Time was of the essence. Those thirty days the Trag allotted us were steadily slipping by. We were headed for Lo One with Jeeter and Bunny. Jeeter and Bunny were both carrying side arms and knives. Normal attire for a lady dealing with pirates. Jeeter asked for and received a needle gun after she saw Bunny with one. Both ladies were carrying phasers strapped to their inner thighs, and knives in their boots. Sure it was old stuff, but sometimes it was that extra weapon that kept a person alive.

Toness and Lavess star jumped over to Sherry’s home to talk to Wasvaki and Aberombra, Sherry’s two girls. They were the same age as Toness and Lavess. I could only imagine what was going to happen when our daughters shared their story with Sherry’s daughters. It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

Cassida met us as we walked into the lab on Lo One. “I need a tissue sample to see if I can set up the extraction, before we put them in the chamber.”

Jeeter didn’t look like she was comfortable with the idea of what we intended to do with her. I guess her treatment on the penal colony didn’t give her much faith in other races. Humans could be cruel to the extreme when they had the chance.

Bunny walked over to stand by Cassida. “I’m ready. What do I need to do?”

Cassida picked up a small cylinder off the lab bench and waved it down the front of Bunny. “Got it. Give me a second to see if I can separate the tracer from your cells.”

She slid the cylinder into a slot on the lab table as she turned to focus her attention on the monitor in front of her. Her fingers were running over a keyboard as she was talking. “Nice tracer. It integrated with the cells of the host. It’s mineral, not biological. Let me match up with the atomic structure and... Got it!”

She turned back to look at Bunny. “It’s gonna hurt, but I can remove it.”

“We are wasting time. Let’s get it done.” Bunny gave Jeeter a quick glance as she mentally prepared herself.

Cassida pointed toward a large cylinder with a door in the side. “It will be easier if you aren’t wearing anything when we do this.”

Bunny didn’t hesitate as she dropped her clothes and her weapons before stepping into the chamber. The door silently slid shut behind her, as Cassida was playing with her keyboard.

In all my time with the Pash I had never seen the Field Portal. At this moment, I was glad I'd never had a need. It looked clinical. I would swear the cylinder Bunny had stepped into looked like it disappeared for a second before it reappeared.

The door slid open and Bunny looked like she was in shock. Toni was there to pick her up and carry her over to a couch. She lay there with her eyes open, not focusing for several seconds before she blinked and a soft moan of anguish escaped from her lips.

“Bunny?” Jeeter reached out to hold Bunny’s hand.

Bunny focused her eyes on Jetter. “Are you sure?”

Jeeter looked relieved, as she shook her head. “Yes, I’m sure. How do you feel?”

“Best damn ride I ever took in my whole life. Ever step into a blender?” She sat up and looked around. “Wonder if they got all the parts put back in the right order?”

Jeeter looked over at me with those big doe eyes of hers. “Guess that means it’s my turn, huh?”

“Only if you want, Jeeter. You don’t have to do this.” I could see that Jeeter wasn’t too sure about walking into a Field Portal.

Jeeter was pulling off her weapons and clothes. “If Bunny can handle it, I can handle it. We go as a team.”

She stepped up in front of Cassida and turned to look at me. “No matter what, thanks for pulling us out of that penal colony.”

Cassida nodded, as she ran the cylinder down the front of Jeeter. “I got it. Anytime you are ready, step into the chamber.”

“I’ll never be ready, but sometimes one has to go on blind faith. I would have followed Bill Wickman to the ends of the galaxy if he had asked. He was an okay guy.” Jeeter took a deep breath as she stepped into the chamber.

There was a soft hum and lights started flashing on Cassida’s control panel. “Hold on. The tracer is pulling pieces of her cells along with them as it is removed.”

Toni moved up beside Cassida. “Put her back together with the tracer if it’s not possible to remove it without killing her.”

“I’m trying, Toni. I never pulled tracer out of a Hespa before. Her cellular makeup is really something.” Cassida was working furiously with the touch screen under her fingers.

