The Tempest Class Freighter was powered by
4 Plasma Turbine Pyroclast Engines, which allowed for a very quick turn of
speed once airborne, and four vertical take-off jumper engines whose purpose is
self-explanatory, they could also be used independently to provide auxiliary power
on board while they were on the surface for periods when the solar converters
were inadequate.
But with only two of the main Turbines on
line they couldn’t hope to outrun even the slowest of the Scav Raiders and they
couldn’t take that chance, so they had to fix them on Alwi.
“Argh!!!!” Merri screamed from inside the
engine housing “You total fuck”
“Is everything alright?” a deep cultured
voice enquired
“Not really” she replied without looking
for the source of the questioner
“Engine trouble?” he asked
“Damn you’re good” she snapped facetiously
and lifted her head “How did you…”
She left the sentence unfinished when she
saw that her interlocutor was a Visitor.
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.
Merri straightened up and brushed her
rebellious lock off her face, though a few strands remained stuck to her
forehead as she perused the man before her.
She thought him somewhere beyond fifty with
his long white hair and short trimmed beard.
He was tall and disproportionately thin,
and wore a full length pale blue robe tied at the waist with a royal blue cord
and this was beneath a full length dark
blue leather jerkin, and he carried a simple roughhewn staff which was
undecorated but for a carved cruciform relief a few inches from the top.
“I’m sorry Brother” Merri said flushing
scarlet as she scrambled out of her oily tomb “I didn’t realize you were a
Visitor”
“That’s ok” he said “I’ve heard worse
cussing than you’ve been producing”
“Oh God, you heard all of that?” she asked
and grimaced
“I did” he confessed and laughed
“I’m sorry anyway” she said and wiped her
oily hand before offering it to him to shake “I’m Merionwen Strong, Merri for
short”
“I am Visitor Parham” he said formerly “But
people who know me call be Bagg”
After a short converse involving her
detailing the nature of the problem with the engines and her lack of an
engineer he said
“Maybe I can help”
“I don’t think God can fix what ails these
beasts” Merri said with a giggle
“I would agree, but he has provided the
solution to your predicament”
“You?” she asked which produced a deep roar
of a laugh
“Good heavens no” he retorted “I am not of
a mechanical bent, no my talents lie in another area entirely”
“Then I don’t really see how you can help”
she said
“Well the key to everything in life is a
question of balance and it just so happens that God has provided the perfect
opportunity to attain balance by placing on Alwi, the greatest need and the
greatest abundance, in short, your defunct engines and the two best engineers
in the quadrant”
“And you can vouch for them?” she asked
“I can”
“So if they’re so good how come they ended
up on Alwi” Merri asked
“Because the vessel they were on was bound
for Mehreen space, and the neutral zone is as close as they ever want to get to
it, so they disembarked”
“Do they have a reason for not crossing
into Mehreen space?”
“If I was to tell you that Pulsat Rad is
from Prinsloo and Vanzyl is Kesslerian would that answer your question?” Bagg
asked
Merri knew from her father that both
civilizations had suffered greatly at the hands of the Mehreen so she
replied
“It would”
Bagg nodded and looked at the ground and
uttered a short prayer.
“Why don’t you get then to come and see me
tomorrow and we’ll see if we can redress the balance” she said and smiled
smugly at her paraphrasing of the Visitor.
“Why not meet them now” he suggested and
gestured over her shoulder “They’re here now”
Merri turned around and perused the two
figures walking toward them, one was slightly shorter than the other, who she
recognised as a Prinsloovian.
He was heavy set and had a rough bony skull
which raised up like a crown which receded to give way to a Mahogany scaled
brow, cheekbones and jawline which framed an ivory coloured face, and he had
yellow eyes and his entire countenance betrayed his reptilian ancestry.
His companion in comparison was slender and
although they also owed its origins to reptilian DNA its scaly countenance was
more akin to a fish than a lizard, with large eyes and pursed lips, and on
closer inspection Merri could see its gills.
“This is Merionwen Strong, Captain of the
Tornado” Bagg said
“Good meeting, I Pulsat Rad, this Vanzyl”
the shorter of the two said and clicks and whirls began to emanate from Vanzyl
which were clearly directed at Pulsat
“Ok I speak” he said and more clicks and
whirls followed
“I telling, I telling” Pulsat retorted and
to Merri he explained
“Vanzyl say we very much like fix engines,
very much like join crew Tornado”
“You fix the engines and you have a deal”
she said “on one condition”
“What is?” he asked
“The condition is that you don’t have any
strange eating habits” Merri explained and then she observed as the two
engineers in waiting looked at each other in what she supposed was puzzlement
until Vanzyl made a long whistling noise followed by a succession of clicks and
Pulsat snorted.
“No, no, we eat everything” he said and
then he and Vanzyl proceeded to investigate the engines.
“I hope they meant anything and not
everything” Merri said
“Only time will tell” Bagg said and laughed
“Talking of food, will you stay and eat”
Merri asked
“That depends, are you a better cook than
you are an engineer?”
“Actually I’m a better engineer” she
confessed
“In that case I’ll stay, providing you let
me cook” he retorted
“That was the best meal I’ve eaten in three
years” Malena said as she pushed her spotless plate away from her.
“At least three years” Merri echoed
“Mmmm” was all that Shiyne could manage
“I’m glad you enjoyed it” Visitor Parham
responded
“As it might make you more receptive to
what I have to say next”
“That sounds ominous” Merri said
“It’s not at all” Shiyne said and smiled
because she knew what was on his mind because she was a Vann and the Vann were
telepaths.
“So what is it?” Malena asked
“It’s time for me to leave Alwi and
continue my travels” Bagg said
“So I would like to join you”
“Well I think I can speak for the whole
crew when I say that, providing we can get off this damn moon, you’re welcome
to tag along, as ships cook” Merionwen said just at the point Pulsat and Vanzyl
appeared
“Engines fixed” the former said
“What already?” Merri asked “You’ve fixed
them both?”
“No” Pulsat replied
“We fix four”
“I already had two working” Merionwen said
indignantly which prompted Vanzyl to make a long whistling noise followed by a
succession of clicks and Pulsat snorted, which clearly denoted laughter in the
former and derision in the latter.
“We fix four” Pulsat repeated and everyone
laughed
“So you’ve done in four hours that I
haven’t been able to do in almost as many months”
“We are engineers” Pulsat said and everyone
laughed again
“Then it looks like we’re getting off this
rock at last” Merri said “and we have three new shipmates”
Then after the introductions were made
Merri said
“Now sit and eat”
“We eat here?” Pulsat asked
“Where else?” Merri said and Vanzyl uttered
a soft whistle like a plaintive flute
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