After entering the relay station and the
door closed behind them and the lights came on they were confronted by web of
tightly packed multi-coloured lasers stretching the full length of the inner
sanctum to within a metre of their objective.
“This I can’t help with” Asti admitted
“Malena, I think this might be more up your
street” Shiyne said
“I don’t know how” Parse said
“Oh ye of little faith” Malena said as she
threaded a boot lace through a hole in one corner of the data tablet and then
tied it tightly around her neck and then she transformed herself into an
Obgaron Skunk Rat.
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.
The Mehreen were a brutal regime who
conquered world after world without warning, either for tactical and strategic
reasons or for want of the planets resources, but in the case of Obgaron Prime
there was no strategic value and it was poor in minerals and Orr, their
destruction was for a very different reason altogether, fear.
The mighty Mehreen Empress feared the
Obgaron because of a long held prophecy that the Empire would been brought down
by beings who could transform themselves into Mehreen High Councillor’s and
seize power unnoticed, so they thought those beings were shape shifters, so
they slaughtered every one they could lay there hands on, without mercy.
The Obgaron were a peaceful insular people
who had had minimal exposure to the universe outside their own system so the
majority of the inhabitants weren’t fearful of an impending invasion.
Malena however was not among them and fled,
stowing away on a deep space exploration vessel with a few of her like-minded
people and slipped through the Mehreen net by transforming.
Though she could change form at will 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.
But that need to touch a subject in order
to shift cost many more lives during the invasion among the Obgaronian’s who
had no suitable form to shift into to when the time came, in order to evade the
Mehreen hordes.
The form Malena took was that of a 27 year
old human whom she met on a remote mining colony when she first entered Legion
space, that was more than 20 years earlier and she still looked exactly the
same.
It was on another mining planet 12 months
later that she first met Ben Strong and joined his crew aboard the Tornado
where she quickly proved herself to be invaluable, firstly as just one of the
crew but she soon showed a natural gift for navigating and she also excelled as
a nanny to 9 year old Merri.
“I’d forgotten you could do that” Parse
said
Although the web of tightly packed
multi-coloured lasers prevented a large biped from proceeding, a Skunk Rat was
able to hop and weave its way across the maze with considerably more ease,
although Malena did have to backtrack and change her route a couple of times
but eventually she reached the terminal and transformed back to her own form.
“Ok I’m here” Malena shouted as she untied
the lace from around her neck
Shiyne closed her eyes and tuned into
Malena and said
“Put the tablet into the port”
Malena nodded her head and did as
instructed but nothing happened, Duff said it was pre-set and it would start
transmitting automatically,
“Nothing is happening” she shouted
“Let me see” Shiyne said and Malena relaxed
and allowed Shiyne into her head so she could see the console through her eyes.
“Ok let me have control” Shiyne said and
Malena relaxed completely and felt her limbs moving independently as her hands
flicked switched and pressed buttons, and then suddenly the transmitter burst
into life and the data was on its way.
Shiyne maintained her control of Malena
however, because she had to watch its progress, because they couldn’t leave the
tablet behind as it could easily lead back to Supreme Commander Salmin and by
extension to them, but because of the volume of information being transmitted
and the multitude of destinations, it was taking much longer than any of them
anticipated.
In high orbit above Reknar 5, the Skeet
Brothers was sat in silence behind the controls of the Spider Hawk waiting
nervously as they both had their significant others on the surface and their
last experience of a Legion Relay Station during the Shaxon Rebellion ended with
considerable loss of life, and they were silent because neither of them wanted
to vocalise their fears.
But then an alarm sounded on the console
and they looked at each other because the security beacon was transmitting.
“War Horse calling Delivery Boy, War Horse
calling Delivery Boy” Lyris said and a moment later Nulak’s voice came back
“Delivery Boy receiving”
“What’s happening down there? We’ve got a
security beacon broadcasting loud and proud” Lyris said
“I’m picking up no alarms down here” Nulak
confirmed
“Well they’re sounding” Lyris said
The landing party inside the relay station
were totally oblivious to the beacon broadcasting as Shiyne still had control
of Malena at the transmitter terminal until Nulak opened comms to them.
“Delivery Boy to Landing party, delivery
Boy to Landing party”
“Receiving” Parse said
“Time to get out of there, they know we’re
here” Nulak said concisely
“Message received” Parse replied and then
added
“Time to go Shiyne, the alarm has been
triggered”
“It’s close now” she replied without
breaking her concentration “Very close, almost there, and it’s finished”
“Ok Mal, do your skunk thing and get out of
there” Parse shouted
So Malena removed the tablet and reattached
the boot lace and tied it tightly around her neck and transformed herself back
into an
Obgaron Skunk Rat, and quickly repeated her
journey through the laser maze to re-join her companions.
“Right let’s get out of here” Parse said
“Asti, do your thing on the door”
Asti walked to the door, turned and gave
him a quizzical look reached out a finger and pressed the door release button
and the door opened and Shiyne and Malena went out first.
“Come on Einstein” Asti said and she exited
and Parse followed shaking his head.
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