Although
she didn’t show it Malena Endia was very relieved when Pulsat Rad announced in
the mess hall “Engines fixed”
She had
been a part of the Tornado’s crew for many years and felt at home and the
thought that she would have to leave the comfortable cocoon she had inhabited
for so long terrified her, she knew that Merri had been worried about it for
weeks but she never shared her fears, not with Merri at any rate, and she
didn’t have to with Shiyne as she was a telepath.
Malena
Endia was from Obgaron Prime in the Alandis system which was now deep in the
heart of the Mehreen Empire, though she, like many of her species fled into
Legion territory after their world was invaded, but many of her kind died after
the invasion and she wasn’t sure exactly how many were left because they
weren’t easily recognized as they were a race of shape shifters.
The Mehreen
were a brutal regime who conquered world after world without warning, either
for tactical and strategic reasons or for want of the planets resources, but in
the case of Obgaron Prime there was no strategic value and it was poor in
minerals and Orr, their destruction was for a very different reason altogether,
fear.
The mighty
Mehreen Empress feared the Obgaron because of a long held prophecy that the
Empire would been brought down by beings who could transform themselves into
Mehreen High Councillor’s and seize power unnoticed, so they thought those
beings were shape shifters, so they slaughtered every one they could lay there
hands on without mercy.
The Obgaron
were a peaceful insular people who had had minimal exposure to the universe
outside their own system so the majority of the inhabitants weren’t fearful of
an impending invasion.
Malena
however was not among them and fled, stowing away on a deep space exploration
vessel with a few of her like-minded people and slipped through the Mehreen net
by transforming.
Though she
could change form at will she could only transform into a being she had touched.
Only the
briefest moment was required and then it was in her memory banks and could be
recalled whenever required.
But that
need to touch a subject in order to shift cost many more lives during the
invasion among the Obgaronian’s who had no suitable form to shift into to when
the time came, in order to evade the Mehreen hordes.
The form
Malena took was that of a 27 year old human whom she met on a remote mining
colony when she first entered Legion space, that was more than 20 years earlier
and she still looked exactly the same.
It was on
another mining planet 12 months later that she first met Ben Strong and joined
his crew aboard the Tornado where she quickly proved herself to be invaluable,
firstly as just one of the crew but she soon showed a natural gift for
navigating and she also excelled as a nanny to 9 year old Merri.
Over the
years, as the Tornado plied its trade, crew members came and went but she
remained loyal to the Strong’s and in the three years following Ben Strong’s
death the bond between Malena and Merionwen strengthened and she loved her like
a best friend, mother and a sister.
When she
knew the 9 year old Merri she was indeed old enough to be her mother and now
appearance wise at any rate they were the same age.
The relief
was palpable among Merri, Malena and Shiyne, the day after Pulsat and Vanzyl
had repaired the engines, and there was a distinct air of optimism on the
Tornado with two new engineers aboard and even better than that, Visitor Parham
had joined the crew, and he could cook.
And as
their departure from Alwi was now expected in the following few days Merri was
keen to take the Tornado off world to test drive the engines and find out if
their engineers had done as good a job as they thought they had.
So with
Merri piloting and Malena in the co-pilot seat and Pulsat and Vanzyl monitoring
the engines the Tornado’s four vertical take-off jumper engines were engaged
and the Tempest Class freighter lifted off.
It wasn’t a
huge ship as freighters go but pound for pound the Tempests had the highest
freight to fuel ratio yield of their class.
The front
section comprised of a sizable pressurized hold for large freight accessed via
a front loading ramp, above which was the flight deck, living and sleeping
quarters, mess facilities and bath rooms, at the rear was the main propulsion
and amidships were the universal pod bays, which allowed for a mixed cargo
option, which allowed for quick inspection and loading, although sometimes pods
were sealed which meant it was either very valuable or very illegal, either way
Merri didn’t mind and transporting sealed cargo paid much much better.
The Tornado
always flew with at least one pod but then that was because it was where they
stowed their gear and where the hidden compartments could be found, or not,
which was where they hid the contraband, when necessary.
After
watching the ship take off, Clergyman come cook, Bagg went into town in search
of provisions, which were seriously depleted on board while Shiyne went to see
if she could secure them a cargo.
Merionwen
took the ship effortlessly out of the atmosphere and into space and then said
“Well so
far so good”
“Yes but we
need to go a bit speedier than that if we’re going to cross the system without
being trashed by raiders” Malena pointed out
“We had
better put the pedal to the metal then” she retorted and flicked on the comms
to the engine room
“Pulsat I’m
about to put the engines through their paces, let me know if there are any
problems”
“Engines
good” Pulsat said
“I know,
but let me know, if engines bad” Merri said
“Engines
good” Pulsat repeated and she rolled her eyes
“Ok here we
go” she said and slowly accelerated
“Wow
they’ve never been that smooth before”
“Everything’s
good on the monitors” Malena said
“Give them
some more”
So Merri
smoothly took them up to maximum speed and they ate up the space as they left
Alwi and headed towards Aragon which was the planet that Alwi orbited.
“Engines
good” Malena said and they both laughed
They spent
the next hour putting the Tornado through speed and manoeuvring trials in their
small corner of the Cammaratian System, which was of was moderately sized,
comprising of 7 planets and some seventy moons, only one of the planets was an
M class, Lazarion, the fourth planet, all of the others were either gaseous,
volatile or just plain unpleasant.
There were
various mining operations in the system mainly on the numerous moons, the
largest of which was on Alwi the fourth moon of the seventh planet Aragon.
The trials
passed largely in silence until Merionwen said
“It is so
nice to get back out into space”
“You mean
it’s nice not to have to swear at the engines” Malena said and laughed
“Very
funny” Merri retorted and then Malena noticed some unusual readings on the
monitors
“I’m
picking up something on the long range scanners” she said
“What
exactly?” Merri asked
“I don’t
know, get us a bit closer and I might be able to identify it, head towards
Zandros”
“Ok here we
go” she said and made a bee line for the coordinates Malena gave her, which was
in close proximity of the second planet in the system and a few minutes later
she added
“It’s a
distress call, a freighter, a Scav Raider attack”
“How many?”
“Two for
sure, maybe three” Malena replied
“Any ID on
the freighter?”
“Only that
it’s an Omega class”
Omegas were
very common freighters less than half the size of the Tornado and were unarmed
so with three raiders attacking them they were in deep trouble so Merionwen
squeezed every ounce of power from the engines and then a few minutes later
Malena said
“Oh no”
“What?
What?” Merri snapped “What is it?”
“It’s the
Phoenix” she replied gravely as they knew the Phoenix well and the Skeet
brothers who owned it.
“Shit”
Merri said
Apart from
being in the same trade and often competing for cargo the Skeets were friends,
so it was a bit of a shock.
“We had
better go and rescue your boyfriend”
“He’s not
my boyfriend” Malena said
“Not for
the want of it on his part” Merri pointed out “Or yours”
“Don’t
exaggerate” Malena snapped although she could not deny the truth of it to
herself.
She really
liked the younger brother Zerrad but she had long since decided that there
could never be any kind of a relationship for a number of reasons and although
she was attracted to Zerrad she saw no reason to change her policy.
Apart from
the fact they were on different freighters and their paths didn’t cross more
than a handful of times a year, she was sixty years older than him and a
different species entirely.
He was
attracted to 28 year old slender brunette and not her natural Mercurial form of
liquid silver glass.
But
regardless of her misgivings she still found herself thinking
“I hope we
can get there in time”
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