----------------------------------------------------------- - The Ta’ainvel - – By Khan – ----------------------------------------------------------- 6. He stopped by his own quarters to put on some more fitting clothes; pants, a shirt and a new short green jacket with four golden stripes on the left shoulder piece. Then he proceeded towards the quarters assigned to his guests. He found out that they had been placed not far from the bridge, on the other side of the Sanctum. He also found out that they had a window into the Sanctum itself, and had clearly seen all that had happened. He stopped outside their door, removed his headcap and let the communication device sit in his ear. Holding his cap in the crook of his arm, he pressed the caller on the door. It nearly immediately slipped open, and he winced as Charlotte’s arms made contact with his sore back. ”We thought you had been killed in that explosion!” Elisabeth exclaimed, sounding startled at her own words. ”Yes, and when we then saw you take a leap from a height of thirty yards we thought you were just plain crazy,” Michael said, easing the tension slightly. Jante deftly, and gently, pealed Charlotte away from him, and entered the room. ”I see you were given the very best quarters available,” he said, smiling. ”You…I thought you were dead!” Charlotte exclaimed, standing inches from him. ”I’m not, Charlie,” he said softly, then let her embrace him again, not letting the wince show. ”Well, yes. These are very nice rooms,” Thomas said, rubbing his neck. ”Very nice rooms.” The others laughed, and only Jante saw the tear that ran down Charlotte’s cheek. He wiped it away, and smiled down at her. ”Have you had anything to eat yet?” he asked all of them. ”No, actually not. We thought we’d wait,” Michael answered. ”Good. Then you can accompany me to have something to eat. Its seven p.m. and I’m starved.” They chuckled, and left the room after him and Charlotte. All of them had changed clothes, and were wearing an array of clean and colourful Human dresses and suits, what Jante recognised as ’dressed up’. He led them along the hallway back towards the bridge, and soon came to a door that opened into a docking bay. He walked over to a parked craft, and asked them to enter. Sitting down at the controls he piloted the craft upwards, and a hatch slid open above them. Jante let the craft rise out into one of the main hallways that stretched from one end of the ship to the other. Several crafts like his shuttled back and forth to various parts of the starship, and he easily joined the thin stream. The ride took a full minute, but they had only travelled a third of the ship’s total length, which was roughly two miles. He descended into a docking bay similar to the one they had exited before, and took them towards an elevator. ”I’m taking you to one of the best restaurants on the ship, my very own favourite,” he said, and they glanced at each other. They elevator took them upwards for a few seconds, and when the doors finally opened, he led them out onto a grassy field that lay on top of the ship’s hull, open to sun and wind. The path running through the field led up to a low building, and he took them inside. ”Table for ten, one of them a child, please,” he said to the man at the door, and was quickly shown to a large round table near the windows. The sun was now quite low on the horizon, and they had a perfect view of the western reaches beyond Han. ”I can’t believe these fields and this restaurant are part of the Starhip. Its amazing really,” Marie commented halfway through the meal. ”Believe it. We have walked these green fields planted by our ancestors and lovingly kept them alive through two centuries. We were isolated in these starships for longer than any creature could stand, and these plantations remind us of a home we never had seen. A comfort,” Jante finished. They smiled at him as he continued to speak of the customs that had been transformed over the first decades to fit life onboard, and the customs that he himself later grew up with, as an established part of life. He spoke of how great feasts had been held in these green areas, winter feasts celebrating the coming of snow and how they had celebrated their own version of the Human Beltane with bonfires and the closeness that followed in stands of trees, and behind bushes. He spoke openly of these customs but soon he stopped as he saw all four of the women grow redder and redder, and the men casting glances between themselves. ”Yes, well. Our customs are not that different from yours. Perhaps a little bit more…open.” ”Indeed. Well, It was a pleasant meal, Jante,” said Michael. ”I’m glad. You have honoured me by having me as your guest for the past five days, and I hope I can return the honour.” ”You have made a good start,” said Charlotte and let her eyes lock with his. He cleared his throat, and offered to escort them back to their rooms. ”Thank you, but you just assign us someone and we can get back on our own,” said Thomas. He spoke the order into his