"So tell us," Locuras eyes glittered. "Why does Enderheim act like rampaging dragons just trampled him? Hmmm?"

       "It's because you made them too nice, that's why," Zeplynn's eyes flashed. "Time was, Enderheim and Amok both would have gone there and laid waste for a hundred miles for what the Humans were doing."

       "All we did was give them a conscience and purpose," Locura said sourly. "Enderheim would rather kill you as look at you, and Amok would do nothing but sit in musty old libraries."

       "Your curses have gone awry, Sisters," Zeplynn said, pursing her lips judiciously. "Especially yours, Travia." she looked down her nose. "Enderheim's Luck has been one disaster after another. This whole mess we're in is because of it."

       "Nevermind that," Travia snapped angrily. "Why is he so upset? What did you do?"

       "He called me a Hag," Zeplynn said indignantly. "For punishing those who were doing those hideous things to the Gnomes."

       "What hideous things?" Kilshraya looked puzzled. "What's going on?"

        "You don't know?" Zeplynn blinked.

        "We've been up here," Gila said flatly. "Keeping an eye on things. For all the good it's done."

        Gila turned abruptly to Todd Garret. "You're very annoying," she said with a sudden frown. She reached towards him.

       Mr. Garret moved like lightning, flinching back and jumping to his feet, deftly dodging Gilas' hand.

       "Well!" Gila cackled. "This one has some fire!"

       "He does indeed," Zeplynn smiled evilly.

       "Come here!" Gila said sharply. "I want to teach you about our language. Your confusion and anger is very distracting."

       Out of the corner of his eye, Garret saw Swaggart nodding his head and shrugged slightly.

       Looking like a dog about to be punished, Garret minced reluctantly forward. Gila touched his arm lightly for a second. Garret felt a ripple of 'something' shiver through him."

       "There," Gila grunted. "Now, you can understand us. You are not to teach anyone else without permission, understand?" she rose her brows, and her eyes glittered.

       Too surprised to reply, Garret nodded mutely and sat down beside the Lord Councilor again, a bewildered expression evident on his smooth, handsome face. Zeplynn grinned and started twirling her blond hair.

       Once Garret reseated himself, Zeplynn related the events that transpired from when the Gnome toddlers had gone missing and Enderheim picking her up in front of the WBC headquarters.

       When Zeplynn began to describe what the human scientists were doing, Swaggart let out a long sigh and dropped his head. Garret looked grimly embarrassed.

       "This still doesn't explain why Enderheim is acting the way he is." Kilshraya tapped on her teeth with a sharp fingernail. "Punishing evildoers is their favorite pastime."

       "What did you do to the Humans?" Travia asked, her face troubled.

       "I used their communication systems to send them a Geas," Zeplynn said haughtily. "They won't sleep ever again. When I told Enderheim, he called me a Hag. If Todd hadn't stopped me, I would have carved my initials on his cheek." Her eyes flashed gold.

       "They will go insane and die!" Swaggart cried, jumping to his feet.

       "Good," Zeplynn's eyes were flat. "That's what they get for torturing innocent creatures."

       "What do you think," Gila bit off each word angrily, precisely. "She should have done, Lord Councilor?"

       "But....but... "Swaggart was stammering, "You can't just kill them."

       "Why not?" Kilshraya's eyebrows rose inquiringly. "It's the best way to put a stop to it," she shrugged, using her hands.

       "Because you can't," Swaggart looked stricken, "You just can't." he stopped suddenly. "How many people are we talking about?"

       "43,112," Zeplynn's voice was filled with ghoulish satisfaction. She stared hard at Swaggart for a moment. "Including one of your Council members."

       Swaggart's eyes nearly bugged out of his head at the news. His hands flew to his head, and he tugged mightily on his hair. He let go, and his eyes rolled up in his head, and he fainted dead away, falling bonelessly to the floor.

       "Enderheim did the same thing," Zeplynn remarked as if commenting on the weather. "I'm hungry," she looked around. "Is there anything to eat?"

      "How dare you call us barbarians!!" Gilas eyes were slits of red fire as she glared hatefully at Garret. "Who is the barbarian? Those torturing innocent, helpless creatures, or those punishing those who torture those very same helpless creatures?"

