----------------------------------------------------------- - The Ta’ainvel - – By Khan – ----------------------------------------------------------- 3. ”They thought they would be able to use the…distraction as an advantage against me, and be able to kill me, then escape.” Jante spoke silently to the three men, Charlotte still in his arms crying softly. The other women had come out and tried to get Charlotte with them inside one of the vehicles, but she had refused, and Jante wasn’t about to carry her inside. So he left her against his shoulder. ”Well. Those three will never bother anyone else anymore. Ever.” It was Michael Langley who spoke, looking warily at the three dead men. ”Better start digging,” he said grimly. Jante finally deposited Charlotte into the arms of the three anxious women aching to take care of her, Elisabeth with a tentative smile for him. Michael took out the shovels again, and an hour later the three dead were buried. Now only one of the originally twenty brigands remained, the sixteen-year-old boy. And he was very co- operative in helping to dig his comrades’ graves. Morning soon came and with it, grim silence over a cup of coffee. It was Jonas Moore who finally spoke. ”Well. We better get going to Han.” ”Yes, we better,” Thomas Langley replied. ”Will you be travelling with us, Jante?” asked Michael. ”No, I think I’d better not. I’ve caused enough death around me to last you a lifetime.” ”Nonsense. Yes, you have caused death, but why? In self- defence last night, and in defence of us yesterday. We’d be honoured to travel with you.” ”Then the honour is mine. I will travel with you to Han.” Jante bowed his head slightly, and sipped his coffee. The sun rose above the horizon and the group broke camp and the slow-moving vehicles set into motion with a low rumble. Jante told the boy to sit on top of one of the vehicles and stay there until told otherwise. The vehicles were driven slow enough for anyone to walk beside them with ease, if swiftly, and as Jante preferred to use his own feet, he walked. He could see the four women sitting on top of two of the other vehicles, and Elisabeth, Jonas’ wife, was holding the small child in her arms. Michael and Thomas walked beside Jante as well, but kept a close eye on the three driver-less vehicles. They had explained that they were in no hurry to reach Han, and preferred to travel slowly to be able to concentrate on more things than moving. Charlotte often glanced to where Jante walked, and he found himself feeling strangely affectionate for the young woman. The woman who had come to him in the middle of the night to seduce him. The woman who had chosen him to comfort her. The woman who had chosen him. The road to Han was fairly straight. All roads were, as there were nearly no settlements between cities these days. After the great nuclear wars of the former superstates, almost nothing was left of earth. At least not on the surface. The cities of earth were these days built in huge caves, the smallest of them two miles across. Almost no one lived topside anymore. It was the Ta’ainvel who had showed the Humans how to live under ground, and who had supplied the technology to create the caves. They came to earth a few years after the last of the nuclear devices had detonated on the Australian continent, entering the atmosphere with their massive starships. The dark ships had hovered over the destroyed mega cities of every superstate, and soon the cities were empty of panicking Humans running away from the aliens. From a distance, the Humans had watched how the great ships had opened huge doors, and something that looked like three-hundred foot spiders had dropped down into each city. They soon disappeared into the ground, and the Humans witnessed no more movement among the aliens, except an occasional ship flying between the disappeared spider ships and the larger ships. Two weeks later the spiders had re-emerged from the ground and the starships had lowered themselves further to pick up the groundcrafts. They then, surprisingly, had flown up into the higher atmosphere. A few days later small jet-black crafts had descended to one of the surviving groups of Humans outside each of the cities. They had landed, and Humanoid creatures looking like walking cats covered in black fur had exited the crafts. They wore green loincloths with five golden stripes on the right side and were each draped in a green greatcloak with five golden stripes on its left shoulder, and a green jacket with the same five golden stripes on the left shoulder piece. Under all this they wore a tight dark-blue overall. They had pressed palms against a smooth golden headcap they wore and in the humans’ own languages had presented themselves by name, and explained that they were the commanders of each of the starships above. They explained that they had dug great caves underneath each of the great cities of the earth, and had lain out a forest and large green fields, and small clusters of houses in these caves. Explained, that these caves were the new homes of the Humans, since they had destroyed the surface of their planet. So the Humans begun their new lives in these caves, and they thrived, thanks to the Ta’ainvel. The crews of those starships who had travelled here to terraform the planet Mars decided to split up, and half stayed on earth. The other half returned out to Mars, and proceeded to terraform the red planet. The half who stayed brought their technology to the Humans, sharing the secrets of how to live under ground. The Ta’ainvel were soon integrated into Human society but still kept their internal customs. Jante thought of these past years since he had left his post as First pilot of the starship Handrillian, where he was now returning to deliver some reports to his commander, and perhaps stay long enough to celebrate Beltane. The technology to live in caves had been shared with other cities as well, but the massive starships that had first come had settled down over the former capitals of the superstates, and had formed even greater cities, extending both over and under ground. One of these cities was Han, named after the starhip Handrillian that had created that city. Jante had served onboard that ship for most of his life, since he became a pilot, and now he was returning with a message for the former commander of that ship, now Elder of the upper city of Han. He thought of the life he had made as messenger to most city leaderships on earth, and the life he could have had on Mars, as a high officer of the colonies, with privileges few would dream of. But he chose earth. He chuckled silently, and shook his head. The two men gave him a sidelong look, and he caught Charlotte smiling at him.