communication device, and when they arrived at the elevator, a man in blue overall and black jacket stood there waiting. ”Have a good night friends. I will see you in the morning, not too early,” said Jante. ”No, not too early,” said Jonas and chuckled as the elevator closed. Jante sighed, and turned to walk down the path towards the restaurant again, and found Charlotte standing there, hands behind her back, a foot scraping in the gravel on the path. ”I thought I just saw you go into the elevator.” ”Obviously you didn’t,” she said. ”Come see the sun set with me, then.” He put out his hand, and she took it. He walked with her, off the path and around the restaurant towards the edge of the fields. When they were about twenty yards from it, they stopped and sat in the grass. ”When you flew through space, how could you be here? I mean, the fields are open to the air,” Charlotte asked finally. ”The field we are on is perfectly circular and if we want to, we can raise a transparent dome around the entire area, sealing it from space.” She didn’t say anything else, so he just sat next to her watching the sun set beyond the dark rim of the starhip. Charlotte leaned over in his arms and he put them around her. This was what enabled him to sweep her out of the way when the attack came. Human aircraft roared up past the edge of the starship and towards them, letting their machineguns spew bullets across the hull and the field. Jante threw himself over Charlotte, trying to shield her when the crafts passed. He raised his head enough to see the aircraft pass over the restaurant and begin to circle to turn back over it and he snarled an order into his communication device to make an emergency closing of the upper central dome. Seconds later the dome started to slide upwards in four parts. He lifted Charlotte from the ground, asking if she was all right. A flashback from the wrecked elevator ran through his mind as he saw the large bloodstain spreading on her dress across her stomach. He lifted her into his arms, holding her under her knees and arms. Like he had with the girl, he ran towards the restaurant and elevator, roaring for a paramedic. He deposited Charlotte on the floor inside the restaurant with a paramedic coming through the devastation towards him. The machineguns had wrecked the restaurant, and people lay dead and dying all over. Paramedics who were stationed in the building moved among the wounded, helping those they could while black-jacketed Warriors helped moved those already dead away into a corner of the large room. Jante only gave this a glance and told the paramedic to save this Human’s life or he would have to face the wrath of the First pilot. Not waiting for an answer he darted off towards where he knew there would be an elevator in the back of the restaurant. He crowded in with two stretchers and four paramedics, and hit the button that would take him to the docking bay. When the doors opened he ran out and immediately headed for one of the small shuttle vehicles. Slamming the hood close, he thrust the craft into motion out into the main hallway above him. The hallway was nearly empty, except for the black Ta’ainvel fighters heading for the opened bay doors at the end of the tunnel. Jante didn’t exit the starship with the fighters though, but descended into the docking bay near the command bridge and ran for the smaller bay where his personal craft stood. Arriving there he found the Second pilot already in the bay, jumping down from the slowly descending chair of her command station. The two pilots’ seats could lower into the small docking bay beneath the bridge for ease of access to the crafts. She nodded at him as she entered her craft and he roared past the bay doors only seconds after her. What he saw shocked him. The ground around the starship was black with the soot from dozens of explosions, and the air nearly swarmed with the Human fighters. At least three dozen tanks stood outside the outer wall of Han, firing inwards. He looked back to the starship and saw that the large gunbatteries had raised themselves out of the dark hull and had commenced firing at the attackers. The Humans were badly outnumbered but they had managed to make a point with their desperate attack. The Ta’ainvel were still strangers, no matter how long they had lived on earth and no matter how much they were integrated into Human society. There were still differences no matter how similar their evolution had been to Humans’ and no matter how similar their customs were. These thoughts flashed through Jante’s mind as he extended his own craft weaponry. He shot down every Human fighter that came into his view, letting them crash into the practically indestructible hull of the starship. Soon the attack was over, no Human fighter or tank spared. Jante flew into the docking bay right in front of Ayshala, and saw that his command station had been lowered as well. As he jumped up into the seat, he called up every possible scrap of information that had made them unaware of the attack.