Kia's Biehshah Gift

Part 11 Portal Home

The white light was too bright to see through. But as we shot in the direction the ship went, the light faded. We stood on a very dim white platform moving through a sea of stars. At first I didn't notice a pattern, but then I spotted Orion. The Big Dipper. Cygnus. I only knew those three constellations, but Ir pointed out all 88 of them.

"We don't have enough stars for constellations on Biehshah—" Ir swept an arm out.

"But Zheien see Mother and Babe, as long as they have two stars in the sky!" Der laughed.

Ir laughed louder. "I am happy Garat didn't Exclude you for knowing that!"

Der shoved him. "He couldn't anyway! I overheard a Zheien talking about that when he showed his Earthan girl in Rainbow. The Rules Of Learning say nothing about hearing conversations, if you happen to be nearby and they speak aloud."

"That is true. I learned much by listening. But Zheien have major telepathy. They have to block everyone's telepathy. So you can hear a lot in a Zheien colony—"

"They think it's rude to listen! You didn't know that?"

Ir turned orange in his cheeks. "I know it, but I get tired and can't block them."

"That's why you need to ask me to help you more often! You're tired now."

"I—didn't ask because I wanted to learn things. But now, I can just ask them. You're a good friend, Der. Please, help me. Oh, we should go to Fhiah first. Theas has a festival and he expects us to come."

Ten put an elbow in his ear. "I think all of us should go home and rest. Der, you are not tired, but the rest of us are. Will you go to Theas? That festival will be 81 days, so we can go tomorrow."

"So many days! Why?"

Ir laughed and brushed Ten's arm off. "To celebrate 25 worlds coming to Alb, and a lot of Fhiahans saw their futures and married, including his son! There are many things to do in Fhiah like riding through provs and enjoying different customs, as we did when we first settled Biehshah. I wonder what there is to do on Ye~? The last time I visited there were only two cities. Oshfah is where the Yeff live. Noh~La has lorg~ farms."

"Ugh! A lorg~ bit me and Bekshay apologized for an hour! It hurt until I went home two weeks later!" Der rubbed his right upper arm.

"At least I had persseppa to put on it." Ir rubbed it, too.

"It helped, but Ten had to force regen on me! I don't want to go near lorg~er!"

I raised a hand. "What's a lorg?"

Ir laughed. "You have Great Danes. These are all black, and twice that size. Llsam visited Earth about the time you had pyramids and he found wolves. People never liked them so he collected many. He traded them to Bisillipia and scientists modified them into lorg~er. Aurelonans raised them for meat. They traded them to Elshars. The Mesapan Elshars decided they liked their fierceness so much, they transformed their people to look like them!"

"That's where the Mesapans came from?" Der made a face. "From Elshars?"

"I didn't dare tell you when we visited Mesapa. E'jark was offended enough when you asked him about that statue in his cave."

"They live in caves?" I blinked at Ir.

"No! But I never saw the inside of a Mesapan house, even when I visited them when they looked like you. Mesapans use caves for meetings because they feel you are not worthy to set foot in their houses! They want to control their spaces. Oh, my! There are Mesapans on the Yeff ship!"

All of us looked where he looked. A group of nearly 50 sat in a pretty emerald green ship that made a room. "It's just flying alongside us, isn't it?"

"No! Traders combine ships to fly together, to fool slavers." I realized, we're seeing it because of our telepathy, not because our portal is anywhere near it. We're almost to Alb, and the ship just reached Earth orbit.