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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