Nothing happened for 24 hours following the
cryptic message that Malena sent on Merri’s behalf until the Tornado lifted off from Eikon Minor when the comms burst into life and
Oshwin Lemik’s voice said
“Golbolt Interstellar, Soman calling Tempest Freighter Tornado”
Merri was in the left seat and responded
“Go ahead Golbolt”
“Change in your itinerary, proceed to Soman
and collect a shipment of bakery items” Oshwin said and Merri turned to Malena
and smiled.
“Message received Soman, will proceed
directly, Tornado out”
Then Malena headed towards Eirkos’s second
Moon Soman.
It was on Soman that they had decided to make
their base as it was the location of one of the largest Interstellar Freight
Distributors in the system, Golbolt Interstellar, and they had collectively
decided to sign up with them rather than operate as independents and find their
own work.
The main reason for that was that the
Operations Manager was Oshwin Lemik and he fought against the Legion in the
Shaxon War with the Skeet brothers, they as pilots and Oshwin as Logistics
Commander.
Merri entered the atmosphere of Soman, with
her piloting and Malena in the co-pilot seat and she used the Tornado’s four
vertical take-off jumper engines and landed softly on the apron, adjacent to a
Legion Aeronautica Firedart.
The Tornado 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, but it dwarfed the Firedart.
The front section comprised of a sizable
pressurized hold for large freight, accessed via a front loading ramp, and as
soon as the ramp lowered the Pilot of the Firedart, in Aeronautica flight suit
and helmet walked up the ramp and inside the hold, where Merri was waiting, and
then the ramp was raised again.
As soon as the door was closed and sealed
the Pilot removed his helmet and then Merri said
“It’s good to see you again Supreme
Commander”
“You too Captain” Emad Salmin said and then
the two of them followed the smell of fresh baked scones to the mess room,
where apart from Bagg, who was in feeding mode, Malena, Shiyne, Lyris, Parse,
and Zerrad were also present.
Once in the mess he was plied with coffee
and scones and when he’d had his fill he said
“So now I’ve been suitably bribed, how can
I help?”
The gathered members of the Tornado crew
repeated verbatim what Duff Tarver had told them and his reasoning and finally
Merri said
“There is an unmanned relay station on Meknar
5 which would suit the purpose”
Meknar Prime was the furthest planet from the
sun in the Eikon Cluster, and was circled by four moons, the largest of which
was Meknar 5, in addition it also had the highest orbit and the longest transit
time, and that meant that for most of the Solar year it was the furthest object
in the system, which made it a perfect location for a deep space relay station.
“I think Meknar 5 is a good solution but you
know that I can’t openly assist you, I can’t be seen to just hand over the
keys” Emad said “and although the station is unmanned that doesn’t mean that
it’s not protected”
“We realise that,” Lyris said “But it would
be nice to know where the mines are”
“Well I don’t know all the details on the defence
measures in place but one thing I can tell you for certain” Salmin said “There
are no mines”
“What about pulsar batteries?” Lyris asked
suspiciously
“There are no pulsar cannons either” the
Supreme Commander assured him “the systems in place are a little more
sophisticated than they were during the Shaxon Rebellion”
“So what can we expect?” Zerrad asked
“The main defence is a proximity sensor
field, and if you trigger one of those an Electro Magnetic Pulse will be
targeted at you and the ship will be left disabled” Salmin explained “But there
is a safe route through”
“How do we find it?” Malena asked
“You won’t” he replied “but I have someone
who will”
“Someone we can trust?” Lyris asked
“It will be someone you know” he assured
them “However, he will only deliver you to the surface, once you are down, you’re
on your own and you will have to use your own guile, and exceptional talents to
do the rest”
“That we can do” Merri said proudly
“So when do you want to do it?” Salmin
asked
“As soon as possible, the transmitter is in
its optimum position at the moment and will be for another five days” Parse
said “And it will take almost three to get there”
“Do you have a legitimate reason to be at
that end of the system?” Salmin asked
“Yes, Oshwin has given us some deliveries
to Reknar itself so we shouldn’t raise any suspicions” Merri said
“Good, then I think you should get underway
as soon as is possible I will have my navigator intercept you on route” he said
“Now I just have time for another scone before I have to go”
Supreme Commander Salmin replaced his
helmet and then nodded to Malena, who then lowered the ramp and the Salmin
walked down it to the apron and then ran towards his Firedart.
By the time he was airborne Shiyne had
driven the Stroller down the ramp were Bagg and several crewmates climbed
aboard as they needed to re-provision for the trip.
Merri and Malena and the Skeets stayed
behind as there were tasks to be done before they collected their cargo prior
to departure.
Also with work to do was the short heavy
set Prinsloovian engineer, Pulsat, he had a rough bony skull which raised up
like a crown and then receded to give way to a Mahogany scaled brow, cheekbones
and jawline which framed an ivory coloured face, and yellow eyes.
His entire countenance betrayed his
reptilian ancestry, and his fellow engineer, who was Kesslerian, also owed his
origins to reptilian DNA but his slender and sleek form, scaly countenance,
silver scaled skin, large opaque eyes, pursed lips, and gills clearly indicated
that his kind evolved from fish.
As they walked down the ramp Merri called
down after them
“We leave in three hours”
“We be ready” Pulsat said and Vanzyl
uttered a soft whistle like a plaintive flute, then he looked at his friend and
whistled again
“More adventure, yes” Pulsat agreed
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