After entering the relay station and the door closed
behind them and the lights came on they were confronted by web of tightly
packed multi-coloured lasers stretching the full length of the inner sanctum to
within a metre of their objective.
“This I can’t help with” Asti admitted
“Malena, I think this might be more up your street”
Shiyne said
“I don’t know how” Parse said
“Oh ye of little faith” Malena said as she threaded a
boot lace through a hole in one corner of the data tablet and then tied it
tightly around her neck and then she transformed herself into an
Obgaron Skunk Rat.
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 of contact 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.
“I’d forgotten you could do that” Parse said
Although the web of tightly packed multi-coloured
lasers prevented a large biped from proceeding, a Skunk Rat was able to hop and
weave its way across the maze with considerably more ease, although Malena did
have to backtrack and change her route a couple of times but eventually she
reached the terminal and transformed back to her own form.
“Ok I’m here” Malena shouted as she untied the lace
from around her neck
Shiyne closed her eyes and tuned into Malena and said
“Put the tablet into the port”
Malena nodded her head and did as instructed but
nothing happened, Duff said it was pre-set and it would start transmitting
automatically,
“Nothing is happening” she shouted
“Let me see” Shiyne said and Malena relaxed and
allowed Shiyne into her head so she could see the console through her eyes.
“Ok let me have control” Shiyne said and Malena
relaxed completely and felt her limbs moving independently as her hands flicked
switched and pressed buttons, and then suddenly the transmitter burst into life
and the data was on its way.
Shiyne maintained her control of Malena however,
because she had to watch its progress, because they couldn’t leave the tablet
behind as it could easily lead back to Supreme Commander Salmin and by
extension to them, but because of the volume of information being transmitted
and the multitude of destinations, it was taking much longer than any of them
anticipated.
In high orbit above Reknar 5, the Skeet Brothers was
sat in silence behind the controls of the Spider Hawk waiting nervously as they
both had their significant others on the surface and their last experience of a
Legion Relay Station during the Shaxon Rebellion ended with considerable loss
of life, and they were silent because neither of them wanted to vocalise their
fears.
But then an alarm sounded on the console and they
looked at each other because the security beacon was transmitting.
“War Horse calling Delivery Boy, War Horse calling
Delivery Boy” Lyris said and a moment later Nulak’s voice came back
“Delivery Boy receiving”
“What’s happening down there? We’ve got a security
beacon broadcasting loud and proud” Lyris said
“I’m picking up no alarms down here” Nulak confirmed
“Well they’re sounding” Lyris said
The landing party inside the relay station were
totally oblivious to the beacon broadcasting as Shiyne still had control of
Malena at the transmitter terminal until Nulak opened comms to them.
“Delivery Boy to Landing party, delivery Boy to
Landing party”
“Receiving” Parse said
“Time to get out of there, they know we’re here” Nulak
said concisely
“Message received” Parse replied and then added
“Time to go Shiyne, the alarm has been triggered”
“It’s close now” she replied without breaking her
concentration “Very close, almost there, and it’s finished”
“Ok Mal, do your skunk thing and get out of there”
Parse shouted
So Malena removed the tablet and reattached the boot
lace and tied it tightly around her neck and transformed herself back into an
Obgaron Skunk Rat, and quickly repeated her journey
through the laser maze to re-join her companions.
“Right let’s get out of here” Parse said “Asti, do
your thing on the door”
Asti walked to the door, turned and gave him a
quizzical look reached out a finger and pressed the door release button and the
door opened and Shiyne and Malena went out first.
“Come on Einstein” Asti said and she exited and Parse
followed shaking his head.
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