Marikya was one of the moons of Eirkos and
was largely Arboreal but also had extensive ranges of Sandstone Mountains in
which the early settlers carved out rudimentary living areas but over the
centuries their endeavor’s had become much grander and more sophisticated but
their most noteworthy creation was the spectacular Temple to Christ Our Lord,
sculpted from the highest peak in the southern range, which was so renowned and
highly regarded that it attracted pilgrims from across Legion Space and was one
of the most popular locations to celebrate Eastertide.
Visitors were a Christian sect who took to
the stars with the first migrants to visit new worlds, spreading the word while
seeking enlightenment, and they had established Visitor enclaves in every
corner of the known universe, they even thrived in Mehreen space and they were
the least spiritual beings to ever draw breath.
The difference between Visitors and the
established Christian Church on earth was its spontaneity, they didn’t wait
until Sunday to worship, they did it wherever and whenever it was desired, and
it didn’t need to happen in a church, Visitors worshipped everywhere, but that
didn’t prevent them from worshipping in Churches as well or have larger more
organised events, they were still Christians and therefore there was still a
Christian calendar to follow, and the major festivals were still marked with
the same reverence and the one the Tornado was heading towards was the
Eastertide Festival on Marikya, which had lost none of its significance to the
Visitors in the centuries since they left earth.
It wasn’t a long trip from Eirkos to
Marikya especially for the Tornado, which 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, or even fugitives when necessary, but not so much in recent
years.
It had been more than three years since the
Tornado, reached the Eikon Cluster with a full complement aboard, funds in the
coffers and three pods of Thermalium mineral ore for delivery to Eikon Major,
and they had prospered greatly in the system known as the Eikon Cluster, so
called due to the high number of M class planets and moons in the Eikon solar
system, and they quickly found an abundance of work with Golbolt Interstellar,
based on the moon Soman.
The main reason for that was that the
Operations Manager was Oshwin Lemik and he fought against the Legion in the Shaxson
War with the Skeet brothers, they as pilots and Oshwin as Logistics Commander.
From the moment they were reacquainted, the
Tornado got as much work as they wanted and regularly ran between Eikon Major
and Minor, Eirkos and its moons, Soman, Rekar and Marikya, and neighbouring
planet’s, Achrem and Zenden as well as Zenden’s moon, Linden, plus a host of
other smaller moons and asteroids.
Since they had been in the Eikon Cluster they
had familiarized themselves with the planets and moons they visited and had
cultivated great friendships along the way, so whatever part of the system they
were in they always knew where to go where they would be welcomed, and they
could relax and enjoy their down time.
Also, in their time in the Cluster they had earned
the respect and gratitude of Supreme Commander Emad Salmin of the Legion
Aeronautica for the whole of the Eikon Cluster and those aboard the Tornado,
and their friends and allies felt the weight of his gratitude, and they had
made many friends, as well as a number of enemies.
But they weren’t expecting any adventures
or dramas on that particular trip.
Because it was a
heavily forested landscape separated by Sandstone Mountains, there weren’t
enough spaces on the landing field on the outskirts of the capital,
Livingstone, where the festival was being held, for all of the pilgrims
vessels, so it was necessary for the Tornado to remain in orbit and for Lyris
Skeet to ferry everyone down to the surface in the Spider Hawk, which he
managed to do in two trips.
With the ship in orbit
Merionwen and Parse stayed aboard the Tornado to man it in the event of an
emergency, for which they volunteered so they could enjoy a bit of “alone” time.
They would of course be relieved, but in her absence,
Malena was in charge of the group while they were on the surface, and everyone
knew to listen to her because she had pointed out that if they didn’t she would
transform into an Askandian dragon dog, oozing deadly poisonous secretions, and
deal with them.
They all knew she could transform, because 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 planet’s 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 be 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, and
they slaughtered everyone they could lay their 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 Merionwen’s father 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.
Had her crew mates taken the time to consider
her threat then it would have dawned on them that she couldn’t have transformed
into an Askandian dragon dog, as she couldn’t have
touched one without succumbing to the deadly oozing poisonous secretions, but
of the group only Shiyne was aware of that fact, but then she was a Vann
telepath, but the rest didn’t, so the threat was enough to get everyone to toe
the line.
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