The Eastertide festival on Marikya lasted for five
days with the greatest emphasise on the Holy Days but there were also a variety
of entertainments to distract the pilgrims, and merchants aplenty hoping to
profit from the pilgrims by tempting them to part with some of their money in
exchange for some memento of their trip.
The other group that turned a healthy profit at
Festival times were the Inn Keepers, Lodge Owners and Hoteliers who charged premium
rates, but despite the profiteering on accommodation there was never anywhere
to stay, unless you were a Visitor of high esteem such as Bagg’s brother
Trebreh and then you were invited to stay at the Visitor’s Presbytery Enclave, where the clergy could stay along with “suitable”
guests, and there was always space.
When not housing Pilgrims for the Festival it was a
retreat for weary, ailing or retired Clergy.
So Trebreh, his wife Xandra and her brother Ale, Bagg and Wisma along with Duff
Tarver and his wife Chani would be staying in the enclave, while the rest of
the Tornado crew would return to the Tornado each night, as they were all
taking it in turns to man the ship anyway, which was only fair.
Merionwen took the first watch, though she was
more intent on watching her Gouveian lover Parse Sacrod, who she called Beefy,
as he was huge in stature, standing 6 foot 8 high, broad and powerfully built,
with short curly hair the colour of burnished steel, ivory skin and mercury
coloured eyes, he was a former Legionnaire of the Royal Guard of Gouveia and
she loved every inch of him.
For her part she was in her early thirties and best
described as statuesque, tall, straight backed, proud and was blessed with an
abundance of red hair that trailed behind her like a mane and penetrating green
eyes to stare you down with, and overall she cut a striking figure and along
with her appearance went her forthright, volatile and feisty personality.
She was owner and Captain of the Tornado, which
technically belonged to the Garangon mining company, but as they went out of
business when they inadvertently destroyed the moon they were mining,
Merionwen’s father Ben kept the Tornado in lieu of payment and it passed to her
on his death.
Merri and Parse had become inseparable, and always
spent the long watches on the flight deck together, but that was normally about
as close as they got to be alone, so to have the ship all to themselves was
something of a novelty, so they made sure that they made the best use of their
“alone time”.
But alas all good thing must come to an end, and in
their case, it was when Lyris Skeet’s voice came over the comms to say that the
Spider Hawk was preparing to dock.
There were two docking rings on the Tornado
to facilitate transfers to and from the freighter while in space, one in the
belly below the loading bay and the other was amidships above the cargo bays
which was also the mooring point for shuttles or ancillary craft.
Merri had the Tornado holding in a
stationary orbit so Lyris used his thrusters to steady the Spider Hawk as he
maneuvered into position and locked on to the upper docking ring.
“There goes our “Alone time”” Merri said and gave
Parse one last lingering kiss.
Apart from Merri, the only other survivors from her
father’s crew were her co-pilot and navigator, Malena Endia and Shiyne, the
latter being that rare commodity in any crew, someone who could and would
perform any task required of them without question, but her real strength was
in the role of negotiator and as an eternal optimist.
The next day it was the turn of Malena Endia and
Zerrad Skeet to crew the Tornado, so they could have some private time which
they had been looking forward to.
Similarly, the diminutive Princess Asti with her short
platinum hair, ivory skin and silver eyes, would have preferred to keep her
six-foot-tall, broad and muscular, black haired, dark eyed boyfriend, Lyris
Skeet, all to herself, but it wasn’t their turn.
The following day would be Shiyne and Terrell Vorton,
but they just wanted to be wherever the other was, such was the depth of their
love, though they were an odd couple.
They were both the same height but that was the only
thing they had in common, he was older than her by 6 years and was stoutly
built, while she was slim, his skin was of chalk white and hers was cerise, his
eyes were violet, Shiyne’s were purple and Terrell’s hair was midnight blue and
she was bald, the other difference was that he was very quiet and she would
often chatter incessantly.
Day four would be Pulsat Rad and Vanzyl, but they
would spend their time doing routine maintenance and happily play with their
engines and day 5 would be when Asti got to do some far from routine manoeuvres
while she put Lyris through his paces.
So, Malena watched as the Spider Hawk headed towards
the surface and then she kissed Zerrad passionately.
Physically he and his brother were very similar and
only blonde hair and grey eyes differed from his older dark-haired brother, and
his lover Malena was a tall slim brunette, with olive skin and hazel eyes, at
least that was how she appeared, her true form was more mercurial, but Zerrad
loved her in any form.
By day five everything was going well, on board the
Tornado as Asti had finally got Lyris alone, and on the surface, everyone was
enjoying the Festival and its associated entertainments but were nonetheless
conscious that their holiday was almost over but were determined to enjoy it to
the last minute.
But just as they were going to find somewhere to eat
Wisma made a discovery that made her dissolve into tears.
It was not normal behaviour for her as she was made of
harder stuff than that but reduced to tears she was, and it took Bagg a full
ten minutes to calm her down and find out what had upset her so much.
When she had calmed down to such an extent that she
could speak she told Bagg that her bracelet was gone and then she cried again.
The bracelet was made of Androsin Gold with an
intricate design inlaid with platinum and was a gift from Bagg to mark their
first year together as a couple, and losing it was devastating for her.
“When do you remember having it last?” Bagg asked and
she furrowed her brow as she thought about it and finally said
“No more than an hour ago”
So, they retraced their steps in the hope of finding
it, but to no avail.
“I think we should report it to the Prefects” Parse
said “In case it’s been handed in”
So Bagg, Wisma, Parse and Merri went to the Prefects
office and the others went into the restaurant and secured a table.
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