“Catch her, Toni.” The door to the chamber opened up. Jeeter was falling.

Toni easily caught her in his arms and carried her over to the examination table. “Is she okay?”

It scared me that we might have killed Jeeter. Her thin membrane eye covers were halfway down over her eyes. She looked dead. “Jeeter? Cassida, is she alright?”

Bunny moved up beside Jeeter. She was taking quick glances from me to Jeeter, wondering if her friend was dead?

Cassida shut down the Field Portal, picked up the body scanner, and walked over where Jeeter was lying on the table. She waved the scanner over Jeeter. “She’s regenerating. Her species is capable of growing new cells, along with arms and legs if something happens. I went ahead and removed the tracer from her system. Now she is rebuilding cells that were damaged.”

Cassida laid down the scanner. “It will take a day or two for her to regain consciousness. I’ll stay with her. All the rest of you can go on.”

Bunny shook her head. “I’m staying.”

“Bunny, time is essential. If Cassida says Jeeter is okay, I would bet my life she was okay. You need to be briefed about the situation. Toni is going to teach you how to drive a Pash Star Cruiser. You can’t spend months traveling between planets if all you have is a few days to get the job done.” I knew time was our enemy at the moment. Bunny needed to be working, not holding a sick friend’s hand.

She looked up in surprise. “We get a Pash Star Cruiser?”

Toni nodded. “It seems to be the only option. I don’t think any of those Earth Alliance ships will work for what we need.”

“Jeeter, pull yourself together girl. We get to drive a Pash Star Cruiser. Come on, girl. You don’t want to miss this one.” Bunny was picking up her clothes and weapons from where she had dropped them.

The Trag always met us in numbers of four, or any multiple of four. They never met us with an odd number of Trag. I had never seen three, or five, or one. It was always four or multiples of four. This time was no different. We met them and there were four Trag. It was also always just Trag. They didn’t have names.

“You wish for us to supply these with bio- cutters also? You said we could not send the DNA to the humans, since it would be reason for war. DNA has no other purpose than design. The bio-cutters you request only work on humans. Do you wish to start a war now?” The Trag was addressing Toni.

“We have a plan, but we need help. We explained the plan to them and they agreed.” Toni nodded toward Bunny and Jeeter. “We wish to prevent a war, not start one. We only wish to infect the ones who are trespassing in the Trag galaxy, not the whole human population. Also, we wish for those who are infected to be infertile, not fertile. Is it possible?”

“Must discuss this in conference.” The Trag was moving away.

“You don’t have time to discuss this in conference. Time is a luxury we don’t have. It has to be immediately.” Toni took a step after the Trag.

It stopped and the other three Trag moved up where they were touching one another. A moment later it stepped away from the group. “We agree to the request. We will have the bio-cutters you desire in four hours.”

Toni looked back at Bunny and Jeeter. “This is the last chance to leave, and go back to your old way of life. The Trag will make the bio-cutters for us. You aren’t human and it won’t affect either of you. The Trag are very good at what they do in bio-science.”

Jeeter looked over at Bunny. “Do we trust them? What keeps them from using us as one of their lab specimens?”

Toni glanced over at the Trag. “Their word. They haven’t learned the art of lying. They are as close to black and white as you will ever find. They either give their word, or they don’t. I’m sure after they have been dealing with humans for a few thousand years they will figure out what lying is.”

Bunny nodded. “I’m game.”

Jeeter shook her head. “I like the idea of driving that Pash Star Cruiser. Die now, die later. I guess what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger. I’m in.”

I realized at that moment what a symbiotic relationship animals and plants have in life. No matter how intelligent we think we are, we will always need one another. The Trag had knowledge that would jump human science ahead by a thousand years. Humans had knowledge that would jump Trag exploration ahead by a thousand years. I was wondering if I was going to see a sharing of knowledge, or the end of a species. A Galactic War was coming, unless we could stop it.

