~~~
After a night at Dr. Ventnor's house, Kuma ran home to Dothan, while Dr. Ventnor drove me home to Paducah. There, he stayed several days to fix in the minds of my friends and neighbors his role as my guardian; then he came and went as I began my senior year of high school and did Girl Scout and church activities. Sadly, I had much time for these, as the Colonel was no longer briefing me for missions, sending me on them, and debriefing me from them.
Sometimes, while Dr. Ventnor was staying at my house, Dala, Lona, Kuma, or all three would run in and spend a night or a weekend with him and me. I'd try to cook as Mom had cooked. Dr. Ventnor and the three girls praised my efforts at cooking, but they were poor beside Mom's. There are gifts besides those of the Tan and of the Sethiparnen.
On nights when all five of us were at my house, we'd have wide-ranging talks on the background of the Tan and of the Others, of life as aliens hidden among humans, of the Work and of the Message, and of alternate futures: the earth destroyed, or the earth saved. Lest the sun rise before my tale ends, I'll repeat just one of those talks: the question of origins.
The talk began with a question from Lona. "Dr. Ventnor, Mira was telling me the other night of when she'd asked you where we Tani originated. How can Tani, Others, and earth-humans all look alike, yet be so different from each other?"
Dr. Ventnor gave her a wry smile. "I must give you the same answer that I gave Belle: I don't know. I'm fairly sure, though, of that question's answer lying on this world, rather than on your lost homeworld or my ruined homeworld. Belle, you learned Tan star-lore as a girl on Ul, and the Girl Scouts no doubt taught you this world's star-lore. I know that Thil-i An Om, the Stars of the Great Crystal-Shaper, from which you Tani say you came, correspond to Orion. To which constellation do Thil-i Har, the Stars of the Sheep, in which the sun appeared on Ul, correspond?"
"To Monoceros, the Unicorn."
"Where's that in relation to Orion?"
"Just east of it."
"Are you familiar with the relative motion of stars?" When I nodded, Dr. Ventnor went on to say, "Seven thousand years ago, when you Tani came to your homeworld, could the sun have lain in Orion from Ul's vantage?"
I shrugged. "I'd have to spend hours on a computer to answer that question."
"I think that its answer is 'yes,' as we Sethiparnen also had on our homeworld a legend that we'd come from the stars, from a constellation that during our origin would've held the sun. I think that, despite the differences among earth-humans, Tani, and Sethiparnen, all of us began on this world."
Dala spoke up softly. "Mira told me of part of that talk that you and she had. She said that you thought we Tani are androids."
Dr. Ventnor chuckled. "I was just speculating, Delia. Still, your being self-replicating androids would explain those magnificent carbon filaments that form your bones and let your skin and muscles heal in a blink."
Kuma grinned. "We Tani can be the Fighting Robot Women of Ul!"
Dala winced. Lona said in a sour tone, "You and Mira can be if you want to."
"I do have," Dr. Ventnor went on to say, "more evidence for the earthly-origin hypothesis. Belle's grandfather, Dor-Sad, and his crystal-technicians explored eight other ruined worlds besides my people's homeworld. From none of those eight other worlds did he bring home artifacts, but he and his fellow explorers did find bodies of those worlds' inhabitants, or statues or drawings of them. All of them were outwardly human."
Dala, Lona, and I looked at each other wide eyed. "How did Grandfather explain his finding?"
"He and I, on one of his visits to the earth, developed a model that neither of us could prove. The model is based on legends prevalent among earth-humans, and also among my people in ancient times. When you girls studied mythology in school, you may've noticed a common theme of older gods of chaos who give rise to younger gods of order, who fight against the gods of chaos and overcome them."
Kuma nodded. "Sure! Odin and the Frost Giants, Bel and Tiamat, Ra and Apep --"
Dala gave Kuma a look of respect. "You must've really been studying lately."
Lona sniffed. "Kuma knows of gods because they're in superhero comics."
I broke in quickly before Kuma and Lona began to fight. "Dr. Ventnor, in your and Grandfather's model, are the gods of chaos true aliens who came to the earth and engineered humans into new species like the Tani and the Sethiparnen, the gods of order? Are you saying that your people and mine overthrew the gods of chaos? What happened to cause you and us to lose touch with each other, and to leave no gifted humans on the earth till you and we showed up?"
"Those are questions that Dor-Sad and I could never answer. Their answers may lie buried in the earth's far corners, or on the ruined worlds. Maybe, after the Message has come, and the Work has been done, you Tani and the earth-humans together can find the answers."
In a brief period of peace after the Colonel's death, a new Tan came to my house.
I was asleep one night when tapping at my window awoke me. Glancing at my clock-radio, I moaned; knowing from past experience who was tapping, I flung the window open. "Kuma, do you know that it's three twenty in the morning?"
Rushing into my bedroom, she gave me a hug that would've reduced an earth-human to splinters and goo. "Great news, Mira! I've found him! I've found him!"
