"Jenny Kaye" jennycat55@hotmail.com wrote:

As the local populace wanted to kill Hal, Dayna and Lauren, I think it's

unlikely that they would have got any help from that quarter.

Sorry, guess I wasn't as clear as I could have been.

I'm thinking anyone going to the aliens on the corner (or the seashore, as the case may be) would have to be pretty desperate with no place else to go. Hence, someone whose tribe or whose main supporters within the tribe had largely been wiped out. Desperation leads to desperate choices and there have been more than a few cases of people in wartime fleeing to a traditional enemy even when they weren't sure of their welcome.

Especially

when it is the Sarrans that Dayna is practicing her skills by killing.

Well, since Dayna was no more than a year old when they moved there, I don't think the killing started till later.

The

script states that Lauren was a child when she joined the Melanbys,

there is

no evidence that Lauren was also accompanied by anyone else.

It may be that Hal Melanby is trusting and confides all to people he barely knows. Then again, maybe the man who was blinded and tortured holds a few things back - or doesn't want to overwhelm the new guest with all the nitty-gritty. If Avon's the first new face he's seen (uh, so to speak) in 20 years, it may be Hal has forgotten much of the fine art of conversation.

Both Dayna and her father mention that she has learned, and is learning,

to

master all weapons ancient and modern. There's no reference in the

script at

all to her learning how from the Sarrans or anyone else.

As I tried to say, this was just a thought. But weapons such as bows, spears, swords, etc. take a high degree of training and skill to become fully expert in their use, rather like various sports or ballet. I remeber reading about a famous ballerina who, to the end of her life, made sure there was someone in her troupe who would watch her perform and critique her honestly because it was the only way to make sure she was in top form. I've also seen sports nuts literally spend hours repeating the same action over and over again to get it right and keep it right.

Also, I've never heard of anyone becoming a major expert in one of these fields without someone who could tell them what they're doing wrong and how to do better. Also, no use reinventing the wheel. One of the Romans' advantages in war was training their soldiers to stab rather than swing (which leaves the swordsman open). Swords had been around for centuries. Many of those they conquered had been aware of them for at least decades. There was still plenty of sword swinging.

So, Dayna has a high level of expertise with weapons that, my understanding is, she would not have mastered without a trainer - renting the video wouldn't cut it. Hal couldn't be that trainer. It's unlikely he would know one offworld or could try and find one on another planet. Sarran is covered with people with at least a fair degree of weapons knowledge. Ergo, a Sarran trainer seems the most likely to me. Since the problems in Lauren's adoption had already been pointed out, the idea that this person brought Lauren along seemed likely. Occam's razor and all that.

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