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”
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