"Found whom?" I gasped out.
"The Scourge of Jesse James Country!"
At my window appeared a Tan face with a man's square jaw. "Are you Par-On?" I said hopefully.
"Sorry, I don't know that name. I'm Andy Meadows, but my parents tell me that I was once called Un-Thor."
I was jealous of Kuma's having found her husband-to-be, not mine. Still, it was my duty to play hostess. Thinking of what Mom had done under circumstances like the present ones, I said, "We Tani have begun using our birth-names among ourselves, Un-Thor. I'm Mira, but please call me Belle if we're around earth-humans. Would you like to come down to the dining room, you and Kuma? I could whip you two up some breakfast."
Un grinned. "I'll never say no to that."
Downstairs, as I scrambled eggs and fried sausage, Kuma told me of her seeing a figure running at superhuman speed across rooftops in St. Louis, watching him torch a warehouse filled with illegal drugs, and chasing him down as he was heading west across Missouri. Telling him who she was, she begged him to come with her to meet per-a Tan-i, his race's mother.
I blinked in astonishment at what Kuma had called me. As I'd been teaching her of the royal family, she'd learned that Luna, as wife of Kan Tan Sor-On, had been called 'mother of the Tani,' but I'd never thought to apply that title to myself. Still, Par, wherever he was, was now by right of birth Kan Tan. I, as his betrothed wife, was entitled to the status that his mother had held.
Maybe, it was appropriate that as the Tani's mother I was serving two of them breakfast.
Over this, Un gave me an odd look. "Kuma was telling me that she and I are married. I don't recall much of that desert world, and I haven't been able to make out much from those crystals and those books. Is what she's saying true?"
I nodded. "You and Kuma are betrothed. I witnessed the ceremony of betrothal between you two three days before you came to the earth. You can see that ceremony for yourself on a memory-crystal that I have."
Un furrowed his brow. "What does that ceremony mean on the earth? Do Kuma and I have to go through another ceremony here, or do we just start playing house?"
I sighed. "Un, as far as the earth-humans know, we Tani don't exist. We can hardly sign up for marriage licenses. If we did so in a state requiring blood tests, just think of the fun that we'd have! I think that those who sent us here meant for us to follow Tan law in our private lives. In Tan law, a betrothed couple starts to live as husband and wife when both of their sets of parents agree on their being mature enough to. I'd say that on the earth, though, you'd best wait till you're eighteen."
Un looked relieved at my words, Kuma disappointed at them, but both he and she nodded. Sorry
, Par! I usurped your prerogative as lawgiver, but a decision had to be made.
After the marriage decision, the three of us talked till dawn of our feats of combat. Un, clearly eager to extend them, said, "Mira, Kuma tells me that we Tani have a Work to do. When are we going to start it?"
Chafing from inaction, I was eager for a mission myself. I thought of a possible security breach that I'd long neglected, and a plan of action that could involve Lona and Dala as well as Kuma and Un. "I have something in mind," I said.
"Before I get to the plan, though," I say to the faces in the light-crystals' glow, "I should give Un-Thor a chance to tell us his background."
"Yes," gentle, artistic Sil-Tan says, "tell us how you became a midnight warrior. Was the Colonel training you in secret?"
Un shakes his head. "Never had a chance to meet him, I'm sorry to say. Seeing the good work that he did with Mira, I wish that I had had him as a teacher.
"No, I began the crime-fighting to please my dad -- my earth-father, as some of you would call him. He'd been a starting defensive linebacker in high school and a career Marine. On some level, he wanted a son who could follow him in sports and the military. I couldn't go out for football, since I'd have to take a physical that would give away my secret. Ditto for the Marines. With the crime-fighting, though, I won his respect. He's my number-one fan!"
I start to feel sorry for Un; then I see that his story might well be my own. Something deep inside us Tani -- something that survived the Crossing -- honors parental authority, whether in father and mother, or in king and queen. That something might be our greatest strength -- or weakness. Time will tell.
Solid, trustworthy Van-Dor says, "Do you miss your days of solo action, Un?"
He shakes his head. "I'd come as far as I could on my own. I'm happy as part of a team. We Tani will need Kuma's enthusiasm and Mira's training and leadership when the Work truly starts."
Lona, who's been squirming during the tales of derring-do, vents her frustration. "Un, are you saying that all that we need for the Work is strength and aggressiveness? View the crystals! Read the books! We never treasured warlike deeds on the Homeworld. Is no place left for making things grow and seeking an inner wisdom?"
Before Un can answer her, Par-On speaks softly, but quickly. "Lona, we Tani will need all of the skills of each of us for the Work once the Message comes. We shouldn't treasure one person's skills over another's. Given this world's nature, though, we should all be grateful for the skills that Un, Mira, and Kuma have developed."
"Besides, Lona" Un says, "when push comes to shove, you can stand up for yourself with the best of us."
Lona bites her underlip and blinks back tears at I know what memory. Sadly, though, I must now start its story.