----------------------------------------------------------- - The Ta’ainvel - – By Khan – ----------------------------------------------------------- 4. Most of the old vehicle technology of the Humans had been lost, and the new technology that developed favoured protection before speed. The trucks Jante was walking beside were excellent cover for acid rain, nuclear fallout, and could very well handle a small explosion. They were, however, slow and Jante felt he could have made it to Han in only three days, not five, as it would take now. The slowness did not bother the Humans of earth, however. They now, more than ever, cherished their planet, and enjoyed travelling across the recovered green continents. Even though he chafed at the slowness, on the second day he found himself enjoying travelling with these Humans. With Charlotte. Even the frightened Elisabeth had accepted him after a day, and Jante currently carried the small child, Susanna, on his shoulders. The former brigand-boy had also accepted his new situation, and had shown great skill with hunting as well as with cooking. Charlotte had only approached him alone once since the last attack, and then only to give him a new pair of gloves, to replace the pair he had torn when he had let his claws rip the three brigands apart. At evenings, around the campfire, she usually let her eyes wander over to meet his, merely looking. He found himself strangely confused over the fact that he was attracted to this Human but he didn’t dwell on it too much. Only every waking minute. It was the evening of the third day and they had just finished eating. Jante was speaking of his homeplanet, of how the forests had stretched on for miles, and grassy fields covered whole continents, when Charlotte absentmindedly sat down next to him with a piece of embroidery in her hands. He glanced at her, and continued talking, about the great white cities that had, for the sake of evolution, left the homeplanet encased in the starships that had a few years ago arrived to earth. The homeplanet was a legend, for no Ta’ainvel alive had ever seen it, and none alive now would. ”Why?” asked Charlotte, looking up from her embroidery beside him, ”Why can’t you see it?” ”Oh, we can see it alright. In old pictures, and holodiscs, but neither me, or my brothers and sisters will ever walk on the surface of it. The journey to earth took two and a half of your Human centuries. That’s roughly two full lifetimes for a Ta’ainvel.” He smiled at her. ”I’m sorry. I’m sorry you will never see your home.” ”This is my home, Charlie. Before, home was in the cold corridors of the Handrillian, where I was First pilot. I like the open spaces of earth a lot more,” he finished. What Charlotte did next startled him so much that he could only go along with it. She put her embroidery down and leaned over against him, putting her head against his shoulder. He instinctively put his arm around her waist, and blinked at the quickly hidden smile of Michael. Thomas and his wife exchanged glances, but said nothing. ”Tell us more about your legend. About your homeplanet.” It was Elisabeth who spoke with a warm smile. And so he did. For the rest of the night, until the moon was low on the horizon he spoke of Arathur, his homeplanet. Charlotte fell asleep in his arms long before he finished his story, and he gently laid her down with her head in his lap stroking her head half-absently. The boy, mostly quiet around the campfire, asked many questions about how life had been in the legends and later how that had been adapted to the starships. Anna asked about the ordinary life of a Ta’ainvel, of farms and villages and Jante happily answered them both with what knowledge he had from the holodiscs. Finally, when the other three women had also fallen asleep, Anna and Elisabeth in the arms of their husbands and Marie lying close to Thomas, Jante stopped. Michael only looked at him then spread his own blanket without waking Anna, and lay down to sleep beside the fire with his wife in his arms. Jonas followed suit with his wife and his child and Thomas put a blanket over Marie before lying down beside her. Jante gave the boy a nod and he climbed up on top of one of the trucks with a rifle in his hands. Still stroking Charlotte’s head he soon feel asleep sitting against the side of a truck.