----------------------------------------------------------- - The Ta’ainvel - – By Khan – ----------------------------------------------------------- 16. The day when the ships would make a Shift down to Hyperspace and enter the planet system where Arathur lay was drawing near. There was a noticeable rise of anxiousness in the three starships and it seemed that even the hull of the ships themselves waited eagerly for arrival at Arathur. There had been no incidents involving any differences between Ta’ainvel and Human, as Jante had once feared, and he was glad. Even more glad was he over his daughter, Alisha, now three years old. She was the first child onboard the Handrillian to be of both Human and Ta’ainvel heritage, though there were others later. Thomas Langley had Mated with one of the GFD engine specialists, a beautiful woman with glistening yellow fur, and they had also had a child. A little younger then Alisha, Kairee was a boy with lively black eyes. The two children had a light fur and ears of their feline heritage on their heads but they also had hair, Alisha with dark brown hair like her mother and Kairee with blonde. Both also had claws, equal in length to any Ta’ainvel. Freddie, the once frightened brigand boy, or as most Ta’ainvel pronounced his name, Fredee, had also Mated. He had found a nice and friendly girl in his first training squad who had been willing to talk to him totally disregarding their race difference. They had become good friends and in later years, lovers. In the fifth year they had Mated in the garden below the Sanctum. Michael and Anna also had a child and he was now two years old as well. This boy, John, played all day in the day-care centre with Alisha and Kairee under the watchful eye of Elisabeth. She and Jonas decided to have no more children, only Susanna. Susanna was now thirteen and had started education to be a Medic. Having practically grown up with Ta’ainvel, she had even more fiercely educated herself in the arts of flirting, disregarding race. That had, however, stopped as soon as one of the boys she was flirting with simply asked her if she liked him and when the answer yes came he said he liked her as well. And that seemed to be that. They nearly always walked hand in hand through the corridors and could in evenings be found sitting on the field of the upper central dome of the Handrillian. Marie had also found someone to love, a yellow-furred Ta’ainvel who worked as an agriculturist in the same section as she. They had Mated in the last year of the voyage. Now it was mere days before the ships would arrive at the outer planet of the system where Arathur lay. The three pilots worked longer and longer every day to make sure that everything was finished by the time they arrived. Jante and Charlotte had, when Alisha was born, started to work shifts that overlapped each other by half, leaving the girl alone in the day-care centre for only five hours in the middle of the day. The room opposite the bedroom had been refurbished to make place for Alisha and her things and her parents again had the luxury of being alone at night. Jante woke in the darkness one night to the sound of someone pressing the caller on the outer door repeatedly. He got up and swept a blanket around his waist and walked to open the door. When he opened it Ayshala had her hand on the code-panel to begin to override the lock and she quickly told him to wake Charlotte and get dressed both of them. The Shift to Hyperspace was half an hour away. He closed the door again saying they would be right out. He woke Charlotte and as he began to pull on his overall she checked on Alisha. The girl was soundly asleep so Charlotte went to get her clothes on as well. They stepped out of their quarters and jogged behind Ayshala onto the bridge. ”All pilots on the bridge,” the Warrior by the door said into the hushed circular room. The room was as it had been seven years ago when Charlotte became Second pilot, the command stations along the walls and the lowered part of the floor in the centre of the room. The three red rings marking where the pilot command stations had been lowered still glowed softly. All three pilots pressed palm against a control box near the central to confirm their presence to the computer. It responded by speaking in turn to each of the pilots, Charlotte first. She repeated the words as she was told to. ”Second pilot Charlotte Westings at her post, open command.” One of the three rings, the one to the right of the central, disappeared and with a slight hiss the airlock door slid down and away. The command station of the Second pilot rose into the bridge and thudded into place. It then turned around and parted its controls. She walked up to the chair and waited. ”First pilot Ayshala b’Fairn at her post, open command,” Ayshala said next. The next ring, the left one, disappeared and soon the chair locked into place and turned. ”Commander Jante e’Darin at his post, open command.” The last ring, the rear one, winked out and the hatchway opened to let the command station enter the bridge. Charlotte stepped up and sat in the chair and as it turned, so did Ayshala. Jante sat and his controls converged before him. ”Ready ship. Yellow alert,” he said and yellow lights went off in the juncture between the floor and wall. ”This is the first bit of piloting that the new three pilot command group has ever done, so let’s make it a good bit,” Jante said to his two companions and nodded at Ayshala. She pressed the GFD control reset and pulled out the large handlebar beneath the small hatch in the control- panel. ”First pilot Ayshala b’Fairn of the Handrillian here. Ready to disengage internal GFDs?” ”Jainar is go.” ”Galontha is ready.” ”On my mark then. GFDs off in three, two, one, mark,” she said and repeated the same procedure that she had performed once before, turning the GFD on. She twisted the handlebar and pushed it back in on ’mark’ and the blur outside the window lessened into rays of light streaking by. ”The computer reports successful shutdown of all three internal GFD fields,” Charlotte said working her controls. ”Good. Commanders, ready?” Jante reset the GFD control as Ayshala had and pulled out the handlebar. ”Ready,” they both said from the other two starships. ”Disengage on three, two, one, now.” He pushed the bar in after turning it and the white rays now became visible points of light slowly passing outside the window. ”External GFD field off,” Charlotte said, ”we are in normal space.”