Merionwen Strong,
Parse Sacrod, Terrel Vorton, Shiyne, and Asti Alegionaris, were sitting in a
café across the plaza from where the Sisters of St Agnes were performing the
healing, when Visitor Parham (Bagg) walked in and sat down with them.
He had just returned
from the enclave where he had left Trebreh, Xandra, Ale and Wisma in safety, he
didn’t want them to get mixed up in one of their adventures.
“We need an old crock”
Merionwen said
“What?” Bagg retorted
“We need an old crock”
Merri repeated and Bagg looked at her blankly while everyone else looked grave,
with the exception of Shiyne, who knew exactly what Merri was doing, and
struggled to suppress a laugh.
“Well we can’t queue
up to see the healing Sisters if you haven’t got an ailment, and the more
obvious the better” she explained
“Damn” exclaimed Lyris
“There’s one” said
Asti excitedly
“Hold on Princess”
Parse said “We can’t just grab one at random and kidnap them”
“Trust me” she said
and leapt up “We’re not going to use her exactly”
“Oh God we’ll all get
done by the prefects for kidnapping” Bagg said and put his head in his hands.
About ten minutes
later Asti returned with an old woman and Zerrad Skeet walked in behind them.
“Asti you can’t...”
Bagg began
“Don’t worry Bagg its
Malena” Asti said and laughed “Merri sent Lyris to get her”
“So, who is manning
the Tornado?” he asked
“Pulsat and Vanzyl”
she replied
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.
She could change shape
at will, but 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.
She could also
manipulate that memory and add or subtract from it for example in her everyday
life she chose to take the form of a 27 year old human whom she met on a remote
mining colony when she first entered Legion space, but she chose to be the
human girl and wear clothes on that form but it wasn’t necessary and that
afternoon for the mission she chose to simulate the old ladies clothes, partly
in case she needed to shift, it would have looked very odd indeed if she needed
to shapeshift into a man and he was then wearing girls clothes.
The second reason was
that she wanted it to appear that she was adorned with jewelry but when the thief
tried to steal it she would know instantly and be able to react.
The Sisters of St
Agatha were not an ancient order but her life predated Christianity.
Agatha was born on
Earth, on the Island of Sicily, in 231 BC and belonged to a rich, important
family but she dedicated her life to God as a young person, and resisted both
marriage and sex, making a vow of virginity.
Young, beautiful and
rich she rejected the amorous advances of the low-born Roman prefect,
Quintianus, who thought he could force her to turn away from her vow and force
her to marry him, but his persistent proposals were consistently spurned by
Agatha who lived a life dedicated to God, so Quintianus, knowing she was a
Christian during the persecution of her faith by Emperor Decius, had her
arrested and brought before him, where he tried to profit by Agatha's sanctity.
He expected her to
give in to his demands when she was faced with torture and possible death, but
she simply reaffirmed her belief in God by praying:
“Jesus Christ, Lord of
all, you see my heart, you know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am your
sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil”
She prayed for courage
with tears falling from her eyes but to force her to change her mind,
Quintianus sent Agatha to Aphrodisia, the keeper of a brothel, and had her
imprisoned there, but Agatha never lost her confidence in God, even though she
suffered a month of rape, assault, and efforts to get her to abandon her vow to
God and go against her virtue.
Quintianus sent for
her again, argued, and threatened, but once again Agatha refused his advances,
so he had her imprisoned and had her tortured
She was stretched on a
rack, torn with iron hooks, burned with torches, and whipped and she even had
her breasts cut off, then after further dramatic confrontations with
Quintianus, Agatha was then sentenced to be burnt at the stake, but an
earthquake saved her from that fate; instead, she was sent to prison where St.
Peter the Apostle appeared to her and healed her wounds, but later she died in
prison aged just twenty and following her martyrdom she was venerated as a
Saint.
The Sisters adopted
Agatha as their patron Saint as they were already healers, though more akin to
nurses, but then like the Visitors they took to the stars and thrived.
Terrell Vorton
described them as “charlatans”, but they didn’t do what they did for financial
gain, they were essentially good, and they accepted no payment for their
healing, other than faith.
Which was why they
were so popular with the pilgrims and why there was a long queue to get in to
see them, and in the queue were Malena, disguised as an old frail woman and she
was flanked by Bagg and Terrell Vorton.
The former was a tall
and disproportionately thin figure, wearing his Visitor regalia, of a full
length pale blue robe tied at the waist with a royal blue cord and a full
length dark blue leather jerkin over the top, and he carried a simple
rough-hewn staff which was undecorated but for a carved cruciform relief a few
inches from the top, and the latter was a small stout Sciberran Healer,
standing 5 foot 5, though still striking in appearance with chalk white skin,
short hair of midnight blue and violet eyes.
If they were right
about the healers, and it was by no means certain that they were, they had no
idea how many of the Sisters were involved in the thefts, which was why Malena
had two escorts, Bagg had proved himself to be very handy in a scrap, and
Terrell had about his person an assortment of pharmaceutical weapons.
One of the concerns however
was communication, as the healing chamber was a huge faraday cage preventing
any radio waves entering or leaving.
But the crew of the Tornado didn’t need communicators as they had
Shiyne and 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, but she was more
than a match for a faraday cage, so she positioned herself on the plaza with a
good view of the edifice.
There was only one way
in and one way out, so the rest of the crew took up station, far enough away to
be able to see someone fleeing but close enough to charge the entrance if
necessary.
When Malena and
escorts reached the front, they waited patiently until the curtain opened and a
Sister stepped through.
And after a
traditional Christian greeting they were ushered inside St Agatha’s chamber and
amazingly the three of them felt immediately at peace, after a few paces Terrell
and Bagg were told to stay and one of the Sisters took Malena by the hands and
led her further and began chanting, but she could still hear Shiyne’s
reassuring voice in her head and then Mal was surrounded by another five
sisters who were feverish praying, and then all of a sudden she felt a hand
grasping at what the thief believed was a bracelet.
Shiyne was instantly
aware and signaled the rest of the crew to be on their guard.
The moment that Malena
felt the thief’s touch she grabbed the arm and dragged the errant Sister from
the pack towards Terrell who had already reacted and had an injector in his
hand and took two steps forward and dispatched her with a jab to the neck and
she crumpled to the floor.
Now if what occurred
had surprised the Sister then what happened next surprised everyone else
because the Sister dressed in traditional white habit with the face of a human,
shimmered and faded to be replaced by a very different Mercurial form of liquid
silver glass.
“My God she’s Obgaron”
Malena said and sunk to her knees, as did the other sisters, and then rest of
the Tornado crew appeared.
“I’ll get the
Prefects” Parse said
“No, please, not yet”
Malena pleaded “I need to talk to her first”
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