The Tornado Sojourns – Chapter 01 – The Back End of Beyond

In the beginning was the word, and the word was “Fuck!” and that word was followed in quick succession by several other words of profanity, and the deliverer of the colourful tirade of abuse was Merionwen Strong, owner, Captain, Pilot, engineer and all round general dog’s body of the Tempest Class Freighter, Tornado.

The recipients of said abuse were the Plasma Turbine Pyroclast Engines on the fore mentioned Freighter, because although she was a good enough engineer to keep something limping along she didn’t possess the skillset for fixing something that had stopped limping altogether.

This problem was further exacerbated by the fact that she was the best engineer left among the crew and the ship was sitting on the outskirts of a mining town on the surface of Alwi, the fourth moon of the seventh planet Aragon, in the Cammaratian System, which was the sort of place that aspired to be the back end of beyond but couldn’t even manage that.

 

For centuries the reasoned voices of humanity cautioned the politicians and captains of industry on the dangers of taking their natural world for granted, but such voices fell on deaf ears, and because the inhabitants of planet Earth had long abused their blue world, consuming its natural resources and swelling its population past the point where they could produce enough food to satisfy all the hungry mouths, by the middle of the 23rd Century they found it necessary for the inhabitants of Earth to leave their once blue world in their solar system and strive to settle on other worlds in neighbouring systems in order to provide the resources  needed for the home world. 

 

When the inhabitants of Earth left their overcrowded planet their colonization was a great success and they spread like an infestation across the stars, as a result by the middle of the 31st century, human colonies thrived across the universe and in Earths corner of the universe all was calm and peaceful and their solar system was experiencing unprecedented prosperity, but far beyond their backwater solar system it was a very different story.

 

The known universe was in essence divided between two great superpowers, the Legion, which was an alliance of hundreds of humanoid species, of which humans were one, and on the other was the Mehreen Empire a much older and significantly more malevolent union headed by the Mehreen themselves, who were a fearsome warrior race dominated by Amazon like women and they ruled absolutely, and without mercy.

Not that the Legion were any more enlightened, they were equally ruthless and capable of dispensing uncompromising smite without a second thought, but they thought themselves morally superior.

 

But despite their obvious abhorrence of each other a status quo existed between the two great powers and barring the odd skirmish on the fringes of their empires, an uneasy peace existed. 

Although there were conflicts a plenty within their own borders with territorial and cultural disputes and even an occasional insurrection to be put down.

 

The Cammaratian System, where Merionwen was abusing her engines was moderately sized, comprising of 7 planets and some seventy moons, only one of the planets was an M class, Lazarion, the fourth planet, and 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 great attraction of the system to Merionwen and other freighter captains like her was the fact that it was, firstly one of the few remaining neutral zones left in the known galaxy and secondly it bordered 11 other systems, all much busier and populous than Cammaratian itself, so it was in effect a short cut, a rat run between systems with the advantage of far less stringent border controls, ideal for those either in a hurry or more likely those transporting contraband.

Using the Cammaratian routes was not without risk however, which was because of the lack of scrutiny of the system by the empires, those choosing the less high profile route were left vulnerable to the other inhabitants of the neutral zone “Scav Raiders” which were in essence little more than pirates, so no one entered the system unarmed unless they were in convoy.

The other reason it was used so readily, despite the perils was because it gave the merchant men easy access to the star gates beyond the frontiers which in turn accessed the lucrative trade routes through hyperspace.

Merionwen didn’t need to traverse the system as part of a convoy as her ship was a Tempest Class Freighter and the Tornado was fast enough to out run most of the predatory pirates and those that she couldn’t beat for pace could be beaten off, either with the twin Pulsar Lasers at the front and a rear facing Plasma cannon.

 

But sometimes not even a fast vessel and a Plasma cannon were enough to escape completely unscathed which was the reason why the Tempest Class Freighter, Tornado was sitting on the outskirts of a mining town on the surface of Aragon fourth moon, Alwi, causing Captain Merionwen Strong to deliverer a colourful tirade of abuse as she struggled to repair the Pyroclast engines.

 

When she landed to make repairs she expected a two or three week stay at most, but weeks quickly turned to months as they discovered the extent of the damage and after half her crew grew restless and signed on with other vessels, it left her shorthanded and desperate and in danger of losing her ship. 

Technically the ship 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 kept the Tornado in lieu of payment and it passed to her on his death but after only three years at the helm, losing it had become a very real possibility. 

Fortunately she still had the loyalty of her remaining crew, co-pilot and navigator Malena Endia and Shiyne, who was 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.

 

Merionwen Strong was 28 years old and was best described as statuesque, she was tall, straight backed, and proud.

And was blessed with an abundance of red hair that trailed behind her like a mane and penetrating green eyes and overall you would call her striking and then along with her striking appearance went her forthright, volatile and feisty personality.

She loved the Tornado and she loved her life among the stars and considered herself fortunate to live the life she lived, with friends like Malena and Shiyne, who were like family, and whom she adored and doing the thing she loved to do most in the world fulfilled her.

But, and there was always a but, the thing Merri wanted more than anything in the universe other than that, was someone to share with her the life she loved so much.

It was difficult enough to meet a suitable guy if you lived in a town or a city but she lived in a space freighter in a back water system light years away from the nearest sizable populous planet.

Obviously she had boyfriends from time to time when she was growing up of course, but those relationships never went anywhere, not in a way that she wanted anyway.

Merri had no problem attracting men, in fact the opposite was true, miners, farmers, space trash, bar bums and the military, they all gave her the eye.

They were always persistent, though in truth not only with her, Malena and Shiyne were also on the farm boy’s radar and none of them were interested in them, even though they were at times lonely.

While most of her other admirers, who she did like, had no interest in travelling the stars or living the nomadic life and she had no interest in giving up the life and home she loved.

She remained forever hopeful though and kept her dreams alive but those dreams would never come to fruition if she couldn’t get the bloody engines fixed.