Marikya was one of
the moons of Eirkos and was largely Arboreal but also had extensive ranges of
Sandstone Mountains in which the early settlers carved out rudimentary living
areas but over the centuries their endeavor’s had become much grander and more
sophisticated but their most noteworthy creation was the spectacular Temple to
Christ Our Lord, sculpted from the highest peak in the southern range, which
was so renowned and highly regarded that it attracted pilgrims from across
Legion Space and was one of the most popular locations to celebrate Eastertide.
Visitors were a Christian sect who took to the stars
with the first migrants to visit new worlds, spreading the word while seeking
enlightenment, and they had established Visitor enclaves in every corner of the
known universe, they even thrived in Mehreen space and they were the least
spiritual beings to ever draw breath.
The difference between Visitors and the established
Christian Church on earth was its spontaneity, they didn’t wait until Sunday to
worship, they did it wherever and whenever it was desired, and it didn’t need
to happen in a church, Visitors worshipped everywhere, but that didn’t prevent
them from worshipping in Churches as well or have larger more organised events,
they were still Christians and therefore there was still a Christian calendar
to follow, and the major festivals were still marked with the same reverence
and the one the Tornado was heading towards was the Eastertide Festival on
Marikya, which had lost none of its significance to the Visitors in the
centuries since they left earth.
It wasn’t a long trip from Eirkos to Marikya
especially for the Tornado, which 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,
or even fugitives when necessary, but not so much in recent years.
It had been more than three years since the Tornado,
reached the Eikon Cluster with a full complement aboard, funds in the coffers
and three pods of Thermalium mineral ore for delivery to Eikon Major, and they
had prospered greatly in the system known as the Eikon Cluster, so called due
to the high number of M class planets and moons in the Eikon solar system, and
they quickly found an abundance of work with Golbolt Interstellar, based on the
moon Soman.
The main reason
for that was that the Operations Manager was Oshwin Lemik and he fought against
the Legion in the Shaxson War with the Skeet brothers, they as pilots and
Oshwin as Logistics Commander.
From the moment they were reacquainted, the Tornado
got as much work as they wanted and regularly ran between Eikon Major and
Minor, Eirkos and its moons, Soman, Rekar and Marikya, and neighbouring
planet’s, Achrem and Zenden as well as Zenden’s moon, Linden, plus a host of
other smaller moons and asteroids.
Since they had
been in the Eikon Cluster they had familiarized themselves with the planets and
moons they visited and had cultivated great friendships along the way, so
whatever part of the system they were in they always knew where to go where
they would be welcomed, and they could relax and enjoy their down time.
Also, in their
time in the Cluster they had earned the respect and gratitude of Supreme
Commander Emad Salmin of the Legion Aeronautica for the whole of the Eikon
Cluster and those aboard the Tornado, and their friends and allies felt the
weight of his gratitude, and they had made many friends, as well as a number of
enemies.
But they weren’t expecting any adventures or dramas on
that particular trip.
Because it was a heavily forested landscape separated by Sandstone
Mountains, there weren’t enough spaces on the landing field on the outskirts of
the capital, Livingstone, where the festival was being held, for all of the
pilgrims vessels, so it was necessary for the Tornado to remain in orbit and
for Lyris Skeet to ferry everyone down to the surface in the Spider Hawk, which
he managed to do in two trips.
With the ship in orbit Merionwen and Parse stayed aboard the Tornado to
man it in the event of an emergency, for which they volunteered so they could
enjoy a bit of “alone” time.
They would of
course be relieved, but in her absence, Malena was in charge of the group while
they were on the surface, and everyone knew to listen to her because she had
pointed out that if they didn’t she would transform into an Askandian dragon
dog, oozing deadly poisonous secretions, and deal with them.
They all knew
she could transform, because 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 planet’s 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 be 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, and they
slaughtered everyone they could lay their 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 Merionwen’s father 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.
Had her crew mates taken the time to consider
her threat then it would have dawned on them that she couldn’t have transformed
into an Askandian dragon dog,
as she couldn’t have touched one without succumbing to the deadly oozing
poisonous secretions, but of the group only Shiyne was aware of that fact, but
then she was a Vann telepath, but the rest didn’t, so the threat was enough to
get everyone to toe the line.
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