Our daughters were already hard at work mapping out the illegal settlements. Sherry’s girls demanded to go along when they found out what Toness and Lavess were up to. In a way, I guess it was as safe as staying home. There wasn't any ship in any galaxy capable of catching a Pash Star Cruiser.

It was time to set up a meeting with the President of the Earth Alliance. We were going to see if negotiations could stop this madness before it sucked us all into a war. The treaty was clear enough. No trespassing in the Trag galaxy. Humans had a nasty history of making treaties and then breaking them when it suited them.

We discussed our plans with the Trag. They weren’t willing to go along on a meeting with the Earth Alliance. They didn’t trust humans. I gave that some thought as we headed back to the ship. I didn’t trust humans either, and here I was going into the lion’s den. Not only that, but I was going to drag Toni and my best friend along with if we could catch up with her. I desperately needed Sherry to be there when we talked to the Earth Alliance. Time was our worst enemy. The initial thirty days the Trag gave us to get rid of the trespassers was grinding along at a definite pace.

Two days later we had a diplomatic meeting set up with the Earth Alliance. Our first stop was to pick up Sherry.

"You broke the treaty." I was talking to a group of men who were sitting on a dais or platform. It seemed humans had the idea that, if they raised themselves above those who questioned their judgment, the humans were automatically superior in intelligence and power. Where do they get ideas like that? Dumb!

"They were murdering settlers and traders." The man in the front center responded. He was sitting at the peak of a pyramid seating arraignment for the group of twenty-one black robed men I was facing.

"Your settlers and traders were nothing more than pirates and thieves who deserved to die...,"

"THAT IS BLASPHAMY!" The man on my far right shouted at me, as he glared hatred and pulled himself up in self-rightness indignation.

I stepped up to the banister and leaned across it as I studied the men in front of me. "It is the truth. The Earth Alliance made a treaty with the Trag. That was and is a treaty all of you were party to. You agreed you would not allow human settlement in the Trag galaxy. Nor would you steal from them, or allow their laws, if broken by humans, to go unpunished." If these men thought their black robes, their higher perch, or their condescending attitude intimidated me in the slightest, sadly they were in gross error of judgment. But then, I guess it shouldn’t surprise me. An error in their judgment was what brought us to this situation. They were human and thought all life forms were lesser quality than themselves.

The man in the middle was the President of the Earth Alliance. He looked to his right and left for support and agreement from his cabinet. When they all nodded their heads, I almost laughed. They were nothing more than a bunch of yes-men.

Lucus, stared down at me as if he could scare me with his demeanor. "We have to protect our settlers and traders. Settlers have built on Rious Six and several other planets in the Trag galaxy. They have a right to be...,"

Shaking my head, I stepped away from the group of men. "You admit by your own words, settlers are in the Trag galaxy. THEY HAVE NO RIGHT! Your treaty with the Trag, signed twenty one years ago, was explicit in its language. No human would settle in the Trag galaxy or any galaxy of their allies. You have allowed the pirates and thieves to violate that treaty time and time again."

I sighed in disgust as I shook my head. "Your greed for what does not belong to you is unbelievable. You hope to start a war with the Trag under the guise that you are protecting legitimate lives."

The men looked shocked when I pointed my finger at each of them individually. "You think you are immune to war, as you sit so far from it inside the center of human expansion to the stars. I have met you before."

"We have never...," Lucus started to protest.

"We have met. You are all the same. The names and faces change, but you are the same. You make treaties as long as it suits you, and break them when you want. The treaty with the Trag was more for the salvation of humanity than it was to protect the Trag from the exploitation of humans. Their human coded DNA virus is not reversible and spreads like a plague once it is released. That treaty was to keep the Trag from using the DNA virus code on...,"

"I would think, you would be the last one to defend the Trag. Are you not a product of their experiment?" Lucus interrupted.

"I thank God for that. At least I'm a little less human because of their virus."

That brought a collective gasp and looks of disdain from the assembly. Lucus smirked. "You are a freak. Nothing more than a whore. You are an abomination of life."