       "Two wrongs don't make a right," Garret drew himself up in his seat as best he could.

       "What would have happened to the gnomes, Mr.Garret?" Kilshraya asked softly. "When your friends were done toying with them, eh?" her mouth turned down. "Euthanise, is it?" she arched her left eyebrow. "To put them out of their misery?"

       "That's not all," Zeplynn said, looking around the table at each Sister. "They were trying to find a pathogen that could infect the rest of the Gnomes with some sort of plague. Then, when the Gnomes started dying, these..." she waved her hand as if ridding herself of a fly buzzing her head, "people," she spat the word, "were going to trade us the cure for our teleportation technology."

       "100 million Valkyr warships," Gila's voice was deadly, "with tens of billions of Snath following in their wake is the only trade you'll ever get from us!"

        Swaggart regained his feet; his face flushed crimson with embarrassment. "Let's go," he said in a dull voice. "We have to get back to Earth. We have to do something."

       "What?" Locura was dismayed. "What about our picnic?"

       "Picnic?" Swaggart echoed, a look of disgusted disbelief plain on his pale face. "You expect me to go on a picnic? With you? Now?" he squinted at her puzzledly. "There are over 43,000 of my people about to die, and you want to go on a picnic?"

       "43,000 of your people are being executed for acts of war against the Gnomes," Zeplynn's voice was glacial. "You can't do anything for them." she smiled cruelly. "You could euthanize them, though, to put them out of their misery."

       "You will fix this!" Locura shouted suddenly, banging her fist on the table.

       "No," Zeplynn sat very still. "I will not. Consider this," she cocked her head. "If they got their way, what would happen? They don't care what happens to the Gnomes. To them, they are lesser creatures. I wonder what they would do if they found us doing to them what they were doing to the Gnomes. Consider that."

       "She's right," Gila waved her hand dismissively. "As far as I'm concerned, her decisions stand."

       "Agreed," Travia nodded sagely, "This ends here and now."

       "Why didn't you just kill them?" Kilshraya asked, frowning.

        "Because I wanted them to feel what the Gnomes were feeling," Zeplynn's face colored with wrath. " I want them gibbering in terror, wondering why this was happening to them, that's why."

         "You have to admit, she raises some valid issues," Aurara mused. "I see nothing wrong with letting this continue to its end."

       "I can't even imagine what the little ones went through," Travia eyes misted. "Leave them. Such is the fate of those who prey on the innocent."

       "The innocent?" Dave looked appalled. "You will let all those people die over two ... two..." he stopped, his eyes going wide.

       "Two what?" Gila asked, her voice dripping with scorn. "Oh, I see now. It's not like they were doing that to people, is that it?"

        "The other one is thinking the very same thing," Travia stared hard at Mr. Garret.

       "They are all pigs," Zeplynn said as if pronouncing sentence. "They feel that their needs are more important than some silly-looking creatures like the Gnomes."

       Loura was staring up at Swaggart with a look of dawning realization. "I can't believe I was going to...." she whispered and stopped herself.

       "C'mon," Garret tugged at the Lord Councilors' arm gently, "We have to go, now."

       Swaggart allowed himself to be led away, staring at the table of Sister's unbelievably till they both disappeared through the doorway.

       Locura's face twisted painfully, her hair stirring of its own volition like a medusa. She rose and turned away so that the others couldn't see.

       "It's for the best," Zeplynn said, softly, gently. "They are too inherently violent. Eventually, they would treat us as badly as they treat each other."

       "Amok," Locura spat the name. "Has some explaining to do."

                                                                       ......................................................

       "Wait, wait," Swaggart pulled away from Todd Garret, who was half dragging him toward the interceptor. "We have to go back," he said hoarsely. "We have to convince them to do something."

       "We need to leave," Garret replied grimly. "Before they argue themselves into killing us all. We have to get back to Earth and warn everybody."

       "A moment," Enderheim called, appearing from around a corner, holding up one hand.

       Both humans waited silently, looks of anger and determination written on their faces.

