The Tornado Sojourns – Chapter 08 – Shiyne of the Vann

 

Aboard the Tempest Class Freighter Tornado, Shiyne was the calm and passive member of the crew, but even she was very relieved when Pulsat Rad announced in the mess hall “Engines fixed”

She had been a part of the Tornados crew for several years and felt perfectly at home there.

She knew that Merionwen and Malena were very worried, in fact the latter was terrified she would have to leave the comfortable cocoon she had inhabited for so long, she knew also that Merri had been worried about losing her ship for weeks, though neither of them had verbalised it, they didn’t have to with Shiyne as 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.

In addition to reading minds she could also implant thoughts and the suggestions would stay in place longer with someone who was more intellectually challenged.

 

She left her home world of Vann in the Yucel Seran System after her father died and as he was her last remaining relative and as she had no other ties Shiyne left Vann looking for adventure and she found that in the form of Ben Strong and his crew aboard the Tornado.

Once aboard she never wanted to leave as there was no shortage of adventure with Ben and his daughter Merionwen and she was treated like family because Shiyne was that rare commodity in any crew, someone who could and would perform any task required of them, although obviously her real strength was in the role of negotiator and she was an eternal optimist.

Shiyne was small girl and like the rest of the Vann women she was completely bald, and she had cerise coloured skin and purple eyes.

The only thing lacking in her life was a significant other which was a problem that she didn’t think would be easily resolved.

Being a telepath she found it difficult when she did meet someone she liked not to have a little peak to see what was on their mind.   

Sadly their thoughts were all too revealing about their true characters so she put such aspirations behind her and focused her attentions to life on the Tornado.

But that life was in jeopardy when the Tornado was grounded with engine trouble following a Scav attack so the day after Pulsat and Vanzyl repaired the engines, her relief was palpable and there was a distinct air of optimism on the Tornado again with two new engineers aboard and even better than that Visitor Parham had joined the crew, and he could cook.

The latter was a particular plus because Shiyne liked to eat and had a disproportionately sized appetite for such a diminutive figure.

 

With the engines repaired departure from Alwi was expected in the following few days so Merri was keen to take the Tornado off world to test drive the engines and find out if their engineers had done as good a job as they thought they had. 

So with Merri piloting and Malena in the co-pilot seat and Pulsat and Vanzyl monitoring the engines, the Tornado’s four vertical take-off jumper engines were engaged and the Tempest class freighter lifted off.

It 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, when necessary. 

 

After watching the ship take off, Clergyman come cook, Bagg went into town in search of provisions, which were seriously depleted on board, while Shiyne went to see if she could secure them a cargo.

Bagg went south on foot to the market place while Shiyne hopped on to the Tornado’s APMTV, (All Purpose Multi Terrain Vehicle) and headed north to the cargo port.

The vehicle was nicknamed the “Stroller” which was an ironic name because when Shiyne or Merri were behind the wheel it did anything but stroll, and when Shiyne accelerated away she left a cloud of dust in her wake.

 

Even on a relatively small moon the mining operation on Alwi meant the cargo port was always busy and that business attracted a lot of interest from those seeking work, cargo or passage off the moon.

One such person was 36 year old Sciberran Healer Terrell Vorton who had spent the previous five years working his way from moon to moon, planet to planet and system to system, on ships of every shape and size, in search of something, though he didn’t know what that something was, he just knew that it was not on his home planet of Sciberras in the Hennis system.

He was a small stout man standing 5 foot 5, and was quite striking in appearance with chalk white skin, short hair of midnight blue and hypnotic violet eyes.

He was a quiet studious man who apart from medicine, loved science, and had a fascination for off world travel, although it would have remained just that had it not been for the untimely deaths of his wife and child.

Their loss had been particularly acute because he was helpless to cure them despite his high regard as a Healer.  

On his world, Healers started their training at the age of 5, but it wasn’t for everyone, but those like Terrell who reached adulthood and remained in training were destined for a lifetime in medicine, but for him he was destined to be the cream of the crop.

But with the premature deaths of his wife and child he came to doubt his ability and that prompted him to leave his home world and try and regain belief in himself and since leaving Sciberras he had learned a lot about the anatomy of other species, who he hadn’t come in contact with before, because Sciberras was quite an insular world but travelling off world had opened his eyes and he was left hungry for more.

