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 endeavour’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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