       Enderheim approached to within a couple of paces and stopped, regarding them warily. "I know you're mad," he said, holding up a hand defensively. "And hurt," he stared at Swaggart. "But you need to listen to me now."

       "I think I've heard enough," Swaggart started to say. "I know what they were doing is wrong, but it doesn't warrant the death of all those people."

       "I know that," Enderheim growled, "You know that," he looked hard at Garret. "But they only see things in black and white. And that business about using infected Gnomes as bargaining chips..." he shook his head.

        "Forget about that," Enderheim was wringing his hands. "You need to gather those people up and isolate them before they transform."

        "Transform?" Swaggart stopped fidgeting.

        "Without sleep, a human will eventually drop over from exhaustion and lay there, panting for breath until it dies. But," he held up a forefinger. "If they are kept alive, they will transform eventually into what we call Seblim Nog Gogth." he looked at them with a haunted look. "Humans only use about 15% of their physical potential. These will become incredibly strong, unbelievably fast, and highly infectious to everything they touch. And they're starving and will eat anything that moves. Do you understand?"

       "This just gets better and better, "Garret scowled darkly."How are we supposed to do that? We're not snatching the homeless off the street. There will be questions."

       "Tell the media that a virulent pathogen got loose from one of their labs," Enderheim said. "They will do the rest. Put them on freighters and take them to the stronghold we liberated from the Lemurians. The Hundred control it, and they can handle any humans that transform. As soon as you have them all gathered up, contact me, and I will come out there."

       "This is intolerable," Swaggart hissed angrily.

       "Amok has told you on more than one occasion," Enderheim drawled, "We don't care what you do on your own planet, but some of those practices will not be tolerated here. If Ketatik, Queen of Gnomes, finds out, she will petition the High Ones to do something about it."

       "We would fight," Garret said grimly, "We are not as weak as you think."

       "I never said you were weak," Enderheim's voice was cold. "But you only have 2000 planets. The Gnomes inhabit our entire space. They could overrun you in a day without our help. With our help, and that of the dragons...," he held up his hands as if surrendering and dropped them.

       "I will do as you say," Swaggart gulped. He grabbed Garret by the arm. "Let's go."

       The two men boarded the ship without another word, looking grim and worried.

       Aurara and Zeplynn silently approached a brooding Enderheim and stood watching the tiny ship vanish through the shield grid's blue bubble.

       "We're going to get something to eat," Zeplynn said as if nothing had happened. "Do you want to come with us?"

       Enderheim looked slowly to his left and then to his right. His brow arched, and he smiled.

       "Sure," he said cheerfully, "May I recommend the meatloaf and mashed potatoes? They're a specialty of the house." he waved flamboyantly towards the door at the end of the landing bay. "After you, Ladies. Age before beauty."

                                                                              ..............................................................

       "Just how big is this place, sir?" Stanton craned his neck up, but the ceiling was lost in the gloom."

       "Maybe a mile to a side," Amok replied, walking quickly. They came to the end of the pier to stand before a huge, heavy door. Unfortunately, there were no visible means of entry.

       Amok reached behind his back and pulled out a dagger he'd had strapped to his back. He stepped to the right and seemed to pick a spot and random and stabbed the dull blade deep into the metal next to the door. He turned his wrist and let go. There sounded a sharp clang from somewhere deep in the structure's innards. A seam appeared in the middle of the door, and the two halves eased inward silently.

        "Have a seat, Mr.Stanton," Amok waved casually towards a comfortable looking easy chair. Amok went and sat down at a golden desk, almost identical to the one located in his office.

        There was a small wheel next to the desk on the wall. Amok reached over and cranked this wheel for several seconds. Presently, the room began to glow with a golden light. Amok took a small citrine crystal from a drawer in the desk. He waved his hand towards the wall, and the wall changed to what looked like a giant mirror. Behind the mirror, clouds of grey smoke formed.

       Amok handed Stanton the crystal and showed him how it worked. "There are 2500 of these bubbles, and we need to inspect each one to see what's in there. You get started, and I'll go see what Enderehim left us to eat."

       Fascinated, Stanton sat with wide eyes as he worked the crystal. "Aye, sir," he said, smiling and nodding eagerly. "We could be here a while."
                                                                                ........................................................