Toni was on my right and the Sherry was on my left. I could sense their hatred as they started to pull their phasers.

'No!' was my mind thought to both of them

I smiled at Lucus. "Thank you for proving my point. I am a lot of things. I am Pash by marriage. I am a woman ordained by the powers of life. I was born human by mistake."

I could sense their hatred building toward me. I held up my right hand to silence their murmurings. "Please, allow me to finish. A whore I am not. I have taken one mate for life. That is the Pash part of me. I could never love another as long as I live."

Sighing unconsciously, I held out my petite hand and looked at the long sharp fingernails. "An abomination? I guess I'm that in some eyes."

I looked up at Lucus as I rested my hands on those abundant hips I was blessed with. "What I am, or what I am not, is immaterial. You must respect the treaty with the Trag. If you do not pull those pirates and thieves out in twenty two of your earth days, they will be killed."

"YOU DARE NOT KILL..." Lucus was glaring at me.

"I DO DARE, AND I MOST CERTANLY WILL, IF THE TRAG ASK FOR THE PASH FOR HELP TO ENFORCE THE TREATY YOU SIGNED!" I already knew Lucus was not going to pull those pirates out. He was going to let them die, in order to start a war with the Trag and their allies. It was part of human nature to sacrifice a few lives for greed, as long as the life sacrificed wasn't their own. In this case it would serve a double purpose. A few pirates would die, which meant the Earth Alliance would rid itself of a few vermin. Getting rid of something they wanted to eliminate anyway could start a war, and the Pash would be doing the housecleaning if necessary.

"HOW DARE YOU THREATEN EARTH ALLIANCE! We will not be intimidated by your threats. Do not get in a war you can not win. We will crush the Pash as easily as we will the Trag if you allow the Pash to get involved in this. If one of our settlers dies, then the Earth Alliance will declare war, be it against the Trag, the Pash or any of their allies stupid enough to engage in war with the Trag." Lucus looked for support from his yes men after he glared hatred at me.

We were at war. It may have not been declared yet, as a declaration of war had yet to be announced. But..., make no mistake about it, Lucus was determined to let the pirates and thieves break the treaty. Lucus wanted humans to settle into Trag territory for the abundance of natural wealth and Trag gene coding knowledge they had found there.

I could read their mind thoughts. There was no reasoning with Lucus or his kind. They didn't care about sacrificing lives for riches of territory, science, and personal wealth. They were sure the war would never touch them. They could walk in and collect the spoils of war when it was over.

What he was thinking was as old as mankind itself. Sherry could read mental thought and was also good as a seer. She was also a product of human genetic cloning. She had told me to research American History before our meeting with the Earth Alliance. I did, and it made me sick to my stomach as I read what the white man had done to the Indians. The white man made treaties and broke them faster than they could be written. The Indians believed a word or treaty was a bond to never be broken. The Indian would die before he broke a treaty. Yet, with each new broken and remade treaty, the white man used to it as an excuse to push the Indians off more and more of their land. Treaties were broken time and time again by the white settlers as it suited them, and lined their pockets with wealth.

It was unbelievable that the Indians could be so trusting after one treaty was broken. Yet, trust they did, and they did it time and time again, until there was no land left to push the Indians from unless they were exterminated. And yes, I'm ashamed of my human part to say that we even tried that as the women and children were butchered in their villages, by surprise attacks from the Calvary, as one more treaty was broken. I guess I should have never read the historical records about Black Kettle and Custer. It made me sick to think I was born of man.

Sherry had foretold this meeting. It would not stop a war with the Earth Alliance. I knew she was probably right, but I had to try anyway. The greed of these men to take what didn't belong to them, and their complete lack of compassion for those they were willing to let die to achieve their goals, still shocked me.

Toni was also my husband. All Pash could read mind thought. I acquired that ability after giving birth to our two daughters. It was one of their many gifts to me as I carried them from conception to birth. Their Pash genes mixed with my human genes as they grew inside me. Unlike all those who had married and bore children to Pash before Sherry and me, we did not morph to look like Pash during motherhood. I regretted that because the Pash were of the feline family. They looked human enough, except they were all slim, sleek creatures, with the strength of cats.

