because you helped Nomo, I think he helped others nae to have as much harm. Did you have unwells from what you witnessed?"

"I showed Ley. Ley Patfar is Farley's diplomat-in-aid, and he went to Masen after he witnessed how he objected to use of umar seg on we young ones. He held me. Masen showed him more, but he said my memories helped him much. He showed them to Via. But Via nae gave Ley the answer he wanted. Via is happy now that we have safety, and he helps Galarsmen to have rest. Galarsmen is my fae's ba."

With Farley sleeping, I tried to keep track of what she showed me, when a family tree popped up! Holos of them showed connections, in a sprawling oak tree, beautifully done from a holo of a real one. I stopped worrying about it.

Healers carried everyone out for a mud bath, and I taught the kids how to give massages. They eagerly smoothed the yellow mud on their parents and sibs, and it seemed to help them be happier.

When we bathed everyone and healers decided they should be carried back inside, Pas hesitated. "Ley Patfar, take Ella to walk in the festival. Is unwell for a young person to sit long. Ea, Ella, are you well?"

That question can have a lot of meanings! "I'm scared to leave my husband, Pas!" My voice broke. So much for keeping my poker face. But Zheien can see right through that.

"I know, Ella. Soon we must work. Take a short walk, then we must check all of their progs. Perhaps you see connections again that we can ne."

Ley held out an arm. "Lady Ella, let's walk, and you can tell me what you want to do first." He didn't look pale but had medium purple skin. Five fingers like mine. His blond curls were yellower than Farley's, and messy.

"Are you sure you're up to this, Ley? After you needed healing—"

He laughed and pulled my hand onto his forearm. "Pirad healed me completely! In this low gravity, I'll live to be older than my grandparents ever dreamed! Do you mind if we use telepathy?"

"Not at all!"

I decided I wanted to see a demonstration of a ship engine, showing the differences in Pirad's new design that let Zheien travel without misery. Too worried to concentrate on it, but my frown of concentration my sisters teased me about would cover up for our serious talk.

The yellow sand kind of crunched and crumbled under my feet. Low gravity, there's a learning curve to walking, and I kept stumbling. When I tried to move my foot, I floated up about six inches in an awkward hop! This is harder than I remember!

Oh, we had enough missions to Alb Seer to visit Fhiah. I got used to it fast. I think it's harder for Earthans because you've never traveled.

I have those memories of all that travel, and I got used to it!

Your body has to develop muscles, and that takes time, even for a Thordes. We just practiced a lot, Han, Tis and I! We can help you, too! This is my brother Han, he's our biome tech.

A small Thordes man, very thin, bowed at the waist like an Elshar and came up. Staggered. He had short, silver hair that didn't curl much.

"Novas, Han, let me carry you!" The next one scooped him up. "I'm glad we're leaving DS! Lady Ella, I'm Patamir, their cousin. I'm the biome engineer. Tis, walk on her other side. I'm taking Han to a bed--"

"I don't want to miss the festival! Do you think they'd loan us a cael?"

A boy led one to them. I didn't hear what he said, but they all smiled. The boy walked by the cael and seemed to enjoy where they went. Towards a big group of musicians and couples demonstrating dances. One group was Thordes. They headed for them.

But Tis took my other arm, and I had a much easier time. "Lady Ella, I am Tis, Pilot Of Thorde. I think we never met. You remember Ley and Pat, don't you?"

I served with them three years before Pat died, and four when we lost Ley. "Yeah, I did. Happy times. Good to meet y'all!" But I did know Han and Tis, from Diplomatics. Memories kept coming, once I started thinking about it. They got hurt on Sigan Mas.

"Han went home after you came, and trained as a healer. Our healer forced a regen on him and he was much healthier. But, Pirad didn't agree that he has health for it. After a few months, he'll look at him again. Some of his healing's gradual. My family's living in Thorde Elshar Zheiea in Parseus. We have a lot of server instructors, and they want to help Elshar Zheiea. When Pas is ready, they'll come here to Rainbow to work."

His mind pointed at those Thordes musicians. "We have a city that's Parseus, behind Esta Faho. It looks like just a purple building, but our houses are underground. We made a sky like at home and holos of our herb fields. But, soon the plants will be big enough on our farms above ground to smell like home. Then, we'll move our houses above ground and use the space to store our herbs, pigments, and artworks until we can trade or use them." As he thought of specific things, I remembered trades Farley talked about, that he added to that treaty. Tis brought his cousin, a diplomat, and he made notes. He ported away to the blue Diplomats House in Esta Faho!

We joined a crowd around the engine. They had it suspended in a containment, and I somehow expected it to be bigger! Zheien ships are mostly the size of a compact car, if it was round and flattened like a saucer. Not so flattened that a man can't stand upright in the middle. Cargo ships are expensive, so only the best traders have ships like we came here on.

I watched the lady talking about the parts of the engine and how containments make it work. But I listened to Ley, and his purple eyes had the serious look. We came to Esta Faho every respite, because we worried about Farley. Gravity's the same as here, so it was easier than home. When you're Thordes and you travel too much, you get sick every respite. Our healer warned me not to come home again two years ago.

We traveled with Farley and went home with him. My healer wasn't happy with me, but we expected to die every mission, anyway. But Berto asked me to watch Farley at home.

On missions, he did everything right. I'm his aide, but I earned independent diplomat in my Challenge. When Beni knew he couldn't give Farley independent, he asked me if I would serve on his team, and of course, I wanted to stay with him! He's my dearest friend. Beni felt he had the skills for independent work, but not the health, so I became his diplomat-in-aid. Berto got advice from Akras, the Treaty Assignment Spec, as to where to send us. My friends have unusual skills for their titles, so they used their very strong telepathy to listen while on missions.

Old habits are hard, so we heard a lot of things on Esta Faho, from Elshar council members who aren't here. Mican, the Par Vu Council member, ruled over all the Elshars in Rahn Estar and those on the 14 worlds of Par Vu, at first. Then he appointed his brother Micansen to rule the Elshars on Esta Faho. But Mican caused all the troubles in Rahn Estar and particularly, Esta Faho. His cousin Oparnen argues a lot with Micansen, but a lot of the Elshars don't know Oparnen as well because he came after the Panic.

We also knew that just before the Elshar Panic—you know about that?

I nodded and showed him what I knew. Not much, just that a lot of Elshars left Elshar Mashai when they had the fuel, to escape Eriganh's attack on D'gharr, a world with a huge ship-building facility.

It was a lot worse than that. On January 9th, Kajarian rogues hit the Hubs. We were on Elshar Mashai trying to do maints in Prov Nine. The Hub kept going down, and the council blamed us. Without progs, we had to do a lot of it by hand. Biome techs tried to make it worse, but we had backups disguised as spoiled biomes and no data was lost. I had to stay with Farley, in the Diplomats House. When any diplomat works a treaty, he has to stay there. I didn't like leaving our other members on the ship alone.