He had been on Alwi for about three weeks and was staying at the

Ambassadors Lodge, while he waited for a suitable berth.

The were no shortage of offers for a Healer but in the weeks he had been there all the vessels were either going back the way he had come or were leaving Legion space for Mehreen systems.

He had managed to pick up work as a medic at one of the mines, but it wasn’t well paid and so he was eager to move on.

Overall though after his five year sojourn he was a fairly contented person and having come to terms with his loss he was generally happy with his lot.

But as a result of his nomadic lifestyle he was no longer a wealthy person, but he had learned that life was quantified by a different measurement and he had everything he wanted, more or less.

 

Although he had been unsuccessful every day of the previous three weeks he went to the port again after work in the hope he might have a change of luck, and that hope was realized although not in the way he had expected because fortune came in the form of Shiyne.

 

It was a glorious sunny morning on Alwi, which was in itself unremarkable, as it was almost always sunny on Alwi, so that day was no exception as he made his way to the port office.

As he walked to the office, he was preoccupied by thoughts of worlds as yet unseen that might change his life forever.

Having caught sight of a fellow journeyman, Zelen, who was also staying at the Ambassadors, who was standing on the office steps, he quickly crossed the road and was brought rudely to his senses by the blast of a claxon.

So he jumped out of the way and reached the safety of the footpath and turned to look at the driver and he was greeted by a beautiful smiling being with cerise coloured skin and purple eyes who mouthed the word “sorry” which made him smile.

Zelen was watching from the office steps and thought it was highly amusing that he had nearly been turned into road kill but when he returned his attention back to the startlingly beautiful vehicular assassin she had gone and that was that, or so he thought.

 

It was at the end of an exhausting and seemingly endless round of meeting clerks, pursers, mine managers, and freighter captains that he headed back to the Ambassadors Lodge for a well-earned lunch and he smiled when he recognized another acquaintance standing on the terrace.

Even from a distance the tall pale figure of Visitor Parham was unmistakable with his long white hair blowing in the breeze.  

He was engaged in conversation with someone but he couldn’t see who it was as they were obscured by the Visitors robe but when he got closer he saw that his companion was the beautiful, if dangerous cerise skinned vehicular assassin.

“Greetings my dear Visitor” he said

“Greetings brother Terrell” Bagg responded and the two men embraced “This is most opportune”

“How so?” Terrell asked

“I’m leaving Alwi today” Bagg replied

“Then this moon will be a sadder place by days end” The healer said “Where might we meet again?”

“I am leaving on the freighter Tornado with this young woman and her companions” Bagg replied

“This is Shiyne” he added and Terrell’s eyes were immediately drawn to the beautiful girl seated at the table and he found she was even more attractive at close quarters when she wasn’t trying to run him down.

While Bagg made the introductions Terrell rather tuned out to what he was saying as he was besotted with the diminutive young Vann with the cerise coloured skin and mesmerizing purple eyes.

 

Visitor Parham, Bagg, had had a very successful morning provisioning for the Tornado and after rendezvousing with Shiyne as arranged they loaded the stores onto the Stroller and stopped at the Ambassadors Lodge to collect Bagg’s personal effects, where they waited on the terrace for a call from the Tornado, which happened shortly after the introductions were complete.

“Hey Captain, we have a cargo to the Delta 500 space dock leaving tomorrow” Shiyne said jovially as she answered her comms but then her expression grew grave

“What?” 

There was then a prolonged silence as Shiyne listened intently to what Merionwen was telling her.

“No problem I’m looking at one right now” she said in reply “We’ll meet you there, yes, yes we’ll be ready”

After switching her comms off she turned her attention to Bagg and Terrell

“We have to go, you too Doc, they have two wounded men on board, and they’ll be landing in twenty minutes”

“What happened?” Bagg asked making the sign of the cross 

“Scav Raiders” she replied

“What are the injuries?” Terrell asked

“One has a head wound and the other has a Pulsar blast to the abdomen” she replied

“And what species?” he added

“Does it matter?” she asked sharply

“Well yes” he retorted “I need to know what supplies I need”

“Sorry” she said “Humans”

“Ok I’ll get my bag”