Merionwen
Strong, Parse Sacrod, Terrel Vorton, Shiyne, and Asti Alegionaris, were sitting
in a café across the plaza from where the Sisters of St Agnes were performing
the healing, when Visitor Parham (Bagg) walked in and sat down with them.
He had just
returned from the enclave where he had left Trebreh, Xandra, Ale and Wisma in
safety, he didn’t want them to get mixed up in one of their adventures.
“We need an old
crock” Merionwen said
“What?” Bagg
retorted
“We need an old
crock” Merri repeated and Bagg looked at her blankly while everyone else looked
grave, with the exception of Shiyne, who knew exactly what Merri was doing, and
struggled to suppress a laugh.
“Well we can’t
queue up to see the healing Sisters if you haven’t got an ailment, and the more
obvious the better” she explained
“Damn”
exclaimed Lyris
“There’s one”
said Asti excitedly
“Hold on
Princess” Parse said “We can’t just grab one at random and kidnap them”
“Trust me” she
said and leapt up “We’re not going to use her exactly”
“Oh God we’ll
all get done by the prefects for kidnapping” Bagg said and put his head in his
hands.
About ten
minutes later Asti returned with an old woman and Zerrad Skeet walked in behind
them.
“Asti you can’t...”
Bagg began
“Don’t worry
Bagg its Malena” Asti said and laughed “Merri sent Lyris to get her”
“So, who is
manning the Tornado?” he asked
“Pulsat and
Vanzyl” she replied
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.
She could
change shape at will, but 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.
She could also
manipulate that memory and add or subtract from it for example in her everyday
life she chose to take the form of a 27 year old human whom she met on a remote
mining colony when she first entered Legion space, but she chose to be the human
girl and wear clothes on that form but it wasn’t necessary and that afternoon
for the mission she chose to simulate the old ladies clothes, partly in case
she needed to shift, it would have looked very odd indeed if she needed to
shapeshift into a man and he was then wearing girls clothes.
The second
reason was that she wanted it to appear that she was adorned with jewelry but
when the thief tried to steal it she would know instantly and be able to react.
The Sisters of
St Agatha were not an ancient order but her life predated Christianity.
Agatha was born
on Earth, on the Island of Sicily, in 231 BC and belonged to a rich, important
family but she dedicated her life to God as a young person, and resisted both
marriage and sex, making a vow of virginity.
Young,
beautiful and rich she rejected the amorous advances of the low-born
Roman prefect, Quintianus, who thought he could force her to turn away from her
vow and force her to marry him, but his persistent proposals were consistently
spurned by Agatha who
lived a life dedicated to God, so Quintianus, knowing
she was a Christian during the persecution of her faith by Emperor Decius, had her arrested
and brought before him, where he tried
to profit by Agatha's sanctity.
He expected her to give in to his demands when she
was faced with torture and possible death, but she simply reaffirmed her belief
in God by praying:
“Jesus
Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, you know my desires. Possess all that I
am. I am your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil”
She prayed for courage with tears falling from her
eyes but to force her to change her mind, Quintianus sent Agatha to Aphrodisia,
the keeper of a brothel, and had her imprisoned there, but Agatha never lost
her confidence in God, even though she suffered a month of rape, assault, and
efforts to get her to abandon her vow to God and go against her virtue.
Quintianus sent for her again, argued, and
threatened, but once again Agatha
refused his advances, so he had her imprisoned and had her tortured
She was stretched on a rack, torn with iron hooks,
burned with torches, and whipped and she even had her breasts cut off, then after further
dramatic confrontations with Quintianus, Agatha was then sentenced to be burnt
at the stake, but an earthquake saved her from that fate; instead, she was sent
to prison where St. Peter the Apostle appeared to her and healed her wounds,
but later she died in prison aged just twenty and following her martyrdom she was venerated as a
Saint.
The Sisters
adopted Agatha as their patron Saint as they were already healers, though more
akin to nurses, but then like the Visitors they took to the stars and thrived.
Terrell Vorton
described them as “charlatans”, but they didn’t do what they did for financial
gain, they were essentially good, and they accepted no payment for their
healing, other than faith.
Which was why
they were so popular with the pilgrims and why there was a long queue to get in
to see them, and in the queue were Malena, disguised as an old frail woman and
she was flanked by Bagg and Terrell Vorton.
The former was
a tall and disproportionately thin figure, wearing his
Visitor regalia, of a full length pale blue robe tied at the waist with a royal
blue cord and a full length dark blue leather jerkin over the top, and he
carried a simple rough-hewn staff which was undecorated but for a carved
cruciform relief a few inches from the top, and the latter was a small stout Sciberran Healer, standing
5 foot 5, though still striking in appearance with chalk white skin, short hair
of midnight blue and violet eyes.
If they were
right about the healers, and it was by no means certain that they were, they
had no idea how many of the Sisters were involved in the thefts, which was why
Malena had two escorts, Bagg had proved himself to be very handy in a scrap,
and Terrell had about his person an assortment of pharmaceutical weapons.
One of the
concerns however was communication, as the healing chamber was a huge faraday
cage preventing any radio waves entering or leaving.
But the crew of the Tornado didn’t need communicators
as they had Shiyne and she was a telepath.
All of the Vann were telepaths, by varying degrees,
and many of them left their home world at some point to use their gifts to earn
a wage.
Those at the zenith of their talents work as corporate
negotiators or in the justice systems of the Legion.
Shiyne was a Vann with mid-range capabilities and she
could read most species to some extent, her skills were limited with the more
sophisticated or complex brains, lesser minds were easier for her to explore,
but she was more than a match for a faraday cage, so she positioned herself on
the plaza with a good view of the edifice.
There was only
one way in and one way out, so the rest of the crew took up station, far enough
away to be able to see someone fleeing but close enough to charge the entrance
if necessary.
When Malena and
escorts reached the front, they waited patiently until the curtain opened and a
Sister stepped through.
And after a
traditional Christian greeting they were ushered inside St Agatha’s chamber and
amazingly the three of them felt immediately at peace, after a few paces
Terrell and Bagg were told to stay and one of the Sisters took Malena by the
hands and led her further and began chanting, but she could still hear Shiyne’s
reassuring voice in her head and then Mal was surrounded by another five
sisters who were feverish praying, and then all of a sudden she felt a hand
grasping at what the thief believed was a bracelet.
Shiyne was
instantly aware and signaled the rest of the crew to be on their guard.
The moment that
Malena felt the thief’s touch she grabbed the arm and dragged the errant Sister
from the pack towards Terrell who had already reacted and had an injector in
his hand and took two steps forward and dispatched her with a
jab to the neck and she crumpled to the floor.
Now if what occurred had surprised the Sister
then what happened next surprised everyone else because the Sister dressed in
traditional white habit with the face of a human, shimmered and faded to be
replaced by a very different Mercurial form of liquid silver glass.
“My God she’s Obgaron” Malena said and sunk to
her knees, as did the other sisters, and then rest of the Tornado crew appeared.
“I’ll get the
Prefects” Parse said
“No, please,
not yet” Malena pleaded “I need to talk to her first”
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