Harvest Time

25 - The Fast World

We both gasped at the same time as we stepped from the side of the Harvester and encountered the new landscape for the first time. What our eyes gazed upon was a cross between the Nervanna of today and the jungle world. That there was plenty of jungle was obvious but, unlike the world that had produced the Harvesters, this was neither as humid nor was it anywhere as uniform. Although I had seen only a fraction of the jungle world, I had the impression that, apart from the city and the road, it had all been jungle. This world, conversely, displayed far more variety upon even the first glance.

It wasn't only the plant life. Some movement close by showed that there was also abundant animal life. A creature not unlike a rabbit, apart from the fact that it possessed an extra pair of legs, ambled around nibbling at foliage. In the sky, the few clouds failing to disguise the unusual turquoise hint, birds wheeled about using all four of their wings under the light of the blue-white sun.

The only things out of place were the three Harvesters standing further down the hill upon which we had arrived. One of them was almost submerged under a cover of vines while a couple of others had obviously been there for quite a long time as their bases were hidden by foliage.

"Wow," Emla said. "If this is to be our new home, then I have no complaints. It's nearly as light as Nervanna, thank goodness. I always felt too heavy on the jungle world."

Along with the other passengers, we moved away from the Harvester that had deposited us here. With a pop, it returned to either to Nervanna or the jungle world for a recharge. A few seconds later, there was another popping sound as a different Harvester materialised not far away. A side panel opened and more inhabitants from Newhold appeared from within it. Like the one we had arrived in, this had also been gutted of its central tank and breeder-grabbing tentacles. These had been replaced by two new wooden floors packed with benches to make room to transport people between the worlds in bulk. Once it was empty, it disappeared to pick up a new cargo of migrants.

Then we saw a more familiar movement. Several people appeared from under a stand of trees and came strolling towards us. One of the men waved at us from a distance and shouted, "I heard you were on your way."

Then I gasped as I recognised one of the women. It was Elcanah and, for the first time in my experience, she wasn't dressed in rags. Alongside her came the Newhold elder, Pritack.

We waved back and waited for them to approach. There was something familiar about the face of the man who had waved. Though I was sure it hadn't been covered with a beard last time I'd seen it.

"Emla and Toquin, welcome. You got here at last," he said, once he'd reached us. "Yes, it's me. Languill. As you can see, I've grown up a bit since you last saw me."

"But, that was only a few weeks ago," Emla gasped.

"For you, maybe," he said, smiling. "You look a bit roasted, Toquin. Yes, I've heard about your little trip back to Earth. I don't think any of us will be inclined to repeat your visit."

I grinned a little sheepishly.

"Time here is going faster even when compared to Nervanna and the jungle world," Elcanah said.

"Yes," Languill replied. "It certainly is. By a factor of, um..."

"A lot," Elcanah said. "We think it varies as we can't seem to measure it accurately with respect to either Nervanna or the jungle world. Sometimes we get four or five visits in a day from the Harvester transports, then we won't see one for weeks. Anyway, it's good to see you both again."

"You, too," Emla said giving Elcanah a hug. "Toquin's still a bit too tender to hug. He's only been out of bed a week or so. How long have you been here?"

"We moved everyone out from the jungle world about six months ago," Elcanah said. "Of course, that was probably only a few hours ago in Nervanna time."

"Or minutes, it's hard to tell," Languill laughed.

"Why didn't you return to Nervanna?" Emla asked him.

"We tried. This wasn't the world we were originally sent to. That one was far from suitable."

"So why did you come here?"

"Didn't intend to, but something went wrong with our Harvester and a couple of the buttons that should have brought us back to Nervanna wouldn't light up. They brought us here instead and then smoke started coming out of the box of lights before they all went out."

"How long ago was that?" Emla asked. "For you, that is."

"More than five years."

"Five years!"

"Yes. We thought we'd never see anyone else ever again until another Harvester turned up three years ago. They had come straight from your jungle world. With their arrival, we finally found out which world this was – it was one that was on the list anyway. They left most of the troops here and reported back to Nervanna."

"You didn't go back with them?" I asked.

"No, there were twelve of us on our Harvester in total – five boys and seven girls. Two of the older girls were already partnered to each other so, once we realised we were trapped here, the remaining ten of us eventually became couples. By the time that second Harvester arrived, we had already produced three children."

"You've had children?" Emla gasped.

"Yes, and now there are over ten."

"And they are all right? Normal?" Emla pressed.

"Ah, yes. We remember what you told us of children born on the jungle world," Languill said with a grimace. "Ours have all survived without any problem."

Emla reached out her hand and squeezed mine. I winced slightly as the skin was still tender.

"In fact," Languill continued, "there has been very little illness and a couple of them appear to have developed extra... well, I suppose you might call them abilities or, as someone has dubbed them, talents."

A frown passed across Emla's face. "What do you mean?"

Elcanah said, "No, nothing bad as far as I can tell. In fact, I'm sure some will find their new talents advantageous to their future."

"Come and meet them," Languill said, with a laugh.

Emla's eyes met mine as, hand in hand, we and the other newcomers followed Languill, Elcanah, Pritack and the others down the hill, and towards our new future.

This is the end of Harvest Time. However, the story is only part of 'Beyond Between', which is a collection of stories based (more or less) within the same narrative universe. In there, you will find out more about what the 'talents' develop into in the story, 'Kingslayer'. The full book will be published on June 21st and can be found at https://www.vivadjinn.com/BEYONDBETWEEN and will be available as both a paperback and a Kindle eBook.