I would never be slim and trim. Lucus had been right when he said I was a product of the Trag virus. Sherry had also been infected by that virus. We were always going to look like the poster, pinup babes for any Traders Post frequented by pirates and thieves. That was the result of the Trag virus. It was an ironic twist of fate. At one time I had wished for nothing more than to wipe out the Trag civilization for what they had done to me. Now I was defending them. I was willing to give my life to save their universe from Lucus and those like him.

One other feature separated the Pash from humans. They had yellow cat eyes with vertical pupils they could dilate at will. Those eyes could see quite well in the dark where humans couldn't.

"Lucus, you are not looking at the whole picture and this war will...,"

"You will address me by proper title. I am the President of the Earth Alliance. Address me as Mr. President when you speak to me." Lucus glared daggers at me for my infraction of formality.

I started to laugh and caught myself. "If formality is what you wish then I strongly suggest you address me by my formal title."

He blinked, as he stared first at me and then at Sherry and Toni. "I see. Well..., you can give yourself any title you want, but it's so trite as to be of no importance to the Earth Alliance."

"No!" again I had to tell Toni and Sherry, with mind thought, this was not the time to pull their weapons to defend my honor

I was wishing I had worn Battle Dress to this meeting. Alas, it was too late for wishing. My attire was a blue gown, long sleeves, floor length hem, and a cathedral length train. The gown looked like flowing blue waters, embroidered in intricate detail with blue stones that sparkled like star reflections off that water. My spiral earrings were blue stone and tinkled with the slightest movement. I was wearing five inch pumps, with a stiletto heel. My brown hair softly fell across my shoulders and cascaded down my back ending at my hips. I was wearing a blue crystal crown and carried a jeweled dagger on my left hip.

As my council, Sherry was similarly attired. Her flowing gown was soft sea foam green, no train. Her earrings were crystal spirals, soft green in color. Although she was Queen of her Clan, she was not wearing her crown at this meeting. She did have a sword on her left hip and a blaster on her right. Space travel and any meeting were not to be taken lightly. Even a diplomatic meeting such as this one.

"Mr. President, if you do not respect my title, I can not respect yours. You may address me as 'Your Majesty' or you may address me as 'Your Highness'. My title may also be addressed as 'My Queen' if you like." I knew mister uppity up was not going to address me as anything beside 'whore' or 'abomination'.

Lucus's face turned beet red as he struggled to choke down addressing me as anything besides scum. "I am President of the Earth Alliance. I do not lower myself to bow or scrape to any whore."

"NO!" Quickly I glance over at Toni and then Sherry.

Sherry glanced at me as she sent me a thought message. 'He is a disease begging to be eradicated-----Let me help him succeed'

'Killing him will accomplish nothing-----he will be replaced by the next one who is as bad-----my honor is not worth dying over-----we will not lower ourselves to his level of intelligence' I thought back to her and Toni.

"Lucus...,"

Lucus stared down at me from his seat. "That is, Mr. President, you freak. You will address me by my proper title."

I stepped up and put my hands over the railing separating us from Lucus and his council. "Lucus, you do not know what you have done by refusing to remove the trespassers from Trag boundaries. This war will come all the way back to you. You and your bloodthirsty band of miscreants will see blood. I promise, your blood will be mixed in with those pirates and thieves you so willingly defend for a few pieces of gold."

Stepping back sadly, I shook my head in pity at those who were no more than pawns in this sordid mess. The front line troops would be the first to be sacrificed. Then millions more troops would be poured into a battle the humans could not win. “Please pull all animal life forms out of the Trag galaxy, or war will be upon your head.”

I thought Lucus was mad before. I had misjudged. His face turned purple as he exploded. "YOU CAN NOT THREATEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE EARTH ALLIANCE. GUARDS! ARREST THIS WHORE AND HER WHORING ESCORTS!"